I really enjoyed this quest. You get to know every faction, infiltrate them, sabotage, lie and act as one of them (the Brotherhood only very briefly). You get the constant feeling to break your cover with the next action or answer and it will happen, thank god you can save nearly every time before you talk to anyone or do anything


You are very loosely connected to the group and do not have an army behind you to call for backup. I used my Charisma and Agility skills far more often than Perception. Kept outfits of all factions in mine and Pipers inventory, ready for the taking, also hazmat suits for both of us.


Even the ending is the most satisfactory outcome IMHO. There will be no military factions left who want to influence the way of life in the Commonwealth. Synths can now openly admit who they are and leave or roam at free will. It will take time for humans and synths to adapt, but my character tries to be a role model with little Shaun at his side.

The people will now have to decide their own fate and this is where the Minuteman come in, now being able to build settlements without the dominance of the Brotherhood or the threat of the Institute. There are obviously the uncontrollable 'animals', including feral ghouls or super mutants.

Now is the time for me to do Minuteman business and support Preston in his task to rebuild. The Commonwealth needed the Railroad as a weapon to destroy the enemies from within, they can now lay low and keep an eye out for other oppressors.

p.s. The outfits were more for roleplaying purpose, though some quests require you to wear a disguise.

Piper was very supportive during the whole journey. I am not sure how actual Synths like Nick would have reacted in some situations, probably more violent.

Before I first played Fallout 4 I thought the Railroad would be my go-to faction, and eagerly awaited the chance to cause the Prydwen explosion seen in the trailer. I'm now on my third playthrough, and I think I'll sooner trudge to the end of the Minutemen questline, which I find annoying and tedious, before I ever manage to force myself to finish with the Railroad.

I've now sided with both the BoS and the Institute, and can find compelling roleplay reasons for supporting either, but the Railroad's blatant hypocrisy frankly disgusts me. From their self professed care for 'liberated' synths contradicted by careless (Danse, Gabriel) or downright botched mind wipes, through their complete disregard for their own supporters who risk their lives to help them (Patriot for god's sake), to their willfully blind, self-righteous, holier-than-thou intent to 'free' all synths whether they want to be freed or not by ruthlessly destroying the lives of those who express no desire to leave the Institute (good job giving them the freedom of choice...).

In addition, there's the implication that a fair number among Railroad members don't even care about synth liberation, and are simply in it for some violent 'revenge' against the Institute.

I don't feel good walking into their sad little hovel of a headquarters and putting them down, but the thought of going along with their plans makes me slightly nauseous. I'm just sorry I couldn't spare Deacon, he's a decent guy, and a voice of reason among those lunatics.

Indeed, my personal reasons were:

1. support to find Shaun (at first)

2. get rid of the military forces occupying and planning to destroy (Institute) or strip of all resources and move on (Brotherhood) the commonwealth.

3. help the many Synths that actual want to be free, sorry for the ones that cannot handle it. Like Z1-14 said, they were too often brainwashed and never had a chance to think for themselves.

p.s. All the agents know what is coming to them. Everyone fights for their own reasons in this organisation. I mentioned it is a more voluntary group rather than military structured like the Brotherhood or Institute.

Finding Shaun is all well and good, but as for the rest:

2. The Institute isn't occupying and definitely isn't planning to destroy the Commonwealth, in fact they want as little to do with it as possible, and hope it dies a natural death eventually. The Brotherhood doesn't intend to 'move on', they're expansionist, which many people in other threads actually hold against them. Maxson will probably eventually return to the Citadel, but a strong BoS presence will remain.

3. What about those who do think for themselves and decide they want to stay in the Institute? Depriving sentient beings of agency in order to force your own idea of it on them is no better than what the Institute is doing.

If you read the personal logs of Captain Cade (I think), it really sounds like they send troops to gather stuff from the ground to further their war against abominations. Where do people from the Brotherhood will do anything with or for the Commonwealth. They are there to strip the Commonwealth of its stuff and use it in their fight against non-humans.

If you overheard some of the scientists talking to the Synths like "the floor is not clean enough and I may take you apart and create something actual useful this time..." in a way. The Synths are things to them, just like Nick, little Shaun and all the others working in the facility or living outside. Glory and several others in the Railroad group, sometimes you meet them outside being confronted with humans who want to kill them for what or who they are.

Do you want some elite people living underground? They made animals as Synths and are actively pursuing the path to replace any living thing with roboters. In the Biochemic Lab, the logs show they were now trying to create sealife like dolphins.

Once their population grew and they need more power again, they may take what they need and do what they want with the people above.

I tried to play the Railroad. But, having first played the BOS and Institute, I could not bring myself to complete the MQ with them.

