Ah, the humble tilde button, so useless. Unless, that is, you're playing a Bethesda game built on a variation of the Creation Engine. In that case the humble tilde key (~) unlocks the console, a gateway that lets you mess with the game logic. Give yourself superpowers, spawn weapons and monsters, speed up time and complete the game with one tap of the Enter key.
Simply activate the console in-game, type the command you want, press enter and then close the console again and watch your command take effect. If the tilde button (left of the 1 key) doesn't work, try the apostrophe key. It seems to vary depending on the nationality of your keyboard settings.
Updated December 9, 2015 with more essential commands.
For a lot of these commands, you'll need to know how to get the IDs of items, NPCs, as well as the names of locations and factions. With the console open, clicking on a character or item will show its ID. Additionally, many commands act on the targeted character—so, whoever you clicked on. Sometimes it can be tricky to get the right ID to pop up (it's easy to select yourself accidentally), so using free cam (tfc) can help. You can also look up commands and IDs...
help [item name] [0-4] — Searches items, characters, commands, and more. Use Page Up and Page Down to scroll. 0 searches for everything.
coc qasmoke — This teleports you to a room with a number of boxes that contain every single item in the game. Surreal, but a good way to find item IDs. You can find an item ID by entering the console and clicking on the item in the game world with your mouse. It turns out that Dogmeat's real name is 0001d162.
tgm — Good old god mode.
tcl — No collision. Walk through walls. Walk into the sky. Be free.
tfc — Activates free camera.
tfc 1 — Same as above, but freezes all animations.
tm — Toggles menus and UI on and off. It even stops you from seeing the console, so you'll have to press tilde and type tm again blind to get the UI back.
csb – Resets blood and damage effects.
fov [first-person FOV] [third-person FOV] — Change the FOV.
set timescale to [insert number here] — Speeds up or slows down time. The default setting is 16. 1 is realtime, 10,000 is crazy spectacular timelapse. Be sure to look when time's on fast forward because the sun and the moon actually bounce across the sky.
coc [cell id] – Teleports the player to an area.
showlooksmenu player 1 — Reopens the character customization menu so you can change your look. You'll want to have your character's face centered on screen for this one.
player.setrace [race id] — Change your race (e.g. ghoul, mutant). Find race IDs with the help function, but beware of adverse side effects (most races just make it crash).
player.resethealth — Resets your health.
setgs fJumpHeightMin [insert number here] — Modifies your jump. Set it really high to vault over buildings like the Incredible Hulk. Warning, if you don't turn on god mode, the falling damage from your own jump will kill you.
tdetect — The AI won't detect you anymore. Steal to your heart's content.
player.modav [skill] [number] — Boost a skill by a numerical amount of your choosing. Eg. player.modavstrength 10 will boost your strength by ten points. If there's a terminal you'd love to hack or an NPC you'd love to persuade, use this. However, if you want to unlock perks, use the next command.
player.setav [character variable] [number] — Sets a character trait to a new value. Unlike modav, this will unlock perks when you change your stats.
player.setav speedmult [insert number here] — The number you type in adds multiplier to your running speed, with hilarious consequences. Use in combination with god mode and the next command to go full superhero.
player.setlevel [insert number] — Boost your level to the number specified.
player/additem 0000000f [insert number here] — Adds bottlecaps equal to the number you specify.
player/additem 0000000a [insert number here] — Adds bobbypins equal to the number you specify.
player.additem [item ID] [number] — You may have noticed a pattern in the last two commands. Yes, you can add ANY item to your inventory this way as long as you know the item ID (see above for instructions for finding IDs).
tai — Turns AI off and causes everyone to stand still with a vacant look on their face.
tcai — Turns combat AI off. Brings peace to the world. Boring, boring peace.
killall — Kills everyone in the vicinity, apart from companions and any other characters deemed too vital to die. In that case they will slump down injured until you give them a stimpack.
kill [insert ID] — Kills the creature with the ID you supply. Type kill (0017fda3) now and wherever they are, the feral ghoul I tested this on will drop dead. Alternatively, click on an NPC with the console open and just type 'kill.'
resurrect [insert ID] — Brings the creature with the ID you supply back to life. Type resurrect (0017fda3) to bring the feral ghoul I tested this on back to life! He's having a torrid day. Alternatively, select a dead NPC with the console open and just type 'resurrect.' If you resurrect a headless NPC, be aware that they're going to remain headless.
recycleactor — Resets a character.
setscale [number from 1 to 10] — Makes you or your target HUGE. See the results in the picture at the top of the article.
sexchange — You'll never guess. Works on whoever is selected, though it may not have good results with unique characters.
getav CA_affinity — Get the affinity level of your current companion.
setav CA_affinity [number] — Sets your companion's affinity level to a number.
modav CA_affinity [number] – Adds a number to your companion's affinity level. Haven't noticed an effect.
unequipall — Unequip all items from the selected NPC.
player.AddToFaction [faction id] [0 or 1] — Become allied with a faction. Alternatively, remove the 'player' prefix and this will affect the targeted NPC. 0 is friendly, 1 is allied.
player.RemoveFromFaction [faction id] — Remove yourself from a faction. Alternatively, remove the 'player' prefix and this will affect the targeted NPC.
removefromallfactions — Removes the target from all factions.
setally [faction id] [faction id] [0 or 1] [0 or 1] — Make two factions friendly (0) or allied (1).
setenemy [faction id] [faction id] [0 or 1] [0 or 1] —Make two factions neutral (0) or enemies (1).
completeallobjectives [Quest ID] — Complete all current objectives in a quest.
resetquest [Quest ID] – Reset a quest.
completequest [Quest ID] — Complete a quest.
caqs — This completes every step of the primary quest, effectively completing the game for you. WARNING:Don't use it if you want to avoid spoiling the entire game for yourself.
