Raiders – Fallout 2 Location

In this guide we’ll show you everything there is to know about the Raiders location, which houses a tough group of mercenaries. Clearing out the mercenaries will make Vault City happy, and they’ll reward you appropriately.

Two people in Vault City can tell you the location of the Raiders: Sergeant Stark in the Corrections Center and Wallace in the Customs Office, both located in the Downtown map. You’re likely to run into the Raiders when you travel between Vault City and Broken Hills, as it lies almost midway between those the two cities, four squares north of Broken Hills.

The Raiders location doesn’t include any dialogue or quests. It’s just a combat area, so come prepared. When you first arrive, you’ll either start out next to a cave (by default) or by a manhole (if you’ve read the Raiders Map or if you pass an Outdoorsman check). The manhole will take you right to the raider Barracks and allow you to skip the cave system leading up to it.

Entering the cave will take you to the Cave Entrance, an area littered with explosive traps and holes. With enough Perception, you can detect these hazards, but they still might cause you problems:

• For the traps, you’ll need a reasonable Traps skill to disarm them. If you don’t have your skill to at least 50, then it might be easier — or at least quicker — if you just step on a trap and let it trigger a chain reaction, removing most of the traps in the immediate area. This will likely damage you but not a whole lot, so it’s a viable way to go. If you decide to try and disarm all of the traps, then you’ll earn 25xp for each one.

• For the holes, you’ll probably fall into them when you detect them, which will cause you to drop down into a large Scorpion Nest, where you’ll get attacked by an assortment of radscorpions, both large and small. You’ll find some basic equipment in the nest, including a Hunting Rifle (in a pile of bones), Leather Armour and a Leather Jacket, but you’ll have to decide if you want to bother picking up these items since you’ll find better loot later. The exit from the nest is a ladder in the northeastern corner.

If you have companions with you, then you might want to leave them at the start of the Cave Entrance, as they seem to go out of their way to step on traps. But luckily, they can’t fall into holes. Only your main character can do that.

The raider Barracks can be found east of the Cave Entrance, or directly down from the manhole. If you reach the Barracks from the Cave Entrance, then you’ll have to deal with more explosive traps plus two locked gates to reach the raiders — whom you’ll quickly discover are really mercenaries, complete with better weapons and better stats than their delinquent brethren. As soon as the mercenaries spot you, they’ll attack.

For best results, you should attack the mercenaries before they attack you. Many of them will be using Assault Rifles and FN FALs, but if you built your character for ranged combat, then you should be able to snipe them better than they can snipe you. Better yet, if you leave one of the entrance gates locked when reaching the mercenaries via the Cave Entrance, they won’t get able to go through it, which means you’ll be able to damage them, retreat back to the Cave Entrance, rest until healed (you’ll heal but they won’t), and then return for more action, slowly wearing them down until you can take them on in a straight fight.

So if you’re careful and save often, you should be able to defeat the mercenaries, even if they’re more powerful than you are. However, if you just keep taking too much damage and can’t survive for long enough for the sniping strategy to work, then your best option is to go to New Reno first and read the Raiders Map, which will allow you to use the friendlier manhole entrance into the Barracks (where you’ll be able to lure mercenaries around a corner and blast them with a shotgun). Visiting New Reno will also give you a chance to gain a couple of levels and become more powerful for the fight.

After defeating the mercenaries, when you loot the bodies and containers in the Barracks, you’ll find a variety of weapons and ammunition, plus a First Aid Book. But more importantly, you’ll find Angel-Eyes’ Dog Tags, Blondie’s Dog Tags, and Tuco’s Dog Tags. Having all three dog tags in your inventory will allow you to open the huge black iron safe in the northeastern corner of the area. You can also open it without the dog tags if your Luck is at least 9. Just be careful with the safe. It’s trapped, and fiddling with it can set it off. You’ll probably only be able to detect and disarm the trap if your Traps skill is at least 50%. Opening the safe will earn you 500xp, and inside you’ll find an Account Book, a copy of Guns and Bullets, and more. The Account Book will indicate that the Bishop family in New Vegas has been financing the mercenaries.

Also in the Barracks, you might meet a tribal named Shadow-Who-Walks. He is affiliated with the mercenaries, but his content was cut from the game, so he won’t do anything when you meet him, and it doesn’t matter if he lives or dies.

Once you’ve killed enough of the mercenaries, you’ll get a message that you’ve broken their strength, which will earn you 2000xp. If you leave the Barracks at this point and return, then any remaining mercenaries (including Shadow-Who-Walks) will be dead, and you’ll miss out on the xp for killing them. But you’ll still be able to loot their corpses.

With the mercenaries broken, when you return to Vault City and talk to First Citizen Lynette, she’ll reward you with $1000 and 1000xp. If you also show her the Account Book, then you’ll receive an additional $500 and 1000xp.