Fallout 4: Benevolent Leader guide — build maximum happiness in a settlement

It has taken me the better part of 12-15 hours to get a single achievement in Fallout 4. Benevolent Leader requires you to max out happiness in a settlement, but it’s far harder than it sounds.

Here’s what we did to nail it:

• You need at least 21 people in your settlement. You can grab them by setting up a radio beacon in your chosen location, but you can also reassign settlers from other locations by hovering over them and hitting the X button (on Xbox One). To get 21 settlers, you need at least 10 Charisma in the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system — assign points and find that Bobblehead! You can also increase your Charisma through wearable items like the Trilby Hat and Minuteman-painted Power Armor.
• You’ll need at least 16 Level 3 shops — General Trader, Clinic, Bar and Clothing stalls are the only ones that increase happiness, though Clinics seem to work the best. You also need to assign your settlers to the stalls. To get the stalls, you’ll also need the Cap Collector rank 2 and Local Leader rank 2 Perks.
• Your food and water must individually be equal or greater than the amount of settlers you have. Mutfruits are the best food to use, as they produce 1 food item per tree. Other things like corn, etc only produce .5.
• Your defense should at least equal your food and water amounts, but it’s best to overdo it — I had around 190 defense just to keep attackers away and my settlers safe.
• Your settlement needs to be BIIIIIG, meaning the Size meter in the top-right has to be yellow in colour. Build prefab buildings and furnish them with beds, tables, televisions and the like. Add to that with decorations and statues of every kind. Seriously, go nuts with the paintings.
• Once you’ve everything built up, just hang around the settlement. Resist the urge to leave. Sleep for 24 hours, walk around your joint, and ring the settlement bell occasionally to gather your congregation.

We’ve explained the achievement in the video below (though, somehow the narrative track’s been removed — we’ll update as soon as we can):

https://youtu.be/U9XTkO1o-8U

Most of all — good luck!

Have you had trouble with the achievement? Do you have tips? Share them in the comments below.

More Fallout 4 guides:

• Interactive collectibles map
• All Bobblehead locations and associated perks guide
• Aliens have (crash) landed in Fallout 4: How to get the Alien Blaster
• Where to get Power Armor (and how to use it!)
• Get Power Armor and a Fat Man within the game’s first hour
• Use this infinite caps glitch before its patched
• Settlement crafting explained
• Crafting material common locations guide
• Cosplay as Han Solo and the Silver Shroud
• Get a room and make friends in Vault 81
• How to find Vault 75 (and get one more Bobblehead!)
• Here are a bunch of cheat codes for Windows PC!
• Turn off the frame rate cap on Windows PC using an Nvidia card
• Can’t find Dogmeat in Sanctuary? Build him a home!
• Here are the 924 names Codsworth can call you
• Here are all the default male and female main character faces