Best Ending - [a] 3 friendly factions + [b] legendary completion loot...

[oripash]

So, by my reckoning, to qualify for a "Best Ending", you'd need to get the most of four things:
a. Stay friendly with 3 factions, all of which survive, after the ending.
b. Get whatever unique legendary loot you can.
c. Get an opportunity to get all companion perks.
d. Get as far down all quest lines as possible.

The popular "yardstick" method is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUFEeYdQnVc&t=6s
However, note that
a. It doesn't get you Danse or X8-66 companion perks.
b. It finishes the game with the Minutemen, which means zilch cool legendary loot at the end.
c. It cuts off nearly half the BOS and Institute questlines.
d. It omits the minor detail about doing Nuka World before the museum in Concord, so as to not end up with a permanently hostile Preston.

This really helps think about it: https://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/fallout-4-mission-tree.png

What I've done is a variant of it, but which
a. stays with Institute/Railroad questline as far in as possible, and if you want to finish with them, has a spin-off point which gives you maximal progress with all other factions.
b. If you choose to go with BOS/MM, plays out both of these quest lines to the very very end of both before needing to pick one variant of "The Nuclear Option".
c. You get all companion perks.
d. One of these two options - namely, the BOS questline (with Tactical Thinking skipped) allows you to both end up with 3 friendly factions, AND get a bunch of legendary goodies from completing with BOS rather than Minutemen.

Here goes. Beware tons of spoilers.

a. Before starting following the video above, I delay the museum and meeting Preston for the first time off until after levelling a bit and doing Nuka World. This allows integrating the best outcome from Nuka World (helping 2 raider tribes) BEFORE meeting Preston, is the only way to get the Nuka completion perks and not alienating Preston, and once all is said and done there, gets Preston to ALSO give you the quest to destroy them all, letting you eat the cake and have it too. But you have to meet him only after you've done the raider stuff. After raiders, Preston is ok to start with.
Now, per the youtube linked above, do Cambridge Police BOS quests and The Lost Patrol (I prefer checking the lost patrol in to Kells later, as I find his reward for this mission more meaningful), and get into the institute using minutemen, but DO NOT get banished. Instead, get Synth Retention to start and leave the institute.
b. Complete BOS main/side quests up until the last step of Blind Betrayal (talking to Maxson in the Prydwen), but do not check that in. Make sure you ask for the network scanner back from Ingram (or pickpocket if off her) as you'll still want to give it to Sturges.
c. Do Minutemen quests until completion of Old Guns.
d. Do Railroad quests until Underground Undercover. Finish all the side quests (some have to be done ~6-12 times before running out), as they will fail after the ending if you haven't. Make sure you don't kill any Synths, except for reverse-pickpocketing grenades into the pants of specific mission targets and running away without killing all the rest.
e. Do Institute quests until Mass Fusion, taking care not to kill anyone in Bunker Hill except for the courser , into whose pants you need to sneak a grenade (everyone will be friendly but busy trying to massacre each other). also, I'm not sure if allowing the courser to take back the synth in "Synth Retention" is an issue with the Railroad, I sneak-sniped the synth dead instead of letting it get captured alive just to make sure. Do X8-66 and get his companion perk, because you may be about to lose him. In parallel, push through the Railroad Underground Undercover quest until "keep helping father" stage.

Intermission + Commentary.
-- at this point, you've done about 90% of the main questline without alienating anyone --

The only thing you're "locked out of" at this point is one item called "Liam's Glasses" (+2INT, -1CHA eyewear), which is a reward for one institute side-mission that no longer starts (in step [e] above), which you forfeited when you completed Tradecraft in step [d]. The reason we did this is access to Ballistic Weave mod for clothing, irrespective of which faction you will later side with. You can still get +1 INT glasses by sniping a guy from a distance that randomly gets it at the Charles View Amphitheater. You can complete the other institute side-missions and radiant quests at this point. Doing so with X8-66 in tow helps level him up quicker.
End Intermission + Commentary. Let's keep going.

f. You can now wrap it up, or continue. You can either:

f1. Do the last 3 missions with the Institute/Railroad questline, which will force enmity with the BOS and split between Institute/RR at End of the Line, forcing you at that point to side with either the Institute or the Railroad...
Both ways you get an opportunity to fight Maxson and get his unique gatling.

