Will killing a courser kick me out of the institute?

[Blundering Rookie]

Hey guys, PAM gave me a quest to killer a courser in Poseidon Energy, but I'm also on friendly terms with the institute. Will killing him and completing PAM's quest turn the institute hostile?

[Wommy U]

probably yes

[=EGC= kansasterry]

I think there is a certain number that is required before they kick you out unless its one actually inside the institute.

[SuperSledgeNY]

As long as you're not inside the institute, you are free to kill as many as you like. If there are other synths around like when you have to kill a courser at Mahkra Fishpacking, they'll turn hostile so you'll have to kill them too, but when you go back to the Institute, everyone will still love you.

[Lady Aeleanor]

No, they won't. The game takes into consideration all the possible combinations of factions that a player may be involved with, and makes allowances for the game to flow without issues popping up. The quests each faction gives you are tailored to be possible without alienating other factions. It's only when you reach a certain point in the game, such as when you get to "The Nuclear Option", that the game will warn you that if you proceed, you will go past the point of no return, and become enemies with another faction. Side quests are always fine to proceed with.

[=EGC= kansasterry]

Originally posted by SuperSledgeNY:

As long as you're not inside the institute, you are free to kill as many as you like. If there are other synths around like when you have to kill a courser at Mahkra Fishpacking, they'll turn hostile so you'll have to kill them too, but when you go back to the Institute, everyone will still love you.

I think the idea is you got rid of all the witnesses so they do not know you did it. unlike everywhere else where they just know even when no one else was around.

[SuperSledgeNY]

Originally posted by =EGC= kansasterry:

Originally posted by SuperSledgeNY:

As long as you're not inside the institute, you are free to kill as many as you like. If there are other synths around like when you have to kill a courser at Mahkra Fishpacking, they'll turn hostile so you'll have to kill them too, but when you go back to the Institute, everyone will still love you.

I think the idea is you got rid of all the witnesses so they do not know you did it. unlike everywhere else where they just know even when no one else was around.

As long as you're not inside the Institute, the eyewitnesses have nothing to do with it. You can kill the courser, run away and the witnesses won't snitch on you. If you wait a few in game days, they won't even be hostile any more.

[kharille]

I thought it was easy to kill them and get away with it. Usually finish them off with 2-3 head hits at most. I suppose it gets complicated if they manage to summon some synth reinforcements.

[Death Approaches]

No. "Variable Removal" is a radiant quest and has no consequences other than passing it when it's completed... if you don't kill the courser, it stays on your quest list indefinitely. This is one of the reasons Preston was universally hated in the early days, newbies didn't know they didn't need to keep doing the same Minutemen radiants over and over and over...

Witnesses don't matter, this isn't Skyrim. Kill them all if you want to. Get some synth grenades and summon your own, then murder them too, nothing matters. They'll all go hostile immediately, of course. But that's expected when you shoot them. No alignment no faction penalty.

Whether you kill everything in the building, or stealthboy right up to the courser, outcome is the same. Completed. Rinse/repeat. FOREVER. No consequences.

[=EGC= kansasterry]

Originally posted by SuperSledgeNY:

As long as you're not inside the institute, you are free to kill as many as you like. If there are other synths around like when you have to kill a courser at Mahkra Fishpacking, they'll turn hostile so you'll have to kill them too, but when you go back to the Institute, everyone will still love you.

I was apparently thinking of that other quest at bunker hill where it actually counts how many allies we kill and does something if the count goes above a certain number.

The radiant quests and places in the wild we run into synths do not seem to have any effect on our standing with the institute.