Fallout 3 - Mothership Zeta

The main emphasis of this walkthrough is the Mothership Zeta DLC because it requires thoughtful preparation leading up to it, and it sets you up for the rest of Fallout 3.

Skills Needed

Coming out of Vault 101 on level 1, you should immediately level up to 2. Here are the specs at level 2 where I split the 15 level up points between Explosives and Repair. In Megaton, Explosives of 25 are needed to defuse the bomb, but a Mentat will get you there. Repair of 30 is needed to fix the pipes, but a Vault 101 jump suit which adds 5 to Repair does the job.

STR	PER	END	CHR	INT	AGL	LCK
5	5	4	5	5	7	9

Barter	Big Guns	En. Guns	Explos.	Lockpk	Med	Melee	Repair	Science	Sml.Guns	Sneak	Speech	Unarmed
17	15	17	17+7=24	32	27	17	17+8=25	32	36	21	17	15

This was an old setup. I don't like doing the vault start-up of the game, so I always start with a save made right after leaving the vault on one of my early plays.

In later days, such as in Fallout New Vegas, I set INT to 10 to get more XP which I could really use here in getting ready for Zeta, but if I were to now raise INT, I would have to take points from somewhere else and I'm not sure what the effect of that would be, so I just leave it as shown.

In Megaton, with Lockpick of 32, you can get some decent XP in Megaton by going around unlocking all the doors. Nobody seems to mind.

In Zeta, you will want Science of 75. This is needed to modify the healing arches so that they will heal you to 100%. As a bonus, you also get +65 XP every time you modify a healing arch, so I modify every one I come across whether I need it or not. There are about 25 arches (not counting those in the maintenance area) for a total of over 1600 XP if you modify them all.

Another bonus is that the arches also heal addiction permanently, as can a laboratory installed in your home. The alternative is to pay a doctor for a temporary cure.

Science of 75 is also needed in the Cargo Hold to hack a computer which will unlock a safe in another area which has a very good weapon. Finally, Science of 75 is needed in Zeta's Weapons Lab to get 51 ammos for Alien Blaster.

Since Vault 101 gave me a utility jump suit with a +5 boost to Science, I go into Zeta with Science of 70. It's a bit of a nuisance to have to change in and out of the Science jumpsuit to use a healing arch, but since I'm only about level 6 when I go to Zeta, I don't have a lot of points to allocate. But on my first level up on Zeta, I add 5 points to Science.

In fact, the first 2-3 times I level up after leaving the vault, I put all my points into Science. I got my small guns up to about 35 while in the vault, but that still makes it a difficult trek up to Zeta as you are constantly getting attacked. It's hard to survive the trip. But the rewards on Zeta from getting Science up to 75 make the early sacrifices worthwhile.

For the first time in my Fallout history, I never got my Barter or Repair above 30. With all the loot I take home from Zeta, barter is irrelevant. In Zeta, I pick up all the Alien Epoxy in the game, including killing all the worker aliens for the epoxy they carry. My karma ended up Evil-blah-blah, but it didn't seem to matter. In fact, getting your karma to Evil allows you to recruit Jericho (in Megaton) as a companion.

The cost of keeping Repair low prior to Zeta is that you can't improve your gear very much, but again, it's worth it to be able to get Science up to 75.

When I level up prior to Zeta, I take the Educated perk so that I can level up again sooner. People who say that with high intelligence, you don't need the Educated perk clearly are not trying to get Science up to 75 by level 6.

Once I've made it to Zeta, I use the Intense Training perk to raise my Strength from 5 to 8. In the last (top) half of Zeta, there is nowhere to store loot when overencumbered, so I want to get as much of that expensive loot to carry to the bridge as I can.

The Strong Back perk lets you carry +50 pounds, but it requires Endurance of 5, which I normally don't have. One possible alternative to the above specs is to lower Luck to 7 and add 1 to Intelligence and 1 to Endurance. I've played many dozens of games in New Vegas and never had Luck up to 9 and my FONV walkthrough comes close to breaking the game without it at 9.

