Tenpenny Tower (quest)

Tenpenny Tower is a Fallout 3 quest connected with the Tenpenny Tower location. It is also an Xbox 360, PC achievement and a PS3 trophy.

The name may be a reference to Officer Tenpenny, from Oblivion

Before doing this quest
If you are looking to pick up all of the Bottlecap Mine Schematics, you should do the unmarked quest A Manhandled Manservant before doing this quest. Once you finish this quest, it can be impossible to complete the other quest successfully.

Objectives and Walkthrough
The ghouls want to live in the luxurious Tenpenny Tower, but neither Allistair Tenpenny nor the other residents are willing to let them in. Kill the band of ghouls, let them into the Tower, or find an uneasy diplomatic solution.

Kill Roy Phillips
Given by Chief Gustavo at the Tenpenny Tower, you get a 500 cap reward upon completion and Assault Rifle with no spare ammo before you start it in order to kill ghoul leader Roy Phillips, and his "gang" (Michael Masters and Bessie Lynn). With speech you can get a 700 cap reward and Chinese Assault Rifle as starter gun. He also gives you a few rounds for just accepting the quest, that is, if you pass the speech check.

Gustavo will tell you to go in through the Warrington Tunnels, which is west of the Tenpenny Tower. (The entrance is in the ruined train yard.) Follow the tunnels and you'll find a door leading to Roy's hideout. You can either kill him, or talk to him and offer to help him open the basement door into Tenpenny tower to let the feral ghouls in to massacre the residents. Alternatively, you can offer to speak with Allistair Tenpenny to let ghouls move in.

You may also choose to kill Roy Phillips during the conversation he has with the intercom when you first approach Tenpenny Tower (Doing this will eliminate the choices other than killing the ghouls). You can allow the conversation to finish and then attack him while he leaves, or you can put a mine or grenade in his inventory while he is not looking. Although you have killed Roy, you still must clear out the tunnels of any remained NPC Ghouls (Feral Ghouls do not count). By killing Roy early, it causes Michael Masters to immediately become hostile when you confront him in the tunnels. You must still talk to Gustavo to initiate the quest.

Killing Roy Phillips has the upside of sparing the lives of all the residents (traders) in Tenpenny Tower as all other solutions (convincing the residents to accept ghouls to move in) ultimately leads to Roy Phillips murdering every single human (residents and guards) in Tenpenny Tower. Killing Roy will result in having multiple traders in the tower compared to just two if you don't kill him.

The 0 Karma Loss Approach
As Roy and his companions are not considered "evil" characters (despite what they'll do if you help them gain access to Tenpenny Tower), killing the ghouls will normally cause a loss of karma. There is a way around this minor inconvenience. After accepting the contract from Gustavo, seek out the ghouls. This is most easily accomplished if you wait for nightfall, when Roy and his pals are sleeping. Equip a good close combat weapon, such as a shotgun, and while the three ghouls are sleeping, initiate a conversation with Roy, being sure to draw him out of sight of Bessie ( back away slowly and he'll follow you to initiate conversation). If you tell him that Gustavo sent you to kill him... but you won't do it for some caps, he will become hostile and can be killed for no karma loss. So long as Bessie does not see you kill Roy, she will remain friendly (even if she gets splattered with Roy's brains). If you quickly engage her in conversation (before Michael Masters initiates combat), you can use the same speech path to cause her to attack you, meaning she can be killed for no karma loss. Then finish off Michael Masters, and you'll have killed the ghouls without incurring any negative karma - except for karma loss from stealing any of their items, such as the two skill books they "own."

This approach is a little convoluted, but probably provides what most players will consider the best outcome - all Tenpenny merchants remain intact, the player does not have to lose any karma, and receives the quest XP and reward from Gustavo.

Another way to complete the quest without loss of karma is to confront Roy before talking to Gustavo. Simply make you way to him through the Warrington Station tunnels and engage in conversation. Eventually he will tell you that, when he tried to gain entry to the tower, they shot at him, to which you can reply: "You're a zombie! They should shoot you!" Roy will immediately attack you if you say this, as will Michael and Bessie, so killing them results in no karma loss. After they are all dead the quest notification will pop up, and you will have to go to Tenpenny Tower to talk to Gustavo. You still need to pay to get in, and when you enter conversation with him he treats you like you already asked for the quest beforehand, but other than those anomalies this method works fine.

