There are many weapons to collect in Fallout 4; however, most of them are only useful for dealing damage in combat. A few weapons have other uses, though, including a Minutemen weapon called the Flare Gun.
The Flare Gun is a weapon that can summon Minutemen soldiers to your location to aid you during combat. However, acquiring the Flare Gun requires multiple steps that may be confusing if you don't know how to complete them. Below you will find a guide that will show you how you can obtain a Flare Gun in Fallout 4 and how to use it during combat.
How To Get The Flare Gun
There are a few steps you have to complete before you can earn the Flare Gun; however, they're all very easy, and you progress through the Minutemen faction questline as well.
Travel To Concord And Save Preston Garvey
After leaving Vault 111 and speaking with Codsworth, you will probably follow the main questline and travel to Concord. However, if you haven't yet been to Concord, then travel there and enter the Museum Of Freedom, which is a building towards the back of the town. Defeat the raiders outside of the museum and then clear the interior of the raiders as well.
After defeating every raider, you will come across Preston Garvey and his small group of survivors. Speak with Preston, and he will ask for your help. Agree to help Preston and continue with the quest objectives. You have to enter a suit of Power Armor and fight a few raiders, along with a Deathclaw.
The fight with both of them is easy on most difficulties, especially if you use the Power Armor and Minigun that you receive before the battle. If you can't defeat the Deathclaw, then travel to Diamond City or another town with merchants and purchase stimpacks to heal yourself rapidly during the fight. Once you defeat the Deathclaw, enter the Museum Of Freedom and speak with Preston Garvey again. After a brief conversation, Preston will walk to Sanctuary Hills with his group, and you can meet him there to continue the Minutemen questline.
Travel To Sanctuary Hills And Speak With Preston Garvey
Travel to Sanctuary Hills and locate Preston Garvey. Enter a conversation with him, and he will offer you the chance to help the Minutemen again. Accept his offer, and you'll receive "The First Step" quest. This quest involves a lot of walking across the Commonwealth and combat, so make sure to upgrade your gear. Additionally, stock up on ammo and healing items before you start the mission.
Complete "The First Step"
To complete the first objective in "The First Step," you have to travel to the settlement Tenpines Bluff. The location isn't too far away from Sanctuary Hills, and activating the quest will mark it on your map. However, you may encounter various enemies while walking to Tenpines Bluff, so prepare yourself by equipping a weapon and bringing stimpacks. You should wear power armor if you can; however, you may not have any fusion cores depending on how much exploring you've done since you will probably receive this quest towards the beginning of your playthrough.
Once you arrive at Tenpines Bluff, speak with the settlers, and they'll describe their problem. The settlers will tell you that raiders are living in a nearby building and that they want you to eliminate them. You need to kill the raider group's leader to progress, so travel to the Corvega Assembly Plant in Lexington. After you speak with the settlers, your new objective location will appear on the Commonwealth map.
Travel to Lexington. You will encounter many hostile enemies in and around this area, which mainly consists of raiders. Although the raiders aren't too difficult by themselves, this area is full of them, so always defeat a group of raiders before you enter a new room or area. Otherwise, you may end up fighting many raiders at once, which is very challenging at the beginning of the game. There are also a few turrets in Lexington and the Corvega Assembly Plant, so try to take them out before fighting the raiders.
Enter the Corvega Assembly Plant and fight your way through the raiders until you enter a room with a unique raider. This raider has a special name, Jared, and he has set up two turrets in the room he resides in. Destroy the turrets and defeat Jared to finish your objective. Then, travel back to Tenpines Bluff and speak with the settlers.
The settlers will agree to join the Minutemen, and then you can return to Preston Garvey to inform him of the good news. Preston will then ask you to become the General of the Minutemen, which will make you their leader. Accept the offer, and then Preston will give you the Flare Gun and a few Flares.
How To Get Ammo For The Flare Gun
After you acquire the Flare Gun, you may not have enough ammo to use the weapon often. Luckily, Flares are easy to obtain, so you won't have any problem getting a surplus of them. Many locations throughout the Commonwealth have a few Flares for you to collect; however, there are also ways to get Flares repeatedly.
The easiest way to obtain Flares is by purchasing them from vendors. Occasionally, vendors throughout the Commonwealth have Flares for sale, so check for Flares each time you speak with a merchant if you plan to use the Flare Gun regularly. You can also find Flares inside Ammo Boxes, although it is somewhat rare.
How To Use The Flare Gun
The Flare Gun is a regular gun, which means that you can equip it inside your inventory and then shoot it in the open world. Unlike regular guns, you don't fire bullets. Instead, you can fire a flare into the sky, which will signal Minutemen to assist you. A few Minutemen soldiers will arrive at your location and start fighting any hostile enemies in the area.
You can damage an enemy by firing a flare directly at them; however, the Flare Gun deals very little damage upon impact, so it's better to use flares for signaling minutemen. The Flare Gun isn't an upgradable weapon, so there's no way to make it stronger.
The Flare Gun can only call Minutemen once every 24 in-game hours, and it only works if you're near a Minutemen settlement or checkpoint that the Minutemen occupy, which makes recruiting new settlements much more worthwhile.