Fallout 4: How High Can You Build? Maximum Build Height Explained
Fallout 4 boasts an expansive environment, allowing players to test the game’s limits. Fans can enjoy tons of fun activities, from exploring its aquatic areas to building towering settlements. However, many players are still curious to know how high you can build in Fallout 4 and how the maximum build height works in-game.
Maximum build height in Fallout 4
Plenty of video games have a build mode enabled, although most involve a uniform buildable space with differing environments and details. Fallout 4 has numerous buildable areas, and each base’s limitations are clear in terms of the perimeter and available surface area – but the height limitation is never stated outright.
Unlike many games that allow players to build structures, Fallout 4 does not have a specific buildable area that’s constant in every location. The build mode in Fallout 4 is based on a “global height limit,” meaning that the build height limit will differ between each location depending on its base height.
This sort of setup can be quite frustrating for some players, as one could find that they can build incredibly tall settlements in one location but are restricted in a different area. However, quite a few areas allow players to build much higher.
How high can you build in Fallout 4?
Considering that there is a “global maximum build height” in Fallout 4, the height limitation will vary between areas. It’s as if an invisible barrier was stretched across the entire Fallout 4 map, meaning all areas will be capped at that height regardless of how many floors players can build on a specific plot of land.
As a result, the terrain height has the biggest influence in determining how high players can build their settlement in Fallout 4 (in addition to attributes against the settlement workbench, which will be detailed further below). Areas with a lower ground floor will have more vertical space, while areas with a higher ground floor will have less vertical space within the buildable area.
The highest build limit available is for Abernathy Farm, which has the capacity for 19 floors (debatably 20 floors, depending on the method used), and the lowest height limit is for Covenant, which only has room for 1 floor. Considering that there are such drastic fluctuations between the build height limits, players should pick the locations most appropriate for their planned builds.
Fallout 4: Maximum build heights & specs per location
Building a top-notch base in Fallout 4 requires a ton of time and dedication – flexible building restrictions will be a massive help throughout the process. Much like many modern video games, Fallout 4 uses mesh to determine the amount of rendered objects within any given area, utilizing a combination of triangles and draws.
- Triangles: Every object in the game is constructed in the form of a “.nif” file using triangles, with a cube requiring at least 2 triangles per face, equating to a minimum of 12 triangles per cube. Spheres will require far more triangles, depending on how smooth the object needs to appear in-game.
- Draws: The game will use draws according to the number of meshes required to create a “.nif” file, typically using 1 draw per 1 mesh as needed.
There are currently 37 settlement areas in Fallout 4, each with varying dimensions and specs. Below is an overview of the most notable Fallout 4 settlement area’s average build height limits and settlement size measured in triangles, thanks to fans on Steam Community and Reddit.
| Fallout 4 Settlement | Max. Floors | Min – Max Size (Triangles) | Free Space |
| Abernathy Farm | 19 – 20 | 220,260 – 2,000,000 | 1,779,740 |
| The Castle | 7 – 8 | 427,250 – 1,000,000 | 572,750 |
| Coastal Cottage | 6 | 26,678 – 1,000,000 | 973,322 |
| Country Crossing | 10 | 87,458 – 1,000,000 | 912,542 |
| Covenant | 1 | 115,923 – 1,000,000 | 884,077 |
| Croup Manor | 10 | 104,420 – 1,000,000 | 895,580 |
| Egret Tours Marina | 5 | 152,944 – 1,200,000 | 1,047,056 |
| Finch Farm | 12 – 13 | 141,549 – 1,500,000 | 1,358,451 |
| Gray Garden | 9 | 189,711 – 1,800,000 | 1,610,289 |
| Greentop Nursery | 6 – 7 | 110,467 – 1,200,000 | 1,089,533 |
| Hangman’s Alley | 3 – 4 | 54,527 – 1,000,000 | 945,473 |
| Jamaica Plain | 4 | 0 – 500,000 | 500,000 |
| Kingsport Lighthouse | 10 | 38,668 – 1,500,000 | 1,461,332 |
| Murkwater Construction Site | 6 | 151,220 – 1,000,000 | 848,780 |
| Nordhagen Beach | 9 – 11 | 84,130 – 1,250,000 | 1,165,870 |
| Oberland Station | 5 | 78,931 – 1,000,000 | 921,069 |
| Outpost Zimonja | 4 – 10 | 56,356 – 1,000,000 | 943,644 |
| Red Rocket Truck Stop | 9 – 10 | 0 – 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Sanctuary Hills | 4 – 6 | 16,297 – 3,000,000 | 2,983,703 |
| The Slog | 10 | 120,040 – 1,500,000 | 1,379,960 |
| Somerville Place | 9 | 110,401 – 1,500,000 | 1,389,599 |
| Spectacle Island | 8 | 411,124 – 5,000,000 | 4,588,876 |
| Starlight Drive-In | 8 – 9 | 108,466 – 1,500,000 | 1,391,534 |
| Sunshine Tidings Co-Op | 8 – 10 | 137,781 – 1,250,000 | 1,112,219 |
| Taffington Boathouse | 7 | 88,763 – 1,000,000 | 911,237 |
| Tenpines Bluff | 3 | 7,531 – 1,000,000 | 992,469 |
| Warwick Homestead | 8 – 9 | 210,074 – 1,500,000 | 1,289,926 |
Generally speaking, there is technically another available ‘floor’ on top of the number listed above. However, this area cannot usually be made into a complete level with a roof as well.
For example, players would be able to add another ladder on top of the last level listed, but they would not be able to build anything above that point. Players should always start building from the lowest possible point in their settlement area to get the highest number of floors possible.
Can you increase the build limit in Fallout 4?
Players may struggle to build the base they have in mind due to the Settlement Size Bar filling up so quickly. Tried and tested mods can be the most convenient approach to building more freely in Fallout 4, as these balance out the game while giving players the flexibility they need.
“Gamma Gun Glitch”
With that being said, a classic method can be used to lower the size bar without the use of mods. The “gamma gun glitch” involves dropping guns onto the floor (with the Gamma Gun being the most effective), heading into Workshop mode, and storing them individually.
Some players have stated that this glitch works on all items, including junk and armor, but the majority of players have stated that guns work best. The Settlement Size Bar should drop down each time a gun is stored, allowing players to build more.
Players can also store them at once, but storing them individually seems to lower the bar more. For a quick guide on how to use this glitch in-game, check out the video below by Darth Xion.
According to fans on Quora, this method can only be used to empty the Settlement Size Bar around 2 or 2.5 times. The size bar ensures that the game can render the entire settlement with all its contents and still run properly, so overusing this glitch will likely result in extreme lag or the game crashing when the player arrives at that particular settlement.
That’s everything there is to know about the maximum build height in Fallout 4 and how high players can build in different areas. Although some areas are far more restrictive than others, many locations allow players to build mega-settlements with room for just about anything they’d need.
What do you think about the maximum build height in Fallout 4 and how this limit differs between settlements? Let us know in the comments below!