The Way Life Should Be

The Way Life Should Be is a main quest and achievement/trophy in the Fallout 4 add-on Far Harbor.

Detailed walkthrough
The quest begins shortly after entering the Vim! Pop factory after obtaining DiMA's memory #1 during Best Left Forgotten. Enter the main factory and battle your way through the super mutants to find a security door on the lowermost floors. Inspect the terminal to open the security door and take the elevator to DiMA's secret medical facility.

Inside the facility is an unmarked grave. Exhume it to find the body of the real Captain Avery, taking Avery's skull, Avery's locket, and the holotape What's Done is Done as evidence of DiMA's crime.

Before leaving, if Nick Valentine is the active companion, he can be used to fool KYE 1.1, the security program for the facility, into thinking he is DiMA and granting access to an additional room, filled with medical junk items and the December's Child legendary combat rifle. If Nick is not present, a medium charisma check can be used to get access into the medical room.

At this point, three choices are available:

Option 1: Confront DiMA
Return to Acadia and confront DiMA with the evidence of synth replacement. After reading the memory he had removed he remembers all of the guilt he felt at the decision. He pleads to the Sole Survivor to conceal this information from Far Harbor, concluding that revealing the truth will enrage them to the point where they'll raze Acadia as a whole for DiMA's crime. The player can agree to keep his secret, which leads to Reformation and the conclusion of the quest, or convince him to turn himself in to Far Harbor's justice. If DiMA's secret is kept, he will give the player the legendary synth chestpiece Acadia's Shield.

If one elects to bring their findings to Kasumi Nakano before talking to DiMA, she is distraught to learn what DiMA has been hiding and wonders if Acadia is worth preserving. Regardless of the Sole Survivor's answer she is resolved to see this through to the end, and unless "Acadia will burn" is selected she will reward the player with 3 stimpaks, 3 RadAway, and 3 Stealth Boys. If "Acadia will burn" is selected she will become irate and refuse to speak to the player any further.

If DiMA is convinced to stand trial in Far Harbor, Allen Lee will attempt to incite the entire town against Acadia, fulfilling DiMA's worst fears. It is possible to persuade them to stand down and only exact justice upon DiMA, by either telling Allen to "shut up" or pleading that Acadia is innocent. A number of citizens can and will speak at this point:
 * Sandra Lee will always speak, agreeing with her brother to destroy Acadia.
 * The Mariner may speak on behalf of the player for completing the various Hull Breach quests. If the player murdered Machete Mike, the Mariner will voice her suspicions of the player.
 * Teddy Wright will speak on the player's behalf if Rite of Passage was completed, unless the player sided with Malcom in Turn Back the Fog.
 * Cassie Dalton will always speak, in favor of the player if Blood Tide was completed or in favor of Allen if not.
 * Small Bertha will speak in favor of the player for completing Turn Back the Fog.
 * Mitch may speak in favor of the player after completing The Hold Out. Otherwise he may remain silent or speak in favor of Allen, depending on whether or not other citizens speak up.
 * Andre Michaud will speak in favor of the player if he was cured by them.

If successful, Acadia is spared, DiMA is executed, and the quest concludes.

If unsuccessful, Allen executes DiMA, Brooks is killed as well, and most of the town will immediately march on Acadia and execute all of the inhabitants, including Kasumi. The player has the option to refuse to take part in the attack, but the synths will still be hostile and will attack if the player is close enough. All of the named Far Harbor residents are essential, so the attack will always succeed. Regardless of the player's participation, Allen will give the player Lucky Eddy when all the synths are dead. Additionally, the perk Destroyer of Acadia will be granted, which grants a 4x damage boost upon dropping to 20% health.

Option 2: Inform Far Harbor
Return to Far Harbor and present Avery's skull and locket to Allen Lee. He will want the skull examined by Teddy Wright to confirm it's that of the original Avery. Taking the skull to Teddy will confirm that it is Avery's skull, and he will ask what the Sole Survivor intends to do. He elects to keep quiet about it and let the player decide, but cautions against bringing it to Allen. Taking this confirmation back to Allen results in him assembling a lynch mob to assault Acadia and claim DiMA's head. The end result is the same as putting DiMA on trial and failing to convince Far Harbor to stand down, except DiMA will be at Acadia making his last stand with the other synths.

