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> Fallout 4 Settlement Guide - Possible spoilers, A guide to finding, creating, and building settlements in Fallout 4
hazmick
post Dec 6 2015, 06:08 PM
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Thought I'd pop this thread here for those who want to talk about settlement building (i.e me). I'll talk about each individual settlement that can be discovered, cleared, and inhabited.

If you plan on building settlements then you need to be mindful of the necessary perks and SPECIAL stats. A character with 6 Charisma and 6 Science will have access to all the perks they need.

Most settlements need to be cleared of hostiles before you can build there. Once cleared, you can access the crafting workbench and get started.

Each settlement has 8 main things that you need to keep an eye on:

People - the number of people currently living there. Building a recruitment beacon will bring in new settlers. You can also invite some NPC's to move in, and move settlers between settlements. The maximum number of residents is 10 + [Your character's charisma].

Food - Planting crops and assigning a settler to tend them will give you food. Each settler needs 1 food to be happy, and each settler can produce 6 food while farming. Most plants give you 0.5 food each, but Mutfruit plants give you 1 food per plant so it's the most space-efficient.

Water - Water pumps and purifiers will give you water, and don't need settlers to run them. Each settler needs 1 water.

Power - Power isn't necessary for your settlers, but higher level turrets and water purifiers need power, as do lights. Build generators to provide power.

Defense - Building turrets and manned guard posts will increase defense. The defense rating acts as a deterrent for potential attackers. The higher your defense, the less likely you are to be attacked. Your defense rating should be [Food rating] + [Water rating] x2. If it's lower than this then settlers will be kidnapped and you'll need to keep rescuing them. For example; 15 people will need 15 food, 15 water, and 60 defense.

Beds - Each settler needs a bed, and will randomly claim an empty one when they first move in. This means that any beds in your home can be claimed by settlers.

Happiness - The overall mood of your settlement. In order to be happy a settler needs food, water, defense, and a job. Building trading stalls will also increase happiness, as will the presence of your character.

Size - This is the maximum amount of stuff in your settlement. Larger settlements allow you to build more stuff, and it's basically there so you don't go crazy and break the game by building too much.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Dec 6 2015, 06:11 PM


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hazmick
post Dec 6 2015, 06:57 PM
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I'll jot down some stuff about each settlement. I won't be talking about the player house you can buy in Diamond City, since it's not a proper settlement (even though you can build certain items in there). There's no particular order to this list, but I'll start with the settlements closest to Vault 111. Here are the first 7:

First up - Sanctuary.
Sanctuary is the first settlement you'll encounter, right at the start of the game. It's one of the biggest settlements out there and will probably become your main base of operations. There's enough scrap material lying around to create a wall that protects the entire settlement area, but rarer items like gears and oil will have to be scavenged elsewhere. You don't need to clear it, but there are some Bloatflies and Radroaches lurking in some houses, so be careful when you're walking around in 'Build mode'.

Red Rocket Truck Stop
Very close to Sanctuary, you'll meet Dogmeat here. It's currently infested with Mole Rats, and you'll need to clear them out (They'll start popping up when you wander around).
It's a decent sized area, and features a large gas station building (The building has 4 entrances, so be careful when you're building any walls). The large, flat roof is perfect for turrets, and the surrounding area isn't too difficult to build on. Enemies generally spawn from the East and West.

Abernathy Farm
Located just to the South of Sanctuary, under an old electricity pylon. This is already a functioning settlement, run by the Abernathy family. You will receive a quest from them to retrieve a locket from some raiders - completing this will allow you to build here. The settlement is a good size, and mostly flat land, but already has housing and crops. It's also the tallest settlement, allowing you to build to a height of about 11 stories. I'd recommend patching any holes in the Abernathy's fence and popping some turrets on their roof ASAP.

Sunshine Tidings Co-op
Heading south from Abernathy's will bring you here. You'll need to clear it of Feral Ghouls before you can build here. It's a good sized settlement, and features 8 existing buildings of various size. There's a large barn in the centre which is a good point to build out from.

Starlight Drive In
Following the road from Red Rocket, through Concord, will bring you here. The area needs to be cleared of Mole Rats. It's a large settlement, with flat, open land which is super easy to build on. There's a small diner building and a huge cinema screen already in place. The diner has a nice, flat roof which is good for turret placement. Enemies usually spawn from the East and Northwest. Once you get trade routes up and running, this settlement will probably become something of a central point for travelers.

Tenpines Bluff
Heading North from the Drive In will see you to this small settlement. It already has a small shack and a farm, run by two settlers. They'll have you do a quest before you can build there. The land is quite uneven and difficult to build on. Enemies will usually come from the North and East.

