How To Get Benevolent Leader In Fallout 4

This article is part of a directory: Fallout 4 Guide Hub: Weapons, Armor, Quest Walkthroughs, Tips, & More

Table of contents

In Fallout 4's post-apocalyptic wasteland, players not only deal with countless threats and terrifying monstrosities but also indulge in non-combative objectives like helping to rebuild settlements. The residents of these settlements will not be pleased if they are denied basic needs, and even when they do, they won't be completely happy. There are several things you can do to help boost this happiness until everyone is as delighted as can be.

Fallout 4 VS Fallout 76: Best Game To Play

Both Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 are the modern examples of Bethesda's post-apocalyptic series, but which game should players pick up first?

How to Get a Large Settlement to Maximum Happiness in Fallout 4

Obtaining the maximum amount of happiness at a settlement is a lengthy process that can take many hours, so it is best to start as early as you can and periodically build towards your goal while you make your way through the game’s story — and do its side quests. You can accomplish this task at any location, and you can have any number of settlers — so there is no need to worry if you have one of the best settlement locations in the game. This is because a large settlement is decided by the number of structures it has, not the population living there.

Happiness can be built up by understanding the points allocated to various factors. You will need to make sure each of these factors is met for each of your settlers to ensure all their basic needs are met. Afterward, you can focus on increasing their happiness further through the use of bonus points. Below are the basic needs you will need to meet:

A bed within shelter for each settler will provide 20 points (unsheltered will be half the number of points).
Enough food for each settler (1 unit each) will provide 20 points.
Enough water for each settler (1 unit each) will provide 20 points.
Enough defense for each settler (1 unit each) will provide 20 points.

This will ensure that each human settler has a happiness of 80, and each non-human settler will have a base health of 50. If you feel your settlements just aren't as secure as you want them to be, you should consider looking into some of the game's many mods — the Settlement Ambush Kit will be a particularly useful one.

This is why you should consider not using Graygarden, due to its three Mister Handy units making the task significantly harder.

Once all of your settler’s basic needs are met, it is time to increase their happiness even further. You will need to raise the amount of happiness further by 20 per human settler or 50 for the non-human ones. You can do this by bringing some animal companions to your settlement. You can get an additional 10 points for having a cat or a dog, but you will get 20 points for having a gorilla in one of your Gorilla Cages.

You can also go about giving settlers useful facilities in their settlement. One of the best ways to raise happiness is to head over to a Workshop and make some Surgery Centers. You will need to be pretty far into the game to make a whole of these and will need to get a lot of leveling up in. Building several of these will keep raising happiness higher and higher, all the way to the maximum happiness — so long as all your settlers' basic needs are met.

If you have the Vault-Tec Workshop add-on for the game, then you will also have access to several Settlement Objects you can use to boost happiness even faster. Objects to consider adding include a Soda Fountain, a Pommel Horse, a Slot Machine, and a Weight Bench.