 | For an overview of flare gun models, see flare gun. |
|---|
The flare gun is a weapon in Fallout 4.
Gameplay
The flare gun is a break-action single-shot weapon that is not designed to deal direct damage, but instead to summon nearby Minutemen for assistance using flares. It can also attract nearby Brotherhood of Steel vertibirds. Firing a flare directly at an enemy will cause a small amount of damage, but virtually every other weapon will yield better results in the heat of battle.
The flare gun is unmodifiable, as its purpose is to signal the Minutemen for assistance. It is poorly suited for lighting dark areas as the flare does not stick to surfaces and has a time delay ignition.
Location
The Sole Survivor is given the flare gun by Preston Garvey after completing the quest The First Step for the Commonwealth Minutemen.
Notes
- Maximum range for backup to appear is 3-4 grid cells away from an owned settlement or Minutemen checkpoint, with a 24 in-game hour cooldown.
- Firing toward a settlement, instead of away from it, may help in summoning backup.
- The caption "No Minutemen are available to respond" appears when outside of range or the ability is on cooldown.
- Minutemen detachments consist of between three and six Minutemen, rarely higher than level 1, and possibly a dog.
- The attempt to summon help may also sometimes fail without any message caption being shown.
- Minutemen fire a flare of their own to indicate from which direction they are coming, will then patrol the immediate are for a short time, before they depart in a random direction.
- If the flare is fired inside a settlement, the Minutemen may remain in position indefinitely, unless killed, or until the player character leaves the current game cell. Provisioners at the settlement may also appear frozen during this time.
- Reinforcements do not appear on the Island or in Nuka-World.
Behind the scenes
For additional real world information about this topic, check out the Independent Fallout Wiki's Real World article.
