Summary
- Fallout 4 features unique and populated locations within the Commonwealth for players to explore and interact with.
- Key settlements like Diamond City, The Institute, and Nuka-World offer valuable loot and engaging quests for players.
- Each location, from Sanctuary Hills to Goodneighbor, provides a different atmosphere and challenges for players to navigate.
While the Boston Commonwealth isn’t nearly as populated as it once was, Fallout 4 has a handful of locations that are home to a decent number of citizens struggling to survive in the wasteland. These areas are typically the ones players want to go to for safety, supplies, and someone relatively sane to talk to or get quests from.
While none of these locations are as huge as cities in other open-world RPGs, they are the largest cities that can be found in the Commonwealth. While there are many unnamed NPCs living in areas like the Institute and Diamond City, Bethesda has included a relatively large number of named characters that live in these post-apocalyptic cities.
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Updated September 5, 2024, by Matthew Weideman: Fallout 4 remains a popular game in the wake of the Amazon Prime Fallout show. Players revisiting the game after many years may want a refresher on where to find the relatively few population centers spread out across the Commonwealth. This list has been updated to include some of the larger settlements that players can build as part of the Minuteman quest line, since they can easily surpass the population of many of the smaller pre-existing settlements throughout the Commonwealth.
18 Vault 88
NPC Population: 4 Named NPCs + Recruited Settlers
- Southeastern part of the map
Vault 88 was still under construction when the Great War broke out. The entrance to the cavern that was designed to become the Vault's atrium caved in, and the Overseer was trapped alone for over two centuries. The Sole Survivor is the first person to enter the Vault since October 2077.
After freeing the Overseer, who survived because she became a ghoul, the player can work with her to run experiments on NPCs that volunteer to join the Vault as a settlement. The player can also explore the cavern and expand the Vault.
Valuable Loot:
- X-cell: Near the stairwell in the northeast corridor
- Vault-Tec Control Board: Security Chief Anderson in the reactor control room
- Pip-Boys and Vault-Tec Jumpsuits: In the trunk right of the entrance
17 Warwick Homestead
NPC Population: 6
- Southeastern corner of the map, east of Quincy
The settlement known as Warwick Homestead was a water treatment plant before the Great War. After a couple of centuries, some people settled there and created a thriving farm, since they were able to trade with the nearby Atom Cats.
It was also a point of interest for the Institute's plan to investigate the surface world, since they replaced Roger Warwick with a synth in order to experiment with growing crops in the irradiated world above their underground city. This synth, along with the family of the man he replaced, live in the homestead along with a couple of other settlers.
Valuable Loot:
- Mini Nuke: In the northwestern building
- Two Vault-Tec lunchboxes: On the boat and in the service room in the elevated walkway
- Goodybe letter: With Bill Sutton
16 Atom Cats' Garage
NPC Population: 6
- Southeastern corner of the map on the coast
The Atom Cats are a minor faction that live in a Red Rocket Station on a peninsula near Quincy. They are greasers who love to paint and modify power armor instead of hot rods. The player can join them by helping the small gang defend their garage and their beloved armor from an assault by The Gunners.
One of the Atom Cats, Rowdy, is a merchant who specializes in power armor. This unique settlement cannot be settled by the Minutemen, but it does serve as a great base to this small yet unique faction in an otherwise hostile area of the Commonwealth.
Valuable Loot:
- Unarmed bobblehead: In the main building, sitting on the hood of a car
- Atom Cats custom paint job: Purchased from Rusty
- Fusion core: Generator next to the main building
- Hot Rodder Issue #2: In the trailer with the pink flamingos out front
15 Graygarden
NPC Population: 6 + Recruited Settlers
- Western side of the map, southeast of Beantown Brewery
Graygarden is a greenhouse that was put up just a few days before the Great War broke out. A senior RobCo engineer named Edward Gray built it to be a self-sufficient farm tended to by a handful of Mister Handy robots. They used water from the Weston Water Treatment Plant for growing their mutfruits until it became infested with mirelurks and broke down.
By clearing out the mirelurks and fixing the water plant, the Sole Survivor can convince the robotos to join the Minutemen. After that, the player can build structures, recruit settlers, and build up Graygarden's defenses.
Valuable Loot:
- Ammo boxes: Inside a crashed Vertibird on the highway above Graygarden
14 The Slog
NPC Population: Up To 8 Recruited Settlers
- North side of the map, south of Parsons State Insane Asylum
The Slog is an abandoned public swimming pool that became one of the two settlements founded specifically for ghouls to live in across the Commonwealth. While it is smaller than Goodneighbor, it can grow thanks to the Sole Survivor and the Minutemen, since it can become one of the many settlements where the player can build and recruit NPCs.
