The Waters of Life

 is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also a Xbox 360/PC achievement and a PlayStation 3 Trophy.

The quest centers around the reactivation of the abandoned Project Purity, a water filtering facility set up 19 years before at the Jefferson Memorial in an attempt to bring large quantities of clean water to the Capital Wastes.

Go to the Rivet City Science Lab / Join the Scientists at Project Purity
James will make his way to Rivet City; the player can choose to follow him there or leave him on his own, either way, he will eventually reach the Rivet City Science Lab and wait for the player to meet him there.

Upon the player's arrival, James convinces Dr. Li to reactivate Project Purity. After a short conversation, he asks the player to meet him and the scientists at the Jefferson Memorial. It is highly advised to stock up and prepare for a battle, as well as free up as much inventory space as possible.

Clear Project Purity of any remaining Mutant Threat
Dr. Li, James, and the rest of the science team will be waiting for the player at the entrance to the Gift Shop. James informs the player that he or she must clear the Memorial of the remaining Super Mutant threat before they can proceed. The player should have killed most of the Super Mutants in the Gift Shop area during the Scientific Pursuits quest, leaving the Super Mutants in the basement to be exterminated. The Memorial Sub-basement consists of short narrow corridors with an occasional room, so Melee Weapons, and Unarmed characters will feel right at home. Users of ranged weapons will need to be more cunning. Mines work well in these tight quarters, as the various hallways create chokepoints.

If the player has already cleared out the Jefferson Memorial, James and the team will go straight to the Rotunda, bypassing the preliminary pep-talk.

Routine Maintenance








Once James arrives at the control room, he asks the player to carry out some maintenance tasks to bring the project back online.


 * Turn on Flood Control Pump Power - The Flood Control Pump is located in the room to the left of the bunk bed area. The switch is beside an Intercom and is illumnated by a floodlight.
 * Get the Fuses from Dad / Replace Damaged Fuses - Return to James to get new fuses. The fuse box is at the end of the basement area: there are signs on the wall ('Fuse Access A1') to direct the player to the fuse box.
 * Boot up the mainframe / Speak with Dad over intercom - The door to the mainframe is located on the 'upper level' of the basement, before the stairs down to the bunk bed room. After the fuses are installed, a large green light beside the door will turn on. The player must enter the door and throw the switch on the mainframe, and then speak to James. He will tell the player to return, then change his mind and tell the player to clear out a blockage in an intake pipe.

Drain the Intake Pipes
The entrance to the pipes is directly ahead from the entrance to the Gift Shop. Once inside, the player has to run though the pipe to the end, and turn the control. On the right is the valve to activate the draining. As soon as the valve is activated, the player will witness the arrival of Enclave soldiers in a Vertibird. The opposite grate unlocks, and the player is allowed through to the next area.

Return to the Control Room
Now, the player must battle his or her way back to the Rotunda, dispatching any power-armored Enclave soldiers in your path to reach your father. Upon arriving at the control room, Dr. Li is locked out of the main area, while Janice Kaplinski, James, Colonel Autumn and two Enclave soldiers are locked in. Colonel Autumn confronts James and orders him forfeit the Memorial and assist the Enclave with making the water purifier operational. James refuses, stating that the Enclave has no control over such a private project, and asks the Colonel to leave. Autumn eventually puts a bullet through Janice Kaplinski's abdomen, prompting James to concede with the Colonel's demands to avoid more violence. James instead overloads the purifier, flooding the locked chamber with deadly levels of radiation. Col. Autumn quickly injects himself with a mysterious solution (most likely the Enclave's version of Rad-X) and keels over, unconscious. James, having no such medicine, drags himself over to the emergency bulkhead and tells his son or daughter to run, before slumping to the ground, dead.

Escort Doctor Li to the evacuation point & Taft Tunnel
A stunned Dr. Li informs the player that the only way to escape the Memorial is through a series of underground tunnels that lead to the Brotherhood of Steel stronghold, the Citadel. She will run to a manhole in the floor of the gift shop, and the player must follow. Once underground she will tell the player that they must keep moving to avoid detection by the Enclave. Daniel Agincourt can be given a light weapon, but this is of doubtful use to the player, because he may charge headlong into battle and get himself killed.

