How Settlements Work - Fallout 4 (Next-Gen Update)

Everything you wanted to know about settlements, but we afraid to ask.

I made my first settlement tutorial way back in 2015. It's time for an update. If you are wondering about how settlements work in Fallout 4 in 2024, this is the video for you.

Though I am using a few mods, nothing covered today requires any. This gameplay is from the console version running on Xbox One Series X with the Next-Gen Update.

0:00 Intro
0:50 Unlocking the workshop
1:42 Materials
2:33 Picket Fences magazines (see below for locations)
2:48 Faction specific items
3:03 User interface & People Population (+ tricks for raising charisma)
4:00 Food
4:54 Water (make caps easy)
5:27 Power
5:49 Defense
6:46 Beds (Make sure they are sheltered)
7:03 Happiness (Defense greater than Food + Water )
7:30 Stores (Increase happiness)
8:10 Supply Lines (Ring, Local, Hub and Spoke)
9:41 Best Perks for Settlement Building (Scrapper, Gun Nut, Science, Local Leader, Strong Back)
10:03 Survival difficulty and settlements
10:31 Outro

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Base Game Settlement List and Unlock Requirements
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Abernathy Farm - Complete quest “Returning The Favor”
Boston Airport - Complete the quest “Shadow of Steel”
Bunker Hill - Complete the quest “The Battle of Bunker Hill”
The Castle - Clear the area of hostiles
Coastal Cottage - Clear the area of hostiles
Country Crossing - Complete a radiant quest
Covenant - Complete the quest “Human Error” or eliminate current residents
Croup Manor - Clear the area of hostiles
Egret Tours Marina - Placate or defeat Phyllis Daily
Finch Farm - Complete the quest “Out of the Fire”
Graygarden - Complete the quest “Troubled Waters”
Greentop Nursery - Complete a radiant quest
Hangman’s Alley - Clear the area of hostiles
Home Plate (Diamond City) - Purchase from Geneva in the Mayor’s office (2,000 caps)
Jamaica Plain - Clear the area of hostiles
Kingsport Lighthouse - Clear the area of hostiles
Murkwater Construction Site - Clear the area of hostiles
Nordhagen Beach - Complete a radiant quest
Oberland Station - Complete a radiant quest
Outpost Zimonja - Clear the area of hostiles
Red Rocket Truck Stop - No requirements
Sanctuary Hills - No requirements
The Slog - Complete a radiant quest
Somerville Place - Complete a radiant quest
Spectacle Island - Restore power to the tower and clear the area of hostiles
Starlight Drive-In - Clear the area of hostiles
Sunshine Tidings Co-op - Clear the area of hostiles
Taffington Boathouse - Clear the area of hostiles
Tenpines Bluff - Complete a radiant quest
Warwick Homestead - Complete a radiant quest

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Unique Trader List with Settlements They Frequent
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Country Crossing - Doc Weathers
Covenant - Lucas Miller
Finch Farm - Doc Weathers
Greentop Nursery - Lucas Miller
Oberland Station - Trashcan Carla
Sanctuary Hills - Trashcan Carla
The Slog - Doc Weathers
Somerville Place - Trashcan Carla
Tenpines Bluff - Lucas Miller
Warwick Homestead - Cricket

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Unique Recruitable NPCs for Level 4 Stores
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The Scribe — Armor Specialist
Appropriate Store: Armor Emporium
Population Demand: 10
Random Encounter: Workshop Armor Vendor

Doc Anderson — Clinic Specialist
Appropriate Store: Surgery Center
Population Demand: 20
Random Encounter: The Walking Wounded

Ann Hargraves — Clothing Specialist
Appropriate Store: Clothing Emporium
Population Demand: N/A
Go to Vault 81 to recruit

Ron Staples — Food & Drink Specialist
Appropriate Store: Restaurant
Population Demand: 20
Random Encounter: Time to Party

Vault-Tec Rep.
Appropriate Store: Trading Emporium
Population Demand: N/A
Go to Goodneighbor to recruit

Rylee
Appropriate Store: Trading Emporium
Population Demand: N/A
Random Encounter: Rylee the Trader

Holt Combes
Appropriate Store: Trading Emporium
Population Demand: N/A
Go to Vault 81 to recruit

Smiling Larry — Weapons Specialist
Appropriate Store: Weapons Emporium
Population Demand: 30
Random Encounter: Smiling Larry

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Picket Fences Magazine Locations
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Picket Fences #1 - Saugus Ironworks
Picket Fences #2 - Weston Water Treatment Plant
Picket Fences #3 - Beantown Brewery
Picket Fences #4 - Hardware Town
Picket Fences #5 - Combat Zone
Holiday Special - Fallon's department store
Halloween Special - Harbormaster Hotel

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Music courtesy of
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Become a Member

[grand_howler]

You can equip your settlers with weapons. If you give them a gun, only give them a single bullet for it. They will have infinite ammo from it.

[wilomica]

Save mining helmets to equip on settlers to save on lighting costs.

