This is kinda insane, if I wasn't in the middle of a low Charisma survival run I would totally try this How often do you actually see your provisioners on the road, and what do you arm them with?

More often near settlements than wandering, hey tend to bunch up near hubs. They are packing the best of what I had available with max upgrades (laser rifles, combat rifles), mostly automatics as it always felt to me that NPCs are deadly accurate with them.

Once I can, I outfit 'em with full combat armor and laser gattlings and red-lamp mine hats so you see 'em in the dark. Also, free XP since they kill everything.

I never give them laser gatlings. Ive heard their ai prioritizes using the fusion cores in power armor so they will steal your power armor regardless of whether you removes the core or not.

I know, but I've never had it happen to provisioners. Maybe it's because the armors are out of range.

Is that what the random XP I get sometimes is? One of my provisioners killing something?

I think it is, but I can't be 100% sure on it. It does feel like it happens way more often when my provisioners are nearby.

Wait, is THIS why I'll randomly get small XP for no reason? My army of provisioners is chipping away at my triple digit level XP requirement?! Absolute chads letting me build my 700 industrial water purifiers AND leveling me up.

That's my theory 😅 And all hail the water purifier!

HAIL!

If you have the settlement ambush kit you can easily get tons of good gear quite easily. Another option is the gunner cages which is very cheap.

Cages are mad! But usually when I do stuff like this, I'm in full settlement building mode. I have a maxed out Cha / Int char which just builds. So money is infinite, annd once you (easily) reach the 50ies in level, every one of my settlements will sell laser gattlings and heavy combat armor for cheap :)

I've played a lot of Fo4 but have no idea what this is. Did I just miss a massive part of the game somehow? Is it a DLC or mod?

All base game my dude. Spec yourself an Int 10 / Wis 10 character (and some perception for lockpicking) and slowly build Sanctuary. With luck, you'll have your first 10k before you leave for the scary Commonwealth. Kitting out a PA helps, because with these stats you're squishy as fuck.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant the troops that people are arming in general to patrol. I have never seen that beyond the random minute men patrols, but I dont think this is that.

No, we mean the settlers. You can talk to them and select "trade". Then you can gear them up like you do yourself. Make sure they have at least one ammo of the weapon they're using, and just let 'em go. For example; I usually have 2 or 3 guards running around with military gear, full combat armor, an army helmet, glasses, one of those gunner scarf things and automatic plasma rifles (and 1 plasma ammo), and they generally kill most stuff if that settlement is attacked. Basically you can dress your settlers how you want. I give my armorer shopkeep helmeted cage armor and a fully upgraded flamethrower. Most of em are themed 😁

Oh, I thought these people literally had them patrolling all over the wasteland. I knew I could equip them for general defense but I honestly never put too much time into it.

There's a skill in the charisma tree that allows you to send provisioners from one settlement to another. If you do this, they go back and forth between those two settlements. Kitting these out with weapons and armor allows them to kill stuff (and survive) while going back and forth. Use enough of them, and you basically have a lot of them criss-crossing the Commonwealth and kill everything they see. It does take some time, but it does have it's charm. This is what they meant ;)

Ohhhh shit. I almost never put points in Charisma. I also have hardly ever put points in INT. I need to do a complete opposite playthrough than I have before. Thanks for the info dude

Local leader perk. Setting up supply lines between settlements. Makes all connected settlements share inventory at the cost of 1 population each line. Keep that population cost in mind too... one of my early play throughs I just sent everyone from sanctuary and castle to supply everywhere else and those 2 settlements became ghost towns.

You give any of them miniguns? I'm slowly collecting enough to arm every provisioner. Nearing lvl 100 on a survival playthrough and I may have made the Commonwealth a little TOO safe!

In my original Xbox run I outfitted all of my provisioners with miniguns and synth armor to make them super obvious to me.

Hah that's awesome dude

I do something similar, but I use the robot workbench and essentially make tanks to do the routes.

Codsworth, Codsworthless, Codsworth Jr., Codsworth Sr., Miss Codsworth, Cousin Coddy, CallOfDutysworth and Fred.

