You’ve just finished binge-watching all 8 episodes of Amazon’s Fallout series and find yourself craving for more. Since the next season of the aforementioned show is probably a year or so away and another Bethesda-developed Fallout game likely isn’t happening until 2030, you make the astute choice to check out the existing Fallout games on the market. Whether it’s the original Black Isle-developed masterpieces or Bethesda‘s later contributions, it’s hard to go wrong. Fallout 4 is likely going to catch a lot of attention, as it’s the most modern singleplayer game in the franchise, but once you decide to purchase Fallout 4 you’ll be met with another consideration - what about the DLC? This page will describe the content found in all the six major Fallout 4 DLC and provide a list of pros and cons for them so you can decide what works best for your gaming goals!

Fallout 4 DLC Explained¶

There are six major DLCs for Fallout 4, as follows:

• Automatron
• Wasteland Workshop
• Far Harbor
• Contraptions Workshop
• Vault-Tec Workshop
• Nuka-World

The base game entitles you to none of this DLC, whether you purchased it stand-alone or got it free from, say, the Playstation Plus Collection. Buying the DLC separately will cost you more than buying the Season Pass (that will snag you all the DLC). The Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition includes the base game and the Season Pass.

While getting your hands on Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition for cheap might be ideal, it may also no longer be easily practicable. The Fallout 4 DLC can be largely split into two groups: DLC that’s primarily focused on adding new workshop/building content (anything with the word “Workshop” in its name) and the other three - Automatron, Far Harbor and Nuka-World, which all add new quests, weapons, enemies and/or areas to explore. Each of these DLCs will be covered below and their merits discussed.

Automatron DLC¶

Automatron is an odd DLC inasmuch as it adds some new quests to complete, new dungeons to conquer and the Rust Devils faction. The Rust Devils have their own armor set which you can plunder, and they’re often accompanied by new robot enemy variants. If you’re a fan of the quest The Superhuman Gambit in Fallout 3 you’ll get a familiar cameo. Despite this, there’s really not much in the way of new settlements - you get one new settlement, and it’s not fully customizable. Instead it’s intended to be used to create robot companions via the new Robot Workbench.

The Robot Workbench is the main selling point of this DLC, making it an odd hybrid of a building DLC with a bit of new non-building content thrown in as a prerequisite to unlock most of the building elements. With the Robot Workbench you can create robotic companions who can accompany you around the wasteland or serve as settlers - they excel as guards or provisioners, don’t have to be lured in via a Recruitment Radio Beacon, and can more easily be replaced. They also won’t steal your power armor if you leave it unattended! On the downside they still require the same amenities, for some reason, have a fixed happiness. They also cost resources to build, and the more powerful the robot, the more expensive creating the gets.

If you really like settlement building, this isn’t a terrible DLC to have, as the robots can make protecting settlements easier, and it’s probably cheaper to just build a robot to serve as a provisioner than to equip a normal settler. That said, you’d have to invest a lot into settlement building for this to even be an issue and the new gear, enemies, and quests are of dubious quality, at best. It doesn’t help that this DLC costs twice as much as the Workshops and the same amount as Nuka-World, which offers a whole new area to explore.

Automatron DLC Pros and Cons¶

Wasteland Workshop DLC¶

The first dedicated workshop DLC - if you don’t like settlement building, you might as well stop reading now, as there’s no new quests, enemies, gear or any of that sort of thing. If you don’t hate settlement building, this DLC adds the concrete category of structures, the Fusion Generator, a Powered Water Pump and Garden Plots, which are all incredibly useful objects that will vastly streamline your settlement building. Fusion Generators produce 100 power and take up relatively little space, making it the one and only power source you’ll likely need for most settlements, and Garden Plots allow you to create squares of dirt where you can plant crops freely, mitigating the need to find whatever ground is provided in each settlement for cultivation. Want to keep your farm on the roof, out of reach of attackers? Go for it! Honestly these two workshop items should sell this DLC on their own to dedicated builders out there (assuming you don’t just use mods on PC to replicate them).

While the aforementioned workshop items are the real sellers to this DLC you also get access to cages you can use to lure in pets like cats and dogs or enemies. In the latter case this DLC also offers workshop items you can use to build arenas and pit captured enemies against each other. It’s a bit of work for dubious reward, but if you want to roleplay having your own wasteland arena, this is a way to do it.

