Fallout 1 Walkthrough - The Hub
The Hub, also known as the Trading Hub, is 4 squares south of Junktown. It’s a big city; bigger than both Junktown and Shady Sands combined. Its caravans supply the Wasteland with everything, including precious water.
I always come back to the Hub to sell items I picked up in the wastes, or to barter for books from the library that help my characters increase their skills, for example, Small Guns and Repair. IMPORTANT: Once a skill reached 91% STOP BUYING BOOKS for it; books can’t increase skills beyond that percentage.
Fallout 1 The Hub Walkthrough
The Hub is not a bad place to live. It was relatively untouched by the Great War and it’s heavily guarded, because of the caravan houses. The Trading Hub is split into five sections:
- the Entrance, where the caravans arrive and leave constantly;
- Downtown - caravan houses, the police, a library, the local bar and FLC loans;
- Old Town, where Harold and the thief Loxley live;
- The Heights is the upper-class residential area where you don’t belong;
- Water Merchants - a heavily guarded trading group that can help you?
As you enter the Hub, you’ll want to talk to Mat, the guy in blue pants and a black leather jacket, or Luke (red shirt, gray pants) about the caravans of the Hub, and other towns out there.
Downtown, there’s Mitch’s general store, Beth’s Weapon shop, Hub’s library, Friendly Lending Company, Hub’s police, and two caravan offices. To the south you’ll find Iguana Bob’s shop.
Far Go Traders is the largest caravan house in the Hub. Owned by a guy named Butch, who will give you a quest to find out what happened to his missing caravans. Should you accept it, you’ll get a 15% discount at Beth’s Gun Store, owned by Far Go Traders. Beth will tell you to talk to Harold in Old Town, who might know more about the missing caravans. After that, speak with Slappy outside and he’ll take you to the deatchlaw’s lair (+800 XP).
Defeat the monster (+1000 XP) and bring the holodisk from the dying mutant back to Far Go Trader’s Rutger for another 1000 XP and 800 bottle caps. TIP: You can lure the deathclaw away and then sneak past it, but it’s quite difficult. BUG: If you take the quest to steal the Merchant’s necklace before talking to Harold or Slappy, they will no longer tell you about the deathclaw! You can also take caravan guard jobs from Rutger, to Junktown, Boneyard, or Lost Hills (the Brotherhood’s bunker) for 400 caps each way. The caravans leave on 8th, 18th and 28th.
Did you know that you can upload all holodisks to your Pip-Boy for later reading? You’ll get 100 XP everytime you do it, and then you can throw away the holodisk.
The Crimson Caravan is owned by Demetre, but his daughter Keri (the woman with a green mohawk) takes care of business. She can offer you a caravan guard job. The job is paying 600 caps each way, and leaves on 3rd and 17th. TIP: If you play as a male with at least 7 Charisma or you’ve iced at least 25 people, you can sleep with her, and she will ‘reward’ you with some chems afterwards. That’s what a bad reputation gives you. 😈
Next, visit the FLC, talk with the owner, Lorenzo, and ask to borrow some money. After that, waste him and his guards (no one will care), and lock pick his safe to get some goodies.
Inside the Maltese Falcon bar nearby you’ll meet Kane, a NPC guarding a door that leads to the Underground’s hideout in the basement. Don’t try to force that door if you want to live. You must speak to Kane to see Decker, the bossman, who will provide you with two jobs. Make sure to say, “That doesn’t concern you,” when Kane asks why you need to see Decker. If failed, next time you talk to him say you’re sorry, and that you just wanted a job.
- For the first job, you’ll have to waste a merchant and his wife in the Heights. You’ll only receive this quest if you offed Killian Darkwater, mayor of Junktown. (I did, but only by mistake. I shot one of his guards instead of an enemy, so they started attacking me. I didn’t reload the game because I prefer to own my mistakes in video games.) Collect your 500 caps down payment and head to the southwest exit grid. Mention that you’re running late to an appointment with Mr. Hightower to the guard outside the door. If you talk to the merchant, you’ll be kicked out. If you open fire, make sure you ice everyone, including the guards. Decker wants no witnesses. After that, return to Kane and you’ll get 2500 caps as reward, -2 REP, and then take you back to Decker for the next quest.
- You’ll have to dispose of someone called Jain (1000 caps upfront, with 4000 on completion). Jain is the head of the Children of the Cathedral in the Hub, and she’s wearing a purple robe. You’ll get 700 XP for offing her and -2 REP. Next, unlock the door on the northwest corner of the building to get some goodies and a purple robe, which you’ll use later.
