Fallout 2

Developer:  Black Isle Studios
Publisher:  Interplay

Walkthrough by Steve Metzler (March, 1999)

Orientation-wise, directions are always given assuming that the top of your screen is 'north'. The longer compass direction names are abbreviated, such as NE for northeast.

I purposely didn't put in a Table of Contents, lest you see all the exotic places you're eventually going to visit before you're supposed to know about them. Though the locations are presented in the order that you would typically reach them, your mileage may vary.

You are about to embark on a fabulous adventure. I hope that you will enjoy your journey...

Tips
Before you even think about starting to play, check out the Interplay Fallout 2 site, and ensure that you have the latest version installed. If not, download and apply the patch. The patch fixes many, many, bugs... also, if you don't apply the patch before starting and decide to patch halfway through, beware the patch will invalidate any saved games. Translation: you will have to start over! Be careful to only apply a patch compatible with the locale from which you purchased the game. This guide was written using the U.S. version, patched to V1.02. Owners of the U.K. and some other European versions may note that there are no children running around in their game, so some of the comments pertaining to them in this guide may not make sense, and a few minor quests will not be available.

Note: as of 18 June 2004, the Interplay web site has been inaccessible. So we have made the V1.02 patch temporarily available here. Also note: this patch is only guaranteed to work for the US version of the game, so you may have to re-install if you apply it to a foreign language or UK version.

Beware that if your Intelligence (IN) is too low (I mean, your character's in the game, silly. Don't take it personally ;-), you won't be able to get most of the quests here simply because no one will be able to converse with you! Likewise, not having a high enough Charisma (CH) or Speech skill will also alter NPC responses, and you may miss out on important conversation choices that lead to quests. So, I recommend having both IN and CH at a minimum of 6 (you might scrape by with lower CH if you have a decent Speech skill) to keep your options open. If in doubt in a particular situation, pop a Mentat to boost both temporarily. Just for kicks, it's worth starting up a game with IN 3. Yes, it's a very well balanced game :-)

Luck, or dice rolls, and your stats play an important part in conversations. That's why it's very important that you save the game before every conversation. If you feel afterwards that the outcome could have been more favourable, restore to before the conversation and try it again. You just might get the dialogue choice you've been hoping for the next time through! If you consistently get the same undesirable choices, try improving your IN and CH by popping a Mentat before the conversation. Some dialogues even depend on your Science or Doctor skill, and I've tried to indicate this where possible.

Unless you are going the diplomatic route, and have enough CH to be able to talk your way out of anything, make sure you start off the game with greater than 50% of either Unarmed or Melee skill. It will be quite a while before you obtain any decent weapons! Beware that one of your first encounters involves fighting bare-handed, so even Melee won't help here.

I recommend a minimum Strength (ST) of 6. With less than this, you'll be severely disadvantaged at hand-to-hand, unable to take any unarmed perks (most decent ones have a min ST of 6 requirement), and you won't be able to carry much inventory either. Likewise, unless you're going to play the 'ultimate bruiser' type of character, a starting ST of 9 or 10 is a waste, since you get a chance later on to increase your ST by 3 using... artificial means!

Unless you are taking on the role of a thief, a decent Barter skill is also vital.

Owing to a design peculiarity in Fallout, Armour Piercing (AP) ammo doesn't do exactly what it's meant to, and is woefully ineffectual. So, it's best to just sell any that you find. Stick to the JHP for actually loading into your weapons.

Early in the game, when your character is relatively weak, there is a sure-fire way to defeat critters like Ants, Radscorpions, and Silver Geckos without taking so much as a scratch: approach to within about 5 hexes. Let them come right up to you. Then, hit them with your best shot, but make sure you have at least 5 AP left. Then retreat in a straight line. They will follow you, but won't have enough AP left to strike! Repeat until critter is dead.

NPC's make great packrats. They can help you carry all the stuff you pick up after encounters with hostile critters. Be careful about giving them burst capable weapons though... or you could find yourself replaying a lot of encounters :-( Also, be sure to fine-tune them before heading out on the wasteland. You don't want someone wasting valuable ammo on easy critters (rat is hit for 243 hit points... yeah, I think it's dead. Just wasted a rocket, dammit!) In this case, take their best weapon or ammo away from them before heading out. On the other side of the coin, make sure you use the Combat Control dialogue to ensure they are using their best weapon when you know an important encounter is coming up.

A high Outdoorsman skill is extremely useful for avoiding unwanted random encounters. Sometimes, you just want to get from A to B without being bothered. Carrying a Motion Sensor in your personal inventory while travelling is alleged to help in avoiding random encounters. And you get XP for using this skill!

Like the man says: save, save, SAVE! You never know when you're going to mess up in combat, blow a dialogue with an NPC, etc. Contrary to what you may hear on the grapevine, you can also save during combat, though this practice does seem to make the game more likely to crash... but you just saved, didn't you? So, no big deal.

Those pre-apocalyptic Californians must have been avid readers. There are bookcases everywhere. A lot of them contain valuable stuff, so check every bookcase, desk, pot, locker, etc. Anything that exhibits a hand icon when you move your cursor over it is worth having a look at. Scavenge to your heart's content!

The designers hid stuff behind walls in this one, so check for items everywhere!

You can rest nearly anywhere when no hostile critters are nearby. Derelict buildings in most towns make a perfect spot for this sort of activity. There's no rush to get through Fallout 2. Use the time! Why waste Stimpaks when you can heal while resting or travelling?

There are all sorts of people to sleep with, marry, etc. I didn't bother to document any of these... encounters, unless they furthered the plot :-)

Well, are you ready to begin your quest?

Temple of Trials
Kill all the Ants and Radscorpions to gain valuable XP. Take all the Radscorpion Tails you can carry off the dead critters. You can barter them. Check all the pots and chests for Healing Powders and such.

There is a section with raised plates that appear as you walk across the floor. If you step on a plate, a spear is fired at you from the wall. If you have some Traps skill, you can disarm these plates for 25 XP each.

Get the Explosives from the pot south of the locked door. Save the game! Then, stand right in front of the door, arm the Explosives (give yourself 30 seconds at least), drop them, and retreat to a safe distance until the door blows.

Defeat Cameron in hand-to-hand. Weaker characters might try using the hit-and-run technique I described above. He still gets one hit in every turn, but it's better than 2 or 3! Diplomatic approach: with high IN and CH (managed once with IN 8, CH 5, Speech 35%), you can talk your way out of fighting Cameron :-)

If you had to fight Cameron, remember to retrieve your belongings from the chest outside the door you just came through. Then, head through the final door, Chosen One.

Arroyo
Repair the well - 100 XP.

Get training from Lucas, standing near stone head - add 5% to Unarmed skill.

Jordan, in tent east of stone head, will train you with spears - add 10% to Melee Weapons skill.

There's $100 in a pot in your Aunt Morlis' tent. Very handy at this stage in the game.

Quests

• 1.  Rescue Nagor's dog, Smoke, from the wilds - 100 XP.
  Nagor is standing east of Hakunin's (medicine man's) tent. The wilds are NW of Hakunin's tent. In the north part of this section is a plank amidst some puddles of radioactive goo. Cross it, approach the dog, and he will follow you back to Nagor. While there, you might want to grab a few of the bright orange flowers... and kill a few Geckos. Hakunin will make Healing Powder for you if you bring him Broc Flower and Xander Root. See Quest 4 below.

• 2.  Find Vic the Trader - Vic will join your party.
  See the Den, Quest 8.

• 3.  Obtain flint to have Mynoc sharpen your spear - Sharpened Spear.
  Mynoc is the bridge guard on the way out of Arroyo, to the south. Need decent PE (6, I think) to notice Mynoc's spear in the first place! Then, get the flint (beg, barter or steal) from your evil aunt Morlis, who is standing guard outside a tent SW of the stone head.

• 4.  Kill the evil plants that infest Hakunin's garden - 100 XP and he'll make Healing Powder for you anytime in future.
  Kill the two spore plants in the garden located just NE of Hakunin's tent.

• 5.  Retrieve the Geck for Arroyo.
  Talk to the Elder, in the tent NE of the well... but I can't possibly tell you how to complete this quest. Not yet, anyway :-)

Klamath
Don't trade with Maida Buckner if you can help it. Her prices are too high! You can have the tribal Sulik join your party by paying off his remaining debt of $350 to Maida. Well worth the trouble, because he's much better than you in combat at this stage in the game. Alternatively, you can get Sulik for free if you complete Quests 5 and 6 below (or Quest 2, but I always found it handier to have Sulik along with you on this particular quest).

In the Golden Gecko, talk to Fighting John Sullivan. He'll train you in Unarmed for 10% and Melee Weapons for 10%, as long as you're not already too skilled in either of these disciplines. Also worth 150 XP.

You can talk to Jenny in the Bathhouse to learn a bit more about Vic. You don't have to sleep with her to get this info.

Raid Vic's house, east of the Bathhouse. Make sure you take and keep Vic's Radio. The Pipe Rifle is virtually useless, but it's worth some money anyway.

There's an exit grid to the NW, with a crashed vertibird and a maintenance robot there. You can take out the robot for XP, and retrieve a Yellow Reactor Keycard from one of the corpses. Contrary to what you may read elsewhere, you can't use this Keycard to open the elevator in the Toxic Caves (see below), however, seeing as the Keycard was found on someone wearing... exotic armour, perhaps it might be of use in a place where this armour is prevalent?

Quests

• 1.  Refuel the still - $50.
  Talk to Whiskey Bob in Buckner's. You must buy him a drink. He'll then tell you about his still that needs to be refuelled. It's located SW of town. Be ready to fight some Geckos. Careful, because Golden Geckos radiate you when they get a good strike in! Wood to fuel the still is located right there in the cabin.

• 2.  Rescue Smiley the Trapper - 1000 XP and $100 OR Sulik's debt struck off.
  Talk to Ardin Buckner. She puts the Toxic Caves on your map. Get some Rubber Boots (see Quest 4 below), exit Klamath, preferably with Sulik in tow, and head for the Toxic Caves. Smiley is holed up in the back. Be sure to grab the 2 packets of Rad-Away from the locker in the wall there. Note the locked elevator. You probably can't open it yet (I've described what to do below. See Toxic Caves Elevator, unless you don't want to spoil it yet). Return to Klamath to collect your reward from Ardin Buckner (you can either take $100 cash or have Sulik's debt paid off if you don't already have him in your party). Talk to Smiley, and he'll teach you how to skin geckos. Great little revenue earner from now on.

• 3.  Guard the brahmin - 250 XP.
  Talk to Torr, the tribal who hangs out near Buckner's. Kill all the Radscorpions there, including the ones hiding in the woods south of the clearing.

• 4.  Kill the rat god - 300 XP.
  Take western exit grid to Trapper Town. Get key from Slim Picket (you can also obtain the key by giving some Meat Jerky to a dog you find in the brahmin pen near the SE exit grid). Be sure to get Rubber Boots in Guns store (lockers). Find manhole that leads down. On second level, kill Keeng Rat. Also a dead trapper there with a 10mm Pistol on him (might depend on your PE as to whether or not you find him). Take ladder in NE corner up. Find door on next level. Either lockpick or use explosives on it. Take next ladder up, and grab the Fuel Cell Regulator from Highwayman outside.

• 5.  Rustle the brahmin - 150 XP and 50$.
  If you prefer to follow the Dark Path, you can shop the location of Bob's still to the bartender at the Golden Gecko for $50 instead. Then, you can ask the Dunton twins (building east of the Golden Gecko) if they have any jobs going. They'll ask you to either talk poor Torr into leaving the brahmin, or knock him unconscious. This quest does not do wonders for your karma, as you can imagine. Alternatively, you can get this quest by talking to the Duntons after you accept Quest 3 and follow Torr to the brahmin. The Duntons are standing there just to the west of Torr.

• 6.  Rescue Torr - 700 XP and Sulik's debt struck off!
  If you took Quest 5, then this is a chance to redeem yourself and get some of that lost karma back! Talk to Ardin Buckner after you rustle the brahmin. She'll mention that Torr is missing, and that he's probably in the canyon (where the crashed vertibird is). Go there and defeat the maintenance robot (if you haven't already done so). Talk to Torr then, and he'll follow you back for 200 XP. When you report back to Mrs. Buckner, you get the choice of either taking $100 cash (poor choice!), OR you can get Sulik's debt struck off, which is worth $350 and 500 XP. Sulik will then join you if you talk to Maida Buckner. You'll also notice that you got all your karma back and then some. Doing Quests 5 and 6 seems the best way to get Sulik into your party.

Toxic Caves Elevator
You need an Electronic Lockpick before you can open the locked elevator at the rear of the Toxic Caves (see Klamath, Quest 2). Rumour has it the MKII version of the Lockpick won't work... but it does just fine. You can either buy an Electronic Lockpick MKII in New San Francisco (on the tanker), or you can find a normal Electronic Lockpick in Eldridge's basement, New Reno Arms store.

I recommend you don't take the car with you, because you won't be able to access the trunk once you're there. Just leave it in Klamath. The walk will do you good for a change. Also, might be handy to take Vic with you unless your Repair skill is high, because you must fix the generator there to power the elevator before you can use it. Also recommend taking along a Sniper Rifle (or some Pulse Grenades if you're good at throwing), because there's a big, bad security bot armed with missiles waiting at the bottom for you! You can take out his sensors with one good targeted shot, and then finish him off at your leisure. Once you've polished off the bot, there are lockers full of goodies, among them: Bozar (best gun in the entire game!), Combat Armor MKII, 200 x Micro Fusion Cells, 280 x Small Energy Cell, 200 x 4.7mm Caseless, and 200 x 2mm EC (very hard to find indeed :-)

Den
Make sure you give Karl (Mom's Diner, far SE corner of town) something and then get him to tell you his story. Comes in handy later.

Also in Mom's Diner, Stacy, standing just to the left of Mom, will tell you a story about her cat Cuddles. 200 XP if you listen patiently till the story ends.

