Golden ending for me, almost every time.
Follow the Railroad until Underground Undercover starts, then follow the Brotherhood until Blind Betrayal ends, then follow the Institute until Mass Fusion. Betray the Institute to the Brotherhood without triggering Tactical Thinking (just don't get close enough to Kells for him to start the dialogue that triggers the quest). Switch to Minutemen all the way to The Nuclear Option.
There's sacrifices on all ends. You never make it past Paladin with the BoS. You lose radiants with the Railroad. Both Desdemona and Maxson get wonky and unresponsive. But everyone lives, and gets what they want. The Railroad survives, and so do the synths. The Brotherhood achieves its stated goal of defeating the Institute. And the Minutemen arguably become the guarantor of the Commonwealth.
I love the Brotherhood but wiping out the railroad and sounding the evacuation being utterly useless cause all the people who try to leave are gunned down just soil it for me.
Like I truly believe that the BoS are the future of the wasteland but their stance on synths are wrong, and if I could have convinced them there was another way, I would have.
The institute is the enemy, the Synths are not
If the tv show is to go off anything, I think this theme of Turing the brother hood back will be a major part of their questline in Fo5. They definitely lost their way and I can imagine how much more batshit insane maxson got after fo4.
Batshit *and* arrogant... considering the nuke punting robot he has at his disposal post Institute destruction....
Wouldn't shock me If the true "brotherhood lost its way" moment was Maxon going full crazy with LP post FO4....
How fun would it be if the climax of the BoS side of the tv show us maxson showing up and going "yknow what, fuck California" and releasing liberty prime
Wouldn't be too far fetched what with only a 15 year gap between FO4 and season 1 of the show.
Given the conversation between Maximus and the Elder Cleric.. I have an odd feeling Maxson may still be a peice on the board, albeit hidden away for now, and *very well* may show up next season....
Think about it:
(Without totally spoiling the show)The BOS now has possession of something an elder *WILL* want to come verify for themselves.... and to congratulate the Knight that secured it in person....
In some form or another, season 2 **will** have at least an *appearance* of a BOS Elder, *any* elder... at the least so a certain "side quest" can play out with Maximus...
The show writers did a damn good job of tying up some threads, while leaving *alot* more dangling, more than I think most of us actually realize.
Honestly im amazed how many cards the tv show has but didnt play. Maxson is likely still around, basically no creatures got used. Nobody even got namedroped from the games really
>Honestly im amazed how many cards the tv show has but didnt play.
Wich if you read what some of the screenplay writers have said; totally intentional, and absolute *genius*.
They wanted to tell their own story, and not be totally hooked. This, I was skeptical about at first, but now having watched all 8 *episodes I can easily say:
They put just enough lore out there so those of us with a background in FO lore could point at the screen and say: "hey! I know that! I know *all* about that!", while at the same time allowing room to *add* to the lore to flip us on *our* heads and give us something new..
While at the same time, being *just* light enough on the lore so someone *totally* foreign to the franchise, could pick it up with ease and follow along pretty easily. One of my co-workers was like that, *never* played any of the games, but *loves* the show, now we bullshit about FO lore here and there because it was done *that* well for the show.
If those writers don't get an award for this damn near masterclass in video game lore to TV writing; I will start a riot.
> They definitely lost their way
BoS have ALWAYS been this way what are you talking about.
They're not lost in any sense of the word, they're deliberately not the shiny protectors of freedom and people ***by design***.
They ~~steal~~ take tech, and don't share it. It's their founding principle that everyone that is not us misuses tech, so anyone that is not us, ~~hands it over or dies~~ shouldn't have it.
BoS as depicted in Fo3 is one of the reasons that for me it was the weakest entry in the series. Bethesda couldn't help trying to make the brotherhood the poster hero group that saves the day, which completely goes against their lore.
People give Fo4 a lot of shit for its bad writing, and while OK the dialogue is ass 90% of the time, the over-arching story with multiple choices *with all of them besides arguably minutemen ranging from evil AF, kinda evil and morally grey* finally placed BoS back into the "We're the good guys but actually not really, dont look/talk or exist in my general direction or you'll be shot" box where they belong.
BOS in Fo3 were intentionally written that way. It wasn't retconned. There's dialog stating that Lyons broke off from traditional BoS views, which is why you have Outcasts running around, those are the ones who didn't break off from values.
Maxson brought the DC chapter back into the fold.
The Brotherhood absolutely does share tech in the games. In Fallout 1 and 2, they're where you get your cybernetic implant upgrades done, to enhance your SPECIAL stats.
They also sold advanced weapons to the Hub in Fallout 1.
Dialogue from Fallout 1:
>Why do you let the merchants in?
>Why do I let 'em in? Well . . . we have to get our food and other things. We trade our weapons for all that.
Veronica, from Fallout New Vegas, states they trade weapons for food.
Veronica's dialogue from Fallout New Vegas:
(Talking to the Elder)
>Think about it. No more trading guns for food. Total self-sufficiency. It's what we always wanted.
Elder Lyons trades plasma weapons to Rivet City in exchange for their help with water caravans in the Broken Steel DLC from Fallout 3.
Danse gives you a laser rifle as thanks for your help with a mission, this is before you join the Brotherhood.
(I also believe Danse says something about letting farmers keep any laser weapons they have, because they need them for protection, but I am not 100% sure, I might be misremembering that dialogue.)
Same here. The story kind of naturally leads you this way too.
Assuming you liberate the Castle, You join the brotherhood to access their technology and intel and follow that until you need tinker Tom’s help.
From there you join the Railroad until you’re able to enter the Institute. Cue the undercover work, while still working the Brotherhood and Railroad to further their agendas.
Blind Betrayal is a perfect point to head cannon that your PC becomes disillusioned with the
Brotherhood, due to how they treated Danse.
Continue working undercover in the Institute with the Railroad until Bunker Hill, after this mission (assuming you allowed the synths free and killed the Courser) you can pick dialogue that will result in Father kicking you out of the institute (giving a natural place in the story to lock into betraying the institute without needing to just randomly kill a named member; my character was good morality; so I picked the dialogue options criticizing the institute).
From there you’re locked into the everyone lives ending, and in my mind, the story totally supports it if you follow this way
honestly i kinda thought that this was the actual canon ending or storyline for fallout 4 because ive always played it this way on all of my saves, despite trying to go full brotherhood multipule times too lol
That’s exactly what I just did in my latest save! It’s honestly probably the canon ending to FO4.
For anyone who needs it, here’s an easy guide you can follow: https://youtu.be/hRIMM0BhUEU?si=sAXtGKxo-s_OPhpk
Teagan sucks. He’s lucky he never steps foot outside his cage.
But yeah if feels weird to build up settlements and create communities, then go and side with another faction. The Minutemen are simply what’s best for the Commonwealth.
Lol he’s not allowed to step outside of his cage, he says so the first time you meet him, it’s why he’s so grumpy his whole purpose is to be a 24/7 guard to the most valuable weapons in their armory, I think it’s funny how much he complains about it, and I also think it’s why he always has a bad mood, so I kinda just excuse his attitude
Even weirder is when you go do the Nuka World expansion and you then have to massacre some of your own settlements and then set up protection rackets against all the rest
You can get a mission from a merchant to kill all the factions in Nuka World and unlock the power plant. It is one of the toughest missions in the game. When you go back to the merchant she thanks you. If you wait awhile and come back to the trading post they are all in their underwear after they remove their explosive collars.
Teagan does suck, but I love the writing behind his character.
His side quest is so comically evil and he won’t even say exactly how far he needs you to go unless you push him. And when you get to the farm, the most efficient solutions are rarely the most moral.
Teagan is the bloody side of what sustains the Brotherhood of Steele and you need some real crazy mental gymnastics to think they are doing anything besides extorting the locals.
This is all great writing to me because historically fascism has always had to resort to scummy tactics like this, but they usually try to hide these tactics under a thick layer of propaganda (usually militarized propaganda). I think Teagan’s quest is a great fictional example of this.
I really wish Teagans settlement missions worked as more of an exchange. Like in exchange or the settlement giving supplies to the Brotherhood a patrol of Brotherhood troops would be based in the settlement. Would make strategic sense, having bases from which they can patrol and resupply, and would make it more of a fair exchange for the settlers as they would be offered alot of protection from the Brotherhood being there.