Outpost Zimonja
Head north from Tenpines to reach this settlement, built under a radio tower. It's occupied by Raiders (One of whom wears power armor) which will need to be cleared out. It's a small settlement, but there is some existing shelter and fences. I'd recommend just patching up the fences and putting some turrets down. A raider and some turrets spawn in a camp just to the South.



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hazmick
post Dec 6 2015, 08:00 PM
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Greentop Nursery
You'll need to head quite far to the Southeast from Outpost Zimonja to get here. It's inhabited by two settlers who live in a good sized house and work in a huge greenhouse. This means that the empty building space is very small. You'll need to do a quest for them before you can build here. I'd recommend just building some turrets and leaving them to it.

The Slog
East of Greentop is a pool, currently occupied by (friendly) Ghouls. Speaking to their leader, Wiseman, will start the quest needed to build here. It's a decent sized area, but already features a large building and swimming pool so there's not too much room for you to build on. There are 7 current residents, so there's not much for you to do other than patching up their fences and putting some turrets down. Enemies (usually Gunners) will spawn from the South and North.

Coastal Cottage
Head Northeast from The Slog to get here. You'll need to clear it of enemies (Raiders and Mirelurks). It's a pretty small patch of uneven ground, featuring a small shed, a ruined house, and a small cave. It's tricky to build on and isn't located near any major areas of importance. A Mirelurk Queen spawns on the plains nearby and there's a trader living just to the South, in a shack by the road.

Taffington Boathouse
East of the Drive In and Southwest of Greentop. This medium sized waterside settlement features a large house and small boathouse, with a surprising amount of surrounding land to build on. You'll need to clear it of Bloodbugs, and they'll continue to spawn just upriver, so be careful.

County Crossing
East and slightly South of the Boathouse, this mid-sized settlement is already inhabited by some farmers. They'll ask you to do a quest before you can build there. This settlement is very close to the Feral Ghoul-infested National Guard Training Yard, so you should keep an eye on that and pop some turrets down ASAP.

Nordhagen Beach
Southeast of County Crossing, on a small spit of land. This settlement is surprisingly large, but the uneven ground is tricky to build on. There are already some folks living here, in a small shack. You'll have to do a quest for them before you can build here. If you can get some walls up, this place could be quite a good settlement.

Finch Farm
South of The Slog, and Northeast of County Crossing, this small-medium sized settlement is inhabited by the Finch family. You can build here once you complete a quest for them. There's not much room for building, and the proximity to so many enemies (Raiders to the North, Super Mutants to the South) doesn't make this a decent place for a settlement.

Kingsport Lighthouse
East of Finch Farm, the lighthouse here is easy to spot from a distance. You'll have to clear this place of some Children of Atom (and a Glowing One at the top of the lighthouse). The size is difficult to gauge here, but it looks quite big. The ground is pretty uneven in places, with much of the area surrounded by cliffs (making it a good defensive spot). There's a big house, lighthouse, and docks already in place. There's a glitch (at least for me) which means a Child of Atom respawns in the house, which is incredibly annoying, but it's not a bad place for a settlement.

Croup Manor
South of the Lighthouse, on a little peninsula, is this manor house. You'll have to clear it of Feral Ghouls (There's a basement too) before you can build here. The area is medium sized with lots of flat land, but easy to defend since it's sitting on a cliff. The house is big and spacious, if a bit the worse for wear. This is the Easternmost settlement, and feels a bit far away from anything important, but it's a nice place.


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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

"...a quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business."
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Acadian
post Dec 6 2015, 08:07 PM
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Hazmick, I don't play the Fallout games, but this certainly looks like a nice resource for those playing FO4! goodjob.gif


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mirocu
post Dec 6 2015, 08:57 PM
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I was wondering when a thread like this would pop up. The Fallout 4 threads mostly contained settlement talk as of late laugh.gif


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hazmick
post Dec 6 2015, 09:53 PM
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Graygarden
South of Starlight Drive In, this small settlement is occupied by several friendly Mr.Handy robots. One of them, Supervisor White, will give you a quest to fix the water supply before you can build here. The area doesn't have much free space since it features a large greenhouse, but there is a trader.

Oberland Station
Head South from Graygarden to find this small settlement. Two settlers live in the little shack here and will give you a quest to complete before you can build here. Tricky to defend because it's in a little dip next to the railway tracks, this settlement is still handy if you're joining other settlements together with trade routes.

Hangman's Alley
Easy to miss, this settlement is located in an alleyway to the North of Diamond City. It's really small and compact, with enemies on all sides. You'll need to clear some raiders out of here before you can build anything. I'd recommend walling off one side since there isn't much room for turrets to fire on intruders. There is a shack here already so basic shelter is taken care of.

