Steve's Guide to Fallout

(A Fallout walkthrough)

Last updated: 27th 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 (Steve's Guide to Fallout 2: Warts 'n All), 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.

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

  1. Calm rebel faction - 750 XP.

    2. Anytime before you find and return the Water Chip... if you talk to one of the 'Upset Vault 13 Citizens' in the Living Quarters (Level 2), you'll discover that they are getting restless and thinking about leaving the vault. They meet every evening in Theresa's room, north side of the Living Quarters. If you go there just after 17:00 and talk to Theresa, you can convince her that this idea is ill-advised.

  2. That would be telling!

    3. You'll find out later when the time is right.

  3. Uh uh! See Quest 2.

    4. Both of these quests are documented later on... I didn't want to spoil the whole game in the first chapter, so to speak!

  4. Find the Water Chip - a whole bunch of XP, plus Quests 2 and 3 :-)

    5. You have 150 days to complete this quest. No need to rush, but a sense of urgency is required. For the time being, you can't take every quest you chance upon - only the ones that don't take you too far out of the way, or will help you to complete this quest! Keep an eye on the 150 day countdown in your Pip Boy. If you find the water chip with at least 90 days left on the clock, you unwittingly prevent a tragedy from befalling the denizens of the place where you find it!
    Note: make sure you knock off Quests 1 and 5 before you deliver the Water Chip to the Overseer, or they'll become unavailable.

  5. Find the Water Thief - 1000 XP.

    6. Same conditions as Quest 1... if you talk to the couple in the SE corner of Level 2, you'll find out that someone knocked the guard on Level 3 over the head and stole some water. All you have to do is go down to Level 3 sometime after midnight (no one else is around), and you'll catch the thief red-handed. Confront him when he comes out of the storage room.

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

  1. Rescue Tandi from the Raiders - 900 XP and 500 Caps.

    2. You have to complete Quest 2, then leave Shady Sands and return again a few days later to get this quest. Talk to Aradesh, and he'll inform you that Raiders have apparently kidnapped his daughter Tandi. The Raider hideout is located just to the SE of Shady Sands. There are 3 ways to get Tandi back:
    1. Barter with Garl, their leader... but it'll cost you dearly in the early stages of the game.
    2. Challenge Garl to hand-to-hand, but only if you have decent Unarmed skill! Targeted shots to the eyes/groin are the way to go here.
    3. Take out all the Raiders. You have to be careful not to let them kill Tandi while the fight is on, though! She's being held in a room in the SW corner of the house. You also get 200 XP for each slave (2 girls not dressed as Raiders) left alive after you've killed all the Raiders. And... make sure you raid the fridge (Dynamite and a set of Lockpicks in there)!
    Once you've freed Tandi, take her straight back to Aradesh and claim your reward. She's absolute crap in a fight :-)

  2. Stop the Radscorpions - 1250 XP.

    3. After you talk to Aradesh and Dr. Razlo, see Seth, and he'll take you to the Radscorpion Caves. If you visited Vault 15 already, then you should have an SMG. Proceed into the Caves and kill one or two Radscorpions. Take their tails afterwards! Then, if you've got Dynamite (Vault 15 again!), you can drop it next to the wall at the cave entrance (place where it says "This portion of the cave seems a little weaker" when you look at the wall there). If you haven't got any Dynamite, you'll have to kill all the critters to complete the quest.
    After you've taken care of the Radscorpions, exit the Caves and return to Dr. Razlo. You get 250 XP for helping him to find the antidote for Radscorpion poison. For every tail that you give him from now on, you'll get a Poison Antidote in return. Use one of the Antidotes on Jarvis in the back room (Seth's brother) to cure him for 400 XP more!

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:

  1. Record Gizmo (just by virtue of you having the Tape Recorder in your possession) asking you to assassinate Killian, and return to Killian with the evidence. You'll get a reward (I took the 5 Stimpaks!) and 500 XP for doing this. Killian will then offer you Quest 2 (see Quests below).
  2. Plant the Bug Killian gave you on Gizmo, using your Steal skill, and return to Killian. Same outcome as above.
  3. Accept Gizmo's challenge to take out Killian. This option is definitely not good for the old Karma, but if you carry it out and take Killian's dogtags back to Gizmo, you'll get 1000 Caps for your troubles. You get 600 XP for taking out Killian, and you'll also be able to pilfer the safe in Killian's back room (500 XP more for opening that, managed with 40% Lockpick skill and a set of Lockpicks). Actually, the contents of the safe are a bit of a disappointment. There's better stuff lying on the tables in the next room, free for the taking now! The downside of all this is that the Junktown guards are now hostile, and will attack you on sight, plus your Karma goes in the wrong direction by about 6 points.