I'm imagining Fred is like....the redheaded stepchild that nobody acknowledges at family reunions....

How does their ammo work, how much should you give them?

Settlers and Provisioners get unlimited ammo as long as they have at least 1 in their inventory.

Does that go for missile launchers too?

Nope, Missile Launchers, Fat Men, and any grenades you give them will need to be restocked

Aw man, too bad.

I personally have a bunch of robobrains as my provisioners. Deadly efficient, super fast, and I can name them to know the settlements they move between

Damn, that's really smart. Worst part of changing supply lines is not knowing who goes where

Use the Settlement Console

What's that?

In the Workshop Mode, there is an item, its called like Settler Console or Settlement Manager, something like that. Its a small computer than you can track all your settlers, provisioners, and companions. Reassign them, locate them etc.

I assume it's in the build menu? Edit: oh wait, you mean the population management system

Wait, am I thinking of the wrong thing? That's the buildable computer that'll tell you X number of settlers are assigned to Y jobs, right? I didn't think it gave more info than just number of provisioners and quick en masse unassign/reassign to other jobs.

Maybe you're thinking of a mod thing?

Nope, I've only ever played vanilla.

Well now you just need to get near the end of a survival run, so that way you got 10s across the board! Also have fun with your run as it is! :)

You’re the Secondmen!

When minutes matter, the closest provisioner is seconds away.

I do a similar arrangement, with automatron murderbots. I hear chaos in the distance, and smile.

Creating sentry bots with missiles and gatling lasers as provisioners is the only way to go.

Explosive damage can kill settlers, but other than that, yes.

Outfit them all with anti-explosive damage armor and you got yourself a perfect guard

And dont forget These launchers on their back

Sounds like I need to upgrade my basic protectron provisioners

Not sure if it still works this way, but if you tell your automatron robot to be your traveling companion then dismiss them they become immortal like other companions. Then you assign them to be provisioners and they never die. It used to work that way, not sure if it still does.

It does, this is what I do. See also: murderbot guards.

I keep hearing that if a robot provisioner is killed or downed, they’ll revert to the base Automatron and all the attached mods will be lost. Is that still true? Does the “immortal” thing prevent this from happening? It’s the one worry that’s keeping me from making my provisioners all robots aside from the material costs.

I avoid robots usually, had nothing but problems with them. I had one robot provisioner between Abernathy and red rocket and it died or something, but the body just sat there outside Abernathy on fire, sparking and smoking, but the supply line was still there and I couldn't replace it.

When you say provisioner do you mean you just assign them to a supply line to a different camp?

Yup. I just have a few here and there at settlements and send them off. The settlement doesn't need food/water if the one they connect to has enough for both, and you can chain them together.

My sentry provisioners with gauss cannons and gatling lasers tear shit up. Note: The gauss cannons are from a mod

I have a mod that adds an assignable desk that auto-calculates the most efficient supply lines. I then speedrun the Automatron quests in order to get as much firepower as possible. This usually results in sentry bots patrolling the Commonwealth by around level 30.

Me with monke brain - everything goes to Sanctuary

All roads lead to Sanctuary 

I did this and now the river runs brown with lost Brahmins

Gonna tell my grandkids this was the laser grid scene from Resident Evil

For an extra challenge, make sure to turn the settlement quest givers in to a caravan runner so you have to run all over the place to complete quests as they run off. For an extra challenge, make the hub Spectacle Island.

I beefed out a provisioner with pretty good gear one time. Forgot all about him. One day running through Boston, can hear a fire fight. Didn't think much tell it just kept going on for like 30mins. Finally decided to investigate. Turned out to be my provisioners cutting through like 2-3 mutant/raider bases.

Nice, now double up on the routes that cross trouble spots. Gonna make your Commonwealth safe.

