Fallout 4 created by Bethesda Game Studios.
Images used for educational purposes only.
Main Walkthrough

- The Taffington Boathouse is located in the south of Malden, predictably enough situated on a twisting river that separates Malden from Lexington and the downtown of Boston. You’ll run into Bloodbugs and Super Mutants if you approach from the middle of Malden, but the way is a fair bit easier if you go over rougher terrain.

- Unless you like to explore a lot, and have explored Malden extensively, you’ll probably come across the Boathouse via a quest. It’s one of the locations in Fallout 4 pegged as another potential settlement, and the quest for gaining it usually pops up when one of your existing settlements has grown to a large enough size. (For some reason the people of Spectacle Island thought it was a huge problem for them. I think they’re worrywarts.)

- The Boathouse is pretty sad as far as challenging battles go, and is swarmed by a few simple Bloodbugs. One seems to wander around inside; the other three are inside the main house, on the first and second floors. Clear them out one-at-a-time. The Bloodbugs seem to suck at moving through doorways, so you shouldn’t have much trouble killing the lot. Check the Workshop at the side of the Boat House to complete your conquest.

- But wait! There’s more! Yes, just have to look around for items now. There’s a trunk on the second floor of the Boathouse that will net you some goodies once unlocked, and an Advanced safe beside it will do the same. A body on the second floor holds Margaret’s Note. Read it and it will point towards the actual boathouse, beside the house. It also points to another area, Malden Drainage, which you can find by heading north along the canal and hopping down to the large drainage pipes at the end.

- Pop open the Advanced lock on the boathouse and you’ll find a well-guarded little space with two Laser Tripwires attached to a pistol on the wall and a shotgun at the far end. Disable the Tripwires for some crafting items, and check the cabinets by the shotgun for more items.

Setting Up

Taffington Boathouse is a small property, but the house itself should more than suffice as shelter for your settlers, and there’s already a small garden ready to go. There’s plenty of scrap for a start-up, but a supply route with a larger settlement is a must-have if you decide to turn it into a larger settlement. Here are some tips for getting started:
  • Start with water. The Boathouse’s location makes it an obvious choice for anything above and beyond a Water Pump. Stick a Generator somewhere on the back porch and tap into the lake running past the Boathouse. Everything you need for a Generator and the Water Pump can be found in and around the Boathouse, but you’ll have to chop up items like paint cans, pots, mugs, lamp posts, and other small stuff to get what you need.
  • There’s a surprising amount of raw materials in the water next to the house, and if you dive down you’ll get lots of Rubber and Ceramic from the sunken items down here. Make sure you have some hefty radiation shielding, though - this water is terrible for Rad buildup.
  • Place beds downstairs when possible. The upper floor of the house looks fine, but if you peer upward you’ll notice there are huge holes in the ceiling. Settlers won’t inhabit beds that aren’t covered.
  • Once you have the materials, the Boathouse is one of the easiest places to defend. Enemies won’t come in from the water, which means they’ll come in from the road. Either set up a defensive point right out front, flanked with Turrets, or just forego the lookout point and stick Turrets on the roof.