Fallout 4: Should you tell the truth about The Red Death?

Fallout 4‘s Far Harbor DLC is considered among the best content in the entire game, in large part for its reactivity and branching paths compared to the main story. This even extends to its side quests, with The Great Hunt presenting the player with yet another classic moral dilemma.

The Great Hunt is one of the less eventful quests you can find on Far Harbor‘s Island, but its twist and the choice contained within make it one of the more memorable ones nonetheless. This unconventional big game hunt ends with you being asked to make a choice between truth and lies, and the right option isn’t apparent. Fortunately, there is an optimal choice to make here that will lead to the best outcome for all involved.

What’s the best choice in The Great Hunt quest in Fallout 4?

Fallout 4‘s Great Hunt quest begins after completion of the quest Hull Breach. Hull Breach tasks you with helping out the Mariner, the closest thing the town of Far Harbor has to a security chief. This quest follows on naturally from that one and starts with the Mariner dropping a pretty big bombshell: she’s terminally ill and has one last request so she can die happy. For years, Far Harbor has been terrified by a legendary beast known as the Red Death, responsible for making countless ships run aground. To help the Mariner cement her legacy, it’s your job to take the Red Death down once and for all.

It sounds like a prelude to an epic boss fight, but the truth is far less legendary. As you’ll discover when you follow the Mariner to the Red Death’s island, the so-called legendary beast is, in fact, a pint-sized Mirelurk that’s completely docile and harmless. Its impressive body count is solely because of its red, glowing eyes, which lead ships to investigate and then promptly get torn apart in the rocky shallows. Even so, this is far from the most dangerous creature in the game, especially taking the new additions of the next-gen update into account. Once you put the Red Death down with a single bullet, the Mariner is understandably humiliated by the whole affair.

From here, you have a choice of how to proceed: you can encourage the Mariner to tell the truth, to lie and say she couldn’t find the Red Death, or embellish the tale into the kind of legend the Red Death’s demise deserves. The first two options lead to scorn and disappointment from the townspeople of Far Harbor and the Mariner losing out on her chance at a legacy. Therefore, the best outcome for all involved is to swallow your pride and lie about the fight with the Red Death, ensuring that the Mariner will have the legacy she craves and that you’re welcomed as a hero by the townsfolk. After all, giant beast or not, you did remove a legitimate danger to the Island and its denizens.

Either way, the reward—a legendary set of Fisherman’s Overalls—is the same, and the only practical difference is how good you feel about the outcome. If you’d like some more substantial goodies, it’s probably worth returning to the Commonwealth proper to track down the elusive Tesla Cannon.