PC Format (South-Africa) 2001 May/PCFMay2001.iso/fallout 2/fallout_2_walkthru.txt

Text File | 2001-03-12 | 142.9 KB | 2,800 lines

  FALLOUT 2 WALKTHROUGH (second edition)
  ======================================

  Before I get Started
  --------------------

OK, so my previous version missed a whole load of quests (seems like
my role-playing was more of the trigger-happy type :), and a few of
the real simple ones I just forgot to write about.  Much of what was
missing I discovered myself after I decided to play it again, to see
what was new in the _second_ 1.02 beta patch.  (Why can't they just
give it a new number, if it's a new patch, anyway?)  Other stuff,
however, was contributed by fellow players, and I'd like to take the
time to thank them.

Many thanks to Roland Ng ([e-mail]) for pointing out a
couple or so quests I never found on my own, plus a few which I forgot
to write about (like listening to Stacy's cat story), plus some info
on special encounters.  (Heck, you can thank him for giving me the
idea to write about the special encounters at all, 'cause the first
time I considered them to be WAY too OOC to bother writing about :)

Thanks to George Moutsiakis <[e-mail]>, for pointing out
another couple of things I have missed in the previous version.
Namely, Anna's quests in the Den, and the fake citizenship thingie
for Vault City.

Thanks to "Dan Larson" <[e-mail]> for pointing out Anna's
quests, too.  (Looks like I must have been real thick to miss
something this obvious :)

Second, in spite of the .DOC extension, this is NOT a MS Word
document, but a plain text file.  (The file size would probably be a
lot larger if it were in the inflated Word format.)  I.e., it is best
viewed with a fixed width font.  I.e., if you are viewing or printing
it with Word, or another word processor, I'd advise that you select
all the text, then select a fixed width font, like Courier New 10
point.  Otherwise the underlines will be of different width than what
they're underlining (but other than that, the text will still be
readable.)

Third, yes, you can you can put this text on your web page, print it,
distribute it on a CD, whatever, but only as long as you don't modify
it in any way.  Particularly, don't start pulling real lame tricks,
like claiming undeserved credit for it.  Other than that, I don't mind
your distributing it.

And finally, well, this is probably the final version of this
walkthrough.  I don't intend to continue updating this walkthrough any
further.  I probably missed a bunch of quests, and I know it.  But it
IS possible to finish the game by this walkthrough, and it does
contain more info than I suspect many people would find on their own.
Much less with their first character.  And if you want absolute
perfection, like one of my friends keeps preaching about, I'm affraid
you'll have to explore for it on your own.

Don't get me wrong.  It's an excellent game, no doubt.  It's more
complex than _any_ RPG or adventure I remember of.  In fact, it may
well be about the only game I'd really call a _Role-Playing_ Game, and
not just a mis-named arcade like most RPG's these days.  It takes a
whole lot of experimenting with different characters to find every
single detail.  But...  I've already been playing it for many hundreds
of hours already, probably _much_ more than I've played any other
game.  And, well, it comes to a point where enough is enough.  I don't
think I'll start it again any time soon, no matter how tempting may be
to check out some new suggestion.

AND I'll probably temporarily lose my Internet access soon, on account
of moving somewhere else.

  DISCLAIMERS
  -----------

First of all, I am NOT affiliated with either Interplay or Black Isle
Studios.  This text is NOT endorsed by them in any way, so please
don't hassle them with questions or suggestions about THIS text.

I'm just a player, and I happened to _massively_ enjoy the game.  An
intelligent and complex RPG like Fallout 2 is IMHO a most welcome
surprise in this world of no-brainer "3D real-time" shoot-em-ups and
"real-time strategies" with good graphics but brain-dead AI.  I'd
definitely like to see more games like Fallout, as opposed to the
millions of Quake and C&C clones, which I vowed never to buy one
again.  Back to Fallout 2, I enjoyed it so much that I started doing
it again and again, to see what I've missed.  And at some point
I've started writing this text to keep track of what I've done.

Second, yes, this is a walkthrough and it does contain spoilers.  In
fact, it's full of them.  If you'd rather explore, don't read it.  My
advice is to explore, and fully enjoy this damn good game.  But if
you'd rather ruin your fun with a walkthrough, here it is.

Third, it's an adult game.  It deals with drugs, violence, sex and
foul language.  Hence, the walkthrough deals with them, too.  If
you're easily offended, don't read this, and don't play the game.

Fourth, bear in mind that it's a complex game, and not all quests are
available to everyone, or may not be done in the same way by everyone.
A lot of them depend on your character's skills.  E.g., you can't
discuss medicine with the Vault City doctor, nor explore their medical
database on the computer, unless you have good doctor skill.  A lot of
quests depend on speech skill, btw.  Other quests depend on your
gender.  E.g., you can't date the nurse if you're a female, nor screw
Metzger for half of Vic's price if you're male.  Yet other stuff
depend on what you've done before, like who you've joined and what's
your reputation.  Yet other stuff depend on stats.  E.g., you can't
arm-wrestle Francis the super-mutant, if you've got 6 strength.  I.e.,
your mileage may vary.

For the same reason, there may well be a lot of quests that I have
missed myself.  I did play several male and a female characters, but
my karma and most reps were (very) positive, and some of my skills
were always under-par.  E.g., I can only pray that there was no quest
based on energy weapons, melee, thrown, gambling, or which needed a
real high outdoorsman skill, because I severely lacked those most of
the time.  Other quests I just didn't want to do, because they looked
too evil for my taste.

Fifth, most of this stuff you don't really need to do to finish the
game.  In fact, other than giving xp and/or money, most quests have
nothing to do whatsoever with your ability to finish the game.  At
most, they'll make a difference on the endgame animation, but most
won't even do that.  At least in theory, I think you could just go
south along the coast, do Navarro and San Francisco, and then the
final Enclave battles.  Of course, you wouldn't survive there with a
novice character, but that's another story.

  General Stuff to Bear in Mind
  -----------------------------

Save your game often.  The skill checks are much harder than in
Fallout 1.  Particularly before stealing, do save your game.  Even
with 10 dex, 300 stealing and sneaking skill, with the Pickpocket
perk, and sneaking from the back (although it shouldn't matter with
that perk), I did often botch stealing small stuff, like stimpacks.

Save before _exiting_ a combat or before finishing a quest, if you're
close to level up (above level 4-5 or so), and have npc's in your
party.  NPC's have a chance to level up, too, when you do.  Mostly, at
level ups where you get a perk, I think, though occasionally it did
happen to me at other levels, too.  So save, and then exit combat.  If
you levelled up, and no npc did, reload and try again a few times.
You don't want to carry around a bunch of wimps, when you could have
almost decent fighters with you.  Remember though, that npc's can only
level up only so far, and only so often.  If they've all had 5
level-ups or so, they can't get any further, so don't bother.

Steal lots.  Some stuff, like the Bozar (or whatever... can't tell "a"
from "o" on their funky font) I only saw in one shop, and even there
only after doing a bunch of quests, and very expensive.  On the other
hand, you can get 3 of them by stealing from the green armoured guards
outside NCR.  Other stuff, like ammo and stimpacks, are just too
expensive to buy in shops.

Be prepared for serious financial trouble.  In Fallout 1, it was damn
easy to swindle merchants.  In the sequel, it isn't.  I had around 200
barter skill on one character, and over 2000 karma, and was idolized
in that city, and still my goods would be priced 2-3 times less than
the merchants' goods.  Plus, now most npc's leave very little cash and
stuff to sell (particularly, most don't leave armours.)  Briefly, you
can't run around buying everything you see.

Watch your step.  Particularly when you get a party, and give them
ranged weapons, they just _love_ using burst mode and spraying bullets
at an enemy that's _behind_ you.  I had an adrenaline rush each time I
saw Marcus pull out his minigun.

Watch your aim.  It seems a lot easier to accidentally hit a team mate
or inocent bystander, than it was in Fallout 1.  Even with insanely
high skills.  Particularly if you use burst mode.

Avoid mixed encounters.  If you encounter something like "a patroll
fighting highwaymen", just say no, if you get the choice.  If not,
just run like hell for the exit grid.  Unless you feel tough enough to
fight _both_, that is.  Usually, either a patroller will hit one of
your men, or viceversa, and next thing you know, both sides are
shooting at you.

When you get a new gun, don't just look at the gun's damage.  Also
examine the ammo.  The ammo almost always has its own AP, DR and final
damage modifiers.  Yes, that's on top of the weapon's min-max damage
numbers.  Yes, these effects can go as far as making a weapon better
than another, even though the min-max damage numbers say otherwise.

Forget about AP ammo.  I think the game's model is plain screwed up.
AP ammo does penetrate slightly more often, but does _insignificant_
damage, if you ask me.  The only exception I know of is the needler
ammo, whose AP ammo has a damage modifier that looks suspiciously like
the JHP modifier for other weapons.  Personally, I've found JHP ammo
to be the best, even against the best armoured opponents, which is why
I say the model is screwed up.  JHP should realistically just go splat
on armour, and even more so in the case of metal plate armour or power
armour.  For that matter, forget about the 14mm pistols, when you find
them:  I only found AP ammo for them.

Specialize.  As I've said, some skill checks are insanely difficult.
You can't bring all your skills to high enough levels, even with the
"Skilled" trait and 10 int.  So screw some skills.  E.g., you probably
don't need thrown weapons, since all grenades were very disappointing
for my taste.  I also screwed melee weapons, since you can get just as
good weapons based on the "unarmed" skill, and you need unarmed for a
couple of quests.  Energy weapons can also safely be ignored, since by
the time you get them, your enemies will be using "Advanced Power
Armours" which make the Gatling Laser almost useless for the ammo
weight used, and that's the toughest energy weapon I've found.  For
that matter, it IS possible to kick righteous donkey with just the
"small guns" skill, and without the large ones, particularly with the
"fast shot" trait. Your call, though.

Think in terms of action points, not in terms of what's natural.
E.g., if you've opened your inventory in combat, make damn sure to do
everything you need.  You can reload/change two weapons with 120
bullets each AND use 10 stimpacks in a row for just 4 AP, or just 2 AP
with the "Quick Pockets" perk.  (Tho, personally, I'd say other perks
are more useful to pick, but it's your call.)

For that reason, reload your weapons after every combat.  The rest of
the ammo in a weapon is not lost if you reload, and it helps if you
don't have to waste time reloading at the beginning of the next fight.

For that reason, again, you may want to judge a weapon not only by the
damage per shot, but also in terms of how many shots you can do per
turn with it.  Should be obvious, tho.

If you get a good tight group or line-up of enemies, go burst mode on
them.  If you've got one of your own men in the way, don't.  Actually,
if you got your own men in the way, don't go for an unlikely aimed
shot, either.  (E.g., don't for the eyes, in the dark, from far away
with a short range pistol, when it says you have 17% chance to
actually hit.)  Chances are you won't just miss and hit another body
part, as would realistically happen, but you'll often critically miss
and hit someone else instead.  Yet another game model screw up, if you
ask me, but be warned nevertheless.

Check out areas obscured by walls.  I.e., move close to the west and
south edges of all rooms and corridors.  The designers seem to have
_loved_ placing containers hidden by walls, and there's good loot to
be gained that way.

If you decide to have a weapon upgraded, get the ammo out of it first.
When you get the upgraded weapon, what the game effectively does isn't
upgrade your item, but _replace_ your item with another.  And it'll be
filled with new ammo.  Hey, it may not mean many bullets, but it's for
free.  (Same applies for upgrading flamethrower fuel, btw.  Fuel, like
all ammo, is handled in packs, not by piece.  By loading/unloading
your flamer, you can create incomplete packs, like, say 5 fuel tanks,
which upon upgrade will be replaced by a full 10 fuel tank pack.  OK,
so it's cheating :)

  Creating a Character
  --------------------

My advice is to experiment and see the effects for yourself.  But if
you _really_ want a pre-rolled character, my favourite was something
like picking the "Gifted" trait for more points, and then setting the
stats to something like:

 ST:  6
 PE:  7
 EN:  5
 CH:  6
 IN:  9
 AG:  8
 LK:  6

Let me explain.

Strength 6 is enough for any ranged weapon in the game.  More strength
does NOT mean more damage with rifles and pistols.  Plus, by the end
of the game, the Advanced Power Armour will give you a +4 to strength.
(And before that, the regular power armour is +3.)  But the max is 10.
Hence, if you had distributed more than 6 to strength, at the expense
of other stats, basically those extra points are lost, and all you'll
have is a bunch of under-par other stats.

Mind you, with strength 6 at the start of the game you'll do buggerall
damage with your fists, as well as be limited to 175 lbs carry weight.
But as soon as you get a pistol, you don't need melee damage, and when
you get party members and then a car, the carry weight will be much
less of a problem.

Perception is essential for sniping at a range.  Ideally, you'd want
as much of it as you can.  But 7 still gets you a reasonable range,
and more than that is basically overkill at the expense of other
stats, IMHO.  And it's enough to get most perks that have a perception
requirement, except for "Sniper".  Sniper is a very good perk, but if
you want it, you can just get a "Gain Perception" perk before it.

Endurance basically determines your hp gain per level, poison res, and
radiation res.  For the hp gain per level, you can pick the
"Lifegiver" perk twice later, and it'll give you massive hp per level,
even with buggerall endurance.  You only need 4 endurance to get the
perk, so you may even try with it that low, and distribute the extra
point to PE.  Poison resistance never was a problem for me, and for
radiation, IMHO you either need to get it to 95% or don't need it at
all.  To get it to 95%, you'll need two RadX's anyway, so your natural
one is basically irrelevant.

One point where you will miss high endurance is the "Strong Back"
perk.  With endurance under 6, you won't get it.  Then again, as I've
said, carry weight was the least of my problems after getting the car.

Charisma is mainly important for the number of party members you get.
A value of 6 means you can get 3 party members, in addition to
yourself.  Or 4 with the "Magnetic Personality" perk, tho I always
found other perks more useful.  Charisma allegedly also modifies npc's
reactions towards you, or so the manual says, but with 6 I didn't
notice any getting hostile for non-obvious reasons.  In any case,
saving often is a good idea anyway, regardless of your charisma.

Intelligence is very important.  It determines the number of skill
points you get per level, and with "Gifted" you'll be hurting for
skill points.  I'd even advise getting the "Gain Intelligence" perk at
level 15.  It also determines what you can say in a conversation.

Agility, apart from the obvious armour class, sets how many Action
Points you get per turn.  With 8 agility, you get 9 AP, which with the
right perks/traits can be more than enough IMHO.  To get 10 AP, you'd
need 10 agility, which means severely downgrading other stats, so IMHO
it's not worth it.

Luck is not only for the initial critical chance, or I would have just
set it to 5.  But you also need at least 6 luck to get "Better
Criticals", "Bonus Ranged Damage", and "More Criticals" later.

Now you still have one trait left, so let's look at what you can
choose.

Fast Metabolism -- As it says, it increases your natural healing rate,
but kills your natural radiation and poison resistances.  As I've
said, I never had much use for natural radiation and poison
resistances, anyway, so it's not that much of an inconvenience.  Then
again, I never had much use for a high natural healing rate, either.

Bruiser -- increases strength by 2, turns your AP to a crap value.  As
a side-note, as with any stat increasing trait, you can then proceed
to decrease strength by 2, and use those two points on any other stat
of your choice.  E.g., you can use "Bruiser" to get two extra points
to AG, IN, EN, or PE instead of ST.  But be warned that the AP penalty
is a right pain in the behind, so it was never my favourite trait.

