Supply lines are both easy and somewhat confusing so just a few quick tips and hints which are not explained at all or very well in game -

0- Supply lines work any combo of connections that hooks up a settlement into the 'grid' of supply lines. You do not need supply line from/to every settlement. Just one connected line - think of it as a 'road' - if you can travel from point A to any other point connected by a 'road', all settlements along those roads are connected to all other settlements for sharing purposes

*exception - supply lines only share supplies and ability to scrap down at any connected location whatever breakable objects in order to pass raw materials. Constructed items like weapons, armor, furniture, are not shared as common inventory being supply lines.

**note - auto scrapping only scraps junk, items that break down into good raw materials (road leathers, clothing for cloth+leather, etc are not auto scrapped and are not accessed via supply line either

1- When setting up supply lines at first, you will almost always be starting from Sanctuary as first 'home base' till you decide to maybe move it later. So most players I expect end up sending settlers turned into provisioners (aka supply line assigned) from Sanctuary to other settlement.

Tip- start this way, but soon as you get 2+ settlements, send the newly arrived settler from Sanctuary to the other settlement - goto other settlement, meet that settler you just sent over, and then setup supply line from that settlement to Sanctuary. You want to setup reverse direction supply line to your main base because eventually you will setup all your big shops, at least until you can afford shops everywhere, at your main base.

Shops take manpower, and if you have 6 settlements and sent supply line people out from Sanctuary to those 6, you just used up 5 settlers and your 'main base' starts to have lot less available manpower than a smaller, non-main base settlement. So to avoid re-doing all your supply lines later, just start out hooking up from Other settlement --> Sanctuary or any other settlement that allows hooking into the 'grid'

This way the population hit goes on the other settlement, not your main base

2- Supply line help text is frustratingly minimal and it does not tell you that you can not setup supply line from A to B, unless the location you are sending supply line to is NOT maxed out on population (charisma + 10)

This is weird because the provisioner counts against the population already of the place you are sending from, so why does it matter that where you are sending TO is maxed out or not?

Don't know why but if location you send supply line to maxes out AFTER you send supply line, all is well. If it is already maxed out, the UI removes that location as a place you can send supply line to.

So juggle people around by playing musical chairs if you need to , in order to hook up a settlement that is already maxed out

3- Learned the hard way that supply line provisioners can be attacked - they are far as I can tell, never attacked when 'off screen' from your location- BUT - they load into the game kinda like how skyrim does if anyone remembers - there is some config I am sure that controls the X number of nearby cells to load for game state. So whenever you travel somewhere, any provisioner within that X load cell distance gets loaded into the game.

This is when they can and will be attacked, or they will stupidly go running off to fire on some harmless insect and run into a mutant pack.

So the only settlers that I try and actually arm with hand me down good weapons and gear are my provisioners as they are the only settlers that face trouble alone in these scenarios. You'll hear shots so you can go run to help them, but decent gear lets them live long enough for you to get there.

4- This isn't a settlement issues thread so won't recap - just remind that the UI display for how many people are at a settlement is bugged. The cap is charisma + 10 for population but people claim they have more - because of this bad UI. Sometimes, your presence plus companion will push that count up by 2, sometimes it will be lower than really is.

The one and only way you can ever know how many settlers truly are in that settlement due to bizarre wrong/bugged UI, is build a bell, ring the bell, count all the people that show up and add your supply line guy if not already there as the bell doesn't summon him if away from settlement.

5- Supply line people are the only settlers that don't animate or show idle post state of sleeping. They are quite literally always on the road, your hardest working slaves that never get a break. But for settlement happiness purpose, they take a bed.

Hint- if you just can't figure out why your settlers complain about having to sleep in shifts but you are positive you assigned beds manually to ensure everybody has a bed (due to settlement issue you can have 100 extra beds but settlers will not get bed to sleep in unless you manually assign sometimes) - make sure to check you assigned your always on road or standing around settlement supply guy. He never uses it, but he still takes a bed in the settlement where his population counts.

Good tips! Learned me a thing or two here and I've spent over half of my 60 hours played building. Kudos

OP has good advice!

I made the mistake of setting up supply lines from Sanctuary, which was also what I wanted as my main town. Eventually I realized I should do it from extremities to preserve useful population in Sanctuary, but that was after I had already created 3 routes from Sanctuary. Now I'll have to work on breaking all those supply lines and there is no graceful way to do that that I know of.

