Fallout 4 Settlements

In Fallout 4, the Sole Survivor can build and manage their own settlements at various sites around the Commonwealth. The new workshop interface is used to place and connect pre-fabricated structures, as well as individual pieces (walls, floors, roofs, etc.) letting the player character construct their own home base(s) as they desire.

Once built, these settlements can be customized extensively. Inside buildings and structures, furniture, decorations and lights can be placed for aesthetic purposes. However, outside these structures the player character can plant crops, create water and power supplies and tend to the defensive needs of their new settlement. In order to accumulate resources for their settlements, the player character can scrap most interactive inventory items.

Once a settlement reaches a certain size and/or the player obtains necessary perks, they can invite others to set up shop at their base by building unique resources such as the trading post, which adds a vendor NPC stocking some of the best items in the game. It is also possible to run supply lines between settlements to share resources and inventory among them.

Settlements require constant maintenance, with NPCs tending to more basic functions such as crop harvesting. However, without this, over time crops fail, and equipment will need repair. The player character will have to use the workshop and have the required junk to complete the repairs. Walking up to damaged or failed item while in workshop mode, the player character will be offered a selection to scrap/repair the observed item.

Most of these sites can be obtained during the Minutemen quests however others will require to visit them and complete location specific quests to obtain the site.



Settlement sites
 There are 30 discoverable/unlockable settlements in total, most are obtained by completing a objective or killing hostiles/residents in the area then opening the workshop. Those include:



Necessities and dependencies
These stats need to be maintained to sustain or stagnate the growth of a settlement. Each necessity would also act as a dependency on other necessities; i.e. people need water, food, beds and protection to survive and prosper.
 * People
 * The population of the settlement. People are required to collect from resource units and man objects the Sole Survivor builds. Each settlement has a default max population of 10 settlers plus each point of Charisma the character has, totaling to a maximum of 21 settlers (assuming one uses the bobblehead after maxing it out). This can however be further increased by wearing items or taking chems that increase the Charisma. A radio beacon is generally required to attract more settlers, but one can send companions to settlements and can recruit a few non-companion characters to join the settlements as well.
 * Dependencies: water, food, beds, defense, radio beacon


 * Food
 * How much food the settlement is producing. Increased by placing food resources.
 * Dependencies: people, water. Crops will die without water.


 * Water
 * How much water the settlement has.
 * Dependencies: people, power (only with water purifiers)


 * Power
 * How much power is available for the settlement to use. Power required for turrets, traps, lights and some furniture (TV).
 * Dependencies: n/a


 * Defense
 * Measures how defendable the settlement is, based on traps, guard posts and turrets one has. Advisable to have a defense rating at least the sum of the food and water ratings.
 * Dependencies: people, power (with certain turrets and traps)


 * Beds
 * The number of beds in the settlement. The settlement needs one bed per settler to keep the settlers happy.
 * Dependencies: n/a


 * Happiness
 * Morale of the settlement. Influenced by meeting basic needs and providing trading posts. High happiness increases the productivity of settlers.
 * Dependencies: beds, trading stands, food, water, defense
 * One may lose control of a settlement that is very unhappy.


 * Size
 * Shows the amount of objects that have been placed by the player character within the settlement, as well as the maximum amount of objects that can be placed through the Settlement interface.
 * Dependencies: n/a

With the Local Leader perk food/water and junk resources can be shared between settlements connected by a supply line, allowing the player character to quickly build out new settlements or even specialize them.

Related perks

 * Gun Nut allows for the creation of more advanced defenses.
 * Hacker is required for the creation of Terminals.
 * Local Leader allows for two settlements to have a Supply Line, sharing resources. Rank 2 of the perk also allows for the creation of vendor stalls.
 * Science! is required for the creation of assorted advanced power-focused structures.
 * Cap Collector allows for level three vendors to be created. Local Leader rank 2 must also be taken to craft level three vendors, and Medic must be taken for level 3 pharmacies.
 * Medic is required for the creation of pharmacies. Local Leader rank 2 also must be taken, and Cap Collector must be taken for level 3 pharmacies.

Unlockable settlement items
Have a look here for further items Advanced settlement items

Stores
¹ - Adding the appropriate expert trader will unlock the level 4 merchant

Budget settlement (Sanctuary)
Build supports 20 settlers, minimum 12. When setting up camp, place the medium generator, water purifiers, and recruitment radio beacon close together. The generator can support all 3 items by itself. Each settler can maintain 6 units of food (6 Mutfruit or 12 of any other plants), so 4 settlers can maintain 24 Food. Settlers that do not maintain plants can be set to guard duty. Each guard can man 3 guard posts, so 4 settlers can man the 10 posts. Mutfruit plants can be obtained at Greentop Nursery, Graygarden, or Warwick homestead. Minimum Cost Alternately, the player character can build x7 water pumps, at a cost of: The disadvantage of water pumps compared to water purifiers is that the purifier will add purified water to the workshop inventory, a benefit to player character's health.
 * People - x1 Settlement recruitment beacon
 * Beds - x20 sleeping bag
 * Food - x20 mutfruit (requires 4 settlers)
 * Water - x2 water purifier
 * Power - x1 medium generator
 * Defense - x20 guard post (requires 7 settlers)
 * 12 settlers (supports 20)
 * 200 wood
 * 64 cloth
 * 117 steel
 * 20 mutfruit plant
 * 18 copper
 * 14 rubber
 * 8 ceramic
 * 4 oil
 * 3 screw
 * 3 gear
 * 2 circuitry
 * 2 crystal
 * 28 steel
 * 7 concrete
 * 7 gear

Bugs

 * Common bug: Fast travel out of a settlement, especially from Sanctuary Hills, may cause the settlement's resources to display incorrectly. The difference is shown when viewing Data- Workshops in Pip Boy when the player character is inside the settlement and after fast travel to a different zone. To fix power and bed having lower count than actual placement, put all beds and generators on top of player character-made floor. To fix water count, scrap all TVs including pre-existing ones.
 * When defending a settlement that is under attack, the miscellaneous objective might mark itself as "completed" before all enemies are killed.
 * After successfully defending a settlement from an attack, if interacting with any of the settlers, they will proceed with their "thank you" dialogue speech, but never actually finish.
 * After successfully defending a settlement from an attack, interacting with any of the settlers could cause the player character to be stuck in an infinite dialogue camera. The player character can walk away, but will be unable to press any buttons other than Toggle, Crouch or Options. One can fix this by passing through a section that leads through a loading screen (Diamond City for example), but may prove difficult since the pip-boy button for fast travel is also disabled. The only reliable way of fixing this issue is to reload a save.
 * Items placed down appear visible, but may not have loaded or registered properly. Furthermore, one can't even interact with said object and just pass through it.
 * While away from a settlement the Pip-Boy's Workshop section on the Data screen may show stats like Water or Beds as 0 regardless of actual values. The settlement may experience the expected negative consequences. Returning to the settlement fixes the issue, but fast traveling away may cause it to recur. The bug is frequently linked to stores and removing them may fix it in some cases. Another potential work around is to leave the settlement a distance on foot before using fast travel, such as going inside the Vault 111 fence before fast traveling away from Sanctuary Hills.