I need a settlement where I can keep my [censored], followers, and isn't cramped up. Somewhere easy to build walls for security, some work benches for crafting and maintaining PA, and a patch of land for growing vegetable starch. Red Rocket is getting too small for my women, robots, and dog and is too isolated. Any good spots to clear out?

If you just want a place to plop down followers, Covenant is pretty good. Already has walls, houses, and enough beds for all your companions. Side against the town during its quest, and you get a brand new walled settlement with intact homes (no roof holes!) and zero settlers.

Yeah but last I checked everything there is set to owned by the crazy people who get butchered so there's little point. I'm on XB so I can't console ownership to myself.

My solution to everything being owned?

Steal everything. Bam, no more red owned items, and you've got more scrap to build with. Just make sure the robot doesn't see you, if you want free and questionable lemonade and a friend for Codsworth.

The beds? I mean how is SS 'pose to smash Piper erry night for dat sweet XP bonus?

With all the followers there you dont need to worry much about in person security. To have all crafting stations is going to be the problem if you cant build them. Red Rocket and Sanctuary seem to be the only two complete. Maybe Bunker Hill if thats even gettable, you may have to do something in particular for them.

Giving her the scoop deserves an exclusive bed. Spoil yourself. Find a room you like and, if you can't destroy the existing bed, spoil yourself to a new one.

The easiest has to be Sanctuary. You have tons of things to scrap and it's a big area.. but you can easily wall off portions of it to make it as big or as small as you want. (it's not like you actually have to utilize the entire area of a settlement.) You can use the preexisting structures and bushes as "walls" in Sanctuary. Nothing can break through those indestructible bushes.. (however, enemies can just spawn wherever they want so it doesn't really matter.)

The Castle? Walls are mostly there already, and attacks generally come along the same NARROW bottleneck. Slapa couple cheap walls up at the holes in the big wall, cover the two entrances with turrets and some artillery. Has weapons and PA crafting already, and the wires are already run all over the place for you. Even comes with a couple of free laser turrets and tesla arc traps, and replenishing supply of artillery smoke nades.

Red Rocket has always been good.

Later in the game, far SE corner, Warwick. It has a very large pre-made building in great shape where you can add all the beds you want. It has water tanks that you can put your huge purifiers in, it is on isolated land surrounded by water except for one narrow entry point so no need to build walls. Not a huge open area so putting in 20 clinics to get the achievement is problematic.

If you are after a wide open large flat area with a water source for large purifiers and don't mind building everything from scratch, to include buildings and walls then you really can not beat the Drive In, and it is reachable early in the game.

I've turned Covenant into my "Companion Retreat" settlement for the reasons mentioned above. Side against the town and, even if everything is still marked as stolen, no one will be left alive to care about you taking it. (There is no longer a Karma meter to worry about, so why not?) If you're really opposed to stealing even then, just scrap it all rather than pick it up.

I just plunked turrets down where the old turrets were, put a guard station outside the door, built a bar and a clinic for happiness, and have just enough settlers working food to keep everyone fed. My companions can hang out there when not with me.

Haven't been able to do that. The smoking stumps from the old turrets block new growth for me

In a few spots that was a problem for me. Try switching to a different type of turret, as some take less space than others. I think there was only one I could not get a turret on no matter what I tried. I was even able to place a few on top of the stumps of the previous ones. Two of the three tripod legs just float in midair, but hey, it works.

yeah its a good place and followers left there can't get lost.

Simple solution... use the work bench and scrap/salvage everything. then build your own beds and storage chests. no more red items.

I like using Kingsport Lighthouse myself for followers to hang out. Sure the house has a hole in the roof but the light house is cool. So is the dock below with the work shop and boat. And I built some of my own structures around the house and planted a garden which seems to keep Piper occupied.

Otherwise the best settlement I think is Sanctuary for followers and settlers. Plenty of space the build. Good water supply and lots of land for a garden. And its mostly defensible since there is only a bridge in and out of the place.

I'd suggest Starlight Drive-in or Taffington Boat House.

The drive-in is quite large, and has a water source--I prefer settlements where I can build a purifier instead of pumps. (To get rid of the radioactivity, just scrap the barrels in the water). The area is largely broad and flat, making it easy to build on, and there's loads of scrappable stuff to turn into building materials. The screen and diner provide indoor/sheltered areas, and the rest of the area provides plenty more space for building. It also is fenced in--the fence has seen better days but is at least some standing testament to protection and is a start if you want to add to it (or alternately it's another scrappable source of steel if you don't want it). I'd say the only downside is that the farmable area is fairly small, but I find it's enough to keep the settlement fed. Finally it's in a relatively central location.

Taffington is small, but is in a decent location right along a road (you can build defenses right along the road), and there's water on one side so it feels defensible without having to spend a lot of time building walls and stuff (if you like to do that kind of thing). You might love or hate the non-scrappable house there (especially as the second floor is missing its roof), but I think it is more room than the gas station and you can also build on top of it and the boathouse. The boathouse is a good site for a purifier and the front yard has ample space for crops. It may feel also a little cozier for a companion house while still providing wiggle room.

I really like the Drive In, but not as my companion hang-out place. I've made it my "trading hub" with merchants and provisioners, but I don't think it's good for companions as I tend to build only right around the "diner" area and they'll wander as far away as the screen, making them a pain to find. (They can even go inside of it and get stuck, so you have to barricade the door with a fence.)

But for traders who mostly stick near their workstations, it's a good place.

In Covenant, you don't have destroy the old turrets (as they will still fire at attackers), you just need to put any new turrets out of the old Turret's line of sight.

Also, you can get one settler there and assign him to each bed to change the ownership. Scrap everything else.

Don't Have to, but they aren't contributing a thing to the settlement's defense score. Their execution serves as a reminder to turrets everywhere that their loyalty belongs to me.