Egret Tours Marina
You'll have to head quite a ways South of the Alley to this riverside settlement. It has a big area to build in, with some large warehouses already in place and an area of flat, open land nearby. An old woman already lives here, but you can deal with her as you see fit and then you can build here. It's a nice location, even if it is pretty far South.

Somerville Place
Head across the river and keep heading South from the Marina. This farm lies on the edge of The Glowing Sea, and is inhabited by a man and his two children. You'll have to do a quest for them before you can build here. This settlement actually has a pretty big area to build in, but you'll have to clear away loads of trees and the ground is quite uneven. There aren't many friendly places this far South, so it's nice to have this as a rest stop.

Jamaica Plain
Head East from the Marina to reach this town. The actual building area is a small house and car park near the town hall. Once the area is cleared of Feral Ghouls you can start building. This settlement is something of a central point, and you'll have 4 or 5 trade routes coming to and from here if you link everything up.

Murkwater Construction Site
Head South from Jamaica Plain, into the swamp. The actual construction site is easy to miss, but the Mirelurk Queen living here can be spotted from a mile away. Deal with her to build here. This is probably the smallest settlement, with the already small area being taken up by water and a ruined house. You can build a small shack here, but nothing else would really fit.

Warwick Homestead
Head Northeast from the Construction Site to this settlement, located in an old water treatment plant right on the water's edge. 6 people already farm here, and you'll have to do a quest before you can build anything. It's a pretty big settlement, but most of it is taken up by water treatment machinery. There is a decent sized area of flat land here though, even if the settlement itself is pretty far from anything useful.


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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

"...a quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business."
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hazmick
post Dec 6 2015, 10:35 PM
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These are the last of the settlements, and these are slightly different from the others.

Covenant
West of Taffington Boathouse, this walled community is a very nice place to live. In order to build here you must either help the residents (there's a quest to pick up here, speak to Honest Dan) or kill them. There are 5 nice houses, and the community has a strong wall, complete with turrets (you don't have to fight the turrets if you want to kill the residents). The building area doesn't extend much further than the walls, and there isn't any room for new structures, but it's already fully functioning which will save you a lot of work.

Boston Airport
West of Nordhagen Beach. If you join the Brotherhood of Steel and advance through the Main Quest you'll get this settlement automatically. Otherwise you have to clear the entire airport of Feral Ghouls (there are a lot). The actual area to build in is just outside of the main airport area, it's a seating area next to some buses. There are some issues with this settlement - you can't grow crops or build recruitment beacons or trading stalls. Unless you're doing the Main Quest with the Brotherhood of Steel, there's no point checking this place out.

Bunker Hill
Southwest of County Crossing, Bunker Hill is a rest stop for merchants. You can only build here after you've advanced quite a ways through the Main Quest. I'm not sure how big the building area is, but Bunker Hill is already packed with buildings so there's not much room for expansion.

The Castle
Northeast of Jamaica Plain. The Castle is the old Minutemen HQ, and is actually Fort Independence. You can clear it of Mirelurks, Mirelurk eggs, and a Mirelurk Queen, and move in at any time, but the Minutemen will move in when you get a further through their questline. Most of the fort's walls are intact, and there is a network of power lines and lights running through the entire fort, just waiting for you to connect a generator. You can build in the medium sized courtyard, which is perfect for crops.

Spectacle Island
A large island Southeast of The Castle (it's easy to see on your map). You'll have to swim to get there. This settlement is huge, even bigger than Sanctuary, with very few existing structures. In order to build here you need to restore the power. To do this: Head to the South side of the island and into the boat there. Flip the switch on the generator and follow the power lines Northwards to the small metal shack and radio tower. Flip the switch in there. You'll be swarmed by Mirelurks of all kinds (Hunters, Kings, a Queen) as soon as you set foot on the island. Once cleared, this settlement offers the most empty space, and is the second tallest (limit of 10 floors). A Mirelurk King will continue to spawn at the ruined house, so make sure you have plenty of turrets set up. Setting up trade routes requires no special building, as the traders won't actually come to the island (They go to Warwick Homestead, but the island still gets the benefit). This settlement is the furthest from Vault 111 and requires the most work, but it's worth it.


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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

"...a quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business."
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Grits
post Dec 6 2015, 10:52 PM
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What a great resource to have here. Thank you, hazmick!


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hazmick
post Dec 6 2015, 10:54 PM
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Mouth
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From: North



Hints and Tips

We'll have a little 'help' section here. If anyone discovers anything that can help with settlement building then I'll pop it in here so all the info is in one place.

