Fallout
Developer/Publisher: Interplay
Walkthrough
by Steve Metzler (April, 2002)
Introduction
Where do I start? Self-confessed Fallout addict that I am, I have
played this game more times than is probably normal and/or healthy.
Seven at last count. Having already written a guide for Fallout's
sequel, Fallout 2, I thought that since I now had a template to follow,
it would be a piece of cake. Guess what? Right. I found even more new
things on the 7th pass through than I imagined were possible to have
missed on previous attempts! And you as a reader will undoubtedly find
other things. Such is the nature and depth of Fallout. Anyway, with
Fallout, so began my passion for RPG's - and it's about time I finally
got around to writing about it!
This guide is quest-oriented, though I've also written much about all the important objects and people that you'll encounter in the various locales, even if they aren't related to completing a specific quest. It's meant to be more of a guide than a walkthrough. A walkthrough for a game like Fallout would of necessity be slanted towards a particular character type - but I try to give you several ways to get around each problem where possible, hopefully accounting for most of the character types across the role-playing spectrum.
Probably more of interest to Fallout veterans than newbies, but this guide tells you how to get your favourite pet all the way through the game :-)
I hope that you enjoy Fallout as much as I do! Ready to begin your quest, oh humble vault dweller?
Conventions
Once again, I've eschewed that handy yet game spoiling Table of
Contents! OK, so this guide is loaded with outright spoilers anyway,
but I try not to ruin all the fun right up front by providing you with
a listing of all the important locations you will visit. If you're
looking for references to a particular location, person, weapon, etc.,
then just search for it in your browser.
Directions are given assuming that the top of your screen is north, and the longer direction names are abbreviated, like SW for southwest.
Tips
Seeing as Fallout 2 is not miles away from the original, I took the
liberty of borrowing generously from this section in my other guide.
Hope you don't mind.
Before you even think about starting to play, check out the Interplay Fallout site, and ensure that you have the latest version installed. If not, download and apply the patch. Be careful to only apply a patch compatible with the locale from which you purchased the game! This guide was written using the U.S. version, patched to V1.1. This patch fixed numerous bugs, and also removed a restriction that you had to finish Fallout in 500 (game) days.
Note: as of 18 June 2004, the Interplay web site has been inaccessible. So we have made the V1.1 patch temporarily available here. Also note: this patch is only guaranteed to work for the US version of the game, so you may have to re-install if you apply it to a foreign language or UK version.
Beware that if your Intelligence (IN) is too low (I mean, your character's in the game, silly. Don't take it personally ;-), you won't be able to get most of the quests here simply because no one will be able to converse with you! Likewise, not having a high enough Charisma (CH) or Speech skill will also alter NPC responses, and you may miss out on important conversation choices that lead to quests. So, I recommend having both IN and CH at a minimum of 6 (you might scrape by with lower CH if you have a decent Speech skill) to keep your options open. If in doubt in a particular situation, pop a Mentat to boost both temporarily. Just for kicks, it's worth starting up a game with IN 3. Yes, it's a very well balanced game :-)
Luck, or dice rolls, and your stats play an important part in conversations. That's why it's very important that you save the game before every conversation. If you feel afterwards that the outcome could have been more favourable, restore to before the conversation and try it again. You just might get the dialogue choice you've been hoping for the next time through! If you consistently get the same undesirable choices, try improving your IN and CH by popping a Mentat before the conversation. Some dialogues even depend on your Science skill, and I've tried to indicate this where possible.
I recommend a minimum Strength (ST) of 6. With less than this, you'll be severely disadvantaged at hand-to-hand, unable to take any unarmed perks (most decent ones have a min ST of 6 requirement), and you won't be able to carry much inventory either. Likewise, unless you're going to play the 'ultimate bruiser' type of character, a starting ST of 9 or 10 is a waste, since you get a chance later on to increase your ST by 3 using... artificial means!
Unless you are taking on the role of a thief, a decent Barter skill is also vital.
Owing to a design peculiarity in Fallout, Armour Piercing (AP) ammo doesn't do exactly what it's meant to, and is woefully ineffectual. So, it's best to just sell any that you find. Stick to the JHP for actually loading into your weapons.
I just love Big Guns, and Energy Weapons. They're so... destructive. I almost never bother to tag Small Guns, even though conventional wisdom has it that you should. The reason is: if you start off with decent Agility (AG), then you already have nearly 45% Small Guns skill. Also, you can quickly boost this skill by reading some... ahem... educational material you find lying around the place :-)
NPC's make great packrats. They can help you carry all the stuff you pick up after encounters with hostile critters. Be careful about giving them burst capable weapons though... or you could find yourself replaying a lot of encounters :-( Also, you have to keep telling some of them to use their best weapon when you know an important battle is coming up!
Something in Fallout that you need to do all the time, but it isn't patently obvious how you're meant to: exchange items with your party members. Just use your Steal skill, no matter how low it is, and you can swap items back and forth at will!
Like the man says: save, save, SAVE! You never know when you're going to mess up in combat, blow a dialogue with an NPC, etc. Contrary to what you may hear on the grapevine, you can also save during combat, though this practice does seem to make the game more likely to crash... but you just saved, didn't you? So, no big deal.
Those pre-apocalyptic Californians must have been avid readers. There are bookcases everywhere. A lot of them contain valuable stuff, so check every bookcase, desk, locker, etc. Anything that exhibits a hand icon when you move your cursor over it is worth having a look at. Scavenge to your heart's content!
You can rest nearly anywhere when no hostile critters are nearby. Derelict buildings in most towns make a perfect spot for this sort of activity. There's no rush to get through (most of) Fallout. Use the time! Why waste Stimpaks when you can heal while resting or travelling?
And now, without further ado...
Vault 13
Get all the gear off the body immediately outside the Vault entrance.
Kill all the rats for 25 XP a pop. Use your knife if possible, to
conserve valuable ammo. The exit grid to the outside world is to the
SW. Once outside, head due east towards Vault 15, but make sure to stop
at the spot marked 'Unknown'.
You can go back inside Vault 13 when you return from the desert. As you enter the vault, there's a wall locker containing some Flares. The Medic here can heal you. About the only other thing you can do besides Quests 1 and 5 is raid the storage room on Level 3. Don't take too much, or the Water Guard will be pissed off!
Quests
Shady Sands
From Vault 13, due east on the way to Vault 15, the place marked
'Unknown' is Shady Sands. Talk to Katrina at the entrance for 250 XP.
Ask Seth about the Radscorpions, and learn about the village doc,
Razlo. Seth has a Rope. If you can steal it, do so... you're gonna need
it! Don't barter for it, because there's another Rope to be found
elsewhere in Shady Sands.
In the first building to the east is Ian (jeans and leather jacket). You can get him to join you. He'll ask for 100 Caps, but you can usually get him to come along for free if you offer him "a piece of the action". Whether or not you have to pay him is a moot point. You can steal it right back as soon as he joins you :-) Ian is very good with Small Guns - as a matter of fact - much better than you are at this stage in the game! And you'll get 100 XP when Ian joins your party.
Tandi is the girl wandering around the place (towards the south) that you can talk to. I originally thought I could convince her to come with me, but it's not possible. Talk to her father, Aradesh. He's the robed figure in the building to the SE (Town Hall). You'll get Quest 2 below if you ask him what's going on around the place. Before you embark on this quest, talk to Razlo the doctor, in the building to the west of Aradesh's place. He'll tell you he's looking for something to help him make a poison cure with. Hmmm. The bookcase behind him also contains a few handy supplies, though he doesn't usually take kindly to you trying to lift the Doctor's Bag.
If you take the exit grid to the east, past Ian's place, there's a farmer there standing in the middle of his garden. With at least 40% Science skill, you get the dialogue option to explain the concept of crop rotation to him, for 500 XP. In the building to the NE of the farmer's garden, there's a bookcase that contains a Rope and a Scout Handbook.
Quests
Once you've freed Tandi, take her straight back to Aradesh and claim your reward. She's absolute crap in a fight :-)
Vault 15
In the shack, take the ladder down to the first level.
Level 1
Kill all the rats on your way to the vault entrance. As you enter the
vault, there's a wall locker containing some Flares. There are 2 more
Flares on the floor, near the elevator. In the back room, to the NE,
there's another wall locker containing some Stimpaks and a First Aid
Kit. Use the Rope you got from Shady Sands on the elevator to proceed
to the next level.
Level 2
The locker in a room to the south contains another Rope, and a Leather
Jacket. Finally, some armour! To the north, on the floor, there's a few
.223 FMJ shells. When you're finished killing the rats on this level,
use the Rope you found in the locker on the elevator to go down to...
Level 3
The 2 lockers in the middle room contain: 2 Frag Grenades, Dynamite,
and a 10mm SMG! In the SE corner, there's a Crowbar on the floor, and
if you have decent Perception (PE) and Intelligence (IN), you'll get
500 XP for noting that the eastern passage to the rest of this level is
blocked by a rockfall. You'll have to look elsewhere for a Water Chip
(hey, you didn't really think it was going to be that easy, did you? :-)
Junktown
Put away your weapon before trying to enter! Through the entranceway is
Lars, the head of the guards here. Talk to him, and you'll find that he
wants both Gizmo and the Skulz gang busted.
Doc Morbid hangs out in the Hospital, just north of where Lars is
standing, beyond the brahmin pens. Head down the ladder and talk to the
midget Gretch. You'll learn that Morbid is using human body parts to
make fake 'Iguana-on-a-stick', which he then sells to "Iguana man Bob"
in the Hub. End the conversation, and take out Gretch. The locker there
is trapped, but you can disable the trap with very little Traps skill
(17% and a few attempts). Opening the locker once the trap is disarmed
is another matter. You need at least 50% Lockpick skill and a set of
Lockpicks. Inside you'll find: 96 x 10mm JHP, 72 x 10mm AP, Doctor's
Bag, 800+ Caps.
Once you're finished in the basement, head back up and finish off
Morbid and his 2 henchmen (Morbid heads back down the ladder, but he
returns once you've taken out his 2 heavies). I only lost 1 Karma point
for doing this, and no one seems to mind as long as the battle doesn't
spill out of the Hospital. Worth it for all the gear you get. Also 2
Frag Grenades in the bookcase upstairs.
Killian Darkwater's store is located off the exit grid just north of the Hospital. Killian is also the mayor of this fine town. Stand a bit to the west of Killian before you begin speaking with him, and have a weapon handy. When you end the conversation, a guy named Kenji wanders into the store and begins firing at Killian. Take him out for 400 XP. When the battle ends, Killian will speak to you again, and he'll ask you to help take down Gizmo, the guy who sent Kenji. Accept the Bug and Tape Recorder from him. Gizmo's casino is located off the northern exit grid. Speak to Gizmo in the back room. Now, you can play this 3 ways:
OK. The best NPC in Fallout is... a dog! He's standing menacingly in front of a door to the east, confronting two people, when you take the northern exit grid near the Crash House Hotel. Dogmeat was previously owned by a biker, so if you're wearing a Leather Jacket, he'll automatically follow you. Failing that, you can also offer him Iguana-on-a-stick (either the real McCoy, or the fake stuff you got from Doc Morbid's place). Dogmeat is pretty good in a fight, but you have to be careful not to spray him with burst weapons, as he always rushes right into the fray and starts gnawing at the ankles of your foes. You get 100 XP when Dogmeat joins your party.
Just north of the Skum Pitt is a makeshift boxing ring. Talk to Gustofer there, and you'll be able to fight Saul... but only once every 3 days. I never bothered to hang around long enough. Anyway, even if you don't fight Saul, you can walk around to the side of the boxing ring and have a chat with him. If you've already spoken with his girlfiend Trish, the waitress in the Skum Pitt bar, you'll get the dialogue choice to convince him that all this boxing action is putting a strain on their relationship, and you save the day for 250 XP.
Quests
Leave the Skum Pitt, and take the south exit grid. Go into the rear entrance of the Crash House Hotel (NE corner of the hotel), and talk to the head of the Skulz (the guy in the jeans and leather jacket, Vinnie). Ask him if you can join his gang. As a test of allegiance, he'll ask you to steal Neal's Urn. Save your game before attempting this! Once you have it (400 XP), return to Vinnie, and he'll ask you to come along when they raid the Skum Pitt. You can accept the offer right away, or report back to Lars, who'll bring some of the guards along to help. Once you've finished taking out Vinnie and Co., Tycho will join your party. He's damn handy with a Shotgun.
Sometimes, if your Karma isn't high enough, the guards will attack you after the fight (they don't like "your kind"). If this happens, it's best to restore and try it without their help. If you wipe the Skulz out by yourself, which isn't all that difficult, you get 300 XP more. But, Tycho won't be there to join you in this case. Before you kiss the Skum Pitt goodbye for good, make sure you return the Urn to Neal for some more Karma points :-)
The Hub
There is a lot
going on here. Head south and cross an exit grid, then round the corner
at the Far Go Traders and head east, then over another exit grid. You
wind up in the Old Town area. In a building to the north, the guy
standing there in Metal Armor is Jacob, the Weapons Dealer. Expensive
he may be, but you'll be spending quite some time (and money) here! He
has a very good selection: Rocket Launcher, Sniper Rifles... and for
you Melee Weapons fans, the ultimate head basher, a Super Sledge (but
you have to ask him for weapons with "more punch" first).
Right next to Jacob's place is Vance, the proscribed substances dealer, specialising in all Chems: Rad-X, RadAway, Psycho, Super Stimpaks, etc. But, you need an introduction from someone before you're allowed to talk to Vance. This someone is a certain Lemmy, who hangs out on the street near the Maltese Falcon bar on the west side of Downtown... but it's gonna cost ya! I couldn't find any way to avoid paying Lemmy in order to get the valuable intro to Vance. He asks for 1000 Caps, but you can get away with 800 if you have high CH.
The Water Merchants are located in the very south of The Hub. Ask the Master Merchant for a Water Chip. She'll reply that Necropolis might have one. Ask why Necropolis would need one. Hmmm. Interesting. Whatever you do, don't have her deliver water to your vault, for reasons that will become obvious later on.
If you speak with Deputy Fry (standing in the middle of the street with
two other Hub officers near the entrance to The Hub - daytime only),
you'll learn that the Sheriff wants to put a guy named Decker away, but
doesn't have sufficient evidence to do so. If you then go talk to
Decker (see Quest 2 below), you'll have this evidence and you can use
it immediately to bring Decker down by 'reporting a crime' to Sheriff
Justin Greene at the Police Station, located just to the east of the
GUNS store. Sheriff Greene will ask you to accompany him in taking out
Decker, and for this you net 1400 XP and 1300 Caps; however, you can do
both Quests 1 and 2 below, thus netting both a lot more XP and Caps, and still
report Decker to Greene afterwards! Even with high CH and Speech skill
though, you may have to talk to him a few times before he accepts your
story and believes that you didn't have anything to do with the
murders. This plan of attack gains you a whole lot more material in the
long run, but at the expense of quite a few Karma points for wiping out
all those innocents. Your call.
In any case, after you and the
Sheriff take out Decker, remember to head back down to the basement of
the Maltese Falcon and take all the gear off the bodies - especially
Kane. He was a walking Chem store!