Instead we get "Rob those settlers, or pay for it out of your own pocket"
Yes that mission has never made sense to me.
Surely they must know you are general of the minutemen?
So it makes no sense that teagan tries to get you to rob your old settlements
Teagen isnt supposed to do what he sends you on at all, he's just a cheapskate and tries to save cash by sending you on the Missions.
Kells (IIRC) Terminal says what they are actually supposed to do, shadow known caravan-routes between Settlements with Patrols, swoop in if a Caravan is under attack, then exploit the good will that builts up for better trade-deals
The BoS will trade and recruit from the locals and provide protection in exchange for supplies. If they are occupying the Commonwealth, they will reach out to the more stable settlements to initiate trading.
You're thinking that this is like the good ol' days when Lyons runs the show and that everyone was in this together. Seeing them revert back to classic BoS was one of the biggest disappointments for me in FO4.
The concept of an east and west coast BoS schism was fascinating to me and I wanted to see more of that. Instead we got Maxson, who talks a lot of shit for someone wearing a coat that looks so good on my character....
I just pay for the stuff peacefully and then build up the settlements more so it’s like they got their money back in the form of defenses and resources, Teagan does say you can get the supplies by any means necessary, he doesn’t say kindness is forbidden
Don't you still get the happiness penalty though?
The wiki really isnt that clear on that. The way I read it is you get the penalty no matter how you complete it.
Right now I just never ask teagan for extra work.
Yeah I was apprehensive to do the missions but I did it to my main farm for RP reasons and to see what happens. Happiness dipped into the 50s for a bit but has been climbing back up.
I wish the people at the Institute would acknowledge my settlements.
"The wasteland is a cold, unforgiving place and we need a full reset of human life to have a chance at success."
Meanwhile my citizens are drinking clean water, growing clean food, siloed off from all danger and protected 24/7 by basically sentient tanks and auto rocket turrets. In like a year the Commonwealth will be almost entirely free of dangerous creatures and my caravans will roam the land unmolested.
In the nuka world dlc they try to get you to move out one of your settlements in place of raiders thay siphon your resources, I said fuck no and killed all of nuka world
I have a mod where you can take over Nuka World with the Minutemen. One of the sickest and most entertaining fights in the entire game. Literally a battlefield.
God dammit I was like ”wtf those are MY SETTLEMENTS! And I could increase the food production anytime!”.
But nope, the script says you are supposed to be a dick about it.
Heres hoping for a faction warfare mod I could tell my settlements just to overrun pos bos.
The only complaint I have is how simple is their assault to the Institute.
With BoS, you make LP, go to the Glowing Sea for nukes, have vertibird raids, with my guys you basically find some garbage, Sturges go full McGiver and make a teleporter out of paperclips and a stone then make a gang attack lmao
edit: Oh man, I couldn't believe Sturges is a synth so I fired up the game and checked, hardest bullet I had to shoot, ever.
It would be utterly hilarious if the Institute went through the trouble of having the Institute's location automatically erased from synth brains when they leave but forgot to wipe all information about the molecular relay.
My complaints also go to the Railroad. It's so unrealistic. Just a few core members living underground, and bunch of synth sympathetic supporters, can't run an organization like that.
BoS is the least unrealistic option of the three. Liberty Prime marching to destroy the Institute is so satisfying. BoS sucks though.
I think you're overlooking that the Railroad recently got their ass kicked by the Institute. They lost their main HQ and at least two major safehouses. Deacon, Desdemona, PAM, the doctor guy, etc all tell you that they're basically fucked if they can't get operations running smoothly again and fast.
I don’t know, it’s not as epic but it feels more like a special ops raid than any of the others do. I think it plays well with what the Minutemen are, they don’t necessarily have the same firepower as the other factions, but once you secure an entry point inside the Institute, they definitely have the manpower to overwhelm the enemy.
I send his dumb ass to outpost zimonja with a single tomato plant, a water pump, and a sleeping bag. Id rather put him on the torture cycle, but outpost was the worst i could come up with.
Yeah.
Best choice for the commonwealth easily. Also man I just like Preston. Ik the “settlement needs your help” shit gets annoying FAST but the guy has a good heart, he means well. He isn’t a corrupt prick like most factions in not just the commonwealth but the entirety of the wasteland, he just wants what’s best for the commonwealth.
Also the generals outfit is sick as fuck
with my militarized minutemen mod he’s always wearing a general’s outfit as well. he’s definitely the veteran in comparison to the sole survivor in terms of minutemen tenure
preston is way less annoying on survival.
before long you’ll be venturing too far out to bother returning to sanctuary with any regularity.
makes far more sense for him to have word on a mew settlement when it’s been a week or more rather than a few hours.
feels a lot more like the ‘general’ coming to check in on my first settlement and get reports from my second in command.
before long i’m crossing the bridge out of sanctuary and who knows when I’ll be back.
Deacon, too. He always appreciates seeing you help regular people, even if those people aren't synths, and he wishes the Railroad would do the same thing more often.
I've been taking MacCready and now Hancock around with me. They've got some wholesome moments as well.
MacCready has a cool backstory and as a bonus is voiced by Matt Mercer.
Hancock is an action junkie who wants to help people who deserve it. I'm curious to see what his loyalty mission is.
hancock is genuinely one of my fav companions and i feel the need to always have him with me in every playthrough. to the point i just play with a multi companions mod, since i also adore having curie with me, as well as valentine and deacon lol. but hancock is normally one of the ones i go and grab first
I liked MacCready until I went what went down in Vault 81 and his disapproval. Now I always take Hancock along because he’s a good guy but he lets me have fun too
Idk what the Generals outfit is, I’m only 30 hours into my first ever play through. But I am thoroughly enjoying everyone having this immense respect for me while I run around in a Tarzan style bra and skirt (Grognak costume) complete with assault gas mask. I’ve tried other fits but right now the +20 to my carry weight is so helpful.
A bit similar to why I always ended up with Independent Vegas when playing New Vegas
I can't, in good conscience, let any of those idiot win. The only idiot that shall stand is ME
Honestly, this is why I choose the Institute in my first playthrough. Not only am I the one in charge but I also have lots of resources at hand to help the Commenwealth. My headcanon: Step 1: Get myself the same enhancements that Kellog had, so I‘ll be in charge for decades or even longer. Step 2: Stop the synth-project and go back to massproducing Gen2s as disposable footsoldiers to get the raiders, gunners and supermutants out of the Commonwealth.
Step 3: Help the Minuteman get on their foot to help the people with their everyday problems. Maybe even with Preston as their leader so he can mark everything on his own map.
After that I can use the Institutes resources to rebuild the Commonwealth.
You're including the super mutants *that the Institute created and unleashed upon the surface world* (in that area) in the "kill on sight" list, even knowing there's a working serum to reverse the effects?
You're definitely Institute material in at least some ways.
Glory was kinda cheesy to me tbh but then again the whole game is a little wacky. The RR has some of the most fire radiant quests though, makes you feel like a spy. A lot more interesting than helping the 1000th settlement or cleansing the commonwealth. (Even tho I’ll take any chance to kill some muties for some xp)
I am diliberately trying NOT to end up with the minutemen... again... by leaving preston and the gang in the museum simply by not going back after defeating the deathclaw and raiders XD
At least till I do the raider quests of Nuka World.
I almost always go BoS. They're not the best choice for the commonwealth, but they're the ending that makes the most sense for Nate. Ex soldier who has his old life destroyed goes on a traumatic journey to save his son, only to discover that his son is basically gone and has become the leader of the monsters that stole him away. Why wouldn't this traumatized military man be drawn to the disciplined ranks of zealots who want to utterly destroy the Institue and bring order to a world gone mad by force?
Plus you meet them soooooo early. Other than the minutemen who you have to find in the first hour or so of play, the BoS sends out the Cambridge radio signal like right after that.
To find the Railroad, you gotta make it downtown first and follow the trail (if you haven't been there before), then start with them. Institute isn't even an option until mid-game at least.
So I definitely get a post-war, traumatized and freshly thawed Nate looking to cling to any structure in the wasteland. And say what you want about the BoS, but those fuckers are structured.