Small Frame -- +1 to AG, but you can carry very little weight.  Just
as with Bruiser, you could just as well use the point elsewhere, such
as PE, IN or EN.  Be warned that the resulting carry weight penalty
can be a major pain in the behind.  With 6 ST and "Small Frame" you'll
only be able to carry 100 pounds of equipment.  That IS a problem very
soon.  While I could and did stay under 175 lbs carried weight for
most of the game, under 100 was way too tight. Your call, though.

One Hander -- Basically, reverses the range penalties for
pistols/SMG's and rifles.  Without it, you're accurate with rifles,
but have crap accuracy with a pistol.  With it, you're accurate with a
pistol or SMG, but have bad accuracy with a rifle or minigun.  IMHO,
it's a pretty good trade-off, though I've always found "Fast Shot" to
be a better choice.

Finesse -- +10 to critical chance, but it lowers the normal damage you
do.  It's not a particularly bad trade-off, but not one of my
favourites, either.

Kamikaze -- It gives you a relatively minor increase to sequence, but
nukes your natural AC.  IMHO it's a pretty bad choice.  Most battles
are not one-on-one, and don't end in 1 or 2 turns, either.  And beyond
the first turn, it's a problem of you move, they move, you move, they
move, etc.  I.e., everyone does get a move per turn, regardless of the
sequence number.  I.e., who made the first move doesn't really make
that huge a difference.  And no AC makes the beginning of the game a
bit more tricky.  By the end of the game, noone seemed to miss me, no
matter how high the AC, and they seemed to sequence before me anyway,
no matter how high the sequence.  So my advice would be to forget
about this trait.

Heavy Handed -- You get +4 to melee damage, BUT your criticals will
always be less powerful.  Yes, that includes critical hits with ranged
weapons.  Personally, I'd advise against it, since most of the game I
fought with guns, and with this trait it means only disadvantage
without any advantage.

Fast Shot -- This is definitely my personal favourite.  Let me
explain.  With 9 AP, and most handguns and rifles, it means you can do
TWO normal shots per turn, while without it you'd get only ONE aimed
shot.  With a .44 magnum or P90c or a Gauss Pistol, it means _three_
normal shots per turn with this trait, versus one aimed and one normal
without it.  Etc.

After you also pick the "Bonus Rate of Fire" perk, it gets even
better.  With a .44 magnum or P90c or Gauss Pistol and "Fast shot" you
get _4_ normal shots per turn, versus 2 aimed ones without it.  If you
also pick a level of "Action Boy" on top of "Bonus Rate of Fire", it's
_5_ normal shots with "Fast shot" vs 2 aimed ones without it.

Now I know that aimed shots cause more criticals, but they're also a
lot more difficult to succeed.  Me, I'd much rather go with wholesale
distribution of ammo, than with a few aimed shots.

Bloody Mess -- as the manual says, it just forces the most violent
animations, but other than that it has no influence on game outcome.
Beats me why bother picking it, unless you're in it just for seeing
loads of gore.

Jinxed -- This trait makes fights look almost surrealistic.  Everyone
will keep dropping weapons, losing ammo, crippling themselves,
shooting allies, etc.  Unlike what the manual says, it seems to have a
lot less influence on you than on npc's, but it does have a lot of
influence on the people in your party.  After seeing Sulik lose the
third weapon or so to critical failures, I just restarted and picked a
different trait.  This trait is a bad choice, if you ask me.

Good Natured -- You lose 10% on all your 6 combat skills, but get +15%
to 4 other skills.  The sum of points gained equals that of points
lost, if that's not obvious.  Since at least half of your combat
skills you'll never really need to use (energy weapons, melee,
thrown), this basically allows you to shift points that would be
useless there to more useful skills.  And for the skills you do plan
to use, you can always tag them, and compensate the difference pretty
fast.  So IMHO it's one of the very good choices of traits.  Not as
good as "Fast Shot", but definitely a close second choice.  About the
only problem is that the reduced combat skills make the fights in the
Temple of Trials _much_ harder.

Chem Reliant -- useless trait if you ask me, since I avoided chems
like the plague.

Chem Resistant -- ditto.

Sex Appeal -- effectively, I _think_ it _slightly_ improves the
initial reaction towards you for members of the opposite sex, but
lowers the initial reaction of others.  After playing with and without
this trait, my conclusion is that there's no real gain from it.  A
good karma and reputation will do you more good, anyway.

Skilled -- as it says, you get +5 skill points per level, but only get
a perk every 4 levels.  Could be interesting to use it to compensate
for the -5 skill points per level from "Gifted", but you'll end up
wandering the desert for kill xp for years to get the same perks as
someone without it.  It's not necessarily a bad choice, but not one of
my favourites, either.

Gifted -- we just used it, remember?

Again, bear in mind that quests depend on stats and skills.  This
particular character will NOT be able to do everything in the
walkthrough, or at least not in this order.  Some quests were done
with completely different characters.  So don't bother telling me that
you couldn't use it to do this and that.  If you think you can do
better, please do create your own character the way you want.

  Temple of Trials
  ----------------

This area doesn't seem to have any other purpose than to give you some
xp, so try to make the most out of it.  Search all the rooms.

I've found unarmed to work best on both ants and scorpions, especially
since it uses less action points than the spear, and has more chances
to hit.  Take _one_ swing, then run away.  Repeat as necessary.
Yes, it takes half of forever and then some, but remember:  if they've
spent enough AP running after you, they won't have enough left to
attack you.  So basically you can slowly dish out damage, without
taking any.  Don't hurry, particularly with the scorpions, since they
can poison you with each good attack.

The second area, in addition to ants and scorpions, also has traps all
over the floor.  Move one hex at a time, careful not to step on the
raised plates.  (Those mis-shapen ovals.)  You can also try disarming
them, since you get 25 xp per disarmed trap, and that's a lot at level
1.  It may require more than one try per trap.  If you're at disarming
them, make sure you've scanned all the area, particularly near the
west walls.

At the end of the second area there's a door you can't lockpick.  Get
a plastic explosive from one of those vase thingies, and put it in one
of your ready item slots.  Now go facing the door, _save_, and use the
explosive.  It'll automatically be dropped on the floor.  Then get the
hell out of there running.  At what skill you have now, it's
guaranteed to go off prematurely, and you don't want to be within the
blast radius.

Before blasting the door, you may want to check out the raised plate
under it, tho.  There are only 1 or 2 pixel rows of it visible, so
it'll take some precise clicking exercise to disarm it.  Lame trick,
if you ask me, but, hell, that's another 25 xp to rake up.  After
blasting the door, it's covered by the debris, or so it looked to me.

In the last area, there's a room with a large burning pit in the
middle, and a tribesman in front of a door.  Explore the rest of the
area before going there, then rest to heal yourself, and save.  He'll
tell you that you must beat him unarmed.  Do so.  If you don't have
the "Fast Shot" perk, just keep aiming for a leg or for the groin.  If
you picked "Fast Shot" just swing and pray for a good hit.  (WTH has
fast shooting a _ranged_ weapon have to do with _melee_ attacks?
Especially since you don't get the speed bonus for melee.  Oh,
well...)

After you've beaten the snot outta him, go back and pick your gear
from the chest outside the room.  Then open the door he was in front
of, and go through it to pick your sacred Vault 13 jumpsuit. Hmm...

  Arroyo Village
  --------------

After getting the jumpsuit, go talk to the elder, to receive a canteen
and some money.  It's a lot less money than it seems, but, hey, it's
for free. Ask about how to get to Klamath.

Now go talk to everyone else in the tribe.  I think a dude near the
stone head will teach you some unarmed, but only if you have very
little.  At least he always offered to teach me, but never actually
did.  And a geezer in a tent will teach you melee weapons.  Talk to
Feargus near the well, and then use the repair skill on the well for
100xp.

The shaman will ask you to weed his garden.  There are two large
plants that shoot at you in there, so get in close and punch the hell
out of them.  Then go back to the shaman for some well earned healing
powder.  Personally, I didn't find much use for the powder, since it
temporarily lowers your perception by 1, each time you use it.

A cousin will ask you to find his dog (I think he wasn't there before
the patch).  To the north-west there's an area with some geckos, and
there's where the dog is.  You can kill the geckos for some xp, though
at this point they may be a slight bit on the tough side.  Try to pick
them when isolated, so you don't end up fighting more than one at a
time.  Also, there you can find some herbs that are components for
healing powder, but as I've said, I didn't use the powder.  (They're
also components for stimpacks, if my memory doesn't fail me, but only
much later and only if you have Myron in your group.)

When you're ready, you can go south, and then across the bridge, and
out to the world map.  Head east to Klamath.

(I'm told that you can watch the bridge guard sharpen his spear, then
ask him about it, get a flint from your aunt, and have him sharpen
yours, too.  I returned to Arroyo to check this rumour, and it didn't
work.  Maybe you need to do it before leaving the village?  Try for
yourself, I guess.  A sharpened spear does better damage than a
sledgehammer, so it may be worth the time to check this out.  Then
again, it's based on melee weapons.)

  Klamath
  -------

In Klamath, your mission is to find Vic the trader, so ask around for
him.  He's missing.  He's left for the Den, so also ask which way to
the Den. Don't hurry to the Den yet, though.  There's still some
exploring to do here.

Particularly, be sure to search through Vic's house, and get the radio
in there.  Don't sell the radio.  You will need it to rescue Vic from
the slavers in the Den. Also take the ammo and the pipe rifle while
you're at it.  The pipe rifle is crap, but you can sell it for a few
bucks.

Be sure to ask Mrs. Buckner about the missing trapper. That way you'll
get the location of the toxic caves where you can go rescue him.
Don't go there yet.

There's also a tribal warrior in there, called Sulik, which you can
take in your group.  At this point, he's a damn good addition to your
group, and a much better fighter than you are.  Unfortunately, he's
paying for some damages, and he needs 350$ before he can join you.
You don't have them yet.  You can also get Sulik for free after
rescuing the trapper from the toxic caves, but IMHO it's a lot better
to have him with you in there (those golden geckos are a pain in the
butt when you're level 3 or 4.)

For the money, you can try lockpicking doors and nicking stuff from
people's cupboards.  Also, Whiskey Bob offers to pay you 50 bucks if
you'll go refuel his still.  Only problem is that the area is full of
geckos, but fortunately you don't have to kill them all.  Just go
there, enter the hut, pick a lump of firewood, and use it on the
still.  Nick the bottle on the floor (you can sell it for a few
bucks), then return and talk to Bob again for the money.

There's another bar in this area, whose owner will sometimes ask you
for the location of Whiskey Bob's still, if you've taken that quest
first.  Sometimes he never asks, though.  Maybe it's based on rep?  Or
on whether you've finished the quest already?  Personally, I never
told him, since I play good honest characters.  So I don't know what
happens if you do.  One thing, though:  make your mind fast.  If you
refuse the first time you're asked, that's it, and you'll never have
the chance again.  You can also barter with the bartender for some
items that could be pretty useful at this point, but you probably
won't have the cash to afford them at this point, anyway.

Another person in this bar will offer to teach you more unarmed.  You
can humour him by playing dumb and asking him to teach magic spells,
and in the end saying he pulls your leg.  You'll get a free beer, and
be a bit more liked.  (Apparently everyone likes a new idiot in town.)
The teaching is good though:  +10 to both unarmed and melee weapons,
which at this point makes a huge difference.

Go to the west section of the town and find a guy who'll talk to you.
He'll tell you about the rat problem.  Ask for the key, and tell him
you'll help with the rat problem when he asks for money.  Alternately,
you can get the key from a dog in the other part of the town.  Just
talk to the mutt, then give it some brahmin jerky.  You can find tons
of jerky in various cupboards all over the town.

Go through that door.  (I lockpicked it for 25 xp, even though I had
the key :) Be sure to check the deserted guns store, and take the two
pairs of rubber boots.  You'll need them to get through the toxic
caves.  Kill all the rats, and enter the open manhole in a building.
(What on Earth is a manhole doing in a building?)  Generally speaking,
explore this area well, and be sure to kill all the rats.  They don't
give much xp each, but there are lots of them, and it totals over 3k
xp.  Not bad at all, at this point.  Best use your fists, if you ask
me, since it doesn't use expensive ammo.

At some point, you'll find a giant rat named Keeng Ra'at, or "the rat
god".  Kill it, and you've solved Klamath's rat problem.  Keep
exploring until you find a way to reach the surface somewhere else
than you've entered.  There's a car there, from which you'll get a
fuel injection system.  Hang on to it, you'll be needing it later.
Now go back.

Back to Mrs. Buckner's bar, there's an area to the north-west, where
there's a repair bot gone nuts.  It helps to have Sulik with you here,
since otherwise the robot will probably run away before you can kill
it and get the xp.  There's a crashed vertibird (weird helicopter)
here, and a couple of corpses.  One of them had a yellow key card last
times I played, tho I'm pretty sure it didn't have anything the many
times before.  It may have something to do with the fact that I
applied the 1.02 beta patch, or it may be random.  Beats me what's
that key supposed to unlock, so it's an useless item.

Go back to the bar.  There's a fellow named Torr there, who says
bipedal bug-men are mutilating his cattle.  Well, he doesn't use big
words like "bipedal", and says "moo-moos" instead of cattle.
Brain-dead fellow, really.  Go there and kill the... small scorpions.
The first time I played, that was enough for the game to say I did the
quest.  Every single time I tried after that, it said I failed to
protect all the brahmin.  Bugger me if I know what I did wrong.  I
even tried killing the Dunton brothers in the area. Nice try, but no.

You can also visit the "Bath house" in Klamath, which is really a
brothel, if you have more money than sense.  If you've chosen Jenny,
you can also talk to her after you've screwed her.  (Doesn't actually
show you screwing :)  It also works if you have a female character,
the only difference being what she says after the act.

Unfortunately, I've never found any benefit from screwing Jenny, apart
from getting a "Gigolo" title on my Karma sheet.  She didn't tell me
anything I couldn't find out from other people (well, except that Vic
was a regular customer, but that didn't help me at all in the game :)
So why spend 125$ there?  Why spend cash on the other prostitutes, in
almost every single town?  Is there a point I'm missing here?

If you've got Sulik and the boots, you can exit the town and go to the
toxic caves.

  Toxic Caves
  -----------

Be sure everyone in the party has a pair of rubber boots in their
inventory, or they'll be taking damage fast from the slime on the
floor.  Better save now, since there is a good probability that the
boots will be destroyed before you finish the cave.  If that happens,
just reload.  There's also a spare pair of boots in a room to the
south, near the entrance, beyond a pool of green slime and a gecko.

Basically, what you need to do is fight your way through the caves,
find Smiley (the missing trapper) and escort him out of the caves.

You may also want to try to repair the power generator in that room,
while you're there.  Doesn't seem to give any xp, though.  Speaking of
the generator, apparently that's half of what's needed to use the
elevator there.  It says you need an electronic device to open it.

I came back there much later with a mark II electronic lockpick, and
you can enter and go down into a sort of small ruined depot.  There's
decent stuff in there, such as a Mark II Combat Armour, but by the
time you do get the electronic lockpick and enough skill to open this
door, you probably have much better equipment already.  There's a
sentry robot down there with a rocket launcher.  Like all explosives
in the game, missiles are IMHO beyond crappy, but he launches three
missiles per turn.  Again, by the time you get the electronic
lockpick, you can probably survive that quite easily.  Also in there
you can find some 4.7mm caseless ammo, some 2mm EC ammo for your Gauss
Pistol, a Bozar and some .223 ammo for it, plus some other stuff.

After escorting Smiley out, go back to Klamath and talk to him in the
bar.  He'll teach you how to skin geckos.  Now those pelts do fetch a
decent price, particularly the golden gecko ones.  Which, given the
game's general cash shortage, can be very welcome.  On the other hand,
they're also much too heavy for the price, if you ask me.  Me, I'd
rather carry a spare gun from a robber's corpse, since it sells
better and weighs less.

