This is Part 6 of our complete Fallout 3 Walkthrough, featuring Fallout 3 Scientific Pursuits and Tranquility Lane.

Fallout 3 was released in North America on March 28, 2008. This is the third installment of the action and role playing game series, with a fourth planned for release late 2010. The game takes place in 2277, 36 years after Fallout 2. The goal of the game is to find your character's father who has gone missing in the nuclear apocalypse. This journey is made difficult by enemies encountered along the way.

The official Fallout 3 Strategy Guide is available for purchase from Amazon.

1. You'll learn from Three Dog that when your Dad left Galaxy News Radio, he said that he was heading to Rivet City to visit Doctor Li.
2. Bring up your Pip Boy and check your world map. Rivet City is located all the way in the southeast corner of the map. It may seem like a long trip, but there's actually an easy shortcut. Fast travel over to the Museum of Technology.
3. TIP: Before heading out, you should check out the Museum of History that lies a small ways northwest of the Museum of Technology. Here you'll find Underworld, the City of Ghouls. Spend some time getting to know its citizens and pick up the Reily's Rangers and You Gotta Shoot Them in the Head sidequests.
4. Once you're at the Museum of Technology, turn west towards the Washington Monument and enter the Museum Metro Station entrance. The same one you took to get to the Museum of Technology during the last quest.
5. Follow the path to the tracks and turn to the left when you reach the bridge. Your destination is the Anacostia Crossing, so head into the tunnel that reads "Southbound Anacostia Crossing".
6. Follow the tunnel all the way down until you reach a door on the left side that will take you to a small room with another door leading to Anacostia Crossing Station.
7. Enter the door and follow the tunnel westwards. When you reach an opening on the right side, you'll find two raiders guarding a rest spot. Kill them, take the stimpack on the table, and use the mattresses if you wish to regain health.
8. Continue following the tunnel west until you reach the station. Clean up any Raiders on the ground floor and then go upstairs to eliminate the rest. At the north end of the station you'll find several useful items including Mentats, Buffout, and a Pugilism Illustrated skill book.
9. Head west and follow the path all the way to the exit gates to the Capital Wasteland.
10. Head up the escalators and you'll likely find three Talon Mercenaries to your right. They will initially be neutral towards you, but if you approach them you'll learn that there is a bounty on your head and that they're here to collect. These guys are tough, so make sure you're properly prepared to deal with them. You might want to lay some mines down while they're still neutral towards you.
11. Once they're dead, you can relax as you're right at the front doorstep of Rivet City. Walk south and travel up the ramps to reach the top of the metal structure. Press the intercom button to get them to extend the bridge.
12. You'll be stopped by the guard Harkness, who asks you to state your business in Rivet City. Tell him that you're coming to see Doctor Li or that you're coming to see your father who was coming to see Doctor Li. He'll let you pass, allowing you to enter the city.
13. Enter through the marketplace entrance and feel free to explore all that the city has to offer.
14. TIP: If you've been keeping up on side quests, there are a couple of quests you can start, continue, or complete here. Vera Weatherly can give Bryan Wilks a home for the end of the quest "Those!", you'll find one of your targets for the quest "You Gotta Shoot Them in the Head", you can start or complete "The Replicated Man" quest depending on whether you picked it up already or not, and you can start the quest "Stealing Independence" by talking to Abraham Washington in the Capitol Preservation Society room.
15. After exploring, you need to eventually arrive at the Science Lab, so follow the signs to reach it.
16. Head down to the bottom level of the Science Lab and talk to Doctor Li. Ask her where your father went and she'll point you in the direction of the Jefferson Memorial. You've got your next destination, so finish your business here in Rivet City and head back outside through the same way you came in.
17. TIP: There is an Intelligence Bobblehead on the desk in the science lab. Be sure to pick it up before you leave for permanent boost to your intelligence.
18. Thankfully, the Jefferson Memorial isn't all that far from Rivet City. Head across the bridge and start heading west.
19. You'll run into a Super Mutant camp where you'll have a brute sniping you from above with a Minigun. If you have the proficiency in Small Guns, take him out from long range and then head inside to clean up the remaining mutants. If you head up to where the Super Mutant Brute was sniping you with the minigun, you'll find a wasteland captive. Save her for karma along with several supplies that she managed to sneak away from her captors or you could always kill her and loot her corpse for the same result, but opposite karma reaction.
20. You'll also find some first aid boxes, gore bags and ammo boxes that will help you be better prepared for the Jefferson Memorial.
21. Once you're done cleaning up the camp, continue traveling west and proceed up the rampway that surrounds the memorial.
22. Follow the path to the end, taking care of all of the Super Mutants that line it. Once you reach the end, turn and face east to find the door leading to the gift shop.
23. Head down the tunnel and make a right at the intersection. Be prepared to deal with a turret on the ceiling along with several Super Mutants.
24. TIP: If you have 50 points in Science, you can deactivate the turret instead of blowing it up.
25. Follow the signs and make your way to the Rotunda.
26. There are two Super Mutants here with melee weapons guarding the Rotunda. Once they're done, go up the stairs and pick up the three holotapes on top of the filtration unit. Listen to them for some interesting data regarding your father's research and whereabouts.
27. You'll learn that your dad has headed to vault 112, so that's your next destination. Leave the memorial and fast travel to the furthest western location you have. If you haven't explored westward much, you could just start at Vault 101.
28. Keep heading westward until you reach Smith Casey's Garage. Enter the door and eliminate all the Mole Rats and Radroaches inside.
29. Head down the stairs until you reach the door that leads to Vault 112.
30. Once inside, you'll have to talk to the Robobrain who will give you your Vault 112 Jumpsuit. Put it on, and then proceed inside the vault.
31. Look for the clinic, where you'll find several Tranquility Loungers. Locate the unoccupied one that isn't broken, and strap in to complete the quest. Quest Completed

