Fallout 4’s achievement list is a beast. With 84 total achievements across the base game and six DLC packs, earning that 100% completion isn’t just about finishing the main story, it’s about exploring every corner of the Commonwealth, mastering survival mechanics, and making tough faction choices that require multiple playthroughs. Whether you’re hunting down collectibles, surviving permadeath runs, or just trying to figure out which achievements you can accidentally lock yourself out of, this guide breaks down everything you need to know. The platform doesn’t matter much, Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation all share the same achievement structure, but the planning sure does. Let’s get into the strategies, missables, and efficient routes that’ll save you dozens of hours on your path to completion.

Understanding Fallout 4’s Achievement System

Total Achievement Count and Platform Differences

Fallout 4 ships with 50 base game achievements on all platforms. Xbox and Steam players chase the same list, while PlayStation users hunt trophies that mirror the structure identically, the only difference is the terminology. The base game achievements total 1,000 Gamerscore on Xbox, with Steam tracking percentage completion instead.

Add the DLC packs, and you’re looking at 34 additional achievements spread across Automatron, Wasteland Workshop, Far Harbor, Contraptions Workshop, Vault-Tec Workshop, and Nuka-World. That brings the grand total to 84 achievements. If you’re looking at fallout 4 steam achievements specifically, Steam displays them with identical unlock conditions to console versions, no platform-exclusive grinds here.

One key difference: achievement tracking. Xbox Series X

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S and PS5 now offer quick resume and better screenshot tools for documenting progress, but the actual unlock conditions haven’t changed since the game’s 2015 launch. Patch 1.10.163 (the final major update as of 2026) didn’t alter any achievement requirements, so guides from earlier years remain accurate.

Base Game vs. DLC Achievements Breakdown

The base 50 achievements cover story progression, faction endings, combat milestones, collectibles (bobbleheads and magazines), settlement building, crafting, and miscellaneous exploration tasks. About 40% of these pop naturally through story play, while the rest require deliberate hunting, especially the 20 bobbleheads and 5 settlement happiness grinds.

DLC achievements lean heavily into their respective content themes:

• Automatron (3 achievements): Complete the storyline and build robot companions.
• Far Harbor (9 achievements): Story missions, side quests, and collectible challenges in the island setting.
• Nuka-World (9 achievements): Raider faction content, park zone clears, and unique challenges.
• Workshop DLCs (13 achievements total across three packs): Settlement building tasks, Vault construction, and contraption crafting.

If you’re only after base game completion, you can ignore the DLC entirely. But for 100%, plan on 60-80 additional hours beyond a standard playthrough, Far Harbor and Nuka-World alone demand 20-25 hours each if you’re thorough.

Story-Related Achievements You Can’t Miss

Main Quest Line Achievements

The main story dishes out 10 guaranteed achievements just for progressing through critical missions. These include:

• War Never Changes: Complete the prologue and escape Vault 111.
• When Freedom Calls: Meet Preston Garvey and clear the Museum of Freedom.
• Unlikely Valentine: Rescue Nick Valentine from the Vault-Tec facility.
• Dangerous Minds: Complete the memory den sequence.
• Hunter/Hunted: Decode the Courser chip.
• The Molecular Level: Build the Signal Interceptor.
• Institutionalized: Reach the Institute.
• Mankind-Redefined / Mankind-Divided / Nuclear Family: Faction-specific ending achievements (more on this below).

You can’t miss these if you finish the game. The only catch: some missions branch based on faction loyalty, so one playthrough won’t unlock all endings.

Faction-Specific Achievements and Multiple Playthroughs

Here’s where planning matters. Fallout 4 forces you to pick a faction for the endgame, and each choice locks out the others. The four major factions, Minutemen, Brotherhood of Steel, Railroad, and Institute, each award unique achievements:

• Minutemen: Completes with Nuclear Family (destroy the Institute with Minutemen support).
• Brotherhood of Steel: Earn Ad Victoriam by destroying the Institute with the BoS.
• Railroad: Unlock The Nuclear Option by siding with the Railroad.
• Institute: Secure Mankind-Redefined by keeping the Institute intact.

