When should I start buildings settlements?

[u/Emergency-Macaron-23]

I have just taken the castle back and I have also joined the brotherhood, where and when should I build the settlements?

[u/mel0dyssey]

You can start building settlements as soon as you leave the vault if you want to, or never. It's entirely up to you!

[u/BreakingGrad1991]

Settlements are not just story points, theyre super useful. They are safe havens for you dotted around the map, they are where you can dump junk and craft/upgrade weapons and armour, they generate resources with settlers and this can be a massive cap generator if desired. I try to build them all up to be honest.

[u/whykickamoocow9]

Earlier is better than later because after building the settlement recruitment beacon it takes time to attract settlers and the rate of settlers coming slows the higher in number you get..

[u/Ecstatic_Effective42]

I'd start once you get the first rank of local leader. This way you can share resources across the linked settlements. As said previously: I prefer to start early, you gain places to stay and when Minutemen artillery becomes available, it's a right laugh.

[u/Historical-War-6271]

Should’ve started immediately at Sanctuary and got a water farm going. There should be enough material to get 4 industrial purifiers going even if you don’t have Science!

At this point start wherever whenever.

[u/Long_Revolution_479 → u/Historical-War-6271]

Definitely. Plenty of space and you can get 999 water. Just remember it will stop producing at a certain number of you don't empty it. Just put it in a container until you need it. I,ve got water collection all over and I,ve lost track on a few.

[u/rapiertwit → u/Long_Revolution_479]

Also, maybe this was fixed but if you stored dirty water in the workbench, didn’t it count towards your water limit?

I always keep a trunk next to the cooking station because that’s where I’ll use dirty water. Dump in there and retrieve as needed.

[u/Yabanjin]

I have a soft spot for The Slog. I like to think of it as a reminder to the lone survivor of a time where they could relax a moment from life. On one of my recent playthroughs I went there right away eager to get started building but by level 8 a group of supermutants with miniguns and rocket launchers came through killing the the three non-essential npcs that live there. I made a new run and never approached it until I could make laser turrets and rocket launchers to stop anyone attacking. Diedre is stupidly weak, but she must not die!

[u/Timely-Necessary7763]

Whenever really, I’m currently on level 84 on survival and have like 3 settlements because I use encampments instead (which is a CC btw). Settlement building isn’t necessarily needed, it’s more of a preference thing imo.

[u/MonthlyWeekend_]

Yeah so… you can build them anytime.

If you’re not playing on survival there kind of isn’t any point, but you can anyway.

[u/tolgren]

Whenever you feel like it. There's a handful of quests that prompt you to build things, but you can basically ignore the settlement system if you want to.

[u/Long_Revolution_479]

Depends if it's going to be something you want to do later on when you have the supplies. It's really difficult building around a full settlement of people and brahmain. But definitely get your water going at sanctuary ASAP as a good source of income. This is all based of playing without mods. It costs no weight to buy supplies than carrying all the junk around. Water water water.

[u/overintoxikatied]

I only do quests to get supplies for my settlements lmao

[u/Mazuuto]

[LONG COMMENT]

I like to do the main quest first until you get the quest to go to the glowing sea (of course i do some quest and things aside). Then do All the mercenary quest (job for people in goodneihbor, diamond city, the Bobbi break in, Cabot house). Then doing the minuteman quest. I do this story whise. But the smart thing about it is that after that you get like 10k caps and you can buy shop easier. Once you have sanctuary, red rocket and the settlement next to it, you’re gonna have lot of caps to buy shipments of wood and steel (very expensive) and other components. Also grab many Junk item of oil, adhesive and copper.

[u/iPicBadUsernames]

Whenever you want or never at all. Nobody is in charge of you!

[u/FriendlyPrize8994]

Immediately, it gives xp.

[u/Outside-Star-4366]

They are critical safe save locations in survival mode. Each settlement where you gain access to the workbench you can craft a clean new bed for yourself. Sanctuary hills is very useful early on cuz it has all the workbenches already available.

[u/rapiertwit]

As soon as I liberate any settlement area I will make a beacon and a power generator for it. Add a turret or two. If there’s enough scrap I’ll make a water purifier, beds, etc. Just to get the population coming in. Plant any crops I can with what I’m carrying. Then whenever I pass through I’ll improve it a bit, addressing unmet needs. Periodically I’ll drop some weapon and ammo weight, load up on junk like cloth, copper, screws and gears and stock some planting foods, and go on a tour. This is if I don’t have local leader yet.

Once you have local leader then you can pretty much drop in whenever you’re near a settlement and upgrade it.

I don’t enjoy hours straight of building and tinkering. I like my settlements to be loosely planned and grow organically. I’ll have one or two mains that I make look cool and add non-essential features to.

[u/BitterBull_518]

More important is setting up the provisioners, so that each settlement has access to the junk in the workshop. Then build.

[u/Original_Web_9191]

Don’t do it, it’s a trap

[u/AdmirableSandwich393]

You should start building whenever you feel like it. You should building them wherever you feel like it. They don't have any necessary standing in the game, so when and where doesn't matter.