Guide/Settlement Building

Last updated for version `1.8.0-BETA-7`

*Main article:* Architect

This Guide is based on new buildings introduced by Architect a new workshop menu. The subtleties shown here assume a rough understanding of the vanilla Settlement mechanics. The installation of the Enhanced Settlement add-on is a requirement. Which Difficulty one selected at the beginning is irrelevant, this article is based on Outcast difficulty and can therefore be broken down into lower difficulty. However, it is strongly advised to use Desolation Mode as this is the preferred setting to play the mod.

## Preface

In general, the goal of any Settlement is to push Production. It is important to bring every settlement to Successful Settlement state as soon as possible and then to determine which Settlement Community one would like to have. Successful settlements and communities support Settler Missions by increasing Mission Slots.

In order to get settlements there, one is forced to increase the Workshop Levels, especially Workshop Technology but also Workshop Construction. The following points are based on this and are described using an example which is geared towards maintaining as many settlements as quickly as possible. You can unlock almost all settlements from level 1, even those which are inhabited by Mirelurk Queens. The development of any settlement is subject to tech levels and thus the entire guide is.

Since most of the settlements are located around the Boston Orbit, it makes sense to draw a circle around the city for each tech level. Helpful strategies for taking over settlements quickly and easily can be found in this article: Settlement Take Over. By the way, you can grab one or the other Magazines and check out the Power Armor frames for parts too while running around BC. So plan wisely it saves a lot of time and increases the productivity of your settlements enormously!

A great side effect of this is, that the cells will be renewed if you walk a huge circle around BC. According to Respawn Addon every X days a cell *respawns*, you will quickly notice by practising a solid orbit run, that the absolute distance from cell X to cell Y seems to be just as decisive for a cell repspawn, as the required number of days!

## Overview

The following gives a brief overview of the advantages and innovations in Horizon with regard to settlements.

### Basic Needs

* Sleep – in a bed. Global and personal beds are available.
* Food – quench hunger from grown crops, produced fish, hunted animals, etc.
* Water – quench thirst with dirty, sanitized and/or purified water.
* Health – Cure rads and health using crafting skills or call in a doctor with Medical Service.

### Resources

Resources can be shared globally via the the Resource Station, a resource station requires a cargo bot (special eyebot) which in turn can link settlements and manage "cargo":

* Global Storage – settlements can be linked to a master workbench which requires a Supply Line. Supply lines can be established either with a Cargo Bot or a Settler. It is recommend to use cargo bots (resource station) though.
* Personal Storage – this allows to "hide" items from settlers, to make items unavailable to settlers. These storages are also available globally across all linked settlements in the resource station. #1 and #2 storage is available.
* Production Storage – a seperate storage for all produced goods. Its recommended to link it to a master workbench though. Goods in the production storage aren't used for anything though!

The exchange of resources is largely possible through Cargo Bots, which are always required. Cargo bots increase carry weight by installing Transmitter Chips to them. With a higher technology level wilson can be crafted which allows to Area Scavenging and Auto-Transport in the field. Cargo bots are very essential in Horizon.

### Crafting

All crafting workbenches below can be combined in two special "workstations" (Equipment and Command) in Horizon.

* Armor Workbench, Weapons Workbench, Power Armor Station – allows to install item mods
* Weapons Lab – allows to craft ammo, weapons, explosives
* Tech Lab – allows to craft utility items, special devices, synth settlers, ...
* Chemistry Station – allows to craft chems, healing items, syringer darts
* Cooking Station – allows to craft food items, grind meat, beverages, supply kits
* ZX-1 Experimentation Lab – allows to craft custom, legendary-type weapons, these weapons can be very powerful and outclass any other other weapons available via loot!

### Production

Active and passive production use Work Orders, a kind of work instruction for settlers which determine how much they should produce in advance. With increased settlement progression...

* Production Limits will be higher and more can be produced. Such as Supply Kits, purified water but also Vendor Credits
* Income – Vendor Stalls and Tenants bring in income (Vendor Credits), which in turn can be used to trade in the Market Trading Terminal and/or to build more leased utility buildings which unlock more tenants which unlock more vendor credits.

