Summary

• The Glowing Sea is hazardous in Fallout 4, with radstorms, Deathclaws, and feral ghouls to watch out for.
• Players might miss out on environmental storytelling if they rush through the area for main quests.
• Locations like Sentinel Site Prescott and Federal Surveillance Center K-21B offer unique lore and challenges.

Glowing Sea. This barren wasteland in the southwest corner of the map is in a state of eternal radstorms, causing the player's Geiger counter to constantly tick away. As if that were not bad enough, the area's denizens are not much better, consisting of Deathclaws, heavily mutated insects, and an abundance of feral ghouls.

Despite these dangers, the player will have to go into the Glowing Sea for the main story. Because of the zone's hazards, players are likely to go straight for the quest marker, missing out on many of the locations on offer. However, it is well worth exploring, as the Glowing Sea is also home to some of Bethesda's best environmental storytelling examples, in addition to loot.

Hopesmarch Pentecostal Church Sheds Light On A Dark Event

Get To Know More About The Backstory Of The Ghouls at The Church

Fallout 4 has many decrepit churches, and the Glowing Sea even has two. While one, the Forgotten Church, is relatively devoid of enemies and content in general, the Hopesmarch Pentecostal Church is home to a large pack of feral ghouls. These ghouls were likely the church's congregation, trapped in the church when the bombs fell and rapidly mutated by the area's radiation.

A leap of faith into the buried building will allow the Sole Survivor to find a key and a note thanking Mrs. Hart for covering office duties on the day of the Great War. This is a minor tragedy, as Mrs. Hart's coverage placed her incredibly close to the bomb, sealing her fate. At the bottom of the church is a destroyed bus, potentially implying that the parishioners may have arrived together or, more likely, planned on going on a church outing together.

Sentinel Site Prescott Was A Testing Facility

And Its Population Of Feral Ghouls Is The Proof

Sole Survivors who align with the Brotherhood of Steel will eventually become acquainted with the sentinel site, officially called Sentinel Site Prescott. This bunker is a target for the "Liberty Reprimed" quest, as it contains a massive supply of M28 warheads for Liberty Prime to launch like footballs. It is also one of the most interesting sites in the Glowing Sea, even having its own unique location icon. Considering the nature of the site, it may have been the intended target for the bomb, which created the crater northwest of the bunker.

The base's population of feral ghouls provides a testament to the fact that radiation managed to leak inside at some point.

When entering the facility, the player will immediately be greeted by the sounds of alarms that warn of an launch. These alarms also lock down several portions of the site, so ending the launch procedure will open up access. Doing so will reveal that before the Great War, the sentinel site was an experimental testing facility for the M28 warheads in its munitions depot. The base's population of feral ghouls provides a testament to the fact that radiation managed to leak inside at some point, mutating the researchers who were locked in by the launch procedure.

The Abandoned Shack Is More Than Meets The Eye

A Federal Facility Used To Spy On Citizens

At first glance, this shack in the middle of nowhere seems inconsequential. Radioactive barrels adorn its exterior, but these were likely present to encourage people to avoid the area. A skeleton can be seen through the shack's open door, and if the player investigates, they will find a key that opens a locked cellar door nearby. However, this is no ordinary cellar.

The abandoned shack is actually home to Federal Surveillance Center K-21B. Presumably, this facility was used to spy on American citizens, as its surveillance devices are radios, which are only effective over a short range. A terminal entry near the beginning details the agonizing death of the person above ground, as well as the lack of food due to budget cuts, implying that the workers here died of starvation. The area is also being occupied by Institute synths, who are likely trying to access the mainframe at the bottom of the site.

O'Neill Family Manufacturing Reveals More About Mr. Handy Robots

The Old Records Of A Business That Repaired Broken Robots

It can be easy to miss this location due to its lack of an obvious entrance. The one structure above ground is inaccessible at first. Instead, the player has to go into a tunnel, which descends into the main body of the factory. At the bottom is a terminal that will unlock the door to the structure likely ed earlier, which was meant to be the roof of the building. Inside is a large group of feral ghouls and a loot chest.

The terminal also contains two entries about repairs related to Mr. Handy robots and one about Protection repair. These repairs can make one wonder why a person would ever trust the sawblade-equipped Mr. Handy near their children, as they may have been subject to manufacturing defects based on the first detail Mr. Handy malfunctioned because it quite literally had a screw loose.

Skylanes Flight 1665 Details A Tragedy

The Location Of A Pre-War Airplane Crash Site

Nuclear detonations can create EMPs that knock out electronic devices in the vicinity, and when those electronic devices are airplanes thousands of feet in the air, the consequences are disastrous. The Great War caused this situation many times, and two examples of the aftermath can be found in the Commonwealth. Far to the north, outside of the Glowing Sea, the player can stumble on Skylanes Flight 1981, which is a site for recurring battles between raiders and super mutants. These enemies are not present at Skylanes Flight 1665, but the danger of the Glowing Sea tends to be a deterrent.

Activating Radio Tower 0DB-521 will unlock several radio signals, including the Mayday message for the flight.

One of the more interesting elements of the Skylanes Flight 1665 wreckage is the two conflicting stories of its final moments in the air. Activating Radio Tower 0DB-521 will unlock several radio signals, including the Mayday message for the flight. This Mayday message states that the plane's engine went down before its left wing was sheared, but this story is not the same in the plane's transponder. Instead, this discusses a bright light, then silence.

The area also has several blue ash piles grouped up in the area. Searching these piles will provide the player with fusion cells and some gunner equipment. Between the blue coloration and the gear, there are several possibilities that could explain what happened. They may have been killed by the nearby Virgil, as Institute lasers are known to leave behind blue ash piles rather than the red of pre-War lasers. With the Enclave presence added to Fallout 4, however, it could be that they were destroyed by an Enclave squad with orders to kill anyone who knew about their location.