He'll also teach you a little outdoors skill.  About as much as you'd
learn from a book, but it's still an improvement.  Mrs. Buckner will
give you 100 bucks if you say you don't need a reward.  Or, if you
haven't taken Sulik yet, you can get him for free now.

  The Den
  -------

The Den is a pretty annoying place, and the most annoying thing about
it are the freakin' kids stationed near all doors.  The little
bastards will steal items from you when you pass near them (e.g., when
you go through the door.)  Normally I wouldn't even think of doing
that, though it's just a game, but after being robbed naked for a few
games, my curiosity got the best of me, and I decided I want to see
what happends if I shoot the bastards.  Got flagged as a child killer,
and lost Sulik from the party.  Fair enough, I suppose.  I reloaded,
so I don't know more about that.

You'll want to talk to Smitty on the west edge.  It's the guy in the
house in the middle of the car graveyard.  He'll tell you that you can
have the car there for 2000$ and a fuel cell controller, which right
now you don't have.  Without the patch, you could get the car even if
you didn't have the controller, by showing Smitty the injection system
instead, and then saying you give him the money and the controller.
You still had to have the cash, though.

The car serves a couple of purposes.  First, it shortens travel time
_lots_.  Second, its trunk serves as a container for your stuff.  And
it can hold quite a bit of stuff.  It can come in very handy for
storing lots of loot to sell, or lots of different types of weapons
and ammo for later.

Also in this area there's Becky's bar and casino.  You can get a
couple of easy quests from Becky.  First one is getting some money
back from Fred.  I spotted the poor sod with half of it, which I then
got back from Becky.  Second one is getting a book back from a geezer
in the east half of the town.  Just go talk to him a couple of times,
then look for a book on the ground almost anywhere in the eastern
half.  First time I found it in the outhouse, second time near a
burning barrel, third time near another barrel, etc.

Also in the western area there's Lara and her gang (the bunch in metal
armours).  She'll ask you to find out what's in the crates in the
church in the western half.  I went there and told the moron at the
door that Metzger's sent me to check the contents, 'cause he wants to
be sure.  Got 500 xp for bulshitting the guard, and another 500 xp for
examining the crates.  Then she'll ask you to ask Metzger if she can
fight Tyler's gang (the bunch at the church).  Metzger's the head of
the Slavers' Guild (the bunch in leather armour, in the east half of
town.)  Do so.  Then she'll ask you to find a weakness in Tyler's
gang.  Just go there and talk to the moron.  He'll tell you that most
of their gang goes to a party that night.

Now if you want to get your money for this last mission, you'll have
to go with Lara when she fights Tyler's gang.  She says that you don't
have to fight, just be there.  However, most of the Tyler's buddies
were happily shooting at Lara, and I didn't have the nerve to find out
if I still get paid if she dies.  So I had to do most of the work
there, too.

Be prepared for a long fight, since the 10mm you have at this point
doesn't do much damage against metal armour (and even less if you try
AP ammo, so don't.)

For that reason, IMHO you'd better get Vic in your party first.  If
nothing else, it gives those guards an extra someone to shoot at.  In
fact, you'll probably want to take Vic before even starting Lara's
quests, if you can afford that, since you'll probably get a level up
sometime during them, and it'd be nice to have the moron lavel up,
too, before a real battle.

Also in the western half, there's some geezer in a house full of
addicts, who'll get upset and make an "Animaniacs" type fuss if you
ask about his accent.  (As a sidenote, that's the one thing I DON'T
like about this sequel:  the heavy Out-Of-Character content, such as
references to its being just a game, or to cartoon shows or to Monty
Python.  It definitely ruins my role-playing.)  If you can bear to
wade through his BS and keep asking him, you find out he's a
shopkeeper of sorts.  More of like a fence, actually, since he's the
one paying the kids to steal.  He's got good merchandise, though, if
you have the cash, and here's where you can buy your missing items
back.

There's also a geezer named Joey, who can pinpoint New Reno and some
other town on your map.  Not strictly necessary, since you can find
those locations (and more) from Vault City, anyway.  He'll also offer
to sell you Jet, a highly addictive drug, for a ludicrious price.
About 10 times or so more expensive than anywhere else in town.  My
advice is to stay clear of Jet, since it'll be a permanent addiction
until you get the antidote, and that's much later.

Still in the western half, there's a Brotherhood of Steel building
with a guard, but he won't let you in right now.  You can gain
entrance to all Brotherhood of Steel buildings much later, after
bringing them the vertibird plans in San Francisco.  However, this
particular building was empty, anyway.  I.e., don't lose time with it.
(BTW, the one in NCR is empty, too.)

Next to the Brotherhood of Steel building, there's a haunted house,
but the ghost is only visible at night, around midnight, and there's a
geezer showing a ghoul for a mummy.  Talk to the ghost.  Talk to Mom,
in her restaurant in the eastern side, and ask about the locket.  Talk
to Joey.  You can either buy the locket, or BS an already scared Joey
that the gost will come for him.  Bring it to the ghost for some xp.
Now take the bones.  Get a shovel.  Go find Anna's grave in the
cemetery, again in the eastern side.  Dig it up (use the shovel on
it).  Click on it.  Transfer the bones to it.  Use the shovel on it
again.  More xp.

You don't have anything to do with the ghoul, until you've received
the quest to find the ghoul, from Gecko village.  Anyway, if you
really want to see the ghoul, be smart and lockpick your way through
the thrashed room (with the ghost), instead of passing through the
front door and between the two thieving kids.

This just about covers the western part, so let's get to the eastern
one.

The main attraction in the eastern part is the Slavers' Guild.  There
are a few silly things you could do here, such as joining the Guild.
That means getting a slaver tattoo on the forehead, which turns Sulik
against you, and I highly suspect will make it impossible to do other
quests later.  So I just reloaded.  Apparently you can also try to
sell Sulik as a slave, but I didn't use that option, either.  I really
needed him more as a fighter.

Vic is a prisoner there, since he sold Metzger a broken radio, and now
he must fix it.  But he doesn't have the parts, so he's basically
screwed up.  Get permission to talk to him (e.g., from the guard in
front of his door), and he'll tell you he needs the radio back in his
house in Klamath for parts.  You did bring it along, didn't you?  So
give him the radio.  Metzger still won't let Vic go, even after he's
fixed the radio.  Ask if some money will help, and he'll ask for
1000$.  If you're with the female character, you can screw Metzger for
half the price, which at this point means pretty much.

Alternately, you can get Vic after killing Metzger, which is a quest,
too.  Only problem is that at this point you're probably NOT prepared
to deal with a dozen slavers shooting at you.  Trust me, you'll need
better armour and better firepower than the lousy 10mm you probably
have now.

After you buy Vic, you can take him in your party.  Initially, Vic is
good at repairing things, and he'll do the repairing for you whenever
you use the repair skill.  He can also use small guns (pistols and
rifles), so get him a 10mm for now.  Mind you, he's pretty inept at it
now, so don't give him a burst mode weapon for now, unless you have a
death wish.  But he gets much better after he gets his level maxxed
up, AND he can use armour, unlike other tougher npc's (like Marcus or
Goris).  Also, by the end of the game, he could use the M72 Gauss Rifle
(sort of a rail-gun), which Sulik didn't want to use.  Briefly, in the
long run he's not that bad a partner to have around.

Speaking of Vic and guns, keep him well supplied with ammo.  He's
pretty inept at hand-to-hand combat, and he stays that way.  He also
doesn't have too great hp, so you don't want him in the front line.

If you have good stealing skill, you can make some cash by stealing
the guards' ammo and Metzger's shotgun and ammo.  At this point, the
shotgun is a good weapon, though, so maybe don't sell it.  Just save
before each steal, and be sure to do it from the behind, sneaking.
Don't go for a steal from the front.

There's a bar just west of the slavers, with another couple of those
thieving bastards up front.  Its owner sells booze at an overly
inflated price and bad mouths Becky to all his customers for having
lower prices.  He asks you to find out where she gets her whiskey.  I
didn't like the guy, so I didn't.  If you're with a male character,
you can pay to screw a prostitute here, though it beats me what's the
point.  If you're with a female, you can screw a customer for some
cash.  (Hey, it comes in very handy for buying Vic :)

There's also "Mom's" joint south of the slavers.  "Mom" will ask you
to take a dinner to Smitty, the dude in the junkyard at the western
end of the town.  You'll get some xp and a stimpak if you do.  If you
talk to Mom after that, you get a free rat meal, though again I fail
to see any point in it.

The drunk in the back is Karl, who's missing in Modoc, and contrary to
what I first assumed, it IS possible to talk to him now about the
ghosts.  Just don't give him any money, or he'll be perpetually drunk.
Ask him about his story.

A girl in here can tell you about her cat.  Boring story, but if you
encourage her to speak, you'll get 200xp at the end of it.  (Someone
said it was 250 for them.  Is it random?  Or is one of us remembering
wrong?)

Last, but not least, you also can dig the other graves in the
graveyard if you have a shovel.  There's not much loot to be found
here, but it's more than nothing I suppose.  You'll get flagged as a
grave robber, and I think you lose some karma per grave dug, but other
than that it doesn't seem to have much influence on the game's
outcome.

When you're through here, just leave for Vault City...

  Modoc
  -----

Modoc is a small (and dieing) farming community right between the Den
and Vault City.  You may stop here for a couple of small quests, if
you want to, but unless you did hear Karl's story in the Den, I'd
advise against starting the main quest (the haunted farm one) yet.  It
ends up with you having to go for Karl at the Den, and with a very
tight time limit at that.  You can take it on the way back from Vault
City, when you return to the Den with the fuel cell controller for the
car.  That's where I'll talk about it, anyway, so skip a few pages
down if you did talk to Karl already and you want to do it now.

You can have a rural style shotgun wedding here, if you seduce the
butcher's daughter or son.  My favourite was seducing the daughter
with the female character.  I sure had a laugh at that wedding.
Unfortunately, however, either spouse are real lousy party members and
they do NOT level up ever.  I.e., they're useless.  Me, I'd say just
reload after having the laugh at the wedding.

You can take a quest to guard some brahmin from a large pack of wild
dogs, from the butcher.  It pays 1000$ if you don't screw up.  Be
warned that although brahmin are pretty robust, the dogs are fast and
many.  Hit the "A" key to get into combat mode fast:  it gives you a
better chance of moving into position before the dogs get there.  Then
move right north of the cattle, and start sniping the dogs.  It helps
if you have a better weapon than the lousy 10mm pistol (e.g., if
you've pacified some robbers on the way.)  Preferably a hunting rifle,
since it has much better accuracy at long range.

On your way back, you can use your doctor skill (if you have good
doctor skills, that is) on an injured brahmin.  You get some xp, and
she starts following you for a while.  I've heard that you can sell
her to the butcher, but I never had the heart to do it.  Then again,
maybe it's just a rumour.

The tanner asks you to find his boy, but that boils down to the same
haunted farm quest, so you may as well skip it for now.

In the north-east corner, there's Rose's bar.  She has a Deathclaw in
her barn as a chicken, and you'll get 100xp if you enter the barn.
Then again, that puts you in combat with the Deathclaw, and for this
moment she's a bit tough.  Personally, I'd say just leave the barn
alone.  You can enter the brahmin fries eating contest here, but be
warned that you'll get poisoned, and as far as I can tell there's no
xp in it anyway.

A senile bum in the far back room gives you a quest to find his gold
watch.  Talk to his friend Farrel.  Go out, open the outhouse and go
down.  (Yech!)  There's a passage blocked by some cave-in.  Put an
explosive there, and get the hell out, fast.  That means, run for the
ladder.  Kablam!  Now the outhouse blows and all the area is covered
in crap.  Gross, but real funny.  Go back down, fight the molerat,
retrieve the watch.  (Looks like a box.)  Go give the watch to Farrel,
for 1500xp.  Alternately, you can give the watch to the senile bum,
and you can either tell him where you found it (and he'll accuse you
that you're the thief) or lie that Farrel is indeed the thief.

Beats me why'd you want to accuse Farrel, except maybe for that warm
fuzzy feeling that you're a son-of-a-bitch :) If you accuse Farrel,
you can no longer do Farrel's quest, if you haven't done it already.

You can also get an easy quest from Farrel, in the house sout-east
of Rose's.  Namely, you have to kill all rats in his garden.  I had no
problems killing them unarmed, to save ammo usage.

When you're finished here, leave for the Vault City...

  Vault City
  ----------

This is one annoying bunch of brain-dead bigots, if you ask me.  I
still fancy puting holes in a few obtuse heads, starting with the
First Citizen. Sadly, I didn't.

Anyway, you start in the Courtyard.  This is where outsiders work hard
and pay high taxes, so the Citizens in the actual Vault City can
prosper. So what else is new?

In the courtyard, you can talk to a woman whose husband has been
arrested and taken to the Servant (a.k.a. slave) Allocation Center.
You'll rescue him when you go inside.

Also talk to the kid nearby.  Go pick his doll from behind the bar
(hidden by the wall, so get in close) and give it back to him for
100xp.  Then listen to the kid.  Go click on those rocks and you'll
get a wrench.  Keep it.  (Alternately, you can dismember the doll in
front of the kid, and still get the 100xp.  You won't hear about the
wrench, though.)

Talk to the brahmin dealer about the canteen Vic bought from him.
He'll give you the locations of a bunch of towns.

A poor sod is massively radiated in a tent.  You can use two
rad-away's on him, for a little xp.  Way too little for the cost of
the Rad-Away, if you ask me, but, hey, it gives you that warm fuzzy
feeling that you saved someone's life (and that you're an idiot :)

Another poor sod will give you a quest to buy him a plow.  Bad part is
that it costs money.  Good part is that he'll give you a Desert Eagle
automatic for it, which costs more than the plow.  (Why didn't he buy
the plow himself, then?) And you get some xp, too.

At the clinic, you can repair the auto-doc for a little xp.  In fact,
please do.  You'll need the auto-doc repaired if you later decide to
do the combat implant operations here.  With a defective auto-doc,
you'd die.

Go north.  If you've arrived before 8 AM or after 6 PM, you can enter
the deserted Customs office, lockpick the locker, and get a Day Pass
for free.  Then go back south, wait until 8 AM, and come back.  If you
arrived in the daytime, you can try to bulshit the Customs officer
that you have urgent business with the First Citizen, and still get
the pass for free.

Drop any booze or drugs you may have (except for RadX and Rad-Away),
then talk to the guards.  They'll search you and let you in.

(According to George Moutsiakis, you can get fake citizenship papers
from Skeev in the Customs office, and then you wouldn't get searched.
Personally, I didn't try it out, so I don't know more details.  But
feel free to try for yourself, if you want to.)

Go to the Maintenance Center.  Talk to Val. After the long talk
between Val and Vic is over, talk to her again.  She'll want a wrench
and pliers.  The wrench you got from the kid's doll quest, and pliers
I had from the rat area in Klamath and a locker behind Smitty in the
Den. Give them to her.  Talk to her again, then leave.

Go to the Servant Allocation Center, and talk to officer Barkus.  If
you have decent speech skill, try to bullshit him that Joshua has some
outsider disease.  Or you can always offer a substantial "donation"
(a.k.a. bribe) for his release, if you have more money than brains.

Talk to the officer in the Correction Center.  He'll give you a quest
to scout the area around Gecko village.

Talk to the dude in the Information Center.  He'll tell you that books
are converted to electronic format.  Tell him you prefer books, and
he'll bring you some books for free.

