Fallout 4: Settlement Build Guide

Written by: Alex Silvia
1/17/2016, 10:16a
Tweet to: @Slickster_Mag

Fallout 4 quickly became one of my favorite games of 2015. As I stepped out of the elevator of Vault 111 and gazed at the beautiful desolation of Boston, I was filled with a sense of awe and nostalgia I haven’t felt in ages. After finishing the game siding with the Railroad and Institute, I have now turned my attention to the Minutemen. Beating the story with the Minutemen is unique because you have to build your way to victory. Settlement building is a huge part of Fallout 4 and can be very complex and daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. This guide is here to help.

Getting Started 

In Fallout 4’s Boston ruins there are 30 unique locations you can settle. Some are easier to establish than others.  Settlements come in many sizes, and many of them lack resources such as food and water. Some settlements require quests to unlock, and some are in high-level areas. When starting out it’s a good idea to stick close to Sanctuary and build in that area of the map.

These 10 settlements can be unlocked early in the game and are good for getting started:

1. Abernathy Farm
2. Country Crossing
3. Gray Garden
4. Greentop Nursery
5. Red Rocket Truck Stop
6. Sanctuary Hills
7. The Slog
8. Starlight Drive In
9. Sunshine Tidings co-op
10. Tenpines Bluff

When you have a settlement to build on, there are several milestones towards making it fully functional. Food, water, bedding, and defenses need to be covered first. Once the basics are covered, focus on more advanced settlement elements like shops, power, workstations, and supply lines. Making these things keep your settlements running and maintain settler happiness.

Food

To get food you need crops, and to grow crops you need Farmers. You can only place crops in dirt and there are 6 crops in total. Tato, corn, razorgrain, melon, gourd, and carrot crops produce .5 food each and mutfruit crops produce 1. Once a crop has been planted, a Farmer needs to be assigned to it so it can be grown and harvested. The most important thing to remember when planting crops is that each settler needs 1 food and each Farmer can harvest 6 crops.

Notes: Adhesive is one of the most used crafting ingredients in the game and can be made from vegetable paste. Vegetable paste is made from mutfruit, tatos, corn, and purified water.

Brahmin feed troughs can be used to make fertilizer. Brahmin at a settlement will stick close to the feed trough.

Water

Water may be the most important resource in game because it is an excellent source of income. Water can be retrieved from ground pumps or purifiers. The ground pumps can be used at any settlement and provide 3 water each, regular and industrial purifiers provide 10 and 40 water each but require power and a water source to function. Some settlements like Sanctuary that can handle multiple industrial purifiers can easily produce several hundred waters on a regular basis. Water sells for 20 caps a piece. One way to think of it is 10 industrial purifiers provide 400 water, which is worth 8,000 caps.

Bedding

Settlers need a place to sleep with a roof over their head or they will never stop complaining and your happiness will go down. You can use a pre-made structure or make something even better like a house, apartment building, or inn.  In large settlements like Sanctuary each resident can have a house but in compact settlements like Jamaica Plain a bunkhouse is more suitable.

Defenses

There are two parts to defending a settlement. First, establish a defensive perimeter to force attackers into a well-defended entrance. Second, use turrets, traps, and guard posts to increase your defensive score. The defense score of a settlement needs to be higher than the food and water scores combined, otherwise the settlement will be attacked. For example, a settlement that produces 20 water and 20 food would need a defense score of at least 41.

When it comes to building a defensive perimeter, concrete blocks can clip in to the ground, are stackable with the stairway floorboard, and turrets can be placed on them making them ideal for building walls. Which turrets are used can have a huge impact on how much power is needed. Heavy machine-gun turrets are the best because they require no power and provide good firepower. Powered turrets like the shotgun, laser, and missile turrets are very powerful as well and should not be dismissed.

Power

There are 4 power generators: small, medium, large, and wind. Small generators produce 3 power and are the best for providing large amounts of power as they provide the most power for the space they take. Medium, large, and wind generators are very bulky and often more impractical to use.

Generators need to be wired to be used and copper is needed to run power lines. Power lines have distance limits that can be overcome with conduits and pylons to extend the wire’s length and build a power grid. Small lights get their power through walls where pylons and conduits are connected to them or by being near a generator.

Workstations

With workstations, players can craft personal gear, chems, food, and power armor. Equipping your settlements with workstations is very useful for crafting and storing power armor, whether it’s to customize equipment or make an armory that Tony Stark would be proud of. Power armor is best stored away from NPCs. Armor left out in the can be stolen by raiders, or settlers might permanently take it in the heat of battle. Do not leave fusion cores in unused armor.

Shops

Shops are the best way to make caps without water purifiers. How much money a shop makes depends on what tier it is and how many settlers can shop there. The more settlers there are, the more caps are made. There are weapons, armor, clothing, trading, medical, and food/drink shops.

Each shop type has 4 tiers. Shop tiers 1-3 can be built with the right perks. Tier 4 shops need to be run by special NPCs that have to be recruited. There are 8 in total that can be found throughout Boston.

Ann Hargraves 

Tailor.

Notes: Found at the WRVR broadcast station.  She doesn’t like her boss.

Doc Anderson 

Doctor.

Notes: Random encounter.  Will not join unless a settlement has a population of 20.

Holt Combes 

Trader.

Notes: Found in Vault 81.  Will not leave unless he is single.

Ron Staples 

Bartender.

Notes: Random encounter.  Will not join unless a settlement has a population of 20.

