By a Campfire on the Trail

By a Campfire on the Trail

You still need to learn much about your surroundings.  So how exactly did you make a Healing Powder again? 

QUEST REWARD:

QUEST OUTLINE:

1.0 Find a Broc Flower and a Xander Root.

1.1 Xander Root is found at the large tree trunk nearby Goodspring's Schoolhouse.

1.2 Broc Flower is found at Goodspring's Cemetary.

2.  Use the campfire to make Healing Powder. 

AREA ITEM LIST         

A. Programmer's Digest . . . []
B. Footlocker  . . . . . . . [] 
C. Bobby Pin . . . . . . . . [] 
D. Safe  . . . . . . . . . . [] 
E. Bobby Pin x2  . . . . . . []
F. Xander Root x3  . . . . . []
G. Broc Flower . . . . . . . [] 
H. Snowglobe - Goodsprings . []
I. Salesman Weekly . . . . . {}
J. Meeting People  . . . . . {}

USING YOUR PIP-BOY FOR FINDING LOCATIONS

By now, you'll need to do some exploring in order to find the Broc Flower and Xander Root that Sunny asked for.  Bring up your Pip-Boy and scroll to the World Map screen, located under "Data".  The Goodsprings Cemetery is located further north, so we'll explore the Goodsprings Schoolhouse first, which can be found northwest of your location.

Kill the two new enemies in front of the schoolhouse: These Giant Mantis Nymphs aren't very powerful, so a blast or two from your Varmint Rifle should do the trick.  Enter the schoolhouse through the eastern door (to avoid confusion, this means that you'll be *facing* west while entering the door).

Learning to craft on a campfire

OPTIONAL: EXPLORING GOODSPRINGS SCHOOLHOUSE

Reload your gun, as there are at least five Giant Mantis Nymphs in this room. After destroying them, grab the [PROGRAMMER'S DIGEST] from the desk next to the [FOOTLOCKER].  There's also a [BOBBY PIN] next to the Easy Terminal, which in turn opens the nearby [SAFE].  Here are, once more, some reminders on how to hack terminals and pick locks.

HACKING TIPS

You have four attempts each time you access a terminal before you get locked out after the fourth erroneous password attempt.  In other words, you have three 'free' tries every time you start up a terminal.  The goal is to select the correct password from the gibberish text.  Depending on how high your Science skill is, the easier hacking becomes.

Roughly speaking, there are three (combinable) methods for hacking terminals:

1. You try three 'free' attempts and back out of the terminal.  Simply try your luck once again and repeat this process until you've figured out the password.

2. Whenever you attempt a password, on the right part of the terminal screen it tells you how many letters you've got at correct places.  In other words, if you've got three letters correct, start looking for words that use similar letters in similar positions.  Grab a notebook and systematically stripe off any incorrect passwords.

Example: You attempted "FESTERS" and get 0/7 correct (nothing at all).  You can now say to yourself: Okay, all other passwords containing an F as the first letter will be incorrect, all passwords with an E as second letter are incorrect, etcetera.  Thus "SYSTEMS" would be incorrect as it contains an E on the fifth spot, and we know that this cannot be a possibility.

If you get 1/7 correct, you know that at least one letter is in the right position.  This doesn't help you that much, but if you can find any passwords that don't match *any* of the letters in the same positions (compared to "FESTERS", the password "SUCKING" does not contain an "F" at the first spot, not an "E" on the second spot, not a "S" on the third spot, and so on for all other letters.  Thus you can conclude that "SUCKING" is not your key inside the terminal. Not this time, at least...

If you get even more letters correct, such as 5/7 with the password "TESTERS", look for words that have various similarities, such as those ending with "TERS".

