Ballistic Weave is one of the most useful and valuable armor mods you can get your hands on in Fallout 4, but it’s not a mod you can easily pick up from a vendor.
In Fallout 4, you have a full suite of upgrades and improvements you can make to your pieces of armor, but Ballistic Weave is one of the few armor mods that can actually improve your outfits and clothing underneath your armor. Ballistic Weave will improve both the damage resistance and energy resistance of roughly any outfit or piece of clothing, including unique items. And the higher your Armorer skill is, the more effective the mod is.
There are a number of hoops to jump through and missions to complete to get your hands on Ballistic Weave, but it’s almost certainly worthwhile.
How can I get Ballistic Weave in Fallout 4?
Players can learn how to use the Ballistic Weave armor mod from Tinker Tom, the supplies and repairs expert for the Railroad, provided they complete a number of quests in a row.
First, you’ll need to find and join up with the Railroad, the underground faction that wants to free synths from being controlled by the Institute. After following the path to the Railroad via the Road to Freedom quest, you’ll need to complete the Tradecraft, Boston After Dark, and Mercer Safehouse quests for the group.
Once those are all done, P.A.M. will offer you a Jackpot side mission that simply requires you to head to a location, clear out the Ghouls, Raiders, or Super Mutants squatting there, and secure a DIA cache tucked in a hidden panel. It’s as easy as going to the marked location, killing every enemy there, and following the quest marker to the cache. You can even take all the cache rewards for yourself.
As soon as you return to the Railroad and complete the quest with P.A.M., Drummer Boy will come sprinting in to tell you that Tinker Tom wants to talk to you. Talk to Tinker Tom and he’ll tell you that by you finding the cache, he finally got his hands on the Ballistic Weave.
Tinker Tom can directly sell you armored outfits that are already modded with Ballistic Weave, such as an Armored Baseball Uniform or an Armored Longshoreman Outfit, each offering about 30 points of both damage resistance and energy resistance.
How to mod clothing and outfits with Ballistic Weave
To mod armor with Ballistic Weave, you’ll need Adhesive, Ballistic Fiber, and Fiberglass. You can apply the mod at any armor workbench. To apply a stronger version of Ballistic Weave that provides more damage resistance and energy resistance, you’ll need ranks in the Armorer perk and an additional piece of each material for each rank.
| Ballistic Weave Rank | Resistance Provided | Materials Needed | Armorer Perk Needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ballistic Weave | 30 Damage Resistance 30 Energy Resistance | Four Adhesive Eight Ballistic Fiber Six Fiberglass | None |
| Ballistic Weave Mk2 | 45 Damage Resistance 45 Energy Resistance | Five Adhesive Nine Ballistic Fiber Seven Fiberglass | One rank of Armorer |
| Ballistic Weave Mk3 | 65 Damage Resistance 65 Energy Resistance | Six Adhesive 10 Ballistic Fiber Eight Fiberglass | Two ranks of Armorer |
| Ballistic Weave Mk4 | 90 Damage Resistance 90 Energy Resistance | Seven Adhesive 11 Ballistic Fiber 9 Fiberglass | Three ranks of Armorer |
| Ballistic Weave Mk5 | 110 Damage Resistance 110 Energy Resistance | Eight Adhesive 12 Ballistic Fiber 10 Fiberglass | Four ranks of Armorer |
Make sure to tag each of the materials for searching if you’re short on them. While searching for those materials, you can at least buy a piece of clothing from Tinker Tom that has the default Ballistic Weave mod for pretty cheap.
