Fallout Tactics Walkthrough
by J Sepulveda (phoenix_risen49@yahoo.com)
Copyright 2005 J Sepulveda
The Usual Legal Stuff
Fallout, Fallout Tactics, Interplay, and this entire game and all its elements
are all registered trademarks and copyrights of Interplay. I don't own them
and they have not endorsed this guide in any way.
This guide is my own creation based on my experiences with the game, except
where explicitly stated. I don't include any information that I haven't
discovered or tested myself. That said, the nature of the beast is that this
document will overlap with others on the same topics. I chose to write this
doc because (a) my opinions differed from the wisdom of other FAQ/walkthrough
authors and (b) I wanted to include the latest information, which most of the
FAQs failed to address. I like to think this helps any gamers out there still
playing this game four years after it was released - I know I am. This
document is my property and is free for all to distribute unmodified or to
modify for their own use so long as they don't pass it off as their own or
charge anyone to access it. It is currently posted only on gamefaqs.com and
neoseeker.com.
I. Character Creation and Maintenance
-Character Types
-Attributes
-Skills
-Traits
-Perks
-Status Effects
II. Equipment
-Weapons
-Ammunition
-Armor
-Drugs
III. General Gameplay
-Strategy 101
-Enemies
-Recruit Races
-Recruits
IV. Missions
V. Other Stuff
-Salvage
-Bartering
-Recruiting
-Special Encounters
-Bonus Mission
THE PATCH
I highly recommend that you play with the 1.27 patch on the game. This fixes
a whole lot of problems and bugs and makes the game more interesting by
changing the single-player recruits pool, increasing the experience payoff for
Tough Guy, and allowing you to design your own missions. However, since
Interplay has gone down the tubes the patch has become much more difficult to
find, and many sites that do offer it demand that you pay to join their
download service first. The exception to this rule that I found was GameSpot.
You still have to give them registration information on yourself (unless you
already have an account with GameFAQs), but they don't charge you for the
download. I'm not advocating GameSpot for any other service in any other way,
I'm just saying that it's a place you can get the 1.27 patch for free even in
2005. Saves from the disc version of the game are completely compatible with
the patch version, but some of the patch's alterations won't show up unless
you start a new game after it is applied.
************************************
*Character Creation and Maintenance*
************************************
Character Types
Generally, I divide the characters I use in Tactics into three categories for
combat potential: sneaker, sniper, and gunner.
-Sneakers start as extremely useful and become useless by the end of the game.
The idea here is a combination of Sneak skill and either Unarmed or Melee
weapons. Sneak to get close to or behind the enemy, then start whacking them.
The most important attribute for a sneaker is Agility, which determines the
Sneak skill, Action Points, AP regeneration, and dodging ability. Sneakers
need AP to regenerate faster than their opponents so they can interrupt
attacks. Strength increases damage in melee combat and Endurance offers some
assurance that you won't go down as soon as you try to take two enemies at
once. You'll stop using them when mutants and robots start breaking your arm
on the first hit.
-Snipers use rifles, the longer the range the better. They outshoot the
enemy with superior weapon skill and Perception by firing at such range that
the enemy can rarely hit them. Naturally, snipers require lots of Perception,
though Endurance can be dropped to compensate. Don't drop Strength below 5 or
you won't be able to use many weapons. Luck is also nice to increase critical
hits. Snipers can hold a close weapon in the second slot like a shotgun or
SMG and can switch to energy weapons late in the game. Important note: it is
possible to set every shot a character makes to aimed by right-clicking the
aim button on the bottom right of the weapon slot at the bottom of the screen.
Choose a target and every shot that character takes (at a higher AP cost) will
be aimed at that target until you reset it or turn off aiming. This is pretty
much the only practical way to use aimed attacks during CTB.
-Gunners depend on Big Guns to hole their enemies with hundreds of rounds.
They won't be much use until St. Louis, when you'll capture your first
practical big guns, but they're indispensable against the Mutants and vital in
the first few fights with robots. Gunners need lots of Strength just to carry
their weapon and ammunition - the Browning M2, the most useful large gun in
the game, requires 9 Strength - and Endurance because these weapons don't have
the range the snipers' rifles do, so they'll have to get closer. Perception
is good but not nearly as necessary as with snipers and Agility is another
secondary concern. Luck matters little - you're blasting your enemies into
shreds, not aiming at their eyes.
Every character in your squad should have a _useful_ weapons skill at all
times. By _useful_ I mean that they must be equipped with a weapon they can
use and circumstances that will make them necessary. You shouldn't send a
squad full of melee fighters to kill an army of Mutants. In addition to their
weapons skills, each character should provide a special skill to the squad.
By the time you hit Macomb, you should have someone in your party over 100%
with each of the following skills: First Aid, Doctor, Lockpick, Traps, Repair,
Piloting, and Outdoorsman. Bartering, Stealing, and Gambling are optional.
Attributes
Attributes can only be modified during character creation, after which point
they are set in stone with extremely rare exceptions. Expect whatever
attributes you create to carry you through the entire game. These are the
framework that establish the type of character you are creating, and they are
used to determine all of your other statistics.
It's important to note that each race's attributes have both a creation
maximum and a true maximum. Creation max for humans is 10 for all stats, with
a minimum of 1 (2 with Gifted). It cannot be set any higher during character
creation. Other races have different minimums and maximums. However, an
attribute cannot under any circumstances be higher than +2 over the creation
maximum (such as using drugs to pump it up). Even though Deathclaws can have
Strength 14, humans can never go above 12.
-Strength
Strength modifies melee damage and carrying weight, as well as determining
whether you can use a given weapon (all firearms have a minimum ST to use
them). It is very important to close-quarters combat fighters like sneakers
who will benefit from the extra melee damage. Also, anyone planning on using
Big Guns will need ST of 9 to use the Browning M2 (or 7 with Buffout).
Carrying weight isn't much of a problem because you can always divide the load
amongst squad members and you can dump things on the ground and come back for
them later in the mission, though they disappear if you leave.
-Perception
Perception primarily governs your range modifiers, and to some extent affects
sequence order in CTB. If two characters see each other at the same moment,
the one with the higher PE will react first. This can be important, but less
often than you might think. More importantly, a high PE is vital to any
character using long-range firearms, which should be at least half your squad
at any given time. Melee fighters don't need more than average PE.
-Endurance
Endurance determines how much HP you have, how much you gain, and your
resistances to radiation, poison, and general damage. While these are all
good things to have, EN is only critical for characters that plan to get hit a
lot like melee fighters. Long-range snipers can lower this to the floor
without suffering too much as long as their PE and guns skills are very high.
-Charisma
Unlike previous Fallout games, Charisma is relegated to a very low priority
this time around. Since there is no Speech skill (replaced with Pilot), it
only modifies Barter, and you'll be salvaging enough goods that Bartering
won't be a problem even if your skill is minimal. However, CH does affect how
quickly you get promoted in the Brotherhood, which allows you access to better
recruits and equipment sooner. There are two perks, Leader and Divine Favor,
that are very useful and depend on relatively high levels of CH (6 and 8).
Note that only your main character's rank is taken into account when you buy
gear or recruit.
-Intelligence
Intelligence is the basis for a few skills, but most importantly determines
how many skill points you get per level. Highly Intelligent characters can
develop more abilities faster, which is always an advantage.
-Agility
Agility is the basis of all combat in Fallout Tactics because it sets the
number of Action Points you have. Action Points let you do stuff, and more AP
let you do more stuff faster. If you're playing TB the benefits of firing
twice versus firing once and moving 3 spaces are obvious, but in CTB the
advantage of high AG is that characters with more AP regenerate their AP
faster. Watch a Deathclaw with 11 AP take down a Super Mutant 6 damage at a
time and you'll get it.
-Luck
According to the manual, Luck affects everything you do in a small way. In
the actual game, this means that you never even notice Luck affecting you
unless it's less than 4, at which point your guns start exploding and badness
ensues. The exception to this rule is that your starting critical chance
(chance for a critical hit) is equal to the LK attribute, but it's more
efficient to take the More Criticals Perk than to waste attribute points here.
Skills
You get to tag 3 skills during creation, immediately boosting them by 20% each
and allowing all skill points devoted to them in the future to count double.
Tag skills also determine your starting equipment, because each skill you tag
adds certain items to your beginning inventory. Note that skill points and
skill percentage are two different things. Skill points are awarded to your
character every time he goes up a level (2xIN+5). Skill percentage is how
these points are applied to your skills. One skill point = one skill percent
until you hit 100%, then it takes more skill points to raise your percent each
increment up to 5 skill points by 200%.
-Small Guns (9mm x24, Booze)
If you've played Fallout before, you know that Small Guns is a misnomer. Many
of the most useful guns in the game are "small", including pistols, revolvers,
rifles, shotguns, and submachine guns. The ubiquity of small guns makes this
skill absolutely vital during the first half of the game. It is possible to
play with a main character without this skill tagged, but it makes the early
part of the game much more difficult. Don't bother raising Small Guns over
130% because you will switch to Energy Weapons around mission 13-14 and won't
need small arms anymore. Small guns usually cost 4 AP to fire, with 5 for SMG
bursts and 3 for revolvers.
-Big Guns (Booze x2, Happy Pie)
Big guns include machine guns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, and other fun
stuff. They deal out much more damage than small arms, but are heavier, less
accurate, and chew through ammunition much faster. Fallout veterans will
recall that Big Guns was never really necessary because you could compensate
with aimed shots from rifles or energy weapons. Tactics introduces Super
Mutants long before you can start getting energy weapons, and aimed shots are
difficult to pull off in the heat of CTB. Therefore, big guns will be a much
larger part of your wasteland adventure. Don't tag it at creation because you
won't have access to them until mission 8. Big guns cost 5 AP to fire.
-Energy Weapons (Booze, Donuts x3)
Energy weapons are the bastard children of small and big guns. You've got the
low weight and accuracy of small arms matched with the damage and ammo costs
of big guns. Energy weapons aren't strictly necessary to the fight, but they
are extremely useful as replacements for relatively obsolete small arms by the
end of the game. Don't tag it because energy weapons don't become available
until mission 12. Energy weapons cost 5 AP to fire, 6 for burst, and 3 for
pistols.
-Unarmed (Brass Knuckles, Buffout, Rot Gut x3)
Unarmed encompasses both truly weaponless combat and weapons that improve your
ability to punch things, like punch knives and Powerfists. This skill is
exclusively for close-range combat for obvious reasons, which means that it
becomes much less useful after you realize you don't want to be close to your
enemies because they're burst-firing .50 cal at you. It works very well for
sneaker characters if they can get within range and then kill the enemy before
he fires. Also, unarmed is a 'silent' method of killing things, meaning that
it won't wake people up unless you're right next to them and won't bring the
guards running. This makes it useful for stealth missions like Freeport and
Quincy. Punches and punch-enhancing devices cost 3AP, kicks cost 4, and the
Deathclaw Gore costs 5.
-Melee Weapons (Knife, Broken Bottle)
Melee weapons are cousins to unarmed weapons in that you have to be really
close to make them count. Melee weapons are also 'silent' and thus good for
sneakers to use. These generally deal more damage than unarmed weapons and
sometimes have 'range' of 2 so you can hit things slightly farther away. The
downside is that you start with a lower Melee skill than Unarmed, all things
being equal. Melee weapons eventually become obsolete when you stop wanting
to get close to the enemy. AP costs range from 3 for knives, 4 for most other
weapons, and 5 for really heavy weapons.
-Throwing (Spear x3, Grenade (Frag), Rock x10)
Throwing deals with two types of projectiles: grenades that deal area damage
and cost 6 AP versus things that wish they were grenades and cost less.
Grenade technology advances considerably through the game, from frags to
acid to plasma to pulse, but the other stuff doesn't appreciably increase in
damage potential. Darts, shurikens, throwing knives, powder bags, razor
rings, fantasy balls, etc. all sound interesting but aren't as weight-
efficient as carrying ammo for a gun. Plus you've got to hunt them all down
after the fight, and that gets tedious. The downside of grenades is that they
are best used on groups of enemies that are far from your friends, but a
grenadier in CTB throws whenever he's got enough AP and at the nearest target,
who might be right next to him. Using this skill effectively forces your
constant attention to that one character, leaving you less able to maneuver or
heal your other squad members in the heat of battle. In TB, though, it works
great, because you can switch back and forth between grenades and a firearm.
-First Aid (First Aid Kit, Poison Antidote, Poison x2)
First Aid is the basic skill for healing damage and requires either a First
Aid Kit or Field Medic Kit to work (Field Medic Kit is better). It's a very
good idea to always have a medic with this skill to conserve valuable Stimpaks
and their more powerful cousins. The downside is that First Aid only works
three times in a row on one person, at which point the character becomes
Bandaged and you have to use Doctor to remove this condition. The Poison item
is extremely rare in the game and available only one other place (Scott City),
mostly because it's kind of pointless.
-Doctor (Doctor's Bag, Scalpel, Fruit x3)
Doctor is the skill you never want to use. It will heal major wounds like
broken bones, concussions, and unconsciousness as well as remove the Bandaged
condition. Most of the time these status ailments are rare, but very bad
things can still happen to good squads. If you're playing Tough Guy, you may
want to have two different medics with Doctor skill just in case one goes down
or needs to be healed himself. Doctor skill requires a Doctor's Bag or
Paramedic Bag to work. Tagging Doctor is a good idea because it gives you a
free Doctor's Bag, which is actually very expensive.
-Sneak (Axe Handle)
Sneak lets you move silently so the enemy doesn't notice you. This lets you
set up attacks so that everyone can switch to aggressive at once and shred the
enemy, or just get behind someone and beat the bejeezus out of them with a
lead pipe. There are a few missions near the beginning of the game where I
highly recommend a few sneakers, but there's never any reason to have your
entire squad spend points here. Sneak makes Melee and Unarmed more useful
because you can get close enough to hit, but by the end of the game just
getting your people close won't be enough to stop him from burst-firing and
killing you. You can choose to have your entire squad be sneaky no matter
their weapon, but it requires a constant investiture of skill points
throughout the game to be effective. I strongly discourage you from Tagging
Sneak for your main character; it's very common among recruits and it doesn't
give you much for starting equipment.
-Lockpick (Ring Pulls x25, Stinky Meat Platter)
Lockpick is kind of a fun skill to have. It's never vital for completing a
mission, but it makes a few missions easier and definitely gives you access to
loot that you'd otherwise have to pass up. Carry lockpicks with you to
increase the skill. Actually, tagging it is unnecessary because putting
lockpicks in both hands is usually enough to pop most locks. Using Electronic
Lockpicks doesn't increase your skill any more but seems to work more often -
there aren't any electronic locks to pick as in previous Fallouts.
-Steal (BoS Scrip x30, Ring Pulls x100)
Steal is another fun yet totally unnecessary skill like Lockpick, only more
so. It lets you take stuff from other people, or give them stuff without them
knowing (like armed bombs). There are only a few missions with lots of
noncombative civilians for you to rob, so you'll probably end up just stalking
fellow Brothers in the bunkers. It doesn't give you experience like in
previous Fallouts. Stealing is easier if you're behind the target and are
sneaking. If you are ever caught stealing in a Brotherhood bunker, everyone
in the bunker will immediately turn hostile and you will either be killed by
the Big Gun-toting Power Armored warriors or you'll kill your superior
officer, effectively losing the game.
-Traps (T13 Mine x3, Explosive Trap)
Traps is an extremely difficult skill to use offensively. You'd have to
either plant a mine on a spot where you know the enemy will walk (difficult to
plan) or arm a bomb and plant it directly on an unsuspecting enemy, which
takes not only high Traps but also high Sneak and Steal skills, all of which
makes for very low skill point efficiency when you could just shoot them.
Traps is better used to salvage enemy traps and sell them, and there are some
situations where good loot is guarded by a trap. Sure, you could just set it
off and deal with the consequence, but where's the art? Note that even if
your character is "boggled by the mine's complexity" you can still disarm it,
but at a fairly low success rate so be prepared with First Aid. Also, even
mines that are fairly simple may explode on you. If you're using Tough Guy,
consider getting the Crazy Bomber Perk before you start disarming things.
-Science (Mentats, Clipboard, Classic Nuka-Cola x4)
Don't tag Science. Don't spend skill points on Science. Don't take party
members with Science tagged without good reason. By the time Science becomes
a factor in the game, you will have found enough science books to give your
main character over 100% if he reads all of them. Just read the books and
don't worry about it until you hit robot territory. If you're playing with
the patch, Science skill will add to your critical hit chance when you fight
robots.
-Repair (Tool Kit, Crowbar, Booze)
Repair is specifically a First Aid skill for vehicles and robots. Since there
are only 5 vehicles in the entire game (one hidden in the bonus level) and
only one robot that can join your party, uses for Repair are somewhat limited.
However, in the single-player missions where vehicles do appear, Repairing
them is a high priority. Consider bringing an expert for those missions
and/or devoting skill points from a sniper with over 150% weapons skills.
Books also help, but there aren't nearly enough of them.
-Piloting (Cat's Paw, Beer x6, XXXXX Beer x2, Booze)
The new skill, Piloting, covers how well you drive. Actually, there doesn't
seem to be a huge difference between a 30% driver and a 150% driver, but in
theory higher skills make tighter turns and have access to Perks like Lead
Foot and Road Warrior. If you're into that kind of thing. The vast majority
of your driving will be over empty wasteland anyway, since you can't take a
vehicle into a mission and only 5 missions have vehicles in them already.
-Barter (Cat's Paw, Ring Pulls x50, Booze)
Some people like Barter because it's hard to salvage useful gear. Every
trader in the game uses a supply-and-demand system, so the more of a given
item you dump on that trader, the less valuable it is. Watch the value of
AK-47s drop after Macomb and you'll see what I mean. However, if you follow
my advice and salvage literally EVERYTHING from every mission, money will not
be a problem, ever, even with extremely low Barter skill. Good reputation and
high Charisma also help your barter prices.
-Gambling (BoS Scrip x500)
Some people are gamblers willing to bet a valuable thing they have against a
similarly valuable thing you have on a roll of the dice. The more valuable
your thing is compared to theirs, the better your odds of winning. There's
no reason to tag this since you'll get a recruit named Stumpy with all the
Gambling skill you'll ever need (119%), so just pop him out whenever you feel
like risking it. Unfortunately, if you're using the 1.27 patch, Stumpy
doesn't have Gambling anymore and you'll have to make do by dedicating someone
else's skill points. Quartermasters in Gamma and Delta Bunkers are gamblers,
which can be handy if you run short of cash.
-Outdoorsman (Healing Powder, Rad-X)
In previous Fallouts, Outdoorsman was useful because it helped you get from
one place to another on the world map with fewer annoying random attacks. In
Tactics, it's indispensable, especially toward the end of the game when you
ammo is really expensive and/or rare. You don't want to waste Micro Fusion
Cells on dogs and ghouls. Also, the rate of random encounters this time
around is MUCH higher unless you've got the patch, you'll sometimes get
attacked ten or more times in a single square. I understand that this is
because the rate of random encounters was tied to how fast your machine was.
The patch helps fix this problem. Raise this skill until you hit 120%.
Traits
You can choose up to 2 traits per character, but you don't have to take any.
Traits are tradeoffs that give your character an advantage in one area and a
disadvantage in another that roughly compensate each other. Effects of traits
are listed in the manual.
-Fast Metabolism No benefit or loss
Radiation resistance should never be a problem, because you should just take
Rad-X before you get irradiated. Poison can be annoying, but only early in
the game and it's so gradual that it's never a threat. On the other hand, a
fast healing rate doesn't do much since you can always just run around the
World Map for a few extra days to heal up. In theory, healing rate affects
healing from First Aid and Doctor, but I never noticed much difference.
-Bruiser Loss
More Strength is good for melee fighters, but more AP and the ability to
interrupt your opponent's attacks because he recharges slower than you are
much better.
-Small Frame Benefit
Because you have a squad of 6 people that can share the load, carrying weight
will rarely be a problem in this game. Not recommended for characters using
Big Guns.
-One Hander Loss
The best weapons in the game are all 2-handed, making this trait a very
powerful handicap. An excellent challenge, if you're up to it.
-Finesse Benefit
Very good for snipers, but much less so for gunners.
-Kamikaze No benefit or loss
The drop in Armor Class is only significant during the early stages of the
game when the armor generally sucks. Metal armor and above usually dwarf your
natural advantage, making the downside less down as time goes on. The +25
damage upside is nice at the beginning, but eventually it, too, won't matter
all that much.
-Heavy Handed Benefit
Melee combat carries an automatic increased chance of critical hits, so this
trait just balances that chance out a bit. Strongly discouraged for snipers.
-Fast Shot Benefit
Gunners will definitely like this trait since they can't do aimed shots with
burst mode anyway. Snipers can take or leave it because while aimed shots
maximize their potential damage, it's also annoying to set up aimed targets
and then turn them off every time you change ranges because the chance-to-hit
drops.
-Bloody Mess No benefit or loss
No gameplay effects, but it does stop you from choosing a more useful trait.
-Jinxed Loss
I hate this trait. Even if it also screws your enemies over, the fact that it
jacks up my guns so often really annoys me. It's sometimes good for a laugh.
-Good Natured Loss
Tactics is, as the box says, a 'tactical _combat_ game'. Why choose a trait
that specifically lowers your combat abilities? I dislike the idea of using
your main character as a brain with First Aid, Doctor, Lockpick, Traps,
Repair, Pilot, etc. because I prefer having 6 guns to having 5 and some
firefight baggage.
-Chemical Reliant No benefit or loss
Why are you using drugs so often that addiction is a risk? The only time to
use drugs is for specific, extremely important situations like carrying the
Browning, and even then it's a temporary fix until I can get a recruit with
the natural strength to pull it off.
-Chemical Resistant No benefit or loss
See above, only more so.
-Night Person Loss
I like this trait, but I can never find a way to really make it work for my
squad. The majority of missions I take by day, so it would almost always be a
handicap. Moreover, if I start taking missions by night, then my squadmates
are screwed because they can't see. Now if everyone had Night Person it
would be very different because the benefits of daytime would be negated, but
you don't have that kind of control in the single-player game.
-Skilled Loss
Going up one more level to get the skill points Skilled would give you and
then some is easier than the annoyance of going up several more levels to get
the Perks you want.
-Gifted Benefit
I love and swear by Gifted, like many people. Extra attribute points are pure
gold, and it's always simple enough to go up another level to get the extra
skill points. Pop your Intelligence up to at least 8 if you take this.
-Glowing One (Ghoul) Loss
Like Night Person, only you're also making it easy for your enemies to hit
you. Plus, you're irradiating your entire squad. It's only a matter of time
before they frag you, and then what good is your radiation resistance?
-Tech Wizard (Ghoul) Loss
Because of their low Endurance and Strength, the only place I trust ghouls in
my party is as snipers. Perception is vital to this niche, so the tradeoff
isn't worth it.
-Fear the Reaper (Ghoul)Loss
'Death's short list' apparently means 'randomly lose life, especially when
leveling up'. It's quite annoying just to get a ghoul that Perks like a
human. Why not just take a human?
-Vat Skin (Mutant) Loss
Knocks the Perception of everyone nearby down by 2. Since my gunners work as
a trio, this is always applied to my own troops and only rarely do I let an
enemy get close enough for the effect to kick in for them. On the other hand,
this can help compensate for the fact that mutants can't wear armor.
-Ham Fisted (Mutant) No benefit or loss
By the time you get Mutants in your party, you don't want them going into
melee fights with the enemy anyway. If they're close enough to punch, they're
close enough to eat your Browning. On the other hand, Mutants shouldn't be
doing tech skills because of their low Intelligence.
-Domesticated (Deathclaw)Loss
The only weapon Deathclaws have is their melee damage. Why would you reduce
that for an extra 2 skill points per level? They only have two skills that
matter: Unarmed and maybe Sneak.
-Rabid (Deathclaw) Benefit
My Deathclaws, like the rest of my party, rarely use stimpaks or drugs of any
kind. Most of my healing is done by First Aid and Doctor skills, which
handily impart experience and remove status effects. Late in the game,
however, inability to use Ultra Stimpaks could prove to be a liability. It's
also really fun to slice your way through an entire group of animals on a
single turn.
-Tight Nuts (Robot) Loss
If robots had a healing rate, this wouldn't be as much of a problem. As it
is, the only way to restore robot HP is with Repair skill, and nothing you do
should impede that ability in any way.
-Targeting Comp (Robot) Benefit
I recommend taking this on a robot with Fast Shot to balance it out, or else
an extremely high Agility. The bonus of 15% is very hard to pass up when it's
applied on top of phenomenal weapons skill to vastly improve your range or go
for aimed shots.
-EMP Shielding (Robot) Loss
How many enemies use EMP against you in the single-player campaign?
-Beta Software (Robot) Loss
In combat, the one thing you absolutely must depend on is your soldiers'
ability to carry their weight. Though this trait is excellent if you're using
the robot to fill some skill niches, the relatively frequent critical failures
cancel this out and then some.
Perks
You can choose a Perk every three levels if you meet the requirements (stated
in the manual) and are human; other races gain perks slower. The vast
majority of perks are useless, for reasons I'll outline here. All of the
Perks' effects are outlined in the manual, so I'll only give commentary.
-Action Boy ****
Good for any character at any time, given how important AP are in this game.
-Adrenaline Rush *
It's not worth the risk of fighting at 1/2 HP.
-Awareness ***
Useful, but you only need one character with it to work in CTB. Just select
that character and mouse over the enemy and the info will appear even if he
can't see the enemy in question.
-Bend the Rules *
It's poor efficiency to pick two Perks to get a useful one instead of just
one. Plan better when you create your character.
-Better Criticals (no Mutant) ***
Very good, especially if you've already got a couple levels of More Criticals.
-Bluff Master *
Save and reload so you don't get caught stealing.
-Bone Head *
Reduces chance of unconsciousness by 50% for the first rank, then another 25%
for the second rank. Unconsciousness is so rare that this isn't necessary.
-Bonsai (Ghoul) *
Your character spontaneously generates Fruit. Fruit becomes much less useful
as the game goes on, even if you also take Way of the Fruit.
-Bonus HtH Attacks ***
If you've still got a melee fighter at level 15, it's very good.
-Bonus HtH Damage ***
Excellent if the character is planning on remaining a melee fighter throughout
the game, otherwise it's a wasted Perk.
-Bonus Move *
Has no effect in CTB.
-Bonus Ranged Damage ***
Worthwhile, but there are other Perks that often take priority.
-Bonus Rate of Fire ****
Just like the Fast Shot trait without the drawback. Vital for gunners and
anyone using Energy Weapons.
-Bracing *
Wait for Weapon Handling instead, or a squad member with more Strength.
-Break the Rules *
The nonhuman races don't have many unique Perks, and again you're wasting two
Perks to get one.
-Brown Noser **
More promotions are nice, but there are lots of better Perks.
-Brutish Hulk (Deathclaw) ****
Deathclaws are exclusively melee fighters, so more HP is vital when they are
fighting robots.
-Cancerous Growth (Ghoul) *
Heal with First Aid or Doctor for experience, not with healing rate.
-Comprehension *
Books aren't so plentiful that this becomes useful unless you're copying them
with the doubling cheat, in which case they're infinite.
-Crazy Bomber (no Deathclaw) **
Loading and reloading constantly will give you the same effect, but Tough Guys
may want to invest in this.
-Death Sense (Deathclaw) **
Interesting, but there are relatively few sneaking enemies in the game.
