What Happened To the Gunners During Fallout 4? 

I always assumed that the Gunners are just fancy raiders. Give some raiders a gimmick so it’s not completely monotonous fighting them.

It would've been cool if we had the option to join the Gunners. I imagine them as the second "failsafe" faction just like the Minutemen are, the player resolving the rivalry between the Minutemen and Gunners in one way or the other would make a nice secondary plot next to the main quest.

One location you missed is the Gunners have a small presence at the South Boston Military Checkpoint that partially resets. It is unfortunate that in Fallout 4 they function just as a more dangerous raider group and I agree with many that the end of the Minutemen questline should have allowed the opportunity to retake Quincy.

Sometimes the gunners can be seen fielding vertibirds, certainly a very rare and valuable asset for a side faction.

Okay, headcanon time: I use the Gunners to rework the Nuka-World quest line. After the Minutemen take over the Commonwealth, the Gunners recruit many Raider gangs and merc outfits to try and retake the region. They establish a new base at Nuka-World, with several groups they've previously done business with. The Pack raider gang is where the Gunners and many others bought their attack dogs, and now they're using the Safari Adventure zoo to breed and train vicious creatures to set loose against the Minutemen. Likewise, the Rust Devils were the Gunners' source for robots, and they've set up a repair and manufacturing facility in the Galactic Zone. They have the smaller but elite mercenaries of the Operators and Talon Company for special missions, and a small number of Vertibirds to move them around. They'e capturing slaves to set up farming operations in the valley around the park. With control of the monorail connecting to the edge of the Commonwealththey plan to launch new attacks in the Minutemen's lesser defended western flank...

The thing is, there clearly was a plan for them, very likely, some big climax between them and the minutemen, and like a lot of the content it just never got close to finished. Probably some elaborate war system like we saw in GTA San Andreas, resulting in you and Preston wiping each outpost as you gain new settlements, and manning said outposts for yourselves. Where does this end? the final battle at GNR, opening with you laying waste to the outer perimeter using the artillery, and breaking in with one squad from one angle while another comes in from the other, with the artillery cutting off any other means of escape. Your squad and Preston's meet in the middle and you put down the leader: Captain Wes. Congratulations, Quincy is avenged and you now have a Secondary HQ on the other side of the map should you decide to not level it, and the gunners are no more. One less raider group in the commonwealth. We must remember that the Institute for the Minutemen are an OPTIONAL antagonist, whereas they are the ONLY antagonist for the other two factions. Maybe this was intended to change after we wipe out the gunners, but what we got is neither side cares about the other until we step on toes, get banished and the Institute attacks the Castle. They will otherwise coexist peacefully until you decide they shouldn't. Either way I do agree they absolutely weren't meant to survive.

I'd say it isn't as dire as you make it. Most of the locations that the Gunners lose permanently aren't truly outposts. Rather, they were mission sites. Hallucigen is one example as is the Salem Witchcraft museum. The major strategic locations that hold the map remain in their hands. Quincy in the Southeast, Gunner Tower for the southwest/HQ, Hub city wreckers holds major crossroad in the Northeast, Interstate exchange in the North West and the hospital holds the center of the city. They are the top dog of the minor factions and remain in controlling areas of movement for the Commonwealth.

Simsettlements did the gunners a major favor and made them a real faction. These groups always seem to be [insert minor antagonist here] and its clear from what you have brought up they are like bowling pins. Designed to fall. However, there is so much missed potential here what with how they role play as the 2070's toy soldiers. Such a shame we didnt see them deploying real tactics, shouting commands, carving up super mutants and taking on heavy handed contracts only undone or overcome by the sole-survivors cleverly placed wrenches. Great video, I would have FAR preferred a gunner DLC than a Raider DLC. Dunno what the fuck they think at Bethesda, its like they're under water. They can hear the fan fiction but its blurred and muffled.

to me it felt rather unnatural that the minutemen & gunners never got a final confrontation in the base game. luckily, the creation club does have one quest that gives you that "final" feeling, even if it is limited (you facing off against the gunners to recapture quincy.)