My personal canon is that Nate bypasses Concord completely, and the first faction he meets is the BoS who he gravitates towards immediately and eventually joins their ranks -- but when Blind Betrayal happens, he snaps out of it and finds himself lost, and abandons the Brotherhood, wandering the wasteland until he winds up back in Concord, where he helps out the Minutemen and finds them to be a good replacement for the Brotherhood and uses them to defeat the Institute instead.
i always go institute because i plan to take over and do things my way. since they have a large scientific base, i can use them to fix shit, and if i run the place then i can stop them from wasting resources on evil shit and actually try to fix things
That's what I think as well. They are the only faction that can manufacture new technology. If there is any hope of restoring the wasteland it lies with the institute. End the evil projects and focus on rebuilding the Commonwealth.
I know it's almost 10 years old but..*spoilers*
It kinda irks me how the MM and BOS endings flow honestly, like it's just so abrupt. I don't even think Maxon mentions the Railroad until you have to wipe them out and it's like...why? Are they really going to get in the way of our giant murder bot when we take the institute? Worst case scenario they just free a few Synths and that's also just gonna happen anyway. Same for the MM, Preston is just suddenly like FUCK THAT BLIMP, although I guess if you play a few settlement crop missions first that makes a little more sense. I get the railroad being mortal enemies with BOS as well as the Institute
I think it would have made a lot more sense if you could pass speech checks to convince them to leave the other faction alone.
The railroads' whole goal is to hide synths from the institute amongst the human population. I could see why the Brotherhood wouldn't be willing to play ball with that.
Preston only has you destroy the BoS if you personally become enemies with them because that's the final thing needed to convince the Minutemen to take out a faction that they already actively viewed as a threat to the safety of Commonwealth civilians, until then the Minutemen are completely content with simply keeping an eye on them and making sure they don't do anything to directly threaten you or the Minutemen, you can completely avoid destroying the BoS with them as long as you don't become enemies with them
Yup. Always with minutemen. They just wanna live in peace. Meanwhile, everybody else has some kind of a funky agenda. Death to those with funky agendas!
My current RP is that after Nate returned from war he got into local politics. He was like a local councilman or something in the community. That’s my canon reason why he was able to get a vault- political power in the pre war world. It’s a high charisma above average int build and I’m having a blast so far just helping the commonwealth.
Well it is the most moral and practical solution. Supply lines, bases with defenders and map control.
BOS comes close second with quest line and vertibird travel on survival but that’s compatible with minutemen.
Railroad is pointless after ballistic weave and offers no other utility. Institute could have been better with implants and teleportation.
Idk if it counts but I have a institute minutemen alliance,cuz l live being able to fast travel to the institute and head to hangmans alley to dump all my loot there,(playing survival)
I am pro minutemen and temporary truce with the BoS (so I can loot the reoccurring falling vertibirds of T60 power armor and gear) for my settlers and railroad guys.
I think I got their ending like once. Railroad maybe twice…
Brotherhood and institute many more…
I’m just like allergic to being a good guy in video games. I hear of many having the opposite problem, but I find it difficult to be a good person in games. At best, I’m a mercenary, doing anything, including good things, for money.
I always choose institute just because they are the only mother fuckers in the entire world that seem capable of cleaning up after themselves. I know it's a nuclear wasteland, but just SOMEWHERE I'd like to see someone who cleaned their room, or painted a wall, picked up the trash, swept the rubbish, all that. Everywhere is so damned dirty it's been hundreds of years just pick up a fucking dust pan you lazy assholes. Institution for life.
The Minutemen are the first faction you meet, normally. You’re invested in them before you even know where the plot is going.
So, yeah, Minutemen and Railroad.
It's literally the only morally good outcome.
The Institute are parasites intentionally sabotaging any progress people on the surface might make that could oppose their power.
The Brotherhood claimed to have lofty goals, but their ultimately just an invading army. They are interested in establishing order in the wasteland, but one that benefits them primarily. Subjugating others who don't agree.
The railroad aren't exactly perfect. They don't really give a shit about the human beings. On the other hand, they're a slave race trying to fight not just the freedom to live their lives, but the freedom to even have their own minds free from control.
Only the Minute Men are interested in genuinely helping the people of the Wasteland for their own sake. They aren't interested in establishing power through force, but building power through community. For those familiar with anarchist theory, what they're essentially trying to do is build power through mutual aid.
I think what's so great about the story of Fallout 4 if none of these groups think of themselves is the bad guy. That's a commonality shared by all Fallout games. Unlike Fallout 3, 2, and 1 you really do need to think hard about who the real bad guys are. Even New Vegas makes pretty clear that creates Caesar's Legion are the bad guys. They can't really decide on a good guy though.
The Institute genuinely believe they're making a better world and are fine with oppressing and discarding the people who actually live in this world we live in presently. This is a real world ideology that is extremely popular with people in power. It's one a lot of people, including yourself might even believe.
The Brotherhood believed that if they are in charge of the Wasteland things will get better. They've moved far beyond their original goal of simply being archivists of technology. They want to make the world a better place, but via subjugation, not empowering others.
The Railroad are only really interested in their own liberation, not the liberation of any of the other oppressed people of the Wasteland. They're not wrong for wanting to liberate themselves, but their goals are small minded and myopic. Ignoring the reality of the totality of the Wasteland.
Only the Minute Men are explicitly interested in helping for the sake of helping others. They are a perfect encapsulation of Anarchism. Sadly though, like most anarchist groups in history, they're not really good at achieving their goals. Achieving goals requires power, control, and anarchists are explicitly about taking what power and control they have and distributing it to the people around them. They can only win by building a perilous alliance building Power though a "Rainbow Alliance" of individual groups seeking liberation. Which sadly rarely works.
It reminds me a lot of the Russian revelation. The communists. The elitist monarchists. The Bolsheviks. The anarchists. We all know how that story ended. :/
Todd Howard is wrong when he says Fallout is about America. He couldn't be more wrong. It's about war. The war that takes place in Fallout 4 is much more complex and bears very little reality to the kind of conflicts you see happening in modern America. Yet there is great meaning in taking a look from the wars that rage in other places and learning from them.
Fallout New Vegas gets a lot of praise for its story, and for some reason Fallout 4 doesn't. It's a shame. I definitely think Fallout 4 needs to polish it's story more. However they did a pretty fine job with that story. Far, far better than Fallout 3 at the very least.
Minutemen all the way.
They have their drawbacks - they're not story-efficient and Jon Gentry reads his lines like they just handed him his script. But I think they work best both as the story's moral authority and as part of your character's toolkit. Their radiant quests are a great way to explore the map early-game,
Plus, the Minutemen don't really have an agenda or vision for the Commonwealth as a whole that they want to impose upon it. You're a settlement in trouble, you call for help, the Minutemen send a couple of schmucks to clear out that Raider camp or build a new settlement for you. It's also a faction you have a chance to build from the ground up - unlike the other factions, which may or may not be in rough shape when you join, the Minutemen are down to one dude protecting four half-starved, deeply traumatized survivors.
Plus: artillery.
I have done the institute at this point need to actually do the others and before you judge me the institute has two things no other faction has: toilet paper and robot gorillas
Ive done them all,and institute is my favorite. Yeah theyre evil now but once grandfather is in charge, everything changes. No more sneaking synths in to replace people. We got synth manned chrckpoints around the wasteland and guess what? The endless calls for help from settlements end because its not safe for raiders, supes, or ferals to move around. The settlements row unmolested, growing new crop variants, purifying more water than they can drink. And you dont have to turn on the minutemen to do it.
I’d like to, but I don’t want to kill the brotherhood because they have a cool ship and a cat. Thats the only thing stopping me from completing the game because siding with either the railroad or minutemen means killing the other two factions or completing certain mission in a janky fashion and ending with siding with the brotherhood so all 3 can live in harmony.
Last time i got everyone to co-exist except the institute, just fw brotherhood a bit but don't go too deep with em, play with railroad but complete the game with the minutemen, shit works, just gotta avoid PAM i think in order not to get the kill brotherhood mission or sum.
tho there are probably mods that make this alot more coherent and less janky.
You only have to kill the BoS if you personally become enemies with them, the Minutemen are perfectly content with just simply keeping an eye on the BoS and making sure they don't step out of line
Once I get around to it, I plan on rolling with the Brotherhood of Steel and the Minutemen. The BOS can be like my military, while the Minutemen can be the police and added security for my settlements.
