Sydney

 is a relic hunter the player will meet when hunting for the Declaration of Independence, during which the player has the option of recruiting her as a temporary follower. If she survives the quest and gets to Rivet City, she will retire from relic hunting and become an ammunition vendor in Underworld. If you get into a fight in the Underworld, Sydney will fight alongside you.

Sydney levels with the player (up to a max of level 15), and typically has better combat skill and health than a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin. While she is not as powerful as any of the 7 permanent NPC companions, she is probably the best temporarily follower that the player can acquire.

Sydney's Father Quest
In the Statesman Hotel (Mid Level) (rescuing Reilly's Rangers) you'll find A Note from Little Moonbeam's Father, which is directed to Sydney from her father. Show the Holodisk to her and she will give you her Sydney's 10mm "Ultra" SMG and a supply of ammo.

Equipment

 * Sydney's 10mm "Ultra" SMG (unique SMG, 59 DAM at 100% CND)
 * Combat Armor
 * Several Frag Grenades (she has a limited supply, and will quickly use them up after her first few combats).
 * There is also an ammo supply in the Ninth Circle that belongs to Sydney. It requires her key. The items contained are whatever she has for sale as well as her current amount of caps.

Problems
Sydney will sometimes be found dead in Anacostia Metro Station during her post-quest journey from Rivet City to Underworld, apparently killed by a Raider. Though the task is painfully dull, it is advised that you escort her (if you find her alive in Anacostia Metro Station) if you want to have a sure opportunity to buy ammo from her later. (She takes 10 minutes to walk from the bridge of Rivet City to the museum. Don't get too close to her on her travel as she will stop and try to engage you in conversation, thus making the journey longer.) WARNING: make sure that you give Sydney a few stimpacks before you complete the quest. Her health needs to be high. If you choose to escort her and she is crippled, the trip will at least double in length. Stimpacks cannot be given after completing the quest!

The alternative to holding her hand through the tunnels (she walks so slowly) is to clear them in advance. Starting at Anacostia Metro Station make your way up the Red Line north to the Museum Station exit. Turn your light and your radio on to draw all the creeps out of the corners, bust heads all the way through and there will be nothing left for Sydney to encounter. If you haven't already, you can still clear the lines directly after handing in the quest, head to Anacostia Metro Station (she should already be there), rush in ahead of her, fight your way down the line, come out at the museum exit and then shoot up any mutants that spawned in the mall bunker-zone and you're set.

A simpler method is to clear the path first, then simply wait an hour or two once you know she's in the area to speed her along.

An alternate to doing any work in order to ensure Sydney's protection is to do the following: This strategy enables you to try over and over until Sydney makes it to the bar. Certainly not as effective and definite as clearing her path, but it is quicker.
 * 1. Sydney should have followed you door-by-door until both of you have reached the outside of Rivet City after completion of the declaration quest.
 * 2. If you indeed see her outside of Rivet City on the ship, save your game.
 * 3. Now, wait around 3-5 days.
 * 4. Fast travel to Museum of History and enter The Underworld.
 * 5. Go to the left, up the stairs to The Ninth Circle bar.
 * 6. If you see Sydney, congratulations. She will be walking around the bar or sitting in one of the seats.
 * 7. If you don't see Sydney, rest for a few more days. If you do not see her, reload the save created at step 2 and repeat steps 3-5.


 * Or, you could simply get Charon to escort her. Equip him with a strong weapon and armor, and fire him. He will be going to the Underworld and to the exact location Sydney is going, so, he will escort Sydney there. I equipped Charon with a fully loaded Vengeance and the T-51b Power Armor set.

Appearances
only appears in Fallout 3.

Trivia
is based on character Sydney Fox from the TV show Relic Hunter.

Sydney may be a former BoS Paladin. If you assault her she will say things that indicate affiliation with the BoS. It has also been reported that she even says she is from the BoS. (May be based off Sentinel Lyons.)

Bugs

 * On the PC version, I did not talk to Sydney, but retrieved the Declaration of Independence alone. When I approached her, the Super Mutants spawned. When she joined me, the Declaration disappeared from my inventory and reappeared in the safe where I had to get it another time.


 * On the Xbox360 Version, two players reported that Sydney was nowhere to be found, not in Anacostia, the Archives, roaming the Wasteland, or in DC.


 * Even after giving Sydney the holotape from her father, she still hopes he "got what he deserved" in the wastes.


