*Spoilers* How Do I Save The Railroad??

[JonDiaz]

I got a quest to kill Desdemona and wipe out the Railroad. She says I need to stall the institution but the quest isn't updating... My only option seems to be to kill her. I keep running Courser quests/dead drop quests from P.A.M but I'm guessing these don't ever end. Am I bugged or is there a way for me to progress without killing her?

[Shadowrun]

unfortunately when you side with the institute or the brotherhood, sooner or later they will require you to wipe out the railroad in order to progress with their faction-sided quests

[Zekiran]

I only ever run my games using the "Spare the Railroad" mod.

Otherwise, no. Once you side with the big guns you've got to literally do mass murder regardless of what kind of person you want your character to have been up to that point...

[Shadowrun]

a spare the railroad mod you say? well ok i had to go searching and i found these

Spare Railroad When Playing As Brotherhood
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20330

Subversion - The Institute-Railroad Alliance Alternate Ending
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/50975

both of which look awesome and i'm probably gonna give them a try. id love to do a play-through where no one gets killed for a change.

[Xenon The Noble]

All factions are wicked. The Institute is pretty much "leave us alone, but we need stuff from the surface to survive". While the BoS has a "kill 'Em all, let Howard sort them out" strategy, the institute has a "kill the warmongers, replace them with one of our synths" strategy, which is more scary but also less kill-crazy.

[Shadowrun]

i'd just like to be able to progress in the game, and still have all the places alive to visit. i wanna go do some trading with the institute. and the brotherhood. and at bunker hill. and with tinker tom.

for now the solution is to not progress in the quests, just far enough to get let in, but not so much that i get to the wars.

[Zekiran]

Yeah basically. Not committing to anything is really the only way to get a satisfying 'character build' out of the game. :/

I'd give anything to be able to smack Shaun upside the head and insist that "I didn't fight a war to have you enslave our own grandchildren". But then, you know. keep the Institute and kick out the brotherhood because they're just shady as hell. :D

[DouglasGrave]

In simple terms, to spare the Railroad you have to side with them, or with the Minutemen.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Originally posted by aaron.mann:

unfortunately when you side with the institute or the brotherhood, sooner or later they will require you to wipe out the railroad in order to progress with their faction-sided quests

tbh there is a cutoff point before for both

1. institute become an enemy and then they'll not go after the RR. Then just blow them up under MM

2. Warn the RR before the BoS attack them. Glory will die but you'll be able to destroy the BoS then the institute next.

[Marquise*]

In my game she died from an Alpha Deathclaw attack on her way to the safehouse she as supposed to return after a joint mission in a subway against Synths..... soooooo errrrrgh

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by Marquise*:

In my game she died from an Alpha Deathclaw attack on her way to the safehouse she as supposed to return after a joint mission in a subway against Synths..... soooooo errrrrgh

OOOOOOPS lol

[Zantores]

There is a way.
Saw it once on some reddit thread, got it to work on my game even without any mods
So: Run through the 3 fighting factions until their quests hit a wall. Fly to Mass Fusion with the BOS. Anger robos, do BOS quests, get to Tactical Thinking.
Don't do tactical. Do Railroad, come up to the part where they attack the HQ, and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ run. Run past glory, kill nothing, touch nothing, avoid Brandis in his power armor if you rescued him, and just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ leave. Then go talk to the BOS, and they carry on as if you wiped out the Railroad.
As a side effect, if you do this right the escape tunnel is collapsed. RRHQ becomes one entrance one exit killbarrel, and you're effectively trapping the rats in their basement. But they live!
Anyways, I don't remember if there's anything else you need to do that's special to pull this off.
Try looking for reddit threads talking about "Best Ending" I think that's where I found my how-to back in the day.

[Xenon The Noble]

Why does the "best ending" always seem to end with a fuggin' nuclear explosion in the most populated part of the Commonwealth?

[Simple Kind of Man]

Originally posted by Xenon The Noble:

Why does the "best ending" always seem to end with a fuggin' nuclear explosion in the most populated part of the Commonwealth?

"fallout" is sorta in the name

[Playzr 🐵]

The only ending where you don't destroy the Railroad/BoS is the purely Minutemen ending, where you haven't helped either of them to get in their good books only to betray them. The institute is gone, Railroad and BoS are still around. They don't really want my help though by this point, but I'd like to think we're on good terms.

[globefish23]

Originally posted by Xenon The Noble:

All factions are wicked. The Institute is pretty much "leave us alone, but we need stuff from the surface to survive". While the BoS has a "kill 'Em all, let Howard sort them out" strategy, the institute has a "kill the warmongers, replace them with one of our synths" strategy, which is more scary but also less kill-crazy

What?
You are aware that the Institute kills every person that gets replaced?
Plus plenty more that were used for FEV experiments.

And then there's the Gen1 and Gen2 death squads roaming the Commonwealth, who shoot on sight and kill everyone.
Including attacks on settlements, triggered by undercover synth settlers.

Less kill-crazy my ass!