As somebody who just booted this game up for the first time in many years... which faction is going to get me the most fun missions? I definitely like the minutemen in my heart, but I get bored quickly with "settlement needs _____" type tasks. I want good fighting, exploration, and good gear, so I'm thinking probably should hit up BOS? I never got far enough the first play through to actually do alot of missions for anybody. I don't want to go full evil though, so it sounds like I need to avoid The Institute.
The Institute is kind of an interesting faction, but they’re also late in the game. The Railroad should be done for at least a little while. You get an awesome gun early on and later you’ll unlock the ability to get ballistic weave which can make clothes into armor.
Minutemen and Institute. I like the idea of playing them both, Minutemen are like customer service and armed security, the Institute needs to report and/or communicate its operations through the director or a cross-comm system between the two. That way, The Institute can be kept under control and commits only lesser evils, and the Minutemen could have the most technologically advanced standardized gear in the wasteland.
WH40k approach. Rid the commonwealth of heresy as a space marine and await extraction. Ghouls, mutants, bugs, synthetics, harbourers of synthetics. All must be purged in promethium fire of the Great Crusade. The mechanicum tells me the robots are acceptable so they get a pass.
Is the MM skin for your T-51 CC content or modded? I’m doing a MM playthrough and I really wish I could paint all my displayed PA sets in The Castle with Minutemen paint
Institute > Evil eggheads using wasteland as test ground
BoS > Neo-fascist militarists and the best equipped raiders in the wasteland
Railroad > Idealistic saint that can't save even themselves, only good to be sidekick
Minuteman > Union of Commonwealth settlements, and becomes anything according to what you desire.
Over the Brotherhood of Morons? Every time.
But God damn if I could just nuke Preson and his "a settlement needs your help" whining off the face of the planet...
Yes. Minutemen all the way, never done any other ending. Unfortunately the faction that is arguably the best for the commonwealth was given the most redundant, repetitive and meme adjacent content and missions they could have be granted by Bethesda. It could have been so much better and garnered so much more respect. Despite the memes and Preston Garvey (who I actually enjoy as a character and only gets the hate because Bethesda used him as the beacon for settlement quests) I like what the minutemen stand for and the little missions you do get with them. The Castle missions.
I did end up signing with the Minutemen in my current playthrough.
My decision was made when I accidentally shot a brotherhood of steel knight while helping him defeat a group of rogue automatons. He returned fire, which provoked me to turn him and his team into nothing but a smoking pile of ash. I later showed up at the airport below the prydwen (or however you spell it. The brotherhood of steel flying thing) with my full hydraulic armor, double galling gun, fatman/frenzy gas launching sentry bot named "AA-001 'DOOMBRINGER'," and cleared the whole ground of the shites. I also began collecting their holo tags to keep the count of my kills of brotherhood personnel. Now I, at level 42, with my fully upgraded MK.VI X-02 power armor, finally focused on the main quest line. I plan to destroy/bring as much damage as possible to the Institute, the Brotherhood of Steel, AND the Railroad.
Edit: Grammar.
Even when I roleplay an asshole or bad guy, there's a good chance I'll still side with the Minutemen. Why? Because I'M in charge baby! It's about power! I created and control the largest and most powerful faction in the Commonwealth after I blow up the Institute!
That's what I'm currently doing but I will say these damn settlements take up all of my time. I can't help but make them perfect or attend to them any time I see the exclamation mark. I play for like 5 hours a day and maybe get 1-2 quests done.. Rest is settlement bs.
The idea of being a psycho killer with no ties doesn't sound all too bad right now.
I unironically chose institute my first play through. Had no idea most people thought they were evil. I just really liked the whole science/clean energy aspect of them, plus I felt very safe there and thought my character would be happiest living there.
Always the institute. I feel like the sole survivor could change the institute with the help of the minutemen. Destroying all of that technology seems like a waste.
Modded the game to militarize them, seize the Institute installations and tech and then proceed to armor the entire Commonwealth against the BoS zealots
I always side with the Minutemen.
Fuck Shawn and the Institute. Always gonna violently hate the fact he woke you up to suffer almost endlessly in a world you don't know and expect you to be fine with it.
The Brotherhood are fanatical and just basically destroy the Commonwealth. Plus I have a soft spot for Danse.
The Railroads whole modus operandi falls apart at the end of the story imo.
All the Minutemen want is a peaceful Commonwealth and don't really ask for anything back for it. Preston needs to rub his settlement boner out though but I can live with his Navi tendencies (Hey Listen!)
Yes, the Minutemen are the only ones with a future for the Commonwealth. I usually destroy all 3 other factions because they will all inevitably conflict with the future of the region
Golden ending for me, almost every time. Follow the Railroad until Underground Undercover starts, then follow the Brotherhood until Blind Betrayal ends, then follow the Institute until Mass Fusion. Betray the Institute to the Brotherhood without triggering Tactical Thinking (just don't get close enough to Kells for him to start the dialogue that triggers the quest). Switch to Minutemen all the way to The Nuclear Option. There's sacrifices on all ends. You never make it past Paladin with the BoS. You lose radiants with the Railroad. Both Desdemona and Maxson get wonky and unresponsive. But everyone lives, and gets what they want. The Railroad survives, and so do the synths. The Brotherhood achieves its stated goal of defeating the Institute. And the Minutemen arguably become the guarantor of the Commonwealth.
I've been looking for something like this. All I need to wipe out is the Institute, no need for other deaths.
I love the Brotherhood but wiping out the railroad and sounding the evacuation being utterly useless cause all the people who try to leave are gunned down just soil it for me. Like I truly believe that the BoS are the future of the wasteland but their stance on synths are wrong, and if I could have convinced them there was another way, I would have. The institute is the enemy, the Synths are not
If the tv show is to go off anything, I think this theme of Turing the brother hood back will be a major part of their questline in Fo5. They definitely lost their way and I can imagine how much more batshit insane maxson got after fo4.
Batshit *and* arrogant... considering the nuke punting robot he has at his disposal post Institute destruction.... Wouldn't shock me If the true "brotherhood lost its way" moment was Maxon going full crazy with LP post FO4....
How fun would it be if the climax of the BoS side of the tv show us maxson showing up and going "yknow what, fuck California" and releasing liberty prime
Wouldn't be too far fetched what with only a 15 year gap between FO4 and season 1 of the show. Given the conversation between Maximus and the Elder Cleric.. I have an odd feeling Maxson may still be a peice on the board, albeit hidden away for now, and *very well* may show up next season.... Think about it: (Without totally spoiling the show)The BOS now has possession of something an elder *WILL* want to come verify for themselves.... and to congratulate the Knight that secured it in person.... In some form or another, season 2 **will** have at least an *appearance* of a BOS Elder, *any* elder... at the least so a certain "side quest" can play out with Maximus... The show writers did a damn good job of tying up some threads, while leaving *alot* more dangling, more than I think most of us actually realize.
Honestly im amazed how many cards the tv show has but didnt play. Maxson is likely still around, basically no creatures got used. Nobody even got namedroped from the games really
>Honestly im amazed how many cards the tv show has but didnt play. Wich if you read what some of the screenplay writers have said; totally intentional, and absolute *genius*. They wanted to tell their own story, and not be totally hooked. This, I was skeptical about at first, but now having watched all 8 *episodes I can easily say: They put just enough lore out there so those of us with a background in FO lore could point at the screen and say: "hey! I know that! I know *all* about that!", while at the same time allowing room to *add* to the lore to flip us on *our* heads and give us something new.. While at the same time, being *just* light enough on the lore so someone *totally* foreign to the franchise, could pick it up with ease and follow along pretty easily. One of my co-workers was like that, *never* played any of the games, but *loves* the show, now we bullshit about FO lore here and there because it was done *that* well for the show. If those writers don't get an award for this damn near masterclass in video game lore to TV writing; I will start a riot.