Before joining the Minutemen, there are eight ghouls living in the Slog. They use the swimming pool as a bog to grow tarberries, and brag about it being the only tarberry bog in the whole Commonwealth. The player can assign any settler NPC to live here, but it can be fun to keep in line with the original goals and only assign ghouls like the Vault-Tec Salesman to join up.
Valuable Loot:
- Snack bar note: Inside the locked snack bar on the counter
13 The Castle
NPC Population: Up to 8
- On the coast east of Gwinnett Brewery
The Castle has seen more than its fair share of war. It was originally built to protect Boston's harbor during the Colonial era, and was known as both Fort Adams and Fort Independence before the bombs fell. After the Great War, it was used as a main base for the Minutemen until a Mirelurk Queen partially destroyed its walls and killed many of the faction's leaders.
Forty-seven years later, during Fallout 4, the Sole Survivor can retake The Castle for the Minutemen and reestablish it as a huge base of operations for them. Once the Mirelurk Queen has been killed, the Sole Survivor can use the radio antennae to attract people to the base and recruit them to the Minutemen's cause. With its strong walls and position on the coast, it makes for a very defensive settlement that can grow easily to large numbers of residents.
Valuable Loot:
- Guns and Bullets #8: In the courtyard on top of the operator's desk
- Fat Man & Mini Nuke: In the armory, after the Old Guns Quest
- Two Stealth Boys: In the armory, after the Old Guns Quest
12 The Crater Of Atom
NPC Population: 8
- Southwest corner of map in the Glowing Sea
The Glowing Sea is a heavily-irradiated area in the southwestern part of Fallout 4's map. It is extremely dangerous to come here without a hazmat suit, power armor, or large stockpile of Rad-X and Radaway. At the heart of this region sits The Crater of Atom, which was formed by the nuclear explosion that the player witnesses at the beginning of the game. A minor faction called The Church of the Children of Atom has taken up residence in some shacks built in the crater's center.
Players can hear unique dialog with the NPCs here if they have joined the faction in the Far Harbor DLC. Players can trade with Brother Ogden, and they can remove some radiation simply by talking with Mother Isolde. It is a risky trek to reach this remote area, and the ambient radiation is so harsh that players cannot advance time by sitting and waiting on furniture. This is truly the harshest settlement in the game.
Valuable Loot
- Astoundingly Awesome Tales #13: Second floor of Mother Isolde's shack
11 Covenant
NPC Population: 10
- North side of the map near the center
The Covenant is a small community that has done surprisingly well for itself and built some impressive defenses. The ten residents that call this community home live in pre-war homes that have remained standing and are comfortable behind their large walls manned by turrets.
If players wish to enter this community, they must first take a psychological survey to prove they aren’t a synth. Those who fail the test suffer an unfortunate fate, as players find out when completing the quest Human Error.
Valuable Loot:
- Power Armor: Head to the wrecked Vertibird to find this suit.
- Justice: Penny Fitzgerald is selling this shotgun with unique properties.
- Destroyer's Helmet: Also bought from Penny Fitzgerald, part of a unique armor set.
10 Acadia
NPC Population: 12
- At the top of the mountain in the Far Harbor DLC
Found in the Far Harbor add-on, Acadia was once an observatory that has since been converted into a safe haven for synths who have escaped The Institute. The residents are a mix of humans, synths, and humans who think they are synths.
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It’s a relatively quiet place to live on top of a small mountain on the island that is free of the fog that plagues the rest of the area. The player can complete a number of interesting quests that can help or harm the residents found here.
Valuable Loot:
- Islander's Almanac #4 – Middle level, head over to Dejen to find it by his store.
- Sergeant Ash – Buy this flamer weapon from Dejen with unique perks.
- Old Reliable – Also from Dejen, this rifle comes with unique perks.
- Mini nukes (3) & fusion cores (3) – Lowest floor, locked up behind a maglock door that requires the player to hack a Master-level terminal.
9 Far Harbor
NPC Population: 13
- East side of Far Harbor DLC area
The largest city that can be found on Mount Desert Island, Far Harbor is home to humans who are desperately trying to keep themselves safe from the ever-present fog that covers the island and corrupts those who wander into it.
These hearty fishermen don’t take kindly to strangers and have been at war with the Children Of Atom who’ve developed an obsession with the fog. Players can improve the town’s defenses, solve many of the mysteries in the area and even become the new captain by completing the various quests found here.
Valuable Loot:
- Various quest-related items, including Defender's Harpoon Gun (Hull Breach 3), Bloodletter (Blood Tide), The Captain's Hat and The Captain's Feast (Rite of Passage), and Lucky Eddy (The Way Life Should Be).