Press the tilde key and Fallout 4 transforms from a challenging RPG into your personal wasteland playground. Console commands give PC players god-tier powers: instant invincibility, unlimited resources, teleportation to secret developer rooms, and the ability to spawn any item in the game. This guide covers the essential cheats every PC player needs—from basic god mode to advanced quest fixes and hidden area access. Fair warning: using console commands disables achievements until you restart the game, but mods can bypass that restriction entirely. Whether you’re troubleshooting broken quests or just want to experiment with max-level builds, these tested commands will completely transform your Commonwealth experience. Let’s dive in.
How to Access the Fallout 4 Console
Opening the Console
Getting into Fallout 4’s command console takes exactly one keystroke. Hit the tilde key (~) on your keyboard—it’s the key just below Escape and to the left of the number 1. The game will pause instantly, your screen will dim slightly, and a text cursor will appear at the bottom of your display. You’re in.
Type whatever command you want, hit Enter, and watch the magic happen. Want to close the console? Just tap that tilde key again and you’re back in the Commonwealth. The interface is dead simple—no menus to navigate, no complicated activation process. Just press, type, execute.
One quick heads-up: some keyboard layouts (especially non-US versions) might use a different key. If tilde doesn’t work, try the apostrophe or grave accent key. It varies based on your region, but you’ll find it pretty fast through trial and error.
The Achievement Warning
Here’s the catch that trips up every first-time console user: the moment you enter a single command, achievements are disabled for your entire play session. Bethesda built this restriction into the game to prevent players from cheating their way to achievement glory.
The good news? This lockout only lasts until you fully restart Fallout 4. Quit to desktop, relaunch the game, and your achievements are back online. No permanent damage done.
The better news? The modding community solved this problem years ago. Mods like “Achievement Mods Enabler” completely remove this restriction, letting you use console commands freely without sacrificing your achievement progress. You can find these mods on Nexus Mods with thousands of endorsements from players who want both flexibility and bragging rights.
Essential God Mode and Combat Cheats
Surviving the Commonwealth can be brutal, but these combat commands turn you into an unstoppable wasteland warrior.
God Mode (tgm)
Type tgm into the console and watch your problems evaporate. This command grants complete invincibility, infinite ammo, unlimited Action Points, and removes radiation damage entirely. Your health bar becomes decorative.
Perfect for:
- Testing settlement defenses without dying repeatedly
- Clearing Quincy Ruins or other death traps on your first visit
- Experiencing the story without combat stress
- Building crazy VATS chains without worrying about AP management
The command toggles on and off, so typing tgm again returns you to mortal status when you want the challenge back.
No-Clip Mode (tcl)
The tcl command toggles collision detection, letting you walk through walls, fly across the map, and phase through locked doors like a radioactive ghost. Hit it once to activate, again to disable.
Strategic uses:
- Escaping geometry glitches when you’re stuck between rocks
- Exploring buildings from unconventional angles
- Bypassing entire dungeon sections (speedrunner favorite)
- Reaching normally inaccessible areas and cut content
Carry Weight Boost: Tired of the encumbered walk of shame? Use player.modav carryweight X (replace X with your desired number) to add pounds to your limit. Want 10,000 carry weight? Go wild with player.modav carryweight 10000. Alternatively, player.setav carryweight 9999 sets your total capacity to exactly that number.
These commands transform Fallout 4 from a survival challenge into your personal sandbox. Toggle them on for experimentation, off for legitimate gameplay.
Item Spawning: Get Any Weapon or Armor Instantly
Want that legendary Gauss Rifle without grinding for hours? The player.additem command is your shortcut to every weapon, armor piece, and crafting material in the Commonwealth. With access to 2,500+ unique items through hexadecimal codes, you can kit out your character in seconds.
