Still in the Dark

 is a quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Quick Walkthrough

 * Locate BS in Hidden Valley Bunker
 * Speak with Padalin Ramos
 * Make your way to Elder McNamara
 * Deal with the NCR Ranger
 * Speak with Elder McNamara
 * Retrieve 3 Holodisks from fallen Brotherhood Paladins
 * Return to Elder McNamara, and give him the Holodisks
 * Meet with 3 Brotherhood scouts and obtain their reports
 * Give Elder McNamara the 3 scout field reports
 * Retrieve the parts for the air filtration system

Detailed walkthrough
Quest is obtained at the Brotherhood of Steel compound at the western entrance to the Hidden Valley bunker. To gain access to the interior of the bunker, the PC needs to either have a Lockpick skill of 100 (Very Hard) or perform certain other actions to be able to interact with the intercom, such as:


 * Randomly discovering the bodies of dead BOS Paladins anywhere in the world (E.g. the REPCONN headquarter's 3rd floor or near Moe around Black Mountain). The holotape in their inventory will have a password on it which becomes a speech option when using the intercom at the first door within the bunker.


 * Being sent by Mr. House to learn about the Brotherhood of Steel. When entering the bunker from the northern entrance, a patrol will run out. This will cause the door to open, allowing you to enter.


 * Getting far enough in any factions storyline to be asked to find the Brotherhood of Steel.


 * Having Veronica as a companion, which allows you to use the intercom to open the gate.


 * After a getting two playbacks from ED-E, eventually a Brotherhood Paladin manages to jack in to ED-E's comms, asking you to find a Brotherhood patrol so they can have a look at ED-E's databanks.

If using the password you will be greeted by a BoS squad and required to relinquish your entire inventory. A short scene follows where you are questioned by Senior Paladin Ramos about the password itself. Afterwords you are led to Elder McNamara and assigned your first quest. Note: Once you've regained your gear all BOS within the bunker will become hostile if attempt to enter dressed as NCR, companions are not exempt. Removing the outfit may or may not not stop hostility (PC confirmed to stop).


 * Note: If entry is gained with Veronica as a companion you are allowed a number of exceptions to the quest line. Your gear is not confiscated, the exploding collar is not placed on you, and the first quest (Below: NCR ranger) are skipped.

The Elder will explain the secretive nature of the location and the need to test you. You are fitted with an explosive collar, which will go off if you pass beyond a certain range of the area.


 * Your first task is to remove an NCR ranger who has set up shop in a nearby bunker. You can convince him to leave by passing a speech check (50 Speech req.). You can also ask about his radio, then wait until daylight when he leaves the bunker, select his radio and choose the option to smash it. (Do not smash the radio if he is in the room as this will make him aggressive towards you.) The final option is just to kill him. Your success is rewarded with removal of the collar, free movement about the BOS bunker, and the next quest.


 * The second task to to locate several patrols that have gone missing. The paladin's must be brought back, or if found dead, their mission holotapes returned.

The moment you exit the Elder's chamber, you are confronted by Head Paladin Hardin who tells you that he believes the Elder's policy of keeping them isolated from the outside world will be their doom, and wants you to help him oust Elder McNamara. He asks you to find out more about what leads to an Elder being replaced and tells you to update him on all the quests the Elder gives you. These are all marked as optional parts of the same quest.

REPCONN Headquarters
Once finished with the tour, enter the door to the left in the Planetarium and up the stairs to get the keycard. Go back to the first room and though the locked door using the card. Find the door to the second floor and take the first door on the left. Hack the terminal (Very Easy), beside a Nikola Tesla and You, and select the first option which gives you unlimited access to the second floor. Find the door heading to the third floor and enter. A security bot will be waiting and tell you that you have 30 seconds to leave which should be enough time inventory the paladin near the rubble and leave (also there is a 3rd level security pass located on a corpse). There is also a skill check for luck (7) which will enable you to pass the security bot.

Nellis Air Force Base
Follow the rock face to your left all the way to the gate, go through the conversations with the Boomers and agree to help. Once finished, fast travel to the base. This will place you near the crater where you can find the paladins.

Black Mountain
Head right after exiting the BoS bunker to a hole in the fence and follow the trail. You will encounter Moe and possible 5-6 additional centaurs in and around a 1-3 RadPS crater.