Personally I think there's a lot of significance in the Kaylor letter. It mentions senior staff sending her and her team long after the Major that is with the deathclaw egg mission is long since dead. And this also happens long after every named Gunner could also be dead, which means there is senior staff somewhere. Also even though not every location respawns the ones that don't generally are main quest or major side quest locations where respawns often don't happen in Bethesda games. Probably because it runs the risk of too many things respawning. It all suggests to me that the Gunners are not actually from the Commonwealth, at least the part of the Commonwealth we get to explore, but they are from somewhere and that somewhere has a lot of pre war equipment that the Gunners do have access to. It all suggests to me that they are another group of descendants from the US military somewhere in the northeastern part of the United States. Likely they either have a well stocked military base in their control somewhere we are not aware of or they have a working weapons factory in their possession, maybe both. It's also important to realize that the events of Fallout 4 are not supposed to happen over the course of months or years, but weeks, perhaps a month or two. Any group that takes a major hit isn't going to immediately rebuild especially if they are having to come in from somewhere else. Which also makes sense in that any of the non-location Gunners never become automatically hostile to you no matter how much damage you did to their faction elsewhere. Real world you'd become one of the biggest bounty targets for the Gunners anywhere after several of the attacks on Greentech and the Vaults, but you'll find Gunner mercs walking around calmly late game if they spawn in as guards to a random merchant as if there hasn't been time enough for your name and basic features to become knwon to other Gunners as well as the bounty on your head to be circulated to the average Gunner in the field.

Of course the gunners days are numbered. My settlement guards need some form of armor and marine armor is too expensive to be practical.

I need to applaud your writing and editing. The wit and short clips are always on point. I started watching for the topics, I keep watching for the commentary.

I always thought of the Gunners as a raider group who HEARD about the Gun Runners out west and decided they were going to larp as them (and failed)

Talking about whether they'll survive or not, at least it's a no in the Commonwealth. Their numbers start dwindling from the Greentech massacre, and it goes downhill from there. They have a potential to become a good post-epilogue enemy though, probably if they're made the main problem in checkpoint defense (and increased rate of Gunner settlement raid)

Id love to hear your thoughts on the SS2 treatment of the Gunners. Also the story in general - maybie do a lets play? :D You skipped the non immobile posts like escorting merchants. The gunners are the 2nd defender of the Commonwealth (with the Minute Men) that allowed comuities to let their security go lax. So with the final fall of the Minute Men the Gunners lost a very supportive partner leading to their collapse. Also leading to the raiders moving into the Commonwealth in more force.

I always assumed broken resets were just the game being poorly made, not a deliberate choice.

I did a Nuka World playthrough fairly recently, and it looked like the Gunners got kicked out of their "toll road" random encounters by the Operators if you side with them. I don't know if it's a direct replacement or if the Gunner random encounters ended based on progress in the main quest, but it's funny to imagine the Gunners losing out to a frigging DLC faction.

Ooooo I like the conclusion part of the video. It's kinda like, if there were history books being written, the Gunner era was the calm before the storm. The Commonwealth was essentially like the Japanese Shogunate, the ruling factions was an amalgamation of Mercenaries, it was an uneasy and oppressive "peace" but it was peace all the same. And then as they either directly or indirectly lose so much of their power by the up and coming factions you get wildly different systems. You would pretty much get an Anarchist Shadow Government with the Railroad, an Authoritarian Shadow Government with the Institute, an Authoritarion Exclusionary Ethnostate with the Brotherhood, and something akin to what the perfect ideal Communist society with the MinuteMen

The Gunners in Fallout 4 seem very similar in purpose to the Institute in Fallout 3. They are a side faction with little to no impact on the main story. However it is made clear to the player that their presence is much greater outside of the main game area.