Since I now recruit Jericho as a companion after leaving Zeta, my thought was that he could carry my overage and I wouldn't need Strong Back, but he is not immortal like my companions in FONV, so it's a risk that he will die somewhere and I would lose what he was carrying.

Megaton:

In Vault 101, you should have picked up everything you could. In my old save from which I have started games for many years, I would be over-encumbered when leaving 101. I would drop enough heavy gear (mostly jump suits) to be able to walk at normal speed to Megaton.

In a recent playthrough starting completely over at Vault 101, I wasn't nearly as overencumbered as in the old days, so I just dropped a few armored vault jump suits which are the heaviest thing I was carrying and didn't have to make multiple trips and their value wasn't that great.

Keep one of each type of jump suit which boosts various skills. I also keep the armored vault jump suit which has good protection in addition to +5 for small guns (for use prior to Zeta) and +5 for energy weapons (in and after Zeta).

Before going to Zeta, you need to level up a little to boost some of your Skills such as the ones mentioned above. There are a few things you can do around Megaton for XP along with doing the first couple of chapters of Moira's book.

Walk to Megaton, circle counter-clockwise to the back and check the boulders for one that is Hallowed Out and contains a sniper rifle and some other loot. The sniper rifle is in bad shape. Roving merchants visit outside of Megaton. You can sell loot to them, but don't have them repair the sniper rifle because Moira has a higher repair skill.

It's hard to get 308 ammo for the sniper, so buy it at every chance and save it until you really need it for Minefield, Springvale School, and Superduper Mart.

Enter the front of Megaton, get the mission to defuse the bomb. Go straight to Moriarity's saloon and talk to Blake who is sitting in a corner. Save before entering. He will try to talk you into blowing up Megaton. You get two chances to talk him into paying you more. If he declines both, you can reload from your save and try again.

Go back to the sheriff Simms and tell him about Blake. Simms will run to arrest him. Go with Simms and stand behind Blake while Simms is arresting him so that when Blake tries to kill Simms, you can kill Blake first. If Simms is killed, you can still defuse the bomb and collect the reward from his son.

Part of your reward is a house of your own. Go sleep in your bed to get the 10% Well Rested bonus for all XP earned over the next 12 hours. Ask your robot (5 times) for a bottle of water. Store whatever you don't need right now in a locker.

From your place, go to each dwelling in Megaton in clockwise order and pick the locks on the doors. You should get about 43 XP (including the well rested bonus) for each one. At the back of Moriarity's Saloon, hack the computer and under Visitors, read about James. Lockpick the cabinet on the left for more XP. Go into the saloon area and speak with Gob. Be nice and he will give you a 10% discount. Buy all the stimpacks he has. You will need them on the trip to Minefield and then to Zeta.

Fix the 3 leaks in the water pipes. This requires a total Repair skill level of 30, or a skill of 25 and a vault 101 jumpsuit which boosts Repair by 5. Talk to Walter about selling him scrap metal. More important than the money he gives you for them is the 7-8 XP for each one, which is meaningfull early in the game. (On Zeta, I picked up every scrap metal I could. Walter gave me 260 caps and I earned 169 XP for almost no effort. Another good source of scrap metal is Tenpenny Tower.)

This is the last time I'll harp on this -- before doing anything which should earn XP, sleep first for the 10% Well Rested bonus.

Go to the Crater Side Supply Shop and get Moira to repair the sniper rifle, then sell excess stuff. If she runs out of money, buy Stimpacks. If she has any 308 or 10mm ammo, buy it.

If you still have stuff to sell, try the little food court and the doctor's office (buy his Stimpacks). Also sell to the roving merchants outside of Megaton.

If you dropped gear when leaving Vault 101, fast travel back, pick it up. Whatever you can't sell can be stored in your house.

