Fallout 4 Nuka World: Raider Settlements

Making Raider Outposts, Vassals, and The Wasteland Warlord Perk

Once you've claimed all five areas of the park in the Grand Tour quest, you'll get to begin establishing a raider foothold in the Commonwealth. Raider Settlements are called Outposts, to distinguish them from the peaceful towns of law-abiding citizenry. Settlements directed to supply food and materials to your raiders are termed vassals. This Guide will teach you some of the things that differ from the Settlements system, some of which you likely already know. As you create more raider outposts, you'll unlock ranks of the Wasteland Warlord Perk, which gives you more build options in outposts.

Shank & The Home Sweet Home Quest

Shank is your go-to for starting outposts for the Raiders and will give you quests much like Preston Garvey, only after the third Outpost is established you're in control of when you get them unless a rival gang attacks. Here's a summary of what you must do during Home Sweet Home, which will teach you a lot about the system. I'll try to throw in some tips for each section.

Making Raider Outposts

When you talk to Shank, you will first need to choose whether you want to attack or talk settlers into leaving Settlements. He offers you a list each time, and you can indeed attack your own established places, though sometimes an unclaimed settlement comes up in the options. The latter are much easier to attack, especially if you've built up defenses at your own settlements.

Attacking Settlements

You can select to work with one of the three raider gangs when you attack a settlement. As noted above the difficulty depends on whether you've built there. If you had a Settlement with residents set up with great gear and heavy turrets, it's going to be much harder. You only get 3-4 raiders to work with you.

Before the attack, you do have the option of giving the raiders better gear than they already have - if it is a particularly hard Settlement, this may be smart, but otherwise is not worth doing. You will kill every settler that lives there, and these new guys will be the residents. It is possible you could give a guard assignment to a raider you armed.

Talking Settlers into Leaving

This option is only really viable if you have decent Charisma or caps to spare. The Settlement will eventually pay for itself thanks to tribute, so the caps are not a big issue. You get an initial speech check with two options - intimidation. Succeeding in this one will not make the settlers leave, but will make it easier to pass the next, which is the one that actually gets them to leave. You also get a 60% reduction in the amount of caps it will cost to bribe them off their land if you succeed in intimidation. The second check's difficulty is high as well, but reduced by the first. You pass, and they'll leave. You can then use the workshop.

Bribery Costs
This applies to both taking over a Settlement to make an Outpost and getting one to supply your outposts:

• Base - 1,000 Caps
• With Intimidation - 400 Caps
• With Nuka Radio Only - 500 Caps
• With Nuka Radio and Successful Intimidation Check - 200 caps
• All of the Above with Low Population - I've seen as low as 50 caps. A good settlement costs more to turn into a vassal for a reason. They produce more food.

Failing and Just Killing Them All
When you set out to take a Settlement for the Raider Gangs, you lose control of the workshop at that particular settlement. Because I was curious if you could resort to killing them by yourself and taking it over for the raiders. I tested this, but it doesn't work. Even if you go as a raider and fail to intimidate the Settlers into leaving, killing them all (currently) results in you fighting to regain control over the workshop, but not able to build a raider flag. You're basically resetting that Settlement to 0 population. The quest will fail, though you may be able to try again one day.

Nuka World Radio Transmitter: Scaring Settlements

The purpose of Nuka Radio is to intimidate Settlements and let them know the raiders are coming. These cost about the same materials as a normal settlement transmitter. Though the game does not properly display the reduction, speech checks become easier, with the price to bribe cut in half. They'll still show as red, but there is an increase in the likelihood of success. Secondly, these transmit and attract more raiders to join the associated gang.

The problem with these is the silliness of the system. You're tasked with the option of making a new transmitter with each conquest, even if one is in range. The way you can avoid having to fast travel (or god forbid on survival walk to a random outpost to make a tower) is to build a new tower at each location when you settle it. They require power, but a small generator will do. As for getting the materials to do this, you can do it the old fashioned way or do the following:

Raider Vassals - Getting Settlements to Supply Food & Materials

This is necessary to make Raiders happy without your intervention. Vassals supply all raider outposts with food and building materials. Raiders do not like to work, so if you want supplies in order to build things at your raider Settlements, you will need to either subdue them or threaten them into supplying your outposts. The benefit of this is twofold - Raiders don't like to 'pick fruit' as Shank puts it, and you do not have access to supply lines for Raider outposts (they won't do that work either).

