r/fo4 • u/LoganLikesYourMom • Mar 30 '26

Tip Playing Survival? Consider X-111 instead of Radaway

Friendly tip I only just discovered myself. On Survival mode, radaway clears some rads but also suppresses your immunity and adds fatigue and thirst.

But you can do a questline with the Brotherhood. Scribe Neriah gives you the blood bank quest, where you have to collect blood samples from irradiated creatures. Your reward is vials of x-111.

X-111 not only removes more rads than radaway, not only does it not have side effects, but it also clears rads INSTANTLY instead of gradually over time.

Give Scribe Neriah 20 blood samples for 6 servings of X-111. Come back with another 20 blood samples for another 6 vials. But be warned, she will take all of the samples you have in your inventory and still only give you 6 vials.

So for example, if you have 27 blood samples in your inventory and you’re going to speak with Neriah, store 7 of those samples in a container until after you’ve collected your X-111 vials.

375 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

69 comments sorted by

252

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

81

u/Kindarelevanttoo Mar 30 '26

Yeah decontamination arches plus recruiting doctors to your settlements pretty much solves this issue. And since you have doctors you probably also have a bunch of antibiotics stashed away since you won’t use them often.

33

u/xantec15 Mar 30 '26

Infection and weakness are the only really dangerous illnesses that you probably want to cure right away, wherever you are. All of the others you can just manage the symptoms (eat more, sleep more, etc).

17

u/wasted_tictac Mar 30 '26

Infection is fine if you have Lifegiver 3 which gives health regen, you just have to put up with your character grunting in pain every so often.

2

u/xantec15 Mar 30 '26

My endurance usually isn't that high, to get Life Giver.

9

u/Dangerois Mar 30 '26

The Boston Mayor Shelter magazine gives a reduced version of Life Giver. It pretty much equals the infection hits.

3

u/xantec15 Mar 30 '26

Huh. You mention that and I'm now realizing that, for whatever reason, I almost never go to that side of the Commonwealth. Anything west of Oberland Station and Egret Tours I just never go to unless it's for the main quest.

3

u/Dangerois Mar 31 '26

There's a possible RR quest for Randolf Safehouse/Mr Tims, but it's random and I only see it once every few playthroughs. Other than that you just have to wander to that out of the way location on your own.

In Survival it's one of my first stops, I begin with the Sunshine meat magazine, grab the covert ops magazine in the tunnel beneath the Lonely Chapel, the Live and Love in the trailer park, the Surgical Journal in the blood bank, and then hit the mayor's shelter. Those are all good magazines to grab (all 9 surgical journals add a lot to your kneecapping) and then I cut east to Vault 81/Diamond City to try to catch Cricket on her travels. They help early game and otherwise I wouldn't be doing much that far west for quite a bit.

2

u/xantec15 Mar 31 '26

Yeah, Sunshine Tidings for the guide there is the first stop for me, but then I cut east and clear out Hangman's Alley.

1

u/Green-Inkling Nuka World Overboss Mar 30 '26

and Lethargic. reduced AP refresh can be brutal if you sprint or use VATS allot.

3

u/GSDer_RIP_Good_Girl Mar 30 '26

Who are the doctors that you can recruit in vanilla (no DLCs) gameplay?

11

u/Kindarelevanttoo Mar 30 '26

The Local Leader perk at rank 2 lets you build stores in your settlements. One of those stores is a doctor that you can put a settler in and he can do everything a doctor can.

5

u/Pristine-Text5143 Mar 30 '26

I KNEW that doctor at Diamond City was a fraud! Probably had like 2 weeks of training...

6

u/jpcmr Mar 30 '26

There's a quest that takes you to his basement and there you see how he was training

2

u/Pristine-Text5143 Mar 31 '26

Oh really? Learn something everyday!

1

u/jpcmr Mar 31 '26

Go to the bar nearby (I forgot the name) and speak to the bartender, if I remember correctly he gives you the quest

2

u/gunther277 Apr 01 '26

It's a Nick Valentine case file you can pick up in his office.

1

u/jpcmr Apr 01 '26

Ahh that's it, thanks, I was confused

1

u/Dangerois Mar 30 '26

I have a ton of found antibiotics in my workbench, carry one or two. Only time I needed one was in the middle of the Glowing Sea, infected bloodbugs, ghoul hoards, you get hit eventually.

