Invest in Intelligence and Charisma
Before you start your epic crafting journey in the Wasteland of Fallout 4, you really should consider investing your points in some perks that will make your experience a lot smoother down the line. First up, consider investing five points in Intelligence. This will allow you to salvage uncommon parts whenever you take apart your weapons and armor. Considering that there are tons of items that require uncommon parts to craft, including defense turrets, this can be pretty useful. When your character gets up to level 23 and above, you’ll start salvaging rare parts from dismantled gear, too.
Aside from Intelligence, Charisma could be a good place to pour some points into, as well. The Local Leader perk will unlock various new trade routes and schematics for you to explore as your character levels up. You can grab this perk after investing six points in Charisma. Placing points in the Local Leader perk will also allow you to invest in shops for your base.
Start the Sanctuary Mission
The crafting experience in Fallout 4 can get a little overwhelming, and there isn’t exactly a friendly in-game tutorial to hold your hand. As soon as the game starts, definitely do the Concord mission and join the Minutemen and settlers in Sanctuary. Here, you’ll receive a new quest from one of the settlers to rebuild Sanctuary.
Take a look at the workshop menu and get acquainted with the various subsections. You can craft furniture, food and water sources, and defense mechanisms.
This is a good time to start hoarding every single little thing you see out in the Wasteland. Tato plants? Grab it? Hubflower? Hoard all of that stuff. Keep looting areas you come across and take apart any gear you don’t need to gather resources.
Keep Your Settlers Happy
The key to making your settlers happy is ensuring that you never have a shortage of resources. Make sure you always have enough food and water for everyone, and more importantly, beds for them to rest their heads. If you have the time, tidying up the base and making it more aesthetically pleasing will also help to cheer them up.
If you have the Local Leader perk, consider investing in some shops to be set up around the area to boost that happiness level, as well. Not only will retail therapy help to keep your people happy, they also provide income over time.
Expand Your Reach
If you finished the Concord mission and met up with the settlers back at Sanctuary, Preston will give you a few extra missions that involve you trying to recruit more Minutemen and expanding your base. I recommend doing this as it will get you acquainted with combat in Fallout 4, and also help you get accustomed to establishing new settlements.
After securing a new settlement, you can also deploy a radio recruitment beacon to attract more people. However, do note that deploying a beacon requires one Power, so be sure to keep those generators running.
Defend Your Bases
Building new settlements and keeping your people happy is pretty much pointless if you can’t protect them. After ensuring that there’s enough food and water for everyone, be sure to bolster your base’s defense. You can set up turrets, guard posts, and traps around the area to keep it secure. Do note that you’ll also need to assign settlers to man the turrets and guard posts in order for them to be effective.
I recommend building about two defense mechanisms around each entry point in the base, just so you have all the weak spots covered. You will also be alerted whenever raiders attack your base, so be sure to fast travel back to the settlement via the Pip-Boy every time you get a notification like this.
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