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

  1. Rescue Sinthia - 1000 XP.

    2. If you spend 25 Caps to stay a night at the Crash House Hotel, there's a little crisis that has arisen when you wake up the next morning. There's a crazed gang member holding Sinthia, the girl in the next room, hostage. If you manage to talk him out of it (and fork over 100 Caps), you get the full XP; but, you can blow him away, as long as Sinthia doesn't get hurt, and still walk away with 400 XP.

  2. Stop Gizmo - 600 XP and 500 Caps.

    3. You have to secure Gizmo's confession first (see section on Killian above). Then Killian will ask you to help him take out Gizmo. If you accept, then he'll instruct you to talk to Lars. Get all your weapons ready before you do! After you wipe out Gizmo, Lars gives you a 500 Cap reward. Make sure you return to Gizmo's place later on and ransack it for goodies! Gizmo has a 9mm Mauser on him.

  3. Bust the Skulz gang - 500 XP.

    4. Talk to Lars, the head of the guards, located just inside the entrance to Junktown. Ask him if there's any work, and you'll get this quest. Then, visit the Skum Pitt bar (to the NE of Gizmo's place) anytime after 16:00, when they're open. Talk to Neal the bartender, and ask him about "that trophy on the shelf". You'll find out that it's actually an urn containing his wife's ashes. Buy a drink. Then, one of the Skulz gang knocks down the waitress, and Neal pulls out a gun and blows the guy away. The rest of the gang leaves. Talk to Ismarc, the travelling bard standing in the corner. If you remark "Hey, good singing", and ask him where else he performs, you'll get directions to: The Brotherhood (important place!), Adytum, and the Hub. Also, be sure to talk to the baldy guy with the shotgun, Tycho. He'll add 5% to your Outdoorsman skill if you spend some time with him, and he'll eventually join your party... but not yet.
    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

  1. Dispose of Jain - 700 XP and 5000 Caps.

    2. You can only get this quest if you complete Quest 2 for Decker. The Children of the Cathedral Hospital is located in the southern part of The Hub, on the way to the Water Merchants. If you go in there with the intention of wiping out Jain, you should first talk to the kid near the entrance who is trying to sell you a flower. Get him to leave the Hospital before you start anything with Jain, else he's likely to get caught in the crossfire, and you'll be branded as a Child Killer :-(
    After you take out Jain, her bodyguard, and the rest of the followers, be sure to raid the locked room in the back of the Hospital. There's a load of useful Chems on the bookshelf there... and be sure to take the Purple Robes. They might come in handy sometime :-)

  2. Dispose of merchant - 600 XP and 3000 Caps.

    3. Talk to Kane, inside the Maltese Falcon bar (west side of Downtown). He'll take you downstairs to meet the infamous Decker, who will offer you this quest to bump off Daren Hightower (the merchant you could steal the necklace from in Quest 4) and his wife. You lose 3 Karma points if you complete this quest, but then Decker will give you Quest 1; a chance to make even more money and lose yet more Karma points :-)

  3. Find the missing caravans - 1800 XP and 800 Caps.

    4. Talk to Butch, the boss at the Far Go Traders. He'll give you this quest, and you'll first hear about Deathclaws (in fact, make a mental note to ask everyone from now on about Deathclaws!) On the way out, talk to Rutger. He'll send you to Beth, and you get a 15% discount if you buy from her because you're now working for the Far Go Traders. Beth's GUNS Store is located just to the SW of the Far Go premises. Keep pumping her for info about Deathclaws until she tells you about Harold, the old mutant, and Uncle Slappy. Then, head back to the Old Town area. Just to the south over the exit grid, you'll see a guy walking in circles in front of a building. That's Slappy. If you've done all the above, you'll get the option to ask him about Deathclaws too. He tells you to go inside and talk to Harold. Finally, ask Harold about the Deathclaw, and you also get to hear a lot about goings-on up in the NW concerning mutants. Hmmm. When you've finished hearing Harold's life story, talk to Slappy again, and he'll take you to the Deathclaw cave (you get 800 of the XP above for this).
    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.