Talk to Moira about working on her book. Do the radiation quest first. No special preperation (except sleeping) is needed since you do this in Megaton. With high Science, you can tell her that you don't have to actually do the quest to know what the result will show and she will say okay. You get some loot, but no XP, and this is an easy quest, so it should be done in whole.

Springvale:

The next Moira quests will involve walking to distant locations and being attacked frequently along the way for which you have few weapons and ammo.

Fortunately, Springvale, which is not a quest, is a short walk and has wrecked houses to loot. A woman in one house kind of ripped off Moriarity who wants revenge, so you are justified in shooting her and taking her loot.

A harder but more profitable target is the Springvale school. It is wrecked on the far left with a few bandits on patrol who you really need to one-shot from a distance. You have very little 308 sniper ammo and must have some for these first bandits as well as some for the start of Super Duper Mart as well as 5 or so rounds for Arkansas in Minefield, so use the 308 judiciously.

On the plus side, you can get some good weapons and ammo from the school and from the Mart to help you on the walk to Minefield.

Head for Minefield:

Minefield is a long walk with frequent attackers.

The best FO3 video on Youtube is You Only Live Once by "Many a True Nerd". The fact that he has well over 500,000 subscribers says it all. I learned a lot from his videos about how to maneuver around these kinds of attackers while minimizing damage taken.

After reaching Minefield, circle around to the left until you are on a hill north of Minefield overlooking a wrecked 3-story building where the character Arkansas can be seen looking for intruders to snipe. Kill him and he has a some 308 ammo in boxes.

After killing him and looting his building, loot all the other buildings. Watch for land mines everywhere outside. I save often. Get one in the playground for the quest. Turn in the mission.

Chapter 2:

Get Injured: I stand in front of the machine on the left of Moira's, take off my armor, and toss a couple of frag grenades at my feet. One time someone else was around when I did this and they got injured which caused all the Megatonians to open fire on me, so save before doing this.

Next ask for the Mole Rat Repellent quest.

Moira will give you a big, heavy stick with which to kill mole rats. If you do this mission, don't turn it in because she will take back the stick. You will need it to fight the aliens when you first get to Zeta. They always slaughter me when I'm fighting bare knuckled. They always take away all your gear, but they can't take the mole stick because it is a quest item, so you can use it to kill the aliens.

You are now almost ready to go to Zeta. Sell anything you've picked up and don't want to keep.

Go to the Quest page and activate the Zeta mission. This will put a marker on your map to follow.

Starting in Zeta

Fast travel back to Minefield, then walk north to the Zeta location. I save when I can first see the alien ship so that I can start from that point again if needed, although you can also save before you start "fighting" Somah. Even better, save just before you and Somah stage your fight.

In a recent game, I was somehow killed despite using the mole rat sticks. Then Somah was killed in the replay. We finally both survived the next replay.

I've never died before when using the sticks, nor in dozens of games has Somah died. I suspect these are random events, in which case they just let you win the third time to advance the game.

If you haven't saved first, the game takes you back to your last save (before reaching Zeta) which is a PITA.

After the aliens beam you up, they will take all your gear, weapons, etc. The one thing they cannot take is Moira's stick because it is a mission item. You will be happy to have it for your first fight, then you can pick up the aliens' weapons.

Don't forget to get your gear back and put on your battle clothes. If you can get Science up to 75, modify the first healing arch for the XP whether you need it or not.

You will soon get some energy guns. The Alien Disintegrator is about all you really need early on.