Return to the BOS bunker and hand over the tapes to Elder McNamara, or talk to Head Paladin Hardin who will accept the holotapes and use them as evidence to oust McNamara.

Ousting McNamara
If you choose to help Hardin, you may not be able to oust McNamara until after fixing the filtration system. After finishing the filtration system quest, you will get a new dialog option to give the holotapes to Hardin--even though you've already finished the holotapes and filtration quest. Hardin then says he'll prepare to confront McNamara, which will take a few days. You will not be able to talk to either character during this time and doing so will also abruptly end the quest. Once resolved Hardin will change into Elder robes and talking to him will present a new discussion topic about joining the Brotherhood.

Note: It is still possible to become a paladin without completing this optional quest, You only need to wait a few days after finishing this quest then speak to the elder again to be given the quest Eyesight to the Blind.

Scouts
Head to each scout and start a conversation, the first option should mention "Are the Bears still hunting?" choose this and you will receive the scouts reports. Collect all three and give them to Mcnamara.

Fixing the Air Filtration system
Vault 22

The air filters are located in a sealed off room and to access it will require you to obtain a keycard and go through the sealed off cave.

Note: It is highly recommended you fix the elevator in this vault as it will make traveling much easier (~50 repair)

Firstly, navigate towards the fourth floor (commons area). Head into the large area and drop down to the level below. From here, find the door labeled as "Quarters," and go through it. An average lock is on this door, but can be bypassed by using the terminal in the Overseer's Office in the Commons Area/4th floor. Be wary of the corridor, as there are several spore men. A keycard is in the first room on the left full of vegetation and ~3 spore men. Look to the right of the room to find a shelf. The keycard is on the third shelf from the bottom.

When you have obtained the keycard, head back up to Level 3 (food production) and enter the room with a terminal and a door. You know you will have the right room if the door cannot be lockpicked and it asks you for a key. Go to the terminal to the left and unlock the door (only accessible after you have the keycard).

Once you enter the cave, take your first right and head down that path. You will eventually come to a wooden door labeled Oxygen Recycling, enter this door. From here, go to the lockers in the corner of the room and search through it for the HEPA filters.

Finally, go back into the cave and retrace your steps to go back to the food processing room. If you have fixed the elevator, go there and head back up to the entrance. If not, you will have to manually go back up.

Vault 3

Upon entering the vault you will encounter a Fiend who asks your business inside the vault:


 * If you can pass the Speech check (64), she will be persuaded that you are a Great Khan selling the Fiends chems. Just follow the main halls and you will end up in the Motor-runner's room. The Reverse Pulse Cleaner will be in a locker in the same room as Motor-runner and will not be considered "stolen" if you take it.
 * If you cannot pass the speech check, then the Fiends in the vault will turn hostile. Head to the southern part of the map and look for the door to the Living Quarters. Head left and and (after dodging some traps) enter the door titled Recreation Area. After speaking with the ranger either convince him to go help you kill the fiend leader or just kill him for the maintenence room key. This is one of the more straight-forward vaults.

Vault 11

On the Vault 11 Page there is a detailed guide and a note at the bottom pointing out where the 3rd item will be. Happy hunting.

Bugs
Helping Hardin to take over the chapter and repairing the filtration system are intended to be mutually exclusive quests. You must pick one or the other, with Hardin's route being easier but resulting in less faction rep (the average player ending up at "accepted") and McNamara's being harder but leaving the average player at "liked." Note also that the quests following their transitions are completely different.

However, there is a bug that allows the player to seemingly complete both options. For this error state to occur, you must tell Hardin about the "Chain that Binds" but NOT tell him about McNamara's orders to find scouts/paladins/filtration parts. The player can then turn in the filtration parts, tell McNamara you've turned in the parts, and finally tell Hardin about the orders. This is the only order of events that works, as the "Chain that Binds" dialogue options disappear from Hardin after turning in the filtration parts.

This route generates more immediate XP, but leaves the two NPCs in an error state. They will, for the rest of the game, both only tell the player to come back later. This prevents you from continuing on to the next part in the chain.

Note that both legitimate options will result in a brief period wherein the player cannot speak to their elder of choice, but this does not mean that they're bugged - leave the cell and wait for a few days to ensure they've made the transition.

To fix the error state, you will need to open the console and reset the quest with the following two lines (WARNING - using the console will disable Steam achievements. You will need to exit and restart the game to re-enable them.):