Fallout 3 The Waters of Life

This is Part 7 of our complete Fallout 3 Walkthrough, featuring Fallout 3 The Waters of Life, and Picking Up the Trail.
- Buy the official Fallout 3 Strategy Guide

The Waters of Life
1. After your conversation with your dad ends, its time to leave Vault 112 and fast travel back to Rivet City.
2. Meet up with your father and Doctor Li down in the Science Lab and listen in on their conversation.
3. After it ends, leave Rivet City and head back over to the Jefferson Memorial. Note that if the way to the Jefferson Memorial is still wrought with Super Mutants, you'll need to eliminate them to ensure the scientists have a safe journey.
4. Once you reach the gift shop, speak with your father. He'll tell you to clean out the memorial of all Mutant presence if you hadn't done so already in the Scientific Pursuits quest. Explore all of the gift shop, rotunda, and the sub-basement to make sure that no Super Mutants remain.
5. When the coast is clear, report back to your dad and the scientists will move in to the memorial.
6. Head into the Memorial and look for your dad who is located in the Rotunda. When you find him, ask him what you need to do right now and he'll give you the task of turning on to the power to the Flood Control Pump.
7. Exit the Rotunda and proceed down to the sub-basement. Follow your compass and use the intercoms to help point you in the direction of the power switch. It'll be located on the bottom floor of the sub-basement.
8. Once its activated, return to your father.
9. Talk to him about fuses to get a new objective. You now must place three fuses on a power grid in order to gain access to the mainframe.
10. Once again, head back into the lower floor of the sub-basement and follow your compass to reach the power grid. It's in the northwest corner of the local map.
11. After you place the fuses, head back up to the first floor of the sub-basement and open the large metal door that was previously inaccessible.
12. Press the Mainframe Power Button to boot it up. Then turn to your left and use the intercom to speak with your dad again.
13. Your next errand involves you draining some pipes. This time head back to the Gift Shop and enter the grate leading to Pump Control. You'll find on the other end of the long hallway where you first entered the gift shop.
14. Proceed down the long pipe to the next section where you'll find a valve that you can turn to drain the pipes.
15. This will trigger an event involving Enclave helicopters arriving at the memorial. When the northern grate becomes unlocked, head through and traverse the pipe system until you wind up back at the Sub-Basement.
16. Start making your way back to the Rotunda, but be prepared to meet some resistance from the Enclave soldiers. These guys have much more advanced AI than your average Raider or Super Mutant and will actually take cover and use tactics to bring you down.
17. Once you reach the Rotunda, you'll be forced to put down your weapon and watch helplessly as your dad faces the Enclave.
18. Once the scene ends, leave the Rotunda with Doctor Li and follow her to a hidden passage in the Gift Shop that leads to the Taft Tunnels.
19. Your objective here is to get Doctor Li and fellow scientists through the Ghoul and Enclave infested tunnels to reach the Brotherhood of Steel stronghold.
20. NOTE: You actually don't really have to worry about the scientists. Doctor Li is the only important one, and even if she does happen to lose all of her health, she'll just get knocked unconscious. If you keep Garza alive, it'll trigger a karma based scene later on.
21. Start walking forward into the big area ahead. To your left is a First Aid Kit on the wall that contains a Stimpack. You'll also find some Buffout to the southwest on top of a radioactive barrel.
22. Proceed down the tunnel to the west and enter the doorway on the right.
23. Open the closed door and crouch to remain hidden. You'll probably see an Enclave Soldier or two walk across the balcony above. Let them pass.
24. Once they leave the room, follow the linear path until you come to another tunnel that an Eyebot patrols. Go north and you'll reach a locked door that Doctor Li says she can open if you buy her some time. #Fend off the Enclave soldiers in the room to your left while she works at opening the door. Don't forget to grab the stimpacks in the First Aid Box on the wall to your right.
25. Enter the doorway once it finally opens.
26. Kill the two ghouls at the bottom of the rampway and then make your way to the northern door.
27. Enter the door ahead to trigger a scene if Garza is still alive. Garza has a heart problem and Doctor Li will not proceed until something is done to take care of it. Your options here include giving him 5 stimpacks (good karma reward), convincing Doctor Li or Garza himself that he should be left behind, convincing Doctor Li that all he needs is some Buffout, killing him yourself (Bad karma reward), or simply proceeding without them and then coming back to find that you took too long and Garza is dead.