• YouTube: Fallout 3 Walkthrough - Scientific Pursuits (Time 48:03)

1. As soon as you awaken in Tranquility Lane, you'll notice several strange things. The world has taken on a sepia tone, your Pip-Boy 3000 has turned into a Pip-Boy wrist watch, and you've taken on the identity of a small child.
2. You can take your time talking to all of the townspeople, but with the exception of Betty and Old Lady Dithers, they'll all basically give you the same kind of responses.
3. There are two ways out of Tranquility Lane, and as you may have guessed, both have different karma consequences.
4. If you're aiming to maintain good karma, then you should ignore Betty all together and seek out Old Lady Dithers. She'll tell you that none of this is real and will plead with you to free all of them from their suffering by deactivating the failsafe hidden in the abandoned house.

• YouTube: Fallout 3 Vault 112 Tranquility Lane Part 1 (Time 6:55)

• YouTube:Fallout 3 Vault 112 Tranquility Lane Part 2 (Time 8:54)

1. Completing this quest with good karma as the reward is actually really easy. Enter the abandoned house and examine all of the objects in the living room. You need to examine these objects in a specific order to make the computer appear. You can experiment yourself to figure out the sequence, or you can just look at the next step to find out the answer.

2. TIP: The correct sequence is: Radio, pitcher, gnome, pitcher, cinder block, gnome, bottle.

3. Once you enter the correct sequence, a computer mainframe will appear to your right. Examine it to learn all about Tranquility Lane, Dr. Braun, and what the consequences are of activating the failsafe. Once you're all read up, select the "Activate the Chinese Invasion Program" option and head outside.

4. A squad of Chinese soldiers will raid the town, killing all of its residents for good. It may seem like this is actually an evil thing to do, but remember that if you didn't do this, they'd be forced to endlessly repeat the cycle of living and dying at the will of Dr. Braun.

5. Talk to Betty to listen to her whine and cry about how you've ruined everything. Once you're done talking with her, use the door to exit the simulation.

6. Once the door of the lounger opens, you'll finally be able to reunite with your father. Talk with him to complete the quest. Quest Completed.