Loot

Throughout the DLC, take the time to search all bodies and the storage chests with flashing lights as well as on shelves and table tops. You should pick up pretty much everything except Shock Batons which have low value. Here is what else you can get:

• Alien Atomizer weapon: Not as good a weapon as the Disintegrator, but only weighs 2 pounds and sells for $350+, so pick up all of them to sell.
• Captain's Sidearm has a higher damage rating than the Atomizer, but it's for close-up work only.
• Alien Disintegrator: Not as good a value, at 7 pounds and $200+, but still worth picking up. They are the first to go if I get overencumbered. I do use one on Earth as it is a pretty good weapon and has lots of ammo.
• Alien Destabilizer is a variant of the Disintegrator. Click the link for instructions for finding it.
• Alien Drone Cannon: It sells back on Earth for up to $1000+, but its cost per pound is a lot more than the Atomizer and it's not a great weapon, so it's not worth picking up.
• Atomic Pulverizer: While the Pulverizer's damage rating is only 37 and the Disintegrator's is 65, the advantage of the Pulverizer is that it can fire 6 shots in VATs and the Disintegrator, only 2. This makes the Pulverizer more flexible for dealing with different kinds of enemies. The Pulverizer is on the upper deck behind a locked door opened by a door control requiring Sci 75. That room also has some alien Blaster ammo.
  Back on Earth, the Pulverizer is my main weapon, only switching to the Alien Blaster when something stronger seems really called for.
• MPLX Novasurge can be found in a safe in the Cargo Hold. It is a very powerful pistol but it takes two energy cells for each shot and ECells are not common on Zeta; however, Moria usually has 130+ in stock which I buy every chance I get.The MPLX is my second choice weapon after the Alien Blaster.
• Alien foods: Not much HP, but no weight. They are good for topping off your health bar.
• Big and Small Crystals: They have no weight and can be sold back on Earth for a lot of cash.
• Alien Biogel: Elliott Tercorien can convert it to Adapted Biogel which has high healing ability.
• Alien Epoxy: Repairs weapons up to 100%. This is not needed on Zeta because you can always find more weapons of the same type in better condition, but back on Earth, the Alien Blaster is a great weapon but degrades quickly, so the Epoxy is very handy to have with you. Somah can repair gear up to 85% at a reasonable price. I get her to repair my gear before leaving at the end because she won't be there when I return.
• The Alien Blaster fires an Alien Power Cell. APC's are contained in short, glowing, bluish cartridges which look very similar to the Alien Power Modules which are used by the Alien Disintegrator and Destabilizer. APMs are in large supply on Zeta while APCs are relatively scarce. When you point at an APC cartridge, it tells you how many cells it contains. Following is a list of APC locations on Zeta.  
  • Steamworks: 48 cells. When you enter a room where Sally runs in from the right, go into the large closet she came out of and on some shelves on the left are the APCs. 
  • Robot Assembly: 44. On shelves on the west wall opposite the east door to the Engineering Core.  
  • Weapons Lab: 51. in a room requiring Science=75. Lots of loot in the room including the Pulverizer.  
  • Keep going through the Weapons Lab rooms until you get to a big room with a long shelf on the far wall which has lots of weapons. Among that loot are APCs with a total of 87. 
  • Biologic Research: 109. When you get to the teleporter to the Death Ray, go down some stairs and the APCs are on some shelves. 
  • After you conquer the bridge, go back down to the Engineering Core. An electronic workbench has a small open crate on its right side which is against the wall. The box has 26, although it sometimes has none. 
  • When you return to Earth go a short way west to where the dead alien is on the ground next to an Alien Blaster and 10 cartridges with 12 cells in each. This 120 added to the 365 from Zeta totals 485.  
    While it is possible to find some more around Earth,, 485 is plenty if used wisely. On Zeta, I got my energy weapons rating up over 80. The Disintegrator, Destabilizer, Pulverizer, and MPLX Novasurge can handle most enemies on Earth, so I only use the Alien Blaster for the toughest of enemies to conserve ammo.  
    A couple of places on the Internet claim that if you finish the DLC and return later, some aliens will spawn and if you kill them, they will be carrying APC's. I've tried this and the only aliens which have spawned for me are a couple in the Engineering Core and they have not had APC's.

  There are a lot of non-alien weapons spread around Zeta, but none of them are as good as the alien weapons and only sell for a fraction as much, so they are not worth picking up. Also, since I will be using alien weapons the rest of the game, I put level up points into energy weapons and none into small guns.