 * One random glitch (confirmed Xbox 360) is when Sydney is following you on the search for The Declaration of Independence, her SMG will be hanging upside down about one foot in front of her body. It seems to do it when she holsters her weapon after a firefight.


 * On one occasion, after first encountering her in the Archives, her hand, especially her fingers, had become strangely elongated. This was corrected once she was taken out of the building.

Glitch / Exploit
This is not a bug; If you complete the quest without her, she will not be in the National Archives after a certain period of time,, but you may encounter her one day in a random mini encounter, in the Capitol Wasteland. Since you claimed her side of the reward from Abraham Washington, she will be immediately hostile to you.
 * It is confirmed that If you do not talk to Sydney prior to finding the Declaration of Independence she will disappear from the hall at National Archives. You will still get the mission to fend off mutants if you approach her position (The Super Mutants will spawn.) She won't be at Rivet City / Underworld or somewhere else after that.

On the PC version, you can use the console to reset Sydney so she appears in the rotunda after the fight in the rotunda. These commands were taken from the fix for the Big Town robot quest bug here. You can then talk to her and continue the quest. If you've already picked up the Declaration of Independence, you'll need to use more console commands to remove and then add the quest item to your inventory to trigger completion of the next step of the quest. After that, you should be able to complete the rest of the quest normally unless you got the forged declaration of independence, in that case you can't complete the entire quest anymore. It is also possible by refusing her proposal to bug the Stealing Independence quest. ''-Note- You can meet her in the wasteland in a random encounter, but she will not cooperate in the natural way, but may become hostile instead. To reset, use the console.''
 * PRID 3a77
 * kill
 * resurrect
 * disable
 * enable
 * player.removeitem 3a7f 1
 * player.additem 3a7f 1
 * After dealing with super mutants in National Archives and then refusing her proposal to cooperate she will leave the area and usually is nowhere to be found (not every time).
 * Sometimes, she does not have her key.
 * When Sydney is following you as a companion, outside of combat, she will frequently go into an unarmed stance with her Ultra SMG still equipped. The gun's model will float a small distance from Sydney's gunhand.

Unlimited SMGs glitch
There is a game exploit to be able to keep acquiring as many 10mm Ultra SMGs from Sydney in perfect condition as much as desired. This can be useful if the player can not find any other SMGs to repair Sydney's 10mm Ultra SMG with by simply acquiring a brand new one (and repairing the newer ones with the older ones). Also, if you are low on caps, you can use this exploit to acquire tons of SMGs from Sydney which have a large value.

The process of acquiring more Ultra SMGs from Sydney is through a dialogue choice that is hidden at first, but unlocked by activating a previous dialogue choice. The order of choices to pick is listed below in order.


 * 1) Since we're done now, why don't you tell me about yourself?
 * 2) Nice gun. I've never seen one like that.
 * 3) That's all for now, I guess.
 * 4) So, whatever happened to your father?
 * 5) Sydney, I found a note from your father. He didn't abandon you.

Upon completing this dialogue, you will receive another free 10mm Ultra SMG.


 * For example: Each of her gun will net you 250 bottlecaps when you sell it to a merchant. If you collect up to 50 of her guns, you'll get 12,500 caps. Save up to 400 of her guns, you'll get 1,000,000 caps. This is much better than the Paradise Falls glitch exploit which would require you to run from one game cell to another. It is recommended that you store the guns in your Megaton/Tenpenny house.


 * Note that switching from one instance of Sydney's 10mm "Ultra" SMG to another in your inventory has been noted to cause the game to crash for some people on the Xbox 360 version.

Equip Sydney
It is possible to 2 ways:
 * 1) Reverse pickpocket Sydney just after the Rotunda fight, but before the next conversation. Give her armor and weapons, then have her join your party. She will use Power Armor. Note that Sydney will not equip any of the items you have placed into her inventory until you give her a Stimpak using her conversation menu.
 * 2) Or to equip Sydney with armor through console commands, one must type the following:
 * prid 00003a77                <-- to select Sydney.
 * additem (armor item code) 1" <-- this step may be done several times for different parts.
 * inv                          <-- to check her inventory
 * If you do not know the armor codes, select a character (yourself or companion NPC) who does have the desired armor you wish to put on her and check their inventory through the console commands:
 * prid (character ID) <-- to select character.
 * inv                 <-- to show items character has with their ID code numbers.