Fallout 4 | Ep. 58 – Beautiful Island, Shame About Everything Trying to Kill Me
Far Harbor really is beautiful. Lovely coastline. Atmospheric fog. Gorgeous scenery. Unfortunately, nearly everything living there appears determined to murder us.
Tonight we went into the fog thinking we might finally reach the end of the DLC’s main story. We came out having negotiated an extremely questionable peace, reunited a family, explored several places we absolutely didn’t need to visit, and fought Fallout 4’s most persistent enemy: being over cucumbered.
🌫️ About the Game
In Fallout 4, we play the sole survivor of Vault 111, emerging into a Commonwealth devastated by nuclear war. Survival is only part of the problem: everywhere we go there are factions, settlements and individuals whose futures can be changed by the decisions we make.
Far Harbor takes that familiar wasteland into a wonderfully bleak island setting of radioactive fog, hostile wildlife and uneasy factions. It is beautiful in exactly the sort of way that makes you stop to admire the scenery immediately before something enormous attempts to eat you.
⚖️ Where We Are in the Journey
Last time, we recovered DiMA’s memories, found the evidence and collected several rather alarming ways of changing the island forever. We had the nuclear launch key, the wind farm kill switch code from the Vim! factory, and enough information to force some major decisions.
So Episode 58 began with the Far Harbor endgame looming. Our goal was to find the resolution that saved the greatest number of people—and ideally didn’t involve turning half the island into a smoking crater.
☢️ What Happens in This Episode
Naturally, our grand push towards the conclusion of Far Harbor began in the most logical place imaginable: Sanctuary.
Why were we in Sanctuary? Excellent question. I wasn’t entirely sure either.
Since we were there, though, it seemed sensible to check the power armour. We had fully repaired it at the end of last week’s adventures, so perhaps we could squeeze a few upgrades out of it before heading back into the fog. The good news was that upgrades were available. The bad news was that we didn’t have the materials required to actually make them.
If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.
There was also the traditional Sanctuary wildlife check. Carla the Brahmin was still on the roof of the main building, where it now appears destined to remain until the end of time. Actual Carla remains conspicuously absent. I have no idea where she is, but at least her Brahmin has apparently claimed the roof as its permanent kingdom.
Eventually, we remembered there was an entire DLC waiting to be finished and returned to Far Harbor.
Last week had left us holding an uncomfortable amount of power. We had retrieved DiMA’s memories, uncovered the evidence surrounding Captain Avery, acquired the nuclear launch key and visited the Vim! factory for the wind farm kill switch code. In other words, several different ways of deciding the island’s future were sitting in our quest log.
The question was what we were actually going to do with them.
I wanted to see whether we could reach the ending that kept the greatest number of people alive, so we opted for the peaceful route. Rather than fast travelling straight to Acadia, however, we decided to walk.
You know. Get our steps in.
This immediately highlighted another minor problem: ammunition was becoming increasingly precious. Our explosive machine gun is wonderfully effective when it has bullets in it, but rather less intimidating when it doesn’t. That meant scavenging ammunition wherever possible and keeping Big Jim nearby for those intimate wasteland encounters where diplomacy consists mainly of hitting something very hard with a wrench.
Eventually we reached Acadia and confronted DiMA.
This was where things became considerably more serious. The evidence we had uncovered revealed what DiMA had done to Captain Avery, and after confronting him we chose to keep his secret rather than expose everything and risk bringing disaster down on Acadia.
That decision started the Reformation questline and put us firmly on the path towards trying to preserve all three communities.
It also seemed to cause a slight problem.
We still had objectives relating to some of the other information we had uncovered—particularly the wind farm kill switch—but the conversation options to confront DiMA about them simply refused to appear. We went through his dialogue options, tried again and generally poked at the conversation from several directions.
Nothing.
Somewhere out there, potential XP remains floating sadly in the fog.
Our next proper objective was to retrieve Confessor Martin’s holotapes from the western side of the island. Once again, we could have travelled efficiently towards them.
Once again, we absolutely did not.
Continuing on foot brought us to Kitteredge Pass, where we headed underneath the mountain and eventually emerged on the other side. Fortunately, there was not a Balrog in sight, although given Far Harbor’s wildlife I’m not entirely convinced it would have been the strangest thing we encountered that evening.
From there, exploration took over.
At Horizon Flight 1207, we found a strange fellow hanging around with his dogs. He looked exactly like the sort of character who ought to have a bizarre side quest waiting for us, so naturally I went over for a chat.
No quest.
Just a merchant.
He did, however, have something considerably more useful: .45 ammunition.