Paying for this DLC might be a stretch for people who just want to streamline settlement building, but if you’re really into it and want better, more efficient settlements, this might just appeal to you.

Wasteland Workshop DLC Pros and Cons¶

Far Harbor DLC¶

Now we’re cooking. Far Harbor is the largest and best DLC Fallout 4 has to offer, adding an entirely new map region that is separate from the main game’s map. It has its own aesthetic and numerous enemies and weapons sharing a decidedly… maritime theme, including Anglers, Gulpers and Fog Crawlers (enemies) along with Harpoon Guns, Lever-Action Rifles and Meat Hooks (weapons) and new legendary weapon modifiers. A whole new questline, towns, side quests, companions, perks and settlements round things out. If you like pretty much any aspect of the Fallout 4 gameplay loop, Far Harbor expands upon it.

Far Harbor DLC Pros and Cons¶

Contraptions Workshop DLC¶

As another workshop DLC, it’s no surprise that there’s not much besides new building options. You’ll get the warehouse category of structures, which are generally good at making large, spacious buildings, and the odd scaffolding elements to make getting around easier. That said, these structures don’t mesh well with the core ones (or the concrete structures added by Wasteland Workshop) and require a lot of space, so aside from Sanctuary, Spectacle Island, and other large settlements, you probably won’t get a ton of use out of these structures.

Aside from the aforementioned structures, the main add-ons for Contraptions Workshop are… various contraptions. Conveyor belts, switches, triggers, conduits, rollers, logic gates… if you want to make your own little semi-autonomous factory to sort and fabricate items, this DLC might interest you. It’s a lot of work and tinkering for arguably little gameplay benefit, and while weapon and armor racks are nice for showing off your best loot.

Contraptions Workshop DLC Pros and Cons¶

Vault-Tec Workshop DLC¶

The third and final workshop DLC, Vault-Tec fits somewhere between Wasteland Workshop and Contraptions Workshop in terms of overall utility. The basic premise of this DLC is you’ll get to build your own vault - Vault 88 - at a new settlement specifically designed for such an endeavor, and naturally you’ll get all new vault structures to use for this endeavor. If you want to create a nice, relatively clean vault settlement filled with pretty much every useful amenity (including a barber chair and surgery chair, should you wish to change your appearance)… well, Vault-Tec Workshop offers you the ultimate playground. It’s general purpose utility isn’t quite as good as Wasteland Workshop, but given the prominence of vaults in the Fallout series, building one of your own can make for a good bit of fun!

Vault-Tec Workshop DLC Pros and Cons¶

Nuka-World DLC¶

The second large story DLC Fallout 4 has to offer, Nuka-World isn’t quite as expansive as Far Harbor, but it does offer a new region to explore, along with new enemies, weapons and quests. While Nuka-Cola is the dominant theme, the amusement park also features a western-themed area, a space-themed area and a safari-themed area, so you’ll have more varied content in Nuka-World at the expense of a more coherent theme found in Far Harbor. The new enemies in Nuka-World - aside from the obligatory raider and robot reskins - trend towards the “pest” side of things, including ants, bloodworms, crickets, rats and the odd safari escapee or Nuka-mutated aquatic enemy.

When it comes to settlements, Nuka-World is something of a change of pace, as it offers no new settlements despite providing a new map to explore. You can unlock numerous new workshop items in Nuka-World, but almost all of them are decorative, rather than functional. Worse, if you’re really into settlement building Nuka-World’s questline can actually conflict with your settlements, as the raider factions you can take over in Nuka-World are keen on raiding Commonwealth settlements. If you’ve already liberated and built these settlements up you’ll need to destroy your own settlements to appease the raiders.

Despite not offering builders much (they’re spoiled in every other DLC - smallest violin for them) there’s a lot of content to sink your teeth into with Nuka-World, even if it doesn’t aspire to the same heights as Far Harbor.

Nuka-World DLC Pros and Cons¶

There you have it, all of the DLC you can grab in Fallout 4, along with our opinion on what we think are the best parts of each one. There’s a lot here for any fan of the TV series to get their teeth stuck into.