I suppose you could do worse than hire on with one of the caravans. You get to see some places you may not have been to before, and you get XP for killing enemies en route. The Far Go Traders visit: The Brotherhood, Junktown, and the LA Boneyard. They pay 400 Caps each way. Crimson Caravans (located just west across the Downtown centre from Far Go) visit all of the places mentioned above, plus Necropolis. They pay higher (600 Caps each way), but the work is riskier because the random encounters you get with them are harder. Each caravan outfit only makes runs at set times of the month, so you may have to wait around a few days for one to leave.
The Friendly Lending Company (FLC) is located just to the west of the GUNS store. You can take out Lorenzo and his two cronies (careful! They all have SMG's) without losing any Karma points, and the police won't come after you. I was able to open Lorenzo's vault with 40% Lockpick skill and a set of normal Lockpicks. Inside, there are loads of goodies on the shelf (most notably some Flamethrower fuel), and about 2000 Caps in the locker.
On the west side of Downtown, south of the Maltese Falcon bar, there's a guy standing in a derelict building. His name is Irwin, and if you chat with him, he'll ask you to save his farm from a pack of raiders that have taken it over. After you wipe out the raiders and return to Irwin, he'll present you with a one-of-a-kind .223 Pistol (made by sawing off the barrel of a .223 Rifle) as a reward. This is one hell of a weapon, and well worth the bother you have to go through to obtain it!
Just NE of where Irwin was hanging out, there's Bob's Iguana Bits. Seeing as how you know all about Doc Morbid's evil doings from your Junktown encounter, you can blackmail Iguana Bob (and promise you'll be silent about where he gets his meat) for a couple hundred Caps a week. You get 500 XP for this, but you lose a few Karma points. Really now, don't heroes have better things to be doing with their time?
Quests
Once inside the cave, make sure you have your best weapons fully loaded, then head for the area to the SW... Oops! Targeted shots to the eyes is your best chance against a Deathclaw. If you're lucky enough to have a powerful long range weapon (like a Sniper Rifle, or a... ahem, Rocket Launcher), you might even be able to waste the thing before he gets close enough to rip your throat out. If he does close in on you, then Flares also help, because it's dark in here, dammit! Anyway, once you've vanquished the Deathclaw, talk to the dying mutant in the corner. He'll spout some gibberish, give you a Holodisk, then pass away. Load the Holodisk into your Pip Boy. Hey, evidence! Take the Holodisk back to the Far Go Traders and speak with Butch again. Uh oh. He's not really interested in what you found. But Rutger is! He can read Holodisks too, and you get the rest of the XP and 800 Caps from him.
Wait till the guard leaves the door (up the street to the north), then high-tail it for that door and get inside. Daren and his wife should be in their bedroom (if you come here during the daytime, Daren is in his office, and you won't be able to get the necklace). Make your way to the room in the centre of the house that contains a strongbox. It's best if you can disarm the trap guarding the strongbox before attempting to open it, but if you can't, it doesn't make any difference. No one seems to hear the trap go off! Take the necklace from the strongbox and make sure the guard has left his post outside before attempting to exit, by the same route you came in. Once around the south corner of the building, you should be able to compose yourself, and then sneak safely across the street and back over the exit grid (if anything goes wrong during this quest, you can waste anyone except Daren Hightower himself and still complete it successfully, so there's really no pressure on you to escape unscathed). Back at the Thieve's Guild, return the Necklace to Loxley, then see Jasmine for the remainder of your reward.
Necropolis
Head west around the Motel, then north to the manhole in the middle of
the street (down is the only way to go, as topside is blocked by
debris). If the ghouls you see are still alive, you got here in time
(if you didn't, no big problem - just that things don't wind up as
'happily ever after' as they could have). Avoid the ghouls if they are
still alive. They won't bother you if you don't bother them. Once
underground, head northwards until you encounter a group of ghouls.
Talk to the ghoul leader. Find out about Set, and more importantly, the
Water Shed. Offer to fix their pump, and you'll get Quest 2 below. Then
head north again, taking a ladder upwards when you can proceed no
further (you'll see a small area just to the north, with a manhole and
a ladder in it that you can't get to).
You emerge in a building full of ghouls. Head west out of this building, then north past another manhole with a Mutant to the west of it. The building directly to the north is the Water Shed. Now, you have to get past Harry, the black-clothed Super Mutant there. Save your game before approaching Harry! If you have decent Charisma (CH) and at least 50% Speech skill, you can try bluffing your way by, pretending to be a ghoul. If not, you'll have to take out Harry and his friends. This is no mean feat early in the game, but it's possible if you're careful about it. The best way is to go to the north side of the building and start sniping at him through the windows. Then pick off his friends one by one as they come at you around the corner of the building. Harry has a Laser Rifle, and one of his mates has a Flamer. These are lethal Big Guns, so watch out for any NPC's you have in tow! The bookcases behind Harry contain some very useful weaponry and ammo.
Just once, it's... interesting to find out what happens if you let Harry take you to his "boss". Make sure you save the game first though!!! (actually, if you have enough HP, and are wearing at least Combat Armor, it's possible to survive this... encounter. It's then possible to escape, and continue the game from where you wind up! Just goes to show you how much depth there is to Fallout. I describe this scenario fully later on in the guide, but I don't want to spoil anything for now :-)
Once inside the Water Shed, you'll see the broken water pump in the NE corner. To the south of there is a row of cells. 500 XP if you manage to free the imprisoned ghoul there. In any case, head down the manhole in the room east of his cell. Take out the 2 glowing ghouls there. Caution is of the essence, as they radiate you when they hit you! Proceed from there straight into Vault 12 and down the elevator. Skirt carefully around the ghouls on Level 2. In the room to the NW, there is a wall locker. You have to take out the 3 ghouls standing there to get to it, but it's worth it. Inside are 2 doses of the anti-radiation pills, Rad-X. Handy for later. Head down to Level 3 next. In the SE corner here there's a live Computer. Yup, it contains the Water Chip :-) Take it (for 2500 XP!), but be prepared to fight the 3 glowing ghouls here on the way back out. Um... now that you have the Water Chip, you just might want to return to your vault... well, go on! What are you waiting for?!
In an area just to the NE of where the ghoul leader is, there are a few Molerats. Usually, there's also a body there with a Plasma Pistol on it!
Quests
Brotherhood of Steel
Eventually, after hearing of it from many sources, your wanderings
through the wasteland will lead you to a lonely outpost in the desert
guarded by two men with advanced weapons and armour. This is the
entrance to the Brotherhood of Steel - a very important place! You
should begin your efforts here by tackling Quest 1 below.
Once you become an Initiate and gain access to the Brotherhood facilities, there's loads you can do to prepare for your increasingly difficult encounters in the wasteland. For starters, you should see Talus in the training hall to the SE of Level 1. If you just stand around for a while, you'll absorb some training, which adds 5% to both Unarmed and Melee Weapons skills and earns you 500 XP to boot! Then, talk to Talus. He'll give you Quest 2, and also authorise you to pick up a set of Brotherhood Armor, plus 3 separate lots of basic ammo, from Michael the supply room clerk, who's standing just outside the training hall.
The Botherhood's Doctor (Level 2, to the north in room with operating table) can reduce your radiation level, provided you didn't take too many rems. The lockers behind the Doc also contain a wealth of handy chems! In addition, you may opt to go for any or all of the following operations to increase the related stat by one point, but beware that they cost precious time and money:
ST: 2000 Caps + 3 weeks recuperation time
PE: 4000 Caps + 1 week recuperation time
EN: 3000 Caps + 1 week recuperation time
IN: 6000 Caps + 3 weeks recuperation time
AG: 5000 Caps + 3 weeks recuperation time
You must see Vree, one of the robed figures in the middle room on Level 3! She's one smart cookie, and will offer you training on a computer console there to add 15% to your Science skill! But even more importantly, be sure you try everything in your power to obtain the Autopsy Disk from her (ask her what's causing the mutations), because it contains some information that could prove very useful indeed later on in the game :-) If you ask her how to protect yourself from radiation, she'll also give you a Rad-X.
On Level 4, If you talk to one of the 4 High Elders (conference room to north), you'll be asked to scout the area to the north on the World Map, looking for signs of a military build-up there. Hmmm. Not an official quest, but you could put this on your agenda of things to do. If you do scout the area to the NW (careful!), when you return and report this fact, you'll be promised some assistance from the Brotherhood should you ever decide to attack the place you found. Also, speak to General Maxson, a central figure in the whole Fallout scheme of things, and a real fun guy to chat with. If you offer to scout the area to the north, Maxson's assistant Mathia will authorise you to receive a free weapon of your choice. The High Elders suspect that Maxson is loopers. I'm afraid I have to agree.
You eventually leave The Brotherhood as a stronger, wiser person... and a walking tank nonetheless!
Quests
Once you've wiped these thugs out, open the locked door at the back to free the Initiate, then return to The Brotherhood again and see Talus for your reward. Personally, I'd always go for the Power Armor, because The Brotherhood is the only source for it in Fallout! However, if you don't have high enough Karma yet (as happened to me the first time I played!) then you may not be offered the Power Armor by Talus. However, there is one other way to get Power Armor. See paragraph below (well, you can try wiping out the whole first level of The Brotherhood and then take it from the storeroom there. But that's kinda tough without Power Armor. Oh, the irony of it all :-)
If you don't get offered Power Armor by Talus, or decide to take a weapon instead, here's another way to get it: Go to Level 3, and talk to Kyle, who is repairing some Power Armor in the room to the SE there. He tells you that he needs a 'Systolic Motivator' in order to get it working. Go back up to Level 1, and enter Rhombus' room (in the middle of the level. You see him standing in the bathroom there). You'll need pretty good Sneak and Steal skills and/or a lot of attempts to be able to get the Motivator from his locker without being detected. Alternatively, if you have high CH and Speech skill (I did it with CH 10 and Speech 50%, but lower than that will probably work too), you can talk Michael the supply room clerk out of one! Once you have it, head back down to Kyle. You need at least 80% Repair skill (or less if you have a repair Tool and some luck, plus Kyle gives you some Manuals) in order to get the Armor working, but once you do, it's yours!
The Glow
Nothing strikes more fear into the heart of the Fallout newbie than the
prospect of encountering that dreaded silent killer... RADIATION! But,
it all comes down to taking some simple precautions:
I hope you brought a Rope along with you. If not, better start walking back to The Hub. Check out the General Store there, next to the Maltese Falcon bar.
Look on the left hand side of the large crater there, and you'll see a beam. Use a Rope on the beam, and head down to:
Level 1
Once inside (eerie place this. Don't worry about any NPC's you have in
tow. They're not affected by the radiation), make your way toward the
room containing the guy in "strange armor". Take the Brotherhood Tape
and Yellow Pass Key from his body. Be sure to pilfer all the bodies you
find in The Glow, seeing as they often harbour useful items. Use the
Yellow Pass Key on the elevator in the SW corner to go to Level 2.
Level 2
Get the Red Pass Key off the dead guard in the room to the NE. Check
all the bodies and lockers here too. Use the Yellow Pass Key again to
get to...
Level 3
When finished here, use the Red Pass Key on the new elevator, which takes you to Level 4.
Level 4
Things start to hot up a bit here. Literally. Get the Geiger Counter
from the locker to the north, and use it from now on to determine how
much radiation you've picked up. If you got it right with the Rad-X,
you should be somewhere under 10 rems, easily remedied with a single
RadAway (each one removes 25 rems from your system, but wait till you
leave The Glow before using any). Anything more than 100 rems means
you've done something wrong, but you're still not dead meat if you pop
another Rad-X and get back up to 100% Rad Resistance. A reading over
1000 means... you're toast. Better revert to an earlier saved game and
try again.
Make sure you take the Blue Pass Key off the guard in the SW corner.
Here you meet Zax, the sentient mainframe. As you were cautioned above, don't accept an invitation to play chess, as all you will accomplish is the whittling away of a few precious hours of your Rad-X resistance! However, do take the opportunity to peruse Zax's database (if you have the necessary IN and Science skill to enable a logon. Remember not to read any books in an attempt to increase your Science skill. That will blow your Rad-X resistance too). Here you will learn about FEV (Forced Evolution Virus). It can make you immortal, but has the nasty side effect of... anyway, when you're finished here, use the Red Pass Key on the elevator which takes you to Level 6 (Level 5 is unattainable for the time being). Level 6 is covered in Quest 1 below.
Level 5
Hey, no peeking! If you didn't get here from Level 6 (Quest 1), then go read that section first, please.
After battling your way past a few sentry robots, you get to reap the harvest of all your labours in The Glow. One of the lockers here contains a Plasma Rifle, the most powerful Energy Weapon in the game! The row of wall lockers to the east also contains a veritable goldmine of weapons (Minigun!), assorted high tech, and ammo. Take as much as you and your party members can carry, because you won't be coming back here in a hurry.
On the way back up to the surface, you will have to battle the sentry robots that have come to life on all the levels. Pulse Grenades come in very handy here, but targeted shots to the sensors with a Sniper Rifle, or blasting your way though with the newly acquired Plasma Rifle will net you the exit and the XP just the same :-)
Quests
LA Boneyard
You begin here in a village called Adytum. If you head south, then
enter the second building to the west, you'll meet Jon Zimmerman, the
Mayor. He'll offer you 2000 Caps to take out the leader of the Blades
gang. If you take the exit from Adytum and keep heading north, you'll
run into the place where the Blades hang out. Talk to Razor, and you'll
find out what's really
going down here. It seems that the Regulators, who Zimmerman trusts to
guard Adytum, are actually a real nasty bunch of criminals, and it is
in fact they who have murdered Zimmerman's son. Razor will give you a
disk with evidence of this on it; however, before you can help the
Blades take on the Regulators, you need to get them some weapons...
which is just as well, because there are a few other things you should
do in Adytum before the bullets start flying, and there is a chance
that someone who could do you a big favour might wind up on the wrong
end of one :-)
So, when you've completed
Quest 2 below, and have got Miles and Smitty to spruce up your gear,
then you can head for the Gun Runners place (east of the Blades to
where the Deathclaws hang out, then east again), and talk to Gabriel,
their leader. If you agree to wipe out all the Deathclaws (or have done
so already), you'll get 1000 XP when you report this to Gabriel, plus
he'll agree to supply weapons to the Blades! Mamma Deathclaw is in the
basement of the place where you found the dead Merchant, down a
stairwell in the northern part of the building. Make sure you get all
the eggs too, or the Deathclaws can regenerate. Zack at the Gun Runners
is a great source for weapons, so make sure you do a few deals with
him. He's got Plasma Rifles and lots of ammo at reasonable prices!
When you've done all this, you can finally go report back to Razor, but
make sure you're ready for battle before you do so. And, you might want
to crank up the combat speed in the Preferences panel first, because a
very long battle for Adytum is about to take place! By the way... if
you try to go to Zimmerman with Razor's Holodisk first, one of the
Regulators overhears the conversation and all that you accomplish is
getting Zimmerman killed, and you then have to take on the Regulators without help from the Blades. Not a recommended course of action.
