Base building is a vital part of Fallout 4 and, for some players, the main draw of the game. Rebuilding the wasteland is a great idea on paper. With a few mods installed, it can easily go from a janky experience to a satisfying one. But not all settlement spots are equal. Some are huge and full of possibilities. Others are small, boring, and not worth anyone’s time.
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The Fallout 4 base game has twenty-nine settlement spots. Seven are added by DLCs, for a grand total of thirty-six spots. Of those thirty-six, here are the ten most useful and fun settlement spots in the game.
Updated by James Austin on Jun 15, 2025:Despite repeat playthroughs falling short in terms of story value, we still find ourselves revisiting Fallout 4. Its excellent survival mode brings longevity to the gameplay, and the breadth of settlement spots can provide hours of wasteland fun, if that’s what you’re into. After our continued wasteland exploration, we’ve decided to update this article with a few more of our favorite spots.
13Warwick Homestead
At first glance, this abandoned factory by the water doesn’t look like much. The area is gray, utilitarian, and let’s be honest, bleak. However, look past these superficial qualities, and you’ll find something great about Warwick Homestead — something infuriatingly hard to come by in Fallout 4. That’sflat land, and a decent amount of it.
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The flat area outside the factory is a great space for an open-air market, and there’s a surprising amount of farmland, too. Inside the factory, there’s ample space for workshops and settler beds. Warwick Homestead may never be a bustling metropolis, but it’s surprising just how much can be packed into this relatively small space.
12Taffington Boathouse
For some reason, despite its small size, we keep coming back to Taffington Boathouse. Most players likely already know the settlement thanks to its central position in the Commonwealth, and as such, know that the area’s stinky wetness breeds bloodbugs in abundance. Once these disgusting creatures are cleared out, the settlement makes for an amazing water purification plant.
Taffington Boathouse is especially convenient for survival difficulty. It’s right near Covenant but has more space for workshops and power armor stations. This means it’s not only good for producing water; it’s also our preferred staging area for expeditions into North Boston and the surrounding wasteland.
11Nordhagen Beach
This sprawling sandbar isn’t the easiest area to build on, but it has something the wasteland desperately needs: aesthetic. Just picture Nordhagen Beach sporting a glorious boardwalk, packed with shops, scenery, and a little console arcade. Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?
If the scenic ocean views aren’t enough, Nordhagen Beach is still worth visiting thanks to its convenient location, within spitting distance of Boston Airport. It has lots of potential for water production, of course, and players can even get some farming done right on the sand. It’s a great little spot to set up artillery if nothing else.
10Covenant
Covenant is a fun location for a player base, obtainable after completing a short quest. It has several pretty pre-war buildings. It’s completely surrounded by a wall with an easily defendable choke point. It also hascatsand alemonade-dispensing robot.
Covenant is already built up, and the quarters are fairly tight. There’snot much room for additions. Another drawback is that itlacks access to resourceslike steel, wood, or water. It’s an excellent early base but less convenient later on when things like food and water become more important. Despite that, it’s a charming spot for players who don’t want to take the time to build something big.
9Egret Tours Marina
Egret Tours Marina is a good spot for a southern base in the Commonwealth. Players in survival mode will find it useful as asupply depotfor excursions into theGlowing Sea. The area is filled with traps, so care is needed when exploring it for the first time. It also comes with an NPC, Phyllis, who can be convinced to become a settler at the new outpost.
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Egret Tours Marina has a decent-sized building area, and it’s right next to a large body of water. The morewater purifiersbuilt, the more money the player can earn. Unfortunately, the rest of the build area ismostly filledwith dilapidated buildings, leaving little room to build a proper town.
8Greygarden
Greygarden is an excellent convenient base to grab early on in the game. Not only is it fully manned byrobots(who don’t require food or water), it contains a huge number of plants that can be harvested and replanted to grow other settlements. Therefore, there areno real downsidesto bringing this little greenhouse into the fold.
Despite these positives, Greygarden is held back by itssmall build area. Most of the area is already built up, leaving little space for new projects. If the player can build a staircase to thecollapsed bridgeup above, there issome real estatethere, but still not much. As for other drawbacks, there’s the uneven terrain at ground level and the lack of resources aside from plants.
7Kingsport Lighthouse
This coastal area is a great spot for a settlement in the northern Commonwealth. The beautiful lighthouse is a nice perk and makes this one of the morescenic areasin the game. It features a small interior that can be a good workshop and/or bedroom.
Another nice perk of the lighthouse is itsnatural barriers. It’s surrounded by oceans and rocky cliffs, forming a defensible choke point. All in all, the only real drawback of Kingsport Lighthouse is the size of its build area. Although most of the build area is flat, there’s only enough room to support avery small town.
6The Castle
The Castle is a well-known location in Fallout 4. After theMinutemendefeat a Mirelurk Queen, they can retake it and convert it into theirpermanent base of operations. The Castle is generally regarded as one of the best base locations in the game, and it is great, but it’s alsolimiting. It’s big, but it’s approaching the build limit, meaning there’snot much room for expansion. There’s alsolittle empty space.
However, The Castle’s pros definitely outweigh its cons. First, it’s surrounded by water, sowater purificationis an option. Second, it’ssurrounded by walls. The walls are partially broken, but the Castle only has two entry points. Settlers can easily defend against invaders from atop its faded walls.
5Abernathy Farm
Abernathy Farm is notable for having thehighest build limit in the game, allowing forwasteland skyscrapersto be built. As it’s positioned at the base of a transmission line, the player can build all the way up to the top of the pylons. This has led to some very cool, unique constructions.
In addition to its high build limit, the farm has a medium-sized build area with some good flat land. It also comes with a few plants and settlers ready to go. It does have a few drawbacks, namely itslack of natural defensesor access toopen water. Despite this, it’s an ideal spot for afarmable wasteland fortress.
Vault 88 is added by the Vault-Tec Workshop DLC. Building a vault is a fun idea, although the actual building of the vault can be finicky. The quest line where the player works for a ghoulified overseer is a bit drawn out, but the base itself isunique and amazing.
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Vault 88 spans severalunderground cavernswith open water, plenty of resources, and tons of open, flat space. Not only can the player build a bustling underground metropolis, but the huge open spaces make it an ideal spot forfactorieswith the Contraptions Workshop DLC. With a fertilizer supply line, a factory setup can provide the player with a great renewable source of ammunition.
