I don’t know about you but having a weapon holstered in any game gives me those wild west standoff vibes. Even though that may put me in an unfavorable position because the AI opponents don’t care about my love for westerns. You may have your own reasons to be excited about this feature but in this guide, we will learn how to holster a weapon in Fallout 4 and what effects this feature has on your gameplay experience.
How to Holster a Weapon?
To define weapon holstering – your character puts the weapon away so you or NPC’s can’t see it. But he is not bare-handed, so as soon as you try to attack the character will pull out that holstered weapon. If you want to run bare-handed, unequip your primary weapon from the inventory in the PipBoy.
Now let’s talk about how to actually holster the weapon in Fallout 4. We got all the default keybinds for this action on every platform Fallout 4 is available on. That means PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Here are the keybinds:
- PC – Hold R key
- PlayStation – Hold Square
- Xbox – Hold X
The keybind is always the “hold” version of the reload one. So in order to change the holstering keybind, you need to change the reload one. But there is no way of separating them. If you do want to change the keybind you can do so in the settings shown on the image below.
Does it Affect Anything?
You may ask why does this feature exists? It feels as it can have really cool mechanics implemented with it like interacting with NPC’s that may become aggressive if your weapon is out. But unfortunately in Fallout 4, there is no practical usage for this feature.
The NPC’s don’t care if you point the gun at them or not as long as you don’t hurt them. And there is nothing really else you could use this feature for. There is speculation that moving with a holstered weapon is faster than not holstered. But as far as my testing goes it’s not true. Walking and running speed remained the same. The only thing that may be affected is the AP usage when moving. Thus letting you sprint for a bit longer than you could. But even that doesn’t add any value to weapon holstering in Fallout 4.
Quite the opposite, there is a downside to using that feature. When the weapon is holstered it takes longer to ready up for a fight. Upon clicking the shoot button the character will pull out the gun, cock it, and only then is ready to fire. So always be aware of where are you going and don’t get yourself involved in a fight with a holstered weapon.
Mod for Visible Holstered Weapons
In Fallout 4, the developers (thanks Bethesda) removed the physical appearance of holstered weapons. So if you holster your gun and then switch to a third-person view you will find your character not carrying any guns at all. I am not a big fan of third-person gameplay but maybe you are. That is why I felt obliged to share this Fallout 4 mod with you.
The mod is called Classic Holstered Weapons System (CHW) and as you may suggest it makes holstered weapons visible on your character. The sidearms and swords are on their hip and anything heavier is on their back.
That’s basically all the mod does but it greatly improves the aesthetics and overall gaming experience. So enjoy!
Holstering Weapons in Other Fallout Games
In Fallout 76 for example holstering your weapon is even more important because you play against real people. And one can only assume so much when has a 7.62 pointed at their face. If you want to try and make friends or at least evade making enemies, holstering your weapon is a good start. It does make you more vulnerable but that is the cost you will have to pay. Worry not as the keybinds for weapon holstering remained the same. Hold your reload button and the weapon will be gone. The same goes for older Fallout games, more specifically Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.
