New player guide

This new player guide is based on one created by swcarter.

NOTE: This Guide is not 100 perfect nor accurate! In any case ask either the Horizon Discord or search for specific Problems yourself on the actual pages.

Introduction
Horizon is a large overhaul mod. It touches just about every aspect of the game -- equipment, enemies, settlements, and more. It's like 50 mods in one. However, because of this, Horizon does not get along with other mods. You should always place Horizon last in your load order, and you should avoid mods that try to do some sort of overhauling themselves, sometimes even if they have an unofficial patch available. For a list of mods that work and don't work well with Horizon, please refer to the Mods section at the end of this guide.

Horizon was designed around the survival difficulty setting, where you're required to eat, drink, and sleep. This puts you on a timer of sorts, and it means you have to stay focused as you play. You shouldn't just wander around randomly. You should follow a path that allows you to get your settlement infrastructure up and running, and that puts you in contact with a doctor. For this reason, Horizon is easier if you've already played through the Fallout 4 campaign once.

Your Character: SPECIAL / Specializations
Horizon removes almost all SPECIAL bonuses from the equipment in the game. That makes it even more important than usual how you spend your initial attribute points. We detail a 37-point build below. It's 37 points because Horizon gives you 29 points to spend (instead of 21 like in vanilla Fallout 4), you get 1 point right away from the You're Special book in Sanctuary, and you get 1 starting point in each of the attributes (for 7 points total).

Strength (6). Horizon limits the amount of ammunition you find, so you're going to have to do some melee fighting, especially early in the game to conserve ammo. Horizon (like vanilla survival) also puts a weight on all items, including ammunition, but it gives you a break in this department through the use of backpacks, cargo bots, perks, and armor mods that increase your carry weight limit. Still, melee damage is important enough that you should strive for a mid-level Strength score. Also in Horizon, certain weapons require a level of strength just to be equipped. For example, strength 5 enables the user to equip the LMG while a Laser Gatling requires 7 strength. You will not be able to equip these items if your strength is too low.

Perception (6). Many enemies in Horizon are only vulnerable in specific places (like super mutants in their head), so unless you're an excellent shot in real time, you're going to need to rely on VATS during certain fights. Perception increases your accuracy in VATS, making it important for the entire game. The Perception line of perks is also really useful, and you'll want to take the Technologist perk (PER 7), which allows for the scrapping of cars into Nuclear Material at Salvaging Skill 120.

Note: If you follow the main questline, then you'll find the Perception Bobblehead (+1 Perception) almost right away which in Horizon 1.8 gives one free Perk point which can also be used to increase your SPECIAL.

Endurance (3). You start with extra hit points in Horizon (190 base), and Endurance just adds more (+20 for each point), making it an attribute you can skimp on early in the game. Just make sure you have at least 2 points in Endurance so you can choose the Survivalist perk quickly.

Charisma (9). Charisma is vitally important in everything outside of combat. It gives you more dialogue options, it improves prices with vendors, it increases quest rewards, and more. And unlike the vanilla game, you can't just switch to your Charisma gear for these things (since such gear doesn't exist). If money and role-playing are important to you, then you should keep Charisma high. But if you want to focus more on combat, then you can switch some Charisma points to other attributes instead, like Agility (for better sneaking) or Luck (for faster criticals in VATS).

Intelligence (6). Intelligence doesn't do a lot by itself -- it only increases your experience gained by +3% per point -- but the Science perk requires 6 points, and you'll need Science (along with Ballistics) to build the ZX-1 Experimentation Lab, which is the best way in the game to acquire new weapons. Alternatively, once you unlock Workshop: Tech Level 2 you can build a Equipment Workstation which includes a ZX-1 Experimentation Lab without any Science/Ballistics skill requirements.

Agility (5). Agility affects your sneaking ability and your total action points (your total AP is 60 + 10 x AGI). This makes it useful in combat, so we'd recommend starting with a mid-level score.

Luck (2). Luck primarily just affects how quickly you fill the critical hit meter in VATS, so it's something you can ignore early in the game. Just make sure you have at least 2 points so you can select the Fortune Finder and Scrounger perks, which increases your chances of finding ammunition and other supplies.