If I’m not mistaken there is a holotape somewhere that says there’s more gunners somewhere outside of the commonwealth so they may come back in a hopeful future instalment

The Gunners are a mercenary group so even if the leadership collapses the gunners would probably just become random groups of hired guns loosely united because of the name the gunners

I think it's fitting that the game hints at the Gunner's decline, since the Quincy massacre establishes them as a major enemy of the Minutemen, and it's implied that the Minutemen route is the canon/default ending to the game. Bethesda probably figured that players would be wiping out those Gunner strongholds at the same time they were building up Sanctuary, recruiting settlements, retaking the Castle, etc. One organization crumbles while the other rebuilds itself to new heights.

Abraham finch sneaks into hubcity to scav. Pretty bold, against such a feared faction. The forged poached some recruits from them as well after a victory.

I can agree with you Jeff the Gunners days are over. Lets take a look at their settlements. Quincy when the game begins and the Sole Survivor and his modded wife wake up the Gunners destroy Quincy and take over the settlement and nearby Vault 95 and the radio station and rename it Gunner Plaza. Conditions Quincy changes hands and the Gunners are defeated: If you do the Brotherhood quest "Cleaning Up The Town" the Gunners never respawn and Quincy becomes a Brotherhood staging area. If you do the Railroad quest "Randolph Safehouse 5" Quincy will be taken over by the Railroad if you evict the Gunners. If you do the quest Combat Ready you can get a weapon and the Gunners are evicted for good. And if you do the quest War Paint the Gunners are evicted for good and Quincy is retaken by the Minutemen. The other settlements Mass Pike, Mass Bay Medical, Hub City Auto Wreckers, Bradberton Overpass, and Postal Square reset so there are always Gunners here. 2 settlements do a partial reset Vault 95 partial reset you can't go back here once you have Curie and Cait and complete their quest, and Gunner Headquarters. Places that are dead sites Mass Fusion lost to Institute and Brotherhood, Hardware Town taken over by the Institute or the Brotherhood, Vault 75 evicted by Synths, Salem dead site when you kill the Deathclaw in the church, Nukaworld Transit dead, Grandchester Mystery Mansion dead, Gauntlet dead, Greenetech dead site once Better Crop is completed, Hallucigen dead once you complete the quest, and Nuka Bottling Plant dead as part of the DLC. The Gunners are losing and they know it.

In Hub City their proximity would sure imply they were there because of the Forged next door. It's one of the only times in the game they look like they're on mercenary business instead of just being a big raider gang with a fetish for olive drab. It looks like someone was fed up with the Forged and the Gunners had occupied the best position to launch an attack on the foundry.

Yeah, the Gunners are on their way out, especially how I've been playing with the Minutemen ascendant & allied with the Railroad & the BoS (and every Gunner base in range of Minuteman artillery). Also, this is only semi-canon at best, but if you have the Minutemen vs Gunners Creation Club DLC, that adds yet another strike against the Gunners: After you lead the Minutemen forces into Quincy & wipe out the Gunners & plant the flag over the town, the Gunners will still respawn, but the Minutemen & the Minuteman flag are still there, and the Minutemen seem to have the same flag that settlers do, meaning that they can only be killed by direct player action or collateral damage (as I found out in my first playthrough when my artillery strike on the overpass accidentally got a friendly along with all the Gunners it wiped out). What this basically boils down to is that every time you go back to Quincy after a global reset, there's a huge fight raging in the town between the Minuteman garrison & the respawned Gunner attackers, and that even if you don't do anything, the Minutemen will eventually wipe all the Gunners out if you're in range for the cells to be loaded.

I think they exist outside the commonwealth, so it would be fun to see them later and find terminal entries of a commonwealth division remnant about how some vault dweller decimated their forces and wiped out their branch forcing an exodus.

"I think I've deciphered... the code." Okay, everything you said following this got my subscription. Love a bit of informative videos with humour sprinkled in there.

Mass Bay Medical Center has Freeway access and is the tallest building around for quite a ways, so it makes sense to use it as an observation post, especially for a Mercenary group as organized as the Gunners Kinda weird no-one is ever on the roof surveying the city though also Captain Wes' terminal at Gunner's Plaza talks about an unnamed General breathing down his neck, so their sphere of influence expands beyond the borders of the game's playable area, they've only taken a beating in the Boston Metro area not across the entirety of their holdings, where is their High Command located? Not in Boston. New York? Providence, Rhode Island? Somewhere in Connecticut perhaps?

