Fallout 4 settlements: Full list, best locations and top tips

Use settlements to gather important items such as food and water, earn more XP, farm, and act as a base where you can sleep, interact with NPCs and even shop.

Getting the most out of settlements can be overwhelming if you’re new to the game after becoming a fan of the Fallout TV show. Fortunately for you, we’re here to help.

Read on to find out how many Fallout settlement locations there are, how to unlock them all, and for our tips on the best settlement locations and how to improve them.

How many settlements are in Fallout 4?

In the base game, there are 30 settlements in Fallout 4. If you own all of the DLC expansions, there are 37 unlockable settlements.

The majority of the settlement locations can be unlocked by completing a set objective or by killing enemies or residents in the area. You will need to open the workshop to begin your new life at the settlement of your choosing.

Technically, it seems as though you can run every settlement if you wish. If you can cope with setting them all up and keeping up with any admin attached, that’s up to you.

Setting up and running two or three settlements will be fine for most players.

Full list of Fallout 4 settlements

The full list of settlements in Fallout 4 contains 37 locations (30 in the base game and seven across its DLC expansions).

The full list of Fallout 4 settlements and how to unlock them is as follows (thanks, Fallout Wiki!):

• Abernathy Farm | Complete Returning the Favor
• Boston Airport | Complete Shadow of Steel or get rid of the Brotherhood of Steel by destroying the Prydwen and killing the Ghouls at the airport
• Bunker Hill | Complete The Battle of Bunker Hill and talk to Kessler
• The Castle | Kill the Mirelurk Queen after destroying some of the eggs there
• Coastal Cottage | Kill the Raider
• County Crossing | Complete a Minutemen quest
• Covenant | Kill the Settlers or side with Covenant during Human Error and speak to Jacob Orden
• Croup Manor | Kill the Feral Ghouls
• Egret Tours Marina | Kill Phyllis Daily or confront her about Samuel (find the info on her personal logs in the terminal or successfully persuade her)
• Finch Farm | Kill the Finch Family or complete Out of the Fire
• Graygarden | Kill the Robots or complete Troubled Waters
• Greentop Nursery | Complete a Minutemen quest
• Hangman’s Alley | Kill the Raiders
• Home Plate | Purchase the key to Home Plate from Geneva in the Mayor’s Office within Diamond City for 2,000 caps
• Jamaica Plain | Kill the Feral Ghouls
• Kingsport Lighthouse | Kill the Children of the Atom worshippers and kill the Feral Ghoul
• Murkwater Construction Site | Kill the Mirelurks
• Nordhagen Beach | Complete a Minutemen quest
• Oberland Station | Complete a Minutemen quest
• Outpost Zimonja | Kill the Raiders
• Red Rocket Truck Stop | Unlocks as default
• Sanctuary Hills | Unlocks as default
• The Slog | Complete a Minutemen quest
• Somerville Place | Complete a Minutemen quest
• Spectacle Island | Kill the Mirelurks and restore power to the circuit breaker
• Starlight Drive-In | Kill the Mole Rats
• Sunshine Tidings Co-Op | Kill the Feral Ghouls
• Taffington Boathouse | Kill the Bloodbugs
• Tenpines Bluff | Complete a Minutemen quest
• Warwick Homestead | Complete Building a Better Crop (or complete a Minutemen quest)
• The Mechanist’s Lair (Automatron DLC) | Complete Restoring Order
• Longfellow’s Cabin (Far Harbor DLC) | Complete Walk in the Park
• Dalton Farm (Far Harbor DLC) | Complete the second part of Blood Tide in Cassie Dalton’s mission
• National Park Visitor’s Center (Far Harbor DLC) | Talk to Uncle Ken during The Hold Out
• Echo Lake Lumber (Far Harbor DLC) | Complete Turn Back the Fog
• Vault 88 (Vault-Tec Workshop DLC) | Complete Better Living Underground
• Nuka-World Red Rocket (Nuka-World DLC) | Complete Power Play or Open Season

Check out the map from the good guys over at Fallout Wiki to see where the location of each settlement is below:

What are the best Fallout 4 settlements? Top locations

The best Fallout 4 settlements will provide you with ample room for crop growing, settler management and letting you put your own stamp on them (or providing memorable locations).

Given there are 37 in the game in total (30 in the base game, seven in the DLC expansions), it can be tricky to know which settlement is best. While that decision is entirely up to you, some locations are better than others.

To get the ball rolling, this helpful YouTube video from Grey Gaming outlines five of the best settlements in Fallout 4:

We agree with Grey Gaming – Egret Tours Marina, Dalton Farm, Abernathy Farm, Red Rocket Truck Stop and Starlight Drive-In are all great settlements. You can’t go far wrong with any of them.

If farming is your choice, Abernathy Farm is a brilliant option.

Starlight Drive-In is potentially the best all-around settlement. It’s large, flat, and has water and great undamaged buildings and structures. We’d recommend you head here, as it’s potentially the easiest location to manage.

Spectacle Island, meanwhile, is probably best for, you know, spectacle. You can create a spectacular settlement here.

Sanctuary Hills is a quality choice, too, and better yet, you unlock it by default. It’s a nice tutorial settlement for a reason, and has plenty of scope for good settlement building.

Fallout 4 settlement tips - How to improve your settlement

To get the most out of your settlements in Fallout 4, you’ll need to make sure you’re setting things up correctly. A great tip is to build food crop farms on flat land.

Unlocking level six Charisma and the Local Leader perk is almost essential. Doing this will allow you to create supply lines between your settlements. Do this to be able to use any materials from any settlement that’s attached to that supply line.

If you’re running low on materials needed for crafting settlement objects, you can highlight components at any Workbench. Do this and the crafting items you need will be highlighted with a little magnifying glass logo.

Assign settlers to crops, guard posts and shops to get more out of your buildings.

Various helpful tips and tricks to settlement building (including those listed above) can be found on this super-useful Reddit thread.

In general, though, build Water Pumps and Water Purifiers – your settlers will thank you by staying happy if you have enough water!

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