Different Settlement Leader Builds?

[glittma]

I'm interested in characters who specialize in settlement building.

I take it that I want high Charisma, Gun Nut, Science, Local Leader, Cap Collector, Medic and Armorer. Are there other important skills? Barter?

Are all good settlement leader builds going to play much the same? Are they all essentially alike? Or are there significantly different ways that you can build an effective settlement leader?

[matt]

With intelligence 6 and charisma 6, you'll have access to all the settlement management perks. With intelligence 8 and strength 4, you'll also be able to make any robot.

You don't have to take Local Leader to have functional settlements, but it definitely helps. If you're interested in getting the achievement for maximum settlement happiness, you'll definitely want Local Leader.

You need Cap Collector and Medic to unlock all the stores. However, Cap Collector is only required for tier 3 stores, so you don't need it right away.

You need Gun Nut to unlock some settlement objects, such as ammunition plants (from the Contraptions DLC) and many turrets. Turrets are powerful and cost effective, so if you take this perk, you should take it early on.

Scrapper is a useful perk, especially for newer players. It will highlight useful junk items and give you additional components when you scrap stuff. However, I generally don't have a problem keeping my workshops supplied with components.

Science is certainly one of the more useful perks to have in building settlements, but you can get by without it. The problem is that you'll be stuck with mid-tier solutions in a few places, such as generators.

For what it's worth, I got Benevolent Leader without taking Science or Scrapper. Armorer is useful for certain things tangentially related to settlements, such as building robots and giving yourself increased carry weight. But I don't think any settlement object requires that perk.