SYBEX Online Update

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of

Steel
Sybex Official Strategies & Secrets
Michael Rymaszewski

Online Update Part II

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel: 2001 Interplay Entertainment Corp. All rights reserved. Interplay, the Interplay logo, By
Gamers for Gamers, 14-Degrees East, the 14-Degrees East logo, Fallout, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel are trademarks
of Interplay Entertainment Corp. All rights reserved. Micro Forte and the Micro Forte logo are trademarks of Micro Forte Pty Ltd. All
other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.
Copyright 2001 SYBEX Inc., 1151 Marina Village Parkway, Alameda, CA 94501. World rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or reproduced in any way, including but not limited to photocopy, photograph,
magnetic or other record, without the prior agreement and written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 0-7821-2888-2
SYBEX and the SYBEX logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of SYBEX Inc. in the USA and other countries.
TRADEMARKS: Sybex has attempted throughout this book to distinguish proprietary trademarks from descriptive terms by following
the capitalization style used by the manufacturer. Copyrights and trademarks of all products and services listed or described herein
are property of their respective owners and companies. All rules and laws pertaining to said copyrights and trademarks are inferred.
This document may contain images, text, trademarks, logos, and/or other material owned by third parties. All rights reserved. Such
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The author and publisher have made their best efforts to prepare this book and any related online material, and the content is based
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merchantability, fitness for any particular purpose, or any losses or damages of any kind caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly from this book.

FALLOUT TACTICS: SYBEX OFFICIAL

STRATEGIES & SECRETS ONLINE UPDATE:
PART II
This is the second of four parts of the online update to Fallout Tactics:
Sybex Official Strategies & Secrets. Part onea .PDF featuring images for
various gear from the gamewas posted recently. Parts three and four will
be posted on this site over the next few weeks. All four sections are
intended to supplement the printed guide. A number of omissions have
been corrected and changes introduced in version 1.25 of the game have
been taken into account. A full list of all the differences made to Fallout
Tactics by the 1.25 patch may be read at the official website:
www.interplay.com/falloutbos/.
Parts two through four of the update specifically address the
following:
Part II (this part) discusses pre-game and gameplay issues
(including exploration and the resulting encounters) in the
context of the Alpha Bunker campaign. It focuses on long-term
goals related to player character development, squad progress,
equipment acquisition, and mission timing. Part II also corrects
or expands upon selected statements made in Chapters 1, 2, and 5
of the printed guide, and provides information on changes
brought about by the version 1.25 patch.
Part III will discuss the Beta, Gamma, and Delta Bunker
campaigns in the manner described above. It will further correct
or expand on statements made in Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of the
printed guide.
Part IV will deal with the Epsilon Bunker campaign, and correct
or expand upon statements made in Chapters 3, 4, and 9 of the
printed guide. It will also offer a summary of special encounters
featured in the game.
For the benefit of new Fallout players, each part of the update will
also discuss selected in-game tactics. As stated repeatedly in the printed
guide, there are as many ways of playing Fallout Tactics as there are
Fallout Tactics players. However, this very flexibility may add to the
confusion often felt by newcomers to the ever-growing world of computer
games.

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Starting a New Game, Version 1.25

The 1.25 Fallout Tactics patch introduces several changes that have a
significant bearing on the choices you make when starting a new campaign:
1. The game as a whole runs better. This means that you may be able
to run the game at 1024768 resolution, even if you couldnt do
it earlier. This is practically a prerequisite if you choose to play
in continuous turn based mode.
2. The Tough Guy option now rewards you with double the
experience points versus the Normal mode. Previously (version
1.13), Tough Guy mode was supposed to increase experience
points by just 30%. This huge increase in the rewards of going
through the game as a Tough Guy makes it the recommended
mode for playing Fallout Tactics.
3. The recruitment pool is vastly improved in terms of both quantity
and quality. Sadly, this makes many of the character recruitment
statements made in the printed guide invalid. This is also one
more argument in favor of choosing the Tough Guy mode, since
dead squad members are easier to replace.
4. Improvements in the AI have resulted in making turn-based play
much more of a challenge. Some AI improvement is also
noticeable when playing in continuous turn based mode.
Some players may experience difficulties downloading the 1.25
patch because of its significant size (12.8 MB). You should persist,
however, because the new patch makes Fallout Tactics a better game. Its
well worth the trouble, no matter how slow your Internet connection may
be.