You'll also have to make some tough decisions about perks as you gain levels. Food and radiation damage will be your two biggest problems early in the game, so the Hunter perk (which increases your chances of getting good meat from animals) and the Survivalist perk (which gives you recipes for food and also Rad-Off) are good choices. You should also think about Fortune Finder, Scrounger, and Technologist (which increase your odds of finding useful loot), plus Armorer and Gun Nut (which allow you to improve your armor and ballistic guns, respectively).

Also, don't forget about the VANS perk. Every five levels, you can select it for free for five extra perk points. This helps to make up for Horizon's slower leveling rate, but even with (essentially) two perks per level, you'll probably still wish you had more. Horizon has more useful perks than vanilla Fallout 4.

At level 15 and 30, you will be able to choose a first and second specialization which greatly enhance certain play-styles. It is recommended to take a quick look at the list of specializations when initially building your character so you have an end goal in mind. For example, if you want to focus on Sniper Weapons and Sneak Attacks you will want to plan out at least 8 PER for the Sniper perk which is required to unlock the Sharpshooter Specialization which gives +20% damage to scoped sniper weapons and Dead Eye Perk which gives major bonuses to ranged sneak attack damage. Lastly, if you wanted your main sniper weapon to be a Gauss rilfe, remember to take 5 STR or else you wont even be able to equip it.

Early Game
The first thing you should do in Horizon (or any other game of Fallout 4) is explore:

In Vault 111, you can pick up Antibiotics - Basic, a Bandage, a Bobby Pin, two Combat Stimpaks, a Portable Memory Device (which allow you to save your game), Purified Water, RadAway, a Shoulder bag, a Trauma kit, and more.

Outside the vault, in the control building, you'll find a First aid kit.

In Sanctuary you can loot all sorts of stuff, including Grognak the Barbarian #3 and You're Special (which gives you an attribute point) inside your house. You can also visit the Root Cellar behind the blue house on the northern side of the settlement (two houses away from yours). There you'll find an advanced safe, a high quality first aid kit, three Purified Waters, a Supply Kit (which gives 30 supplies at the Caravan Travel Hub), a Vault-Tec Training Manual (which gives you a perk point), a Weapon Toolkit (which allows you to switch ammo in your current weapon, provided you also have a conversion kit), and more. And don't forget about the dead man and dog by the bridge, and the duffle bag by the Minuteman statue.

You can also find some good stuff directly surrounding Sanctuary. To the south, you can loot the Red Rocket Truck Stop settlement and kill several mole rats, both in the station itself and in the den underneath it (but preferably only after you've gained the Hunter perk). To the north across the river, you can kill a raider and an attack dog and loot four Noodle Cups from their cabin. To the southwest, you can loot four Purified Waters and a First Aid Kit at a water tower, and also loot a half-buried steamer trunk just to the south of the tower. To the west in the "swamp," you can loot a first aid kit and an Army helmet at an armored vehicle. And to the east, you can loot a Revolver and some Bobby Pins at a water pump.

That should be enough supplies to get you started.

Early Perk Choices for 1.8

 * Hunter 1 - Allows more meat to be harvested from animals and insects.
 * Survivalist (Perk) 1 & 2 - Unlocks cooking and herbal remedies. You can push Survival (Skill) to 10 through fishing.
 * Medic 1 - for better Bandages. You'll need them!


 * Scrapper 1 and 2. Highlighting favorited components is a game changer! (To highlight stuff, go to Junk -> Component View -> Mark the favorited components. You definitely want to mark: Smokeless Powder, Copper, Common Tools, Adhesive, Basic Circuitry, Ballistic Fibre Scraps, Oil, Salt. You will eventually want to have Salvaging 120 to scrap cars. So take all perks that advance salvaging. Note that each scrapped weapon increases your scrapping skill by 0.1.) Alternatively, you can focus on building Wilson at Technology Level 2 who can auto loot junk for you and ferry equipment back to base to be scrapped later. Wilson cannot loot containers, so the highlighting bonus of scrapper is still helpful.

