Fallout 2 Quick Start v1.0

This walkthrough is designed to give you the most powerful and flexible
character in the fastest possible fashion. That means the best equipment and
all the upgrades to your attributes and skills. You must be willing to abuse
the save/load nature of RPGs.

Ths walkthrough assumes a certain level of familiarity with Fallout 2. If you
find it too assuming, use it with another more complete walkthrough. I
recommend the one by ONamjoshi:

All of the appropriate stuff is copyright to the appropriate people. This
walkthrough was compiled and is maintained by Greg James. Any comments or
corrections are welcome. You can contact me (and get the latest version)
either though e-mail (greg <at> lucifer <dot> com) or through my Web page:

A. Overview
Roughly, we're going after the car for transportation and storage, power
armour for protection and strength, all of the attribute upgrades, books for
skill upgrades, and good weapons.

Notes on attributes (and xp)
Until you max out your IN, you should be avoiding gaining experience. Why?
Because each point of IN gives you 2 more skill points when you level, so
increasing your IN at a low level will give you a greater numer of total skill
points. So until then, avoid killing anyone/thing unnecessarily, and avoid
non-core quests.

Notes on skills
You want to acquire books ASAP. This is because books increase your skill
level more when your skill level is low, so they're of more use early in the
game. Books can be used to increase the Small Arms, Outdoorsman, Repair,
Science, and First Aid skills

B. Start
1. Character creation.
Have these as *maximum* values for your character; we will be augmenting these
through the course of this walkthrough: ST: 5 PE: 9 EN: 10 CH: 9 IN: 9 AG:10
LK: 8.

Here's my recommended values using the Gifted trait: ST: 5 PE: 7 EN: 5 CH: 5
IN: 9 AG: 10 LK: 6. I like Fast Shot for my other trait, but it's your choice.
Jinxed could be fun.

Tag Speech, Lockpick, and Energy Weapons.

2. Temple of Trials
Do this as you would any other start to Fallout 2. When you get your level,
put all your skill points into Speech. You can now talk your way past the

3. Arroyo
a) Talk to Lucas and Jordan, who will increase your unarmed and melee skills
b) Complete Harkunin's garden quest for the healing powder (to sell) and make
a couple extras from plants.
c) Talk to the guard at the bridge about his spear, then talk your aunt out of
her piece of flint and steal her money.
d) Grab anything you can carry out of the village.

All other quests are optional.

4. Klamath
a) Talk to John Sullivan in the bar who will say he will teach you magic, but
will then buy you a good beer for being a good sport and actually teach you
b) Loot the city, change everything you can *except the radio* into cash. Keep
the radio as a quest item.
b) Get Sulik. This is principally for his added carrying capacity.

C. The Car
The car is included mostly because it's a great place to stash stuff, but also
because it helps you to avoid annoying random encounters. If you like, you can
save the car quest for later, and go straight to D and San Francisco.

Getting the car requires two things: the fuel cell controller and $2000. This
means looting everything you can and converting it into cash.

Sometime in this process you should reach lvl 3. Put all your points into
lockpick and take Awareness as your perk.

1. The Den
Go to the Den, and talk to Eddie about the Highwayman. This is to start the
car quest. Get a pair of pliers out of the lockers behind him.

2. Vault City
a) Talk to the small child outside the bar about his lost doll. Find the lost
doll, and give it back to him. As soon as he mentions his father's wrench,
grab it out from under the rocks behind the bar.
b) Get Cassidy the bartender to join your team.
c) Talk to Skeeve in the building by the inner city gate. Buy the fake
documents off him, then blackmail him for cash.
d) Enter the city, and give the pliers and the wrench to Val.
e) Buy/trade for books at the Allocation Centre.
f) Get books at the information centre/library.
g) Loot stuff out of Val's lockers and the buildings in the outer city.
h) Read books for a day and/or rest until Val gives you the Super Tool Kit.

2.5. (Unconfirmed) You may be able to get the Strength Module if your ST is 5.
a) Stand just outside the vault, and enter combat mode. Use your movement
points to get past the guards.
b) Enter the vault, and go down to level 2.
c) Locate the sticky door, use a buffout and a jet, and then open the door and
get the module.

3. Gecko
a) Loot the city. This includes a Big Book of Science in the storeroom of the
b) Give the Tool Kit to Woody in exchange for the car fuel cell controller.

4. Den
a) Trade $2000 and the fuel cell controller to Eddie for the car. You can
immediately trade him stuff back for the $2000 (but you can't steal it).

NOTE: It is possible to complete the reactor quest in Gecko/Vault City at this
stage. However, the best reason for doing so, the ST increase module in the
Vault, is unavailable to you until you have high ST (ironic, isn't it?)

D. Great equipment and a point of charisma
1. San Francisco
a) Head straight South from the Den. SF is on the coast next to a bay and a
river delta. Stop just outside and save.

