Into The Pitt

Into the Pitt is a Fallout 3 quest and achievement that is added to the game in The Pitt add-on. The quest starts with the Lone Wanderer being contacted by a mysterious person...

Investigate the distress call
When The Pitt first loads, the player will be informed of a new radio distress signal from a runaway slave named Wernher, who informs the Lone Wanderer that he needs help in retrieving a cure for the mutations plaguing the town developed by The Pitt's raider boss, Ashur.

The signal emanates from the radio tower far to the north of the Capital Wasteland. It's a long walk from anywhere, but the closest map marker to fast travel to is SatCom Array NN-03d. Once the player arrives, Wernher will be under attack by a few Pitt raiders. After helping him dispatch his foes, Wernher will tell the player his story and where to go. He tells the player there is a train tunnel to the west, and he will meet up with him or her there.

Obtain a slave outfit
Wernher suggests the player obtain a disguise from the slavers camping outside the Train Tunnel to ease gaining access to the Pitt. Upon heading west, there is indeed a Train Tunnel, as well as about four slavers led by Ramsey and a couple of Pitt slaves in a slave pen. Be careful when approaching Ramsey if you have previously been hostile with Paradise Falls. Though he will appear friendly, interacting with him will cause him to immediately recognise you as the one who "shot up Paradise Falls" and become hostile. Killing him costs no Karma, obviously.

Getting hold of a slave outfit can either be accomplished by buying the slaves or killing the slavers; there are 2 slave outfits in the slave pen, one on a dead slave and one on Prosper which can be acquired by threatening him (giving negative karma). After entering the train tunnel, the player must activate a hand cart to travel to the Pitt. Followers must be left behind (and they will disappear after finishing the quest).

Arriving at the trainyard
Upon arrival at the trainyard, Wernher will tell the player to hang back while he "does the talking", and walks over to a Pitt raider standing guard. Werhner's diplomacy eventually becomes that of the shotgun variety, and the player must intervene once again. The trainyard has several Pitt raiders firing from elevated positions, so an accurate rifle is handy.

After the firefight, Wernher will walk to the northwestern exit of the trainyard and tell the player he cannot proceed any further. He will then tell the player that the guards will confiscate the player's inventory upon entering, and to find a slave named Midea. The player can inquire about concealing a small weapon: Wernher will agree and hand over either a knife (a switchblade), or a small gun (a .32 pistol). Note that the player doesn't actually receive their weapon immediately; instead you get a misc item that turns into the weapon upon entering downtown.

Into the Pitt
After exiting the trainyard, the player should be wary of the gutted building on the left side of the path. There are hostile wildmen inside it. It is possible to sneak past the entire building, but if detected, the player will be caught in the open.

North of the building is the Pitt bridge. The bridge is gridlocked with various vehicles, and even worse, ridden with frag mines. Failing to disarm a mine and letting it detonate can catch the player in a huge chain reaction explosion. The player should cross the bridge carefully, It helps a lot to have the light step perk or use sneak mode to check for mines and avoid the eyes of a Pitt raider with a sniper rifle. The ledge the sniper resides on is accessible from the ground by means of a gravity-defying ramp along the bridge's main cable. It is worth noting that the water in the river is irradiated to lethal levels, often in the hundreds of rads per second.

After finishing the harrowing trek, the player will reach a right-turn on a street. This is where a familiar scene from the Pitt trailer plays out: a few runaway slaves will run by, only to be blown to pieces by mines. This is a good place to get a slave outfit if you haven't already. At the end of the road is a roadblock.

Gain entrance
If the player decides to kill the gate guards (Mex and three other raiders), he or she will be incapacitated by four Pitt raiders with police batons upon entering Downtown. A humorous scene unfolds as the player's vision fades to black and the Slavers squabble over the player's gear. If the player asked Werhner for a concealable weapon, he or she will receive it now.

If the player instead pretends to be a slave, Mex will believe that the Lone Wanderer is a slave who was unable to cross the bridge. He will confiscate all the player's gear (except the previously mentioned concealed weapon) and then tell the player to get back to work. The player is not attacked upon entering downtown when taking this route.

The player can also tell Mex that he or she would like to become a Pitt raider, Mex lies to you and tells you they are hiring. Upon entering you are incapacitated much like above.

Regardless of the method of entry (even using exploits to bypass the confiscation of items completely) the quest will be completed upon entering Downtown, leading directly into Unsafe Working Conditions.

Keeping your items in The Pitt
The forced conversation with Mex (and the subsequent confiscation of your items) can be avoided when approaching the main gate. This is done by switching to unarmed combat, standing directly underneath the Raider on the overhead catwalk, jumping and entering V.A.T.S. while in midair, then throwing a single punch; the punch will miss but will leave you on top of the catwalk, standing next to the Raider. By quickly jumping down from the catwalk you can avoid the conversation trigger entirely. Be warned that if you do not jump down from the catwalk fast enough the trigger will activate and your controls will be locked, rendering you unable to move, and Mex will not be able to reach you to initiate the conversation, thus keeping you in this state indefinitely. (Note: this does not seem to be possible on the 360 But barrels laying around the bridge can be stacked on the baby carriage to achieve the same effect)

If you are successful in avoiding the forced conversation you will be able to enter the Downtown area without being ambushed and losing your items. Fast travel to the Bridge and Trainyard will remain available. If you chose to have Wernher give you a concealed switchblade or .32 pistol it will remain as an un-droppable miscellaneous item. PC users can remove the items by using the commands or  for the switchblade and pistol, respectively.

Once this exploit is used, passing through the main gates where the conversation is triggered must be avoided at all costs. Doing so will lock your controls indefinitely, as the conversation options which would unlock them are no longer available once you have completed the quest. (Note: Once inside downtown you can fast travel to the bridge re-cross it re-disarm all the mines and kill Mex (Don't get close enough to him to trigger the event) and the other Pitt Raiders for their Infiltrators if you do this you cannot get through the door until the main quests are completed. Just simply fast travel back into downtown.)

Bugs

 * If you choose to use a slave disguise, have it in your inventory, but don't put it on by the time you cross the bridge and one of the Raiders says that 'one of the slaves came back', the game will freeze.
 * The radio signal which starts this quest may not appear. This can be fixed by using the command.
 * Once you have been stripped of your equipment by Mex, it is possible to pickpocket a pistol and ammo from him. When you head into downtown however, the gun disappears from your inventory.
 * Occasionally, you may be unable to disarm some or all of the mines on the bridge.
 * The dead slave body may not appear at the beginning of Into The Pitt and thus, in order to continue, you will have to get the clothes off Prosper. This can sometimes be fixed by exiting the game and reloading again.
 * Once the player releases the slaves in the cage you can keep talking to the Prosper (be sure not to demand his clothing in any of the dialogue) for infinite good karma.
 * If you attempt to cause the explosion of vehicles on the bridge yourself, the game may freeze.
 * Once Wernher has killed the first Pitt raider after arriving at The Pitt, he may still continue to fire at the dead body of that Pitt raider, even after all the other Raiders are dead.
 * If you store the bulk of your inventory in a foot locker in the slaver camp beforehand, the slavers, the box, and all its contents will have permanently disappeared.

Behind the scenes

 * When asking the slave for his clothes one of the lines is a reference to The Terminator. Specifically, where your character says " Your clothes. Give them to me. Now."
 * Name of the quest is in reference to a Heavy Metal song of the same name by Testament