Go to the Council.  Talk to First Citizen Lynette (one mother of all
bigots, and bloothirsty to boot) and she'll give you a quest to solve
the problem with Gecko village's defective nuclear plant poisoning
their underground water.  What she really wants is everyone in Gecko
dead, so don't bother coming back to her later when you find a better
solution.

Leave.  On the way out, talk to Joshua (the sod you just rescued).  Go
to Gecko (might as well scout the area, as asked, while you're at it.)

  Gecko Village
  -------------

First thing here, go talk to Harold in the Manager's Office.  He'll
tell you they need a Hydroelectric Magnetosphere Regulator (or
something like that), to fix their plant so it no longer leaks
radioactive coolant.

If you want to, you can also pick a doctor ghoul named Lenny in here.
Good thing about him is that he's humanoid enough to wear an armour,
and he has superb hp on top of that.  Heck, he _starts_ with 129
hp, which is more than Vic will ever have.  Briefly, he won't die too
easily.  And allegedly he's a doctor, which can come in quite handy,
though you can't take him with you in Vault City (where you need
doctor skill for the computer).  In practice, I never noticed an
option to ask him to heal me when he's in the group, and he's utterly
inept even at healing _himself_.  Another bad part is that he's a real
lousy fighter, has poor AP, and has remarkably poor strength to boot.
And he'll stay that way for the rest of the game.  In case I have to
spell it out for you, it means he'll have massive penalties with most
firearms.  That can be changed by giving him a power armour, but
that's only MUCH later.  And yet another bad part is that in many
places you either aren't enter with a ghoul or mutant (e.g., Vault
City) or people will refuse to talk to you if you have one in your
party.  Of course, you can leave them at the door, but that makes it
more tricky to level them up:  if you do a quest and level up, and
they're not in your party, they don't get a chance to level up, too.

Speaking of Vault City, interestingly enough, if you have Lenny the
_ghoul_ with you, the guards tell you to get the _mutant_ away from
the gate.  And if you're with Marcus the _mutant_, they say _ghouls_
are not allowed inside.  I.e., the messages are switched.  Bug?

On the overall, I'd say he's not much of an advantage to have around.

Go north.  A merchant ghoul will give you a quest to find Woody in the
Den. Another ghoul can modify weapons, but don't do it yet.  He'll
tell you he needs a super toolkit.  Yet another ghoul will tall you
that greed is good, and tell you to take a disc to Vault City with an
interesting business proposal.

(Yeah, right... greed is good...  Watch the ending movie to see how
the ghouls were occupied by Vault City troops, and turned into slaves,
because the bigots in Vault City wanted what he was offering, but
didn't want to pay.)

That's it for now. Go back to Vault City.

  Vault City (again)
  ------------------

Go to the gate at 8AM and enter the actual city with your Day Pass.

Go talk to Val again, and if you've given her the pliers and wrench
last time, now she'll give you the super toolkit that the ghoul in
Gecko wanted. She can also modify weapons, but don't do it now.

Talk to the officer in the Correction Center, if you've scouted around
Gecko, for your reward.  Ask for more work, and you'll get an
assignment to scout the road to NCR.  You'll do that much later,
anyway.  Also talk to him about the raiders.

Go to the Council.  Don't talk to the First Citizen, or she'll sic the
guards on you for trying to fix the ghouls' reactor instead of
slaughtering them.  Talk to McClure, the councilman in the right-most
room, and tell him how you can fix the plant in Gecko.  He'll say it's
an acceptable solution, and authorize you to pick the Hy-Mag from
Amenities.  Tell him you're affraid Lynette will not make you a
citizen if you repair the reactor.  He'll tell you that he'll make you
a citizen himself.  Also give him the economic data disc from the
greedy ghoul in Gecko.  More xp for you.

Go back to amenities, and pick the hy-mag. Leave for Gecko...

  Gecko (again)
  -------------

Go north and exchange the toolkit for a fuel cell controller.  You'll
need that for the car, so hang on to it.  He'll also tell you he needs
something else from one of the ghouls in the reactor.

Go in the reactor building.  You'll have to reach Festus, a ghoul in
the far east room.  Unfortunately, you have to pass through a door
which needs a yellow keycard, and noone gave me the card, even though
they had asked me to repair their reactor.  The one from the crashed
vertibird didn't work, and lockpicking the door causes the guards to
attack you.  So I just stole the keycard from one of the guards in
front of the door.  (And I also stole both guards' ammo, while I was
at it :)

Later I found that there was a yellow key in a locker elsewhere on the
floor, so you may want to look for that if your steal skill sucks.
Also in a cupboard this area is a blue keycard which, although I think
it's useless here, fits a door in the Navarro base later.  There is a
similar blue key in the Navarro base, too, so it's not strictly
necessary to carry this one along, but if you have this one from
Gecko, you can take the back door into Navarro.

The only problem here is that Festus is scared silly of repairing the
reactor, for some reason.  With good speech skill, I could convince
him.  Without, I had to install it myself.  To install it yourself,
you can try to program the repair bot.  Me, I just told Sulik and Vic
to stay there, took the one RadX I had, and made a run through the
reactor room, then used the repair skill on the thingie next to the
valve on the eastern wall.  I took a lot of damage and got radiated in
the process.  Too bad I didn't have 2 RadX's, but one Rad-Away took
care of that.  (And got me addicted to Rad-Away...  WTH??)

Now for the transformer the ghoul up north wants, you can steal a
requisition form from Festus, then go with it at the ghoul with the
supply cabinet.  Or you can steal the transformer directly from the
ghoul with the supply cabinet, since in the game there is no actual
supply cabinet, and he has all the items on him.

Talk to Festus again, and he'll give you a disc with the reactor data
that you can use on the Vault City central computer to optimize the
reactor. Leave this building for now.

Go to the ghoul north, and give him the transformer.  He'll offer to
modify a weapon for you for free.  Neat, huh?  Installing the night
sight on a FN FAL was my favourite, since then I could use it at night
to snipe the slavers back at the Den, while they had massive penalties
aiming at me in the dark.  On the bad side, it doesn't have JHP ammo,
and generally the single shot damage is a bit disappointing, while the
burst mode uses too much ammo. But normally it's the most expensive
weapon upgrade, so I figured I'd better make the most out of that
offer to do it for free.

Leave back for Vault City...

  Vault City (yet again)
  ----------------------

Go talk to McClure, and tell him you've solved the problem.  He'll
make you a citizen.  I also asked him for permission to use the
reactor disc on their computer.  I'm not sure it was actually
necessary, but what the hey...  (If you ask him about the optimization
before telling him you repaired it, and becoming a citizen, he'll run
do it for you.)

Now go into the actual vault.  If you have good medical skill, search
their medical database computer, on the first floor.  You'll find the
details of combat implants.  Keep searching for a while, and you'll
get 500xp.  You can also discuss medicine with their doctor.

Talk to the nurse.  Ask about the city, then work your way to how
there aren't any children, and how come people don't just get pregnant
from having sex.  There's 300xp in it if you convince her they may
well be all sterile from radiation.  Another 300xp if you can convince
her to go see the outside world if she's that bored inside.  If you
have a male character, you can also date the nurse for 100xp.  And you
can do the whole sterility conversation again, up to the point where
you get the choice to "donate".  That's worth 500xp.

The doctor will also ask you for some Jet for his research.  Since now
you're a citizen, you're no longer searched at the gate, so you can do
this whenever you have some Jet to spare.  (Can be found on some
bandit corpses.)

Go into the vault and search though all the lockers and footlockers,
on floors 2 and 3.  Most of them are hidden by walls and locked, so
a decent lockpick skill comes in very handy.  (The stacked crates just
contain tons of water chips which arrived here instead of Vault 13 :)

On the second floor, the rattling vent contains a bunch of
micro-fusion cells.  A hidden footlocker contains a computer voice
module, which you'll need later to fix the vault 13 computer.  Take
it, and keep it for now.

On the 3'rd floor, make sure you have the reactor data disc in your
ready item slot, before clicking on the central computer.  It's the
talking computer.  You can also use the science skill on a terminal
near the south-west corner of the level for 300 xp.

After you get the computer to optimize the Gecko reactor data, leave
the vault.  Outside, stop to talk to the geezer preaching in an
intersection, pretend to be interested, and get a suitcase for the
Bishop family in New Reno. Leave the city and head for Gecko.

  Gecko (yet again)
  -----------------

Nothing much left to do here, except go talk to Festus and then go use
the optimized reactor disc on their computer.

You can also try to bait an Enclave trooper by hacking into their
network.  It will give you an idea of what you're up against, but if
you screw up, he'll say he's sent troops to get you.  I hanged around
for a few minutes to see if the Enclave troopers arrive (though I knew
I had no chance in hell to survive the encounter), but they didn't.
Maybe they needed more time?  I reloaded just in case.

You can talk again to Harold, ask him about what he does, say you
didn't want to see their city destroyed, and work your way to telling
him the story of the Vault Dweller. He'll give you something.

Btw, before I leave the subject of Gecko, there's a building with a
manhole in the north section, where you find some brainwashed ghouls
and an overgrown molerat called The Brain, who wants Cheesy Poofs from
you and plans to take over the world.  Other than being another
gratuitious "Animaniacs" plug, he can give you hints on how to do the
Gecko quests if you talk to him before you finish them.  I fail to see
any point in this exercise, so you may skip this area completely.

Interestingly enough, if you talk to him after you've killed the "rat
god" in Klamath, The Brain will be sad about it.  This has made me
wonder if you can't find a more peaceful solution for Klamath's rat
problem by talking to The Brain first.  Nope, there's no option to
tell The Brain about Klamath.

That's it.  Leave and head back to the Den, via Modoc.

  Modoc (again)
  -------------

Talk to the dude in the general store, and take the haunted farm
quest.  Then go talk to Balthas the tanner, and ask about his problem.
Talk to the dog.  Click on the boards on the well, then use a rope on
the well. Go down on the rope.

Nothing much to do here, except see the cave-in.  There's Johnny's BB
gun down here, but it's a crappy weapon.  You can get the ammo out of
it, though, for later when you get the LE BB gun, which rocks.  I
can't remember where I got that one from, though.  Go back up.  Leave
and go to the haunted farm (via the world map).  Examine the corpses:
they're fake.  Either talk to the guards outside, if they're present,
or go fall through the floor in the house (one of those rugs is over a
hole in the floor.)  Let yourself be taken to Vegeir.

Talk to him, ask a few questions, such as what's with the fake corpses
and why don't they do it themselves.  (I think that's inconsistent:
their guards had no problem staying outside AND in daylight.)  Accept
the quest.  Before you leave, go north.  The dog will run to a little
kid.  Talk to the kid.  His father is Balthas the tanner, remember?
Unfortunately, you must talk to Vegeir before you can take the kid,
and you can't before solving the conflict with Modoc.

Go back to Modoc, and talk to the dude in the shop.  Tell him the
corpses are fake.  He'll give you one month to find Karl, the missing
farmer. No time to lose, go to the Den.

  The Den (again)
  ---------------

First things first, talk to Smitty the mechanic.  Make sure you have
the controller from Gecko and 2000$.  Then also get him to install the
injection system from Klamath.  Congrats, you now have a car, and
decent mileage per fuel cell.

Now go to the house near the Brotherhood of Steel outpost.  Lockpick
your way through the thrashed room, to avoid those thieving kids.
Talk to the guy behind the coffin, and ask to see the mummy.  It's
Woody, the missing ghoul from Gecko.  Wake Woody up, and tell him to
run.

Go to "Mom's" in the east half, and talk to Karl about the ghosts.  If
you're with the female character, you can screw him for 1000$ before
that.  (How the heck does someone who supposedly is poor as dirt have
1000$, anyway?  Or is it that I give him the 1000$ and screw him to
get it back?)

By now you're probably high and mighty enough to take on Metzger.  Get
a weapon capable of burst mode, get behind him, and spray him with
bullets.  He tries to run away if you don't finish him fast.  Now
finish off the rest of his guards.  If you find this combat too tough,
reload and try again at midnight with the FN FAL with night sight.  It
also helps if Vic and Sulik have good weapons, too, and you've
levelled them up once or twice.

End combat, go tell the slaves they're free.  More xp for you.

Note that the 1.02 beta patch seems to have put in a new bug here.
Namely, the slaves don't exit the screen, but pile up on the exit
grid.  If you came to this side of town by car, there's no room for
all of them on the exit grid and the game will go unstable and crash
whenever you try to enter another screen.  Yes, that happens even if
you save and reload.  So make sure the car isn't there.  At least I
_think_ that's the cause for the crashes I had at this point.

Go and talk to Becky and say that Metzger put up a good fight.  She'll
thank you and pay you a little cash.

Now go back and take the car to Modoc.  I say take the car because
you're on a tight schedule, remember?

  Modoc (again)
  -------------

Go talk to the dude in the general store and tell him there's a
drunkard in the Den that looks like Karl, and says he's a farmer.

Go back to the ghost town and talk to Vegeir.  He'll give you an
assault rifle. Also ask to take Johnny back home.

BTW, be sure to take the car with you when you go to the ghost town.
Otherwise it will disappear by the time you're escorted back to Modoc.
Also don't go down the fountain now, or the car will disappear, too.
It also seems to disappear at the Raiders, and in lots of other
places.  God, the various car related bugs annoyed the living daylight
out of me, throughout the whole game!  *sigh*

Talk to the tanner.  He'll give you a "Combat Leather Jacket".
Personally, I think it's pretty crappy, compared to the mk II metal
armour I had by now.  Also, although the description insists that it's
got TWO sleeves, the picture of my character wearing it looks the same
as with the one sleeved jacket.

Now if you want to, you can also go to Gecko and receive some
anti-radiation medicine for rescuing Woody, and/or to the Den, to tell
Karl he can go home (worth 500xp).  Either way, leave for Redding when
you're done.

  Redding
  -------

Redding's a prosperous town with two gold mines and a massive drug
problem.  Namely, miners spend all their income on drugs.  Anyway, the
quests here are a bit on the tough side, and you may want to try doing
something else for a while, if you're under level 10-11.  Good news,
however, is that there's very good xp to be gained here, so sooner or
later you'll definitely want to come here.

Go talk to the sherrif, and offer to help.  First mission will be to
evict a widow who's behind on the rent.  She only owes 120$, so I
paid the rent for her.  (You can either give the money straight to
her, or to the mayor.) It was worth 1500xp.

Next mission is to break a fight in the Malamute bar.  I asked them
nicely first, then told them that I'm going to ask nicely and then
load my weapons and look for target practice.  This will put the miner
you're talking to in jail.  (You also have the option to put the
miners from BOTH mines in jail, but that won't do wonders for your
popularity, if you know what I mean.)

My choice was throwing the Morningstar one in jail (the loud mouth
female), since I decided I wanted to support the other mine owner, who
was siding with the NCR.  Talk to Madame Modjeska in a house for an
explanation of the political games in Redding, and make your own
choice about what mine to support.

Next mission is to find out who cut a hooker in the bar.  Go talk to
the lady behind the counter, then go north to the Morningstar mine.  A
moron will own up before you even ask him, as soon as you open the
conversation.  Be polite and sympathetic, but firm, and do take him to
jail.

Before arresting the sod, however, you may also want to go west, and
clear up the rats around Wannamingo mine.  Do not go downstairs right
now, or you'd face a swift death at the hands (umm... tentacles,
actually) of wannamingos (aliens) in the mine.  Just clear the rats
and explore the surface area, since the next mission will be around
here.  And you won't want Sulik and Vic happily hunting rats while
you're left alone with a horde of bandits.

After taking the sod in, it would be a good time to talk to the doctor
for healing supplies, and for some details on the Jet addiction.
Relaying the news to McClure in Vault City is worth a bit of xp,
though you don't have to do that right away.