### Mission

Settler missions are a practical side income. These run actively in the background while the player explores the game world. The earlier they are employed, the better, every mission brings in settler skill. More settler skill more loot. The time it takes a settler to complete a mission can be positively influenced by the player's leadership skill. To create a mission you need a Command Table.

* Settler Mission – send settlers on missions using Supply Kits, Military Kits, Common Tools, Fishing Rods. Settler missions may require (more) mission slots and successful settlements and communities.
* Mission Slotsunlock more mission slots by gaining a new Settlement state; Successful Settlement, Settlement Community, Trailblazer perk.
* Settler Skill – While performing in the field settlers gain skill which will increase their chance to bring you back valuable items. It takes a while but will be worthwhile once high enough.

### Trading

* Courier Trading Service – Use the Resource Station and trade remotely with vanilla vendors. Reach to more vendors and merchants will be higher with increased Workshop Trading level.
* Market Trading Terminal – Gain access to hidden vendors, trade for items only available there, like Companion signature Weapons.
* Mailbox – Send and receive special items, gain Vendor Credits, exchange gwinnett beers, nuka-colas, Magazines. The mailbox is a very valuable source in getting more vendor credits, make use of it!
* Vendor Stalls: requires a Vendor Contract. Vendor stalls share their inventory across all your settlements. With higher workshop trading their stock will increase and caps will be higher also. They are also part of the requirements to build a Trading Market.

### Fast Travel

Traveling is possible as usually but also via caravans once at least two settlement are unlocked. Caravan traveling requires 3 settlers (in most settlements) and supplies based on distance from 1 up to 10. Supplies need to be exchanged first! 1 supply kit will give 30 supplies. Both the Caravan Travel Hub and Radio allow to exchange supplies and to use fast travel.

### Workshop Level

In order to craft and build more and more complex structures and items workshop level has to been increased. Population, Construction, Technology and Trading can be increased while some (tech and trading) require to be unlocked manually while crafting the required items in the tech lab others (construction and population) will upgrade based on statistics accross all settlements.

## Building Phases

Every phase here is optional, so don't let yourself feel compelled! However, this guide is based on the phase logic. Each phase describes a developmental state, in which one uses the buildings available by unlocking Workshop Technology and Workshop Construction levels. Both are part of the so-called progression mode, which essentially defines Workshop Levels as a whole.

Workshop Technology can be unlocked with higher character and settler skill and via Mail. Workshop construction levels can be gained via special buildings and Workshop Population levels also. The entirety of all phases forms the perfection of Production, Advanced Production as well as a Settler Mission jobs.

The Settlement building article is divided into 3 phases. The Architect workshop menu in this guide is limited to the essential buildings and their functions and shows the advantages and disadvantages of these, according to their use.

As already mentioned at the beginning, always have your settler needs in mind! Food, Water, Bed, Defense, Happiness all count for increasing your Recruitment Chance! Track basic needs per settlement, locally, even though food/water is shared in statistics menus (Pip-boy or Recruitement station) these are not shared globally across all settlements. Important to note, due to engine limitations, this menu can display completely wrong numbers, regardless of the numbers per settlement.

Be prepared to come up against a building limit at some point, the building limit can be easily increased, any time, by opening the Settlement Options Menu (accessable via Command Table, Field Kit, Resource Station) and select "Increase build budget for this settlement".

Study your Work Orders using the Production Manager. Check one or the other service, especially active services, in there and create work orders in advance. Some which should be set to +X or +999 right at the beginning are:

* Active Services
	+ Salvaging services
	+ Seawater production
	+ Purified water bottles production
* Crop Fertilizing
* Plant Nursery (if you have placed at least 1 farming workbench)
* Arc Furnace
	+ Ore Extraction
	+ Ore Processing
* Refinery
	+ Crude Oil Production

The reason is that: when you build a building in Horizon, eventhough settlers are assigned to this building but don't start automatically with their task at least if the building is part of the active production logic, so you have to define one or more work order(s) to make settlers/tenants work!