Understanding Item Codes
Every item in Fallout 4 has a unique hexadecimal ID that looks something like 0001F669 (that’s the code for a Stimpak, by the way). The basic syntax is dead simple:
player.additem [item code] [quantity]
So if you want 50 Stimpaks, you’d type player.additem 0001F669 50 and boom—instant healing supplies. The tricky part is finding the right codes. Your best bet is the Fallout wiki’s comprehensive item database, which breaks down everything by category: weapons, armor, aid items, junk, ammo, you name it.
Here are some essential codes to get you started:
- Overseer’s Guardian (0018D09E): The legendary combat rifle everyone loves
- X-01 Power Armor Helmet (00154ABF): Top-tier protection for your dome
- Adhesive (001BF72D): Because you never have enough for crafting
- Fusion Cores (00075FE4): Keep that power armor running forever
- Bottlecaps (0000000F): Spawn 9999 for instant wealth
Spawning Items vs NPCs
Here’s where new players get confused. The player.additem command adds items directly to your inventory. But if you want to spawn an NPC, object, or creature in the world, you need placeatme instead:
player.placeatme [base ID] [quantity]
Use this for summoning enemies to fight, friendly NPCs, or even entire objects like workbenches. Just be careful—spawning too many entities at once can crash your game faster than a Super Mutant Suicider in your face.
SPECIAL Stats and Character Modification Commands
Want to pump your Strength to 50 and turn your Sole Survivor into a wasteland demigod? The player.setav command lets you crank every SPECIAL stat beyond the standard 10-point cap, creating absurdly overpowered builds in seconds.
The command syntax is dead simple. Open the console with the tilde (~) key and type:
player.setav [stat name] [number]
Each of the seven SPECIAL attributes has its own specific command name you’ll need to use:
- Strength —
player.setav strength 20(carry weight becomes meaningless) - Perception —
player.setav perception 25(VATS accuracy goes through the roof) - Endurance —
player.setav endurance 30(become a literal tank) - Charisma —
player.setav charisma 15(every speech check auto-succeeds) - Intelligence —
player.setav intelligence 40(XP gains skyrocket) - Agility —
player.setav agility 35(AP pool becomes enormous) - Luck —
player.setav luck 50(critical hits every other shot)
The game technically has no upper limit for these values. You can set Strength to 999 if you want to one-punch Deathclaws, though going above 50 on most stats hits diminishing returns.
Pro tip: Use player.getav [stat name] first to check your current value before modifying. This helps you avoid accidentally lowering a stat you’ve already invested perks into.
Secret Developer Room and Hidden Areas
Bethesda’s developers left themselves a secret playground in Fallout 4, and you can visit it with a single console command. This hidden testing room contains literally every item in the game, from legendary weapons to crafting materials to quest items you normally couldn’t obtain.
Accessing the QASmoke Room
Open your console with the tilde (~) key and type coc qasmoke. Hit enter, and you’ll instantly teleport to a stark white room filled with containers, NPCs, and testing dummies. This is where developers tested game mechanics and item functionality during development.
The room is massive and organized into sections. You’ll find:
- Containers sorted by item type (weapons, armor, aid items, junk)
- Every power armor variant on display stands
- Test NPCs representing each faction
- Workbenches and crafting stations
- Magazine and bobblehead collections
Each container holds dozens or hundreds of items from its category. Want to experiment with legendary modifiers? They’re all here. Need crafting materials for your settlement? Grab them by the thousand. The room even contains cut content and developer testing items you’d never see in normal gameplay.
Fair warning: using the QASmoke room will disable achievements for your current session, and grabbing quest items can break storylines. Create a manual save before entering.
Getting Back to the Wasteland
Stuck in the developer room? Type coc sanctuaryext to teleport back to Sanctuary Hills, or use coc RedRocketExt for Red Rocket. You can teleport to any named location using the coc command followed by the location’s cell name. Just make sure you’ve grabbed everything you need first because you’ll have to reload the room from scratch if you return.
NPC and Quest Manipulation Commands
Quest bugs and unresponsive NPCs can turn your Commonwealth adventure into a frustrating mess. These commands give you the power to fix broken questlines and control any character in the game.