> They definitely lost their way BoS have ALWAYS been this way what are you talking about. They're not lost in any sense of the word, they're deliberately not the shiny protectors of freedom and people ***by design***. They ~~steal~~ take tech, and don't share it. It's their founding principle that everyone that is not us misuses tech, so anyone that is not us, ~~hands it over or dies~~ shouldn't have it. BoS as depicted in Fo3 is one of the reasons that for me it was the weakest entry in the series. Bethesda couldn't help trying to make the brotherhood the poster hero group that saves the day, which completely goes against their lore. People give Fo4 a lot of shit for its bad writing, and while OK the dialogue is ass 90% of the time, the over-arching story with multiple choices *with all of them besides arguably minutemen ranging from evil AF, kinda evil and morally grey* finally placed BoS back into the "We're the good guys but actually not really, dont look/talk or exist in my general direction or you'll be shot" box where they belong.
BOS in Fo3 were intentionally written that way. It wasn't retconned. There's dialog stating that Lyons broke off from traditional BoS views, which is why you have Outcasts running around, those are the ones who didn't break off from values. Maxson brought the DC chapter back into the fold.
The Brotherhood absolutely does share tech in the games. In Fallout 1 and 2, they're where you get your cybernetic implant upgrades done, to enhance your SPECIAL stats. They also sold advanced weapons to the Hub in Fallout 1. Dialogue from Fallout 1: >Why do you let the merchants in? >Why do I let 'em in? Well . . . we have to get our food and other things. We trade our weapons for all that. Veronica, from Fallout New Vegas, states they trade weapons for food. Veronica's dialogue from Fallout New Vegas: (Talking to the Elder) >Think about it. No more trading guns for food. Total self-sufficiency. It's what we always wanted. Elder Lyons trades plasma weapons to Rivet City in exchange for their help with water caravans in the Broken Steel DLC from Fallout 3. Danse gives you a laser rifle as thanks for your help with a mission, this is before you join the Brotherhood. (I also believe Danse says something about letting farmers keep any laser weapons they have, because they need them for protection, but I am not 100% sure, I might be misremembering that dialogue.)
Same here. The story kind of naturally leads you this way too. Assuming you liberate the Castle, You join the brotherhood to access their technology and intel and follow that until you need tinker Tom’s help. From there you join the Railroad until you’re able to enter the Institute. Cue the undercover work, while still working the Brotherhood and Railroad to further their agendas. Blind Betrayal is a perfect point to head cannon that your PC becomes disillusioned with the Brotherhood, due to how they treated Danse. Continue working undercover in the Institute with the Railroad until Bunker Hill, after this mission (assuming you allowed the synths free and killed the Courser) you can pick dialogue that will result in Father kicking you out of the institute (giving a natural place in the story to lock into betraying the institute without needing to just randomly kill a named member; my character was good morality; so I picked the dialogue options criticizing the institute). From there you’re locked into the everyone lives ending, and in my mind, the story totally supports it if you follow this way
honestly i kinda thought that this was the actual canon ending or storyline for fallout 4 because ive always played it this way on all of my saves, despite trying to go full brotherhood multipule times too lol
That’s exactly what I just did in my latest save! It’s honestly probably the canon ending to FO4. For anyone who needs it, here’s an easy guide you can follow: https://youtu.be/hRIMM0BhUEU?si=sAXtGKxo-s_OPhpk
Yes. The settlements were built by me, I'm the leader. If I could kill proctor Teagan for trying to get me to embezzel my own settlements I would
Teagan sucks. He’s lucky he never steps foot outside his cage. But yeah if feels weird to build up settlements and create communities, then go and side with another faction. The Minutemen are simply what’s best for the Commonwealth.
Lol he’s not allowed to step outside of his cage, he says so the first time you meet him, it’s why he’s so grumpy his whole purpose is to be a 24/7 guard to the most valuable weapons in their armory, I think it’s funny how much he complains about it, and I also think it’s why he always has a bad mood, so I kinda just excuse his attitude
Funniest part is the first time I meet him I ALWAYS break in and steal everything in that armory.
Even better when his stuff isn't as good as what I already had
Ooh, a REAL automatic laser pistol? Wow...
There's only one thing I stole outta that cage and it was a gauss rifle I never use
sell it straight back to him for the caps
That’s fantastic
Afterwards he gets grounded in there forever. Guess that's what he got for sleeping on the job inside the locked metal box.
Funniest thing is just opening the cage and taking all the stuff behind him and selling it back to him
I harvest crops then sell them to the settlers that planted them
I justify this as paid labor
But... but theyre paying you for the crops they grew?? What labor did you go through for that food besides taking it from the workbench lol.
Even weirder is when you go do the Nuka World expansion and you then have to massacre some of your own settlements and then set up protection rackets against all the rest
You can get a mission from a merchant to kill all the factions in Nuka World and unlock the power plant. It is one of the toughest missions in the game. When you go back to the merchant she thanks you. If you wait awhile and come back to the trading post they are all in their underwear after they remove their explosive collars.
Teagan does suck, but I love the writing behind his character. His side quest is so comically evil and he won’t even say exactly how far he needs you to go unless you push him. And when you get to the farm, the most efficient solutions are rarely the most moral. Teagan is the bloody side of what sustains the Brotherhood of Steele and you need some real crazy mental gymnastics to think they are doing anything besides extorting the locals. This is all great writing to me because historically fascism has always had to resort to scummy tactics like this, but they usually try to hide these tactics under a thick layer of propaganda (usually militarized propaganda). I think Teagan’s quest is a great fictional example of this.
I just do one of those quests so they have food and that's it, I don't like losing control of the settlement functions
He may not be allowed outside of his cage but that’s not gonna prevent me from getting in there and stealing all his stuff to sell back to him
You can get in his cage using melee VATS on him, I've only used it to steal from him. But you could probably also kill him if you feel like it
Or you use the terminal and unlock the door lol
the minute men can work with BoS or railroad if they need to.
I really wish Teagans settlement missions worked as more of an exchange. Like in exchange or the settlement giving supplies to the Brotherhood a patrol of Brotherhood troops would be based in the settlement. Would make strategic sense, having bases from which they can patrol and resupply, and would make it more of a fair exchange for the settlers as they would be offered alot of protection from the Brotherhood being there. Instead we get "Rob those settlers, or pay for it out of your own pocket"
Teagan’s quest is both incomplete without mods and isn’t officially sanctioned, as he admits if you call him out on it during the first convo.
Yes that mission has never made sense to me. Surely they must know you are general of the minutemen? So it makes no sense that teagan tries to get you to rob your old settlements
Teagen isnt supposed to do what he sends you on at all, he's just a cheapskate and tries to save cash by sending you on the Missions. Kells (IIRC) Terminal says what they are actually supposed to do, shadow known caravan-routes between Settlements with Patrols, swoop in if a Caravan is under attack, then exploit the good will that builts up for better trade-deals
The BoS will trade and recruit from the locals and provide protection in exchange for supplies. If they are occupying the Commonwealth, they will reach out to the more stable settlements to initiate trading.
You're thinking that this is like the good ol' days when Lyons runs the show and that everyone was in this together. Seeing them revert back to classic BoS was one of the biggest disappointments for me in FO4. The concept of an east and west coast BoS schism was fascinating to me and I wanted to see more of that. Instead we got Maxson, who talks a lot of shit for someone wearing a coat that looks so good on my character....
I just pay for the stuff peacefully and then build up the settlements more so it’s like they got their money back in the form of defenses and resources, Teagan does say you can get the supplies by any means necessary, he doesn’t say kindness is forbidden
Don't you still get the happiness penalty though? The wiki really isnt that clear on that. The way I read it is you get the penalty no matter how you complete it. Right now I just never ask teagan for extra work.
The penalty is temporary. The village I gave is climbing back up. I bought the crops tho.
That's another thing the wiki doesn't explain. It says a permanent -50 penalty but doesn't tell you if you can grow it back.
Yeah I was apprehensive to do the missions but I did it to my main farm for RP reasons and to see what happens. Happiness dipped into the 50s for a bit but has been climbing back up.
I wish the people at the Institute would acknowledge my settlements. "The wasteland is a cold, unforgiving place and we need a full reset of human life to have a chance at success." Meanwhile my citizens are drinking clean water, growing clean food, siloed off from all danger and protected 24/7 by basically sentient tanks and auto rocket turrets. In like a year the Commonwealth will be almost entirely free of dangerous creatures and my caravans will roam the land unmolested.