Strong candidates:


 * Fortune Finder / Scrounger: To raise Exploration skill resulting in more loot.
 * Gun Nut / Science: To improve your combat abilities and unlock a quick Tech upgrade.
 * Marketeer: Unlocks Workshop - Trading Upgrade (Courier Trading Service), which allows you to trade with Carla (and other merchants) remotely from the Resource Station.
 * Locksmithing - I think that one point into Locksmithing is enough. That one point allows you to open Advanced Locks, and you can get to Locksmithing 40 - to open Expert Locks - by just training or the occasional magazine. Locksmithing 60 will allow to open Master Locks, which is convenient, but not necessary.

Horizon Workbenches
Now that you're in shape to start crafting items and building up a settlement, it's a good idea to learn about some of the workbenches that Horizon adds to the game.

The Caravan Travel Hub (found under Architect > Utilities) is how Horizon handles fast travel. You can use a Caravan Travel Hub to travel to any of your settlements or to any major "city" (like Goodneighor or the Prydwen) that you've unlocked. Using the hub costs supplies, which you can create at the Tech Lab, buy at the hub or have your settlers produce them from extra water and food. If you travel from one of your settlements, you'll need to have at least three settlers there for it to work.

The Command Table (found under Architect > Utilities) allows you to send settlers on tasks, once you've assigned some to theMission Jobs buildings and have the appropiate Components available. To see statistics open the Command Table. You can improve your Mission Slot or limits by increasing your Settlements population. Making your Settlement Successful and later a Community should be your aim when highering your Mission Slots and thus the available Tasks per Cycle or Time.

The Farming Workbench (found under Architect->Farming) allows you to create fertilizer using unwanted food, and also domesticate wild plants by combining them with bones and fertilizer.

The Mailbox (found under Architect > Utilities) is where you receive mail from time to time. Mail can come from companions, from completing quests, or from learning perks. Some mail messages contain loot, so you should always build a mailbox and check it every so often.

The Market Trading Terminal (found under Crafting) is where you can find deals for certain items, but only once you've built up your Trading skill.

The Resource Station (found under Architect > Utilities) allows you to manage your farms, production facilities (like a Water Purification Unit), shared storage containers, and Cargo Bots. It's where you place Liquid Fuel and Fertilizer for your farms and facilities, plus Cargo Bot Transmitter Chips so you can increase your carry weight. Maintenance Kits and Transmitter Chips are both crafted at the Tech Lab.

The Tech Lab (found under Crafting) is Horizon's main crafting bench. This is where you craft items unique to Horizon, like Auto-Hackers, Cargo Bots, and Supply Kits. This is also where you craft (consumable) items that increase the technology and trading levels of your settlements.

The Training Desk (found under Architect > Utilities) is where you pick your combat specializations. You'll be able to choose two -- one at level 15 and another at level 30.

The Weapons Lab (found under Crafting) is where you assemble and disassemble ammunition, and also build unique weapons for your companions.

The ZX-1 Experimentation Lab (found under Crafting) is where you reverse engineer regular weapons so you can build them yourself. Then as your skill with the lab grows, and with special Metal Alloys (that you find during your explorations), you can eventually craft weapons that are better than vanilla weapons, with improved range, damage, and more.

Expanding Out
Once you've collected some supplies, you'll need to put them to use, setting up an infrastructure that can keep you fed, hydrated and safe over the rest of the game. You're not required to use settlements in the game, but having at least one big settlement as your base of operations is the easiest way to organize things.

For where to place your main settlement, Sanctuary is the easiest answer since the main questline will send you there anyway, and since it has lots of room for expansion. However, later on you might want to create a settlement more centrally located, to reduce your travel times.

Water
Early game, finding water will be a main objective for the player. There are quite a few bottles scattered around the starting zone (ie. Concord Water Tower, USAF Olivia). Vendors such as Carla and Drumlin Diner will sell 1-2 bottles of water. Shen in DIamond City carries large amounts of water if you have the caps. Alternatively, you can purchase or craft an Advanced filter (40 survival, 20 engineering in the Tech Bench under Crafted Parts) which can used one time to craft 3 bottles of purified water in a cooking station. Lastly, you can craft Sanitized water with antiseptic which will satisfy your thirst, but increase your rads. Getting Codsworth as an early companion also gives you periodic sanitized water.

