Fallout 4 Creation Club and is it worth getting?

Fallout 4 is still the latest single-player Fallout game. Until Bethesda releases Fallout 5, the developers at Bethesda left the base game, expansions, and a massive amount of optional Creation Club content to enjoy. While most would use fan mods and ignore it, some of the CC content is actually pretty good. Given the huge amount of it, this post is going to break down what is available and what is worth looking at.

Some notes before I continue. A few CC items have some outstanding bugs with their implementation and I will note what fixes are recommended. There is also a known game engine limitation where having too many game files in BSA archives (the game default compressed data format) will cause crashes. For my post, I have backed up all the CC items and unpacked their files from the BSA archives, but otherwise, they work the same as before.

Before I begin properly with the list, some Creation Club content was provided free, while most are purchasable, sometimes with a hefty discount and often in bundles. They must be bought with Creation Club Credits on Steam and those credits must be used to purchase these items. Due to the mass amount of items and fluctuating prices, I will merely go over the content in general (by group if several items have the same theme), go over if I recommend it, and note any bugs outstanding and potential mod fixes.

Enclave Remnants: A complimentary mod with the latest update, this mod offers some nostalgia for the Enclave, a faction featured prominently in earlier games. It provides some objects for settlements, a few other Enclave-themed objects, and a short quest. Some fan mods have a similar theme, and many of these mods have patches to integrate this CC item into those mods.

Halloween Workshop Pack: The in-game lore had the Great War take place near Halloween, and some in-game objects exist for suitable holiday decor. This mod greatly expands on that and is provided free with the latest update.

Makeshift Weapon Pack: This mod adds some new oddball weapons to expand your player arsenal. Provided free with the latest update.

Capital Wasteland Mercenaries: This is a Fallout 3 nostalgia mod that brings back some classic Fallout 3 outfits and allows the player to briefly revisit a portion of the Capital Wasteland. Good mod, get body slides for your favorite body type if you need them.

Captain Cosmos: This mod provides some new weapons, armor, and a custom suit of power armor based on the in-game Flash Gordon parody called Captain Cosmos.

Chinese Stealth Armor: This mod provides a copy of the titular armor from Fallout 3. It's nice looking, but you may want to get some patches to either balance it or make it more like the Fallout 3 version.

Doom Classic Marine Armor / BFG: These two pieces of CC content are unashamed homages to the original Doom, providing a copy of the classic Marine Armor and a gun much like the one in the original game, now ported to the Fallout universe. I would get some patches to better integrate it into the world and possibly rebalance the BFG.

Fantasy Hero Set: This mod adds a few items referencing Skyrim, the latest game in the Elder Scrolls chronological canon. It's okay but kinda underwhelming, to be honest.

Graphic T-Shirt Pack: Adds some new clothing items representing in-universe brand names. I'd get a mod that integrates it more naturally in the world to see it used by NPCs if you get this.

Hellfire Power Armor: This is another bit of Enclave-themed nostalgia, providing a copy of the titular armor. I'd get mods to integrate into other Enclave-themed mods if you have them.

Horse Power Armor: This is a semi-joke mod, providing a parody suit of power armor themed after the in-universe Giddyup Buttercup toy and self-depreciatingly mocking the much-maligned Oblivion Horse Armor DLC from long ago. It's not bad but it's not great either.

Morgan's Space Suit: This mod provides a suit like that worn by the protagonist of Prey, another Bethesda franchise. It's effectively a custom-themed Hazmat suit in-game and can be used as such.

Pint-Sized Slasher: This mod adds a few items referencing an in-universe urban legend of a serial killer. It's okay but doesn't add too much special, and its quest is mildly bugged in that it does not clearly indicate where to go next. There are some mods to fix this thankfully.

Sentinel Control System Companion: This provides an autonomous suit of power armor that acts like a robotic combat companion. It's not a bad mod, but it leaves a part of the world with a permanent fire hazard even after its quest finishes, mods to remove this or make the scripted hazard disappear after the quest would be recommended.

