First and foremost, let it be known that I have well over 1009 hours of playtime in Fallout 4 as I write. It wasn’t until I recently started a new game that I decided to try for the “Benevolent Leader Trophy” just for kicks and giggles. Up until now I never really thought about it—that and working on a “Supply Line” scenario. In addition, I set up Sanctuary as a “Purified Water” station twelve large water purifiers. (See the setup below?)

The benevolent leader trophy is seemingly unattainable for me and perhaps it is due to some cheating on my part. And, when I say cheating I mean having certain mods installed along with a wealth of CAPS the easy way—via the console. The mod in question that I am referring to is the “Higher Settlement Budget” mod.

Along the way I soon discovered that you can only recruit so many people to any given settlement. The number ten sticks in my mine, as I lost track after recruiting seven from different other settlements. Seven of those being used in the “Supply Line.”

At one time the settlement happiness was at 97 and then I went off to do a couple of some Minutemen quest, came back to Sanctuary and my happiness level dropped to 92: And, it has been that way ever since.

(I want to point out also that during the time I was that I was working on the Vendors. I went and did a couple of Minutemen quest, came back and everyone was somehow unassigned. At that time I had to reassign twenty people. Incidentally, what in blazes are you supposed to assign a Brahmin too?)

Sanctuary:

People: 32 Food: 33 Water: 522 Power: 620 Defense: 748 Beds: 34 Happiness: 92

I was also attempting to make Sanctuary a hub for caravans and this was all that I could come up with, because of further recruitment:

1. Sanctuary to Greentop Nursery

2. Sanctuary to Nordhagen Beach

3. Sanctuary to the Castle

4. Sanctuary to Graygarden

5. Sanctuary to Oberland Station

6. Castle to Nordhagen Beach

Finally, besides critiquing my choice of playstyle does anyone have any positive suggestions?

Sanctuary is tough to get. Go with Railroad station (can't remember name, 2 girls there). 1 on a clinic, 1 in the fields. give small amount of food and water, defense and generators. Works like a champ in about 5 game days.

Use a small settlement, only have 2-3 settlers, and NO robots. Its pretty easy that way.

Pfft, I got that after either the 1.3 or 1.4 patch, wasn't even trying.

I could care less about achievements, but must admit, the Benevolent Leader achievement is pretty badass.

Oberland, south across the bridge from greygarden

There was a thread about doing it with only 2 people in a settlement. It worked for some while it didn't work for others, bugs maybe. I tried it at the Drive In. 2 settlers, a roof over their heads, one farming, one minding a store. One water purifier and a bunch of turrets. Had it in a few in game days. But again it doesn't seem to work for everyone.

I got that, without even trying, I had two settlers, crops defense, water purifiers. And I was walking down the road and BAM, i got it.

It was a small settlement but it was full. As in I could not build any more, and yea, low amount of people.

Recently I noticed via Hangman's alley, where I had the happiness up to 90 but was wanting to use it as a hub for trade routes, that after gaining more settlers even though there was plenty of food and water, that my happiness went down, all the way down to 30.

I'm having a similar issue. I have Abernathy as my food source and Sanctuary as my water source, and they're both tied to Red Rocket. For some reason happiness will randomly drop sometimes. Occasionally the game will bug out and tell me there's not enough beds or water when there is, so I'm guessing bugs are interfering with happiness too. But then I've seen YouTubers claim that hidden values affect happiness, like having beds under roofs or having a radio and chairs laid out nicely for them, so it's tough to work out what's really causing certain changes.

Hangman's Alley

2 settlers

2 clean beds under cover

2 heavy machine turrets (not the standard turret, the next one up)

I had 6 mutfruit plants (assign one settler here)

I had 12 water

1 level 3 food & drink stand (assign the other settler here)

Done. I got the trophy even with the latest patch installed.

Also I'm pretty sure setting up supply lines or having TVs in your settlements negatively affects happiness.