You need at least two playthroughs to grab all faction endings, three if you’re not using the Minutemen backup route. But, there’s a workaround: the Minutemen can serve as a “neutral” faction that doesn’t conflict with Railroad or BoS until late-game choices force your hand. Smart save management (detailed later) can reduce this to two runs if you branch your saves before the point of no return.

Additional faction achievements include Semper Invicta (join the Brotherhood), Underground Undercover (complete Railroad missions), and Prepared for the Future (join the Institute). These pop mid-questline, so you’ll snag them en route to the endings.

Challenging Collectible and Exploration Achievements

Bobblehead and Magazine Locations

Collectible hunting is where the grind begins. Fallout 4 hides 20 bobbleheads and over 120 magazines across the Commonwealth, and tracking them down without a guide is masochistic.

They’re Action Figures: Collect all 20 bobbleheads. Each one permanently boosts a SPECIAL stat or skill. Locations include Vault 111 (Perception), the Corvega Assembly Plant (Repair), the Salem Museum (Melee), and Fort Hagen (Energy Weapons). One of the trickiest sits inside Vault 81, you need three fusion cores to enter, and the bobblehead is locked behind a side quest. Missing even one means no achievement, so cross-reference a comprehensive checklist as you explore.

They’re Not Dolls…: Collect 10 Vault-Tec bobbleheads. This is a subset of the previous achievement, so it’ll pop partway through your bobblehead hunt.

Prankster’s Return: Place a grenade or mine in an enemy’s pocket while pickpocketing. This one’s more about execution than collecting, but it’s listed here because players often forget it until late-game.

Magazines don’t have a dedicated achievement (thankfully), but they’re tied to exploration-based unlocks like The Harder They Fall (kill five giant creatures) and What’s Yours Is Mine (pick 50 locks). Both encourage thorough looting, which naturally leads you to magazine spawns.

Settlement and Building Achievements

Settlement-related achievements divide into two categories: basic construction tasks and the infamous happiness grind.

Community Organizer: Ally with three settlements. Easy, just complete Preston’s intro quests.

Benevolent Leader: Reach 100 happiness in a large settlement. This is the worst achievement in the base game. Happiness is finicky: settlers need beds, water, food, defense, and jobs. The optimal strat involves isolating a small settlement (Red Rocket works great), placing one settler, assigning them to a Level 3 clinic, and spamming decorations to boost the hidden happiness multiplier. Even then, expect to wait real-world hours (or leave your console/PC running overnight) for happiness to creep to 100. It’s tedious, not hard, but it’s the achievement most players save for last.

Gun-For-Hire: Complete 10 Minutemen side quests. Preston’s radiant quests count, so this comes naturally if you’re building settlements.

Homerun.: Get a homerun at one of the settlement locations. Swing a melee weapon at a baseball while it’s on a home plate. Several spots work, Diamond City and University Point are easy picks.

Combat and Skill-Based Achievements

Weapon and Kill-Related Achievements

Combat achievements reward experimentation with Fallout 4’s weapon systems and kill counts.

Masshole: Kill 300 people. Sounds brutal, but this tracks any humanoid enemy, raiders, gunners, synths, so it’ll unlock naturally by mid-game.

Animal Control: Kill 300 creatures. Mutated wildlife counts: radroaches, bloatflies, mongrels, mirelurks, etc. Farm spawns near water sources or in the Glowing Sea if you’re short by endgame.

Ranger Corps: Discover 100 locations. The Commonwealth has over 300 marked locations, so casual exploration gets you there.

The Harder They Fall: Kill five giant creatures. Deathclaws, behemoths, mirelurk queens, and fog crawlers count. You’ll encounter most during story missions, but the Glowing Sea and Far Harbor DLC spawn extras.

Touch the Sky: Kill an enemy from over 2,000 feet away. Sniper rifles with long scopes make this trivial. Modded weapons can extend effective range, but vanilla gear works fine, just climb a tall building and tag a distant enemy.

Touchdown.: Get a touchdown. Grab a kickball or grenade, walk onto any football field markings, and toss it. Weird, but quick.

