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I had to put on a brave face as long as there were still people counting on me. That's the only reason I kept going.— Garvey discussing the Quincy Massacre.

Preston Garvey is a member and officer of the Commonwealth Minutemen residing in the Commonwealth in Fallout 4. He is a possible companion of the Sole Survivor.

Background[]

Early life[]

During Preston's childhood, the Minutemen were his personal heroes, as he observed them to be the "only good guys around." Because of this, he enlisted with a company of Minutemen under Colonel Ezra Hollis as soon as he could at the age of seventeen. He grew to be an avid believer in the Minutemen's ideals of fellowship and justice, feeling like he was truly making a difference. He says that he had "a few good years there," fighting for a cause bigger than just himself.[1]

Things began to change for the worse in 2282, when the Minutemen's then-leader, General Becker died, causing the disparate groups within the faction to fall into infighting. By 2287, Hollis' company, including Preston, were one of the last active groups of Minutemen still doing their duty of protecting settlements and answering calls for help put out by citizens in the Commonwealth.

Quincy Massacre[]

A short time before the Sole Survivor wakes up in Vault 111 on October 23, 2287, Sturges, an inhabitant of the influential trading hub at Quincy, requested the aid of the Minutemen after having heard one of Mama Murphy's visions, which foresaw the town being surrounded and massacred.[2] Although the majority of Quincy's residents, including the Longs saw Murphy as a burned-out chem addict, Sturges went behind his fellow citizens to invoke the protection of the Minutemen.[3] Preston was still with Colonel Hollis' company when they went on the mission to rescue Quincy. Upon arrival, they found out the threat Murphy foresaw was a company of Gunners besieging the town.

The Minutemen's arrival dispersed the Gunner lines and they were welcomed by the citizens of Quincy while the Gunners temporarily retreated.[4] Preparing for the Gunners' return, Preston was involved with helping the settlers build up more proper defenses for the town. Shortly after, a group of Gunners came, led by an ex-veteran of the Minutemen named Clint, who Colonel Hollis recognized and was subsequently enraged over his betrayal.[5] Clint had come to establish terms of surrender for Quincy and its defenders; these terms were summarily rejected by Hollis, but the Gunners and Clint were allowed to leave without reprisal despite everyone knowing what they were going to do.[6][7]

While the subsequent events are not explicitly recorded in text, the outcome for the Minutemen is broadly established by dialogue with Preston and various other wastelanders; the Minutemen requested further support from other groups, but it was either that they never arrived in time, or they never came at all. By the end, the Gunners overwhelmed the defenders and murdered nearly all of the civilians;[7] Colonel Hollis himself, the linchpin of what was likely the last true group of Minutemen, died fighting.[8] The event is known as the Quincy Massacre and it catalyzed the disintegration of the remaining settlements under Minutemen protection.

Post-Quincy[]

When Quincy fell to the Gunners, Preston gathered the few remaining Quincy civilians and members of Hollis' company and fled. Several of the refugees lost their lives at the hands of the Gunners before the group shook their pursuit at Jamaica Plain, reducing his group to just over ten.[9] The refugees continued moving across the Commonwealth until they reached Lexington. As Preston testifies, Lexington too proved a disastrous point on their journey as it was filled with feral ghouls, ultimately leaving only eight survivors making it out. Eventually, the group reached the opposite corner of the region from Quincy and entered Concord, where they took shelter in the Museum of Freedom. However, their troubles still did not end as they soon after came under attack again, this time by raiders. Unbeknownst to the group, the attack wasn't random as the raiders and their leader Gristle were under orders from their leader, Jared, to capture Mama Murphy and bring her to the Corvega assembly plant.[10]

