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Oh, hell! General, are you seeing this thing? Everybody, concentrate your fire on the queen!— Preston Garvey

Taking Independence is a Minutemen main quest and achievement/trophy in Fallout 4.

Quick walkthrough[]

Minutemen main quest: Taking Independence 
Talk to Preston Garvey
Meet Preston near the Castle
Decide on a plan of attack. 
Kill the mirelurks
Destroy the mirelurk nests. 
Kill the mirelurk queen. 
Power up the radio transmitter. 
Report back to Preston Garvey. 
Reward: 350+ XP
The Castle as a settlement 
Leads to: Old Guns 

Detailed walkthrough[]

Once the Sole Survivor has recruited at least four settlements to the Minutemen cause, this quest can begin. The next time Preston is talked to, he will bring up the idea of retaking the Castle, suggesting that the radio transmitter there would help with communicating with the growing number of allied settlements. Preston will then ask the Sole Survivor if he should assemble a strike force at the Castle. Once the Sole Survivor is ready for the attack, they can answer affirmatively to continue with the quest (Preston will wait for them to come back and call the attack otherwise).

At this point, the Sole Survivor must head to the Castle and meet Preston, who will be waiting in a ruined house with a strike team of three Minutemen. As the Sole Survivor approaches, Preston will talk a little about the fort before asking them to decide on a strike plan. The three Minutemen will offer various potential plans of attack: a direct assault into the courtyard via the breached northwest wall, a pincer through the breach and the main gate to the south, or setting up a firing line outside the northwest breach and drawing the mirelurks out to their guns.

Once the plan of attack has been decided, the Minutemen will move into position. As soon as someone enters the courtyard, mirelurks will begin emerging from the ground and attacking. Some of the mirelurk eggs may also hatch, releasing mirelurk hatchlings to be defeated. The Sole Survivor will need to help the Minutemen eliminate the mirelurks to proceed. Once the courtyard is clear, Preston will point out the mirelurk nests that are all over the Castle, stating that they need to be taken care of to keep the mirelurks from coming back. He will tell any remaining Minutemen to remain in the courtyard and take care of the eggs there while he and the Sole Survivor clear the walls.

From here the Sole Survivor must find the marked mirelurk nests in and around the Castle's walls and destroy all of the eggs. As they clear them out, more eggs will hatch and more mirelurks will emerge. When enough of the eggs are destroyed, the entire fort will shake, and a mirelurk queen will emerge from the lagoon - the "sea monster" that destroyed the Castle in the past. It will make her way through the southwest breach and into the Castle courtyard and begin attacking everything in sight. A missile launcher and a flamer can be found in an armory inside the east corner of the Castle's wall, and may come in handy for defeating the queen.

Once the queen has been killed and the remaining eggs are cleared out, Preston and the remaining Minutemen will gather in the courtyard, where he tells them to be alert for any remaining mirelurks, while he and the Sole Survivor have a look at the radio transmitter in the center of the courtyard. To finish the quest, the Sole Survivor must use the Castle's workshop to power up the radio transmitter. The transmitter requires 10 units of power, or a single large generator. With the transmitter powered up, Preston will express his happiness at the success of the mission as the quest completes.

Approximately three days after the Castle is taken, Ronnie Shaw will arrive and the Minutemen questline continues with Old Guns.

Quest stages[]

Quest stages
StageStatusDescriptionLog Entry
40 Talk to Preston GarveyPreston Garvey thinks it's time for the Minutemen to retake "The Castle", an old fort that used to be their main base of operations.
45 Meet the Minutemen near the CastlePreston Garvey was glad to hear that the Castle was already cleared of enemies. He's going to meet me there with a garrison of Minutemen.
50 Meet the Minutemen near the CastlePreston Garvey thinks it's time for the Minutemen to retake "The Castle", an old fort that used to be their main base of operations. I've agreed to meet him there so we can plan our attack.
80 Decide on a plan of attackI've met Preston Garvey and a group of Minutemen near the Castle. We need needIn-game spelling, punctuation and/or grammar to agree on a plan of attack.
100 Wait for the Minutemen to get into positionPreston Garvey and the Minutemen are forming up to attack the Castle on my signal.
170 Clear the courtyardPreston Garvey and the Minutemen are attacking the Castle. Our first objective is to clear the Mirelurks from the fort's courtyard.
200 Clear the courtyardPreston Garvey and the Minutemen are attacking the Castle. Our first objective is to clear the Mirelurks from the fort's courtyard.
260 Destroy the egg clutchesWe've eliminated the Mirelurks from the Castle courtyard. The next step is to find and destroy their eggs before they can hatch.
305 Kill the Mirelurk QueenWhile we were clearing the Mirelurk eggs from the Castle, we seem to have attracted the angry attention of a huge Mirelurk Queen.
400 Queen DeadWe managed to kill the Mirelurk Queen. Now to finish the job of clearing the Mirelurks from the Castle.
500 Meet the Minutemen in the courtyardWe've finished clearing out the Mirelurks. The Castle is back under the control of the Minutemen.
570 Power up the radio transmitterThe Castle is back under our control. The next step is to get the old radio transmitter powered up.
600 Talk to Preston GarveyThe Castle is back under our control, and Radio Freedom can now broadcast across the whole Commonwealth.
1000Quest finishedQuest complete

