The Institute: Fallout 4's Synth Makers Explained

The Institute is a secret community of scientists living in a large underground facility beneath the ruins of the Commonwealth Institute of Technology in Boston. It's descended from people who sheltered under the university when the bombs fell, and by 2287 its technology is far beyond anything else in the wasteland: teleportation, plasma weapons and synths, artificial people who can pass for human. It's one of the four main factions of Fallout 4 and the centre of its story. (Fallout 4)

Where the Institute came from#

The Institute began with the scientists and students who were underneath the Commonwealth Institute of Technology on the day of the Great War. Their children dug deeper and built a self-contained research facility, and it kept growing for two centuries. (Fallout 4)

At first the Institute tried to take part in life above ground. It worked with the surface using its early, obviously robotic synths. That ended badly. In 2229, a malfunctioning synth that had been living in Diamond City as a human attacked people there, an event remembered as the Broken Mask incident, and it turned the Commonwealth against the Institute. Later, an Institute synth killed the delegates of the Commonwealth Provisional Government, the region's best attempt at a shared government. (Fallout 4)

After the teleporter was built, the Institute sealed itself off completely. The only way in or out is the molecular relay, which needs huge amounts of power. (Fallout 4)

Synths and Shaun#

Synths are the Institute's workforce, soldiers and spies. Generation 1 and 2 synths are clearly machines. Generation 3 synths are made of synthetic flesh and look, act and bleed like people. (Fallout 4)

To build them the Institute needed human DNA without radiation damage. Its mercenary, Conrad Kellogg, broke into Vault 111, shot the Sole Survivor's spouse and took their baby, Shaun, from his cryogenic pod. Shaun's DNA became the template for every Generation 3 synth. He was raised inside the Institute, rose through its ranks and became its director, known as Father. (Fallout 4)

The Institute treats all synths as property. When Generation 3 synths start to want freedom and escape, its Synth Retention Bureau sends Coursers, elite synth agents, to bring them back and wipe their memories. (Fallout 4)

How the Institute is run#

Father leads a directorate made up of the heads of each division. Advanced Systems handles physics, weapons and the reactor, and is led by Dr. Madison Li, who worked on Project Purity in Fallout 3 before she left the Capital Wasteland. BioScience handles food, medicine and genetics. Robotics builds synths. Facilities keeps the place running. The Synth Retention Bureau hunts runaways and runs surveillance on the surface. (Fallout 4; Fallout 3)

Life inside is clean and comfortable, with gardens, artificial day and night, and families. Scientists look down on the surface and rarely think about what their experiments do to it. (Fallout 4)

What the Institute did to the Commonwealth#

Fear of the Institute shapes the whole Commonwealth. People say "the Institute" when someone disappears, and nobody knows whether their neighbour is a synth. The fear is earned: the Institute abducts people, replaces some with synth copies and uses settlements as test sites. (Fallout 4)

Its FEV research produced the super mutants who now roam Boston. Brian Virgil, a scientist on the programme, fled to the Glowing Sea rather than carry on with it. (Fallout 4)

The Institute in Fallout 3#

The Institute is first mentioned in Fallout 3's side quest The Replicated Man. Dr. Zimmer of the Institute arrives in Rivet City with his android bodyguard, Armitage, looking for an escaped android. The Lone Wanderer finds out that it is Harkness, Rivet City's head of security, whose memories have been wiped and whose face has been changed. The Railroad helped him escape. (Fallout 3)

How Fallout 4 ends for the Institute#

The Sole Survivor reaches the Institute by building a teleporter with one of the other factions and finds that Shaun is an old man dying of cancer. Father wants his parent to replace him. (Fallout 4)

If the Sole Survivor stays loyal, the Institute steals a part from the Mass Fusion building to power up its reactor, destroys the Brotherhood's airship and wipes out the Railroad, and the Sole Survivor becomes director. Siding with the Brotherhood, the Railroad or the Minutemen ends with the Institute's reactor detonated and the facility destroyed. (Fallout 4)