Fallout 1 Walkthrough - Necropolis
Necropolis aka “The Walking Dead”, is a ghoul city. Vault 12 was built here, and their Water Purification Systems were able to turn sewer waste into drinking water at a rate of 15,000 gallons (70,000 liters) per day. That’s A LOT! However, the true purpose of the vault was to study the effects of radiation on its residents, so the main door was never supposed to close.
When the nukes dropped on October 2077, everyone got exposed, turning into ghouls. Six years after the Great War, the survivors left the bunker, and joined the ghouls on the surface to found Necropolis, the City of the Dead. Wastelanders usually avoid Necropolis, which is considered by many a no-go area. But hey, that didn’t stopped you before, did it? 😈
Fallout 1 Necropolis Walkthrough
Your goal in Necropolis would be to recover the water chip from Vault 12, and maybe fix the watershed pump to provide the ghouls with water (Ghouls are people too. Or are they?).
IMPORTANT! Make sure your Repair skill is at least 50% before venturing further! If your Repair skill is low, go back to the Hub, buy and read more Dean’s Electronics books. You will need to repair the water pump in Necropolis to advance the main quest.
Necropolis is located 12 squares south of Vault 13 and 6 squares to the east. The city is split into three sections, connected by sewers, accessible through several manholes.
- Necropolis motel at the entrance (with aggressive ghouls; practically a shooting range);
- Hall of the Dead in the center (where Set conducts his business);
- Watershed in the north (with the broken water pump and the entrance to Vault 12).
Fallout 1 Necropolis Guide
The ghouls on the surface, lead by Set, attack visitors on sight. The underground ghouls are a peaceful bunch, and they’re doing their best to survive. Inside Vault 12 there’s a special kind of ghouls, the glowing ones (they will attack everyone, including their own kind).
Let’s start at the beginning: the motel is the first part of Necropolis. The ghouls here are hostile, especially if you try to pick up items on the shelves or from dressers. There are two manholes to the east and west you can use to go under the city.
Hall of the Dead is a pre-war church located in the center of Necropolis, where Set and his followers live. Set seems to be the leader of the undead, but in reality he’s under the control of the Unity, who’s keeping a close eye on him, and he hates that. So much that he will ask you to give ‘dirt-naps’ to the super mutants at the watershed. Dirt-naps... that’s a funny word!
Alternatively, you can 💀 the super mutants first, and then ask Set for a reward. You can only access the Watershed through the sewers. There are 6 mutties in this area. You could try sneaking past them if you’re not that confident in handling them.
IMPORTANT: Attack Harry as soon as you see him [A]. Otherwise, he will initiate conversation with you when in range and, if you fail to convince him that you are not ‘normal’, he will escort you to his boss, Lou, at the Mariposa military base, which is a looong way from Necropolis. If that happens and you give in to torture, revealing the location of your vault, the game will end. If you quickly enter [A]ttack mode and walk away from them, you’ll be teleported to a cell on level 2, with nothing in your inventory. Wait, what?! Lockpick the door and try to infiltrate the command room if you want, but that would be challenging. Would be best to just escape the base entirely... Use Repair on those force fields to temporary disable them. 😉
TIP: If you destroyed the military base *before* talking to Harry, you could convince him, and the other super mutants, to leave Necropolis peacefully (high Charisma and Speech are needed for this to work).
Talk to Garret (Set’s bodyguard) to get your reward for icing the super mutants. Normally, you will get 40 caps, but if he really, really likes you, you’ll get 200 and other goodies, including a shotgun (unless you already looted the fridge from which he retrieves your reward).
Talk to the rebels’ ghoul leader in the sewers about fixing the water pump. You will need to find some junk (in the Watershed sewers, northeast corner). Once you show him that, he will give you several Dean’s Electronics magazines. Read them to improve your Repair skill. If you didn’t listen to me and you came to Necropolis with a lousy Repair, you can still try some Mentats. NOTE: You will NOT receive the magazines if you already found the water chip!
Necropolis Water Chip
Next, let’s go steal that water chip from the vault. South from the water pump, there’s a ghoul prisoner. Free him and ask him about the water. He will tell you about the vault underneath the watershed, which you can access through a manhole in the next cell. Take the elevator to the third floor and remove the water chip from the only working computer there. Done and done!
CAUTION! If you take the water chip and return to Set without turning the pump on, he will become hostile. However, if you also happen to carry ANY junk in your inventory (like, for example, the one you got from Jacob’s house in the Hub), you’ll be asked to fix the watershed pump instead (at gunpoint). You better pray your Repair skill is good enough! 😇
Whether you convince Harry you are a ghoul, or you waste him and his entire team, your next objective should be to fix the water pump inside the watershed -- with the junk you have in your inventory (you do remember how to ‘use’ an item, right? Right?!). If successful, you’ll get +3 REP and 2500 XP if the super mutants did NOT attack Necropolis yet, or only 1000 XP if super mutants attacked the city already (see the notes below).
RAD NOTES:
1. If you arrive in Necropolis after March 25, 2162, everyone will be 💀 -- making it impossible for you to start any quests.
2. The same happens if you enter the city 30 days after wasting the super mutants at the watershed and the Master is still alive.
3. If Set is still breathing after the Master has been iced, he will reward you with tons of goodies (you’ll need to talk to Garret first).
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this Fallout 1 guide of the Necropolis useful. I also hope you didn’t leave Necropolis without fixing the water pump. But hey, it’s your game! Now that you got the water chip, it’s time to head back to Vault 13.