Forget Preston! How to avoid the Minutement questline

[Darkaiser]

I recently did this on my latest playthrough. It works whether you want to play the good samaritan, the raider or whatever.

Start the game as normal. Go to COncord, talk to Preston, get the bobblehead etc. However, after you kill the Deathclaw and clear the town, simply don't go back to the museum and chat with Preston again. He and the rest of his crew are stuck there until you return.

You can still discover settlements, help them out or (after Nuka World) attack them and take them over. However no more of Preston breathing down your neck.

I have NOT played this to completion but I don't see how it can harm anything. If anyone has tried and discovered a problem please let me know.

[Skorne Tet'Zu]

I'm a bit late to the party... but needed to bring this back for a moment.

I'm considering starting a new play through... but would like to avoid the Minutemen (much like this thread is all about). Sounds simply enough, however... one thing that doesn't seem to get answered is: If I complete the TwinPines Mission... and then tell Preston I'm not interested in Joining up, will I:

A) Still be able to set up Sanctuary as a Fully Functioning Settlement?

and

B) Am I going to have to deal with Twinpines being attacked and having to come to their rescue periodically???

Oh... and on a semi-separate note: If I By-Passed Preston and Concord all together and set up settlements with the Beacon; will this give me Fully Functioning Settlement without having to deal with attacks.

I really hate having to use Fast Travel... and with the constant attacks on the settlements it's either Fast Travel or massive losses... Totally Sucks!!!

Advanced Thanx for any Help with the above.

[Skorne Tet'Zu]

+Bump

Really hoping for a response :(

[Simpson3k]

Originally posted by Savick:

You can skip Concord and the Minutemen all together just by going streight to Diamond City. Unless your are crazy for that one bobblehead. That way you don't have to deal with Preston at all.

But can you return to sanctuary hills after leaving the vault in the beginning and finish that quest without aproaching codsworth? Or finish the convo with codsworth without him sending you to concord? Otherwise..you´ll have that open quest in your log forever.

[dogg]

Settlements will fully function whether you are with the Minutemen or not, like Sanctuary, Red Rocket, others not occupied by settlers. But some won't be immediately available until you have done something for the occupants, like at Ten Pines.
If you aren't with the MM, you won't know about them needing help until physically show up at the settlement, and they ask for it.

As far as attacks go, there are a lot of threads with varied advice about them :) I usually just build lots of turrets, arm the settlers and ignore the notices, unless I'm nearby.

[Tin Can]

Originally posted by skorne_tetzu:

I'm a bit late to the party... but needed to bring this back for a moment.

I'm considering starting a new play through... but would like to avoid the Minutemen (much like this thread is all about). Sounds simply enough, however... one thing that doesn't seem to get answered is: If I complete the TwinPines Mission... and then tell Preston I'm not interested in Joining up, will I:

A) Still be able to set up Sanctuary as a Fully Functioning Settlement?

and

B) Am I going to have to deal with Twinpines being attacked and having to come to their rescue periodically???

Oh... and on a semi-separate note: If I By-Passed Preston and Concord all together and set up settlements with the Beacon; will this give me Fully Functioning Settlement without having to deal with attacks.

I really hate having to use Fast Travel... and with the constant attacks on the settlements it's either Fast Travel or massive losses... Totally Sucks!!!

Advanced Thanx for any Help with the above.

Do Condorde and set up sancturary, when Preston gives you the mission to go to Tenpines, just don't go. You will not get a notice that they are under attack until you complete thier mission. You will not get anymore missions from Preston until you complete this mission.

I play on survival and having to go back and rescue a settlement is not something I want to do.

I don't do any settlements unless I have the materials to get defense to 100, this helps alot with attacks and most of the time they are able to defend themselves against raiders, not against the robots though, esp at higher levels.

Hope this helps.

[Kalsu]

Originally posted by skorne_tetzu:

I'm a bit late to the party... but needed to bring this back for a moment.

I'm considering starting a new play through... but would like to avoid the Minutemen (much like this thread is all about). Sounds simply enough, however... one thing that doesn't seem to get answered is: If I complete the TwinPines Mission... and then tell Preston I'm not interested in Joining up, will I:

A) Still be able to set up Sanctuary as a Fully Functioning Settlement?

and

B) Am I going to have to deal with Twinpines being attacked and having to come to their rescue periodically???

Oh... and on a semi-separate note: If I By-Passed Preston and Concord all together and set up settlements with the Beacon; will this give me Fully Functioning Settlement without having to deal with attacks.

I really hate having to use Fast Travel... and with the constant attacks on the settlements it's either Fast Travel or massive losses... Totally Sucks!!!

Advanced Thanx for any Help with the above.

If you do not want to deal with attacks , do not go to concord. Don't get preston and the rest to sanctuary and you will be able to fully customize it without getting attacks.
This is the best way to do if you want to join the raiders and still have the options to go with the minuteman after you're done with them.

The quest you get from Preston that start the minuteman quest line is called The First Step and it's kinda random for the location. If you do get that quest and still want to be free from attacks simply avoid the settlement they send you to. Don't even discover it to be safe. Also any settlement you get from Dlcs quests will get attacks once you activate them so keep that in mind.

