This is the failure in logic that ultimately convinced me the Railroad should not be trusted. Putting aside the "the ends justify the means" mentality of Desdemona (nuking children, seriously??) and the horrendously na?ve refusal to even acknowledge the potential threat to humanity that Synths could pose, the fact that their method of freeing a Synth involves killing the Synth boggles my mind.

The human equivalent would be the Railroad saying, "Hey, don't worry bud, we've got this awesome way for you to blend in. What we do is vaporise you and replace you with an identical clone who thinks it's someone else. Pretty neat huh?"

My response to that would probably not be printable but Synths are apparently queuing up for the procedure, which probably speaks volumes about the conditions at the Institute.

Also, does anyone else find it ironic that the Railroad, who argue that there should be no distinction between Synths and Humans, ultimately end up focusing on the one thing that makes Synths different; their ability to be reprogrammed.

I could get behind the Railroad a lot more if they helped Synths disguise themselves without the memory wipe. It wouldn't be that difficult to give Synths new identities and train them to blend in. But as it stands, they aren't freeing Synths, they are creating fake Humans. What's the point of freeing a synth if it just thinks it's a human? Hell, the BoS might even support the Railroad on this one; if every synth thought it was a human, their potential threat would be seriously diminished.

Ultimately the Railroad do not seem to realise that the only way to truly help synthetics as a race is to come out of the shadows and campaign for synths to be treated equally. By making them think they are human and sending them unwittingly into the general populace, they are only fanning the flames of fear and paranoia across the Commonwealth which is the main barrier to Synthetics being accepted.

When I heard about the RR pre-release, I was certain I would do my first playthrough straight RR. Now I see them as the (Skyrim) Companions of FO4 - a faction I would normally join automatically, except that it has been made unplayable by implementation of a very bad core mechanic. They don't even make things better! They only ways to really solve the issue is to STOP MAKING GEN 3s for [censored]s sake.

Early synths are just robots AFAICT, but Gen 3s are either reprogrammable people or fake people, and neither of those is acceptable.

It's even worse than that. I don't want to spoil anything for people, but you can discover information inside the Institute that is damning to the very core of the Railroad's purpose.

I was friends with the Railroad, and slowly had my eyes opened by the Institute. It made me sad, and I tried to reason with them, but I ultimately put down the Railroad for the good of the Commonwealth AND Synths.

What do you speak of there?

Let's just say that Synths don't naturally get a desire to escape.

Could you elaborate? I'm unconcerned with spoilers.

Where's that information located? It seems... highly pertinent.

Can't remember exactly. I discovered it on my first character, some 150 gameplay hours ago. Made it fairly easy for me to switch views on Synths and exterminate the Railroad though. Might have been a speech or charisma check somewhere - my first character was max Charisma and Black Widow perks.

EDIT: And apparently the Fallout wiki doesn't have an entry on

. I was trying to look up the info for you....

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/1/1b/Tacticalthinkingiconfo4.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/270?cb=20151206032149

Some of the synths don't even want to leave, if you ask them why they want to leave, they have absolutely no idea why. I kinda remember that as well but not remembering where.

You have to be doing Underground Undercover for the railroad or Plugging a Leak for the institute to find out that information from the leak. If you're doing the Railroad version, you make contact with Patriot and then talk to Des and she says not to tell Patriot. If you go back to Patriot, he tells you everything.

A streamer I watch did a Fallout 4 playthrough where he interacted with Patriot so I went back to watch it and took the screenshots of the part where he talks about why he helped the Synths

http://imgur.com/Ko6c4SS
http://imgur.com/WeCr7xo
http://imgur.com/48BmmMh

That's the first discussion. The second discussion is what has the evidence.

I'd like to know what this interaction is as well. I played through this part of the RR questline (before getting kicked out of the Institute) and don't remember anything suggesting synths didn't naturally get a desire to leave at the time.

I *do* remember Z1 explaining that synths that don't act like docile machines get mind-wiped by the SRB until there's nothing left by an obedient shell. The synth version of a lobotomy. Which reinforced my belief that Bethesda intended for us to believe that synths are sentient.

