One of the largest additions to Fallout 4 was settlement building. Players can take the assortment of junk they find in the wasteland and turn it into buildings, turrets, generators, and much more. Bethesda went as far as to make an entire faction in the story revolve around this mechanic. However, many players have a hard time getting into settlement building due to some unintuitive systems and features. Fortunately, the talented and passionate modding community of Fallout 4 has created some fantastic mods that make settlement building much more intuitive and enjoyable. From simple quality-of-life improvements to fundamental overhauls, many fantastic Fallout 4 mods make settlement building so much better.

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Modding always comes with its risks, and players should read the fine print for the mods they download before deciding to implement them. Thankfully, given the amount of untapped potential in this mechanic, it’s easy to see why some mods can do a great job of letting players really go to town (no pun intended) on every settlement, decking it out in the most efficient manner so that it attracts more settlers and becomes a notable place in the vast expanse of the Commonwealth.

Updated March 23, 2025 by Rhenn Taguiam: While Fallout 5 is still years away, fans of the acclaimed Bethesda sci-fi franchise might prefer a more solo experience away from the chaotic wilderness of Fallout 76. In this case, Fallout 4 is the perfect way for players to unwind in an apocalyptic wasteland, especially with their self-made player Settlements.

While Fallout 4 already has quite the plethora of Settlement offerings in the base game, mods can make the prospect of Settlements all the more attractive – especially when some of them give a new aged look to items, provide more offerings across themes, rearrange the overall layout of the Workshop, and even provides players the opportunity to create buildable rafts – like pirates!

1

The Cozy Scavver

Downloads: 48,273

While Fallout 4 certainly nailed the atompunk aesthetic consistent with the series, players who create Settlements within the game might not necessarily want to focus too much on this visual theme. For players who want their playthroughs to be focused more on survival instead of flair, The Cozy Scavver is perfect for their preference.

With the Cozy Scavver, the game now adds not just 100+ furniture items but also 109 buildings – all of which are comprised of brand-new models, retextures, prefabs, and mashups. A key element present across all of these new items is their “used” feel, making every item feel like they’ve been a hand-me-down from a civilization that still functioned normally.

2

Thematic And Practical

Downloads: 287,730

Settlements are customizable with almost any item in Fallout 4, making them highly personalized based on the player’s needs. Unfortunately, players at some point might realize there are not enough items in the game to get their Settlements to look “precisely” the way they prefer – which is where Thematic and Practical comes in.

At its core, this mod provides quite a lot of constructible objects for Settlements – all of which follow design conventions based on different themes. The Workshop Menu will now have different categories dedicated to certain themes, letting players quickly sift through their options and find something that best fits their needs. Some modes include the Trading Emporium, which gives more options to manage traveling caravan traders, and Brotherhood which enables the construction of Brotherhood of Steel buildings from scratch.

3

Workshop Rearranged

Downloads: 283,456

Players of Fallout 4 who are currently enjoying the vanilla Workshop might slowly realize the system’s rather generic nature – especially when it comes to its lineup of constructible objects and its overall arrangement. In the context of today’s more modern base-building games, Fallout 4’s Workshop might be behind the UX/UI department – and this is something that Workshop Rearranged can specifically help out with.

Unlike other Workshop modifications in Fallout 4, Workshop Rearranged attempts to be a “lore-friendly” addition to the game, complete with thousands of new objects with appropriate menu icons, snap-points, collisions, and navmeshes. An overhauled snapping system will enable more combinations with existing items, while build costs and scraps are rebuilt to become more realistic. For additional immersion, building specific objects may now require related Perks.

4

Buildable Rafts

Downloads: 2,435

Fans who loved post-apocalyptic films will likely remember Waterworld for its unique premise – where an Earth engulfed in pure sea meant civilization had to thrive in sea-faring colonies. Fallout 4 players can replicate a similar experience with Buildable Rafts, with the game giving them the opportunity to create different kinds of floating platforms for their Settlements and Settlers.

While this might seem to only extend the viability of usable land beyond the ocean, players with more creative minds can begin creating functional rafts that transform into ships – especially pirate ships complete with flags – they can use to travel around the game. The mod also features a new floating settlement between Nahant and Libertalia to serve as an inspiration for players.

5

The Rebuild Collection

Downloads: 71,702

When Fallout 4 players start to improve upon their chosen Settlement, chances are they’d want the “new” version to look clean and polished instead of being the next-best-thing-before-rundown. Thanks to The Rebuild Collection, this becomes possible. With this Settlement-cleaning mod, players now have the opportunity to remove unsavory parts of the landscape whenever they start rebuilding their structures.