-Demolition Expert *
Allows you to use Traps offensively better, but as explained above that's very
difficult to pull off in the first place.
-Die Hard *
Don't let your HP drop to 20% and keep fighting. Heal yourself.
-Divine Favor ***
Gives +1 to whatever your highest stat is and reduces your Perk rate by one
level, so you get them faster. Very nice, but it requires 8 Charisma to get
it, which is a waste of points.
-Dodger **
Boring but still useful.
-Drunken Master *
Alcohol is for selling, not for drinking - effects last only one minute.
-Educated **
Can be used to balance out the disadvantage of Gifted, but it takes several
ranks and only becomes available at level 6.
-Explorer *
Run around longer on the World Map to find special encounters.
-Faster Healing *
Healing rate is pretty useless, since you can just drive around the World Map.
-Flexible *
You usually don't need to change positions often during combat.
-Flower Child *
It's the upsides from both Chem Resistant and Chem Reliant without either of
the downsides. Take it if you really, really like drugs.
-Gambler *
Gambling is pointless. If you want a gambler, use Stumpy.
-Gain Agility **
Always useful, but it blocks you from picking up a better Perk.
-Gain Charisma **
See above.
-Gain Endurance **
See above.
-Gain Intelligence **
See above.
-Gain Luck **
See above.
-Gain Perception **
See above.
-Gain Strength **
See above.
-Ghost **
Interesting, but hurting your entire party's Perception with nightfall just to
boost Sneak isn't nearly worth it.
-Gunner *
You don't use vehicles in missions often enough to make this useful.
-Harmless (no Deathclaw) *
Stealing is rarely useful unless it's your way of life.
-Healer **
Useful at first, but 4-10 HP isn't much by the second half of the game.
-Heave Ho! *
Throwing is, as stated above, very difficult to use properly.
-Here and Now *
You're wasting a Perk just to pick up more skill points?
-Hide of Scars (Deathclaw) ***
Resistances are good.
-Hit the Deck **
Not enough enemies use splash or area attacks to make this worthwhile.
-HtH Evade *
Use your AP to attack or move away, not to try to dodge.
-Lead Foot *
Essentially a convenience, not really useful.
-Leader (no Deathclaw) ***
+1 Agility for everyone can often give out extra AP. Unfortunately, it won't
add to your Leader's Agility.
-Lifegiver ***
More HP is always good.
-Light Step *
Don't step on mines.
-Living Anatomy **
The damage isn't much, but the +10% can be useful if you're already over 100%.
-Loner **
Your characters are around each other much more often than they are alone.
-Master Thief *
See Harmless.
-Master Trader (no Deathclaw) *
Bartering is pointless if you're salvaging everything from every mission.
-Medic! **
Decent if you only have one medic with both skills over 100%.
-More Criticals ****
Criticals are good. More criticals are better.
-Mr. Fixit (no Deathclaw) *
The Repair bonus is negligible, and the Science bonus is pointless.
-Mutate ****
Excellent for molding your squad's traits into useful things. If they don't
have any traits already, the Perk gives it to them for free.
-Negotiator *
See Master Trader.
-Night Vision **
I like this, but you don't fight in darkness very often unless you choose to.
-Pack Rat **
Easier to just take multiple ranks of Strong Back.
-Pathfinder *
Taking a long time on the World Map is good because you heal more.
-Pickpocket *
See Harmless.
-Psychotic (Mutant) **
Fun, but you have to provide your own Psycho to make it worthwhile.
-Pyromaniac *
There are only 3 fire-based weapons in the whole game: Flamer, Flamer Pistol,
and Molotov.
-Quick Pockets *
Don't be rooting in your inventory during a fight.
-Quick Recovery *
Like Bone Head, getting knocked down isn't so common that you need to guard
against it. Even then, just take Stonewall.
-Rad Child (Ghoul) *
Radiation is rare and you'll still have to remove it from your system anyway.
-Rad Resistance *
Use Rad-X.
-Ranger *
Better to take Survivalist.
-Road Warrior (no Deathclaw) *
See Gunner.
-Salesman (no Deathclaw) *
See Master Trader.
-Scout *
You don't need to see farther since you always know where you're going.
-Sharpshooter ****
Even if you've got 10 Perception, the benefit is useful.
-Silent Death ***
Extremely important for sneakers that plan on lasting throughout the game.
-Silent Running ***
Sneaking faster never hurt anyone.
-Slayer ****
Critical to any melee fighter late in the game.
-Snakeater *
Poison resistance is pointless.
-Sniper ***
Excellent in theory, but doesn't seem to work properly in this game.
-Stat! *
Use Stimpaks in combat and healing skills when you have time.
-Steady Arm (Mutant) ****
Almost all Big Guns use burst, so this is virtually the same as Bonus Rate of
Fire. Your mutants should be using either Big Guns or the Gatling Laser.
-Stonewall *
Knockdowns are pretty rare unless you're going into melee combat with
Deathclaws and mutants, which is stupid.
-Strong Back **
Carrying capacity isn't much of a problem, but it's here if you want it.
-Stunt Man (no Deathclaw) *
This Perk will have only rare opportunities to trigger.
-Survivalist **
If you want to take an Outdoorsman perk, take this one.
-Swift Learner *
Sounds good in theory, but think this way: at 100,000 experience, this
character will have 105,000 total experience. Not a huge difference.
-Tag! ***
Good for adapting to squad and equipment changes late in the game, like
picking up a new special skill or Energy Weapons.
-Talon of Fear (Deathclaw) *
Fights shouldn't take so long that your enemies are noticeably hurt by poison.
Robots take no damage from this.
-Team Player ***
Good but somewhat generic. Less interesting than a lot of other Perks.
-Thief **
Useful at the beginning of the game.
-Tough Hide (Mutant) ***
See Hide of Scars.
-Toughness **
Damage resistance is good, but as a Perk it's kind of boring.
-Tunnel Rat *
Crawling is so rare that speed shouldn't be much of an issue.
-Way of the Fruit **
Fruit will permanently raise your ST by 1 with no drawbacks. While this is
very nice, you have to provide your own fruit (not too difficult unless you
didn't have the foresight to set some aside early) and you can only increase
ST to +2 over racial max. It's difficult to make this Perk worthwhile.
-Weapon Handling ***
With this, a character with 4 Strength can handle any weapon in the game
except the Browning and Vindicator.
Status Effects
During the game your squad will both inflict and suffer various status
ailments, usually with critical hits. Each ailment affects the character
differently.
-Bandaged
You get this effect if a character receives First Aid healing three times.
Essentially, he's so covered in bandages that First Aid can no longer be
applied. It can be removed by using Doctor skill to replace some of the
bandages with sutures (at least that's how I think of it). Each time you use
Doctor sets the character's First Aid counter back by one, so if you use
Doctor three times on the character they can use First Aid three more times
before he becomes Bandaged again. If you only use Doctor once then the next
time you use First Aid the Bandaged status will remanifest. You cannot use
First Aid if the character is undamaged, but you can use Doctor to remove
status ailments even if the character's at full HP.
-Poisoned
Some enemies like Radscorpions and some weapons like Festering Spears include
a deadly poison. The poison accumulates with each successful hit and deals
damage every minute over time, with the poison level dropping every time it
deals damage. Eventually it works its way out of your system and is gone.
You can speed up the process with a Poison Antidote, but it's rarely worth it.
The amount of Poison infection is modified by poison resistance.
-Radiated
Standing in a glowing green pool or in pulsing green light can cause your
character to become Radiated. Running across a small puddle usually isn't a
problem, but you will be radiated if you run over a large pool. As long as he
stays there, the character will take damage over time as radiation builds up
in his system. This results in progressively reduced Strength and HP and
eventually death. It can be reversed with RadAway. Radiation absorbed is
modified by the character's radiation resistance, and any resistance over 100%
indicates that the character is totally immune. Unlike previous Fallouts,
there's no Geiger counter to tell you how radiated you are.
-Encumbered
If you try to carry more than your carrying capacity, the character becomes
Encumbered and cannot run, only walk. If the character is carrying 125% or
more of his carrying capacity, he becomes Immobile and totally unable to move.
-Immobile
For one reason or another, the character cannot walk. Maybe he's carrying too
much weight. Maybe he just got knocked down and has to get back up. Maybe
both his legs are broken. Whatever it is, fix it to get him to move.
-Blinded
Sometimes caused by critical hits to the eyes. Immediately deducts 5 from
Perception. Can be cured by Doctor skill.
-Concussed
Sometimes caused by critical hits to the head. Lowers Perception by 2,
Agility by 2, and Intelligence by 4, with small drops in many skills. Can be
cured by Doctor skill.
-Crippled
Effects for this one vary somewhat. If an arm is broken, that respective
inventory slot at the bottom of the screen turns red and can't be used (left
arm = left slot). If both arms are broken, the character cannot use any items
whatsoever. If a leg is broken, the character loses the ability to run, and
if both legs are broken the character cannot move at all. Obviously, it's
caused by critical hits to the affected limbs. Can be cured by Doctor skill.
-Winded
Sometimes caused by critical hits to the torso or groin. The character
cannot run, only walk. Can be cured by Doctor skill (are you sensing a theme
here?).
-Unconscious
Sometimes caused by critical hits to the head. The character falls to the
ground for a period of time and is completely helpless until he wakes up.
This may take a up to a minute. Using Doctor wakes him up immediately.
-Stunned
Caused by certain enemy weapons like the Beastlords' powder bags, flash
grenades, and the pacification bot's weapon. Reduces Perception by 5 and
Agility by 1, but it wears off in a minute.
***********
*Equipment*
***********
Weapons
There are a relative handful of weapons that are actually useful in the
single-player game. This is a rundown of the ones you'll want to hold on to
and use yourself instead of just selling them, roughly in the order you
acquire them. Ammo type is in parentheses.
-H&K MP5 (9mm)
Your main character always starts with this. It's a versatile SMG with single
and burst mode and uses the plentiful 9mm ammo, so it's cheap. It's also more
powerful than the handguns and SMGs you'll be seeing at this point in the game
like Uzis and Scorpios.
-Hunting Rifle (7.62mm)
Farsight starts the game with this. With a range of 40, it's the best rifle
you'll find until the Sniper Rifle in St. Louis. The Hunting Rifle also has
an 'island of accuracy', meaning that it is more accurate at a longer range
than at close range. This allows you to outshoot most of your enemies while
they continue to miss you. Ammunition is fairly plentiful but very much in
demand between this rifle, the AK, and the SAW. Equip all your snipers with
one of these as a primary weapon until you can get them Sniper Rifles.
-Pump Action Shotgun (12 ga. Shells)
Stitch starts the game with the first shotgun. Shotguns are a perfect backup
weapon for snipers when the enemy gets too close for the Hunting Rifle, but it
has the unpleasant effect of hitting your allies when they're nearby. Be
careful to always point it away from you and yours.
-9mm Mauser (9mm)
It's not great, or even good, but it's got excellent range for a pistol. If
you're going to use a 9mm pistol, save this one from Brahmin Wood.
-Punch Knife
You'll capture one of these in Brahmin Wood and can immediately put it to use
in Freeport. Light, dangerous, and silent: an excellent combination for a
sneaker early in the game.
-Combat Knife
You can buy this after either Brahmin Wood or Freeport depending on your
Charisma. Since it only costs 3 AP, it's the weapon of choice for the early
melee fighter.
-AK-47 (7.62mm)
This is THE gun for the early game. It's got a range of 35 on single-shot, a
burst mode, plenty of ammo and everyone can use it. You'll capture several at
Freeport and can continue using them until St. Louis.
-M-16 (5.56mm)
In Preoria are two M-16s using the harder-to-find 5.56 ammo. These have
slightly longer ranges than the Hunting Rifle, but lack the island of accuracy
that makes the Hunting Rifle a favorite ranged weapon. The burst mode ensures
that the gun remains useful.
-Powerfist (Small Energy Cell)
You should buy a Powerfist from the Quartermaster before you enter Quincy if
you're using an Unarmed sneaker. It's the best Unarmed weapon at this point
in the game.
-Ripper (Small Energy Cell)
Like the Powerfist, the Ripper is available for purchase immediately before
Quincy and is ideal for the Melee sneaker on your shopping list. Though it
makes a chainsaw noise, it still counts as a 'silent' weapon.
-Neostead Combat Shotgun (12 ga. Shells)
The Neostead is a giant step up from the Pump Action Shotgun you've been
using because it has a burst mode. It also requires 6 Strength. Snag it from
a jail cell at Quincy.
-M-1 Garand (30.06 caliber)
Another find in Quincy is the Garand, an excellent rifle that surpasses even
the Hunting Rifle. However, you receive almost no ammo to start with and
can't even buy any yet, so it's very difficult to use effectively.
-H&K CAWS (12 ga. Shells)
The CAWS is the major find of Mardin. It instantly replaces the Neostead as
the combat shotgun of choice, but the minimum Strength of 6 may be beyond the
average sniper. The CAWS is an unprecedented close range weapon until the
next mission, when you discover the SAW.
-Ruger AC556F (5.56mm)
You'll capture a Ruger at Mardin. It works as a close-range weapon if you
keep it on burst mode and is a nice complement for anyone using the M-16,
since they both use the same ammunition.
-M249 SAW (7.62mm)
When you hit St. Louis you'll realize that relying on snipers throughout the
game isn't going to work; you need a way to deal huge amounts of damage
rapidly to large, slow-moving targets. Big Guns is the skill to use and the
M249 SAW is the best Big Gun for a while. The SAW is still using the 7.62mm
ammo you're used to unlike the Rocket Launcher, it's lighter than the M60 or
any minigun and it deals more damage than the M60 or Avenger, the next Big Gun
you'll find in Kansas City. Carry at least two and preferably three with you
and minimum 500 rounds each.
-Sniper Rifle (7.62mm)
St. Louis also gives you the first Sniper Rifle if you know where to look.
This gun, with longer range and even more accuracy than the Hunting Rifle,
will become your long-range weapon of choice until you switch to Energy
Weapons.
-Enfield XL-70E (5.56mm)
The Enfield is an exact replacement for the Ruger: it has the same ammo, more
damage, and longer range. If you have two snipers looking for close weapons
the Ruger and Enfield can be employed at the same time; otherwise switch out
the Ruger for its superior cousin when you find it in St. Louis.
-Browning M2 (.50 Caliber)
You can first pick up a Browning in St. Louis, but it comes with little or no
ammo. You'll continue to fight and kill mutants with Brownings through
Osceolla, but ammo for the thing remains rare. Save every bit you find for
Great Bend, when you can bust out a Browning or two for your gunners with
enough ammo to actually be useful. Using the Browning on anything but robots
is a huge waste. It weighs 45 lbs. and requires 9 Strength to operate.
-M79 Grenade Launcher (40mm Grenade)
If you've still got someone using Small Guns without enough Energy Weapons
skill to switch over by the time you hit Great Bend, haul one of these off the
Reavers in Junction City. Don't shoot at close range ('close' is defined
fairly liberally by the game) because you'll hurt yourself. The range and
area effect make up for the shortcomings.
-Laser Rifle (Micro Fusion Cell)
You'll capture a few of these in Junction City from the Reavers. They
effectively replace the Sniper Rifle, as they do double the damage at almost
the same range. Laser Rifles will convince you to develop Energy Weapons for
all your snipers.
-Plasma Rifle (Micro Fusion Cell)
Junction City Reavers also offer this weapon. It's much stronger than the
Laser Rifle but also has a shorter range, more like an SMG. The good news is
that it's fairly accurate within that range. Think of it like the energy
version of an AK-47.
-Plasma Pistol (Small Energy Cell)
The Plasma Pistol is essentially a powered-down version of the Plasma Rifle
that you can get in the same mission. The difference is that the pistol only
costs 3 AP to fire, 2 with Fast Shot or Bonus Rate of Fire. For that reason,
it's an excellent close-range weapon for energy snipers.
-Pulse Rifle Prototype (Micro Fusion Cell)
The Pulse Rifle Prototype is the Reaver payment for your squad's assistance in
Newton rescuing their leaders. It's the most powerful weapon to use against
robots to this point in the game and the basis for pulse weapons of all kinds,
including the pulse pistol, electrical rockets, and EMP shotgun shells. The
relatively short range is a bit of a handicap for a sniper character.
-Vindicator Minigun (7.62mm)
You'll find the first Vindicator in Junction City when you pry it out of a
Reaver's cold, dead hands, but I don't recommend using it as it's obviously
weaker than the Browning. However, it's easy to run short of .50 cal during
robot missions and only the Behemoth can provide it as salvage, so the
Vindicator makes an attractive backup weapon. Don't bother packing one along
with you, just grab one while looting - many humanoids carry this weapon. The
upshot is that even if the damage is much lower than the Browning, it uses
much cheaper ammunition, is about 2/3 the weight, and has the same range.
-Gatling Laser (Micro Fusion Cell)
Take this off a humanoid bot corpse in Canyon City. Though it's a step down
from the Browning M2, both the Gatling Laser itself and its ammo are half the
weight of the Browning M2 and .50 cal. It's an excellent punch for a strong
Energy Weapons specialist.
-YK42B Pulse Rifle (Micro Fusion Cell)
The Brotherhood builds this weapon based on the Pulse Rifle Prototype from
Newton. Damage is significantly improved, but it has the same poor range.
You can buy it after Buena Vista.
-MEC Gauss MiniGun (2mm EC)
The backstory of Fallout is that the US and China went to war over the last
remaining reservoir of fossil fuels in the world. The US Army was able to
make substantial advances by moving through Canada and Alaska and crossing to
Asia over the Bering Strait, thanks in large part to the development of Power
Armor that made the infantry practically invincible. To counter this, the
Chinese developed the MEC Gauss MiniGun, the best Big Gun in the game and
capable of blowing through even the toughest foes. You'll capture the Gauss
Minigun in Scott City and will be lacking for ammo for it for the rest of the
game, so only bring it out for extremely special occasions.
Ammunition
All guns and some melee and unarmed weapons use ammunition of some kind. When
you loot ammunition from the battlefield, it's an excellent idea to set aside
some in a locker or safe place so you'll have access to it later if you know a
good weapon will come along soon. This is much cheaper than selling it to the
Quartermaster and then buying it back when you need it. Unless otherwise
noted, damage and penetration are average. The fraction is the number of
rounds over pounds of carrying weight.
-2mm EC (Damage avg, Penetration +15%)
Weapons using this ammo appear late in the game, but that doesn't make it
worthless. In fact, the best weapon in the game, the Gauss Minigun, uses this
incredibly rare stuff. Save everything you can find for the Gauss Minigun and
only use it in emergencies.
-5.56mm 50/1
This ammo is suited mostly for SMGs and assault rifles, with a few big guns in
the mix. Because it's rarer than 7.62mm, you'll have more difficulty keeping
your squad supplied with it if you're using several weapons of this type.
It's usually worth keeping an M-16 or Enfield if you need it, but don't depend
on being able to scavenge enough to keep shooting.
-7.62mm 100/3
This ammunition is the most common type in the first half of the game,
rivalled by 9mm for the first half and Micro Fusion Cells for the second.
It's also the one you'll be using the most, because it supplies Hunting
Rifles, AK-47s, and M249 SAWs. You'll capture plenty in the field to keep
your squad stocked with extra to sell, especially after you start killing
mutants with big guns.
-9mm Ball (Damage -11%, Penetration -20%)
9mm JHP (Damage +60%, Penetration -20%)
9mm AP (Damage -25%, Penetration +50%)
The most basic and cheapest ammo in the game. Used in many small arms,
especially pistols and SMGs. Excellent for killing animals, but not worth
stowing unless you enjoy safaris in your Humvee.
-40mm Grenade (Damage +60%, Penetration +11%) 1/1
The exclusive ammunition for the Grenade Launcher, you'll find a very limited
number of these and will probably rip through them fairly quickly. That's a
good thing, because it's some of the heaviest ammunition in the game. Don't
sell it, but don't let it sit in your inventory either.
-.303 Cal
Guns using this ammo are few and far between, and the ones that do aren't
worth it. Dump it on the Quartermaster.
-.44 Cal Magnum Ball (Damage -11%, Penetration -20%)
.44 Cal Magnum JHP (Damage +60%, Penetration -20%)
.44 Cal Magnum AP (Damage -25%, Penetration +50%)
Much like 9mm and .45 cal, .44 is used for certain handguns, the most useful
of which is the 3 AP S&W M29 Revolver. Ball, JHP, and AP function just like
the 9mm variants. Unless you're using revolvers against animals with
frequency, sell it all.
-.45 Caliber 10/1
Handguns use .45 cal. The only reasons to keep this stuff are the Casull
Revolver and the Tommy Gun, the Casull because of its 3 AP cost and the Tommy
Gun because it's the second-best SMG in the game. By the time you get the
Tommy Gun, though, small guns are on their way out. Sell it.
-.50 Cal 5/1
.50 Cal DU (Damage avg, Penetration +80%) 5/4
Ammunition that only works with one gun is meant for bartering, except this.
The Browning M2 is one of the most powerful big guns in the game, but it chews
ammunition at horrific rates. Save every single round you find and don't
bring it out until Coldwater at the earliest.
-12 ga. Shells 20/1
12 ga. Flechette Shells (Damage +60%, Penetration -20%)
12 ga. Slug Shells (Damage -11%, Penetration +31%)
12 ga. EMP Shells
Feel free to use normal shells and Flechette ammo (equivalent of JHP) as you
find them. Your Small Guns specialists will have plenty of use for them.
Save the slug ammo for robots or possibly mutants because of the high
penetration, and buy up the EMP ammo as soon as it appears. EMP ammo is
wasted on anything but robots.
-30.06 ammo
There are a number of useful weapons that require 30.06: the M1 Garand and
Browning Auto Rifle leap to mind. Their downfall is that they require 30.06,
which is nearly impossible to find in reasonable amounts. Don't bother with
it, just sell it off.
-Speargun Bolt 1/1
The Spear Gun appears exactly once in the entire game with precisely one round
in the chamber and four in reserve. Don't bother with it or the ammo.
-Explosive Rocket (Damage +60%, Penetration +11%) 1/3
Rocket Sabot (Damage -11%, Penetration +31%)
Rocket AP (Damage -25%, Penetration +50%)
Rocket Electrical 1/4
The Rocket Launcher is the first Big Gun you capture, but ammunition for it is
few and far between. It also has a nasty tendency to misfire if you're behind
cover, leading to parts of you being raining down for several seconds. If you
have an extremely skilled Big Guns specialist, it's worth saving the Sabots
for robot territory and using APs on mutants, but that's it. Electrical
rockets are extremely expensive - only use them against Behemoths, if at all.
-Small Energy Cell 15/1
These power small energy weapons as well as a handful of melee and unarmed
weapons. It's worth setting a few hundred aside for when you acquire Plasma
Pistols, but sell the rest.
-Micro Fusion Cell 10/1
Save every single one of these precious, precious nuggets. The end of the
game will have you using Pulse Rifles, Laser Rifles, and the Gatling Laser all
the time, so Micro Fusion Cells will always be in demand. Never sell any
back, no matter how many extra you have or how much the Quartermaster will
give you for them.
-Needles
There is no good reason to use the Needler, but Needles are one of the many
reasons not to. They're extremely rare, so you're never going to have enough
to keep you supplied even if you buy up the Quartermaster's entire stock. On
the other hand, the rarity increases its barter value. Needles cause poison
on the target.
-Flamer Fuel (Damage avg, Penetration +20%) 1/2
Fuel can be hard to find, but if you're willing to lug around all that weight
it's worth watching your enemies do the Burning Man. Scavenge what you can
and sell it all when you start fighting robots. Don't bother with the
Quartermaster's supply - this is a special-occasion weapon.
-Tank Shell (Damage +179%, Penetration +20%)
The Tank Shell will only fit the cannon of the tank that you salvage in
Newton. As such, opportunities to use it are limited because you can only
fight one enemy in Newton that really deserves the damage (the Tank Bot) and
the rest of your kills will be against random encounters. Fun, but a very
expensive toy.
-Canister of Acid (Damage -11%, Penetration +31%) 25/1
The only way to get the Water Gun is in the Canadian Invasion special
encounter. If you find it, good for you. If you don't, sell the ammo you do
find in Great Bend and know that you're not really missing out. The Water Gun
is decent against robots, but the Grenade Launcher is just as good and Energy
Weapons are much better.
Armor
As you'll discover, many people in the wasteland want you dead. You want you
alive, and armor helps you do that by affecting three statistics: Armor Class,
Damage Threshold, and Damage Resistance. High Armor Class lowers the enemies'
chance-to-hit. Damage Resistance lowers the damage from hits you do take by a
percentage. Damage Threshold directly subtracts a number from any damage
remaining after Damage Resistance kicks in. A set of armor's DR and DT are
different depending on the type of damage incoming: Normal (bullets and melee
attacks), Fire (Molotovs and Flamers), Gas (certain types of grenades),
Explode (grenades again, plus rockets and exploding scenery), Energy (lasers
and plasma) and Electric (live wires, some robot attacks).
-Leather Armor
Every recruit starts with Leather Armor. It's better than nothing. Sometimes
recruits won't register the benefits of this armor until you take it off them
and reequip it if you don't have the patch.
-Leather Armor Mk II
First becomes available after Rock Falls. Just like Leather Armor, only a
little better and a little heavier.
-Metal Armor
You can buy Metal Armor after Preoria. It has a lower AC than Leather Armor,
but the other protections are worth it. Metal Armor is a lot heavier and cuts
your Sneak skill by 25%. It also looks kind of weird on female characters.
-Metal Armor Mk II
Capture a set in the church in Quincy. It's predictably better than Metal
Armor for protection, but heavier. Sneak skill is still cut by 25%.
-Environmental Armor
The whole bit where armor reduces your Sneak is pretty annoying, right? So
when you get Environmental Armor you hope it's gone, right? Nope, the cut is
up to 50% and it hits several other technical skills for small penalties.
Still, the armor itself is pretty good and it boosts your radiation
resistance, plus it's lighter so you can reclaim some of your carrying
capacity. You'll find it in Jefferson. Incidentally, Environmental Armor
is the first armor a ghoul can wear.
-Environmental Armor Mk II
You can purchase this from the Quartermaster immediately after you find your
first set of Environmental Armor. All the protections are improved, but at an
even higher price: Sneak is still cut by 50%, but the technical skill cuts are
bigger and your Perception also drops by 1. It's almost painful to wear it...
-Power Armor
You can buy Power Armor after Coldwater, and boy is it better than that
Environmental junk. No more cuts to your Perception and technical skills, but
I really hope you weren't planning on Sneaking anywhere at a 75% cut. Basic
Power Armor also increases your Strength by 3 because of all the motors
embedded in the joints that are necessary for you to even move in the stuff.
-Power Armor Mk II
What could be better than Power Armor? Power Armor Mk II, of course. Better
protection all around, slightly heavier, but it gives you +4 free Strength
instead of a mere +3. Find it in Newton and buy it after Canyon City.
-Tesla Armor
"Well", you say, "good things keep happening. The armor I get is always better
than the armor I had, so if there's something after Power Armor it must be
really wonderful, right?" Wrong. Tesla Armor is basically tinfoil. The
upside is that tinfoil tends to be very good at reflecting energy damage. The
downside is that it doesn't reflect, stop, or even slow down other types of
damage anywhere near as much as Power Armor does. Keep it in your locker for
formal events when you want to look shiny.
Drugs
There are several different kinds of pharmaceuticals you can use to improve
your soldiers. Drugs tend to be fairly expensive and are always weightless,
making them excellent bartering commodities for you to get from people who
aren't the Quartermaster.