Controlling NPCs
Before running any NPC command, you need to select your target. Open the console, click directly on the NPC or object you want to manipulate. Their reference ID will appear at the top of the console window. Once selected, these commands work their magic:
- resurrect – Brings dead NPCs back to life (useful when a critical quest NPC dies)
- kill – Instantly kills the selected NPC without combat
- disable – Makes the selected NPC vanish completely from the game
- enable – Brings back disabled NPCs or objects
- moveto player – Teleports the selected NPC directly to your location
- setessential 1 – Makes an NPC unkillable (set to 0 to reverse)
Pro tip: If you accidentally killed Preston Garvey before exhausting his settlement quests, click his corpse and type “resurrect” to bring him back like nothing happened.
Fixing Broken Quests
Quest stages sometimes refuse to progress due to bugs or missed triggers. Two commands can save hours of lost progress:
setstage [Quest ID] [Stage Number] – Advances a quest to a specific stage. For example, “setstage MQ102 200” jumps the “When Freedom Calls” quest to stage 200.
completequest [Quest ID] – Marks an entire quest as finished. Use this as a last resort since it skips all rewards and progression steps.
Finding Quest IDs requires checking the Fallout wiki or typing “help [quest name]” in the console. The game has 100+ main and side quests, each with unique identifiers. Main quest IDs start with “MQ” while faction quests use prefixes like “RR” (Railroad) or “BoS” (Brotherhood of Steel).
Settlement Building and Utility Commands
Unlimited Settlement Building
The build limit in Fallout 4 settlements can crush your creative dreams faster than a Deathclaw attack. Luckily, one command obliterates that restriction completely. Open your console, click on any settlement workshop, then type setav 349 999999 to max out your settlement size meter instantly.
This command works by manipulating the settlement’s size attribute value to an absurdly high number. You’ll notice the size bar stays green no matter how many turrets, walls, or decorative typewriters you spam across Sanctuary Hills.
For truly unlimited building, combine this with resource commands. Use player.additem 0000731a 10000 for wood, player.additem 0006907a 10000 for steel, and player.additem 000aec5c 10000 for concrete. No more scrapping every desk lamp in the Commonwealth.
Pro tip: If your settlement size bar somehow fills up again after building extensively, just run the setav 349 999999 command again. Some settlement objects have buggy size values that eat more space than they should.
Screenshot Mode
Capturing clean screenshots without UI clutter requires just two letters: tm. This toggle command instantly hides the entire HUD, compass, quest markers, and dialogue boxes. Perfect for grabbing that dramatic shot of your power armor lineup at sunset.
Hit the tilde key, type tm, press Enter, then close the console. Everything disappears. Take your screenshots, then run tm again to restore the interface.
For advanced screenshot hunters, combine tm with tfc 1 to enable a free-floating camera that pauses the game. This lets you position shots from impossible angles without NPCs wandering off or enemies attacking mid-composition.
Your Wasteland, Your Rules
Console commands transform Fallout 4 from a challenging survival RPG into a limitless sandbox where you control every variable. Yes, achievements get disabled during your session—but the freedom to experiment, fix broken quests, and build settlements without resource limits is worth the trade-off. And if achievements matter to you, grab that Achievement Mods Enabler from Nexus and enjoy both worlds.
Start simple. Boot up your game, hit that tilde key, and try tgm for god mode or coc qasmoke to explore the developer room. Bookmark a comprehensive item ID list from the Fallout wiki so you can spawn legendary weapons on demand. Keep manual saves before experimenting with quest commands—some changes can’t be easily reversed.
The Commonwealth is yours to break, rebuild, and explore however you want. These commands aren’t cheating—they’re tools for creating your perfect wasteland experience. Now get out there and make Preston Garvey immortal, spawn a hundred Deathclaws in Sanctuary, or finally build that massive settlement you’ve been dreaming about. The only limit is your imagination.