Next mission is to kill Frog Morton and his gang, in the area you just
cleared of rats.  It's not that hard, but no cakewalk, either.  IMHO
it's best to work your way through the building to the south, taking
out the guards there first.  That way, there'll be less guards
shooting at you at the same time later.  Plus, you can get one or two
combat shotguns from them, which can dish out damage fast in burst
mode.  Frog has a 4.7mm caseless gun, which isn't too bad a weapon,
though it's not really an excellent one, either.  The E model from one
of his brothers is much better.  One good thing about it, though, is
that its ammo is lightweight.  But it'll be a while before you can get
ammo for it, so don't get too attached to it.

When you go back to the sherrif, he'll tell you that Frog has three
older and meaner brothers who'll try to hunt you down now.  Oh,
well...  Now he tells...

There are a couple more quests in this area, but they both have to do
with dealing with the aliens down Wannamingo mine.  As I've said,
they're tough buggers.  They can have anywhere between 120 and 200 hp
each, the average being 160, and they're armoured like heck, and there
are many of them, and their attacks have the nasty tendency of
knocking you down and eating up your action points.  You get the idea
already, don't you?  My advice is to come back here later to do them.
Like after you get a minigun, or the Bazor's from NCR.  (When you do,
don't miss the Mark II metal armour in the north-west corner.  It's
kind of easy to miss.)

Anyway, here they are.  First, you can buy the deed to Wannaming mine
for 1000$ from the mayor.  After you've cleared out all aliens, you
can sell it back to him for 2500.  Second, down in the mine there's a
working mining machine.  You can get the chip from it, and sell it to
either Dangerous Dan McGrew from Morningstar mine, or Marge LaBarge
from the other mine.  Either of them pays 1000$ for it.  Again, I
chose Marge because she supports NCR, while Dan supports the drug
dealers in New Reno.  You make your own choice, I suppose.

Other attractions include the "city hall", which is actually the local
casino, and a weird combo of bar & undertaker in the north side.  The
undertaker will complain about graves being dug up at night.  It's
probably a quest, but I skipped it, so I don't know anything more.

When you're ready to go, jump in your car and head for Broken Hills.

  Broken Hills
  ------------

Broken Hills is a mixed community of humans, ghouls and mutants.  Like
in any mixed communities, there'll be some people who hate other
people just because they look different. What else is new?

In the south-west corner, you can enlist as guard for a caravan, if
you still don't know the way to NCR.  (Got it back from Vault City,
remember?  So no need.)  There's also their uranium processing plant.
If you have some uranium ore, you can refine it, and then sell it back
to the city, for some xp.  Unfortunately, the only way I've found
uranium ore is from some heavily armed merchants in random (and rare)
encounters in the desert.  (Maybe the "Explorer" perk would help, but
other than that, it's a pretty useless perk.)

Talk to Marcus (the super-mutant in the first zone) and get the
assignment to find the missing people.  Offer to do it for free.  If
you have real good strength, you can wrestle Francis in the pub, and
if you win, you get a power fist as a prize.  If you lose, you get
screwed by the mutant and get a ball gag instead :)  And, yes, it is
possible to lose even with 10 strength, so save first.  (Fun thing to
do is check out the bookcase in his room.  He's got a Tandi inflatable
doll :)

Go east.  A ghoul will complain about flies.  If you're good at
science, you can go back in the west section and find a building with
a computer on the north side.  Use the science skill on it, and
reroute power to the ghoul's house, and optimize the city's power grid
in the process, for good xp.  Alternately, you can try to BS the
ghould near that computer, to give Eric more power, but then you
wouldn't get the xp (I think).

Back east, there's a talking plant who wants you to move it elsewhere.
If you have a shovel, do so.  The plant will teach you a chess
maneuver.  Go find a scientist with a scorpion, talk to the scientist
and ask to test your intelligence against the scorpion.  With the
plant's maneuver, you win.  And get some xp.  The scorpion will attack
you, but personally I always preferred to run and let it live.

Find some sod who'll ask you to find his wife.  Find a way into the
underground maze, e.g., through the manhole in a toilet on the south
side.  Kill the ants, and find the corpses.  Examine all the corpses.
Examine a corpse twice, to find out it's been shot first.  Find a
corpse with a letter on it.  Take the letter, read it.  Go back, find
Francis, and confront him about it.  No need killing the poor sod,
btw.  Then go tell the sherrif, and the guy with the missing wife.  If
you said you'd do it for free, the sherrif will give you a scoped
hunting rifle as a prize.  That's a lot more expensive than the 500$
he offered before. (Being generous pays, eh? :)

Back in the eastern section, talk to the super-mutant in the shed near
the mine entrance.  He'll ask you to get some components for their
mine's ventilation system, in New Reno, and tell you who to see about
it, and what to say.

So leave for New Reno...

  New Reno
  --------

If you thought the Den was bad, think again.  New Reno is the crime
capital in this game, though not half as evil as the Enclave.

BTW, just so you don't have a heart attack when that happens:  when
you leave this area, your car will get stolen.  It's not permanent.
You can follow the tracks and find the garage where it's been taken
for upgrades.  Now you can either buy your car back, or with the
female character screw the owner for the car.  Then ask for the
upgrades, if you want to, and have the cash.  Or you can just shoot
the bastard to get your car back, but then you wouldn't get the car
upgraded.  The owner says he'll also sell you micro-fusion cells at
some point in the future, but he never sold me any.

Talk to Mrs. Kitty in Cat's Paw. If you have a "Cat's Paw magazine"
with you, you can ask her about it.  She'll give you a quest to bring
her 10 issues of it.  If you do find that many, she'll offer to buy
them for 500, and you can haggle the price to 750.  You also get
1000xp.  I.e., looking for them is a major waste of time, if you ask
me.

You can also try to date her, but she says to come after you finished
the game.  Well, you can, and you do get the date.  Nothing
interesting happens.

You can also buy some time with one of the girls in here, either for
yourself, or for one of your companions.  Beats me what's the point,
though.  BTW, all the above work just as well with both male and
female characters, only with different messages.

Talk to the dude in red shirt across the street from Cat's Paw, and
ask about the families.  Particularly about the Salvatore family and
their laser pistols.  That way, you can later get the quest to find
one for the owner of the guns store.  Also, from that particular topic
you can drift into the Mordino family's stables topic, without having
to pay extra.

You could also go join the Mordino family in the Desperado casino.  If
you've got a female character, you'll have to beg and grovel long and
hard to get hired.  Apparently, they have something against females.
But if you can swallow your pride, there's 500xp to be earned by
delivering his package.

If you go to the stables, you can BS a woman with a clipboard that
you're a new researcher, and get a pass to go down and see Myron.  You
can get him to join your party, and that's even worth some xp.  He's
good at science, and he can make stimpaks and super-stimpaks.
However, he's a mega-wimp in combat, and annoying as hell the rest of
the time (particularly if you're with the female character).

On the other hand, if you want more missions from Mordino, better
don't pick Myron yet.  Next mission from Mordino is to collect some
money from the Corsican Brothers.  It's in the next area, in the porn
movie studio.  Just go there and ask for the cash, it's really that
simple.

Third mission is to kill the Salvatore guy.  Now bad news is the
Salvatore family have lasers.  Good news is that a Mark II metal
armour is surprisingly good against lasers.  Still, if you have poor
hp, better leave it for later.  Your call.  Before you kill him,
though, you may want to tell the guard at the door that you want to
work for him, and do his quests, too.  Dead men tell no tales and give
no quests, you know.

Also beware that finishing the quests for either family will make you
a "Made Man" of that family (or, in the case of Mordinos and
Salvatores, you can refuse, but you'll have to fight them), and that
means you can no longer deal with the others.  I.e., if you kill Louis
Salvatore now, you'll have to either join the Mordino's, or kill them,
too.  My choice was to let Louis live for now.

Salvatore will ask you to find and kill someone named Lloyd.  He's
downstairs in Mordino's casino.  If you feel inclined to play dirty,
lockpick his door, talk to him, take him at gun point to Golgotha,
make him dig the grave where he hid the money (neat, he had a landmine
in there :), make him go down for the money, then drop the landmine on
top of him.  Then go down and take the chips from the footlocker.  Go
back to Louis Salvatore, talk to the guard in front of the door, go
in, talk to Louis, offer the right ammount (1000), and you get half of
it as a reward.

Next mission will be to get some cash from Renesco.  Renesco doesn't
have the cash, but if you can spare the cash, you can say you'll pay
it for him IF he gives you a discount at his store.  Not that I needed
the discount, but it's worth 750xp.  Now go back, talk to Mason, talk
to Louis, offer 1000$ (and get 25% of it back.)

Ask about the next mission.  Be sure to ask for a laser pistol.  Then
talk to Mason, ask for the pistol, ask how to use it.  (You get a free
increase to energy weapons.  Not that you need energy weapons, but
it's free :) Geez, these guys were dealing with the enclave.

When you go back to town, do NOT go talk to Louis Salvatore again.
That would either make you a Made Man of the Salvatore family (and you
can't do the other family quests), or have you fight the whole
Salvatore family (and they're a bit tough right now.)

In the area with the Corsican Brothers there are a few more things you
can do.  First, you can become a porn star.  IMHO, that's a pretty bad
idea.  You do get 1500 xp and 200$, but you lose your party.
Apparently, not many people fancy grouping with a porn star, even if
it's to save the world.  Self righteous gits, if you ask me, but since
I didn't fancy doing the Enclave battles alone, I just reloaded.

You can also box.  Now those battles are a bit on the tough side, so
you'll first have to find yourself some plated gloves.  Hey, it's
cheating, but who cares?  :) Go downstairs in the casino in this area,
and search the locker.  Another good idea is to do the other quests in
the area first, and hopefully level up, before boxing.  If you defeat
all the opponents, apart from a bunch of xp, you get a bonus to
unarmed and a karma title.  I also found out that celebrity made it
nearly impossible to sneak in New Reno, even at insanely high skill.
All the more reason to leave boxing for last, if you plan to sneak
around.  (Incidentally, the same thing happens if you become a porn
star.)

While you're in the casino, you might as well deliver that suitcase to
Mr. Bishop.  Go upstairs, talk to the guards near the stairs up, and
get permission to see Bishop.  Don't go up yet, though.  Go in the
northernmost room, and pick Mrs. Bishop.  Yes, even if you're a female
yourself.  In bed, ask about Vault City and if you can have the speech
enhancing module.  She'll tell you the safe combination.  Let her go
to sleep.

Now use lockpick skill on the safe, and get everything inside.  Use
the module.  Search the rest of bookcases in this room, and take
everything.  Search the other rooms, lockpick the safes, and take
everythings In the northernmost room, use the traps skill first and
then lockpick.  Get everything, examine the disc and use the map.  Now
you've got the location of the raiders.

Go back through the door, talk to Mr. Bishop, and give him the
suitcase.  He'll give you some cash and a mission to kill Westin in
NCR, BUT you have to make it look like an accident.  Me, I didn't do
it, since by the time I got to NCR, I was already a Made Man of
another family.

Go downstairs, and lockpick and loot a couple of rooms near the
stairs.  There's good valuable weaponry and ammo in there.  (If you're
with a male character, you can also screw Bishop's daughter while
you're at it.  Pay attention to the endgame animation for the effect
:)

There's a guy in a red shirt named Jimmy in this area.  If you ask
about his scar and encourage him, he'll give you some Jet for free.
Not that I needed it, though.

Go west, and you're near Renesco's joint.  Go in, say the password you
had from Zaius in Broken hills.  Hang on to that thingie.  He also had
a couple of manuals to sell, if you have the cash.  Not much else to
buy from him, unless you need flamethrower fuel.  Me, I always found
it too heavy.

You can also get into the church (the building with a neon signs with
a heart and an arrow :) and loot the donation box.  Not many coins,
though.  Go talk to the drunk preacher, if you want to.  You can also
pick a broc flower from the garden.

Go to "New Reno Arms", lockpick the back door, and loot that room.
Wait for the day, if it's night, so the owner gets the heck out of the
back room (the one with the pack of dogs.)  Go into that room, and
behind the bookcases there's a stair down.  A dude downstairs can
upgrade weapons, and I _think_ he does it for free.  At least he never
said anything about a price.  Also, he's the only npc I've found who
can upgrade energy weapons.  (E.g., convert a Plasma Rifle into a
Turbo Plasma Rifle.  Yup, everyone's favourite from Fallout 1 :) He
can also upgrade power fists, cattle prods, flamethrower fuel, and
flamethrowers.  (Though all the numbers for the upgraded flamer seem
to be exactly the same as for the regular one.  Bug?)

Then go through the front door and deal.  Don't forget to ask about
Salvatore family's weapons, so you get the quest to bring one.
(Easiest way is to return with one after you do the Sierra depot, or
you can use the one you've got from Salvatore earlier, if you don't
mind parting with it.)  You could also buy a voice recognition module
from him, if you didn't loot the one in Vault City, but it's
expensive.  If you already have the one from the vault, don't bother.
You'll only need one.  And he can upgrade regular firearms, but since
you did get a scoped rifle from Broken Hills, and a free upgrade in
Gecko, you shouldn't need it.

In the eastern part of town, there seems to be nothing except the
Wright family, main dealers of booze in town.  Talk to Chris Wright
(the guy with a leather jacket, and whose description says about a
mohawk and chains) about a job.  Go into the mansion.  You can talk to
Mrs. Wright there about their Temperance Union, and find that Father
Tully (the drunk priest in the church) is in it.  Hmm... just
interesting, I guess.

Talk to Keith, tell him Chris sent you.  Go in, talk to his father.
He'll send you to find who's been selling dope to his son.  He
suspects a Mordino pusher.  Talk to Keith, and work your way to asking
about Richard's room.  Go search the bookcases there, and get a clue
and 500xp.  Go talk to Jimmy, and be sure to ask about that empty
capsule.  Hmm... so Richard's been poisoned with radscorpion juice.
Another 500xp.  Talk to Renesco, and ask about the capsule, and about
the radscorpion juice, and find out about Salvatore's involvement.
That's 1000xp.  Go back, talk to the father, and tell him it's the
Salvatore family and the reason.  You get 2000xp.  He'll reward you,
and give you your next mission, namely to scout the Sierra Army Depot.

You'll be going in there eventually anyway, so no need to hurry.

When you're done here, jump in the car and go back to Broken Hills.

  Broken Hills (again)
  --------------------

You can go talk to Zaius again, and he'll warn you that you need
protective gear.  Beats me where to get it, though.  Me, I just saved,
readied the component, and made a run through the mine.  Keep heading
north-east.  Me and all the gang did take damage in the process, and
bear in mind that there'll be the ants to slow you down.  But I still
had enough hp left when I reached the broken air purifier.  At that
point, you stop taking damage.

Go back and talk to Zaius for your reward.  It's a combat shotgun.
(You may also stop and clear out all the critters in the mine, if you
need the xp.  The ants are only 25 xp each, but there are many of
them, and the Lesser Deathclaw is 250.)

Now that you've solved all of Broken Hills' problems, you can get
Marcus the sherrif to join you.  He's the only npc you can get who can
use big guns and energy weapons.  Hey, he starts with a minigun.  And
he can carry lots.  And he's got good hp.  When you max out his level,
he's got a bit over 200hp, compared to 134 for Sulik, and I think 117
for Vic. Bad news, however, is that he can't use any armour.  By the
final battles, I had Sulik and Vic in Hardened Power Armors, while
Marcus was still naked.  I.e., he was losing hp a lot faster.