How Drugs Work
All drugs have three types of effects: use, withdrawal, and addicted. Use
effects trigger immediately when the drug is used and last for a set period of
time, then disappear. Immediately after the use effects disappear, withdrawal
effects appear and subtract from the character's natural qualities, _not_ the
drug-fortified qualities, and last for a set period of time. If the character
has the misfortune to become addicted to a given drug, the addicted effects
trigger after the withdrawal effects wear off. Addicted effects last longer
than withdrawal and use effects, but I haven't done any experiments to
determine exactly how long.
-After Burner Gum
Use: ST +1, PE +1, AP +2 for 2 days
Withdrawal: ST -2, PE -2 for 2 days
Addicted: ST -3, PE -3
-Buffout
Use: ST +2, AG +2 for 6 hours
Withdrawal: ST -2, AG -2 for 18 hours
Addicted: ST -2, AG -3
-Fusion Cola
Use: ST +2, PE +2, CH -2, IN -2, AG +2 for less than 3 hours
Withdrawal: ST +1, PE +1, CH -2, IN -2, AG +1 for one day
Addicted: no effects
-Mentats
Use: PE +2, CH +1, IN +2 for 1 day
Withdrawal: PE -2, CH -2, IN -2 for 4 days
Addicted: PE -4, CH -4, IN -4
-Mutie
Use: ST +4, EN +4, CH -4, IN -4, DR +15%, RR +25%, +15 HP for 1 hour
Withdrawal: ST -2, EN -2, DR -50% for 4 hours
Addicted:
-Psycho
Use: IN -3, AG +3, DR +50% for 4 hours
Withdrawal: IN -2, DR -25% for 8 hours
Addicted: IN +1, AG -3, DR -25%
-RadAway
Use: lowers Radiated level permanently
Withdrawal: lowers Radiated level again permanently
Addicted: none
-Rad-X
Use: RR +50% for 1 day
Withdrawal: RR -25% for 2 days
Addicted: none
-Voodoo
Use: AG +2, LK +3, DR +20%, Critical +20% for 1 minute
Withdrawal: AG -1, LK -3, Critical -20% for 1 hour
Addicted: PE +1, CH -1, IN -1
**********
*Gameplay*
**********
Strategy 101
The game offers you a few tutorials, but they're not extremely useful in
showing you how to actually pull off the massive assaults you'll be forced
into throughout the game. Here's a few that didn't make the tutorials.
-Sentry Modes
The game makes much of the three sentry modes indicated by Pipboy faces on the
right side of the interface: passive, defensive, and aggressive. I recommend
keeping your troops on aggressive about 85% of the time because in CTB it's
almost impossible to issue target orders to your troops, so it's better to let
them choose their own. There are some instances where the AI's target isn't
the best bet in the room, but you can direct their fire on those occasions if
necessary. Defensive is not a good idea because while the soldier getting
shot at will fire back, none of his friends will help unless they're also
taking damage. Never leave your troops on passive, as it serves no purpose
whatsoever - if you're shot run away, seek cover, or shoot back.
-Ambush
This one is covered in one of the tutorials, but what isn't mentioned is that
it usually doesn't work. In some situations, enemy patrols move along a set
path and pass through an area that offers cover to your troops where you can
wait for them to close and then massacre them with fire from all sides. Most
of the time, though, enemies don't move in patrols and cannot be enticed into
charging into an ambush unless they only carry melee weapons. No matter how
poor his weapons skill, a raider with a gun will not run after you around a
corner or over great distance. They will keep shooting as long as they see
you and seek cover. Melee fighters almost always will charge when they see
you.
-Sniper Draw
Use one sniper with a long-range weapon to pull the enemy's attention at such
range that they don't have much chance of hitting each other. While they're
shooting, use cover to move melee fighters or burst weapons close to the
enemy. Immediately after the enemy takes a shot and depletes his/her/its AP,
run the closer squad members out and kill him/her/it. The idea is to have the
enemy's AP at zero when you start attacking in earnest.
-Rifle Crawl
This one works in situations with little cover and long ranges. Equip
everyone with a rifle and set them up in two or three ranks of three or two
members each. Move the front rank into practical shooting range of the enemy.
While they're shooting and keeping the enemy heads down, move the next rank up
so they have a slightly closer shot. While they're shooting, move the next
rank up, etc, until everything in front of you is dead. The idea is to keep
the bullets flying no matter what while your squad advances and improves its
chance-to-hit. This strategy also works with big guns if you're careful about
not letting your squad mates shoot each other in the spray effect.
-True Sniper
The game provides you with quality sniper nests in many missions, perfect for
a sniper to crouch on and hail bullets on unsuspecting enemies at greater
ranges than you thought possible. Look for high yet accessible places like
roofs, towers, and ledges. It's much harder to find sniper nests that give
you useful shots on enemy groups, but you work with what you have.
-Edging
In places without cover for your troops to stand behind and shoot over, you
can use the edges of tall objects like buildings as cover. Stand behind it
and move around in the smallest steps possible out until you can see a single
enemy. Start firing to kill him quickly, which may bring the rest of his
group charging but they'll still be minus a gun. This works very well with
doorways.
-Storming
There are a lot of rooms and other places with narrow entrances that you'll be
expected to invade over the course of the game. Walk a sniper across the door
a fair distance away from it to look through it at many different angles and
see who's inside without them being able to hit you (much). Station snipers
with clear shots on the inside and let them start firing, forcing the enemy to
either take cover or die. While they're down, run the gunners (or shotguns if
early in the game) in to flank the doorway on the inside and let loose. If
there's more cover in the room that could protect enemies, bring the snipers
inside and use them to cover the gunners as they advance. When an enemy
sticks its head up, the snipers will distract it for a second so the gunners
can pull up their weapons and fire.
Enemies
Here are some basic descriptions of the various races you'll meet throughout
the wasteland. Weapons may vary slightly.
-Animals Missions 1, 2, 4-7, 12
There are several different kinds of animals, but they can generally be
grouped together. These include dogs, cockroaches, radscorpions, brahmin,
and wasps. With the exception of the large cockroaches that have a short-
range missile attack, all animals depend on melee combat. Radscorpions and
large cockroaches also have poison in their attacks. Avoid combat if you can
and use the cheapest ammo possible - you get very little experience and
absolutely no loot from killing animals. Melee and Unarmed combat are
reasonable alternatives to wasting bullets.
-Raiders Missions 1-3, 5, 13
Raiders will be your nemeses for the first few missions, but largely disappear
after Rock Falls. They're just greedy humans with some basic weapons skills.
Raiders use melee weapons, SMGs, rifles, and occasionally shotguns and thrown
weapons. After you've gone up a level or two, you should be able to take them
out from long range with no trouble. Raiders tend to be lazy and can
sometimes be found asleep, which makes killing them easier. Eventually some
raiders will join the recruit pool, as indicated by their character bios.
-Ghouls Mission 6
Actually, you won't fight ghouls unless you meet them in random encounters.
When you meet them in Quincy, you have the option to save their lives. Ghouls
are the humans that survived the Great War but were still heavily irradiated,
gaining extremely long lives. Unfortunately, lifespans of over a hundred
years have worn down their Strength and Agility.
-Beastlords Missions 6, 7
Humans infected with a kind of radiation only found in the Mardin caves become
able to make telepathic suggestions to animals. Calling themselves the
Beastlords, they prowl the wastelands with animal companions including
Deathclaws and fight with primitive melee weapons in addition to small arms.
Beastlords don't wear much in terms of armor and are simple to kill.
-Deathclaws Missions 6, 7
Deathclaws are really animals, but they appear later and are a much stronger
threat to you. Again, they rely on melee attacks, but you definitely don't
want to get into a fistfight - you will lose. Just about every hit a
Deathclaw lands will knock an opponent off his feet, which makes them
extremely difficult to take in a brawl. They also have more Strength,
Agility, HP, and they run faster than you. Keep your distance at any cost and
use rifles and SMGs to take them down. Baby Deathclaws are a lesser but still
significant threat.
-Super Mutants Missions 8-11
Mutants are the first real challenges you'll face. Mutants were created by
the Master in California by infecting humans with the Forced Evolution Virus,
causing them to become much stronger at the cost of Intelligence and Agility.
After the Master was defeated, some (apparently quite a few) Mutants migrated
east and settled in the Midwest under a new leader. Because of their high
Strength, many mutants carry heavy weapons that your gunners can salvage,
though some stick with melee weapons. Mutants rarely wear armor (it's hard to
shop in their sizes), but when they do it really increases their difficulty.
-Reavers Missions 12,14
Reavers are humans that worship technology as a god, salvaging it from the
wasteland. Naturally, this means they have some of the best weapons in the
game. Though they don't wear much in the way of armor, Reaver weapons can
often put holes in your squad roster if you're not very careful to engage them
from long range. They'll be your first source of powerful Energy Weapons and
ammunition. As an enemy, they don't last long - by the second mission they're
your allies. Just like ghouls, random encounters are still dangerous.
-Robots Missions 14-20
The robots are the strongest and most numerous enemy you'll face. They're
also quite diverse. Expect to kill robots with Energy Weapons and the very
strongest big guns, since the only reliable small guns against them are the
Grenade Launcher (very heavy ammo) and Pancor Jackhammer with slug or pulse
ammo (expensive, especially on burst mode).
Turrets Missions 4, 11, 15-20
Okay, technically turrets aren't robots and you won't even see Laser Turrets
anywhere near robots, but they're from the same family. This makes it very
difficult to take out the Laser Turrets in the Preoria Vault when you meet
them, forcing you to take advantage of their malfunction. Once you get energy
weapons you can go back and blast them to see the dramatic difference. Later
turrets use either .50 caliber, 7.62mm, or explosive rockets that make for
excellent salvage. Turrets are unable to move and can sometimes be turned off
by a nearby switch.
Humanoid Bots Missions 14-20
They're bipedal and use whatever weapons they are supplied with, including but
not limited to AK-47s, M249 SAWs, Laser Rifles, Vindicator Miniguns, etc.
They're also quite nasty in melee combat, but can be bested by a Deathclaw or
equally strong fighter if you take them one at a time. Unfortunately, they
like to travel in groups and watch each others' backs. Small guns will bounce
right off them.
Load Lifters Missions 14, 16-18
They used to be warehouse workhorses, but apparently the prongs that can lift
pallets adapt very nicely to poking holes in living things. Load lifters
exclusively use melee attacks with a range of 1. Knockdowns seem to have a
lesser effect on them as well, since they can't truly be 'knocked down', only
caused to slump for a second. They're relatively large, so you can often draw
them into tight passages where they don't fit and smash them from range at
your leisure, though they sometimes bolt when they take too much damage. Load
lifters never leave useful salvage behind.
Security Bots Missions 14-20
Actually, these robots are still doing the job they did before the Great War,
they just include more people in the 'unauthorized intruder' category. They
use either a laser rifle-like weapon with fairly long range or a 9mm SMG
attack and are quite agile, but have low HP and are easy to take down with
Laser or Plasma Rifles. You can often salvage Micro Fusion Cells or the less-
useful 9mm from the wreckage.
Scurry Bots Missions 15-19
These are some nasty little buggers. They burrow in the dirt and wait for you
to get close, then bust out in a flare of debris and charge with a pointy
melee attack. They're quite likely to knock you down if you engage them in
melee combat, so back off and pulverize them with shotgun slugs or a Browning.
Such heavy weaponry wouldn't be necessary if they didn't travel in packs so
often. If a scurry bot loses its target, it can burrow back down again
wherever it happens to be. Like load lifters, you can get them lodged in
doorways and then blast them to pieces. They don't leave loot on their
corpses.
Hover Bots Missions 15-20
Hover Bots, naturally, hover. They have explosive rockets that you're free to
salvage if you can prevent them from getting off two shots in a row. When
they've exhausted their ammo, hover bots do a nasty kamikaze attack that both
destroys them and smacks your character around a bit. Their small size
makes them significantly more difficult to hit with rifles - try to nail them
to the wall with burst weapons.
Tank Bot Missions 15-17
The robots are a jealous race. When you finally get the tank in Newton, they
make you face off against a tank of their own. The Tank Bot has a melee flail
that's devastating to people caught in front of it but not very impressive
against your salvaged tank. Stick a couple of Brownings through the view
ports and scrap it. When you fight it on foot, make sure your whole squad is
firing full bore to stop its charge. Tanks sometimes run when they can't hit
you through barriers and are taking damage. The tank bot does not respond in
any way to being knocked down or knocked out, it just keeps rolling.
Pacification Bot Missions 14, 16, 18, 19
The Pacification Bot is a leader-type robot. The first one you meet is badly
damaged and an easy kill, but the second time you'll see just how painful
these things can be. They use an area attack based on Small Energy Cells that
often stuns your characters, making them difficult to take down with energy
weapons snipers. Stick with big guns or great distances.
Behemoth Missions 17-19
The Behemoth is the biggest, baddest non-unique enemy in the game. In
addition to its massive size, it has two .50 cal guns on the sides of its head
just like your Brownings. Don't take it lightly under any circumstances and
use Brownings, the Gatling Laser, and the Gauss Minigun to kill it before it
hurts you too much. Big Guns help knock it down.
Recruit Races
Recruits come from different races, and some of them have different abilities.
The stats are the minimum and maximum attributes for Strength, Perception,
Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck.
-Human ST 1-10 PE 1-10 EN 1-10 CH 1-10 IN 1-10 AG 1-10 LK 1-10
By far, most recruits are humans. Humans are average in all stats and gain
Perks every three levels. Humans can use every weapon and item in the game.
Humans have 40 attribute points.
-Ghoul ST 1-6 PE 4-14 EN 1-10 CH 1-9 IN 2-13 AG 1-8 LK 5-13
After Quincy, five ghouls appear in the recruit pool if you saved the Ghoul
Quarter: Billy Bob, Babs, Martin, Harold, and Dillon. Ghouls have lower
Strength and Agility than humans, but can have higher Perception and Luck.
They cannot wear leather or metal armor and gain Perks every four levels
instead of three. They also have high radiation and poison resistance.
Otherwise, ghouls are exactly like humans. Ghouls get 42 attribute points.
-Deathclaw ST 6-14 PE 5-12 EN 1-13 CH 1-3 IN 1-4 AG 6-16 LK 1-10
If you rescue the Matriarch in Mardin instead of killing her, four Deathclaws
join the recruit pool: Mother, Krldraav, Shriek, and Shaav. Deathclaws have
higher Strength, Perception, Endurance, and Agility than humans or mutants at
the severe expense of their Intelligence and Charisma. While Deathclaws make
really nasty opponents, as allies they kind of suck. They can't use any armor
whatsoever or any weapons, so are exclusively reliant on their melee attacks.
The low Intelligence prevents the character from growing anywhere but in his
Tag skills, especially if Gifted, which is a severe handicap. Incidentally,
though kits turn red in their hands it is possible for Deathclaws to use
technical skills if they hold the kit and use the Skilldex or keyboard
shortcut to access the skill. Deathclaws run faster than humans and gain
Perks every four levels. Deathclaws get 40 attribute points.
-Super Mutant ST 5-13 PE 1-10 EN 4-12 CH 1-8 IN 1-8 AG 1-8 LK 1-10
Since you've been killing them for four missions, five mutants join the
recruit pool after Osceolla: Cookie, Bob, Pump, Chuck, and Toni. Mutants are
less Intelligent and Agile than humans, but significantly stronger and more
durable. Because of their size, mutants cannot wear any armor except Brahmin
Armor, which you have to find in a special encounter. Their huge hands force
them to use only the largest of weapons, meaning that they're restricted to
Big Guns and the Gatling Laser. Many mutants also come with the Vat Skin
trait, which is annoying until you Mutate it away. Mutants run slightly
slower than humans and gain Perks every four levels. Mutants get 40 attribute
points.
-Humanoid Robot ST 7-12 PE 7-12 EN 7-12 CH 1 IN 1-12 AG 1-12 LK 5
You only get access to one robot during the entire game for recruitment:
HR1205 after Canyon City. Robots have slight advantages over humans in all
attributes except Charisma and Luck and gain 5 extra skill points per level,
but they cannot wear armor except Brahmin Armor and never gain Perks. They
are immune to chemical effects of any kind including Stimpaks and must be
Repaired instead of using First Aid. Keep in mind that HR1205 does not have
Repair skill developed when you get him, so you'll have to keep a separate
mechanic on staff if you want to keep him alive. Humanoids can use all items
just like humans. Humanoids get 42 attribute points.
-Dog ST 1-7 PE 4-14 EN 1-6 CH 1-5 IN 1-3 AG 1-15 LK 1-10
You will never be able to add dogs to your party in the single-player game for
good reason: as squad members they suck. They cannot wear armor or use
weapons or items of any kind and they can only carry one item at any time.
The only advantages dogs have are higher Perception and Agility and they gain
Perks every two levels instead of three. Dogs get 35 attribute points.
I managed to finish the game with a member of each race in my party:
Archangel (custom character) - Small Guns/Energy Weapons sniper, Doctor,
Lockpicker, Trapper, Scientist, Outdoorsman, Pilot (books are good)
Dillon (ghoul) - Small Guns/Energy Weapons sniper, Mechanic
Shaav (Deathclaw) - melee sneaker, First Aid
Stoma (human) - Big Guns gunner, Energy Weapons sniper
Toni (Super Mutant) - Big Guns/Energy Weapons gunner
HR1205 (Robot) - Big Guns gunner, Energy Weapons sniper
Though I managed to pull it off, it wasn't easy and I wouldn't have made it if
I was playing Tough Guy. By Canyon City the Deathclaw was mostly dead weight
and it was very difficult to keep HR1205 alive because of his low HP - repairs
were constantly a problem. My point here is that nonhumans are fun, but just
sticking with humans makes things simpler and easier. There's no real reason
to take nonhumans with you since you can't design them yourself.
Recruits
You can have up to 6 squad members, but you aren't required to have more than
yourself. It's theoretically possible to beat the game with only one
character, but the regular hassles - carrying capacity, ammunition, and skill
deficiencies - make it a severe challenge. Therefore, you'll be wanting to
add some squadmates to your party. This information is from the 1.27 patch
version and often different from the original game. A * indicates recruits
with special abilities or disabilities.
Initiates
-Farsight
Human ST 5 PE 8 EN 5 CH 5 IN 6 AG 7 LK 4 HP 30 Lvl 1
Small Guns 53%
Sneak 41%
Outdoorsman 42%
-Stitch
Human ST 6 PE 4 EN 5 CH 5 IN 9 AG 6 LK 5 HP 36 Lvl 2
Good Natured
Small Guns 59%
First Aid 96%
Doctor 79%
-Trevor
Human ST 9 PE 6 EN 5 CH 4 IN 4 AG 7 LK 5 HP 39 Lvl 2
Fast Shot
Small Guns 63%
Throwing 72%
Sneak 41%
-Brian
Human ST 6 PE 5 EN 9 CH 1 IN 5 AG 9 LK 5 HP 46 Lvl 2
Fast Shot
Small Guns 86%
Big Guns 43%
Sneak 47%
-Jo
Human ST 7 PE 5 EN 8 CH 4 IN 5 AG 6 LK 5 HP 45 Lvl 2
Small Guns 69%
Repair 35%
Pilot 52%
-Robin
Human ST 5 PE 8 EN 5 CH 3 IN 5 AG 9 LK 5 HP 30 Lvl 1
Small Frame
Night Person
Melee Weapons 68%
Sneak 57%
Lockpick 47%
-Jax
Human ST 6 PE 6 EN 7 CH 4 IN 5 AG 7 LK 5 HP 35 Lvl 1
Kamikaze
Fast Shot
Small Guns 53%
Big Guns 34%
Energy Weapons 34%
-Torn *(extra Perk)
Human ST 8 PE 7 EN 7 CH 4 IN 4 AG 6 LK 4 HP 37 Lvl 1
Unarmed 78% Bonus HtH Attacks
Melee Weapons 68%
Traps 43%
Senior Initiates
-Kevin
Human ST 8 PE 5 EN 6 CH 6 IN 7 AG 9 LK 6 HP 47 Lvl 3
Gifted Toughness
Small Guns 71%
Melee Weapons 90%
Repair 53%
-Rage
Human ST 5 PE 8 EN 5 CH 2 IN 8 AG 7 LK 5 HP 40 LVl 3
Small Guns 99% Awareness
Sneak 61%
Steal 41%
-Rebecca
Human ST 5 PE 8 EN 4 CH 4 IN 6 AG 8 LK 5 HP 38 Lvl 3
Small Guns 93% Scout
First Aid 98%
Lockpick 48%
-Ice
Human ST 6 PE 7 EN 7 CH 2 IN 5 AG 8 LK 5 HP 53 Lvl 4
Finesse Loner
Small Guns 91%
Sneak 68%
Outdoorsman 68%
-Mandy *(extra attribute point, missing Perk)
Human ST 6 PE 8 EN 7 CH 5 IN 9 AG 7 LK 6 HP 47 Lvl 3
Skilled
Gifted
Small Guns 87%
First Aid 106%
Sneak 60%
(Stevie and Sharon are both Senior Initiates, but they don't appear in the
recruit pool until after Rock Falls no matter your rank)
-Stevie
Human ST 5 PE 7 EN 4 CH 4 IN 8 AG 8 LK 4 HP 38 Lvl 3
One Hander Thief
Small Guns 95%
Unarmed 98%
Sneak 96%
-Sharon
Tribal ST 6 PE 5 EN 7 CH 8 IN 5 AG 6 LK 3 HP 56 Lvl 4
Chemical Resistant Flower Child
Small Guns 77%
Big Guns 52%
Sneak 58%
Squires
-Target
Tribal ST 7 PE 6 EN 5 CH 4 IN 8 AG 7 LK 3 HP 52 Lvl 5
Small Guns 83% Hit the Deck
Throwing 108%
Sneak 61%
-Stein
Human ST 7 PE 8 EN 5 CH 4 IN 5 AG 7 LK 4 HP 52 Lvl 5
Small Guns 109% Healer
Big Guns 70%
First Aid 96%
-Beth
Human ST 10 PE 5 EN 7 CH 4 IN 4 AG 8 LK 4 HP 63 Lvl 5
Bruiser Bonus HtH Damage
Heavy Handed
Unarmed 118%
Melee Weapons 96%
Repair 44%
Senior Squires
-Keith
Tribal ST 7 PE 5 EN 6 CH 4 IN 7 AG 6 LK 5 HP 70 Lvl 7
Good Natured Team Player
First Aid 154% Stat!
Doctor 122%
Sneak 68%
-Stumpy
Human ST 7 PE 7 EN 6 CH 5 IN 7 AG 5 LK 3 HP 70 Lvl 7
One Hander Crazy Bomber
Small Guns 131% Bone Head
Melee Weapons 90%
Traps 112%
-Stoma
Human ST 10 PE 6 EN 9 CH 4 IN 4 AG 5 LK 4 HP 87 Lvl 7
Bruiser Strong Back
Small Guns 81% Stonewall
Big Guns 112%
Energy Weapons 56%
(Creeper only appears after Mardin no matter your rank)
-Creeper
Human ST 6 PE 7 EN 5 CH 2 IN 8 AG 8 LK 4 HP 66 Lvl 8
Small Guns 107% Silent Running
Unarmed 96% Flexible
Sneak 126%
(Billy Bob and Babs only appear if you helped the Ghoul Quarter in Quincy)
-Billy Bob *(1 extra attribute point)
Ghoul ST 6 PE 12 EN 8 CH 2 IN 6 AG 4 LK 5 HP 81 Lvl 8
Glowing One Pack Rat
Fear the Reaper Stunt Man
Small Guns 111%
Energy Weapons 75%
Throwing 66%
-Babs *(2 extra attribute points)
Ghoul ST 5 PE 7 EN 5 CH 6 IN 8 AG 8 LK 5 HP 60 Lvl 7
Small Frame Master Thief
Tech Wizard Flexible
Small Guns 105%
Lockpick 122%
Steal 115%
(Shriek and Shaav only appear if you rescued the Matriarch in Mardin)
-Shriek
Deathclaw ST 13 PE 5 EN 6 CH 3 IN 3 AG 7 LK 3 HP 145 Lvl 8
Chemical Resistant Silent Death
Unarmed 150% Brutish Hulk
Sneak 70%
Steal 61%
-Shaav *(missing attribute point)
Deathclaw ST 6 PE 7 EN 7 CH 1 IN 1 AG 14 LK 3 HP 146 Lvl 8
Small Frame Silent Running
Night Person Tunnel Rat
Unarmed 102%
First Aid 88%
Sneak 134%
Junior Knights
-Malice
Human ST 8 PE 6 EN 6 CH 3 IN 6 AG 9 LK 2 HP 89 Lvl 10
Big Guns 110% Bonus Move
Energy Weapons 58% Quick Pockets
Melee Weapons 131% Thief
-Hurt
Human ST 7 PE 5 EN 6 CH 4 IN 7 AG 6 LK 5 HP 88 Lvl 10
Small Guns 115% Comprehension
First Aid 134% Team Player
Doctor 72% Stat!
-Pain
Human ST 6 PE 5 EN 9 CH 4 IN 5 AG 6 LK 5 HP 102 Lvl 10
Small Guns 119% Faster Healing
Melee Weapons 84% Rad Resistance
First Aid 84% Adrenaline Rush
(Martin, Harold, and Dillon only appear if you helped the Ghoul Quarter in
Quincy)
-Martin *(ST above racial max)
Ghoul ST 8 PE 9 EN 7 CH 2 IN 5 AG 6 LK 5 HP 86 Lvl 10
Glowing One Scout
Fear the Reaper Lead Foot
Energy Weapons 104%
Traps 105%
Pilot 130%
-Harold *(2 extra attribute points, extra Tag skill, 2 extra Perks)
Ghoul ST 6 PE 6 EN 6 CH 1 IN 7 AG 6 LK 12 HP 88 Lvl 11
Skilled Die Hard
Fear the Reaper Rad Child
Small Guns 131% Bonsai
Throwing 110% Way of the Fruit
Traps 158%
Repair 101%
-Dillon
Ghoul ST 6 PE 14 EN 6 CH 2 IN 7 AG 5 LK 9 HP 68 Lvl 9
Gifted Sharpshooter
Glowing One Better Criticals
Small Guns 159%
Science 38%
Repair 43%
(Mother and Krldraav only appear if you saved the Matriarch in Mardin)
-Mother *(5 extra attribute points, extra trait, extra Perk)
Deathclaw ST 12 PE 6 EN 12 CH 2 IN 7 AG 12 LK 3 HP 174 Lvl 10
Bloody Mess Death Sense
Gifted Brutish Hulk
Domesticated Hide of Scars
Unarmed 130%
Throwing 76%
Sneak 96%
-Krldraav
Deathclaw ST 13 PE 5 EN 4 CH 2 IN 3 AG 10 LK 3 HP 151 Lvl 9
Finesse Dodger
Rabid Brutish Hulk
Unarmed 172%
Throwing 60%
Sneak 66%
Knights
-Ed
Human ST 6 PE 3 EN 5 CH 3 IN 10 AG 7 LK 5 HP 81 Lvl 11
Tech Wizard Dodger
Small Guns 113% Mr. Fixit
Lockpick 122% Pack Rat
Repair 182%
-Alice
Human ST 9 PE 6 EN 7 CH 2 IN 3 AG 8 LK 5 HP 98 Lvl 11
Fast Shot Faster Healing
Big Guns 108% Snakeater
Energy Weapons 120% Die Hard
Throwing 68%
-Max
Human ST 10 PE 5 EN 7 CH 5 IN 3 AG 7 LK 5 HP 99 Lvl 11
Bruiser Bonus Move
Big Guns 130% Strong Back
Energy Weapons 78% Heave Ho!