Perks - The base perks required for complete settlement building are: Local Leader (Charisma 6), Science! (Intelligence 6), Medic (Intelligence 2), Cap Collector (Charisma 1), Gun Nut (Intelligence 3). You'll need to upgrade some of these perks for more advance building. There is also the Scrapper perk (Intelligence 5) which allows you to salvage uncommon and rare components more frequently - not essential, but very helpful.

Walls - As I previously mentioned, the defense rating actually acts as a deterrent, and high defense just means that you'll be less likely to be attacked. This doesn't mean you definitely won't be attacked, so walls are still important. When you do get attacked, the enemy won't break down walls or anything, they'll just head to the nearest opening. If no opening is present, they'll remain outside and shoot at anyone they can. I like to have a gate (heavily defended) so it creates a sort of 'killing ground' that enemies will flock to as they try to get into the settlement. Having turrets dotted around the walls will also help.

Fence Posts - The thing to note with walls is that they don't always fit together, especially the 'Junk' walls and fences. I've found that fence posts (in the 'Wire Fence' building section) are really handy to plug any gaps. Fallout has quite poor AI course plotting, so enemies won't be able to get through any gaps that you, as the player, can't squeeze through.

Concrete Floor - Uneven terrain is almost impossible to build on. Concrete floors can be used to level out bumpy ground and create a good base for walls. If you have a perimeter of Concrete Floor this will also reduce the risk of any gaps that you might miss, and make the settlement easier to defend.

Supply Lines - The 'Local Leader' perk will allow you to create supply lines between settlements (Go up to a settler in build mode and click 'supply line' and choose where to send them). A supply line means that connected settlements use a shared crafting inventory. If Sanctuary is connected to Red Rocket Truck Stop, then they both use the same inventory to craft things, and any junk I put in one workbench will appear in the other. This is incredibly useful, since you don't have to lug around loads of junk to build things in new settlements. It also shares food and water between settlements, so one place could specialize in water production for your entire network.
Once a settler is told to create a supply line they'll become a 'Provisioner' and travel back and forth between their home settlement and chosen trade settlement.

Animals - You can purchase pets for your settlement. A man named Gene can sell you dogs (You'll need to do a speech check to convince him), and a woman named Kelly can sell you Brahmin. Both people can be found randomly wandering the wasteland. I'm not sure about Kelly, but Gene will have a new dog for you to buy every time you see him. When you purchase an animal you get to choose which settlement to send it to. Dogs sleep in Dog Houses and Brahmin gather at Brahmin Feed Troughs.

Bars - If you have a food&drink trade stall in your settlement, all settlers (except those on guard duty) will gather near the stall at the end of the day (8PM). They will sit on available seating nearby and remain there for a few hours. If you build a structure around your food&drink stall the settlers will all gather inside, allowing you to create a bar/pub area.

Turrets - It seems the defensive machine gun turrets in your settlements come in several different forms. When selecting a turret to build it will randomly select which type it will be. Leaving and re-entering the 'turrets' tab can select a different kind of turret. There are different turret ranks (Mk1 - Mk5) and different ammo types (Including HE and Incendiary) ((The Mk and ammo type is written on the turret)). This only works in settlements far away from Sanctuary Hills, no doubt because the enemies get tougher the further away you go.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Dec 11 2015, 02:56 AM


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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

"...a quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business."
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McBadgere
post Jan 10 2016, 05:27 AM
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An excellent guide!!!...Very much enjoyed reading down the list...

I've found that settlement building can be a bit...OCD flame fanning... biggrin.gif ...And the bugs that creep in do make you question whether it's worth doing in the first place...

Admittedly, you can pacify the bugs - mostly the one where the Pip-Boy says there's no defence/water/beds/power etc - by not fast-travelling and just running into the next "Cell" where the area's name comes up at the bottom and then you can fast-travel...

So far, I've only properly built up Sanctuary Hills, The Castle and the Drive-In...Um...Starlight?...But am partway through building a thing at Red Rocket and re-purposing Covenant...As the previous occupants decided to try to have at me with burning brands and pitchforks...Or summat...They're all in the river now...So that's all good...

But certainly, anywhere where there was something or someone previously - including Dogmeat - is bugged to hell...As Sanctuary, Abernathy, Covenant and Red Rocket are all full of the "Dude, where's my bed/Dude, where's my water/Dude, where's the seventeen thousand turrets I put here just five minutes ago" type of bugs...

Again, an excellent guide...Very much enjoyed it...

Nice one!!...

*Applauds heartily*...

This post has been edited by McBadgere: Jan 10 2016, 05:28 AM
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mALX
post May 2 2019, 11:26 AM
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From: Cyrodiil, the Wastelands, and BFE TN





This is amazing, Hazmick! I just found this!!! Thank you so much for posting this guide!













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