Buy a drink from Becky, then ask her about 'Dyer'. Hmmm. Then, cross the exit grid SE of Becky's and talk to the barkeeper in The Hole. Ask him for info. Then ask him why Becky's drinks are cheaper than his. Offer to find out. Return to Becky's and wait till the guard leaves the door to the north of the bar. Lockpick it, go down the stairs, and discover that Becky has a still there. Talk to the barkeeper in The Hole (Frankie) again, for 400 XP and $100. You'll then get Quest 9 below.

Talk to Leanne, the woman standing at the bar in Becky's. If you buy her a Nuka-Cola, she'll tell you her story of the Master for 350 XP.

Flick, south of Becky's, is a good guy to trade with... but beware those kids of his! If you're not careful, they steal stuff from you. Make sure that you always run past them (don't walk or loiter), and every time you do go past them check your belongings afterwards to make sure you haven't lost anything valuable. I lost a very important item once this way... took me ages to figure out where it had gone, and that was after I had restored to a game much previous to where I was. If you do lose something to one of the kids, you can either steal it back from the kid, or buy it back off Flick as a last resort :-(

Tubby, across the street from Becky's place, usually has a Sub-machine gun for sale. Definitely worth it early on in the game. Actually, you can take out both Tubby and Flick. Not only does it save you money, but you don't lose any karma points for this. In fact, I think you might gain some for ridding the town of this scum!

When you think your party is strong enough, you can take out Metzger and his guards (1500 XP for killing Metzger), and then talk to one of the slaves to free them for another 1250 XP. If you visit Becky again after this, she'll offer you $1000 for having got rid of the slavers. If you decline to accept the money, you get 50 Karma points instead. Your choice. Beware that if you kill Metzger early on, you won't be able to get any of Lara's quests (3 - 6 below), as they all involve Metzger.

Quests

• 1.  Collect money from Fred - 200 XP.
  You have to try talking to all the male addicts in the vicinity of Becky's. The one who will talk to you is Fred. He owes Becky $200, but in the end, you're best off taking only $50 from him. When you go to pay Becky the $200 back, she splits it in half with you anyway, so it only costs you $50 when the dust has settled. After all this, make sure you remember to stop by the Den much later and talk to Fred again, because he makes good use of the $50 you left him with, and will give you: 200 x Small Energy Cell, 250 x Micro Fusion Cell, $2000... and a Plasma Grenade :-)

• 2.  Get book from Derek - 300 XP and $80.
  If you complete Quest 1 above, Becky gives you another job, which is to find a book she lent to Derek. He hangs out by Mom's Diner on the SE side of the Den. You get $80 if you find the book and return it to Becky. Often, the book can be found in the outhouse north of The Hole... but not always.

• 3.  Lara wants to know what is being guarded in the church - 500 XP and $200.
  You have to fast-talk your way past one of the guards to get into the church. Then, just examine one of the crates. Easy money.

• 4.  Get permission from Metzger for gang war. - 200 XP and $50.
  (You have to do Quest 3 first). Talk to Metzger in the Slaver's Guild on the east side of town.

• 5.  Find weakness in Tyler's gang guarding the church - 200 XP.
  (You have to do Quest 4 first). Talk to one of the guards outside the church again. Appears they are going to have a big party tonight and get drunk. You have found the gang's weakness.

• 6.  Help Lara attack Tyler's gang - $300 and $100 bonus if you help in the fight.
  (You have to do Quest 5 first). Then agree to accompany Lara and her gang to the church. We killed one guard outside the church, and it was enough to net a $100 bonus. If you think you're up to it, however, it's best to finish them all off... get their weapons and cash them in for much needed supplies.

• 7.  Deliver a meal to Smitty for Mom - 150 XP and Stimpak (and free meal).
  Talk to Mom in the diner in the far SE corner of town. Then hop on over to Smitty's garage on the far west side of town.

• 8.  Free Vic from his debt by getting his radio from his house in Klamath and paying Metzger.
  Once you have Vic's Radio (from his house in Klamath), talk to Vic, and then you can buy Vic back from Metzger for $1000. Vic is a fairly useful NPC to have join your party, especially as he has considerable Repair skill, and you probably are lacking somewhat in this skill early in the proceedings.

• 9.  Sabotage Becky's still - $500 and 1600 XP.
  After you discover the still in Becky's basement, and report back to the barkeeper in The Hole, you'll get this quest. You can approach this 2 ways: either convince him that he should buy his stuff from Becky from now on and you'll just get 900 XP, or you can destroy the still with a Crowbar ($500 and 700 XP) and still convince him to buy his stuff from Becky (tell him she'll just build another still) for another 900 XP. Unfortunately, once you destroy Becky's still she will no longer talk to you, so you can't get a reward for killing Metzger if you destroy the still first!

• 10.  Get car part for Smitty.
  You need to complete Quest 3 in Gecko to get the Fuel Cell Controller. Smitty will install it for $2000. Voila, you now have a car! If you also have the Fuel Cell Regulator (obtained in Quest 4, Klamath), then Smitty will install that too for $750, and you'll get better mileage.

  Refuelling the car
  This process is not especially intuitive, so here's how you do it. First of all, the car runs on either Micro Fusion Cells or Small Energy Cells (but you get twice the mileage per Micro Fusion Cell). You can buy Micro Fusion Cells from Smitty for starters. To check how much power is left in the car at any time, left-click and hold on the front part of the car (not the trunk! BTW, you can store tons of gear in the trunk). Then move your cursor down to the Binoculars icon and let go. The percentage power remaining will appear in the window at the bottom left of your screen. To refuel, you must have some fuel cells present in your inventory. Then left-click and hold on the car, move your cursor down to the Backpack icon, and let go. Finally, point to the fuel cells in the inventory box that pops up, and they'll be used to refuel the car (warning: make sure there are no NPC's standing where the inventory pops up, or you'll wind up talking to them instead of refuelling the car. It's a 'feature' ;-)

• 11.  Return Anna's locket - 850 XP.
  Go into the derelict building next to the Brotherhood's outpost any time after midnight. You'll see the ghost of a woman, Anna. Talk to her (heh, one way traffic), and you'll discover she's lost her locket. Go talk to Mom in her place all the way SE in the Den. She'll tell you about Joey (one of those 3 thugs that are always just standing around). Get the locket off him in whichever manner you prefer and return it to Anna. Then, if you pick up Anna's Bones, take a Shovel from the bookshelf there, and head to the graveyard... you get some more XP for laying Anna's Bones to rest (her grave is located in the bottom row).

Modoc
If you examine the well just NE of the General Store, you'll see you can enter it using a rope. There are a few coin bags down there, and in the northern section, a (pretty useless) BB Gun... but a BB Gun nonetheless.

Talk to Grisham, the Slaughterhouse boss. When you try to exit the conversation, he'll ask if you want to guard his cattle from wild dogs. Try not to let any of the poor buggers get killed, because he deducts $100 for each brahmin you lose - $1000 (if you manage to save them all). He's a miserable git, but it's fairly easy money.

If you have some Doctor skill (managed once with 9%), you can try fixing up Bess, the brahmin. She's lying injured just south of the slaughterhouse. You get 200 XP for this, and she'll follow you around for a while... if you wander into Grisham's place with Bess in tow, you can give her over to him to make jerky out of. If you're then feeling a bit guilty, go back to the slaughterhouse and talk to her, then release her by opening up the gate inside the slaughterhouse. She'll wander off the map, thus easing your conscience.

You can kill the 'giant chicken' that's locked up in the fenced-in compound next to Rose's for some XP. But you leave the village without an egg supply... by the way, if you buy a Wasteland Omelette from Rose for $25, it heals you to full HP.

Quests

• 1.  Farrel has a rodent problem in his garden. Remove the infestation - 300 XP.
  Farrel is the old codger located in the house SE of Rose's B&B (north Modoc). He'll ask you to help him by cleaning out his garden. Go for it, but beware. The critters there are poisonous.

• 2.  Cornelius has lost his gold pocket watch. Find it and return it to him - 2000 XP.
  If you talk to Cornelius in the back of Roses B&B, and tell him that he needs serious help, he'll mention something about Farrel having his watch and you'll get this quest. See quest immediatly below for the resolution.

• 3.  Farrel wants you to find Cornelius' gold pocket watch. Find it and return it to Farrel - 2000 XP.
  Farrel will also tell you about the longstanding feud between himself and Cornelius (Rose's husband) over the supposed theft by Farrel of Cornelius' watch. So... you suspect Farrel did steal the watch, because there's a safe in his wall that he gets very touchy about when you discover it. But, to find the real culprit, you have to check out the Outhouse to the east of Rose's. Go down below (yech!), and dynamite the pile of rocks there (Jo has some dynamite for sale if you need it). Of course, head back up the ladder as soon as you set the charge. Then go back down, take out the critter, and retrieve the watch from the critter's lair. You get 500 XP for dynamiting the rocks, and 1500 XP more when you return the watch to either Farrel or Cornelius.

• 4.  Jonny is missing. Find him and bring him home to Balthas.
  Talk to Balthas in the Tannery. Offer to look for his son. If your reputation with the good folk of Modoc is at least 'Accepted', Balthas will offer you the services of his dog, Laddie (so, you may want to do a few of other quests in Modoc to boost your reputation before you accept this quest). For a good laugh, go to the well just SE of there and initiate a dialogue with Laddie. Anyway, Laddie will stay with you until you locate Jonny (hint, hint).

• 5.  Jonny's in the Slag caves. Find a way to get Jonny back home to Balthas - 2500 XP and Combat Leather Jacket.
  When you return Jonny, Balthas gives you a little something for your troubles :-)

• 6.  Something strange is happening at the farm northeast of Modoc. Investigate and report back to Jo.
  Go talk to Jo at the back of the General Store. If you mention that you're looking for a GECK, he'll give you this quest and promise to tell you where to find a GECK if you complete it. When you get to the Ghost Farm (just NE of Modoc), make sure you examine one of the grisly bodies that are skewered on the poles. Then go into the shed. When you walk over the middle rug, you'll drop down below. Talk to Vegeir, and agree to take their message to Modoc. Before you leave, go to the very rear of the caves, over an exit grid. Talk to all the boys until you find Jonny... but you can't take him with you yet.

• 7.  Deliver Slag message to Jo in Modoc - 3500 XP and Assault Rifle.
  Give him the message from Vegeir. If you remembered to examine one of the fake bodies at the Ghost Farm, and you got Karl's story out of him at the Den, you'll have completed this quest. Now you can wrap up all the Jonny quests too. Return to the Slag Caves. Vegeir will give you an Assault Rifle, and agree to send you back to Modoc with Jonny! See Quest 5 (if you didn't find Karl yet... you still have time to travel to the Den and talk to him in Mom's Diner - 500 XP). You're now officially a hero in Modoc. Before you head out, make one more trek up to Rose's place. You'll get a free Wasteland Omelette (heals to full HP), and be allowed to rummage through her lost-and-found crate for a pot-luck freebie.

• 8.  Jo is suspicious of the Slags. Find out about the dead bodies at the Ghost Farm and find out what happened to Karl.
  See Quest 7.

Vault City
In the Courtyard, just in front of the Bar, is a little boy named Curtis. He has lost his Mr. Nixon doll. The doll is located behind the Bar building, in an outside corner (west of a large pile of rocks). Return the doll to Curtis (100 XP), then stand around a while and listen to what he's saying. After a while, you'll find a Wrench in that pile of rocks I just mentioned.

You can get Cassidy, the bar owner, to join your party. He's damn handy with a shotgun, especially in the early stages of the game. He has a heart condition though, so be sure never to feed him any excitement inducing drugs like Buffout or Jet, or he'll pop his clogs on the spot.

Charlie, the guy lying flat out in the tent, is actually radiated (I originally thought he was drunk). 200 XP if you can spare a Rad-Away to fix him up.

If you have good Repair skill (or Vic!), you can fix the Auto-Doc in the back room of the Clinic for 100 XP. The guy there is not eternally grateful when you do it... but if you and your party ever need to get healed afterwards, this place then becomes an option.

If you have a Vault 13 water flask, talk to Vic's friend, Ed. He hangs out in a shack near the brahmin pens in the Courtyard - 500 XP and some new locations on your map.

To get into Vault city proper, you can try to sweet-talk Wallace in the Customs office into giving you a Day Pass. If you have high enough CH and/or Speech skill, you should be able to convince him that you are a merchant who wants to trade with Vault City. Alternatively, you can strip down to your Vault 13 suit before speaking to Wallace. He finds this quite unusual, and sends you in to see the First Citizen.
Even better than either of the above approaches, you can bribe Skeev his assistant. You pay him $200 for fake citizenship papers (much handier than a Day Pass). Then, you can blackmail him for $300 to keep quiet! Net: $100 and a set of fake papers. I never needed a Day Pass. The fake papers are good enough as long as you don't flash them around unnecessarily :-)

In Vault City, Randal in the Amenities Office, east of Val's place, has great stuff for sale at the best prices I've ever seen... and he accepts false citizenship papers!

You can talk the guy in the Information Center (that's west of the Servant Allocation Center) into giving you a Science book and a Repair book.

Valerie (Vic's daughter) can upgrade weapons:

• Expanded magazine (from 8 to 20) for Desert Eagle .44 - $1000.
• Expanded magazine (from 24 to 100) for Assault Rifle - $1500.

Once you become a Citizen, there are a lot of goodies you can find in the Vault, including... er... a few Water Chips :-)

Vault Level 1
Male characters can date Phyllis the nurse for 100 XP. A further 300 XP if you can convince her that radiation has made everyone there sterile. You can also get another 300 XP for convincing her to see the outside world, and with the Sex Appeal trait, you can donate some... genetic material for a further 500 XP.

If your Doctor skill is 80% or better, you can also get Combat Implants. Access the medical computer in the room where the doctor is. If you search the medical database, you should eventually find schematics for the implants. Then, talk to the doctor in the Clinic (Courtyard). Make sure you repair the Auto-Doc first! You also need one set of Combat Armor (doc strips them for parts) per operation. Then, the following operations are available:
Low impact - $7000 ($5000 if high CH). Increases Normal and Explode resistance by 5% each.
High impact - Low impact and $40,000. Never took this one. Increases Normal and Explode resistance by a further 5% each. Not only is it expensive, but it makes you one ugly mother, and thus reduces your CH as well.
Low thermal - $10,000 ($8000 if high CH). Increases Laser, Fire, and Plasma resistance by 5% each.
High thermal - Low thermal and $50,000. Never took this one either. Increases Laser, Fire and Plasma resistance by a further 5% each. Way too expensive, and it makes you ugly to boot, thus reducing your CH.