Great analysis, thanks for sharing!

This is why i consided sim settlments 2 canon lol

Gunners are the upgraded raiders

For me ive killed them so much in the same places especialy gunner plaza quincy and vault 75 and 97?i dont remember the actual number over n over they simply stoped respawning essentially creating deadzones

The Gunners would be a great faction to attempt to recruit, either by hiring them or by convincing them to fall in line with the Minutemen and any other surviving factions. Honestly, a lot could have been done for all of the factions, especially considering that the PC can rise to lead each of them. If Nate becomes the Director of the Institute, why destroy it when he can control it? And so on. Good vid.

Enemies in areas do seem to go up and down when they reset so they do lose material strength

I always found the Gunners weird, like if it was a 4th faction you could have joined and in the early design they decided to only manage 3 to avoid taking 4 more years to release the game by have to create a deeper back story for them, as it's never quite clear what their actual intentions are... As mentioned in the video, there are a lot of references, named NPCs and a fair bit of dialogue with them, and yet no quests. They seem to be all over and, again as mentioned in the video, in the end, nowhere...

DID you forget sbout the dmall group of gunners in the nuka dlc, they also followed the signal saw the dude and fell for the "bleeding out" stunt and left him, they make a outpost on the highway and observe the raiders and actually report to someone faraway named "COLONEL CYPRESS"

If the Minutemen regain ground or if the Brotherhood exert their righteous authority over the commonwealth, the Gunners are doomed to extinction.

When I went to the museum of witchcraft a dead Gunnar fell to the floor

I’d love if the location slides were accompanied by a map! I’m not knowledgable enough to be able to pin all of them by name only.

7:23 The Sole General-Sentinel-Director-Agent

There's lots of room for Gunner lore fanfic. Cool video, cheers!

There are a few major points to consider: 1) the Gunners are not Commonwealth natives, so losses there are more a failure to grow than a weakness, 2) the Gunners are basically organized raiders so likely never truly vanish as long as even one recruiter remains (which makes the Minutemen absorbing candidates their biggest real loss), and 3) the Gunners have a MASSIVE tech advantage with comm relays, vertibirds, laser weapons, and combat armor. These guys aren't going away because they are too well equipped by home base as Raiders+, only dropping out of situations with no profit margin.

I would like to side one day with the gunners :D so they get a fair chance :D

I figured they integrated with the BoS shortly after their arrival in the area. The prydwen couldnt bring that many members on it afterall, so they recruited locally, and the military-like mentality of the gunners make them prime choices

Keep doing what you are doing spectacle

I think the gunner are like a cartel get in and stuck there

This depends more on the actions of the player, surely, than anything else? I mean, sure, if you just follow the story quests and don't go too far off book, then the Gunners are, well, a bit of a non-entity. They aren't major players in the base game at all, just the pain in the ass du jour for a few missions. They could easily just exist out of the players sight and mind. However, if you are playing really vindictive, say with a rule, like "Any faction whose members do me damage at any time, will be erased from the face of this world", then no. They can't survive. Nothing can. When the player becomes death, all within their sight is theirs to slay, and all things fall beneath their sight in time.

That's how I found out there was a deathclaw there

Once I have most of the 33 settlements going I put killbots on "Trade Routes" ;p that happen to go by where Gunners respawn. Like Gunners plaza, if you notice Egret tours marina, someville place, murkwater construction, and Jamaica plain are perfect.

During the opening events of nuka world a colonel Cyprus get mentioned as the person who ordered sergeant Lanier and commander kaylor to investigate nuka world confirming that regardless of what we do the gunners will live on in some capacity. This also presents an interesting theory of the size of the gunner faction. Is captain West the leader of all gunner forces? Do the gunner originate from the commonwealth or are they an outside force? I had always assumed that the gunners we find in fallout 4 was a sect of a much larger organisation that operates a lot of the northern east coast amd could also be located in New York, Rhode island or maine for example

Would've been interesting if you could turn the Gunners to your side For example: after killing the top dogs at gunner Plaza, a surviving leader requests a meeting via the radio there and you give then a choice, to integrate them into the minutemen, dissolve the organization or leave the commonwealth through speech checks. If your charisma isn't high enough it turns into a shooting gallery and the gunners are done for good. What do you think?

