Bethesda has confirmed that the findings on Reddit on Fallout 4's upcoming Survival Mode are indeed correct, and it's looking even harder than Hardcore Mode from Fallout 3: New Vegas which I used to increase the game's difficulty. That said, Bethesda warns in its Tweet that the developer is "still messing with it," so there may be changes. But let's go down the list and see how this is going to change Fallout 4 for the better.
First and foremost, manual saving and quicksaving will be disabled, and instead, you'll need to find a bed and sleep for at least an hour in order to save. This means that building settlements and creating a bed there will be of utmost importance. Even more so, since fast travelling has been disabled too so you may want to make your base of operations Diamond City instead of Sanctuary Hills since it's a more of a central location. You can use a sleeping bag to save anywhere but you won't get the benefits of a full night's rest.
Then of course, combat damage has been scaled up for both enemies and yourself, so running-and-gunning isn't as sound of a strategy than before. To offset the danger, Survival Mode will give you the Adrenaline perk which gives a bonus to your damage output, but it only builds as you get more kills. Sleeping will lower your adrenaline rank, though, so fortune favors the brave.
However, you will need to satisfy your thirst, hunger, and sleep need (just like a Sim) or you will receive penalties to HP and SPECIAL stats. It will increase your vulnerability to diseases, which you can contract by eating raw meat, getting hit by ghouls and bugs, and injecting yourself with too many chems. You'll need to craft or purchase antibiotics to recover from these nasty side effects. Plus, ignoring your needs will increase your Fatigue, which lowers your maximum action points, working exactly the same as radiation damage to your HP.
Just like Hardcore Mode from Fallout: New Vegas, ammo now has weight and crippled limbs will need to be healed with a stimpak. Moreover, companions will need to be healed if they fall in battle and you can't just carry a ridiculous amount of weight or your legs will be damaged. On the exploration end, you will need to be extremely close to a location for it to appear and enemies will not appear as blips. Locations you've cleared won't repopulate with loot and enemies as frequently either.
All told, let's hope that there's a special achievement for conquering Fallout 4 on this crazy difficulty mode. We'll have to see if any of the perks will help offset these penalties or if they will be restricted in some way. Whatever the case, at least this Vault Dweller is ready to pop Fallout 4 back into the console.