It gets even worst if you are kinda OCD like me about it. Breaking and reforming those supply lines are possible, and not even that hard - just time and work.

But - unless you use those EXACT same people, you will forever have those people named as 'provisioner'. I thought the generic settler name that got turned into provisioner was nice because at least there was one job where by name you can look at a guy and see what his job is, as if the big brahmin behind him wasn't enough - but ok, name matching job assignment, cool I thought.

But no - if you break that supply line guy to go do another job because you are reassigning supply lines or just need that labor - he doesn't lose the name provisioner. So if you need to reassign or re-do supply lines, it is best to send that exact same guy to relocated to wherever you want to setup supply line from, then use that same guy to re-hook up supply line. Otherwise you end up with people named provisioner who are no longer actually running supply lines.

I outfit my supply line runners in postman outfits, makes them easier to spot. Need more hats though!

Great post Jacozilla. Very useful. Just a question to help me understand better.
Using Sanctuary as (S) Abernathy Farm as (AF) and Tenpines Bluff as (TB) settlements as example. Settler A; originally a resident of Sanctuary. And Settler B; originally a resident of Tenpines Bluff.

Settler A is sent from S to AF as a supply line carrier?
Settler A is then sent from AF to TB as a supply line carrier?
Settler B is sent from TB to S as a supply line carrier?

I haven't come to setting up supply lines yet, so I presume there will be a feature to send one settler to suply line two settlements?

Also, ensure there's a bed kept free for Settler A at S, and a bed kept free for Settler B at TB?

If I have this all wrong, can you explain in the fashion I've used above. Thanks.

Assuming you mean these steps literally, and in the order you listed, then in this example you made a supply line, broke it, made another supply line, but then finished the loop to hook all 3 settlements back up with your last supply line. Let me explain in exact detail what you did from this example -

1- When you sent Settler A from S --> AF as a supply line carrier, you established a supply between S <--> AF ; both settlements now share common inventory (*for sharable items)

-Settler A is still a resident of (S)anctuary

-He is commuting back and forth between S <---> AF, but technically 'lives' in Sanctuary since you sent him FROM S --> AF

2- Your step 2 can't happen unless you have an interim step you did not describe. Once you did step 1 above, that guy is now a supply line carrier between S <--> AF. If you tell him to change supply line, that means you are talking to him within the border of either S or AF (since supply missions can only be assigned within build borders)

If you talk to Settler A within the borders of either S or AF, and tell hm to establish a supply line -to- TB, what you are really doing is just changing his current supply line mission from S --> AF, to S --> TB

**If you talk to an existing supply line carrier, and just tell him to goto a new supply line destination, all you are doing is changing his existing route from whatever home city he is based at, to whatever new place you told him to go to.

**If you REALLY wanted to do step 2 after already doing step 1, but wanted to setup as you asked - AF to TB supply line - then you would need to

a- talk to Settler A and use Move command (R key in build mode on PC) to instruct Settler A to pickup his things and move from Sanctuary as his 'home' to AF

b- people travel in real game time, so goto AF to meet your moved Settler A, but give it some time because if you instantly fast travel there, the moving settler may not be there yet. Once he arrives, you can now talk to him - as a new resident of AF - and setup supply line with Settler A to TB. Since he is now a resident of AF when you tell him to make a supply line to TB, it will be linked as AF --> TB

c- However, what you just did here is:

-had supply line from S --> AF created using Settler A

-had supply line from S --> AF broken when you moved him

-had supply line from AF --> TB created after moving and making new AF --> TB supply line

3. Your step 3 though fixes things so all 3 settlements are linked again, because when you send Settler B from TB --> S as supply line carrier, you establish that link and now have total of 2 supply lines for 3 settlements in form of:

*Supply line AF --> TB

*Supply line TB --> S

In a quasi road network pov, you are linked because AF <--> TB <--> S

S is not linked directly to AF, but because of the shared connection via TB, all 3 settlements share common inventory

With those 3 settlement, the preferential method would have been:

1- MOVE settler A from S to AF

2- After Settler A is new resident at AF, create supply line from AF --> S

3- Use Settler B to create supply line form TB --> S

In your example, TB is the weak link. If it gets wiped out or revolts, you lose all connections.