The Alpha Bunker

The three Alpha Bunker missions are meant to hone you and your squad
into an effective fighting machine. They stress the need to develop
everyones Small Guns skill to at least 110%, and the Sneak skill to at least
24% (60% or more for Sneak specialists). Your own character should reach
level 5 by the end of this campaign phase, and level 6 or 7 if playing in
Tough Guy mode. Its highly recommended that everyone in your squad is

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at level 4 or better before tackling the Rock Falls mission that closes out the
Alpha Bunker campaign.
Version 1.25 introduces a couple of meaningful changes to this
phase of your fight for the Brotherhood of Steel. Youll receive lots of
Stimpaks upon starting a new campaign, and more healing items will
generally be found during all missions. This is yet another incentive to
tackle the game in the Tough Guy mode, even if that means moving down a
notch in difficulty level. The game is a lot more fun when the speed at
which you pick up experience points is increased by 100%. It also opens up
interesting Perk possibilities with which to further develop and enhance
your character. Youll certainly end up earning a couple of more Perks this
way than you would if you were playing in Normal mode.
Youll also be able to choose from a bigger pool of recruits. All
recruits will also have new tag skills and optional traits, where in the
original release, they had no optional traits at all.

Planning to Fight
While youre dropped right into the first mission when the game begins,
you can choose the timing of the remaining two missions. The optimum
moment for staging a mission varies with both the difficulty level of the
game and whether youve chosen to play in the Tough Guy mode.
However, its usually best to take on the mission to Freeport (the second
expedition in the game) only after your character reaches level 3, and Rock
Falls when he or she reaches level 4 or even 5 (and likely 6 in Tough Guy
mode). This means that a little exploring should be in your itinerary
between each mission (see below for more).
Remember to pick the right time to start each mission, as
recommended in the guideit may make the difference between success
and failure. Continue travelling back and forth over the green target area
until the world map clock moves around to the time that you want.
! Always keep in mind that time flows quickly once you begin
a mission, and that missions take a long time in reality as
well as in the game. Trying to hurry through to the final goal
is always a mistake, even when youre playing at lower
difficulty levels.

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Explorationv1.13 vs. v1.25

In the original release (version 1.13) of the game, exploration is rich in
random and special encounters. You may have as many as half-a-dozen
encounters while travelling across a single world map tileparticularly if
you have a fast computer. Version 1.25 changed this by eliminating a bug
that linked a computers frame rate to the frequency of random encounters.
This makes such encounters much more rare. If youre playing on an
average computer (a PIII 600 or thereabouts), you can expect to have
roughly five times fewer encounters with version 1.25 than you did with the
original version of the game.
This change makes it possible to wander far from the Alpha Bunker.
In the original 1.13 release, the frequent random encounters ate away your
ammo supply and didnt allow such long-distance travel. Going on lengthy
explorations is still not recommended, though, as the following section
makes clear.

Exploring from Alpha Bunker

The amount of exploration that can be safely done from Alpha Bunker is
very limited. This is largely due to your pedestrian status in the beginning
of the game (which doesnt last, thankfully; the later acquisition of vehicles
greatly increases speed and safety for your team). The wise thing to do is to
explore only as much as is needed to gain the next experience levelif
there are fewer than a thousand points separating you from that level.
When exploring from Alpha Bunker, limit yourself to four world
map tiles east, three tiles south, five tiles west, and five tiles north. Go any
further, and you may run into enemies that your newbie squad wont be
able to handle. Remember that the number one rule of exploration is gain
without pain. You shouldnt lose any squad members, use up ammo to the
point where you have to buy more for your next mission, or use any of your
healing supplies (this isnt always possible at higher difficulty levels).
! The unknown always beckons strongly, but wait for your
first vehicle before beginning to explore in earnest. Having
wheels makes a tremendous difference that has to be
experienced to be fully appreciated.