By October 23, the group numbered only five: himself, Mama Murphy, Sturges and Jun and Marcy Long; a mere fraction of the original twenty who escaped Quincy under Preston's guidance. As he can later admit to the Sole Survivor upon reaching maximum Affinity, at that point, believing he has failed everyone who had ever relied on him and everything he thought he knew about the Minutemen being a lie, Preston was at the end of his rope. It was only because of those four people that he put on a brave face; in reality, he wasn't completely sure if they were going to get out of Concord alive, but that was acceptable to him, believing death is what he deserves and what he actually wanted. Deep down, although not actively suicidal, Garvey had given up hope for himself and the Minutemen and didn't care if he lived or died.[11]

Interactions with the player character[]

Fallout 4[]

Interactions overview[]

Interactions
Perk nociception regulator color
This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed.
Paving the Way
This character is a permanent companion. They grant the United We Stand perk.
25 Strictly Business
This character is a temporary companion.
Icon quest starter
This character starts quests.
FO76 ui icon quest
This character is involved in quests.
Sexpert color
This character can be slept with.

Requires romance

Quests[]

  • When Freedom Calls: Preston asks the Sole Survivor to arm themself and clear out Concord so he and his people can move away to a safer place.
  • The First Step: Preston asks the Sole Survivor to help out a settlement. If this quest is completed, Preston will become available as a companion.
  • Taking Independence: Preston asks the Sole Survivor to help take back the Castle (Fort Independence) previously occupied by the Minutemen.
  • The Molecular Level: If the Sole Survivor chooses to build the relay interceptor with the Minutemen, Garvey will tell them to ask Sturges for help, since he's the best engineer he's ever met.
  • Inside Job: After Banished from the Institute, Garvey may give this quest if the transporter was not built with the Minutemen, but if the Sole Survivor still intends to do the Minutemen questline.
  • Defend the Castle: If played as part of the Minutemen questline, Garvey will assist in defending the Castle from the Institute attackers.
  • The Nuclear Option: Garvey, along with Sturges and a few other members of the Minutemen, will assist the Sole Survivor during their attack on the Institute. Garvey will also be present when the Sole Survivor sets off the nuclear blast from atop the Mass Fusion building.
  • Radiant Minutemen quests: Garvey will assign the Sole Survivor up to three radiant quests every time he is spoken to, provided none of the quests mentioned above are currently active.
  • After appointing the Sole Survivor as the new general of the Minutemen, he assigns quests that slowly extend the influence of the organization by capturing new territory and defending the settlements already loyal to the cause.

Effects of player's actions[]

  • When reaching maximum Affinity with Preston, he grants the United We Stand perk, which offers a 20% increase to damage dealt as a temporary +20 Damage Resistance when facing 3 or more enemies at once.
  • If the player character attacks a member of the Minutemen, Preston will instantly and permanently disassociate from the Sole Survivor as a companion.
  • Preston can be romanced.
  • Nuka-World (add-on) When the Sole Survivor becomes the overboss of Nuka-World, Preston Garvey becomes angry at the player character, asking them to repent their actions and to leave the Nuka-World raiders. If the Sole Survivor ignores the request, the Minutemen will turn hostile; if the player character accepts, he will simply no longer be an available companion. He will temporarily revert to being friendly during any main quests involving the Minutemen.
    • Preston Garvey will remain friendly (as will the rest of the Minutemen) if he is not present during Taken for a Ride. However, establishing a raider outpost and planting the flag for a raider gang will immediately drop his affinity to the lowest level, even if he is not present.
    • However, should the Sole Survivor become the overboss of Nuka-World prior to becoming the general of the Minutemen, Preston will not drop his affinity to the point he will be unattainable as a companion since he was not recruited yet. Instead, the next time Preston is spoken to, he will be upset at the Sole Survivor for supporting the Nuka-World raiders. He will ask them to repent their actions and eliminate the gang, saying that "the last thing the Commonwealth needs is another gang of Raiders." Regardless of accepting or ignoring his request to leave the raiders, Preston will simply tell the Sole Survivor that in order to work with the Minutemen more, they must eliminate the Nuka-World raiders first, thus blocking further access into the Minutemen questline.
      • Accepting Garvey's request to eliminate the Nuka-World raiders will start the quest Open Season, where the Sole Survivor has to execute the Nuka-World raider gang leaders and fight a massive horde of other raiders to free Nuka-Town's traders from slavery. This is the same quest the Sole Survivor gets when they meet Mackenzie Bridgeman.
      • Even though Preston Garvey orders the player character to eliminate the raiders, they do not have to be eliminated. The player character must become an enemy of the Nuka-World raiders, and doing so returns Preston's dialogue back to normal.
      • If the player character becomes overboss and completes Open Season prior to meeting Preston, he will never mention anything about their past actions.
Range of interests[]
Approvals Disapprovals
Likes
Loves
Dislikes
Hates