Symbolism of the death of the past military and the rise of the waste they are the only faction who uses military gear and tech/robots aside from the brotherhood. Even the minutemen refuse to wear said gear to prevent for being confused as one of them.

I'd say no, they don't survive. Not with me clearing out their plaza headquarters every other week and leaving mines at their spawn points.

My impression is that gunners aren't native to Massachusetts, they are mercs send in from the outside to do some job for some outside faction, they do local mercenary work but they have some hidden paymaster. We see hints of it is their logs, they do small jobs to bring in extra caps but they have a greater mission and goals dictated by some hidden benefactor.

They only went into Salem because they were trying to get away from the deathclaw

In a way I get the feeling they leave the commonwealth sometime after the game ends The GNN plaza doesn’t seem like a proper HQ and more like a FOB for commonwealth operations They are being pushed out of the commonwealth at best and being dissolved at worst They’re a mercenary group their members will eventually see the writing on the walls and leave to take contracts on their own, look at macready the only reason more gunners aren’t leaving is people will come after them if they do As the faction weakens that’s gonna happen less The gunners aren’t gonna last they will die out and their members will either join raider gangs or stay as mercenaries working for themselves

I should review terminal entries, but I recall the Gunners were hired by someone from the Capital Wasteland for some mission in the Commonwealth. Perhaps they are in decline because that mission is complete, and they are no longer getting that funding.

Hub City can have both Colonel and General, if you are significantly high lvl.

Sim Settlements did an alright job with giving the Gunners an actual standing in the world, albeit a bit on steroids

The Gunners were big fish in a small pond, so it was inevitable that they'd collapse as soon as the sharks showed up. And that's a pretty interesting narrative they really should've explored.

The Sole Survivor is a curse to the Gunners.

There's definitely some big client behind the gunners but clearly they couldn't survive the dangers of the commonwealth. Hell if even with all of their resources brotherhood teams failed the gunners would have too. They were sent out to Hallucigen by this client to get two prototypes and they are at mass fusion I believe for a similar reason. For one reason or another their missions went south and then the sole survivor runs into them and puts them in the dirt. To be honest they never really held strong in the commonwealth, outside of GNN.

I'd like an option to join the Gunners, but I'd rework them into a mercenary faction - I always felt they were too like Raiders but with different armour. I see them initially being used as outside security around Diamond City (not inside; that's the job of the Diamond City Security Force - but definitely fighting off Super Mutants and Raiders outside in the barricades surrounding Diamond City), maybe Bunker Hill as well after you've dealt with the Raider quest there (and haven't convinced the Mayor of the Minutemen's worth). I would really like to see the player be able to join the Gunners and take on assignments (especially the more morally dubious ones) for money. It doesn't have to be fancy, just a couple of radiant quests and a link to the Minutemen questline - first you're laughed at for joining the Minutemen, then warned to stop after they start becoming a threat and finally you are booted out of the faction and become target number one for Gunner hit squads and any Gunner wanting to make a name for themselves when you are declared General of the Minutemen (which I would have happen later - after you've taken the Castle, rather than before). In keeping with the "Mercenary" theme, I'd also have it so you can hire Gunners as non-essential companions - maximum 2, but not counting towards the Companion limit; they can haul your stuff, watch your back and generally fight at your side providing you've got the cash to hire them, and keep hiring them, and you aren't marked as an enemy by the Gunners themselves. Finally, I'd make a few minor changes here and there - no Gunners in Vault 75 - I think it would be better there were Raiders there, since they heard a rumour about all those Chems stashed in the vault. Instead, the Gunners are trying to break into Vault 88 - I have it in my head that they might be trying to establish a hidden base for the Gunners in a Vault they believe is abandonned. Quincy might have a whole separate narrative amongst the Gunners - picture this: the Mayor of Quincy was having trouble with Super Mutants coming from the South, attacking the town, so he decided to contract with the Gunners to deal with the problem - the Minutemen are scarce at this point, so the only really credible option for a wealthy town is to purchase military protection, even if they have their own guards. The Gunners come and deal with the Super Mutants, but when it comes to payment - then the Mayor reveals he has a limited amount of money to give them. In retaliation, the Gunners try to take the town and the Mayor calls on the Minutemen to help, claiming they were attacked by Gunners and surprisingly Hollis' men, not knowing everything about the situation but knowing they need to restore the Minutemen's reputation (and do what the Minutemen do best - help each other out) - come to fight. Hollis does not believe the Gunners story about money owed, and less so when the Gunners declare if the Minutemen and town do not surrender, they will give no quarter to any survivors. The rest, as they say, is history, but ends with the Gunners holding the now dead town of Quincy, and effectively blocking off caravan traffic to the South of the Commonwealth. It wouldn't diminish the Minutemen, and would still provide enough reason to retake Quincy - but there's now an element of grey in the story that to me makes it a lot more interesting. As for Nuka-World, you could try to convince the Gunner Commander on scene that you've come to find their lost squad; depending on how persuasive (and accurate) you are, they can let you through, tell you to get lost, or just decide to attack you. Just my ideas here.