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Types of Random Encounters

All random encounters fall into two categories:
Friendly Encounters: Unfortunately, civilians and Tribals are
the only characters who fall into this category. These friendlies
show up as green circles on the tactical mini-map. You shouldnt
kill any if you want to maintain your Reputation (remember that
Reputation greatly influences barter rates).
Hostile Encounters: These encounters sometimes also include
friendlies, who will act as your allies during the upcoming
battles. For example, during your journeys youre sure to
encounter Tribals fighting Radscorpions.
You may come across multiple hostiles or hostile and friendly
groups in a single random encounter. These adversaries will always be
fighting each other (although they occasionally havent seen each other by
the time you arrive on the scene). You should quickly identify the more
dangerous group of enemies and target it first. Any hostiles surviving will
subsequently turn on you and your squad.
Here is a list of foes you can expect to encounter when exploring the
recommended area around Alpha Bunker:
1. Tribals: Dont kill them yourself, but always search their corpses
if someone else has done the dirty work for you. While the
primitive melee weaponry that Tribals carry isnt worth much, a
Voodoo or two worth good coin can be found from time to time.
2. Civilians: The friendly civilians encountered randomly
throughout the game never have anything on them, whether you
come upon them alive or dead. One exception is civilians that are
labeled Citizensyou can get some pretty good equipment off of
them.
3. Radscorpions: The most common hostiles, youll even see
groups of Radscorpions fighting each other. Radscorpions make
dangerous adversaries because of their tough carapaces, which
act as armor and greatly reduce damage. They are also capable of
dangerous poison attacks. Keep in mind that 9mm ball ammo has
little effect on these enemies, and that 7.62mm ammo isnt much
better. Red 12 gauge shotgun shells are the best Radscorpion
ammo at this early point in the game, but there isnt much of it
available. Fortunately, since Radscorpions are slow, you can
always stand up and run away.

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4. Dogs: These nasty canines are fast, but not very dangerous. 9mm
ammo works very well against them, even in single shot mode.
5. Wolves: Fidos bigger brothers are more dangerous, but not by
much. 9mm ball ammo works here, too.
6. Brahmin: Fallout Tactics take on cattle have more hit points
than dogs or a wolves, and move quite fast when running. Still,
Brahmin are very vulnerable, particularly from weapons firing
9mm ball ammo in burst mode.
7. Small Cockroaches: These bugs present negligible danger to
your squad and are vulnerable to all varieties of ammo.
8. Big Cockroaches: Quite dangerous even to the well-equipped
Brotherhood squad, these giant bugs have many hit points and a
ranged poison attack. Use 7.62 ammo and hunting rifles against
them and dont get within spitting range!
9. Komodo Dragons: These creatures are moderately dangerous,
due to both their poisonous short-range spit attacks as well as
their melee combat abilities. Use weapons that fire 7.62mm
ammunition to kill them at a comfortable range.
10. Raiders: As the only opponents to have any loot on them in the
early stage of your campaign, Raiders are worth engaging. The
size of their groups varies greatly (from four to 10), and as a rule
of thumb, the farther you wander, the greater their number. Some
groups of Raiders are armed solely with melee weapons (brass
knuckles, clubs, spears), and Beretta pistol/switchblade combos
are common. Others may have hunting rifles or AK47sand
you may even run into a group of five Raiders all armed with
assault rifles. Use hunting rifles to snipe at them from long range
and switch to shotguns if they move in for close-quarters combat.
9mm ball ammo isnt very effective against them.
" Dont count on finding meaningful quantities of ammunition
on dead Raiders. They frequently wont have anything at
all, and the most youll find is 50 rounds of 7.62mm ammo
(and thats only if the Raider in question has an AK47 and
hasnt managed to fire a single shot).

