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 nests. | |||||
| Kill the mirelurk queen. | |||||
| Power the transmitter. | |||||
| Report back to Preston Garvey. | |||||
| Reward: 350+ XP The Castle as a settlement | |||||
| Leads to: Old Guns | |||||
Detailed walkthrough
Once one has established approximately four settlements, including Sanctuary Hills, for the Minutemen, talk to Preston Garvey. He'll tell the player about the Castle, the former headquarters of the Minutemen, and discuss his desire to retake the building to show that the Minutemen are back. Offer to help, and he'll tell the player to meet him outside the Castle.
The hike to the Castle will take one through South Boston and past a number of both raiders and super mutants in equal measure. Garvey is waiting for the player in a destroyed Sullivan's diner west of the Castle with three other Minutemen.
Talk to Garvey, and he'll discuss the player's options. 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. When all's in order, the player can launch the attack.
There are about ten mirelurks of varying strength inside the Castle. Once they're all dead, Garvey and the Minutemen will observe the egg nests laying around; if they're not cleared out the mirelurks will keep coming back. Approaching the egg nests will cause several of them to hatch mirelurk hatchlings.
Upon destroying all the nests required, the entire Castle will shake, and a mirelurk queen will emerge from the lagoon - the "sea monster" that destroyed the Castle in the past. She'll make her way through the southwest breach and into the Castle courtyard, at which point she'll start killing anything she can reach.
Once the Queen is dead, the player will have to clear out the remaining egg nests. After they're all gone Preston will tell the player about Radio Freedom, and task the player with getting it up and running. This requires ten power to function. Once Radio Freedom is powered, the player can talk to Preston again to complete the quest.
Quest stages
Notes
- 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 pre-built with an intricate electrical system and an industrial-grade water purifier. This requires significant power to run but cranks out forty clean water resources, enough for two full-size settlements all on its own. Initial building may be hampered by the sludge and debris left by the mirelurks, but simply traveling away and coming back will clear that out.
- If one dismisses Preston as a follower after he makes the quest available, the player will not be able to recruit him again until taking the Castle. When the player tries to talk to him, he will ask if one is ready to take the Castle and will not offer the option for him to follow the player.
- This can be very useful; since Preston is recruitable and will wait at the castle, one can bring along another companion for extra fire support against the mirelurks.
- If the player already cleared the Castle, the quest will still be available, however, the mirelurk fight will be bypassed, and the player will be asked to power the radio transmitter, or clear out the eggs, if not done already.
Behind the scenes
 | The following is based on unverified behind the scenes information and may be inaccurate. |
|---|
- This quest's name is a reference to the original name of the location, Fort Independence.
- The presence of mirelurks at the Castle may be an allusion to the lobsterbacks - a slang term for the Redcoat infantry that the Minutemen fought during the American Revolutionary War. This could also be supported by the presence of a mirelurk queen, symbolizing the British monarch.
| End of information based on unverified behind the scenes information |
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Bugs
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 before the glitch happens.[verified]- 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]
- 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]
- 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]
- The queen may not spawn after killing the mirelurks as she is stuck under the floor. Loading a previous savegame and re-entering the room may solve this issue.[verified]
- 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]
- 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]
- If one leaves the castle during this quest, it will be unable to be completed. [verified]
- 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]
- Sometimes even after killing all enemies within the Castle, one wont be able to activate the workshop because "You need to clear out the enemies at this location".
- One can use the Setstage command to finish the quest, but the castle will remain unbuildable. [verification overdue]
- Sometimes the transmitter is impossible to power up. [verification overdue]