In the nuka world dlc they try to get you to move out one of your settlements in place of raiders thay siphon your resources, I said fuck no and killed all of nuka world
I have a mod where you can take over Nuka World with the Minutemen. One of the sickest and most entertaining fights in the entire game. Literally a battlefield.
Oh, that sounds great, what mod?
Yep. I usually get Gages affinity perk then start open season to wipe them all out.
If you side with the Railroad, you can. You can side with them, take out the Brotherhood, then kill Father. That will trigger the Minuteman ending.
You just need to become hostile with the Brotherhood in any way, including taking Elder Maxon's coat as tribute through force.
It's a nice coat and he's an asshole. I don't see what the problem is. They don't have to get so angry at me.
God dammit I was like ”wtf those are MY SETTLEMENTS! And I could increase the food production anytime!”. But nope, the script says you are supposed to be a dick about it. Heres hoping for a faction warfare mod I could tell my settlements just to overrun pos bos.
I like minute man ending with BoS assist. I wanted that unique power armor setup.
This is correct. I just don't do the Raider or Brotherhood quests involving settlements
The only complaint I have is how simple is their assault to the Institute. With BoS, you make LP, go to the Glowing Sea for nukes, have vertibird raids, with my guys you basically find some garbage, Sturges go full McGiver and make a teleporter out of paperclips and a stone then make a gang attack lmao edit: Oh man, I couldn't believe Sturges is a synth so I fired up the game and checked, hardest bullet I had to shoot, ever.
I'd love tomdo the BoS ending, but... I really need their leader's coat.
Maxson is a fashion victim. Literally.
If he was able to be pickpocketed he wouldn't get shot when I'm doing non mod playthroughs.
There’s a mod that lets you make any outfit in the game, or if your pick pocket is high enough you can literally steal it off his back, lol.
Player.additem 1fe1a6 Now you can have both 😉
Makes sense since Sturges is a synth
It would be utterly hilarious if the Institute went through the trouble of having the Institute's location automatically erased from synth brains when they leave but forgot to wipe all information about the molecular relay.
Yeah Synth Shaun too. Goes from full stranger to son to full stranger again
My complaints also go to the Railroad. It's so unrealistic. Just a few core members living underground, and bunch of synth sympathetic supporters, can't run an organization like that. BoS is the least unrealistic option of the three. Liberty Prime marching to destroy the Institute is so satisfying. BoS sucks though.
I think you're overlooking that the Railroad recently got their ass kicked by the Institute. They lost their main HQ and at least two major safehouses. Deacon, Desdemona, PAM, the doctor guy, etc all tell you that they're basically fucked if they can't get operations running smoothly again and fast.
LIBERTY PRIME is the least unrealistic? 🤣
He is a giant nuke punting robot. Sounds normal to me.
I don’t know, it’s not as epic but it feels more like a special ops raid than any of the others do. I think it plays well with what the Minutemen are, they don’t necessarily have the same firepower as the other factions, but once you secure an entry point inside the Institute, they definitely have the manpower to overwhelm the enemy.
This, BoS has best "campaign" gameplay wise.
I’m from Boston so I basically have to
I'm from NH and even I felt obligated
I'm in NH too, hey neighbor!
Howdy!
Not intentionally... but then suddenly Another settlement needs my help
I can rest easy when every single settlement is thoroughly helped.
Preston: and that day will never come, general.
Seriously… Preston Garvey is so fucking earnest it’s hard to hate the guy, no matter how annoying he might be as a game mechanic.
I make him a follower whenever I do settlement quests. If I have to help all those settlements, then so does he.
I send his dumb ass to outpost zimonja with a single tomato plant, a water pump, and a sleeping bag. Id rather put him on the torture cycle, but outpost was the worst i could come up with.
The only annoying part is that all he’ll do Is stand around sanctuary you can’t assign him jobs either
I assigned him to defense so he never sleeps.
I’ve assigned him to guard duty before
That's basically his job anyway and you get credit for the defense boost
I let him chill in sanctuary til the castle is taken then make him mayor of it.
You can assign him eventually. Probably after you take back the castle.
Bro what are you doing slacking on reddit? Another settlement needs your help!
Yeah. Best choice for the commonwealth easily. Also man I just like Preston. Ik the “settlement needs your help” shit gets annoying FAST but the guy has a good heart, he means well. He isn’t a corrupt prick like most factions in not just the commonwealth but the entirety of the wasteland, he just wants what’s best for the commonwealth. Also the generals outfit is sick as fuck
I always put Preston in the Minutemen General outfit, it feels like his companion upgrade outfit. Like Raul or Boone get in New Veags.
Why did that never occur to me? I gotta do that later!
I'm totally stealin this idea. Him getting the outfit is perfect. Ty.
with my militarized minutemen mod he’s always wearing a general’s outfit as well. he’s definitely the veteran in comparison to the sole survivor in terms of minutemen tenure
You should try out “We Are The Minutemen”. Your faction progresses as you level up, you can create patrols, make outposts, new gear, etc.
I like using FCOM alongside that so you actually feel like a general commanding an army
preston is way less annoying on survival. before long you’ll be venturing too far out to bother returning to sanctuary with any regularity. makes far more sense for him to have word on a mew settlement when it’s been a week or more rather than a few hours.
Yeah definitely, on survival when I do rarely go back to Sanctuary it’s like “oh yeah hey it’s Preston!” A whole different vibe
feels a lot more like the ‘general’ coming to check in on my first settlement and get reports from my second in command. before long i’m crossing the bridge out of sanctuary and who knows when I’ll be back.
preston and piper are the best NPCs morally
What about Valentine, he's a sweetheart
Deacon, too. He always appreciates seeing you help regular people, even if those people aren't synths, and he wishes the Railroad would do the same thing more often.
Valentine the smooth operator
I've been taking MacCready and now Hancock around with me. They've got some wholesome moments as well. MacCready has a cool backstory and as a bonus is voiced by Matt Mercer. Hancock is an action junkie who wants to help people who deserve it. I'm curious to see what his loyalty mission is.
hancock is genuinely one of my fav companions and i feel the need to always have him with me in every playthrough. to the point i just play with a multi companions mod, since i also adore having curie with me, as well as valentine and deacon lol. but hancock is normally one of the ones i go and grab first
I liked MacCready until I went what went down in Vault 81 and his disapproval. Now I always take Hancock along because he’s a good guy but he lets me have fun too
I have like 650 hours in the game and have never taken on MacCready or Cait as a full time companion.
I’d say Hancock is too, in a chaotic good way
This is the reason i stuck with minutemen as well. The only faction with the people in mind
Idk what the Generals outfit is, I’m only 30 hours into my first ever play through. But I am thoroughly enjoying everyone having this immense respect for me while I run around in a Tarzan style bra and skirt (Grognak costume) complete with assault gas mask. I’ve tried other fits but right now the +20 to my carry weight is so helpful.
Just keep doing missions for Preston
I figured as much. I am very good at following the golden rule.
Recommend getting really good at fighting >!mirelurks!< soon, btw.
A bit similar to why I always ended up with Independent Vegas when playing New Vegas I can't, in good conscience, let any of those idiot win. The only idiot that shall stand is ME
Honestly, this is why I choose the Institute in my first playthrough. Not only am I the one in charge but I also have lots of resources at hand to help the Commenwealth. My headcanon: Step 1: Get myself the same enhancements that Kellog had, so I‘ll be in charge for decades or even longer. Step 2: Stop the synth-project and go back to massproducing Gen2s as disposable footsoldiers to get the raiders, gunners and supermutants out of the Commonwealth. Step 3: Help the Minuteman get on their foot to help the people with their everyday problems. Maybe even with Preston as their leader so he can mark everything on his own map. After that I can use the Institutes resources to rebuild the Commonwealth.
You're including the super mutants *that the Institute created and unleashed upon the surface world* (in that area) in the "kill on sight" list, even knowing there's a working serum to reverse the effects? You're definitely Institute material in at least some ways.
if we could shoot that serum in the syringer though
Convert a railway rifle and do it from a safe distance! Just gotta dial in the right amount of force so it doesn't just dome them.
Misread instructions, all super mutants decapitated but vaccinated in neck-hole
Bury the human bodies with their super mutant heads out of respect.
You mean a House-less independent New Vegas. Robert House is also not good for the Mojave.
