The Institute¶

Now that you are in the Institute, talk to Elder Maxson and he will tell you that you are going to fight your way to the Reactor Room to blow up this place, and he gives you a “Fusion Pulse Charge” to use later for that exact purpose. As you can probably tell, you are in the Relay Room, but there are no enemies here. Ingram is going to stay behind and get the relay up and running so she can use it to warp you out when you are done. With the Pulse Charge in hand, head towards the objective and you will enter “Old Robotics”. And yes, Maxson is coming with you!

Old Robotics¶

Use the Terminal [Advanced] you find here to turn off the turrets and continue. You are going to run into pockets of Synth Resistance along the way, but you’ll be overpowering them fairly easily (A quick tip: shoot off the Robot’s Right Arms - they will drop their guns and be much less effective as they try to melee). As you go down the stairs here you can target a turret in the far distance (you can snipe it; apparently the terminal doesn’t shut them all down), but follow the linear path downstairs. Synth Striders or stronger may be down here, so chuck a grenade downstairs to help blow them apart. There is a room on the left down here where you can hack another Terminal [Advanced] and turn off the turrets (there is a First Aid Box nearby as well). The room across the way has an Explosives Box you can loot. Keep heading down though and you’ll see another terminal and a door on the right leading into a bathroom (go there first for the First Aid Box).

This terminal is the “Prototype Sequence” terminal. Turning it on will unleash a (hostile) Sentry Bot that will attack the two Synths here. Let them fight it out, but sneak up into the room on the right. As you advance into the room, two more Synths from the right will show up, giving the Sentry Bot new cannon fodder, but by now your allies are likely fighting as well. Focus on the Sentry Bot and take it down, then wipe up whatever it didn’t kill. Follow the path on the right to a hatch. Open it and drop down. This leads to a lower room where you can pull a Fusion Core from the machine. Continue to follow the path (note the Explosives Box on the left) and you will soon come to the “Institute Bioscience” room.

Institute Bioscience¶

Now this room is going to be chaos. Head out into the main room and kill any scientists you see (they are level 1). Out in the main room though, you will face a wide variety of enemies, including turrets on the ceiling, various Synth enemies, scientists running around, and Gorillas! Yes, the caged Gorillas they keep here will be let loose, attacking only you. The first things you should take out are the annoying turrets. There are two on each side of the room, but they have a large radius of fire, so shoot them down while circling the room. Wipe out all the threats here and continue on to “The Institute” proper.

The Institute, Continued¶

Bioscience may have been chaos, but this area is utter madness. The Brotherhood will help you out here of course, putting on a nice laser show against the Synths. You will need to fight your way to the elevator. The majority of the areas around you are blocked off, so this is a fairly restricted area, but you will likely fight some Coursers and other levelled Synth enemies. Of special note is “XPN-20A”, a legendary enemy that will appear here. With all the help you have you will take him out fairly easily.

Fight your way forward and wipe out all resistance and once you’ve cleared the area, Proctor Ingram will announce on the speaker that you need to head to Advanced Systems, but to do that you need to use the Director’s Terminal to undo the lockdown. Head to the elevator now and you’ll be on your way to Father’s room. Head inside and go up the stairs. Put on your Charisma gear and go talk to Father now and he will be very saddened (as you can imagine). After a bit of dialogue, you have the option to tell him to help you, a moderate speech check. Pick it and he will ask why, bringing up another moderate speech check, with various choices though. Pick whichever one you want and if you pass it he will give you the Synth turn-down code, 9003. Use the terminal here now and pick every option which turns on the evacuation notice, turns off the lockdown, and finally shuts down some Synths with the code you just got. Head out the door nearby and go down the stairs now. Make your way to the large room (where more fighting has broken out) and head for the Advanced Systems.

Advanced Systems/The Reactor¶

This initial area has a few scientists still hostile, namely T.S. Wallace. Take down any threat and fight your way forward to the reactor. Once you load in, hang a right and head up the hallway, taking out the three Laser Turrets they have put in place. Continue down to the bottom and the reactor room, which is filled with scientists and enemies. There are two named Legendary Enemies here: Z4K-97B and A-2018. Z4K is on the bottom and should be dealt with first. Fire on him from outside the room and if he comes inside let your allies trip him up as you hurt him.

Once he is gone, clear out the bottom and pick off any low-level enemies down below. Now, to easily handle A-2018 you can actually sneak up the right side stairs and sneak attack him from there (or at least hurt him without him knowing what is going on). It is a bit sad but you can take him out easily. Be sure to loot either Z4K-97B and A-2018 for their legendary gear and to find one (of the two) “Reactor Terminal Password” items. Now all that is left to do is to use the terminal and shut down the reactor. After that, go interact with it and place the Fusion Core. Talk to Elder Maxson afterward and you will be warped back to the relay.

Here you will have a choice to make: the young synth Shaun has shown up, asking to go with you and recognizing you as a parent (unlike before). You can choose to take him with you or leave him behind (which is basically getting rid of him). The choice is obviously yours, but you get more utility out of taking him with you. Make your choice and talk to Ingram afterward and soon you will be warped to the Mass Relay building, by a pre-rigged detonator. You know what has to be done here, so go ahead and do it. Watch the fireworks as the Institute (and CIT Ruins and some of the surrounding area) are wiped off the map). For the good of the Commonwealth!

Talk to Elder Maxson now and your quest will soon end, finishing the main storyline of the game if you sided with the Brotherhood of Steel. Congratulations! Unlike other factions however, you actually get a follow-up quest after this mission (even though the credits have rolled!). This quest is named “A New Dawn” and Elder Maxson asks you to meet him on the Prydwen. Let’s go!

The Nuclear Option

Complete "The Nuclear Option".

30

Prepared for the Future

Decide the fate of the Commonwealth.

50

A New Dawn¶

This mission is more of a de-briefing than a real mission. Once you get to the Prydwen, go see Elder Maxson and Kellis will talk to you a bit about rogue threats and whatnot. We get it Kellis. More importantly, Maxson decides to give you a promotion, giving you the rank of Sentinel. This is the highest rank you can obtain in the Brotherhood. Maxson will also give you the “T-60 Jet Pack”, a modification for your Power Armor that gives you a frickin’ Jet Pack. You can’t get much better than that!

Maxson also mentions that he no longer has any orders left for you, and leaves you to do as you wish. He will mention that there are plenty of things you can do to help the crew of the Prydwen and the soldiers at Cambridge Police Station (aka: go do some Radiant Quests) in the meantime and the quest will come to an end. Enjoy your new Jet Pack and feel free to pursue any of the Brotherhood Radiant Quests along with the game’s many other quests! Job well done, Sentinel!