A high Perception is very handy in the tunnels, as the place is populated with deadly Enclave troops, and the player is towing several soft targets. It would not do well to be surprised by enemies with the scientists in tow. As soon as a red bar appears on the compass, the player should tell the the scientists to wait, and then deal with the threat. Melee and Unarmed characters will need to switch to a ranged weapon, as some Enclave troops are on inaccessible catwalks. The free inventory space can be used to collect various pieces of Enclave technology, such as Advanced Power Armor Mk II, Tesla Power Armor (only at high levels/difficulties) and Laser/Plasma (only at high levels/difficulties) rifles. The first area with catwalks houses a table with various Chinese items: most notably a Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual, a Chinese Assault Rifle, a Dirty Chinese Jumpsuit and a rare Chinese Commando Hat.

Once in the second section of the tunnels (called Taft Tunnel), Garza will turn to Dr. Li and mumble something about his heart. Dr. Li will explain that they need to stop: Garza's heart condition has gone critical, and will not make it to the Citadel alive if first aid is no administered quickly. The player has a few options at this point:


 * Give up five Stimpaks to alleviate his condition until he can see professional medical care.
 * Convince Dr. Li to leave Garza behind.
 * Convince Dr. Li to give Garza three bottles of Buffout instead, to drug him and keep him moving.
 * Murder Garza.

If the player doesn't want to leave or kill Garza, but hasn't the Stimpaks nor Buffout, he or she can continue along the corridors and try to find Stimpaks. They are in two locations, the first is an abandoned operating theater which is to the left when the corridor forks off not long after Garza has to stop. The second location is at the very end of the corridors, directly behind the Brotherhood of Steel barricade, in a first aid container.

After dealing with the Garza situation, the player can continue the same routine of checking for danger, telling the scientists to wait, then returning to the scientists once their path is secure. Eventually, the player must enter a room with a catwalk above the entrance. This can be a tricky battle, since the Enclave troops have the high ground. Grenades work well: they can damage the Enclave troops even when they try to retreat farther back into the catwalk. The player should stick with V.A.T.S. grenade tosses if their freehand skills aren't up to snuff, lest the grenade come bouncing back. Watch out for companions, particularly Charon, as they seem to have a death wish that directs them to stand in the middle of the room firing at the enclave. Also, one of the scientists has a strange urge to charge into the room, and making a mistake with a grenade might kill him. Again, melee player will have to ditch their standard weapons to reach these troops. In the housed area to the back of the room is a desk with an Eyebot Helmet.

Farther down the passage, the opposition will turn into Feral Ghouls: a welcomed alternative to armor-clad troopers. Eventually, the terrain will become a sewer tunnel with a Brotherhood of Steel checkpoint at the end. The soldier isn't too happy to see civilians running through his checkpoint. Once past the sandbags, it is advised to keep running until the rest of the science team is well away from the sandbags, for a horde of Feral Ghouls will pour from a near door. The Brotherhood of Steel is armed with a Flamer for this exact reason, and will pour flame into his attackers while an overhead turret helps out. They seem to handle the horde well, but the player can help out if need be. If the player noticed the door before reaching the checkpoint, it is possible to pick the Hard lock on the door and kill the Ghouls before they can pour out en masse, and collect some minor loot. At the start of this tunnel on bench is a Nuka-Cola Quantum and a copy of Nikola Tesla and You. Once topside, an exasperated Dr. Li will argue with Paladin Bael for entrance into the Citadel to no avail. She then runs to the intercom and yells at Owyn Lyons to open the godforsaken door at once. The door - quite comically - immediately opens.

Once inside, Owyn Lyons will confront Dr. Li and the surviving science team. Owyn Lyons questions Li for a few minutes on what transpired at the Memorial, and Li breathlessly tells him about James's plan and the Enclave's intervention.

Notable Loot
The following loot can be found in Taft Tunnel. Please see the specific page for additional info.


 * Plentiful Enclave equipment, including plasma weapons and power armor.
 * Eyebot Helmet
 * Nuka-Cola Quantum
 * Nikola Tesla and You
 * Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual
 * Dirty Chinese Jumpsuit
 * Chinese Commando Hat

Bugs

 * During the latter 'escort' sequence, when the player is trying to escape the enclave troops with the scientists, there are multiple game-breaking bugs that remain despite patches to the PC version. These bugs tend to involve the scientists vanishing, being cut-off from the player, and engaging in nonsensical \ potentially lethal activities. Due to the immensely poor scripting involved in this sequence, it is advisable to save frequently, as many of the problems cannot be solved absent a reload or using the console to respawn NPCs.