I personally believe you’re just looking to deep into it, and not nearly as many places deserve the title of dead site as you gave since it feels like the term implies the areas were gunner bases, and many were not, such as Nuka World Transit, the Museum of Witchcraft, Hallucinogen, the Gauntlet, and so on, were not really under full gunner control since they were tat those locations fulfilling contracts. Their Nuka-World presence seems to most likely be unrelated to having once controlled any of that region as well, given it seems they’re hunting someone or something, I think the Nuka World forces are actually new. The NPC only resets may very well be for gameplay reasons, and be unrelated to any form of implied background story. Maybe I’m the wrong one, but it really feels more like just a load of assumptions with little that actually makes sense without other established assumptions. Also, I’d imagine occupied Hub City, and Mass Bay Medical in order to get supplies. Hub Cities got scrap, and Mass Bag may have medical supplies left over.

Additionally, the Gunners always lose in random encounters to the Nuka World gangs. The peak Nuka World gangs are all level 69, whereas the Gunners are as high as 94, and yet no victory*. (*If a legendary Gunner spawns in with a beastly weapon, upon equipping it they can win -- they take no losses when one spawns with an explosive minigun).

I beat the game (Minutemen vs Institute, still on good terms with RR and BoS), and have carried on playing, and the Gunners have become stronger than ever! I'm forever having to Defend a Checkpoint from them (and rouge synths). In fact since beating the main story, there is more activity than before - it sounds like a non-stop Civil War going on across Boston. I was hoping things would quieten down, so I could concentrate on Quest Mods. If there was a quest to take them out, I'd do it, if only for a bit of peace and quiet! I'd rather have a treaty with them though - they are not the worst of the bad guys.

There are no Gunners alive on the map when I am at lvl 120 and finish playing. They seem to have an HQ away from The Commonwealth though.

As someone who regularly farmed Hubs Auto Wreckers, GNN and also a "Gunner Farm" I made in a settlement, I can confidently say no. They will not survive...

I think one big thing seals the Gunners fate. Despite the issues with Maxson's Enclave-like mentality, it's still the Brotherhood of Steel (just a VERY nasty version). So you have a very powerful paramilitary force packing pre-war state of the art and post-war advanced hardware that /absolutely hates it/ if anyone else has advanced military hardware. Then you have the Gunners. They have lasers. Plasma weapons. Assaultrons. Combat Armor. A small but maintained and functional amount of power armor. They are mercs, using the tech in EXACTLY the way the Codex says must not be allowed again. And they have let the Brotherhood find out they exist. They're done. They don't have the numbers and firepower of the NCR, but have assuredly made just as much an enemy of the Brotherhood. Regardless of which ending is canon, someone in DC now knows about them, and the whole east coast BOS is probably planning out an actual elimination campaign.

