i have this probleme that most of us have in fallout 4. What factions to choose! I have done the brother hood of steel and the institute at this point. i love both but it seems to me as the brotherhood has sh**ty valors and the institute has a past of crime :/ and since i am a guy who like to take wise decisions i want to read your arguments on what side to pick!

sorry for my english! I'm french from canada!

greating from canada

@"failboy1998" My favorite choice is the minutemen since they want to help the local population.
The Brotherhood has good intention but the actual elder is a dick in my opinion, the institute has good intention too but won't mind killing the people to achieve their goal and the railroad is blinded by saving synth by any means necessary.

Honestly, I was really conflicted with the factions of Fallout 4. Though I kind of broke it down like this:

Minutemen: Don't really focus on the big picture and would rather focus on helping the people of the Commonwealth. They will only attack the other factions if provoked or the opposing faction starts to harm the populace. However at the end of the day, the Minutemen are just your average farmer or settler who just wants to make it through the week and while they may not have the most advance weapons or hardware that the other factions hold. They will do what they can with what they got.

Railroad: Their focus is purely on saving synths no matter the cost. And while this is an admirable goal, they often lose focus in the pursuit of this goal and can cause harm to the people of the Commonwealth. In addition, we will not know the longer impact that a synth population will have on the Commonwealth which can cause the stewards of freedom end up being the precursors of our own end.

The Brotherhood of Steel: It's hard to bring up the brotherhood without understanding their reasoning for their actions. Something to keep in mind is that the Brotherhood of Steel started as a military unit who unknowingly helped guard the experimentation of the FEV on their own people. When Maxson found out what was done with the subjects and what the government condone. So with the atrocities carried out by the research team and looking out to the wasteland, Maxson saw the true horror of what technology can accomplish. Deciding that his children will not be unprepared for the dangers of the wasteland and with the will to prevent further calamities from befalling the world, Maxson decided to head out to the Lost Hills base and formed the Brotherhood of Steel. Fast Forward to Fallout 4, and here we have Maxson's desendent faced with a new unknown element created by technology. Rather than try to understand what the Synths are, he views them for the potential danger they could be to the people of the Commonwealth and the world. The Brotherhood knows all to well the horrors of the FEV and for they know, the Institute's synths could be the next big crisis to ravage the wastes.

Now while the Brotherhood of Steel is well intended on protecting the Commonwealth and Humanity from itself, they often bear the mantle of responsibility and will force people to aid them for the greater good. Much to the dismay of some settlers. For the Brotherhood ends justify the means as long as Humanity lives on.

The Institute: After years of living underground and growing in knowledge and power, the Institute tried to help bring some form of order to the Commonwealth. However their attempts at this ultimately failed leaving them the with the belief that the Commonwealth in it's current state is too unbalanced and dangerous to attempt to aid. Therefore they feel it's imperative for them to improve their creations in order to forcibly change the Commonwealth for it's own good, but have no problems with eliminating those who do no conform. It is this stance and their use of implanting synths into local governance that shows their guile to manipulate the people to do what they want. All for the good of the Commonwealth.

So what was my choice in the end? Well my first play-through I chose the Brotherhood, however I noticed for my game afterwards, the Brotherhood became hostile and aggressive often finding times where a Vertibird was shooting up a settlement.

And finally for the next play-through, I decided I wanted to find a way to stabilize the region and also keep the Minutemen, Railroad & The Brotherhood alive. Luckily for me, someone already discovered this and I followed the steps they did and got a stable Commonwealth with the Railroad still alive as well as the Brotherhood and of course the Minutemen.

So I hope my thoughts on the individual factions will help you come up with your decision and I wish you the best of luck.

Cheers.

The only thing that really bugged me out is during the quest "battle of bunker hill." If you are helping BoS, RR, and the institute simultaneously, you will face almost no enemies no matter where you accept this quest. All those factions just taking each others out while you walking right into the war zone, and no body care about your presence. It was not even a battle since I can take all presence faction members out without making them enemy. It is just so unrealistic and non-immersive.

makes me feel good knowing I'm not the only one thinking its a har choice! i finaly chose the brotherhood because people were passing me comments on the instetute that i made a bad choice to incourage the ones who kindapt people ! so i sai damn you win i will liscene to the people of the common wealth

Salut mon ami,

My choices were between the Minutemen and the Railroad mainly because they are the ones who want to help people. I stuck with the Railroad because they want to free the synths who were basically slaves to the institute and that ain't right in my book.