In any event, you get 2000 XP for taking out the Regulators. There is a
strange thing that happens after the battle; a bug, really. Razor is
now standing at the entrance to Adytum, and thanks you for helping them
out. Yet, if you go back to the Blade's hangout, there's a dead Razor
there.
MacRae, the tough guy standing guard outside the Blade's place, will
offer to train you in Unarmed, but only once the battle is over. Can't
tell you how many points this will add to your skill, because I was
already well topped up in Unarmed, and it didn't seem to have any
effect on me.
Just to the west of the entrance to Adytum, there's a little shack with a manhole in it. Tine, the proprietor, has some ammo for sale, and also Dynamite and Plastic Explosives, but you have to check his tables in order to find these.
You'll find Chuck the fortune teller in a tent in the SE of Adytum. If you ask him for advice, he'll give you a tarot reading. Keep persisting until he gives the third reading, where he draws The Fool. This will increase your Luck by 1 point!
West of the Blade's place, over an exit grid, you'll find a library where the Followers of the Apocalypse hang out. Katja, the blonde girl standing in the room by the main entrance, will join your party (worth 200 XP). She's good with Throwing Knives, and an SMG. Make sure you speak with Nicole, who also lurks on the ground floor of the library. Keep asking questions about the Children of the Cathedral. When you finally get around to offering your help to get rid of them, she'll give you a contact name (Laura) and a catchphrase. Should come in handy later :-) So might a purple robe. There is one lying on the floor in the room next to where Nicole is standing.
Quests
So, head out of Adytum, then take the exit grid to the east of the Blade's place, and you're in Deathclaw territory. The parts you need ('Junk') are on a dead Merchant lying across the street from a newspaper machine, in the eastern part of this area. Bring the Junk back to Miles, and he'll tell you to go to Smitty to get them repaired. Hmph. Smitty is located in the first building to the SE as you enter Adytum. Bring the repaired parts back to Miles again for your reward. It's meagre, but now you're in the good books! Literally. If you agree to travel to The Hub for Miles and pick up some Chemistry Journals from the Librarian (Mrs. Stapleton, remember? You have to fork out 750 Caps in cash for them though, so be prepared), he can make a certain armour that you may be wearing even tougher. Likewise, Smitty can make a certain weapon fire quicker, so that it takes one less AP for you to use in combat :-)
Cathedral
The Cathedral is located to the south of the LA Boneyard on the world
map. If you've been mucking around with the Followers of the Apocalypse
in the Boneyard, then a few of them will join you as soon as you arrive
here. At this stage in the game, they are probably more of a nuisance
than anything, especially if you're trying to sneak around the place!
Enter the Cathedral, and seek out Laura, Nicole's friend, in the room to the NW of the entranceway. If you got the catchphrase from Nicole and are able to mention it, Laura will lead you to another place where it's safe to talk. Then, you can get her to open a door for you (in the Cathedral proper, where the vid screens are) that leads further into the Cathedral. If you can't get Laura to open the door for you, then you can blow it open, but you'll make all the people standing in the room next to it hostile towards you!
There are a few interesting characters here on the first level of the Cathedral: Dr. Wu is standing in the corner of a room with a locked ice chest in it, SW of the main Cathedral room. He's pretty whacked out for a doc; he hates the whole universe for starters. If you trust him, you can let him patch you up... at your own risk! You can also take him out, but then everyone else in the area comes after you. The ice chest contains some useful chems, most notably 5 Super Stimpaks (the room just to the north of Dr. Wu's also contains a bookcase full of chems). Fr. 'Lasher' is in the NW room. Watch out, he's got a Cattle Prod! Nasty little weapon.
Once you get past the initial door into the Tower (see section regarding Laura above), there are several ways to proceed. I'll try to categorise them for you here.
Cathedral Lair, Level 1
Nothing much here except a locker with some chems. Take the elevator to Level 2.
Cathedral Lair, Level 2
In a room immediately to the south of the elevator, you see two Mutant
sentries and some doctors. If you take the door off the corridor
farthest away from them, and skirt carefully around the edge of the
room, you can make it to the terminal in the south of the room and use
it to release the prisoners. Oops! 2000 XP for releasing them, but
there's nothing you can do to save them :-(
In the room to the NW, talk to the prisoner named Gideon. 1000 XP if you can talk him into giving you a Psychic Nullifier. Could come in handy later! When you are finished here, take the elevator to:
Cathedral Lair, Level 3
You have two options here too. You can either confront The Master (see
below), or take a slightly more devious route. The more devious route
starts off none too deviously by you having to fight your way through
the locker room full of Super Mutants that you see to the SW as soon as
you exit the elevator. You can get Dogmeat through this encounter quite
easily, though you might need to restore a few times, as he takes the
odd blast or two from a Mutant he's gnawing the legs off of. Once
through to the back of this locker room, you'll need an Electronic
Lockpick to get through the first door, and decent Lockpick skill to
get past the elevator door. Take the elevator to Level 4.
Cathedral Lair, Level 4
Pick the lock on the door at the end of the corridor, and take out the
two Super Mutants guarding the room. Yup, it's a nuclear warhead. You
can either blow the place up by using your Science skill on the
Computer (I had 80% Science skill at this stage) or, if you got a key
from the Lieutenant's locker on Level 4 of the Military Base, and you
were wondering what it's for... this is what it's for! You can use it
on the Computer to arm the warhead. Either way, then follow the
instructions below under: Cathedral wrap-up.
If you decide to confront The Master instead, make your way through the control room of Super Mutants and robed figures to the SE. On the eastern side of this room is a door leading to a very long corridor. If you walk through this corridor unprotected, you'll lose quite a few PE points due to the extreme psychic power emanating from the walls here. To prevent this, you need to either be in possession of a Psychic Nullifier (see Cathedral Lair, Level 2 above), or believe it or not, there's a Perk called Mental Block that will get you through! Either way, at the other end of this corridor awaits The Master. You can talk him into destroying himself (see Talk your way through above), but since you already got this far by wasting every creature in sight, why not have a go at him too? :-)
(Note: Dogmeat management all through the Cathedral has not been too difficult, has it? But if you decide to take on The Master here... well, you're going to need a lot of luck to see him through it).
The clever way to do this is to hide behind one of the pillars, stepping out just far enough to snipe him once per turn, then stepping back behind the pillar. Unfortunately, he spawns one of his lieutenants every so often. They come at you from the corridor, so you'll have to contend with dispatching them at the same time. Anyway, once you've killed The Master, follow the instructions immediately below.
Cathedral wrap-up
When the timer starts and the Cathedral is set to blow, you have 4
minutes to make your way back outside and onto the exit grid. I would
recommend saving the game immediately the countdown commences... in
case you make a mistake trying to get out. Just retrace your steps from
the way you came in (unless, of course, you opted for the Talk your way through
method above. In that case: find the elevator. Head up to Level 1,
through the cave, open the 'secret' door in the wall that blocks your
way, head up the stairs at the other end of the basement, and you have
it made)! Don't worry if you have to fight any battles on the way back,
because combat doesn't occur in real time, and you have more time than
you think.
Once you step on the exit grid outside the Cathedral, you get to watch the show. Congratulations! You just got 10000 XP for completing Quest 2 for Vault 13. If you destroyed the Military Base prior to coming here, then you have also finished the game :-)
Military Base
The Military Base is located on a beeline NW of The Brotherhood, in the
far NW corner of the World Map. It's marked as 'Unknown'. Careful when
approaching, because there are some hefty Super Mutant patrols in the
area. If the Brotherhood Paladins agreed to help you, then several of
them will show up as you arrive. I'd recommend leaving your party
members right here outside the compound. They'll never survive what's
looming ahead, and you can always pick them up again on the way out.
Since you can't get rid of poor Dogmeat, I suggest shooting him up with
Psycho to make the little pooch tougher. No harm in doing this to
yourself either. Then, arm yourself to the hilt, and get ready for some
great action!
Take out the 4 Super Mutants guarding the compound (if the Paladins are with you, they will help, natch). To get through the locked door into the Base, you can either grab the tape with the door combination on it off the dead Mutant there, or use an Electronic Lockpick. If you also take the Radio from the same dead Mutant, you can use it to convince the guards inside that everything is OK, and this will buy you some time once you get in. The Paladins won't follow you in, unfortunately.
Level 1
There's a Computer over on the east side (with a Mutant guarding it)
that you can play blackjack on. When you win, you're granted access to
the force field controls. Next use your Science skill on it to disable
the force fields. It says that you only manage to disable half the
field subsystems... but what it really means is that you've managed to
disable half the security! What you can then do is use the Radio on
this Computer, which links it into the force field controls. Now you
can toggle the green fields on and off at will just by using the Radio.
This works on all but the bottom level of the base, where you'll still
have to disable the fields manually. You can't disable the red fields,
but you can temporarily disable the green fields manually (instead of
using the Radio) once you have at least 60% Repair skill and/or a Tool.
Just use either the Repair skill or the Tool on the cylindrical
emitters (top or bottom). It might take 2 or 3 attempts, but the field
will shut off for a few seconds when you succeed.
If Dogmeat is still with you, then you'll need to look after him once inside the base. The red force fields take HP from critters each time they pass through, and if you linger near one of them, Dogmeat will keep wandering back and forth through it until he's toast. So... one way to solve this problem is to trap him between 2 green fields, as these are impassable. Then you can wander off busting Mutant chop without having to worry about him, and collect Dogmeat when you're ready to leave a particular level. There's a room in the middle of this level protected by 2 fields. Just stand right next to one of the emitters and shut it down (using the Radio is the easiest way). Let Dogmeat wander into the room, and eventually he'll be trapped when the field comes back again (or, if you're quick, you can use the Radio or repair the emitter again to turn it back on). Of course, you have to get the timing right :-) Mysteriously, even though he's trapped, Dogmeat joins you again whenever you exit a level! Damn. Anyway, boost his health again with a Stimpak just after you take him through each red field, and he'll survive (you can't avoid the red fields totally, since they're protecting each elevator). Another reason for keeping him immobile is to prevent him getting blown to shreds from the advanced weaponry you're about to face!
In the SW corner of this level is a room full of Super Mutants. I just approached them through the red force field and sniped at them from around the corner. Piece of cake :-) When you're done here, you can take the elevator down to Level 2. Dogmeat will automatically join you!
Level 2
To the south as you enter, there's a green force field with a robot
behind it. Disable the field and step just past it, blocking Dogmeat.
He should get stuck outside when the field re-activates. Then dispatch
the robots, and also the Super Mutants in the room further to the
south. Now, come back outside, and trap Dogmeat inside where you just
were (there's another green field leading into a dormitory on the SE
end of these rooms). Now, you're free to wreak some real havoc!
Head through the red force field to the east, and pause at the top of the corridor that leads into the dormitory. You can snipe at the pack of Super Mutants from here. Plasma Rifle and Rocket Launcher (especially when they bunch together :-) do a nice job here. When you've blasted them all, the footlockers and wall lockers contain lots of useful ammo (not to mention the bodies). Then, if you can manage to pick the lock on the door, the locker room to the SE contains loads of goodies: (ironically, you probably wouldn't have gotten this far if you didn't already have most of this gear) Plasma Rifle, Plasma Grenades, Rocket Launcher, Rippers, Minigun, etc. Finally, you can enter the NE section of this floor. Surprise! Lockers full of every chem. There's even a wall locker in the room to the north. Now you can head down to Level 3.
Level 3
On this Level, just let Dogmeat tag along. You'll get trapped
immediately as you come through the first red field by some Mutants
engaging you in battle. Dogmeat will stay safely behind you. Take care
of the 3 Mutants here, then walk out of the field and Stimpak Dogmeat
after he comes through. Then head east, round the corner, and head for
the Mutant behind the green force field. Take him out. Now for an
interesting diversion...
War Story
The Super Mutant guard blocking the hallway (next to the room with the
girl inside) will talk to you as soon as you approach. He wants to take
you to his 'Lieutenant'. Now - you can refuse, wipe him out, and
continue on... or you can let him take you to the Lieutenant. This is
the same thing that happens to you in Necropolis if you let Harry (the
guard in the Watershed) take you to his "boss". If you're at least
wearing Combat Armor, and have decent HP, you can probably survive the
beating (assuming you don't give away the location of your vault first,
and you don't want to do that :-) The result is that you get
stripped of all your possessions and thrown into a cell. The cell
contains the body of a (former) vault dweller, and from it you obtain a
10mm Pistol and 3 Stimpaks. You can pick the lock of your cell and
sneak around the place. Of course, taking on a Super Mutant with no
armor and a handgun isn't going to get you very far (unless you're a
HtH expert. Again, the balance in Fallout is incredible!) Now,
rumour has it (i.e., someone else's war story) that you can find your
possessions again, but I searched all the rooms in the vicinity, and
tried stealing from the guard. Nowhere to be found. But I didn't give
up. Turns out, you can quite easily sneak all around the place, set it
up to self-destruct, and beetle it out of there wearing nothing more
than your vault dweller suit and a big smile. Then I hit The Glow
again, raided it for weapons and Combat Armor, traded some surplus
stuff up with the Gun Runners, and finished the rest of the game that
way. What a game!
...OK, so you take out the guard instead of visiting the Lieutenant. Continue down the hallway, and take the elevator to...
Level 4
The Dogmeat 'trap' here is pretty obvious. After exiting the elevator,
just sneak around the corner to the west (past the room full of Mutants
and a strange robot) and trap him behind the green force field to the
north. Ignore the Mutants and that robot for the moment, and head east
through the red force field. Try to sneak past that room full of robots
to the north, and pause behind the corner before you get to the room
full of Mutants and a priest to the SE. Now, that's your basic
Lieutenant armed with a Gatling Laser and more HP than you could hope
to accumulate in a lifetime of playing Fallout... but I never had too
much trouble taking him out, and he's got a great death animation. From
the Lieutenant's body, you can pilfer a Decoder Disk and load it onto
your Pip Boy (for later). The locker on the west side of the room
contains a strange Key that can be used somewhere in the Cathedral :-)
If you like, you can now proceed to that room you left behind with the 3 Mutants and a robot in it. Take out the Mutants, being careful not to harm the robot. Hey, it's Mr. Handy - remember, from the game intro?! You can repair him, then use your Science skill to start him up. What's he do then? Does he offer to take Dogmeat for a walk? No. He goes storming off to the north to finish his 'cleaning', and destroys himself and the force field emitter there in the process. Hmph. Big help.
Finally, it's showtime at the Military Base! Enter the room to the NW where all the priests are, and proceed to the terminal with the glowing monitors (the Vat Control Computer). Less intelligent characters (especially if you dumbed yourself down with Psycho) may have to pop a Mentat or two before tackling the next job, which is to hack into it. The tape you got off the dead Lieutenant and loaded onto your Pip Boy will help here too. You should choose the option: "Attempt to hack the firewall...", and then "Initiate 3 minute silent self-destruct sequence." Actually, you get 300 seconds, but who's counting at this stage? You have ample time to make it back outside (remember to look after Dogmeat!), collect the party members you left hanging out there, and step on the exit grid. KABLOOIE!!! You just completed Quest 3 for Vault 13, netted another 10000 XP, and have finished the game if you took care of The Master in the Cathedral first :-)
Game Ending Notes
You can never get a good ending for The Hub. If you managed to get to
Necropolis before the Mutant army overruns it, and you fixed the Water
Pump, you will get a good ending there. All the endings for the other
places sort of make sense, depending on what actions you took during
the course of the game.