28. Once the Garza situation is dealt with, proceed through the northern door. At the end of the hall is another door. Its advisable to tell your party of scientists to wait here before opening the door if you're trying to get them all out of this alive.
29. Head through the door and get ready to be ambushed from the balcony behind you by several Enclave Soldiers. Once you've cleared the room, tell your group to follow you again and head up the stairs into a supply room. Search the room for some ammo and then head up the stairs where you'll be met with a few more ghouls.
30. Continue up the stairs until you reach an intersection. Going left will take you to a room where you can find a First Aid Kit with a stimpack or two on the far wall. Going right is where you need to go though.
31. Follow the path, eliminating the ghoul that tries to surprise you once you round the corner, and continue up the stairs to arrive at another tunnel.
32. Make a right and follow the tunnel north to find a large door on your left and a locked door on your right.
33. TIP: Despite having a hard lock to pick, there's nothing terribly interesting in here outside of a bunch of Ghouls and a Glowing One. Still, if you have enough skill in lockpicking, pick the lock to get a nice exp bonus.
34. Enter the large door on your left to be greeted by a Brotherhood of Steel member. Get behind the sandbags and turn around to help fight off the ghouls that emerge from the locked door. You don't really have to do anything as your Brotherhood friend and his turrets are more than enough to defend the room, but try to get some shots in and steal exp.
35. Raid the shelves for ammo and chems before proceeding onwards.
36. When you're ready, follow the tunnel up north and follow the path until you reach a ladder that takes you back to the wasteland
37. You're now at the front door of the Citadel. Walk up to the gate and wait for Doctor Li to arrive so she can plead with the Brotherhood to let her in. Once the door opens, head inside and you'll complete the quest. Quest Completed
- YouTube: Fallout 3 Walkthrough - The Waters of Life (Time 47:17)
Picking up the Trail
1. Head southwest from the gate to reach the door to the Citadel Courtyard.
2. Once inside the courtyard, you'll be privy to a conversation with Elder Lyons and Doctor Li. Listen in and talk to Elder Lyons once its over. You can ask him several things that might be of interest to you, specifically who you can talk to learn how to wear some Power Armor. He'll tell you to find Paladin Gunny who should be wandering around somewhere out here in the courtyard.
3. As always when you enter a new large town, I'd recommend exploring it all yourself. There actually aren't any quests to find here, but for those interested in knowing the background story behind Fallout 3, there is plenty of interesting information to be learned from the people and terminals in the Citadel.
4. TIP: If you have good karma, you can find a follower here by the name of Star Paladin Cross.
5. When you're ready, follow your compass and make your way to the laboratory.
6. Head down the steps and listen in on the conversation between Elder Lyons and Scribe Rothchild. Talk to Rothchild and ask him about the G.E.C.K. He'll say that he does not know where you can find one, but instead gives you access to a Vault-Tec Computer in the A-Ring of the Citadel that might be able to help you out.
7. Return to the courtyard and then head through the northern door to reach the A-Ring.
8. Follow your compass and local map to reach the terminal that Rothchild was talking about.
9. Activate it and select DC Area Vault Listings. Here you'll see information about all of the vaults in the DC area, though most of it has either been classified, corrupted or removed.
10. The vault your interested in is Vault 87. Check its Equipment Issuances and you'll see that it happened to receive a G.E.C.K.
11. With this new information in mind, return to Rothchild. Use your compass to find him if he isn't still in the lab.
12. Tell him that you need to find Vault 87 and he'll lead to you a map that will reveal its location. Unfortunately, he'll also tell you that the vault is surrounded by lethal amounts of radiation.
13. Ask him if there's any other way to get into the vault and he'll tell you that it might be possible to enter the vault from the nearby Lamplight Caverns.
14. Now that you've got your objective and your destination, it's time to head out. Get to the courtyard and fast travel as far west as you can. I'm going to assume that the closest area you have to it is Smith Casey's Garage since you must have discovered it in order to complete the Scientific Pursuits quest.
