Ive heard people say you need defense lower than other resources to get attacked but here is the thing. I never get attacked. My defense is 50, water is currently 867. Yes thats not a typo it is actually 867. Not even a rad roach.


Is it just 'food' that attracts raiders then?

I have just enough for settlers and have max so 24 or so.


Also when they do attack is it always when you are away? Do they ever spawn and attack whilst you are there randomly? When i rest at home completely remove all my weapons and gear and just wear normal clothing with no weapons so it would be cool if they do. I have weapons stashed just incase. Fat man rocket launcher and 1 mini nuke right by my window.

Bump. I think it involves having a high happiness and a couple radio beacons, but I can't be sure.

settlements without people don't get attacked.

Also, 1000 resources only yield a 1% chance of attack (though how often it's checked is an enigma, could be per day or per hour for all I know)

Are you actually a member of the Minutemen? "Your settlement has been attacked" messages seem to rely upon actually being a Minuteman, oddly enough.

This is only based on my own playthroughs however--I've got one active Minuteman General playthrough and one playthrough where I've done almost nothing with the Minutemen (I've only met them so I could get certain loot where they were hiding and while I nicely killed the bad guys for them I then didn't return to Preston to close out the quest).

In my NON-Minuteman playthrough, I've got a handful of settlements that you can clear without Minutemen membership. They are only attacked when I actually show up (a random possibility) and I never get any "your settlement is under attack" messages or radiant quests to help them.

Whereas in my Minutemen game, the needy bastards are constantly being attacked and generate radiant quests, regardless of high defenses, low resources, or any other factors. Generally specifically when I am in the middle of trying to blow up [insert major faction name here], stuck 400 feet underground, looting the Glowing Sea, etc.

My personal conclusion is that settlement attacks have nothing to do with what your settlements actually have--it's just that the Commonwealth really hates Preston Garvey. He probably kept trying to give them quests they didn't want.

The formula for the attack change is: AttackChance = 0.02 + 0.001 * (FoodProduction + FoodInInventory + WaterProduction + WaterInInventory) - 0.01 * Safety - 0.005 * TotalPopulation.

It's evaluated daily. And yes, settlements without population will never be attacked.

More information https://www.reddit.com/r/falloutsettlements/comments/41key9/settlement_internals_explained/.

Edit: And according to the scripts, it does not matter whether you are member of the minuteman.

The thing I'm wondering if is if you are NOT a Minuteman member, if you never get the notifications. Like I said, in the non-Minuteman game, my settlements DO get attacked sometimes when I show up, but I never get the notifs. It could be my settlements are getting attacked all the time, but I'm not getting the notifications and by the time I get back there, the settlers have fixed the damage (which will happen over time).

That's a good question. Will try to find it out when I come home.

Most of the attacks you witness when travelling to a settlement are NOT settlement attacks but random encounters that happen to spawn in close proximity to your settlement.

All my settlements have 20+ ppl and over 80% happiness

1. Despite ingame explanation, I don`t feel any relationship between water, food, defense and chance enemy attack the settlement

2. I don`t think happiness matter either

3. They do get attacked without notice (might be a glitch)

4. Raiders, Gunners, Deathclaw, Supermutant, Ghoul, Charred Ghoul.. Charred Ghouls are always leveled to the player but others have completely random level as low as 1.


5. I still get attacked quite often.. at least once every hour or two (real time). Sometimes 3 place get attacked at once.


6. Synth Spy attack is near impossible to finish... they often have most devastating effect when you fail the mission and game calculates the random damage


7. I think the key is just to build all your settlements to good status. I tried to make Castle the spot for enemy to attack to farm legendary enemies, but it did not work.



...Actually getting attacked like me just about every hour can be quite annoying especially when you are inside the dungeon