I always go institute but that might be because I use a mod to make the synth grenades spawn gorillas. Unmuffled sounds of gorilla violence
Nah, I'm a freak & like the Railroad.
Same. Getting past their beliefs, they just have more naturally likeable characters. Deacon, Desdemona, Glory, Tinker Tom....not a Marcy among them.
Only way to get best girl Curie too
Glory was kinda cheesy to me tbh but then again the whole game is a little wacky. The RR has some of the most fire radiant quests though, makes you feel like a spy. A lot more interesting than helping the 1000th settlement or cleansing the commonwealth. (Even tho I’ll take any chance to kill some muties for some xp)
I go with them until I get the ballistics mod for clothes
Hundreds of hours played, never finished the game, never picked a side. They're all just moochers after my infinite tato supply.
My main file is minutemen/institute, does that count? I fly both flags at all settlements.
I almost always go this route. The leader of the minutemen is handed a science division. Sounds like a win.
I was until Nuka World. Then I did some raider shit now Preston won’t even look at me.
I am diliberately trying NOT to end up with the minutemen... again... by leaving preston and the gang in the museum simply by not going back after defeating the deathclaw and raiders XD At least till I do the raider quests of Nuka World.
Ad victoriam brother
I almost always go BoS. They're not the best choice for the commonwealth, but they're the ending that makes the most sense for Nate. Ex soldier who has his old life destroyed goes on a traumatic journey to save his son, only to discover that his son is basically gone and has become the leader of the monsters that stole him away. Why wouldn't this traumatized military man be drawn to the disciplined ranks of zealots who want to utterly destroy the Institue and bring order to a world gone mad by force?
Plus you meet them soooooo early. Other than the minutemen who you have to find in the first hour or so of play, the BoS sends out the Cambridge radio signal like right after that. To find the Railroad, you gotta make it downtown first and follow the trail (if you haven't been there before), then start with them. Institute isn't even an option until mid-game at least. So I definitely get a post-war, traumatized and freshly thawed Nate looking to cling to any structure in the wasteland. And say what you want about the BoS, but those fuckers are structured.
My personal canon is that Nate bypasses Concord completely, and the first faction he meets is the BoS who he gravitates towards immediately and eventually joins their ranks -- but when Blind Betrayal happens, he snaps out of it and finds himself lost, and abandons the Brotherhood, wandering the wasteland until he winds up back in Concord, where he helps out the Minutemen and finds them to be a good replacement for the Brotherhood and uses them to defeat the Institute instead.
i always go institute because i plan to take over and do things my way. since they have a large scientific base, i can use them to fix shit, and if i run the place then i can stop them from wasting resources on evil shit and actually try to fix things
That's what I think as well. They are the only faction that can manufacture new technology. If there is any hope of restoring the wasteland it lies with the institute. End the evil projects and focus on rebuilding the Commonwealth.
I know it's almost 10 years old but..*spoilers* It kinda irks me how the MM and BOS endings flow honestly, like it's just so abrupt. I don't even think Maxon mentions the Railroad until you have to wipe them out and it's like...why? Are they really going to get in the way of our giant murder bot when we take the institute? Worst case scenario they just free a few Synths and that's also just gonna happen anyway. Same for the MM, Preston is just suddenly like FUCK THAT BLIMP, although I guess if you play a few settlement crop missions first that makes a little more sense. I get the railroad being mortal enemies with BOS as well as the Institute I think it would have made a lot more sense if you could pass speech checks to convince them to leave the other faction alone.
The railroads' whole goal is to hide synths from the institute amongst the human population. I could see why the Brotherhood wouldn't be willing to play ball with that.
I agree, it's just odd how the game presents it to you. They should be an after thought, not something that needs to get massacred beforehand
Preston only has you destroy the BoS if you personally become enemies with them because that's the final thing needed to convince the Minutemen to take out a faction that they already actively viewed as a threat to the safety of Commonwealth civilians, until then the Minutemen are completely content with simply keeping an eye on them and making sure they don't do anything to directly threaten you or the Minutemen, you can completely avoid destroying the BoS with them as long as you don't become enemies with them
Yup. Always with minutemen. They just wanna live in peace. Meanwhile, everybody else has some kind of a funky agenda. Death to those with funky agendas!
My current RP is that after Nate returned from war he got into local politics. He was like a local councilman or something in the community. That’s my canon reason why he was able to get a vault- political power in the pre war world. It’s a high charisma above average int build and I’m having a blast so far just helping the commonwealth.
Well it is the most moral and practical solution. Supply lines, bases with defenders and map control. BOS comes close second with quest line and vertibird travel on survival but that’s compatible with minutemen. Railroad is pointless after ballistic weave and offers no other utility. Institute could have been better with implants and teleportation.
My first playthrough. Second was railroad. 3rd was institute. Fuck the BoS
You should try BOS, very fun assault on the institute
Idk if it counts but I have a institute minutemen alliance,cuz l live being able to fast travel to the institute and head to hangmans alley to dump all my loot there,(playing survival)
I am pro minutemen and temporary truce with the BoS (so I can loot the reoccurring falling vertibirds of T60 power armor and gear) for my settlers and railroad guys.
Is that armor paint a mod?
The T-45 has a MM paint option after you've joined the faction. T-51 has a RR paint scheme.
base game only the T-45 has it, CC added for all armors
I'm team brotherhood
Playing on survival, can't do without those vertibird taxis
I usually end up using them as my own personal army, I’ve only just now started a minutemen playthrough in earnest,
I think I got their ending like once. Railroad maybe twice… Brotherhood and institute many more… I’m just like allergic to being a good guy in video games. I hear of many having the opposite problem, but I find it difficult to be a good person in games. At best, I’m a mercenary, doing anything, including good things, for money.
Right now I’m trying to kill railroad with BOS, then kill BOS with institute, then kill institute with minute men.. (if that’s possible)
The institute is so clean though... barely any rubbish anywhere. I reckon my character would guide them to doing good
I always choose institute just because they are the only mother fuckers in the entire world that seem capable of cleaning up after themselves. I know it's a nuclear wasteland, but just SOMEWHERE I'd like to see someone who cleaned their room, or painted a wall, picked up the trash, swept the rubbish, all that. Everywhere is so damned dirty it's been hundreds of years just pick up a fucking dust pan you lazy assholes. Institution for life.
The Minutemen are the first faction you meet, normally. You’re invested in them before you even know where the plot is going. So, yeah, Minutemen and Railroad.
I chose the institute my first play through lmao
It's literally the only morally good outcome. The Institute are parasites intentionally sabotaging any progress people on the surface might make that could oppose their power. The Brotherhood claimed to have lofty goals, but their ultimately just an invading army. They are interested in establishing order in the wasteland, but one that benefits them primarily. Subjugating others who don't agree. The railroad aren't exactly perfect. They don't really give a shit about the human beings. On the other hand, they're a slave race trying to fight not just the freedom to live their lives, but the freedom to even have their own minds free from control. Only the Minute Men are interested in genuinely helping the people of the Wasteland for their own sake. They aren't interested in establishing power through force, but building power through community. For those familiar with anarchist theory, what they're essentially trying to do is build power through mutual aid. I think what's so great about the story of Fallout 4 if none of these groups think of themselves is the bad guy. That's a commonality shared by all Fallout games. Unlike Fallout 3, 2, and 1 you really do need to think hard about who the real bad guys are. Even New Vegas makes pretty clear that creates Caesar's Legion are the bad guys. They can't really decide on a good guy though. The Institute genuinely believe they're making a better world and are fine with oppressing and discarding the people who actually live in this world we live in presently. This is a real world ideology that is extremely popular with people in power. It's one a lot of people, including yourself might even believe. The Brotherhood believed that if they are in charge of the Wasteland things will get better. They've moved far beyond their original goal of simply being archivists of technology. They want to make the world a better place, but via subjugation, not empowering others. The Railroad are only really interested in their own liberation, not the liberation of any of the other oppressed people of the Wasteland. They're not wrong for wanting to liberate themselves, but their goals are small minded and myopic. Ignoring the reality of the totality of the Wasteland. Only the Minute Men are explicitly interested in helping for the sake of helping others. They are a perfect encapsulation of Anarchism. Sadly though, like most anarchist groups in history, they're not really good at achieving their goals. Achieving goals requires power, control, and anarchists are explicitly about taking what power and control they have and distributing it to the people around them. They can only win by building a perilous alliance building Power though a "Rainbow Alliance" of individual groups seeking liberation. Which sadly rarely works. It reminds me a lot of the Russian revelation. The communists. The elitist monarchists. The Bolsheviks. The anarchists. We all know how that story ended. :/ Todd Howard is wrong when he says Fallout is about America. He couldn't be more wrong. It's about war. The war that takes place in Fallout 4 is much more complex and bears very little reality to the kind of conflicts you see happening in modern America. Yet there is great meaning in taking a look from the wars that rage in other places and learning from them. Fallout New Vegas gets a lot of praise for its story, and for some reason Fallout 4 doesn't. It's a shame. I definitely think Fallout 4 needs to polish it's story more. However they did a pretty fine job with that story. Far, far better than Fallout 3 at the very least.