  Other than the weapons, the items listed above have no weight, so there is no cost to picking them up.

  Alien Workers wear red and won't hurt you. If you kill one, you lose karma. On the other hand, their corpses often have Alien Epoxy. If a person (or Drone) you team up with kills them, you don't lose karma and you can still loot their bodies. If you want to get your karma back up, make donations to the church on Rivet City. When I kill them, I end the DLC with Epoxies numbering in the high 80's versus mid 60's if I don't kill them. As previously mentioned, having Evil karma allows your to recruit Jericho (in Megaton) as a companion.

  Not exactly "loot", but the Xenotech Expert perk increases the damage done by most alien weapons by 20%. This includes the already powerful Alien Blaster which is not on Zeta but is on the ground where you beamed up.

  A lot of people say that the Lincoln Repeater is the strongest weapon in the game, but it doesn't measure up to these alien weapons. Testing it on a distant super mutant, several shots with the Repeater didn't scratch him. A sniper rifle reduced its health by about 10%, but nothing after that. After saving and reloading, the Alien Blaster killed it in two shots. It was so far away that I couldn't see it when shooting, but I used VATS to locate him, then backed out of VATS and took the two shots.

  Storing Loot:

  When you first reach the Engineering Core, you are downstairs from the main area. In the room on the right is a staircase up to the main Engineering Core area. Before taking that go through the doorway on the left and follow the hall to a small room.

  On the left side of the room is an electrostatic barrier blocking the doorway. On the right side is a door which can't be opened until the end of the game. Behind that door is a teleporter. When you complete the DLC, you can come down that teleporter to the small room; otherwise, the room between the two doors is not used, so I dump all the excess weapons here at the end of each mission and pick them up at the end to carry them to Earth.

  At the end of the DLC, pick up all the loot in and around the bridge, including the two containers down below in the front, then go down and loot the Engineering Core one last time to make sure you haven't missed anything good, then pick up all the loot you dropped on the floor and go back to the bridge area. Drop loot on the floor by the teleporter to Earth until you are no longer overencumbered.

  In all the times I've played this, I've never lost any of my loot by dumping it on the floor in Zeta. Don't forget to find where the alien corpse is and pick up the Alien Blaster and AB ammo. It usually takes me 2-3 return visits to get the loot left on the floor.

Zeta Missions:

Mostly you are just following the map markers to get to Core Engineering. Once there, you have to explore several areas, optionally with the help of some friends you meet. After each mission in this area, go to where you dumped your loot and dump what you picked up during the current mission.

The first is the Robot Assembly and Somah is the one who helps you, though I've never figured out what help she is providing. (Again, you don't have to use "help" on these missions.)

You eventually get to a panel which you use to blow a hole in a wall. If your Repair is 75+, the game gives you just enough time to run the instant you tell it to blow up and you won't get hurt; otherwise, it almost kills you. Using this playthrough, you'll never get Repair that high at this point and even if you could, it would not be worth it just for this. It's cheaper to use stims to heal yourself.

SAVE then run forward until you spot an alien in the distance. Use VATs to kill him. Drones and aliens will be trying to kill you, so after killing the alien, back up into the tunnel you are in and advance carefully. Once you have things under control, loot the alien and get the Drone controller from him then get a Drone to guard you. If your Drone dies, you can unlock another one.

Shoot the drones in the round cages for XP, then loot them. They are a good source of scrap metal to sell to Walter in Megaton and to get XP for doing so. Your companion drone doesn't mind you shooting his buddies.

When you have found the machine to blow up, teleport back and tell Somah you are done with her so that she doesn't follow you around, then go dump your loot.

Next get Paulson and go to the Hangar. This is a fairly short and easy mission. Your drone from Robot Assembly will follow and help you.

Next go to the Cargo Room which is to the right of the Hangar. Keep Paulson to help because there are a lot of enemies in there.