The process of getting a settlement to supply your outposts is similar, except there's no killing the residents. One option is to go all out attack - kill all the Minutemen that arrive to protect an outpost and bring the Settlers down to 0 health, then talk to their representative to secure the settlement as a supplier of food and materials. As with the conquest of a settlement to claim it as a raider outpost, you can also talk them into supplying you. The odds go up in your favor if you have Outposts nearby and Nuka World Radio Transmitters should still help with intimidation.

Unlike with the conquest option, you can choose to rough up the settlement's representative with a fist fight to lower the price if your verbal intimidation doesn't work. Your character will automatically put their weapon away and battle with the settler. This gave me the usual 60% reduction in price, same as if intimidation had worked (the prices are identical to conquest, above). You cannot, however, rough them up a second time but do get to try an easier speech check. I recommend doing this before you give caps or try the speech check to get supplied.

Spreading Outposts Strategically for Easier Speech Checks and Bribes

As Shank will tell you, nearby Settlements grow more worried and are easier to subdue. Both the presence of nearby outposts and nearby radio transmitters lower the difficulty of speech checks by 5/10% for each that is within a set range. Spreading your raider empire to nearby outposts is a better option than going all over the map. You can actually succeed in talking them into it or easily get the outposts for a couple hundred caps.

Automatron & Raider Supply Lines

Although raider outposts do not need supply lines because their stuff is automatically shared across all locations, you can still establish supply lines - but only with Automatron. Make a robot workbench in one of your outposts, then enter the workshop menu like you would normally in order to set up a supply line. You'll be able to select only normal settlements, but can indeed access their building materials. This isn't really necessary for most situations, but could help if you planned a large building project.

Improve Settlements: Vassal Populations Matter for Food

I did some testing by "cleansing" some of my vassal settlements and lowering their population. At first, every one of my raider settlements were starving on a regular basis. As more Settlers moved back into the vassal camps, the food problems grew less frequent then vanished and happiness rose along with the food supply. Since you lose all control over vassal workshops when you enslave them, it may be wise to build up concentration camps of sorts. Make plenty of crops, beds, water, and defense (the things Settlers need) before you take the quest to demand tribute from them (when you immediately lose access to the workshop). A normal settlement radio tower may even be a good idea, as it can be turned on/off to attract people to the camp. I suppose they'd rather work and live there, paying tribute to raiders, rather than risk being mauled by a yao guai.

Improving Settlements beforehand will make more Settlers move in than, for example, if you had only 2-3 beds and a lone water pump. High population settlements cost more to enslave for a reason - they provide more food and building materials. Building up your Settlements before turning them into vassals, you can feed more raiders with fewer vassals. This allows you to make more raider settlements and get much more food from the daily tribute.

Settlements You Can't Take Over

While you can absolutely set up a Raider Outpost in Sanctuary Hills, all important people must be moved first - no Preston there, no other companions either. Boston Airport, Bunker Hill, and The Castle can never be made Vassals or Outposts regardless of conditions and for somewhat obvious reasons given their importance. Someone on reddit asked what happens if you set up an outpost really close to a settlement, so I thought I'd test making Red Rocket an outpost given its proximity to Sanctuary Hills, where all my good guys were stationed. Because the borders are far enough apart, nothing happened. I'm yet unsure how raiders respond to normal supply line caravans.

You Can Turn Vassals into Raider Settlements

Some players may want to do this, so I'm confirming you can. Save first, just in case, but in my experience, when you go to a vassal outpost and begin killing Settlers, the raider guards will help you. They'll treat the Settlers as essential and help bring their health down. You'll have to kill them manually (no VATS). Once all the Settlers are dead, the Settlement returns to normal - the icon on the map even changes back. Now you can go to Shank and get a quest to turn it into a Raider Settlement, or else rebuild it as a normal settlement by interacting with the workshop. Sometimes you may need to wait on NPCs to respawn and take a quest from them to make it a regular settlement.

