Vault 34

Vault 34 is one of the Vault-Tec Vaults located in the Mojave Wasteland.

Background
As part of the Vault Experiment, the armory was overstocked with weapons, ammo and not provided with a lock (although an Overseer's log says he had a lock installed on it after a riot). It was also equipped with a great amount of recreational facilities (such as a full-sized swimming pool), but at the cost of living space. The location of this Vault is in the Mojave Wasteland. By 2281, it still has people living in it, although most have become Feral ghouls. They are, however, still able to speak with some level of intelligence. While in combat they may shout words like 'pain', etc (other ghouls have been observed speaking in combat outside of the Vault, whether they are from Vault 34 or not is unknown). There are still a few non-ghoulified Vault dwellers remaining, trapped somewhere within the ruins.

According to the Boomers historian Pete, the Boomers used to occupy Vault 34, but they got sick of not being allowed to use their weapons so they left and started a community at Nellis. Chris Haversam also claims to have come from Vault 34, so the Vault has fallen into chaos in recent years, perhaps less than a decade.

According to various terminals inside the vault, Vault 34 suffered overpopulation at some point, which the Overseer wanted to "fix". For obvious reasons, the Vault Dwellers revolted, attempting to riot and gain control of the armory. During the riot, the vault's reactor vents were damaged, which combined with the flooding caused by a bomb detonating in the Vault's pool, doomed the inhabitants to a lethal dose of radiation.

Layout
Vault 34 is challenging in that, in addition to being irradiated, the vault's cramped interior is filled with Vault 34-themed Feral Ghouls. There are also points during the player's exploration where Ghouls are spawned behind the player or in previously cleared areas. Most of the exploration and combat occurs in the vault's 1st Floor, the first of four different levels.

1st Floor - Level 1

 * Office

This is the level you enter from the cave inside the hill. After you pass through the the cog-like vault door, you're on the upper level of the standard Atrium. Across the gangway to your left is a room marked Office (not the Overseer's Office) with a computer that gives you some background on what happened but is not necessary to visit. To your right is a staircase that takes you down to Level 2.

1st Floor - Level 2

 * Cafeteria

The only thing on this floor is the bottom of the Atrium and the Diner. Upon reaching the lower floor of the Atrium, turn right to see a automatic door that is pinned open though trying to close. Go through that door and right, down the stairs, to reach the lowest (3rd) level of the 1st Floor.

1st Floor - Level 3

 * Clinic
 * Utility
 * Systems Room
 * Operations (where 3 ghouls are trapped behind the INACCESSIBLE door)
 * Flooded staircase 1 (later becomes entrance to Security Station A)
 * Flooded staircase 2
 * Door to Reactor zone (marked as Overseer's Office)
 * Door to Armory zone

This is where most of the action takes place. This level is almost completely linear, the player can't go in circles, but instead walks one windy path with rooms attached, perhaps doubling-back once or twice. Getting through the underwater areas is made easier by using the rebreather.

To reach the Armory quickly:
 * Find the 1st flooded staircase, swim down, find a dead Glowing One stuck under a desk. Search the corpse for the Security password.* The Clinic is ahead. Inside is an Average safe (lockpick 50) containing 15 Rad-X and 10 RadAway.
 * Continue through the Clinic to a new hallway and find the 2nd flooded staircase, swim down, find another dead Glowing One stuck under a desk. Search the corpse for the Utility password.  (While you're down there, you may notice an INACCESSIBLE door.  This will later become the door to Security Station A.)
 * Continue on towards the door to the Armory. Just before that door, on the left, is the Utility room. Access the terminal there to activate the pumps. This will drain the water from the 2nd flooded staircase.
 * Backtrack to where the 2nd flooded staircase was and you will now find a unnamed door. Opening this door teleports you to a new instance of this area, one in which the formerally INACCESSIBLE door now leads to Security Station A.  Continue on through Security Station A and find another computer.  This one unlocks the Overseer's Office.
 * Go back to the main 1st Floor zone, backtrack to the Clinic, and around the corner from one of the doors to the clinic is a zoning door that says 'Overseer's Office' but actually takes you to the Reactor zone, which houses the Overseer's Office (amongst other rooms).

Reactor

 * You are now in the Reactor Zone. Just down the hall will be another INACCESSIBLE door on your left that is labeled Operations.  To the right is the Overseer's Office.  Straight on ahead is just some windy halls that lead to a room labeled Security and some loot and Ghouls, nothing fancy.
 * The Overseer's Room: The desk has already been raised to expose the secret stairway. On the underside of that raised desk are 2 "Vault-Tec Turrets".  The Overseer has been turned into an feral ghoul and appears to be squatting on the desk.  Clear the room, deal with the 2 Glowing Ones that appear behind you in the hall you entered from, and access the computer.  (You need a science of 100 = very hard, to access the terminal and unlock the armory unless you have found the password.)(The Overseer has the password) Use it to unlock the Armory.