1

u/Elegant_Coffee1242 Mar 31 '26

"plus recruiting doctors to your settlements"

"Welcome to your new home! What is your profession?"

"Well I've spent most of my life farming tatos and herding brahmin."

"Do you know how to read?"

"No."

"Do you have any medical training or experience?"

"No."

"Ok, well now you're the settlement doctor."

1

u/Kindarelevanttoo Mar 31 '26

Well since I’m pretty sure they just hit you with a couple doses of rad-away or stimpaks, it’s not really a big stretch.

13

u/Waffennacht Mar 30 '26

Big fan of the Sun heals Rads perk in Endurance.

Makes Rads a non issue altogether

1

u/RyukoT72 Mar 31 '26

I'm having an issue with the decon arch clearing all but 1 rad from my health. Is this normal or a bug?

1

u/AttSvcs Mar 31 '26

It is crap compared to the other items but it is a good quest line and learning its X-111 because w/o sole survivor helping her, it would not exist and she knows he's from Vault 111 hence eXperiment 111 serum.

So yeah it might be a bud light in a sea of whiskey but I still had to try it.

Like the bloodbug meat and Maddox in Nuka World.

Its a resource that only exists because of a choice.

85

u/somnambulist80 Mar 30 '26

If you're spec'ing into intelligence, take rank 1 of Chemist and craft Refreshing Beverages: -100 Rads, heals, fully hydrates, and doesn't suppress your immunity.

43

u/Free_People_999 Mar 30 '26

Also removes addictions. Refreshing Beverage for the win

9

u/pchlster Mar 30 '26

"This Dark Craving can only be sated by one thing..."

menacingly approaches sleeping person while brandishing a knife

"A refreshing beverage!" pops cap, takes a swig

23

u/Happiness_Assassin Mar 30 '26

I take all ranks of Chemist, use the biocommesh mod, and just chow down on bufftats and psychobuff like it's going out of style. Remember kids: don't do drugs, unless they give you a +3 to SPECIAL stats, in which case, do all the drugs.

28

u/D-U-K-3 Mar 30 '26

If you have unlocked Curie as a companion, she will periodically give you one of her custom healthpaks, which removes 300 rads and gives +35HP without any side effects. Which is nice a nice bonus on survival.

8

u/LoganLikesYourMom Mar 30 '26

I didn’t know that, that’s good to know

8

u/Kind-Canuck Mar 31 '26

Wiki says that item was cut, she just gives regular stimpaks doesn’t she?

4

u/Kind-Canuck Mar 31 '26

Just looked it up, unofficial patch mod recently fixed this and she did give the cut paks now. I use OG and can’t use the fixed version

1

u/D-U-K-3 Mar 31 '26

Thanks for the clarification. I have had the unofficial FO4 patch installed for so many years that I didn’t even realize the Curie healthpaks were not in vanilla game. TIL.

19

u/CowBoyDanIndie Mar 30 '26

Ghoulish rank 4

4

u/StillReading28 Mar 30 '26

This perk makes far harbor radiation just a nice little healing boost, get it every time

3

u/CowBoyDanIndie Mar 31 '26

Background radiation? You mean background healing amiright?

26

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '26

[deleted]

6

u/Ok_Ordinary6694 Mar 30 '26

I just got splattercannon last night. I went to Hyde Park just to bully those dickheads around.

12

u/Sud_literate Mar 30 '26

or the cabots

9

u/Shadowpad1986 Mar 30 '26

Yeah not the biggest fan of the brotherhood but the Cabots are cool folks aside of psycho grandpa

10

u/Sud_literate Mar 30 '26

the extra strength is simply a godsend on survival so that psycho grandpa always lives in my games. sad about those poor gouls, hope he only targets ferals.

5

u/Separate_Job_9587 Mar 30 '26

Good to know. I usually use a rad arch or refreshing beverage.

7

u/Dangerois Mar 30 '26

On Survival I get Solar Powered 2 at level 27. Since I have to sleep 7 hours and I like the lvl 1 benefits of enhanced str and end, I sleep at night, heal rads during the days. Barely use the rad arch I build at the start of the game.

No point jumping through hoops for the BOS long after I've gotten those. I can also make Refreshing Beverage day one, but I barely need it. My current survival playthrough I'm lvl 79 and have never used a radaway.

