Dartmouth Professional Building¶

Time to make progress towards finding Nick Valentine. You should already know his general location: north-east of Diamond City, somewhere near the “Combat Zone” and “Swan’s Pond”. Of course, there are optional areas to explore along the way there, which are worth exploring. Speaking of which, start your trek east by fast-traveling to the Mass Pike Tunnel East, from which head north around some rubble, and turn north-east around aforementioned rubble. Keep heading north-east to reach a road and keep your eye to the south to spot the ruined lobby of a building, now just bare metal frame. A random encounter can occur here, so be prepared for a fight. Once you’ve navigated whatever dangers lurk here, head through a door in the lobby (under a wall with a clock on it) to enter the Dartmouth Professional Building. If you were expecting some grand adventure… well, worry not, this place is pretty small and boring. You can squash a Radroach inside and grab some Glowing Fungus, along with a bit of food and a Stimpak in a desk… otherwise… not much of interest.

Layton Towers¶

From the Dartmouth Professional Building head north-east out of the lobby, then turn east, south-east to and go through a doorway to reach Layton Towers. Pass through a fence, then cross a parking lot before turning south to find a Raider and a Machinegun Turret MK I on a barricade between two buildings. Destroy them then head through the red door of the barricade they were guarding. From here if you turn west and go down some heavily trapped stairs (Can Chimes, a Grenade Bouquet and a Tripwire) you’ll reach the depressed highway that runs to the Mass Pike Tunnel East area. Alternatively, if you go east you’ll find a yellow lift that will take you to the roof, where two more powerful Raiders and their Attack Dog dwell. Kill them, loot a Steamer Chest, then head north-east over some ruined brick-work, through a hole in a wall, and through a door to reach the interior of Layton Towers.

This area is pretty basic, but there’s a bit of loot to be had in here, and many, many Raiders to slay. Head north-east down a hallway with a ruined floor and kill any Raiders you find in a room to the north-west. Go through a hole in the wall to the north-east and head downstairs, where an even greater number of Raiders lurk. Make your way south-east, then south-west, then finally north-west, where you’ll find the Raiders. Loot a Chem Box [Novice] and a Tool Case [Novice], along with other, less note-worthy loot. Continue north-west down some stairs and murder your way south-east into a nursery, where you can find a Duffle Bag and a Suitcase [Novice]. Make your way north-east through a bedroom, then a bathroom before turning north-west and heading down a ramp through a hole in the floor. Continue south-west and into the stairwell, where you can descend some stairs to reach the basement. If you go up some stairs to the north-east, then turn south-east and enter a small room behind a counter you can find a Safe [Advanced], while if you head south-east from the stairwell you’ll reach a room with some machinery, from which you can obtain a Fusion Core. Once those treasures are plundered, head out a door to the south-west to exit Layton Towers.

Police Precinct 8¶

You should now be standing on a landing overlooking the parking lot you passed through earlier. That’s enough progress around here, though, as the next area to the east - Wilson Atomatoys Corporate HQ - is part of a miscellaneous quest. Since you’ll get an excuse to explore there later, and it’s getting further and further out of the way, turn your attention to the north-west, where you should find two areas near each other, the Police Precinct 8 building and the Boston Public Library. In the latter area, there is actually a Bobblehead in you can grab, so it’s worth a stop. Of the two areas, Police Precinct 8 is much less interesting. Turn west and enter the ruins of the station and make your way north past some cells, kill some Radroaches, then enter the north-eastern most cell to find some Bobby Pin Boxes, a Stimpak and “Eddie Winter Holotape 8”. You can also search a nearby office to find the Precinct 8 Evidence Terminal, where - if you read the logs - you may get some new map markers.

