Wasteland Survival Guide (quest)

 is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also an Xbox 360 and PC achievement.

Moira, the owner of the Craterside Supply store in Megaton, wants you to help her research a guide to the wastelands that she is writing.

Contract Radiation Sickness
Main Objective: Contract 200 rads

Optional Objective: Contract 600 rads

Moira wants you to get radiation sickness. When you do she will experiment her remedies on you.

The simplest and quickest way to achieve this mission is to walk to the either the men's or woman's restroom in Megaton and drink from the toilet until you contract over 600 rads. After you have reached 600 rads walk back to the Craterside Supply and speak to Moira to complete the mission. Due to the close proximity you wont have to be subjected to the adverse effects of radiation poisoning for long. You can also go to the unexploded A-bomb in the center of town and stand in the dirty water and drink the water to help speed up the radiation.

After you complete the mission, you will have a rad count of 0, Moira will give you some Rad-X and Rad Away, and they will be available to buy from her.

If you achieve the optional objective by contracting 600 rads, when curing you Moira remarks that you still have a "teeny, tiny, um, mutation". The mutation causes you to gain the Rad Regeneration perk.

Alternatively, should you have a high enough Science skill (TODO: find exact value), you will be given the option of simply explaining the effects of radiation poisoning.

Find food at the Super Duper Mart
Main Objective: Find food in the Super Duper Mart

Optional Objective: Find medicine in the Super Duper Mart.

The mart is nearby Megaton and will appear on your map. It is easy to find, but filled with raiders.

At the front of the Mart, opening a refrigerator will trigger the first part of the quest.

At the back of the Super Duper Mart there is a pharmacy, one of the raiders has a key to unlock the door. Inside, a First Aid stash can be found, which is enough to complete the optional part of the quest. There is also a capsule with a Protectron robot on it and a terminal(very easy) that can be hacked to activate the robot. It will say "breach of security detected" and will walk away, attacking anyone it encounters. If you have the employee tag (found on top of the terminal) it won't attack you. At the exit of the pharmacy there will be two raiders, one of them has a Chinese Officer's Sword.

Moira will reward you with a Food Sanitizer.

Traversing a Mine Field
Main Objective: Travel to the playground in the center of Minefield.

Optional Objective: Disarm, retrieve and return a Frag Mine to Moira.

When you reach the town, look carefully at the winding road leading up the hill. There will be small, yellow discs placed on the street. These are Frag Mines so proceed with caution. Either run up to the mine's and rapidly tap the Action button or walk up slowly and disarm the mine as soon as your reticule turns red. You must repeat this process until you get to the Playground at the center of the town.

Alternative: You can find Frag Mine elsewhere and lie to Moira about visiting Minefield location to complete the quest.

Note: Instead of using the main road you can travel around to the right of the main road and travel to the playground through the backyards of houses. This path is laden with fewer mines.

Note: A Sniper, Arkansas will shoot at the two cars along the road. When you see one catch fire, run back down and wait for the explosion. Upon reaching the playground, the sniper will be there and will be taking shots at you. You can kill him, but it is recommended to wait until later, as he is a character you get a Contract to kill.

Moira will reward you with a number of Stimpacks. On PC version: 4 Frag Grenade and Bottlecap Mine schematic.

Chapter 2
Chapter 2 of the guide centers on dealing with some of the many dangerous creatures that are known to inhabit the wastelands, and also how to handle injuries.

Test the repellent on Mole Rats
Main Objective:Test the Mole Rat Repellent on 3 Mole Rats.

Optional Objective: Test the repellent on 7 more Mole Rats

This is pretty easy to do if you choose to do it passively. As you are doing other things and adventuring through the wasteland, any time you see a Mole Rat just kill it with the Mole Rat Repellent. You can do this in 1-2 hours. You can also travel to the RobCo. robot facility that is near Tenpenny Tower. It has numerous mole rats and radroaches in it and also you will need to return to it for one of the research projects for the third chapter of the guide. There are a number of Mole Rats around Megaton if you have not already killed them. If you circle the city, you should finish the Main Objective.

If you don't feel like spending hours running around the countryside hoping you'll run into 10 Mole Rats, Moira has added a map marker for the Tepid Sewers. It's right next to the Anchorage War Memorial so it won't be too difficult to find. Inside, the story is slightly different. The first few Mole Rats are located right inside, so it's not a difficult task to smack them with the Stick and bail out the way you entered. If you want to complete the Optional Objective, it's necessary to dig a bit deeper. Push on to discover a ceiling-mounted turret (which you can attempt to disable if you have a Science Skill of 50 or higher), a sorted collection of Raiders, various planted mines and the last Mole Rats. If you don't want to back track all the way through the dingy maze, continue exploring to find another route. You'll find yourself at Georgetown West and in the company of a few Super Mutants. Either stand and try to fight your way out or distance yourself enough to quick travel back to Megaton.

The reward for this quest is the Radiation Suit. If you inform Moira about how the repellant actually kills the rats by making their heads explode she gets upset and you wind up keeping the repellant.

Place an observer unit inside a Mirelurk nest
Main Objective: Place an observer unit (provided by Moira) inside a Mirelurk spawning pod located in the Anchorage War Memorial.

Optional Objective: Complete the Main Objective without killing a Mirelurk.

