Fallout 4: The Four Leaf Fishpacking Plant Guide

Intro

If you are exploring the South Boston waterfront, you’re eventually going to smell this place before you see it. Four Leaf Fishpacking isn’t just a smelly warehouse; it is one of the densest “Ghoul Gauntlets” in the Commonwealth.

Most casuals run in here, get swarmed by twenty Ferals, catch a mouthful of Rads, and reload their last save. But for a seasoned vet, this place is a goldmine of XP, specific loot, and one of the coolest hidden quest locations in the game.

Here is the world-class breakdown of how to gut the Fishpacking Plant without becoming fish food.

Location & Enemy Assessment

Location: South Boston, just down the street from the General Atomics Factory and near the Castle.

The Threat: Feral Ghouls. Lots of them. We’re talking Reavers, Withered, and usually a Glowing One acting as the boss.

Danger Level: High (due to mob density).

Environment: Tight corridors, lots of catwalks, and heavy radiation pockets.

The Wake-Up Call Mechanic

The gimmick of this dungeon is the ambush. Bethesda placed Ghouls in the rafters, inside wall cavities, and under the conveyor belts.

Gamer Strat: Do not trust the compass. Just because you don’t see a red dot doesn’t mean you’re safe. Spam your V.A.T.S. button constantly as you walk. It will lock onto “sleeping” ghouls before they trigger their wake-up animation, giving you a free critical headshot.

The Laser Maze Secret

The most annoying part of the interior isn’t the ghouls; it’s the security system. As you navigate the upper catwalks and the basement, you will encounter a series of red Laser Tripwires.

Rookie Mistake: Walking through them. This triggers frag mines, ceiling turrets, and sometimes releases monkeys (the toy ones with symbols) that attract more ghouls.

The Pro Play: You can disarm them for XP, but look for the Terminal in the main office area. Hacking this can shut down the automated defenses, turning this from a death trap into a shooting gallery.

The Loot

Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor

Head to the basement (the lowest level). Look for the employee locker room/break area. On a bench near a locker, you will find this magazine.

The Buff: Permanently improves prices when buying from vendors. If you are building settlements and buying shipments of copper or aluminum, this passive buff saves you thousands of caps over a full playthrough.

The Hazmat Suit

If you haven’t grabbed one yet, there is usually a Hazmat Suit lying around in the locker area or near the lab entrance. Essential for the Glowing Sea run later.

Aluminum Farming

This place is actually a decent farm for Aluminum. Look for the “Tray” items on the conveyor belts. They weigh very little and scrap into aluminum, which is essential for Power Armor repairs.

The Diamond City Blues Connection (The Real Secret)

90% of players miss because they just kill the ghouls and leave.

Four Leaf Fishpacking is central to the quest Diamond City Blues (the quest you get by witnessing the fight in the Colonial Taphouse in Diamond City).

The Roof Lab: If you look at the exterior of the building, there is a seemingly inaccessible area on the roof. During the quest, if you interrogate Trish, she reveals that Marowski (the mob boss of Goodneighbor) has a secret Chem Lab hidden inside this plant.

The Lore: Marowski was using the fish plant as a front to manufacture Chems, using the smell of rotting fish to mask the chemical fumes. Genius.

Access: You can technically parkour your way up the exterior using a Jetpack on your Power Armor even without the quest, but the “legit” way is to get the password from Trish, which unlocks the tripwire-protected door on the upper catwalks inside.

The Payday: The lab is filled with an absurd amount of Buffout, Jet, and Psycho. It is essentially a license to print money.

The Terminal Lore

If you read the terminals in the manager’s office, you get a classic Fallout story of pre-war negligence. The logs detail a salmonella outbreak in the fish supply. Instead of recalling the product, management decided to ignore it to keep profits up, joking about the consumers getting sick.

Hidden Detail: This is why there are so many ghouls here. The workers were likely forced to stay and work through the instability right up until the bombs fell. The high radiation from the waste barrels in the basement (likely illegal dumping) combined with the pre-war sickness made for a nasty ghoul cocktail.

Finally

Four Leaf Fishpacking is a masterclass in dungeon density. It’s chaotic, loud, and rewarding. It forces you to check your corners and manage your rads.

Gamer Score: 8.5/10. Great for XP farming, essential for the “Diamond City Blues” questline, and excellent environmental storytelling.

Pro Tip: Bring a Shotgun or a Flamer. You need crowd control here, not sniper rifles.