The "Todd Howard Approach"
The simplest way to complete this quest is to kill Roy Phillips as soon as you see him at the Tenpenny gates (you will lose some karma). Then, accept the quest from Gustavo. This will make all ghouls hostile, and you will be able to eliminate them with no karma penalty at all. Finally, when you meet the female ghoul in the sewers, tell her you're there to kill her, and she will pull a switchblade on you and attack. Again, you will not receive any karma penalty. This approach will result in a smaller amount of karma loss than normal, and is quick and easy. This approach is named after Todd Howard's twisted sense of humor during the Fallout 3 gameplay demos (he placed a live frag grenade in Phillips' inventory to demonstrate the capabilities of a Stealth Boy).

Convince Tenpenny to let the Ghouls move in
Allistair Tenpenny, who is on the top floor of the Tenpenny Tower outside on the balcony, will tell you that if you convince tenants Mr. & Mrs. Wellington, Mr. Ling, Ms. Montenegro and Ms. Lancaster to have the ghouls as neighbors, he'll let them move in. With the help of charisma boosters (i.e. alcohol found throughout Tenpenny Tower), you can get all the tenants to agree to live with the ghouls. Also around 60 skill in speech will be sufficient for 100% success in speech challenges for everyone else except Mr. Ling (who is around 65% success with 60 skill). Every successful speech will also grant positive karma. If you fail to convince someone, killing them will also work, so long as the guards don't catch you. You can also threaten some of them into leaving the Tower.

Different options exist. For the Wellingtons, take the love letter from Susan Lancaster's desk and show it to Millicent Wellington, who will then proceed to murder both her husband Edgar and the lover Susan. If you steal from Anthony Ling (lockpick his safe or his terminal) and go speak to him, he leaves Tenpenny Tower. You can do the same with Lyndia Montenegro.

Another option exists if you have the mesmetron. Using the mesmetron on the tenants will cause them to go crazy and begin attacking people. Just be sure to do this around the guards, and they will cheerfully kill the tenants with no karma loss to you.

See notes below for what to do if Tenpenny is already dead.

Once all required tenants are convinced or otherwise removed from the picture, visit Alistair Tenpenny for a 500 cap reward. Once you bring Roy Phillips the news, he will reward you with a Ghoul Mask, which makes you friendly with all ghouls. You will also gain a 300 XP reward.

If you return to Tenpenny Tower immediately, you may notice that Allistair Tenpenny is dead, and his body has been dumped in his penthouse's bathtub. There are also extensive dark stains on the wall outside the bathroom and on the floor leading to the tub. If you return to Tenpenny Tower later, you will notice that all the occupants are now ghouls as well. When you question the main ghouls about this, you will find out that they effectively killed all the human tenants because they had a "misunderstanding". Phillips additionally claims that they all had it coming and that no one is fully innocent or guilty in the wasteland. They also tell the player to ignore the smell coming from the basement. One wonders why...

If you kill Tenpenny on the balcony after securing permission for the ghouls to move in, the results are similar except you get a karma boost for doing the job, completing a quest, and you can take his suit as well as his suite key and the usual trappings. You also get a karma boost for killing Tenpenny's guard if you're so inclined, but his guard won't know that you killed Tenpenny if you do it on the balcony. Be sure to kill Tenpenny yourself if you wanted his gear (unique suit) because he'll be gone when the ghouls move in.

Note: All the residents of Tenpenny Tower to include Herbert "Darring" Dashwood (from the radio show) and the guards will be gone. Though the ghouls who move in will take the place of the shop dealers and if you live there you can still get things for your house from Michael (first ghoul met when locating Roy Phillips).

If you don't want any of the residents to die, then look at the Double Dealer solution.

Bug: The quest script that moves the ghouls into Tenpenny Tower will not check whether Roy is still alive before moving their bodies into the basement. So if Roy is killed before the human tenants are disposed of, he will still somehow manage to murder them.

Double Dealer
This is a twist of Convince Tenpenny to let the Ghouls move in. After you convince everyone to let the ghouls move in, go immediately to Tenpenny. Complete the quest and collect the 500 caps.

