Benevolent Leader is an achievement/trophy in Fallout 4.
Requirements[]
Reach maximum happiness in a large settlement.
General information[]
- The achievement can be unlocked with any number of settlers in any settlement. Graygarden is not recommended as the happiness of Mister Handy settlers is limited to 50%.
- The size of the settlement refers to the number of structures in the settlement, not the number of settlers. However, in spite of the description, the size of the settlement does not have to be large (i.e. yellow/orange color).
- The happiness cap without any bonus happiness is 80, which should be reached by providing enough water, food, beds (covered) and defense.
- To get additional 20 happiness, one can use stores, junkyard dogs, house cats and gorillas, or slot machines, soda fountains, phoropters, weight benches and pommel horses from the Vault-Tec Workshop add-on.
- Synth settlers and noise level have no effect on happiness.
- It's possible to keep any settlement 100% happy for an unlimited period of time.
Notes[]
- The game calculates happiness via several actor values including
Bonus Happinessbeing the main factor in raising happiness beyond a cap of around 80 up to the required 100 which is governed by theHappinessTarget. There is also a modifier that appears to reflect some variables such as success or failure of settlement attacks but this is less important for attaining the achievement this way. With one settler assigned the full bonus is applied, so 80 + 20 = 100. For every additional settler added the bonus applied is effectively divided between them i.e.; With 1 x settler the full bonus happiness (20) from a bar is applied. It would take 20 x settlers each assigned to 20 bars to achieve the same increase. The other consideration is that, based on the game files, it is only the crafted store shops which include a reference to "make the settlement happier" in their tooltips, which actually provide bonus happiness. No other decorations etc. provide this contrary to a lot of early speculation. - There is one other source of this bonus which is the junkyard dog NPC obtained via a random encounter with Gene.
- With the addition of the Wasteland Workshop add-on, a junkyard dog can also be captured using a dog cage.
- The rate at which happiness will rise is governed, at least partly, by time played and not just in-game time. So one can't simply sleep for 10 days and have the settlement reach 100 in a matter of minutes.
- If one tries to use Sanctuary Hills for the achievement, Mama Murphy may take up a settler slot without doing anything to support the settlement, which makes unlocking the achievement much more difficult.
- Not having an assigned task will cause a settler's happiness to decrease.
- Only clothing stores, traders, bars and clinics make settlers happier. Weapons and armor vendors have no effect aside from turning a small profit in caps.
- Restaurants provide the most happiness out of all the tier-3 stores.
- While waiting for happiness to rise, the player character does not have to stay in the settlement.
- There is some additional information about happiness in the workshop menu. For example, the red arrow next to happiness means that happiness is falling, a green arrow means that it's rising and no arrow means that happiness is stable. It can be checked after assigning workers to stores; a green arrow should appear immediately. But to see it, one must quit the workshop and open it again.
- Sometimes, no matter what you do, happiness will not rise above a certain level. For the most part, this happens at settlements that already have settlers and these settlers have pre-assigned beds and jobs. Somehow, this pre-assignment interferes with the overall happiness equations. A typical example is the Slog. Other settlements where this happiness limit has been noted and tested to occur are: Abernathy Farm, County Crossing, Egret Tours Marina, Finch Farm, Greentop Nursery, Nordhagen Beach, Oberland Station, Sanctuary Hills, Somerville Place, Tenpines Bluff, and Warwick Homestead.