Notes[]

  • This quest may trigger as part of The Molecular Level, when the player speaks to Preston about building the signal interceptor; he will bring up taking back the Castle in order to fortify the Minutemen's position if they intend to get involved with the Institute.
  • The current number of Minutemen-aligned settlements (player-owned with at least one settler) to trigger the quest can be tested on the PC console with show MinutemenOwnedSettlements. As this value is only updated when a Minuteman recruitment or radiant quest is handed in to Preston, the player may have more settlements that meet the criteria than the system recognizes.
  • Any Minutemen that survive the battle will remain at the Castle after the quest is complete as part of the settlement population. One of the Minutemen is an essential character and cannot die, he will operate the radio once the Castle becomes a settlement. The other two Minutemen are not essential characters and can die during the quest; however, if they are alive, they will help clear out the remaining eggs if not yet cleared.
  • The Castle comes prebuilt with an intricate electrical system and an industrial-grade water purifier. This requires significant power to run but produces 40 units of water, enough for two fully populated settlements. There will be sludge and debris left behind by the mirelurks that can interfere with building; leaving the Castle and returning will cause it to disappear.
  • If Preston is already a companion just prior to starting this quest, or is made a companion just after starting this quest, he may leave the player after this quest is completed (as if he was just a temporary follower for the duration of the quest), returning to his current home location (Sanctuary or other location he was previously dismissed to). This can leave the player without any companion for the Old Guns quest unless they first track down Garvey or an alternate companion.
  • If one dismisses Preston as a companion after he makes the quest available, the player will not be able to recruit him again until after completing taking the Castle. When trying to talk to him, he will ask if the player is ready to take the Castle and will not offer the option for him to follow the player.
  • If the Sole Survivor clears the Castle before receiving this quest, the mirelurk battle is skipped. Preston will be impressed at the feat, and the quest will proceed directly to clearing the mirelurk eggs and powering the transmitter.

Bugs[]

  • PCPC Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One After defeating the mirelurk queen, Preston may glitch into a wall that the player cannot enter. In order to fix this, one will have to reload to before the glitch happens.[verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One After defeating the mirelurk queen, the marker to meet in the courtyard will appear at a far distance. The path there is very treacherous as it contains synths, raiders, super mutants, mirelurks and deathclaws on most paths there. To fix this fast travel to a few different places and it will automatically fix itself.[verified]
  • PCPC If one encounters the glitch, where the player is required to clear out the remaining egg nests after killing the mirelurk queen, some of the random loot around the fort will have disappeared permanently. Also, a legendary mirelurk that sometimes spawns in one of the fort's rooms may vanish, too.[verified]
  • PCPC Xbox OneXbox One After defeating the queen and clearing out the Fort, Preston Garvey may sit on the wall doing nothing with no speech options. Preston may also walk all the way back to Sanctuary and will continuously say "We need to focus on taking the Castle back". This may be solved by sitting on the chair and wait for 24 hours. [verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 4Playstation 4 The queen may not spawn after killing the mirelurks as she is stuck under the floor. Loading a previous save and re-entering the room may solve this issue.[verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One After killing the mirelurk queen the player may be unable to build more than one generator of each type, even if the player has the necessary parts.[verified]
  • Xbox OneXbox One When the player builds the generators, of any size, one is unable to build them in the courtyard, or on top of the walls. Reloading a save before one built the generators should fix this issue.[verified]
  • PCPC If one leaves the Castle during this quest, it will be unable to be completed. [verified]
  • PCPC Sometimes, Preston won't give the player the quest even if one meets the requirements (even if the player captured the castle before). To solve this, just send him away to Sanctuary and meet him there, he will start talking about the Castle. [verified]
  • PCPC Sometimes, even after killing all enemies within the Castle, one won't be able to activate the workshop because "You need to clear out the enemies at this location". Additionally, the conversation with Preston may be stuck in a similar loop [verified]
    • This be fixed by using the killall command.
    • Another option is to disable mods (especially Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch), then reload to previous save and retake The Castle.
  • PCPC One can use the setstage command to finish the quest, but the Castle will remain unbuildable. [verified]
  • PCPC Sometimes, the transmitter is impossible to power up. [verified]
Fo4 Minutemen Flag
Fo4 Minutemen Flag
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