Sometimes I wonder if Bethesda had intended for the gunners to be a major faction players could join but cut it due to time constraints. They'd have been more interesting than Railroad that's for sure.

Mr Grey, don’t you feel that there’s clearly some Outer Command of the Gunners - BEYOND Massachusetts (or at least beyond the area we play within, on the map).. such as Colonel Cypress … and whatever Brigadier or Major Generals are above him even, in their High Command ? 🤔

Two theories: 1. We'll see them again in Fallout 5 as a playable faction. In my mind, Fallout 5 will take playable factions and expand on settlements with more consequential choices, so that "Gunner membership + Settlement = Gunner-style settlement building only". 2. We'll see them again because Deacon's line about "the people who behind them" smells like Fallout 5 set-up. My theory is Institute and Enclave working together since Enclave has the manufacturing and reach but lacks man-power while Institute can create the synth-power but lacks the large-scale manufacturing know-how. It would explain the continued absence of Zimmer.

That's not a "location reset". It's a respawn. Some types of containers respawn their contents, some don't. Like meat bags.

I always kinda of assumed the Gunners weren't from the Commonwealth and were the New Kids on the Block, so to speak, and only came to the power of the strongest faction in the Commonwealth after Quincy and only chose to continue manning the positions they are being paid to control after all if it's so dangerous everyone was killed why return? Especially if no one is paying them to. As the Minutemen (or whichever faction) grows and expand their influence on the locals, the Gunners find fewer recruits or conscripts, so consolidate and, in my mind, at least providing all other locations are taken after Gunner Plaza in the Commonwealth they are done claiming land and stick to their territories outside of the commonwealth and only mercenary jobs in the Commonwealth but of course a big bounty on the Sole Survivor for their role in dismantling operations

The gunners need to be reinforced. They are a mercenary company. Their supply lines might be too stretched to get very far.

If you take the Minutemen route, they probably end up going to war with them and the gunners probably eat shit and die

The gunners functionally serving as raiders with better gear is annoying because it could be more. And with how Ecliptic is handled in Starfield, it doesn’t seem like they want these types handled any other way

Well, let's start out by defining Mercenary, a Mercenary or Merc is a hired gun to provide security, procure objects, and are PAID compensation for those contracted services. Who in the Commonwealth has the caps, or the pull to continue to keep paying this group for their skill set? The gunners in Hallucigen were sent there to procure something, that's all they were there for, it wasn't a base or outpost or territory grab, someone was paying them for a service. Again I ask, who will pay them enough to remain in the Commonwealth? Wastelanders? Wayward Settlers who are happy to be fed by being my indentured slaves in my work camps... I mean settlements? In Fallout 3 the Talon mercenaries were being paid by Tenpenny for services he required, and possibly a few other top dogs in capital wasteland. Stockton in Bunker Hill might be able to afford their services (if he doesn't get killed in a raid or the battle for Bunker Hill,) but once he's gone where will the contracts come from? The Bobrov brothers? Most of the raider bosses we've already obliterated in D.B. Tech, Ration Stockpile, etc., and the raiders aren't going to hire gunners. The money dries up and the caps stop flowing the Mercs will move to greener pastures, as we gobble up more and more settlement areas and turn them into Minutemen strongholds. Their days are numbered, and once the Institute is destroyed that's another potential client that cannot pay them.

I think if you mix NyQuil and Vodka, you're going to black out before finding yourself in a cart with a different bethesda NPC pointing out your conciousness. Bright side, you get to yell at dragons.

The Nuka World DLC while never confirming the gunners hold territory outside of the commonwealth mentions a Colonel Cypress, who we never encounter leading some to suspect the Gunners have territory outside of the commonwealth

Thank you

I think the Gunners were Kelloggs army, the institute is never seen in conflict with them until Kellogg is dead

While it hasn't been canonized, it has been endorsed by Bethesda, Sim Settlements, expands on the Gunners role throughout the Commonwealth. In Fallout 5, if one is ever made, may expand back into the all territories, Commonwealth, and Capital. If the Sole Survivor destroys the Botherhood's attempt to destroy the Institute, they too splinter and fall apart like the Gunners have. It's my guess that the Gunners, and Brotherhood, will dissolve into ingroup fighting like the Raiders. Fallout 5, if it's set in the same general location, will probably have the Gunners as a recrutable faction, like the Raiders of NukaWorld.