If you side with the Institute, you'll get institute armor paint for X01 armor that gives +1 INT (make sure to finish levelling up Deacon and get his companion perk before you do) and the only BOS Elder painted T60 armor suit in the game.
If you side with the railroad, Railroad guns with legendary prefixes will start popping up on legendary drops, and you'll also get Maxson's Battlecoat.

I'm not sure what other goodies come with the various endings.
... or ...
f2. ... But we want to keep 3 factions friendly at the end, right? So we bid our farewell to the Institute/RR questlines, and keep going down the BOS/Minutemen branch.

g. The two ways here are either
g1. decide on MM from the get-go, forfeit the last few BOS quests, get banished WITHOUT telling the BOS about the Berillium Agitator (to do this, go the Institute and murder somebody named), and this way you get to keep X8-66 as a companion after the ending.
Or,
g2. you can forfeit X8-66 (who will go hostile once you do Spoils of War), and keep completing both BOS and MM questlines until the very bitter end (when you have to choose which version of "Nuclear Option" to start, and pick only at the last minute. Here's how:

h. Presuming you went with g2, tell Ingram about Mass Fusion (starting Spoils of War without having to do pre-requisite quests like "Tactical Thinking").
Note this HAS to be done BEFORE you check in the final chat with Maxson to complete "Blind Betrayal", otherwise This won't work and you have to go kill the railroad.
After speaking with Ingram, Don't board the vertibird yet.

i. NOW have the last conversation with Maxson to complete Blind Betrayal (which will free up Danse as a companion and unlock his ability to reach maximal affinity and give you a companion perk. It will also start the undesired quest Tactical Thinking, a quest that will make the railroad an enemy if you run with it, which you won't, and is a pre-requisite for "the normal way" of getting Spoils of War.
... but which you now conveniently don't need to complete, because you already started Spoils of War the roundabout way in the previous step :)). It will also lock P.A.M. Up forever, so make sure you’ve completed the three-jackpot cache semi-radiant quests and if you wish her courser killing (courser-uniform-farming) radiant quests first.

This is the critical order swap that paves the way to a BOS ending with 3-way-peace.

j. Board the Vertibird.
The institute will become hostile, the Institute/RR questlines will fail, and you get to do Mass Fusion. Though I rarely use powerarmor, I'd bring powerarmor with a Jetpack, 4+ cores and heaps of nuka-cola and jet, and grab the freefall legs as well as the STR bobblehead while I'm there.

k. Once you're done and walk out of the building, teleport to the institute, finish all the short in-between quests ("Banished from the Institute", grab Preston, do "Burning Cover", and if your settlement count is still below 8, you'll need to also do "Form Ranks").

l. Get Defend the Castle to start. Run away from the Castle, swim to the airport, and have a quick word with Ingram to finish Spoils of War, starting Ad Victoriam and setting out Liberty Prime on his utterly hilarious extremist-version-of-cold-war-propaganda-spewing morning stroll.

m. Choice time. Now it's up to you who to run with.