Another piece of bad news is that large guns do spray bullets over a
huge area.  Surprisingly, Marcus is a lot more careful with his burst
shots than either Vic or Sulik, but that means that most of the time
he'll just stand there and do nothing if he can't get a clear shot.
(Well, it's better than spraying you, but it's useless.)  If you do
get him, my advice is to give him a plasma rifle soon.

He's also good with unarmed weapons, such as the power fist and later
the "mega power fist".  However, I've always found Goris to be better
at unarmed, at similar levels.

Anyway, if you don't have great charisma (to afford a large group),
I'd say he's not THAT great to warrant kicking someone else out.  Your
call, though.

BTW, if you get him, don't give him grenades.  Regardless of what he
says, he'll throw like hell, and end up injuring himself and the
allies.  Only good thing is that IMHO grenades are so lousy in this game,
that he never actually managed to kill himself or an ally.  Actually,
never managed to kill anything larger than a rat with them, either.
All the more reason not to fix him up with grenades.

And another good idea is to customize his battle orders.  Instead of
attacking "Whomever is attacking me", which means he'll be idle most
of the time, pick something else.

Jump in your car and head for the Sierra Army Depot.

(On the way there, you can hang a bit around New Reno.  If you find a
mob, you can kill them and get sniper rifles from them.  Those things
may not look like they do much damage, but they're almost guaranteed
to do a good critical.  Even if you have "Fast Shot" for a trait, and
can't use aimed shots.)

  Sierra Army Depot
  -----------------

This is one nasty place, full of turrets and land mines.  Your first
job will be taking out the turrets.  They can dish out damage pretty
fast.  Marcus comes in handy here, if you've taken him and his minigun
along.  Otherwise, just snipe at them from a safe distance.  They have
very limited range.

Loot the equipment on and _around_ the corpses, while you're at it.
Including a sniper rifle, which is very useful if you didn't get it
from the mobsters around New Reno.

Disarm the traps, including the one on the door, and enter the
building on the left side.  Get the howitzer shell from the crate
inside.  Go into the building with the howitzer on the right side,
load and fire.  This will blast open the building to the north.  Enter
it.

Before entering the building, you could go into a small underground
room in the area marked "high voltage".  The only thing in there is a
switch.  Using it will turn the yellow force fields (impassable) into
red force fields (can pass, but take damage), as well as turn off the
lights.  Doesn't look to me like any improvement, unless your repair
skill really sucks and you don't have Vic with you. So I didn't.

On the first floor, search the desk for the password.  Then use that
password on the computer.  Search the level thoroughly, taking Dixon's
eye and the Bio Gel. There's also a combat armour in a locker.  Use
the eye on the scanner to call the elevator.

On the second level, use repair on the force field generators to
disable them.  Save before trying, though, because too many failures
to disable a shield will triger the alarm.  Yup. All those nice big
robots will start shooting at you like crazy.  Later on they wouldn't
be a big deal, but right now they are a bit tough, as well as way too
many.

Speaking of the robots, my personal advice is to leave them be for
now.  Unless you manage to trigger the alarm, they'll just stand there
and do nothing bad.  You can always come back (much) later and kill
them, if you really need the xp.

You can get 200xp for disabling the repair bay computer, on the left
side of the level.  There's another computer, which can disable the
plates and fields in the ammo area.  At least it said it did.  For me,
choosing to disable the fields just disabled the plates again.  Bug?
Reading the mail on it will disable the computer, though, so you can
no longer use it.  Better leave that for the last thing you do with
it.  (Had a good laugh about what videos did the army order :) Check
out the crates.  There are a couple more combat armours, and some
weapons and ammo.  Including another sniper rifle, a plasma rifle and
some energy cells.

On level 3, there are a couple of laser pistols in some desks, and
some assault rifles and ammo in lockers nearby.  Don't touch the
computer in between, though, unless you want to trigger the alarm.  A
computer in the northern part wants you to bring it a cybernetic brain
from level 4.

You can get to level 4 with the elevator, with Clifton's eye, which
you can get in the room in the NE corner of level 3.  Or by
lockpicking the door to the round elevator on the east side.  Be
warned however, that you only get one chance to retrieve the right
brain, and you'll need insanely high science skill.  I had 126 science
skill when I finally succeeded!  If you don't have what it takes,
better don't even try.  (Maybe bringing Myron along would help?)  In
any case, save before touching any computer on level 4.

Anyway, even if you do get the brain, and hook it into the robot body
on level 3, and fill it with bio-gel... it's still missing a
motivator.  You can get one off one of the small, similarly shaped
security robots.  You know, the ones that look like they have a brain
in a glass bowl on top.  Beware that attacking a robot will trigger
the rest of the robots to attack you, too.  So if you don't think you
can survive that yet, you may want to leave it for later.

Once you fully repaired the robot, check its status on the nearby
computer terminal.  If all systems look ok, activate it.  Now you get
the option of taking it with you.

The robot starts with pretty good hp, and gets even better.  He can't
use armour, but he can use some handguns and rifles.  Incidentally,
that does include the M72 Gauss Rifle much later, which is a very good
weapon.  (However, it doesn't include the gauss pistol...  Not heavy
enough for the robot, or what?)  Don't forget to change his battle
orders, since he starts with some pretty bad settings (e.g., set to go
attack unarmed, and he's lousy unarmed.)  Another damn good thing
about it, is that it can fully repair itself between fights.  Yup,
I've seen him go from a few HP to a full 179 in one go.

Ironically, the robot claims to have good science skill.  However, if
you managed to get the cybernetic brain for it, you already have
better science skill.  So what's the use?

Now go back to New Reno...

  New Reno (again)
  ----------------

You can go finish the mafia quests for one of the families, if you
haven't already.

My favourite sequence was like follows.  First go pop Louis Salvatore
(by now you should have no problem).  That's 500 xp.  If you did his
quests before, don't just go in, guns blazing.  Talk to Mason, go talk
to Louis, and just refuse to join his family to start the fight.  That
way I think you still get the xp for the desert escort mission.  Then
waste all his men, upstairs and downstairs, and loot their lasers.
(They're worth good cash :)

Then go talk to Big Jesus Mordino, and _refuse_ joining them.  You'll
get 750xp, a grease gun and a Mark II leather armour, and you'll get
to kill the Mordino's, too.  The grease gun isn't bad, and the armour
you can sell.

Then go finish Wright's quest, namely just go and tell him about the
Sierra depot you just visited.  That will make you a Made Man of the
Wright family, and they'll send you to Cat's Paw and New Reno Arms for
some equipment.

At New Reno Arms, that gave me the right to buy special equipment,
such as the Bozar and the Minigun.  (Though I think that exactly what
equipment you find may be a bit random.)  Be warned that even at
discount prices they are expensive.  Better skip them for now, and
steal the Bozar from NCR.  While you're there, deliver that laser
pistol you promised, for 500xp.

At Cat's Paw, no new option appeared.  Apparently, you can get laid
for free, though.  Why bother?

Finish whatever unfinished business you have here and think you can
finish (e.g., boxing), then jump in your car and head for NCR.

  New California Republic
  -----------------------

NCR is the prototype of police state, i.e., there's police everywhere
and at the slightest sign of mischief, they shoot.  Other than that, I
found it to be a pretty decent and civilized place.  Anyway, do NOT
ever enter the proper city if you're holding a weapon OR any of your
men is holding one.  Tell them to put away your weapons.  Before the
first 1.02 patch, that also seemed to include Goris's claw, when you
pick him, but he can't drop his claws, so if you didn't apply the
patch, always leave him outside.  Otherwise, the police will start
shouting and almost immediately start shooting, too.  The result will
most likely be you slaughtering the whole city and missing the quests.

Note that it may seem an easy thing, but later when you come back to
the city, you'll have the option of entering straight into the city or
even to the council area.  Don't.  Chances are your men will still be
holding their weapons from a previous encounter, and you'll have a
jolly good shoot-out with the police.

Right where you arrive, there'll be a guns shop and three guards in
green combat suits.  Steal their Bozar's.  Good weapon, and worth a
load of cash when you sell it.  The guy in the shop didn't want to
deal with me first time I came there, for some reason.  Several hours
and quests later, he did want to trade.  Next time again he didn't.
Since his message doesn't state WHY, it tooke me a while to figure out
it's based on hour.  (OK, so I'm stupid :) After 8:30AM it seemed to
be ok.

There's also a bum who'll offer to guard your car for 5 bucks.  Is
that really necessary?  Don't know.  I paid the bum, mainly because 5
bucks isn't that much to be worth the risk.

Another bum will offer to do some upgrade to your car for 1000$.  I
did this, too.

Now tell your men to put away their weapons, and enter the city.

Inside, on the north-west side, there's a short guy with a weapon
shop.  You can get yourself hired as a caravan guard to Redding here,
though I didn't need it, and anyway there are more quests to be done
here and now.  You can also talk him into giving you the password to
the back room, which is an illegal gambling house.  If you invested
lots in gambling skill, here's one of the places it pays off.  And, of
course, you can buy weapons from him.  Do check all his tables, like
he told you.  Don't just talk to him.  One of the tables has different
equipment.

Among the eq here, there's a sort of a SMG, named HK P90c.  Weird
thing about it is that it comes loaded with rare 9mm ammo, yet you
can't reload it with 9mm.  You reload it with 10mm.  Bug?  The result
is that you get a weapon that does good damage per round, and has a
massive 12 round burst, with cheap 10mm ammo.  By now I had my car's
trunk full of 10mm ammo.  It is IMHO the ultimate weapon based on
small guns skill, and in fact with the right perks it easily outguns
the normal minigun (though not the Avenger or Vindicator).  However,
you don't have to buy it here.  You can get it for free from one of
the bandits on level 3 in Vault 15, which is the next area you'll go.
Just thought I'd mention it now, though.

Go talk to the dude in lab coat, in the building right across the
street, to the south.  He'll ask you to test his mutant cure on a
super-mutant in Broken Hills.  Take it, but DON'T use it in Broken
Hills.  Use it on a super-mutant in the military base, when you get
there.  Of course, you may have to do it in the middle of combat, but
you do get the quest without making more enemies than strictly
necessary.  The cyber-dog you'll get for the quest is crappy, though,
if you ask me.

(In case you're thinking what I've been thinking, no, you can't save
the serum for a quick kill against the mutant boss at the end of the
game.  It didn't have any effect on him.  I tried.  So just do the
quest for 1000xp on a mutant in the Military Base.)

Now look for a building with a woman and a robot in front of it.  Save
before talking to her.  Apparently, some loony is trying to blow up
their power station.  If the girl doesn't want to talk to you yet,
come back later.  Don't shoot the idiot.  Talk him out of it.
"Empathy" perk would be nice here, but if you saved, you can just go
by trial and error.  It's worth 6000xp, so it's not a waste of time.
Then talk to the girl again, and she'll give you some manuals.

South of that building is another one, with a broken car after a
chainlink fence.  Go talk to the girl in green armour on the left
side, and say the slavers are filth.  She'll tell you to go take care
of the slaver outside the town.  So go outside, talk to that slaver.
You can also take a quest from the slaver, to find a map for the
rangers' houses.  It's on the table, in the rangers' house, in the
room with the guy with the minigun.  Bring it back to the slaver for
500$.  Then waste the slavers and free the slaves.  Tell your men to
put away your weapons, then come back and talk to the armoured girl
again.  That's 3000xp.

She'll also give you a badge saying you're an official New California
Ranger, with code wheel and everything...  Beats me what does that
help with.

In one of the houses there's a church of the Hubologists.  You can BS
the preacher to give you a letter for their AHS-9 (a.k.a. cult leader)
in San Francisco.  He can also give you an alignment check (or "zeta
scan"), but it lowered my luck and critical chance by 1.  I'm sure it
didn't do that before the 1.02 beta patch.

At the hospital, the doctor offered to cut my leg off.  Beats me why.
I refused, anyway.  If it's about that extra toe thingie, the doctor
in the Vault City courtyard can do it without cutting the leg.

Talk to the bartender in the bar and find out that President Tandi is
looking for a specialist.  Don't talk to the other guy in the bar,
'cause he only wants trouble.

Go south, to the council alrea.  Talk to the guy in the first room,
then with Gunther, then with President Tandi.  Offer to help, say you
have a way with words.  (Apparently, unlike Lynette in Vault City,
Tandi doesn't see genocide as the only solution to all problems.)  You
can ask about all sorts of things, and you get a propaganda holo-disc
if you ask about the NCR.  Other than giving you a good reading on the
PIP-Boy, doesn't seem to serve any purpose.

Now you can leave town and head for Vault 15.  (Talk to the guy doing
your car upgrades first, to see if he's finished.  If not, rest for a
while.)

  Vault 15
  --------

The squatters will refuse to talk to you, except for one woman.  Ask
where you can go for privacy, then talk up to the point when someone's
listening from outside.  Run along the trail and convince the lady in
armour there to let you through. (Say you're resucuing a little girl)

Talk to the guard outside and ask about the girl, then BS him that if
you fight one of you will die, and best to avoid that.  He'll give you
the key.  BTW, the door is trapped, so you may want to disarm the trap
first.  (If nothing else, it does give you some xp :) Rescue the girl,
go back to the squatters' tent area and talk to her and her mother.
Then go talk to the chief squatter, and convince him to join the NCR.
Apparently, you must kill the bandits' leader first, though.  And
you'll get a key to the vault.

Go back to where they kept the girl, unlock the vault, go down.  BS
any bandits met that you're a new guy/girl, talk to the doctor for
some insight on the bandits' leader.  Go to level 2, and repair the
generator (use science on it first).  Then search all the rooms
thoroughly.  Then skip down to level 3, and go kill the
son-of-a-bitch.  You'll still have to fight the bandits on your way
out, and you might as well do a thorough search of the Vault while
you're inside.  Also use the computer.  Stop again on level 2 and kill
the bandits for the xp.

In the end, you should have the computer parts for Tandi, a holodisc
saying that the bandits had a spy in NCR, and the location of Vault
13.  Plus any good equipment you can get off the bandits' corpses,
such as the bugged 9/10mm SMG I mentioned earlier.  If you can afford
the weight, also take the combat armour in a compartment on the wall
on level 2:  you'll need a cartload of combat armours if you decide to
do the combat implants.

Go back out, talk to Zeke again.  Now he's ready to accept NCR's rule.
OK, so tell your men to put their weapons away, and jump in the car.

  NCR (again)
  -----------

Not much left to do here for now.  Go talk to Tandi, and do tell her
there's a spy in her organization.  She'll send you to Gunther for the
reward.  (Apparently the spy's name is Feargus.  Same as your nephew
in the village. That guy sure put his name all over the game, huh? :)
That's $4000 reward, 6000xp for solving the vault, and another 4000xp
for the spy. Not bad at all...

Now since you have the location, jump in the car and go see the
"sacred" Vault 13.

  Vault 13
  --------

Vault 13 is occupied by a merry band of sentient Deathclaws.  They are
sentient and they are civilized, so no need to draw your weapons.
Talk to the one closest to the vault door, ask how come he speaks so
well, ask about the GECK, ask to be let to look for it, and offer to
help in exchange.  (You did bring the voice recognition module along,
didn't you?)

Go down to level 3, click on the terminal and select the choice to
open it. Use the voice recognition module on it.

While you're on this floor, you can talk to Goris and even take him in
your group, if you have places left.  Bad part is that, just like
Marcus, he can't use armour.  Worse yet, he can't use weapons, either.
Good part is that he gets even better hp than Marcus once he levels up
a bit, and he can dish out awesome unarmed damage.  When he's maxxed
out, I think he gets like 41 unarmed damage, and 4 attacks per turn.
And I highly suspect that his claw adds to that.  I.e., if you need
someone to dish out melee damage fast, Goris is the man... erm... the
deathclaw.  Of course, that'll mean he's always in the way of your
shot, just like anyone else using melee weapons.