Turn right when you get to the loop/track in the center and go until you see a lit-up monitor on the right. If you can get Science up to 75, you can hack the computer which lets you unlock the safe next to where stuff is falling through a hole.

Take some stairs up to the raised track so that you can shoot some enemies in a couple of rooms overlooking the safe. The safe has the MPLX Novasurge.

Having gotten the MPLX, optionally go straight back to the door to the Research Lab and loot that whole area. When done, return to Core Engineering.

To the right of the door to the Robot Assembly is a door to the Engine Room. Despite the name, this is a very large area, not just a "room". Loot that and return.

The last area is the Cryo Lab. It's a long trip to the end of the Cryo area where there is a machine to blow up and a teleporter to take you back to the start. A couple of times the teleporter was not working for me and when I tried to just walk back to the start, there were locked doors blocking me.

Now I don't touch the teleporter control until the machine has blown up and I've never had that problem again, though it is a known bug.

To be safe, save before you get to where the teleporter is. When you get to the teleporter, it should not be lit up. If it is lit up, turn off the game and restart it. Restart from the save you just made and hopefully, that will have fixed the problem.

When you finish the Cryo Lab, dump as much loot as you can in the Engineering Core before doing the space walk.

There is a lit-up teleporter to the Maintenance Area. This is a dangerous area with little reward.

The Upper Areas Between the Space Walk and the Bridge:

Save just before starting the space walk. Once you reach the bridge, you will no longer be able to return to the upper areas, so if you become overencumbered, you will have to drop loot and you will never be able to go back for it.

I still pick up the same weapons I've been picking up, but once my backpack gets full, I drop a Disintegrator whenever I need to make room and I don't pick up any more of them. I still pick up the Atomizers and any unique gear and anything which has no weight. The Atomizers are worth a lot more per pound than the Disintegrators, but if I still get overencumbered, Atomizers are the next to go.

When you reenter the top level, the teleporter in the second room should not be lit up and if it is, it probably will not work. If so, reload and try again; otherwise, turn on the teleporter and your friends should immediately show up.

The Xenotech Expert Perk and the Alien Destabilizer:

Work your way to the bridge just the way you've been doing.

The only thing different is that in the Weapons Lab there is an area where you can press a button to spawn enemies in the area below. There is a Healing Arch facing the button and the area below, but don't use it now just to top off your health; save it for real damage to come.

Kill 10 enemies to earn the Xenotech Expert perk which gives alien weapons 20% higher damage. In games where I followed this walkthrough except for getting this perk, I found that the alien weapons were far superior to the weapons I had been using on Earth. Add 20% more damage to that and you are in business. Note that similar Earth weapons, such as Harkness' plasma rifle, have specs which look better, but this 20% bonus does not apply to them.

The Alien Destabilizer is on a shelf next to a teleporter in the same room. Use Alien Epoxy to repair it to 100%. It is nominally about twice as powerful as the Disintegrator in the fully automatic mode, but in VATS, it only fires one shot. For having such a high damage rating, it's surprising how many shots it takes in automatic to kill anything. It has plenty of ammo, but it degrades quickly, using up alien epoxy.

Unexpectedly, the Destabilizer made short work of the enemies. I think that the order the enemies came out helped a lot. First were two giant radscorpions. I didn't try to kill them because obviously they had no way of attacking me and would only be helping me kill the armed enemies.

When human enemies came out, they had to defend themselves from the radscorpions. Meanwhile, I would target a human with VATS, then back out of VATS and immediately start firing in automatic mode. Death wasn't instantaneous, but didn't take long. Then I would move on to the next human. It took less than a minute for the radscorpions and me to get our 10 kills.

In my next game, this didn't work because not enough creatures came out to keep the humans busy and I kept getting killed.

If your level is 9-10, which it normally would be at this point in the walkthrough, the enemies with ranged weapons can kill you pretty quickly as you stand up taking pot shots at them. They could be a much higher level since the game probably doesn't expect us to be at such a low level.

