It’s no secret that Bethesda games live and die by the strength of their mods. Fallout 4 is no different, but with nearly a decade of mods under its belt, it can be tough to know where to start.

Whether you just picked up Fallout 4 as a result of the show or are returning to the Commonwealth to try out the new update, look no further than this list to get you started. As someone with an outrageous amount of playtime in Fallout 4, I’ve curated the best of the thousands of mods available. Of course, given the way Bethesda modding goes, you’re undoubtedly going to end up with a list of hundreds of mods, but the ones listed below provide about the most solid foundation you could possibly want.

These are the seven most essential Fallout 4 mods, presented in no particular order. If you've had your fill of sci-fi, consider checking out our recommended Skyrim mods when you're done.

The community patch should always be the first stop when modding any Bethesda game you can think of, and Fallout 4 is no exception. Fallout 4's Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch is absolutely indispensable, touching up every aspect of the game to fix hundreds of bugs with quests, gameplay, NPCs, text errors, and more. The changelog alone would take the better part of an hour to read through, but at the same time, it's designed to be compatible with every other mod you could possibly throw at it.