TransDOGrifier / Various CC Dogs: These mods provide a collar that can reskin ingame companion dog Dogmeat (who is a German Shepherd) to look like another dog breed. It works in tandem with several other mods providing additional dogs in the world that can be found as added members of settlements that provide small settlement defense bonuses. If possible, try to get these when on sale in a bundle to save money.

Armor/ Weapon/ Pipboy Paintjobs: Weapons, Armor, Power Armor, and Pipboy CC items exist to reskin various in-game weapons, armor, power armor, and your player Pipboy to different themed colors. Aside from the Power Armor reskins, which provide small bonuses to the Power Armor, most of this is generally cosmetic only. I'd get mods to make them better integrated into the game world and to fix some bugs if you get these. Buy these in bundles to save money too.

There are a few specialty-themed skins that are not always available and are not usually sold in bundles, so it can be irritating if you want to complete your collection.

Tunnel Snakes Rule!: This CC item has some great Fallout 3 nostalgia and adds some fun weapons and outfits. This mod has an infamous bug that will break the main quest very early on, you WILL want a mod that changes this behavior so it will not break your game if you installed it on a new game before the point it causes a game scripting break.

Vault Suit Customization: This mod greatly expands on the series iconic Vault jumpsuit and lets the player customize it to have different colors and numbers and include a few new variant suits. There are some mods to further flesh this out and that fix a few minor issues, these are recommended with this item.

X-02 Power Armor: Yet another Enclave callback that adds a suit of Power Armor. The stock implementation isn't bad at all, but if you use Enclave-themed quests, you will want mods that integrate this into them for better world logic.

Zetan Arsenal: Since Fallout 3, the aliens called the Zetans have made sporadic appearances, and most games since have included a few alien weapons and items. Zetan Arsenal continues where the Fallout 3 Mothership Zeta DLC left off and adds some more Zetan gear for player use. It's a decent mod and adds some fun new energy weapons.

Anti-Material Rifle: Adds a new weapon to the game. I'd get an overhaul mod for this, it's base damage is rather pathetic despite the type of weapon it's supposed to be.

CR-74L Combat Rifle: I rather like this mod as it adds a multipurpose combat rifle to the game that can fit almost any situation. It does have a bit of homosexual content, namely a deceased lesbian couple whose backstory is part of the quest. For the most part, this quest can be skipped and there are mods to make its completion unnecessary if you just want the gun to be distributed to leveled lists. That said, the quest is relatively well structured, you can get the gun pretty early with some modest effort, and it's quite useful for the whole game due to its wide range of mod upgrades.

Additional note: One of the upgrades for this gun is given to a hostile NPC named Artis who is indicated as male by default, but if you use a mod to alter NPC distribution, Artis may not draw from the original NPC template he originally uses and show up as a woman. This is harmless if weird. On a more serious note, the quest script will break if you try to sequence break and get the upgrade off Artis before being given the quest to acquire it, especially if you use console commands to hop to his location and kill him before getting the quest (this can affect the other upgrade items to a lesser extent as well). I'd try finding a mod to fix this, as this will break the quest for the rest of the game.

Modular Military Backpack: This adds a new customizable clothing item that can add some small benefits to the player. It's a good mod, but get mods to make its inclusion in the game more logical (it drops a free one in your inventory on a new game) and fix a few bugs.

Heavy Incinerator: This adds a new flamethrower-style weapon, or rather, is a Fallout 4 version of a Fallout 3 weapon. It's got a fairly clever quest to get it, but if you want to skip the quest hassle and have it just added to the pool of weapons that can appear minus that, you'll want an overhaul mod, of which more than one exists.

Manwell Rifle Set: Adds a new carbine, rifle, and even a potential unique animal settler to your game. I rather like the weapons they add and the animal settler added has a quest to either spare them (for your settlements) or slay them for a unique food item.