15. Follow your compass northwest and be ready to deal with Yao Guai's, Radscorpions, and Super Mutants along the way. Eventually you'll reach a cavern with what appear to be holiday lights lines along the wall and the location Little Lamplight will be added to your map.
16. Enter the door to Lamplight Caverns and follow the path down to reach a gate made up of sheet metal and cardboard nailed together.
17. Approach the gate to be greeted by the foul mouthed brat Mayor Macready. Ask him if you can come in and you'll be presented with two choices. If you use your speech skill to get him to let you in on account of you being a really nice guy, you'll be able to skip the next quest and head straight through Little Lamplight to Vault 87.
18. If you don't succeed with your speech skills, you'll have to undergo a new quest before you can continue this one. Ask him how you can gain his trust and you'll begin the quest Rescue From Paradise.
19. IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to keep the format of this walkthrough, this particular section will continue to detail the quest Picking Up the Trail. Meaning if you failed to convince MacCready to let you in, you'll need to skip to the next quest in this walkthrough, complete it, and then come back to this point to pick up where this quest left off.
20. Once you get inside, talk to Mayor MacCready once again. Tell him that you're not here to start any trouble and then ask him how to get to Vault 87. He'll tell you that you'll have to go through Murder Pass. If you ask him if there's another way, he'll mention a door that hasn't worked since he's been there. If you've got the skills in science, you can make this door work and skip Murder Pass all together. But we'll get to that later.
21. Tell MacCready that you want to use Murder Pass to get to Vault 87 and he'll make his way over there to open the gate.
22. While he's doing that, as always, you should take some time to explore the town, talk to the locals, repair your equipment and stock up on supplies.
23. Once you're ready, you should decide whether you want to go through Murder Pass or through the broken door.
24. Murder Pass is a tough cavern that is filled with all varieties of Super Mutants with lots of heavy weaponry. Good for experience, bad for ammo and stimpack conservation.
25. Using the broken door will allow you to skip right to the next quest, but you need enough science points to hack an average computer terminal.
26. If you want to use the broken door, find Joseph and tell him that you're trying to get to Vault 87 and want him to power up the terminal. Follow him into the area called "Nothin" and hack into the terminal next to the door. Once you've hacked the terminal, simply unlock the door through the computer and head on in. Quest Completed
27. If you want to (or have to) head through Murder Pass, travel to the souvenir shop and go behind it to reach a winding path that will take you to the Murder Pass gate. Head through the door and get ready for a tough battle.
28. Proceed forward and you'll quickly be faced with a choice: left or straight. Going left leads to an extremely tough battle against lots of Super Mutants with an assortment of dangerous weaponry. I'd recommend passing it up for now since you'll be able to attack them from behind a bit later.
29. Continue going straight until you reach an open area with a shack on the right side. Neutralize the Super Mutant threat in the area and then investigate the shack and the toilet behind the shack to find a Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vender skillbook along with several ammo boxes.
30. Continue traveling through the cavern, past the broken gate and flaming barrel until you reach another flaming barrel. Going down the left path will put you back in the battle you passed up earlier, so if you still want to get in on the blood shed, here's your chance. It's actually safer this way because you're out of the range of the Super Mutant with the Missile Launcher and have better shots at the rest of the Super Mutants.
31. Once the battle is over, be sure to raid the many ammo boxes and First Aid Kits here for plenty of ammo and stimpacks. There is also a US Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes skill book to be found. When you're ready, return to the flaming barrel and this time head north.
32. Be ready to deal with a Super Mutant Master coming up. Thankfully it's only one.
33. When you reach the next junction, head down the right path as the left one doesn't really have anything of interest and is booby trapped.
34. When you reach the next open area, be on the look out for a trap on the ramp to your left that will drop a grenade bouquet. If you have the repair skill, you can disarm the trip wire and if you have the explosives skills you can disarm and take the frag grenades.
35. Head through the gate and be ready to deal with a Super Sledgehammer wielding Super Mutant Master. Try to keep your distance or drop some mines in preparation.
36. You're almost there! Follow the linear path to reach the door leading to the Reactor Chamber.
37. Continue heading forward and you'll eventually reach the door leading to Vault 87, completing the quest. Quest Completed
38. NOTE: The next quest is Finding the Garden of Eden.
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