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

- Croup House is located in Nahant, a small, tired little community in the east of the Commonwealth. You’re most likely to come out this way during the Institute quest Synth Retention, or if you plan to help out Nick Valentine at the Nahant Sheriff’s Department. Croup House is on the northern edge of the residential area in the east of the island, sitting by itself among some sparse woodland. Nahant and the surrounding area is filled with some vicious beasties, and level 30+ adventurers only need apply.

- Croup House is infested by Feral Ghouls, and you’ll be mobbed by the creeps upon approach. You’ll have to check the ground floor, upper floors, basement, and grounds to get them all, and you can expect a bunch of them to be laying around until they detect movement nearby. The Ghouls aren’t nearly as dangerous as most enemies ‘round these parts - say, for example, the Mirelurk Queen that will pop out of the beach near Nahant Chapel to the east - but they’re bad enough in a mob. Move slowly to avoid attracting too many Ghouls at once.

- Once you finish with the Ghouls - or as you’re finishing with them, anyway - you can explore Croup House and find the following:
  • There’s a Workshop on the west side of Croup House. A future settlement! We’ll come back to this.
  • There’s a Novice locked door on the second floor. Beyond is an opened safe with some Pre-War Money inside and a Caps Stash on top. (And, uh, a Pipe Pistol, but if you’ve come this far you really shouldn’t still be using Pipe Pistols.)
  • Also on the second floor is a Novice locked desk. It contains the Croup Bedroom Key. You can use this to open the bedroom on the third floor, where a Glowing One waits, laying on the floor. So long as you don’t charge right in you can get the drop on this bastard and blow its legs off, preventing it from chasing you through the House.
  • You’ll find the Croup Basement Key in the bedroom’s dresser. The basement is infested with more Ghouls, and you’ll have to take them out before you can look around. The basement contains a steamer trunk full of goodies, an Advanced safe with yet more goodies, a Weapons Workbench, a Mini Nuke on the couch (looks almost like a pillow), and lots of junk. There’s also a terminal down here with the sordid tale of the Croups.

Croup House from Fallout 4. It's looking much better
after receiving a settlement makeover.
Setting Up

Croup House is actually pretty awesome for setting up, as it’s largely self-sufficient in terms of resources. Everything you’ll need to get the absolute basics of a settlement are available here with but a few exceptions, and compensating for ‘em is pretty easy. Here are some tips:
  • You have everything required to build a Generator and a Recruitment Radio Beacon either on the grounds or in the basement, so long as you’re willing to liberally Scrap stuff. This will allow you to quickly set up a Supply Line and bring in resources from other settlements.
  • Croup House has shelter in abundance. What it lacks are sources of food and water. There’s no Concrete for Water Pumps and no veggies for food. You’ll need to outsource to get either of these, though this should be easy enough with a Supply Line. (You also can’t build Water Purifiers here, which boggles my mind, considering where this stupid House is situated in Nahant.)
  • Though many items are Scrap-worthy, there are lots of chairs, tables, desks, and dressers in Croup House that can still be used. Consider keeping them here to satisfy your Settlers.
  • There are some sizeable holes in the floors of Croup House. Patching these will grant you much more room for setting up beds and other amenities. (Most of them seem just large enough for a large floorboard. Convenient!)
  • Croup House is one of the easier settlements to defend, thanks to its cliffside location and obvious entry point. Centralize your Turrets and defensive emplacements around the monument outside the House and you’ll draw all enemies there, giving you excellent coverage and sparing everything on the periphery of the settlement.