I'm afraid the Overseer has some bad news for you. And if you took the Bloody Mess trait, or you have bad Karma... well, violence is your bag then!
Random Encounters
You'll need Luck of 9 or 10 in order to get all these encounters during
the course of a single game. They all happen when you're just wandering
through the wasteland.
Giant Footprint
You come across a giant footprint, in the center of which is a Stealth Boy.
Bob's Used Cars
An old used car lot in the middle of nowhere. Forget about Bob. Head
inside and find the Red Ryder LE (Limited Edition) BB Gun! One of the
best Small Guns in the game.
Tardis
Straight out of Doctor Who. When you approach it, it disappears... only to reveal: a Motion Detector.
Truck full of Caps
You stumble upon an overturned truck that was carrying a load of Caps. Usually, 10000 or thereabouts!
Crashed Saucer
Some dead aliens, a fantastic weapon (Alien Blaster. Now, there's a
curious thing. The aliens use Small Energy Cells too, huh? Oh, right. Chariots of the Gods, of course!), and... a picture of Elvis :-)
Patrick
You chance upon an old traveller in the desert. He'll give you
directions to all the places you probably know about already, but if he
mentions Celtic songs, and you get the dialogue choice to name one, you
sing along with Patrick for a while and get 1 point added to your CH!
Weapons Catalogue
In each category, I've tried to arrange the various items in order of lethality... or just sheer badness :P
Note: all Melee Weapon damage points are for a character with ST 6, and no Bonus HtH Damage perks.
Melee Weapons:
Brass Knuckles
Dmg: 2-6
Knife
Dmg: 1-7
Club
Dmg: 1-7
Combat Knife
Dmg: 3-11
Spiked Knuckles
Dmg: 4-11
Crowbar
Dmg: 3-11
Sledgehammer
Dmg: 4-10 Rng: 2
Spear
Dmg: 3-11 Rng: 2
Cattle Prod
Dmg: 12-21
Ammo: 20 x Small Energy Cell
Power Fist
Dmg: 12-25
Ammo: 25 x Small Energy Cell
Ripper
Dmg: 15-33
Ammo: 30 x Small Energy Cell
Super Sledge
Dmg: 18-37 Rng: 2
Thrown Weapons:
Throwing Knife
Dmg: 3-6 Rng: 16
Spear
Dmg: 3-11 Rng: 8
Molotov Cocktail
Dmg: 8-20 Rng: 12
Grenade (Frag)
Dmg: 20-35 Rng: 15
Grenade (Plasma)
Dmg: 40-90 Rng: 15
Grenade (Pulse)
Dmg: 100-150 Rng: 15
Anti-mech only
Small Guns:
Red Ryder BB Gun
Dmg: 1-3 Rng: 22
Ammo: 100 x BB's
9mm Mauser
Dmg: 5-10 Rng: 22
Ammo: 7 x 9mm Ball
10mm Pistol
Dmg: 5-12 Rng: 25
Ammo: 12 x 10mm
Hunting Rifle
Dmg: 8-20 Rng: 40
Ammo: 10 x .223mm FMJ
Desert Eagle .44
Dmg: 10-16 Rng: 25
Ammo: 8 x .44 Magnum
Shotgun
Dmg: 12-22 Rng: 14
Ammo: 2 x 12 ga. Shot
14mm Pistol
Dmg: 12-22 Rng: 24
Ammo: 6 x 14mm
.223 Pistol
Dmg: 20-30 Rng: 30
Ammo: 5 x .223 FMJ
Sniper Rifle
Dmg: 14-34 Rng: 50
Ammo: 6 x .223 FMJ
10mm SMG
Dmg: 5-12 Rng: 25
Ammo: 30 x 10mm
Combat Shotgun
Dmg: 15-25 Rng: 22
Ammo: 12 x 12 ga. Shot
Assault Rifle
Dmg: 8-16 Rng: 45
Ammo: 24 x 5mm
Red Ryder LE BB Gun
Dmg: 25-25 Rng: 32
Ammo: 100 x BB's
Big Guns:
Flamer
Dmg: 45-90 Rng: 5
Ammo: 5 x Flamethrower Fuel
Rocket Launcher
Dmg: 35-100 Rng: 40
Ammo: 1 x Rocket
Minigun
Dmg: 7-11 Rng: 35
Ammo: 120 x 5mm
Min. ST 7
Energy Weapons:
Laser Pistol
Dmg: 10-22 Rng: 35
Ammo: 12 x Small Energy Cell
Plasma Pistol
Dmg: 15-35 Rng: 20
Ammo: 16 x Small Energy Cell
Laser Rifle
Dmg: 25-50 Rng: 45
Ammo: 12 x Micro Fusion Cell
Plasma Rifle
Dmg: 30-65 Rng: 25
Ammo: 10 x Micro Fusion Cell
Turbo Plasma Rifle
Dmg: 35-70 Rng: 35
Ammo: 10 x Micro Fusion Cell
Alien Blaster
Dmg: 30-90 Rng: 10
Ammo: 30 x Small Energy Cell
Gatling Laser
Dmg: 20-40 Rng: 40
Ammo: 30 x Micro Fusion Cell
Armour Catalogue
In order of protection afforded.
Leather Jacket
AC: 8
Normal 0/20%
Laser 0/20%
Fire 0/20%
Plasma 0/10%
Explode 0/20%
Leather Armor
AC: 15
Normal 2/25%
Laser 0/20%
Fire 0/20%
Plasma 0/10%
Explode 0/20%
Metal Armor
AC: 10
Normal 4/30%
Laser 6/75%
Fire 4/10%
Plasma 4/20%
Explode 4/25%
Tesla Armor
AC: 15
Normal 7/20%
Laser 19/90%
Fire 4/10%
Plasma 9/80%
Explode 3/20%
Combat Armor
AC: 20
Normal 5/40%
Laser 8/60%
Fire 4/30%
Plasma 4/50%
Explode 6/40%
Brotherhood Armor
AC: 20
Normal 8/40%
Laser 8/70%
Fire 7/50%
Plasma 7/60%
Explode 8/40%
Power Armor
AC: 25
Normal 12/40%
Laser 18/80%
Fire 12/60%
Plasma 10/40%
Explode 20/50%
Hardened Power Armor
AC: 25
Normal 16/50%
Laser 19/90%
Fire 14/70%
Plasma 12/50%
Explode 19/60%
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank the following people for contributing to the latest
version of this guide. Thanks very much for the tips and corrections,
folks :-)
David K. Gasaway
See the Quandary Review of Fallout.
Copyright © Steve Metzler 2002. All rights reserved.
Fallout 2
Developer/Publisher: Interplay
Walkthrough
by Steve Metzler (1999)
I tried to base this guide on all the possible quests, things to find, and things to do in each location. It's more of a guide than a walkthrough, though it does contain detailed instructions for some of the tricky bits. I feel that this structure will allow you to role-play freely (different characters have to solve problems in different ways), yet still help you to find obscure objects or quests. If you are looking for a specific object or location, just search for the name of it with your browser.
Orientation-wise, directions are always given assuming that the top of your screen is 'north'. The longer compass direction names are abbreviated, such as NE for northeast.
I purposely didn't put in a Table of Contents, lest you see all the exotic places you're eventually going to visit before you're supposed to know about them. Though the locations are presented in the order that you would typically reach them, your mileage may vary.
You are about to embark on a fabulous adventure. I hope that you will enjoy your journey...
Tips
Before you even think about starting to play, check out the Interplay Fallout 2 site,
and ensure that you have the latest version installed. If not, download
and apply the patch. The patch fixes many, many, bugs... also, if you
don't apply the patch before starting and decide to patch halfway
through, beware the patch will invalidate any saved games. Translation:
you will have to start over! Be careful to only apply a patch
compatible with the locale from which you purchased the game. This
guide was written using the U.S. version, patched to V1.02. Owners of
the U.K. and some other European versions may note that there are no
children running around in their game, so some of the comments
pertaining to them in this guide may not make sense, and a few minor
quests will not be available.
Note: as of 18 June 2004, the Interplay web site has been inaccessible. So we have made the V1.02 patch temporarily available here. Also note: this patch is only guaranteed to work for the US version of the game, so you may have to re-install if you apply it to a foreign language or UK version.
Beware that if your Intelligence (IN) is too low (I mean, your character's in the game, silly. Don't take it personally ;-), you won't be able to get most of the quests here simply because no one will be able to converse with you! Likewise, not having a high enough Charisma (CH) or Speech skill will also alter NPC responses, and you may miss out on important conversation choices that lead to quests. So, I recommend having both IN and CH at a minimum of 6 (you might scrape by with lower CH if you have a decent Speech skill) to keep your options open. If in doubt in a particular situation, pop a Mentat to boost both temporarily. Just for kicks, it's worth starting up a game with IN 3. Yes, it's a very well balanced game :-)
Luck, or dice rolls, and your stats play an important part in conversations. That's why it's very important that you save the game before every conversation. If you feel afterwards that the outcome could have been more favourable, restore to before the conversation and try it again. You just might get the dialogue choice you've been hoping for the next time through! If you consistently get the same undesirable choices, try improving your IN and CH by popping a Mentat before the conversation. Some dialogues even depend on your Science or Doctor skill, and I've tried to indicate this where possible.
Unless you are going the diplomatic route, and have enough CH to be able to talk your way out of anything, make sure you start off the game with greater than 50% of either Unarmed or Melee skill. It will be quite a while before you obtain any decent weapons! Beware that one of your first encounters involves fighting bare-handed, so even Melee won't help here.
I recommend a minimum Strength (ST) of 6. With less than this, you'll be severely disadvantaged at hand-to-hand, unable to take any unarmed perks (most decent ones have a min ST of 6 requirement), and you won't be able to carry much inventory either. Likewise, unless you're going to play the 'ultimate bruiser' type of character, a starting ST of 9 or 10 is a waste, since you get a chance later on to increase your ST by 3 using... artificial means!
Unless you are taking on the role of a thief, a decent Barter skill is also vital.
Owing to a design peculiarity in Fallout, Armour Piercing (AP) ammo doesn't do exactly what it's meant to, and is woefully ineffectual. So, it's best to just sell any that you find. Stick to the JHP for actually loading into your weapons.
Early in the game, when your character is relatively weak, there is a sure-fire way to defeat critters like Ants, Radscorpions, and Silver Geckos without taking so much as a scratch: approach to within about 5 hexes. Let them come right up to you. Then, hit them with your best shot, but make sure you have at least 5 AP left. Then retreat in a straight line. They will follow you, but won't have enough AP left to strike! Repeat until critter is dead.
NPC's make great packrats. They can help you carry all the stuff you pick up after encounters with hostile critters. Be careful about giving them burst capable weapons though... or you could find yourself replaying a lot of encounters :-( Also, be sure to fine-tune them before heading out on the wasteland. You don't want someone wasting valuable ammo on easy critters (rat is hit for 243 hit points... yeah, I think it's dead. Just wasted a rocket, dammit!) In this case, take their best weapon or ammo away from them before heading out. On the other side of the coin, make sure you use the Combat Control dialogue to ensure they are using their best weapon when you know an important encounter is coming up.
A high Outdoorsman skill is extremely useful for avoiding unwanted random encounters. Sometimes, you just want to get from A to B without being bothered. Carrying a Motion Sensor in your personal inventory while travelling is alleged to help in avoiding random encounters. And you get XP for using this skill!
Like the man says: save, save, SAVE! You never know when you're going to mess up in combat, blow a dialogue with an NPC, etc. Contrary to what you may hear on the grapevine, you can also save during combat, though this practice does seem to make the game more likely to crash... but you just saved, didn't you? So, no big deal.
Those pre-apocalyptic Californians must have been avid readers. There are bookcases everywhere. A lot of them contain valuable stuff, so check every bookcase, desk, pot, locker, etc. Anything that exhibits a hand icon when you move your cursor over it is worth having a look at. Scavenge to your heart's content!
The designers hid stuff behind walls in this one, so check for items everywhere!
You can rest nearly anywhere when no hostile critters are nearby. Derelict buildings in most towns make a perfect spot for this sort of activity. There's no rush to get through Fallout 2. Use the time! Why waste Stimpaks when you can heal while resting or travelling?
There are all sorts of people to sleep with, marry, etc. I didn't bother to document any of these... encounters, unless they furthered the plot :-)
Well, are you ready to begin your quest?
Temple of Trials
Kill all the Ants and Radscorpions to gain valuable XP. Take all the
Radscorpion Tails you can carry off the dead critters. You can barter
them. Check all the pots and chests for Healing Powders and such.
There is a section with raised plates that appear as you walk across the floor. If you step on a plate, a spear is fired at you from the wall. If you have some Traps skill, you can disarm these plates for 25 XP each.
Get the Explosives from the pot south of the locked door. Save the game! Then, stand right in front of the door, arm the Explosives (give yourself 30 seconds at least), drop them, and retreat to a safe distance until the door blows.
Defeat Cameron in hand-to-hand. Weaker characters might try using the hit-and-run technique I described above. He still gets one hit in every turn, but it's better than 2 or 3! Diplomatic approach: with high IN and CH (managed once with IN 8, CH 5, Speech 35%), you can talk your way out of fighting Cameron :-)
If you had to fight Cameron, remember to retrieve your belongings from the chest outside the door you just came through. Then, head through the final door, Chosen One.
Arroyo
Repair the well - 100 XP.
Get training from Lucas, standing near stone head - add 5% to Unarmed skill.
Jordan, in tent east of stone head, will train you with spears - add 10% to Melee Weapons skill.
There's $100 in a pot in your Aunt Morlis' tent. Very handy at this stage in the game.
Quests
Klamath
Don't trade with Maida Buckner if you can help it. Her prices are too
high! You can have the tribal Sulik join your party by paying off his
remaining debt of $350 to Maida. Well worth the trouble, because he's
much better than you in combat at this stage in the game.
Alternatively, you can get Sulik for free if you complete Quests 5 and
6 below (or Quest 2, but I always found it handier to have Sulik along
with you on this particular quest).
In the Golden Gecko, talk to Fighting John Sullivan. He'll train you in Unarmed for 10% and Melee Weapons for 10%, as long as you're not already too skilled in either of these disciplines. Also worth 150 XP.
You can talk to Jenny in the Bathhouse to learn a bit more about Vic. You don't have to sleep with her to get this info.
Raid Vic's house, east of the Bathhouse. Make sure you take and keep Vic's Radio. The Pipe Rifle is virtually useless, but it's worth some money anyway.
There's an exit grid to the NW, with a crashed vertibird and a maintenance robot there. You can take out the robot for XP, and retrieve a Yellow Reactor Keycard from one of the corpses. Contrary to what you may read elsewhere, you can't use this Keycard to open the elevator in the Toxic Caves (see below); however, seeing as the Keycard was found on someone wearing... exotic armour, perhaps it might be of use in a place where this armour is prevalent?