While enroute, the only random quests you want (i.e. not reload) are the ones
in which you're not a principal combatant. So non-combat ones like caravans
are fine. The best is press gang or mercanaries vs. Hubologists. The
Hubologists will win, but then not go hostile on you, and you can loot all the
dead bodies. If you find yourself with two groups, the winning side will not
attack you until you attack them or the other side is dead. So loot the first
couple of bodies and then run for it. Avoid spray and splash damage.

2. Buying equipment in SF
This is so important it gets a heading unto itself. There are two main stores
in SF: the general store to the West of the main strip, and the gun store down
an alley to the East. Eventually, you are trying to buy books and an extended
capacity laser rifle from the general store, and 2 gauss rifles, gauss rifle
ammunition, 2 combat armors, and 2 power armours from the gun store.

Whenever you enter SF, run into the general store and look at their book
selection. If it sucks, reload and try again. You are looking mainly for
science and first aid books. Repair, small guns, and outdoorsman books are

If he has good books, run up behind the merchant, save the game, and steal all
his money. Reload if you're caught. Now do it to the other merchant. Only
trade stuff if you're buying something worth more cash then you have.

Don't worry too much about getting all the stuff this time through; we'll be
back to SF plenty of times.

3. Other San Francisco
Talk to the Brotherhood of Steel guard ouside the BoS office West of the
general store. This gets you the vertibird quest.

4. Navarro
a) Make your way North along the coast to Navarro. Stop and save just outside.

b) Enter Navarro and talk to the guy in the robe. Bluff him: say you're
looking for the Enclave and you want to join. You need to get the password. If
you end up with some other result (like him telling you civilization is to the
South) reload and try again. Once you are successful, you should hit lvl 4.
Put all your points into speech.

Go out back of the gas station, and tell Sulik and Cassidy to wait. The woods
are mined, and the path is the only safe way through. NPCs have an annoying
tendency to wander off and get blown up. If you do take them, you have to
leave them outside the base anyway. Give everything that weighs anything to

c) Talk to the front gate guard.
Tell him you're a recruit and give the password.

d) Go in your first door on the right, and talk to Sarge. Tell him 'they' told
you to get your armor here. He'll rant and send you off to the quartermaster.

e) Run NW, and in between the hangar and next door building. Take the elevator
out back.

f) Take your first right; the quartermaster is too busy to talk to you. Loot
the lockers; wear the advanced power armour.

g) Return to the surface, talk to Raul in the hangar. Raul's busy.

h) Run next door and talk to the tech in the lab coat; ask about the vertibird
plans. He refers you next door to the maintenance shed.

i) Talk to Quincy about the vertibird plans and tell him Raul wants them. Loot
all the lockers. Got the plans!

j) Return to Raul, tell him Quincy wants to talk to him. He leaves you in
charge, and you loot all the lockers. Leave the things that look like motors.
When Raul comes back, leave the base via the front gate.

k) Run back and pick up Cassidy and Sulik again. If Chris questions you again,
just say the same things; it doesn't matter if you succeed. Give Sulik the
Super Sledgehammer.

l) Return to SF and save/load for good books again.

m) Take the vertibird plans to the Brotherhood guard. He'll copy them, and you
get 20,000xp, which should take you to lvl 8. Use it to increase your energy
weapons, speech, and lockpick to 100. Start putting points into doctor.

n) Go downstairs and loot the lockers; give the power armour to Sulik, a gauss
rifle and the Brotherhood armour to Cassidy.

o) Use the computer in the corner to increase your CH. If you used my
recommended starting CH it's now 6 and you can get Vic. Save just before you
get on the elevator; you can play the save/load game for books and weapons.

D. Vic
Your NPC henchmen stand a chance of levelling each time you do. For that
reason, you should get Vic before you level again.

1. Den
a) All you need to do in the Den is to run over to the East side and into the
Slaver's den. Talk to Metzger and get permission to talk to Vic. Talk to his
guard to let you in, then talk to Vic and give him the radio from Klamath.

b) Talk to Metzger again. Pay $1000 (or $500 and sex if you're a girl) and
spring Vic and add him to your party. Give him combat armour and a gauss

E. Intelligence module
We've been putting off leveling as much as possible until we get our IN
increase; we're now in a position to do that. I managed to increase my IN just
shy of lvl 9.

1. New Reno
The IN module is in the Sierra Army Depot, and we need someone in New Reno to
tell us about it.

a) Talk to Jules (the guy in the red shirt just when you arrive) about the
Salvatore family. It'll cost you $100.

b) Run NW one section to 2nd Avenue, and NE one section. Enter the red brick
building and talk to Keith Wright and ask for work. He'll send you in to see
the patriarch, Orville Wright. Orville wants to find out who killed his son
Richard with Jet.

c) Talk to Keith and get permission to search Richard's room. Do so, and find
a suspicious Jet cannister in a bookshelf.

d) Take the cannister back to 2nd Avenue, and talk to Jimmy the dope dealer
standing in the middle of the street in a red shirt. He'll figure out that it
was laced with Radscorpion juice and suggest Jules and Renesco.

e) Go SW to Renesco's drug store. Ask him about the cannister, and he'll 'fess
to preparing the cannister, but he sold it to the Salvatore family, not to

f) Return to Orville and explain that Richard was poisoned, that Renesco made
the cannister, but that Salvatore did it to start a war between the Wrights
and another New Reno family. Get 2000xp. Orville gives you a new quest to
scout the Sierra Army Depot. Yay!

