This topic will obviously contain spoilers. Just a fair warning.




Hello my fellow Wastelanders!
In this topic I'd like to tell you about my playthrough and also have some questions regarding story-choices.

My basic party looks like this:

Level 17 Sniper/repair dude
5 available skill points
Skill levels:
6 Sniper Rifles
5 Weaponsmithing
5 Alarm Disarming
4 Mechanical Repair
4 Toaster Repair

Level 18 Utility guy (high charisma)
8 available skill points
Skill levels:
5 Lockpicking
5 Kiss Ass
4 Safecracking
4 Smart Ass
3 Handguns
3 Leadership
He sucks at combat. :D

Level 18 Mule/strong guy (high strength)
4 available skill points
Skill levels:
8 Perception
6 Demolitions
4 Brute Force
3 Shotguns

Level 17 Medic/assault rifle expert
7 available skill points
Skill levels:
7 Assault Rifles
6 Field Medic
5 Outdoorsman
2 Surgeon

I just entered "Canyon of Titan" and Angela Deth left my party. Before that happened I did all of the following:
1. Radio Tower: cleared all caves except the one with the badgers (did that later on); used Smart Ass to get past the raiders; got all clues/evidence
2. Got the distress calls after leaving the area. First call was from AG Center so I went there.
3. AG Center: got Rose as a party member and kept her; cleared and completed the whole complex; repaired the antenna
4. Highpool: got the broken stuff from the radio antenna; cleared and completed what was left of Highpool
5. Infected Village: cured and cleared
6. Infected Farm: cured and cleared
7. Infected Pump Station: cured and cleared
8. Wrecking Crew Camp: cleared
9. Prison Valley: got all quests; left the dying woman alone; repaired some stuff here and there; killed all enemies (I didn't pay the tax *cough*); freed the women without triggering the alarm; went to Red and got the information
10. Prison: cleared the mine field for XP; left everything else untouched
11. Radio Tower: went to the honey badger cave and cleared it; killed the robots
12. Ranger Citadel: my first visit since the beginning of the game; traded some stuff for the museum; got Rick out of prison
13. Ricks RV: didn't let Rick escape; got the radiation suits; brought Rick back to the prison cell
14. Explored the map; found some shrines and caches
15. Leve L'Upe Mine: cleared and completed; got Takayuki for my party but I don't like his skills so I left him in Ranger Citadel
16. Abandoned Railway: found it on my map and cleared it; damn slicer dicers!
17. Rail Nomads Camp: helped Ralphy and kept him in my party for a few minutes; got rid off all explosives in the area; got all quests; killed all enemies; negotiated a peaceful solution for the conflict between Topekans and Atchinsons; got information about Ace from Sam; got distillery quest in the bar; got Chisel for my party but sent him to Ranger Citadel; got Scotchmo and kept him
18. Gorkinovich's Distillery: Scotchmo solved the conflict peacefully; killed all honey badgers
19. Prison: had some unfinished business back here; killed all enemies in the cave, on the farm (after saving the pigs) and in between; can't get to the main building yet
20. Canyon of Titan: finally doing the main quest again *cough*; Angela Deth left; helped the ranchers

These steps should cover most of what I did in 30-40 hours (yes, I'm slow). I left out some visits to the Ranger Citadel because I just went back to sell stuff and get more ammo or better weapons.
My current additional party members are Rose (who is my computer science expert and surgeon), Scotchmo (just for his dialog :D) and Ralphy (for no apparent reason). I'm playing on "Seasoned" difficulty since the beginning.

I have questions regarding step 19 and 20:
(19.) When will I be able to get to the prison itself? I've read that there will be a radio call as soon as I leave Damonta. Supposedly Danforth will accuse me of poisoning his dogs. Is that true? Will it happen?

(20.) Which faction shall I help in Canyon of Titan? I met the shadowy figure in the beginning and he's telling me about the DBM and how bad the Mad Monks really are (and I also think they are quite crazy). I know there is no wrong or right choice. I'd like to know what you personally did though and what influenced your decision. :)

You are of course also free to ask questions if you have any. :)

Wow, I'm on my sixth run and have never finished Arizona. This latest run is the one I think I'm going to roll through to the end with. The interesting thing is I'm also just entering the CoT (never reached that far before) and I've done everything exectly the way you did with only a couple of exceptions:

1)I took Chisel in the party after Angela left
2) I went up to Darwin and recruited Pizepi
3) I let Rick go (my Rangers promised, so they kept their word)
4) I'm playing on Ranger difficulty

As for your questions, I don't know the answers, but I've also read that you get into the prison after doing CoT. I've also read that some people blasted their way in by blowing the turrets with rocketry. Not sure how they accomplished that though.