Well my thoughts:

Minutemen:
The minutemen are a militia, they really try to use what little they have and protect their homes on a very local level with the agreement that if something big comes along, they will band together and all fight the threat. This didn't work very well historically or in FO4, Quincy as the obvious example with the Gunners. Excellent idea, good morals, very likeable just not very capable. A lack of trained and experienced people with little to nothing in the ways of Arms and Equipment. So Lack of training and lack of equipment means they are probably looking at another Quincy coming as groups are pulled together by the immediate Emergency but will soon fall apart as it abates. Such a group will always be playing "Catch up"

Railroad:
Not a bad group, a group devoted to helping a new people escape the bonds of slavery. But so much so that they omit others. Slavery and raiding for slaves is a very real thing in the Commonwealth and they are really only focusing on the Synths. Then the debate of Gen 1, Gen 2 or Gen 3? Which ones do they save which ones are considered sentient? If they abhor the slavery of the Synths and actively work against it, why not help the humans they come across? Once again a good group, very focused to the point of tunnel vision in the goals. Hurting for people, arms and equipment especially after the raids by the institute, embedded with the trade caravans so they have a good intel system set up and the ability to move supplies and people.

Brotherhood of Steel (As Brigamer stated above)
They have seen the horrors of what humanity did to itself, with the Nuclear war and then with the FEV. While some fled to the safety of the Vaults and their like, like parts of the Government (Enclave), Self important and Overly Educated (Commonwealth Institute for Technology), Those Lucky enough to survive (Vault Dwellers) *Important Caveat - Until Fallout 3 came out Vaults were not huge experiments, they were largely just huge long term bunkers, but with Fallout 3 they became living experiments* But, yes, Soldiers under Maxon at the onset of the war saw what was happening, they eventually saw what the Government and now Vaultec had done to create the FEV and that they protected areas that did this from mutants and other creatures.. and it was horrifying. At that point as Brigamer said they decided they wouldn't have a hand in this, they wouldn't let technology be abused in this fashion, that the FEV and its supermutants are the Primary threat of the BOS one could argue even before FO1.

So now fast forward to FO4, the BOS hears word of this Institute, a group of people who achieved a high level of Technology from the Old world in the Commonwealth, with whisperings of the creation of Synthetic Life Forms (Synths) and the Institute using these Synths to replace people as body doubles to better conquer the Commonwealth. Then when they get there, not only do they meet the Synth threat, but they re-encounter an age old enemy, the Supermutants. Thought largely extinct because of the destruction of the Mariposa base (Fallout 1 & 2 also the remnants of surviving Supermutants made it to New Vegas) , the Enclave and the Vault making them in the Capitol wasteland (FO3) they realize that the only group capable of creating FEV would be a prewar group like the Institute. So now the BOS has a group making Synthetic Soldiers and body doubles as well as Supermutants with access to Prewar Technology. So now they face the Institute with full fervor, with most exposure to Synths being Gen 1 and 2 because the 3's are so hard to discover currently often batching mentally the Synths because of this into the same group as the Supermutants.

So once again as Brigamer said, the BOS are stuck trying to stop the institute's Synths and Supermutants except now the threat of infiltration by Gen 3 synths is a very real threat. The Prydwyn is designed to be a spear head, its not really there to function as a large base of operations which is why they try to establish a beachhead at the old air port. As an expeditionary force they have to get supplies elsewhere, so they task you (quest: Feeding the troops) with getting these supplies, you as the player have the option of scaring/ forcing settlements to help, paying for the supplies or simply charming them out of the supplies. But the BOS view the Institute in the same light as the Enclave and the Prewar Governments that did this to the world and with good reason as they are doing the same things the Government did.

which brings me to the..
the Institute...
The Institute much like the Government knew the war was coming and was prepared. They hunkered down and braced and weathered the storm. Afterwards, they emerged upon a ruined world and tried using their technology to help the surface. They made the first synths and the people of the surface were terrified of them and their technology and reacted extremely negative to them. It was at this point that the institute viewed the people of the surface to decayed and degenerated morally and physically to save and decided to purge and replace them. They started creating the Gen 3 synths to replace people in areas of power and government in the common wealth. They sent the Synths to kill Farmers and replace them so they can experiment on the crops. They send Synths to the player characters settlements as infiltrators (that's why your settlements bug, the beds, food, water and such drops to zero, it means you have Synth Infiltrator there which are kind of easy to spot when you know what to look for) They abduct people for experiments and genetic resources because they can only procreate so much within their facility for so long before everyone is related (Hence why they kidnap your son and start the story of FO4) and then they start up the FEV experiments on the people they kidnap from the farms just because they have them around and... why not experiment on them I guess.. why waste the resource is the institutes thinking. So they take the FEV captives and experiment on them, because if they die from the FEV its no problem they are subhuman anyway and are destined for the chopping block to begin with. When they become curious as to how well the FEV Supermutants will live in the Commonwealth, they release the Supermutants on the Commonwealth as a form of Experiment...

