Time to play the waiting game.

By Toby Saunders

Published: Wednesday, 17 April 2024 at 10:19 AM


Waiting plays an important role in Bethesda games, allowing you to pass the time quickly if you’re looking to advance to any time of day.

The trouble is, knowing how to wait in Fallout 4 is trickier than in the studio’s other games.

If you’re new to the game after becoming a fan of the Fallout TV show, too, you’ll be new to concepts such as waiting and how to quickly pass time in Fallout 4.

Fortunately for you, we’re here to help.

There are a couple of ways in which you can advance time quickly in the open-world RPG – waiting and resting. You will need to interact with different in-game objects to achieve both.

Keep reading to find out how to wait in Fallout 4 and to discover how to rest, and what the benefits of both are.

How to wait in Fallout 4

A character in a vault suit sat in a chair in Fallout 4
Fallout 4.

To wait in Fallout 4, you need to sit down at a chair. You can sit down on any chair, bench or couch that you find (or craft). Once you sit down, the game will ask you how many hours you wish to wait.

Select the number of hours you wish to wait, and after a few short moments you’ll be exploring once more.

It’s worth noting that you cannot wait if enemies are nearby, and that it won’t heal you.

After waiting, the time of day will be different based on the hours you choose to wait. This can be helpful if quests only appear at certain times of day, or if you need to access particular stores or other areas that open at specific times.

Waiting will also allow NPCs to catch up with you, and can be used to simply play the game in your preferred setting – day or night.

If you’re playing Survival Mode, waiting will prevent Periodic Damage being applied by extreme hunger, thirst and/or disease. Wait that disease out, and use the function to allow food and water supplies to be restocked.

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How to rest in Fallout 4

To rest in Fallout 4, you need to sleep in a bed. After resting, your health will be restored and you will have the ‘Well Rested’ temporary perk, which increases experience earned by 10 per cent.

To earn the ‘Well Rested’ buff, you need to sleep in a bed you own (in a settlement under your control), in a paid-for rented bed, or in a few other locations such as the Railroad HQ, the Vault 81 room, the Nucleus and in Ticonderoga.

If you’re playing in Survival Mode, resting will save your game and heal you if you rest for eight hours. It’ll also help remove that pesky Fatigue in Survival Mode. Useful stuff, sleep.

Remember that you will probably wake up hungry and thirsty in Survival Mode after resting, too!

Just as with waiting, you cannot rest if there are enemies nearby, so move somewhere else or defeat them before you rest/sleep in Fallout 4.