Fallout 4: Open Season

Nuka World Quest Option, Consequences, and Ending

Early in the Nuka World DLC, after assuming your leadership role, you're tasked with meeting all the raider gang leaders in Nuka World. I recommend you at least wait until this quest (An Ambitious Plan), as you have your base at the Fizztop Grill. You can get a quest 'Open Season' to kill all three of the factions' leaders and shortcut your way to an 'ending'.

How to Get the Open Season Quest

Head to the market in Nuka Town, USA where you will find shopkeepers in self-destructing collars meant to control them. They're all enslaved, forced to work for the raiders. Speaking to Mackenzie, the resident physician, you can get a quest to kill the gang leaders and free all the slaves by doing so. Should you? Well, let's look at how things play out. I've heard rumor you may get this quest just by attacking raiders, and that Preston may somehow give it out but it's unconfirmed.

Quest Objectives

• Kill Mags and William Black (Leaders of The Operators)
• Kill Mason (Leader of The Pack)
• Kill Nisha (Leader of The Disciples)

A Tough Fight

This is a town full of raiders, and if you attack them, every single one of them will aggro on you, permanently. You must kill at least a few dozen to complete the quest, because of the three different factions. Depending on your game difficulty, this is easy or very very challenging. Worth a try on some playthroughs, to say the least.

Therefore, killing Mags and William Black, Mason, and Nisha is no easy task due to the sheer volume of enemies. I did it on hard without power armor, but definitely used a number of Stimpaks. If you do want to take this on, there's a right time and a wrong time from a gameplay perspective.

No Reward for Open Season

There's no reward other than your feels for some digital characters. The merchants will stay in the market, and you may access your base. Literally nothing great, except the ability to restore the park's power.

Doing Open Season Very Early in the DLC: How it Plays Out

You should still get the quests for the various areas of Nuka World when you first enter, though I've yet to confirm it myself (I asked a kind redditor). Also, the power plant door will be unlocked after completing the Open Season so that you can still restore power to the plant.

Doing Open Season After Home Sweet Home or Power Play

You are able to do this quest after Home Sweet Home and Power Play, but at that point you've permanently alienated Preston Garvey and given up at minimum 3 settlements to the raiders. Those raiders will also aggro on you, and I was not able to go there and take that Settlement back. I don't know if raiders will respawn there yet, but hope to find out. That takes game time.

The reason people want to do this is because you're rewarded with a couple of sweet perks for finishing the DLC content (see here). I would suggest that if you do, you only give the raiders outposts in Settlements that have 0 defense (or make them that way once you're in control by scrapping turrets). I can 100% confirm that once you've done the quest you are able to re-align yourself with the Settlements you ordered to supply the raiders by going back, talking to the leader, and doing a quest as though you'd just discovered it. At present, the only Settlements you can turn back to normal settlements are those where you've scrapped turrets. They won't die and you won't be able to kill them and effectively remove all raider presence from the area. They stay stuck at 1 health. Without turrets, the death of the last raider returns the settlement's map icon back to normal.

The Best Time for Open Season

If you don't care to be a raider, I'd suggest you do The Grand Tour and quit once you get Home Sweet Home. Go nuts killing the raiders, and you'll have avoided losing standing with Preston, while also experiencing the bulk of the questing in the DLC. However, you'll miss out on the raider outposts content which is very similar to Settlements, just with more crime and chems. The DLC presents a good chance to play through as an evil character and get much more enjoyment out of it. It's better if you're not taking your own Settlements over, but it's all up to you. If you want to know how the ending plays out gameplay-wise, click here.

Doing Nuka World Before Ever Meeting Preston Garvey

If you do the Nuka World content before starting the Minutemen quest in Concord, you will be met with an upset Preston as soon as you travel to Sanctuary with him. He'll only work with you if you kill all the raiders. If you do open season before ever meeting him, it's as though nothing ever happened. Most of the storyline there is about you betraying his trust, so it does make sense that it'd play out this way.