Brain Dead is a side quest in the Fallout 4 add-on Far Harbor.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Far Harbor side quest: Brain Dead | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Meet with Pearl around Far Harbor. Accept the job. | Travel to Cliff's Edge Hotel. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| (Optional) Ask for money. | Discover the entrance to Vault 118. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: 25/70 pre-War money. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Meet Pearl at the hotel. Follow her to the entrance of Vault 118. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Activate the vault door controls. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Talk to Maxwell. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Investigate the crime scene for clues. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Discuss the findings with Maxwell. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Investigate the robots of the vault. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Confront Santiago Avida. | Search the Overseer's office. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Defeat Santiago. | Confront Julianna Riggs. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Report to Maxwell. | (Optional) Ask for a bribe. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: ~500 XP 200/300 pre-War money from Maxwell | Reward: 200 pre-War money | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Accept to let Ezra flee. | Refuse to let Ezra flee. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Let Ezra run out of Vault 118. | Betray Ezra to Maxwell. | Defeat Ezra. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Defeat Ezra. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Report to Maxwell. | Report to Maxwell. | Report to Maxwell. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: 400 XP + 300 XP 400/500 pre-War money from Maxwell | Reward: 400 XP + 300 XP 500 pre-War money on Ezra 400/500 pre-War money from Maxwell | Reward: 400 XP + 300 XP 500 pre-War money on Ezra 400/500 pre-War money from Maxwell | |||||||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
The Murder at Cliff's Edge[]
After completing Walk in the Park, any time one returns to Far Harbor, they will find Captain Avery being followed by a Miss Nanny named Pearl asking about police intervention, then approaching the Sole Survivor. She will then ask them if they are part of law enforcement, mentioning that there has been a terrible murder. One can pass three increasingly difficult Charisma checks to learn more details about the murder, as well as to ask for additional compensation. Agreeing to help prompts Pearl to ask for them to follow her to the Cliff's Edge Hotel west of Far Harbor. The quest can also be started alternatively by going directly to the hotel and never talking with Pearl near Far Harbor.
Upon reaching the entrance of the hotel, Pearl mentions that the residents have been "rowdy" and that she had to get physical with some of them, as they were getting too "handsy," the residents having become feral ghouls including Fog ghouls. Pearl will lead the player character through the multiple levels of the hotel after finding that the elevator is not working, forcing them to take the long way around. Once at the end, she tells them to enter an elevator connected to the secure residence which is only to be used by the special guests.
After exiting the elevator, they will be prompted to speak to a Mister Handy named Maxwell through an intercom connected to the gear door of Vault 118. Once it's been opened, Maxwell escorts the player character to the crime scene, which is surrounded by Protectron guards as well as a couple of the Vault's residents, who have become robobrains. The victim of the murder is identified as Ezra Parker, the owner of the hotel, and Maxwell asks them to examine the crime scene for clues. Three options for investigations are available: the broken brain incubator on the body, the murder weapon as a baseball bat at the end of a blood trail leading over to a couch, and a red paint can tucked behind a curtain near the murder weapon.
Bringing the murder weapon to Maxwell, he identifies it as belonging to one of the residents, Keith McKinney, though he recommends investigating every resident living in the Vault before making accusations.
Looking for clues[]
Questioning Julianna Riggs is rather fruitless, although talking to her husband reveals that he was a lead designer on the Robobrain project and the one who convinced everyone to put their brains into robot bodies. If one keeps talking to him about his research, they can eventually learn about the voice modulators which allow them to recreate their original voices.
Entering the McKinney residence will catch Keith and his partner, Gilda Broscoe, apparently discussing the murder and a plan to run away, but it turns out they are just rehearsing lines from a script. Afterward, Gilda will leave for the beach. Questioning Keith about the bat found at the murder scene will lead him to claim he's being framed, allegedly by the artist Santiago Avida.
Speaking with Santiago prompts a series of Charisma checks to convince him they are a fellow art lover; failing them will require following Santiago on a tour of his art pieces and giving opinions on each one. He will then reveal that Julianna and Ezra had some huge argument in the overseer's office, but he does not know what it was about since he was trying to ignore the commotion. He will refer the player to Gilda, the local gossip.
Gilda can be found on the vault's artificial beach behind the showers. After agreeing to hear one of her stories, she will be willing to tell the player what Julianna and Ezra were arguing about. According to Gilda, apparently it was something regarding finances, and Julianna found something in the overseer's office that set her off. The argument started when Julianna accused Ezra of something, but Gilda is not sure what that something is.
After hearing from Gilda, one will then have the objective to investigate the overseer's office, only to find it is locked. Speaking to Maxwell reveals that Ezra had the key, which can be find on a desk in his room. The office itself does not contain much, the only point of interest is to use the terminal and acquire, then listen to the holotape, which reveals that Ezra was embezzling funds from the vault construction fund, which is the reason the Vault's lower-class wing was not finished in time.