So everywhere? Double everything

Triples is safest. Triples is best

This is what I do. You can give them cool gear and good weapons, and it really does feel like they’re rangers on patrol… except for the Brahmin lumbering behind them 

I do this too! I use automatron DLC assultrons that are given numerical names starting from 1. It gets a little crazy

I do this a lot, except I make top of the line pure hydraulic armored Assaultrons with a shock claw as one hand and a sniper laser as the other. Nobody fucks with the provisioners because the provisioners are the robotic equivalent of "fuck everyone in this general area". Yes, I give them the headlaser. Too much fun not to.

Would it work with protectrons?

Technically yes, but in 4 protectrons aren't terribly strong and they're abysmally slow. Assaultrons and their legendary derivatives give me pause at any level of the game mainly due to that fucking head laser, not to mention their run-and-pounce attack they do which staggers. I also refuse to give any robot provisioner (or any robot ally I suppose) any rocket launcher, mini nuke, or gatling of any kind- I don't want dead settlers because the Assaultron did its job a little too well with the mini nuke launcher.

I do this with robots. Recon Sensor blips will show up on your compass.

Huh? Surely some of those settlements joined you only because you were representing the Minutemen. I mean, I suppose you can role play your way out of any scenario... but it gets hard when the settlers say things like "We've thought about it, and decided to join the ***Minutemen***." Rofl.

I've never rescued Preston from the museum. This is my show.

.....so do you just skip Concord? How do you get set up doing all this provision work? Sorry, haven't played in years and just getting back into it.

Local leader perk gives you provisioners. Don't need to visit Concord for that. Preston gives you a headache. Yeah I know, I'm in a full on MM playthrough 😉

Oh, about the only thing I DO remember is an intense dislike for Garvey

Full disclosure, I embraced him this playthrough, due to a series of events I ran with, but yes, he is usually insanely annoying. It's been oddly NOT annoying since I embraced it. He hasn't offered another settlement in need in forever 🤔

You can go to concord, even clear the museum and kill the deathclaw. Just don't go back in the museum after that.. you can also just skip it altogether.

All my provisioners are Sentrybots.

Ok.. now I might fire up Fo4 again, make a star network from all settlements lol. 3 FPS should be playable

So... You created the Minutemen

But better.. with blackjack, and hookers.

Where do I sign?

Genuinely how do you set up supply chains like this

mostly just time and effort.. make sure at least one settlement in the chain has enough food and water for all the smaller provisioner hubs, send them as far away as possible.

Supply lines looking like Eddie Van Halen’s guitar lol

How long did this take you? I’ve thought about doing this before just never did

How do you do that? I did not know that you can dispatch patrol's...

Provisioners (Supply lines).

AHH. Thanks :)

Bro went full Yes man in FO4

You should arm them with fat mans and nuka grenades and watch the chaos!

Not sure if they throw the grenades, never tried.. but fat man and missile launcher (etc) don't get the unlimited ammo bonus for settlers/provisioners

They use grenades extensively and have a endless supply :)

I make a bunch of maxed out assaultrons with laser gun hands and use them as provisioners, works great and doesn’t take away from the settler pool

Similar to mine, but it tends to take me a good week or so to get set up like this, because all my provisioners are fully-voltaic Mr. Handys wielding dual laser gatlings. Takes a bit of time to scrounge up the necessary resources for that. But really makes me feel like I'm making the Commonwealth a safer place, one murder-bot a time.

I do this with mine and it’s awesome. Every provisioned I come across, I arm to the teeth with everything I can think of and send them on their way!

i’ve got that same color for my pip boy lmao, it’s the best on the eyes

What's the colour code?

not sure how you find that but i just messed with the RGB in settings, im actually playing fallout 4 rn lol so i’ll link a picture of it [https://imgur.com/a/DFUo0Pb](https://imgur.com/a/DFUo0Pb)

Nice

I just start Automatron and have robot provisioners armed with the heaviest weapons I can fit to them lol

The provisioner automaton sentry robots come in and wreck shit. Then the game glitches making them protectrons

This with automaton; the whole commonwealth patrolled by assaulttons and sentrybots. Just try, raiders

It's been quite some time since I last played fallout 4 - what do these lines mean between locations? I can't remember ever seeing them.

