Is There a Settler Limit?

[Fear2288]

This is the first playthrough where I’m actually putting some serious attention and time into building settlements, but I’m wondering…

Is there a settler population limit?

Is there a limit to how many settlers can live in a single settlement, and is there a limit for how many settlers you can have living on your settlements in total?

As in, can you not ever have more than say - 20 - individual settlers living in a single settlement, or no more than 100 living in all of your settlements combined?

I feel like there is, kinda like how there’s a building limit to help prevent the engine from stroking out or your game turning into a slideshow when you enter a settlement that’s been built up, but I’ve never heard of it before or have any inkling of what that settler limit may be.

[RabbitRidge]

10 + your Charisma level, except for Vault 88 (an additional 10).

[Fear2288]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

10 + your Charisma level, except for Vault 88 (an additional 10).

Per settlement, yeah?

As in, if I have a charisma level of 6, I can have 16 settlers total in a single settlement?

And that would mean that the max number of settlers you can have in a single settlement (besides 88) is 20?

[RabbitRidge]

Max 22 standard (Bobblehead and You're SPECIAL if used appropriately). It may be ambiguous, but settlement defender dogs and such also count in the population total too.

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

Max 22 standard (Bobblehead and You're SPECIAL if used appropriately). It may be ambiguous, but settlement defender dogs and such also count in the population total too.

They do not count in any way, dogs are animals. They may count toward the happiness value but they aren't counted as a number on your pipboy settler.

[wtiger27]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

Max 22 standard (Bobblehead and You're SPECIAL if used appropriately). It may be ambiguous, but settlement defender dogs and such also count in the population total too.

Not the dogs.

[TheLoveMummy]

I dont go any higher than 30. Start getting weird behavior and crashes especially after waiting or sleeping. Too many ai's running in a certain area and it wrecks itself.

[RabbitRidge]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

Max 22 standard (Bobblehead and You're SPECIAL if used appropriately). It may be ambiguous, but settlement defender dogs and such also count in the population total too.

They do not count in any way, dogs are animals. They may count toward the happiness value but they aren't counted as a number on your pipboy settler.

I disagree, couldn't transfer them even just today (the possible settlement was grayed out, all others were open).

On another note, you can temporally increase Charisma (apparel and/or drugs), but I've run into issues with that in the long run.

[Fear2288]

Do companions occupy one of those 20ish spots, or are they treated as “extra” and not subject to the limit (despite still being counted in the pop #)?

[wtiger27]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

Originally posted by Zekiran:

They do not count in any way, dogs are animals. They may count toward the happiness value but they aren't counted as a number on your pipboy settler.

I disagree, couldn't transfer them even just today (the possible settlement was grayed out, all others were open).

On another note, you can temporally increase Charisma (apparel and/or drugs), but I've run into issues with that in the long run.

You can't transfer any dogs between settlements except for Dogmeat. You assign them to a settlement when you get them and that's it for them. They don't work like settlers in many ways. Unless you are using a mod?

They can add happiness and defense rating of 5. The Wolf from Far Harbor, adds defense, but not happiness. The Mutant Hound adds the most defense rating, with the exception of Gorillas. Which also add happiness.

In Sanctuary in this play run, Dogmeat is assigned there and even he does not count toward the settler number.

[wtiger27]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Do companions occupy one of those 20ish spots, or are they treated as “extra” and not subject to the limit (despite still being counted in the pop #)?

No they don't count. Test it.

[RabbitRidge]

Originally posted by wtiger27:

You can't transfer any dogs between settlements except for Dogmeat.

I bought a dog from Gene long ago, sent it to Abernathy. Later moved it to Oberland Station, no problem (took a while, but he got there). The difficulty came trying to transfer again to a max pop settlement (open to other settlements).

[RabbitRidge]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Do companions occupy one of those 20ish spots, or are they treated as “extra” and not subject to the limit (despite still being counted in the pop #)?

If a Companion, they travel with you and do not count. If dismissed and sent to a settlement, they count.

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

Originally posted by wtiger27:

You can't transfer any dogs between settlements except for Dogmeat.

I bought a dog from Gene long ago, sent it to Abernathy. Later moved it to Oberland Station, no problem (took a while, but he got there). The difficulty came trying to transfer again to a max pop settlement (open to other settlements).

That doesn't make them 'settlers'. It just means that the mechanism treats the transfer of them as such. They don't and have never count toward the settler NUMBER.

[RabbitRidge]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

That doesn't make them 'settlers'. It just means that the mechanism treats the transfer of them as such. They don't and have never count toward the settler NUMBER.

Never said they are “settlers”, just that it can be “ambiguous” regarding the population (even if it is not reflected in the Pip-Boy):

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

It may be ambiguous, but settlement defender dogs and such also count in the population total too.

[Zekiran]

They are not settlers though.

There's literally nothing about them that is 'settler that takes up a slot in your cha+10 list'. If that had EVER been true, the settlements that I've loaded with guard dogs would not have allowed even one human to be there.

They run scripts, and can slow down settlement activity because of it. They aren't counted AS settlers. "if you call a tail a leg it doesn't make the tail a leg".