  4. Steal necklace from the Merchants - 500 XP, 3000 Caps, and Electronic Lockpick!

    5. Just south of Jacob the arms dealer's place in Old Town, there's a derelict building inhabited by squatters. A staircase in a back room leads down. You have to lockpick your way through several sets of doors (and watch out for traps). When you arrive at the Thieve's Guild, talk to Loxley in the back room. He'll ask you to steal something for him, as a test to prove your worthiness to the Guild. Talk to Jasmine outside. She'll fill you in on the details, and provide you with a set of Lock Picks. You have to make your way over to the west side of The Hub (SW of the Maltese Falcon). Rest in one of the derelict buildings until midnight, then make your way over the western exit grid and enter The Heights section of The Hub. You'll be immediately accosted by a guard, and told to leave. Ignore him, and make your way south. Round the corner of the building there, and stay out of sight. This is Daren Hightower's place - the place you need to sneak into! 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

  1. Destroy the Super Mutants at the Water Shed - a 'reward'.

    2. If you take the first ladder upwards NE of where the ghoul leader is, you should emerge in a narrow hidden passage at the back of a church, with no obvious exit. However, there's a hidden door leading into the church near the south end of the passage (an area of the wall that "looks weaker"). Beware, because it's trapped. There's also a bookcase here containing a Shotgun and some Shells. Once inside, head towards the group of 3 ghouls standing at the top of the church. The leader of the 'topside' ghouls, Set, will start talking to you as you approach. You can get this quest from him to kill all the Super Mutants (Harry and friends. See above). Not so easy early in the game! Once you've accomplished this difficult task, Set's sidekick Garret takes you the whole length of the church to collect your reward: a few Flares, a few Bottles of Nuka-Cola, and - wait for it - $50! For this reason, most players choose to take out Set afterwards (but each Super Mutant you took out was worth quite a few XP. That's the real reward :-)
    Oh, and don't worry about trying to free the glowing ghouls Set has locked up in the church. You can't. They're just part of the decor.

  2. Fix the water pump - 1000 XP.

    3. Just south of the building where Harry is located, there's a manhole. Go down it, and kill all the Molerats in the area to the NE. Take the Junk Parts that are lying on the ground. If you have decent Repair skill (around 40%) you can try going topside and using the Parts on the broken Water Pump directly (NE corner of building where Harry is located); otherwise, go back to the ghoul leader and show him the Parts. He'll give you some Manuals that you can read to boost your Repair skill first.

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

  1. Become an Initiate - 2000 XP.

    2. Talk to the guard on the left (Cabbot). He'll tell you about The Ancient Order, a place The Brotherhood hold sacred, and from which you must retrieve an artifact in order to become an 'Initiate' of their order. The guard on the right will fill you in a bit more. It seems this place (nicknamed The Glow. Hint, hint :-) is dangerously radioactive, so you'll need something... well, off you go then (see section on The Glow for more details)!
    Once you've retrieved the necessary artifact, return here and talk to Cabbot again to complete the quest and gain entry to their facilities.

  2. Rescue Initiate from the Hub - Power Armor! (or weapon of your choice) and 1500 XP.

    3. Talk to Talus, located on Level 1 in the training hall to the SE. He'll tell you that one of his Initiates is being held captive somewhere in The Hub, and he wants you to rescue him (you may have unwittingly done this already if you explored The Hub thoroughly. In this case, you can collect your reward immediately!) Get some Stimpaks ready! The Initiate is being held by a gang of thugs that are holed up in the Old Town area of The Hub, in a building just SE of the exit grid (SW of where Jacob the arms dealer hangs out). Save the game before you go in, because the folk in there start firing at you as soon as you open the door. This is a very tough fight early on in the game, so watch out for NPC's like Dogmeat and Ian that you may have tagging along. They're very likely to come to a nasty end here if the fight goes on too long :-(
    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:

  1. On the World Map, stop one square short of The Glow, but get as close to it as you can within that square (yes, even parts of the grid account for precious hours of travel time)!
  2. Pop 2 Rad-X. Regardless of what you are wearing, this will always bring your radiation resistance to 100%.
  3. Never read any books/manuals while you are here. Your Rad-X will wear off in the time it takes to read them, and you'll be sorry; likewise, don't accept an invitation to play chess (game takes 2 hours).