Going back to talk with Bert Riggs, passing a Charisma check gets him to reveal that Julianna has been acting very differently - so much so that Bert is convinced that she is not his wife. When confronted, "Julianna" will reveal that "she" is actually Ezra; after Julianna discovered Ezra's embezzlement, she threatened to tell the others, forcing Ezra to kill her. He then moved the body downstairs, set up the crime scene to fake his own death and modified his voice modulator to impersonate the dead Julianna.
After finding out the truth, one will have a decision to either take a bribe from Ezra or follow through with the accusation which will result in Ezra turning hostile and must be killed. If the Sole Survivor takes the bribe, they can still turn around and continue with the accusation. If the bribe is taken and Ezra allowed to roll away, this begins Brain Dead "Part 2."
Part 2[]
After completing Brain Dead and starting Brain Dead Part 2 immediately, two choices are available: one can quickly return to Maxwell in the theater and tell him about Ezra, causing the other robots to attack the murderer and kill him themslves. Otherwise, one can wait for Ezra to leave the vault. Once he is gone, upon returning to Maxwell and telling him Ezra is the killer, one can then use one of three lies: that Ezra got away, that they already killed him, or that it simply is over. No matter the choice made, Maxwell will pay for their work and complete the quest.
Quest stages[]
Brain Dead[]
Brain Dead, Part 2[]
Companion reactions[]
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Missing data (Ending of the quest, speaking with Maxwell)
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Notes[]
- It is possible for the quest to become softlocked if all the residents have been investigated, the overseer's office has been searched, etc. Preventing this requires fully examining the crime scene, as a single finding can continue many paths in the quest - even when the killer may already be known.
- It is important the true nature of the "blood" as red paint and pick up the murder weapon to the right of the stage. Finding either or both items should end the deadlock and enable them to confront a suspect.
- Being an investigative journalist herself, Piper will garner a fair amount of approval during if brought along during the investigation.
- Curiously, despite usually being opposed to stealing, Piper may quip that the hotel's rich inhabitants arguably would not miss some of their "nifty tech" while exploring the vault.
- The quest can be ended quickly by accusing Keith of being a murderer, causing him to become hostile. After killing him, all the investigation tasks will be finished and the Sole Survivor will have to do the final talk with Maxwell. Note that this prevents Brain Dead Part 2 from starting and identifying the true killer.
- It is not actually necessary to accuse Keith of murder, just ask more about himself a second time around, selecting questions about motive (but not the Charisma check assuming one has the letter). He will act as though the player accused him and turn hostile.
- Strong dislikes it each time the player flirts with Gilda and hates the Lover's Date option that lets the player get the Lover's Embrace perk with her.
Behind the scenes[]
In July 2016, the author of a Fallout: New Vegas mod called "Autumn Leaves" investigated the quest due to claims that much of Brain Dead was copied from his mod, due to both sharing similar details. Both are murder mysteries, both take place in a vault that is run by robots, they share many similar scenes and they have similar interior design. However, upon further investigation, the mod author came to the conclusion that, while inspiration may or may not have been taken, the quests are entirely different, due to entirely different themes, different writing, different plot, different music, and different voice acting.[1]
Bugs[]
Killing Ezra too quickly after the final conversation and refusing to let him go may start the quest Brain Dead Part 2 after he is already dead. In that case, the player is not able to finish the second part of the quest and the quest marker will remain over Ezra's remains. To avoid this one should wait until the second part starts before finishing him.[verified]-
It is possible for Pearl to become stuck at the elevators, without saying the line about them being out of order. Reloading or activating the elevator in the basement will fix the issue.[verified] - Maxwell may not answer after activating the vault door controls. Reload before going down the elevator. Then save just outside the elevator, after killing the ghouls. Next, enter the following in the console: ClearQuestAliases DLC03DialogueV118 followed by: SetQuestAliases DLC03DialogueV118. Finally, save, exit, and reload. The quest should continue when the vault door controls are activated.[verified]
- It is possible for Pearl to not enter the final elevator to the vault and stay above in the hotel. This prevents a piece of dialogue from her and a quest update just prior to opening the vault door. While the quest can appear to progress normally if this occurs, Maxwell and the other residents will eventually not respond to the player's questions breaking the quest. Reloading to a point before the last elevator and ensuring Pearl is near the vault door controls to trigger her update should resolve this.[verified]
- When attempting to speak to Bert or Julianna Riggs, a message may appear saying they are both busy, and thus they cannot be interacted with. Hitting their cat (alt), Scruffy, will fix this issue. Sometimes, Scruffy cannot be found. Hitting Bert two or three times will fix the issue as well. Doing so will not cause them to become hostile.[verified]
- Sometimes, when leaving via the elevator after Brain Dead Part 2, the elevator will start going up and never stop. Reloading from the last save and re-entering the elevator fixes the issue. [verified]
- The option to ask Bert about his suspicions about Julianna will not appear unless one speaks to Julianna before asking Bert. Try asking her about her thoughts first, but do not accuse her.[verified]
- Many of the NPCs become stuck on "This individual is busy."
References[]
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