1. Going the evil route takes a lot more time and effort, but at the same time is much more satisfying for those who love to do evil deeds.
2. Instead of going to the abandoned house, talk to Betty at the playground in the middle of the street. She has several games lined up for you that you must complete before she'll let you out.
3. The first game is simple. Make Timmy Neusbaum cry. There are two main ways to do this. You could simply walk up to the kid at his house or his lemonade stand and beat the crap out of him until he starts crying or you can use your speech skill to tell him that his parents are getting divorced.
4. Once the poor little kid is shedding tears, report back to Betty. In return, she'll answer one question that you give her truthfully.
5. You next "game" involves breaking up the marriage of the Rockwells. Once again, there are two ways to do this. The easy way is just to walk up to Janet and use your speech skill to tell her that you saw her husband kissing another woman.
6. The other way is to head into the Simpson residence, head upstairs, pick the lacy underwear off of the bed, head into the Rockwell basement, plant the underwear in the desk, and then inform Janet about it.
7. Once again, report back to Betty when finished.
8. Your next game is much more devious. Betty wants you to kill Mabel Henderson in a creative fashion. This means you can't just walk up to her and beat her to death with a rolling pin. Luckily there are plenty of tools of destruction lying in the Henderson household.
9. The most effective way to kill Mabel is to examine her oven and mess with the pilot light. This will fill the kitchen up with gas. You can then ask Mabel to bake you one of her delicious pies. This will cause her to immediately head back into her house, turn on the oven, and... well you know the rest.
10. Other ways to kill her include examining her chandelier which will cause it to fall on her when she gets close, activating the roller-skate on the second floor so that she steps on it and tumbles down the stairs, and activating the terminal in the kitchen to turn on Mister Handy's security system and deactivate its security screening so that it kills anyone it comes into contact with. Note that if you choose to use the robot, it will kill you too so make sure to stay out of site while you wait for Mabel to enter the house.
11. Return to Betty for your final game. This time she wants you to get the Slasher Knife and the Pint Sized Slasher Mask from the dog house near the abandoned house and go on a killing rampage.
12. Once you don the outfit, hunt down and kill every resident of Tranquility Lane except for Doc and Betty. They don't put up any resistance so the only real challenge involved is finding all of them.
13. After Tranquility Lane has been reduced to a ghost town, return to Betty who will finally let you out of the simulation. Exit through the door to return to reality.
14. Once you're back in Vault 112, talk to your dad to complete the quest. Quest Completed

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• Basics
  • V.A.T.S
  • S.P.E.C.I.A.L
  • Karma
  • Skills
  • Compass
  • Fast Traveling
• General Tips
  • Character Creation Tips
  • Radiation
  • Lockpicking
  • Hacking
  • Repairing
  • Looting
  • Sneaking
  • Chems
• Main Quest
  • The Beginning
  • Baby Steps
  • Growing Up Fast
  • Future Imperfect
  • Escape
  • Following in His Footsteps
  • Galaxy News Radio
  • Scientific Pursuits
  • Tranquility Lane
  • The Waters of Life
  • Picking up the Trail
  • Rescue From Paradise
  • Finding the Garden of Eden
  • The American Dream
  • Take It Back
• Sidequests
  • The Power of the Atom
  • Blood Ties
  • Those!
  • The Wasteland Survival Guide
    • -The Wasteland Survival Guide - Chapter 1
    • -The Wasteland Survival Guide - Chapter 2
    • -The Wasteland Survival Guide - Chapter 3
  • Big Trouble in Big Town
  • The Superhuman Gambit
  • The Nuka Cola Challenge
  • Head of State
  • The Replicated Man
  • Oasis
  • Tenpenny Tower
  • Strictly Business
  • You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head
  • Stealing Independence
  • Trouble on the Homefront
  • Agatha's Song
  • Reilly's Rangers
• Wasteland Secrets
  • Dogmeat
  • Followers
  • Alien Ship
• Characters and Sidequests