A Beginner's Guide To Settlement Building in Fallout 4

Nov. 13, 2015

A Beginner’s Guide To Settlement Building in Fallout 4

If you’re interested in putting some significant work into exploringsettlementbuilding inFallout 4, there are a few basics first.  And while any build can have some fun with settlements, be aware thatCharismaandIntelligencebased builds have a lot more tools at their disposal early on.  If you plan to build a network of settlements, having 6 in Charisma for theLocal Leaderperkis a must.  But again, this is not a gamebreaker if you’re already deep into your playthrough.

Do some spring cleaning, it’s about 200 years overdue! Scavenge your settlement so that it is free from debris like ruined houses, mailboxes, cars and more. Not only will it make your new real estate empire look more tidy, it’s a great way to scavenge materials you need to begin constructing more useful structures and stuff your settlers need to thrive. Just walk around your settlement in Workshop mode and look around you. Things that can be scavenged or stored will be highlighted. Anything that can be scavenged will be highlighted in orange, anything that can be scavenged or stored will be highlighted in green.

You can also move objects around in Workshop view mode, so if you’re planning on doing a lot ofcrafting, it may be a good idea to move all your stations and workbenches within close proximity of each other to minimize running back and forth. Just select a highlighted object with X/A and relocate it wherever you’d like.

I doubt I’m the only one scratching my head as to how working out all the intricacies of settlement building, so I figured I’d drop a few hints myself.  My first perplexing problem was gettingpowerto items inside settlement houses. It’s not exactly an intuitive process. While there may be an easier way than this, considering the number of switches available, here’s what worked for me:

Another aspect of settlement building is assigning jobs. When you put in crops and build defense posts, someone has to be assigned before the stat takes effect. If you put down a half dozen Tato plants, while in the building menu, look at a settler and press X/A to give them a command, then walk over to the plants and press the button again. It takes a second or two, but will say that the “task has been assigned”. To double check, just look at the plant while in build mode. The “person” icon should be green, not red. I also discovered there is a handy way to see what any given settler’s current assignment is. While in build mode, look at them so they have a green outline, and a task nearby should also turn green without you looking at it. For instance, I put a settler on a scavenging station, and did this when they were at least thirty feet away from it – the specific station turned green as well. I was able to assign a settler to a single scavenging station, but they seem to be able to cover two guard posts as long as they’re close to each other.

Something I should mention is that in order to get settlements rolling you need to attract other people. This happens is if you build a radio beacon tower to send out a message across the wasteland. Unfortunately, one of the items required is hard to find –crystal. You need two units. As soon as you find one, make sure to tag it in your inventory so it shows up when you explore (also, pick up a lot of anything that hasceramic, likemugsandashtrays, andcopper, such aslight bulbsand other electronics – you need a lot of this to create powered items).

Once the settlers start coming in, make sure you have 3 or 4 extra beds built at any given time, or else they’ll move on. Just put them inside empty houses, or build some shacks. Make sure your food production always exceeds your population, and set up a water purifier down by the water in Sanctuary. Lastly,defenseis important. Turrets cost more to build, but provide a lot of defense. In your settlement list on thepip boy, if any one place has an exclamation warning, that means this resource is lacking. I thought I had good defense, but it showed up as being a problem, so don’t neglect it unless you want to return and find there’s been a lot of pillaging. Keep piling up turrets until the warning goes away.

Having a growing settlement can also have another benefit:  traveling merchants.  If you get yours going, then travel the road south out ofConcord, you may seeTrashcan Carla.  Talk to her, buy a few things, and she’ll start visiting your town regularly with supplies.

Although Bethesda didn’t put a lot of explanation into how it works, settlement building is shaping up to be an awesome little metagame, especially if you are running a more non-violent, charisma and intelligence based character. Both categories contain decent perks for expanding the experience, especially Charisma (Local Leader perk).  This tip list is not exhaustive, in fact it’s probably the tip of the iceberg as far as what’s possible.  More information will emerge as we expand our settlements and start adding traders, etc. Visit theSettlements Guideon the wiki to see these tips evolve and add your own!

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Chris Graham

Chris Graham is a longtime video game junkie from the wilds of Eastern Canada. While he is now a fully certified “old dude gamer”, in his youth during the early eighties he spent embarrassing sums of money on quarter-munchers in some of the skeezy local arcades. He even ventured into disco roller skating rinks from time to time, since they carried upscale titles, but always swore to his friends that he was only there for the games, since, y’know, disco sucks! When he picked up his first console, the classic Atari 2600, he used a VCR to record game clips and study patterns in order to clear tough levels.