In my Sanctuary Compound I have a total of 18-Vendors. All stands are level 3. One is a Food Pavilion; 7-Food Stands; 1-Trader and 1-Medic. In the second pavilion...the Trade Pavilion.... I have 3-Traders; 3-Medics; 2-Clothiers; and, 1-Food stand.

The Food Pavilion seats 32 people in 8-booths. And, the Trade Pavilion seats 20 people in 5-booths. I have now 36-beds in total and all of them are located in the abandoned houses. I never thought about placing tables and chairs or radios in each of the houses. Perhaps i should try it and see where it goes. I may even but a radio in each of the pavilions. That said, so far when I have returned to Sanctuary nothing has been in the red. In my original post I mentioned that the happiness level was at 92. It is now at 94.

It's a maths thing.

If your settlers basic needs of food, water, sheltered beds are met then happiness will be 80.

Your market stalls add bonus happiness.

The bonus happiness is divided by the number of settlers which is then added to the 80 base level.

Tier 3 stalls add

Restaurant 40

Medic 30

Trader 15

Clothes 10

You have 8 food stalls x 40 bonus / 32 settlers = 10 bonus happiness

medic 4 x 30 / 32 = 3.75

trader 4 x 15 / 32 = 1.8

clothes 2 x 10 / 32 = 0.6

So that totals 16 to 17 bonus happiness added to the base 80 makes 96 to 97.

So you could scrap some of the clinics and other stores and change them to restaurants for a start.

Perhaps change some of the provisioners so instead of going from Sanctuary to wherever they do the opposite and thus reduce your Sanctuary population.

As you have written that everything became unassigned at one point, perhaps you have a bed situation.

There could be a problem with beds and Provisioners.

Perhaps run around and do a bed count and check that the correct number are allocated.

Why does my happiness fluctuate between 78-80? Im not ready to make a run at 100% before I figure that out, I have no happiness boosting facilities.

Also what else really effects happiness besides the buildings?

Do dogs or brahmin actually do anything?

Yes. Dogs add happiness, and I think so do Brahmin (they provide fertilizer at least)

Exactly. The "less is better" method is the best method. Croup Manor and Taffington Boathouse, worked for me. At the Boathouse I also had Drinking Buddy so that expedited it. No need for provisioners, clinics, stores or anything else. Set it up like the post above says and just stay there for a while or travel back and forth and talk to your settlers when you are there.

I also took A LOT OF TIME to get it. But finally got...

Croup Manor. 20 settlers in lvl. 3 stores (restaurants, clinics, and clothing emporium) and 4 settlers picking up mutfruits (6 to each one). 24 of water, lot of power and defense. Put lights, decorations and radio, also reached the maximum stuff to put in there.

I can vouch for the simple, low settler approach being best for achieving Benevolent Leader. I used Coastal Cottage with 5 settlers total. One provisioner, one farmer and three on Level 3 Bars. The following reddit post gives a good explanation of the way that happiness actually works in game:

https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/43rcts/the_math_behind_your_settlers_happiness/

The biggest problem with Benevolent Leader is that the more settlers you have the harder it is to achieve 100% happiness. For a 32 person settlement you'll need 16 Level 3 Bars or 22 Level 3 Clinics to achieve 100% happiness which IMO is ridiculous.

The biggest problem might be related to its description. " Achieve 100% hapiness in a LARGE settlement" might actually confuse a lot of players. I personally like to have settlements with the lowest number of people and resources but high defense, so had no problem obtaining it. But is not fair that players that put time in creating large settlements have to spend enormous amount of perks, caps and time trying to get it. Like you said, is ridiculous to have to invest so much in a large place when you can achieve the same result in a SMALLER settlement without having to sweat blood and tears.

I second this. It's where I got my achievement. Although I have the place built up much more with lights and entertainment like radios & jukeboxes.

Please check back in roughly 10 to 20 hours, real time, to see if I can accomplish the Benevolent Leader with a large settlement? I am restarting a new game. Thank you. Incidentally, I really appreciate all of the comments as they are very informative. Thank you so much.