TIP 1: You can rat out Decker to the police at any point during these quests. The sheriff will offer you 300 bottle caps upfront, and another 1000 afterwards, if you help him take down the crime lord. If Sheriff Greene is wasted in action, his deputy will give you the reward after the fight. You’ll also get 1400 XP and +4 REP. After icing Decker, his guards (excluding Kane) might surrender. Get another 1 REP for offing Kane. Talk to Beth after this quest and she will award you with 6 Stimpaks. WARNING: Taking down Decker at such an early stage in your character development might prove difficult. I suggest you report him to the police at a later time, when you have better equipment (armor, weapons). Take his quests, but go explore the world.
TIP 2: If your Gambling skill is at least 50% you can win a lot of money at the roulette. If your Gambling skill is really, really high, you can win up to 30,000 caps in just a few minutes! 🤑
Fallout 1 The Hub Guide
In Old Town you’ll get another quest related to Mr. Hightower. You’ll find Loxley and his “Circle of Thieves” in the basement of a building, after passing through some traps and locked doors. Impressed by your skills, Loxley will ask you to steal a necklace from the Heights merchant to join his gang. Accept the quest for 900 XP and get some supplies from Jasmine. Sneak into Mr. Hightower house in the evening, when security is more chill. Go to the lower left room where there’s a strongbox. Don’t use lock picks on it, or it will explode! Only use your Lockpicking skill from the Skilldex [s]. Grab the loot and return to Loxley for 500 XP, 3000 caps, and an electronic lock pick (gives you +20% to Lockpick when used on electronic devices). You can also waste all the thieves after; no one will care. WARNING! Do not complete the Guild’s quest before Decker’s. Always do Decker’s quest first, or you won’t get any money from him!
Across the street there’s a ruined building where a Brotherhood Initiate is being held hostage by Decker’s thugs, who will attack you as soon as they see you. Save your game. If you can handle them and pick the door lock to rescue the Initiate, Paladin Talus (of BOS) will be grateful: 1500 XP + Power Armor (a unique chance to get it without doing the Brotherhood quests!)
Downtown south you will meet a famous iguana vendor named Bob. If you followed my walkthrough so far, you already know that those “iguana bits” are actually Doc Morbid’s special meat. Ewww! You have now two choices: blackmail Iguana Bob or report him to the Hub’s police. Blackmail him for a couple hundred caps every week if you have a high Speech skill. You can increase this amount whenever you increase your Barter skill, for a loss of -2 REP for every succefful attempt. CUT: Unfortunatelly, reporting Iguana Bob to the police was never implemented. EASTER EGG: one of the dialogue lines, [SPOILER] “Prime Choice Select is made of people!!!! It’s made of people!!!” [/SPOILER] is a reference to the 1973 film Soylent Green.
Irwin is a NPC usually hanging out in a broken-down building near Bob’s stand. He used to live on a small farm outside the city, but since the raiders took over now he’s living in the Hub, hopeless. Help him out by getting rid of the raiders (level 5 required; otherwise return at a later time). He will reward you with 500 XP, +2 REP, and a unique .223 pistol (20-30 dmg). This pistol is the best non-energy handgun in Fallout 1, and can be used by Ian and Katja too. To have your companions use the weapons you give them, just steal from them [s], plant the weapons, and ask them to draw their best weapons next time they’re in combat.
Lastly, the Water Merchants can be found in the south of the Hub. They are well guarded and trade water with other towns of the Wasteland. Here you can order a shipment of clean water to Vault 13 for approx. 2000 caps, which will extend the time limit for finding a water chip by 100 days (+1000 XP). Lead by Daren Hightower (the guy from the quests above), the Water Merchants are rivals with the other caravan houses, they pay the lowest caravan guard jobs, and made enemies with the Underground and the Brotherhood of Steel. They once tried to exchange water for weapons at Lost Hills, but were unsuccessful. They sent thieves to take the weapons anyway, but were caught and iced. Luckily for everyone, the Elders decided NOT to invade the Hub in retaliation. 😇
Harold, a mutant down on his luck, was an ex caravan master in the early days of the Hub. Because caravans kept missing, Harold teamed up with a scientist from the Hub, and went northwest to find out the cause. They eventually reached Mariposa Military Base, where everyone in his team was wasted, except a scientist [SPOILER] who later became the Master [/SPOILER]. Harold is now living quietly in a ruined building in Old Town, abandoned by his friends and business partners. He’s not technically a ghoul, as we can see later in Fallout 3, when we meet him as a tree. You can listen to his long, sad story, and then talk to ‘uncle’ Slappy outside, to get to the bottom of the missing caravans.
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this Fallout 1 guide of the Hub useful. You took some caravan guard jobs, did some suspicious quests for the Underground and the thieves Guild, and hopefully figured out what happened to the missing caravans. Next, let’s visit the undead city, Necropolis, to move further with our main quest: finding another water chip for Vault 13.