For my party, I threw conventional wisdom out the window and went with 8 INT on 3 of my Rangers, with 10 INT on the fourth (I love skills).

In regards to your questions - yes you’ll get a call about prison troubles. I see no black and white difference between the factions. The monks are bonkers. On the surface Diamondback Militia appear to have the same professionalism and ideals as the rangers but lack basic compassion. I wasn't comfortable with leaving either in charge of an active nuclear warhead. These are the options and their outcomes as far as I'm aware, so SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

1. Help the monks, region explodes because of a spy.
2. Help the Diamondbacks, region stable, everyone at your base thinks you’re nuts for giving them a nuke.
3. Help the monks but disarm the nuke. Region descends into chaos.
4. Help the Diamondbacks but disarm the nuke. Region stable, Diamondbacks won’t attack but tell you to get the hell out.

Yeah, like I said, I threw conventional wisdom out the window. And I have to say that so far I'm really pleased. I have a ton of skills at decent levels on all my characters, and I'm liking my team a lot. Might be different if/when I hit California, but so far I see no downsides to 8 INT.

4 looks like the best solution for me. At least it's not a purely black/white choice either way. I have another question for you guys:
Who do you like to recruit and keep with you? (or do you play without additional party members?)

For my first playthrough I decided to ignore the Diamondbacks, agreed to help the monks but then had a change of heart at Silo 7, where I disarmed the nuke. My thoughts were might as well disarm the monks nuke now but upon my return they were pretty much all dead and I found Diamonbacks and Raiders killing each other (but mostly Raiders in the area). While unsuccesfully tryin to get into the temple I learned from a NPC that their old nuke was a fake anyway so I didn't bother trying to get in any longer, saved it for the next playthrough. So yeah the whole area is pretty much a mess now but would be easy to take if Vargas decided to branch out ^^

I recruited Vulture's Cry, Lexicanum (love that name) and that Monk I found hanging around the Temple area after I disarmed the bomb. I didn't really need the last two but I think they're fun to have in the party and is always nice to carry more stuff

Edit: In case you haven't heard, you should totally punch in "Joshua" at that terminal in Silo 7, funny WarGames easter egg

I rolled with Angela, Pipezi, and Rose up to the Canyon of Titan. After Angela left, I replaced her with Chisel, but he'll get the boot if I run into someone I like better (I'm thinking it's likely going to be Lexicanium). But Pipezi and Rose are pretty much carved in stone for me.

Thanks for your input. :)
Many recruits appear lackluster to me. They either have the wrong skills or bad attributes (less than 4 INT seems to be a common problem). Rose is my favorite right now with good skills and maximum INT. She's not the best in combat but that's her only downside. Scotchmo is simply hilarious with his random dialogs and how he helped to solve the problem at the distillery.
I also thought the departure of Angela Deth was very artificial. Vargas just mentions some vague mission she's about to get assigned to and even Angela is not very happy about it. I knew about the situation before but what would first-time players do who didn't read about this? It might screw their whole party if they relied on her too much in combat.

In one of my earlier parties I took Scotchmo for quite a long time. I found him very amusing. Unfortunately, I've found little use for close-in combat, as the way the game is set up now AR are pretty much the most powerful weapons in the game. Sniper Rifles are okay as well, so I specced Rose up for one of those and she's quite decent in combat, even if she doesn't get as many shots off as the AR users. I both agree and disagree. I see what you mean with the 'artificial' comment, although I don't think I'd use that term to describe it. I think it rings a bit... disingenuous? It could definitely have had some better build-up without making it too obvious that she would leave.

As for new players, by the time she does leave, they should be leveled and equipped well enough that they're not too handicapped by her departure. As well, they should have found a few companions that can fill the empty slot (admittedly none of them are as good as she). The biggest void to fill would probably be a skill or two (likely Weaponsmithing).

- To get into the Prison, you'll need to finish Damonta. To tell you anymore on the subject would be injecting spoilers :)

- Whichever faction you feel like it. I can tell you all the outcomes suck which makes it good, too many happy endings makes things dull. I personally defused the nuke, I didn't like the DBM even though I wanted the NPC that siding with DBM gives. I liked the monks, the leader is actually a good person who wants to keep the peace. That said defusing the nuke is probably the worst ending for the area.

I defused the nuke as well. I figured even though it may not be the 'best' ending, it's the one that makes the most sense. Since we're Rangers, having a faction other than the Desert Rangers in control of a live nuke is just asking for future problems on a colossal scale.