Wasteland D.I.Y.: Craft 100 items. Cooking, chems, armor mods, weapon mods, everything counts. You’ll hit this naturally if you’re upgrading gear.

Difficulty and Survival Mode Achievements

Difficulty achievements scared players at launch, but Bethesda softened the requirements post-release.

Legend of the Wastes: Reach level 50. With the patch 1.5 level cap removal, this is guaranteed if you finish the main story and explore side content. No grinding needed.

Born Survivor: Reach level 5, 10, or 25 on Survival difficulty. Here’s the key: you can change difficulty mid-playthrough. Start a new game on Survival, rush to level 5 (takes about 30 minutes if you know the routes), then drop to Normal. Achievements unlock retroactively, so there’s no need to suffer through the entire game on permadeath.

For players chasing the ultimate challenge, full Survival runs demand resource management, disease resistance, and zero fast travel. It’s brutal but rewarding, just not mandatory for achievement completion.

DLC-Specific Achievements Worth Pursuing

Automatron and Far Harbor Achievements

Automatron adds three straightforward achievements:

• Mechanical Menace: Complete the main questline (about 3-4 hours).
• Robot Hunter: Unlock all robot mods. Requires killing different robot types to harvest parts.
• The Most Toys: Build 10 robot mods. You’ll knock this out while experimenting with companion builds.

Automatron’s achievements are the easiest DLC set, most players finish them in a single session.

Far Harbor introduces nine achievements tied to its story, side quests, and exploration:

• Far From Home: Discover all Far Harbor locations (19 total). Expect 8-10 hours of thorough exploration.
• Cleansing the Land: Shut down all Far Harbor fog condensers for the Children of Atom (faction-specific).
• Close to Home: Side with Far Harbor citizens in the final quest.
• The Way Life Should Be: Broker peace between all three Far Harbor factions. This is the trickiest Far Harbor achievement, wrong dialogue choices or killing key NPCs early locks you out.

Far Harbor’s collectibles include Hooked: Catch 10 different types of fish (use the dock fishing spots) and Push to the Limits: Reach 100,000 points in the Galactic Zone. The arcade mini-games in Nuka-World overlap with Far Harbor’s content chronologically, so budget time for both.

Nuka-World and Other DLC Achievements

Nuka-World delivers raider-focused achievements across its five theme park zones:

• All Sugared Up: Defeat 40 Nuka-World creatures while under the effects of any Nuka-mix flavor. Stock up on Nuka-Cola variants and spam them during combat.
• Raiding for a Living: Complete 12 quests for Nuka-World raider gangs. Requires establishing raider outposts in the Commonwealth, which pisses off Preston Garvey permanently. Save before committing if you care about Minutemen relations.
• Home Plate, Home Run: Lead a successful raid. Ties into the raider faction gameplay.
• Took One for the Team: Defeat a certain number of Nuka-World raiders in all five parks. Straightforward zone clear.

Nuka-World’s Beverageer (mix 20 flavors of Nuka-Cola) and Fanatic (join the raider gangs) are completion-focused, expect to spend 15-20 hours here.

The three Workshop DLCs (Wasteland Workshop, Contraptions Workshop, Vault-Tec Workshop) add 13 minor achievements focused on settlement construction. Examples:

• Trapper: Build one cage in a settlement (Wasteland Workshop).
• The Grand Tour: Assign an overseer to a Vault (Vault-Tec Workshop).

These are all quick, none require more than 15 minutes of focused building if you have the resources stockpiled.

Missable Achievements and How to Avoid Them

Time-Sensitive and Point-of-No-Return Achievements

Several achievements lock permanently if you progress past specific story beats without completing them. Here’s what to watch:

Faction endings: Once you pick a final faction, you’re locked out of the others. The point of no return varies:

• Brotherhood of Steel: “Tactical Thinking” forces you to destroy the Railroad.
• Railroad: “The Battle of Bunker Hill” and subsequent missions eliminate other factions.
• Institute: “End of the Line” destroys the Brotherhood.

The Minutemen offer a backup route if you’re expelled from other factions, but ideal planning involves creating multiple save files before “The Battle of Bunker Hill” and branching from there.