Well, on my second playthrough I only destroyed The Institute, leaving the other factions intact, that way I could still be part of The Railroad, Brotherhood and Minutemen at the same time. I officialy joined the Minutemen by the way.

mpaz96 wrote:

Well, on my second playthrough I only destroyed The Institute, leaving the other factions intact, that way I could still be part of The Railroad, Brotherhood and Minutemen at the same time. I officialy joined the Minutemen by the way.

Good choice, I just wish you could empower the minutemen more or atleast give them better equipment and training

SgtSpectre wrote:

mpaz96 wrote:

Well, on my second playthrough I only destroyed The Institute, leaving the other factions intact, that way I could still be part of The Railroad, Brotherhood and Minutemen at the same time. I officialy joined the Minutemen by the way.

Good choice, I just wish you could empower the minutemen more or atleast give them better equipment and training

Yeah, I wish for the same, that's kind of why I chose the BoS on my first playthrough. The Minutemen just seem kind of weak compared to the other factions. I kind of wished that as you get more settlements they start getting better equipment.

I had a really hard time choosing too, but in the end I went with the Minutemen, and thankfully ended up being neutral/allied with the Railroad and The Brotherhood. It'd be nice if we didn't have to blow up the institute too, but we had such limited options.

i see railroad and minuteman are very popular... i never though people would like theme since in the story line there are not that greatly introduce escpecially the railroad

The railroad as a faction has the most personality. The characters are all pretty likeable and unique (which is more than I can say for the brotherhood).

The minutemen probably have the best goals but their quests are dull and the faction only has 2 named characters.

I am right there with you, failboy. It is a difficult decision.
I ended up deciding to create multiple characters and choose different factions on each just so I can see the end results and then decide which I would continue playing.

I have only completed the story with the BOS so far and honestly didn't like my outcomes. In the end they seemed more like the bullies than protectors of the people.

I like the minutemen because they are there solely to protect and aid the other settlements and never seem to push their agenda on anyone. My only dislike with the them is the music they play over their radio isn't quite my taste. That and there's always another settlement, or 3, that need your help.

The railroad is all about liberating the synths which I am somewhat undecided on if I am for or against. It seems noble but then who is to say the "escaped synths" aren't just a ploy by the institute as well. I like their more organized and covert style though so I find their missions to be the most enjoyable.

The institute claims to care about preserving or saving humanity but certainly don't mind wiping out a few hundred or more innocents to get the job done. I have not played much through the institute story yet though so I can't really speak from much experience other than what is presented early on.

I have enjoyed playing through them all so far though. Even if I find I hate them in the end, it's fun to experience their side of the story. Albeit it is going to take a fair amount of time to get through all of them unless I really rush through it but that would sort of defeat the purpose.

my first play through i sided with the BoS shot my way through the railroad without blinking. went into the institute expecting to shoot my way through there immediately without revealing spoilers i ended up blowing up the institute anyways

If you really want the good guys go with the Minutemen. The Minutemen are the true good guys well atleast that what everyone thinks they are since they do true "good" and doesn't have a bad reputation in the past. Also they try to help anyone without return, they like the Commonwealth to grow on its on instead a faction/government ruling over it.

I loved to BOS because they are over powered and I think there right. I then did the Institute for a change and it was alright, but in the long run I would still use BOS. I did some of the railroad to get Ballistic Weave and then did what had to do. (Not going to spoil anything) I didn't even think about doing the Minutemen because it's just boring.

I like the institute to some extent but really prefer to side with the people like the minutemen, railroad, and of course everyones favorite BOS. Each have their own qualities and unique personalities but what draws me is their actions. Like, they can claim they are doing this help humanity but if their actions is totally the opposite of what they claim by taking lives and destroying settlements and so on in the process, then I will not like that all. OUT with the old and IN with the new (yes I am talking about the institute lol).

I chose the Brotherhood because my only other viable options were the Toaster Liberation Front and the Farmers' Union.

Toaster Liberation Front is literally 20 guys in a basement versus Boston, and the Farmers' Union has the worst quest-giver of all time.

Play them all. Its a game, not life, so you can eventually you can work your way through all the possible major choices. At this point I've played through as loyal to each of the four major factions, though I really had to put my morality on hold while playing for the institute. I found that I naturally gravitate to the Railroad (not overly surprising given my background as activist) and the Minutemen (again, not surprising since I am cop). There are parts of the Brotherhood that are appealing (like the Vertibirds, when you are doing a play-through without using Fast Travel) but in the end, I found them too blind and too rigid for me to like (though I did finish a play through with them). But again, that is the great thing about the game - you can work your way through ALL the factions.