m1. For Minutemen ending 3-way peace, leave Liberty Prime be, head back to the castle to defend it, and The Nuclear Option (MM) will start automatically once the waves of baddies counter reaches 100% (you don't need to check in "Defend the Castle" for it to start, it will start before DtC ends) and once the Nuclear Option starts, it will immediately fail the parallel BOS quest - Ad Victoriam.
Or
m2. For BOS ending 3-way peace, Hang out with the BOS kids to see it through to becoming a BOS sentinel.
Stick to Liberty Prime to "defend it" (it doesn't really need defending), and once all is said and done and it puts a hole in the ground at CIT, "Defend the Castle" will gracefully complete - but without starting The Nuclear Option (MM).
Jumping in the hole will start The Nuclear Option (BOS). Note that while you get to hang out with Maxson and his chummy gatling, you can harm him all you like without repercussions or hostility (and eventually when his health is low he sits down), but he cannot be♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥off to the point of becoming hostile, killed or disarmed (I tried for a long while with a ripper/curved-blade-mod (mod gives chance of disarm) + Big Leagues 2 perk (also gives chance of disarm), but he never drops the darn thing. If you know how to get it from him, tell me. I want that gatling and this is my choice ending. You can't seem to be able to pry that gun away from him during this quest.

n. That's it. Decision making over. Keep killing♥♥♥♥♥♥until the game ends.

In summary:
Minutemen option - Institute destroyed, 3 friendly factions at the end.
BOS option - also works, with 3 friendlyish factions at the end (Sort of. None are hostile, and you can keep helping BOS/RR kill each other).
RR option - BOS and Institute destroyed, 2 friendly factions left at end.
Institute - RR and BOS destroyed, 2 friendly factions left at end.

Re loot, there's two separate lists here, and it helps keeping them separate because the former doesn't drive which faction you need to finish the game with.

The first list is partially restricted stuff you can mostly get without committing yourself to finishing with that faction, such as:
* Railroad: Ballistic Weave (after completing a few missions for P.A.M)
* Railroad: Institute Killer Weave (after completing some Randolph missions)
* Institute: "Liam's Glasses" (Side-mission for the institute, not available if Tradecraft completed)
* BOS: "Honor" legendary/unique T60 piece
* BOS: "Visionary's Helmet" legendary/unique T60 piece
* BOS: "Survivor's Special" unique weapon
... all available well ahead of endgame in the storyline ...

The second list is what you get (or can get, if you try) by completing the game with a specific faction:

BOS:
- "Vengeance" - Punishing legendary effect and the only legendary T60 right leg mod in the game
- BOS Sentinel T60 paint.
- A plasma gun with an instigating (x2 damage if target at full health) legendary effect
- Vertibird travel stays available.

Institute:
- the institute X01 paint mod giving +1 INT - if you finish with Institute.
- The only place in the game to access a T60 armor with the BOS elder paint mod (during "Airship Down"). You can't actually apply the mod, you just get a once-off set of armor pieces with it.
- Final Judgement (unique gatling laser)
- On the travel up-side/down-side, you get to keep the only fast-travel option in Survival (to the Institute, and from there out to the CIT ruins, conveniently positioned in the center of the map), but you lose vertibird travel (unless you know something I don't), which kinda matters in Survival as barring Institute-bound fast-travel, it's the fastest way to cross the map.

Railroad:
- Final Judgement (unique gatling laser)
- Maxson's battlecoat
- Legendary prefix Railroad guns start appearing on legendary drops - if you complete the main quest with the railroad.
- RR vertibird travel becomes available.

Minutemen:
- Nothing. Nil. Zip. Disappointment in a cup.
- If you didn't kill the BOS, you can travel in BOS vertibirds. If you did, you can travel in captured MinuteMen ones.

So my conclusion is the best ending is BOS, the only ending that promotes you to Sentinel (and offers some unique Sentinel goodies), keep 3 factions alive, vertibird travel remains (Institute Fast Travel sadly doesn't), and you end up with access to ALL companion perks :)

After you're all done saving all 3 factions, you still have an option to pursue the faction culling quests as they're still available.

- You can talk to Kells to progress "Tactical Thinking" and cause the destruction of the Railroad
or
- You can shoot Kells to initiate a war with the Brotherhood, and follow the "With Our Powers Combined" and subsequent "Defend the Castle" (from BoS vertibirds) minutement quests to shoot the Prydwen down with artillery.
or
- You can first destroy the railroad, THEN also destroy BoS.