Finally I tried crouching behind where the button is and pressing it ten times in a row, then I moved over to hide behind the wall on the right. If the gunfire died down, I would sneak out and press the button a bunch of times again. Eventually 10 enemies (humans and/or creatures) got killed and I got the perk.

Welcome to the Bridge:

When I first get to the bridge, I drop all my Atomizers and Disintegrators near the other teleporter which is what will get me back to Earth. I adjust the healing machine to 100% in case I get injured and to be sure that I get the XP.

I drop a land mine at the front of the teleporter which is just outside the door to the bridge and another outside the door. A couple of aliens will teleport up after (or while) you kill the aliens on the bridge. The land mine will hurt/kill them, but if your friends get there first, the mines seem to ignore them.

I take Psycho and Med-X, open the door to the bridge and immediately use VATs to target one shot from the Pulverizer at each alien starting with the captain. He is the toughest so I want to maximize my chance of killing him. If fewer than six aliens are present, I start a second round of targeting.

After the 6 shots are fired, I move to the right so that any surviving aliens cannot shoot me. Then I pick them off as they come running through the door to get me.

After wiping them out and your guys start teleporting up to the bridge, tell Sally "Let's get going" and she will help you use the controls to shoot at the enemy ship. At some point, you can no longer shoot. There are two controls on each side of the room. Run around and press them all then continue shooting.

The instant it's all done, I talk to Somah if there's any apparel I want repaired. If you delay a little, she's gone to Earth. She doesn't charge a lot and can repair gear further than the vendors around Megaton. I use Alien Epoxy to repair weapons.

I get Elliott to turn my Alien Biogel into Adapted Biogel.

Next I go down the stairs in the front for loot, then loot each corpse in the bridge area and drop the loot by the teleporter to Earth. Then I teleport down to Engineering to pick up the loot that I dropped there and look around that area for anything I may have missed.

About half the time, a couple of aliens will come out with guns blazing in Engineering, so be prepared.

Fast travel back to Megaton and go to the vendor outside the gate. He doesn't have much cash, but you can buy all his Stims with some of the loot you brought back. If no vendor is there, Wait an hour at a time for one to show up. After being done with him Wait 24 hours for another one.

While it takes Moria three days to replenish her stock and cash, every 24 hours a new vendor appears outside the gate with cash and different types of stock. (The vendor is random and could be the same one twice or more. If so, just Wait another 24 hours.)

So after getting all the cash from a vendor, I wait 24 hours for the next one and sell more Zeta loot. Every 3 days I go to Moria, buy her energy cells (for the Novasurge) and sell her loot until her cash runs out, then I go back to the gate vendors again. I also buy a lab setup for the house to use to cure any addictions I may get. I also get a work bench. I get the Infirmary too even though sleeping does the same thing except curing radiation.

Sleep until 6 a.m. for the Well Rested perk and fast travel back to Zeta to pick up some of the stuff left behind. While there, talk with Sally. She will sometimes give you some epoxy if you're lucky. If she gives you biogel, have Elliott convert it to Adapted Biogel. He will also give you an alien weapon if you ask him, but you have a ton of those already.

The result of going to Zeta at level 6 is that I leveled up to about 12 and got some great weapons with tons of ammo plus lots of stuff to heal with and Alien Epoxy for restoring the Alien Blaster (or any other weapons) to 100% plus so many alien weapons to sell that I'll never have to loot again.

Back to the Wasteland Survival Guide:

If you did not complete the Mole Rat mission for Moira, you can do it now, though I don't like doing it and if you lie about it to Moira, she will believe you.

Next is the Mirelurk mission. You can work your way through the building to get to where the egg clusters are, or use the side entry directly to your target. Either way, an optional mission is to not kill any mirelurks which is very difficult. Fortunately, if you go in before getting the mission from Moira, you can kill as many as you want and it doesn't count and they won't be around to bother you during the mission.

