4 Super-Secret FALLOUT 4 Easter Eggs
Fallout 4 — the newest open-world offering from Bethesda, Maryland based game company Bethesda Game Studios — is a pretty massive work of gamesmanship. There are so many things to see and do, all of them of such quality and grandeur, that you could spend hundreds of hours exploring the main questlines alone, never experiencing the thousands more hidden off the beaten path.
So in the furor of Fallout 4 launch week, you may have missed some of the little things Bethesda snuck in, just for fun. Here are four Easter Eggs from the opening of Fallout 4 that you’ve gotta check out on your next playthrough!
1. Easter Egg Recorded Character Names
One of the touted flavor-adding features in Fallout 4 is a stock of names your robotic Mr. Handy companion Codsworth is able to say and recognize. If you name your character one of the game’s nearly one thousand prerecorded names, he will address you directly and specifically by that name, rather than his usual generic formalities of “Sir” or “Mom”.
The list of names is already published and floating around on the Internet, but naturally, the gang over at Bethesda managed to sneak in a couple extras for dedicated players and Fallout superfans.
Through rigorous testing and multiple save games, I managed to discover the following Easter Egg recorded names the developers DIDN’T want you to know about!
Bethesda
Codsworth
Dad
Derek
Doom Guy
Dragonborn (note: Dovahkiin will not work)
Fallout
Fallout 3
Fallout 4
Fallout 5 (!!!)
Fishlips Malone
Fuck
Fuckface
Fuck-For-Brains
Fuckstapler
Fus Ro Dah (does not bestow Shout powers to Codsworth)
Gord
Gordo
Good Luck Out There Gordon
Grue
Herobrine
Laas Yah Nir (this one does work like the Shout, but only for Codsworth)
null
Shepard
Skooma
Squidlips Malone
S’Wit (will still call you this if you use “Filthy S’Wit”)
Todd Howard
ZeniMax
Zork
2. Secret Ending Easter Egg
Immediately after speaking to the Vault-Tec representative and before attending to baby Shaun, it is possible to unlock a hidden ending to Fallout 4.
In the kitchen of your home you will find a red telephone — it’s easy to miss among all the red appliances, but it’s there. If you pick up the handset, you will discover it produces a dialtone and the rotor is fully functional. Most numbers you try will be busy or out of service; I’ll let you discover for yourself which ones work and which don’t!
However, if you dial the telephone number of the real-world White House (which you can find online), you will be connected immediately to the President of the United States (in Fallout), who is currently freaking his shit out. From here you will enter into embark a dialog tree which contains eight increasingly difficult persuasion rolls.
The first two gates will be your attempts to to calm the President down; if you succeed both, you will be connected to the President’s ongoing conference call with all nuclear-capable world leaders. There are a variety of dialogue options, some of them with surprisingly long responses, but always there is the option for a risky persuasion attempt.
If you succeed those next six charisma checks, you will have convinced all the Earth’s atomic powers to carry out full and immediate nuclear disarmament. The President will thank you for your service, mention a UN Assembly address and the Nobel Committee, and hang up. There is a short cutscene of you, your spouse and Shaun enjoying a day at the park, and then credits roll.
This ending is virtually impossible to earn without cheats or very arduous save scumming, as even with all starting ability points loaded into charisma, you still have a mere 1 in 1,200 chance of passing all eight persuasion rolls. But a few lucky (or persevering) souls can have the privilege of averting mankind’s nuclear doom and earning themselves the coveted “Nobody Is Become Death Today” achievement.
Interestingly, while Fallout 4 adds the ability to end ongoing conversations by simply walking away from them, this does not immediately terminate your connection to the President. Once you have entered the conference call, it is possible to leave the phone off the hook, have an extended conversation with your spouse, and return to the call without prematurely ending it and triggering nuclear holocaust.
3. Vault 111 Recreation Terminal Easter Egg
This one works only for people who bought Fallout 4 through Steam, but it’s pretty neat, and a thing I wish more developers would think to include!
When escaping from Vault 111, you will come across a recreational computer terminal, where it is possible to play the original-Donkey-Kong-alike “Red Menace”. If you win three consecutive games of Red Menace, the screen will go dark for ten seconds. Do not leave the computer terminal during this time, as not only will you miss the Easter Egg, but you will also be permanently unable to eject the Red Menace holo-tape!
Once you wait the full ten seconds, and provided you have it installed on your Steam account, a new game of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind will begin on the computer terminal, picture-in-picture style. The game is fully functional and will also run with any mods you have added (though if you have Morrowind Overhaul or other beautification mods installed, I would remove those, as they tend to make the framerate chug).
Players who complete a full game of Morrowind in Vault 111 will not only save the Dunmer from the tyranny of Dagoth Ur, but also receive the admiration of their peers, and the “Nerevarine” achievement on their Steam account.
Note that while you are technically unable to save your Morrowind game, thanks to Fallout 4’s overhauled save-anytime system you can just save your Fallout 4 game normally and it will retain your progress in Morrowind. Just don’t leave the terminal, as your Morrowind playthrough will end, and you will need to win Red Menace another three times to start a new game. If you’re worried about an errant pinky sending you back to Seyda Neen, I recommend temporarily rebinding the exit terminal button to an F key, or something else you’re not likely to hit by accident.
If you don’t have Morrowind installed, aren’t playing on a desktop Steam account, or try to win Red Menace three times on your Pip-Boy (or any other terminal), this Easter Egg will not trigger. Instead, you will start up a new game of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. You do not need to have this installed, as it is bundled with Fallout 4.
4. Vault-Tec Vault Tech
It turns out parts of Vault 111 are made of wood. Who knew?
There’s all the Easter Eggs for now! Stay tuned for an article detailing Easter Eggs from later in the game, as well as a comprehensive guide for importing your existing Shepard into Fallout 4.