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Random Encounter Tactics

Every random encounter begins with your squad standing in a circle right in
the middle of the battlefield. Your first priority is to make everyone crouch
while you determine what kind of encounter this isfriendly or hostile.
# Keep everyone on Defensive Sentry mode while travelling.
This will ensure that nobody opens fire too early at the
beginning of a random encounter. Also, have everyone
carry a hunting rifle as the default (ready to use) weapon.
Fill the other weapon slot with a powerful short-range
weapon, such as a submachine gun, a shotgun, or a Colt
.45. Save your valuable .44 magnum revolver ammo for
later!
If the encounter proves hostile, your next priority is to arrange your
squad in a sound tactical formation. The best is an echelon or staggered line
(see Figure 1). This formation minimizes the chances of being hit by
friendly fire while providing mutual covering fire. Ideally, the ends of the
line should be under cover from barriers such as rock formations, but in
practice its very difficult to move everyone into an echelon formation and
simultaneously arrange it so that the staggered line runs exactly between
two barriers. When all squad members are in place, hit the Aggressive
Sentry key. Of course, you should hit it even earlier if youve been noticed
and are under attack.
Every random encounter is time-sensitive. You have to hurry even
when your squad is safe, as when the encounter features two groups of
hostiles fighting each other. This is because youll only get experience
points for the enemies that your squad actually kills. If you wait until two
groups of Radscorpions batter each other to death and then gun down the
survivor, youll get experience points for killing just a single Radscorpion.

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Figure 1: Arranging soldiers in an echelon formation is a

safe move when youre on foot.
Try to avoid shifting the whole squad. Its much better to have a
single soldier run out, take a couple of shots at a distant enemy, and entice
the hostiles into an ambush by leading them right in front of your waiting
echelon line. If you do need to move your entire squad, move it in
formation (toggle with the F key); otherwise, your soldiers will bunch up
and hit each other when they open fire. Hit the Backspace key to instantly
stop all movement.
" Dont switch to weapons firing 9mm ball ammo unless
youre sure that its safe to do so. Rely on 7.62mm
ammunition throughout this stage of the campaign.
Avoid fighting at short range. Instead, order any soldier exposed to a
melee attack to backpedal as soon as possible. After the firefight, wait a bit
to see if any hidden enemies pop out. Consider reconnoitering the
battlefield with a single, running soldier before abandoning combat
positions. Search most of the human corpses for loot (as mentioned earlier,
dont bother with civilians). Reset your default weapons to hunting rifles
and switch to Defensive Sentry mode before leaving the random encounter
area.
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Equipment/Bartering Strategy
You should postpone making any deals until after the Freeport mission. By
that time, the skill points gained will enable you to boost your Barter skill
to at least 20%, and your improved Reputation (you should be seen as a
Defender after Freeport) will help you get much better deals.
Remember to locate Shauri in Alpha Bunker and to obtain her Guns
& Bullets magazine. You should begin saving BOS dollars for the upgrade
to Leather Armor Mark II, and for ammo purchases that may be necessary
for the Beta Bunker missions. You should also begin saving ring pulls for
drug purchases from Kerr in Beta Bunker; remember that youll basically
need every Psycho you can get, especially when playing at higher difficulty
levels. These higher difficulty levels may also necessitate buying extra
supplies from the Medical Officer. Players who didnt select the Doctor tag
skill may be forced to choose between buying the horrendously expensive
Doctors Bag and exchanging crippled squad members for new recruits.
All surplus ammo should be exchanged for experience points won
during random encounters, so dont sell any. Avoid buying any ammo, too,
but dont get carried away and set off for Rock Falls with 20 7.62mm
rounds. The printed guides advice on mission equipment still holds true.
You should complete this phase (Freeport) of your campaign with
the following minimum equipment:
1. Six hunting rifles.
2. Six AK 47s.
3. Six shotguns (Ithacas and Berettas).
4. Two or three Colt .45 pistols.
5. Two S&W revolvers and all .44 magnum ammo youve found.
6. Two HSI Mausers. (Their long range makes them a fun means of
disposing of 9mm ball ammo when exploring in a vehicle. Good
shots can still inflict meaningful damage in the targeted mode.)
In addition, you should have a couple of First Aid kits, a full
Doctors Bag, and at least half-a-dozen Stimpaks per squad member (along
with a dozen for yourself). Save any specialist ammo (9mm JHP and AP)
for later, along with 100 rounds of 7.62mm per soldier.