A problem you will have sooner or later is that when you arive in a
location, Gorris will leave, saying his pack is in trouble.  Usually
it happened at the military base, but last time it happened in San
Francisco.  You can go pick him back from Vault 13, after you watch on
the security cameras the Enclave troopers slaughtering Grunthar.
However, the endgame animation will say that YOU slaughtered the
sentient deathclaws.  WTH?  Oh well...

You should also thoroughly loot the base.  On the third floor, be sure
not to miss the NavCom parts, which you'll later need to repair the
Valdez tanker and go to the Enclave base for the final showdown.  You
can also get another combat armour.  Ok, I know you have tons of
combat armours already, but you can use up to _six_ of them for parts
for the combat implants, if you decide to do those.  In another locker
there's the "holy" GECK you were sent to retrieve.  Taking it is worth
4000xp.  If you don't take it now, Grunthar will give it to you
anyway, when you tell him you fixed their computer.  (And you'll get
the xp, too.)

You can also talk to their Mother Deathclaw, to find out more about
Matt, the prisoner on level 2.  I.e., he's not kept there just for the
fun of it, but because he tried to plant a bomb and destroy their
eggs.  And they're quite nice about it, if you ask me.  I.e., don't
try to rescue the moron.  If you try, you'll end up fighting (and
killing) everyone on level 1, including the doctor, and Matt will run
away after the slaughter anyway.

Be sure to talk to Grunthar on the way out, regardless of whether
you've taken the GECK already or not.  That's when you get the xp for
fixing the computer.

OK, since now you have the GECK, let's go back to Arroyo...

  Arroyo (again)
  --------------

Not much to do here.  Talk to Hakunin and leave.

However, my advice is DON'T go to Navarro, yet.  The place is crawling
with guys in Advanced Power Armour, with plasma guns.  There are also
turrets with dual plasma guns all over the place.  You'll need to
level up a bit before dancing with them, and pick up a good bunch of
perks.  "Sniper" was always my favourite, since it upgrades a lot of
normal attacks into criticals.  Close second choices are the two
levels of "Bonus Ranged Damage", "Living Anatomy", and "Bonus Rate of
Fire".  Also your companions are weak now, and they'll need to level
up a bit themselves.

For now, you may (or may not) want to go to the Military Base, a short
walk east of Vault 13.  On your way there, you can stop to finish
whatever unfinished quests you've left on the way.  (Such as clearing
the Wannamingo mine.)

  Military Base
  -------------

The military base is the base with the mutagen vats in Fallout 1.
Only now it looks a lot more ruined, like anything that has been blown
up.  Twice, in fact :)

It is a pretty straightforward business.  Get in, shoot everything
that moves, collect the goodies.  That includes a power armor, which
you can upgrade to hardened power armor in San Francisco.  It also
includes a Gauss Pistol, which is probably the ultimate non-energy
pistol in the game, but doesn't have burst mode.  But that you can
also get by hanging around Navarro until you meet (and slay) one of
the enclave patrolls.  The holodiscs will give you the idea that the
Enclave went to great lengths to aquire the FEV.  (The virus which
created the mutants in Fallout 1.)

To get inside the base, get the metal rod, use it on the wagon on
rails.  Then use an explosive pack on the rod.  Definitely beats me
why couldn't you realistically achieve the same effect by jamming
enough explosive in the caved in rocks.

When you start meeting super-mutants, ready the "mutant remedy" you
have from the researcher in NCR, and use it on one.  A good candidate
is the lone mutant on the first floor, particularly since he doesn't
have ranged weapons.  Snipe the rats from a distance, first.  Then
with your serum in the active item slot, click on it to get the
crosshair cursor, then click on poor Grundel.  Watch Grundel dissolve.
(Hey, if it makes you feel any better, that guy would have tried to
make a dinner out of you, if you talked to him instead.)

You'll also have to fix the power generator before you can use the
elevator, in case that's not obvious.

Then leave for the raiders' base.  (The one a bit south of Vault
City.)

  Raiders' Base
  -------------

I've found this to be one of the many places where the car can
disappear for good.  F***in' car bugs :( So save in a new slot and be
prepared to reload and give it a skip if you don't find your car when
you come back...  Or you can play safe:  leave your car in a safe
place in a city (e.g., Vault City or New Reno), come by foot to the
raiders' base, do it, then go back on foot for your car.

Nothing much to do here, except kill the raiders, get 3 of those
dog-tags from footlockers and read them, disarm the trap on the safe,
open the safe.  Be sure to take their account book and look at it.
Then open the gate to the east.  Go through that area (heavily
trapped!), exit the cave through that other entrance.  That's needed
to get the quest.

Then go to Vault City.

  Vault City (yet again)
  ----------------------

In vault city, you can finish whatever quests you have unfinished.
Like telling McClure about Redding's Jet addiction, and what is Jet.
You can also go talk to the dude in Correction Center and tell him you
scouted the path to NCR.  That's worth some xp, and he'll also give
you a motion scanner.

If you did deal with the raiders, and have their account book, and
Bishop's data disc, you can go talk to First Citizen Lynette.
That's worth 1000 + 2500 + 500 = 4000xp.  Definitely worth the time,
I'd say.  And you'll get a new mission.  Namely, to deliver a disc to
Westin in NCR.  (She says she also gave me an item or something, but I
can't seem to find anything new and interesting in my inventory.  Then
again, I'm carrying everything AND the kitchen sink, so it may well be
lost in all that junk :)

Now you can go and use those combat suits to get the combat implants.
If you didn't repair the auto-doc already, do so now, or you'll die.
Be warned that doing the second level of either operation will lower
your charisma by one.  Two operations, two points of charisma down.
That's one less party member.  Also, the second level of each
operation is extremely expensive.

Now although you could do the same operations in San Francisco, DON'T!
It's bugged.  In theory, the first level of implant should get your
resistance to 5%, the second to 10%.  Without the 1.02 patch, you
could get two levels of implant in Vault City, and then get the first
level again in San Francisco, for a total of 15% extra resistance.
Wow!  With the patch, it's still bugged to hell and back, but much
worse.  If you do the second (or third) level of the operation in San
Francisco, you get thrown back at 5%, permanently.  Basically, you do
get the charisma penalty for the second level, but not the resistance
increase.  Sheesh...

Ok, now that you have your implants and a mission, go to NCR.

  NCR (yet again)
  ---------------

As usual, stop at the bazaar, not inside, tell your men to hide the
weapons, and if you have Goris with you, tell him to stay there.  Then
go inside.  If you haven't told the crazy researcher about the failed
mutant experiment yet, and you want the cyber-dog, now's a good time
to get it.  I didn't find the mutt too impressive in combat, and he
can't carry anything, either.  And there doesn't seem to be any xp for
telling the scientist, either, just the dog.

Then go tell the guard at the forcefield on the west side that you
have business with Westin from Vault City.  He'll let you in.  You can
talk to Saltbeef about his Vault 13 story, but by now you know where
Vault 13 is already.  Tell the guard at Westin's door that you have
business from Vault City.  Talk to Westin, and you get 2000xp.  He'll
give you anoter holodisk to relay to the First Citizen.  Oh well...

Jump in the car and go to Vault City.

  Vault City (yet again)
  ----------------------

Not much to do here now.  Go give the holodisc to Lynette for 1500xp.
She'll also send you to Amenities Office to collect your reward.  It's
a H&K G11, same as the one on Frog Morton.  By now you probably have
much better weaponry already, but you can always sell it for a few
bucks or for ammo.  If you sell it, you may want to get the ammo out
of it first.  About halfway through the Enclave, near the end of the
game, you'll find a pretty awesome minigun that runs on 4.7mm ammo.

While you're here, you can go see doctor Troy in the vault again.  If
enough time has passed since you brought him the Jet sample, he'll
have discovered an antidote.  You can take it to Redding to "Painless"
Doc Johnson for 2500xp (and the warm fuzzy feeling that you cured a
whole city of drugs, and now they're stuck with the ugly post-nuclear
reality :) Then come back here and tell McClure that Troy created an
antidote, and that you delivered it. That's worth another 2500xp.

In case you feel like trying that (I know I did), no, you can't use
the extra antidote bottle to cure Mrs. Bishop in New Reno.  Don't
know why, but I kind of felt sorry about that woman :)

Assuming you finished all your business here, you can leave for San
Francisco.  If you don't know its location already, just go to the
military base west of Vault 13, then west to the ocean, then north
along the coast. Can't miss it, really.

  San Francisco
  -------------

First thing you'll notice here, is two guys fighting.  The Dragon and
Lo Pan. Talk to them, they're too equally matched, one of them needs a
champion.  The Dragon is good, Lo Pan is evil, make your own choice.
I chose the Dragon.

Now first thing you'll need to prove yourself.  That means fighting
unarmed against a sequence of fighters, increasingly tougher, and
ending with the Dragon himself.  Now each of them aren't too tough,
since unlike New Reno boxing, here you don't have to use gloves, and
you can use kicks and special unarmed attacks.  And you are healed
between fights.

A problem I've had was trying not to kill the Dragon's fighters in the
ring, because he said it wouldn't be a fight to the death.  So I used
to reload when I pulled a "fatality" (i.e., a critical that killed the
bugger.)  Apparently it makes no difference, though.  Even if you kill
the Dragon in the ring (I'm assuming it's him, because it looks like
him, and he did say he'll be the last test), he'll still be there in
his room after the fight.

Then you'll have to challenge Lo Pan to mortal kombat.  About half way
through the fight, the sucker will "accidentally find" a .223 pistol.
Yes, it's that thingie that has 20-30 hp attacks.  Normally by now
it'd be unimpressive, as weapons go, but remember that you're without
your armour now, and your fists don't do half as much damage as his
gun.

After you've killed Lo Pan, go talk again to the Dragon.

Go talk to the guard near the Brotherhood of Steel building, and he'll
ask you to bring him the vertibird plans from Navarro.  He'll also
tell you a way to do it without fighting, if you want to.  (Don't
leave your friends HERE, as he suggests, though.  That would make
random encounters a bit more difficult.  You can leave them in front
of the gates to Navarro base, anyway.)

Now go north.  In the tanker you can check out the shops, then go
downstairs.  Kill all the aliens.  Remember Wannamingo mine?  Same
thingies.  Use burst mode heavily, e.g., from the Bozar.  Kill the
other creatures, too.  This big battle is worth a bit over 10K xp.
Talk to Suze, and watch her go up the stairs.  (BTW, don't overdo
burst mode around Suze.  You're trying to rescue her, not kill her :)
Then go upstairs, talk to her again, and talk to her boyfriend.  Go in
the bar, go upstairs, and talk to the Captain.  So now you need a
Tanker Fob, the NavCom parts you already have from Vault 13, and fuel
to move the tanker.  In case that's unclear, you do not need to find
the IFF: the tanker already has one.

Go to the Hubologists' area, say you have a letter for the AHS-9, get
let inside.  You can give him the letter for some xp, and you can go
talk to the "celebrities" who are making propaganda for the "church".
Be sure to ask what makes them celebrities.  Yup. They played in some
second rate porn flicks in New Reno.  Find the scientist, and ask him
to upgrade your armour.  Use a terminal nearby and find out how the
"church" is one huge money making scheme, and how the AHS-9 has no
qualms about destroying the humans who weren't with him from the
beginning.  Use the wait option on the PIP to pass the time until it's
ready.  Interestingly enough, after doing the upgrade, he had the cash
in his inventory, so I just stole the 10 grand back.  That's one free
upgrade.  Now leave, and personally I'd say don't join.

Now that you have hardened power armour, you're ready to kick some
righteous donkey in Navarro.  (Alternately, you could buy some Tesla
armours from a shopkeeper in Chinatown, which are even better against
plasma.  And at Navarro, they do use plasma in wholesale.  If you can
afford them, that is.)  Jump in your car, and go there.

  Navarro
  -------

You'll arrive and find a geezer guarding a deserted gas station.
Don't annoy him for now.

Now there are four ways into Navarro.

First way, the "heroic" way, is to head north, guns blazing.
Personally, I wouldn't advise it, since first thing you run into is
three guards in advanced power armour with plasma rifles, and two
turrets with dual plasma cannons, and by the time you finish them, the
whole rest of the compound wants to get into the act.

Second way is going west, disarming the traps, and down through the
vent.  Use the blue keycard from Gecko on the door there, and get some
xp for releasing the captive sentient deathclaw.  This approach does
have its merits, but the bad part is that after that, the deathclaw
will run, and you won't have him by your side.  He's a tough one, and,
well, you can use all the help you can get if you want to do the
battles for the kill xp.

Third option, and my favourite, is to kill the gas station attendant,
then go through a manhole in a building nearby.  Make your way into
the commander's office, kill him, get the Tanker Fob. Then find and
loot the Advanced Power Armour in a room full of lockers.  Give your
old Hardened Power Armour to someone else in your group, like Vic or
Sulik, particularly if you want to do the ground level, too.  Kill
everyone else on this level, except the deathclaw.  The deathclaw will
join you, but only as long as you don't open the door that requires
the blue keycard.  At that point he runs away.  So if you don't open
it until after you do the surface fights, you have one extra helping
hand for free.  (Though if you get him killed, you no longer get the
quest xp for freeing him.)

Now if you feel tough enough, you can go upstairs, on those circular
elevators and clear the surface, too.  If not, hell, you can finish
the game anyway, but you'll be missing hardened power armours for
your group at the Enclave battles.

On the surface, there are a couple of things you can take, and which
are basically the sole reason for bothering with it.  The vertibird
plans, an electrical engine and a K-9 motivator (looks just like the
engine).  Be sure not to miss the plans.

Now what may not be obvious is that you don't have to clear the
surface in one go.  Get up there, and stay relatively close to an
elevator. Shoot as much as you feel safe, then use the circular
elevators to go down and heal, if you or any of your group starts
taking too much damage.  Also, you can skip some of the guards and
turrets, if you can get the plans and engines without triggering them.
E.g., the front gate guards probably won't come after you if you stay
around the back area.

If you want to, you can use the K-9 motivator to activate the
cyber-dog downstairs and take him with you.  He's just the same crappy
cyber-dog as the one from the NCR scientist, only this one can also
talk.  Other than that, it's still just as crappy in combat, and you
still can't use it to carry excess weight.

Fourth way is to do it "on the sly", if you've talked to the
Brotherhood of Steel guard in San Francisco and he's told you that
Navarro is accepting recruits.  Again, don't leave your companions in
San Francisco, if you choose this approach.  Just ask if this is
Navarro, tell the gas station dude that you're a recruit and you hired
an escort, find the password.  Go north.  Tell your companions to wait
you there, talk to the guard in front of the gate, say the pasword.
Do NOT talk to the drill sergeant, as you're told at the gate, or
you'll get assigned to a post (not necessarily bad), and the sergeat
will start going around in circles, checking all guards, including you
(bad, I think, tho I always managed to avoid the son-of-a-bitch well
enough :)

Time to get yourself an advanced power armour.  Go downstairs, find
the quartermaster's office in the NW corner, bypass him and loot the
lockers in the next room.  (Alternately, if you actually want to
role-play getting your armour, remove your power armour and wear
something else.  Go talk to the cook, in the large building to the
west of the gate.  You'll get told to go downstairs and get outfitted.
Go downstairs, look for quartermaster, say you're new, get told to go
get your power armour and weapon from the next room.)

Go back, talk to the cook, and ask what's happening around, where's
the main base, and about the fob.  Go downstairs, find a closed room
with a guy in power armour inside (the commander), a couple of
bookcases, and a couple of lockers.  And a guard at the door.  Talk to
the guard, BS him that the base wants the FOB secured.  Go inside,
talk to the commander, open the locker and get the FOB.