Like all the factions they could benefit from additional developer attention.

I didn't join the Brotherhood and only joined the Institute as agent of the Railroad and did one quest to retrieve a violent Synth who became a Raider gang leader. If you read his log, they were starving and actual begged the Bunker Hill merchants for food before they turned to violence, the 'violent' Synth leader got the members executed who raided the caravans. Turned out the merchants were due to the raid of the members willing to give food without violence and he accepted afterwards.

Then it was the Institute, who needed power and I had the task to get the nuclear core before the Brotherhood can grab it and persuade a brilliant scientist to go underground with them willingly so they do not need to take him by force.

Well, of course the Brotherhood is using local resources in their war against supermutants, ferals, etc, but that very war is actually beneficial for the Commonwealth. Even if they were to leave eventually, they would have cleansed the land of monsters that regularly massacre the settlers. If they are to stay, they'll continue protecting the settlements. It's actually the main point in their favor.

I only ever heard the scientists threatening gen-1's and 2's with deactivation, and they didn't seem bothered by it. I don't think those models have any semblance of sentience at all, they are truly just machines. Also as you said yourself, the humans who want to kill gen-3's like Glory aren't Institute scientists but the ordinary people of the Commonwealth. The ones the Railroad wants freed synths to mingle with.

I really don't know where some people are getting the idea that the Institute intends to 'replace all living things with synths' from, obviously they see synths as inferior to humans, it would make no sense for them to do anything like that. Synths are nothing more than labor, sophisticated machines intended to help future humanity, descended from the populace of the Institute, hopefully recolonize the surface once the current, contaminated populace dies out. That's what the Institute is preparing all their improved crops and synthetic animals for.

And this is why I would join the Railroad again. I don't believe in some people or intelligent beings deserve to live and other should die out in favor of a better society after a nuclear fallout.

Not to burst your bubble, but the Railroad kills a bunch of people (Institute scientists and BoS), ensures that intelligent beings die out (no more synth production without the Institute), and does absolutely nil for the people of the Commonwealth in the process, so they will die out without outside help anyway.

Gabriel did not make those entries in the Libertalia terminal. The previous owner, probably killed by Gabriel, did.

It is OK for you, but did you watch the Synths production for a moment and thought about it (like one thinking roboter every 30min or so)?

I did not mean there should be more intelligent being (Synths) produced, this is what the Institute wants.

The Commonwealth people do not need to be cured or rescued from anything, they need to be left alone and settle down again. This under protection and guidance of the Minuteman, as I stated in my first post.

If this is true, then I was mistaken. But hey! I myself as a RailRoad member brought him in for possible reprogramming

Like ALL factions the RR is morally gray, and there were aspects I really disliked as I progressed through the questline, but like OP I really enjoyed the gameplay mechanics and the infiltration aspect/roleplay of joining all factions as an agent. My character was a sneaky/sniper/pistol/ballistic weave type of thing, so it just suited well. I had fun backstabbing people.

You really do feel like you have to watch what you say. During and right after Bunker Hill I was pretty nervous. Perhaps because I did it on my first playthrough...

But yes, the killing tons of humans to save a few synths is not what I would do in a post-apocalypse world.

What I meant was to highlight how the Railroad as an organization does more harm than good to intelligent beings overall, be they human or synth. They actually 'help' a very small subset (synths who want freedom) of an already small group (gen-3 synths in general) while causing a huge amount of collateral damage (BoS, Institute scientists, synths happy with their lives). The Commonwealth as a whole gains nothing from their actions, but loses both a force capable of improving people's lives by making the land secure, as well as the Institute's incredible potential for scientific progress and rebuilding of civilization. The Minutemen are a fragile alliance capable of little more than resolving local issues, and offer stagnation at best.

I just want to say... I convinced Shaun in the end to save more lifes and he gave me the code to turn off most of the Gen2 Defence Synths.

I then Unlocked the Doors for evacuation on the terminal.

I then sent the evacuation signat for the whole Institute, so the scientists could escape.

Finally I opened the doors to reactor...

When I ran down to support the Synths against the defensive systems, Z1-14 gave orders not to kill any scientists unnecessary.

The Brotherhood mothership got blown up without warning.

I've beaten the MQ with BoS, RR and Institute. RR was by far the worse of the bunch and I'm sure, unless I have a very specific role-play, I'll never do it again. To me they were the worse for the Commonwealth. Unless you were a Synth, they didn't care at all about you. In fact they had no problem killing innocent humans if it meant saving another synth. After they win there is nothing beneficial they are doing for the common man. Are they stopping raiders, no. Are they killing super mutants and ferals, no. Are they setting up settlements and supply lines, no. Are they testing new crops that grow in radiated soil, no.