You CAN Take Settlements back from Raiders

We all initially thought you can't. The problem are turrets being present in the Settlement. So before you ever do Open Season, go to those Settlements and scrap all turrets. The turrets keep the raiders in control, they get stuck at 1 health as when you are subduing settlers and cannot kill them. Removing those turrets, you can turn a raider Settlement back into a normal one!

Wasteland Warlord Perk & Build Items & Tribute Chests

At 1 Outpost, you unlock rank 1 of Wasteland Warlord. 3 Outposts offers rank 2, and 8 total outposts unlocks the third rank of the perk. The Wasteland Warlord perk offers you the ability to make new things in outposts (actual outposts, not slave supply settlements). Rank 1 and 2 should come with the first and final stages of Home Sweet Home, though you'll have to work your way up to finishing Power Play if you want to get Tribute Chests.

Because Wasteland Warlord unlocks raider shops at rank 2 with 3 Outposts, you do not need the regular stores you get from Local Leader. In fact, in my testing I couldn't establish that the regular stores increase happiness. Raiders would prefer a chem dealer to a clothing emporium, of course!

Tribute Chests generate things every 5 days. They can contain legendary items (at a rate of 5%), but if one does generate a legendary it will not do so again for another 30 days. You must check regularly as the chest can never hold more than 1,000 caps worth of valuables. Tribute chests are wonderful things and combined with the money that gradually accumulates in the Overboss chest back at Fizztop Grille, it's an excellent benefit. Is it worth the tradeoff for what you get for having Settlements? I don't know. I'd prefer a bit of both myself.

Building Happy Settlements, Jobs for Raiders, and Food

As noted above, raider outposts prefer to have raider dealers, nuka radio transmitters with amplifiers (the first is required for the amplifier to work), chem dispensers (vending machines for chems) and items of that sort to be happy. Naturally, they do prefer a roof over their heads and to have adequate water and defense. Raiders will automatically take up defensive positions if you place guard stations. Happiness does not change automatically but creeps up over time in outposts, just as in Settlements. See my comprehensive Settlements Guide if you need further help, keeping the above facts in mind.

Also stated before, they don't like to tend crops so you must get food from settlements for them to be happy. Take note of my recommendation you build up settlements before making them vassals to your raiders. I did some testing on food supply. With 8 raider outposts and 4 suppliers, it was enough to keep my raiders happy without food shortages, though the daily food they get is entirely random. This would be even better with stronger settlements under my control. With a pair of 15-20 population settlements providing food, I could have 8 outposts and only 2 vassals supplying them. Of course as the population of raider settlements grows, food may become a problem so you may want to make 1 raider (or automatron) work the field in each settlement to get the reliable 6 food. Raiders don't like to work, but having one of them set to pick crops in each Settlement could help if they grow too big and the food demand increases to the point the suppliers can't keep up. You could simply make more raider stores and other happiness items to keep them satisfied, make up for the one goon working to stabilize the food supply, and have high happiness.

Unlike normal settlers, raiders do not suffer an unhappiness hit from lacking a job. However, you can still put them to work. From my testing, I'm not able to find anything that makes raiders unhappy other than tending crops. This means it's safe to assign them to scavenging stations, raider booze stills, and other items without worrying their happiness will go down. Booze can be worth quite a lot, so it's something to consider if you want money as opposed to crafting materials.

Benefits of Being Overboss and Controlling Outposts

So with all this effort to expand the Nuka World raiders to the Commonwealth, what do you get? Well, similar to having Settlers at scavenging stations and supply lines all over, your resources are automatically shared among the various Outposts you control. Items are regularly deposited from the enslaved settlements, which you can use to build or upgrade your gear. Additionally, you will receive caps from the Tribute Chests. All of these things come with notifications, so you don't have to waste time checking.

Having well-populated Outposts with raider dealers set up (shops) will give you access to more money, whether from tribute chests or from simply being able to sell loot in that town. You should strike a balance between having Settlements to supply your outposts and actually conquered outposts. This prevents you having to put your raider goons to work and ensures they have enough food. Naturally, more supplies should come in as well.