Fallout 4 guide and walkthrough (2024)

Welcome to Polygon's Fallout 4 guide and walkthrough. Bethesda's expansive post-apocalyptic role-playing game will lead players down many different paths. Whatever shape your journey takes, we're happy to help steer you toward the right paths and over any troublesome hurdles.

Whatever your experience level, our Beginner’s guide and Fallout 4 tips pages are useful primers on how to make the most of your time during the initial hours of your playthrough. Many of our tips will be familiar to Fallout fans, but a refresher never hurts.

Fallout 4 walkthrough and quest guides

Fallout 4 is an open-world game, and you can explore the wasteland at your leisure. Though it’s open-ended, Fallout 4 is filled with quests — some optional, some required — that pull you through the game.

We’ve organized these based on the likely order many players might experience during their playthroughs. It assumes you’re taking your time with the game rather than mainlining the story. Fallout 4 begins at an extreme corner of the map, which increases the likelihood that you’ll come across many of these quests in the order we did.

Main Quest

Act 1

• Prologue: Enjoy your normal life and family while you can.
• Out of Time: Escape Vault 111.
• Jewel of the Commonwealth: Meet Piper and the mayor in Diamond City.
• Unlikely Valentine: Visit the Valentine Detective Agency.
• Getting a Clue: More sleuthing from the Valentine Detective Agency.
• Reunions: Trek to Fort Hagen.

Act 2

• Dangerous Minds: It’s braaaaaainz!
• The Glowing Sea: Bad for swimming, good for Geiger counters.
• Hunter/Hunted: From MIT to CIT.
• The Molecular Level: Beam me up, Scotty.
• Institutionalized: Come join us.

Faction and optional quests

Minutemen Quests

Main Faction Quests

• When Freedom Calls: Kill the Raiders in the Museum of Freedom.
• Sanctuary: Learn the art of crafting.
• Taking Independence: Seize a castle and expand your influence.
• Old Guns: Decorate with weapons.
• Inside Job: Build a teleporter.
• Form Ranks: Recruit more Minutemen.
• Defend the Castle: An Institute assault forces your hand.
• The Nuclear Option (The Minutemen): Sneak into and defeat The Institute.
• With Our Powers Combined: Use your settlements against The Brotherhood of Steel.

Radiant Quests: Recruitment

• The First Step: Clear out the Corvega Assembly Plant.
• Raider Troubles at Oberland Station: Kill the Raiders in Back Street Apparel.
• Kidnapping: Rescue a settler or get out your wallet.
• Greenskins: Kill Mutants for Mutants.
• Clearing the Way: Kill ‘em all to make room for a new settlement.
• Taking Point: Starlight Drive-In: Create a radio beacon.
• Ghoul Problem: I ain’t afraid of no Ghoul.
• Rogue Courser: Find and kill a Courser.
• Resettle Refugees: Solve a humanitarian crisis.

Radiant Quests: Ownership

• Defend a Settlement: Build turrets to defend settlers.
• Defend Artillery at a Settlement: Defend a settlement’s artillery.
• Stop the Raiding: Kill some Raiders to help your fellow settlers.
• Kidnapped Trader: To pay or not to pay a hostage’s ransom.
• Water, Food or Power: Your workshop talents are always needed, always appreciated.
• Suspected Synth: Find an artificial man among men.

Brotherhood of Steel quests

Main Faction Quests

• Reveille: A second faction appears.
• Fire Support: Join the shootout at the Cambridge Police Station.
• Call to Arms: Follow Paladin Danse to ArcJet Systems.
• Semper Invicta: Accept your first quests as an official member of the Brotherhood of Steel.
• Shadow of Steel: Hitch a ride on an airship to get a promotion.
• Tour of Duty: It’s orientation day at the Prydwen.
• Show No Mercy: It’s time to hunt mutants.
• From Within: Convince Dr. Li to return to the Brotherhood.
• Outside the Wire: Slip a holotape into a terminal within the Institute.
• Liberty Reprimed: Take the Institute down.
• Blind Betrayal: Discover the hidden Cylon.
• Tactical Thinking: Derail a faction, permanently.
• Spoils of War: A radioactive roof infiltration.
• Ad Victoriam: Maybe the easiest escort mission ever.
• The Nuclear Option (Brotherhood of Steel): Brothers of Steel versus the artificial men.
• A New Dawn: The war is over, but the job is far from done.

Miscellaneous Quests

• The Lost Patrol: Track down three fallen recon team members.
• Duty or Dishonor: Perform an investigation that leads to a revelation.
• A Loose End: Say goodbye, Virgil (because maybe you’re going to kill him).
• Getting Technical: Papers, please.
• Blood Bank: Let’s hunt for blood.
• Reactor Coolant: Coming soon …

Radiant Quests

• Cleansing the Commonwealth: Eliminate the ghouls — and the Feral Ghoul Stalker.
• Quartermastery: Get thee to the Wicked Shipping Fleet Lockup.
• Leading By Example: Most. Adorable. Escort mission. Ever.
• Learning Curve: A rare Fallout escort mission.
• Feeding the Troops: Even Brotherhoods gotta eat.

Institute quests

Main Faction Quests

• Synth Retention: Speak to Father, kill some Synths, get a room.
• The Battle of Bunker Hill: Track down and recover escaped Synths.
• Mankind Redefined: Father has some big news to share.
• Mass Fusion: A faction bridge gets burned, and we take a radiation shower.
• Pinned: Recruit Wallace the scientist.
• Powering Up: Say hello to the people.
• End of the Line: Eliminate The Railroad.
• Airship Down: Eliminate the Brotherhood and Liberty Prime.
• Nuclear Family: Say goodbye to Father.

