Content Type: Gaming Guides
Settlers who join your settlement after escaping from bandits will sometimes arrived chained up. It can be hard to tell at a glance, but you’ll see a negative modifier on a settler’s Mood tab 
if they’re chained.
Anytime a new settler joins your settlement, you should already be checking out their perks, skills, and injuries/other statuses. If you do this every time, you’ll easily be able to spot if a settler joins your settlement chained. Unchaining your settler is important, as it will be tough to keep your settler happy with the large negative modifier being chained up gives. After all, how would you feel if you had to work all day in shackles?
Unchaining Your Settler
There are two menus you can use to unchain your settler. Method #1 requires you to select the settler, and then go to the Inventory tab 
of the chained settler. Find the chains — they’ll be in second-to-last equipment slot — and simply click the down arrow next to the chains. The settler should drop the chains on the ground; they can now be moved to the stockpile.
Method #2 involves opening the Manage menu [I] and finding the settler with the shackles. Under the Manage Apparel column you’ll see the shackles; click the down arrow next to them to force the settler to unchain themselves (don’t ask how that works). The chains can now be moved to the stockpile.
Waste Not, Want not
Once you’ve gotten the shackles off your poor settler, they still have some utility. The chains (and other items) can be deconstructed for materials at a Smelting Furnace or Blacksmith’s Forge. There doesn’t currently seem to be a way to tell settlers to deconstruct specific items, but it appears they’ll deconstruct the weakest items first, and therefore they’ll start with the shackles.
We hope this guide was helpful! Let us know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comments below.