2. Sierra Army Depot
a) Fight your way past the roboturrets to a bunker-like building. It's
surrounded by mines that are very difficult to disarm, so I usually just walk
over them and let the armour absorb most of the damage. Check the door frame
for traps and try to disarm the one that is there. Go in. Inside, grab the
howitzer shell.

b) Go East and into the garage. Load the howitzer shell into the howitzer and
fire it. Enter the Depot.

c) Check the desk by the front entrance, then use the password on the computer
by the first force field. In the East corner is a locker with the IN module in

d) If you like, unlock the elevator on the West side. Go down to lvl 4, then
run all the way around to the bio storage area looting as you go. Pull Pvt.
Dobbs from cold storage. Unfortunately, he didn't thaw as well as hoped, but
his gun did. It's a Red Ryder Limited Edition BB gun, which makes a very
satisfactory weapon for Cassidy or Vic for awhile. There's also something
perversely amusing about killing people with BB guns.

3. San Francisco
a) Return to SF (play save/load if you like) and use the Brotherhood computer
to raise your IN. Now that your IN is as high as it can go, you are now free
to return to the game as scheduled and wantonly kill stuff for xp.

b) Take the vertibird plans into the Shi base all the way into the throne
room; talk to the guy in the lab coat; he gives you a quest: find the
vertibird plans. If you like, steal the gauss ammunition off the guards here.

c) Take the plans to the guy in the lab coat in the lab you passed on the way
in. 5000xp.

F. Other attribute increases
1. Perception - Military Base
a) Just SE of San Francisco is the military base. Some wolves will mob you at
the beginning; but they're trivial to kill. Use the stake on the sidewalk on
the mine cart, and some explosives on the stake. You gain entrance and 5000xp.

b) Once inside, go left, use repair on the power generator (1500xp), and use
the elevator to go down to level 3. The first locker in has the PE module. The
super mutants are probably too tough for you right now, so leave the base and
go get your PE increased in SF.

2. Luck - NCR
a) One of the buildings in town is a church of Hubology. Save before talking
to the priest. He asks if you're enlightened; say yes. He asks what level;
bluff and say you assumed he could read your aura. Go for the scan; it should
raise your luck by 2. If it lowers it, reload.

If you're going to kill him for a quest, you can either use 3 super stimpacks
on him and then wait 10 minutes, or use the LE BB gun. To use the gun, you
need to be standing in the middle of the church, sneaking, and it may have to
be night. Otherwise the cops hear you and then all Hell breaks loose.

3. Strength, damage resistance, and elemantal resistance - Vault City
a) Reactor quest. The main thing you do in Vault City is work out a way to
stop radioactive waste from the Gecko nuclear plant from flowing into Vault
City. The virtuous way is to fix their reactor. Anyway, after completing the
quest, you get access to the vault.

Alternatively, you can walk up to the guards in front of the vault, enter
combat (turn-based) mode, and just run past the guards.

b) On the first floor of the vault, access the computer and root around. You
need a Doctor skill of 90, but you can find combat implant schematics. Combine
these with the two combat armours you acquired in SF and a functional autodoc
like the one you can fix in the outer city of Vault City, and you have
yourself additional damage and elemental resistance.

c) On the second floor of the vault is a collection of lootable rooms. In one
of the rooms with a stuck door is a ST module you can use with the brotherhood
computer in SF.

4. (Unconfirmed) Luck - Special encounter
There are reports that if you kill the pariah dog (who normally lowers your
luck by 3 and gives you the jinxed trait) before he jinxes you, you get 4

5. (Unconfirmed) Charisma - New Reno
There are reports that getting your ear bitten off by the Masticator boxer in
New Reno can improve your CH by 1-5 instead of lowering it by 1, which it
normally does. It may be the case that if your CH is very low then it gets

G. Other Skill increases
1. Doctor and First Aid - Vault City
If you already have Doctor 90, you can discuss medicine with the doctor in the
vault for Doctor +5, First Aid + 5.

2. Speech - Broken Hills
Head into the brahmin yard just to the right of your car, and take the brahmin
shit shovelling job. Speech + 5.

3. Speech - New Reno
Sleep with Mrs Bishop, then ask her if she is from Vault City, which she is.
Ask her more about Vault City; you get some info about a Pip-Boy linguistics
module. Get the Pip-Boy module from the locker in the room. Use the module for
a bonus to your speech skill.