Boston Public Library¶

Head across the street to the east to find the Boston Public Library. Make your way to the western side of the building to find a small door [Advanced] This door is locked, but a skilled lockpicker can open it. If you can’t do that, don’t worry! Save the game and put on your best Charisma gear and talk to the intercom to the right. Tell the voice you are an employee and then go with the speech check by guessing the six-digit ID number (you will guess 123456). With any luck, you’ll be let in. If not, reload and try again… it’s worth taking some extra effort to get inside this building! If you have a choice, passing the speech check to get inside is the better choice, as the robots in the library will be friendly if you go this route. If all else fails, however, head around to the northern side of the building to find a tunnel leading into Copely Station, which you can take to reach the library. There’s not much of interest in this short subway area; some Super Mutants, a Nuka Cola Machine with some Nuka Cola Quantums and a Duffle Bag under a bench.

Once you get inside (assuming you got through the front door), disarm a Tripwire near the doorway and grab a Grenade Bouquet, then take a left and you’ll see that there are quite a few robots making a stand here. There is a good reason! Stand here with the for awhile and soon a security breach will occur. Super Mutants are attacking the library! They will come for this barricaded area, so take your stand with the robots and turrets here as the Super Mutants attack. They will all try to come in from the south, so you have a great killing lane here. The only thing that has a chance of getting through honestly is the Mongrels that come with the Mutants. If you didn’t pass a speech check to get inside, the robots will not be all friendly, and you’ll either need to wipe them out before the Super Mutant attack, then fend off the muties yourself, or hide somewhere and let the two sides wear each other down.

Once the attack has died down a bit, turn your attention to getting the goodies that can be found in the library… of course wiping out any hostiles along the way. From the room where the robots massed their defense (north of the entrance room) turn north to spot a door. From this door turn east and head around some bookshelves to find a Suitcase [Novice] and, on a desk, Curator Given’s Terminal, from which you can get some back-story. More importantly, next to this terminal is the “Library Storage Room Key” that you’ll want to pick up. With that in hand, head through the north door and search this room for plenty of goodies. The curator died here, but he left you a special gift: the Intelligence Bobblehead , which is on some machinery to the north. This is the big prize of this area, and what a prize it is! If that’s not enough loot, however, be sure to pick up three Overdue Books , which are on the floor near some Sleeping Bags, then turn east to find a locked door [Master], which can be opened with the “Library Storage Room Key” you found earlier. Beyond you’ll find a Steamer Trunk, two Ammo Boxes, a Duffle Bag, a Stealth Boy, a Bottlecap Mine and a First Aid Box.

Return to the entrance room and search the northern wall to find a Book Return Terminal. These terminals will happily take your Overdue Books and exchance them for Tokens, which you can redeem for various prizes, the selection of which is different for each machine. This machine, in fact, is the lone exception in that it actually has something useful to buy with all those tokens you’ll get from turning in Overdue Books , however; a Massachusetts Surgical Journal . This will set you back 50 tokens (ten Overdue Books ), but if you can manage it, it’s worth picking up.

When you’re done messing around with the Book Return Terminal, head east down a hallway. You can go into a room to the south, head down a ramp then pass through an indoor garden, but this is just a lootless way to reach your eventual destination. Instead, continue east down a hallway, then turn north down another. Enter the northern-most restroom and enter a stall where you can pluck yet another Overdue Book out of the hands of a skeleton. Thanks, chum! Continue east to find stairs leading down to the Copely Station, from which the Super Mutants are attacking, and where you’re most likely to meet any stragglers. Wipe the Super Mutants out and you should hear a cheerful voice on the intercom announcing the threat has ended. Wonderful

Enter a room west of the southern-most staircase to find a fifth Overdue Book on a table near a ruined terminal, terminal then find another Book Return Terminal west of the northern-most stairs which. The rewards here are different from the terminal near the entrance… but much less interesting. Yes, there are two “Clean Dog Bowl” entries, for whatever reason.

Lastly, head into the large room west of the stairs leading down to the Copely Station. In this room you can find a sixth - and final - Overdue Book on a bookshelf just west of the door leading to the indoor garden. Once it’s yours, grab whatever junk you want and continue west to reach a chained double door, which you can open from this direction. Beyond it, of course, is the robot-defended room north of the entrance. Having gone full circle, return to the entrance and leave the library.