Our explosive machine gun had been getting increasingly hungry, so we bought every round he had. Sometimes the greatest treasure in the wasteland isn’t a legendary weapon or a suit of power armour. Sometimes it’s simply finding a bloke in the middle of nowhere willing to sell you bullets.
The journey continued towards Eden Meadows Cinemas, which was considerably less welcoming than its pre-war name suggested. The place was crawling with ghouls, so we dealt with the residents, found the manager’s key and proceeded to do what any responsible wasteland survivor would do.
We looted the place thoroughly.
There were plenty of other moments where wandering through Far Harbor turned into sudden violence. Ghouls were met with increasingly experimental methods of explosive crowd control, while another stretch of exploration brought us into a much louder encounter involving super mutants, a legendary enemy and mini nukes.
At one point the situation deteriorated enough to produce the slightly concerned cry of, “Not the books. Not the books again.”
Eventually the combat music stopped.
“Is everybody dead, Dave?”
Yes.
Everybody was dead.
We had also accumulated enough radiation during the festivities to require some RadAway, but these are minor administrative details when you’re exploring the wasteland.
Then, somewhere out among the trees, we discovered something far more important than the fate of Far Harbor.
We found Gary’s holiday destination.
There was a little pond surrounded by gnomes who appeared to be enjoying a peaceful fishing trip. Some were fishing. Others were sitting in an outside toilet. Clearly this was a carefully organised recreational facility.
As we all know, Gary is a leprechaun, so the only reasonable conclusion was that we had stumbled across his secret Far Harbor getaway.
Further along we encountered another fishing hut, which prompted a slight diversion into whether fishing had ever actually been added to Fallout 4. Skyrim received fishing later in its life, and having used it during our Skyrim playthrough, it seemed entirely plausible that Fallout 4 might have received something similar.
I still couldn’t remember it being part of the original game.
Eventually, actual quest progression managed to wrestle control back from us.
Near a small pool we passed through a culvert and found the doorway leading to the room containing the discs we needed. We picked up the first without any difficulty and assumed that was the job done.
Then we stepped outside.
The game told us to go back in.
So we went back in.
Then out.
Then back in again.
After several rounds of “What exactly do you want from me?”, we finally discovered there was a second tape hidden in there.
With both tapes successfully recovered, we returned to DiMA. He worked his magic on them, giving us what we needed for the next stage of the plan, and we headed for the Nucleus to deal with High Confessor Tectus.
Except we had unfinished business there too.
We remembered that a couple of side quests from the previous week were still waiting to be turned in, so before resolving the island’s enormous political crisis, we went to see the barkeep and handed over the pump she needed.
That resulted in another job: take the pump underneath the submarine and install it.
Down we went, fitted the thing and then encountered another of the evening’s recurring enemies.
Finding the button.
We knew there was something we had to interact with. The game knew there was something we had to interact with. Unfortunately, these two pieces of knowledge did not immediately translate into actually locating it.
There was some going up.
There was some going down.
There was some looking around wondering what on earth we had missed.
During this search we accidentally found the other fellow whose quest we needed to finish, so at least the confusion was productive. We were able to report that the apparently crazy woman in the church was not quite as bad as originally feared and get that piece of unfinished business cleared away as well.
Eventually the pump situation was sorted, the side quests were handed in, and there were no more excuses.
It was time to see High Confessor Tectus.
We played Martin’s tape for him, and Tectus agreed to meet us privately in the back corridor—the same area we had explored while recovering DiMA’s memories the previous week.
That finally explained why the area had seemed strangely empty before. At the time, it felt like there ought to have been something there.
Turns out there was.
We just hadn’t reached the part of the story that needed it yet.
DiMA’s plan was morally murky even by wasteland standards. Tectus needed to disappear so that he could later be replaced by a synth, removing one of the major obstacles to peace without openly destroying the Children of Atom.
There were violent ways to solve that problem.
Instead, we talked.
Using the manufactured threat of Confessor Martin’s return, we convinced Tectus that his position had become untenable. He could leave Far Harbor permanently or face a considerably less pleasant alternative.
And somehow, after an evening full of ghouls, super mutants, explosive weapons and questionable decision-making, the crucial confrontation ended without a fight.
Tectus agreed to go.
We returned to Acadia and spoke with DiMA, effectively bringing the Reformation storyline to its conclusion. With Tectus gone, the replacement could be sent to the Nucleus and the three major factions—Far Harbor, Acadia and the Children of Atom—were all still standing.
Was it a completely clean and morally uncomplicated ending?
Absolutely not.
This is Fallout.
But we had gone into the evening wanting to save as many people as possible, and somehow we had managed exactly that.
There was now only one major loose end remaining.
Kasumi Nakano.
