So.....Nate spends all this time looking for Shaun. It doesn't feel right that I should turn my back on him when you meet him. But than again the Institute carelessly hires Kelogg who shoots your wife (Nora) while they take your son. Was justice served when you kill Kelogg? Or should justice extend against the Institution?

What if the Institution is what the Wasteland needs? Everyone is killing eachother. The Super Mutants and ghouls are plaguing the land. You have raiders who are made up of rapists, murderers and thieves running around killing everyone.

What if the Institute really was the answer. What if mankind is so far gone that what it really needs is synthetic humans that can hunt down raiders, super mutants, and ghouls and set things right?

I mean. Synths have a lot of benefits. They're completely immune to radiation. They have a high tolerance for pain.

Everyone acts like Shuan is a bad person. But literally. He gives Nate the power to make things right. He gives you a Synth army and sort of makes things right by making you the new director of the Institute. He actually puts you in a place of power.

So what's so bad about the Institute? I mean the settlers [censored] about the wasteland and the raiders so much.....and they're hypocrites. Everyone is doing everyone wrong. Why not let the Institute take over?

These settlers are like little kids that can't take care of themselves. They need Nate and the Minutemen to hold their hand.

I think it is time the Institute took over.

Thoughts?

Should be in the spoiler sections. There are many reasons to join, especially the director, you can influence the direction of the Institute. RR is an irrelevant group, and the BoS, you still have to listen to Maxson. Institute's research is more advanced than anything any other groups can come up with. Their gene research brings back the old world animals, they can reverse mutation like supermutants, they can create crops that resist radiations, they have a workforce that can rebuild the world, their group doesn't create another nuclear crater and destroy all the researches, they have WARM AND CLEAN BATH AND SHOWER. Color me fancy, I'll stick with the Institute, thanks.

can you stop calling him Nate?

He's not Nate, when you have to make the decision on how you proceed with the whole Institute thing.

I don't really see the point in joining the Institute and see it as an evil ending...

Shaun never tried to help you in any way. He released you into a hostile environment, with the knowledge that your chances to survive are almost 0%.

Their synths on the surface are killing tons of civilians for no reason.

I'm fine with them staying below the ground, but the way they force their foreign policy upon the people of the Commonwealth is inhuman.

I think there should be other choices to get rid of the insitute though... blowing it up isn't really the finest decision.

We should be able to take it over and imprison the scientists

I personally would never do this..

It is however a single player game.. Play it as you wish.

Shaun stopped being your son the moment he was taken.

Biologically he is your son. But he was taken and raised by other people his whole life. You knew him but he never knew you. But the institute also has free healthcare and is very shiny.

I'm still curious as to why people want Shaun to help you. On what ground? Family? You guys are basically strangers. Anyway, those "foreign policy" is something you could influence as director, so I don't see the downside in that.

I'm with Battlebloodmage.

Honestly, the whole "the Institute is evil" rhetoric is something that the game itself seems to want to subvert in its narrative. The Commonwealth sees the Institute as the boogeyman, but once you actually get there you learn they're a lot less malevolent than the surfacers' paranoia paints them to be. Sure, they do some questionable things, but so do the other factions, and at least the Institute does those things in the name of progress, which is, in my eyes, a pretty decent reason, not to mention something the wasteland sorely needs.

And I honestly don't get people getting all indignant over Shaun's actions - you're basically a stranger to him. Once he gets to know you and it looks like you two get along he makes you Director.

After doing the Institute ending and then re-doing it with the Minutemen, I was left wondering how you could choose to side with anybody but the Institute (I have read/watched the other endings). They may have flawed methods, but the other endings are just, wrong.

"This group is trying to save our species and rebuild the Commonwealth. C'mon gang! Let's go blow that ish up!" - Preston

What? Gtfo....

yup... family ^^

there are tons of cases in real life, where someone who never really saw his parents, is searching for them

if Shaun doesn't see me as family... what's the point of joining the institute?

you've went through hell to find him and all you see is that he could've easily spared you all this :/

but instead he decided to see you as an experiment, to watch how far you can come before getting killed

where are they trying to save and rebuild the Commonwealth?

They take all they want from it, to be able to improve their experiments, but they never planned on actually going to the surface.

Their idea is that the Commonwealth above them is lost forever and that they will stay underground and build the new society below the ground.

For such a secret group, they're the one who is the most straight forward with you from the very beginning and never hides anything from you. They tell you who's their informants are, they tell you Mcdonough being a synth, you can even find the traitor from the RR and turn him over. Father would go as far as overturning all the director, train you and allow you to act as the Director and set the course for the Institute with the speech. Meanwhile, you get no respect even as the general of the Minutemen, they outright stated it if you order them to back down, RR keeps many secrets from you and lie to both you and Patriot, people who lay down their life for their cause. I have no problem with the BoS, so I usually alternate between the Institute and BoS as my ending, but in term of the best ending for humanity, not the "best" ending because the ending "leave the most factions alive" as people assume with the Minutemen or the cease fire waiting it to explode eventually with the Stormcloak-Imperial ending, but actual closure and what the future could bring, it would be the Institute ending.

He wants you to prove yourself as someone who related to him, as how I often perceive. For me, you don't help family because you hope for them to help you back, you help family because they're family, regardless of whether they see you as such. Talking to him, you know he was lonely growing up, he was raised with no affection. Even then, he still considers you to be important to him to the point that he makes you the director, against everyone's wishes. He trusted you, and he begs you to take care of synth Shaun. I don't see any hidden meaning behind it other than him wanting to experience family through synth Shaun. Plus, even without the family tie, they are the ones who could bring the world back to the way it was before.