Miscellaneous Quests

• Building a Better Crop: Deliver some genetically modified seeds and learn the truth about Roger.
• Plugging a Leak: Solve a mystery within The Institute.
• A House Divided: Some scientists don’t like you. Maybe kill them. Maybe don’t.
• Banished from The Institute: Sever your ties.

Radiant Quests

• Pest Control: Kill some Ghouls for Dr. Binet.
• Hypothesis: Kill a Super Mutant for Dr. Holdren.
• Appropriation: Dr. Watson wants some blueprints. The Brotherhood of Steel has them. Fix that.
• Reclamation: Find and tag a Synth for Dr. Secord.
• Political Leanings: Retrieve a report for Dr. Ayo.

Railroad quests

Main Faction Quests

• Road to Freedom: At journey’s end, follow freedom’s lantern.
• Tradecraft: Meet Deacon on the Old Highway for an adventure.
• Underground Undercover: An Institute insider aids the Railroad’s cause.
• Burning Cover: The Railroad passes the torch to The Minutemen.
• Operation Ticonderoga: Check on a safehouse for Desdemona.
• Precipice of War: Nothing is sacred as the Brotherhood invades the church.
• Rockets’ Red Glare: The next step in turning the tables.
• The Nuclear Option (The Railroad): The Railroad’s main mission and purpose reaches its conclusion.

Miscellaneous Quests

• Boston After Dark: Escort H2-22 for Old Man Stockton, meet High Rise, and prove your worth to Dr.Carrington.
• Memory Interrupted: Visit the Memory Den for P.A.M.

Radiant Quests

• Butcher’s Bill 1: Check on the Augusta Safehouse.
• Butcher’s Bill 2: Check on the status of Agent Blackbird.
• Mercer Safehouse: Kill hostiles, secure turrets.
• Jackpot: Visit the Mutant-inhabited Medford Memorial Hospital.
• Concierge: Eliminate the hostiles.
• Weathervane: A favor way high up.
• Randolph Safehouse: Do a favor for Drummer Boy.
• Variable Removal: Take out a Counselor for P.A.M.
• To the Mattresses: Lucky Tatum sleeps with the fishes.
• Lost Soul: Save a Synth.
• A Clean Equation: Tie up the remaining Steel loose ends.
• High Ground: Go vertibird hunting.

Side quests

• Returning the Favor: Return something precious.
• Pull the Plug: Mario’s not the only video game plumber.
• Story of the Century: Conduct an interview.
• Benign Intervention: A partner comes clean, goes clean
• The Big Dig: Explore a tunnel and meet Bobbi No-Nose, Mel and Fahrenheit.
• Confidence Man: Convince Travis the DJ that he’s good enough, smart enough and people like him.
• Curtain Call: Help a DJ, get a companion.
• Miscellaneous: Detective Case Files
• The Disappearing Act: Investigate Earl Sterling’s disappearance.
• The Gilded Grasshopper: Shem Drowne’s grave beckons.
• Long Time Coming: Solve a 200-year-old cold case.
• Diamond City Blues: Follow a marital spat to a chem lab.
• The Devil’s Due: Make like an eggcellent errand boy.
• Emergent Behavior: From one body to another
• Here There Be Monsters: What you get when you cross a kid with a sea monster with a Chinese submarine with Captain Zao with an ICBM.
• Human Error: Caravan CSI
• Kid in a Fridge: The one with the kid in the refrigerator.
• Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution: Get a ship airborne ... or don’t.
• Long Road Ahead: A road to a cure and a MacCready
• Cabot House quests
• Special Delivery: Find serum for Jack Cabot, an unusual benefactor.
• Emogene Takes a Lover: Girl meets cult.
• The Secret of Cabot House: Quell an uprising at the asylum housing Lorenzo Cabot
• The Silver Shroud: Become the hero.
• Vault 81 and Hole in the Wall: Complete two quests in one to help a prosperous vault and a sick child.

System and feature explainers

This is where you’ll find a series of tips and tricks to help the unfrozen acclimate to the post-apocalyptic future.

• All Companions and romance options
• Beginner’s guide
• All factions and how to join them
• The best perks for you
• 13 Fallout 4 tips for everybody
• Vault-Tec Workshop
• How to get unlimited adhesive
• How to get rich / farming guide
• Holotape locations

Far Harbour

Far Harbor brings a new, story-based component to to Fallout 4, and we bring you a guide.

Main quests

• Far from Home
• Walk in the Park
• Where you belong
• Visions in the Fog
• Best Left Forgotten
• The Way Life Should Be
• Cleansing the Land / Reformation
• Close to Home

Acadia quests

• Acadian Ideals
• Data Recovery
• The Arrival

Children of Atom quests

• What Atom Requires
• Ablutions
• Witch Hunt
• The Trial of Brother Devin
• The Heretic

Far Harbour quests

• Living on the Edge
• Hull Breach
• Safe Passage
• Blood Tide
• Rite of Passage
• The Changing Tide
• The Hold Out
• Turn Back the Fog
• Hull Breach 2

Misc quests

• Talk to KYE 1.1
• Find the Marine Combat Armor Shipments
• Shipbreaker
• Trapper Attack on Dalton Farm
• Inform Factions of Acadia’s Existence