6:04 glitching cow in bottom left

It's interesting, the nemesis of the Minutemen feels like it's set as the Gunners and yet goes nowhere. Not even a mission to assassinate the traitors in Quincy let alone take it back (outside Creation Club). They're basically the Yes-Man option and you meet them first. And yet, you almost certainly will meet the Brotherhood as a result of minutemen quests if not just beelining for Diamond City. And their first enemy? The Institute. Well, okay, Ghouls, but you get my point. It's as if the writers were more interested in setting up a Brotherhood-Institute fight or something and the others were just Plan B and C for the non-Institute ending. The Gunners could have been a mirror to most of the main factions. Instead they're just the Worf Effect, to show the Institute as a threat, or just Raiders With Lasers for the occasional dungeon. BUT there's also the fact the Gunners seem to be an outside force. They don't actually originate in the commonwealth, it appears, so it's possible wherever they did roll in from (Maybe they're from somewhere between DC and the Commonwealth) could be or have been a future setting on the shortlist for Fallout 5: I Can't Believe It's Not Elder Scrolls

I'm afraid that you've missed 1 important Gunner Stronghold: it's the one that the player builds in one of the settlements. When they are set free they just turn red and unfortunately the turrets quickly end their lives. And then the stronghold is repopulated within a week.

Do settlement attacks by gunners reduce?

I wish the gunners were more advanced and not a higher tech raider-esque faction like if they were more like the Van Graffs that would be mighty interesting

The one thing I never understood about the Gunners, is "Why are they hostile?" They are supposed to be mercenaries, but you are unable to hire them to protect your settlements because they always open fire as you approach since day one. Also, there is no indicators as to why they are hostile. You can see that they are caps hungry when you go meet MacGreedy in the third rail, who happens to be "operating in Gunner territory". If you never talk to Preston, nor MacGreedy, should they really be hostile? I personally don't think they should, as you haven't sided with their oppositions as of yet. As you tear through their numbers, they should be thinking "Hey, this person is tearing us apart, we need them on our side." But yeah, the gunner days are numbered, I doubt they will survive the events of FO4 for very long. Because no matter who you side with, there is a far stronger counter in the end, except for the Railroad, who effectively put themselves out of a job by destroying the source of the clones. If they were machines, there would of been no reason to kidnap a baby from a vault. They needed Sean's DNA since his DNA is prewar and untouched by radiation. Modify the DNA slightly, and grow them clones, and implant the synth component that controls their physical bodies in many ways. AKA every Gen3 synth is your child.

Not if you have Galactac Retribution and Mercs and Music installed...

Bruh what happened to the gunners in general man

0:02 New video?

Gunners always came off to me as "raiders with a business card". The kind of group that would show up at a settlement and go "Give us X amount of caps and crops and we'll protect you from raiders. Refuse and we'll just take what we want now. We're different from raiders cause we're offering you a choice." It's obvious they won't last long after the events of the game. Minute Men have an active grudge against them, so they'd be pushed out if you rebuild the organization. The Brotherhood sure won't stand for them being around. Swiftly crushed under power armored boots if they think to put up a fight. Insitute will obviously obliterate them if they haven't already subverted what little authority holds the group together. Only faction that can't actively and openly take them down is the Railroad. That said, if they can infiltrate the group it shouldn't be hard to cause them to breakdown into smaller groups, effectively just turning them more into glorified raiders and that would paint a bigger target on their back.

‏‪0:32‬‏ 😂😂😂😂

Aren’t they mercenaries?

12:00 wait there is a basement????

should of made me the general who rebuilt the gunners & not the crappy one min men

Perhaps over analyzing the gunners?

Try Sim Settlements 2.