Throwing 86%
-Boomer *(extra attribute point)
Human ST 10 PE 6 EN 6 CH 5 IN 4 AG 8 LK 2 HP 97 Lvl 11
One Hander Stonewall
Small Guns 93% Stunt Man
Throwing 168% Bonehead
Traps 68%
**********
*Missions*
**********
Format
Mission Number: Mission Name
Objectives: What you must do to make the exit grid appear
Promotions: Tasks that are not necessary, yet give you greater standing in the
Brotherhood or positive karma. Not all tasks immediately lead to promotion.
Enemies: The types of enemies you will face and what they are armed with
Contacts: NPCs that you can talk to in the mission, usually for information.
Some enemies also talk to you during fights.
Squad: Any special character skills you should bring with you
Special Equipment: Any special gear you should bring with you
Time: The time of day you should enter the location (run around on the world
map within the mission location to advance the clock). Day missions mean
using lots of long-range weapons, night missions means sneaking or reducing
your enemies' ranges.
Strategy: Basic theme of the mission
Note: Any special information about the mission and/or its consequences
Plan: Step-by-step instructions in one of the ways it is possible to finish
the mission. There are usually many others, but this one is tested and will
get you through if properly executed.
1: Brahmin Wood
Objectives: Kill the raider leader Horus
Promotions: Don't let any hostages get killed
Enemies: Raiders w/ pistols and rifles, dogs
Contacts: Charon (straight ahead of you at the start), Hawkeye (small building
on the west side of the map)
Squad: Forced (Farsight and Stitch)
Special Equipment: H&K MP5, 9mm x48, Nuka-Cola, Happy Pie, Stimpak, plus
whatever gear is granted by your Tag skills.
Time: Forced (Day)
Strategy: Engage enemy in small groups. Use Farsight to draw fire while
others get into killing range with either small guns or melee weapons.
Note: For your first mission, you are instantly deployed to a village in need
of assistance from the Brotherhood. You will be forced to take with you
Farsight (sneaky sniper with high Perception and a hunting rifle) and Stitch
(field medic with shotgun). You'll also have the starting gear that comes
with your Tag skills, which is why it is extremely important to tag a useful
weapons skill.
Plan:
Move forward and talk to the chief. Set your squad to at least defensive
sentry if you're not comfortable with aggressive, though aggressive is better
in most situations unless you're sneaking. Run across the bridge toward the
ruin on the northeast side to avoid attracting the attention and fire from the
sniper to the northwest. From here you can take out the dog and guard
patrolling in front of the locked door. Send Stitch with the shotgun up
behind the guard if he crouches down and refuses to advance.
The fire will have alerted the northern sniper and she'll probably be hiding,
so use Farsight's rifle for cover and advance cautiously. Yet another guard
is walking in the sandbags and lies down either as soon as he sees you attack
the sniper or as soon as you start firing on him. If you time it right, you
can fire on him just as he crosses the opening in the sandbags, allowing you
to keep shooting while he wastes AP changing stance twice. If not, just stay
a few squares back from the wall (so you don't engage over it where he has
lots of cover) and wait for him to stand up. Send Farsight to the outside
corners of the sandbags to the west and she'll open fire on a man in the tent.
He'll take a few shots, after which point you can run in your main character
with the burst MP5 and Stitch with the shotgun to kill him quickly. Loot the
chest for a key.
Use the key to open the door to the building. There's only one guard in the
room, with a second outside who will lie down and hide as soon as he hears
gunshots. There's also a dog outside that will charge as soon as it sees you.
Kill them all, then loot the room and a shelf in the tent to the north and
switch your characters to defensive posture before you proceed. There are two
dogs and a person sleeping in an enclosure. Set Stitch to kill the dogs with
one shot from the shotgun and the other two on the sleeper. Move back to
aggressive and open the gate to the brahmin pen.
Proceed south to the next tent which contains two men as well as several
hostages. When you bust in, the man on the left will hide among the hostages
and may kill some, while the man on the right will run out the door. Kill him
quickly to prevent this. Don't hit the hostages too much, because they will
turn hostile and you'll have to kill them, which is bad.
Out the back door is another guard slowly patrolling the entire area. Ambush
her as she crosses the door, then send Stitch into the small tent with the
shotgun. There is a sneaking raider in the south corner who will only appear
after he fires on you. Head north to the guardhouse and keep the guard busy
with a target at long range while the two others crawl up against the fence,
then stand and take him out with burst mode and the trusty shotgun.
Use the same old key to open the guardhouse doors and step into the
basketball court on the far side. Send the shotgun down the narrow alley
between the court and the east wall for an easy kill. Use this alley for your
approach and arm your best shooters with the two hunting rifles you've
captured. There's a pillbox with two raiders and a third patrolling in front
of it. No matter how you approach, the pillbox will fire on you, but if you
zigzag through the wire against the east wall you'll have some cover and the
advantage of distance. Take out the patrolling raider while sheltering behind
one of the drums - it's better than nothing, but worse than something.
There are four ways to attack the pillbox. The first is firing from the
field in front of it, usually from the cover of the car. This is often
painful. There's an opening on the northeast side that you can use to take
out one of the raiders, but again they're firing from the advantage of cover.
The best way is to get your people to the east fence, approach the pillbox
from this shallow firing angle, then crouch and move around to the stairs on
the south sides. Take both stairs at once for best effects and don't be
afraid to use burst mode.
At the sniper nest just south of the pillbox, send Farsight up sneaking with
a knife and Berretta shotgun. The raider here is often able to detect you on
the way up. If he does, use a double blast from the shotgun to soften him up
before closing. If he doesn't detect you, walk up to him and stab him
repeatedly with the knife - he should get off only a shot or two. Switch her
to the hunting rifle to draw some attention from below. Use your other troops
to defend the base of the ladder from any raiders that charge, then move
forward cautiously. There's one raider just around the corner, another
patrolling into the open room from the south, a third in the northeast corner
of the far building next to the south wall, plus a raider and a dog in the
corridor along the east wall or possibly around the corner. Wipe them all out
and proceed west.
There's another sneaking raider next to the rubble, so cover your man as he
approaches. When he's down, set Farsight up next to the rubble to the north
in the open so she can fire on the approaching raider pair, then pincer them
from the south with your squad. The last lonely raider is outside the west
corner of the leader's building, so fire a shot from the building's south
corner to make him advance a step, then run someone north of the building with
a shotgun to catch him from behind. If you don't lure him forward first, he
will spot you against the back wall and start firing.
Now to finish the job by killing Horus, the raider leader. There are five
total raiders in the building, including him. The first one is just around
the right-hand corner of the inner wall and can be taken out with one shotgun
blast. The second is in the middle of the room and will charge when the first
one goes down. The third raider is along the left wall and must be taken out
with both a sniper and a closer weapon. The fourth is a sniper at the
northwest end that hides behind boxes when threatened. Finally, Horus is
behind the boxes at the north corner. Use Farsight to give cover fire and
keep Stitch and your character moving forward to take them all out, but don't
attack Horus until the others are down. If you really want to play it safe,
use the ladder outside to head to the roof and knock off a couple of the
raiders through the skylight before you enter through the door (this can
change how the raiders are positioned).
Loot Horus to collect a key, which can be used on the door outside to the
south as a shortcut to the entrance. Take everything else as well. Talk to
Charon for a remote detonator that's totally useless for now and to Hawkeye
for healing powder. If you're feeling particularly sadistic or experience-
hungry, you can go back and kill off all the brahmin for practice, though it
lowers your karma. Make sure you use cheap 9mm ammo for this. When you're
ready, leave for Bunker Alpha. Talk to General Barnaky there to get your next
mission.
2: Freeport
Objectives: Meet with the informant, free Charon
Promotion: Don't kill the informant, release Ripley the Prisoner
Enemies: Raiders w/ pistols and AK-47s
Contacts: Informant (southeast edge of map), Charon (tent at center of map),
Ripley (prison cell center-east of map)
Squad: 2-3 Sneakers, the rest small arms
Special Equipment: A melee or unarmed weapon for every person depending on
skills
Time: Night
Strategy: Silently kill as many raiders as possible while they sleep
Plan:
You'll start on one side of a short cliff separating you from the raider
camp. Immediately switch your squad to defensive fire and keep them there for
most of the mission. Take out the dog and guard patrolling your side without
alerting the forces on the other side. There are two guards at the bridge,
two more patrolling the north area with a dog, and three patrolling the south.
Staying out of sight, move down the southwest edge of the map until you reach
a tent with a raider sleeping outside. Send your sneakers in with melee
weapons and switch them to aggressive when they're all in position to kill him
quickly and silently.
Now go up the stairs with your full force and take out the southern patrol
without letting any of them escape to the northeast. Work your way up
northwest to clean out the other guards here, gunfire is okay for now.
Once all the guards are dead, switch back to defensive fire and rendezvous
with the informant in the building on the southeast edge of the map. He
explains that most of the raiders are sleeping now (no matter what time it
is).
If at any point in the rest of the mission your squad is discovered and an
alarm is set off, all of the sleeping raiders will wake up. This is not a
terrible development since they won't hurt Charon and they can't hit a barn,
but if it happens you need different tactics. Work your way to the northeast
edge of the map via the south corridor, then down the street from there.
Force-fire on raiders to get them to attack so you can defend covered
positions instead of standing in the open. However, it is more desirable to
kill off the raiders in their sleep to prevent you from facing this battle
severely outnumbered.
Send your sneakers northeast into the building to kill another sleeping
raider next to a bookcase. There are two raiders in the open area to the
north, so kill them both as quickly as possible. Once you've cleared the way,
raid the locker on the northeast border to get your first AK-47. Set everyone
to sneaking and equip them all with melee/unarmed weapons, then put them in
position around the two sleeping raiders in the building southwest of the
locker. Switch to aggressive and kill them quickly, then pull your troops
back.
There are three raiders patrolling the center of the camp with an alarm that
you don't want triggered, so send your best sneaker to break the alarm after
they pass it in their rounds. There's another guard patrolling through the
building to the southwest with the prison cell. Send a sneaker here to break
the alarm and set a melee ambush with your other sneakers at the southeast
exit of the building to take this guard out. A guard patrols around the tent
to the northwest that contains the chief. Be careful because gunfire can wake
some of the sleeping raiders in the surrounding tents. Sneak as close as you
can and kill him with melee weapons without letting him fire very much.
This point is a good time to kill off the patrol in the center of the
camp by drawing them one at a time into ambushes - let them charge you and
kill them with melee weapons.
Send your sneakers to the chief's tent and kill the sleeper, then to the next
tent to the southwest and kill the two sleepers here. Just around the corner
are two more raiders. Send your sneakers quietly from the north and pincer
with the rest of your squad with melee weapons from the south to kill them
both quickly. Now your sneakers can take out the rest of the sleeping guards:
three in the last tent in the south row, one outside the tent to the
northwest, two in that tent, two in the tent to the northeast past the raider
leader O'Reilly, and two at the campfire. Be careful with the last two
because if either of them fires a gun it will almost certainly attract
O'Reilly's attention. Finally, sneak into O'Reilly's tent and kill him melee
style. If you're fast enough he won't be able to get off a shot with his
shiny AK. There's a building at the north corner of the map that contains yet
another sleeper, but you can take him out with two gunmen at the break in the
wall.
At this point you can end the mission by freeing the chief and telling him to
run; he should make it to the exit point unharmed and then you can leave. You
can free Ripley in the cell with the prison key or a decent Lockpicking skill
as well. However, you can kill the rest of the raiders to secure more AK-47s
and extra experience.
Double back to the entrance to O'Reilly's tent. Note the sandbag wall on
both sides, blocking access to the rear of the tent and the still area. Stand
back from the sandbags and kill a pair of raiders patrolling the far north
side, a raider who charges from the west, and anyone who happens to emerge
from the still. You can use the wall for cover as you soften up the area.
Once that's done, circle around up to the exit grid and down the corridor.
Use 9mm weapons to preserve precious 7.62mm. Watch for a melee fighter in the
first building to the north, two guards at the still, a woman in the ruins
south of the still, and a guard crouching on the west side of the still. When
they're all dead, blow the the still itself for more experience. Loot
absolutely everything, including the solo raider's house that has a Rad-X on
the floor partially hidden by a wall, and head back.
3: Rock Falls
Objectives: Kill raider leaders Luke, Daisy, Bo, and Jesse, secure artifact
Promotions: Rescue Diesoon and Nanuk
Enemies: Raiders w/ AK-47s, pistols, and rifles
Contacts: Diesoon (prison cell near the fuel depot)
Squad: 2-3 snipers, lockpicker, and optional trapper
Special Equipment: Hunting Rifles for everyone with decent Perception and
Small Guns skill
Time: Day
Strategy: Use superior range of hunting rifles
Plan:
Head southeast from your starting point and kill off a few raiders in the
ruined building. If you don't, later in the mission they take up position
outside the main gate and can make things a bit sticky. Don't follow this
angle up to the hole in the barricade noted in the briefing because there's a
group of raiders waiting to ambush you.
Backtrack and head northwest along the map border to find and kill four
raiders around a campfire. Use the cover to get any melee fighters close
enough to do damage and hold your snipers back for support fire. By this
point, your squad's Small Guns skill should be quite superior to your enemies'
and the hunting rifles have range greater than the raiders' pistols or even
AKs, so you should be able to take out just about every enemy outside the
compound without closing enough for them to deal significant damage.
Follow the cover to the corner of the wall next to the main gate and work
southeast to take out the guards on this side, then use their defenses to take
out the others. Hunting Rifles make this fairly easy. Double back and kill
off two raiders hiding in the trench, using snipers to provide cover for
closer weapons. Move northeast to take out three guards in the fuel depot -
blow the tanks if they take shelter there and use close weapons if they hide
behind the entrance corner.
Place your two best snipers next to the door in the wall and let them take
out one or both of the guards patrolling the high walk to the northeast. Now
you can pick the lock and enter the compound through the back door. Pincer
around the prison cell here to take out the guards: there are two in front of
the cell, three in the building across from it who will fire through the
window, and several more to the southwest. Fan out into the southwest
enclosure and shoot quickly to kill off the raiders here, including Luke, who
is hiding in the building with a shotgun.
If you can't manage to pick the lock, go back to the front gate and assemble
your entire squad in a single rank (horizontal line). Open the gate and kill
any raiders in the middle of the street, then work north into Luke's building
and wipe out his lackeys. Send two or three people with bursting AKs to clean
out the house across from the cell and use the rest of your squad to attack
the cell guards through the wall gap.
After the dust settles, loot everyone and use the key from one of the three
bandits in the house across from the cell to open it. Talk to Diesoon inside
and get the artifact. DON'T talk to him twice, it sends him running for the
exit.
Head for the main avenue. There are a total of five raiders that patrol this
street, but sometimes three of them hide to the north. Head into the building
to the southeast and kill the raider between bunks, then sneak two snipers to
the opening at the south corner. Daisy and her two bodyguards will open fire
and can deal a lot of damage if you take them all on at once, so use the walls
as cover to kill one of the guards without spotting the other two. Finish
them off with AKs and sniper support fire. Take the Gate Switch Room key off
Daisy's corpse.
The next raider leader, Bo, is a grenadier in the building just past the
pinch in the main street. There are several windows, so if you crawl into
position you should be able to rise and hit him from all directions at once
before he can throw. If you didn't kill them before, the three patrolling
guards will be hiding either around the northwest corner or behind the brahmin
pen to the north.
Approach the minefield not through the barn with the brahmin but the open
area next to it and spot your first mine. There's one raider in the field
next to the barn who you should take out without moving much, then proceed
slowly through the field to discover all the mines. If you have a trapper,
try to disarm and salvage them. Entering through the barn will cause the
brahmin to stampede and trip a mine, preventing you from profiting. You can
destroy the mines by tripping them with burst fire, but then you don't get to
sell them back at the Brotherhood for a chunk of cash. Sometimes the brahmin
stampede before you get here, but you can't help that.
Use a key or lockpick the small guardhouse and hit the switch to open the
gate. The building in front of you seems quite buggy, in that it is possible
to hit the three raiders on the bottom floor from both a spot just to the
right of the closed front door and in the center of the second floor, so if
you find one of these keep shooting until they crouch or die. If you're using
the patch, both of these will be fixed, but another one appears to the left of
the junk on the southwest side of the ground floor.
Otherwise, head up the stairs on the west side. There's a raider taking
cover behind the barrels at the top, so keep your cover fire up, and another
raider at the corner that will start firing as soon as you hit the landing.
When you take her out, there's one more at the east corner behind cover. If
you didn't kill both of the raiders on the high walk earlier when you entered
through the side gate, send someone up the ladder behind this building and do
so. Proceed into the second floor chamber and kill off a few more raiders,
then put your sneakers on defensive and move them down below.
Use the screen for cover and position soldiers at the foot of the stairs, at
the southern corner, and in the middle of the southwest wall so they all have
clear shots on the enemy. If you really want to be careful, use your
lockpicker to open the front door on the first floor as well. Switch to
aggressive and let loose to kill the last raider leader, Jesse, and fulfill
your objectives.
Loot everything, then work your way out through the minefield to the wall.
The break here indicated on the map is blocked with rubble, so move your
troops as close as possible and direct them to the other side to make them run
around the edge of the fence inside the cliff. Head southwest. The ambush
mentioned earlier will have given up out of boredom and headed over to the
main gate looking for action. Give it to them.
The way should now be clear for Nanuk and Diesoon, so go back and talk to
them to send them toward the exit grid. Wait until Diesoon disappears, then
exit.
You now go to a new bunker, equipped with all of the services that Alpha had
but any equipment you leave behind in Alpha lockers does not get transferred
unless you move it yourself. Also, you'll get access to a drug merchant named
Kerr in the room behind the Quartermaster. Barter AK-47s to him in exchange
for drugs that you can then sell to the Quartermaster for more cash. Unless
you like drugs.
4: Preoria
Objectives: Secure 3 Fusion Batteries
Promotions: Get a fourth Fusion Battery
Enemies: radscorpions, cockroaches, turrets
Contacts: Chevron (entrance of village), Dhal (next to well)
Squad: Lockpicker, optional trapper
Special Equipment: 2 Rad-X for each person, rifles for best shooters, 9mm
guns for everyone, 1-2 pump shotguns
Time: any
Strategy: Small gun caterpillar crawl
Plan:
Immediately have everyone in your party take 2 Rad-X to raise their radiation
resistance above 100% so you don't forget. Talk to Chevron as soon as you
enter the village, who will direct you to the entrance to the Vault below.
Talk to Dhal the shaman next to the well to receive some more Rad-X (you
should have brought enough for all your troops), then again to learn about
some Rad-Away he has stored in a chest in his tent. Snag it.
Head up the ladder to the plateau and start taking down radscorpions. There
are a few different enemy groups in this area, guarding corpses at the east
and north corners of the map ripe for looting. After you've cleared this
area, go back down the ladders and head for the stairs at the northwest end of
the village. Note the three retracted turrets here in the village.
At the bottom of the stairs, you enter the Vault proper, which is much larger
than the mission map would lead you to believe. Watch for a radscorpion
behind the stairs and some other bugs in the hallway. This fight sets the
tone for most of the level: tight quarters, lots of gunfire, and weak enemies.
You'll find that a shotgun is excellent for blasting groups of small roaches,
but less so for radscorpions.
Set up your three best snipers next to the gaping hole in the floor kneeling
so they can cover the entire corridor, then send a single person with an MP5,
AK, or shotgun through the door to the southern rooms. When he meets bugs,
run him into the corridor so that the snipers can provide cover for him.
After you clear the large room, use two men to pincer the small room in the
corner and take out the small cockroaches here. Take the keycard from the
bookshelf if you don't have a decent lockpicker.
Work your way through the rooms to the north (there are containers in most of
them) and around the corner up to the automatic doors, then double back to the
west and kill off the roaches. Go through the executive room with the
electronic keycard and open the blue locker to get your first Fusion Battery.
Pick the safe while you're here.
Head back through the automatic doors and flip the switch to reactivate some
of the base's power systems. The turret systems will now come online, but the
computer reports that they are glitching and that internal repairs are
underway. Passing through the second set of automatic doors identifies your
squad as invaders that the turrets will now attack. Watch the turrets extend
and retract; this is the glitch mentioned by the computer before and will last
only as long as this mission. Killing the turrets is extremely difficult with
your current weapons, so try to dodge fire rather than engaging them. They
have relatively low accuracy, but they will tear you to pieces if you stand
still long enough. It's almost impossible to run across this first room
without getting shot at a few times, but time it as best you can.
On the far side, there are two sneaking radscorpions just outside the room
you land in. Advance too far and you'll bring them down on your head while
your squad is still clustered, resulting in friendly fire. Try to fan out
before you cross the threshold. After that, cross the hallway and head
southwest to kill a few radscorpions. Take the time now to post someone at
the south end of the hallway you just crossed, out of range of the turret to
the north. This person will be able to sight the turret, so you can watch it
to see when the turrets are retracted and it is safe to move. Learn to
distinguish the sounds of the turrets extending and retracting for when you
can't see the turret you want to dodge.
The room to the southeast glows with radiation, so check your rad resistance
and use Rad-X if you haven't already. There is a sneaking radscorpion in the
middle of this room, so proceed with caution and cover your man. Open the
locker for a second Fusion Battery. Continue southeast and clear out the room
to the north, then send one person into the room with the generators. Time
your entry to dodge the turret's fire and hit the switch, then back out. Use
the small door to enter the large room to the northwest and clear out the
roaches here.
Head northeast for looting, moving while the turrets are down. Use the
terminal in the medical room to access the operating tables. One person can
reach the locker at the end of the long hall with the turret by using the wall
supports as cover and moving as the turret retracts. Finally, the container
in the corner room is trapped, so defuse it and collect new armor. Retreat
back to the small room just past the first two turrets and go southwest to a
new area.
There is a switch here that will deactivate all the turrets within the vault,
but will activate the turrets you saw earlier in the village and slaughter the
villagers. This is bad. The good news is that if you flip the switch off and
back on within ten seconds, the surface turrets won't activate. Therefore,
choose someone to leave behind so they can work the switch. Flip it, then run
your squad (minus one) through the open doors into the "restricted area" and
then into the hallway beyond. Hit the switch again before the villagers start
dying. If you move the switch back before your entire squad has passed
through the third set of doors, they will be trapped as the turrets extend.
Flipping the switch off again restarts the 10-second clock, but the turrets
stay extended until their full time is up.
There are a few bugs in the hallway you just entered, so take them out
quickly. Follow the north chambers all the way to the end, clearing bugs
along the way, for some loot, then backtrack and go south from the first
hallway. Clear the two side rooms and dash in front of the turret. Circle
through the large room to the door and loot the lockers by staying below the
window so the turret won't see you. Dash between the bugs guarding the door
to the classroom and blast them from beyond.
Set up a firing squad in front of the automatic doors to clear out these bugs
- there is a roach here that may be stuck under one of the desks and can
safely be ignored. The shelf in this room is trapped and ironically contains
a traps manual.
The last room is heavily irradiated and contains many large cockroaches as
well as Roachor, the roach of your nightmares. If you don't have a current
patch, he'll be stuck to the floor and can be taken out safely from a
distance; if you do have a patch he'll be a serious threat. Set up your squad
in a column and pull back the people he attacks as they become injured. Take
the Fusion Battery from the locker and backtrack to the turret chambers you
dashed through on the 10-second clock.
If you're feeling lucky, send someone to the lockers in the corner and hide
behind the chairs as he empties them. The turret will still be able to hit
him, but you'll have some cover and the accuracy is very low.
Once you're ready, use the one squad member left behind to turn off the
turrets and run your troops back. This time there won't be a warning from the
computer, but leaving the switch off will still definitely kill the villagers.
Run past the first two turrets, looting the liquified corpses for drugs on the
way, and exit the Vault.
Back up in the village, talk to Chevron again. If the villagers were not
harmed, he will give you an extra Fusion Battery; otherwise, he'll just send
you away. Talk to Dhal for an odd prophecy and head for the exit.
5: Macomb
Objectives: Rendezvous with survivor, move Humvee to the exit
Promotions: none
Enemies: Dogs, raiders w/ AKs, pistols, rifles, grenades, and rocket
launchers, civilians with rocks
Contacts: Survivor (starting location), Librarian (library at center of map)
Squad: Pilot, optional mechanic, trapper, and as many female characters as
reasonably possible
Special Equipment: Longest rifles available, repair kits
Time: Day
Strategy: Take the enemy emplacements from behind
Plan:
If you haven't been allocating points to Pilot and Repair skills, they're not
absolutely critical for this mission but you will have to be more careful and
leave the Humvee at a safe location as you proceed on foot. Talk to the
survivor automatically to learn the basic situation: the entire town wants you
dead and raiders have created blockades to prevent the Humvee from just
driving through.
Give hunting rifles to your best snipers because they'll need to pick off a
few roof snipers on the first couple of streets. Use the ladder to the
northwest to get on a roof and kill a raider on another roof to the southwest.
Back on the ground, let the snipers lead and kill another raider to the south.
Check the bookshelf in the large warehouse for a repair kit, in case you
brought a mechanic without supplies. The first raider has a few friends on
the ground floor that will need to be cleared so you can hit the switch to
open the barricade. Three more raiders may run out of the alley just past the
barricade if they heard the gunfire in the street.
There's a pack of dogs near the far border of the map eating a civilian who
has some useful drugs. Watch the corner of the building to the southeast -
there are a total of four raiders on this roof that reveal themselves slowly.
Send a sneaker if you brought one up the ladder in the alley on the south side
of the street and take out three raiders, each one on his own building roof.
Be prepared to switch to a rifle if raiders appear on the roof of the Bowl-a-
Rama across the street. When all three raiders are down, snag a key from a
chest on the north end and return to the ground.
Cover your troops as you pass the Bowl-a-Rama entrance because there are a
few raiders on the ground floor, unless they charged you through the back exit
when you opened the first barricade. When it is clear, send troops up the
ladder to the east to loot the roof snipers you've already killed and possibly
finish off a straggler or two.
After everything is clear, mass your troops at the second gate in a line with
hunting rifles. Use the key to open the switch house and then the gate. The
barricade in the road protects a raider with a rocket launcher that you want
dead before he can fire, plus a friend of his on the right. There's a
grenadier in the corner of the building to the south that also needs a good
killing. Work your squad forward one person at a time to make the raiders
reveal themselves so you can gun them down. When all three are dead, double
back to bring up the Humvee and park it here. Send someone down to the
library and talk to the Librarian to learn about his missing glasses.
Now take all the female members of your squad and go south through the door
blocked by a crashed car. Only females wearing leather armor can fit through
this hole, so take off metal armor as you pass through. You are now behind
the enemy fortifications. Go south along the border of the map and sneak if
possible to get someone behind the raider on the balcony with the rocket
launcher. Use other non-sneaky troops by standing them in the exit grid with
a good view of the enemy at the barricades.
Switch everyone to aggressive at once to kill the launcher and the two
raiders at the barricade, then move the person on the balcony forward to take
out two more raiders at the corner of the fence. A group of civilians will
charge the balcony - mow them down.
Now move two troops through the ruined building to the south to catch a
raider between this building and the next from behind. Clear a few of the
barricades with gunfire, then move into the building at the edge of the map
with the ruined second floor. There's a raider in the north corner of the
ground floor and another on the north side of the second floor. Use the
second floor as a sniper nest and start a fight with a few civilians hiding to
the northeast in the ruins, mowing them down as they approach.
