Sanctuary Hills

Sanctuary Hills (known simply as Sanctuary after the Great War) is a location in the Commonwealth of Fallout 4. Here, the Sole Survivor and their family used to live in The House of Tomorrow before the Great War. After the war, it becomes one of the places the player character may choose to build a settlement in.

History
Before the Great War, Sanctuary Hills was a friendly suburb, where many townsfolk lived. It is the area where the Sole Survivor lived with their partner, child, and Codsworth, their robot butler. Like many places on Earth, Sanctuary Hills was destroyed by an atomic bomb; any citizens that were selected by Vault-Tec went to Vault 111 for safety.

After the war, Sanctuary Hills was reduced to ruins, with its only residents being radroaches, bloatflies and Codsworth. Fortunately, the town has some basis to become a good settlement, for very few critters pass by the area. There are occasional attacks from Raiders or Super Mutants, and sometimes a random Wasteland creature, who all have a chance to appear when you further develop the area, but they remain at a low level even as your character levels up, which makes Sanctuary one of the easiest spots to defend.

Layout
Sanctuary Hills is accessible by a bridge from Vault 111 and a larger bridge which crosses the nearby river and leads via a road to Concord. The village itself is a road which ends in a slope as well as several houses in various states of decay.

There are multiple safes and lootable items to be found in Sanctuary (See also "Notable loot" below). Starting from the bridge leading to the Red Rocket truck stop, there is a floorsafe (advanced) hidden under a dresser in the blue house to the north of the road. In the yellow house at the curve of the street, there is a terminal (novice) and a safe (novice) with a makeshift bomb on top of it. In the blue house next to the yellow one is a Nuka Cherry in the fridge, a first aid box in the bathroom and a locked suitcase (novice) in the bedroom. In The House of Tomorrow, the player can find an issue of Grognak the Barbarian on the kitchen table and the "You're SPECIAL!" book under the dresser in Shaun's room. There is a safe (advanced) in the first house and a root cellar around the back of the second house down the street, which contains multiple items and a locked safe (advanced). The house south of the roundabout has a floorsafe hidden under the baby bed.

Inhabitants

 * Codsworth (lives in The House of Tomorrow)
 * Preston Garvey (if When Freedom Calls is completed)
 * Jun Long (if When Freedom Calls is completed)
 * Marcy Long (if When Freedom Calls is completed)
 * Mama Murphy (if When Freedom Calls is completed)
 * Sturges (if When Freedom Calls is completed)
 * Vault-Tec rep (if convinced via Charisma check)
 * Sheffield (if convinced in Diamond City)

Pre-war Inhabitants

 * Sole Survivor (pre-war inhabitant and optional mayor)
 * Nora/Nate
 * Shaun
 * Codsworth
 * Mr. Able (pre-war inhabitant)
 * Mrs. Able (pre-war inhabitant)
 * Baker (pre-war inhabitant)
 * DiPietro (pre-war inhabitant)
 * Rosa (female) (pre-war inhabitant)
 * Rosa son (male) (pre-war inhabitant)
 * Jahani (pre-war inhabitant)
 * Russell (pre-war inhabitant)
 * Mr. Whitfield (pre-war inhabitant)
 * Mrs. Whitfield (pre-war inhabitant)
 * Mr Smith (pre-war inhabitant)

Notable loot

 * Grognak the Barbarian, inside The House of Tomorrow.
 * You're SPECIAL!, in Shaun's room, under the dresser. Grants +1 to the stat of your choice.
 * There is a small handful of gold bars (usually 3) in the root cellar at the rear of the second blue house north of The House of Tomorrow. There's also an advanced safe, a bed and plenty of food in here. Once the Sole Survivor exits the root cellar, there is a fallen tree that leads to the roof of the house, the tree can be walked up and on the roof there is a duffel bag of supplies next to the chimney.
 * There is a loot cache returning from Springvale in Fallout 3, where, just before the bridge, there is a bin containing Psycho and three frag grenades.

Related quests

 * War Never Changes: But life does.
 * Out of Time: Things have changed in old Sanctuary Hills.
 * When Freedom Calls: Once Preston Garvey and other people are safe, they can travel to Sanctuary Hills.
 * Sanctuary: Sturges asks the Sole Survivor to provide the people with basic needs: water, food, defense and shelter.
 * The Molecular Level

Appearances
Sanctuary Hills appears only in Fallout 4.

Bugs

 * Upon fast travel to the settlement, the residents may appear on the roofs of some buildings — especially the one with the workshop — making dialogue difficult or even impossible. You can resolve this by either fast traveling again (sometimes 2 or 3 times to resolve), waiting for them to walk and fall off the roof, by building stairs up to the roof via the workshop and climbing up or, if you have already reached level 41, jetpack onto the roof with a modified power armor.
 * Occasionally, upon fast traveling to Sanctuary Hills, a lone Vertibird will appear over the settlement hovering for a moment. It will then suddenly lose control and crash, inflicting damage to the Sole Survivor if they are too close to the area of impact.
 * Using the Recruitment beacon at Sanctuary Hills may result in some bugged quests that will be impossible to complete from recruited settlers (unnamed settlers only, not from named settlers).
 * There have been cases in which, upon finishing any potential Minutemen quest at the end of which you are asked to report to Preston Garvey, you will find that all the settlers, including Preston Garvey and Mama Murphy, have returned to the Museum of Freedom without any option of returning them to Sanctuary. Any companions residing in Sanctuary do not appear to leave however.
 * When having trading stands, all the settlers may permanently stay near the stands without moving until the stands are destroyed. Fast traveling does not fix this bug. (Console Only)
 * The build function doesn't work inside Sanctuary (the button to build is "grayed out" (grey in color, and unable to be selected), even if you have all materials and the skills to build any/all products), even after you rescue the Concord survivors and resettle them in Sanctuary.
 * Checking the settlement stats on the player's Pip-Boy for Sanctuary Hills may display erroneous stats, such as 0 defense, 0 beds and/or 0 water. This does not affect the settlement in any way, and the stats should reset to normal by fast traveling back to Sanctuary Hills, except for the happiness level which may drop (especially if the Sole Survivor is away for a long time without noticing the glitch on the Pip-boy). That stat will take some time to re-establish.

Gallery
Sanctuary Sanctuary Hills Sanctuary Hills Сэнкчуари