Note: The easiest way to do this without killing any Mirelurks is to continue until you get the main room with several stories and jump over the balcony into the floor, containing the nest. Afterward, run and follow the waypoints until you get out. If you have any Stealth Boys, this would be the perfect time to use them, as Moira give you four as a reward for completing the optional objective. Also, you get a Shady Hat.

Note: Even EASIER way to do this without killing Mirelurks is to go around the memorial to a back entrance. This back entrance requires a Lockpick skill of 75. There are several Mirelurks here, however, you can just run in, plant the observer at the nearby clutch of eggs, and rush back outside before they reach you.

You can also go into Anchorage War Memorial if you find it before taking on this quest and kill all the Mirelurk before starting it. Then when you do the quest you will complete the Optional Objective. Just make sure you clear out all the Mirelurk before you talk to Moira about starting this quest.

Injure yourself for more than 50% of your Health
Main Objective: Return to Moira with less than 50% of your total health.

Optional Objective: Return to Moira with a crippled body part.

Note: This can easily be done by jumping off of the balcony that you see just as you walk outside of Craterside Supply 2-3 times. This will not only cripple you, but also put you below the 50% HP mark.

This is also easy to do by walking outside of Moira's Suppy shop, drop a mine and, while standing in its proximity, shoot it with your pistol. This should be enough to both cripple and put you below the 50%.

Chapter 3
Chapter 3 revolves around how towns and cities came to be after the Great War and also dealing with technology from the previous "age".

Research Rivet City's History
Main Objective: Find out the history about Rivet City.

This quest is more difficult than it appears, as almost every citizen of Rivet City isn't familiar with its history. Eventually after talking with several people, they will say a Mr. Pinkerton was one of the original founders. To get to Mr. Pinkerton, you have to go outside of Rivet City, and on the "other uninhabited half" of the ship is a walkway leading to a door. It is level 100, and if you're unable to pick it you must jump into the water to the left of the door, swim alongside the ship until you turn the corner and you will find a door underwater. There are several Mirelurk creatures, as well as booby traps set by Mr. Pinkerton. Once you speak with him he will give you records of Rivet City's history, and you can return to Moira.

Note that you can shortcut this quest by first talking to Bannon (who can be found in the Rivet City Marketplace during the day and who will give you an additional quest regarding his seat on the City Council). Bannon will claim that he founded Rivet City and that he is the foremost authority on its history. After talking with Bannon, you may return to Moira to claim your reward.

Should you choose to complete the optional portion of this quest (involving fact-checking Bannon's story), you must first see Belle Bonny in the Muddy Rudder bar. She will basically tell you to screw off, but not before pointing you in Pinkerton's direction. If you try to engage Pinkerton in conversation about Rivet City's history before talking to Bonny, he will not give you any information whatsoever.

At the end of the quest, Moira will reward you with 5 Mentats, as well as a permanent 10% discount with Rivet City's merchants.

RobCo Production Facility Mainframe
Main Objective: Install the processor widget in the RobCo production facility mainframe.

Optional Objective: Hack the RobCo production facility mainframe

You must travel to the RobCo production facility and install the processor widget in the mainframe. The mainframe is on the very top level. If you came here previously to complete the molerat repellant portion the first area will be really easy due to most of the critters already being dead from your previous explorations. Warning: The robots when started will be hostile. To complete the optional objective, you need a Science skill of at least 50. You have to hack the mainframe you just started up and deactivate a protocol that makes the robots hostile.

Alternatively, if you have the Robotics Expert perk, you get the option to just tell her about the technology in question, successfully completing the quest immediately.

Moira will reward you with 3 Pulse Grenades and a Big Book of Science.

Arlington Public Library
Main Objective: Access the card catalog at the Arlington Public Library.

Optional Objective: Retrieve complete Library Archive.

The main objective is very easy to complete. Just go to the Library and inside are the Brotherhood of Steel. A scribe will talk to you, and if you're nice enough, she will let you through. Use the terminal at the front desk and you can get the card catalog. If you want to get the Optional Objective, you have to go through the rest of the Library and fight off Raiders and Radroaches. If you want to earn some easy caps, make sure to grab the quest from the scribe to collect pre-war books that are scattered around the library and other places in the wasteland.

Moira will give you some bottle caps and a Mini Nuke (as she comments how it makes her feel uneasy) as a reward.

Alternate Route
Instead of completing the chapters of the book you can persuade her into not writing the book at all granted you must have a high Speech skill. You will also get the Dream Crusher perk, XP, lowered prices at the Craterside Supply, and the Xbox 360 and PC achievement. On the other hand you do lose some karma but not an awful lot.

Final Reward
If you complete all 9 of the optional quest tasks, you will get a copy of the book, as well as the Survival Expert perk, which adds +6% to Poison & Radiation resistance. Depending on the type of answers you used after finishing each quest (Strong, Agile, Endurance, Intelligent or without any attribute) you will receive these bonuses: +6% damage resistance for Endurance, + 3% critical hit chance for Perception, +6 Sneak, +6 Speech for Agile, +6 Medicine +6 Science for Intelligence or +15 Health for not using any attributes in the answers. If you complete 6-8 optional quest, you will only 2/3 of the rewards listed (eg. +4 % rad resist, +4% poison resist etc...) and if you do 0-5 optional task you will receive only 1/3 of the max possible reward.