Quests
Toxic Caves Elevator
You need an Electronic Lockpick before you can open the locked elevator
at the rear of the Toxic Caves (see Klamath, Quest 2). Rumour has it
the MKII version of the Lockpick won't work... but it does just fine.
You can either buy an Electronic Lockpick MKII in New San Francisco (on
the tanker), or you can find a normal Electronic Lockpick in Eldridge's
basement, New Reno Arms store.
I recommend you don't take the car with you, because you won't be able to access the trunk once you're there. Just leave it in Klamath. The walk will do you good for a change. Also, might be handy to take Vic with you unless your Repair skill is high, because you must fix the generator there to power the elevator before you can use it. Also recommend taking along a Sniper Rifle (or some Pulse Grenades if you're good at throwing), because there's a big, bad security bot armed with missiles waiting at the bottom for you! You can take out his sensors with one good targeted shot, and then finish him off at your leisure. Once you've polished off the bot, there are lockers full of goodies, among them: Bozar (best gun in the entire game!), Combat Armor MKII, 200 x Micro Fusion Cells, 280 x Small Energy Cell, 200 x 4.7mm Caseless, and 200 x 2mm EC (very hard to find indeed :-)
Den
Make sure you give Karl (Mom's Diner, far SE corner of town) something
and then get him to tell you his story. Comes in handy later.
Also in Mom's Diner, Stacy, standing just to the left of Mom, will tell you a story about her cat Cuddles. 200 XP if you listen patiently till the story ends.
Buy a drink from Becky, then ask her about 'Dyer'. Hmmm. Then, cross the exit grid SE of Becky's and talk to the barkeeper in The Hole. Ask him for info. Then ask him why Becky's drinks are cheaper than his. Offer to find out. Return to Becky's and wait till the guard leaves the door to the north of the bar. Lockpick it, go down the stairs, and discover that Becky has a still there. Talk to the barkeeper in The Hole (Frankie) again, for 400 XP and $100. You'll then get Quest 9 below.
Talk to Leanne, the woman standing at the bar in Becky's. If you buy her a Nuka-Cola, she'll tell you her story of the Master for 350 XP.
Flick, south of Becky's, is a good guy to trade with... but beware those kids of his! If you're not careful, they steal stuff from you. Make sure that you always run past them (don't walk or loiter), and every time you do go past them check your belongings afterwards to make sure you haven't lost anything valuable. I lost a very important item once this way... took me ages to figure out where it had gone, and that was after I had restored to a game much previous to where I was. If you do lose something to one of the kids, you can either steal it back from the kid, or buy it back off Flick as a last resort :-(
Tubby, across the street from Becky's place, usually has a Sub-machine gun for sale. Definitely worth it early on in the game. Actually, you can take out both Tubby and Flick. Not only does it save you money, but you don't lose any karma points for this. In fact, I think you might gain some for ridding the town of this scum!
When you think your party is strong enough, you can take out Metzger and his guards (1500 XP for killing Metzger), and then talk to one of the slaves to free them for another 1250 XP. If you visit Becky again after this, she'll offer you $1000 for having got rid of the slavers. If you decline to accept the money, you get 50 Karma points instead. Your choice. Beware that if you kill Metzger early on, you won't be able to get any of Lara's quests (3 - 6 below), as they all involve Metzger.
Quests
Refuelling the car
This process is not especially intuitive, so here's how you do it.
First of all, the car runs on either Micro Fusion Cells or Small Energy
Cells (but you get twice the mileage per Micro Fusion Cell). You can
buy Micro Fusion Cells from Smitty for starters. To check how much
power is left in the car at any time, left-click and hold on the front
part of the car (not the trunk! BTW, you can store tons of gear
in the trunk). Then move your cursor down to the Binoculars icon and
let go. The percentage power remaining will appear in the window at the
bottom left of your screen. To refuel, you must have some fuel cells
present in your inventory. Then left-click and hold on the car, move
your cursor down to the Backpack icon, and let go. Finally, point to
the fuel cells in the inventory box that pops up, and they'll be used
to refuel the car (warning: make sure there are no NPC's standing where
the inventory pops up, or you'll wind up talking to them instead of
refuelling the car. It's a 'feature' ;-)
Modoc
If you examine the well just NE of the General Store, you'll see you
can enter it using a rope. There are a few coin bags down there, and in
the northern section, a (pretty useless) BB Gun... but a BB Gun
nonetheless.
Talk to Grisham, the Slaughterhouse boss. When you try to exit the conversation, he'll ask if you want to guard his cattle from wild dogs. Try not to let any of the poor buggers get killed, because he deducts $100 for each brahmin you lose - $1000 (if you manage to save them all). He's a miserable git, but it's fairly easy money.
If you have some Doctor skill (managed once with 9%), you can try fixing up Bess, the brahmin. She's lying injured just south of the slaughterhouse. You get 200 XP for this, and she'll follow you around for a while... if you wander into Grisham's place with Bess in tow, you can give her over to him to make jerky out of. If you're then feeling a bit guilty, go back to the slaughterhouse and talk to her, then release her by opening up the gate inside the slaughterhouse. She'll wander off the map, thus easing your conscience.
You can kill the 'giant chicken' that's locked up in the fenced-in compound next to Rose's for some XP. But you leave the village without an egg supply... by the way, if you buy a Wasteland Omelette from Rose for $25, it heals you to full HP.
Quests
Vault City
In the Courtyard, just in front of the Bar, is a little boy named
Curtis. He has lost his Mr. Nixon doll. The doll is located behind
the Bar building, in an outside corner (west of a large pile of rocks).
Return the doll to Curtis (100 XP), then stand around a while and
listen to what he's saying. After a while, you'll find a Wrench in that
pile of rocks I just mentioned.
You can get Cassidy, the bar owner, to join your party. He's damn handy with a shotgun, especially in the early stages of the game. He has a heart condition though, so be sure never to feed him any excitement inducing drugs like Buffout or Jet, or he'll pop his clogs on the spot.
Charlie, the guy lying flat out in the tent, is actually radiated (I originally thought he was drunk). 200 XP if you can spare a Rad-Away to fix him up.
If you have good Repair skill (or Vic!), you can fix the Auto-Doc in the back room of the Clinic for 100 XP. The guy there is not eternally grateful when you do it... but if you and your party ever need to get healed afterwards, this place then becomes an option.
If you have a Vault 13 water flask, talk to Vic's friend, Ed. He hangs out in a shack near the brahmin pens in the Courtyard - 500 XP and some new locations on your map.
To get into Vault city proper, you can try to sweet-talk Wallace in the
Customs office into giving you a Day Pass. If you have high enough CH
and/or Speech skill, you should be able to convince him that you are a
merchant who wants to trade with Vault City. Alternatively, you can
strip down to your Vault 13 suit before speaking to Wallace. He finds
this quite unusual, and sends you in to see the First Citizen.
Even better than either of the above approaches, you can bribe Skeev
his assistant. You pay him $200 for fake citizenship papers (much
handier than a Day Pass). Then, you can blackmail him for $300 to keep
quiet! Net: $100 and a set of fake papers. I never needed a Day Pass.
The fake papers are good enough as long as you don't flash them around
unnecessarily :-)
In Vault City, Randal in the Amenities Office, east of Val's place, has great stuff for sale at the best prices I've ever seen... and he accepts false citizenship papers!
You can talk the guy in the Information Center (that's west of the Servant Allocation Center) into giving you a Science book and a Repair book.
Valerie (Vic's daughter) can upgrade weapons:
Expanded magazine (from 8 to 20) for Desert Eagle .44 - $1000.
Expanded magazine (from 24 to 100) for Assault Rifle - $1500.
Once you become a Citizen, there are a lot of goodies you can find in the Vault, including... er... a few Water Chips :-)
Vault Level 1
Male characters can date Phyllis the nurse for 100 XP. A further 300 XP
if you can convince her that radiation has made everyone there sterile.
You can also get another 300 XP for convincing her to see the outside
world, and with the Sex Appeal trait, you can donate some... genetic
material for a further 500 XP.
If your
Doctor skill is 80% or better, you can also get Combat Implants. Access
the medical computer in the room where the doctor is. If you search the
medical database, you should eventually find schematics for the
implants. Then, talk to the doctor in the Clinic (Courtyard). Make sure
you repair the Auto-Doc first! You also need one set of Combat Armor
(doc strips them for parts) per operation. Then, the following
operations are available:
Low impact - $7000 ($5000 if high CH). Increases Normal and Explode resistance by 5% each.
High impact - Low impact and $40,000. Never took this one. Increases
Normal and Explode resistance by a further 5% each. Not only is it
expensive, but it makes you one ugly mother, and thus reduces your CH
as well.
Low thermal - $10,000 ($8000 if high CH). Increases Laser, Fire, and Plasma resistance by 5% each.
High thermal - Low thermal and $50,000. Never took this one either.
Increases Laser, Fire and Plasma resistance by a further 5% each. Way
too expensive, and it makes you ugly to boot, thus reducing your CH.
Vault Level 2
If you repair a rattling vent on the wall to the NE, you'll get 100 XP
and 50 x Micro Fusion Cells are hidden there. Two of the doors are
jammed. You can open these if you have ST 8 (use Buffout). Some good
ammo here, and a Red Memory Module that you'll find a use for later.
Other doors are locked. You need Lockpick skill of 70% to open these.
Once you do open these, you'll find: a Wrench ;-), and a Computer Voice
Module (hmmm...), amongst other things.
Vault Level 3
The Central Computer knows the location of Vault 15. There are some
general supplies and weapons in the locked rooms. I think there's some
ore from Redding stored in the room with the red light above the
door... but I could never get in there to find out. As in the original
Fallout, you can use your Science skill on the computer in the room to
the SW for 350 XP.
Also, once you have become a citizen, talk to Councillor McClure to learn there is a problem with the Redding ore production. Mention this to Doc Johnson in Redding, then go speak to McClure again for 250 XP. From this, you get the inkling that you might be able to find a cure for Jet... see New Reno Quest 14.
Quests
Gecko
Lenny, Harold's assistant in the Manager's Office, once met your
ancestor the Vault Dweller. If you talk to him about his former
escapades, he will join your party. Not much cop as a fighter, but he
has a high Doctor skill.
The room to the west of where Skeeter hangs out has a set of Lockpicks in a locker there. Possibly the first set you'll encounter in the game.
Quests
Back in Gecko, enter the Power Plant, east side of town. You'll need
Yellow and Red Pass Keys, which can be found by scrounging in the
various lockers and bookcases around the place. If you have really high
Charisma, you might get Festus, located in the far SE of the plant, to
install the part for you, but mere mortals have to do it themselves...
so go talk to Hank, the ghoul in the room through the red doors, right
next to the reactor core. Then log on to the computer just behind him
to program the maintenance bot:
Initialize: A1546761, 5B576005, 35C76863
Initiate repair sequence (you feed it the part when requested). Then,
use 'Add a command' 6 times (returning back to main menu after adding
each one) until you have constructed the following program:
1) Amplify Plutonium-Gamma Shield
2) Deharmonize Neptunium Impeller
3) Calibrate Uranium-Rod Driver
4) Set Voltage on Saturn-Class Capacitor
5) Test Jupiter Wave Compiler
6) Install Hydroelectric Magnetosphere Regulator
Then 'Execute program' and watch the Maintenance Bot go!
Broken Hills
On the east side, in a garden near the mine, there's Seymour the
talking spore plant. He wants to be replanted. Talk to the poor thing
when you have a shovel, and you'll get 1000 XP plus get clued in as to
how to defeat a sentient scorpion at 'chess'. The scorpion and his
professor friend are located in a building just to the SE of where
Seymour winds up. Leave your party behind, and challenge the scorpion
to all 3 contests. If you have good PE and AG, you can beat him at
contests of perception and agility respectively for 500 XP each. Then
you can try the contest of 'smarts'. Knowing what you learned from
Seymour, you can defeat the scorpion at 'chess' for another 500 XP. I
always let the scorpion live afterwards, which is why I didn't bring
the gang along.
The place where you replanted Seymour (see above) is actually the Old Ghouls Home. Talk to Typhon there (Set's son, from Fallout!), in the SW room. In exchange for: a Cat's Paw magazine, a blow-up Sex Doll (ahem... bookcase in building Marcus is/was standing in front of), and a bottle of Rotgut, he'll tell you the location of his 'treasure'. You get 2000 XP after you deliver all this stuff. Then, have a look down the well in the centre of downtown. Oops! You can convince Micky the treasure hunter to go down the well after your treasure, but then he becomes stuck down in the well. I never figured out a way to get him out of there.
Marcus is the best addition to your party in Fallout 2! You must complete Quests 1 and 2 below, then Marcus will agree to join you, and you get 1000 XP to boot.
After you've fixed the mine's air purifier (see Quest 1 below), and can explore it at your leisure, there's an easter egg to be found in there. To your right, just as you enter the mine, there's a short tunnel with a pile of rocks at the end of it. You can actually walk on these rocks. If you walk right into the corner, a passageway will open up in the wall, and you've just discovered a hidden chamber (1000 XP)! There's a pilot who's been sleeping there since before the holocaust, and you can wake him up with a dose of Jet, for 500 XP more. In the footlocker, there's a chunk of Uranium Ore. Take the Ore to the processing plant (building to the south of the caravan fitters/Unity Patrol HQ). Talk to the foreman there in the office. Another 500 XP for figuring out how to get the Ore processed. You have to give them $1000, and it takes a day to process your Ore... when you come back to collect it, the foreman pleads with you to let the ghouls keep it. Let them keep it for 1250 XP. You can either accept the extra $500 he offers as compensation, or get karma points instead for only taking the $1000 which you originally forked over.
Quests
Raiders
The raiders are holed up in that little spot marked 'Unknown' that lies
between Vault City and Broken Hills. There are many traps in the cave
leading to their lair. They are also heavily armed, so beware heading
in there with NPC's like Vic and Sulik in tow, as they are quite liable
to be killed unless you are very lucky.
If you do manage to vanquish them, you get 2000 XP for ending the raider threat. Also be sure to take all 3 of the Dog Tags (from the footlockers) so you can prove to the folks in Vault City that the raiders were hired mercs. When you report to First Citizen Lynette that you wiped out the raiders, you'll get a $1000 reward and 1000 XP. Even better, once you have the 3 dog tags, you can open the raiders' safe (numbers on the tags form the combination, 500 XP more) and get their Account Book, which proves who hired them. Show this to the First Citizen for another 1000 XP and $500 (if have the Holodisk from Bishop's safe in New Reno, then you get Vault City Quest 9 instead)!
I never was able to figure out what to do with the tribal 'Shadow-who-walks'. He won't talk to you, even if approached without weapons. Rumour has it that he's part of a 'broken' quest.