There should be a raider on the left side of the blockade as well as two in
the building behind him. Open the gate and approach carefully and slowly to
kill them all. Bait the dog pack at the northeast end of the street into
charging to take them out, then go into the building next to the opened
blockade and climb the stairs.
Kill the three raiders on the next roof from behind and use their sniper
position to harass raiders on the northeast side of the street and civilians
to the northwest. All the civilians charge together, but try to kill them in
slightly different spots to make looting easier - run along the edge of the
roof to make them follow you. After they're dead, backtrack to the surface
and cover this territory again from the ground to loot corpses. Don't miss
the civilian bodies on the other roof; you can get there with a ladder on the
south end of the building. Also kill two raiders in different rooms of the
ground floor of the building you were just firing from. A chest in this
building contains the librarian's glasses. Use this opportunity to defuse the
minefield along the street between the overturned car and the sign that says
"Mines" if your trapper is female. Save every time, because these traps are
quite mercurial.
When all this is done, backtrack all the way to the exit grid and back
through the car hole to the Humvee. Dump any encumbering loot inside the
vehicle and send someone to return the glasses to the librarian. Give them to
him by bartering the glasses to him for free and he'll give you a traps book.
Open the gate and proceed carefully; the house on the left has three raiders
with burst weapons. The white building to the north contains a civilian and
some loot.
Proceed northeast and stop outside the building with two doors. A civilian
attacks you with throwing darts and should pose no threat. There's a bug in
this building's wall to the right of the right-hand door that allows you to
shoot one of the guards inside through the wall if you're standing due south
at the edge of the pavement. Inside, there's a raider right between the two
doors and another on the left side. Enter carefully and post two snipers
behind the door to the court floor. Send anyone with Fast Shot through the
judge's chambers on the left and ready to charge that way. Sneaking people up
the stairs and firing from the second level is optional. Move all groups in
simultaneously to kill the three raiders here. The sneakers also have a bead
through the window on some raiders across the street that may or may not
charge, so keep shooting until you run out of targets. Flip the switch on the
second story balcony and move through the gate.
Work your way up the street, clearing a handful of raiders in the ruined
building and garage as well as one on the roof of the garage (there's no way
to loot him, but it's good for experience). Salvage any remaining mines to
the south, pack up your troops into the Humvee and drive for the exit.
6: Quincy
Objectives: Rescue the mayor and her daughter
Promotions: Rescue the ghouls, rescue the ghoul whores, rescue Felix, rescue
hostages at power plant
Enemies: Beastlords w/ melee weapons and small guns, dogs, Deathclaws
Contacts: Arlene (start), Mayor Hilary Eastwood (2nd floor of south building),
Evita (small room in town hall), Felix (roof of prison)
Squad: 2-3 sneakers, trapper
Special Equipment: Melee weapons for the sneakers, shotgun and flechette ammo
Time: Night
Strategy: Engage enemies with stealth by region
Note: If you successfully defend the ghoul quarter some ghouls will become BoS
recruits for your squad.
Plan:
Talk to Arlene in front of you to get a vague idea of the situation. The
mayor is in the three-story building to the north marked on the map. Head
through the low schoolhouse and check the corpse for a revolver with JHP ammo.
This weapon is quite useful since none of your enemies in this level wear
armor. Move on to the basketball court. Activate your sneakers and send them
alone from this point.
Climb the ladders to the roof of the mayor's building, then climb down to the
balcony. Sneak into the room and break the alarm, then get behind the
Beastlord at the door and kill him silently. Use his key to open the mayor's
room. Talk to her and pick up the key off the floor. Double back with all
the sneakers to the roof and use the mayor's key to hit the switch in the
locked stall and disarm the town's alarm. There are still many small alarms
throughout the town, but with this one down the Beastlords won't execute all
the hostages as soon as any of them sounds.
From this point on, sneaking is entirely optional. I still recommend it for
this mission because it lets you set up attacks a little better, but it's
certainly valid to handle the rest of the mission by storming the hostage
situations.
Go back down the ladders to the ground. There is a window in the back of the
first floor that you can use to see three sleeping baby Deathclaws inside the
building. Lead with the shotgun and fire through the window so they can't hit
you. This will alert the Beastlords at the front door and one sleeping behind
the bar, so circle south to the front and take them all out.
Head north to the town hall, where the mayor told you her daughter was being
held. There are three Beastlords here that you can gun down quite easily.
They have access to two alarms, but now that the large one is down these two
small ones won't do anything. Another Beastlord is at the front of the town
hall, plus there's a Beastlord each on the lower and upper roofs that you can
kill. Avoid entering the building until you've attracted the attention of a
wolf patrol led by a Beastlord to the northwest and ambushed it.
You can choose to pick the lock on the side door to attack the two Beastlords
and Deathclaw inside with a pincer, but it's better to lead with a shotgun and
keep everyone at the main entrance. Sneakers can get behind the low barrier,
but will be very vulnerable to melee attacks from the Deathclaw when they
fire. The Deathclaw is the biggest threat here because there is very little
cover, so try to take it out first. Flechette shells are very helpful.
After the Beastlords and Deathclaw are down, you can find Evita in the side
room on the right, but she won't talk to you until the three sleeping
Beastlords in the back room are dead. Either pincer them with firearms or
sneak up for melee wake-up calls. Talk to Evita to confirm her rescue -
you've now effectively finished the mission and the exit grid will appear.
However, there are many more opportunities here in Quincy for promotions,
equipment, and even new recruits, so stick around.
Go down the ladder in the back room of the town hall through the pit. In
this underground passage you will spot a civilian corpse at a choke point.
There are two Beastlords here waiting in ambush for you. Send your sneakers
through to kill them with melee or small guns attacks from the other side and
continue to the far ladder. Alternately, you can force-throw a couple of
grenades from the desk in the room above at the civilian corpse to soften the
Beastlords up.
This secret passage is one of two ways into the barracks. The other way is
through the front door, which involves charging across open ground patrolled
by two baby Deathclaws and a Beastlord. If anyone fires while you're
approaching, the alarms go off and Duff the Beast Master will kill Felix.
Entering from the secret passage instead brings you up in the office of the
barracks. Sneak to break the alarm by the door and ambush the patrolling
Beastlord when he walks in. Keep sneaking up the north passage and break the
second alarm right behind the Beastlord, then take him out. Hit the switch to
open the cell doors and loot a combat shotgun from a chest in the southern one
before you head back.
Climb the stairs with your sneakers leading and set them up to take down the
Beastlords here. There are enemies at each of the watch towers on the north
and west corners with alarms, two more behind a sandbag wall on the southeast
side with another alarm, one sleeping on the lower roof right next to an
alarm, and Duff the Beast Master at the northeast end of the roof with an
attitude problem. Essentially, as soon as you kill anyone an alarm will
sound, preventing you from being really cool and sneaky. Again, when the
alarms go off Duff starts attacking Felix and you have to kill Duff quickly.
With everyone on defensive, send one sneaker up the west tower with a melee
weapon and a rifle in the off hand and the others with small guns to the south
corner behind the barricade guards with the remainder of your troops at the
top of the stairs and out of sight. When you're ready, switch everyone back
to aggressive and pull your stairway troops into the light. When the fight
starts, the idea is for the tower sneaker to kill that guard and switch to the
rifle to kill the other, the two south sneakers to kill the barricade guards
and then the sleeper, and the rest of the troops to keep Duff busy so he
doesn't kill Felix. Felix himself will bust out an AK, but he's still
vulnerable so keep the pressure on. Even after all the Beastlords on the roof
go down, there are still two on the ground with two baby Deathclaws that you
can take out from your perch. Once everything is clear, talk to Felix and
take everyone downstairs and out the front door.
Marked on your map is a farm to the west. Equip the shotgun and head that
direction. There is a large number of wolves and Deathclaws as well as three
Beastlords here, so use the fence to your advantage by staying behind it so
the beasts can't hit you (they can strike over the fence if you get too close,
so stay back a ways) and letting the combat shotgun lead. If you position
your troops correctly, the beasts will charge the fence and get stuck rather
than running around. When the animals are dead, switch to rifles to kill the
Beastlords outside. Enter the building to kill two more Beastlords, one of
whom is hiding behind the bar.
When they're all dead, talk to the ghoul Gorgi to send him back to the Ghoul
Quarter. The ghouls will express their gratitude as you pass through their
home. Continue southeast toward the starting location and set up an ambush
across from the train station, again leading with the Neostead. There's a
Deathclaw posting watch with a Beastlord that will charge and two other
Beastlords that you may have to root out.
Now it's time to resolve the power plant situation. The plant is marked on
your map as the large concrete building to the northeast. Climb the stairs to
enter and go down a level inside to reach a small antechamber. You can see
two generators from this room. Both of them are rigged with remote explosives
and have hostages surrounding them (2 on the right, 4 on the left). Two
Beastlords are behind each of the barricades at the north and south ends of
the room, and a commander walks around. The switch next to you can turn off
the lights if you think that will help, but this alerts the guards and will
cause them to set off the bombs in a few seconds. The commander is carrying
the remote detonator that will set off the explosives, so wait to storm the
room until she is close to the door. If a timer appears at the top of the
screen counting down from 30 seconds, you have that much time to disarm the
bombs on the generators.
You can prevent this by moving quickly: send two squad members to the north
end of the room to kill the commander as she walks by, two to clear the
north barricade, and two to clear the south barricade. Move your troops south
to keep the Beastlords occupied and prevent them from killing hostages as the
north targets go down. Salvage the explosives if you can and move out.
The ghoul brothel is just to the north, but entering from this direction can
be risky because the Beastlords will sight you sooner. Instead, move west and
north all the way back to the barracks and post five troops on one of the
eastern guard towers armed with rifles. Take the sixth person, preferably the
one with the most HP remaining, near the large rock on the northeast border of
the map. Sneaking here are a Beastlord and two adult Deathclaws. Start a
fight and run as soon as the Deathclaws reveal themselves back toward the
guard tower. Keep running around so the Deathclaws can't hit you (much) while
the tower squad fires on the Deathclaws until they're dead. Sometimes the
Deathclaws will take an interest in the tower and charge the wall, leaving
your bait man free to take a few shots himself.
Once they're dead, send the bait to the church on the north side and start a
fight with two Deathclaws here. It's quite possible to post shooters all
around the protrusion on the roof allowing you to fire down on the Deathclaws,
but it's easy for them to get out of sight. You can also fire through the
south windows, but they'll lie down and you have to get close enough for them
to hit you through the window. The last option is to flee back to the tower,
which is much riskier but usually faster. Grab Metal Armor Mk II from the
church chest and move everyone southeast along the map border.
Attack the brothel from the north, allocating three squad members to the
north part and three to the south near the door; this should prevent the
Beastlords from being able to kill any ghouls. Two Beastlords are standing
outside to the south and may make a late appearance. Grab your loot, send
someone to talk to the mayor, Arlene, Evita, and Elliot the Ghoul for some
nice catharsis, and exit.
7: Mardin
Objectives: Kill Emperor Darr, discover the cause of Beastlord control over
the Deathclaws
Promotions: rescue the Deathclaw Matriarch instead of killing her
Enemies: Beastlords w/ rifles, spears, and small arms, wasps, baby Deathclaws,
roaches, radscorpions
Contacts: Deathclaw Matriarch (cage underground past prisons)
Special Equipment: hunting rifles for everyone
Squad: optional trapper
Time: Day
Strategy: Engage enemy from maximum range
Note: If you rescue the Matriarch, Deathclaws join the recruit pool
Plan:
This mission is relatively simple. The first half is an above-ground
environment with minimally useful cover and you'll basically have to rifle
crawl over the whole thing, taking out the Beastlords with your hunting rifles
at maximum range to stop them from hitting you and switching to AKs when they
close in. The reason you should take this mission in daylight is standing
next to the pit just north of you when you arrive: a Beastlord with an H&K
CAWS, the second-best shotgun in the game. If you try to take him at night,
he can slaughter your squad with burst mode because you'll have to get closer
to him. Stay far away and keep your troops widely separated to kill him and
collect the shotgun. There's a patrol of animals and Beastlord grenadiers
that will rush to back him up.
Head northeast, loot the dead warrior at the southeast edge of the map, then
continue to the Beastlords at the corner. Use the truck as cover to take them
out and loot the second dead warrior here. The ruined building you passed is
trapped with Beastlord puffers, so take care when approaching it. Swing north
along the edge of the map and kill a few Beastlords in a small hut. The ghoul
in the enclosure marks a small minefield that's worth salvaging if you can.
Head north and kill off the Beastlords in the junkyard, then head west to the
graveyard and clean it out, too. Send two people to the northern staircase in
the graveyard and kill some cockroaches to loot a zombie.
Swing to the map border to kill off the last surface patrol of Beastlords.
Don't miss the two corpses near the lonely gate west of the graveyard. When
you're ready and have cleared the whole surface of the level, go down the
black staircase here. Lead with the shiny CAWS to shred the cockroaches here
and work your way down through a minor labyrinth ridden with insects until you
reach a pit with two ladders.
There are two baby Deathclaws sneaking here, so use the same strategy from
Quincy: line the balcony with snipers and send one person down as bait to run
around. Don't use the CAWS unless you can keep it from hitting the rest of
your squad or the bait.
When both Deathclaws are dead, climb up the other ladder. Kill two
Beastlords in the next hallway, then waste three imprisoned baby Deathclaws
without getting close enough to the cage for them to hit you.
Save, then climb the stairs at the end with rifles ready to kill some
Beastlords with superior range. Be careful not to hit the Matriarch in the
cage, because then she will turn hostile and you'll miss out on promotions and
recruits. There are several Beastlords in this room and approaching from the
north, so make sure they're all dead without crossing in front of the
stairs to the southwest. Send your shotgun around to the northeast to kill
two Beastlords from behind and check the other side of the cage.
Save again and unlock the Matriarch (there's a key on one of the dead guards
if you can't pick it), then talk to her to sic her on Darr. Follow her into
Darr's chambers with rifles and single-fire weapons to kill off all the bugs
and Beastlords here. Actually, Matriarch and her babies should handle most of
the dirty work, but you want to prevent her from being killed and you don't
want to hit any of the Deathclaws or they all turn hostile and you have to
kill them. Again, this is bad. Another good reason to come down the back way
through the Deathclaw pit is that this leaves a few baby Deathclaws around the
labyrinth that will start attacking the Beastlords when the Matriarch gives
the word, making your job easier even though they all get killed. Talk to the
Matriarch when the immediate battle cools.
If you're playing Tough Guy, you may want to go down and kill Darr and his
guards on your own. It's a very difficult fight unless you can draw them all
back to an ambush at the Matriarch's cage, because the melee fighters will
overwhelm you. The advantage of this is that there is no chance you'll
accidentally shoot the Matriarch and have to kill the Deathclaws and little
chance the Matriarch will be killed by the Beastlords.
At the very top of the stairs on the northwest end of Darr's chamber is a
single puffer mine which must be defused without attracting the attention of
several Beastlords in the next room before you move in. Alternately,
backtrack to the Matriarch's cage and swing northwest through the maze,
killing Beastlords as you go. There's lots of them and they know how to use
the cover, so be careful, move slowly, and keep your men covered. Don't set
the prisoners free until you have cleared the path all the way to the surface
(I don't know that freeing the prisoners gives you anything, but it's a nice
gesture). When everything is dead, snag the loot and head out.
8: St. Louis
Objectives: Rescue surviving soldiers, rescue Barnaky
Promotions: none
Enemies: Super Mutants w/ melee, grenades, rocket launchers, M249 SAWs, M60s,
Browning M2s
Contacts: Burke (trench near Barnaky's bridge), Paladin Solo (crater in
northeast)
Squad: 3 big gunners, medic w/ Doctor, trapper, driver
Special Equipment: Doctor's Bags for the medic
Time: Day
Strategy: Learn to use Big Guns to pound targets mercilessly and continuously
Note: MAKE SURE YOU BRING A DOCTOR. If you don't you have to depend on
whoever happens to have the highest natural skill, which leaves you likely to
fail continuously. You must perform Doctor correctly at least three times to
complete the mission.
Plan:
Grab some books and tools off the workbench and read up. Send your trapper
north to the second bridge and across to find an empty bunker. Defuse the
trapped chest and take the sniper rifle. Now put everyone in the APC and
cross the bridge with everyone on 33% aggressive and burst mode. Kill the two
mutants behind the sandbags and a grenadier next to the rock. Move south and
kill another mutant behind sandbags. Equip your gunners with the shiny M249
SAWs you liberated and at least 300-500 rounds each. The M249 will be the
best and most versatile Big Gun until you get enough ammo saved to start using
Browning M2s. Keep them supplied with 7.62mm from mutant corpses.
Follow the pass through the rocks in the APC and kill two mutants on the
left, with a rocket launcher hiding on the upper level on the right. You
should get a message from Gen. Dekker about Fang Squad being wiped out. Loot
and move north toward the bridge.
There's a mutant to the west between two rocks, a mutant each in both of the
guardhouses, and another mutant that charges you. Don't get too close because
the approach is mined. When the mutants are dead, send your trapper out to
disarm mines between the guardhouses and on the far side of the bridge, then
destroy the barricades and move on.
Two mutants with rocket launchers are behind sandbags on the right; drive up
and introduce them to your M249s. Repair the APC if necessary before this
next bit. Turn left and you'll draw fire from two mutants on the north
platform, two on the south platform, and one with an iron pipe that will die
almost instantly in the crossfire. Repair again and move south until you see
the trenches. Stop here and double back to loot the corpses. You can't get
up the ladder to the south platform unless you're using the patch, but if you
do manage one of the mutants has a second sniper rifle.
The long corridor from here to the mutant position at the edge of the map
(north of your starting point) is completely mined, so send out your trapper
to ID and disarm as much of it as possible. If he gets into trouble, run back
for support fire and don't shred him with the big guns until he's back in the
APC.
When this is done, turn north along the trenches. Drive perpendicular across
the trenches when an opportunity presents itself to kill off a few mutants
hiding here, then back out. DON'T drive parallel to the trenches because you
could fall in and be stuck without any way to finish the mission. The bunker
to the north contains a mutant with a chest of medical supplies if you need
them.
Turn right to find a pit with Paladin Solo's squad waiting for medical
attention. Use Doctor on all of the wounded soldiers except Solo and First
Aid to restore them to full health if necessary. When they're healed, they'll
automatically pile into the APC, but don't expect them to help with any of the
fighting. This completes your first objective.
Backtrack south and through the disarmed minefield toward the mutants at the
edge of the map. Be careful not to run over live mines because if the APC
blows up, the mission is over. Send out a spotter if you hit unexplored
territory.
Wipe out the mutant fortification and send the trapper into the trenches
right next to the bridge to the mutant island. You'll find a wounded soldier
here. Use Traps on him to disarm a bomb before you talk to him so you can
sell it. He tells you that Barnaky was captured, completing your second
objective, then either kills himself or blows up (if you didn't disarm him
first). You are now free to leave.
However, if you wish and are NOT playing Tough Guy, you can choose to invade
the mutant fortress for loot and experience. I repeat, do not attempt this if
you are a Tough Guy because you will have to save and reload many times to
prevent your squad from being wiped out. Two of the mutants have Brownings,
the second most powerful Big Gun in the game with a range almost equal to the
sniper rifle. The other mutants are just generally unpleasant.
Start by approaching the main bridge. The slope in front of you is mined
with T45LEs like the minefield, but these are extremely hard to see. My
trappers have never been able to detect them, much less disarm them. You can
draw a few mutants to walk into this convenient ambush with sniper fire.
After 4-5 mutants have died on the slope, the mines are probably gone. At the
top of the slope is still the Browning mutant, so you don't want to go that
way yet.
Circle around the island to the corner, unlock and collect the Enfield, and
proceed to the north, sharpshooting any mutants that expose themselves and
saving often. You'll also take out two mutants behind a sandbag barricade.
At the north end near the map edge is a hidden staircase that appears only as
a rounded edge of the cliff. You can run up this staircase to enter the
mutant base without immediately being mown down by big gun fire.
Once you're safely up, work around the edge of the map to the bunker and use
the corner to kill Browning with the sniper rifle and any hunting rifles
you're still packing. There are a total of about 7-10 mutants here depending
on how many got killed on the mine slope and how many you've sniped off: two
in the tower to the southeast, two in the south bunker, one in the east
bunker, one to the north next to the crates, one in the north bunker, and Mr.
Browning near the entrance. They may shift when you start firing, so watch
your back, save frequently, and use range to your advantage. Loot everyone
before you head home. Store two of the Brownings you found in a safe
container at the bunker or a vehicle. From this point forward, store all of
the .50 caliber ammunition you salvage from missions instead of selling it to
the Quartermaster - you'll just have to buy it back later.
9: Jefferson
Objectives: Destroy all 4 generators
Promotions: Don't destroy the research
Enemies: Super Mutants w/ SAWs, M60s, grenades, attitude problems
Contacts: Mutant scientist (research facility)
Squad: Trapper
Special Equipment: none
Time: Day
Strategy: Use perches for snipers while gunners crawl on ground
Note: You get a Scouter for this mission that you can take with you, but it's
not nearly as important as the Humvee and APC were in their missions. It's
also much less useful, but more fun. The Scouter is ostensibly from the
wreckage of the Brotherhood zeppelin that crashed near here.
Plan:
Send the trapper to the building to the southeast and look for the two blown
corners. They both have wooden Xs, which in this mission are code for mines.
Detect and disarm both entrances, then go in the west one and find the chest
on the first floor. Both the floor in front of it and the chest itself are
armed with traps. On the second floor, there's a mutant behind the sandbags
in front of a door on the west side of the building and another in front of
the bookcase in the room behind him. Kill them and head for the roof.
There are two mutants at the north corner. Take their sniper nest and use it
to attack the mutant on the balcony across the way. He'll duck quickly, so
switch targets to cover your gunner on the street while he gets behind the
mutant in the hut on the ground, then another on the first floor of the
building to the northeast. Circle this building with the gunners and send
them up the stairs to kill a melee mutant, then out to the balcony to finish
off the snipers' first target. Backtrack and cross the bridge to the other
side and go onto the balcony to kill yet another mutant.
Now return to your snipers and send them to the southeast edge of the roof
they're on to attack three mutants in the ruins to the east. They'll charge
and pass out of sight underneath you, so you can either wait for them to get
bored and come out again or attack them with gunners there. Spot and disarm
mines around the helicopter before you go down.
Pull everyone back to the insertion point and go down the street with the
Scouter and turn right. Your trapper can spot some T45LEs by the wood Xs and
disarm them. The building to the southeast has two mutants facing north and
another facing south. Wipe them out and head east along the south side of the
street. The first generator is north of you with two melee mutant guards.
Kill them both and shoot the generator. Backtrack along the north side of the
street to the alley for a few more kills.
The street to the southeast runs into a barricade with three mutants defending
it and another mutant with a rocket launcher behind cover to the south.
Approach with caution and take out the rocket launcher first, then move up the
side of the map and kill another mutant next to a brick wall. Use this
location to hit the barricades from the side and wipe out the guards. Don't
miss the one who likes to crouch and hide in the center kiosk. Up the
street at the corner is another mutant standing sentry, so flank him from the
side to clear the way. Loot the building behind him plus the two to the
northwest before proceeding.
Head northwest along the road, killing a mutant behind some cover on the
median as you go. There are a few mines in the middle of the street between
the wood Xs, plus a minefield to the south marked on your map and another next
to a hole in the wall blocked with sandbags. Salvage all the mines and stow
them.
The second generator is guarded by sentry turrets as well as mutants, and the
turrets are rather difficult to take down. Luckily, they are powered by the
#2 generator. Lay two gunners on the ground and work them through the rubble
on the south side of the generator to hide them from the turret until they
reach the back door. With them next to each other, open the door and
slaughter the two mutants waiting inside. Break the generator and backtrack
to kill the now-inert turret. Another mutant may charge your group in the
street, but they should be able to handle him. Blow the turret on the other
side of the road and salvage the minefield behind the generator.
Now head north carefully across the open ground. The covered bridge is
protected by a mine that must be defused and a mutant on the roof, but he
won't notice you if you don't fire on him. Set to defensive and cross the
bridge, then use the stairs to the north to get to the roof and behind the
mutant. Switch to aggressive to kill him, then post snipers on the roof and
sweep the gunners through below to kill two mutants in the corral. There's
another mutant to the north behind a low wall that the gunners can take out
and yet another to the east who will poke his head up for a burst now and
then.
When they're both dead, crawl under the north fence with a small depression.
Stand up on the far side with gunners ranked to kill two mutants patrolling
this corridor. Unlock the door and go down the stairs to find a bookshelf
with loot, then give one person two Rad-X so they can go through the
underground passage to the south and loot another shelf. Regroup up top next
to the inert mutant and head south.
Kill a mutant behind a sandbag wall to the northeast, then another next to
the third generator to the east. Pincer with the hole in the wall and the
main approach to kill two more mutants to the south before you blow the
generator.
Now it's time to do some cleanup for bonus experience and loot. Head for the
entrance to the underground passage marked on your map in the east corner.
Kill the mutant guard just to the north from behind and swing south. Clear
the first building of a possible mutant patrol with bursting SAWs and check
the bookshelf for your first set of Environmental Armor.
Continue along the map border and watch out for the narrow mined passage.
The grenadier on the far side can be surprised by a hail of 7.62mm. Check his
house for loot, including the second floor, then kill the two mutants in the
next house to the northwest for yet more loot. You should have your greedy
mitts on another set of Environmental Armor. There's yet another minefield
through the gate to the south to salvage before you head back to the facility.
There, talk to the mutant scientist to learn that the facility is researching
mutant sterility, not building weapons. Ignore the research, destroy the
generator in the back, and leave the scientist alone. Hit the exit grid and
remember to bring the Scouter with you.
10: Kansas City
Objectives: Stop the mutant assault, protect the ghoul Bishop, kill the three
mutant commanders
Promotions: Let less than 5 ghouls die
Enemies: Super Mutants w/ iron pipes, rocket launchers, SAWs, miniguns,
Brownings, and grenades
Contacts: Bishop (next to nuke)
Squad: 3 big guns, 2 snipers
Special Equipment: Sniper Rifles for Small Guns, SAWs for Big Guns
Time: Night
Strategy: Split your party to deal with the initial assault, then reform for
counterassault
Plan:
The briefing says that radiation is a major problem and that your squad has
been supplied with anti-radiation drugs to help deal with this. Because I was
already hauling lots of Rad-X and some RadAway, I never noticed any
significant increase in my supplies. There also doesn't appear to be any
actual radiation in the area, but you may want to use Rad-X anyway just in
case.
The first part of this mission is the only part of the game that I play on
ITB instead of CTB, entirely because it is too difficult for me to divide my
attention between the three battles without losing a lot of ghouls and/or some
party members. As soon as you land, set your troops to defensive and run them
into position. You can try to use the defensive towers as sniper nests, but
it wastes much time in TB and gives you no flexibility for seeking targets.
Don't hit to start the battle yourself because this
causes the mutants to attack early.
If you do choose to fight in CTB, expect the initial assault to last only a
few minutes. Bullets will be flying fast and furious, especially at the south
gate. Use your few seconds at the start to dose up with Psycho and Mentats
for Perception and lower your aggressive threshold to 1%. Be ready with
stimpaks. Good luck.