[HunterOfPinkBunnyWabbits]

I usually go straight to Sanctuary workbench from vault... I dont speak at Godsword before unlocked workbench. Then I forgot preston until I have done Nuka world,,,,

[Skorne Tet'Zu]

Thank you all... this is very helpful. I actually do want to rescue Preston and his people, and I want to get Sanctuary up and running; I just don't want to have to deal with the other settlements. (Oh... and I do want the Bobble Head; as well as ... and isn't there a Magazine up there too?). But I'll give it a shot in just not completing the Ten Pines mission (or whereever he sends me).

But again... Thank You all... very helpful!!!

[HunterOfPinkBunnyWabbits]

If you are gonna do raider play out in Nuka World, DONT TALK PRESTON, He will haunt you forever after that unless moved out other settlement

After you plant first Flag in Commonwealth (Nuka World)
- Preston will hate you, dont go near in 3 game days or he will SHOOT YOU
- Cannot be companion
- Wont get preston perk

If you do nuka world thing do you wanna be Raider forever or not

If you wannabe raider forever, deal preston, get his perk, unlock artillery and then send him away and plant first flag.

If you dont wanna be raider forever, DOnt talk preston until you are betrayed raiders.

[pedantic_roc]

Does anyone actually have any success with the artillery? I set mine up everywhere on the mainland (apart from Hangman's.) and half of the time I got ".. out of range" and the rest of the time the bombardments never killed a living thing. However, they did wreck the place by blowing up vehicles, which I'd much rather tactically blow up myself when enemies are near them. Apart from alerting enemies, by tossing a smoke signal at them, I can't help but think I must be doing somethig wrong?

[HunterOfPinkBunnyWabbits]

Have you assing settler to artillery. I have all settlements with artillery and it is FUN....
If you look this map Orange is artillery coverage
https://i.stack.imgur.com/SSCX7.png

[pedantic_roc]

Originally posted by HunterOfPinkBunnyWabbits:

Have you assing settler to artillery. I have all settlements with artillery and it is FUN....
If you look this map Orange is artillery coverage
https://i.stack.imgur.com/SSCX7.png

Lol - yeah, of course I have assigned a settler to each artillery piece. How do you think they're managing to destroy vehicles. Yep, I too had good coverage but poor results - unless you like blowing up the scenery and moveable statics that is.

Edit: It's that area just North of Goodneighbor that's lacking cover.

[HunterOfPinkBunnyWabbits]

High Sneak and no companion. That is my key to keep targets in area. Some times I drop AG directly above (I spiderman with jetback). If they see you, artillery wont hit anything. Unless there is settlement defend mission, while must carefull. must have wall that settlers wont wander artillery area :)

[Borrolan]

This time around, I spoke to Codiie then went straight to DC after visiting the Red Rocket. Went back to Sanctuary, built a settlement and set up water purifiers and food, then attracted settlers. I did this to obtain glue components and caps from water. Then I bought Home Plate.

I've spent levels 1-30 going up to the end of Arc 1 of the MQ, unlocking all the settlements that don't need MM quests or require me to babysit existing inhabitants, doing side quests and just roaming around.

What I've noticed this time is I have now masses of junk for building. It's all stored in Home Plate. I have accumulated as much junk as possible on purpose - still am. The reason is I found out, to my cost, that starting the MM quests means running around like a gerbil on speed, buying this, hunting for that and generally getting fed up with being looped into the MM quest overload. I spent ages accumulating enough oil, copper and circuitry to finish off even one settlement. Another irritation was having to defend settlements, in addition to the "we're in some real trouble here" settler whining.

I've noticed, this time around, that:

- I have no shortage of materials.

- I don't have the irritation of being FORCED to act as a roaming scrap metals merchant. Materials can be accumulated at a sensible pace.

- I have much more time to do what I want, without the nagging realisation that settler x has asked me to do whatever or Preston is waiting for me to come back, whereupon he'll dump more annoying tasks onto me.

- I don't have the horrible feeling of trepidation when I fast travel to Home Plate. When I joined the MM last time, a seriously irritating "x is under attack!" message would frequently pop up after fast traveling to HP. Aaaargh...not ANOTHER...attack. And the attacks happened regardless of defence stats. I became thoroughly brassed off with it all.

I'll possibly be using the MM for the MQ this time but only after I've played the game on my own terms, not according to Preston's bonkers requirements. Once (if baby, if...) I free Preston I'll have all the materials I need to build high quality, well defended settlements and quickly. No more having to rush around like a useful idiot, accumulating stuff to build settlements for whiny settlers who hog the work stations (that I built) when I need them, who promptly plonk their backsides onto a chair ( that I've just built) so I cannot sit and enjoy the view and...and...where's my Valium.

Loving this play through because it's on my terms. I actually have time to do what I want, WHEN I want, not what I can't avoid (paging Garvey P) Quite happy to humour Preston (maybe) after I start Arc 3 of the MQ, but I want to play F4 first.

Mutter mutter.

[pedantic_roc]

@Hunter..... yeah, I dump my companions as soon as I get their respective perks. MacCready is a pita, though. He hardly likes anything I choose, unless I act like I'm a pig ignorant, uncaring, moron. I should have whooped his @rse in Lamplight. :D