CHOICE: At this point you can take a detour. If you go down the stairs under the Overseer's desk, you'll be taken to the actual Reactor room. Again, very linear, you can't get lost. If you didn't trigger it inside the East Pumping Station (a different map location outside but near Vault 34), fooling around down there will trigger a new quest. It does appear in your Quest sheet, and solving it you may get 150 Exp (at least for rescuing the survivors) and NCR reputation. In short, you can choose to kill the reactor, which will save the soil (and the farming efforts) outside McCarran, or you can transfer control to a little group of Vault 34 survivors holed up somewhere else in the vault. Killing the reactor earns you NCR rep. After saving the vault dwellers they may be found later at the Aerotech slum.

1st Floor (again)
Head back towards the Utility room, just past it is the door leading to the Armory.

Armory
Wind your way through some hallways (and maybe an Equipment room), eventually arriving at the Armory door, which is unlocked from the terminal in the overseer's office. Inside there are 3 Ghouls, and one of nearly every kind of mid- to higher-level gun, including the unique Marksman Carbine All-American, ammo and several Vault 34 Security Armors.

Notable Loot

 * 10x 10mm Pistol
 * All-American on an overturned table in the armory
 * Pulse Gun in a Very Hard locked gun case on the floor next to a table in the armory, unless you have the key from Nellis AFB from Veronica's Quest. The key can be taken from the filing cabinets immediately to the right when you first walk into Pearl's barracks.  Sneak as this is a crime and will result in karma loss
 * Detonator
 * Guns and Bullets On the small metal table between the sofas by the pool table, in the Armory Common room.
 * 2x Patriot's Cookbooks
 * Fixin' Things
 * True Police Stories
 * 2x Milsurp Reviews
 * 2x Today's Physician in a locker
 * A few Vault 34 security armor and helmet is lying in Armory. One is also found in the room on the left, right after the 2nd flooded staircase, lying on a chair in a pile of rubble.
 * In the Armory you'll also find a large stash of ammunition and weapons, such as a Sniper Rifles, a Missile launcher some C-4 plastic explosives and some varying Rifles and varying 10mm weapons.

Enemies

 * There are Golden Geckos or Fire Geckos, depending on your level, at the entrance of the vault.
 * Inside the Vault, there are several different types of Feral ghouls named Vault Dwellers, Vault Security Officers, or Vault Technicians and the Vault Overseer, a unique Glowing One with more HP and stronger attacks.
 * The Overseer of the Vault has two Turrets that defend him inside his office.
 * None of the Ghouls have any DT, even the Security Officers. Thus flamers and shotguns are highly effective here, as are Hollow Point munitions.  Going in loud and heavy (big guns with low DAM/high DPS and heavy armor) makes this vault relatively easy.  Veronica with power armor and a Ballistic fist is an excellent companion as most of the fighting will be short (melee) range/close quarters.
 * Boxing gloves, the cattle prod, and similar fatigue damaging weapons are highly effective against vault dwellers(as well as ghouls). Sometimes they are knocked out in as little as two strikes.

Location
Vault 34 is located just East of the New Vegas Strip and Southeast of New Vegas Medical Clinic.

Related Quests

 * Hard Luck Blues
 * I Could Make You Care
 * Et Tumor, Brute?

Appearances
Vault 34 was first mentioned in the Fallout Bible and appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bugs

 * Certain companions may pick up All-American, the most liable to do this would be Boone.
 * Saving inside the Overseer's office or entering the Armory may result in a corrupted game save.
 * Companions that have been told to wait outside the vault can appear inside the Vault with you.
 * This can be resolved by talking to your companions and terminate their 'attachments'. ED-E will go to Primm, Veronica will go to 188, were you can pick them up later. (Note:  I terminated ED-E as suggested and went through the entire vault; upon exiting the vault I immediately received the message that ED-E's companion quest had failed.)
 * Fell outside of the map while walking up the stairs on the 3rd floor.
 * Shirtless Vault Dwellers cannot be harmed and are immune to the Console "Kill" command, they however are affected by the "TAI" Toggle AI command and the "Disable" command.
 * Appears to be fixed in the 1.2.0 patch.
 * While in The Armory Great Khans may appear. It does make your character zoom in and freeze or slow down the game considerably. Two of the Great Khans will appear at the door to the Armory and one at the top of the stairs toward the armory.
 * For some reason you can repair the Grenade Launcher you get in the Armory with the Minigun you get in the armory.

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