Stretching water reserves: With 70/120 survival, you can craft Melon juice/ V7 Juice which require 1 purified water, but satisfies 84 points of thirst thus doubling the effectiveness of the water used. Stews and soups also often add a very small bonus from straight water. For example, mole rat stew requires one purified water (42 value), but the soup satisfies 48 points of thirst.

For longer term water needs you will want to have your settlements create purified water. Unlike vanilla Fallout 4, just placing water pumps in a settlement won't cause settlers to produce Purified Water. To get Purified Water, you need 10 water ratings by building regular water resources, and a water purification unit, which can be found under Architect > Basic Production. The water purification unit needs to be located in the same settlement as the water source. To build water purification unit, you will need water purification module, which can be crafted in Tech lab, or sometimes general goods vendors in DC or GN will sell it.

To set up automatic water production: Go to your Resource station > Production Management > Active Services > Manage Service Slot 1 Purified Water (Set this to 999 or however many water you want queued and and satisfy the list of items needed to for each bottle of water - Ceramic, Aluminum, Copper, and Clean bottles. Clean bottles come from the Tech Lab > Tools & Parts.

Maintenance kits are no longer required for Purified Water production.

Note: There's a limit of how much purified water you can produce each day. It's equal to 4 + successful settlements. (may not be true under ver. 1.8)

Food
To adequately feed yourself, you'll need to eat food with a total value of 100 caps every day.

Hunting
One solution is to grab several ranks of the Hunter perk as quickly as possible to increase the amount of usable meat you get from killing bugs and animals. Radstags and Brahmin are great animals to hunt for food provided you can down them economically. Other good sources of meat include the Red Rocket Truck Stop (mole rats), the Starlight Drive-In (more mole rats), and the Robotics Disposal Ground (even more mole rats). Once you're powerful enough to take on super mutants, you'll also be able to loot their meat bags, which will supply you with lots of random meat.

Trading for Food
Around level 5, you will likely need to do a supply run to Diamond City for food, water, and maybe medical services. The major food suppliers in DC are Polly (meat) and Takahashi (noodle cups) - they carry enough food to last several days. Smaller vendors like Carla, Drumlin Diner (or even your own settlement made diner), and Bars will often sell small amounts of food if you need a quick bite. Lastly, Farms like Abernathy Farm and Grey Garden are a good source of crops. Connie will sell you packs of Tatos and Melons for a relatively cheap price. You can also harvest the crops at the farm for some free Tatos and Melons.

Cooking
Not all food recipes are equal, with better Survival Skill comes more efficient food options. Cooking Common Meals gives more nutrition compared to Basic Meals for the same amount of raw food. Stews such as animal stew and mole rat stew are a great way to extend your meat reserves by mixing in vegetables as filler. If you have low survival skill, Mystery soup (Basic Meal) is an efficient way to use exotic meat.

Once you have a settlement with +15 Settlers & +75 Happiness, you gain access to Hunter Settler Missions which can passively bring in meat and Wild Plants for you.

Farming
Composting, Domestication, and Fertilizing. You can manually grow and pick your own crops OR you can use your settlers to farm for you with the Horizon Architect Crops (increased crop ratings). For every 20 crop rating you grow, you will get 1 crop in your workbench for you to use. Additionally, you can use the Farming Workbench to create Compost which automatically (Rate 20:1) gets turned into Fertilizer. You can spend Fertilizer at the Resource Station to cultivate Wild Plants into usable crops or to boost crop yields. So, for example, if you really want Razorgrain for Noodle Cups, you can turn any wild Razorgrain (Plant Nursery) you have into Crops OR if you have Razorgrain plants in your settlements, then you use Fertilizer to increase your Razorgrain yield under the Crop Fertilizing Menu.

As a last resort you can eat Pre-War Food, then you're going to take a lot of radiation damage and eventually need help from a doctor.

Radiation
Your radiation bar has 1000 points, and the more radiation damage you take, the less health you'll have available.

With Survival 30 you can create Rad-Off (-100 rads) in the Chemistry Station with easy to find materials. Take a couple Rad-Off before bed (they increase tiredness) to stay on top of small levels of radiation before they become a problem. After sleeping, its a good idea to top off your food and apply bandages while you have the well rested buff.

