Fallout 4/Characters/Sole Survivor

The Sole Survivor is your player character in Fallout 4, and like the other Fallout games can be male or female. However, unlike the other games, both exist at the start of the game as husband and wife, and whichever one you choose to play as determines which one will die in the prologue.

They also have an infant son named Shaun, who is kidnapped, and regardless who you play as, that will determine a large part of your motivation for traversing the Commonwealth, as well as visiting retribution on the murderer of your spouse.

While you can choose the name of the character you can play as, they will be referred to by the default names of Nate and Nora respectively through this article.


 * Badass: Both of them quickly become this over the course of the game.
 * Action Girl: Nora. She even gets the matching perk as an option.
 * Action Girlfriend: If Nora romances a male character, they can be this to them.
 * Action Hero: Both Nora and Nate can even dress and act the part if they done the 'Silver Shroud" Costume.
 * Action Survivor: Nora, who has to find her way out of Vault 111 soon after the prologue ends on her own.
 * Badass Automaton: They can gain the ability to build and improve them.
 * Badass Back: A perk allows either to reflect damage back on enemies, even from behind.
 * Badass Bandolier: A few can be found and equipped as armor.
 * Badass Baritone; Nate's voice can drop into this where he's really pissed off.
 * Badass Beard: Nate can have one.
 * Badass Boast/Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: Both Nate and Nora can deliver a few of these prior to a fight during a speech check.
 * Badass Bookworm: Nora is a graduate of a law school while Nate is a former US Army veteran, but she's just as badass as he can be.
 * Badass Bureaucrat: Nora used to be a lawyer, but can swap lead as well as she used to shuffle paper. It's also possible to achieve certain results during tense speech checks by manipulating the bureaucracy of various factions in your favor, oftentimes to the point of deterring otherwise inevitable bloodshed.
 * Badass Bystander: What they were until the Great War happened.
 * Badass in Charge: They can become the leader of the Minutemen and the Institute, explicitly because of their ability to kick ass and get things done.
 * Badass Damsel: Kellogg, if he later encounters Nora, will admit she's a lot less helpless than he initially gave her credit for.
 * Badass Grandpa/Never Mess with Granny: Technically speaking, thanks to being cryogenically frozen for 200 years, they are older than even most ghouls..
 * Badass in a Nice Suit / Hot Chick in a Badass Suit: Both Nate and Nora can done some stylish suits to be badass in.
 * Badass Longcoat: A few can be found and worn by either. Special mention goes to the Minuteman General coat, which is this combined with being a badge of office of their role as the General of the Minutemen.
 * Badass Long Hair: Both can wear really long hairstyles if they so choose.
 * Badass Mustache: Nate can sport one of these.
 * Badass Normal: Of the various Fallout protagonists, their Pre-War background makes them the most normal of all of them, given their lack of mutation. They also do not ever become Cyborgs like is possible in the other games, specifically 3 and New Vegas.
 * Badass Abnormal A few perks bestow nigh supernatural abilities, like no need to worry about drowning, ghoul like radiation resistance, and health regeneration.
 * Badass Pacifist; A charismatic Nate/Nora can defuse some amazingly deadly situations with little more than mere words.
 * Badass Unintentional: Applies generally to Nora. Nate was already a Retired Badass by virtue of being a veteran.
 * Bald of Awesome: Both can go bald if they like. Can be Bald of Evil if they become a raider boss in Nuka-World.
 * Break the Badass: They can gain this status in the Silver Shroud quest, where they can eventually render bloodthirsty raiders terrified of them.
 * Colonel Badass: The highest rank they can technically achieve in the Brotherhood of Steel would equal out to this.
 * Cool Shades: Both can find a few to don.
 * Cultured Badass: Given they know what Pre-War culture was like, they qualify for this by default to a large portion of the Commonwealth.
 * Dark Action Girl: Nora, should she become a raider boss or simply take the darker path options for certain factions.
 * Determinator/Plucky Girl: Both are pretty driven to avenge their spouse and find their son.
 * Dying Moment of Awesome: Whichever one dies in the prologue will do so defending Shaun from his kidnappers.
 * Fedora of Asskicking: A few can be found to be worn for invoking this trope.
 * Four-Star Badass: What they become to the Minutemen officially and can become to the Institute as its Director.
 * Heartbroken Badass: Both of them. Depending on which one survives, avenging the other is half the reason they travel the wasteland.
 * Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Nora can find some very nice dresses to wear. She can also wear them while getting blood all over herself from killing waves of enemies.
 * Like a Badass Out of Hell: Both of them can decide to walk around the Glowing Sea and back out again, which is effectively this given its sheer lethality.
 * Mama Bear / Papa Wolf: One half of their reasons for traveling the Commonwealth.
 * One-Man Army: Each faction can consider you one of these. Special mention goes to being the Overboss of the Nuka-World raiders, because it's basically a job requirement.
 * Retired Badass: Nate specific. He was a US Army veteran, specifically a veteran of the Anchorage campaign.
 * Scarf of Asskicking; A few can be found and worn.
 * Sealed Badass in a Can; What they were in the prolouge, due to being locked in cryo vault container.
 * Sociopathic Hero; It's possible for either to be this if they always go for the bloodiest, meanest way to solve problems.
 * Specs of Awesome: Both can wear nerd glasses and still mow down hordes of deathclaws and Super Mutants.
 * Submissive Badass: This to every single faction to a degree. Even the Minutemen, Institute, and being the Raider Overboss means you generally have to do work for others of your own faction, though being in charge does grant you certain privileges.
 * Took a Level in Badass: It's noted throughout the game that this has occurred to your character by several characters.
 * Worthy Opponent: Kellogg will admit your character is this,.
 * Canon Name: By default, the husband's name is Nate, and the wife is Nora.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Pick sarcastic options all the time in dialogue regardless of character to hear either Nate or Nora spew a lot of this trope.
 * Future Imperfect: There are a few times when they can comment on people who have this view of the past, and they can either play along or correct them.