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In a technical sense, repairs will now auto-remove trash, brambles, vines, rubble, and sticks out of the way to make structures look as good as new. While not necessarily the most groundbreaking Settlement mod, locations like the Castle become much more ready for occupancy upon being cleaned. This should allow players to have a more complete “look” at the bare form of their Settlement before adding new components.

6

Farming Resources

Downloads: 93,887

While Dogmeat is the player’s quintessential companion in Fallout 4, the game established that other animals can have survived the cataclysmic nuclear disaster that had befallen the region. By the time players start making their Settlements, seeing a little semblance of other lifeforms can certainly spice up their visuals, making Farming Resources quite the delightful addition to players.

When installed, Farming Resources allows players to purchase livestock in the Workshop menu.

These include Chickens and Rabbits that stay within a particular area, Brahmin and Brahmiluff Shorthorn and Longhorns, Gazelles, Cats, and Guard Dogs. All animals, save for Cats and Dogs, can be harvested for hide and meat, while cats and guard dogs can open doors. Whenever a Guard Dog is purchased, they also come with unique gear and skins. Thanks to this mod, players can have a livelier version of paradise in their Settlement as they can see the periodic movement of these animals.

7

Craftable Greebles

Downloads: 22,129

Similar to other Bethesda titles where players can collect items as they explore the game, Fallout 4 has its fair share of Junk that players can usually leave alone or carry with them in exchange for spare cash. However, when players can create Settlements, they might notice that their structures may lack a particular kind of pizzazz that makes them seem extremely lifeless – this is where Craftable Greebles comes in.

When installed, Craftable Greebles transforms some static items from the base game and other Fallout 4 mods into craftable decorations. Whereas they are generally background elements that can’t be interacted with in the base game, Craftable Greebles allows players to create them and use them to decorate their structures – whether they want to pursue an underground lab aesthetic or some other theme. When used properly, Craftable Greebles can allow players to recreate their versions of Fallout 4 bases ordinarily exclusive to particular characters they can interact with.

8

Real Name Settlers

Downloads: 224,732

When players invest in the settlements they’re trying to make more habitable, it’s always nice to see more settlers come in to help build a community. However, a single round of exploration is all it takes to realize that these NPCs are nothing more than soulless husks made to give the illusion of life in an area that remains fairly bland.

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While it’s not a major change, having settlers with fixed names is a great way to build a connection with the community, no matter how minor it may be. It’s a pretty simple mod, but one that can potentially aid the immersion of a player who wants to feel like their maintenance of settlements is reaping a meaningful reward.

9

Building Budget Extender

Downloads: 93,893

For balancing purposes, players can’t go all-out while developing every settlement to make sure that people live in the lap of luxury. There’s a set budget for each settlement that players must adhere to. It can be rather limiting but makes sense in a functional sort of way, but this hasn’t stopped players from trying to get rid of it altogether.

The Building Budget Extender mod does precisely what is stated and lets players go bonkers when developing settlements. It may not be the most realistic change around, but it’ll surely get the creative juices flowing for players who love interacting with this system and want to show off their artistic zeal instead of trying to keep things functional all the time.

10

This Settlement Does Not Need Your Help

Downloads: 70,510

Despite all the improvements that players make to a settlement’s defense, there’s always a chance that a raid will cause serious damage if players don’t intervene. It’s one of the game’s more frustrating mechanics that force players to either stop what they’re doing and fast travel to stage a defense or ignore the attack and hope that the place holds up without suffering too much damage.

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With this mod, players don’t have to worry about something so petty all the time anymore. As long as they invest the time and resources required to completely spruce up a settlement’s defensive capabilities, that area will never face any issues in repelling an attack ever again. This guaranteed chance makes more sense than leaving everything to chance no matter how much work players put in for each settlement.

11

eXofied Settlers – We Better Be Varied And Real

Downloads: 196,273

The settlers that appear in areas that the Sole Survivor has helped develop do a great job of rewarding players for their hard work. However, given how lifeless most NPCs in Bethesda games already are, this becomes even worse once players see that most settlers look, talk, and feel the same.

To get rid of this immersion breaker, players can download a mod that combines the work of other celebrated modders to ensure that no two settlers look alike. It’s a small change, but something that long-time players of Fallout 4 will appreciate if they enjoy messing around with settlement building a lot in this game.