Another instant solution for radiation is to just see a Doctor (see below). Doctors are cheaper and easier than trying to use conventional drugs for the same effect. Save RadAway for when you need to cure large amounts of radiation out in the field.

Radiation Equipment: Early in the game you can use a vault suit (10 rad resistance) and a gas mask (also 10 rad resistance) for at least a little bit of protection. At level 5, you can start to upgrade Gas mask Rad Filters, to get good amounts of radiation resistance. With Science 40 and Medic 20, you can craft Advanced Rad Defender Systems which give +300 Rad resist, but lower AP regen dramatically. Later on keeping a Hazmat Suit around is a good idea.

Doctors
With all of the illnesses, radiation damage, and health damage that you can incur, it's important to gain access to a doctor as quickly as possible. There are three ways to go about this:

You can travel to a major town -- like Diamond City or Covenant -- and visit the doctor there. However, these towns are far enough away from Sanctuary that you might have trouble getting to them before you really need a doctor's services.

You can meet a random doctor. You can sometimes meet one in the parking lot attached to Concord or in a house along the route to Graygarden.

You can build a first aid station in one of your settlements. This used to be difficult because you'd need perks to unlock the construction. But now you just need Vendor Contracts and Precision Tools, which you can buy from wandering merchants like Carla (who visits Sanctuary) and Lucas (who visits Tenpines Bluff). Once you have doctors in your settlements, healing is a lot easier.

Weapons
You'll find lots of weapons when you kill enemies, but they'll almost always be in poor condition. Sometimes, you can repair these weapons at the Weapons Workbench, but a better solution is to reverse engineer them at the ZX-1 Experimentation Lab (which unlocks their recipe), and then build them anew.

When using the ZX-1 Experimentation Lab, you first need the perks and resources required to craft the basic model of the weapon, and then you need to pick one of three metal alloys to produce extra benefits. Your weapon crafting skill (gained from reverse engineering, crafting weapons at the lab, or using Weapon Tinker Kits (from the Weapons Lab) controls how powerful the weapon can be. The higher your crafting skill, the more alloys you can add, which increases the damage (by 1% for each alloy) and the experimentation points. Experimentation points allow you to improve things like the weapon's range, accuracy, and AP cost.

Horizon also allows you to switch the firing mode of your weapons, plus the ammunition being used, while you're in the field. This is accomplished through the use of a Field Kit, which you can add to your favorites so you can access it via the press of a button. To go along with the toolkit, you'll also need a conversion kit for the type of weapon you're using. Both the Field Kit and conversion kits can be built at the Tech Lab.

Ballistic Weave
Horizon treats ballistic weave a little differently than the vanilla game. You'll have two ways to get it. The first is to increase the crafting skill of your settlers (via tasks and the Command Table). Once their craftsmanship is rank 2, you'll be able to use contracted work at the Tech Lab to craft Ballistic Weave Mk1 and Insulated Weave Mk 1. From there you should be able to insert the weaves into your underarmor / clothing and hat / helmet items. You can also craft ballistic weave yourself once you have 20 Tailoring skill and rank 6 in Ballistic Weaponry.

The other method is the same as the vanilla method. After completing the first DIA Cache / Jackpot quest for PAM at Railroad HQ, Tinker Tom will start selling clothing items containing Ballistic Weave Mk 1. You'll then need to buy one of the clothing items, take it to an armor workbench, and select "No Weave" for it. This will put the weave into your inventory, which will allow you to place it in a different item.

When upgrading ballistic weave of either type, you'll need to remove it from the item it's in (by selecting "No Weave") and then select the next version you can craft (if any). This will place the improved weave back in the item. Nicely, this means you'll only need two sets of ballistic weave for your entire game (one for your hats and one for your clothing), and you'll be able to transfer them to new items if you find something better.

Metallic Alloys
When crafting and modding weapons and armor, you'll need lots of special metallic alloys. You'll find these alloys in a variety of places. Legendary enemies can drop them (in their prototype items); you can find them in appliances (like cigarette machines and milk vending machines), provided you have the Technologist perk; a lot of the medallions from the Fortune Finder perk will have them; name-brand junk items (like luxobrew coffee pots) can contain them; and regular junk items (including high-powered magnets and biometric scanners) can contain them.

