I am level 60 and Sanctuary has been my main base since day one however, the population never goes over 11. Defense 60; food 25; water 40; beds 18 yet nothing but nothing gets more settlers to come (yes I have a recruitment beacon up). The only reason I have 11 instead of less is because I've sent several from other settlements. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? Thank you!

Higher defense... absolute minimum is food + water, but having it higher is a very good idea, especially since the game will sometimes miscalculate stats for settlements and use the wrong stats for stuff like happiness (and probably recruitment).

Max pop is normally CHA + 10. This can go higher by wearing CHA boost gear and/or using CHA boost chems. Even if temporary, all that matters is what CHA is at when the game checks to see if recruiting more settlers should happen.

Make sure that the settlers stay happy, too. Add chairs for them to relax in, for example. I try to stay around 80 happiness to get recruitment. Normally it's no problem.

I've actually managed 19 settlers with just 6 charisma and a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

I swear the algorithms to pull in settlers are all jacked up at this point. I don't suspect 10 + charisma is the top out, just a threshold before recruitment slows way down. Though in my case on one play through, it never slowed down.

Agree w/@AiTenshi1

It's CH + 10 (for me that usually means 20), but, I can get it up to about 30 (sometimes more) by wearing CH+ outfit (say T-Shirt & Slacks +2, Militia hat +1 and black rimmed glasses +2 and taking some graqe mentats +5 = +10). As long as it autosaves while you're in that condition it registers your total charisma as that higher number for the sake of settlements forever more. I had one character that got up over 30 settlers, but I can't remember what I used to get the 2 +3s and the +2's for that - tuxedo, formal hat and stylish glasses maybe? Sorry, just can't remember. It's important that it autosaves while you're in that condition so, if you're after it, you may need to do it and pray or do it repeatedly. Waiting or sleeping or fast travel won't work since your mentats wear off before the autosave kicks in, so timing is key.

I'm 6 + 1 for my helmet + 1 for my bobblehead and get only 11 settlers. So, I'm sending them over from the Starlight since they are always overwhelmed with settlers who have nothing better to do but watch the flicks.

So you do not have to keep that charisma gear equipped and charisma buffs ongoing then? Just force the game to autosave and it always remembers your highest charisma?

I had read something somewhere that said the max charisma effect was something like 41 with all sharp gear, vault power armor, the buff drugs, and 10 charisma +1 for bobblehead after 10.

this is probably some kind of glitch. I neglected Tenpines Bluff and fell out of favor with them. when i went back to reclaim the settlement there were 29 people all huddled around the beacon lol. i only have the minimal amount of def, beds, etc. required to unlock the workbench. when i go back for Prestons quests they all complain about having to sleep in shifts

What about bringing followers to Sanctuary? I added MacReady, and I think he got added to my settler total. Thinking of getting Valentine , Curie, Strong, and Cait too. Hope they can be assigned to duties.

I keep all of my companions at Sanctuary, haven't tried to assign Cait as she's traveling with me currently, but Macready and Piper can both be assigned; Nick, Dogmeat, Codsworth, Strong and Preston cannot. (PS4)

10 CHA Special 10

+1 Bobblehead 11

+2/+3 Outfit 14

+1 Hat 15

+1 Eyewear 16

+5 Chem graqe mentats 21

+5 5 Sharp Pieces 26

+1/+2 Drink (party perk) 28

+2 Xcell 30

+3 Daytripper 33

Power armor bonuses do not apply because your special go down because it basically unequips your armor/apparel. Which seems weird because you would lose so many bonus points for any ability when putting the armor on.

That totals 43 for population. So even if you started with a 1 CHA, and had not raised it yet, you could still easily hit a fairly high number in the mid 20s for population.

The other thing I have noticed is populations increase is fairly slow.

My first character has the beacon in Sanctuary turned on all the time, but it barely ever attracts settlers even though Sanctuary isn't full. However, I had nearly the same thing that happened to Brewski happen in...can't remember the name, but it's a really small settlement and it looked like they were all crammed into a box. What I did with my second character is set up a beacon in a settlement outside of Sanctuary, and when people arrive there, I'll manually send them over to Sanctuary until I have the amount I want. Then I turn the beacon OFF to avoid the box full of settlers problem.

I use a mod to increase the settler cap. I can't be bothered tweaking charisma items and boosts, etc.. To get the settlers, I just leave the recruiting beacons on at numerous settlements and then once in a while move excess settlers from the settlements I don't need large numbers at, to the settlements where I can accommodate and want large numbers (currently Sanctuary and the Castle). The primary reason I want the larger number of settlers at those places is because I create top tier merchants at those locations and the more settlers there are, the more money they make (or so I understand the working of things). Plus ultimately I want a good number of well equipped guards at the Castle, not just because it seems right to make it the military center but because...

Defense rating of the settlement have no effect at the recruitment of settlers. It only affect frequency of hostile raids.

No. Defense rating does effect recruitment because it effects settlement happiness and that effects recruitment. Productive, happy settlements recruit settlers faster (or more effectively, however, you want to look at it) than unhappy, unproductive settlements. Having a very high defense is paramount for high (maintained level) of happiness. As @arras noted, defense effects attack frequency, and this effects happiness, thus effecting recruitment. These things are interconnected, not distinct.

Also, the first time you turn on a recruitment beacon, you'll immediately recruit 1-2 settlers in that settlement.

Clarification: CHA + 10 is not some guess or anything like that. It is stated in the official guidebook.

Note: PS4 version has a serious glitch/bug that allows continual recruitment of settlers. This goes along with the glitches/bugs on that version such as the shipment duplication cheat. The continual recruitment of settlers past CHA +10 (plus any gear boosting, of course) does NOT happen on PC, nor is it possible to do the shipment duplication glitch/cheat on PC, at least not for my extensive testing.

I have not seen an Xbox One player demonstrate such glitches, nor have I been able to duplicate them on PC or seen a PC player demonstrate them.