Should I wait to complete the main quest?

[NPC]

I want to side with the raiders but I heard that you should wait to finish the vault raid until you have leveled up both raiders and foundation relations. Is that true? Or should I do foundation quest up until the raid and then stop?

[ronr42]

First, I did Wastelanders when it was first added to the game and I built up the reps with both of them after I was done with the Vault 79 part. So, I'm not sure I would be of any help answering your question.

My reason for posting is this; Why the hell did Bethesda stick those 2 women quest givers right outside Vault 76? Wastelanders is not the Main Quest of the game. It's an addon DLC. Originally the main quests of the game pointed you South to Charleston. Not to the Wayward that wasn't even there originally.>>>>Just needed to vent.

[Zylli]

Part of the end-game grind is to increase your reputation with both factions so you can purchase items from each. If you do both sides' quests up to the point where you have to choose, it will give you a little head-start on that reputation grind. If you skip it, you will miss some story and add a couple days to your grind.

There are two items that you can get by doing specific things with each faction. The Settlers item is easier to get: the Chinese Stealth Suit plans are from passing dialogue checks when you meet the mother of the Settlers character. The Raiders item is: a unique plasma gun that you can only get if you were nice to Ra-Ra every time you talked to her. The first is available to purchase eventually and the second is only obtainable during the vault raid if you side with Raiders and completed what was in the spoiler.

[Admiral Hackett [N7]]

Just do both quests as far as you can, you will get a notification from the Riaders side or Foundation side that your on the last stage. Sorry to be cryptic but don't wanna spoil anything for you.

[BizarreMan]

Originally posted by Admiral Hackett N7:

Just do both quests as far as you can, you will get a notification from the Riaders side or Foundation side that your on the last stage. Sorry to be cryptic but don't wanna spoil anything for you.

Do both sides until you hit “side with crater/foundation”. At that point you can then pick your side.

Doing it that way you get reputation from the quests leading up to that.

Don’t grind both all the way to ally before doing the raid though. That’s just a waste of time.

[Mooman]

The logic of maxing rep first is to do with the gold.

No matter who you raid with there will be a choice of how you distribute the gold. This will have an effect on reputation.

You can't drop levels but can lose rep within a level. Maxing out means you won't lose anything.

So it really comes down to which grind you hate more, the rep or gold.

[BizarreMan]

Gold is easier to get than Reputation. And you don’t get access to the gold vendors other than Minerva until after you have done the raid.

[Mooman]

Originally posted by BizarreMan:

Gold is easier to get than Reputation. And you don’t get access to the gold vendors other than Minerva until after you have done the raid.

Yep. But I wouldn't worry about any of it.

Roleplay the choices. That way you are playing a character instead of playing a game of min/max.

[Dwarf80]

ha....this new char ive been playing ive skipped all the quests and have just been farming and getting leveled and geared up when i can, grabbed all my mutes at lvl 5, grabbed my power frame which really helped, am doing this up to lvl 50 then will start my questing after i get most of my perk cards. By then i feel like i will be able to handle most of what they throw at me. Im now just about ready to focus on the wastelander questline. Got so bored had to start walking backwards.

[Phantom]

You want to do the settlers missions until you get the stealth suit, otherwise it will cost you a lot to get it

You can or can just ignore the raider ones they don't give you anything unique

as for leveling up the factions, it was 3ish months when wastelanders came up to max them, now its like 1.2 months to max them its basically not something you will do pre main story completion

you USED to also miss out on currency and things by not doing the main story ASAP, now you still gain stuff but can't use it until the main is done

[morikaane]

It may have been suggested, but finish the Wastelanders questlines first (once you hit level 20).

If you hit it hard, and you're decent with Fallout 4 / 76, you should be able to wrap it up and be a little shy of level 50 by the end of it. Complete both Foundation and Raider sides (you'll know what I mean when you get there) until you get to the point of no return with both before picking a side (otherwise you miss out on certain things).

Main point being, is that it'll give you -easier- access to bullion-gated armour and weapons without chasing and waiting on Minerva for deals--a lot of that gear will be useful in your post-level 50 build.