Vault Level 2
If you repair a rattling vent on the wall to the NE, you'll get 100 XP and 50 x Micro Fusion Cells are hidden there. Two of the doors are jammed. You can open these if you have ST 8 (use Buffout). Some good ammo here, and a Red Memory Module that you'll find a use for later. Other doors are locked. You need Lockpick skill of 70% to open these. Once you do open these, you'll find: a Wrench ;-), and a Computer Voice Module (hmmm...), amongst other things.

Vault Level 3
The Central Computer knows the location of Vault 15. There are some general supplies and weapons in the locked rooms. I think there's some ore from Redding stored in the room with the red light above the door... but I could never get in there to find out. As in the original Fallout, you can use your Science skill on the computer in the room to the SW for 350 XP.

Also, once you have become a citizen, talk to Councillor McClure to learn there is a problem with the Redding ore production. Mention this to Doc Johnson in Redding, then go speak to McClure again for 250 XP. From this, you get the inkling that you might be able to find a cure for Jet... see New Reno Quest 14.

Quests

• 1.  Deliver Moore's briefcase to Mr. Bishop in New Reno - $500 and 500 XP.
  Just outside the vault entrance, near the Correction Center, there's a guy preaching (Moore). If you humour him for a while, he'll give you a briefcase and ask you to deliver it to a Mr. Bishop in New Reno (the Shark Club, Commercial Row). It's worth $500 and 500 XP, and Bishop will give you another errand. After you deliver the briefcase to Bishop, you can shop Moore to First Citizen Lynette for 500 XP, but I didn't like doing this.

• 2.  Get a plow for Mr. Smith - 250 XP and Desert Eagle .44.
  Mr. Smith is located outside his tent, just to the east of the Clinic. Offer to get the plow for him, then buy it from the shop just west of the Clinic.

• 3.  Solve the Gecko powerplant problem.
  Talk to First Citizen Lynette, quite a rude person. She hangs out in the SE corner of the Central Council building, located in the NW corner of Vault City. Eventually, she'll get around to mentioning that there's a way for you to become a Citizen, other than passing that ridiculously difficult test...

• 4.  Rescue Amanda's husband, Joshua - 500 XP.
  Talk to Amanda, the distraught woman in the tent next to Curtis. Her husband is being held in the Servant Allocation Center in Vault City. You might be able to convince Barkus that Joshua has a contagious disease, and he'll be released for free; else, you'll have to fork over $750.

• 5.  Deliver beer and booze (10 each) to Lydia - 250 XP and $300.
  Lydia runs the Tap House, just inside the city gates. Deliver 10 real booze (not the rotgut or the radiated stuff) and 10 beers to collect.

• 6.  Deliver pliers (tools) and a wrench to Valerie - 250 XP, $50, and Super Repair Kit.
  Val is Vic's long-suffering daughter. She's in the Maintenance Center, just north of the Tap House inside the city gates. If you can supply her with these items, she'll also give you a Super Repair Kit (you need this item for Skeeter in Gecko). But, you'll have to wait a few days for this to happen... If you couldn't get the wrench by helping Curtis (see above), then you can find one on the Morningstar Mine's premises in Redding, or on Level 2 of the Vault City vault - but you need to be a Citizen with high Lockpick skill to get it!

• 7.  Scout the eight sectors around Gecko and return to Stark - 350 XP and $300.
  Talk to Stark in the Corrections Center.

• 8.  Enter NCR and return to Stark - $500 and 750 XP and Motion Sensor.
  Easy money.

• 9.  Deliver Lynette's holodisk to Westin in NCR - 4500 XP.
  After wiping out the Raiders (and taking their Account Book. See Raiders section below), talk to Lynette. If you managed to get the Holodisk from Bishop's safe in New Reno, that proves Bishop was hired by NCR (2500 XP). Then Lynette will ask you to deliver Bishop's Holodisk to Westin in NCR (2000 XP).

• 10.  Deliver a sample of jet to Dr. Troy - $1000.
  Getting this quest may depend on you already knowing about Redding's Jet problem. Then if your Doctor skill is at least 80%, you'll be able to engage Dr. Troy (first level of the vault) in conversation as a fellow doctor. He'll give you a tour of the facilities, and then just as you're about to exit the conversation, he'll mention that he's looking for a sample of Jet.
  Anyway, even when you leave the Jet with Dr. Troy, he's not able to crack the problem and come up with an antidote... but you can! See New Reno Quest 14.

Gecko
Lenny, Harold's assistant in the Manager's Office, once met your ancestor the Vault Dweller. If you talk to him about his former escapades, he will join your party. Not much cop as a fighter, but he has a high Doctor skill.

The room to the west of where Skeeter hangs out has a set of Lockpicks in a locker there. Possibly the first set you'll encounter in the game.

Quests

• 1.  Solve the Gecko powerplant problem - 4500 XP.
  Talk to Harold in the Manager's Office. Hmmm. You need to convince Vault City that Gecko needs a Hydroelectric Magnetosphere Regulator for their power plant, to stop radiation leaking into the groundwater. After the conversation, be sure to nab the Coolant Report and Part Requisition Form off the desk behind Harold. Then, before you head back to Vault City, do the following:
  Northern part of Gecko is the Junkyard. In the building to the NW of Skeeter's place, in the northern-most room, there's a manhole. Go down it, and find the (sentient!) mole rat in the SW corner. Talk to him, and he'll give you a Talisman (note: you can also steal a Talisman from a ghoul in the building just SW of the Manager's Office, but it's not as... interesting that way). Return topside, and you'll find Gordon in the house NE of Skeeter's place. When he sees that you have the Talisman, he'll give you a Holodisk that contains economic data concerning the reactor.
  Take this Holodisk to Councillor McClure (the sane voice of Vault City :-) He's located in the same building as First Citizen Lynette, but his office is in the NW corner. You'll get 750 XP for delivering the Gecko Holodisk.
  McClure will get you the part for the power plant (see Randal in the Amenities Office)... and, he'll be able to fix you up as a Citizen once you get the part installed back in Gecko, thus bypassing that witch Lynette :-)

  Back in Gecko, enter the Power Plant, east side of town. You'll need Yellow and Red Pass Keys, which can be found by scrounging in the various lockers and bookcases around the place. If you have really high Charisma, you might get Festus, located in the far SE of the plant, to install the part for you, but mere mortals have to do it themselves... so go talk to Hank, the ghoul in the room through the red doors, right next to the reactor core. Then log on to the computer just behind him to program the maintenance bot:
  Initialize: A1546761, 5B576005, 35C76863
  Initiate repair sequence (you feed it the part when requested). Then, use 'Add a command' 6 times (returning back to main menu after adding each one) until you have constructed the following program:

    1) Amplify Plutonium-Gamma Shield
    2) Deharmonize Neptunium Impeller
    3) Calibrate Uranium-Rod Driver
    4) Set Voltage on Saturn-Class Capacitor
    5) Test Jupiter Wave Compiler
    6) Install Hydroelectric Magnetosphere Regulator

  Then 'Execute program' and watch the Maintenance Bot go!

• 2.  Optimize the powerplant - 2500 XP.
  Talk to Festus (SE corner of Power Plant) once you have repaired the reactor (see Quest 1). He'll give you a Holodisk. You need to insert this Holodisk into the Vault City Central Computer (the one that's spewing out operational gibberish on Level 3 of the Vault City vault). First, you need to become a Citizen to get in there. If you've done Quest 1 above, then you can go talk to Councillor McClure, and he'll make you a Citizen! Log on to the Vault City Central Computer, and it will ask you to insert the disk that Festus gave you. Then, return with the optimized disk to Festus, and he'll tell you to use it on the computer you used to control the Maintenance Bot.

• 3.  Get super repair kit for Skeeter - 250 XP and Fuel Cell Controller.
  Skeeter is in the Junkyard, north part of Gecko. Valerie gives you this item for free 2 days after you supply her with a Wrench and Tool (see Vault City, Quest 6). In return for the Super Repair Kit, Skeeter gives you the part you need to get that car up and running! You can also buy a Super Repair Kit from Smitty (the guy in the Den who sells you the car), but it'll cost ya!

• 4.  Get 3 step plasma transformer for Skeeter - 350 XP and weapon upgrade.
  Talk to Jeremy in the north part of the Power Plant. If you have the Part Requisition Form you got from Harold earlier (see Quest 1), he'll give you the Plasma Transformer (you can also steal it from him). In return, Skeeter will perform one of the following upgrades for free:
  Scope on Hunting Rifle
  Speed loader (only costs 1 AP to reload during combat) for .44 Magnum
  Expanded magazine (from 8 to 20) for Desert Eagle .44
  Expanded magazine (from 24 to 100) for Assault Rifle

• 5.  Find Woody the ghoul for Percy. Try the Den - 1000 XP and 3 Rad-X, 4 RadAway.
  Percy's house is in the Junkyard, north part of Gecko. Talk to him, then travel back to the Den, and check out the 'mummy' in the room next to where you found Anna the ghost. It's Woody! When you return to Percy afterwards, he'll give you some anti-radiation supplies.

Broken Hills
On the east side, in a garden near the mine, there's Seymour the talking spore plant. He wants to be replanted. Talk to the poor thing when you have a shovel, and you'll get 1000 XP plus get clued in as to how to defeat a sentient scorpion at 'chess'. The scorpion and his professor friend are located in a building just to the SE of where Seymour winds up. Leave your party behind, and challenge the scorpion to all 3 contests. If you have good PE and AG, you can beat him at contests of perception and agility respectively for 500 XP each. Then you can try the contest of 'smarts'. Knowing what you learned from Seymour, you can defeat the scorpion at 'chess' for another 500 XP. I always let the scorpion live afterwards, which is why I didn't bring the gang along.

The place where you replanted Seymour (see above) is actually the Old Ghouls Home. Talk to Typhon there (Set's son, from Fallout!), in the SW room. In exchange for: a Cat's Paw magazine, a blow-up Sex Doll (ahem... bookcase in building Marcus is/was standing in front of), and a bottle of Rotgut, he'll tell you the location of his 'treasure'. You get 2000 XP after you deliver all this stuff. Then, have a look down the well in the centre of downtown. Oops! You can convince Micky the treasure hunter to go down the well after your treasure, but then he becomes stuck down in the well. I never figured out a way to get him out of there.

Marcus is the best addition to your party in Fallout 2! You must complete Quests 1 and 2 below, then Marcus will agree to join you, and you get 1000 XP to boot.

After you've fixed the mine's air purifier (see Quest 1 below), and can explore it at your leisure, there's an easter egg to be found in there. To your right, just as you enter the mine, there's a short tunnel with a pile of rocks at the end of it. You can actually walk on these rocks. If you walk right into the corner, a passageway will open up in the wall, and you've just discovered a hidden chamber (1000 XP)! There's a pilot who's been sleeping there since before the holocaust, and you can wake him up with a dose of Jet, for 500 XP more. In the footlocker, there's a chunk of Uranium Ore. Take the Ore to the processing plant (building to the south of the caravan fitters/Unity Patrol HQ). Talk to the foreman there in the office. Another 500 XP for figuring out how to get the Ore processed. You have to give them $1000, and it takes a day to process your Ore... when you come back to collect it, the foreman pleads with you to let the ghouls keep it. Let them keep it for 1250 XP. You can either accept the extra $500 he offers as compensation, or get karma points instead for only taking the $1000 which you originally forked over.

Quests

• 1.  Fix the mine's air purifier - 1500 XP and Combat Shotgun.
  Talk to Zaius, the mine foreman, located in a building just outside the mine on the NE side of Broken hills. He'll ask you to go to New Reno and pick up a new Air Purifier from Renesco (west side of Commercial Row). When you return, leave all your party members outside the mine! Then, just blitz right through the mine to the NE corner, using a Stimpak or 2 to alleviate the damage taken due to the bad air. Once you replace the Air Purifier, you can return, picking the Ants, Radscorpions, etc. off at your leisure. Zaius presents you with a Combat Shotgun as a reward.
  Every time I fixed the air purifier, Quest 6 popped up crossed out. See below.

• 2.  Find the missing people for Marcus - $500 and 1500 XP.
  Go to the east side of town. There are a few manholes in this area (one of them in an outhouse). Go down, kill a few ants, and locate the bodies in the NE corner of the tunnels. On one of the bodies, there's a note from 'Francis' that implicates him as the killer. Once topside again, you can located a man called Don in a house in the NE corner. Tell the poor guy you found his missing wife (500 XP above). Then, talk to Sheriff Marcus for the rest. Complete Quest 3 first, then you may confront Francis with the note you found (other 1000 XP above). He leaves town quietly.

• 3.  Beat Francis at arm wrestling - 350 XP and Power Fist.
  All you need is ST of 10. Use Buffout or whatever. Eric gives you one dose of Buffout when you complete Quest 4.

• 4.  Divert more electrical power to Eric's home - 1500 XP and Buffout.
  Eric lives in the first (fly-infested) house on the right as soon as you enter the east side. He needs you to divert more electrical power to his home. Go to the generating station back on the west side, and use your Science skill on the computer terminal there to do this (worked after a few tries with 47% Science skill).

• 5.  Break Manson and Franc out of jail - 1500 XP.
  Talk to Jacob, in shop to east of Ore-processing Plant. Tell him you hate mutants. The jail is just to the north of where Marcus is standing. If you have high IN (I had IN 10, CH 7 and Speech 61%), you can convince the jailer there to give you a key to let them out. This sends your Karma back 10 points, but has no other effects as far as I could determine. Marcus still talks to you.

