Day 29 with Fallout 4: I provide Aid to the Enemy, Power some Armor and Curie Loves me because Science!

I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. Last time, I traded in Nick for Curie and today we painted the town. When I get a new companion, I like to travel with them until they idolize me. I consider it a gift to them.

I also did a little spring cleaning. I cleared out my inventory of useless gear and, using the Chemistry and Cooking Stations, converted much of the rest into more useful items. Crafting items earns very little experience, but crafting hundreds of items is a different story. I jumped a couple of levels after my craft-a-thon and got a couple more from quests. Including the perk points I’d been hoarding, I had six to spend.

As I had to deal with a “sea monster”, I took the first rank of Aquagirl. It seemed odd because the first rank eliminates rads from water and allows you to breath underwater. The second and final rank makes you invisible in water. It seems like it should have been three ranks, but I’m not complaining.

I also took two points of Luck, raising it to 9 and the first rank of Critical Banker. Having an extra critical hit in my pocket has definitely come in handy. Finally, on a whim, I upped my Agility one point to 9 and took the first rank of Blitz. Stabbing people from far away can’t be a bad thing, right?

Obviously, there will be spoilers ahead!

Settlements

Between excursions I’m still trying to determine how settlement happiness works and I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t. I’ve never had a settlement reach higher than 84 happiness. Increases are painfully slow then, with no explanation, happiness will drop by as much as 20 points almost instantly.

I duplicated the work I did in Santuary Hills on Day 24 on Spectacle Island, the Warwick Homestead and The Castle. They each have a full compliment of third level shops, entertainment, plenty of resources and massive defensive capabilities. They look right at me and say, “This is pretty good, but not great.” I give up.

As a diversion, I dove into Power Armor crafting for the first time. Since I’d accumulated a large collection of frames, installed workstations at several tactical locations across the map.

I still have little actual use for power armor, but I will be taking that trip to The Glowing Sea at some point. Over prepared is better than under prepared, right?

My Story so Far

Curie and I started hitting up some of the locations that I had skipped previously. The first was the East Boston Preparatory School where I found an issue of Astoundingly Awesome Tales. It seemed like a fairly standard raider den, if somewhat darker, until we reached the third floor. There we discovered that this wasn’t just a base for raiders, it was actively torturing people into becoming raiders. Preparatory School, get it?!

We poked around the Boston Airport, trying not to bother the Brotherhood of Steel. While there, Curie confided in me that she was unhappy with her studies because her robotic brain was limiting her. She wanted to be a real girl.

As it happens, I knew somebody that scrambled, mangled and generally shuffled brains for a living. Off to see Dr. Amari!

Turns out she had just caused complete and total brain death for one of her synth patients. So, obviously, we begged her to perform a never-before-tried brain transfer experiment! Turns out it was the right move: Curie had her new body; a cute new body.

She wanted to explore, so explore we did. We found a strange kid living alone on a pier. He was convinced that a sea monster was stalking him. We investigated and found a submarine and the damn, dirty commie that ran it! 200 years is a bit long to hold a grudge, so I decided to help him out. His boat, the Yangtze, needed some parts, some repairs and some de-ghouling..

I was surprised to find an issue of Picket Fences at the Sagus Ironworks when I visited to grab a dampening coil for the Yangtze. I had only missed it, like, nine times before. After helping out Captain Zao, he gave me a homing beacon that I could use to summon a nuclear strike.

I can now bring down remote artillery fire, summon Minutemen troops and call nuclear missiles as if I was ordering pizza. I never use any of it. Simply shooting bad guys in the face works every time. Even on higher difficulties, by the time you get this stuff, you tend not to need it.

Leaving the sub, we visited the Quincy Ruins and learned how our Sanctuary Hills refugees came to be under the protection of Preston Garvey. We also responded to several calls of help from settlements that really should be more self-sufficient by now. Finally, we took the advice of a random eyebot, and visited Cambridge Polymer Labs to apply for jobs.

With a little fib in the interview, I easily got the job and was let into the labs. Then we were told that we’d not be let out of the labs until the “current” (200 year old) project was complete.

We killed a lot of ghouls, cracked a lot of terminals and did some science, bitches! This resulted in the creation of the Piezonucleic power armor chest piece, a legendary item that increases Action Point refresh speed when irradiated. More importantly, all the raw, sweaty, unbridled science made Curie love me. I received the Combat Medic perk, which lets me heal 100 points of damage once a day when my hit points fall below 10%. Since a Stimpak heals double that, I’m not sure it’ll really come in handy.

Molly the robot was pleased that we completed the experiment and allowed us to leave. She took us straight up to her bosses offices, killed him (because he was a ghoul), paid us (in pre-war money), then fired us (stock in the company had dropped since it exploded and layoffs were necessary). Like anybody given a pink slip, we snatched the Massachusetts Surgical Journal, four boxes of paper clips and a few desk calendars from the bosses office before we left.

Returning to Diamond City to sell off our loot, I decided to take the mayor up his offer and buy myself an apartment there: Home Plate. It features a workbench, but no way to create a supply line to it. Someday I’ll leverage my Strong Back perk and lug all my building materials down there to fix up the place, but not now.

Curie and I headed back to Sanctuary Hills, where I left her. I think her and Piper will get along. Next, it’s off to check out the Brotherhood of Steel and see what they’re so damn worked up about.

A Depressed Press Series

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Day 28 with Fallout 4: Companions, Old Ironsides and Nick Loves me! 
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Day 30 with Fallout 4: I Cozy up to the Brotherhood, Visit the Glowing Sea and Pink Ghouls are on the Loose!