Hardware Town

Hardware Town is a location in the Fens neighborhood of Boston in 2287.
==Background==
Once the most popular hardware store in Boston, Hardware Town has been taken over by a crew of raiders led by Demo. The raiders have made a habit of luring unsuspecting wastelanders into the store by acting as another "fellow wastelander" pleading for someone to help their friend. Once the wastelander takes the bait, the raiders have some fun murdering them and dumping the body in the foundation.Fallout 4 Vault Dweller's Survival Guide Collector's Edition p. 443: "[9.10] Hardware TownThis was once the most popular hardware store in town, but Raiders are active to the rear of the premises. They lure those of a more inquisitive (or idiotic) disposition into investigating the location, before slaying them and dumping their corpses."(Fallout 4 Vault Dweller's Survival Guide Map)
==Layout==
When the Sole Survivor first arrives at Hardware Town, a raider pretending to be a settler yells for help to save someone inside. When the Sole Survivor enters, the raider runs behind some doors and raiders can be heard preparing an ambush behind it. One raider can be overheard saying they should have lured the victim to the basement instead.
If the Sole Survivor waits long enough, the raiders waiting inside will get impatient and blame the bait for incompetence. They end up executing her and begin to search for the Sole Survivor. Alternatively, if they go through the basement to the left of the front doors, they can attack the raiders from the back. If the Sole Survivor kills the raider pretending to be a settler before she enters Hardware Town, the raiders lying in wait will have a different set of dialogue. One will insist on checking what is taking their bait so long, and the other will shush him. If the Sole Survivor waits long enough, the two raiders will argue until one of them shoots and kills the other, to the dismay of their leader, Demo.
Upon revisiting the location, Gunners will have taken over the store. However, if the Sole Survivor sided with the Institute, this location will sometimes be repopulated by hostile Brotherhood of Steel members (and vice versa).
There is an armor workbench and a weapons workbench located in the room where the front entrance is, behind the counter. The large warehouse behind the front room contains supplies such as Jet, stimpaks, and caps. There is a small loot stash on top of the boxes containing randomized ammo, a stimpak, etc. An Advanced locked safe sits on top of a shelf on the north side of the room, and a paint mixer - optionally used in the quest Painting the Town - is at the back. A Master locked safe can be found upstairs, in the locked room alongside the Stealth Boy.
==Notable loot==
* Picket Fences issue #2 - Upstairs in the main office on the desk. In the same room as the steamer trunk.
* Stealth Boy - Behind a locked door that can be opened with the Hardware Town storage key (located next to the copy of Picket Fences).
* Bottlecap mine - Unarmed, on a table in the same room as the Stealth Boy.
==Related quests==
* Butcher's Bill 2: The Sole Survivor must track down the Railroad agent Blackbird for Stanley Carrington.
* Cleansing the Commonwealth: Knight Rhys gives the Sole Survivor an assignment to clear the location of what he calls "abominations" to further the aims of the Brotherhood of Steel.
* Diamond City's Most Wanted: A bounty board in the Diamond City market gives the Sole Survivor a target to handle in exchange for caps.
* Kidnapping: Concerned settlers will ask the Sole Survivor to help them rescue a fellow settler that was kidnapped for ransom by nearby hostiles, hoping to have them freed without harm.
* Lost Soul: Doctor Carrington has a lead on a synth that's in danger and sends the player character to save them.
* Painting the Town: Abbot in Diamond City wants the player character to find green paint for the city's wall.
* Quartermastery: Scribe Haylen has identified the location of a piece of technology she wishes to retrieve and catalog. She asks the Sole Survivor for help in bringing back the technology in one piece.
* Raider Troubles: A group of settlers is struggling to defend themselves against a nearby group of raiders and asks the Sole Survivor for help.
* Randolph Safehouse: The Railroad agent Mister Tims will leave dead drops in the form of six holotapes for the Sole Survivor, containing information about possible hazards to the Railroad's escort and escape of synths out of the Commonwealth. They can assist in these efforts by clearing out the location of hostiles.
* Reclamation: The Sole Survivor learns from Dr. Secord that a synth was kidnapped by raiders. They can help with the planned retrieval mission by placing a tracking beacon on the synth and reporting back to the Synth Retention Bureau.