• 6.  Blow up the mine's air purifier - 1500 XP, plus some weapons from Liz' basement cache.
  If you do Quest 5, then Jacob will also give you this quest. He gives you a device to blow up the mine's air purifier with. However, you can get some XP, and still stay on Marcus' good side, by heading straight for Marcus as soon as you get this quest and saying you have something to tell him. You'll get a dialogue choice to tell him about Jacob and Aileen, and be able to turn in the terrorists for 2500 XP! A win-win situation :-)
  Anyway, if you decide to carry out this quest... as in Quest 1, just blitz right through the mine to the NE corner, using a Stimpak or 2 to alleviate the damage taken due to the bad air. Use the device Jacob gave you on the air purifier, and... no more mutants in Broken Hills, including Marcus :-( This quest sets you back 50 Karma points. Only worth it if you're playing an inherently bad character, especially as you can't get Marcus as a party member afterwards.

Raiders
The raiders are holed up in that little spot marked 'Unknown' that lies between Vault City and Broken Hills. There are many traps in the cave leading to their lair. They are also heavily armed, so beware heading in there with NPC's like Vic and Sulik in tow, as they are quite liable to be killed unless you are very lucky.

If you do manage to vanquish them, you get 2000 XP for ending the raider threat. Also be sure to take all 3 of the Dog Tags (from the footlockers) so you can prove to the folks in Vault City that the raiders were hired mercs. When you report to First Citizen Lynette that you wiped out the raiders, you'll get a $1000 reward and 1000 XP. Even better, once you have the 3 dog tags, you can open the raiders' safe (numbers on the tags form the combination, 500 XP more) and get their Account Book, which proves who hired them. Show this to the First Citizen for another 1000 XP and $500 (if have the Holodisk from Bishop's safe in New Reno, then you get Vault City Quest 9 instead)!

I never was able to figure out what to do with the tribal 'Shadow-who-walks'. He won't talk to you, even if approached without weapons. Rumour has it that he's part of a 'broken' quest.

Redding
Go see the sheriff. He's injured, and requires a deputy to do a few jobs for him, starting off with... Pay Widow Rooney's back rent. Just pay the widow the $120 she owes for 1500 XP! (and the sheriff gives you $100 for the job anyway, so you're only out of pocket for $20) Then, when you report back to the sheriff, you get Quest 4 below. The sheriff also has a slew of weapons stashed around his office, ripe for the picking.

You can buy the deed to the Great Wanamingo Mine from Mayor Ascorti for $1000. If you manage to clear the mine of critters for him, he'll buy the deed back off you... worth $2500 and another 1000 XP. One entrance to the Great Wanamingo Mine is in the building where Frog Morton is hiding (see Quest 1 below). However, there's a back entrance through the well just south of the Sheriff's office. Going NE from the well entrance and up the ladder there brings you into the back of Ascorti's casino, in case you're in for a bit of daytime robbery. If you head north from the well, over an exit grid, and then west over another exit grid, you'll wind up in the mine proper. Make sure you head into every nook and cranny along the way if your mission is to rid the mine of critters. There are a few ladders down to the bottom level that contains the mining machines (see Quest 3 below). Finally, make sure you get all the eggs that are near the elevator all the way to the west of the bottom level. When you've gotten all the critters, you'll get a message notifying you that you've cleared the mine... and 3500 XP!

'Painless' Doc Johnson has Super Stimpaks for sale. He's also part of the Jet Antidote quest (see New Reno, Quest 14).

Quests

• 1.  Kill Frog Morton - $1000 and 3000 XP.
  Frog and his gang are holed up on the west side of town. You have to get by some tough rats first. Completing this quest has the unfortunate side effect of putting all of his nasty brothers on your tail. You'll meet them in random encounters for the rest of the game... until you bump them off too!

• 2.  Find out who cut the whore - $500 and 1250 XP.
  Talk to the bartender in the Malamute Saloon for more info. The guy who did it is located on the premises of the Morningstar Mine HQ, north side of Redding. He'll confess to you as soon as you start speaking to him.

• 3.  Find the excavator chip - $1000 and 2500 XP.
  Be prepared to kill a few real ornery critters! Bozar rules for this one :-) The machine that holds the Excavator Chip is on the bottom level of the Great Wanamingo Mine (there is actually another Chip, on the ground next to the other machine to the east there. However, you can only sell one of the Chips). Once you have an Excavator Chip, you can sell it to either Dangerous Dan McGrew of the Morningstar Mine (who is aligned with the New Reno underground), or Marge LeBarge of the Kokowebe Mine (NCR). Either one pays the same.

• 4.  Break up the bar brawl - $300 and 1500 XP.
  Just talk to the irate woman miner who's arguing with the guy at the far end of the saloon. I wound up tossing both their sorry asses in jail.

New Reno
Talk to Jules, standing just outside the Virgin Street carpark where you first arrive. For $100 a pop, he'll tell you about each of the 4 crime families who run the place. You have to tread carefully here if you want to keep your options open. Take all the quests for any one family, and you'll be 'made' by them, and thus not able to take jobs for other families! The quests always come in a particular order, and I've indicated below which one makes you a 'made man' (or woman), but only if you report back after doing the quest... so you can at least get all the benefits of the gear and money accrued while doing it, and one of these quests in particular is worth it for the gear alone ;-)

Regardless of your sex, you can choose to sleep with Mrs. Bishop (2nd floor, Shark Club). Make sure you deliver the suitcase (that you got from Moore in Vault City) first to Mr. Bishop on the 3rd floor, else you'll have to fight your way back out of the casino afterwards! In any case, leave your party outside the casino before you venture upstairs and take up Mrs. B's offer. I discovered that if you take them up to the 2nd floor with you, then sleep with Mrs. B, that I couldn't find them anywhere upon returning. Jealousy, I suppose. After you sleep with her, she'll mumble the combination of the wall safe in her sleep. It contains a necklace and some other goodies. The safe in the north room has a map that gives you the location of the Raiders, and also proof that the Raiders are actually mercs hired by Bishop. Beware that this safe is trapped! If you set off the trap, you'll alert Bishop's men, and that is not a good thing. If you don't have high enough Traps skill, there's a trick you can use to get by it. Just arm an Explosive, and drop it right underneath the safe. Then go hide at the NE corner of the swimming pool. When the Explosive detonates (also triggering the trap at the same time :-), Bishop's man comes to investigate. He doesn't find anything, and goes away again. Now you can open the safe and pilfer the contents!
If you kill Bishop, and tell Mrs. Bishop that she's free to move on, you get 1000 XP for this.

If you have good Unarmed skill, you could try your hand at boxing. If you decide to have a go, do yourself a big favour and get the pair of Plated Boxing Gloves (technically, it's cheating, but all's fair in love and Fallout :-) from a locker in the basement of the Shark Club. Then, go to the Jungle Gym on 2nd Street and talk to little Stuart, who arranges the fights. If you're carrying the Plated Boxing Gloves with you, you'll automatically wind up with these on in the ring and have a much better chance against those bruisers!

If you can't find a Voice Recognition Module anywhere else, Eldridge in the New Reno Arms shop (west side, Commercial Row) will part with his for $2500 after a bit of negotiating. I usually happened to be swimming in weapons at this stage in the game, so if I hadn't been able to get the Module by lockpicking the doors on the 2nd floor of the Vault City vault, then I just bought the part from Eldridge, and traded some weapons in to get the cash right back from him about 10 seconds afterwards :-) Eldridge can upgrade weapons, but he's really too expensive:

• Expanded magazine (from 24 to 100) for Assault Rifle - $6000.
• Sight on FN FAL - $12000.

However, there is an unassuming fellow named Algernon lurking in Eldridge's basement who is an absolute weapons wiz and will perform upgrades free! Just wait till Eldridge is in the front room where you deal with him, then sneak in the side door on the west side of the building, and head for his back room. Don't worry about the dogs. Locate the hidden stairs (behind the shelf, next to his bed), go downstairs and talk to Algernon, who I got to upgrade the following for me:

• Expanded magazine (from 24 to 100) for Assault Rifle.
• Night Sight on FN FAL
• Flamer to Improved Flamer (fires hotter fuel)
• Flamethrower Fuel to Flamethrower Fuel MKII (hotter fuel)
• Plasma Rifle to Turbo Plasma Rifle (more damage, greater range)
• Laser Pistol to Magneto-Laser Pistol (extra penetrating power)

Also in the basement, in the far NW corner, is a fridge containing... an Electronic Lockpick and 2 Pulse Grenades! Toxic Caves starter kit, anyone?

If you decide to take out the Mordino family, make sure you take the "Little Jesus" Combat Knife off Little Jesus' body. It's the best knife in the game!

Quests

• 1.  Find a way into the Sierra Army Base - 1000 XP and 'made man' of the Wright family.
  You have to do Quest 3 below before you can get this quest. The Depot is located just north of New Reno. Leave any weak party members outside, because there are a load of high tech gun turrets guarding the approach! It helps if you have a long range weapon (like a Sniper Rifle) to take out the turrets with. Once you damage the sensors (lenses) so they can't see, then you can pick them off without them being able to fire at you. Once inside the fence, and after you eliminate all the turrets on the inside too, you are free to explore a bit. In the little hut to the west (careful of traps on the door and one of the small ammo crates) is a large ammo crate containing a Howitzer Shell. Load this into the Howitzer in the shed to the east, then use the Howitzer to blow open the Depot main door. Before entering the Depot building, you have the option to go down the manhole located amongst the generators and throw the switch there. This action changes the force fields inside from impassable to passable (but, you'll lose HP going through them). If, on the other hand, you have decent Repair skill, it's better to leave this switch alone. You can temporarily disable each field by repairing its associated generator, and you won't lose any HP this way.

  Level 1
  Once inside, get the Password Paper from the desk just inside the entrance, then use the computer (enter password) and disable the force fields. In the SE room, you'll find a locker containing a Yellow Memory Module. The locker next to that contains... er, Dixon's eye, along with a holotape explaining what happened. There's a jar of the Bio Med Gel the tape references on the floor near one of the surgical tables. You can get a %10 increase in Unarmed by using both punching bags. In the living quarters at the north end, there's a row of lockers. One of them contains Combat Armor! When you are ready, use Dixon's eye on the retinal scanner near the elevator to open it...

  Level 2
  If you don't attack any of the robots, they won't bother you! So, unless you need the XP and are heavily armed and armoured... If you must, the best way to take out a robot is with a targeted shot to the sensors. If you get a critical hit, the robot is rendered effectively blind and won't attack you anymore! If you plan to return to the Depot later on, then you should enter the room to the west and deactivate the repair computer (just hit the OFF button). You get 200 XP for this, plus any robots you do kill won't be automatically repaired when you leave the Depot. In a room to the far SE, there's a computer you can use to de-activate that electric plate on the floor that leads to the weapons store. With LK 10, I was also able to guess the password in order to turn off all the force files on Level 2. There's loads of goodies in the weapons store, including: Plasma Rifle(!), Sniper Rifle, and 2 sets of Combat Armor. In the northern part of this level, 2nd row of crates, in the top middle at the back, there's a crate containing: 5 AP Rockets, 10 Plasma Grenades, and 10 Pulse Grenades. When you've finished looting the place, you can use Dixon's eye again to take you to the next level.

  Level 3
  Here, if you talk to the supercomputer (Skynet) via his console, you'll see that he wants out of the place. You'll have to find his brain somewhere on Level 4. Be sure to grab another eye (General Clifton's) from the room to the NE. Then make your way to the room in the NW and access the computer there. Hmmm. You need a brain, some Bio Med Gel, and a part from a robot (the same kind of robot as the disassembled one in the back room there). So, I went back to the room near the elevator, and opened fire on one of those robots. Of course, then I had to kill all the robots on this level because they attack once disturbed. Tough on the ol' Stimpak supply, but great for the XP. After you kill them all, take a Motivator from one of the dome-topped ones, then use Clifton's eye on the left-hand retinal scanner to access Level 4... When you return from Level 4 with the brain, place it, the Bio Med Gel, and the Motivator into the disassembled robot in the back room. Then use the computer to activate it. Now, either you've extricated Skynet and he becomes a useful NPC, or you've found a nice home for one of the other brains (500 XP in any case) and you at least have a mule to help you to carry all that booty out of the place :-)

  Level 4
  Find the room all the way to the NW that fronts onto a large room full of cryogenic suspension tanks. Access the computer there, and have it retrieve the cadaver first. Yikes! It comes alive and you can talk to him, but then he runs away... and promptly decomposes into a heap. If you examine what's left, you should find a Red Ryder LE BB gun, one of the best Small Guns in the game! Anyways, return to the computer, and ask for a Brain next. Unless you have an astronomically high Science skill (125% or better!), you'll inadvertently kill Skynet (Cybernetic Brain) and wind up with one of the other... less desirable brains. Ah well, at least you came away with something. Once you have the 'best' brain you can manage to retrieve, return to Level 3.

• 2.  Recover your stolen car.
  The first time you leave your car in the Virgin Street carpark, it'll be gone when you come back. If you pressure Jules, he'll tell you about the 'chop shop' it's been taken to. Talk to T-Ray in the office there. He's fixing the car up for Mr. Bishop. With sufficient blagging skills (I popped a Mentat before the conversation and had IN:10 CH:7 Speech:45%) you can trick T-Ray into thinking that you are Bishop's emissary and get the car back for free plus 750 XP (and you should be able to get some free batteries a.k.a. Fuel Cells, but T-Ray says he won't have any for another 2 weeks), otherwise, you'll have to fork over $1000. Either way, you obtain another 750 XP for getting the car back without resorting to violence. Also, you can pay another $500 (or female characters can sleep with T-Ray instead) for some 'enhancements' to the car (primarily more space in the trunk, I think). Alternatively, you can just wipe the whole garage out for the fun of it :-)

• 3.  Find out who was responsible for Richard Wright's overdose - 4000 XP and $1000.
  On the east side of Commercial Row is an old railway station. Talk to Chris Wright there (jeans and leather jacket, ya know... the 'Ian look' ;-) Then, if you head to the building directly south of there, you'll be able to talk to Keith, who'll let you in to see dad (Orville Wright). After getting the quest from Orville, talk to Keith again (you'll need a Charisma of at least 7 to get anywhere. I had to pop a Mentat!) He'll tell you where Richard's room is. Then, when you search the right-most bookcase there, you'll find an empty Jet canister (500 XP). Show it to Jagged Jimmy J (dealer on 2nd Street), and he'll tell you it was laced with Radscorpion poison (another 500 XP). Confront Renesco with this, and he should spill the beans about the Salvatore family's involvement (1000 XP more). Finally, return to Orville Wright and tell him it was the Salvatores (2000 XP and $1000). You'll also be rewarded with a major quest to get inside the Sierra Army Depot.