Change the default production storage and set a master workbench to a workshop/settlement of your choice. There are reasons why you should do this is:

* **Production Storage** – Set by default but isn't integrated in the production or in the workshop inventory so the items that are stored in it don't appear in any crafting list or in any production service!
* **Master Workbench** – unites all settlements, all linked settlements through Supply Lines store their inventory in the master workbench once you activate the "refresh button" in the resource manager menu.

Each settlement also harbors a certain potential of local minerals. Its called Local Mineral Deposit which allows to scan the soil of a settlement using the Resource Station. The chance per mineral is 0.01 to 1.00, with 1.00 being the highest. Each settlement is different and chances are different per game also. The mineral deposit isn't displayed globally, which is why you should make one or the other note using pen and paper if efficiency is your playstyle.

### Phase 1

Phase 1 can be defined as a general building strategy for each settlement, so the setup applies to almost all settlements and is only used as a rough guide. It is not always necessary to build every building. As the workshop technology level rises, certain buildings become obsolete anyway.

📝 **Note:** Workshop technology level 1 to 5 can be reached quickly, therefore 2, 3 and 4 are skipped here and are part of Tech Level building phase 2.

### Phase 2

Phase 2 can be understood as a basic phase, similar to what we know from production in Horizon. Talking about production phase 2 essentially is the production phase and heralds Advanced Production. All usefull buildings concerning production are mainly available between phase 1 and 3 with some exceptions of course (Small Extractor). The requirements regarding the tech level are low and can be reached very quickly with appropriate character skills. To be able to plan Character Creation better, a look at the first 4 workshop technology levels helps:

* Pistol Weapon Parts 10
* Shotgun Weapon Parts 10
* Copper 15
* Gear 15
* Steel 400
* Educational Material 20
* Copper 10
 * Liquid Fuel 15
* Nuclear Material 20
* Nuclear Material 40
* Nuclear Material 40
* Nuclear Material 20

The main reason why tech level 2 to 5 are combined is character progression and its options concerning unlocking more workshop technology levels! Most buildings after phase 2 are nice to have but not ultimately needed:

* Leased Utility buildings unlock all factories at tech level 3 at once and are maintained without any settlers so no need for normal factories
	+ component-oriented speaking, the building that has the absolute value for your production is the small extractor
* Purifier Modules can be obtained 3x (!) without a tech level, trading is a solid source to regain purified water bottles
* Tech level 9 is astronomically high and unlocks synth parts crafting options, since all settlements from this point on are already manned by human settlers, Synth Settlers are not really needed anymore ...

Basically you can do without other buildings, except the Small Extractor! Without this, no ore extraction takes place. This building is the heart of Advanced Production without it, it would not beat.

The following buildings/types are not listed. However, they are advisable to build at one point or another (which is not further detailed here for now):

* Specialty Jobs And Services
* Factories
* Arc Furnace and Refinery
* Research Buildings

The reason is either the buildings are obsolete, will be replaced by leased utility buildings or their integration has not yet been completed (beta), the benefits are close to 0 and are only of an optical nature. Happiness is debatable, but a lot of buildings increase it too.