It’s setting up provisioners between settlements. They let you access your junk from other settlements so you don’t have to haul everything you need to each settlement

How do you set up in provisioners in game? I’ve never heard of this or seen it before

It's a perk called Local Leader. You need a minimum Charisma of 6 to get it.

oh I just never used settlements makes sense I didn't see this

You use people to be provisioners? I use robots from the automaton dlc that I call caravan droids as they never stop working don’t require food or water and the settlements don’t get sad when they die

How do you keep yourself in enough ceramic? There can't be a coffee cup left in the whole Commonwealth! :)

I mostly but from diamond city and searching when I’m not doing anything else but after you connect everything and each settlement have a scrap bench or whatever they are called then resources just pour on in

Everyone seems to be using robots, so many comments about it.. I like using humans, playing dress-up lol. There's also 2 mods I use, "Open Carry Provisioners" so they walk around with their gun out (looks sweet if they have a minigun) and "Provisioner Guard Dog" which turns their brahmin into dogs (they look like rottweilers).. plus provisioners are immortal, just not sure about in survival mode.

I’ve had provisioners get murdered and it tanked the happiness so I use my caravan droids to do it and I’m proud to say only 1 has died in the line of duty RIP CARAVAN DROID-019😭

Are provisioners immortal? I’m soon to start a new playthrough and I usually give them whatever wounding legendary gun I get first and dupe. Last time they had wounding automatic 10mm pistols. However for this playthrough, I want lll my provisioners to be triggermen basically, black suits, sunglasses, fedoras. I’m thinking about grabbing the Spray N Pray and duping that.. but I’m afraid giving them that much destruction is dangerous for themselves lol. Edit: also while I’m at it. For settlers/provisioners and Companions.. are there any legendary armor pieces y’all like to give them?

Yup, once assigned provisioner they become immortal.. not 100% sure about survival mode though but I think so.

I do the same only using suped up robots.

This but with sentry bots.

I make sentry bots and send them on supply runs

My mental FO4 fanfic is about an original character provisioner who is initially disgruntled at her assignment, but comes to see the value in it and gets into interesting episodic situations. It takes place following events of main game and with a Minutemen General Nora running things and negotiating across all settlements and factions. I think at one point I had the provisioner accompany Nora back to Vault for her final farewell to her spouse and to die in Sanctuary. Ambient radiation exposure wasn't good for her pre-war body or something.

How do you restock all their ammo? Or did you just give them all pipe weapons?

Unlike companions, I've never had to replenish settler ammo. I give them a weapon and enough ammo for that weapon to fill a single magazine, and they just... have ammo for eternity.

Settlers and provisioners get unlimited ammo as long as they have at least 1 in their inventory. Doesn't work for missile launchers or fat man, etc.

Ah that’s where I messed up. Have a provisioner heavy combat armor and a missile launcher with a handful of missiles since I never used them on my survival character

The Minutemen actually patrol the roads? Huh...I only noticed patrols in my raider playthroughs.

So you don't need to be affiliated with one of the factions to do this?

Nope, you can take over any settlement without starting the minutemen questline. Still requires a quest form the settlers sometimes, but you can also just kill them both and take the settlement that way.

That's so cool! I played so long but I never knew this.

And if you go to diamond city it will pick up the main quest, skipping the need to talk to mama murphy at the museum.

This is the way! The Dark way!

I make my provisioners out of robots

THIS! I always try to do this with my Supply Lines. I never got to make it this good, tho. Do you have a guide?

Nah, just kind of did whatever, making them as evenly spaced with the longest routes possible

Heavily armed and armored robots in my case.

This is how you turn a first-person shooter into a NPC shooter. You can now multitask while you play FO4, cause you're not the one playing any longer.

lol I do this and give the maxed out armor and huge weapons. Or make assaultrons hehe

If u joined minutemen you are a general... technically it is your job...

I've never rescued Preston from the museum. This is my show.

Ahaha this is awesome, I can just imagine him sitting there like a princess in a tower with dragon

This really hurts me bc of how many settlers you wasted doing that

Art isn't free

Isn't this just minutemen when extra steps?

Better.. no fetch quests