• 4.  Track down Pretty Boy Lloyd, recover the stolen money, and make an... example of him - 500 XP and $500.
  Go talk to Mr. Salvatore on the 2nd floor of Salvatore's Bar (across from the Shark Club). Lloyd is holed up in the basement of Mordino's Casino, the Desperado. While you're here, you can pick up a Poison Tank in the room to the SW (useful in Quest 13). Then, lockpick your way in to Lloyd and confront him. Get him to lead you to where the money is buried in Golgotha, but make sure you get him to dig up the grave (he put a little surprise there for the unwitting to find). I tried just taking the money and letting him live, but if you do that, Salvatore knows. So, I had to kill the poor bugger. You lose 10 Karma points for that, but it's probably worth the XP and money if you can sleep at nights after doing this sort of thing.

• 5.  Go visit Renesco the Rocketman and collect Mr. Salvatore's tribute of $1000 - 750 XP.
  See if you can talk Renesco into giving you a 'discount' in exchange for paying the $1000 he owes Salvatore out of your own pocket. If so, you'll get a once and only opportunity to take everything you can carry from Renesco and you only have to pay him $1 for the privilege! That's a lot of gear for $1001 :-) When you report back to Salvatore after this one, be sure to ask him if you can have a laser pistol to aid in your next quest!

• 6.  Help guard a secret transaction taking place in the desert - 1000 XP and 'made man' of the Salvatore family.
  Talk to Mason. He'll give you a laser pistol (as if you don't have enough of the damn things already) and train you in the use of it if you ask him to (adds 5% to Energy Weapons skill, so probably worth it). Then all you have to do is follow him out onto the desert, watch something very interesting indeed, and return. You don't have to lift a finger.

• 7.  Assassinate Westin in NCR without making it look like a murder - 2000 XP and $500.
  If you got the suitcase from Moore (the man preaching outside the Correction Center in Vault City), then you can deliver it to Mr. Bishop on the 2nd Floor of the New Reno Shark Club, Commercial Row. He'll ask you to kill Westin.

• 8.  Murder Carlson in NCR - 1000 XP and 'made man' of Bishop family.
  After you complete Quest 7, you're offered this last quest by Bishop. If you have decent Steal skill, you can rob the Presidential Pass off Grunther (Tandi's Secretary). Use it on the guard in front to Carlson's place (across the street from the Hall of Congress), and he'll let you in. If you take Carlson out quietly (HtH or Super Stimpaks), you'll get an additional 2500 XP.

• 9.  Deliver ten Cat's Paw magazines to Miss Kitty - 1000 XP and $750.
  She's the proprietress of the aptly named establishment across the street from Jules. Wow. You have to look in every nook and cranny while playing the game to find enough of these. I'm not quite sure it's worth the bother :-)

• 10.  Deliver a laser pistol to Eldridge - 500 XP and $1500.
  Any time after you figure out that the Salvatore family are packing Laser Pistols as firepower, you can pay a visit to Eldridge at New Reno Arms. If you deliver a 'lightbringer' to him, he'll reward you for your troubles. You can obtain one by killing a Salvatore, or, you should have a few handy if you completed Quest 1 above!

• 11.  Deliver Big Jesus' package to Ramirez at the Stables - 500 XP and $100
  If you talk to Big Jesus Mordino upstairs in the Desperado, he'll give you the location of the Stables and a package to deliver. Bit tough if you're a woman, but stick with it and he'll eventually give you the quest. Ramirez is in the building to the west at the Stables. After you deliver the package to him, go into the back of the building and get the researcher there to let you see Myron. Go down the manhole and get past Myron's guards. I shot my way through the first time, and bluffed my way in to see Myron on other occasions. Talking to Myron is a gas! Best 'talking head' in the game besides Sulik. Get a cup of coffee or a stiff drink, then sit down, relax, and get into the conversation thread where he tells you all about how Jet is made. Fantastic story! You can get him to join your party, but I was always full up. And besides, comical though he may be, he's a pain in the butt when it comes right down to it... especially if you're playing a female character. Myron can make you Stimpaks from the following ingredients: Empty Hypodermic, Xander Root, Broc Flower.

• 12.  Collect tribute from the Corsican Brothers - 500 XP and $125.
  The next Mordino family quest. The Corsican Brothers hang out in the Golden Globes porn studio, across from the Jungle Gym. Just collect $250 from them and return to Big Jesus Mordino with it. He gives you half of it back, and offers you a final job...

• 13.  Assassinate Boss Salvatore for Big Jesus Mordino - 2250 XP and $500 and 'made man' of the Mordino family (plus Grease Gun and Leather Armor MK II).
  If you're going to become a 'made man', this is not a bad way to go. Just be prepared to wipe out the whole Salvatore family (500 XP above is for wiping out Boss Salvatore himself). Make sure you take the sunglasses off Mason once he's dead. When placed in an active item slot, they increase your CH by one!
  If instead, you prefer a 'cleaner' way to take out Salvatore, you can use your Steal skill to swap a Poison Tank (obtained in basement of Desparado. See Quest 4 above), with the plain Oxygen Tank that Salvatore is constantly using. You don't need high Steal skill to pull this off (I did it with 18%!), but be prepared to save and restore a few times in the process. Then, leave the room before Salvatore croaks and you've offed him without firing a shot :-)

• 14.  Find some endorphin blockers to make a cure for Jet - 9000 XP and 2 x Jet Antidote.
  Talk to Myron (see Quest 11) about the possibility of a Jet Antidote... but you need 80% Science skill to get the right dialogue options. You get 2000 XP for convincing Myron that a cure is possible, and Myron mentions that someone in Vault City might have the necessary supplies. If you now speak to Dr. Troy in the Vault City vault, you'll get the dialogue option to ask him if he has any endorphin blockers. From the conversation that ensues, you'll walk away with 2 Jet Antidotes, and 2000 XP more! Before you leave Vault City, make sure you go to Councillor McClure to tell him you found a cure for Jet. He'll send you to see Doc Johnson in Redding. Then go to Doc Johnson in Redding with the Antidote. Another 2500 XP for solving Redding's Jet problem. Finally, return to Councillor McClure and tell him you delivered the antidote. If you are brash enough to ask for a reward, you'll only get $500; but if you just say you were glad to be of service, you'll get another 2500 XP instead! Funny, but after doing all this, I was not able to get this quest struck off the quest list.

• 15.  Bust up Wright's still beneath the train station - 500 XP plus Louisville Slugger and $200+ or 15 Karma points.
  Talk to Chris Wright in the train station about the Wright family's control of the alcohol distribution in New Reno. Then, go talk to Mrs. Wright, who's located in the Wright mansion, room in NW corner. You should get a dialogue option to talk about Mr. Wright, who has a serious alcohol problem, and promised to Mrs. Wright that he's destroyed his still. You try to tell her that he hasn't, and she'll agree to meet you outside the church the next morning. So... rest up till morning, and meet her outside Fr. Tully's church, on the west side of Commercial Row. You'll then get this quest. All you have to do is go to the basement of the train station, stand to the left of the left-most tank of the still, and use your Repair skill on it. You'll then walk around behind it and disable it quietly, for 500 XP. Report back to Mrs. Wright (she's still outside the church) for your reward. If you decline the reward, you get 15 Karma points instead.

New California Republic (NCR)
Buster is the little guy in the tent right where you arrive at NCR. As arms dealers go, he's a little expensive, but has some decent stuff. At first, I couldn't figure out why he told me to get lost sometimes, then I finally figured it out. He doesn't like night-time visits! Best time to go see him is around noon. His guards all have Bozars, one of the best weapons in the game, so if you're a good thief...

The area outside the NCR city walls is called the Bazaar, and basically anything goes there. Downtown NCR is a different story. You (and your party) have to put away your weapons before entering NCR proper. Anytime you draw your weapon while inside NCR city walls, you'll have to fight your way out the hard way. All of the cops there have Pancor Jackhammers - the best shotgun in the game.

Once inside the city, talk to Sheriff Dumont, the grey-haired cop standing on the corner just south of the city entrance. He'll arrange for you to see Westin, and President Tandi. You just got two very important introductions.

Duppo, in the shop next to where the Sheriff is standing, has a good selection of wares. Make sure you examine the stuff on all of his tables, especially the one on the right. He's got a different selection there :-)

Talk to Doc Jubilee in the Hospital. He tells you about Saltbeef, an old prospector who allegedly has a map that gives the location of Vault 13. In the bookcase behind Doc is a bottle of Heart Pills (never figured out what they were for) and a hypo full of Poison. Hmmm.

Talk to the guard inside the gate of Westin's place. If you saw the Sheriff first (see above) you'll be able to tell him you're looking for work, and he'll let you inside. Talk to Felix, the foreman standing guard outside Westin's door. Again, you'll be allowed past because you talked to Sheriff Dumont. Even if you're here to kill Westin for Bishop (New Reno, Quest 7), you should talk to Westin first (see Quest 4 below), for dead men give no quests! Saltbeef is located in a shed just inside the gate. Give him some booze and he'll tell you all about his finding Vault 13. He made a map, but it seems the doc at Shady Sands (now NCR, of course) might have stolen it from him. Go back and talk to Doc Jubilee in the hospital. He mentions that he got an Elvis painting from Saltbeef, and he'll part with it for a mere... $10000! If you purchase this painting from him and examine it, you'll find that Saltbeef did indeed draw a map showing the location of Vault 13 on the back of it. However, dramatic as this may be, it's a far too expensive way to get the location of the vault. See section on Vault 15 for another way.

Dorothy the tomboy and Toto her sidekick robot are standing outside the Power Station in the NE corner of NCR. Save the game before you approach her. When you get close, you'll be dragged inside to help dissuade a guy from suiciding. With lots of panache (CH 9 and Speech 80%), you can talk him out of it. Mention his ex-wife Mira, and when you get this dialogue choice: "Now's your chance. Be the big man. Really stand her down.", then you'll have hit paydirt for 6000 XP! If you can't talk your way out of a paper bag, you can always just let the guy waste himself, then repair the damaged gear for Dorothy. In any case, she gives you some manuals in return for the favour. If instead you allow the station (and Dorothy) to blow up, it takes down the force fields that are blocking the entrances to Westin's place, etc. But this isn't much help, as there are other ways to get by them.

If you get the Hubologist, located in the building across the street from Dusty's Cantina, to 'enlighten' you, your Luck will change... for better or worse. Save your game before speaking to her. Mine went from 7 to 9 on the first try, so I just left it at that! This action has the side effect of making you a level AHS-1 Hubologist, but as far as I could determine, it didn't alter any NPC reactions, so no problem.

There's another Brotherhood outpost here, in the SE corner behind Dusty's Cantina. All the guy there will tell you is that there's a branch in New San Francisco too.

The guy in the junkyard, west of the slavers in the Bazaar, will fit a Blower to your car to give it more power for $1000.

Quests

• 1.  Retrieve papers from Dr. Henry - 1000 XP and $1000.
  You need to do Quest 3 before you get this quest. Then, go see Dr. Henry in the building just south of Duppo's store. He won't give you the papers, but they're free for the taking from his desk in the hallway, so don't harm him.
  If you have decent IN and CH and at least 80% Science skill, you can also get Quest 7.

• 2.  Free the slaves in the slave pen, for the Rangers - 3000 XP.
  Talk to Elise, in the building just north of the Brotherhood outpost. If you want to join them, you have to kill the slavers in the Bazaar outside. Not a bad quest if you're leaning toward the 'good' side. Kill all the slavers, open all the slave pens using the terminal at the end of each row of pens, and report back to Elise. You get a Ranger Pin :-), and it wouldn't hurt to take the Ranger Map off the bench in the back room.

• 3.  Kill the Hubologist in NCR for Merk - 2000 XP.
  Merk hangs out in the back room of the bar in the Bazaar, after midnight. Ask him for work. Then, kill the Hubologist (located in building north of Dusty's Cantina, downtown centre). Now, if you just waltz in and shoot the poor Hubologist, you'll alert the cops and have to fight your way out of NCR. Been there, done it once, and unless you're in the market for a dozen Pancor Jackhammers, it's not recommended. So, you can use that old faithful Fallout standby: 'Death by Stimpak'. Just use a few Super Stimpaks on your victim (3 was enough in this case), then use your Pip Boy to wait 10 minutes, and you have a dead Hubologist with no one the wiser. Funny, but I didn't lose any Karma points doing this. I guess life in the Wasteland is cheap - either that, or Hubologists aren't very popular ;-)

• 4.  Stop brahmin raids - 1000 XP and location of Vault 15.
  Ask Westin about Vault 13. He'll promise information in return for your doing this quest. Then talk to Felix again, and he'll lead you out to pasture (literally). While you're there, you'll overhear two Deathclaws chatting to each other, and mentioning that they wouldn't harm a human! Return to the ranch and report back to Westin. You tell him that as long as he posts a person there, the problem will be solved. If you didn't know where Vault 15 was yet, then Westin puts it on your map.
  Now it's safe to kill Westin (unless: a. you want to cut a deal with him and kill Bishop instead. But this would be much harder, believe me!... or, b. you want to complete Quest 6 below). If you do decide to bump him off, then all you have to do is give him the Poison you got from Doc Jubilee's bookcase in the Hospital. Folks will assume he died from his heart condition, and you'll have completed Bishop's quest successfully.

• 5.  Retrieve Parts/Gain Access to Vault 15 - 5000 XP and $6000!
  After you've talked to Sheriff Dumont, it's possible to pay a visit to President Tandi, a survivor of the original Fallout! She's located in the Hall of Congress, in the far SE of NCR. After getting past 2 of her aides, you'll get to talk to the Pres herself, and she gives you this quest. Travel to Vault 15, which should now be on your map, to the east of NCR. When you complete all the Vault 15 quests, return and speak to Tandi. Then get your reward from Gunther, the man in the suit. Also, if you got the Spy Holodisk, then see Vault 15, Quest 1 below.