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Corrections and Additions

The sections below correct and expand upon the information in the
published guide.

Chapter One: Getting Started with Fallout

Tactics
Page 5, Is it Fallout 3?: The statement reading, Equipment items can
be acquired through both barter and looting, is not completely accurate. As
noted elsewhere on this page, they may also be acquired by stealing. More
importantly, late-breaking changes to the game made gambling a much
more viable way of acquiring equipment. Gambling may now be relied on
to fill all needs previously met by bartering, but only from Gamma Bunker
onwards.
Page 6, The New Face of Fallout: Neither the game manual nor the
strategy guide mentions that the top of the inventory panel features a clickand-drop menu that allows you to choose the type of items on display.
Also, its possible to customize the key shortcuts to your liking by editing
the keys.cfg file in the games core folder (use Notepad, Wordpad, or
any other compatible text editor).
Page 8, Overwatch: The example given to illustrate sequencing rules no
longer applies. Changes have been made to the way that computercontrolled characters operate in the Overwatch mode, and your highPerception soldier may get clobbered by a low Perception enemy on
Overwatch. Of course, all observations apply to turn-based play only.
Page 10, Tip: The Options panel may be accessed by simply hitting the
O key.
Page 11, Sentry Modes section, closing paragraph: Full oil drums in
the finished game are few and far between. The mission walkthroughs in
the printed guide identify drums that are full and will explode when hit.
Apart from those, all oil drums are empty and can be safely used as cover.
Page 12, Selecting the Right Difficulty Level: This section advises
even green players to set their difficulty level at Normal when playing in
turn-based mode. This is no longer advisable following the boost in AI
granted in the version 1.25 update. If youre a new player, start off by
playing at Easy!

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Chapter Two: Building Character

