finally got this stupid achievement and it wasnt from one of the different settlements i built using different "methods" for a guaranteed 100%, had 2 settlements trying to use the 2 settlers, one for food and one on a 3rd tier clinic strategy, another 2 settlements at 20 people with most everybody on either a clinic or bar, i finally got it at finch farm where i wasnt using any specific build, just had some fun with it cuz you could build up on the highway there, ive also found out that with a bunch of built up settlements close or at the max build limit, my quicksave/regular saves take a lot longer to complete and my game crashes a bit more (im on xbox1) so now im going through (at level 87) with the sandman perk and killing off my settlements one by one and scrapping them in their entirety to be able to build to my hearts content at one or two of my favorite locations (murkwater, hangman's and starlight)

Congrats! In the last week I've hit the Benevolent Leader achievement with two settlements. Starlight Drive-in and The Slog, respectively, hit 100% happiness within two hours of each other. I wasn't even done building with Starlight Drive-in.

Tier 3 clinic has lower bonus than tier 3 bar.

All happiness bonuses are listed in wikia. Really easy to count and to get the achievement with any number of settlers.

Congratulations to you! Question: Did you have the green bar turn yellow/orange, as mentioned above?

Oh wonderful. I just took medic so I could build the tier 3 medic shop. I am working on my second level of cap counter for the bar requirement.

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I am currently trying all of the suggestions in the thread. Have everything except the tier 3 bar (have tier 2). The happiness meter hovers back and forth between 96 and 97. I stayed (slept, waited) at the settlement for an in-game week, role-playing that my character was badly wounded and needed to recuperate. I haven't added anything new - my build bar is in the green - do I need more buildings? Arrrgh.

Tier 3 clinic bonus = 30. So it`s just not enough for 2 settlers. You need to add 20 bonus for every settler to get 100%.

Tier 3 bar provides bonus 40. Devide it by the number of settlers and add 80. If you have 2 tier 3 bars and 4 settlers it will loo like 2*40/4+80=100

80% is base happiness that should be achieved without shops.

Tier 2 clinic and tier 2 bar provide bonus=20

All other shops give lower bonuses.

Junkyard dog bonus=10

No as I am using Expanded Settlements mod which practically removes settlement size.

So is there a fool proof way of getting it?

Shops. I got BL long before the last patch dropped (I believe it fixed some bugs that make it a bit easier to get now). It took ages to get it, leaving me with a lot of time to experiment what makes it go up and what doesn't. And that answer is shops. Here's what I found (keep in mind the patch may have changed some of it):

• Defense doesn't matter beyond just matching your resource numbers. Bumping it to crazy high numbers like 150 didn't improve happiness.


• Noise also doesn't really seem to matter.


• Food and water at that given settlement doesn't matter if you have supply lines and excess of each elsewhere. I had 0 food at my settlement that I got 100% happiness on.


• As kitcat pointed out, happiness is really all about being a ratio of shops to settlers. This means you don't need a massive amount of settlers to get 100% happiness.


• You have to be there in the settlement. Moving to another settlement makes happiness drop.


• Provisioners still count as settlers towards the settlement they originate from. However, you can still have a supply line by sending a provisioner from another settlement.

I still haven't got this #$$$%%^^*** trophy yet either!!! I got to 98% one night and while I was just standing there doing nothing it started to go down! Why does it do this? Most frustrating trophy I have ever tried to get!

Thanks. So find a small settlement, setup the usuals, then setup all different kinds of shops? Any particular level shops?

Level 3 for sure. Level 2 would require you employing all of your settlers to shops. While you might as well do that, level 3 will give you some wiggle room. Plus, I would really only advise attempting this late in the game, so by then caps should be a non-issue. Clinics and bars provide the most happiness, and I believe bars are a little cheaper than clinics (could be wrong though) and they give a little bit more happiness. I would build one of each level 3 shop though, then fill the rest with bars/clinics. I got to 100% with mostly clinics so either is doable.

Final thing, it doesn't need to be a small settlement necessarily. In fact, I would recommend you pick at least a medium sized one just to have some extra space to build stuff. It's just that people used to think you needed 20 settlers or more to get the achievement, and that's not true.

One final thing I'll add, to recoup the building costs of shops, you can pick a settlement with a natural body of water, build some water purifiers, and sell the waters to the shops while you're sitting around waiting. Building a caravan post gives you an extra vendor to sell to as well.

I have base 80 happiness, 3 settlers, a tier 3 clinic (30), a tier 2 bar (20) = 50 divided by 3 = 16.66, so that explains the 96? So I need a tier 2 bar and that should do it, right?

I am not using mods. You can get the achievement with mods?! That doesn't seem fair.

Yes, that is what happened to me. I was doing absolutely nothing. No attacks on the settlement, no changes and it went from 97 to 96! Getting the 'Pros Only' achievement was easier than this.

I used the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Benevolent_Leader#Basic_one_settler_method from the Wiki at Murkwater Construction Site and just ground it out following the sleep/workshop/chair routine, rinse and repeat.

It is pure grind, took me a good hour or 2, but I got the achievement. I hate grinding, but I think this is probably the only way to guarantee getting the achievement.

P.S. I didn't get the on screen notification once I ticked over 100%, but I alt-tabbed out and checked Steam and it was there

Edit: I even nipped off and did a "defend wherever" quest and came back and just picked up again from where ever it was in the routine .

This. Also did not get on screen notification. had to stay there every night for a week.

You don't need mods to increase size of settlements.


Take as many as you can hold of either upgraded weapons or legendary weapons as you can hold and drop them on the ground and use the workshop to place them in the workshop so you can get them back and repeat to as high as you want it to be.


Legendary weapons are faster but any totally upgraded weapon will do.

Check to make sure your settlers haven't unassigned themselves from their jobs or beds. Mine forgot which beds they used and the farmer had to be reassigned to his crops one by one five times while I was working this achievement.