Spectacle Island

Spectacle Island is a location and potential settlement in the Commonwealth in 2287.

Background
Spectacle Island is an island on the coast southeast of Boston, near Warwick homestead. It was once home to an eccentric millionaire with dreams of his own private island paradise. A mansion was built on the northwest shore of the island.

After the Great War, the original settlers on the island had constructed a basic settlement with a sonar pulse beacon that released a high-pitched sonic pulse capable of repulsing or killing mirelurks. The beacon is represented by a structure similar to a siren or radio antenna connected by a long wire to a partially sunken ship, as the ship's generator room is still operational and provides power for the beacon.

The appearance of a raider on the island suggests the settlers fled or were killed by raiders or mirelurks. The raiders apparently disabled the pulse beacon, and one was killed by either Randy (whose body is found near the raider corpse on the south end of the island) or the mirelurks soon after. Any other raiders looted the area and left, allowing the mirelurks to return.

Settlement
To unlock the island for use as a settlement, the Sole Survivor must first go to the metal shack with the radio tower at the center of the island on top of a hill. The player must then go to the partially submerged boat to the south and flip the switch on the circuit breaker. If the circuit breaker aboard the ship is activated before the player goes to the tower, and/or before the player later returns to the ship for further exploration, bugs may be triggered (see below).

Once the circuit breaker aboard the ship is turned on, it will cause the screen to shake, and a mirelurk queen and several other leveled mirelurks will emerge.

To finish the settlement unlocking process, one must return and flip the circuit breaker on the radio tower. After a few seconds, this will send a sonic pulse that will drive all remaining mirelurks to the shores of the island. It is not necessary to kill the queen, as she is affected by this pulse as well. The workshop will then unlock, and one will be able to build at any point on the island.

Spectacle Island has at least one specimen of all the wild strains of common plants (corn, tato, razorgrain, gourd, wild mutfruit, melon, tarberry). Due to a bug, though, the wild razorgrain cannot be harvested unless scrapped.

Layout
Spectacle Island can only be reached by swimming or by walking across the seabed in power armor. The island has several buildings scattered across it, consisting of mostly shacks and ruined houses. The north side of the island contains several crafting stations in a small shed across from the destroyed mansion. The main workshop, along with the radio tower, is located in the center of the island. To the south is the partially sunken ship containing the Luck bobblehead and the large power generator connected to the radio tower through a series of pylons. Mirelurks populate the shores, as well as the wreckage of several boats. The island has plentiful resources, the most common being wood.

Notable loot

 * Fat Man on the partially sunken green tugboat on the southern tip of the island.
 * Luck bobblehead on the same partially sunken tugboat, sitting in a locker.
 * Mini nuke on the first floor of the destroyed mansion on the northwest tip of the island, sticking out of some debris on the floor.
 * Signal checklist in the radio tower shack. This describes the instructions regarding the island's most unique feature: a sonic pulse beacon that repulses mirelurks.
 * Two Nuka-Cola Quantums in a broken fridge in an underwater wrecked house (with a skeleton in a wheelchair next to a functioning radio and facing a modern TV) just off the southwest coast. From the derelict hut where Randy is found, head west towards Warwick homestead, and dive down 30-50 feet out to sea. The Quantums are often glitched under soil within the fridge. The water physics can make them roll out onto the wooden floor when approaching, however, so check the area occasionally, and the player may be able to reach one or both.