Redding
Go see the sheriff. He's injured, and requires a deputy to do a few
jobs for him, starting off with... Pay Widow Rooney's back rent. Just
pay the widow the $120 she owes for 1500 XP! (and the sheriff gives you
$100 for the job anyway, so you're only out of pocket for $20) Then,
when you report back to the sheriff, you get Quest 4 below. The sheriff
also has a slew of weapons stashed around his office, ripe for the
picking.
You can buy the deed to the Great Wanamingo Mine from Mayor Ascorti for $1000. If you manage to clear the mine of critters for him, he'll buy the deed back off you... worth $2500 and another 1000 XP. One entrance to the Great Wanamingo Mine is in the building where Frog Morton is hiding (see Quest 1 below). However, there's a back entrance through the well just south of the Sheriff's office. Going NE from the well entrance and up the ladder there brings you into the back of Ascorti's casino, in case you're in for a bit of daytime robbery. If you head north from the well, over an exit grid, and then west over another exit grid, you'll wind up in the mine proper. Make sure you head into every nook and cranny along the way if your mission is to rid the mine of critters. There are a few ladders down to the bottom level that contains the mining machines (see Quest 3 below). Finally, make sure you get all the eggs that are near the elevator all the way to the west of the bottom level. When you've gotten all the critters, you'll get a message notifying you that you've cleared the mine... and 3500 XP!
'Painless' Doc Johnson has Super Stimpaks for sale. He's also part of the Jet Antidote quest (see New Reno, Quest 14).
Quests
New Reno
Talk to Jules, standing just outside the Virgin Street carpark where
you first arrive. For $100 a pop, he'll tell you about each of the 4
crime families who run the place. You have to tread carefully here if
you want to keep your options open. Take all the quests for any one
family, and you'll be 'made' by them, and thus not able to take jobs
for other families! The quests always come in a particular order, and
I've indicated below which one makes you a 'made man' (or woman), but only
if you report back after doing the quest... so you can at least get all
the benefits of the gear and money accrued while doing it, and one of
these quests in particular is worth it for the gear alone ;-)
Regardless of your sex, you can choose to sleep with Mrs. Bishop (2nd
floor, Shark Club). Make sure you deliver the suitcase (that you got
from Moore in Vault City) first to Mr. Bishop on the 3rd floor, else
you'll have to fight your way back out of the casino afterwards! In any
case, leave your party outside the casino before you venture upstairs
and take up Mrs. B's offer. I discovered that if you take them up to
the 2nd floor with you, then sleep with Mrs. B, that I couldn't find
them anywhere upon returning. Jealousy, I suppose. After you sleep with
her, she'll mumble the combination of the wall safe in her sleep. It
contains a necklace and some other goodies. The safe in the north room
has a map that gives you the location of the Raiders, and also proof
that the Raiders are actually mercs hired by Bishop. Beware that this
safe is trapped! If you set off the trap, you'll alert Bishop's men,
and that is not
a good thing. If you don't have high enough Traps skill, there's a
trick you can use to get by it. Just arm an Explosive, and drop it
right underneath the safe. Then go hide at the NE corner of the
swimming pool. When the Explosive detonates (also triggering the trap
at the same time :-), Bishop's man comes to investigate. He doesn't
find anything, and goes away again. Now you can open the safe and
pilfer the contents!
If you kill Bishop, and tell Mrs. Bishop that she's free to move on, you get 1000 XP for this.
If you have good Unarmed skill, you could try your hand at boxing. If you decide to have a go, do yourself a big favour and get the pair of Plated Boxing Gloves (technically, it's cheating, but all's fair in love and Fallout :-) from a locker in the basement of the Shark Club. Then, go to the Jungle Gym on 2nd Street and talk to little Stuart, who arranges the fights. If you're carrying the Plated Boxing Gloves with you, you'll automatically wind up with these on in the ring and have a much better chance against those bruisers!
If you can't find a Voice Recognition Module anywhere else, Eldridge in
the New Reno Arms shop (west side, Commercial Row) will part with his
for $2500 after a bit of negotiating. I usually happened to be swimming
in weapons at this stage in the game, so if I hadn't been able to get
the Module by lockpicking the doors on the 2nd floor of the Vault City
vault, then I just bought the part from Eldridge, and traded some
weapons in to get the cash right back from him about 10 seconds
afterwards :-)
Eldridge can upgrade weapons, but he's really too expensive:
Expanded magazine (from 24 to 100) for Assault Rifle - $6000.
Night Sight on FN FAL - $12000.
However,
there is an unassuming fellow named Algernon lurking in Eldridge's
basement who is an absolute weapons wiz and will perform upgrades free!
Just wait till Eldridge is in the front room where you deal with him,
then sneak in the side door on the west side of the building, and head
for his back room. Don't worry about the dogs. Locate the hidden stairs
(behind the shelf, next to his bed), go downstairs and talk to
Algernon, who I got to upgrade the following for me:
Expanded magazine (from 24 to 100) for Assault Rifle.
Night Sight on FN FAL
Flamer to Improved Flamer (fires hotter fuel)
Flamethrower Fuel to Flamethrower Fuel MKII (hotter fuel)
Plasma Rifle to Turbo Plasma Rifle (more damage, greater range)
Laser Pistol to Magneto-Laser Pistol (extra penetrating power)
Also in the basement, in the far NW corner, is a fridge containing...
an Electronic Lockpick and 2 Pulse Grenades! Toxic Caves starter kit,
anyone?
If you decide to take out the Mordino family, make sure you take the "Little Jesus" Combat Knife off Little Jesus' body. It's the best knife in the game!
Quests
Level 1
Once inside, get the Password Paper from the desk just inside the
entrance, then use the computer (enter password) and disable the force
fields. In the SE room, you'll find a locker containing a Yellow Memory
Module. The locker next to that contains... er, Dixon's eye, along with
a holotape explaining what happened. There's a jar of the Bio Med Gel
the tape references on the floor near one of the surgical tables. You
can get a %10 increase in Unarmed by using both punching bags. In the
living quarters at the north end, there's a row of lockers. One of them
contains Combat Armor! When you are ready, use Dixon's eye on the
retinal scanner near the elevator to open it...
Level 2
If you don't attack any of the robots, they won't bother you! So,
unless you need the XP and are heavily armed and armoured... If you
must, the best way to take out a robot is with a targeted shot to the
sensors. If you get a critical hit, the robot is rendered effectively
blind and won't attack you anymore! If you plan to return to the Depot
later on, then you should enter the room to the west and deactivate the
repair computer (just hit the OFF button). You get 200 XP for this,
plus any robots you do kill won't be automatically repaired when you
leave the Depot. In a room to the far SE, there's a computer you can
use to de-activate that electric plate on the floor that leads to the
weapons store. With LK 10, I was also able to guess the password in
order to turn off all the force files on Level 2. There's loads of
goodies in the weapons store, including: Plasma Rifle(!), Sniper Rifle,
and 2 sets of Combat Armor. In the northern part of this level, 2nd row
of crates, in the top middle at the back, there's a crate containing: 5
AP Rockets, 10 Plasma Grenades, and 10 Pulse Grenades. When you've
finished looting the place, you can use Dixon's eye again to take you
to the next level.
Level 3
Here, if you talk to the supercomputer (Skynet) via his console, you'll
see that he wants out of the place. You'll have to find his brain
somewhere on Level 4. Be sure to grab another eye (General Clifton's)
from the room to the NE. Then make your way to the room in the NW and
access the computer there. Hmmm. You need a brain, some Bio Med Gel,
and a part from a robot (the same kind of robot as the disassembled one
in the back room there). So, I went back to the room near the elevator,
and opened fire on one of those robots. Of course, then I had to kill
all the robots on this level because they attack once disturbed. Tough
on the ol' Stimpak supply, but great for the XP. After you kill them
all, take a Motivator from one of the dome-topped ones, then use
Clifton's eye on the left-hand retinal scanner to access Level 4...
When you return from Level 4 with the brain, place it, the Bio Med Gel,
and the Motivator into the disassembled robot in the back room. Then
use the computer to activate it. Now, either you've extricated Skynet
and he becomes a useful NPC, or you've found a nice home for one of the
other brains (500 XP in any case) and you at least have a mule to help
you to carry all that booty out of the place :-)
Level 4
Find the room all the way to the NW that fronts onto a large room full
of cryogenic suspension tanks. Access the computer there, and have it
retrieve the cadaver first. Yikes! It comes alive and you can talk to
him, but then he runs away... and promptly decomposes into a heap. If
you examine what's left, you should find a Red Ryder LE BB gun, one of
the best Small Guns in the game! Anyways, return to the computer, and
ask for a Brain next. Unless you have an astronomically high Science
skill (125% or better!), you'll inadvertently kill Skynet (Cybernetic
Brain) and wind up with one of the other... less desirable brains. Ah
well, at least you came away with something. Once you have the 'best'
brain you can manage to retrieve, return to Level 3.
New California Republic (NCR)
Buster is the little guy in the tent right where you arrive at NCR. As
arms dealers go, he's a little expensive, but has some decent stuff. At
first, I couldn't figure out why he told me to get lost sometimes, then
I finally figured it out. He doesn't like night-time visits! Best time
to go see him is around noon. His guards all have Bozars, one of the
best weapons in the game, so if you're a good thief...
The area outside the NCR city walls is called the Bazaar, and basically anything goes there. Downtown NCR is a different story. You (and your party) have to put away your weapons before entering NCR proper. Anytime you draw your weapon while inside NCR city walls, you'll have to fight your way out the hard way. All of the cops there have Pancor Jackhammers - the best shotgun in the game.
Once inside the city, talk to Sheriff Dumont, the grey-haired cop standing on the corner just south of the city entrance. He'll arrange for you to see Westin, and President Tandi. You just got two very important introductions.
Duppo, in the shop next to where the Sheriff is standing, has a good selection of wares. Make sure you examine the stuff on all of his tables, especially the one on the right. He's got a different selection there :-)
Talk to Doc Jubilee in the Hospital. He tells you about Saltbeef, an old prospector who allegedly has a map that gives the location of Vault 13. In the bookcase behind Doc is a bottle of Heart Pills (never figured out what they were for) and a hypo full of Poison. Hmmm.
Talk to the guard inside the gate of Westin's place. If you saw the Sheriff first (see above) you'll be able to tell him you're looking for work, and he'll let you inside. Talk to Felix, the foreman standing guard outside Westin's door. Again, you'll be allowed past because you talked to Sheriff Dumont. Even if you're here to kill Westin for Bishop (New Reno, Quest 7), you should talk to Westin first (see Quest 4 below), for dead men give no quests! Saltbeef is located in a shed just inside the gate. Give him some booze and he'll tell you all about his finding Vault 13. He made a map, but it seems the doc at Shady Sands (now NCR, of course) might have stolen it from him. Go back and talk to Doc Jubilee in the hospital. He mentions that he got an Elvis painting from Saltbeef, and he'll part with it for a mere... $10000! If you purchase this painting from him and examine it, you'll find that Saltbeef did indeed draw a map showing the location of Vault 13 on the back of it. However, dramatic as this may be, it's a far too expensive way to get the location of the vault. See section on Vault 15 for another way.
Dorothy the tomboy and Toto her sidekick robot are standing outside the Power Station in the NE corner of NCR. Save the game before you approach her. When you get close, you'll be dragged inside to help dissuade a guy from suiciding. With lots of panache (CH 9 and Speech 80%), you can talk him out of it. Mention his ex-wife Mira, and when you get this dialogue choice: "Now's your chance. Be the big man. Really stand her down.", then you'll have hit paydirt for 6000 XP! If you can't talk your way out of a paper bag, you can always just let the guy waste himself, then repair the damaged gear for Dorothy. In any case, she gives you some manuals in return for the favour. If instead you allow the station (and Dorothy) to blow up, it takes down the force fields that are blocking the entrances to Westin's place, etc. But this isn't much help, as there are other ways to get by them.
If you get the Hubologist, located in the building across the street from Dusty's Cantina, to 'enlighten' you, your Luck will change... for better or worse. Save your game before speaking to her. Mine went from 7 to 9 on the first try, so I just left it at that! This action has the side effect of making you a level AHS-1 Hubologist, but as far as I could determine, it didn't alter any NPC reactions, so no problem.
There's another Brotherhood outpost here, in the SE corner behind Dusty's Cantina. All the guy there will tell you is that there's a branch in New San Francisco too.
The guy in the junkyard, west of the slavers in the Bazaar, will fit a Blower to your car to give it more power for $1000.
Quests
Vault 15
You must start with Quest 3 here.
Quests
Vault 13
Don't shoot! The deathclaw you see upon entering Vault 13 is Gruthar...
and he talks! You get 2000 XP for finding Vault 13.
Quests
Military Base
Scrounge around for some interesting stuff in the tents outside the
compound, and kill the wolves when you get a chance. Inside the
compound, there's a shed with some Dynamite and Ropes inside. Just SE
of the mine cart, there's a Metal Rod on the ground. You can attach it
to the cart, then attach some (unarmed!) Dynamite to the Rod. Then push
the cart into the heap of rocks and KABLOOIE! You get 5000 XP for
gaining access to the Military Base :-)
Level 1
Once inside, beware of the rats, because these suckers radiate you when
they bite! In the SE corner, there's a mutant named Grundel whom you
can try to speak to... but he just wants to eat you, so I wasted him.
In the SW corner there's a generator you can repair to restore power to
the place. You get 1500 XP for doing so. You can now take the elevator
in the NW corner down to the next level. But before you do, there are
some Rockets in the crates near the elevator. Also, you might want to
leave any weaker party members behind, because there's some tough stuff
on the next levels!
Level 2
Even taking Marcus with you can be a bit dicey, because you have to
place yourself carefully so you're always at the centre of the action;
else, he tends to run ahead and get himself killed. So, I find the best
combat setting for him here is "Attack whomever is attacking me". OK.
There are two rooms full of Super Mutants on this level. I recommend
giving yourself (and Marcus, if he's with you) a shot of Psycho before
tucking in. Then, proceed down the corridor to the room in the SW
corner. You get a bit of help from the mutants themselves here, because
they can get in each other's way. But try to get the guy at the back of
the room first, because he's got a Plasma Rifle and can shoot right
past his mates! As you're taking on this lot, the rest of the crowd
starts spilling out of the other room... anyway, it's not my place to
micro-manage your team! So, once you've finished wiping them out, make
sure you search them all for weapons and ammo. Also, search the
footlockers in the dorm, and make sure you don't miss the set of Power
Armor in the locker room next to the dorm! Equally important are 6
Super Stimpaks, located in a wall locker in the room all the way to the
NE.
Level 3
Get the Green Memory Module from the locker in the room immediately to
the SE. The Memory Modules can be used with the Brotherhood's medical
computer in New San Francisco to upgrade some of your SPECIAL
attributes. Again, wipe out all the Super Mutants on this floor, then
take the elevator to the far SE down...
Level 4
Make sure you raid the hidden footlocker at the base of the bed in the
room next to where you arrive. Then head north to face Melchior, the
deranged Super Mutant. He can summons his Deathclaw and Fire Gecko pets
indefinitely as long as he's alive, so concentrate on taking out
Melchior first, then wipe out whatever pets are left. When you've
killed everything here, be sure to get the Gauss Pistol from the ammo
chest behind where Melchior was originally standing!