Next, go see Roy at his hideout. Tell him that he can move in to the tower now. After he moves in, find a quiet place where he is alone and kill him. Even if unseen, Michael Masters will become hostile. (And if you kill him, you are out one trader at Tenpenny Towers as he and Roy's ghoul gal replace the human Tenpenny merchants. It is best just to kill Roy and his gang).

Now all the ghouls and humans will live together in the tower and no one else will die, except Tenpenny, who is killed by Roy the MOMENT one receives the reward for the quest. A large blood splatter can be seen on a wall in Allistair's penthouse, and there's blood in the bathtub.

The alternative is to do as prescribed above, except kill Roy the moment after you tell him he can move in. When you return to Tenpenny Tower, Roy's body will mysteriously have been transported to the lobby, and Allistair will be dead. It seems the moment you tell Roy he can move in, Allistair is dead one way or the other.


 * Note: This will sometimes fail - the former residents can be wiped out when you're away even with Roy Phillips (and Michael Masters) dead.


 * ''Confirmed: This route can lead to all useful NPCs disappearing, human or ghoul therefor it may be best just to let Roy get on with moving in, at least you will have Ghoul traders in Tenpenny Tower.

Help the Ghouls break into the tower
Your karma will go down by 600 points for this act.

You can let the ghouls in through the underground door. Gustavo has a key to the terminal that opens the door underground and also Herbert "Daring" Dashwood has a copy of the key. If you find him and persist, he will turn it over, allowing you to avoid shooting or pickpocketing Gustavo for his key. The terminal(you can also shoot the generator in the room) is located in the generator room which can be accessed via a stairwell behind the Tenpenny Tower (Check Pip-Boy Local Map while standing in tower courtyard for location). After you let them in, Roy will be waiting outside at the entrance and will give you a Ghoul Mask, so that the invading frenzied ghouls won't attack you. You just need to get inside and watch how the ghouls massacre the tower residents. You can either accompany Roy through each floor and watch or participate in the massacre, or leave for a few hours while the bloodbath ensues. Upon returning, speak with Roy and he will tell you that you can live in the towers private suite. The suite is located on the top floor, which can be reached using the elevator on the ground floor It is on the right after you exit the elevator. Also, you can trade and get repairs from the new ghoul NPCs that occupy the lobby.

While the chaos ensues, the player is free to loot the corpses of the former tenants and ransack their stores and belongings, free of any negative karma (though if you are doing this quest, your karma will drop anyway).

There are two skill books in the building, for barter and speaking. Make sure you steal them before letting Roy in. When you let Roy in, the original "Tenpenny Tower" is replaced with "Ruined Tenpenny Tower". ALL items are replaced in duplicate. You can get the two skill books again.


 * Note: It seems you can't get both the Megaton house AND the hotel suite this way. However at least after the diplomatic option, you can enter the empty suite without the key, by exiting onto the balcony and going around the wall to the outside door which is now repaired, and unlocked. You can sleep in the bed, your Mr. Handy robot, and Bobblehead display are there, but none of your other room decorations)

Convince Tenpenny to let the Ghouls move in & Help the Ghouls break into the tower
If you just can't decide how to help the ghouls into Tenpenny Tower, it is possible to perform both. You start the quest normally, talking to Gustav about the problem and so forth. Then follow the guide for Convince Tenpenny to let the Ghouls move in but don't complete it by telling Roy he can move in. Instead proceed with Help the Ghouls break into the tower. You'll be able to reap both path benefits as well as the negative karma.

Massacre Everyone in Tenpenny
After nuking Megaton (or disarming the Nuke instead), get the quest to terminate Roy Phillips and the ghouls. Go to Roy Phillips and instead of killing him, get the quest to let the ghouls into Tenpenny. Go back to Tenpenny, but instead of letting the Ghouls inside, massacre everyone, including the tenants of Tenpenny Tower. You will then be prompted to let Roy Phillips know that he can now move in. Go back to Roy Phillips and inform him he can move in. Betty will take over the merchant position in the tower.

