Scientific Pursuits

Objectives:

• Talk to Doctor Li about Dad and Project Purity
• Look for Dad in Project Purity's Control Room
• Search Dad's holotapes for clues to his location
• Put on a Vault 112 suit
• Sit in the unoccupied "Tranquility Lounger"

Rivet City has settled way out in the southeast corner of the map. The city is basically an old aircraft carrier on the Potomac River transformed into living space. You can't reach it immediately, as you must first cross a bridge that is rotated towards you upon interacting with the security intercom. A guy on the other side questions your intentions, but answer appropriately and you'll be let in without further questions. Tell him you are here for Doctor Li and her research.

Once inside follow the signs to the Science Lab, where you can speak to a number of scholarly individuals including Doctor Li herself, who is calmly watching a heated conversation between Anna Holt and Dr. Zimmer. If you speak with Dr. Zimmer afterward, you can choose to help him out with his little android problem and thus initiate a side quest.

Doctor Li recognizes you as your father's offspring and points you to the Jefferson Memorial, the site of your father's old research lab. Feel free to pick her brains about Project Purity, your parents, and the general water situation around the Wasteland. Of main interest, though, is the Bobblehead - Intelligence sitting on the work station near Anna Holt.

Jefferson Memorial, a circular building with a dome-shaped rooftop located just outside of Rivet City, is crawling with Super Mutants. Move across the ramp and enter the Jefferson Memorial Museum and Gift Shop. Through these corridors, you encounter a few baddies, including a Centaur and the ubiquitous Super Mutants. Your exact objective for now remains unclear, but continue crawling through and hacking your way through the muties until you arrive in the Gift Shop. There you can scrounge up some health items from the First Aid box as well as some ammo.

The gigantic tank and structures within the Rotunda, collectively called Project Purity, not only is home to a couple more muties but also to Holotapes left by your father. Listen to the Holotapes, specifically Journal Entry 10, for your next destination, Vault 112. You need only Entry 10 to know where your father is, but there are thirteen Holotapes total hidden throughout. They are completely optional but can be fun to listen to if you're interested at all in the backstory. Now's also a good time to scour the Memorial, both outside and inside, for any surviving Super Mutants since you will be asked to do so later.

Tipped off by your father's recordings, you now head for Vault 112, which is hidden under Smith Casey's Garage, deep in the Wasteland to the west. Locate the switch that opens the trap door leading underground and flip the switch to slide open the massive Vault door. An oddity known as Robobrain stops you from proceeding further and orders you to throw on the proper Vault 112 garb. With no other choice than to abide, put on the Vault 112 jumpsuit and head to the "Tranquility Lounger." Huh.

Enter a vacant Tranquility Lounger and be prepared to be tripped the freak out.