There are three barriers that must be defended: north, west, and south. The
north entrance is the easiest to defend, with an existing minefield and a
total of four mutants, only one of whom has a gun. Send your worst squad
member here, like a melee specialist or a weak sniper. The gun mutant
sometimes likes to hide behind the trailer - if this happens, approach from
across the street and use the barrels as cover.
The west entrance is slightly harder, but nothing a gunner and a sniper can't
handle. Just keep the bullets flying. This entrance also has a tendency to
develop two or three waves of mutants. Just because they stop coming for a
minute or two doesn't mean you can walk away; wait until you are absolutely
certain there are no more mutants coming, then start looting and be ready to
defend yourselves from the mutants on the towers in an emergency.
The south entrance is where most of the trouble is, including the first
miniguns you've ever seen. You'll need two gunners here with a sniper as
backup. This is also the barricade that tends to lose the most ghouls.
You'll receive experience in large chunks when each barricade is cleared by
the game's definition, even if there are still a few mutants running around.
To clear the south gate you'll probably have to advance past the sandbags,
using the other cover. There are two or three mutants at the extreme south
end of the street that may or may not become involved in the fighting. If not
you can take them out later.
Though there are five ghouls each at the west and north gates and six at the
south gate, plus a few on the towers, they really won't be much help for the
actual fighting. Most of them are armed with rifles and every once in a while
they'll take shots at mutants that are extremely close to death. If you're
using the patch they're much more active in their own defense, but don't count
on them to take out mutants on their own. However, if too many ghouls die
during the assault the ghoul Bishop won't be too kind to the Brotherhood.
There's no way to protect the ghouls themselves except to kill mutants as fast
as you can.
After all the mutant assaults are cleared, you have to achieve the last
objective by taking out the mutant commanders. First, loot all the corpses
and dump the gear in one spot so you can come back for it. Disarm the
minefield and collect that, too, plus the crates near your starting location
and the west barricade. Talk to the Bishop a few times and he'll hand over
some Rad-X for free. Use the north exit to reach the airfield and collect a
tommy gun.
Once all the looting is done, go out the west entrance to kill the two mutant
snipers sitting on platforms. If you've still got a sneaker he should take
them out very easily from behind, otherwise use the car to the north as cover.
The one to the north has a Browning, the southern one a rocket launcher.
Head south to a small building next to the edge of the map. Loot the ghoul
inside and snipe the two mutants next to the next building. Work around with
gunners to clear the front of the building, then jump inside and waste one
more. Watch for yet more mutants on the far side near the two sandbagged
corners.
The next building to the northeast contains the first commander. There are
three holes in the back of his building that you can use for snipers (from a
distance) or gunners (from close range) to kill the commander and one of the
grenadiers inside, then go around and enter to kill the last mutant.
Head for the second commander on your map and shoot through the door to get
him to drop, then send in gunners to finish him off. Don't miss the shotguns,
rockets, and shells on the ground behind the pots and next to the ice chest.
Look at your map carefully before you proceed. Unless you really pressed the
assault when you turned back the southern mutant horde, there will be two
mutants remaining in the house with the broken windows, a third patrolling
from the corner of the house to the south, and a mutant sleeping next to the
south corner of the house. You can engage the patroller north of the tire
barricade alone, then the sleeper as best you can. The third commander's
building has a mutant with a big gun at each of the entrances, so take care
while approaching and kill them from range or with pincers.
There's a hole bug in the back of the building that can be risky if the
mutants inside notice you running past to get into position. Inside, the
commander is flanked by two other mutants. Use snipers for cover to get your
big guns in, then work around the cover to wipe out the mutants. Loot the
chests to get a Pancor Jackhammer, the best shotgun in the game.
Now work north and kill off the mutants in the glass house if you didn't
already. There are two sentries standing between two buildings to the north
and another one in the building on the right. Check all the buildings for
loot and talk to the Bishop to clear the mission.
11: Osceolla
Objectives: Kill the Super Mutant leader Gammorin
Promotions: Recover Gammorin's holodisk, recover briefcase
Enemies: Super Mutants w/ SAWs, M60s, grenades, iron pipes, Brownings
Contacts: Roshambo (next to zeppelin), Toccomatta (east room underground)
Squad: Trapper
Special Equipment: none
Time: Night
Strategy: Gut base with underground passage and sniper nest before entering
Note: After this mission, if you didn't destroy the research facility in
Jefferson, mutants will join the recruit pool.
Plan:
The last time you attacked a mapwide enemy fort was Rock Falls. This time it
will be much harder. Look at your map carefully after you land. There are
five entrances into the mutant base: two gates to the south guarded by
Brownings, another opening in the southwest wall with sandbags, an
underground passage starting in the southeast and coming up inside the base,
and a small opening in the north wall. None of these are really good choices,
but you'll have to make do.
First, approach the house in front of your insertion point and kill a mutant
patrolling outside it. Another mutant inside will probably rush out into
range. This may draw the attention of one of the mutant patrols to the west
and east, but there's virtually no cover here so you should pull back and head
west to the remnants of a wall punctuated by holes and windows. Use this to
take out the west patrol when they come into sniper rifle range and sweep the
gunners in from the side to flank the patrol. Watch any squad members at the
rear of the formation during the sniping, as the east patrol can spot them and
tear them up with a Browning. The building has a mutant at the corner and two
more sleeping inside, but the corner sentry will hit an alarm that wakes them
up after shots start flying. Clear them out without drawing the sentries at
the wall.
Follow the edge of the map north and then east to find Roshambo next to the
ruined blimp. East of here is a minefield for your trapper to defuse marked
on the west edge by a dead mutant and on the east by a brahmin. After they're
disarmed, go north to the junkyard. Kill a mutant in a house with broken
windows from behind and catch another mutant patrolling the yard itself while
his back is turned.
Now head for the sniper tower. If possible, sneak two people up with SAWs or
combat shotguns; if you don't have any Sneak skill after armor deductions,
just climb up and hope for the best. Use the sniper tower to kill the
sleeping mutant by the back door and take a few shots at the mutant on the
walkway below.
Climb back down and clear a second minefield marked by a dead civilian on the
north and a dog on the south. Continue south past the corner and use the
opening in the pipe to attack the east mutant patrol. Work your way south to
kill three mutants guarding the passage entrance with a pincer attack.
Use Rad-X on your gunners and send them down near the end of the passage.
Walk them forward into the light one step at a time to engage a mutant patrol
inside the base. Kill each mutant in turn and don't move forward until your
squadmember stops firing. There should be about four mutants above you. When
they're all dead, backtrack out.
Circle back to the north and enter the complex through the back door. This
is the hardest part of the mission: there are three mutants on a platform to
the west, two in the small building, one behind each of the sandbag walls on
the fuel platform in the east, one on the walkway on the fuel platform (if you
didn't kill him earlier from the sniper nest), two patrolling the west part of
the base and two guards at each of southern gates. You don't have to kill all
of them because you can just clear the east half of the base to get down into
the underground. The west half is much more challenging because the mutants
are using Brownings (again) and can shred you even if you're using Sniper
Rifles.
Advance carefully and use the cover from the east side to kill the guards and
patrol, then surround the platform with gunners and let loose (this may be
quite painful because the mutants are wearing thick armor). Once they're all
dead, shoot through the doorway to kill the building mutants one at a time.
Now go down the east staircase. In the first room you'll see a wounded
mutant who will inform you that General Barnaky was taken from the mutants by
a robot, killing the mutant division in the process. Then he dies. Take
Barnaky's Letter from his body.
Open the door to the north by walking up to it and shoot any of the gas tanks
inside, setting off an explosion that will take two mutants inside down
without a fight. Surround the door to the southwest and kill a total of three
mutants before you enter. There's another one with a Flamer just inside the
door that can get rather nasty, so keep moving to the corner away from him and
blast him with your SAWs.
The next room has Gammorin in the north corner, another mutant at the center
of the northwest wall, and a third mutant just inside to the left. You can
bait this last one out by showing yourself from the other side of the door,
making him switch to his melee weapon and charge. The center mutant can be
attacked through the wall sometimes by standing in the Flamer mutant's post.
In any case, for the attack post snipers at the back wall opposite the door
and gunners in front of them. Move one person forward next to the wall to
cause the door to open so your troops fire. Don't enter the room if you can
help it because these enemies are using burst modes that are quite deadly at
close range so you need the cover. Gammorin will have a few words to say when
he dies.
Afterward, take the briefcase from the chest and find the Holodisk hidden
under the southwest wall (due west from the chair closest to the wall). As
you head back, swing through the gas tank room to a bookshelf with some loot.
When you reach the surface, you may notice that the corpses of the gate guard
mutants have all disappeared; I hope you already looted them. Send someone
back to the zeppelin to kill the now-hostile Roshambo for some experience and
a laugh. Leave. At the bunker, if you haven't already, save two of the
Brownings you liberate here for later use - it's much cheaper than selling
them to the Quartermaster and buying them back.
12: Junction City
Objectives: Collect parts from robot
Promotions: Recruit Casey for the Brotherhood
Enemies: Reavers w/ Laser Rifles, Plasma Rifles, SMGs, melee weapons, and
miniguns, ROUSs
Contacts: Casey Barrett (southwest house), Mayor John Levis (Town Hall near
northwest gate), Mayoral Assistant aka Anna (next room from Levis), Angry
Rick (The Pit at center of town), Juan (Juan's Emporium at northeast wall),
Chuck (street near southeast entrance), Martha Dilbert (south house outside
city)
Squad: Barterer, Trapper, Doctor, 1-2 Energy Weapons specialists
Special Equipment: none
Time: Day
Strategy: Adapt your squad to use new Energy Weapons
Note: Unlike almost all other missions, this mission has a very large civilian
population and is an excellent opportunity to practice your thieving if
you've been building up the skill.
Plan:
Upon arrival, immediately head for the Town Hall to talk to the Mayor and his
assistant. The Mayor says he will give you his piece (the robot head) if you
kill the Reavers in the ranch in the north corner of the map. His assistant
will inform you that three other people have robot parts: Angry Rick, Juan,
and Hank. Go to The Pit and talk to Angry Rick three times to threaten him
into giving you the piece (robot actuator) for free.
While you're here find Casey in the south house and talk to her about the
Brotherhood. She says her father is too sick for her to leave, so use Doctor
on him and talk to her again to recruit her.
Now leave Junction City by the gate you came in and go southwest toward
Hank's house. You'll encounter a few Reavers, who will give you an idea of
how to handle them. When you get to the house Martha will tell you that the
Reavers already killed Hank and took his robot piece. That's okay, you were
going to kill them anyway.
The Reaver stronghold is the ranch to the far north. There are legions of
them, including four snipers on the ranch balcony and two miniguns behind
cover in front of the door, plus mines strewn in several areas: the big rock
near the north road off the map, the similar big rock to the northeast past
the skeletonized vehicle, in front of the sandbag barricade closest to the
town wall, and in the wide open area directly between the town wall and the
nearest broken stone wall. These are T86 Acid Sprayer mines, which are the
hardest to disarm. Worse, the minefields are almost all under surveillance
by the Reavers, so if your trapper can't Sneak extremely well you have to find
and avoid the mines in the heat of the firefight. Stray burst fire can also
set off the mines in very painful ways.
For the first part of the fight you can use snipers on the town wall to draw
a few of the Reavers closer, but they will quickly entrench themselves behind
the profuse cover and just take potshots at you. You'll have to work your way
forward carefully because very little cover is angled your way. I recommend
attacking from the south rather than the west because there are several
Reavers hiding right behind the wooden fence that can really deal some damage
before they go down, plus the south approach allows your snipers to cover your
gunners better. Once your snipers on the wall run out of targets, move them
off the wall and into the thick of it. Avoid mines as much as possible and
use burst fire to take them out if necessary. Expect this fight to take a
long while because the Reavers just don't stop coming.
Even after the smoke clears, there are usually a few Reavers left near the
wooden wall to the west, one to the far east with a minigun, two on the ground
floor of the ranch, one in the woodshed behind the logs, and three on the
upper floor of the house, one of whom is sleeping. The key to the door on the
ground floor can be found on a dead civilian near the porch, but the door is
trapped with a Claymore that can be salvaged.
When all the Reavers are dead you'll receive a message in the upper corner -
this means that Levis is satisfied and will give you the part. Salvage the
robot torso from the workbench on the first floor and all of the Reavers'
expensive equipment. Talk to Levis to receive the robot head. Defuse
whatever mines are left and save 5 of them for a later mission.
Now find the pit to the far west and climb down to an underground passage.
Down here are Giant Rats that don't offer much of a challenge, but there are
also several containers worth looting. The north chest in the second chamber
is trapped. Work all the way through the passage and climb up the end into
the second story of a house inside the city. The chest in this room can be
unlocked for more loot. Check this building, the next one to the southeast,
Town Hall, and The Pit for more containers and loot.
Now take the cheapest, most worthless goods you have and go see Juan at
Juan's Emporium. You have to buy the robot arm straight up, so sell him as
much useless weight as possible, like knives and food. After you've acquired
all 4 robot parts (head, torso, actuator, and arm) you'll complete the
mission.
There is another man, Chuck, who claims to sell the robot part that came out
of its chest, but he is lying and if you return it to the Brotherhood they
tell you it's actually an old appliance part.
13: Coldwater
Objectives: Recover three suits of Power Armor
Promotions: rescue Adele, don't kill Ma Baker
Enemies: Raiders w/ SMGs, shotguns, rocket launchers, and big guns
Contacts: Auditor General (insertion point), Don Vicenzo (cockroach races on
the first level), Simon Dudley (second floor bar)
Squad: Trapper, Big Guns specialist w/ Browning and ammo
Special Equipment: none
Time: Night
Strategy: Continue perfecting Energy Weapons, learn to use Brownings
Note: Just like Junction City, this mission has a lot of civilians ripe for
the robbing. If you're interested.
Plan:
I recommend taking this mission before Great Bend so you can finish off the
last human enemies you ever fight before taking on robots for the rest of the
game. I also recommend finally busting out one of the stowed Brownings
because it will be extremely useful in punching through the thugs wearing
Power Armor. These enemies are essentially armed with the exact same stuff
you were two missions ago, plus Power Armor that you're going to want.
The Auditor General is standing next to the insertion point. Talk to him for
a laugh and buy the Micro Fusion Cells he has, either now or at the end of the
mission. Throughout the level are civilians with things to sell you, so you
can trade in some of your loot before you even leave the area for better
prices than you'll get from the Quartermaster.
Head through the second door in the cliff and two rooms to the northwest.
There are two enemies here behind sandbags right next to the staircase. Kill
them both and continue north. If you talk to Don Vicenzo, he'll ask you to
assassinate Ma Baker for a price. Well, that's nice. Backtrack and head up
the stairs.
In the room to the southeast talk to Simon Dudley, who tells you that his
sister has been abducted. Follow him and open the door to the second room.
Use accurate weapons, not burst fire or you could kill the girl. After the
false Brother is dead, Adele will join Simon and you'll get some karma. Go
into the next room and use the hole in the wall blocked with sandbags to knock
off another thug. Circle out to the cliff and kill two grenadiers at the
front of the same room, then loot all three corpses plus a crate before you
head back toward the room with the stairs.
Continue into a large chamber to the northwest and kill a few thugs here,
then pass through the casino. There are two more thugs in the corner of the
wide room to the south and another thug with his back turned in a small room
with a crate. Dust them and double back to the stairs to the third level,
conveniently located next to the stairs from the first level.
If you felt like being a pawn of a two-bit mafioso, Ma Baker is in the room
to the southeast with two friends and won't put up much of a fight. Hold
and right-click to force-fire on her. Avoid hitting the people in the
bar below.
Continue southeast to kill three thugs holed up together in a barricaded
room, then reverse course and head into a long bent hallway. There are three
thugs here that should go down quickly. More importantly, if you killed Ma
Baker civilians will stream out of the rooms for target practice. The stairs
are guarded by three thugs with sandbags and a rocket launcher, so use the
Browning to take them out from a distance.
Climb the stairs and investigate the halls to the south. One thug is
watching through a window, so kill him with rifles and turn north. Bust in
with the Browning and energy weapons to kill the first thug wearing Power
Armor. Unfortunately, you can't salvage it yourself because it's broken
beyond repair, no matter how you kill the guilty thug. Continue down the
hall, around the corner, and out to the cliff.
As soon as you take a few steps forward a thug on the roof will start
shooting, so turn and fire with pistols or a shotgun. The deceased warrior on
the ground was an unlucky trapper by his inventory, and T45LEs run all the way
from his body past the double doors to the sandbag barricade. This minefield
is watched by a sniper on the roof of the next building, but he won't fire
until you reach the third rank of mines. Defuse what you can, especially if
your trapper can sneak, then kill the sniper with your own sniper and laser
rifles. Continue defusing mines until you come into range of the Browning and
SAW thugs at the sandbages - kill them with long-range weapons and try not to
get caught in the explosions if their burst fire sets off mines.
You can't pass through the double doors, so continue south and enter the far
building with the Browning in the lead. Another Power Armor thug is at the
end of the room. There's also a switch here that will kill the lights for the
upper level if you think that will help. Advance and kill a thug covering the
short hallway, then keep moving forward and watch out for two thugs on the
left behind sandbags.
The last few thugs are waiting for you in the final room with the Power
Armored man at the north end. Be careful as you enter this room, because
there are thugs watching both entrances. Use sniper fire to draw as many out
as possible, then bring in the Browning to kill Guldo and complete the
objectives.
Talk to the Auditor General with the Power Armor in your inventory to open
the exit grid, then sell off as much loot as you can to the various civilians
on the first and second levels. When you leave, if you killed Ma Baker you
learn that she was actually a Brotherhood Paladin. Bad, bad you.
14: Great Bend
Objectives: Kill all the robots
Promotions: none
Enemies: Humanoid Robots w/ rifles, SMGs, and big guns, Load Lifters
Contacts: Jake (near starting point), Noelene (house southeast of start), Mike
(house between two factories middle of the northwest side), Gloria (mattress
south of junkyard exit)
Squad: 2 Big Guns specialists that can manage Brownings
Special Equipment: 2 Brownings with as much .50 cal as the gunners can carry,
SuperSoaker (if you have it from Canadian Invasion encounter)
Time: Night
Strategy: Fight robots with heavy-punch weapons; no more sniping
Note: If you saved Ripley the Prisoner from the raiders back in Freeport, her
corpse will be here with some useful manuals.
Plan:
You start sheltering behind a large tanker truck. This is good, because the
street in front of you has two humanoids with big guns that will spot you as
you come around, plus two melee humanoids that will come from the sides - one
from the power lines, one next to the building with the porch. Talk to Jake
behind the other car to learn the situation: robots invaded the town and
killed most of the people. The survivors live underground. More importantly,
the robots have lately seemed less organized.
Now move out, leading with your Brownings, to the barrels provided as cover.
The Brownings should shred the two visible robots, but be careful that they
don't hit each other when the melee robots appear from the sides. Throughout
this level, Brownings can fix just about every one of your problems, but ammo
for them is difficult to come by and you won't salvage as much from this
mission. Try to lean more on energy weapons whenever possible.
When all four are down, send someone to salvage After Burner Gum off a
civilian corpse near the large staircase on the left, then around the power
lines to the south. Don't touch the lines, it's painful. Unlock the door in
front of the house and talk to Noelene inside to find out why the robots are
so disorganized: their leader was crushed in an accident. Send one person
down the ladder into the trench and run all the way to the north end to loot a
raider corpse. Ignore the low passage, you'll get there eventually and it's
not really special.
Now hit the switch in the house with the porch to open the blockade, just
like Macomb. There are two humanoids patrolling the street in front of you -
use either the Brownings or energy weapons to pull them down. Continue on the
street around the corner and kill two humanoids with energy weapons to
conserve Browning ammo.
Swing north and go through a small door. In this factory are two load
lifters and two security robots, but you should be able to take them out with
energy weapons. If you want to play it safe, run across the entrance and use
the ladder to get on the roof to shoot the security robots without fear of the
load lifters overwhelming you. Loot everything and continue east. Unlock
Mike in his shack to learn about the dark side of the Brotherhood.
The next factory has a few more security robots, so line the entrance with
your best snipers and switch to plasma weapons if they get close. Unlock the
office upstairs for loot and head for the junkyard.
Blow the barricades before you enter. Lead with the Brownings and post them
back-to-back at the first intersection to kill two robots to the north and
three more to the east. If necessary, wait a few minutes for them to patrol
into range. There are still four more robots in this area: one at the north
corner, one south of him protected by junk, and two near the exit. Take them
out carefully, conserving your .50 cal. Outside the junkyard, talk to Gloria
and barter away some cheap loot for drugs that don't weigh anything.
Cross the bridge and open the door. There's three humanoids in this yard:
one against the east wall, one in the east corner by the explosive fuel tank
(hint hint), and one in the south corner. Advance with rifles to clear them
out and use the debris as cover.
Go around the corner to find a humanoid standing between two warehouses
alone. When you attack him, a load lifter will appear from the south
warehouse, but you can stall it with the large support nearest the wall
because it can't fit through the gap. Kill them both and pick a fight with
three load lifters in the north warehouse. Again, draw them to the support
next to the wall to jam them and keep firing until they're scrap. Loot the
north warehouse and proceed south.
The blockade forces you to the switch to the northwest, but go inside the
building before you hit it. This is the leader robot that Noelene told you
about, in dire straits because of an accident. Finish it off and know that
the next time you meet a Pacification Robot it won't be nearly so easy.
Hit the switch and use Brownings to kill three robots in the street: one
across from the gate and two to the northwest. One has a minigun, so be
careful. The last two robots in the area are a sleeping humanoid (or prone,
whatever) and a load lifter. You have the option of fighting them normally or
drawing them into a charge and leading them south to a switch. Hit the switch
to activate a hydraulic press that should kill them both before they reach
you. This conserves ammo and is fun;) Killing these two achieves your
objective and opens the grid. Turn off the press so you can move the rest of
your squad out.
15: Newton
Objectives: rescue four Reaver leaders, secure Pulse weapon prototype
Promotions: none
Enemies: Humanoids w/ miniguns and laser rifles, Hover Bots, Scurry Bots, Tank
Bot, turrets
Contacts: Glenda Close (second story of building at map center), Rodger Adair
(building center of southeast side), Tobias Peste (basement of building in
south corner), Reaver ambassador (second story of building center of
southwest side)
Squad: Driver, mechanic
Special Equipment: repair kits for the mechanic
Time: Day
Strategy: Play with your new tank, generally take it easy.
Plan:
This mission is very easy compared to what you just came through. The
difficult bit will be learning to deal with Scurry Bots: spider robots that
hide in the ground until you get close, then burst up in a plume of dirt and
use melee attacks. Their small size and pack mentality make them more
dangerous than they should be, but nothing a Pancor can't cure.
From the start, head around the corner between the fence and the building.
Inside are a Vindicator humanoid at the north corner and a Laser Rifle
humanoid in the east corner. Kill them both using the available cover and
send someone up the stairs with a burst weapon. Eventually a security bot
and perhaps a few hover bots will wander in from the south, but your
emplacement should have no trouble holding them off.
Upstairs, exit the door and kill the humanoid lying on the ground to the
north with the Browning or Pancor, whatever you have. Now move slowly south.
Your first scurry bot will pop up in a dust cloud and you have to kill it
quickly before it starts knocking you down. Walk slowly or your first scurry
bot will become your first two scurry bots as you trigger its friend.
When they're dead, cross the long bridge, watching out for energy weapons
fire from a humanoid near the junk field. Pop the door and kill a scurry at
the south end of the hall, then enter the room and talk to Glenda, the first
Reaver leader. She'll comment on how hot you are and join your party. When
the Reavers join your party in this mission, be careful that you don't forget
where you left them because they don't have a tab and you can only take one
Reaver with you at a time.
The path should be clear for Glenda to run all the way back to the extraction
point, the small fenced-in area behind the insertion point. Remember to take
all her gear off before she passes the fence; she won't be needing it and you
can sell it. Send her all the way to the back of the enclosure so that you
won't run over her later when you have to put the tank in here. She'll give a
speech and then leave your party.
Pull your entire squad back to the southern street, where you should see a
large tank with 60 HP. In this damaged condition it can't move, so repair it
several times to get it back on its treads. Choose two party members, one of
whom has a burst weapon, and head around the south fence to the east. You'll
come up behind a couple of hover bots and can kill them easily. Enter the
Reaver barracks marked on your map and kill off two security bots.
Now look for a small building to the north with a ladder inside it. Climb
the ladder and head east on the walkway to another small room. Look through
the left window and you should see a hole in the middle of this room. Click
on the hole to send the character down a hidden ladder to a room with a
fridge. The fridge contains your first set of Power Armor Mk II, the best
armor in the game that offers a +4 bonus to Strength, up to a maximum of 12.
Backtrack to the entrance to the barracks and head southwest toward the Nuka-
Cola factory. A large number of scurries will burst up and attack, so clear
them out and don't be afraid to run away to gain some distance. When they're
all dead, approach the Reaver general Rodger Adair on the first floor of the
building next to the fence to convince him to join your party. Escort him
back to the extraction point and strip him just like Glenda.
Take some time for a little excursion to the north. The junk field is
guarded by a humanoid with a plasma rifle who should be easy to take down from
inside the tank, but you should also clear out a number of scurry bots inside
the field and collect loot from a chest.
Now for the ambassador. Find a gap in the fence surrounding Glenda's
building at the north corner and use it to get into the factory floor with the
tank. There are four hover bots and a tank bot in this room, but the
Brownings in the tank should be more than enough to tear them all apart. Move
to the end of the hangar and kill off a couple of security bots. Leave the
tank behind and move through the twisting fence on foot. It is possible to
drive the tank through the small passage, but difficult and you're quite
likely to damage the tank a bit and aggravate yourself in the process.
The target building is protected by two .50 cal turrets on the ground floor.
Don't get close to the large hole because they will waste ammo hurting you.
Instead, keep your distance and run up the crates into the other hole on the
left. Go up two flights of stairs and hit the switch in the middle of the
roof to turn off the ground turrets as well as the one on the roof beyond the
door. Kill them all with the cheapest ammo possible and store the loot in the
tank. In the middle of the second floor are a few T45LEs that you should
disarm, then talk to the ambassador on the east side of that floor. Strip him
and send him home.
After the ambassador gives his speech, it's time to head south to the science
building. The alley approach is guarded by a Vindicator humanoid and several
scurries, so proceed with caution and stay covered. Kill another humanoid in
the next avenue - when he stands up he may take fire from the Reavers on top
of the General's hideout. There's another humanoid at the end of the avenue
to take down, then proceed into the science building.
Climb down the ladder to the basement and raid the workbench. Find Tobias
Peste in the east room and talk to him to get a key to the locker in the same
room. Pop it open and take the pulse rifle prototype. Strip Tobias and walk
him back to the extraction point. With objectives complete, grab the tank and
jam it onto the exit grid. You'll be moving to a new bunker again.
16: Canyon City
Objectives: Destroy all 6 Power Nodes simultaneously, obtain information on
the Calculator
Promotions: none
Enemies: Humanoids w/ Vindicators, plasma rifles, and laser rifles, scurry
bots, load lifter, tank bot, security bots, turrets
Contacts: Terminals (second floor of power station)
Squad: Trapper
Special Equipment: none
Time: Day
Strategy: Use remote traps to detonate all power nodes at once
Plan:
Load up your Brownings and head up. The first avenue has several humanoids,
one of whom carries the Gauss Pistol. Break them down quickly and search the
bodies to find several remote traps and a detonator. If these weren't handily
placed here by the programmers, this mission could be a lot more difficult.