Greed is Good
This approach maximized your profit from doing the quest without breaking any other ties to any other quest.
 * Start Strictly Business at Paradise Falls
 * Start You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head at Underworld
 * Go to Tenpenny Tower and start this quest by talking to Gustavo about it.
 * Sweeten the deal and get some of the loot upfront from the guard Gustavo.
 * Given Chinese Assault Rifle and 12 5.56mm rounds.
 * Go to Herbert Dashwood to start his unlisted quest to find Argyle
 * Go to Allistair Tenpenny and speak about Mister Crowley, but don't choose to kill Tenpenny yet
 * Accept the deal to kill Crowley
 * Sweeten the deal and get 100caps upfront
 * Now go to Roy Phillips by navigating through Warrington Tunnels and tell him you'll try to convince Tenpenny to let them in.
 * Return to Tenpenny and tell him you want to have the ghouls in.
 * Here is the fun part, Convince the people on the list Tenpenny gave you called Tenpenny's request.
 * Isolate each person on that list before you convince them, best at night time since they are sleeping in their room
 * Successfully convince Susan Lancaster
 * After convincing her, zap her with the Mesmetron, loot her, tag her, send her off.
 * That's an extra 250caps upon returning to Paradise Falls if you have turned in one of the other VIPs already.
 * Successfully convince the rest one by one
 * After convincing the person, kill them off and loot, suggest a one shot kill with sneak attack so they don't run off screaming. This way no one would get mad at you.
 * Highly suggested to plant a live grenade
 * It'll be difficult to isolate the Wellingtons, best just try to kill them both in one shot with a critical using VATS or try to plant grenades on them quickly.
 * After looting their corpse and getting all the keys, go to their corresponding stores and loot their inventory.
 * That'll be a good 1000caps, plus a ton of loot.
 * Go back to Tenpenny and tell him that you've done the deed, and receive your 500caps goodwill bonus
 * You have a few choices now.
 * Finish most profitable route for You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head, without killing Tenpenny yet.
 * Tenpenny will give you the remaining 200caps upon killing Crowley.
 * You can kill him afterwards if you want for his loot.
 * Walk around Tenpenny, hide, do a head shot with the sniper rifle given to you from Crowley.
 * That's an extra 100caps for the headshot upon returning to Crowley.
 * You'll find on Tenpenny's body 10 rounds of .308, a sniper rifle, the unique Tenpenny's Suit, and the key to his own room.
 * Now you have to end the quest and have the three choices:
 * If you want the Ghoul Mask you can do two things
 * Go to Roy and tell him he can move in. You'll get your Ghoul Mask. However, all the original residences will eventually die and disappear to the basement stripped naked. So it is suggested that you kill the merchants and loot their inventory before they do so.
 * Proceed with the Help the Ghouls break into the tower guide. You'll get the mask from Roy upon entering back to Tenpenny Tower. They'll completely trash the place, but on the plus side you have the left over bodies to pillage, which means more free items from the doctor's supplies, bar, kitchen, and also the replaced books.
 * Warning: If you didn't finish Daring's unlisted side quest in Argyle, finish it now.
 * Sidenote: If you try to be clever by double crossing Roy, Gustavo will not give you the reward for killing Roy and his gang. Instead he say he is too busy to talk even when all the ghouls are dead. Even if you decide to kill all the Ghouls on the other floors, everyone will instantly die as soon as you change areas (meaning anything with a loading screen).
 * If you want the remaining loot, 500caps or 700caps from Gustavo, you can just go and kill Roy and his gang and talk to Gustavo for his reward, but you won't be able to loot the mask off his dead body.

Quest Breakers

 * Be careful, you do not want to kill both Roy Phillips and Gustavo. You will still have 2 markers on your map, but you will be unable to finish the quest.


 * If you decide to enslave Susan Lancaster AND kill all of the tower residents by yourself (after Roy initiates the quest by asking you to find the key to the back door), you must receive your reward for Susan BEFORE speaking to Roy (after the killings). If you speak to Roy while Susan is "in-transit," he will thank you for helping them get in to the tower but you will not receive his mask, you will not receive any quest related XP/Karma, and the quest cannot ever be finished.
 * Killing Susan Lancaster during the ghoul takeover will not prevent you from being able to complete the Strictly Business quest. You only need to capture 1 of the 4 people in order to complete it, assuming the others are already dead.
 * If Roy dies during the attack on The tower you wont be able to finish the quest or access your room if you blew up megaton.