For my 3rd playthrough, I decided to go with the MM ending and keep 3 of 4 factions alive and well. To catch you up to speed on where I'm at in the game, I just got banished from the institute by killing one of the scientist. Before I go back to Preston, I need to make sure I have enough settlements to start "Defend the castle" quest, if I don't have enough he'll keep giving me what seems to be never ending radiant quests which to be honest is annoying the hell out of me. From what I've read, I need a minimum of 8 settlements that support the MM in order to get the quest. My question is...... Do Sanctuary and The Castle count as part of the 8 settlement requirement? Right now, I have 8 settlements total including Sanctuary and The Castle, but if those two particular settlements that I've already mentioned don't count, I'll have to get two more settlements on board to meet the requirement.

Right next to the quest tab is the settlement tab, it is how many settlements you have in there. I really like Shawn don't you?? hehe guess he will curse your name with his dying breath though.

The majority of the settlements that I've discovered through the MM radiant quest are empty because I consolidated the smaller ones into 8 large ones (20 per settlement).