12

Magazine Rack Extended

Downloads: 136,754

There are many magazines that players can find in the world of Fallout 4, but players who want to stack these items properly on magazine racks may be somewhat annoyed by the unnecessary limitations set here. Magazines can’t be stacked properly without leaving some unnecessary space in the middle, which is a small annoyance for players, especially in settlement-building mode.

With this mod, players can rack up as many magazines as they want on a shelf without worrying about this issue. It may seem like a small change, but players who’ve found this arbitrary restriction to be a pain can finally get rid of it with a simple mod.

13

Project Zeta

Downloads: 70,080

• Creator: HcGxGrill, TheFriedturkey, Zanthir, MrColonelMustard
• Download Link

To simply call Project Zeta a settlement mod would be doing a huge disservice. The mod is inspired by the Mothership Zeta DLC for Fallout 3, adding a whole new quest line, new enemy types, otherworldly weapons, and an alien companion, just to name a few of its many polished additions.

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This mod also adds many alien-like constructs in the workshop that players can build, along with two new settlements as well. Project Zeta is highly rated within the Fallout 4 modding community, and it’s easy to see why this is the case given how natural the addition of its elements is.

14

Climbable Ladders For Settlements

Downloads: 95,389

Something that bothers players while building settlements is that they can’t place ladders to connect two levels. While this may be a minor gripe, players who want their settlements to look as personalized as possible find the lack of player-made ladders to be quite irritating indeed.

Thankfully, there’s a mod that adds such ladders in the workshop. Now, players have a different way to connect two levels so that they can make more complex structures.

15

Project Mojave Workshop Pack

Downloads: 39,425

Fallout: New Vegas is considered by many to be one of the greatest role-playing video games of all time, and it’s easy to see why this is the case. The sheer level of player freedom coupled with its amazing story made for a great time that combined the best of both the 2D and 3D Fallout games.

Players still can’t get over this amazing experience and pay homage to it whenever possible. It should be no surprise that many mods exist that incorporate elements of New Vegas into Fallout 4, including the Project Mojave Workshop Pack mod that adds many workshop items present in Obsidian Entertainment’s attempt to make a Fallout game.

16

Scrappable Skeletons

Downloads: 39,211

One thing that irritates many people while settlement building is that the skeletons on their property won’t go away no matter what. This becomes a thing of the past with the Scrappable Skeletons mod.

As the name suggests, players can now remove any unwanted skeletons from their settlement. This is a massive boon for people who hate seeing their developed settlements marred with these unsightly skeletons.

17

Working Aquariums

Downloads: 26,436

Many mods have added several workshop items that do a great job of making a settlement look lively and lived-in, which is a massive achievement given the post-apocalyptic setting of Fallout 4. One such workshop item that is quite amazing is Working Aquariums.

This mod adds a whopping 40 aquariums that players can build in their settlements. It’s a great mod that makes any area featuring these aquariums feel more alive and distinct.

18

cVc Dead Wasteland

Downloads: 1,799,491

The vanilla selection of items that can be constructed in Settlement Mode is pretty decent in its own right. However, it’s only normal that some fans would want even more from this experience.

This is where the cVc Dead Wasteland mod comes into the picture. It adds over a thousand new items that can be constructed while building a settlement, and the fact that all of these items are lore-friendly shows just how much effort was put into making this mod as accurate and engaging as possible.

19

Woody’s Wasteland Stuff

Downloads: 290,114

It seems that when it comes to Settlement Mods, the stuff packs are what sell the experience. So, it’s easy to see why so many people love the Woody’s Wasteland Stuff mod for Fallout 4.

It adds a bunch of cool-looking things to the game without breaking a player’s immersion, which can be pretty challenging to do. Thankfully, this mod succeeds on all fronts and is a must-have for fans of the Settlement Mode who want even more items to play around with.

20

Immersive Settlers

Downloads: 242,329

The settlers that arrive to populate a player’s location in Fallout 4 make it feel like the player is on the right track while trying to make these habitats more livable. However, the issue that arises here is that the majority of these settlers are completely lifeless and feel more like walking mannequins than actual people, especially since they don’t even have names of their own!

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This is a problem that the Immersive Settlers mod aims to accomplish. It’s a simple but effective mod that gives every settler a random name from over 200 possible monikers. It might seem like a minor change but does wonders when it comes to making the settlements of Fallout 4 feel more organic.