New San Francisco
You enter via Chinatown. To the east, at the end of an alley, is Mai Da
Chiang's 'Red 888 Guns' shop. He's got lots of high-powered stuff here,
usually a few Miniguns, a Gatling Laser, and also a Super Sledge. Check
all his tables. The weapons he has at any particular time are slightly
random, and may also be based on your current stats to maintain balance.
Lao Chou's 'Flying Dragon 8' shop is immediately to the west. The door is on a hidden wall, so can be tricky to find. Be sure to look on all his tables too. Among the usual goodies: M60, Laser Rifle (Ext. Cap.), Electronic Lockpick MKII, Expanded Lockpick Set, Field Medic First Aid Kit.
You'll no doubt have noticed the fighting ring in the centre of
Chinatown. You can challenge either the Dragon, who represents 'good',
or Lo Pan ('evil') to a fight to the death. The Dragon will train you
to add 5% to your Unarmed Skill, if it's not high enough already. If
you do challenge either of these guys, don't try it with less than 130%
Unarmed or less will do if you took the Bonus HtH Damage perk, and
(sometimes, not every time) you have to fight a few of their minions
first, getting progressively more difficult each time, before you can
take on either master himself. Hint: a shot of Psycho before engaging
in the conversation to start the fight goes a long way :-)
You get some XP per minion, 2000 XP for killing Lo Pan or the Dragon,
and 3000 XP for talking to the one you didn't kill afterwards.
If you head north past the fighting ring, through the gate, and onto the northern exit grid, you'll wind up on the docks. Keep heading north, and you'll eventually wind up at the Poseidon tanker. Jenna, in the General Store on the tanker (north of the entrance), has an Electronic Lockpick MKII for sale.
If instead of taking the northern exit grid once you go through the gate, you head east and take the exit grid there to the NE, you'll wind up staring at a... space shuttle. Take the circular stairs downwards to the Hubologists headquarters. Talk to AHS-7 there as you enter. You can become a Hubologist by talking to Juan and Vikki (a thinly disguised Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) in the prayer room, and then reporting back to AHS-7. He'll give you Quest 4, but I quite took to Badger so never had the inclination to carry this out. If you're looking to address some more practical concerns, then see Crocket, the scientist in the room to the SE. He'll upgrade Power Armor to Hardened Power Armor for $10000 a go. It takes him a day to do each set, and he'll do a maximum of two sets for you. Probably worth it if you have NPC's like Sulik and Vic in tow.
For what it's worth... you can hack into the Shi's mainframe (the
'Emperor'). All you have to do is waltz into the Shi Palace (on the
east side of town), head for the large central room where the empty
throne is, open the door at the back of the room, disable the force
field, and hack in for 3000 XP. You get another 3000 XP for accessing
the chemistry section of the database, and a further 5000 XP for
diverting fuel to the tanker (but you have to know that this is
possible in order to get that option :-)
Anyway, once you've finished your hacking job, all the Shi in the place
are hostile and will attack. There are easier ways to divert fuel to
the tanker. See Quest 7 below.
You should start with Quest 10 here.
Quests
Getting to the Enclave
Once you've got: the NavCom Parts (Quest 1), the Tanker FOB (Quest 2),
and the fuel (from here or Quest 5), you're ready to roll. But first
you have to make a major decision. Do you want to take on the Enclave
yourself, in which case a stealth approach is recommended, or do you
want to go in with all guns blazing? If you decide to go it alone, then
do yourself and your party a favour and leave them standing on the dock
right here. You can collect them later. If, on the other hand, you
decide take them with you, beware that if you ever ask them to "Wait
here till I get back", it could be the last time you will ever see them
again! Also, beware that if you take Marcus, the Enclave types will
shoot on sight. Other party members are fine.
OK. Now down to
business. Go below on the tanker, and use the Tanker FOB on the keyless
entry device in front of the locked door on the west side of the hold
(2000 XP). Then take the ladder up, and use the NavCom Parts on the
PoseidoNet Navigational Computer for another 2000 XP. Finally, make
your way up to the captain's place, and access the computer there to
set sail. There's a beautiful cut scene here, and you get 15000 XP for
reaching the Enclave! See Enclave section below.
Brotherhood of Steel
Take whatever Memory Modules you have with you. You can heal yourself
and get the following SPECIAL stats upgrades by accessing the terminal
next to the computer there:
ST - Red Memory Module (2 weeks)
IN - Yellow Memory Module (4 weeks)
PE - Green Memory Module (2 weeks)
CH - Blue Memory Module (3 weeks)
Funny, but while I was spending the 4 weeks in the suspension tank
increasing my IN via the Yellow Memory Module... I seem to have grown a
sixth toe on each of my feet! You can get one of these toes removed by
the doc in the Vault City clinic and, believe it or not, it's rumoured
to be useful as a weapon in your final battle :-)
The lockers in
the room to the south are a veritable gold mine: Brotherhood Armor,
Power Armor, YK32 Pulse Pistol, and YK42B Pulse Rifle!
Next, you should have a look at Quest 8!
Navarro
Do yourself a favour. Stop one square short of Navarro (NW of New SFO,
on the coast) and save the game. Once you get to Navarro, you're
greeted by a guy in robes named Chris. Whatever you do, don't allow him
to alert the base. I said I was just looking around, which ended the
conversation... then promptly shot him. Try alerting the base now,
Jimmy! Once you've managed to get by Chris without alerting the base,
head for the shack attached to the gas station (sleeping quarters), and
open the trap door. Follow the L-shaped corridor till you come to
another door, then just waltz inside. If you're by yourself no one will
bother you (recommended for this whole area... but once Marcus and I
took out the entire base, turrets and all. Lots of fun and XP :-) You
can walk right by the Quartermaster there, to that room full of
lockers. In one of them, you will find a set of Advanced Power Armor!
This puts you on a level playing pitch with your Enclave friends.
Another locker contains a Blue Memory Module that can be used back in
the Brotherhood's HQ. There's a Plasma Rifle to be found too, and a
decent cache of Micro Fusion Cells, if you don't already have enough of
these.
Once you'r wearing the Advanced Power Armor, you can head up any of the circular elevators to the ground floor. Seek out the blind cook (Cookie!) in the kitchen of the barracks to the SW. He's a great source of info. You can find out about the FOB, for one thing, by asking him where the Enclave is located. Then, you can tackle Quest 3 below.
Cookie will also tell you about the rivalry between Raul, the Vertibird mechanic, and Quincy, the guy who guards the Vertibird Plans. Now, you can use this knowledge to your advantage, not only to grab the Vertibird Plans, but to have a little mischievous fun in the process :-) First, go talk to either of the two technicians in the northern room of the building to the SE. Ask them where you could find some Vertibird Plans, and they'll tell you to ask maintenence. Quincy hangs out in the building to the NE. Tell him that one of the techs sent you for the Plans. When he asks which one, lie to him that it was Raul. You can then take the Plans from the locker behind Quincy (for 3500 XP!), and promptly march over to see Raul in the hangar to the NW. Tell him what Quincy said, and Raul will leave his post to go beat up Quincy! When Raul leaves, rummage in the lockers he was guarding and get the K-9 Motivator (see Quest 2 below). Anyway, if you don't feel like going through all this rigamarole, you can always just Sneak and open the locker behind Quincy to get the Plans (40% Sneak skill worked after a few attempts) or use the old reliable 'Silent Super Stimpak Death' (feed him about 6, then wait 10 minutes till he pops off). Once you have the Plans safely tucked away, you can work on the quests. Once you've finished Quest 3, return to New SFO and present Matthew with the Vertibird Plans.
Quests
Enclave
The entrance is to the east, a bit hidden amongst all the trappings
there. Make your way inside, then access the terminal in the entrance
foyer. Hmmm. Looks like you need a Presidential Passkey to do anything
useful here. If you exit the foyer to the east, there's a locker room
on this level absolutely chock full of 2mm EC. There's also a room to
the NE with ammo crates full of Rocket Launchers and Plasma Rifles.
Also, some lockers containing Plastic Explosives which, ahem, might
come in handy later on. Nothing else particularly interesting on this
level. After you're done exploring here, I recommended heading down the
stairs to the south of the entrance foyer.
Level 1
Immediately upon entering here, there are some lockers full of goodies.
To the east are the Detention Cells. You can speak with your village
elder through the force field. Things are definitely not looking good. Take the circular stairs (to the south) down to the next level.
Level 2
Wahey, a maze! I had some fun figuring this out, but if you number the rooms as below:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
10
Then if you access the terminals in rooms: 2, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 you'll be able to open the exit door in room 10. Be quick about it, because you take damage from the floor here as you go! Oh, if you forgot to bring your GECK along, you can pick one up here. Just head east out of room 6, then north. The locker all the way to the NW contains a GECK. And to the west, through room 4, there's another locker room. One of the lockers here contains a set of Advanced Power Armor MKII, the best armor in the game! When finished here, head through the exit door in room 10 to the south and go down the stairs. If by any chance you need to come back this way, just enter room 6, access the terminal there, and all the correct doors will be open to allow you to go back up to Level 1 :-)
Level 3
If you're going to try the stealth and cunning approach to rescue your
friends, this is where the fun begins! (if instead you got here by
killing everything in sight, then follow the 'Ah heck, it'll do' path
below). Locate the President and have a (long) chat with him. Man, is
he deranged! Once you've learned the 'Master Plan', take the
non-confrontational exit out of the conversation, so he doesn't call
the guards. Then, you can use either of the methods below to bring on
the endgame:
The 'Intellectual' way:
use the (by now patented) 'Silent Super Stimpak Death' approach to kill
the President. Feed him about 8 Super Stimpaks in succession, then use
your Pip Boy to wait for 10 minutes. Get the Presidential Passkey off
him. Then, go talk to Lt. Col. Dr. Charles Curling in the room to the
NW. You can convince him to release the FEV virus into the ventilation
system, but only if you have at least: IN 9, CH 8, Speech 70%. Once you
get the conversation choice: "That's OK. Take your time, doctor. It's a
big concept to swallow.", you'll know you have it made! After the virus
is released (5000 XP), head down to Level 4 via the stairs behind the
President's office. In the room that contains the mainframe, there are
3 technicians. Wait patiently for the FEV virus to waste them (or use
your Pip Boy to wait 10 minutes), then walk right up to the middle
computer terminal, arm an explosive, drop it there, and head back up
the stairs. You've just earned another 10000 XP (as if it matters at
this stage in the proceedings :-)
Alternatively, you can get Tom
Murray, the guy standing behind a desk all the way in the SW corner of
Level 4, to shut down the reactor for you! Choose the 'persuasive'
dialogue options. You only get 12500 XP for using this strategy instead
of the previous one, but who cares?
After using either of the above strategies, follow the instructions at Endgame.
The 'Ah heck, it'll do' way:
waste the President with the weapon of your choice, and get the
Presidential Passkey off him. Everyone in the immediate vicinity is
alerted, including the security bots, but you can still make your way
down to Level 4 via the stairs behind the President's office. In the
room that contains the mainframe, there are 3 technicians. Save the
game. Walk right up to the middle computer terminal, then wait
patiently for each one of them to turn their backs and walk the other
way (very important!). Once this has happened, arm an explosive, drop
it there, and head back up the stairs (if you make a mistake and alert
one of the technicians, thus entering Combat Mode, try again).
I
thought I'd be able to use the Yellow Reactor Keycard that I found at
the crashed vertibird site near Klamath to disable the reactor, but I
couldn't find a way in there, even though you can see an elevator in
the middle of the reactor room! So, I'm supposing this is another
unimplemented quest.
Anyway, you've just earned another 10000 XP
(as if it matters at this stage in the proceedings :-) Follow the
instructions directly below next.
Endgame
Try to exit via the circular staircase directly to the south of Level 3
(the blast doors may be shut and preventing your exit. If this is the
case, head back down to Level 4 and enter the room directly to the
south that contains 3 terminals. Log onto the south-most one as 'Smith,
J.', and use the Presidential Passkey to activate the Emergency Defense
Systems Shutdown. This action will open the blast doors again, so you
can head back up to Level 3), go up the circular stairs, and emerge at
Ground Level. On your way to the entrance foyer, you should bump into
Sgt. Granite and his men. He'll tell you about Horrigan, and it's
possible to get the Sgt. to help you against Horrigan for 1500 XP. When
you get to the entrance foyer, notice big Frank Horrigan standing
there. Save the game! Just once, it's worth walking right up to him and
hearing what he has to say... but you're at an extreme disadvantage if
you do this, so it's best to restore after and do it this way: skirt
carefully all around the south edge of the foyer and make your way to
the computer terminal. Give yourself a shot of Psycho, and log on as
'Smith, J.'. Use the Presidential Passkey option, and Activate Counter
Insurgency. The turrets, and Sgt. Granite's men if you recruited them,
will keep Frank busy while you polish him off. If you've got your
mutated 6th toe with you, you can walk up to Horrigan in the middle of
the battle and use it on him. Not much cop, but good for a laugh. Once
Horrigan is dead (good animation), head for the exit door. Once you get
the door open, the game ends!
After the credits roll, you can choose to continue playing. Gives you a chance to kick back and try some random encounters with the odds stacked in your favour for a change, and you might also be able to find some more of those special encounters :-)
As a sort of endgame easter egg, if you go visit Fr. Tully again in New Reno, he'll give you a Fallout 2 Hintbook. Put this in a weapon slot, and the first time you use it it raises all your skills to 300%. Subsequent use gets you about 10000 XP per go...
War Story
Recently, while replaying Fallout 2 in order to check out a few things
I was unsure of, I managed to get through the whole thing in about 8
hours playing time by taking a few... short cuts. This section may only
be of academic interest to most, but if you're just looking to rehash a
certain section of the game and don't have the right saved game hanging
around on your hard drive:
I built a character with: CH 10, IN 10 (so I could talk my way past most things), tagged Small Guns, Unarmed, and Speech (though in retrospect, Big Guns or Energy Weapons would make the final battle a little easier).
Then from Arroyo, head straight south for New San Francisco (large spot marked 'Unknown' in SW corner of World Map). Save the game after every few grids of progress on the map, because you can't survive any of the random encounters yet (run away, run away!). When you get to New SFO, talk to Matthew outside the Brotherhood outpost and get the Navarro quest to retrieve the Vertibird Plans (Navarro doesn't appear on the map until you learn about it).
Head straight for Navarro (saving and restoring a lot to get past the Enclave patrols). Once there, take out Chris. This was extremely difficult for me, because I had no weapons to speak of at this point. I finally managed to blind him with a lucky kick to the eyes though. Head down the manhole in the shack next to the Gas Station, and loot the room full of lockers for weapons, ammo, and most importantly, Advanced Power Armor! Now we're armed and dangerous. head back to the surface, and with 40% Sneak skill you can manage to nab the Vertibird Plans from the locker behind Quincy. Also, get the tanker FOB from the base Commander's office (by talking to Cookie, the blind cook, you can find a way to bluff your way into the Commander's office to accomplish this). Now head back to New SFO. If you can kill anything big, like Enclave patrols, Deathclaws, Aliens, etc., then do so from now on as you need the XP!