All of the stuffs you mentioned are the past and have no relevant to how things could go as future director. Remember that the Institute used to work with the surface before, so with you as director, you could influence the way the technology could be used. Moreoever, let's just say they stay evil, the surface world got wiped out, the humans on the Institute go up and use their technology and workforce to rebuild the world. Thousands of years from now, humanity is safe, we're prosperous once again. I don't see a downside to it, whether the Institute stays evil or good.

Ignoring all the Kidnapping, murder, human experimentation, loosing a new strain of Super Mutants on the population, attacks on settlements etc, how exactly are they attempting to save our species and rebuilding the Commonwealth?

I've no problem with any ending but RR, which seems to be so stupid that I cannot bring my self to complete it.

As I said, they could just stay evil for all I care. The Institute people are humans as well, and assuming they get their way and the surfacers are killed, they come up and rebuilding the world. Thousands of years later, nothing matters as long as the world is safe afterward.

What is the point of having the PC do missions like the one at Warwick with the radiation resistant vegetation if there were no plans to re-build the surface world? I may have missed some things because I kind of glossed over some of the end dialogue.

During a playthrough, does the Institute (synths) actually attack settlements (prior to being aligned with them)? I remember NPCs talking about people going missing and then coming back as synths but is it confirmed that those people are killed/replaced by the Institute?

They want to be the ones to rebuild the surface world after the surfacers died out. As a director, you could influence that kind of thinking and work with the surfacers, if not, it's still the same result with the Institute people growing those crops instead after the surfacers died out. The end is still the same regardless. This is why I like the Institute, regardless of whether they stay evil or if the director could change them for a force for good, they would end up saving the world.

I'm planning on finally finishing my BOS playthrough soon (but keep finding new locations I missed earlier) and starting my Institute playthrough so I'm not bashing it beyond the belief that the Institute is somehow 'attempting to save our species or rebuilding the Commonwealth' since they are pretty much a nicer version of the Enclave and well they are humanity as far they are concerned.

So in way the claim is true, if like the Institute you don't regard the settlers already attempting to rebuild the Commonwealth as having any value beyond being test subjects.

Yup.

The Institute is love, The Institute is life.

On a serious note, if you'll go through the endings you'll realise that casted aside the irrelevant minutemans , the Institute is actually the most positive option, they deal brutally out with their enemies, yeah, but still do not nuclearise the commonwealth for the sake of it, do not go on a killing spree over the bodies of innocent people and do not intend to harm innocent people, you're hinted at that when you can make your announce through the radio speaker.

You can eventually settle down the future policies of the Institute and drive it out from the shadows, ceasing so to be felt like the boogeyman of the commonwealth.

Rather than be Maxson's squire or Tinker Tom's tester , which leads you to nothing concrete on the end except having destroyed the brightest civilisation within' the last two centuries.

All in all settlers , and average joe of the wastelands are just afraid of what they don't know.

Yea, the Institute did various regretable actions which ultimately have let scars on the region, but with a new leader and a new policy they can peacefully preserve and guarantee the commonwealth and its inhabitants better than the rags fanatics or the power armored raiders, imho.

The Institute didn't attack a settlement in my playthrough until I met Father at which point my settlements had Synth Infiltrators and Synth teleporting in to attack my settlements.....while I was working for them.

The Institute is never clear what happened to those that they kidnapped, we know that some were probably used in FEV experiments in creating the new Super Mutant strain in the Commonwealth and that the rest were disappeared.

that's a good point ^^

being the leader of the Institute and change the way the did things in the past, would definitely top the other three endings.

You'd even have an army of synths to defend it against the greed of the other factions and raiders

I have a very hard time justifying siding against Shaun. Regardless of what he is, he's still your son and he's offering you the opportunity to be a part of what he's helped to build.

Just from a story perspective, I don't see why Nate or Nora would blow up The Institute and kill Shaun. If he was actively trying to kill you, sure. But otherwise it just feels strange. But that's just me.

As for The Institute, to hell with the surface. Carve out an underground utopia and life forever in safety and comfort.

Depends on how you RP Nate's thoughts and feelings on the whole situation. How does he feel knowing his son has put him through this? How does he feel knowing everything he's done in his tenure as Director? Nate may decide that his boy died on the same day his wife died and walk away.

Not a part, but to be the freaking leader of the entire group. Seriously, I doubt he would make a random stranger to be the head of the group. He trusted you to the point where he knows about you working with the RR beforehand and it angered many people within the Institute.

I feel like I can't side against him, and even during my BoS playthrough, I feel horrible. He trusted you completely. There was never a point where there was any ulterior from him. I feel like I'm betraying a child's trust, albeit a 60 years old child's trust but still. Other groups lie and keep secrets from you like the BoS and RR or lack of respect like the Minutemen. They may be evil, but they're the most honorable group out there that treats you with respect. I want to backhand Rhys after talking to him.

Yeah.

Didn't wanted to get into the emotive path of "omg siding against your son!!" kind of argument but... well, that plays it , too.

And everytime i enter the RR HQ i have 3 guns pointed at my face, while entering the Institute there is no feeling of any threat what so ever, and also you're welcomed by pretty much anyone in it to the point you really wouldn't feel any reason to despise the Institute, at all.

Even the BOS guys, some autocratic overequipped militaristic fanatics are nicer to you than the railroad who are in the worst possible shape to be that much aggressive, exclusive and denial towards somebody who's getting there with no intent to harm.