I believe that, if the Institute is destroyed, that it's the moral responsibility of the Sole Survivor to find new homes for all of the civilians displaced by its destruction. My current idea is for the Minutemen ending, with the Brotherhood and the Railroad both intact, and what I would want to do is to section off a settlement somewhere that will exist for the sole purpose of housing the survivors of the Institute, and I'll do my utmost to give them the amenities necessary for future scientific work. If the Institute must be destroyed for the sake of peace in the Commonwealth, then so be it, but if that must be, the survivors are my responsibility, as I destroyed their home.

Are any of the Institute scientists seen again in the game after the evacuation?

I killed them all without putting in the evacuation order cause I'm a bad guy, Heil Hit.... I mean Ad Victorium!

I'm not going to destroy the Institute, then set it all up again for them to start all over.


Here people, these settlements have room, if full you'll be directed to another. If you have ideas how to make life better.


Start looking for junk, I build over 20 settlements and my own transporter with it

Outstanding! I like the way you think! I think Spectacle Island would be a good place OR the Murkwater Construction site. Both are isolated and off the beaten path. Plus, at Murkwater, you could also utilize the school that's close by and establish some labs and housing in there.

Oh, or you could totally re-build Sanctuary and also re-purpose Vault 111.

Murkwater and Spectacle Island I can get behind. But are you sure it's a good idea to put these folks in another technologically advanced hole in the ground?

No dice. This is like saying the Allies are personally responsible for every refugee created by the bombing of Axis cities when the Axis powers are the ones who started the overt aggression. If you don't want parts of your populace to become refugees, don't start wars.


It's certainly morally upright to help out as many refugees as you conceivably can without jeopardizing your primary mission but they aren't your responsibility just because you are fighting a war.

I no longer have a primary mission after blowing up the Institute, apart from "protect the people of the Commonwealth," which the survivors of the Institute now are.

I don't disagree. I merely think you don't have some singular responsibility toward Institute survivors just because you are the one who flipped the switch. It behooves you to look out for refugees and downtrodden people generally. The Institute survivors can get in line with the displaced synths, settlers who survived raider attacks, and anybody else who needs help. They don't have special priority.

LOL Ok, ok, I can see your reasoning! Let them build their own settlement. I just provide them with a plot of land!

I think its implied they don't last long after escaping.

I mean they're all sheltered nerds who've lived their whole live in safety and comfort. They don't stand a chance above ground.

That's a shame. My biggest consolation in going against the Institute is that at least unlike with the Brotherhood and Railroad, I have the option to make some effort to keep most of them alive. But you're right, the fact that none at all are seen again post-MQ doesn't seem to bode well for their chances.

Madison Li (and later TS Wallace) stand out as major exceptions to this. I imagine both of them live -- Heck, Madison even makes it out to the Brotherhood on her own if you convince her to do so.

you killed all the lead scientists though, so all the people who escaped you never met.

Unfortunately, they are in an extreme minority.

The rest of them will probably end up on raider spikes before the night is through. Terrible way to go. Thrown out in the cold into a land of your worst nightmares. Women, children, and elderly one and all.

But a frozen, pre-war laywer turns into a bad-ass gunslinger! LOL

It's a shame that they can't use their smarts to survive. I don't like that implication that they won't make it.

@ Asmodai: Well, Dr. Li isn't a stranger to the wasteland. She has lived out there most of her life. First in the Capitol Wasteland (Rivet City and/or around Washington DC) and now in the Commonwealth.

Oh stop rubbing it in already! Oh how can I go against the Institute? *sigh*

I'm aware, which is why I point out that those two likely survive assuming the evacuation order is given.

Nah, I just think if they've got to go, then activating the nuke with them still inside is the most merciful way to do it.

That's how I'd want to go. Wandering around blindly in unfamiliar territory for awhile before being torn apart by raiders or eaten by wild animals? Erm...

No thank you. I'll just stay here in the Commissary and sip my last cup of coffee and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qEFdCh9dV4&t=2m47s.

Actually, the "Ad Victoriam" ending should have been eliminating the Institute leadership and taking all the scientists to work for BoS in a way similar to what the United States did with German Scientists after WW2.

ya but they don't like that devil's technology its against their religion or something.

I wanted to take over and then change everything about it. I wanted to get rid of all the rogue scientists that didn't trust me. Essentially, I wanted to destroy the evil but wanted to keep the location and the families that lived there. But the story doesn't go that deep. You can try different things, but ultimately it's a pretty shallow story. I love the game, but the story has it's limitations.