 * On the way to Rivet city (if you choose to follow your dad) you will eventually come to a super mutant along the way which is located inside a small rectangular wall with one entrance. A bug will occur if the player enters and goes to the middle while dad is still inside. He will run diagonally forwards and backwards. If the player moves away, he will remain there and if you move close to him he will run again. This can only be stopped by telling dad that you don't want to go with him to Rivet city.


 * Additionally, if you haven't taken out the super mutants in the overpass between the Citadel and Jefferson Memorial, and your dad is out of ammo, when you arrive your dad will run underneath and into the Access Hall. Once inside he will lose his targeting on the mutants and just stand there saying "where are you". You have to wait until he puts away his weapon and then talk to him to continue.


 * If you return to Taft Tunnel for any reason after the quest is completed, Dr. Li may follow you. If you talk to her she will say "I need to collect my wits, and figure out what to do next. Excuse me."


 * There appears to be a bug where Dogmeat, Charon, Sargeant RL-3 and probably other companions, will appear during the scene where Dr. Li demands medical aid for Garza. Dogmeat and any other follower you have will be located in the hallway, from whence the player came, next to the entrance of Taft Tunnel's second section.  The companions only appear in Taft Tunnel if the player had requested the companion/s to wait somewhere before undertaking the end of this quest. Dogmeat may return to Vault 101, other followers may be lost if not told to follow you.


 * There appears to be a bug on the 360 version (unconfirmed on other platforms) where upon trying to exit the Rotunda after your father dies, the game freezes making it impossible to finish the quest. After downloading the patch and trying the quest again, it froze earlier, on the way back to the rotunda after seeing the Enclave arrive.  Haven't yet tried clearing cache or un/re-installing game (installed before patch)


 * There appears to be a bug in all consoles of the game that will not allow this quest to continue. When instructed to kill all of the Super Mutants from the Jefferson Memorial, even after killing all of them your father won't recognize it and thus the quest can't continue. Look very hard for any stragglers, probably at the end near the flood control. You may need to take out the turret also, but this is not confirmed. Make sure to clear the sub-basement. On PC, you can kill any hard-to-find mutants by using the console command killall while in the gift shop, rotunda and basement. This will kill off any stragglers or mutants who glitched out of the game geometry. DO NOT use this outside or you will kill everyone in the Capital Wasteland except for people inside buildings or cities.


 * There also appears to be another bug where Daniel disappears (or possibly gets killed) and Dr. Li and Garza will stay put and never move in a part of the Taft Tunnels, thus making the quest uncompletable. (If you decide to kill Garza at that time, you can drag Garza's body to any location and Dr. Li will follow Garza's corpse. Though this doesn't help due to the fact that you cannot drag Garza's body through the manhole at the end of the tunnel.)Fix: Use the console command player.placeleveledactoratme 0001CCA1 to bring back Daniel. Then talk to Dr. Li about following you. You may have to go through the part about Garza's heart being bad. (On a side note, I almost think this bug is caused by the characters just not entering the section you are in. Because after bringing in a clone of Daniel, the original caught up with us, along with another scientist that was left behind as well. Ether way, when I did this it got things moving again, and allowed me to finish the quest without having to restart. from a previous save.


 * There appears to be a bug in the Xbox 360 version, where if Dr. Li goes into the basement area of the Jefferson Memorial and you follow in after her, if she goes back into the main area, and if you try to follow her again, the game will freeze up as you load through. It virtually makes your quest impossible. (This happened with the Fallout 3 game data installed on the Xbox 360 hardware, it is untested when reading from the disc) (Tested 4 Jan 2008) Does not happen on disc read. (also tested 7 Jan 2008 with game not installed to disc and freeze still occurs)


 * When Li arrives at a door terminal and states she can hack it, if you hack it before her she will go to the terminal and just keep typing, and the rest of the team just sits there watching.


 * Near the end of the quest where you leave the tunnels to approach the Citadel, there is a bug that can cause the game to crash. This occurs when you fast travel to another part of the Wasteland before Dr. Li requests the gates of the Citadel be opened. When you return to the Citadel, Dr. Li and the other survivors will be walking around the perimeters of the Citadel aimlessly and will not approach the intercom. Without Dr. Li to request the gates be opened, entrance to the Citadel cannot be achieved, hence making it impossible to continue with the main story. This bug is reported on the Xbox 360 version.