Handmade Shotgun: Shotguns in Fallout 4 are few and far between, and much like the pipe guns are a cheap alternative to professional guns with harder-to-get ammo, the Handmade Shotgun is the cheap version of the shotgun selections. I'd get some mods to fix a few issues, but it's not a terrible mod and complements the pipe weapons nicely.

Solar Cannon: This adds a new heavy energy weapon to your game that can give you more heavy options given how aside from the Gauss Rifle your choices are usually limited.

Prototype Gauss Rifle: While the Gauss Rifle is a great weapon, it's not able to increase its damage beyond a specific cap. This creation adds a variant with the ability to greatly increase the damage similar to the crank used on the Laser Musket to add more ammo. Get some mods to fix a few bugs and it's a fun addition to your game.

Quake Thunderbolt: Like the Doom Armor and BFG, this adds a weapon hailing from the Quake series, the Thunderbolt Rifle. It has a small quest which has an amusing shoutout to Quake III/Champions as well. Do get an overhaul mod for this though, it's strong but still a bit underpowered in the late game.

Arcade Workshop Pack: This adds a nice amount of objects to make your own video game arcade, complete with machines for games that are arcade machine versions of the games you can play on your in-game Pipboy. I rather like this mod for having a lot of content and adding some great new settlement floors and objects. Do get a mod to have clean wood/concrete/metal for built objects, as they inherit the scuffed look from the base textures and look bad if you want to build something that looks new.

Charleston Condo: This mod adds a new player home after completing a simple quest in-game. It's not terrible, but it doesn't really add anything overly remarkable and it can still look rundown due to a lot of overlap with stock game textures.

Coffee and Donuts Workshop Pack: This CC item adds all you need to make your own version of the breakfast and pastry franchise called Slocum's Joe in-game. It adds a nice variety of settlement objects, and some new edible items, and can liven up settlements nicely. Recommend looking for some patches though, it has a few minor issues without them.

Holiday Workshop Pack: This adds a lot of Christmas-themed decorations to settlement creations.

Home Decor Workshop: A great collection of new and clean settlement decorations, objects like beds and various stands, and other new bonuses are included in this pack, and they really make settlements feel lived in and look great.

Modern Furniture Workshop: This adds a lot of nice new furniture of a contemporary design to make settlements nicer, highly recommended. I do recommend building retextures for the concrete, as it used the default stained concrete unless you do.

Neon Flats: Adds a cyberpunkish home to the game in the Goodneighbor area with some added goodies like some new furniture and even a unique weapon or two.

Noir Penthouse: Adds another unique home with some added settlement items in the noir theme as well as some unique equipment.

Nuka-Cola Collector Workshop: This adds a Nuka-Cola-themed home that looks really nice and it goes well with the Nuka-World expansion. Good value, but get a retexture for the concrete so it looks less gross.

Settlement Ambush Kit: This is a somewhat fun settlement creation to allow you to essentially turn your settlements into an "endless horde survival" game. If you enjoy that sort of thing, you'll love this. Also adds a security cam system if you want to play voyeur.

Shroud Manor: This adds a unique home. It is themed around the in-universe 1940s-style vigilante "The Silver Shroud". Provides some cool uniques like a sweet Shroud-themed pistol and the house assets look pretty cool.

Virtual Workshop: This creation adds a "virtual reality" system, where you can teleport to several themed areas like a deserted island or the GNR plaza from Fallout 3 and basically turn them into your own personal construction sandbox. Also allows a lot of new and weird settlement objects from these virtual worlds to be built in your real settlements.


CONCLUSION: There is a massive amount of optional Creation Club content, and I'll do my best to summarize.

Paintjobs are all merely cosmetic save for the Power Armor versions. Get these in bulk to save money. Most of the new weapons and armor are worth it, though you will need some mods to iron out some flaws. The dogs are nice but best bought in bulk if you want them. Most of the content that adds settlement objects and homes provides great value and adds to things you can build.

In short, none of this content is explicitly required and some will require some serious fixes to get maximum enjoyment out of them. If you have the money to acquire them though, they can add a lot more to your Fallout 4 experience.