Rylee 

Trader.

Notes:  Random encounter.

The Scribe 

Armorer.

Notes: Random encounter.  Will not join unless a settlement has a population of 10.

Smiling Larry

Weaponsmith.

Notes: Random encounter.  Will not join unless a settlement has a population of 30.

Vault-Tec Rep

Trader.

Notes: Found in Goodneighbor.  He’s had a rough 200 years.

Supply Line

To establish a supply line, assign a settler to trade with another settlement. Once a supply line is established the connected settlements will share resources and can allow a settlement like Boston Airport, which can’t produce food, to be settled. Trading is best done later in the game as it can be difficult to manage and can get out of hand quickly. Trade routes can be viewed on the pip-boy map.

Player Perks

There are seven perks that affect settlement building: Armorer, Cap Collector, Gun Nut, Hacker, Local Leader, Medic, and Science. Without these perks, especially Science and Local Leader, settlement building is much more limiting and unprofitable.

Armorer

Requires Strength 3.

Notes: Power Armor stations require rank 1.

Cap Collector

Requires Charisma 1.

Notes:  All tier 3 shops except medical require rank 2 of this perk to be built.  At rank 3 shops can upgraded with a 500 cap investment.

Gun Nut

Requires Intelligence 3.

Notes: Machinegun Turrets require rank 1. Shotguns turrets require rank 2. Missile turrets require rank 3.

Hacker

Requires Intelligence 4.

Notes: Terminals require rank 1.

Local Leader

Requires Charisma 6.

Notes: Supply lines require rank 1. Shops and workstations require rank 2.

Medic

Requires Intelligence 2.

Medical shops require rank 1.

Science

Requires Intelligence 6.

Laser turrets, large generators, and industrial water purifiers require rank 1.  Heavy laser turrets require rank 2.

Happiness

Happiness is the hardest thing to manage in any settlement and getting it to 100 is the hardest achievement in the entire game. More importantly however, if your happiness is too low settlers are going to rebel.

Happiness is essentially the settler’s quality of life and is affected by many variables.  The happiest settlements have food, water, defenses, shopkeepers, bedding, lighting, and seating.  They are also happier when you stick around.

Settlers

Settler Population

Recruitment beacons attract settlers. How many settlers a settlement can have is 10 plus the player’s charisma. A player with 6 charisma can have a maximum of 16 settlers while a player with 10 charisma can have 20. Clothing that boosts charisma is included in that calculation. A player with 6 charisma wearing a red dress that gives them +2 charisma can have a maximum of 18 settlers.

Settler Behavior

During the day settlers will wander the settlement and stay close to ground level or do their jobs. They tend to stay away from higher places unless they are forced to. Unassigned settlers produce caps and scrap at the settlement workbench and shops increase how many caps they produce. Early night they will all go to the bar and then go to bed. Without a bar they will go straight to bed. To gather settlers in one place, use the bell.

Finding Synth Spies

The institute will send synth spies to players on their bad side and these spies can incite synth invasions on settlements. To find out if a settler is a synth, get the Awareness perk that requires level 3 perception. Synths naturally have +10 energy resistance that is visible with awareness. Because some settlers may wear energy resistant clothing it’s best to strip them before checking their energy resistance in VATS. Dead synth spies will have synth components in their inventory.

Settler Equipment

Settlers spawn with low level equipment but can be given better armor and weapons to use. Renaming settler equipment is a good way to keep track of them. If a settler is given a gun and a single round of ammunition for that gun they will use it indefinitely. A settler with a minigun and a single 5mm round has all the ammo they need.

Settler Jobs

To assign a settler to a job use the building menu and command them towards their work station or assign them a trade route.

Artilleryman

Artillerymen are stationed at your settlements cannon and operate it at the player’s command. To unlock artillery, The Castle must be cleared and Old Guns, a quest given by Ronnie Shaw must be completed.

Farmer

Farmers will grow and harvest your crops. Each farmer can harvest 6 crops in total and, fully grown, will have between 3 and 6 farmers depending on settlement population and what crops are being grown.

Guard

Guards will stand at their posts and act as lookouts. They do add to the overall defense rating but are often not needed. Whenever a settlement is attacked all the settlers will defend it and not just the guard. Overall, it’s better to have a settler making caps and scrap than doing a turret’s job.

Provisioner

Provisioners work the supply line they are assigned to, and can be seen wandering the commonwealth with a pack Brahmin. They are very easy to lose track of and can be difficult to find. A good way to manage provisioners is by naming a gun or article of clothing after the settlement they’re from.

Scavenger

Scavengers you have assigned to work at scavenging stations produce more scrap than a regular settler.

Shopkeeper

Shopkeepers will run whatever store they are put in charge of and act like any other vendor. As mentioned above, there are several unique NPCs you can recruit to run your stores.

Magazine Buildings

There are 5 building types that can be unlocked by reading magazines.

High Tech Lights

Found in Hardware from “Modern Hearth.”

Patio Furniture

Found in the Weston Water Treatment Plant from “Welcome Home.”

Picket Fences

Found in the Beantown Brewery from “The House of Tomorrow…Today!”

Potted Plants

Found in the Combat Zone from “Modern Lawn Care.”

Statues

Found in Saugus Ironworks from “Essential Upgrades.”

Read more: Drug addiction in Fallout 4 http://www.slickstermagazine.com/psychojet-fallout-4-drug-addiction/