Fallout 4 Chems
Drug Effects, Crafting Materials, and Durations
Chems can be crafted at a crafting station. You can find one in Sanctuary behind a house to the right when facing the bridge.
Taking chems is a great way to boost your combat potential, survivability, or xp gain in Fallout 4. These drugs can now be crafted at any chemistry station. This guide to chems will list all the materials you need to make each of them, their effect and how long they last. I'll also list the effects of addiction, so that you can see it's not actually that bad, while listing the ways you can get rid of a chem addiction within the game.
Chem Addiction
The chems in the list below will only give you one addiction - the one whose name is stated first for the hybrids, with Chems like Orange/Berry Mentats getting you addicted to 'all Mentat Chems'. Chemical Addiction can be cured by purchasing Addictol from vendors (usually Doctors), which will allow you to remove addictions in the field. Under the 'Cure Me' menu you can find that it's cheaper to have the Doctor cure you. Waiting never has removed a drug addiction for my, so this seems to be a necessary step. Save any Radscorpion Eggs you find, for they can be used at a cooking station to create a Radscorpion Egg Omelet, which will also remove all addiction. Here are the effects of various chem addictions in Fallout 4:
- Alcohol Addiction: -1 Agility, -1 Charisma
- Buffout Addiction: -1 Strength, -1 Endurance
- Calmex Addiction: -2 Perception, -2 Agility
- Daddy-O: -1 Intelligence, -1 Perception
- Day Tripper: -Luck, -1 Charisma
- Fury Addiction: -1 Strength, -1 Perception
- Jet Addiction: -1 Agility
- Med-X Addiction: -1 Agility, -10 Damage Resistance
- Mentats Addiction: -1 Charisma
- Overdrive Addiction: -1 Strength, -1 Agility
- Psycho Addiction: -1 Strength, -10 Damage Resistance
- X-Cell Addiction -1 All Stats
Taking any drug with a name that starts with the drug you're addicted to will satisfy the addiction penalties and give you relevant buffs. Each drug seems to be able to be taken 5-7 times before you'll become addicted, though this can be doubled with the Chem Resistant (Endurance 4 Perk), or completely eliminated with a second point. I haven't ever got addicted on the first time, even when testing this many times. You may choose to conserve your Addictol if you've become addicted but also used a second drug several times but not yet become addicted, as Addictol does not reset the counter on the drug you're not yet addicted to - only established addictions. This seems an unfortunate oversight.
Fallout 4 Chem List
Stacking chem buffs means using them in the right order, and not wasting those with the same base drug.
Stacking Chem Effects
For people who want to stack chems for difficult situations, note that certain effects will be overwritten by others. Taking Bufftats then Buffout will result in buffout overwriting the better Bufftats' stats. You CAN stack beneficial effects if the base drugs are different. For example, Psychobuff and Buffjet work fine together, because the base (first) drugs are different. Taking Buffout afterward, you'd overwrite Buffjet's +stat effects with worse ones, while keeping the +AP and slow time effect of Buffjet. The best advice I can give in this matter is to take the worse drugs, then the more potent ones to ensure you do not overwrite a powerful effect with an inferior one. In the example, it's a waste to take buffout because you'd completely overwrite ALL effects. You can take Fury, Psychobuff, and Med-X and get +75 Damage resistance, while keeping all 3's other positive effects.
Note on Durations
If it says 8 minutes, it means it. Same with foods that say 2 hours - they mean real-time, not game time. You can increase how long chems last by taking ranks in the Intelligence Perk, Chemist. Just 1 rank will unlock the 4 Chemist-only drugs, while boosting the duration of all these by 50%. You can triple the duration with further points, but will not unlock any addictional chems.
Berry Mentats
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +5 Intelligence, highlights living targets. | 8 minutes | Anti Freeze Bottle, Mentats, Tarberry x 2 |
Buffjet
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| Slow Time, +3 Strength, +3 Endurance, +65 Max Health, +35 Max AP | 15 seconds. | Buffout, Jet |
Bufftats
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +3 Strength, +3 Endurance, +65 Max Health, +3 Perception | 8 minutes | Buffout, Mentats |
Calmex
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +3 Agility, +3 Perception, +2x Sneak Attack Multiplier | 8 minutes | Very rarely found on vendors who sell drugs, even less often in containers. |
Daddy-O
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +3 Intelligence, +3 Perception, -2 Charisma | 8 minutes | Cannot be Cooked |
Day Tripper
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +3 Charisma, +3 Luck, -2 Strength | 8 minutes | Cannot be Cooked |
Grape Mentats
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +5 Charisma and Barter 10% Better | 8 minutes | Hubflower x 2, Mentats, Whiskey |
Jet
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| Slow Time | 10 Seconds | Fertilizer, Plastic |
Med-X
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +25 Damage Resistance | 8 minutes | Cannot be Cooked |
Mentats
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +2 Intelligence, +2 Perception | 5 minutes | Abraxo Cleaner, Brain Fungus x2, Lead |
Orange Mentats
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +5 Perception and +10% VATS Accuracy | 8 minutes | Asbestos, Carrot x 3, Mentats |
Psycho
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +25% Damage, 25 Damage Resist | 5 minutes | Acid, Circuitry, Hubflower x2, Stimpak |
Psycho Jet
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| Slow Time, +25% Damage, +35 Damage Resist, +40 Max AP | 15 Seconds | Jet, Psycho |
Psychobuff
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +25% Damage, +3 Strength, +3 Endurance, +65 Max Health | 8 Minutes | Buffout, Psycho |
Rad-X
| Effect | Duration | Notes |
|---|
| +100 Radiation Resistance | 3 Minutes | No addiction potential. This is stackable. Taking 5 will give you +500 Radiation Resistance for the duration. Good for moments when you are caught without Power Armor or a Hazmat suit. |
X-Cell
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +2 to All Stats | 2 Minutes | Evidently only about a dozen exist in the game as leveled loot, so they are rare to come across. Highly addictive, 50% addiction rate. |
Fury (Chemist Required)
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +50% Melee Damage, +25 Damage Resist, -5 Perception | 8 Minutes | Berserk Syringe, Buffout |
Jet Fuel (Chemist Required)
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +35 Max AP, increased AP Regen | 8 Minutes | Flamer Fuel, Jet |
Overdrive (Chemist Required)
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| +25% Damage, +25% Critical Chance | 8 Minutes | Acid x 2, Nuka Cola, Psycho |
Ultra Jet (Chemist Required)
| Effect | Duration | Crafting Materials |
|---|
| Slow Time and +100 Max AP | 45 Seconds | Bloodleaf, Fertilizer, Jet, Plastic X2 |