If one presents this evidence to the synth Avery, and she will come to realize the truth, and that her own mind has been altered to sell the deception. She remains determined to keep the peace on the island and pleads for the player to not tell Allen the truth. She can be extorted for 1300 caps or told upfront that the player will keep the secret.

If the player has failed to prevent Allen from assembling his lynch mob, Acadia's fate is sealed. The player can either join in the violence or simply watch. Regardless, Acadia is destroyed and the quest concludes.

Option 3: Agree to Replace High Confessor Tektus
While confronting DiMA about Avery's murder, DiMA's recovered memories lead him to the conclusion that replacing High Confessor Tektus is the best option for peace while avoiding bloodshed. Agreeing to this option completes the quest and leads to the quest, Reformation. Evidence for the other options is removed from the Sole Survivor's possession in this route.

Companion reactions

 * Nick Valentine likes telling Kasumi that Acadia is an ideal worth protecting, in spite of what DiMA has done to make it happen.
 * Nick likes telling Allan to shut up when he suggests burning Acadia down and loves telling him that Acadia is innocent.
 * When confronting DiMA, Nick dislikes telling him he did the right thing. Additionally, Nick loves telling him that Far Harbor has a right to the truth. It is possible to reopen dialogue with DiMA and ultimately agree with him or convince him to turn himself in after selecting this option. Nick has no reactions to any other choices in the conversation.
 * When talking to Avery, telling her "I'm sorry" when she realizes the truth about herself will elicit a like from Valentine. He hates extorting her, and has no reactions to any other choices in this conversation.
 * During the trial, Nick loves either of the persuasion options. He has no reaction to "It's your decision" and hates "Acadia should burn." He has no reactions to anything else during the trial.
 * If the player character chooses to bring the evidence to Captain Avery, Longfellow dislikes choosing to keep Avery's secret.
 * When confronting DiMA, Longfellow dislikes agreeing to protect Acadia, loves agreeing to protect Far Harbor, and loves agreeing to replace Tektus.
 * Curie dislikes if the Sole Survivor chooses to replace Tektus.

Behind the scenes
"The Way Life Should Be" is a tourism slogan used by the state of Maine, where Far Harbor's real-life analog is located; it appears on many of the signs marking the border as one drives in from New Hampshire.

Bugs

 * In some cases, Teddy Wright will speak up, but AGAINST the player, stating that people left for Echo Lumber on the Sole Survivor's word and haven't been heard from since. This may be a bug, since Teddy was previously seen to support the idea when proposed by Bertha. At any rate, if Teddy says that line, the people of Far Harbor will elect to attack Acadia regardless of quests completed and/or successful speech checks.
 * A workaround is to disable and enable Small Bertha. When DiMA confesses to the town Teddy Wright still says that Small Bertha and Tony were never heard from but Small Bertha speaks up for The Mainlander and Allen Lee stands down. DiMA still gets executed but Acadia is spared.
 * If you did not talk to Malcolm after clearing Echo Lake Lumber you may have sent the settlers to their doom and that could be why Teddy Wright speaks out against the player.
 * When DiMA stands trial in Far Harbor it might happen that Avery is missing. This is a game breaking bug because this main story quest requires her to be present or it will not be possible to complete it. She can be teleported to the Sole Survivor's location with this console command: . The xx has to be replaced with the load order number for the Far Harbor add-on. If you have installed all of the add-ons in their release order this number will be 03, i.e. . Or you can try with 01, 02 etc until it works. She will appear when the console is closed.
 * Occasionally when Allen Lee speaks about Avery, no matter which dialogue option the player chooses the game gets stuck and Allen doesn't execute her.

Какой должна быть жизнь Яким має бути життя