there are 30 places in Fallout 4 that contain a Workshop and consequently allow you to build stuff there or send recruited companions or people to these places (here’s how to find companions in settlements). More settlers you recruit, more food, water and power you will need. You provide these resources by building stuff in your settlement or by establishing trade routes that will provide these items for your settlers. There is a huge amount of information that can be shared about the settlements and just building a base is a game of its own in Fallout 4.

In this guide we will concentrate on providing a list of all places that can be made into settlements as well as some tips on how to use settlements on the basic level (check out our guide how to power up the house) – as help for you adventuring through Commonwealth. A more in-depth guide will be created that will go into how to build out your settlements and create really impressive structures and configurations.

Basic Settlement Usage

The first settlement you will unlock is Sanctuary, just south of Vault 111. After you do the second main story mission in Concord you will have your first settlers in Sanctuary (list of crafting ingredients and how to get them). After a few more quests you will be tasked to build some defenses and provide food and water for your settlers. Doing these quests will give you a basic idea on how settlements function. You will also get a quest to visit Tenpines Bluff and recruit them for Minuteman. This will show you how other settlements and workshops can be acquired. What is left is to deck out your settlement any way you like. Make sure you have enough food, water and power supply to keep your settlers happy (here’s how you can increase happiness in setlements). You can trade with any settler and provide them with armor and weapons to better defend themselves. Building defensive structures also helps. There’s no way to exile someone from your village, so if you have a problem with anyone, you should look into how to kill settlers without alerting everyone.

The one thing I wish I knew at start is that for some of the structures to function (defense and shops) you need to assign settlers to them. Go into the Workshop menu and walk over to a settler. You will now have an option to issue commands to him/her at the bottom of the screen. Now go to the structure that needs a settler manning it and issue the Assign command for the structure to become active. You should also check out our guide on how to establish supply lines between settlements in Fallout 4 on this page.

Perks needed for Settlement Building

You should know that some more advanced structures require you to have certain perks in various trees, so you probably won’t be able to build all the available stuff until much later in the game. Here are all the perks needed to unlock everything:

• Local Leader, Rank 2, CHA 6 and lvl 14
• Gun Nut, Rank 3, Requires INT 3 and lvl 25
• Science, Rank 3, INT 6 and lvl 28
• Hacker, INT 4
• Medic, INT 2
• Cap Collector, Rank 2, CHA 1 and lvl 20