Companion achievements: Some companions are tied to specific factions. If you destroy a faction, you lose access to their affiliated companion permanently. For example, Paladin Danse (Brotherhood) becomes hostile if you destroy the BoS before maxing his affinity.

“Best Left Forgotten” (Far Harbor): This achievement requires using terminals in the DiMA memory sequence to recover all memories. If you skip the puzzle sections by rushing the terminals, you won’t unlock it. Complete all five memory puzzles properly, no shortcuts.

Benevolent Leader and settlement happiness: This isn’t missable per se, but many players assume they’ve failed when happiness won’t climb. The trick is isolating variables, one settler, one resource type, constant monitoring. If you’ve already cluttered a settlement with 20+ settlers, scrap it and start fresh at a smaller location.

For combat-heavy achievements like killing Coursers or legendary enemies, make sure you’re actively engaging Institute synth forces throughout the game. Some players avoid Institute conflict until late-game, which can delay these unlocks unnecessarily.

Strategies for Efficient Achievement Hunting

Optimal Playthrough Planning

Reaching 100% in Fallout 4 requires at least two full playthroughs, more if you skip save-scumming. Here’s the most efficient route:

Playthrough 1: Completionist Run (60-80 hours)

• Set difficulty to Survival until you hit level 5, 10, and 25 (then drop to Normal).
• Focus on exploration achievements: discover locations, collect all bobbleheads, complete side quests.
• Align with one faction for the ending (Brotherhood or Railroad recommended for first run).
• Finish all base game content before starting DLC.
• Tackle DLC in release order: Automatron → Wasteland Workshop → Far Harbor → Contraptions → Vault-Tec → Nuka-World.
• Save Benevolent Leader for last, it’s the longest grind.

Playthrough 2: Faction Cleanup (15-25 hours)

• Rush the main story on Normal difficulty.
• Choose a different faction ending than Playthrough 1.
• Skip collectibles and exploration, you already have those.
• Mop up any missed DLC achievements.

If you’re using the Minutemen as a neutral third option, you might squeeze out all four faction endings with smart save management, cutting Playthrough 2 down to 10 hours.

Using Saves to Maximize Achievement Progress

Manual saves are your best friend. Create hard save checkpoints before these critical moments:

1. Before “The Battle of Bunker Hill”: This is the primary faction lock-in point. Save here, finish one ending, then reload for a second ending without replaying 40 hours.
2. Before “Institutionalized”: If you’re hunting all four endings, this gives you an earlier branch point.
3. Before DLC final quests: Far Harbor’s three faction outcomes and Nuka-World’s raider choices both benefit from pre-decision saves.

On PC, use the console command save [filename] to create named saves you won’t accidentally overwrite. Console players should dedicate multiple manual save slots, don’t rely on quicksaves or autosaves, which rotate and delete older files.

For perks and builds, achievement hunting doesn’t require min-maxing. A balanced INT/CHA/AGI build covers crafting, settlement happiness, and combat needs. Prioritize Local Leader (CHA 6) for settlement supply lines and Gun Nut (INT 3) for weapon mods, both streamline the grind.

One underrated tactic: stockpiling resources early at Red Rocket or Sanctuary lets you blow through workshop DLC achievements without farming materials later. Junk runs to hardware stores and military bases pay off when you’re crafting 50 items in a row for achievements.

Conclusion

Fallout 4’s achievement list isn’t the hardest in gaming, but it demands patience and planning. Between faction lock-ins, collectible hunts, and the happiness grind, you’re looking at 100+ hours for full completion, more if you skip the save-scumming workarounds. The DLCs add variety rather than monotony, though Far Harbor’s peace achievement and Nuka-World’s raider content require attention to avoid costly mistakes.

Smart save management cuts down replays significantly. If you’re chasing 100%, treat your first playthrough as the collectible sweep and your second as a focused story sprint. And yeah, Benevolent Leader will test your sanity, just accept that it’s a waiting game, not a skill check.

Whether you’re diving in fresh in 2026 or returning to finish what you started years ago, the core gameplay systems hold up. Track your progress with online checklists, keep those faction saves organized, and don’t forget to quick-save before pickpocketing that live grenade. Happy hunting.