Open the door at the end of the street and proceed carefully. Several
scurries will present themselves on this side, and another near the pit with
the ladder to the northwest. When they're all dead, go into the shack to find
the first Power Node.
If you want, you can test this mission by blowing up the Power Node with
conventional weapons. Sit back for a while and it will eventually start
repairing itself. As long as the other nodes are still functioning, any one
node can still repair itself within minutes and prevent you from finishing the
mission. Instead, place two armed remote mines right next to the node. Set
them to the same frequency for simplicity.
Send someone down the ladder pit next to the far door, then up the ladder on
the other side There are two mines directly to the south, so don't go that
way unless you can disarm them. Hit the switch to deactivate the turrets in
front of the power station building and double back to the yard.
Open the door carefully with Brownings flanking it. Use the angles so each
of them faces only one humanoid on the far side at a time. Once they have
killed the two humanoids they can see, move out and finish off the third one
to the far east. Kill the defenseless turrets and loot all five corpses.
Drop the massive quantities of ammo at the end of the street to the north.
When you're finished, go through the south door to the large east avenue.
Knock down a couple of hover bots and follow the street northwest to a ruined
warehouse. Climb the stairs to the second node and arm two more mines on the
same frequency. Two down.
Head southeast to find a decimated building. To the south are a depression
with two humanoids, plus one on the west and another on the east behind cover.
I recommend coming through the left side, allowing you to take two of the
humanoids down while avoiding fire from the Vindicator to the east until you
can engage him alone. Now find the junkyard to the southeast and kill off a
few scurries.
Head for the west avenue and dodge around the fence toward an L-shaped
building. You'll probably have to take out a couple of humanoids in a trench
unless you've still got excellent Sneak skill (doubtful). When they're dead,
hit the switch on the south side of the building to turn off the turrets in
the antechamber, then enter and kill a couple of scurries. Drop two more
mines next to the node.
Backtrack to the east avenue and find the large warehouse to the north. Find
two security bots in the low area of the building before you find the node
inside. Mine it.
Now it's time to head for the main power station. Go back to the place where
you killed the disabled turrets and Vindicator humanoids, where all your loot
is waiting. Drop any more loot that's slowing you down and head for the small
side door to the left. Go down the stairs to kill yet another deactivated
turret and gather your squad. Run through the north door and immediately hide
at the south end of the long hall. A tank bot will bear down on you from the
north end. If everyone is firing full bore you should be able to bring it
down before it has a chance to hit you. Remember to keep the Brownings in the
first rank. When the tank bot is dead go down the hall to the node room.
There are security bots in the niches on the north wall for target practice.
Mine the node and circle to the north corner, where you can go upstairs.
In the room to the west are more security bots in niches for experience. The
shelter in the room to the south protects two humanoids with Vindicators.
When they're dead open the southeast room on the right and knock down some
scurries. "Talk" to all three terminals on this level to learn about the
Calculator. Mine the last node, move to a safe distance, and set off all the
mines to satisfy your primary objectives. The other way to destroy all the
nodes at once is to deploy one squad member to each one, but splitting your
squad up like that can be extremely dangerous.
When you're done, it's time to face a real challenge. Back on the first
floor of the power station, use the side door from the tank bot's hall to kill
a humanoid behind another desk-looking thing. He'll give up the Gatling
Laser, which you should immediately hand over to a muscular or Power Armored
Energy Weapons specialist - it's not quite as good as a Browning, but the ammo
is much more plentiful and it's half the weight. There are also several
scurries in this room. In the lobby to the south is the first Pacification
Bot, the toughest robot you've faced so far and the second-toughest non-unique
enemy in the game. The best strategy here is to split your party into two
3-person groups with a Browning in each. Send one of them around through your
original entry point to the power station's front door. Bring both groups in
simultaneously to split the pacification bot's attention. Its attack has a
stun effect that lowers your Perception and Intelligence, but the Brownings
don't need Perception to pump it full of .50 cal. The Small Energy Cell
salvage isn't worth it, but the tactical experience you get from this fight
helps you handle the bigger fights to come.
You can now head for the west avenue to clear it for more loot. There should
be four humanoids remaining here: one behind a barricade to the west with two
hover bots for company, a melee humanoid that charges you from the north
depressions, a laser humanoid in a depression and a Vindicator to the north of
him. Start with the melee, who will charge to his own doom fairly quickly.
Now head to the west street and watch out for the hovers - Brownings or EMP
Pancor on burst are desirable here. Swing north and stay covered to kill off
the last two robots on the level and collect a chest full of ammo, including
250 rounds of .50 cal. Don't forget to grab the loot you already left in
front of the power station on your way out. Incidentally, if you want to buy
any drugs off Kerr at the bunker, now is your last chance to do it.
17: Buena Vista
Objectives: Destroy the reactor, destroy the robot manufacturing plant
Promotions: none
Enemies: Humanoids w/ laser rifles, sniper rifles, flamers, and Vindicators,
scurry bots, tank bot, security bots, and the Behemoth.
Contacts: none
Squad: 2-3 Big Guns specialists, the rest Energy Weapons specialists, trapper
Special Equipment: 2-3 Brownings and the Gatling Laser, 5 T86 Acid Sprayers
from Junction City
Time: Day
Strategy: Kill bigger, badder robots in a labyrinth
Note: Your PIPBoy is useless in this mission to provide you with recon
information or enemy radar because of radiation from the nuclear reactor.
Plan:
If you've still been hanging on to a melee fighter for some reason, now is
the time to ditch him for someone useful. The robots only get harder and
denser from here on out, and everyone in your party should either be using
Brownings or Energy Weapons at over 120%.
You start the mission and should immediately notice that the complex you're
supposed to enter is protected by impassable laser walls on most entrances.
The alley just southeast of you has a Vindicator humanoid and a friend for
easy kills, but it doesn't lead anywhere useful. Head southwest to the
graveyard and destroy the scurries here. Send a couple of your best snipers
through the gate into the corner enclosure, where a humanoid with a flamer is
waiting. Stay next to the wall and snipe him to death, then use the southeast
wall as cover to take some shots at the four humanoids in the tent around the
corner. When they're dead, send someone in to loot them and kill off another
scurry in the process.
Proceed through the metal door and kill two more scurries hiding here. The
pit surrounded by broken walls contains two grenadier humanoids, so use laser
rifles to keep your distance and keep firing until they're parts. There's
more scurries at the rubble pinch that are compounded by the plasma humanoids
in the bunker to the south. Kill the scurries quickly to focus your
attention, then proceed forward when the humanoids are dead to kill two
scurries and another pair of humanoids in the U-shaped pit at the corner of
the map. In the pit, use the terminal to switch off the energy walls around
the complex.
Before you go any further into the complex, backtrack to the west corner and
use the opening just to the north. Kill off three scurries here, then focus
on the rest of the area. Entering through here puts a fence between you and a
tank bot, which you can now waste at range without any danger to yourself.
There's also a hover bot keeping the tank company which can't cross the fence.
The tank bot may bolt to the far corner when it starts taking damage, in which
case you can either accept a much lower chance-to-hit or pop the gate in the
fence open and go through on foot. When you're done, loot the chest and
return to the U-pit.
The opening to the north of you is now passable, so enter with Brownings
flanking the door to clear a few scurries. Don't move forward until the
smaller threats are dealt with. Behind the large laser wall is a Behemoth,
the nastiest robot in the game with essentially _two_ Brownings on the sides
of its head. If you brought them, put all 5 mines just outside the lasers.
Send the weakest member (or longest-range member) of your squad toward the
small opening to the left to bring it out of hiding. Hit it with everything
you've got and it should go down, but not lightly. Station your troops in
front of the cage to make it step forward onto the mines, which should take a
chunk out of its HP.
With the behemoth down, the small opening is unguarded and you can pass into
the chamber where Paladin Lancelot gave his troops their orders in the speech
at the beginning. Line up your snipers with laser rifles right against the
door and use Science skill on the terminal to open it. A turret at the bottom
of the ramp immediately opens fire with rockets, but at this range it probably
won't hit you at all. Keep the laser rifles firing until the turret goes
down, then move forward cautiously. Line up your snipers against the cover
wall facing south and appoint someone as cannon bait to move forward. There's
a slough of security bots inside waiting to ambush you (two on the left side
of the entrance, two on the right, one behind the turret at the desk and one
in each far corner) but they're all Sneaking and won't show themselves until
you cross into the building. As soon as they start firing on your bait, run
back to the snipers' cover, bringing a few of the bots with you. Don't let
your big guns chew up your bait. Move forward into the room slowly until
you're sure that all 7 bots are down. Blow the power node.
Proceed into the room to the southeast and kill another security bot, then
access the console here. You'll get some more information about the
Calculator's plans, as well as a rundown on the Hellion craft under
construction in this factory (scroll northeast to see it). Initiate Percy is
in the northeast room, but he dies as soon as you talk to him. Loot his
corpse. The room to the southwest is empty so proceed into the hall with your
big guns. Take out the load lifter that cruises the hallway, then the
security bot at the southern end. Use snipers to kill the northern security
bot before you get close. Go through the southeast door and then north to the
terminal room. There's a humanoid at the terminal who may or may not be
visible and a few scurries buried in the floor to give you trouble. When
they're down, hit the terminal to open the door at the end of the lifter's
hallway.
Go through the door to find stairs. At the top of the stairs, your squad
will start taking hits from two security bots in a sealed room to the right,
but they'll probably start firing on the load lifters below that make easier
targets. Force the snipers to fire on the security bots until they drop
before letting them loose on the helpless lifters, who can't hit you anyway.
There's a Vindicator humanoid at the end of the walkway that must be killed
very quickly as soon as he sees you because he can activate the alarm console
in front of him. If that happens, the laser wall behind him goes down and six
pissed-off security bots wake up and start shooting at you. After he's down,
climb the stairs and take out the rising/retracting turret at the end of the
walk out from as long a range as possible - it's much more accurate than the
turret at the ramp in the beginning. When the way is cleared, you can choose
to kill off the security bots if you didn't already by setting up on the north
and south ends of their laser cage from the walk above. You can't hit them
from alongside, you must have a long shot. This can be quite painful and
there's no way to get the salvage, so it's up to you to judge whether it's
worthwhile. The other option is to just let the humanoid open the gate for
you.
Go down the ladders into the lifter area you already cleared. There's
nothing to do here for now, so climb the ladder on the north side. A
suspiciously familiar turret will start firing on you and a humanoid will
charge, but the humanoid can't hit you if he's next to the wall, leaving you
free to kill the turret with energy weapons. Switch to laser rifles and start
working on the turret in the far corner of the room. When they're both dead,
send someone with a big gun backed up with laser rifles through the door
underneath you to kill the humanoid. Move your entire squad through this door
and kill another humanoid on the far side of the room behind the machinery.
Now set up an ambush of big guns on the door you just came through. Choose
the weakest member of your party and sent him through the door at the end of
the chamber into the power node room. This activates a whole bunch of scurry
bots that were hiding in the lifter room and will now storm after you, only to
get totally scrapped by your Browning ambush. If they're reluctant to show,
send someone back to spot them. When the scurries are done, destroy the
second power node.
Get your snipers back on the walkway and proceed southeast. Use the walkway
as a sniper nest and take out the four humanoids in the room at the end. One
of them is a grenadier and may charge, but the others will stay put. After
the way is clear use the walk to access the room the security bots were using
when you got on the first walkway and loot their corpses. Ignore the Hellion
for a moment and blast the last power node to the northeast, disabling the
robot manufacturing plant.
Now head for the Hellion room with your entire squad and post an ambush with
Big Guns leading. The room beyond is full of robots making a last-ditch
defense of their facility: three charging load lifters from the left, right,
and middle, two humanoids with plasma rifles flanking the door, and two hover
bots flanking the middle walkway. If you still have mines left, drop them in
front of the door to help with the lifters, which are the biggest threat.
Keep your troops back from the door and set up an ambush within your room.
Hit the Hellion's console to disable it and open the chamber door, at which
point you'll probably start shooting at the middle lifter and bring all three
of them down. The hover bots drop easily enough, but you'll need to enter the
room to kill the humanoids. Shoot the power plant and turbines to complete
the mission and backtrack out to the extraction point at either your insertion
point or the Behemoth cage.
18: Scott City
Objectives: Kill Bartholemew Kerr
Promotions: none
Enemies: Humanoids w/ energy weapons and Vindicators, scurries, pacification
bots, hover bots, load lifters, security bots, turrets, and behemoths - in
short, pretty much every robot enemy in the game.
Contacts: Elaine (west prisoner warehouse), Sebastian (west prisoner
warehouse), Derry (ditto), Bartholemew Kerr (top floor of northern building)
Squad: Fine-tune your squad to fit your strategy. Whatever it is now, get
experience with this group so you can take them through the last two
missions together. Also bring a trapper and a locksmith.
Special Equipment: all the electrical/pulse stuff the Quartermaster will sell
you that you can reasonably use. Skip the rockets if you don't bring a
launcher and the grenades if you don't have a grenadier.
Time: Night
Strategy: Get your PIPBoy working and just keep killing 'em.
Plan:
The bad news is that this mission is the single most grueling mission in the
game and it will knock down a Tough Guy several times over. The good news is
that it will allow you to kill Behemoths several times over. No, wait, that's
bad too. Use this mission to stretch your squad for maximum effectiveness and
consider it a practice run for the final missions.
When you land, your PIPBoy is down again. The mission map tells you that the
reason for this is the four jamming towers the robots have put up. If you're
comfortable fighting without enemy radar, proceed directly to the complex at
the north end of the map, merrily killing Behemoths along the way with six
hands tied behind your back.
The rest of us should proceed cautiously north until we hit the street. Look
right and you'll see a hover bot patrol that needs to die from laser rifle
fire before it sees you. Look left and there's a Behemoth and accompanying
humanoids bearing down on you. And there's no cover. That just about sets
the tone for this mission. If you like, you can use the southern fence for
edging to help kill off the hovers first, but you'll still have to face the
Behemoth without cover of any kind. There's a few scurries to your extreme
left on the street as well.
The four jamming towers are located on the left, middle, and right parts of
the map just to the north of you. I recommend taking the right one first
because there's at least some cover that direction and you can't get pincered.
Surrounding the tower are three Vindicator humanoids, a hover bot, and a
pacification bot that may patrol this far south but also can be found in the
north junkyard. There are scurries near the corner as well, but they don't
seem to come out until a few seconds into the fight which is enough time to
get your big guns into position and scrap them quickly. Take the other robots
at range and scrap the tower.
For the junkyard in the middle, there are scurries along the southeast wall
and around the alarm console, the patrolling pacification bot if you didn't
kill it at the first tower, and about six humanoids with various energy
weapons in the center and north parts of the yard. Move carefully and keep
your gunners covered.
There's a secret spot on the two-story shack at the north end that's very
useful. On the street to the north is a patrolling Behemoth that's naturally
very difficult to take down on foot. If you stand on the second story of the
shack at the end of the line of barrels you should be able to get a bead on it
with a pulse rifle. Start shooting and it will charge, but as it does it
passes out of sight behind the fence and can't shoot you. It stays there
until it gets bored, then wanders out for you to shoot it a couple more times.
Just don't move until it's dead and you'll have killed a Behemoth without a
scratch on you. On the bottom floor of this building is a chest guarded by a
security bot you'll want to liberate. The metal building to the southwest
you'll have to pick open; it contains a Guns and Bullets mag and other equally
useless junk.
When the junkyard is cleared and the tower in the north corner is down, it's
time for the west one. The street between the yard and the west warehouses is
patrolled by a number of hover bots and a humanoid leader that can be quite
dangerous no matter how you engage them. Try to spread your troops out so the
rocket attacks won't do much splash damage. Now face the warehouses. There
are four humanoids here, two with Vindicators. Kill the two you can see, then
dart around the debris against the warehouse to find one more and drop him.
Blow the third tower.
Use the holes in the black warehouse wall panels to kill security bots inside
each with laser rifles before you unlock the doors and enter. The east
warehouse has a crate with some dynamite, the north warehouse has a traps book
in the south corner and the south warehouse has three prisoners in it. One,
the mutant Sebastian, volunteers to fight the robots. If you let him do it he
gets vaporized by the turrets up the road, but if you don't send him nothing
else happens. There's a raider named Derry in another cage that doesn't do
anything useful and a ghoul named Elaine in the last one who tells you that
Barnaky was held here and tortured by the robots. A key in Elaine's pot
unlocks the metal building in the junkyard that you already raided. Rescuing
Elaine and Sebastian is worth a chunk of experience, but Derry gives you jack.
Head north for the last tower. There's a humanoid with a grenade launcher
behind the car and another with a plasma rifle behind the trailer. When it
goes down your radar comes back up. Proceed up the street to the corner and
take some shots at the security bot patrolling the walkway around the complex.
You may have to kill a couple more scurries along the right side of the road.
The turrets that wasted Sebastian are now waiting for you with their laser
weaponry. They still don't have much accuracy, but it's better to stay long-
range and kill them with laser rifles, especially when they summon their big
brother Behemoth from inside the complex. When that happens, run back to the
telephone poles and use the fence to just barely be able to see the Behemoth
around the edge. For some reason this makes it stop and wait patiently for
you to bust it up - I recommend laser rifles for the range and cheap ammo.
Finish off the turrets and raid both that behemoth and the one you killed
earlier over the fence for precious .50 cal.
Now it's time to invade the complex proper. First, line the entrance with
energy snipers to wipe out a patrol of hover bots inside the base that will
cause trouble for you later if you don't deal with them now. Now use the
outer stairs to the northwest to get up to the walkway. The room on the left
leads to a two-leveled room that allows you to snipe the load lifters on the
ground floor without much risk to yourself, plus two humanoids with energy
rifles. When it's clear, go down and kill another humanoid in the room to the
southwest. Loot and back out to the second floor walk. The other room on
this level is empty above and below.
Cross over the entrance arch with the turrets below and pause on the bridge.
Switch to laser rifles and take out two security bots in the building on the
right. Go down the stairs to find two more security bots and a hover bot in a
room filled with gas tanks that make it much easier to blow them all to hell.
Find a humanoid in the room with a locker who likes to kneel under the window
so you can't see him. Plunder the locker and head back up.
Proceed farther on the walk to the other side of this room and kill a
patrolling humanoid and security bot on the other side. The building farther
to the east contains a security bot and a sleeping hover bot (yeah, I don't
get it either) that should be child's play when you storm it. There's another
security bot and a hover bot patrolling that you can hit through the northeast
windows. Don't go down the stairs, you're walking into a trap.
Continue on the walk northeast to the second bridge. Some scurry bots should
surface underneath you for easy kills, but you attention will be drawn to the
humanoid standing at the door to the north. Shooting him attracts the
attention of several other humanoids in the area as well as a behemoth. When
it shows up, back off and use the laser rifles to engage it from range. It
should retreat, so follow up as much as possible to make it easier when you
have to fight it on the ground later.
Continue up the walkway to the north and unlock the door into the warehouse.
The ground floor of this building is strewn with hover bots that you should
try to wipe out from the walkway so they can't kamikaze you. When your half
of the building is clear, go down the stairs with the gatling laser leading to
kill a few more in the passage to the next half including two humanoids. Loot
the dead civilians for healing supplies and the lockers for ammo.
Now you need to head out on the ground for a bit to loot corpses and clear
the next behemoth and some more humanoids and scurries. You can choose to
either use the door immediately in front of you or backtrack to the entrance
and circle around the pipes. I recommend the second because it insures that
the path behind you is clear if you need to retreat, but it takes longer.
Scurries next to the wall should be easy kills. Use the door in the middle
of the first building you pass along the map edge to position your laser
snipers inside. There are a few humanoids gathered at each end of the
building. Kill them all from range and loot them. Proceed through the
northeast door and kill off any scurries or humanoids still hanging around
here. The behemoth should still be around the east corner so ambush it if
possible. Continue around the corner with your snipers and kill a few more
scurries on the way. There's yet another behemoth hanging around the north
corner - attack it from a distance and keep backing up as it advances so it
doesn't get a chance to hit you before it goes down. If it retreats, pursue
and keep harassing. Don't go around the corner under any circumstances until
the behemoth is dead. There are about seven scurries buried there, so advance
carefully with small steps. With the circuit around the complex complete, go
back to the middle of the back wall and reenter to climb to the walkway again.
It's time to take on the last behemoth in the level. Climb the stairs to the
second level and use the bridges to head for the central island. Kill some
scurries that emerge below you on the way. If there are any patrols still
around the perimeter, take them out now. Unlock and de-trap the small room to
the southeast on the second level to kill a couple more security bots and snag
some loot. There are three entrances to the main chamber on the second level:
northeast, southeast, and southwest. Deploy a gunner and a sniper to each
entrance and open fire on the behemoth in the middle of the floor. It will
charge the closest pair; pull them back when they start taking damage out of
sight so it picks a new target. Run them back in when it's safe. In this way
you should be able to keep it moving through the whole fight and not get hit
much.
Clear any security bots on the ground floor from the catwalk before you go
down to loot. Hit the console to deactivate the turrets on the roof guarding
Kerr. Head for the office at the north end of the building and kill a
security bot behind the stairs, then pick the door and enter. Climb the
stairs and take out yet another security bot to raid an ammo crate. Use the
stairs at the southeast wall to climb to the third level.
Here's Barnaky, only messier than you remember. Inspect him for experience
and a locket that might be important later. This also seems to unlock the
exit grid, even though the official objective of exterminating Kerr isn't
complete yet. Use the cover of the doorway to waste the two turrets in front
of Kerr's chamber to the north. Take the central room slowly because it
contains five robots with nasty guns - use the windows to engage only one or
two at a time. One of them has the MEC Gauss MiniGun, the best weapon in the
game for a Big Guns specialist. The west and north rooms don't hold anything,
so proceed directly to Kerr's room.
Despite the fact that he's on an operating table and covered in blood, Kerr
is apparently unhurt. Talk to him to learn that even if he's not a Brother,
Kerr's quite loyal and didn't leak. Shoot him to put him out of his misery.
Dekker's pissed that you didn't rescue him, but you literally have no choice.
19: Cheyenne Mountain
Objectives: Bring the nuke transporter to the vault door
Promotions: none
Enemies: Everything the robots can scrape together
Contacts: Three terminals in the bunker
Squad: 6 people (or people-like things) with over 150% in the weapons skill of
your choice, plus First Aid, Doctor, Repair, Science, etc. This is NOT the
time to be bringing in new recruits.
Special Equipment: Buy up all the ammo for your big guns that you think you
might need, including all of the Quartermaster's 2mm EC for the Gauss Minigun
and all remaining .50 cal and .50 cal DU. Take everything out of your
vehicles and lockers and load your troops down until they're immobile. When
you get to the mission you can dump the gear, but you can't return to the
bunker between this mission and the end of the game. Spend all your cash on
drugs, healing supplies, ammo, and EMP grenades. If you plan to get the
"good" ending of the game, bring about 10 plastique, dynamite, or pulse
grenades. Also bring either Barnaky's Letter from Osceolla or Barnaky's
Locket from Scott City, preferably both.
Time: Day
Strategy: Don't die and don't let the nuke carrier die. Kill everything that
gets in your way.
Plan:
I highly recommend dosing all your troops with drugs for this mission, mostly
because the use effects won't wear off until after you've beaten the game.
Even if they do, you can cancel the withdrawal effects by dosing yourself up
with more - you should have plenty to go around. Amphetamine Gum is
particularly useful for the AP boost, and Mentats' boost to Perception is also
handy.
If you followed my advice, your troops should all be encumbered and possibly
immobile. Dump gear next to the nuke carrier so you won't forget it. Leave
the nuke carrier here for now because you definitely don't want it attacked.
It is possible to play through the level by firing from the safety of the
carrier and repairing it as it gets damaged, but you can't repair it from
inside so if a single firefight goes bad, you lose. It's essentially a
modified APC, but the Vindicator/turret trap at the west edge of the map, the
mine fields, or the rocket turrets near the end can all destroy it very
quickly.
Move forward and kill two scurries on the left side of the road, then two
humanoids behind the rocks. Enter the bunker on your right and clear out two
security bots, then look at the consoles. The two on the sides are both
repeats from Canyon City, but the one in the middle explains why the
Calculator started killing off humans. This bunker will provide you with the
protection you need to survive a nuclear blast all of 50 yards away, but you
have to enter it from the other side because this door is locked.
Continue up the road. As you approach the downed humanoids, another scurry
will surface and a Vindicator humanoid will try to flank you on the right.
Remember while you're looting that you won't be going back to the bunker, so
you should only take things you can use with you - leave weapons behind. Stay
off the road until you've taken out three humanoids across the junction, a
couple of scurries, and a hover bot patrol farther up. There are a few mines
here that can be quite troublesome if you meet them in the middle of a
firefight. Don't bother disarming these because they're quite difficult and
you won't have a chance to sell them. Use a salvaged Vindicator to blow them
so you don't waste valuable ammo.
The road splits into two. Hiding behind a boulder in the middle is a
sneaking hover bot, and farther up behind a fence is a humanoid. On the right
are a few more humanoids with laser rifles, including one on the cliff above.
If you take the left path, note the mine warning and advance carefully,
blowing them as you go. The small guard post contains a crouching humanoid
that you have to get right behind in order to get him to stand up. The turret
at the end of the road will only extend when you get close enough for it to do
some damage, so use bait and nail it with plasma and pulse.
The humanoids on the right were guarding two canyons that pass under a road.
The first one is guarded by two scurries, some humanoids on the cliff above,
and a hover bot protecting a locked chest with dynamite and a repair kit. In
the second one, you can find a scurry and sometimes a security bot above will
start firing down on you. Hit the crate at the end of this canyon for 2mm EC
and .50 cal ammo, both of which you'll need a lot of. There's another
enclosure just ahead that contains two scurries.
Go up the ramp. At the top hiding on the left is a pacification bot that
will probably surprise you. The generator here powers the turret you already
destroyed, so theoretically if you could sneak up here and kill the
pacification bot you could take out the generator and not have to fight the
turret.
Around the corner is a deadly ambush that raises a few humanoids hiding
behind the low wall on the right side of the ramp, plus four humanoids up the
road and turrets in a niche. Basically you'll be taking fire at both close
and long range as soon as you start firing on the robots in the road. I
recommend engaging from extreme range and using the pacification bot's cover.
Get someone on the far side of the corner to bring up the wall bots and take
them out quickly, then move your troops forward into the road and cover your
big guns with laser rifles. Consider lowering your aggressive % threshold to
make your troops engage from farther out.
After you've knocked down the ambush, proceed around the corner. Three
humanoids here are sneaking behind the cars, so send a big gun forward as bait
and use energy rifles as cover fire. Up ahead, clear the barricades and two
humanoids waiting behind them - they may already be dead from when you invaded
the canyon below. Before you cross the bridge, circle north to take out two
security bots without interference from the turret, then move closer to
activate it and blow it.
Up the road, there's a generator on the cliff protected by hover bots that
will use their height-enhanced range to rain rockets on you. Blowing the
generator just deactivates turrets that you've already destroyed. Take the
hovers out with laser rifles and then hit the humanoid behind the barricades
on the ground. Don't approach the barricades until you've detected and
destroyed a line of mines in front of the bridge. Watch out for humanoids on
the south cliff corner if you didn't kill them before from below and a hover
inside the building.
