I got the miscellaneous ''check out parsons state asylum'' quest from a settler, so i wandered over for a look. Basically, even if the guards become hostile and shoot first ( 'cos i'm like hanging round at the gate ) it counts as murder on my stats if i retaliate. Whats all that about. I know it doesnt matter all that much i'm just curious.

PS havent been into the place yet so no spoilers plz

Avoiding spoilers I would guess its that because when you do the thing with the person to get in the place those guards are flagged as allies.

I guess this is either hardcoded for some reason (your typical "sneak into the compound without being spotted" segment a lot of games have) or it's a glitch.


As you pointed out, the rules for "murder" are pretty straightforward. If the "enemy" has a red name and is hostile towards you, killing them does NOT count as murder. Aside from one or two clear instances of glitches (the last room of ArcJet springs to mind), there's not any issue like this for the whole game barring this one zone.


But let's look at the evidence (and things you may not have noticed):


- They're unique enemies that appear in no other location.

- They endlessly respawn pretty much immediately when you kill one.

- They count as murder if you kill them.


While a "bad" character could easily exploit this for piles of loot and XP, it's clear that Bethesda won't have wanted you to farm these dudes forever endlessly. Killing them gets you nowhere (except the loot, XP and murders), so under examination this looks like a clear case of intended mandatory sneaking. You aren't meant to kill them, just get into the building without being seen at all - an actual use for the super high stealth abilities you can gather.

I also hadn't picked up a quest yet related to the asylum and after a warning, the guards do turn hostile. After all, they're guards and you're there without invitation, yet.


What you can do to avoid this confrontation is skirt round the wall, following left from the gate and you'll come across a crack in the wall just wide enough to jump through.


one foot on the other side of the wall will complete the 'investigate' element of it without turning anyone hostile or resorting to murder.


you'll get chance to explore it in detail another time.

But you can't get into Parson's State Asylum when you first encounter those guys. You can only get into it after killing them and then traveling to

Cheers for the replies guys