Fallout: The Board Game[]

Preston Garvey can be found randomly when taking a card from the loot deck. While Preston is the active companion, the player character can exhaust him to ignore the movement penalty of walking through difficult terrain.

When the player character performs the camp action, he will become unexhausted. However, if there are any Vault 84 or Vault 109 quests currently active, he must be discarded.

Inventory[]

Fallout 4
Fallout Shelter

Notes[]

  • If taken to Nate/Nora's corpse in Vault 111, he will say, "Is this...? Oh. I'm sorry, General. Take all of the time you need."
  • If the player character refuses to become the general of the Minutemen, he still gives out the occasional quest about settlements asking the Minutemen for help.
  • Settlers will sometimes recognize Garvey as a Minuteman and give him a few caps or other supplies.
  • Preston's colonial duster and Minuteman hat can be obtained from the level 4 clothing vendor Anne Hargraves at any allied settlement, who will sell these items when assigned to any Level 3 clothing stand.
    • They can also be obtained an infinite number of times if one equips him with any other outfit and takes his duster and hat then dismisses him; his clothes will respawn in his inventory after some time.
  • Preston will be horrified with the player character if they finish The Nuclear Option with the Minutemen but did not activate the evacuation order, criticizing them for having dragged the Minutemen down to the Institute's level. He will also be disgusted if the evacuation order wasn't given while with the Brotherhood of Steel or the Railroad, stating that what the player character did was mass murder.
  • Although Preston is a fairly passive companion, when asking him his thoughts when at Quincy or any other Gunner outpost he will show much aggression (example "Gunners are scum that don't deserve to live"),due to the fact that it was the Gunners that killed Col. Hollis and ended the Minutemen at Quincy.
  • Preston's concept art shows him with a hood or cloth wrapped around his head and a star on his hat. It also states that he got his coat from a Revolutionary War museum. The icon for When Freedom Calls depicts an appearance of his that is closer to his concept art than his final in-game appearance.
  • Once Taking Independence has been started, one will not be able to initiate dialogue with Preston to recruit him as a follower until that quest has been completed.
  • Various minutemen will sometimes have a conversation with Preston, with Preston asking them for status reports.

Notable quotes[]

Appearances[]

Preston Garvey appears in Fallout 4, Fallout Shelter, Fallout Shelter Online, Fallout: The Board Game, and in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game supplement book Settler's Guide Book.

Behind the scenes[]

  • In localized versions of the game, Preston's voice is dubbed by Jos Gómez (Spanish), Takeshi Maruyama (Japanese) and Alessandro Zurla (Italian).
  • While designing Preston Garvey, character artist Dennis Mejillones used several film characters for reference, including the scientist Miles Dyson in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.[12]
  • In promotional content for Fallout 76, a hostile player with the nickname "PGarvey" can be seen, a reference to Preston Garvey.
  • There is an unused test character in the files of Fallout 76 named Preston Garvey. It has the editor ID of DebugKurtActor (a reference to designer Kurt Kuhlmann) and the form ID of 0000E423.