 * It's possible that one or all of the survivors except Li will randomly turn hostile in the 360 version. They will not attack and still follow you, but their markers on the compass become red and Li becomes afraid of them and goes into "flee" mode until you kill them.


 * There is a bug on the PC version where Daniel Agincourt and another scientist will not enter the Rotunda, thus making it impossible to continue with the main quest.


 * There appears to be a bug in the Xbox 360 version where if one or all of the survivors become hostile, Dogmeat will come to your aid after leaving him safe in Megaton.


 * There appears to be a bug in the Xbox 360 version where if there is a dead super mutant in the Jefferson Memorial doorway, the entire team will enter the building except for James/Dad, who stand in front of the Project Purity entrance in the wasteland and tells the player they need to go to Project Purity. This bug stops the quest and game from being able to be completed. Beating him there and blowing the body out of the way appears to resolve the issue.


 * On the way to the memorial, Dad may tell you to check for super mutants. When you clear out the place and come back, he may be stuck in the air unable to talk to you. The quest can still be completed and this Dad may still be alive during the Take It Back! quest, but he will be unable to talk to you. (Xbox 360 Version)


 * When you enter the Rotunda, and James is being confronted by Colonel Autumn when James begins to type on the controls after Janice is killed, it's possible to get Autumns attention by getting next to the glass and drawing your gun and/or shooting your gun. Sometimes he may simply turn around without anything happening. This way, when he dies, he actually falls through the door, and you can take his jacket and anything else on him. With the latest patch (April 2009), you can no longer draw your weapon in that area at that time.


 * When talking with Dad concerning the fate of Megaton, some dialogue options will make him refer to the player as "my son" even if the player has a female character.


 * When leaving the sewers with Doctor Li and the other scientist she sometimes won't go to the intercom and talk but just follow you around. After many reloads I discovered that if I killed her team and threw them into the nearby water she would be talking on the intercom when I came back up.


 * It is also possible to skip most of the dialogue where Autumn and your dad are talking near the purifier. Jumping on the glass near the leftmost enclave troop will prompt Autumn to just shoot the scientist and your dad will walk to the purifier controls.  Using the glitch to obtain Autumn and your Dad's gear on the glass will make it possible to pickpocket the enclave troop.  Placing a grenade in his inventory will kill him and Autumn prematurely.


 * If the PC uses the glitch to communicate with Colonel Autumn, he will merely have an empty dialogue box. If the PC communicates with James when he walks up to the player, on the other hand, his dialogue will restart to as if they had just entered the Control Panel for the first time. Timing this right, James will actually fall to the ground while still communicating with the player, then randomly stand up, hunched over. After ending the conversation, James will walk right back to where he was standing before, then fall and die.


 * It is possible that Dr. Li will suddenly stop moving, even if you have cleared out the whole tunnel system. No solution has been found to this, meaning you cannot complete the game.


 * There's a bug where, when you return to the Rotunda after the Enclave has arrived, Janice spawns outside the control room. When Autumn turns to shoot her he draws his gun and faces her briefly, then holsters it. Janice never gets shot, and the quest cannot continue. Exiting and re-entering the Rotunda before Autumn finishes speaking may fix this (not tested).


 * There's another bug if you save and exit just after activating the mainframe, but before your father finishes speaking to give you the next step of the quest. On loading, James never finishes his dialogue and the quest step to activate the mainframe never completes (even though the mainframe is active).


 * It is possible to talk to your dad after he "dies." It takes some careful positioning of the cursor in vanity mode, facing the reticle towards the device that allows you to insert the FEV virus in Take it Back!. His dialogue is the same as it when he was alive.


 * There is a time when James will not follow you.


 * Dogmeat might die for no apparent reason if you asked it to stay near Dr. Li right before the Enclave shows up at th Jefferson Memorial.


 * When arriving at the Citadel though Taft Tunnels, if you put mines right on the doorstep Dr. Li's team members may step on it and turn into enemies. However, Dr. Li will not set the mine off even if she steps right on it.

YouTube Videos
Quest Waters of Life Thumb|Left|The Waters of Life Quest Part 1 of 3 Thumb|Right|The Waters of Life Quest Part 2 of 3 Thumb|Left|The Waters of Life Quest Part 3 of 3