As you cross the bridge, watch the far side and stop as soon as an enemy
presents itself. Look for a humanoid at the building below you, another one
with a Gauss weapon behind a wall to the east, two hover bots behind a rock on
the north side of the road, and a handful of charging security bots. Three
scurries are hiding next the the Gauss humanoid's wall and three more
humanoids are up the road, two of whom will charge. The last three security
bots at the barricade up a ways will open fire at long range, so return the
favor. Take it all slow and you should have no trouble.
Now that the bend is clear, you can take some time to loot. Climb down the
ladder on the south cliff and check the humanoid in the enclosure, the hover
in the building with a chest, and two humanoids on the cliff. The ladder into
the ground is the other entrance to the nuclear shelter that's going to save
your life and the only entrance that you're able to use - when the nuke
carrier is armed, run back to here and climb down before it explodes. For
now, just take out the two scurries guarding it and backtrack to the
barricades the security bot trio was stationed at. Notice that when you climb
down the shelter ladder, the door opens - it is always locked from the other
side.
Blow the barricades and climb the long ladder to the top of the cliff. From
this vantage point you can see the last few enemies blocking the way to the
gate. The turret to the east is still live and accompanied by a behemoth.
Directly in front of the vault is a humanoid with a rocket launcher and two
hovers. If you stand away from the edge of the cliff, the rockets from the
turret, humanoid, and hovers shouldn't be able to touch you. The behemoth is
a bigger challenge, but from up here it won't be able to hit you. It should
approach within range, then stand there for a while so you can whittle it down
to size. The turret on the map border can be reached if you lower your attack
threshold, but you have to get closer to the edge of the cliff and may take
fire yourself.
Climb down off the cliff and move forward slowly to eliminate a number of
scurries and possible hover stragglers that charged the cliff. When you're
completely certain that the entire passage is clear, it's time to move your
troops to the bunker. Transfer any gear you left on the ground next to the
nuke carrier to characters standing inside the bunker (anywhere within the
large room with the computers should be fine). Leave the pilot outside and
fully mobile so he can drive the carrier to the vault door and then run to the
upper ladder mentioned above. You have less than one minute to get back to
the bunker. Anyone standing outside it will be vaporized and you won't be
able to replace them for the final mission.
20: Vault 0
Objectives: Reactivate the elevator power nodes, destroy the Calculator
Promotions: none
Enemies: Humanoids w/ Vindicators, energy weapons, and the dreaded evil eye,
security bots, scurry bots, turrets, load lifters, hover bots, tank bots, a
pacification bot and a special guest star BUT no more behemoths - they
couldn't fit through the vault door
Contacts: Dagger Squad at your insertion point, the Calculator
Squad: Your best men, women, and things.
Special Equipment: Every heavy punch you can muster: Brownings and the Gauss
Minigun, Pulse Rifles, EMP ammunition and grenades; the ammo to power them
all; healing supplies, including kits and powerful stimpaks; and explosives
or pulse grenades if you plan to pursue the "good" ending.
Time: Any (immediately continues from Mission 19)
Strategy: Crush, maim, kill.
Plan:
This mission picks up almost immediately after the last one ended, delayed by
only a few minutes for the nuclear explosion to settle and for you to enter
the Vault. Your characters have not been healed - now's the time to do it.
There are several soldiers here (Dagger Squad from the briefing) for you to
trade with for gear.
Khronis: Grenade (Pulse), Electronic Lockpick Mk II
Phoenix: YK42B Pulse Rifle, Gatling Laser
Maelyra: 2mm EC, lots of drugs
Maximus: 2mm EC
Tais: Grenade (Pulse)
I cannot emphasize this enough: drug your characters for this mission. There
is literally no downside because the game won't last long enough for the
initial effect to wear off and the withdrawal to take place. The stat boosts
are critical at this point in the game. The only drugs I would discourage you
from using are Voodoo, because it only lasts for one minute (save it for the
last few battles) and Mutie, because it only lasts one hour and you can get
the same effects from Psycho, Amphetamine Gum, and Buffout all at once.
When you're ready, use Science on the south terminal to turn on the lights
and open the door. Back your troops off and let Dagger Squad handle the
security bots and humanoids that rush in to conserve your ammo. Only move
forward when you're certain that Dagger Squad has run out of targets so you
don't take friendly fire. Loot the corpses and use the weapons as trading
fodder to secure any ammo from Dagger Squad that you might need.
You need to get into the northeast section of this floor to activate the
elevator behind Dagger Squad and go deeper into the vault. Unfortunately, the
power sector is protected by a dental scanner and the southeast door is
locked. That leaves the southwest, the security sector.
Set up your big gun(s) directly in front of the door and the snipers behind
them along the walls. Open the door and start firing. There are Vindicator
humanoids in the two far corners, two hovers in the center and south corner, a
humanoid at the north corridor, and two security bots on the northwest side.
If by some miracle you can kill the north humanoid before it hits the alarm
console next to it, you can prevent the robots from flooding the north
corridor as described here. Kill off as many robots in this room as possible
before you cross the middle of the room. When you do enter the room, robots
in the north corridor will start firing on you. There's a whole bunch of
them, so keep your troops on the back wall for maximum dodge potential and
just keep shooting. If you get close to the south corner cover, the robots
behind it will pop up and draw your attention away from the corridor. Sit in
this room for a few minutes after the fire dies down to make sure that all the
robots in the corridor are dead and no more are coming. Clear out the rest of
the room and heal up all your characters. The south door is locked, so head
up the corridor.
The way should be clear if the alarms were tripped, so don't worry too much
about the two side rooms. At the north corner, turn and kill a charging tank
bot. Use Science on the terminal to open the door to the north chamber and
take out two humanoids patrolling here. There's one more in the next chamber.
Raid the lockers here for supplies. There's a pulse pistol here that can be
quite useful for the tight quarters you'll be dealing with throughout the
mission, plus some drugs, books, and lots of ammo.
Continue around the corner and open the door. There are two Vindicator
humanoids guarding the northwest door in the next room, so quickly run in
either snipers with pulse weapons, gunners with Brownings, or both. Scrap
them to clear the room and unlock the area they were guarding. Kill the
turrets in the center of the room with Brownings and pulse again. Raid the
lockers on the north wall for more loot.
Now go through the south door in a spread pattern, big guns on the outside.
You'll be taking fire in a 180 degree arc, so keep shooting and space your
troops out as you rack up kills and clear area. There are humanoids all over
the place plus two load lifters that will charge and can be quite troublesome
in the firefight. Don't be afraid to pull everyone back if the lifters break
your concentration.
When the room is clear, proceed into the next chamber and use Science on the
terminal. This unlocks the door to the Cryogenics wing. You'll also get a
heap of experience, which is always fun. The door back to the security desk
opens as a shortcut back. Trade with Dagger Squad if you need to before
moving on.
Open the door to the cryogenics wing without fear - there's no immediate
firefight this time. Angle shots through the corner to kill off two security
bots behind a low wall, then finish the turn and take out the next two behind
another wall. Two scurries will present themselves as you advance and will
fall easily. Watch for more security bots coming around the corner and
exiting the room on the left. There are a few more security bots in the
corridor. If you like, use the small door in the security bots' chambers to
work your way south and take them all out now.
The room to the northeast is heavily infested with .50 cal turrets and
security bots, plus humanoids for flavor. Unlock the door, then flank it with
big guns and let the snipers fire through. Hit the locker and corpses for
trauma packs and Mutie and loot the turrets for thousands of rounds of .50 cal
that you'll want to come back for whenever you run low.
Back out and go south to the next room. You'll see several people here, plus
a neutral humanoid bot. Talk to them for a surreal trip - apparently the
Calculator protects them, but they're in a childlike state. Take the severed
head from the dead man and activate the terminal to open the power wing. Loot
the lockers and double back to the opened door. Use the head on the dental
scanner for some more experience.
Enter the room and use extreme range to take out two turrets and two
humanoids here. Operate the terminal for access and kill off four more
humanoids in the pool room. I'm not sure if it's a risk, but I took Rad-X at
this point to block any potential radiation damage. General Dekker will warn
you to kill the interior defense generators before proceeding to the nodes.
Open the door and blast two humanoids, then set up an ambush against the
laser wall along the corridor. As soon as you activate one of the terminals,
the wall goes down and a tank bot charges directly into your guns. Science
the second terminal as well and Dekker will inform you that the way into the
power nodes is now clear. Well, sort of.
Run up the corridor and through the door. There are five security bots here
for target practice. Kill them, go through the door, and storm the long
approach to the power nodes. There's a pacification bot in the middle,
humanoids and security bots in the flanking areas. By now they should be no
trouble for you. As you advance, watch for several scurries to unearth
themselves and charge. Back off if necessary to take them at range. Make
sure the entire chamber is cleared before using the terminals to turn on the
power nodes and set yourself up for the next level. You can crawl into the
south chamber to loot the lockers, but they can be quite difficult to pick.
Backtrack to Dagger Squad's location at the elevator. This is your last
chance to barter for ammunition. Also consider salvaging anything you can
from the various corpses throughout the level. You won't be able to come
back. Renew your drugs if necessary. Use the terminal by the lift to
activate the exit grid, then stand on it to descend to the second floor.
Step out of the elevator and prepare yourself for a truly massive fight.
When you open the door, you'll immediately start taking plasma fire from
entrenched robots against all the walls. You can either use one person to
open the door and then run back while your squad fires from the sides of the
elevator to reduce the enemies' accuracy or put everyone up against the door
to split the damage amongst your squad. Bust out with the Gauss Minigun if
you haven't already and lead with your big guns blazing. Load your Brownings
with .50 cal DU if you've got it.
As soon as you open the door, Barnaky (yes, Barnaky) gives you a little
speech. All it means is that you have to kill him now. He's the nastiest
enemy in the room and will charge as the battle is joined. Try to use
accurate weapons like energy rifles to take his HP down. At this point he
will detect Barnaky's Letter or Locket, whichever you're carrying, and turn
neutral. If you shoot him again, or were in the process of shooting at him as
he turned, he'll attack again and you'll have to kill him. For now you want
him alive. Take out the rest of the robots in the room from range if
possible. If he dies it's not a huge deal, but keeping Barnaky alive gives
you access to the bonus game ending.
When you've wiped out the entire robot complement and have verified the
bodies, heal and redistribute ammo as necessary. Guarding the bridge outside
are four turrets: two on the far side, two on your side. Lead with Brownings
to take them down quickly and try not to let Barnaky get killed. The turrets
won't attack him, but they can kill him with crossfire.
Now you have your first chance to end the game. Walk around the building to
the opening, but don't go in. Set your troops to defensive and directly
attack the Calculator computer in the center of the room without crossing the
doorway. You can blow it up from here, dodging several nasty fights and
getting Ending 1 while retaining your karma. Barnaky will have stopped in the
room beyond. If you decide to continue fighting or just want a different
ending, step over the threshold and watch the Calculator shield itself with
blast-proof walls.
In this room with the Calculator are five brains in cryogenic preservation.
These are, in fact, five of the eight brains that provide the human component
of the Calculator's neural processes. Unfortunately, they've been overridden
by the necessity of clearing the wasteland of mutations. You must kill the
brains to open the door and proceed and can do this one of two ways. If you
shoot the brains directly, they blow up quite easily but your karma takes a
severe hit. By the end of the game, you'll have killed all eight brains and
your karma will have pretty much bottomed out. This is a major disappointment
if you've spent the entire game trying to be a good person of the wasteland.
(The following paragraph was inspired by Guiler's FAQ and credit properly
belongs to him. I've tried to contact him to OK this, but he hasn't
responded. I will keep it up unless he asks me to remove it.)
The other option is to kill the brains indirectly with explosives or
grenades. Set the explosive timer and drop them on the ground next to the
brains (placing explosives between brains allows you to kill two with one
bomb) or use remote explosives. If using grenades, use + right-click
to throw them next to but not at the brains so that the splash damage kills
them. As long as you don't actually shoot at the brains themselves, you don't
technically attack them and you don't get a karma drop. Note that this
doesn't actually increase your karma; if you've been an ass throughout the
game and are negative at this point, you can't get positive karma by the end
of the game.
When the brains are dead, the first door opens. Head up there and start
blasting humanoids to bits. There's only three more fights in the game
including this one, so use all your ammo and special weapons without fear of
getting screwed later. The entire room is basically low walls for enemy (and
your) cover, plus two turrets at the back hallway. Get to the back of the
room and use the terminal to drop the laser barrier. Kill the brain here,
either directly by shooting it or indirectly as described above. This opens
the next door.
Use the same pattern here. Approach the door, lead with big guns, waste the
robots and lower the laser barrier. Seven brains down. Open the last door,
made slightly more difficult because you don't have a clear shot on the robots
from the entry. It still shouldn't trouble you too much. Blow the last brain
and the Calculator will call to you for a chat. Backtrack to the Calculator's
pit.
Talk to the Calculator several times to get the full scoop on its offer.
When the sales pitch is complete, you have one minute to decide what to do and
four options. Whichever you choose, sit back and watch the ending movie.
OPTION 1: Do nothing. The Calculator is destroyed at the end of the countdown
and you get Ending 1. This is exactly the same as if you'd destroyed the
Calculator earlier before you stepped into the room.
OPTION 2: Use the terminal. If your karma is negative (as is quite likely
if you've been shooting brains at massive losses every time) you get Ending 2.
OPTION 3: Use the terminal. If your karma is positive from your actions
throughout the game plus not destroying the brains directly, you get Ending 3.
OPTION 4: If Barnaky is still alive, he will start babbling when the countdown
starts. He overheard your conversation with the Calculator and volunteers to
use the terminal himself. This gets you Ending 4.
*************
*Other Stuff*
*************
Salvage
For the first few missions, your party should be able to pack everything home
on their backs without slowing down. After that, though, you're faced with
cheap, heavy stuff like spears and pipes that aren't worth taking home and you
start making tradeoffs, carrying only expensive goods back for bartering.
This is a mistake. Always take everything off every battlefield to maximize
your profit and help nullify the disadvantage from low Barter skill. You can
do this one of three ways.
1) If the mission provides you with a vehicle, you can stuff everything into
the vehicle's inventory since they have infinite carrying capacity. Access
this inventory by entering the vehicle and bringing up your character's
inventory screen. The vehicle will appear on the right. This only works in 5
of the 21 missions.
2) Gather all the loot and put it in containers around the map. Loot left on
the ground will almost always disappear when you come back. Loot left on
corpses can disappear when the corpses do (sometimes even within a mission).
But loot left in drawers, crates, bookshelves, etc. remains intact. Each
container has its own maximum carrying capacity, so spread out your junk.
Take as many trips as you need to ferry it all back to the bunker.
3) After the exit grid appears, place the character with the lowest carrying
capacity just inside the grid. Don't let your whole squad stand on the grid
at once until you're done. Send your mobile squad members throughout the map
to loot corpses and containers and run them back to the chosen man on the
grid. Fill his inventory with the loot so he becomes immobile, then run back
for more. Don't be satisfied until the take from the entire mission is loaded
on that one guy, minus whatever your other characters can carry without
encumbering themselves. Stand on the exit grid to switch to the World Map.
Even though he's immobile, the squad can still travel on the World Map to the
bunker, where you will have to plant someone next to the Quartermaster and use
the mobile four squad members to transfer the goods from the loadbearer to the
barterer. The disadvantage of this plan is that if you get stopped by a
random encounter on the way back to the bunker, you have to protect the
immobile man and then repeat the process to move all your loot to the grid,
which can be very annoying and/or deadly.
Bartering
Most of the time you'll be selling your loot to the BoS Quartermaster. The
upside of this is that he can give you unlimited quantities of cash - he just
prints whatever he needs. The downsides are that if you sell him more than
10-15 of the same item the price starts to collapse and he's an excellent
Barterer, so he lowers your returns anyway and demands a pound of flesh when
you buy stuff from him.
If your main character has low Charisma, it's not a bad idea to use a recruit
as a designated barterer. This person should have high Charisma and can be
kept in the recruit pool during missions, brought out to sell loot in between.
The disadvantage is that recruits never gain karma and cannot benefit from a
good reputation, plus your ability to barter within missions is limited.
There are a few other options. The Medical Officer uses a separate market
from the Quartermaster and isn't as good at bartering, so you'll get better
prices there after AK-47s collapse at the Quartermaster's. Some special
encounters such as the Farmer and the Merchant also give you access to new
markets. Finally, there are a few characters that show up in the bunker
between missions that can barter with you. Keep in mind that if you have a
designated thief you can relieve all these people (except the Quartermaster)
of their supplies without spending anything.
Tiduk and Shauri (Alpha after Freeport until you go to Beta)
Mechanic (Alpha after Rock Falls)
Medical Officer (Alpha after Rock Falls)
Mechanic (Beta)
Kerr the Merchant (Beta through Epsilon)
Bradley (Beta after Quincy)
Medical Officer (Beta after Mardin)
Mechanic (Gamma)
Tiduk and Shauri (Gamma)
Recruiting
Often when you open the recruit pool you'll hear the chime of a level-up.
This is because all the experience you've gained since the last time you
checked the recruit pool will be added to all the recruits, often giving them
new levels. When you close the recruit pool, the experience gain sets back to
zero and you have to earn more with your squad to add it to the recruit pool.
Therefore, it's important to examine the recruits and make any squad changes
in one viewing to keep the bonus experience. This only works for recruits
that were in the pool last time you checked, not new recruits.
Special Encounters
In addition to normal random encounters, there are certain encounters that
don't disappear after you leave. These aren't random at all, because they can
only occur when you cross certain squares on the World Map. You can tell
you're in a special encounter if a) you aren't given the opportunity to dodge
it with Outdoorsman, b) you're not placed in the center of the encounter map
like usual, and c) you're kicked out of your vehicle and it's nowhere to be
seen. Keep in mind that killing almost anyone or anything in special
encounters will drop your reputation (but usually not your BoS rank) very
quickly. Here's a list of the special encounter squares I know of. You can
have up to four special encounters within a square if you meet them at the
corners, but only one if you hit it at the center. Travel accordingly. All
directions are based on the center of the bunker, not the edges.
4S of Bunker Alpha
5E 3N of Bunker Alpha
2N of Bunker Beta
1W 4N of Bunker Beta
3W 1N of Bunker Beta
3E 3S of Bunker Beta
9W of Bunker Gamma
1W 1N of Bunker Gamma
5W 3N of Bunker Gamma
4W of Bunker Delta
1E 1N of Bunker Delta
4E 7N of Bunker Delta
7W 5N of Bunker Delta
8E 3S of Bunker Delta
2W 1N of Bunker Epsilon
Note on Bugs
If you're not playing with a patch, it is possible to use special encounters
to duplicate items. The first time you arrive at the special encounter, drop
some items on the ground or put them in containers. Leave. Now every time
you come back those items will be waiting, no matter how many times you pick
them up. The benefits of this are obvious.
-
This encounter has no name, but there are Evereddy Bunnies talking about how
they "keep going, and going, and going" - just like the Energizer Bunny.
Switch to radar and you'll see that they're literally all over the map. If
you force-fire a burst weapon you'll probably hit one and they'll turn
hostile, which allows you to hunt down and kill them all for 10 experience
each but no loot (or corpses). They can't hurt you in any way.
-Amelia
Amelia Earhart's aircraft has finally been found, but there's not much left of
her. You can see her skeleton leaning out the cockpit window. Nothing else
to do here.
-B1000
A B-1000 brahmin demands "your clothes, your boots, and your moo-tocycle." It
possesses the ability to shift between brahmin shape and dead brahmin shape
until you kill it, when it stays dead. You can take an Uzi from the corpse.
The environment is similar to the steel plant from Terminator 2 as well.
-Bazaar Day
Several people stand around in a market area and will trade ring pulls with
you (as opposed to BoS scrip). One sells ghoul armor that can only be worn by
ghouls (it's not that great) and another sells the Devilthorn Jacket with
effects and description mimicking a Diablo item. You can't use it because it
requires minimum Strength of 75. Apparently this encounter is a reference to
an Everquest weekly event.
-Brahmin Armor
The compound here is defended by four turrets at the corner that you should
snipe down before you approach. Kill the brahmin at the center to receive the
unique item Brahmin Armor. When equipped on a human, Brahmin Armor makes them
look like a brahmin and unable to use weapons. Deathclaws can't use it, but
ghouls, mutants, and robots can. It's stupid to use it for ghouls because
they can wear human types of armor that are usually better, but since mutants
can't wear armor of any kind it's quite beneficial. Robots essentially derive
their armor from their natural resistances, so piling Brahmin Armor on top of
that increases their damage resistances to phenomenal levels.
-Brahmin Poker
Six brahmin stand around a table playing cards. When you approach, they bolt,
allowing you to liberate almost 30,000 ring pulls from the table.
-Brahmin Tipping
The ranch has been left unguarded, which means you're free to enter and push
over brahmin to your heart's content. Brahmin eventually right themselves.
-Brothers Grimm
Two Super Mutants are at the center of the map. Talk to Jim to learn that Joe
has a broken leg. Use Doctor to heal him and the Brothers say they will join
the Brotherhood recruit pool. They seem to take a while to show up, even if
you're already at the max rank for recruitment. The Brothers Grimm are, of
course, the purveyors of many fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel.
-Canadian Invasion
You're forced to run past an emplacement of tribals and Beastlords around a
fire to get to the exit grid. They attack you, but if you kill them you can
capture the Water Gun. This weapon is moderately useful for Small Guns
specialists in early robot levels, but that's it.
-Coppertops
There's a bunch of humans on treadmills and a humanoid robot that walks around
ranting. He won't attack you. The lockers next to the humans contain Small
Energy Cells if you unlock them. Kind of an oblique reference to the Matrix.
-CPF vs PFC
Two groups, the Canadian People's Front and the People's Front of Canada, have
a chest-bumping contest. Nothing happens here, but Monty Python fans might
get a laugh.
-Deathclaw Liberation
Janet the Humanitarian has a great idea: open a Deathclaw cage so that these
beautiful, majestic creatures can run free. Unfortunately, the caged
Deathclaws haven't had a lot to eat recently and quickly devour her, then turn
on you. They'll charge the cage, making it easy for you to shoot them down
for some experience.
-Farmer
He's a farmer and he'll trade with you. Somehow he managed to get exactly one
round of .50 cal DU, but we don't ask questions we don't want answers to.
-Four Horsemen
War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death are dressed up as raiders and talking
around a campfire. Though the mouseover tells you they're all "almost dead",
they actually have thousands of hit points and it's not a great idea to try to
kill them. WARNING: If you don't have the patch and get this encounter, your
party gets randomly switched around a bit. This means that your main
character, the one you've designed and nurtured, isn't in that slot anymore
and someone else in your squad is the leader and therefore unditchable.
-Gas Station
It's an ancient gas station with an attendant named Granma. She sells the
Elixir of Life, which will give a permanent +1 Endurance and +15 HP to whoever
drinks it.
-Hermit
A barterer that sells the 9mm Calico M-950, among other things. The only
thing particularly interesting about this gun is that it holds 50 rounds.
-Invasion Recreationists
You can only get this special encounter after the Canadian Invasion. Some
people walk across a line in the dirt with much fanfare, then walk back and
have a picnic. There's nothing to be gained here.
-Komodo Man
A tribal with an Australian accent irritates a Komodo Dragon until it kills
him. Serves him right. A reference to the Crocodile Hunter of Animal Planet
fame.
-L33tists
Two people named L33tleboy and Ph4tman walk around a fire. The names refer to
the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII, but the style
is something callet 13375p34k or leetspeak - using numbers to substitute for
similar-looking letters. It's common among those who spend way too much time
staring at their keyboards. L33tleboy has Amphetamine Gum.
-Merchant
Actually, it's a group of raiders, but they don't attack you. The one
standing outside the tent will trade with you - he's the most polite raider
I've ever seen in this game.
-Mir
The Russian space station crashed in the wasteland, forming a crater on
impact. Nothing interesting here.
-Morte
In Latin, "morte" means death. In Tactics, "Morte" means "sarcastic floating
skull guy". He doesn't do anything interesting, but it is a reference to
another game by Black Isle called Planescape: Torment.
-Phil
Phil the Nuka Cola Guy rides up on his bike and takes a break in the middle of
the map. If you kill him, you can take 100 Nuka-Cola, 20 Molotov Cocktails,
and one very special Fusion Cola that acts like a drug.
-Pitch Black
The environment is, naturally, pitch black. A man named Riddick makes a few
comments and starts walking out of the cave over a series of radioactive
puddles that provide the only light. Sit back and let him walk all the way
out. Surrounding you on all sides are Deathclaws hidden in the darkness that
will start attacking when you move and can tear poor Riddick to pieces. If he
survives and you live to see him, you can eventually find him in the recruit
pool back at the Brotherhood. It is VERY EASY to get killed in this
encounter, especially if you hit it before you have Big Guns or Energy
Weapons. Expect to get pincered from the northeast and southwest at least
three times. You can exit just past the final puddle. The entire thing is a
reference to the movie Pitch Black.
-Reaver Dance
Nine dancing Reavers are on a stage, an obvious reference to the Irish
Riverdance group. Nothing else happens.
-Sixth Sense
Cole the Brahmin is surrounded by sneaking brahmin that are impossible to hit.
But you can kill Cole. There's no reward here, just the reference to the
movie of the same name.
-The Pipboy
It's the original Pipboy, a little guy with a rifle who wants to join your
party. Given time, he'll show up at the BoS recruit pool. NOTE: Even with
the patch, it is apparently possible to hit this special encounter more than
once - I found it three times in one game, twice in the same square.
-Titanic
The dead guy is probably Jack from the movie of the same name. You can find a
crudely-drawn piece of pornography on his body. It's not worth anything.
-Trader
Another merchant of the wastes, the Trader will trade with you. He's the only
place in the game where you can get the P220 Sig Sauer, a 9mm pistol that
isn't anything special.
-Uprising
Brotherhood soldiers Hubert and Mcarthy, wearing Power Armor and carrying
Vindicators, stand watch in front of a locked building with the Brotherhood
seal on it. In front of them are several dead civilians, one of whom has
Amphetamine Gum. You can kill the soldiers for a little experience, but it's
not worth the reputation drop. There's no way to get into the building.
Bonus Mission
There's one hidden mission in the game called Springfield that takes place
during Bunker Beta. I've heard some rumors that Interplay has been asking
that this information be redacted, but Interplay's got bigger problems right
now so they seem unlikely to tell me to withdraw this.
Go through C drive into the 14 Degrees East folder, then Fallout Tactics, then
the core folder. Find the file labeled "bos.cfg." This file only exists
after you start a game, so if you just installed run it and then exit out.
Open bos.cfg with Notepad and scroll to the bottom of the document. At the
top of the screen is the statement {misc.bonusMission} = {false}. Change
{false} to {true} and save the altered file. You must do this before Beta
Bunker in order to play the bonus mission, which will show up at the same time
Mardin does.
I won't give you a walkthrough for this mission because it's fun to work out
on your own. I will tell you that you'll get the fifth vehicle in this
mission, the Buggy, which is maneuverable like the Scouter and carries only
two people but has even less armor. Also, as soon as you arrive in the
mission you get some experience just for finding out how to get it, plus a
boost every time you open a chest for the whole mission. Fun stuff.
Incidentally, Fallout Springfield has a few features that kinda-sorta imply
that the designers were going for Springfield from The Simpsons: nuclear
cooling towers at the northeast edge of the map, a big donut sign for Planet
Donut, and a statue of a man holding a rifle in the town square. Another
oddity about this mission is that though I went up a rank, the game never
seemed to recognize it until one mission later for the rest of the game.
Amazing Games. Many Cheats. Such Wow.