Bugs[]

  • PCPC Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One When destroying the Institute with the Brotherhood of Steel and when talking to Preston, he will keep saying the that the Institute is gone and one could have helped the innocent unless there is a settlement in need or reporting that a settlement has been helped. [verified]
    • This can be fixed by opening the console, selecting Preston Garvey and typing setav MQ302Companion 1.
  • PCPC Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One Preston may become unavailable to recruit before the siege on the Castle. If the Castle is then retaken, he will no longer engage in dialogue past a greeting or a settlement quest. [verified]
    • This can be fixed by selecting him, then using the console command removefac 00075d56.
  • Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One Preston may pick up and equip nearby weapons, even if they are weaker than his default laser musket.[verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One If the player character destroys the Institute without issuing the evacuation order, Preston's dialogue will always be his immediate reaction to seeing it go up. One will be able to have a conversation with him repeatedly with no way of moving on. Though the final quest can be concluded by fast traveling elsewhere, the Sole Survivor will not be able to recruit Preston again. The player character will be able to do Minutemen missions, however. [verified]
    • This can be fixed by opening the console, selecting Preston Garvey and typing setav MQ302Companion 1.
  • PCPC Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One There is a known bug where after the quest to reclaim the Castle it becomes impossible to get him as a companion. [verified]
    • This can be fixed on PC by opening the console, selecting Preston Garvey and inputting removefac 00075d56.
    • A possible fix for this is to have Preston as a companion while initiating the assault on the Castle.
    • Another possible fix is if the Sole Survivor sides with The Minutemen against the Institute in the endgame. After activating the bomb in The Nuclear Option, Preston will talk and can be asked to follow the Sole Survivor.
    • Another possible fix is if one attaches a generator to the conduits and wires already set up in the Castle. The power requirements will turn green in the workshop menu and he will be able to act normally again.
    • Preston's perk can be obtained without being able to get him as a companion. Assign him to an Artillery piece so he stays put, then build a Weapon Bench nearby. Modify a weapon at the bench and one should see the message "Preston liked that". Quicksave the game, load the quicksave and modify a weapon again. Repeat the Save/Load/Modify sequence until he idolizes the Sole Survivor, then go over and speak with him to get the perk.
  • PCPC Xbox OneXbox One If ordered to use a suit of power armor and either dismissed or if he leaves due to quests requiring him to leave (e.g. meeting at the Castle), it can disappear, with Garvey later found no longer wearing it. [verified]
  • PCPC Xbox OneXbox One If after choosing the Brotherhood ending and destroying the Institute, to collect the holotape for Sturges from Proctor Ingram Preston may be "stuck" in the Museum of Freedom in Concord and enemies will continue to spawn inside. There is no known fix for this issue.[verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One After the player character gains max relationship with Preston he will stop offering new radiant quests and he will keep looping the last affinity speech over and over every time the player character returns to Sanctuary; this will also happen with every male companion the player character has full affinity without choosing the romance option.[verified]
  • Playstation 4Playstation 4 Xbox OneXbox One When equipped with a piece of clothing, after a certain amount of time he will take it off and equip the colonial duster without being instructed to.[verified]
  • PCPC In rare cases, Preston may not have any dialogue options to discuss options to build the signal interceptor during the Molecular Level even though the quest marker indicates him as a quest target. This is a hard bug that cannot be fixed by console commands or any other means other than restarting the entire quest.[verification overdue]
  • PCPC In rare cases, coming back to the Museum of Freedom after When Freedom Calls may make Raiders spawn back inside. Killing these Raiders will make Preston and his group of refugees leave from their assigned settlements and go back to the museum. There is no known way to make them leave the museum after they have entered it.[verified]

Gallery[]

Fallout 4[]

Other Fallout games[]

Magic: The Gathering

See also[]

References[]