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

  1. Turn on power for the Glow - 1000 XP.

    2. Explore Level 6 fully. Then repair the generator in the room to the east, and use the computer there to restore power to The Glow. Oops! Remember all those 'dead' sentry robots you saw on the way down? They've just come back to life! But, restoring power is the only way you can make it to Level 5, so you'll just have to put up with the inconvenience. Take out the 2 robots here, then use the Blue Pass Key on the previously inoperable elevator to finally arrive at Level 5 (see above).

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

  1. Find Children spy in the Followers - no solution?

    2. If you take the stairs in the NE corner down to the basement, you'll get to chat with a nice ghoul by the name of Talius. First, pursue the conversation path of asking him about why he was in Necropolis, and if he volunteered for the job of finding a Water Chip for his Vault (!) If you offer to kill the guy who turned him into a mutant, he'll give you a Flamethrower and 20 x Flamethower Fuel to further the cause! Then, if you accuse him of being a spy for the Children of the Cathedral, he'll deny this, but allude to the fact that he believes there really is a Children spy among the Followers. So, he'll give you this quest as a result. He suspects it might be one of the people who scout the Cathedral for the Followers; however, I was never able to find anyone there who fit the bill. The theory is widely held among Fallout fans that this is a 'broken' quest.

  2. Fix hydroponic farms in Adytum - 250 Caps and 6 Stimpaks.

    3. In the southern part of Adytum you'll find Miles, the chemist. He needs some parts to repair the hydroponics for his underground farm, and sends you to Sammael, who is located in a tent just to the east of where Miles is standing. If you ask Sammael about Deathclaws, he'll inform you that one of his men was on the way back to Adytum with the parts for Miles, but never made it. Hmmm. Sammael gives you a wealth of info on the area. He'll tell you that there's a nest of Deathclaws located to the east of the Blade's place, that the Gun Runners are further to the east of that, and also about a library to the NW of Adytum. But, it's time to go find those parts for Miles first, me thinks. 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.

  1. Talk your way through - I stumbled upon this path the very first time I played Fallout, with only a Level 9 character! Unfortunately, it won't work if anyone at all is with you, including Dogmeat. You'll also require decent CH, at least 70% Speech skill, and Vree's Autopsy Disk... oh, and a set of Purple Robes too! Don the Robes and make your way to the top of the Tower (Level 4). Morpheus is the guy in the purple robes there. Enter the room where he is standing and talk to him. Get him to take you to The Master. You can convince The Master that his plan will fail because all the Mutants are sterile. He asks for evidence. If you have Vree's Autopsy Tape with you, this will convince him! Then, just follow the instructions below under: Cathedral wrap-up.

  2. Take out Morpheus - Head up the Tower, blasting all the Nightkin sentries who try to stop you. When you get to the top (Level 4), Morpheus is the guy in the purple robes. Get the silver COC Badge off him. It's actually a key! In the room next to where Morpheus hangs out, there's a bookcase with an Electronic Lockpick. The locked chest there contains some Tesla Armor (very effective against lasers), and a Power Fist. You also get 1000 XP for wasting Morpheus. Use the key you got from Morpheus' body to open the second locked door at the base of the Tower. Then follow the section immediately below.

  3. Blast your way through - If you got the key from Morpheus, then you can use it to open the second door at the base of the Tower; else, use Dynamite or Plastic Explosives. When you get through the door, head down the stairs. In the SE corner of the room at the base of the stairs, there's a hidden door. If you put on the Purple Robes and wait a minute or two, a robed figure opens the door from the other side, and you can get back through before it closes again. Alternatively, you can blow it open. Get past the beasties in the cave and the two sentries at the vault (!) entrance, and you arrive at:

    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

Copyright © Steve Metzler - August, 1999. All rights reserved. This work may be published anywhere, on any medium, provided:
1. It is not altered in any way, including this copyright notice.
2. No fee is charged for access to this work.
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