In my example, you'd have to lose Sanctuary (presumably you're largest and best defended base until late run game) for the entire supply line to wipe

My suggestion would be you always reveres route supply lines from all new settlements to Sanctuary, or wherever base you want to use as your 'main' base. This means the only way you lose your entire supply line grid is if your main base is wipe out. you may lose 1 supply line if an extremity settlement is lost, but it's just that one supply line. The only single point of failure will always be whatever hub city choose and if you want to be paranoid, you can design like the internet, use Sanctuary and Red Rocket or another settlement and establish some supply lines reverse routed to Sanctuary, and some reverse routed to Red Rocket as a secondary hub settlement. Then connect Red Rocket to Sanctuary.

You now have two hubs, and like internet routing, if you lose one hub, you still maintain most your supply line grid via alternate routing through the other hub. To be honest though, with good design of turrets and such, the odds of a main base settlement being wiped out is pretty low so this is more theoretical than practical.

4- One settler can establish one supply line link (which yes, then connects two settlements). But you cannot use one settler to make multiple supply line links.

5- Yes, in your example, you would want 1 bed at AF for Settler A, and 1 bed at TB for Settler B. This part is easy though - once you move that person to that settlement, you will see your total settler count go up by 1, and now you know you need to supply that many beds. What I was talking about was bed assignment -sometimes game gets buggy or picky and a settler will say he has no bed to sleep in despite there being plenty of extra beds.

The always on the road supply line guy was my suggestion that you check if you can't figure out why people are still complaining about 'sleeping in shifts' when there are plenty of beds, as it is easy to miss assigning him manually as he is out of settlement a lot.

The really short way to skip all this explaining is to stick to rule of thumb until you know enough to want to change it however you like

TL-DR

1- any new settlement, send a settler there via Move command or wait till you have new settler that arrives there via radio beacon

2- setup REVERSE supply line, from New Settlement --> main base

3- for every new settlement, do same as above

4- you will now have every settlement always linked for supply sharing unless a carrier dies

Can they even die? I haven't had a provisioner or even a settler die yet...at least that I've noticed. I had one provisioner get brutally attacked near starlight and go into the recovery 'I'm immortal and can't be killed' mode. I think they're all marked as essential.

Of course, maybe only some of them are... I tried to close down all my tiny towns last night and found that about half of the unnamed settlers can't even be moved to another town. If they appeared via 'my friends want to move into this location' type quests, then they aren't moveable. The only settlers that can be moved come from radio beacons. I think those settlers might be essential as well and that one provisoner I saw get attacked could be one of those.

I have a theory I can move those unnmoveable settlers. They can be set as supply lines, so if I create a supply line to the town I want to move them to, I should be able to catch them at that town and reassign them there, effectively transferring the settler. It would be tedious to have to do that for each of those settlers though. There is likely a variable for those settlers that can be changed with a console command to enable moveability. Maybe somebody will figure that out soon. I also wonder if moving those settlers will cause any trouble. Presumably they were made unmovable for a reason! Maybe they are designated for radiant quests... or maybe Bethesda just didn't want us consolidating all our population to keep us on our toes with attacks. I'll probably test out the supply line transfer method tonight and see what happens.

Unless my game is bugged, always a possibility with bethesda games, my supply line carriers can die.

I've seen the effect you are talking about, where they seem to take death inflicting damage but just go into the 'recovery' mode - my belief is this is similar to the skyrim default behavior where an NPC not set as essential won't be killed outright but go into recovery mode, but if attacked again while still in recovery mode, will then die. As opposed to truly essential marked NPCs which can not die for any reason.

The one supply line carrier I've seen die was loaded into game similar to how skyrim did the 'load nearby cells in X range' where all game details are loaded when your character travels or fast travels to some grid location, and X cells around it are loaded into game state.

Far as I can tell, supply line carriers are never attacked 'off screen' when you are far away. But when you are near enough that supply line carriers are loaded however many cells distant the FO4 default mechanic is, those supply line carriers can be attacked, they can go chase things, and I've seen one die.

For example, I travelled to Red Rocket and started hearing shots towards the direction of Abernathy. You of course can't see Abernathy Farms from Red Rocket but just saying shots in that line of direction. So I ran off over that direction and saw after coming over a hill my supply line carrier chasing a flying insect, who led the idiot into a pack of raiders. He was firing on the raiders and getting hit all over.