Exploration
The world gets more dangerous the farther away you get from Sanctuary, but the rewards get better, too. At some point you'll also need to reach a major city just for the shopkeepers, quests, and doctors. The main questline will send you south from Sanctuary, where you'll encounter Concord, the Drumlin Diner, and Graygarden while making your way to Diamond City. This can be a dangerous path since downtown Boston is filled with super mutants, robots and raiders. An alternative is to head southeast from Sanctuary and make your way to Covenant. Covenant is much smaller than Diamond City, but it's easier to get to, and it has a general shop and a doctor available.

While you're exploring, you'll have to be careful about the enemies you tackle. Super mutants and robots are much tougher in Horizon than they are in the vanilla game, and in the early goings you might have to run away rather than face them. You should also get used to using VATS, if for no other reason than to learn the vulnerabilities of your enemies. Once you've learned that super mutants are vulnerable in their head, protectrons in their legs, and Mr. Handy robots in their eyes, they're not quite as difficult to kill, and you won't have to spend as many bullets in the process.

Upgrading Your Settlements: Tech Levels and Trading
Once you have a grasp of the basics, you can begin to collect items needed to upgrade your settlements. The main way to upgrade is by crafting Workshop: Technology Level +1 under the Workshop Level Upgrades category in the Tech Lab. These upgrade often require certain a certain skill level + materials to create. The key skills for Tech levels are Ballistics, Science, Engineering, Leadership which often have 2 possible upgrades. Minor skills which can lead to upgrades are Medic+Chemistry, Hacking+Lockpicking, and Exploration. Tech levels are sometimes given as rewards for main quest progession and sent to you via your mailbox. Also, once your Settlers reach Settler Skill:Craftsmanship and Settler Skill:Engineering (about Rank 30), you will unlock Tech upgrades for Settlement skills.

Nuclear Material are likely to be the most difficult items to satisfy due to the amount needed and use in other recipes like reflex sights. In the early game, the best way to get Nuclear Material is to buy them from vendors from their junk items and Cargo Bots (Disassemble in the Tech Lab for 10 NFs). Carla, Drumlin Diner, Myrna (DC), Daisy (Goodneighbor), Rufus (Goodneighbor - Hotel Rexford) all usually have Cargo bots or large amount of Junk.

If you reach 120 Salvaging skill (via Technologist 4 and Scrapper 2), you likely will be able to start Salvaging Vehicles in the road around level 10 for large amounts of Nuclear Material.

Liquid Fuel is likely your second hard to find upgrade item. These can usually be found in the main dungeons of the game like Corvega, in settlements when you ally with them, and at industrial sites like Red Rocket Stations or Railyards. If you have Marketeer 30, Crazy Eddie will exchange pre-war money into Liquid Fuel rarely under the Market Trading Terminal. To extend any Fuel you find, it is a good idea to build non-gas powered generators if you have the resources. In the mid game, you can construct Small Oil Wells and Refineries (Mining) which turn Crude Oil into Liquid Fuel and Oil.

At Tech Level 2, you can construct a Wilson (Cargo Bot 1-X) in the Tech Lab who can be summoned in the field to carry your items back to base. You also can create Water Purifiers under the Tech Lab > Workshop Utility and Kits > Purifier Module which then are used in the settlement construction menu (Architect > Production > Basic Production > Water Purification Unit).

At Tech Level 3, you can set Wilson to autoloot junk items in the world (not containers) to help alleviate the large demand for materials needed in Horizon. You can also create oil wells and refineries as well as Seawater Extractors so you get Salt for soups or sanitized water production in Desolation Mode.

Trading upgrades work similarly to Tech upgrades, they also allow for remote trading with vendors through the Resource Station as well as unlocking advanced ways to make income. They also allow for use of the Market Trading Terminal (everyday the items rotate) which has special vendors which allow you to trade for various items: companion weapons (20 Trading), settlement resources like Liquid Fuel and Basic Circuitry (30-70), Crops (30-70), meds, exchange ammo crafting materials like Energy Cells for Smokeless Powder (100), finally you can convert Vendor Credit (generated from your settlement shops) into Bottlecap.