Recruiting settlers without beacons?

[JB-emmanuel-Zorg]

Is it possible to recruit a significant number of settlers (by quests? hazard meetings?) without the beacons?

[Landorien]

It depends what you mean by "significant" number. I wouldn't think it's possible. There's a few npc's that you can recruit as settlers. Examples are the vault-tec guy in goodneighbor, that Tina chick in vault 88, Sheffield in diamond city, The scribe who wanders around selling armor.

There's a random encounter where you can save settlers from an attack then you can hire them but it's a rare encounter. If you want to fill multiple settlements you don't really have a choice to use the recruitment beacon.

[The Inept European]

You can recruit an infinite number of settlers with just ONE beacon, anywhere, and keep transferring them to other settlements as they arrive.

From MM settlement quests you could get maybe 10-12 settlers, but many of those are not transferable.

The random encounter with a group of settlers is rare and I have never succeeded in keeping them alive long enough to reach a settlement. Or failing to aggro them with a stray shot.

[The Inept European]

It would be an interesting challenge to never use a beacon (or build one for the quest objective and immediately scrap it). I would guess you could get maybe around [Edit: 20-25] total settlers from quests, plus companions, but beyond that point you would be dependent on that specific random encounter for any more. Plus the 2-3 recruitable NPCs which are random encounters.

Or you could build robot "settlers" with the Automatron robot workbench.

[JB-emmanuel-Zorg]

Thanks, both, for your answer(s).

Originally posted by The Ex-ept European:

You can recruit an infinite number of settlers with just ONE beacon, anywhere, and keep transferring them to other settlements as they arrive.

Good tip!

Originally posted by The Ex-ept European:

It would be an interesting challenge to never use a beacon (or build one for the quest objective and immediately scrap it)

There is a quest which ask us to build a beacon?

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by JB-emmanuel-Zorg:

Thanks, both, for your answer(s).

You're very welcome.

Originally posted by JB-emmanuel-Zorg:

There is a quest which ask us to build a beacon?

Yes a few actually.

There is at least one MM quest in the main MM quest line that will require you to go to a settlement, clear it, and set up a beacon. So you will not be able to progress the MM quest line without doing this.

There is also an unnamed misc quest in Sanctuary that prompts you to set up a beacon. You can ignore this one but you will gain some XP if you do it.

Are you voluntarily refraining from building beacons or are you unable or unwilling to build them for some reason?

Remember, unused beacons can always be turned off using the switch on them.

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by Pharnham:

Originally posted by JB-emmanuel-Zorg:

There is a quest which ask us to build a beacon?

The "Starlight Drive-In" quest from the Minutemen.

The location can vary.

[JB-emmanuel-Zorg]

Originally posted by Pharnham:

Originally posted by JB-emmanuel-Zorg:

There is a quest which ask us to build a beacon?

The "Starlight Drive-In" quest from the Minutemen.

👌

Originally posted by The Ex-ept European:

Yes a few actually.

There is at least one MM quest in the main MM quest line that will require you to go to a settlement, clear it, and set up a beacon. So you will not be able to progress the MM quest line without doing this.

There is also an unnamed misc quest in Sanctuary that prompts you to set up a beacon. You can ignore this one but you will gain some XP if you do it.

Remember, unused beacons can always be turned off using the switch on them.

👌

Originally posted by The Ex-ept European:

Are you voluntarily refraining from building beacons or are you unable or unwilling to build them for some reason?

i'm playing veryyy slowly, i like to take my time and collect everything! (i'm playing in survival mode, so, the weight is a big parameter) So i didn't want the settlers come to my settlements too fast, and so, too fast "hard" raids (because i have the mod with possibility of settlers mortals and really need to equip/make defences), but effectively, i didn't think that, if it was too fast, i could turn off the switch to light off the recruitment beacon! 😉
PS: since yesterday, you helped me a lot, so you earned "steam reward" from me. 🤣

[The Inept European]

Your game sounds amazing - that is just how I like to play it! I'm quite jealous of you, playing for the first time. It's so cool learning the story and the game for the first time.

Well done you, playing in Survival mode. It's much more intense.

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by JB-emmanuel-Zorg:

PS: since yesterday, you helped me a lot, so you earned "steam reward" from me. 🤣

Thank you! It's a pleasure to be able to help you.

[The Inept European]

I've actually never played with Survival mode and mortal settlers together - that sounds like a really immersive game, with a great focus on challenging settlement defence.

Raising population will not increase the risk of attack directly, as each settler provides the same Defense equivalent as the food and water it consumes. But extra settlers tends to lead to excess food and water production and reserves, and this will increase the attack chance unless it is offset by increased Defense objects (turrets or manned guard posts). (Extra settlers do indirectly decrease your chance of losing an unattended settlement defence. )

Of course excess food and water is very useful, including useful for preparing your defences, so you have an intersting dilemma there. :D

PS be sure to store all excess Aid outside of the workshop!

[JB-emmanuel-Zorg]

Originally posted by The Ex-ept European:

I've actually never played with Survival mode and mortal settlers together - that sounds like a really immersive game, with a great focus on challenging settlement defence.

And for the immersion, i have the chance to play in VR, Fallout4VR, and it's... woooooow! If you can be lucky to have enough money to buy a very big config (Reverb G2 + RTX 3080, for me, and, yes, very big, becauseFO4 is not well optimized), it's really fascinating...i'm amazed every time! 😲

[serker31]

Originally posted by The Ex-ept European:

PS be sure to store all excess Aid outside of the workshop!

Excess stockpile is limited dependant on number of settlers, so it is no big deal.

There is a Minutemen quest where they ask you to help a settlement and a settler says something in line of "there is a nice place nearby, could you clear it out for us". Once you finish it, two settlers spawn there. Otherwise you have to use recruitment beacons or get ones from sources mentioned above.

P.S. If you really like to take everything that isn't nailed in all locations, you can try recruiting Strong as soon as possible. He is a bit hard to get to at start, but he can carry literal tons of stuff.

[Alucard †]

Yes beside specific named npcs some random encounters occassionally have generic settlers as recruitables.

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by serker31:

Originally posted by The Ex-ept European:

PS be sure to store all excess Aid outside of the workshop!

Excess stockpile is limited dependant on number of settlers, so it is no big deal.

If you want to ignore it, then factor in to your Defense an extra 1.0 Defense per settler, since each settler can create a maximum theoretical inventory excess of just under 10 units of food.

If you are water farming, or dumping extra Aid *into* the workshop then you definitely can't ignore it.

[matt]

Automatron, one of the DLC, has a repeatable quest that gives you free settlers if you rescue them from a robot ambush. It's a relatively quick and easy way to build up a struggling settlement.