  1. Preston: "When I was a kid, the Minutemen were my heroes. They were the only good guys around, really. When I turned 17, I joined up with Ezra Hollis's company. He was one of the good ones. Really believed in the old-time Minuteman way. We had a few good years there. I felt like I was part of something bigger than me. Like I was really helping make the Commonwealth a better place."
    (Preston's dialogue)
  2. Sturges' terminal - Mama Murphy's vision: I don't like this. Mama Murphy's been holed up in her room since that trader came through. She got a fresh stash of chems and when I went to make sure she's eating something she said she's been having "the Sight" again. Said she saw the town surrounded, then overrun. Our people dead in the streets or captured. It sounds crazy, but she's been right about things before, and we were able to convince Jackson to put out a call for the Minutemen. I just hope it's not too late.
  3. Jun Long's terminal: I can't believe Mayor Jackson is actually trying to get the Minutemen out here based on Mama Murphy's drug crazed-hallucinations. Marcy tried to explain to him that she's just an old loon, and we've been refusing to sell her chems anymore, but she's even got Sturges convinced!
  4. Jun Long's terminal - She was right: I can't believe it, she was actually right. Sloan and Irma were working making repairs to the walls and saw them sneaking around by that old warehouse. We tried to scare them off, but they were still advancing on the monorail stairs. Then just when it looks like they are going to break through, the Minutemen actually showed up and drove them off! They're led by a man named Col. Hollis, and Kyle is completely awestruck. Said he is going to join them when he gets older and has been following them around like a puppy.
  5. Jun Long's terminal - Something's up: Something's going on. We thought at first that another of the Minutemen had shown up, since it seemed like Col. Hollis recognized him. The two of them went off to talk with Mayor Jackson in private. Not ten minutes later the man left and Col. Hollis followed him to the wall shouting about what he would do to deserters. Was that guy one of the Minutemen or not?
  6. Hollis's terminal: He actually had the nerve to try to convince the mayor and me to stand down. I politely informed him that there was not a chance in Hell of that happening, and what I would do to his traitorous ass if he showed up again. If someone of his experience is leading them, we'd better be ready for anything.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Quincy ruins terminal entries#Col. Hollis: Shame I couldn't convince Col. Hollis to see reason, but the attack plan worked all the same. Once we blew the support on the highway and took the high ground, there was nothing they could do. Garvey managed to escape with a group of the settlers, but the rest was just a bloodbath.
  8. Preston's dialogue - Lines 1831-1833
  9. Clint's terminal: The detachment I sent after Garvey returned yesterday. They managed to pick off several more of the settlers before losing them in Jamaica Plains.
  10. Jared's terminal: Gristle says there's a caravan headed this way. Some joker in a cowboy hat with a laser musket, three civilians and one frail old woman dressed like a fortune teller. It's her. I know it's her. I sent Gristle to collect her. I wonder if she'll recognize me? Of course she will. She saw this coming, after all.
  11. Preston Garvey: "I've been thinking back lately on how things were for me when we first met. It was the lowest point of my life. I mean... all my closest friends were dead. Everything I believed in had turned out to be a lie. I'd failed everyone who'd ever relied on me. I'd led them to Concord and we had no hope of getting out alive. The thing is... that was actually okay with me. I was ready to die. It was what I felt I deserved. It was what I wanted."
    Sole Survivor: "I never realized you'd lost hope like that."
    Preston Garvey: "I had to put on a brave face as long as there were still people counting on me. That's the only reason I kept going. My point in all of this is that, well... you saved my life. And not just by saving us from those raiders in Concord. I mean, that you... made me want to keep living again. I guess that sounds pretty sappy, but it's true. If we hadn't met, or if you'd killed those raiders and then just taken off... I don't know if I'd still be around. I think I would have found some way to... you know... end it. Maybe not by shooting myself in the head or anything, but just by not caring about staying alive. So, I just wanted you to know that. How much our friendship has meant to me.
    (Preston Garvey's dialogue)
  12. Fallout 4 - Bethesda Game Studios Artists & Pixologic Staff, a retrospective with Dennis Mejillones and Lucas Hardi; reference starts at 45:26
Fo4 Minutemen Flag
Fo4 Minutemen Flag
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