Mutant Survival Guide To The Commonwealth

POV Rio

I made my journey south out of Sanctuary and towards the Red Rocket. It was actually a short walk to the Red Rocket.

'I guess I figured the Red Rocket wouldn't be as close as it was in-game, but honestly, it's in basically the exact spot that the game suggested it would be.'

As I approached the RR, I saw someone I was fairly excited to see. It was Dogmeat. One of the cutest dogs you could meet in the wasteland. As I got closer, Dogmeat saw me and walked over to me.

"Hey there, what are you doing out here all alone, buddy?" I ask Dogmeat while letting him sniff my hand.

Dogmeat sniffs my hand, then gives it a lick before starting to circle me.

Sniff Sniff Sniff

"Stop that, it tickles!" I say with a little laugh as Dogmeat sniffs me with his cute little nose.

"Hey! Watch where you put that nose of yours! I do not need you to sniff my butt." I say while giving his snoot a boop.

SHHNT SHHNT SHHNT 

Dogmeat sneezes a few times, then gives me a silly smile with his tongue hanging out. I just rub his head.

"Well, you want to come with me?" I ask him.

Bark

"I'll take that as a yes," I respond.

Bark Bark

As soon as that happens, a menu appears, and I can see time has frozen. The menu explains how companions work, and it can be broken down to a few basic facts. They can't be killed once they join my party, but they can be knocked unconscious. They will wake up after some time with restored health. They also don't need food, drink, or sleep like me. They have a digital inventory, like me, but it is much smaller. They have unlimited ammo for their main weapon, but not for any weapons they pick up or that I give them. Other than that, they will be generally loyal as long as I have a positive affinity with them. But if I break their trust, try to hurt them, or start doing things they can't accept, then they will leave or even try and kill me. Except Dogmeat. He's the Goodest Boy and will never betray me, and will not care what I do as long as I don't try to kill him. Which would only cause him to leave for a time.

'Overall very strong. Now, I feel like I am forgetting something.'

I get my answer mere moments later when a large number of Mole Rats burst from the ground and start running at me. I panic for a second but recover quickly and activate VATS, which slows time slightly and even makes me take reduced damage while it is active. With 15 Perception, and at such close range, I can get clean headshots.

BANG x 7

With 7 shots, I killed 6 Mole Rats and missed one shot. That left 3 Mole Rats alive, but the one I missed was pounced on by Dogmeat, leaving the last 2 for me. The two were on my left and right, with the left one slightly behind the right one. I quickly reloaded my pistol and kicked the right Mole Rat. By the time the left Mole Rat caught me, I had reloaded and could open fire.

BANG x 3

One bullet missed, but the other two hit center mass and killed the Mole Rat. I quickly turned to my right and jumped back to narrowly dodge the Mole Rats' bite. Then I shot my pistol without much aiming 4 times and at least hit twice. But not before the Mole Rat managed to scratch my leg. It wasn't too bad, but it still hurt. I looked over to Dogmeat and saw him finishing off his Mole Rat. 

I just sighed and took a seat. I looked over the scratch, but it was like I thought, and not that bad. It wasn't even bleeding. And my clothing had already mended itself. The wound was still technically there, but it was now just a weak spot where I could take a critical hit. It would also disappear if I healed.

Once I had caught my breath, I started to loot the rats, and I got 9 pieces of Mole Rat meat. I then tried to harvest more from the physical corpses. It was really messy and didn't really work very well, but I got 3 more pieces of meat from it. I fed the mutilated corpses to Dogmeat, which he seemed very happy about. I, meanwhile, started to cook the massive amount of meat I had on me. I ended up with 10 Radroach Steaks, 5 Bloatfly Steaks, and 6 Mole Rat Steaks. I refused to eat the Bloatfly meat, and I was not that interested in eating roach meat, but it was something that would heal me if I was in a pinch.

My next stop was the cave underneath the RR. I knew it had some decent loot. It was a fairly straightforward cave. I killed another 8 Mole Rats and got a Fusion Core, 36 Brain Fungus, 23 Brain Fungus, some ammo, a pipe gun, various pieces of scrap, and most importantly, an intact Addictol. It was a great haul. I used the Addictol right away to cure the annoying cravings for Jet and the addiction in general. Once I had taken a break, I decided to take a small walk over to Concord to see what the town was like. But it was an odd sight when I did go into it.

"It's quiet. Too quiet," I mutter as I sneak around the town.

Even after looking around the town for a few hours, I couldn't find anyone. I was tempted to enter the Museum of Freedom and take the power armor, but I didn't want to take the risk. There was little risk with just waiting. So I left Concord and returned to the RR. Once I arrived, I decided to do something I hadn't done yet. I activated the Workshop.

As I activated it, time froze again, and I was given a quick breakdown of how settlements worked, and I had to admit it was really broken. Almost everything I built in the settlement was indestructible. I would get experience from building things, and I could create storage containers that had unlimited capacity. And the settlers I recruited would require far less sustenance compared to others. They could only be moved in the settlement and only while using the Workshop mode, but it was still really powerful. The only downside is that I can't guarantee the loyalty of those under me. Or rather, the Institute could send infiltrators to assassinate or sabotage me. But that wouldn't be for a long time, as I didn't expect to have many settlers anytime soon.

'I can create some really strong bases if I do this right. But I will need the right skill level or perks to build certain workshop items.'

I did what I imagine most would do and started scrapping everything I could and then taking all the materials from the workshop and heading back to Sanctuary to do the same. I ended up with a whole lot of steel and wood as well as a few unique items. One of the items was the You're SPECIAL booklet. It gave me one additional SPECIAL point to distribute to any stat that was below 10. So, either Strength or Luck. I chose Luck as it made sense to be a little above average in terms of luck, and I was already getting a boost to my Strength from my clothing. Once that was done, I sorted through my loot and started building Sanctuary into a fortress as best as I could. The workshop gave me the knowledge on how to build a whole lot of different objects, and I had a good amount of scrap.

'That and I am sure Trashcan Carla should possibly drop by here. Likely on Institute orders.'

I knew that most of the major caravans were Institute informants and that I needed to be careful with them. But I also knew that I would need to trade with them as they have some much-needed supplies.

During my adventures in base renovation, I also took some time to search the local area, as I remember there being some raiders nearby. I wasn't going to kill them right away, I just wanted to confirm their whereabouts so I could think of ways to deal with them later if they became a problem. As for why I didn't just attack them. I had no armor and only pistols with not the greatest amount of ammo. And I wasn't too keen on dying anytime soon. If I were going to fight them, I would do so in the best conditions. Specifically, nighttime.

I had tested it and found that I had somewhat passable low-light vision. I wasn't sure if it was better than humans, but I at least knew how best to use darkness to my advantage. I knew that thanks to a level up I got from building all those things. The perk I chose was Sneak. It made me 15% harder to detect while sneaking. But I also put 15 skill points into Sneak, which taught me how to be more stealthy. That still brought up the issue of taking out the raiders. I don't have a silencer. And using melee weapons would be suicidal. So I instead spent my time training my physical body to remove the debuffs. I didn't instantly solve the downsides, but I at least made my stamina slightly better than it was. Now I wouldn't get winded as easily.

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Authors Note:

Doggo acquired. Rio won't hesitate to kill raiders, but he isn't stupid and won't just jump into a firefight with an enemy that outnumbers and outguns him. Even with Dogmeat, Rio would die almost every time. But Rio has time to make some plans and to try and get his body into shape. He doesn't require sleep, drink, or food, so he has practically 24 hours of prep time every day. The Minutemen won't appear for another few weeks. Until next time, Ciao.