• 6.  Deliver Westin's holodisk to Lynette in Vault City - 1500 XP (plus H&K G11 and 2 Frag Grenades).
  If you took Vault City Quest 9, then when you deliver Bishop's Holodisk to Westin (just say you're on business from Vault City to get in), he'll give you a Holodisk to take back to Lynette. When you deliver it to her, she'll send you to Randal to collect your reward.

• 7.  Test mutagenic serum on a super-mutant. Try Broken Hills - 1000 XP and Dr. Henry's cybernetic dog.
  Mention Vault 13 while conversing with Dr. Henry. If you have high enough Science skill (at least 80%), you should get a dialogue option to ask about 'cyber-genetics'. He'll give you some Mutagenic Serum, and ask you to carry out an experiment on a Super Mutant for him. You don't have to look as far as Broken Hills either. There's a super mutant hanging out at the bar in the bazaar. Just inject him with the serum, he melts right in front of your eyes, and the folks in the bar will think it was something he was drinking! You'll get Dr. Henry's cybernetic dog as an NPC for doing this. Not much cop, if you ask me.

Vault 15
You must start with Quest 3 here.

Quests

• 1.  Give Spy Holodisk to authority in NCR - 4000 XP and $4000.
  After you talk to Gunther and get your reward for carrying out NCR Quest 5, talk to him again about the NCR spy. It's Feargus, the guy in the Hall of Congress entrance room, who promptly leaves the scene after having been disgraced.

• 2.  Kill Darion - Quest 4 and location of Vault 13.
  You need to complete Quest 3 to get this quest. Enter Vault 15 (door in side of mountain near shack where Chrissy was held), using the Keycard Zeke gave you upon the completion of Quest 3. Take out all the raiders on Levels 1 and 2 (in the NW room on Level 2 there's a footlocker next to the bed that contains a set of Combat Armor). Then proceed to Level 3. In the middle room of this level, there's a locker containing the Computer Parts that Tandi is looking for. Darion is in the room to the SE. Kill Darion and his guards, and access the Computer there. You'll be able to copy info onto a Holodisk that proves there is a spy in the NCR council. Lastly, access the first Computer in the room to the SW to find the location of Vault 13! When you're done, see Quest 4 below.

• 3.  Rescue Chrissy - 2500 XP.
  Seek out the 'older woman' named Rebecca amongst the squatters there. You'll talk in privacy, where she'll give you this quest to rescue her daughter. Someone overhears your conversation though... Go talk to Dalia, who is blocking the path to the east, and ask if she just saw someone go by. She'll let you pass. Take the exit grid east and ask Phil, the guard in front of the shack, if he saw the eavesdropper. Turns out it was him! You can talk him into releasing Chrissy without having to fight him. Once you've unlocked the door with the key Phil gives you and chatted to Chrissy, she'll run back to Rebecca. Follow her back to the tent, chat with Rebecca, and then go see Zeke in the house. You'll get Quests 2 and 4 as a result.

• 4.  Complete deal with NCR.
  Return to Zeke after you wipe out Darion and his crew. Then head back to NCR and talk to Tandi again. See NCR, Quest 5.

Vault 13
Don't shoot! The deathclaw you see upon entering Vault 13 is Gruthar... and he talks! You get 2000 XP for finding Vault 13.

Quests

• 1.  Fix the Vault 13 computer - 9000 XP and... a GECK!
  Talk to Gruthar, and offer to take a look at the broken computer on Level 3. I hope you brought a Computer Voice Module with you. If not, you can get one from the Vault City vault, or Eldridge in the New Reno Arms shop. Talk to Jimmy in the room where the mainframe is on Level 3. He'll tell you the whereabouts of the old Military Base west of here. Then, open up the voice interface terminal there, replace the sabotaged Voice Module, and report back to Gruthar. You get 5000 XP for fixing the computer, plus 4000 XP for finding the GECK. You also have the run of the place now, so go to the storage room on Level 3 and raid all the lockers, making sure you at least take the NavCom Parts. Er... aren't you forgetting something? I think you should pay a visit to Arroyo now that you finally have the GECK!

• 2.  Talk to Goris.
  He's the hunched-over creature in robes, SW room on Level 3. He'll join your party, but he's only got a claw for a weapon... though it does pretty high melee damage.

Military Base
Scrounge around for some interesting stuff in the tents outside the compound, and kill the wolves when you get a chance. Inside the compound, there's a shed with some Dynamite and Ropes inside. Just SE of the mine cart, there's a Metal Rod on the ground. You can attach it to the cart, then attach some (unarmed!) Dynamite to the Rod. Then push the cart into the heap of rocks and KABLOOIE! You get 5000 XP for gaining access to the Military Base :-)

Level 1
Once inside, beware of the rats, because these suckers radiate you when they bite! In the SE corner, there's a mutant named Grundel whom you can try to speak to... but he just wants to eat you, so I wasted him. In the SW corner there's a generator you can repair to restore power to the place. You get 1500 XP for doing so. You can now take the elevator in the NW corner down to the next level. But before you do, there are some Rockets in the crates near the elevator. Also, you might want to leave any weaker party members behind, because there's some tough stuff on the next levels!

Level 2
Even taking Marcus with you can be a bit dicey, because you have to place yourself carefully so you're always at the centre of the action; else, he tends to run ahead and get himself killed. So, I find the best combat setting for him here is "Attack whomever is attacking me". OK. There are two rooms full of Super Mutants on this level. I recommend giving yourself (and Marcus, if he's with you) a shot of Psycho before tucking in. Then, proceed down the corridor to the room in the SW corner. You get a bit of help from the mutants themselves here, because they can get in each other's way. But try to get the guy at the back of the room first, because he's got a Plasma Rifle and can shoot right past his mates! As you're taking on this lot, the rest of the crowd starts spilling out of the other room... anyway, it's not my place to micro-manage your team! So, once you've finished wiping them out, make sure you search them all for weapons and ammo. Also, search the footlockers in the dorm, and make sure you don't miss the set of Power Armor in the locker room next to the dorm! Equally important are 6 Super Stimpaks, located in a wall locker in the room all the way to the NE.

Level 3
Get the Green Memory Module from the locker in the room immediately to the SE. The Memory Modules can be used with the Brotherhood's medical computer in New San Francisco to upgrade some of your SPECIAL attributes. Again, wipe out all the Super Mutants on this floor, then take the elevator to the far SE down...

Level 4
Make sure you raid the hidden footlocker at the base of the bed in the room next to where you arrive. Then head north to face Melchior, the deranged Super Mutant. He can summons his Deathclaw and Fire Gecko pets indefinitely as long as he's alive, so concentrate on taking out Melchior first, then wipe out whatever pets are left. When you've killed everything here, be sure to get the Gauss Pistol from the ammo chest behind where Melchior was originally standing!

New San Francisco
You enter via Chinatown. To the east, at the end of an alley, is Mai Da Chiang's 'Red 888 Guns' shop. He's got lots of high-powered stuff here, usually a few Miniguns, a Gatling Laser, and also a Super Sledge. Check all his tables. The weapons he has at any particular time are slightly random, and may also be based on your current stats to maintain balance.

Lao Chou's 'Flying Dragon 8' shop is immediately to the west. The door is on a hidden wall, so can be tricky to find. Be sure to look on all his tables too. Among the usual goodies: M60, Laser Rifle (Ext. Cap.), Electronic Lockpick MKII, Expanded Lockpick Set, Field Medic First Aid Kit.

You'll no doubt have noticed the fighting ring in the centre of Chinatown. You can challenge either the Dragon, who represents 'good', or Lo Pan ('evil') to a fight to the death. The Dragon will train you to add 5% to your Unarmed Skill, if it's not high enough already. If you do challenge either of these guys, don't try it with less than 130% Unarmed or less will do if you took the Bonus HtH Damage perk, and (sometimes, not every time) you have to fight a few of their minions first, getting progressively more difficult each time, before you can take on either master himself. Hint: a shot of Psycho before engaging in the conversation to start the fight goes a long way :-)
You get some XP per minion, 2000 XP for killing Lo Pan or the Dragon, and 3000 XP for talking to the one you didn't kill afterwards.

If you head north past the fighting ring, through the gate, and onto the northern exit grid, you'll wind up on the docks. Keep heading north, and you'll eventually wind up at the Poseidon tanker. Jenna, in the General Store on the tanker (north of the entrance), has an Electronic Lockpick MKII for sale.

If instead of taking the northern exit grid once you go through the gate, you head east and take the exit grid there to the NE, you'll wind up staring at a... space shuttle. Take the circular stairs downwards to the Hubologists headquarters. Talk to AHS-7 there as you enter. You can become a Hubologist by talking to Juan and Vikki (a thinly disguised Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) in the prayer room, and then reporting back to AHS-7. He'll give you Quest 4, but I quite took to Badger so never had the inclination to carry this out. If you're looking to address some more practical concerns, then see Crocket, the scientist in the room to the SE. He'll upgrade Power Armor to Hardened Power Armor for $10000 a go. It takes him a day to do each set, and he'll do a maximum of two sets for you. Probably worth it if you have NPC's like Sulik and Vic in tow.

For what it's worth... you can hack into the Shi's mainframe (the 'Emperor'). All you have to do is waltz into the Shi Palace (on the east side of town), head for the large central room where the empty throne is, open the door at the back of the room, disable the force field, and hack in for 3000 XP. You get another 3000 XP for accessing the chemistry section of the database, and a further 5000 XP for diverting fuel to the tanker (but you have to know that this is possible in order to get that option :-)
Anyway, once you've finished your hacking job, all the Shi in the place are hostile and will attack. There are easier ways to divert fuel to the tanker. See Quest 7 below.

You should start with Quest 10 here.

Quests

• 1.  The navigation computer needs the NavCom part to work.
  See Vault 13, Quest 1.

• 2.  You need to use a FOB to access the navigation computer.
  See Navarro, Quest 3.

• 3.  Kill the Shi emperor.
  When you go to kill AHS-9 (see Quest 5), he'll offer you money to bump off Ken Lee and the Shi emperor instead. I never took this quest.

• 4.  Kill Badger so the tanker vagrants will embrace the Hub.
  Didn't have the heart.

• 5.  Kill the AHS-9 - 5000 XP.
  Enter the Hubologist headquarters and seek out the man in the suit in the back room at the eastern side of the facility. He'll try to make a deal with you to kill the Shi emperor instead, but nah, I'd rather waste the Hubologists, so start with him! Once you've wiped out all the Hubologists, report back to Ken Lee in the Steel Palace. Hmmm. The 'Emperor' is a computer! He'll give you the password to access the mainframe in the back room. Get into the Chemistry section of the database, direct fuel to the Poseidon tanker, and you'll have completed Quest 7 as well!

• 6.  The Shi need plans for a vertibird from Navarro - 5000 XP.
  In the Steel Palace, talk to Ken Lee in the stone-walled room. If you then agree to give the Vertibird Plans to Dr. Wong (the same guy who had Chip's spleen. See Quest 9), he'll let you see the 'Emperor', but only if you complete Quest 5 first. Even though you may have already given the Vertibird Plans to the Brotherhood (Quest 10), you still have the originals because Matthew only made a copy of them. So, you can give them to Dr. Wong.

• 7.  The tanker needs fuel - 5000 XP.
  In the Steel Palace (see Quest 9), in a room to the SE, there are a load of scientists. I just marched right up to the computer in the SE corner there, hacked into it, and diverted the fuel to the tanker! My Science skill wasn't terribly high either (80%). Alternatively, you can do Quest 5. You get more XP this way, and another opportunity to try out all those new weapons and up the body count :-)

  Getting to the Enclave
  Once you've got: the NavCom Parts (Quest 1), the Tanker FOB (Quest 2), and the fuel (from here or Quest 5), you're ready to roll. But first you have to make a major decision. Do you want to take on the Enclave yourself, in which case a stealth approach is recommended, or do you want to go in with all guns blazing? If you decide to go it alone, then do yourself and your party a favour and leave them standing on the dock right here. You can collect them later. If, on the other hand, you decide take them with you, beware that if you ever ask them to "Wait here till I get back", it could be the last time you will ever see them again! Also, beware that if you take Marcus, the Enclave types will shoot on sight. Other party members are fine.
  OK. Now down to business. Go below on the tanker, and use the Tanker FOB on the keyless entry device in front of the locked door on the west side of the hold (2000 XP). Then take the ladder up, and use the NavCom Parts on the PoseidoNet Navigational Computer for another 2000 XP. Finally, make your way up to the captain's place, and access the computer there to set sail. There's a beautiful cut scene here, and you get 15000 XP for reaching the Enclave! See Enclave section below.

• 8.  Find Badger's girlfriend in the hold below the ship - 5000 XP.
  Badger is located on the tanker, in the room behind the General Store. Be prepared for a big fight, then go down the ladder that's behind him, and notice his girlfriend (Suze) standing in the NE corner of the hold. She's trapped by an assortment of Aliens, Floaters, and a few Centaurs. Wipe them out (there are a few more to the west side of the hold), then speak to her and she'll follow you upstairs. Wait till she rejoins Badger, then speak to him. Now, having done the crew a favour, you'll be able to talk to the captain of this fine vessel! He's located to the east, through the bar and up the stairs. Speak to him, and you'll learn that you need three things in order to get the ship started. Finding these items involves Quests 1, 2, and 7.

• 9.  Get Chip's spleen - 5000 XP.
  Chip is the bald guy standing just to the SE of the General Store on the tanker. Talk to him, and you'll discover that he lost his spleen in a bet against Lao Chou! When you speak to Lao Chou (shop just to west of Chinatown entrance), he'll tell you that he gave the spleen to Dr. Wong in the Steel Palace. The Steel Palace is located off an exit grid, at the end of the road that leads east from the fighting ring. Dr. Wong is the short, rotund Shi man in the room of whitecoats just to the north as you enter the Palace. Ask him about the spleen. He tries to fob you off with that line from Silence of the Lambs, but if you say that chianti goes better with liver instead, he realises that it's a human spleen and agrees to return it to its owner! You get 2000 XP for this. So far, so good... but now it gets to be more like a Fed Ex quest. Go talk to Chip again, and he wants you to ask Dr. Fung (building just SE of fighting ring) to put his spleen back in for him when he gets it. You talk to Dr. Fung, and that's OK with him (if you were on good terms with Doc Holliday, Fung happens to be a mutual acquaintance and will put the spleen in for free). Then go back and speak to Chip once again, and he'll tell you to wait a day and get back to him. Then he leaves the tanker. If you come back to the same spot a day or more later, Chip will be there, reunited with his spleen, and you'll get 3000 XP more. He'll give you information now, but it's not ground-breaking stuff, if you know what I mean.