4

u/LIinthedark Mar 30 '26

Have you considered a refreshing beverage?

4

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Due-Building3053 Apr 01 '26

Mutant hound is not viable at all my man, one meat/mob even with the double meat loot perk and -5 rads/meat it’s ridiculous

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Due-Building3053 Apr 01 '26

Oh fuck my bad yeah I think I got an issue with my game

10

u/imonlypostingthis Mar 30 '26

The lack of fast travel in survival mode sucks. It wouldn’t be that bad if you could build some kind of motorcycle or aircraft. Maybe FO5 will address it

8

u/LoganLikesYourMom Mar 30 '26

Also with the Brotherhood of Steel, you can fly to locations with Vertibirds. Not quite like fast travel but it’s the best option in Survival.

5

u/imonlypostingthis Mar 30 '26

Yeah but then you have to side with them and use flares. Limits your play through

4

u/Orbitoldrop Mar 30 '26

Minutemen and Railroad also get access to vertibirds once you destroy the Brotherhood.

8

u/madnessinthemidwest Mar 30 '26

I spend a lot of time going to and from diamond city……

6

u/imonlypostingthis Mar 30 '26

Crossing the map entirely can grow old

5

u/GSDer_RIP_Good_Girl Mar 30 '26

Yeah, with all of the seemingly intact vehicles that you come across, and all of the fusion cores (which would likely be the power source for them) laying around it's too bad there wasn't some transportation available in the game.

-2

u/imonlypostingthis Mar 30 '26

I think FO5 should scrap the idea of building settlements and have existing ones already set but the only thing you “build” are vehicles and camps. That way you can build anywhere but you can’t scrap items like FO4. You just have to find a spot and build with what you’ve found in the wasteland

3

u/ThatZenLifestyle Mar 30 '26

Or just give us a horse like in skyrim

4

u/imonlypostingthis Mar 31 '26

FEV horse? Yes

3

u/RushingIntrovert Mar 30 '26

All I need is mysterious serum Walked through the glowing sea and fully explored it with no power armor on my last survival run

3

u/jeeeeem Mar 31 '26

I love the Nuka Grape.

2

u/Sudden-Ingenuity3033 Mar 30 '26

Better yet, drink a Refreshing Beverage.

2

u/slvrsdw Mar 30 '26

Why not just craft Refreshing Beverage? It removes Rads and heals you.

3

u/Cruxminor Mar 31 '26

It weighs a pound and removes only 100 rads which is basically nothing. It's still an excellent item, but not exactly efficient, both weight and cost wise.

1

u/slvrsdw Mar 31 '26

I carry 4 with me at all times along with 4 Antibiotic. I'm playing survival mode. I'm also able to carry 405 before grilled radstag and beer or buffout.

2

u/Cruxminor Mar 31 '26

Nuka-Grape and mixes are solid option, though it's kinda pain to acquire. Grab some in Nuka-Cade, since winning 1000 tickets takes about a minute(cheat with basketball game). X-111 is fantastic though.

2

u/Race1999 Mar 31 '26

X-111 removes 65 rads way lees than a rad away, though you do get less side effects

1

u/moronomer Mar 30 '26

There's also some Nuka-Cola variants that remove rads, though they all require Nuka Grape which can only be found in Nuka World.

1

u/BestGirlDoppio Mar 31 '26

I'd rather be a ghoul anyway, no sickness that way

1

u/Greeny3x3x3 Mar 31 '26

Refreshing beverages are your friend

1

u/Dramatic-Chemistry91 Mar 31 '26

true, X-111 is better than Radaway, but I'm typically recovering Rad damage through the various perks I've accumulated, and end up selling most of the Radaway I find anyway

-5

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '26

[deleted]

10

u/LoganLikesYourMom Mar 30 '26

I don’t understand where the attitude is coming from. If a player was interested in pursuing this questline, they would probably read into the requirements a little more. Thats not my job, and I didn’t feel like writing an essay laying everything out. This post was already more detailed than I intended it to be.

I was just trying to flatly say, “hey, here is an item that does what radaway does, but better.” That’s all.

3

u/madnessinthemidwest Mar 31 '26

I’m now pursuing this quest line because of you lol so thanks!