Fallout 4 Diamond City Blues is a complex side quest with many branching possibilities. Many folks probably do not know that even after the completion of the quest, you can still pursue some extra activities related to the quest to get some rewards.
For more help on Fallout 4, read our Brotherhood of Steel Radiant Quests, Radios Locations Guide, Workstations Locations Guide, and Legendary Creatures Locations Guide.
Fallout 4 Diamond City Blues
Our Fallout 4 Diamond City Blues Side Quest Guide will help you complete this pretty confusing side quest in the best possible manner and list all the possible outcomes and branches for you.
Three to Tango
Head to Diamond City and head upstairs to the fancier part of the town. Go into the Colonial Taphouse. Inside, you will hear an argument between a husband (Paul Pembroke) and wife (Darcy Pembroke) and a fight between Paul and Henry Cooke, the barkeep. You cannot get this side quest until you witness this fight.
Eventually, Paul will storm out. Talk to Darcy and Henry. Head outside and talk to Paul then. He will ask you to intimidate Henry for him. You can agree to either help or go alone.
If you agree to help and leave the city before visiting Taphouse again, Cooke will kill Paul prior to your return, so it is best to try to go alone. Persuade Paul to do so, and then head up to the Taphouse alone.
Speak with Cooke about his infraction. You can either win a speech challenge and resolve the matter peacefully or start a fight.
If the conversation ends peacefully, Cooke will tell you of a chems deal he has been involved in. If you end up killing Cooke though, you can check his body to find a note regarding the chems deal. If you kill Paul at the bar, you can complete this quest on your own and keep all the loot for yourself.
The Deal Goes South
The deal is done with a gangster called Nelson Latimer. You will want to head over to his place. Head north to the river west of Back Street Apparel. That is where you will find Nelson and his men.
Whatever you do, the standoff will result in a gunfight. Speak to the lone survivor of the carnage, who is Nelson’s supplier, Trish. You can either agree to let her live, remove her as a threat or promise to let her go.
Either way, you can acquire information about the location of chems lab. It is generally better to agree to let her go, as it gives you a password for a terminal at the chems lab, which grants easier access as well as additional goods. Loot Nelson’s body for some nice loot.
If Cooke is with you, he will gun her down when she tries to flee, so be wary of that. The real gangster in-charge of the chems is someone called Marowski.
If Paul is still involved in all this, he will want you to split the spoils of the chem deal with him. High enough Charisma can boost this to a 70-30 deal in your favor. Sadly, it is impossible to take all the caps without killing him (if he is assisting you).
If Paul is still in the picture but you talked to Cooke alone and Paul never attended the chem deal, you can inform him of Cooke’s fate and part ways with him, keeping everything for yourself.
Regardless, you will need to travel to South Boston to find the Four Leaf Fishpacking Plant. There are plenty of Feral Ghouls here, so be careful. There is also a lot of advanced tripwire security.
Instead of going inside the plant, climb the exterior walkway and go to the roof. The wall terminal here is what you got the password from Trish for. Use it to get inside the lab. You will encounter a few of Marowski’s men who you can slay, then enjoy all the chems you like here.
After Quest: The Latimer Situation
Either the quest can end here, or you can extend it to kill either Marowski or Paul Pembroke. You will need to wait for 24 hours after you killed Nelson, after which his father Malcolm will become aware of what happened.
Go talk to him. He is a suited, sunglasses-wearing man close to the Colonial Taphouse. You will have several options in the conversation.
- You can blame Marowski for his son’s death, for which you’ll be tasked to kill the gangster.
- You can blame Paul Pembroke (if he is still alive) and agree to kill him.
- End the conversation at an impasse, after which Latimer will send thugs after you (which can turn the entire Diamond City against you, so be careful).
- End the conversation with Malcolm furious at you, after which you can either kill him or pay him off.
It is best to end the talks diplomatically and head for Marowski to keep everything peaceful in Diamond City.
After Quest: The Collette Situation
If Henry Cooke died during the quest, his daughter Collette will appear in the Dugout Inn around one week after the quest concludes. You can talk to her. You will have several options.
- Confess to killing Cooke (if you did), then resolve the matter diplomatically or resort to killing her.
- Tell her Cooke is dead or vanished. She will either accept your story, get suspicious, or start a fight with you.
- Tell her you do not know anything. She will either be suspicious or believe you, but will not start a fight.
If Paul Pembroke is alive, he will speak with you if Colette is still hanging around. You can either calm him down, agree to let Paul go off and kill Colette, or agree to kill her yourself.
If you let another week pass with Colette being still alive, you will see her again after a week, still investigating at the Dugout Inn.
If you split the chem ambush deal with Paul at 70-3- or took it all, he will blame you for killing Cooke in front of her. If she is still suspicious, she will confront you regardless.
Either kill her, confess to her, or tell the truth. If Paul is accusing you, you can counter-accuse, after which she will leave town. If she leaves the town suspicious of you, be wary of her turning up at one of your settlements in the future, leading to combat.
If she leaves while being suspicious of Paul, you will later find out from Darcy that her husband is dead.
After Quest: The Darcy Situation
Around three days after the completion of the quest, you might be confronted by Darcy in Diamond City market and she will try to know what happened.
Visit Diamond City to find Malcolm. Once you do, go talk to him. You have the option of either telling the truth, answering with an evasive or unpleasant response, or agreeing to help find out what happened to Cooke and Paul. Of course, you can also tell her you do not know anything.
If you do know what happened to Paul, you can confront Cooke about Paul’s disappearance and obtained a confession. You can then inform Darcy. You can also stumble upon Paul’s body in town and tell Darcy about it.
If you have been helpful to her, after one week she will find a heist photo and give it to you. You can then either talk to Marowski, Cooke, or Latimer about the photo, or kill Cooke and Latimer, or talk to Marowski.
Your options depend on who is alive in both Diamond City and Goodneighbor.
After Quest: The Marowski Situation
If you let anyone live during the standoff (either Nelson or Trish), you will be contacted by Marowski after around 24 hours later. He wants you to meet up with him at Hotel Rexford in Goodneighbor.
You can choose to ignore this demand for confrontation, but a result of this will be you constantly being harassed by Marowski’s thugs all across the Commonwealth.
Meet Marowski there. He will demand that you pay 2,000 caps for the damage you have done to his chems trade. You can convince him to lower the fee to 1,000 caps if you wish.
After that, you can either pay up to end the conflict, ask for a week to pay or show Marowski a heist photo you obtained during ‘The Darcy Situation.’
This concludes our Fallout 4 Diamond City Blues Side Quest Guide. If you want to add anything in this guide, feel free to use the comments section below!