[jrksjrks]

Scrapping Shaun's bed is where I draw the line.

[Kyk_cz]

Tips for increase happines:
Never scrap the cat bowl. Placed in a settlement, it attracts a cat that will increase happiness
Some stores also increase.
Keep your settlers employed.
Check that every settler has an assigned his bed.
If settlement need help, let go help them.
Another tips not affecting happines:
Equip provisioners with strong armor and weapon.
Place bathtub for brahminas

[wolfepackfishing]

Honestly.. I stoped playing fallout 4 a couple years ago after only playing for a few hours. Since the show I started playing again and absolutely appreciate these videos.

[rbruch]

In addition to Corn, Tatos and Mutfruit, anyone playing Survival should also go for Razorgrain as it's a component of Noodle Cups - which counts toward both hunger and thirst.

[kylew]

I would unironically love a game that is just settlement building in a post apocalypse environment. Fallout themed or not.

[explorinjenkins]

Grab all the bones and acid you find. A couple other common items makes cutting fluid in the chem station. Cutting fluid gives you 3 oil and 1 steel. Oil is crucial, bruv.

[grand_howler]

If you leave power armor at a settlement, ALWAYS take the fusion core out. Unless you want your settlers to (sometimes) have it permanently.

[brookss]

Don't forget the Decontamination arch with the wasteland workshop DLC. You build it in settlements to get rid of radiation, which helps when you need to eat and drink on survival. Worth the cost if you play survival.

[kevinmeyers]

You are very wrong about settlers not showing up at a settlement if there aren't enough beds. I can't count how many times I've forgotten about an active beacon at a settlement I rarely visit. Having a dozen settlers you didn't know about can be surprising.

[ssntf]

"Preston: You can expect me to help settlements or to stay away from chems. You cannot expect both! - The General" Lol

[michaelproctor]

There is a way around the settlement cap that you outlined. After defeating the Mechanist and sparing her life, you can get unlimited quests from her called Rogue Robot. When doing the quests there is a good chance you will come across three settlers at the target location. Once the area is secure and kill all the robots, talk to one of the settlers and you will be able to send them to the settlement of your choice, no matter the population or your charisma level. However, you will not encounter settlers in every mission. Sometimes you will find others fighting the robots instead like members of other factions. A hard save is recommended before doing each mission, in case one or all of the settlers die.

[Woobuz]

You can also build cages for various creatures and when released, they give you more defence. Just remember to place the Beta Wave Emitter in the settlement.
It's pretty funny when you arrive at your settlement and there is ten mythic deathclaws just hanging around :D

[MolnarG]

Supply line provisioners also act as a patrol. Give them a good gun with 5 ammo, maybe a molotov, and an armor if you are really in good mood.
You can use this to send their patrol lines through locations you need them, for example having all of them go to Hangman's Alley near Diamond City then your guys will be everywhere in Boston, frequently. Also you can have 3-5 supply lines along similar path making that path safer a little bit for you.

[swaggedup]

It’s so crazy and wonderful that we live in a world where all this content is for free, and we have so many amazing content creators willing and eager to answer questions about the things they are passionate about for free

[twice]

To get absolutely insane numbers of settlers:
The radiant “Rogue Robots” quest at the end of the Automaton dlc nearly always has a settler to be rescued. For some inexplicable reason, when sending this settler to a location the Cap is ignored. So, you can repeat Rogue Robot as many times as you want and have full cities.

[xtremejay]

Another good food and water tip. Settlers will eat and drink stuff that you put in the workshop if they don't produce anything themselves. So a place that is tough to grow crops, like Hangmans Alley. You can just dump pre war food you find out in the commonwealth and the food counter will go up. The caveat is...they actually use it. So it will be gone and the number will drop back down to zero. This is a fun added element if you want to roleplay as a hunter or whatever. Anything you cook yourself and then dump in a workshop, the settlers will eat.
You can amass a ton of food just killing and cooking. I have tested this multiple times and it works. it's really cool feature nobody talks about. You could TECHNICALLY have your restaurants provide food by buying all the cooked food and then putting it in the workshop. Or go on grocery runs every 7 days to the super duper mart and grab all of the prewar food and store it in a workshop for the settlers to eat.

[JamickGeass]

If you're playing as a female character, completing the Curtain Call quest from Rex Goodman at Trinity Tower awards you Agatha's dress, a piece of clothing that gives you +3 Charisma. Have it be part of your "Charisma" attire at all times. The male equivalent Reginald's suit does the same thing BTW.

[ravenstalons]

The map that you referenced with the Mechanist Lair as the hub is most ideal for one reason: Robots
They don't rank in emotion and will drag down your average happiness in a settlement.
Populating that settlement with only robots works as you cannot grow food or collect water. The entire population can all be tasked to create supply lines

Adding to the idea stacking Charisma, if you're lucky enough to score Unyielding armor, lower your health to 25% and you get +3 to all stats for each piece that you have equipped.
If you can acquire a full set, this will give you +15 Charisma