By time I arrived, all I could do was exact vengeance on my fallen carrier by executing the raiders. Poor sob never stood a chance. That's when I started equipping all supply line carriers for max defense, with hand me down armor I no longer use. Regular settlers and guards just get trash loot that I don't use resources to modify to much better level. but supply line runners get the same modded armor I was wearing before I can make current armor.

Since only one example, i hesitate to use this as proof of anything. Other than mine is the bug and they die, or yours is and they are immortal - or what I think much more probable, is like the skyrim coding where death blow = recovery mode ,but further damage while in recovery mode = death unless specific status of essential is assigned.

That could be the case. I didn't know a semi-death mode existed for non-essential NPCs and just assumed that the provisioner wouldn't die. The theory I had was that maybe some settlers are marked as essential... basically the ones you get from quests (but still named Settler) instead of from beacons. They can't be moved to other towns through the move command, so perhaps they are marked essential as well. I tend to use one of the founding members of each town as the provisioner to my main settlement, so most of my provisioners are those unmovable settlers.

Yet another test to try tonight: Destroy an unmovable settler and see if they can die.

Brilliant instructions and guide concerning Supply Lines, jacozilla! This will be my next step, since I haven't tackled supply lines yet.

Are the supply lines related to the "additional provision" shelf you can build? Do you have to build one of those in each settlement that you want to link via supply line?

Thanks for all the helpful info and tips!

You don't need to build anything for supply lines. I'm not sure what that shelf is or does even... if it does anything, I'll bet it works like the scavenger bench thing where you can assign someone to work it so that it produces items.

Great post jacozilla, best info Ive read so far on supply lines. Hats off to you!

You end up getting so much turnover with new settlers at every settlement that I found this did not affect productivity in Sanctuary at all.

First class post, jacozilla - much appreciated.

I like to equip Provisioners with a piece of custom armor that I've named after their route - that way I can know who is assigned where by trading with them. The plan there was that if I met them on the road, I could give them stuff to mule for me and know where to go to pick it up.

A more general settler question - do they use up ammo? I know Companions do, but if my Provisioners are the most likely to get into trouble, I'd want to arm them as heavily as possible. If they don't use up ammo I'm giving them all miniguns.

Named armor for privisioner routes is a brilliant idea... I wish I had done that!

I don't think settlers and provisioners run out of ammo. They seem to follow the same infinite ammo rules as normal NPCs. I give my provisioners and town guards enough ammo to fill the magazine and they never seem to run out. I haven't set up an explicit test though so maybe they're being more conservative with it than I expect.

Oh yea, that's what it is called! LOL Thanks for the clarification!

Another question, I read here that people equip their NPCs with various clothing, to distinguish who they are. I gave someone a set of clothes, but didn't see him put it on (or maybe it was the same outfit he was wearing already? Not sure, need to do more testing lol). So, they will automatically equip the item? They do with weapons, but I have to remove the one they already have. And can you equip them with armor pieces, too? I gave that NPC a metal chest piece, but it just sat in his inventory, when I left the trade menu.

You need to give them stuff in the trade (not barter) dialog and then hover over the thing you gave them and press T (if PC) and it will equip that item. If not PC, look at the context options at the bottom of the screen and it will tell you want to press. This works with settlers and companions.

Anyone have any idea why a supply line won't work? I set up a supply line from The Castle to Hangman's Alley, but Hangman's Alley is not getting the supplies. Yes I have the Local Leader perk. It's just not working.

They do use ammo. I give my settlers ammo in round numbers, e.g. 20, 30 or for the assigned guards 40 or 50 rounds each. That way when there's been an attack I know who fired how many shots - if someone has 14 rounds left then I know they fired at least six shots. Even after fierce battles there will be some settlers who didn't fire any shots and others who are running low.

I also give my guards molotovs and grenades and they really enjoy using them.

Thinking about it, I'm going to start issuing melee weapons as well since I assume that when the ammo runs out they'll just wade in with bare hands if that's all they have.

How do one can break a supply line?

Cause you never know where is the character doing it.

No one?

You have to break it by waiting at one of the stops and reassigning the provisioner. It's annoying, but the only way known so far. I usually just sleep in a bed or wait in a chair for 6 hours or so at a time. I've always managed to catch the provisioner in one or two waits. The settler will stay renamed provisioner for all time after being reassigned, but it doesn't seem to affect anything.