They ask to be mindwiped. Desdemona mentioned it. Obviously things can and do go wrong, but it's not the RR forcing them into it. They volunteer.

Liam Binet's work, of course, doesn't explain ALL synths wanting to escape as Z-1 does.

So, honestly, it means nothing. Of course, the ones who have their memories erased actually ASK for the process because they hate their memories of slavery so much.

The whole idea, "erasing a person's memories kills them" is highly insulting to amnesiacs too.

As some replies already stated, the memory wipe procedure is optional. Some Synths are too worried that the habits instilled in them bythe Institute andtheir own anxiety from the memories would give them away or, at the very least, leave a trail of bread crumbs for Coursers to follow. So the ask the Railroad to erase their old memories and give them a new identity (where the new memories and identities come from, your guess is as good as mine). In the end, the Synth would be free and live on, in some other form, without their old memories and fears haunting them. But I think its implied that not all of them opt for it, to say nothing of the dangers associated with the procedure.


What ultimately swayed me from the Railroad was the endgame: the destruction of the Institute. While it could be argued that they have no moral responsibility in regards to future Synths that are produced, the storyline inevitabley leads to the destruction of the knowledge and technology to produce more Synths. With the means of making more gone, the Synths that already exist will be doomed to extinction. I don't recall if it's ever touched upon in regards to Synths being ableto reproduce (with humans or each other) or their longevity (normal human lifespan? Greater?), but given the harsh environment that is the Wasteland, they'll steadily die out until, eventually, none are left.


All this doesn't even touch upon the other incredible advancements the Institute has made and will do in the future, or what kind of changes the SS could employ in regards to policy regarding Synths. Personally, I head-canon that, post-game, my SS puts policies and procdures in place that ultimately gives Synths some measure of equality and freedom (having the option to leave and go out into the world after an period of time after their creation, etc).


To sum it all, the Railroad's lofty ideals and goals cost too much to be worth it, to me.

Yeah the railroad would destroy the BoS and the Institute,leaving the commonwealth without a group capable of accomplishing more than just surviving.

The idea that the Commonwealth is filled with people incapable of defending themselves is just a lie propagated by the BoS to justify their presence there. The Minutemen are more than capable of protecting the Commonwealth. They accomplish it when you get them back on their feet.

The Railroad is the best faction in my opinion. The Institute is full of disillusioned psychopathic scientists and the BoS is full of genocidal zealots. The worst you can accuse the Railroad of is being idealistic. All the things I've seen people bring up about how they are so bad as to warrant destruction have either misrepresented the actual evidence or been a major stretch (and that's being favorable). I think you can find a reason to justify any choice in the game, but take into account that many of the good NPCs (Preston Garvey, Piper, Valentine, etc.) get pissed if you destroy the Railroad. As someone who sees the synths as persons, I think theirs is the just cause, although I wish you didn't have to destroy the Brotherhood if you side with the Railroad. I see that as a grave mistake.

The minutemen patrols don't stand a chance against anything more than raiders.Diamond city guards get grinded by SuperMuties every odd day.

The Minutemen have a history of failure.

BoS and Institute have lasted for at least a century each,maybe more.

The sole survivor can't be expected to babysit the minutemen forever.

You mean until they lose their charismatic leader and collapse again? The Minutemen have a fatal flaw that has already been demonstrated. The Minutemen are not a military organization. They are a militia. They need a charismatic leader with a strong will to hold them together and make them a cohesive and effective group. Lose that and they fall to inviting and apathy.

Even a strong leader may not be enough. Because a strong leader really can't exist in the MM.

The Minutemen make it very clear they don't have to listen to you if you don't want to. They don't obey orders unless they agree with them personally. They aren't a military, and could easily splinter at any moment even IF the SS becomes The General.

Nothing you do in the MM questline prevents the possibility of Quincy 2.0 from happening down the road.

The lesson here is:Destroying the people with the big guns and a solid structure is a bad idea.

Unless they are the enclave.

Poor leadership can seriously wound any organization but it is ultimately the character of the people in the group that will be its salvation or ruin. The Minutemen WOULD have been destroyed without Preston. He, and the rest of his group, kept the coals burning until you showed up and stoked it into a fire.