Back at New SFO, you now have access to the Brotherhood's facility. Take everything you can carry, and trade it in for your weapons and ammo of choice at either of the two gun shops here. Then, head for Vault 15 (small spot marked 'Unknown' in SE corner of World Map). You can stop at NCR (bigger 'Unknown' spot just before it) and steal a Bozar from the guards in the Bazaar there (need only 50% steal skill). The reason why we need to go to Vault 15 is a simple one: we must find Vault 13, and its location is on a computer there. Read the Vault 15 section of this Guide for details on how to do this. I'm afraid you're going to have to kill a few people here, though. Once you have the location of Vault 13 on your Pip Boy, you can either head for New Reno (if you still want to play 'nice'), or go straight to Vault 13 and raid the place for the NavCom parts. If you decide on New Reno, then it's roughly on a beeline NW of Vault 15, towards the middle of the World Map.
The proprietor of the New Reno Arms (west side of Commercial Row) will sell you a Computer Voice Module. Then it's off to Vault 13.
Talk to the Gruthar the Deathclaw at the entrance to Vault 13 (unless you didn't visit New Reno to get the Computer Voice Module and just want to trash the place), and offer to fix his computer. Then, head down to the 3rd level and install the Computer Voice Module that you just brought from New Reno to mend the computer. Go back up and talk to Gruthar. You now have the GECK. But head back to the 3rd level again and raid the storage room there. Lockpick all the lockers there until you find the NavCom parts! Then, it's back to New SFO.
Head for the docked tanker on the north side of town. You must rescue Badger's girlfriend by taking out all the Aliens and other beasties in the hold below to gain the Captain's confidence. Then go to the Shi Palace and divert fuel to the tanker. Finally, head below again and use the FOB to gain access to the NavCom room. Fix the NavCom computer with the parts you got from Vault 13... and you're ready to sail to the Enclave! Finito :-)
Special Encounters
Generally you need Luck of 9 or 10 to get all or most of these
encounters during the course of a single game, but Explorer and Ranger
perks also help.
Talking Head
Touch the monument. Twelve hours later, he'll let you take a piece of him. I never found a use for this Monument Chunk.
Bridge of Death
Heh. Bridgekeeper scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail,
re-enacted 1000 years later. Save first, then talk to the Bridgekeeper
and answer the questions to cross the bridge and get to the exit grid.
If you answer the final trivia question correctly, you'll merely be
allowed to cross the bridge... but if you answer the question with a
question (in true Pythonesque fashion), the Bridgekeeper does a dead
parrot imitation, and you get his robes as a prize (see Armor Catalogue).
Federation Shuttle
On the bodies near the crashed shuttle, you'll find 3 Hypos full of an
advanced drug. It appears to restore you to full HP with no side
effects!
Exploding Brahmin
Watch out, these beasts are lethal. Get outta there, and fast!
Guardian of Forever
You wind up staring at some stone ruins (this is from an old Star Trek
episode). If you walk through the stone portal, you'll 'time warp'
right into a deserted Vault 13 on the 3rd level. In the back storage
room on the floor is a one-of-a-kind energy weapon called a Solar
Scorcher. Only works in daylight, but what the heck. Pretty powerful
stuff! At first I thought it was only of academic interest because I
couldn't find my way back out again. The elevator doesn't work anymore
:-(
But, a little perseverance revealed that if you access the
Water Chip computer there (next to the 'talking' computer), you 'break'
it, leaving the vault with only 150 days left to find a new chip :-)
This action 'warps' you back to the surface, and you get 1000 XP to
boot!
Trader and guards
If you wander around the map just 4 squares north of Modoc for a while
(though I'm pretty much convinced these random encounters can happen
anywhere on the map), you'll eventually encounter a trader named Willy.
You fall asleep during his boring sales pitch, and when you wake up all
you hear is that he's offering you something for a steep price. It's
usually something powered by Small Energy Cells, like a Ripper or Power
Fist. You can also steal whatever it is instead of paying through the
nose for it.
Tin Woodsman
Use the can of oil you find near him to free up his jammed Power Armor.
You get 150 Micro Fusion Cells in return for the favour.
Unwashed Villagers Attacking a Spammer
Scene from "Life in the Global Village" (Act 3).
Cave full of Robbers
Every time you get a random encounter, and there's a cave in the scene,
it's worth going into the cave afterwards. Usually, the cave contains
Radscorpions... but one of these caves contains about a half dozen
heavily armed Robbers in Combat Armor. These guys are really
tough to defeat, but if you can manage to best them, they have some
great gear both on them and stashed in some chests, including: Plasma
Rifle, Mega Power Fists, Gauss Rifles(!), YK42B Pulse Rifles, H&K
G11E's(!), and over $3000 :-)
Cafe of Broken Dreams
Meet the cast of the original Fallout (well, Tandi and Set at least).
Also, some of the 'extras' who felt they could have got better roles.
Even Dogmeat is here! I tried prancing all around him wearing a Leather
Jacket. No dice. However... if you strip down to your Vault 13 suit, he
will join you again! Ah, just like old times :-)
Anyway, one more
thing here: if you didn't know how to already, there's a tip to be
gleaned for saving Dogmeat from destruction at the Military Base in the
original game. Or, you can always read the Quandary Fallout Walkthrough for more detailed instructions.
Weapons Catalogue
In each category, I've tried to arrange the various items in order of lethality... or just sheer badness :P
Even though the burst-capable weapons don't look like they have high damage ratings, it's important to point out that the figures refer to *each bullet*. So... a Bozar has a chance to do 25-35 damage with each of the 15 bullets it dishes out per round. Huzzah!
I never figured out how to employ the Shiv as a weapon. I thought you'd be able to use it to assassinate Carlson or the President, but you can't seem to actually do anything with it except conceal it!
Note: all Melee Weapon damage points are for a character with ST 6, and no Bonus HtH Damage perks.
Melee Weapons:
Shiv
Brass Knuckles
Dmg: 2-6
Switchblade
Dmg: 2-6
Knife
Dmg: 1-7
Club
Dmg: 1-7
Combat Knife
Dmg: 3-11
Spiked Knuckles
Dmg: 4-11
Crowbar
Dmg: 3-11
Sledgehammer
Dmg: 4-10 Rng: 2
Spear
Dmg: 3-11 Rng: 2
Sharpened Spear
Dmg: 4-13 Rng: 2
"Little Jesus" (Little Jesus Mordino's Combat Knife)
Dmg: 5-15
Cattle Prod
Dmg: 12-21
Ammo: 20 x Small Energy Cell
Power Fist
Dmg: 12-25
Ammo: 25 x Small Energy Cell
Louisville Slugger
Dmg: 12-31
Ripper
Dmg: 15-33
Ammo: 30 x Small Energy Cell
Super Cattle Prod
Dmg: 18-33
Ammo: 20 x Small Energy Cell
Super Sledge
Dmg: 18-37 Rng: 2
Mega Power Fist
Dmg: 20-41
Ammo: 25 x Small Energy Cell
Thrown Weapons:
Throwing Knife
Dmg: 3-6 Rng: 16
Spear
Dmg: 3-11 Rng: 8
Sharpened Spear
Dmg: 4-13 Rng: 8
Molotov Cocktail
Dmg: 8-20 Rng: 12
Grenade (Frag)
Dmg: 20-35 Rng: 15
Grenade (Plasma)
Dmg: 40-90 Rng: 15
Grenade (Pulse)
Dmg: 100-150 Rng: 15
Anti-mech only
Small Guns:
Jonny's BB Gun
Dmg: 1-3 Rng: 22
Ammo: 100 x BB's
Pipe Rifle
Dmg: 5-12 Rng: 20
Ammo: 1 x 10mm
10mm Pistol
Dmg: 5-12 Rng: 25
Ammo: 12 x 10mm
Hunting Rifle
Dmg: 8-20 Rng: 40
Ammo: 10 x .223mm FMJ
Upgr: Scope
Desert Eagle .44
Dmg: 10-16 Rng: 25
Ammo: 8 x .44 Magnum
Upgr: Exp. magazine to 20
.44 Magnum Revolver
Dmg: 12-18 Rng: 15
Ammo: 6 x .44 Magnum
Shotgun
Dmg: 12-22 Rng: 14
Ammo: 2 x 12 ga. Shot
Sawed-Off Shotgun
Dmg: 12-24 Rng: 7
Ammo: 2 x 12 ga. Shot
14mm Pistol
Dmg: 12-22 Rng: 24
Ammo: 6 x 14mm
Needler Pistol
Dmg: 12-24 Rng: 24
Ammo: 10 x HN Needler Cartridge
.223 Pistol
Dmg: 20-30 Rng: 30
Ammo: 5 x .223 FMJ
Sniper Rifle
Dmg: 14-34 Rng: 50
Ammo: 6 x .223 FMJ
10mm SMG
Dmg: 5-12 Rng: 25
Ammo: 30 x 10mm
Combat Shotgun
Dmg: 15-25 Rng: 22
Ammo: 12 x 12 ga. Shot
H&K CAWS
Dmg: 15-25 Rng: 30
Ammo: 10 x 12 ga. Shot
Tommy Gun
Dmg: 3-20 Rng: 32
Ammo: 50 x .45 Caliber
Assault Rifle
Dmg: 8-16 Rng: 45
Ammo: 24 x 5mm
Upgr: Exp. magazine to 100
FN FAL
Dmg: 9-18 Rng: 35
Ammo: 20 x 7.62mm
Upgr: Night Sight
FN FAL HPFA
Dmg: 11-22 Rng: 35
Ammo: 20 x 7.62mm
Single burst
HK P90c
Dmg: 12-16 Rng: 30
Ammo: 24 x 10mm
M3A1 "Grease Gun" SMG
Dmg: 10-20 Rng: 20
Ammo: 30 x .45 Caliber
Red Ryder LE BB Gun
Dmg: 25-25 Rng: 32
Ammo: 100 x BB's
H&K G11
Dmg: 10-20 Rng: 35
Ammo: 50 x 4.7mm Caseless
H&K G11E
Dmg: 13-23 Rng: 40
Ammo: 50 x 4.7mm Caseless
Pancor Jackhammer
Dmg: 18-29 Rng: 35
Ammo: 10 x 12 ga. Shot
PPK12 Gauss Pistol
Dmg: 22-32 Rng: 50
Ammo: 12 x 2mm EC
M72 Gauss Rifle
Dmg: 32-43 Rng: 50
Ammo: 20 x 2mm EC
Big Guns:
Flamer
Dmg: 45-90 Rng: 5
Ammo: 5 x Flamethrower Fuel
Upgr: Improved Flamer
Light Support Weapon
Dmg: 20-30 Rng: 40
Ammo: 30 x .223 FMJ
M60
Dmg: 18-26 Rng: 35
Ammo: 50 x 7.62mm
Min. ST 7
Rocket Launcher
Dmg: 35-100 Rng: 40
Ammo: 1 x Rocket
Minigun
Dmg: 7-11 Rng: 35
Ammo: 120 x 5mm
Min. ST 7
Avenger Minigun
Dmg: 10-14 Rng: 40
Ammo: 120 x 5mm
Min. ST 7
Vindicator Minigun
Dmg: 14-19 Rng: 30
Ammo: 100 x 4.7mm Caseless
Min. ST 7
Bozar
Dmg: 25-35 Rng: 35
Ammo: 30 x .223 FMJ
Energy Weapons:
Laser Pistol
Dmg: 10-22 Rng: 35
Ammo: 12 x Small Energy Cell
Upgr: Magneto-Laser Pistol
Plasma Pistol
Dmg: 15-35 Rng: 20
Ammo: 16 x Small Energy Cell
YK32 Pulse Pistol
Dmg: 32-46 Rng: 15
Ammo: 5 x Small Energy Cell
Laser Rifle
Dmg: 25-50 Rng: 45
Ammo: 12 x Micro Fusion Cell
Upgr: Exp. Cap. to 24
Solar Scorcher
Dmg: 20-60 Rng: 20
Daytime use only
Plasma Rifle
Dmg: 30-65 Rng: 25
Ammo: 10 x Micro Fusion Cell
Turbo Plasma Rifle
Dmg: 35-70 Rng: 35
Ammo: 10 x Micro Fusion Cell
YK42B Pulse Rifle
Dmg: 54-78 Rng: 30
Ammo: 10 x Micro Fusion Cell
Gatling Laser
Dmg: 20-40 Rng: 40
Ammo: 30 x Micro Fusion Cell
Armour Catalogue
In order of protection afforded.
Leather Jacket
AC: 8
Normal 0/20%
Laser 0/20%
Fire 0/20%
Plasma 0/10%
Explode 0/20%
Leather Armor
AC: 15 Normal 2/25%
Laser 0/20%
Fire 0/20%
Plasma 0/10%
Explode 0/20%
Combat Leather Jacket
AC: 18
Normal 2/30%
Laser 0/20%
Fire 2/25%
Plasma 0/10%
Explode 0/20%
Leather Armor MK II
AC: 20
Normal 3/25%
Laser 1/20%
Fire 1/25%
Plasma 1/10%
Explode 1/25%
Metal Armor
AC: 10
Normal 4/30%
Laser 6/75%
Fire 4/10%
Plasma 4/20%
Explode 4/25%
Metal Armor MK II
AC: 15
Normal 4/35%
Laser 7/80%
Fire 4/15%
Plasma 4/25%
Explode 4/30%
Tesla Armor
AC: 15
Normal 7/20%
Laser 19/90%
Fire 4/10%
Plasma 9/80%
Explode 3/20%
Combat Armor/Bridgekeeper's Robes
AC: 20
Normal 5/40%
Laser 8/60%
Fire 4/30%
Plasma 4/50%
Explode 6/40%
Brotherhood Armor
AC: 20
Normal 8/40%
Laser 8/70%
Fire 7/50%
Plasma 7/60%
Explode 8/40%
Combat Armor MKII
AC: 25
Normal 9/40%
Laser 9/70%
Fire 5/35%
Plasma 4/50%
Explode 8/45%
Power Armor
AC: 25
Normal 12/40%
Laser 18/80%
Fire 12/60%
Plasma 1 0/40%
Explode 20/50%
Hardened Power Armor
AC: 25
Normal 16/50%
Laser 19/90%
Fire 14/70%
Plasma 12/50%
Explode 19/60%
Advanced Power Armor
AC: 30
Normal 15/55%
Laser 19/90%
Fire 16/70%
Plasma 15/60%
Explode 20/65%
Advanced Power Armor MKII
AC: 35
Normal 18/60%
Laser 19/90%
Fire 16/70%
Plasma 18/60%
Explode 20/70%
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank the following people for contributing to the MKII
version of this guide. Thanks very much for the tips and corrections,
folks :-)
Tom Dillane
Andy Dillbeck
Vadim Dribinsky
Barak Engel
Eric Fatka
hasuInterCeptor
Jeff Huisjen
Remco Hulshoff
Per Jorner
Roman Lapos
Patrick McGinley
See the Quandary Review of Fallout 2.
Copyright © Steve Metzler 1999. All rights reserved.
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