How are your supply lines set up? Does each settlement have a Provisioner linking it to the next closest settlement, or do you have hubs for multiple supply lines? How do you know how many supply lines you have running from a particular settlement, and where they originate? Do you dress and arm your Provisioners a certain way, or do you just send them haphazardly into the Wastelands?

After quite a bit of experimentation, I've settled on the "hub" approach; with one hub per 5 settlements. Each hub sends out up to 4 provisioners, all armed and dressed identically, with a weapon renamed for their route(example, Provisioner going from Sanctuary Hills to Red Rocket carries pistol named "Pro SH/RRTS). I also make sure they are well armored and carry a decent weapon, good place to dump extra gear you just can't bring yourself to salvage.

Keep in mind, once assigned to a supply line, the "Settler" label is replaced by "Provisioner", and apparently, that settler remains labeled thusly even if reassigned.

At times, you may find you have a Provisioner you don't need, or who would be better running another route. First off, you'll need to be able to identify him, thus the naming trick with weapons. Secondly, you'll need to find him, which I've found is easiest to do by using the wait command while sitting near the settlement boundary. Just build a chair or bed near where you expect him to come in from. Once he's within your settlement radius, reassign him to some menial task such as farming, you'll then be free to move him to another settlement, fast travel there, and reassign him to a new route.

Hopefully this helps someone, look forward to reading other views.

interesting idea on identifying them. I wasn't sure on a set of settlers that were there in Sanctuary so I assigned them routes but then found out I possibly removed one route to be replaced by another. I could not tell them apart just by looking at them.

I have 7 settlements with one provisionner on each

Having a hun is not a good idea if you want to not gimp population at any particular settlement. If you hub,, then that hub settlement uses up however many pop spaces as provisioners sent out.

Since supply lines are internet rerouting style, with one connection to grid meaning access to every location on the grid, you dont need hubs. I find best way is just reverse route supply lines to my main settlements until they max out in size (cant send supply line to destination if destination is max pop)

E.g. Send one provisioner from each new settleme to samctuary until sanctuary is max pop, then send all new settlements to red rocket (assuming RR is connected to sanctuary) until RR is max pop, etc
This way, every settlement is at most only using 1 population on supply line. If you hub, you cant setup many shops at those hub cities, and shop income is largely based on how many and how large of shops you are manning.

I equip all provisioners with mining helmet - easy ID but also looks awesome lighting up the night as they march along on the road. Super bright light beam, love it. Substitute hard hats temporarily if i run out of mining helmets (but there are easy respawn points for helmets)

As they often load in wildnerness cells with you when you load nearby, i also arm and gear provs the best of all my settlers. As they will trigger lots of attacks. Faict provs never get attacked off screen, but they do load nearby cells kinda like skyrim system, so you pften come across your own provs fighting off hostiles.

They dont die easy because like skyrim they seem to have the companion system, death blow puts them down into recovery mode and enemies stop targeting, but if hit again by stray, aoe, or FF, they can die. So i gear them up with good hand me down armor and weapons. Especially full automatics. 1 bullet = endless settler ammo so i let them go nuts with full autos

I have it set up like jacozilla. Sanctuary Hills is my main base which I store everything at. Each settlement sets up a supply line to Sanctuary Hills.

Since as far as I know they can't die, so I just dress them in something thats noticeable. Had a women in a tux with a boler hat and a guy in a sequin dress. anything that makes them stand out.

Hmm, ya know, I have never seen a Provisioners body either; even with the extra gear you'd think a Yao Guai or a Deathclaw would take one down occasionally. Certainly they kill settlers, even named ones.

May test that today, send a nekkid Provisioner out and follow from a distance, scope things out.

Has anyone had a Provisioner killed?

I hope someone can please help me.

How do you get them to wear clothes or armor or weapons? I give them but I don't understand why they won't equip them? Settlers appear the same even if I leave and return later and the new stuff is still in their inventory.

You need to equip the new gear manually.

Open the trade interface and switch to their inventory and press the equip key.

That's Y on Xbox and Triangle on PS4!

Thanks very much for the help!

I always link them to the next closest one im using so it eventually ends up like a chain or ring

gray garden -> co-op -> abernathy farm -> sanctuary -> tenpines etc

But if they don't die i might as well just go for the hub approach (and get all the hardcoe weapons and armor i got them to wear back off them).. i was always worried about making them do the huge trips especially though downtown.

Provisioners can die from attacks - Ive seen it happen one time out in the wilds when prov loaded in cell near me, and I couldn't get there in time to save him (because he chased a flying insect into a pack of mutants)

Also just tested it right now, following provisioner out of settlement and then fired on him with a spray of combat rifle bullets. His cold dead corpse is laying on the ground.

Out of respect I looted all but the red bandana so he would have a clothed funeral

edit - seems if the damage comes in fast enough, the provisioner doesn't even have time to go into recovery mode. I stood medium distance away and just unloaded on full auto with my combat rifle and the provisioner died without going into recovery mode first. So rule of thumb seems to be, they are mostly protected to damage if it isn't heavy and fast enough via recovery mode, but if dps is strong enough, they don't get a chance to take a knee.

i have a hub but if you go to the world map on your pip boy you can press LB (on xbox one) and it will show your supply lines

They can die. I've had a whole 1 die in about 130 hours of gameplay. Normally they do the same thing as a companion and sit on the ground, but I found a dead pack brahmin which may trigger the death of the provisioner as I found the provisioner dead nearby.

I have settlements that have access to water generating as much water as possible. All locations that have no body of water all have massive amounts of food or one or two have massive amounts of stalls for vendors. Very few of my supply lines do overlap and usually one or two of the food producers has an extra trade route going to one of the vendors settlements. I have made all my settlements specialize highly in one way or another. This also cuts down on time collecting money from the settlements. Instead of one stall per settlement I have 5 or 6 in one settlmen. Usually these settlements also have a very high amount of "Salvage" booths also. Thus making it easy to have a one stop shop to build from.

Appreciate the confirmation jaco and rabid, I got sidetracked building; hard to stop once you get going. I hadn't even thought about shooting one myself, but glad to hear they can be killed by mobs.

Corey, yea, you can see your existing supply lines via the PipBoy, but there's no way to tell where the route originates at a glance; that's my biggest problem with Provisioners specifically. As it is now, trying to reassign one is an exercise in a wee bit of frustration; what I'd like to see is an arrow on the supply line shown on the map pointing from origin to destination, that would alleviate a lot of the guesswork and finangling.

this would be very convenient

Agreed Deathnail, specialising settlements is a good idea, and can let you get resources to settlements that are challenged for space, water or dirt.

Though I don't worry about water too much, due to hand pumps, food can be problematic, but with proper supply lines a settlement with 10 dedicated farmers working their max allowance can produce enough food to feed 2 more full size settlements, allowing you to devote other settlements to making caps and loading up on salvage.

tested it some more just for giggles -

1- killing brahmin packmule has zero effect - provisioners still live, supply lines stay intact

2- killing provisioners, whether brahmin lives or not, removes the supply line