This ends chapter 2. The next chapter involves visits to Robco, to the Library, and to Rivet City.

Jericho:

Robco, the Library, and Rivet City all involve a lot of walking in dangerous areas, so now would be a good time to recruit Jericho, who lives in the house just past yours. At night, you can pick his door lock, which he doesn't mind, and if you built up a lot of evil karma in Zeta, you won't have any trouble recruiting him.

You do have to pay him 1000 caps, but you can raise thousands of caps by selling loot from Zeta, and you will be collecting a lot of loot to sell off the bodies which Jericho has killed.

I like to go to Robco first, then go SW to Tenpenny Tower, but continue SW past it to a small (pink?) store which has Lucky Shades on a manequin in the back left, as well as a Quantum cola. If the merchant sees you stealing and even thinks about shooting you, Jericho will finish him off and you can loot the whole store in peace.

When you exit the store, your negative karma will attract a Regulator hit squad, so have your Alien Blaster ready.

From there, I like to go to Tenpenny with the goal of helping Roy Phillips who gives me the ghoul mask after I let him into Tenpenny. I tried making up for letting in the ghouls by killing as many as I could, but Roy Phillips was shooting a lot of residents, so I tried again by killing Roy as soon as I could, but apparently once you let in the ghouls, the game is going to kill all the residents with or without the ghouls' help.

If it's any consolation (to you, not to the residents), you get to loot the whole building, including safes and locked inventories, and get a lot of caps and other good stuff along with the ghoul mask.

I was a little surprised the ghouls didn't attack Jericho who had no mask. I assumed it was because he was with me. But on the trip through the tunnels to the Citadel (later in the game), I wore the mask and the ghouls still attacked and killed the scientists who were with me, so I had to kill the ghouls.

After Tenpenny, you can head due east along the southern border to get to library on your map. Before going to the library, I did a stop-over at the NukaCola Bottling Plant, but I probably would not do it again in the future. You get the map markers for finding Quantums, but there's only a total of 10. After getting to the library, I fast traveled to Megaton to drop loot, turn in the Robco mission, and get the library mission from Moira, then fast-traveled back to the library to do that mission.

If you don't want to do the library mission, you can lie about it, though I've only had this work once and I have no idea why.

Jericho was a good companion on this trek. The bad part is that you don't get XP for his kills unless you inflicted at least 30% of the damage. The good part is that when walking across the Wasteland, he is a good lookout for enemies and when you hear him shooting, you know to look around. He will kill weak enemies before you can do anything, but that's only a few XP lost. You have time to do your 30% damage against strong enemies and you do get the full XP.

While Jericho won't become your companion unless you have bad karma, which is no problem if you killed all the red-suited aliens on Zeta, he will stay with you even if your karma becomes good or neutral. (The easiest way to restore your karma to neutral+ is to donate 100 caps at a time to Father Clifford at River City.)

Speaking of Rivet City:

When you go to Rivet City, if you do not have Lockpick of 100, you have to swim underwater to the Broken Bow without drowning while fighting the Mirelurks. So I wait until I get my lockpick up.

However, you can't just show up with your bigshot 100 Lockpick. You still have to jump through all the hoops related to the Rivet City history quest and/or the android subquest, including getting someone to tell you about the resident of Broken Bow.

One time despite my best efforts, I couldn't get anyone to tell me that Pinkerton was in the Broken Bow. When I gave up and went home, the next time I was selling loot to Moira, I saw a prompt asking about Pinkerton and that got me in.

Most recently, I made sure that I had the history quest selected and asked a bunch of people about the history. Most of them didn't help with the history, but told me to talk to Bannon and to Vera and both of them referred me to Pinkerton and said he was in the Broken Bow.

Funny side note: When I lockpicked the door and went into Broken Bow with Jericho, no fewer than 3 mirelurks (who could count with all the bodies jammed together) greeted us at the door -- a first in all my millions of playthroughs.