Part 57: The Dakka Way: Update 4

The Dakka Way - Update 4



Since we're having to be good guys, we can also go ahead and grab the experience for optimizing the reactor. You can also give the disk to Hank here and have him do it, but the outcome is the same regardless.



After that it's time to go grab a car. While we're here we can also screw with Karl and tell him the ghosts have come to get him. We don't get the experience for telling him he can come home, but that was a minor award and this way is funnier.



Sadly a car doesn't come with driver's ed, but that's not likely to bother us. To hell with helping him out from under the bumper.



We'll go ahead and try the arm wrestling with Francis...



But it doesn't work out. Turns out that you need high ST and EN to win the match. Oops!



We end up getting a ball gag for our troubles. Better not to think about how that got there. Even worse, every time you lose you get a new one. I ended up with about 3-4 before I realized I couldn't win the arm wrestling.



Since we can't win that, we might as well go ahead with the quest to free the conspirators from jail. It's a bit ridiculous to sneak around in our power armor, which suggests that the mutant they have guarding them must be nearly blind and deaf.




The next step is to accept the mission to destroy the mines, which is a bit simpler than repairing it since we don't have to go to New Reno to accomplish it. We don't want to do it immediately, though, as there's still a few things to do around town.



Going to the guy who wants you to find his wife, it turns out that he's too distracted by his concern for you to actually acknowledge it when you tell him you're here to rob him...



But you can still be as cruel as possible when breaking the news to him.



You even get full experience for it. Muahahaha!



We'll be taking this path eventually, but in the meantime we might as well follow through on the destruction plot.



Gathering up some more experience in town with the miscellaneous side quests gets us another perk. We could take Action Boy or Bonus Rate of Fire, but they're functionally identical at this point. Taking Bonus Rate of Fire reduces our burst down to 4 AP, and with 11 AP that means we get two shots and a reload every turn. In D&D terms we've gone from 3/2 to 2/1.



Using Buffout gives us the EN we need. For that we get a simple message and a power fist.. hardly worth it, all things considered.



Once we're ready we have to go back and tell these guys that we're ready to go into the mine.



The good news is that since we've got Power Armor we don't have to worry about taking damage from the poison gas and can explore the place at our leisure. Unfortunately, the deathclaw is a weaker version and goes down to a single burst… well, just about anything would go down from that burst, but he's definitely weak.



Destroying the air purifier seals the mine off, and gives you about half the experience that fixing the air purifier would.




We also get the questionable approbation of these idiots, and access to an armory under one of the stores. About that last one...



We still have to talk the owner into letting us through, and despite the fact that we took out most of the mutants she's still a paranoid shithead.



The so called arsenal is two pistols and a pittance of ammo. It's hard to be an evil guy in this game. There's also a combat shotgun, which we would have gotten from taking the "good" solution as well.



If we don't get the uranium on our way out, we're also completely cut off from that source of funds and experience. If the super mutants aren't an issue anymore, the ghouls here are probably next on the list.



Going through the more beneficial route we can also swing by the Bishops and work with them. Angela Bishop isn't terribly impressed with our armor, and you actually have to take it off before you can get an invitation upstairs.



Going back to deal with our car being stolen, for some reason we can't convince T-Ray that we're working for Bishop even if we actually are. A bit funny, that, and it leads to us having to fight T-Ray when we press the issue.



He takes one look at our equipment and runs off in between some shelves to escape us. It extends his lifespan by a couple seconds, which means he lives about 30 seconds longer than the rest of his crew.



Doing a few more quests leads us to Golgotha, which is a fertile area for graverobbing. Despite that, it's not really worth the trouble… although this particular gravestone strikes me as particularly funny for some understandable reasons.



One of the best things about wandering around in power armor is the various reactions of townspeople in New Reno. He's quite wrong… there's plenty here for me to conquer.



This includes the boxing ring, although we're at a disadvantage since we can't do called shots to the head. The working plan is just to pound them as hard as we can and hope for the best.




Luckily it's quite possible to get an instant kill shot to the chest. We even get the bonus resistance since we're using weighted gloves to even the odds.




Moving over to the Wright family, this provides a chance to investigate Richard Wright's murder. Turns out that talking to Jules gets you exactly zero help. You need to talk to the other two possible suspects to actually finish the quest.



Moving on to the next part of the Wright sequence, Sulik meets an unfortunate end due to being too dumb to not walk on an electric floor. Alas, poor Sulik, you were a fine pack mule. Luckily we've reached a point where we can do without his services… although we'll still have to recover the gear we gave him.