I cant in my right mind do this achievement. It makes no sense, no one in any wasteland should be 100% happy, no one. When one of my settlements hits 90%, I take away food or beds and drop that % asap.. lol

I was trying for ages to get sanctuary to 100. It had everything, they were the most pampered settlers in the wasteland. Finally one day bam there it was, Benevolent leader, the castle has reached happiness 100, wait what.... the Castle? I'd planted 6 mutfruit put up 2 turrets as soon as I finished Old guns and not been back there in about 10 real time days. Sanctuary meanwhile where chilling on their patio furniture listening to the radio outside their luxury furnished houses after a heavy night at the bar and where only 79% happy? Screw you Bethesda lol

I'd agree that smaller settlements are better for achieving it. I got it fairly early on, with no real clue exactly how I did it. It's there in my trophies, though.

As I stated in yet another post that I was going to try the same thing in my new game at Sanctuary. I spent a total of nine hours setting it up, So, here is what i have done:

I went around to every abandoned house, as I normally do, setting up clean beds, but this time I added kitchen tables and chairs and a sofa---along with lights, kitchen stoves and refrigerators and counters where needed; and, a radio if there was one available in the house. I built my two pavilions with nine vendors each, for a total of 18-vendors. Seven food vendors, one Trader and one Medic in each pavilion. I also added eight restaurant booths to accommodate 32 people in each pavilion.

When I was still working on the pavilions I noticed that Garvey and gang and the two new settlers were using the pavilions stoves and booths as appose to those in the houses. (In each of the pavilions I had set up seven separate cooking stations: a stove, a counter and two (each) refrigerators.) So, I am thinking: “what was the point of remodeling the kitchens, in the abandoned houses, if the settlers are going to utilize the pavilions for their cooking needs?!?”

Incidentally, I initially set up Sanctuary for 28 people in total. As I was rebuilding Sanctuary I received two new settlers and assigned them to food….gardening. Once Garvey and friends arrived I did not assign them to anything, but let the game do its thing. As a direct result, I wound up with 42-food. (I had planted more than the required 28 Nutfruit. I also added some corn, carrots and Tato. Currently my Happiness level is at 82. But, I am still fresh in the game with ten people now residing in Sanctuary Hills.)

Here are my early stats currently:

Food: 42 Water: 270 Power: 570 Defense: 778 Happiness: 82 Current Population: 10 of 28

I used hangman's aswell with only 3mutfuut and 3 water, all the rest are the same as you wrote. It did take awile to get from 95-100 but i never had to adjust or return ti the settlement, it popped up itself after a few days

I have Sanctuary as my main base and I got the Benevolent Leader gamer points.

Know from the start that Fallout 4's happiness system is busted. It was busted when I earned the perk and it is still busted after 1.4 patch. I haven't tried it since Automatron, but Automatron doesn't seem to have shipped with any bug fixes that I noticed, and just seems to add to the huge list of bugs/glitches. Either way nothing logical seems to build happiness.

Sadly in Sanctuary the way to guarantee you get the perk is to build 15 or more shops. I tried with different types and it got me to like 95 but never worked. Then I found that the clinic gives the most happiness. So 15 level 3 clinics with settlers set as doctors spams happiness. So even though it is not logical if you build 15+ clinics and appoint settlers to them, along with making sure you have enough food, beds, and defense. You will get the Benevolent Leader perk. I believe you also gain more happiness when you spend time in the settlement. So when you want to gain the title have the requirements and then work on your base, mod stuff in the workbenches or just have your guy stand there for 24 in game hours. You should have your Benevolent Leader title fast enough.

Right after you get it, put all the shops away and then build the settlement the way you want.

I have played a bit (my main is level 115) and try not to get too much information from outside sources. I just recently realized if I wear charm clothes, drink 5 different drinks, have the party perk that doubles alcohol's effects, and use a graqe mentat I can raise my charm to something like 36. I can then do this at settlements that I don't want people at and max out my main base. Thus you can have 36 (maybe more) people in your main base and have more than enough people to assign 15 merchants. This stacked with the fact they made it so that settlers can farm a ton more food than they originally could makes this perk much easier to get.