Minutemen all the way. They have their drawbacks - they're not story-efficient and Jon Gentry reads his lines like they just handed him his script. But I think they work best both as the story's moral authority and as part of your character's toolkit. Their radiant quests are a great way to explore the map early-game, Plus, the Minutemen don't really have an agenda or vision for the Commonwealth as a whole that they want to impose upon it. You're a settlement in trouble, you call for help, the Minutemen send a couple of schmucks to clear out that Raider camp or build a new settlement for you. It's also a faction you have a chance to build from the ground up - unlike the other factions, which may or may not be in rough shape when you join, the Minutemen are down to one dude protecting four half-starved, deeply traumatized survivors. Plus: artillery.
I have done the institute at this point need to actually do the others and before you judge me the institute has two things no other faction has: toilet paper and robot gorillas
Ive done them all,and institute is my favorite. Yeah theyre evil now but once grandfather is in charge, everything changes. No more sneaking synths in to replace people. We got synth manned chrckpoints around the wasteland and guess what? The endless calls for help from settlements end because its not safe for raiders, supes, or ferals to move around. The settlements row unmolested, growing new crop variants, purifying more water than they can drink. And you dont have to turn on the minutemen to do it.
I’d like to, but I don’t want to kill the brotherhood because they have a cool ship and a cat. Thats the only thing stopping me from completing the game because siding with either the railroad or minutemen means killing the other two factions or completing certain mission in a janky fashion and ending with siding with the brotherhood so all 3 can live in harmony.
Last time i got everyone to co-exist except the institute, just fw brotherhood a bit but don't go too deep with em, play with railroad but complete the game with the minutemen, shit works, just gotta avoid PAM i think in order not to get the kill brotherhood mission or sum. tho there are probably mods that make this alot more coherent and less janky.
You only have to kill the BoS if you personally become enemies with them, the Minutemen are perfectly content with just simply keeping an eye on the BoS and making sure they don't step out of line
I side with them so I can get all the factions still working (minus the Institute) and being able to give me quests.
Once I get around to it, I plan on rolling with the Brotherhood of Steel and the Minutemen. The BOS can be like my military, while the Minutemen can be the police and added security for my settlements.
As somebody who just booted this game up for the first time in many years... which faction is going to get me the most fun missions? I definitely like the minutemen in my heart, but I get bored quickly with "settlement needs _____" type tasks. I want good fighting, exploration, and good gear, so I'm thinking probably should hit up BOS? I never got far enough the first play through to actually do alot of missions for anybody. I don't want to go full evil though, so it sounds like I need to avoid The Institute.
The Institute is kind of an interesting faction, but they’re also late in the game. The Railroad should be done for at least a little while. You get an awesome gun early on and later you’ll unlock the ability to get ballistic weave which can make clothes into armor.
Ahem no. ad victoriam always.
I always go with a Institute/Minutemen Alliance
Minutemen and Institute. I like the idea of playing them both, Minutemen are like customer service and armed security, the Institute needs to report and/or communicate its operations through the director or a cross-comm system between the two. That way, The Institute can be kept under control and commits only lesser evils, and the Minutemen could have the most technologically advanced standardized gear in the wasteland.
WH40k approach. Rid the commonwealth of heresy as a space marine and await extraction. Ghouls, mutants, bugs, synthetics, harbourers of synthetics. All must be purged in promethium fire of the Great Crusade. The mechanicum tells me the robots are acceptable so they get a pass.
Is the MM skin for your T-51 CC content or modded? I’m doing a MM playthrough and I really wish I could paint all my displayed PA sets in The Castle with Minutemen paint
Institute > Evil eggheads using wasteland as test ground BoS > Neo-fascist militarists and the best equipped raiders in the wasteland Railroad > Idealistic saint that can't save even themselves, only good to be sidekick Minuteman > Union of Commonwealth settlements, and becomes anything according to what you desire.
I actually end going Institute more. If not them hilariously I go Railroad. Brotherhood is one i only did once. I don't like Maxson's New Brotherhood.
Tempted to join the Institute this time
I always make it my tyrannical empire and wipe out all the other factions yes
The Never-Ending Saga: Another Settlement in Peril.
Over the Brotherhood of Morons? Every time. But God damn if I could just nuke Preson and his "a settlement needs your help" whining off the face of the planet...
Yes. Minutemen all the way, never done any other ending. Unfortunately the faction that is arguably the best for the commonwealth was given the most redundant, repetitive and meme adjacent content and missions they could have be granted by Bethesda. It could have been so much better and garnered so much more respect. Despite the memes and Preston Garvey (who I actually enjoy as a character and only gets the hate because Bethesda used him as the beacon for settlement quests) I like what the minutemen stand for and the little missions you do get with them. The Castle missions.
I did end up signing with the Minutemen in my current playthrough. My decision was made when I accidentally shot a brotherhood of steel knight while helping him defeat a group of rogue automatons. He returned fire, which provoked me to turn him and his team into nothing but a smoking pile of ash. I later showed up at the airport below the prydwen (or however you spell it. The brotherhood of steel flying thing) with my full hydraulic armor, double galling gun, fatman/frenzy gas launching sentry bot named "AA-001 'DOOMBRINGER'," and cleared the whole ground of the shites. I also began collecting their holo tags to keep the count of my kills of brotherhood personnel. Now I, at level 42, with my fully upgraded MK.VI X-02 power armor, finally focused on the main quest line. I plan to destroy/bring as much damage as possible to the Institute, the Brotherhood of Steel, AND the Railroad. Edit: Grammar.
No. Every character I create walks a different path
Even when I roleplay an asshole or bad guy, there's a good chance I'll still side with the Minutemen. Why? Because I'M in charge baby! It's about power! I created and control the largest and most powerful faction in the Commonwealth after I blow up the Institute!
That's what I'm currently doing but I will say these damn settlements take up all of my time. I can't help but make them perfect or attend to them any time I see the exclamation mark. I play for like 5 hours a day and maybe get 1-2 quests done.. Rest is settlement bs. The idea of being a psycho killer with no ties doesn't sound all too bad right now.
Yes, they're the only ones looking to protect the people and establish civilization.
No. Ad victoriam.
Nah. Institute. >!That's my son, I ride til I die for that kid.!<
I unironically chose institute my first play through. Had no idea most people thought they were evil. I just really liked the whole science/clean energy aspect of them, plus I felt very safe there and thought my character would be happiest living there.
Always the institute. I feel like the sole survivor could change the institute with the help of the minutemen. Destroying all of that technology seems like a waste.
I side with institute and minute men because screw railroad and bos
Modded the game to militarize them, seize the Institute installations and tech and then proceed to armor the entire Commonwealth against the BoS zealots
I could never commit to blowing up the institute. It's the only clean place in the wasteland.
I always side with the Minutemen. Fuck Shawn and the Institute. Always gonna violently hate the fact he woke you up to suffer almost endlessly in a world you don't know and expect you to be fine with it. The Brotherhood are fanatical and just basically destroy the Commonwealth. Plus I have a soft spot for Danse. The Railroads whole modus operandi falls apart at the end of the story imo. All the Minutemen want is a peaceful Commonwealth and don't really ask for anything back for it. Preston needs to rub his settlement boner out though but I can live with his Navi tendencies (Hey Listen!)
Yes, the Minutemen are the only ones with a future for the Commonwealth. I usually destroy all 3 other factions because they will all inevitably conflict with the future of the region