Settlement

 * A barge that ran aground on the northeastern side of the island has multiple safes inside. Three are locked in increasing difficulty: Novice, Advanced, Expert. A fourth safe can also be found on the barge, directly below where the main three safes are found. This also has an Advanced lock. Finally, a fifth safe, also with an Advanced lock, can be found in a destroyed shack just southeast of the barge.
 * Other minor loot on or very near the island beyond that found in the locations described and/or pictured elsewhere on this page includes: two loot containers in the cabin of one of three jumbled destroyed ships just off the western coast, a skeleton with a suitcase partially buried in a sand dune just east of these three ships, a wooden crate in the small structure next to the water pump in the north central area of the island, a chem box in an outhouse on the eastern coast, a skeleton near a destroyed ship and two graves on the southeastern tip of the island, and a rowboat holding an unlocked safe in the ocean just southeast of the graves.
 * Among some rocks on the eastern shore is a hubflower plant. While reviewing the plant in workshop build mode, the plant is noted as producing 0.5 food, yet the plant is in fact unassignable.
 * Setting up and activating a recruitment beacon on the island will work despite the surrounding water; the settlers will only appear if the player fast travels off the island and then returns. However, if a settler happens to be a ghoul, they may appear without the need for fast traveling.
 * Spectacle Island possesses the largest build area of any settlement in the game. However, due to the game's settlement build limit and hilly, rocky terrain, the area requires extensive work before it becomes a viable build space. Most of the area's preexisting structures are cluttered or too badly damaged to use properly, and require extensive reconstruction before use. The island also features the third-tallest building limit (after Abernathy Farm and Finch Farm), meaning one can comfortably build structures of up to ten stories high if constructed on the beach, and up to six stories high if constructed on the highest point on the island.
 * When starting this settlement, the size limit is almost half filled. By scrapping everything possible, one might find that there are still more items to be scrapped in the area. There are many items hidden in the surrounding ocean, and in order to get to them, one has to dive around the wreckage of the northeastern barge and the boats to find barrels, junk, and crates. There are two submerged shipping containers near the barge with many crates and barrels in them.
 * The generator on the ship, once activated, provides 20 units of power for free. The circuit breaker box itself can be picked up during build mode, and can be placed awkwardly halfway through the ground anywhere around the island, but cannot be attached to walls, and cannot be returned to its original position if placed somewhere else.
 * The settler spawn point is typically near the radio shack or on one of the hills near it.
 * The island can be chosen by P.A.M. as a location for a new safehouse for the Railroad during the quest Mercer Safehouse.
 * Firing a flare here will still summon the Minutemen.

Nearby locations

 * Northwest of the island, about halfway to the Castle, is an unmarked cluster of boats and debris moored to a concrete pillar, hosting a shack, two sleeping bags, and some crops.
 * North of the island is an unmarked barge with a doghouse, a wooden loot crate, and a hut containing a bed and a locker.
 * South of the island is an unmarked shanty built around a tall brickwork pillar for a population of three, judging by the number of sleeping bags. It features a compact greenhouse of sorts with a wild mutfruit plant inside a blue freight container, a radio tuned to Diamond City Radio, and some packs of dirty water.

Appearances
Spectacle Island appears only in Fallout 4.

Behind the scenes
The island is based on the real Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor. For most of the 20th century, it was a garbage dump used by the inhabitants of Boston. During the construction of the civil engineering megaproject known as The Big Dig, the island's garbage dump was capped off with dirt from tunnel construction, and the island was transformed into a park. It is now a part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, and features a marina, lifeguarded swimming beach, visitor center, snack bar, walking trails, etc. Spectacle Island is staffed by park rangers and staff year-round by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Incidentally, "The Big Dig" is also the name of a quest that incorporates elements similar to the real project.

Bugs

 * Sending robot companions to Spectacle Island after dismissing them may cause the companions to become lost/stuck in the water about 100 feet off the island. They will only stand on the seabed, and will no longer be available for play.
 * Even after activating the ship generator, the circuit breaker may still signify that the power switch is off, despite the fact that the tower pylons are lit and appear powered on. This may occur when all mirelurks are not killed at the point of turning on the generator during the settlement quest. The issue can be fixed by resetting the quest using in the console. This should reset the ship power to off (the related graphics are still displayed as if the power is on and the generator sound will still play, but the generator will technically be considered switched off). Then, click the generator switch again to reactivate power, and return to the switch at the radio antenna.
 * If one activates the ship generator before finding the metal shack, the game sometimes won't let the player character flip the second breaker. On PC, to solve this issue, target the workbench and type in the console. Then flip the switch one or two times to be in the upper position (again). Now you should be able to open the build menu, but may not be able to store items in the workbench. To solve that issue, fast travel to another location, then return.
 * If the ship generator was put in the on position before returning to further explore at a later time, the switch in the boat may be stuck in the on position, with the nearby light still off and no generator sound. If one picks up the note in the metal shack and returns to the ship, the switch can be activated again to turn on the lights, though the breaker in the shack will still note it is non-functional. Entering then  in the console will allow activation of the shack breaker and normal completion of the workshop activation requirements. This may also apply to the scenario above, and can be safely tried first.
 * If one places a structure that affects settlement stats (such as a turret, bed, or water purifier) on one side of the island and then moves to the other side, the stats given may go away, even if the structure is fully operational. This can affect the happiness of the settlement in a negative way, and can be (only temporarily) fixed if you return to the side of the island with the structure.
 * This is due to the game engine being set to load only 5 world grids, causing the engine to therefore unload resources after traveling to the other side of the large island.
 * This can be fixed by setting (default is 36) and  (default is 5) in the Fallout 4.ini/configs, or using Fallout 4 Tweaker. This will increase the load distance of resources. This will, however, reduce FPS slightly on standard or lower-end machines.