Page 15, Introduction: The chapter introduction states that Tough Guy
mode provides a 30% boost in experience points; this has been adjusted to
100% in version 1.25 of the game.
Page 18, Agility: The advice concerning the Gain Agility Perk is
unclear. Choosing this Perk for a character with an Agility of 7 will of
course result in an Agility of 8, and nine Action Points.
Pages 20 and 21, Strength: This section states that a Strength of 7 is
enough to handle every weapon in the game but the Browning M2. This is
not true, as the Vindicator Mini Gun also has a Strength requirement of 8.
Also, this section neglects to mention that Power Armor increases the
wearers Strength by three, and that the Way of the Fruit Perk increases
Strength by one point for every fruit eaten, up to a maximum of 12 for
human characters. It should be kept in mind that fruit is very hard to
acquire in the later stages of the campaign, and that the Way of the Fruit
Perk only becomes available at level 6. Save any fruit you find for the
future if youre planning to acquire this Perk.
Page 22, Luck: This section fails to mention that all Mechanics are
gamblers, and that you encounter your first gambling Mechanic in Beta
Bunker.
Page 23, Note: The note explaining that reading books improves a given
skill by 15% of the characters existing skill is incorrect. This was changed
in the finished game, making all books worth 15 skill points each. The
increase in a characters skill may be smaller. Increasing a skill level above
100% is very costly, and 15 skill points may translate into lesser gains.
Page 24, Small Guns: This section fails to mention that the minimum
Strength requirement for almost all combat shotguns is 6 (only the rare
Pancor Jackhammer requires a Strength of 5). Combat shotguns are
lifesavers for Small Guns experts beginning with the sixth mission. Keep
this in mind when considering recruits with a Strength below 6, and when
creating your own character.
Pages 24 and 25, Big Guns: Only one vehicle-mounted weapon in the
gamethe Tank Cannon, available from mission 15 onrequires this skill.
Page 26, Throwing: Late in the games development, the Action Point
cost to throw the most deadly grenades was increased to 6. This greatly
decreases the attractiveness of this skill.
Page 28, Science: As the recruitment pool changes introduced in version
1.25 greatly decrease the availability of Science specialists, its highly
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recommended that you make your own character skilled in this area. In
addition, the 1.25 patch introduces a positive critical hit chance modifier for
Science specialists fighting robots. In other words, the higher your Science
skill, the better the chance of scoring a critical hit on a robot. This is very
important in the later stages of the game.
Page 28, Pilot: This section states that you wont get to drive a vehicle
very often. This is true only in a mission context. Efficient and relatively
safe exploration is impossible without a vehicle, and youll definitely do
lots of driving while uncovering the map and earning experience points
through random encounters. However, the Pilot skill can still be easily
upgraded to an acceptable level without being chosen as a tag skill.
Page 29, Outdoorsman: The version 1.25 patch has changed many
recruits into Outdoorsman experts (Farsight is one of them). The relative
rarity of random encounters in the 1.25 version has also made travel-related
Perks slightly more attractive.
Page 30, Selecting Perks: Consider the Way of the Fruit Perk upon
reaching Level 6.

Chapter 5: The Alpha Bunker Missions

The final release (1.13) of the game contains slightly fewer enemies in each
mission than featured in the version used for the research of the print guide.
This holds true for many of the mission walkthroughs in the book. Since
youre not going to run into any distress because of this, the AWOL enemy
personnel arent discussed in this update. Cases where there are extra
enemy soldiers are duly noted.
The most striking change introduced by version 1.25 is the
availability of healing items in the first mission (Brahmin Wood). Also,
dont bother to stockpile First Aid kits for later, as the 1.25 patch makes the
Field Medic Kit and Paramedics Bag more effective than the First Aid Kit
and Doctors Bag.
Page 95, chapter introduction: Much of the information in this
introduction is inaccurate in light of the version 1.25 changes. The patch
introduces a much better pool of recruits and a 100% experience point
bonus for Tough Guy mode. Evaluate the new recruitment choices using
the criteria set out in Chapters 2 and 3 of the printed guide.
Page 98, Freeing the Imprisoned Villagers: The guard with the
monkey wrench now also carries a First Aid Kit. Most Raiders in this
mission now carry Stimpaks.
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Page 102, Mission Postmortem: This section recommends using up

9mm ball ammo in random encounters and saving 7.62mm rounds for later.
In fact, you should do the opposite, as noted earlier in this update.
However, do leave yourself with a healthy reserve of 7.62mm ammo.
Page 103, Suggested Squad and Equipment: The recruit
recommendations in this section are no longer accurate because of the
expanded recruit roster in version 1.25 of the game.
Page 105, The Bridge Massacre: Dont use Buffout to enhance handto-hand combat abilities, as suggested. The new recruit pool has very few
hand-to-hand specialists, and its a waste otherwise. Use the Buffout later
to enable weak recruits with good eyes to handle heavy weaponry.
Page 108, Mission Postmortem: For the reasons detailed above about
the 1.25 patch, recruitment suggestions contained in this section are no
longer accurate. Evaluate new recruitment choices using advice from
Chapter 2.
Page 110, Suggested Squad and Equipment: The squad suggestions in
this section are also no longer accurate. Again, refer to Chapter 2 for
general squad selection advice.
Page 112, Mission Postmortem: The recruitment advice in this section
is also no longer accurate.

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