	+ (4) Water Pump (Large Industrial) – the way to go, +50 water rating!
	+ (4) Water Tower – good alternative to many water pumps, but far behind compared to Water Pump (Large Industrial) in terms of absolute water rating, need vendor credits
	+ (4) Automated Planter – those who have saved up the crops up to now will benefit from a doubled farming rating, automated planters are highly recommended BUT high on material cost!
	+ Turret Platform – the Horizon turrets are highly recommended you can change their appearance quickly and easily by activating the controller object, the Architect Options Menu allows for using the "Last Selection" so turrets spawn based on your prefered setting
	+ (2) Large Windmill (2 Styles) – Oil – power (+20), very good for highlighting settlements from far away
	+ (2) Solar Panel (1/3x) – Fiberglass – power (+5/15), good alternative to all other buildings, the Steel Yard covers a number of costs but needs liquid fuel so that you pay for it indirectly already
	+ (2) Large Generator – Liquid Fuel – power (+30), if the main focus of production is oil, a very good alternative next to the windmills, as many of the costs are covered by the production already
	+ (4) Large Fusion Generator – Nuclear Material – power (+100), important for the production of Power Units (See: Power Surplus Converter), which are used for the production of Energy Cells (!), Crystal 3 (!)
		- DLC Workshop: Vault-Tec Reactor (+150), Vault-Tec Super-Reactor (+500)
 Workshop Construction levels should be increased either via the global settler population and/or via construction buildings as soon as possible! These special buildings increase the level by 3 points once if you place 3 of them. In general this gives you access to higher quality buildings, especially the architect's own structures Foundations and Buildings are highly recommended. These come with predefined, sometimes complex interior, only need a handful of base components and some offer the option of unlock beds. The time required to build settlements is reduced many times over with the structure management logic!
* (3) Construction Depot – maximum of 3 buildings goes into increasing the construction level. Place them wherever you want.
* (4) Construction Vehicle – same building just higher workshop requirements
 both crafting workbenches combine a whole series of workbenches
* (2) Command Workstation – not needed in every settlement, you will need a cargo bot ...
* (2) Equipment Workstation – very recommendable
 * (3) Seawater Extractor – extract seawater from the ocean, seawater can be converted into salt, salt in turn is necessary for producing purified water, setup a work order
* (3) Steel Yard – steel production with random byproducts, setup a work order
	+ -1 Liquid Fuel | +50 Steel/+1 Aluminum/+1 Miscellaneous Scrap (Aluminum, Copper, Rubber, Steel)
* (3) Stone Yard – concrete production with random byproducts, setup a work order
	+ -1 Liquid Fuel | +25 Concrete/+1 Glass/+1 Mixed Scrap (Asbestos, Ceramic, Concrete, Glass)
* (4) Small Oil Well – Crude Oil extraction, crude oil can be converted into liquid fuel, the costs are manageable, build as many as possible depending on your Local Mineral Deposit scan, since liquid fuel is always and constantly needed for the whole production, the building is more than important. Don't forget to setup a work order for refinery, to convert crude oil into Liquid Fuel!
* (3) Arc Furnace Refinery – Ore smelting, Metal processing, Crude Oil and Liquid Fuel production
* (3) Chemical Factory Leased – important for an autonomous purified water production and the production of Nitric Acid, Explosive Material, Smokeless Powder and many more usefull items, production costs are very high though (!)
* (3) Parts Factory Leased – Gear + Screw + Spring production, which can be manually "transfered" into Mixed Alloy Scraps @ the Tech Lab
* (3) Tech Factory Leased – +100 Energy Cells (!) important for this is a Power Surplus Converter and a constant Zinc production
* (3) Textiles Factory Leased – save junk items which are made of packing material until now, also produce +1 Ballistic Fiber, 10 Nitric Acid is a hard limiter here

### Phase 3

The last phase mainly revolves around the production of purified water, power cells and ore extraction. All other important production buildings have already been mentioned in phase 2. If you like, you can fall back on the Mining & Oil buildings here, but the leased utility buildings are to be preferred in any case or to be replaced by the facilities that can now be built.

* (9) Intact Synth Parts construct synth parts (Tech Lab) to deploy your own Synth Settlers, you can also find the parts and thus build a synth from tech level 2 onwards
 * Ore Extraction
	+ (6) Small Extractor uses Liquid Fuel to extract ore based on Local Mineral Deposit
* Power Cells
	+ (6) Power Conversion Facility
	+ (6) Power Surplus Converter
* Purified Water bottles
	+ (6) Water Purification Unit
	+ (7) Water Purification Facility

## See Also

* Architect
* Settlements
* Enhanced Settlements
* Guide/Architect
* Guide/Settlement Building Limitations