I don't know if there's any particular benefit to doing either.

[Charlemagne]

Interesting, and it is a valid path, however it keeps on being too complex. Frankly, the game gives you a deluge of stuff and missing on a couple of items that you will probably never use isn't critical. What one looks for in a "good ending" is having 3 factions survive and continue to be friendly to you and neutral to each other. And from roleplay point of view, not having to backstab any of your friends. So you can still enjoy being around them, getting radiant quests and being whatever title you achieved with each (general, paladin, agent etc.)

I've found these guidelines to be the best and it is easy to learn even becomes second nature if you're into it, not needing complex "do this then do that" instructions.

1) Do all main Minutemen quests.
2) Do Railroad until you can't anymore. Some missions may be interrupted if you have reached a certain point in the Main Quest, like having received the schematics to get into the Institute, because Desdemona won’t want to talk of anything else and you can’t turn in missions like Randolph Safe House to her until getting into the Institute is done, which you may not want to do yet.
3) Do Brotherhood up to "Show No Mercy".
4) Enter the Institute by giving plans for teleporter to the Minutemen. (Note, entering the Institute before being friendly with BoS and RR by doing the previous steps will result in them banning you).
5) Give Holotape to Minutemen.
6) Check in with Brotherhood, Maxson will be disappointed you went to Minutemen instead of Brotherhood but you can go back to Sturges and get a copy of the holotape and make both factions happy with you, this unlocks more Brotherhood quests.
7) Do Brotherhood up to but not doing Tactical Thinking, PAM will go into Shutdown mode but, at this point, everyone is still friendly and trying to kill each other. Stop here.
8) Go back to Railroad, say you'll join their side over the Minutemen, do their quests up to but not doing Underground Undercover, stop here.
9) Go to Institute, do quests up to Bunker Hill. Right after going to Bunker Hill, immediately kill the courser. Battle will start, game will tell you to meet your son on the rooftops of CIT. Check in on Synths first, they will say they will leave as soon as you do.
10) Go to Rooftops, be honest that you let the Synths go because it was 'the right thing to do'. You will be banned from the Institute. (Note, you can seek Father’s forgiveness which will result in you being able to do a few more missions in the Institute, but stop before doing any mission involving attacks on the other factions. Being honest is the cleanest option, the other way you will need to kill someone inside, and from a roleplay point of view is also more treasonous as Father will have named you his 2nd in command).
11) Go back to Desdemona, tell her you got kicked out of the institute and now the Railroad has no choice but to rely on the Minutemen
12) Talk to Preston, starts Defend The Castle, and just follow the Minutemen quests toward the ending from there. Make sure to sound the alarm during Nuclear Option, or RR will become hostile.

[oripash]

It ends up being more or less the same ending when all 3 factions survive.
All 3 are friendly etc.
The conversation options are different in the Brotherhood, depending on whether they were the ones who pulled it off or the Minutemen were. If the latter, there's some interesting scripted dialogue where various named (and unnamed) members express their opinion. It's almost pure rp stuff, except for one tangible difference - if you finish with the BOS, you're promoted to a Sentinel and are treated as such. Which I like.

Otherwise, in both BOS and MM ending, all 3 factions keep putting radiant and side quests on you.

As for inter-faction conflict, it's not real conflict, BOS paladins and RR agents aren't battling it out in the streets. It's just a buggy (or, more to the point, not perfectly worked out) scripted story/quest order, and is sort of a mess in all 3-friendly-factions-ending variants. They simply didn't bother putting a lot of QA into that bit.