Go back upstairs.  Now I'm told that you can talk to Raoul, and then
BS Quincy that Raoul sent you for the plans.  Didn't work for me, so I
had to sneak and loot the locker behind Quincy.  If you also want the
engine and the motivator from behind Raoul, sneak there, too.  These
mechanics get jumpy if they see someone looting their lockers :)

Or you can use a mixed approach.  E.g., since the toughest battles are
on the ground floor, you can use the sly approach just for the that
floor (vertibird plans), then get your companions, kill the gas
station attendant, go down and shoot your way through the underground
floor (for the Advanced Power Armour and Tanker FOB.)

Either way, don't forget to open the door downstairs to release the
deathclaw, when you're done.  That's worth 1500xp.

  San Francisco (again)
  ---------------------

Go back to the tanker, go downstairs and use the Tanker Fob on that
door.  Go upstairs, through that door, and fix the NavCom with the
NavCom parts.  (Be warned that it's a long narrow passage there, and
your group members will definitely get in the way.  If you don't fancy
doing two dozen pushes to get through, you may want to let them wait
for you downstairs.)

Now the tanker is operational, but you still need fuel.  Go back into
the town.  Stop on the way to talk to the guy near the Brotherhood of
Steel outpost, and give him the vertibird plans.  He's the only one
who has the decency to make copies and give you your plans back, btw.

Now go in and loot the outpost.  Among other things, here you find a
pulse rifle, which is a very good energy weapon, but has one flaw:  no
burst mode.  Me, I preferred sticking with the Bozar, which is why I
say you don't really need energy weapons skill in this game.  You also
find a Brotherhood Combat Armour (not bad, but hardened power armour
is better.)  And I here you can find the second power armour, which
the Hubologists' scientist can upgrade.  The computer here can improve
your stats, if you've been collecting those memory modules along the
way.  At least it says it can... it never did anything for me, except
use up the memory module.  Bug?

OK, back to getting the fuel.  Go into the palace, on the east side.
You can trade a power armour for fuel, which I suspect is the way to
get it if you joined the Hubologists, and given them the plans for the
vertibirds.  Or you can try to hack into a computer and divert the
fuel yourself.  Or you can go talk to the Emperor's advisor, if you
don't mind getting a mission to kill someone.

Now the advisor will ask you for the vertibird plans.  (Gee, everyone
wants them :) Go give them to the only scientist who offers to take
them (west side, northern part).  Talk again to the advisor.  Now he
wants the Hubologists' AHS-9 dead, for kidnapping children and
brainwashing them.

Go at the hubologists, go down, tell the robed figure at the door that
you want to talk to their scientist about upgrading a power armour.
Now go waste the son-of-a-bitch AHS-9.  Be warned that you'll end up
wasting all the rest of sons-and-daughters-of-bitches in the base,
because they attack.  So be prepared for a long fight.  (Don't go
short on ammo:)

Go back to the advisor, he'll tell you the big secret:  the Emperor is
a computer.  And he'll tell you the password and let you go to the
main terminal, where you can re-route the fuel yourself.

Now if you feel ready for some _major_ kicking righteous donkey, go
activate the tanker from the terminal the Captain's room, and sail to
the rig.

I highly suspect there should also be the possibility of going to the
rig with the Hubologists' ship.  But one of the quests for the
Hubologists is bugged, and you can never finish it. At least I never
could.  And then you're hosed: you can no longer finish the game :(

Well, if you really want to, here's what you can try, as an
alternative to activating the tanker:  go join the hubologists.  You
will have to take the zeta scan now, if you didn't take it in NCR.
It'll cost you 1 point of luck and 1 of critical chance, so it's a bad
idea, anyway.  (I'm pretty sure I never lost anything before the
patch.  Maybe they wanted to make the evil path less attractive now?)
Now give the vertibird plans to the scientist outside, near the
mis-shapen space shuttle.  Talk to him.  You need fuel.  Go to the
palace, hack into a computer, and divert the fuel.  Now the AHS-7 will
want you to kill Badger in the tanker.  And this is the hosed quest.
Although I did kill Badger (and most of the innocents on board in the
process), the game doesn't seem to notice it.  Heck, I even thought he
meant the Captain, so I slaughtered him, too.  Nice try, but no
banana.

Well, if you think you'll have better luck, feel free to try.  Again,
I'd still advise activating the tanker instead.  At least that won't
screw up your critical chance.  (And, well, even without that, I still
prefer the good natured approaches in a role-playing game.  I only
tried the hubology approach so I could write about it in this
walkthrough, and I still feel like a mutant pig rat for slaughtering
those innocents :)

BTW, be warned that you can't take the car with you.  Now would be a
good time to sell that surplus equipment for cash, and get all the
ammo you think you'll need.  Like, say a couple of thousand .223
bullets for the Bozar, and a bunch of micro-fusion cells for Marcus
and his plasma rifle of doom.  Yup, you'll really need that many.
Some 4.7mm caseless ammo can come in handy, since halfway through the
Enclave base, you find a Vindicator minigun, which is real cool and
uses that kind of ammo.  Also, get tons of stimpaks, super-stimpaks
and medikits.  Use your party members to carry the excess weight.

If you still need money for ammo and other equipment, you can hang
around Navarro base, and kill their patrolls.  Their pulse pistols
sell for mega-cash, and if you're lucky (and annoyed them enough?),
you can get Avenger Mininguns, too.  Those work on the same 5mm ammo,
but do more damage per bullet.

If you're short of level and skills, and need xp, a good place to hang
around is the relatively flat desert patch near the ocean, roughly
between Navarro and San Francisco.  Well, look on your map if you
don't know what I'm talking about.  The aliens, deathclaws, floaters
and centaurs in that area are worth a whole lot of xp.

  The Enclave
  -----------

Just as with Navarro, there's more than one way to solve the Enclave.
If you want the more peaceful solution, leave your party members
behind.  I left them in San Francisco, but I suspect that a (much)
better idea would have been leaving them on the first floor of the
rig, near the south wall, so you can pick them back for the battle
with the big mutated Santa.  I didn't try it, though.  I don't know if
they'd die here from the FEV or not.

Common to both paths, on the first level, log into the computer
terminal, list the users, and download all the files you can.  Read
them on your PIP-Boy. I think that exactly ho high a security id you
can get, and thus how much you can download, depends on your science
skill.

So the Enclave are an even worse bunch of self-righteous gits than
those in Vault City.  Apparently, the small population of that oil rig
decided that they're the USA.  And that the rest of the survivors on
the mainland are mutants who not only don't get a vote, but also
should be exterminated using a mutated strain of the FEV virus.  And
have been experimenting on captured humans to see how long it takes to
die from the mutated FEV gas.  Neat, huh?

Also read about their reactor, and what would happen if the computer
stops working. That's a valuable hint.

Don't use the other options now, and particularly don't try to
activate the counter-insurgency.  It would cause the terminal to lock
up, and you'll need that option much later.  Well, not actually _need_
it, but it sure comes in handy.

Having done that, first, let's talk about my all time favourite,
namely the "heroic" approach.  (So I'm trigger happy.  What else is
new?  :)

Work your way downwards, but be sure to explore each level and kill
anything you can kill, except of course the captives.  Particularly be
sure to clear out the area to the right on the first floor.  Take no
prisoners.  You'll be racing back later with a 10 minute nuclear
countdown, and you don't want to waste them on pointless fire fights
with the guards.

On the second level, before going down, I told my party members to
wait for me there.  There's a nasty maze down there, with doors and
terminals, and a floor which discharges every few seconds.  Even
you'll have problems surviving down there, and the non-armoured
members (such as Marcus and Goris) really stand no chance.  Now my
favourite approach was instead of trying to figure out the terminal
sequence, just going in and disarming the traps on the doors, then
lockpicking them.  The quest only requires you to get through alive,
nothing more.  Note that it requires insane lockpick skill.

When you've opened all doors, go back up, heal and get your party
back.  Go waste everyone in the rooms on the east and west of the
maze.  They all wear those Advanced Power Armours, but are unarmed.
And loot the lockers.  You'll find a Mark II Advanced Power Armour in
there.  Give your old armour to either Vic or Sulik, and wear this
one.

As an alternative, on the maze level if you are wearing Advanced Power
Armour and are _alone_, the goons in the east and west rooms will
leave you alone.  You can loot their lockers, and they'll just stand
there and watch.  Probably think you're another recruit, or something.
(This made me wonder if you can in fact do the whole Enclave alone,
without being attacked.  Yup. You can.  See the stealth approach
below.  You'll still have to deal with the big bad mutant and his goon
squad at the end, though.)

Go down.  On the level below the maze, be sure to waste the
"president" and get his override key.

Save.  Talk to the scientist.  The a**hole is convinced that everyone
on the mainland MUST be mutants and must be exterminated, even though
he didn't bother examining their DNA.  Try to BS him.  Convince him
that since his mutated FEV only works on humans, the "mutants" on the
main land (a.k.a. human survivors) must be just another kind of human.
Give him time to think.  He'll suicide, together with the base, by
releasing the FEV tanks into the air.  If it doesn't work, you can
reload and try again.  This doesn't seem to affect you, your group,
the president, nor any Enclave troopers in power armours, but (slowly)
gets rid of civilians.  Can't say it helped me too much, though.

Go to the next level, and waste everyone here, too.  Heal yourself and
everyone to full health NOW, and save.  Put an explosive next to the
reactor's computer.  That's the big mainframe.  Watch the computer go
boom, and the reactor go critical, just as that downloaded report
said.  Hurry upstairs, using the alternate stairs whose doors have
just opened on the "president's" level.  This bypasses a couple of
levels (including the electrified maze), and saves you a little time.

On the first floor, guess who's waiting for you?  Yup, that big mutant
Santa in a modified Advanced Power Armour, and his elves.  The goon
squad who've been walking around killing people all over the desert,
including the deathclaws in Vault 13, and capturing people for their
gas chamber experiments.  Go use the terminal in that room, and
activate the counter-insurgency option.  (You did bring along the
"president's" key, right?)  This activates all those turrets in the
room to fire at him.  If nothing else, they should keep him distracted
while you do the job with your Bozar, Vindicator minigun, or whatever
weapon you still have ammo for.

Run for the ship.  You sail off, and the base goes to pieces with a
big nuclear bang.  Watch the endgame animation.

Now for the sly approach...

Leave your party members behind, be sure you're wearing an Advanced
Power Armour, so you look like a trooper, and peacefully work your way
downstairs.  Loot the lockers as usual, and be sure to get (and wear)
the Mark II Advanced Power Armour from the electrified maze level.

On the level below the electrified maze, save and talk to the
scientist in the NW room.  BS him, and convince him to release the FEV
tanks into the air.  Open all the doors you can on this level, because
you'll be racing back with a nuclear countdown.

Go downstairs, wait for the scientists near the big computer to die,
then go place an explosive charge near the computer.  Wait for it to
blast, then go upstairs.

Now it's your choice whether to waste the president or not.  If you
don't waste him, you'll have to deal with the big bad boss AND all the
turrets on level one.  If you do, you'll have to deal with the guards
on this level, alone.  On the overall, I'd say waste him.  Don't wait
for the FEV to get him, 'cause the bugger's immune.  (I used the
flamethrower on him, just for the fun of it :) Grab the key from his
corpse, and make a run for the newly opened staircase.  (You did open
the doors before, right?)  Don't stop to shoot the guards, unless you
feel real high and mighty.  Just run for the stairs.  That place is a
maze, so very few will get a clear shot at you if you hurry.  ("Bonus
Move" perk sure comes in handy on this level, if you got it.)

Go upstairs, ignore all the guards in there, and run for the green
exit grid in the NW corner.  Bypass those guards, too, and again
you'll have to deal with the mutated Santa (see the heroic approach
above for details, 'cause I don't feel like repeating.)  And, no, you
can't make a run through the northern door for the exit grid here,
until the combat ends.  I've tried.  It doesn't work, trust me.  So
it's in your best interest to have the turrets on your side instead of
against you.  I.e., to activate the counter-insurgency option.

That's it, you've saved the world.  Now you're a big hero, and can
probably get any date you want.  So get off the damn computer and get
a life already ;)

  Stuff To Do After The Game is Finished
  --------------------------------------

Well, you can do a few things only after fininshing the game, though
other than for your curiosity, beats me why bother.

For starters, you can go date Mrs. Kitty back in New Reno.  Just like
all other dates and sex affairs, the only thing that happens is that
the screen goes black and the time advances.  (What did you expect?
:)

You can go back to Vault City, and go down to level 3 in the Vault.
Insert the PIP-Boy, then use the PIP button, choose Status, and read
the new log.  It'll tell you to go use another computer on that level.
Doing so will give you 20000xp.  Then again, since you already
finished the game, why bother?

  Special Encounters
  ------------------

There are a bunch of "special encounters", which are IMHO of very
little use or relevance to the game.  If THESE are the ones the
"explorer" perk is supposed to help find, then I'd say you can safely
skip that perk.

"Bridge of Death".  It helps if you've seen Monty Python.  Answer the
first two questions correctly, BUT answer with a question the third
time.  If you just answer right, the keeper will let you pass, and
that's all.  But if you answer with the question, he'll die, and you
can get his robe.  The robe has the same protection values as Combat
Armour, at less than half the weight.  (You can't use it for combat
implants, though.)

"King Arthur's Knights".  Another Monty Python plug.  Answer "yes"
when they ask about the holy hand grenade of Antioch, and point them
in a bogus direction.  You'll get a plasma pistol as a reward.  (I
still fancy killing and looting them instead, but each time I was
still too weak to stand a chance against a whole miningun squad in
power armour :)

"Cafe of Broken Dreams".  Roland Ng says you can get Dogmeat from
Fallout 1 in your group here.  I didn't try it, and anyway I had my
group full already.  Try for yourself.

"The Unwashed Villagers Hunting a Spammer."  Nothing much to do here,
except watch the execution and get a few stimpacks from a hidden
locker.  Or, my favourite, you can slaughter them all and get their
weapons and ammo.  They're worth just 1xp each, though, and they are
too many and too tough if you meet them too early.

"A Talking Stone Head".  You can keep clicking on it until you get a
monument piece.  It takes a lot of clicks, so keep at it.  Allegedly,
you can use it to temporarily increase your stats.  I didn't try it.

"A Guardian Portal".  Enter it, and you'll be transported to Vault 13,
only 80 years ago.  (I.e., when Fallout 1 happened.)  If you click on
their computer, it says you broke their water chip, and the vault will
run out of water in 150 days.  (The start of the Fallout 1 plot :)
It'll also give you 1000xp and transport you back to the present day.
So be sure to do all the looting before trying that.

"A crashed federation shuttle."  You can get three hypos from the
corpses.  Allegedly they can heal you to full hp.  I tried them when I
was at full hp, and they didn't do anything.  So I mistakenly assumed
they were useless, and dumped them in the car trunk.

"A tin woodsman".  Actually, he looks to me suspiciously like an
Enclave trooper in Advanced Power Armour.  Get the oil can, use it on
the bugger.  He'll give you 150 micro-fusion cells.

There's a merchant party you'll sometimes meet, which I suspect is
also a special encounter, although it doesn't have a funny name.
First time the merchant will sell you the Alien Blaster from Fallout
1.  There are better energy weapons in Fallout 2, anyway.  BUT if you
bought it and if you meet him a second time, I _think_ he'll sell you
the Red Ryder LE BB gun, which is a very good weapon for a while.
(I.e., until you find better weapons :) This sequence happened to me
only once, so I may well be wrong.

--
Cristian Golumbovici ([e-mail], [e-mail])