A former mobile DJ, as well as writing teacher and tutor, Chris has spent nearly 25 years crafting literary short fiction for periodicals and university journals. He became interested in writing about games and the game industry after immersing himself in social game communities. He’s written reviews and gameplay guides for both Xbox and Playstation games. His interests run the gamut, from shooters to sports and racing genres, although he spends the bulk of his time with RPGs.

It isn’t necessary to build settlements. I happen to enjoy it, but I can see how it might be more annoying for players who just want to get to business.

There is a huge convenience element to running high charisma and building Sanctuary. I have 20 people, and set up 5 stores. It’s nice to have a slew of traders handy, at least at this point in the game. Plus, with 20 people, the returns on my investment are higher. Having stores will push up happiness.

Also, I put in a disco. Pool tables, mirror ball, and a jukebox that plays nothing but classical music…ROCK ME AMADEUS!!! No wonder they never seem to use it.

Seriously though, if you have 6 in charisma and can build high end merchants, it will push your happiness level a lot higher. They’re expensive, but the money they earn will give you good return over time.

It’s not a “necessity”, you only really have to use it twice and that’s only if you want to do the missions for Preston and even then you only to the most basic things to the settlement. Like putting a few beds or connecting a generator.

I almost completely ignored this part of the game just because I didn’t like how you couldn’t get rid of all the houses on Sanctuary Hills and only just now made a base at Spectacle Island.

I really hate this part of the gameplay, it is in no way engaging to me, and rather just annoying. And also one of the settlements keep reverting back to zero defense, zero water and 1 bed, every time I’m anywhere else on the map. Despite the actual numbers being far higher, and should be to the populations satisfaction.I dislike that they’ve made settlement-building and defending a “necessity” within the game, when I have no interest in doing either.

I would make a joke about how Fallout is just so realistic that getting max happiness is impossible because people always find something stupid to moan about but I won’t. Woops.

So How do I get to max happiness? I’m stuck at 82%…

Cas

But you only need to invest 2 points in INT to get the best turret, if you get the bobblehead from the Boston Library then 1 point in INT is enough.

It gives you access to the Gun Nut and Science! perks. Those in turn give you access to better turrets, high tech gadgets, and high tech turrets.

Yeah I didn’t get to a settlement in time, probably just forgot totally about going there and helping them lol. Everything gets wrecked so you have to rebuild. I’m currently trying to get walls of some type around my settlements, with a gate entrance guarded by turrets. So far I haven’t had enemies spawn inside the settlement.

Each settler can look up to 6 plants/crops, so if you want bigger farm you need more settlers.

In what way does INT help?

I suppose that makes sense. Food + water would be what you’re defending. Have you gotten the “failed to protect settlement” message yet? Happened to me when I was at another location. I returned and half my crops were smashed, turrets and generators needed repair. It was pretty costly. Now I make sure to put turrets near valuable stuff, and always put up a siren or two.

If I remember right, your defense value should at least equal or exceed your resource production. Add together food and water production, and that number is what you should shoot for when making your defense.

A couple of other tips regarding the management of your settlers….

I found it pretty confusing to try and figure out exactly who was doing what, especially after the tasks get spread out. The first thing I’d advise people to do is build a couple of scavenging stands in a central location. If you come back to the settlement and find you have new people standing around, just assign them to one of these until you figure out something to do with them. They always seem to go there, and unlike crops, where the assignment can be spread all over the place, scav stands represent a single task.

I still haven’t quite figured out all the specifics of assigning them to crops. Each one seems to have a set maximum number of plants they will tend, but there seems to be some sort of background mechanic that assigns settlers who aren’t doing anything else, so long as there are untended plants. My crop assignments in Sanctuary are pretty messed up…if I could do it again, I’d plant crops in small clusters and get the assignments set before planting more.

While I can’t confirm the overall effectiveness of this, I did notice that settlers interact with you like companions, meaning you can arm them. If you want to give someone a better gun, transfer it to them, along with a half dozen rounds of ammo, then take away the one they’re using. They should visibly equip this new weapon. Again, I don’t know what impact it has on overall damage, but the first time I fast traveled into Tenpines Bluff and found a swarm of super mutants pillaging the place, there was something comforting about hearing settlers fire off combat shotguns.