In the case of most Minutemen-based guides, you either didn't reach Tactical Thinking at all and never will (ergo Kells isn't sending you off to kill the RR) - this is the case in the youtube video - Danse is on the Prydwen in his old armor, which tells a tale of "never got this companion's perk" woes - or, the other possibility, is that you did advance down and trigger Tactical Thinking, and the guides (including mine above) simply instruct you to avoid Kells.
There shouldn't be any other missions from him at this stage, you presumably took all his side missions and did them while or before you were doing Blind Betrayal. Another similar example is PAM, where some guides tell you not to talk to her anymore.
Both Kells and PAM can have their non-radiant (and radiant) quests done prior to the point in the story where they become sensitive objects to touch.

Otherwise - it's all pretty much the same.

I agree about the legendary/unique items. Compared to my real set of weapons (all of which say Junkie's and carry a +180% damage bonus with no recoil penalty), everything you get from these quests is fairly mediocre (the Survivor's Special being a single exception - I'm irradiated to 75% and that's the only rifle in the game whose damage scales with how irradiated your rad junkie is, but that weapon too fades when compared to a Junkie Laser, or better yet, a Junkie Assault Rifle (which I still didn't find).

And yes, I wear the cost of extreme addiction - -5STR, -7AGI, -2INT, -1END, -4CHA, -20DR (and who cares about PER and LCK) proudly :). The weapon damage makes it all worthwhile.

[Charlemagne]

Yes I agree you can finish the thing with BoS and it ends pretty much the same, and as you point out being a sentinel beats nothing gained with MM. I've always done it MM but I guess I'll go with BoS next time.

[oripash]

A thought, re pinching Maxson's gatling in Ad Victoriam, when an option still exists to go in with him, or run back to the Castle and complete the MM Nuclear Option...

oripash původně napsal:

Note that while you get to hang out with Maxson and his chummy gatling, you can harm him all you like without repercussions or hostility (and eventually when his health is low he sits down), but he cannot be♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥off to the point of becoming hostile, killed or disarmed (I tried for a long while with a ripper/curved-blade-mod (mod gives chance of disarm) + Big Leagues 2 perk (also gives chance of disarm), but he never drops the darn thing. If you know how to get it from him, tell me. I want that gatling and this is my choice ending. You can't seem to be able to pry that gun away from him during this quest.

So, I'm going to go test what happens if you meet Gatling-Toting-Maxson at the CIT with Danse as your companion, before Liberty Prime blows a hole in the ground and completes the mission, and while both BOS and MM Nuclear Options are still available, again, to disarm Maxson with a ripper or otherwise tickle him up.
One theory:
- BOS Hostility will be temporary until you go away and get rid of Danse.
- Maxson will be marked essential.
(unless)
Second theory:
- BOS will become perma-enemies and Maxson will be marked non-essential, leaving you with the Minutemen ending (and possibly triggering "With Our Powers Combined").
Third (very unlikely) theory:
- BOS Hostility will be temporary until you go away and get rid of Danse.
- Maxson will be unmarked essential and will become killable.
Fourth theory:
- BOS won't go hostile at all, or only some members will go hostile.

Checked.
Danse leaves your party and goes back to a settlement the moment you approach CIT.

BoS members including liberty prime start shooting hin, but for the most part (meaning random ones yes due to Danse being around but Masson no) don’t go hostile on you.

Also tried disarming maxson with a pistol/gunslinger5 and with a pipe wrench+hook. Nada.

Interestingly, by applying this kind of protection against story breakage, it means Bethesda doesn’t see players pursuing bos quests out of order a bug/glitch, as they haven’t taken steps to prevent this order, rather preferring a “send him home at that point” style protection.. suggesting perhaps they see it as a legitimate story course.

[Rabidnid]

My good ending is nuking the Institute and the BOS.

[oripash]

Rabidnid původně napsal:

My good ending is nuking the Institute and the BOS.

Yes, but milking a Sentinel promotion and the BOS's unique items out of them first feels far more satisfying and reduces the FOMO factor :)

[Lionshare]

This is great Thanks :)

[Terrible]

thanks a lot

[darinbob]

I dont' consider getting legendary loot important for a "best ending",