Not sure where the OP gets his opinion of the BoS however, cause I never read or heard anything to suggest they wanted to just strip the Commonwealth and leave. In fact everything about them contradicts that so I'll have to assume the OP didn't play them much. My male PC being a vet fell right in with them and it was a great match up. The Commonwealth needs someone with a strong arm to manage the dangers of the land until peace can be more/less restored and then more social progress can be made. With the RR you would NEVER have that. Even keeping the MM around they can never stop the raids on the settlements and take no measures to actually remove the threat. Their tactic is only to defend. As far as the Institute goes my PC never once believed synth were anything but machines that you can turn on/off and reprogram. Even my RR PC only joined them to get help finding Shawn.

If you only played Railroad and not being biased by other playthroughts where BoS was nice to you, love being more of an agent than part of an army, this is the right choice for me.

The BoS killing RR and Institute is OK, 50% of them are machines anyway.

The Institute killing BoS and RR is OK, they develop crops afterwards.

The RR killing BoS and Institute is a massacre.

Now that there are no tanks from the sky any more, which was first impressive and then concerning, I'll enjoy the peaceful nature with a super mutant here and there.

Does the Railroad actually go out to kill the BoS, or do they only do it out of retaliation when the BoS attack them? I always thought that the BoS declares war on the RR, then then they fend off the attack, and realise that they have to take them out for good to have any security.

Both the reasons for and the results of their actions are much more justifiable and ultimately beneficial in case of both the Brotherhood and the Institute than they are in the case of the Railroad, in my eyes. It is not bias, as I mentioned before I genuinely expected to favor the Railroad in my blind first playthrough, and if I was biased against anyone it was the BoS, as I strongly disliked them in FO3. Yet over the course of the game I grew to respect and understand them, as well as the Institute. The Railroad I developed mostly distaste for.

If you go to their HQ right after the Prydwen shows up in the Commonwealth you'll find Desdemona already planning their destruction.

You are correct, the first contact is when they storm Bunker Hill and the Railroad defends (a certain heavy agent dies...). Big D later says we cannot deal with both at the same time and has a plan to blow up the Brotherhood.

This part was actual way too short, get a helicopter, go on board, place bombs and leave. While you were always on edge when dealing with the Institute. When Father (old Shaun) said it is common knowledge that I am involved with the Railroad, I thought this is it. And I had to lie to his face, I can deal with them and kill their leader.

It is very clear, that the turning point and the first attack on the Brotherhood is initiated by the Institute and I do it in their name. Where you get the pop-up that says, you are about to declare war on the Brotherhood.

Indeed. The moment the Brotherhood shows up Des is like, "I've heard of these guys. They don't like synths. Let's wipe them out". Before the Brotherhood had had a chance to even fire a shot.


Now you could call it prudent planning since she knows they'll be at odds or you could call it being a bloodthirsty zealot. It could be somewhere in between or even both, depending on your perspective.

Personally I think Des has an issue with humans. I feel like she got dumped by her boyfriend when she was younger and decided that humans are bad and synths, since you can just reprogram them any way you like, are the way to go.

Makes me wonder if Glory really likes working for the RR or was she just reprogrammed to want to work for them because they needed a new 'heavy' agent. You think about it she could have them reprogrammed to behave any way she wants. If they start going off script they just shut them down, reprogram and try again. This really backs a lot my thoughts that synths can not be living things.

After completing all 4 faction endings I have to say the MM was the most satisfying personally. I played the MM ending where everyone but the Institute was left and peaceful with each other (as long as you stay away from P.A.M.). It has been fun to continue exploring the CW with all 3 factions still present for continued game playing purposes.

Personally I favored the BoS. I am a fire marshal IRL and have spent 19 years in the fire service. Their duty driven concepts appealed to me. I didn't agree with everything and everyone in the BoS but it is that way in any para-military organization.

I found the Institute to socialist for my personal views.

I as well found the RR hypocritical and very tunnel vision oriented.

I did enjoy the MM even though I found them a little naive.

Is the main character really Shaun's father or someone else from Vault111 with Shaun's father's memories?


Amari has the ability to read/write human memories as well. People are just as programmable as synths in the Fallout universe.

I've considered that the PC is a synth with fake memories before. That everyone but baby Shawn was killed and then 'Father' went back and wanted to see what mommy or daddy would have done had they lived, then dropped a synth in there with memories taken from the real parents frozen brain. Then use that synth as a tool to take control of factions in the Commonwealth, remove and replace Kellog, and be his benefactor and lead the Institute.

Not heard of Dr. Amari planting another person's memories into another human. I mean first you'd have to find a way to wipe the old memories. It's not like humans are man-made machines meant to be manipulated like that.