Fallout 4 created by Bethesda Game Studios.
Images used for educational purposes only.

- You’ll find the Co-op to the south of Sanctuary, on the other side of a small lake and just south of a major freeway that runs all the way to Lexington in the east. You may find this place on your own; alternatively, you may get a request from Sanctuary to clear it out as part of a Clearing the Wall for Sanctuary Hills quest. You might run into anything from Mirelurks to Raiders to Mongrels on the way, depending on how you get there.

- Located on top of a fairly large hill, the Co-op can be approached from multiple angles, but you’ll find pretty much the same thing regardless: a series of well-maintained buildings that appear to be relatively vacant. Most of these buildings - not all, but most - contain Feral Ghouls that will only become active when you open the door. (One has a Radroach, because why not.) Kill the Ghouls and clean the houses of anything of value you find. There’s lots of middling stuff to be found, including a Wasteland Survival Guide sitting beside a red trunk in the home up the hill from the silo. The Ghoul you need to kill to ‘clear out’ the Co-op is in the larger, warehouse-like building.

- In the midst of the Co-op is a lit building ‘patrolled’, and I use that word very loosely, by a Mr. Handy unit called Professor Goodfeels. He’s about as stoned as his name implies. Inside the building is a terminal which you can use to mess with his protocols. If you change ‘Just Be’ to ‘Guard’ he will help you kill things; if you change it to ‘Return for Maintenance’ he’ll wander off and find Hester’s Consumer Robotics for you. (I like ‘Just Be’, personally. Keep the ol’ boy going.)

- Once you’ve killed the requisite Feral Ghoul leader, or whatever you wanna call him, head to the central building and use the Workshop. This will set the place up for ownership. You can then report back to Sanctuary to tell the settlers of your success and earn some experience.

Setting Up

The Co-op does not start off in great shape for new settlers. There’s plenty of stuff to Scrap, but you’re lacking many of the things necessary for power and defence (mainly Copper, Oil, and an abundance of Ceramic). You’ll probably have to establish a supply line with another settlement to get the supplies you need. A few things to keep in mind:
  • Unlike most Farms you find, the Co-op starts with no food. Zero. (There are Wild Tato Blossoms that give you Tato Flowers when Scrapped, but those are strictly healing items.) Grab a bunch of crops from another settlement and get them started.
  • It also starts with no water, and despite a nearby dam there are no supplies of water you can purify. Fortunately, there’s so much dirt where you can plop down Water Pumps. Make lots of ‘em.
  • Unlike many other settlements, you should never have to make houses or other buildings, unless you’re creating defensive structures. The homes of the Co-op are in good shape, for the most part, and many of them already have beds.
  • The Co-op is not in a defensible area, being open on all sides. If you don’t want to spend too much on Turrets, or assign too many people to manning ramparts, you may want to set up an alarm in the middle of town (the ‘Free the Robots’ building) and have your Turrets there instead. Draw everyone to that spot.
  • Because it's so spread out, the Co-op also sucks for power distribution. Try to put anything that needs power in the centre of the settlement. Otherwise, be prepared to set up a lot of Generators.