Kasumi was the reason we had travelled to Far Harbor in the first place, so after all the faction politics, hidden memories and island exploration, it was time to bring her story full circle.
We spoke to her and convinced her that it was finally time to go home.
Back in the Commonwealth, we returned to her parents and watched the family reunite. Kasumi accepted that she wasn’t a synth, and I even had a few words for Kenji about perhaps listening to his daughter rather than simply trying to protect her from everything.
And with that, it was done.
The main story of Far Harbor was complete.
More than that, we have now completed all of Fallout 4’s DLC. Nuka-World/Land/Place/Park/Resort/Location/whatever-it’s-called was finished previously, along with the DLC content scattered around the Commonwealth, and now Far Harbor joins them.
Of course, Fallout 4 wasn’t going to let us finish such an enormous milestone with dignity.
We collected our reward.
And became over cucumbered.
Again.
Valentine was already carrying an impressive collection of junk from earlier in the evening, so simply handing everything to him wasn’t an option. The only solution was a logistical operation involving multiple trips back to Sanctuary, dumping equipment into storage and ferrying our precious collection of completely essential wasteland rubbish home.
We are loot goblins.
We were not leaving it behind.
Eventually everything was unloaded and we got ourselves into a position where the power armour can be repaired properly next week. For tonight, getting the inventory under control was victory enough.
So that closes the primary Far Harbor chapter, but it doesn’t quite close our Fallout 4 adventure.
I’m currently expecting roughly two more Fallout 4 streams.
Next week will be about unfinished business and side quests. One place still lurking on the list is the Pillars of the Community, the strange cult hanging around the Charles View Amphitheater. We deliberately avoided them before because I know perfectly well they have designs on all our stuff.
Which, obviously, means we should go and visit them.
Then, if everything lines up, Episode 60 should become our traditional final look at the game. As we’ve done with Skyrim, Alan Wake and several other completed playthroughs, we’ll step outside the normal boundaries, engage noclip and take a journey above the world we’ve spent sixty streams exploring.
After that, Saturday night continues its long-running Bethesda cycle.
We had Fallout 3 and New Vegas, moved into Skyrim, came back to the high-tech wasteland with Fallout 4, and next we return to swords, magic and questionable NPC behaviour with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.
Starfield is waiting somewhere much further down the road—and when we eventually reach it, we’ll start again properly rather than attempting to resurrect the playthrough where I once thought I had started the stream an hour late, only to discover I had actually started an hour early.
But that is a problem for future Dr Ravenholm.
For now, Far Harbor is finished. Kasumi is home. The island has a chance at peace. All three factions survived our interference.
And after an evening of political manipulation, radioactive monsters, ghouls, super mutants, fishing gnomes, missing buttons, scarce ammunition and carrying far too much junk, we finished the night by sending the community onwards with a raid into Kingyork1985.
Beautiful island.
Shame about everything trying to kill me.
📺 Watch the Episode
If you want to see the diplomacy, exploration, gnomes, questionable navigation and inevitable inventory crisis unfold for yourself, watch Episode 58 here:
Watch Fallout 4 Episode 58 on YouTube
You can follow the entire adventure through the Fallout 4 playlist, and if you enjoy the chaos, head over to Dr Ravenholm on YouTube to like, comment and subscribe.
🔴 Join the Adventure Live
Far Harbor’s main mystery may be solved, but the wasteland isn’t finished with us yet. Next week we’re heading after side quests—including a possible encounter with the suspicious Pillars of the Community—before our traditional end-of-game aerial exploration around Episode 60.
After that, Saturday Bethesda Night moves from high-tech wasteland to low-tech fantasy with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.
Come experience the detours, disasters and community madness live on Twitch or YouTube. At the end of this adventure we passed the stream onwards with a raid into Kingyork1985—another reminder that the best part of these nights is the community travelling together.
🌌 Community & Links
The road through the wasteland is considerably better with company. If you want to travel beyond the videos and streams, there are plenty of places to join the wider crew.
Live: When the next adventure begins, you can find me on Twitch and YouTube.
Community: Between streams, the campfire is still burning over on Discord.
Socials: For clips, updates and whatever else escapes containment, find me on TikTok, Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and X.
Support: If you want to help keep the expeditions running, visit the Dr Ravenholm store or support the stream directly.
More: Beyond the wasteland, explore the Business Centre, download the service brochure, learn more about me or visit the blog.
🌅 Until Next Time
Far Harbor is beautiful, the island is still full of things that want us dead, and somehow we managed to leave it slightly more peaceful than we found it.
Next week, we go looking for unfinished business. Until then, stay safe out there—and always leave enough inventory space for one more completely unnecessary piece of junk.
— Dr Ravenholm
Discover more from Transparent-Aluminium.net
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