* Stop the Raiding: The Sole Survivor becomes aware of a group of settlers being terrorized by nearby raiders and can offer to help.
* To the Mattresses: The synth-hating L&L Gang is a major threat to the Railroad. Desdemona has a lead on them and asks the Sole Survivor to help neutralize their members.
==Notes==
* Sneaking around the back end of the store around the red truck will initiate dialogue between two raiders if unnoticed. The dialogue suggests the raiders have been luring civilians into the store to be killed and stripped of valuables. Near the end of the dialogue, one of the raiders describes a man mimicking the sounds of a motorcycle starting up after a few tries, revving, and changing gears. This implies that this raider has heard a functioning motorcycle and can identify the sounds and that the man mimicking the noises has most likely operated a motorcycle.
* There is a safe (Advanced lock) containing leveled loot on the top shelf of the warehouse's northern wall to the left of the fallen shelves (seems to be east if wearing power armor - see bugs). Use the fallen shelves to reach the safe.
* If the player character goes into the basement level of Hardware Town, they will find a large number of bodies piled up. The bodies are those of settlers and the large amount suggest that the raiders have been stationed in Hardware Town for a large period. It is possible that they have been using the same tactic as the Sole Survivor encountered, luring civilians in and then killing them and stripping them of valuables. This is further evidenced by some of the dead settlers having the raider body mesh.
* There is a hidden duffle bag containing loot in the basement, located in the pile of rubble between the two shelves where the roof has caved in causing a ramp to the level above. To access it one will need to crouch between the two shelves so that they're in line with the edge of the right shelf (so the skeleton located on the left shelf will be slightly forward and to the left), then look towards the pile of rubble and there should be a white shape part of the way up the rubble pile alongside the right shelf, which will be slightly larger than the "[HIDDEN]" message on screen (due to being crouched). The area of the duffle bag one can interact with is invisible but located roughly at the bottom right of the white shape if standing in the right area, and may take a bit of trial and error (alternatively, the Scrapper perk rank 2 may highlight it slightly if it contains a relevant component).
* The Sole Survivor can steal the arguing raider's equipped weapon with the level 3 pickpocketing perk and thus save the other raider.
* The "settler" encountered outside the Hardware Town is perceived as an enemy by some NPCs, such as provisioners, and they will attack the "settler" on sight. Because provisioners cannot be killed, they will inevitably win this fight.
* On the front desk are two moveable world objects, a receipt next to the broken terminal and a note on the right side of the counter. Unlike regular clutter, both are unique and can be dislodged by shooting or hitting them, however, they can not be picked up. 
=== Companion comments ===
* When at this location companions make comments, which are activated in the basement, near the crate with the dead settlers stash, close to the pile of their dead bodies.
Location comments	Location comments
Character 	Comment
Cait 	
Codsworth 	"Care to poke around a bit, sir? There's quite an abundance of stuff here that may prove useful."
Curie 	
Danse 	
Deacon 	
John Hancock 	
Nick Valentine 	
Piper Wright 	
Preston Garvey 	
Robert MacCready 	
X6-88 	
*
*
==Appearances==
Hardware Town only appears in Fallout 4.
==Bugs==
 Entering this building while wearing power armor causes the compass directions displayed at the bottom of the screen to be incorrectly rotated by 90° in a clockwise direction. 
==Gallery==
FO4 Hardware Town shopping room.jpg|Shopping room
FO4 Hardware Town stock.jpg|Stock
FO4 Hardware Town cellar entrance.jpg|Cellar entrance
FO4 Hardware Town back entrance.jpg|Back entrance
FO4 Fences in Hardware Town.png|Picket Fences and Hardware Town storage key
FO4 Hardware Town safe and weapons.jpg|Safe, Stealth Boy and bottlecap mine
FO4 Hardware Town safe.jpg|Safe
HiddenDuffle.png|A hidden duffle bag in the basement of Hardware Town
AWB and WWB Hardware Town.jpg|Armor workbench and weapons workbench
Chemistry station Hardware town.jpg|Chemistry station (roof)
Power armor station Hardware town.jpg|Power armor station
==References==
Non-game
Category:The Fens
Category:Pre-War companies
de:Hardware Town
ru:Хозмаг
uk:Господарчий магазин
zh:五金商城