• 10.  Get the vertibird plans for the Brotherhood of Steel - 23500 XP and access to the Brotherhood's facility.
  You'll find the New SFO chapter of the Brotherhood behind Lao Chou's shop (west of the brahmin pens). Talk to Matthew there, and he'll ask you to sneak into the Navarro Enclave base and lift the plans. He suggests you go it alone. Good advice. If you bring any of your party along, it immediately turns into a shooting fest (though, myself and Marcus took on the whole place the first time I played. Depends if you're feeling lucky today ;-) So, once you're good and ready, head for Navarro (see below). Upon your return, present the Vertibird Plans to Matthew, and you get access to the...

  Brotherhood of Steel
  Take whatever Memory Modules you have with you. You can heal yourself and get the following SPECIAL stats upgrades by accessing the terminal next to the computer there:

  • ST - Red Memory Module (2 weeks)
  • IN - Yellow Memory Module (4 weeks)
  • PE - Green Memory Module (2 weeks)
  • CH - Blue Memory Module (3 weeks)

  Funny, but while I was spending the 4 weeks in the suspension tank increasing my IN via the Yellow Memory Module... I seem to have grown a sixth toe on each of my feet! You can get one of these toes removed by the doc in the Vault City clinic and, believe it or not, it's rumoured to be useful as a weapon in your final battle :-) The lockers in the room to the south are a veritable gold mine: Brotherhood Armor, Power Armor, YK32 Pulse Pistol, and YK42B Pulse Rifle!

  Next, you should have a look at Quest 8!

Navarro
Do yourself a favour. Stop one square short of Navarro (NW of New SFO, on the coast) and save the game. Once you get to Navarro, you're greeted by a guy in robes named Chris. Whatever you do, don't allow him to alert the base. I said I was just looking around, which ended the conversation... then promptly shot him. Try alerting the base now, Jimmy! Once you've managed to get by Chris without alerting the base, head for the shack attached to the gas station (sleeping quarters), and open the trap door. Follow the L-shaped corridor till you come to another door, then just waltz inside. If you're by yourself no one will bother you (recommended for this whole area... but once Marcus and I took out the entire base, turrets and all. Lots of fun and XP :-) You can walk right by the Quartermaster there, to that room full of lockers. In one of them, you will find a set of Advanced Power Armor! This puts you on a level playing pitch with your Enclave friends. Another locker contains a Blue Memory Module that can be used back in the Brotherhood's HQ. There's a Plasma Rifle to be found too, and a decent cache of Micro Fusion Cells, if you don't already have enough of these.

Once you'r wearing the Advanced Power Armor, you can head up any of the circular elevators to the ground floor. Seek out the blind cook (Cookie!) in the kitchen of the barracks to the SW. He's a great source of info. You can find out about the FOB, for one thing, by asking him where the Enclave is located. Then, you can tackle Quest 3 below.

Cookie will also tell you about the rivalry between Raul, the Vertibird mechanic, and Quincy, the guy who guards the Vertibird Plans. Now, you can use this knowledge to your advantage, not only to grab the Vertibird Plans, but to have a little mischievous fun in the process :-) First, go talk to either of the two technicians in the northern room of the building to the SE. Ask them where you could find some Vertibird Plans, and they'll tell you to ask maintenence. Quincy hangs out in the building to the NE. Tell him that one of the techs sent you for the Plans. When he asks which one, lie to him that it was Raul. You can then take the Plans from the locker behind Quincy (for 3500 XP!), and promptly march over to see Raul in the hangar to the NW. Tell him what Quincy said, and Raul will leave his post to go beat up Quincy! When Raul leaves, rummage in the lockers he was guarding and get the K-9 Motivator (see Quest 2 below). Anyway, if you don't feel like going through all this rigamarole, you can always just Sneak and open the locker behind Quincy to get the Plans (40% Sneak skill worked after a few attempts) or use the old reliable 'Silent Super Stimpak Death' (feed him about 6, then wait 10 minutes till he pops off). Once you have the Plans safely tucked away, you can work on the quests. Once you've finished Quest 3, return to New SFO and present Matthew with the Vertibird Plans.

Quests

• 1.  Deal with the deathclaw - 1500 XP.
  To the SW on Level 1 is a room containing a lone scientist and a cyberdog. Talk to Dr. Schreber, discern his evil plans, and bump him off for 1000 XP. Don't worry about alerting anyone, because the room is soundproofed :-) Take the Blue Pass Key from Dr. Schreber's desk and talk to Xarn the Deathclaw in the room to the south. You can release him through the other door using the Blue Pass Key, or have him join you.

• 2.  Fix K9 - 3500 XP.
  After talking to Dr. Schreber (see Quest 1), if you locate Raul back at Ground Level in the hangar to the NW, you can retrieve the Motivator to fix up the cyberdog (actually, 'K-9'). He'll join you then, but he's not much use at all, really.

• 3.  Retrieve the FOB from the base Commander - 3500 XP.
  There's an important object in the Commander's quarters that you might as well retrieve while you're here. The quarters are in the room right behind the mainframe on Level 1. If you talked to Cookie (see above), then you can try to bluff your way by the guard outside the Base Commander's office. If your CH, IN, and LK combination is high enough, you can get in to see the Base Commander by fabricating a story about how you're here to secure the 'tanker passkey', and you'll be able to just walk right in and take the FOB from his locker, with his blessing :-)
  On the other hand, if the guard at the door won't let you in, now is the time to open fire, if you've done the other quests first, that is! When you're finished taking out everyone on this level (unfortunately, this puts the whole base on alert), try to open the first locker next to the bookcases. You'll need fairly high Lockpick skill (I had 70% and an Expanded Lockpick Set) to do this. Inside the locker is the Tanker FOB, which will come in very handy later on!

Enclave
The entrance is to the east, a bit hidden amongst all the trappings there. Make your way inside, then access the terminal in the entrance foyer. Hmmm. Looks like you need a Presidential Passkey to do anything useful here. If you exit the foyer to the east, there's a locker room on this level absolutely chock full of 2mm EC. There's also a room to the NE with ammo crates full of Rocket Launchers and Plasma Rifles. Also, some lockers containing Plastic Explosives which, ahem, might come in handy later on. Nothing else particularly interesting on this level. After you're done exploring here, I recommended heading down the stairs to the south of the entrance foyer.

Level 1
Immediately upon entering here, there are some lockers full of goodies. To the east are the Detention Cells. You can speak with your village elder through the force field. Things are definitely not looking good. Take the circular stairs (to the south) down to the next level.

Level 2
Wahey, a maze! I had some fun figuring this out, but if you number the rooms as below:

1  2  3
4  5  6
7  8  9
   10

Then if you access the terminals in rooms: 2, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 you'll be able to open the exit door in room 10. Be quick about it, because you take damage from the floor here as you go! Oh, if you forgot to bring your GECK along, you can pick one up here. Just head east out of room 6, then north. The locker all the way to the NW contains a GECK. And to the west, through room 4, there's another locker room. One of the lockers here contains a set of Advanced Power Armor MKII, the best armor in the game! When finished here, head through the exit door in room 10 to the south and go down the stairs. If by any chance you need to come back this way, just enter room 6, access the terminal there, and all the correct doors will be open to allow you to go back up to Level 1 :-)

Level 3
If you're going to try the stealth and cunning approach to rescue your friends, this is where the fun begins! (if instead you got here by killing everything in sight, then follow the 'Ah heck, it'll do' path below). Locate the President and have a (long) chat with him. Man, is he deranged! Once you've learned the 'Master Plan', take the non-confrontational exit out of the conversation, so he doesn't call the guards. Then, you can use either of the methods below to bring on the endgame:

The 'Intellectual' way: use the (by now patented) 'Silent Super Stimpak Death' approach to kill the President. Feed him about 8 Super Stimpaks in succession, then use your Pip Boy to wait for 10 minutes. Get the Presidential Passkey off him. Then, go talk to Lt. Col. Dr. Charles Curling in the room to the NW. You can convince him to release the FEV virus into the ventilation system, but only if you have at least: IN 9, CH 8, Speech 70%. Once you get the conversation choice: "That's OK. Take your time, doctor. It's a big concept to swallow.", you'll know you have it made! After the virus is released (5000 XP), head down to Level 4 via the stairs behind the President's office. In the room that contains the mainframe, there are 3 technicians. Wait patiently for the FEV virus to waste them (or use your Pip Boy to wait 10 minutes), then walk right up to the middle computer terminal, arm an explosive, drop it there, and head back up the stairs. You've just earned another 10000 XP (as if it matters at this stage in the proceedings :-)
Alternatively, you can get Tom Murray, the guy standing behind a desk all the way in the SW corner of Level 4, to shut down the reactor for you! Choose the 'persuasive' dialogue options. You only get 12500 XP for using this strategy instead of the previous one, but who cares?
After using either of the above strategies, follow the instructions at Endgame.

The 'Ah heck, it'll do' way: waste the President with the weapon of your choice, and get the Presidential Passkey off him. Everyone in the immediate vicinity is alerted, including the security bots, but you can still make your way down to Level 4 via the stairs behind the President's office. In the room that contains the mainframe, there are 3 technicians. Save the game. Walk right up to the middle computer terminal, then wait patiently for each one of them to turn their backs and walk the other way (very important!). Once this has happened, arm an explosive, drop it there, and head back up the stairs (if you make a mistake and alert one of the technicians, thus entering Combat Mode, try again).
I thought I'd be able to use the Yellow Reactor Keycard that I found at the crashed vertibird site near Klamath to disable the reactor, but I couldn't find a way in there, even though you can see an elevator in the middle of the reactor room! So, I'm supposing this is another unimplemented quest.
Anyway, you've just earned another 10000 XP (as if it matters at this stage in the proceedings :-) Follow the instructions directly below next.

Endgame
Try to exit via the circular staircase directly to the south of Level 3 (the blast doors may be shut and preventing your exit. If this is the case, head back down to Level 4 and enter the room directly to the south that contains 3 terminals. Log onto the south-most one as 'Smith, J.', and use the Presidential Passkey to activate the Emergency Defense Systems Shutdown. This action will open the blast doors again, so you can head back up to Level 3), go up the circular stairs, and emerge at Ground Level. On your way to the entrance foyer, you should bump into Sgt. Granite and his men. He'll tell you about Horrigan, and it's possible to get the Sgt. to help you against Horrigan for 1500 XP. When you get to the entrance foyer, notice big Frank Horrigan standing there. Save the game! Just once, it's worth walking right up to him and hearing what he has to say... but you're at an extreme disadvantage if you do this, so it's best to restore after and do it this way: skirt carefully all around the south edge of the foyer and make your way to the computer terminal. Give yourself a shot of Psycho, and log on as 'Smith, J.'. Use the Presidential Passkey option, and Activate Counter Insurgency. The turrets, and Sgt. Granite's men if you recruited them, will keep Frank busy while you polish him off. If you've got your mutated 6th toe with you, you can walk up to Horrigan in the middle of the battle and use it on him. Not much cop, but good for a laugh. Once Horrigan is dead (good animation), head for the exit door. Once you get the door open, the game ends!

After the credits roll, you can choose to continue playing. Gives you a chance to kick back and try some random encounters with the odds stacked in your favour for a change, and you might also be able to find some more of those special encounters :-)

As a sort of endgame easter egg, if you go visit Fr. Tully again in New Reno, he'll give you a Fallout 2 Hintbook. Put this in a weapon slot, and the first time you use it it raises all your skills to 300%. Subsequent use gets you about 10000 XP per go...

War Story
Recently, while replaying Fallout 2 in order to check out a few things I was unsure of, I managed to get through the whole thing in about 8 hours playing time by taking a few... short cuts. This section may only be of academic interest to most, but if you're just looking to rehash a certain section of the game and don't have the right saved game hanging around on your hard drive:

I built a character with: CH 10, IN 10 (so I could talk my way past most things), tagged Small Guns, Unarmed, and Speech (though in retrospect, Big Guns or Energy Weapons would make the final battle a little easier).

Then from Arroyo, head straight south for New San Francisco (large spot marked 'Unknown' in SW corner of World Map). Save the game after every few grids of progress on the map, because you can't survive any of the random encounters yet (run away, run away!). When you get to New SFO, talk to Matthew outside the Brotherhood outpost and get the Navarro quest to retrieve the Vertibird Plans (Navarro doesn't appear on the map until you learn about it).

Head straight for Navarro (saving and restoring a lot to get past the Enclave patrols). Once there, take out Chris. This was extremely difficult for me, because I had no weapons to speak of at this point. I finally managed to blind him with a lucky kick to the eyes though. Head down the manhole in the shack next to the Gas Station, and loot the room full of lockers for weapons, ammo, and most importantly, Advanced Power Armor! Now we're armed and dangerous. head back to the surface, and with 40% Sneak skill you can manage to nab the Vertibird Plans from the locker behind Quincy. Also, get the tanker FOB from the base Commander's office (by talking to Cookie, the blind cook, you can find a way to bluff your way into the Commander's office to accomplish this). Now head back to New SFO. If you can kill anything big, like Enclave patrols, Deathclaws, Aliens, etc., then do so from now on as you need the XP!

Back at New SFO, you now have access to the Brotherhood's facility. Take everything you can carry, and trade it in for your weapons and ammo of choice at either of the two gun shops here. Then, head for Vault 15 (small spot marked 'Unknown' in SE corner of World Map). You can stop at NCR (bigger 'Unknown' spot just before it) and steal a Bozar from the guards in the Bazaar there (need only 50% steal skill). The reason why we need to go to Vault 15 is a simple one: we must find Vault 13, and its location is on a computer there. Read the Vault 15 section of this Guide for details on how to do this. I'm afraid you're going to have to kill a few people here, though. Once you have the location of Vault 13 on your Pip Boy, you can either head for New Reno (if you still want to play 'nice'), or go straight to Vault 13 and raid the place for the NavCom parts. If you decide on New Reno, then it's roughly on a beeline NW of Vault 15, towards the middle of the World Map.

The proprietor of the New Reno Arms (west side of Commercial Row) will sell you a Computer Voice Module. Then it's off to Vault 13.

Talk to the Gruthar the Deathclaw at the entrance to Vault 13 (unless you didn't visit New Reno to get the Computer Voice Module and just want to trash the place), and offer to fix his computer. Then, head down to the 3rd level and install the Computer Voice Module that you just brought from New Reno to mend the computer. Go back up and talk to Gruthar. You now have the GECK. But head back to the 3rd level again and raid the storage room there. Lockpick all the lockers there until you find the NavCom parts! Then, it's back to New SFO.

Head for the docked tanker on the north side of town. You must rescue Badger's girlfriend by taking out all the Aliens and other beasties in the hold below to gain the Captain's confidence. Then go to the Shi Palace and divert fuel to the tanker. Finally, head below again and use the FOB to gain access to the NavCom room. Fix the NavCom computer with the parts you got from Vault 13... and you're ready to sail to the Enclave! Finito :-)

Special Encounters
Generally you need Luck of 9 or 10 to get all or most of these encounters during the course of a single game, but Explorer and Ranger perks also help.

Talking Head
Touch the monument. Twelve hours later, he'll let you take a piece of him. I never found a use for this Monument Chunk.

Bridge of Death
Heh. Bridgekeeper scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, re-enacted 1000 years later. Save first, then talk to the Bridgekeeper and answer the questions to cross the bridge and get to the exit grid. If you answer the final trivia question correctly, you'll merely be allowed to cross the bridge... but if you answer the question with a question (in true Pythonesque fashion), the Bridgekeeper does a dead parrot imitation, and you get his robes as a prize (see Armor Catalogue).

Federation Shuttle
On the bodies near the crashed shuttle, you'll find 3 Hypos full of an advanced drug. It appears to restore you to full HP with no side effects!

Exploding Brahmin
Watch out, these beasts are lethal. Get outta there, and fast!

Guardian of Forever
You wind up staring at some stone ruins (this is from an old Star Trek episode). If you walk through the stone portal, you'll 'time warp' right into a deserted Vault 13 on the 3rd level. In the back storage room on the floor is a one-of-a-kind energy weapon called a Solar Scorcher. Only works in daylight, but what the heck. Pretty powerful stuff! At first I thought it was only of academic interest because I couldn't find my way back out again. The elevator doesn't work anymore :-(
But, a little perseverance revealed that if you access the Water Chip computer there (next to the 'talking' computer), you 'break' it, leaving the vault with only 150 days left to find a new chip :-) This action 'warps' you back to the surface, and you get 1000 XP to boot!

Trader and guards
If you wander around the map just 4 squares north of Modoc for a while (though I'm pretty much convinced these random encounters can happen anywhere on the map), you'll eventually encounter a trader named Willy. You fall asleep during his boring sales pitch, and when you wake up all you hear is that he's offering you something for a steep price. It's usually something powered by Small Energy Cells, like a Ripper or Power Fist. You can also steal whatever it is instead of paying through the nose for it.

Tin Woodsman
Use the can of oil you find near him to free up his jammed Power Armor. You get 150 Micro Fusion Cells in return for the favour.

Unwashed Villagers Attacking a Spammer
Scene from "Life in the Global Village" (Act 3).

Cave full of Robbers
Every time you get a random encounter, and there's a cave in the scene, it's worth going into the cave afterwards. Usually, the cave contains Radscorpions... but one of these caves contains about a half dozen heavily armed Robbers in Combat Armor. These guys are really tough to defeat, but if you can manage to best them, they have some great gear both on them and stashed in some chests, including: Plasma Rifle, Mega Power Fists, Gauss Rifles(!), YK42B Pulse Rifles, H&K G11E's(!), and over $3000 :-)

Cafe of Broken Dreams
Meet the cast of the original Fallout (well, Tandi and Set at least). Also, some of the 'extras' who felt they could have got better roles. Even Dogmeat is here! I tried prancing all around him wearing a Leather Jacket. No dice. However... if you strip down to your Vault 13 suit, he will join you again! Ah, just like old times :-)
Anyway, one more thing here: if you didn't know how to already, there's a tip to be gleaned for saving Dogmeat from destruction at the Military Base in the original game. Or, you can always read the Quandary Fallout Walkthrough for more detailed instructions.

Weapons Catalogue
In each category, I've tried to arrange the various items in order of lethality... or just sheer badness :P

Even though the burst-capable weapons don't look like they have high damage ratings, it's important to point out that the figures refer to *each bullet*. So... a Bozar has a chance to do 25-35 damage with each of the 15 bullets it dishes out per round. Huzzah!

I never figured out how to employ the Shiv as a weapon. I thought you'd be able to use it to assassinate Carlson or the President, but you can't seem to actually do anything with it except conceal it!

Note: all Melee Weapon damage points are for a character with ST 6, and no Bonus HtH Damage perks.

Melee Weapons
Shiv	Brass Knuckles Dmg: 2-6	Switchblade Dmg: 2-6
Knife Dmg: 1-7	Club Dmg: 1-7	Combat Knife Dmg: 3-11
Spiked Knuckles Dmg: 4-11	Crowbar Dmg: 3-11	Sledgehammer Dmg: 4-10  Rng: 2
Spear Dmg: 3-11  Rng: 2	Sharpened Spear Dmg: 4-13  Rng: 2	"Little Jesus" (Little Jesus Mordino's Combat Knife) Dmg: 5-15
Cattle Prod Dmg: 12-21 Ammo: 20 x Small Energy Cell	Power Fist Dmg: 12-25 Ammo: 25 x Small Energy Cell	Louisville Slugger Dmg: 12-31
Ripper Dmg: 15-33 Ammo: 30 x Small Energy Cell	Super Cattle Prod Dmg: 18-33 Ammo: 20 x Small Energy Cell	Super Sledge Dmg: 18-37  Rng: 2
Mega Power Fist Dmg: 20-41 Ammo: 25 x Small Energy Cell

Thrown Weapons
Throwing Knife Dmg: 3-6  Rng: 16	Spear Dmg: 3-11  Rng: 8	Sharpened Spear Dmg: 4-13  Rng: 8
Molotov Cocktail Dmg: 8-20  Rng: 12	Grenade (Frag) Dmg: 20-35  Rng: 15	Grenade (Plasma) Dmg: 40-90  Rng: 15
Grenade (Pulse) Dmg: 100-150  Rng: 15 Anti-mech only

Small Guns
Jonny's BB Gun Dmg: 1-3  Rng: 22 Ammo: 100 x BB's	Pipe Rifle Dmg: 5-12  Rng: 20 Ammo: 1 x 10mm	10mm Pistol Dmg: 5-12  Rng: 25 Ammo: 12 x 10mm
Hunting Rifle Dmg: 8-20  Rng: 40 Ammo: 10 x .223mm FMJ Upgr: Scope	Desert Eagle .44 Dmg: 10-16  Rng: 25 Ammo: 8 x .44 Magnum Upgr: Exp. magazine to 20	.44 Magnum Revolver Dmg: 12-18  Rng: 15 Ammo: 6 x .44 Magnum
Shotgun Dmg: 12-22  Rng: 14 Ammo: 2 x 12 ga. Shot	Sawed-Off Shotgun Dmg: 12-24  Rng: 7 Ammo: 2 x 12 ga. Shot	14mm Pistol Dmg: 12-22  Rng: 24 Ammo: 6 x 14mm
Needler Pistol Dmg: 12-24  Rng: 24 Ammo: 10 x HN Needler Cartridge	.223 Pistol Dmg: 20-30  Rng: 30 Ammo: 5 x .223 FMJ	Sniper Rifle Dmg: 14-34  Rng: 50 Ammo: 6 x .223 FMJ
10mm SMG Dmg: 5-12  Rng: 25 Ammo: 30 x 10mm	Combat Shotgun Dmg: 15-25  Rng: 22 Ammo: 12 x 12 ga. Shot	H&K CAWS Dmg: 15-25  Rng: 30 Ammo: 10 x 12 ga. Shot
Tommy Gun Dmg: 3-20  Rng: 32 Ammo: 50 x .45 Caliber	Assault Rifle Dmg: 8-16  Rng: 45 Ammo: 24 x 5mm Upgr: Exp. magazine to 100	FN FAL Dmg: 9-18  Rng: 35 Ammo: 20 x 7.62mm Upgr: Night Sight
FN FAL HPFA Dmg: 11-22  Rng: 35 Ammo: 20 x 7.62mm Single burst	HK P90c Dmg: 12-16  Rng: 30 Ammo: 24 x 10mm	M3A1 "Grease Gun" SMG Dmg: 10-20  Rng: 20 Ammo: 30 x .45 Caliber
Red Ryder LE BB Gun Dmg: 25-25  Rng: 32 Ammo: 100 x BB's	H&K G11 Dmg: 10-20  Rng: 35 Ammo: 50 x 4.7mm Caseless	H&K G11E Dmg: 13-23  Rng: 40 Ammo: 50 x 4.7mm Caseless
Pancor Jackhammer Dmg: 18-29  Rng: 35 Ammo: 10 x 12 ga. Shot	PPK12 Gauss Pistol Dmg: 22-32  Rng: 50 Ammo: 12 x 2mm EC	M72 Gauss Rifle Dmg: 32-43  Rng: 50 Ammo: 20 x 2mm EC

Big Guns
Flamer Dmg: 45-90  Rng: 5 Ammo: 5 x Flamethrower Fuel Upgr: Improved Flamer	Light Support Weapon Dmg: 20-30  Rng: 40 Ammo: 30 x .223 FMJ	M60 Dmg: 18-26  Rng: 35 Ammo: 50 x 7.62mm Min. ST 7
Rocket Launcher Dmg: 35-100  Rng: 40 Ammo: 1 x Rocket	Minigun Dmg: 7-11  Rng: 35 Ammo: 120 x 5mm Min. ST 7	Avenger Minigun Dmg: 10-14  Rng: 40 Ammo: 120 x 5mm Min. ST 7
Vindicator Minigun Dmg: 14-19  Rng: 30 Ammo: 100 x 4.7mm Caseless Min. ST 7	Bozar Dmg: 25-35  Rng: 35 Ammo: 30 x .223 FMJ

Energy Weapons
Laser Pistol Dmg: 10-22  Rng: 35 Ammo: 12 x Small Energy Cell Upgr: Magneto-Laser Pistol	Plasma Pistol Dmg: 15-35  Rng: 20 Ammo: 16 x Small Energy Cell	YK32 Pulse Pistol Dmg: 32-46  Rng: 15 Ammo: 5 x Small Energy Cell
Laser Rifle Dmg: 25-50  Rng: 45 Ammo: 12 x Micro Fusion Cell Upgr: Exp. Cap. to 24	Solar Scorcher Dmg: 20-60  Rng: 20 Daytime use only	Plasma Rifle Dmg: 30-65  Rng: 25 Ammo: 10 x Micro Fusion Cell
Turbo Plasma Rifle Dmg: 35-70  Rng: 35 Ammo: 10 x Micro Fusion Cell	YK42B Pulse Rifle Dmg: 54-78  Rng: 30 Ammo: 10 x Micro Fusion Cell	Gatling Laser Dmg: 20-40  Rng: 40 Ammo: 30 x Micro Fusion Cell

Armour Catalogue
In order of protection afforded.

Leather Jacket AC: 8 Normal  0/20% Laser   0/20% Fire    0/20% Plasma  0/10% Explode 0/20%	Leather Armor AC: 15 Normal  2/25% Laser   0/20% Fire    0/20% Plasma  0/10% Explode 0/20%	Combat Leather Jacket AC: 18 Normal  2/30% Laser   0/20% Fire    2/25% Plasma  0/10% Explode 0/20%
Leather Armor MK II AC: 20 Normal  3/25% Laser   1/20% Fire    1/25% Plasma  1/10% Explode 1/25%	Metal Armor AC: 10 Normal  4/30% Laser   6/75% Fire    4/10% Plasma  4/20% Explode 4/25%	Metal Armor MK II AC: 15 Normal  4/35% Laser   7/80% Fire    4/15% Plasma  4/25% Explode 4/30%
Tesla Armor AC: 15 Normal  7/20% Laser   19/90% Fire    4/10% Plasma  9/80% Explode 3/20%	Combat Armor/Bridgekeeper's Robes AC: 20 Normal  5/40% Laser   8/60% Fire    4/30% Plasma  4/50% Explode 6/40%	Brotherhood Armor AC: 20 Normal  8/40% Laser   8/70% Fire    7/50% Plasma  7/60% Explode 8/40%
Combat Armor MKII AC: 25 Normal  9/40% Laser   9/70% Fire    5/35% Plasma  4/50% Explode 8/45%	Power Armor AC: 25 Normal  12/40% Laser   18/80% Fire    12/60% Plasma  10/40% Explode 20/50%	Hardened Power Armor AC: 25 Normal  16/50% Laser   19/90% Fire    14/70% Plasma  12/50% Explode 19/60%
Advanced Power Armor AC: 30 Normal  15/55% Laser   19/90% Fire    16/70% Plasma  15/60% Explode 20/65%	Advanced Power Armor MKII AC: 35 Normal  18/60% Laser   19/90% Fire    16/70% Plasma  18/60% Explode 20/70%

Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank the following people for contributing to the MKII version of this guide. Thanks very much for the tips and corrections, folks :-)

Tom Dillane
Andy Dillbeck
Vadim Dribinsky
Barak Engel
Eric Fatka
hasuInterCeptor
Jeff Huisjen
Remco Hulshoff
Per Jorner
Roman Lapos
Patrick McGinley

See the metzomagic.com Review of Fallout 2.

Copyright © Steve Metzler 1999. All rights reserved.