3. It's possible to replenish your attempts by looking for what I'd like to call bracket combinations.  These are brackets such as < >, [ ], () and { } which are linked when highlighted.  In other words, when you highlight one of these brackets, more than one character is highlighted, and everything between these brackets is also highlighted.  An example would be: {.,::&}. Selecting this can either replenish your attempts, or remove a faulty password from the possibilities.  It it wise to first attempt three passwords and then search for brackets, resulting in removing several duds and a possible allowance replenishment, greatly improving your odds.

If this doesn't help, either search for another bracket combination or back out of the terminal and try again.

LOCKPICKING TIPS

               EASY:               AVERAGE:               HARD:
            __________            __________            __________
           /::::|     \          / \:::|    \          /  \::|    \
          /:::::|      \        /   \::|     \        /    \:|     \
         / \::::|       \      /     \:|      \      /      \|      \
        |    \::|        |    |       \|       |    |                |
        |      \|        |    |                |    |                |
        |                |    |                |    |                |
         \              /      \              /      \              /
          \            /        \            /        \            /
           \__________/          \__________/          \__________/

 VERY EASY and VERY HARD have bigger and smaller "correct zones" respectively.

 ___________ _______________
|DIFFICULTY:|REQUIRED SKILL:|
|=-=-=-=-=-=|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=|
|Very Easy  |        0      |
|Easy       |       25      |
|Average    |       50      |
|Hard       |       75      |
|Very Hard  |      100      |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

You can only attempt more difficult locks when your lockpick skill has reached a certain leven.  For example, in order to pick average locks you'll need a lockpick skill of at least 50 , and for hard locks you need 75 .  The locks above indicate example ranges of where your bobby pin can be placed at in order to unlock the lock with the screw driver.  Placing the bobby pin correct is impossible without trial and error.  You know you're close to the correct position (or rather, "correct zone" as shown above) if you can turn the screw driver nearly 90 degrees vertical.  The further you can turn the screwdriver, the closer you are.

If you're haven't hit the right spot yet (and I could make a nice analogy here), adjust your BOBBY PIN (if you know what I mean) and turn it to a better position.  In other words, you can turn it left or right.  If you turn it to, say, the right, and you get the feeling the bobby pin starts to tremble sooner than before, you know the "correct zone" is the other way, and you can move closer.  Keep adjusting it until you hit the right spot and the treasures will be yours...  If you fail, your Bobby Pin *BREAKS*, and you'll have to try again, that is, if you have another Bobby Pin left in your .. pocket..

There's nothing of interest in the main classroom, but the storage room to the west contains [BOBBY PIN x2].  Exit the school building.

You can find the [XANDER ROOT x3] on the east side of the school building, buried in the ground nearby the large tree trunk.  Now travel to the far northeast, following your compass' quest marker.  Go past the Prospector Saloon and head uphill.  You might come across a Bark Schorpion around here, which is slightly tougher than the creatures you've faces thus far.  Fortunately, it's also slower, so keep your distance and you'll be more than fine.

The cemetary is actually located on top of the hill with the water tower.  There are several Bloatflies floating around, but these are easily dispatched.  Find the [BROC FLOWER] in the small tree to the east.  Before you head back to Sunny, enjoy the northeast sight; it's New Vegas!  Also carefully inspect the north-west part of the hill to find a [SNOWGLOBE - GOODSPRINGS] next to a small tombstone.  These can be collected and sold to a certain collector which we'll get to later.

While it's not necessary, you can fast travel to Goodsprings Source (where Sunny is waiting for you) by bringing up your Pip-Boy 3000's Worldmap and selecting the location you want to fast travel to.  Activate the campfire and select Healing Powder from the Recipe List.  After creating this, Sunny hints at a next part of a quest.  Fast travel to Goodsprings to find out what's up.  Enter the Prospector Saloon and talk to Trudy after she's done conversing.  The quest now ends, and a new one starts.  Inquire with her about all possible subjects before moving on; she'll even ask you to repair her radio.  Check out the supply room to the southwest and at least snatch the {SALESMAN WEEKLY} and {MEETING PEOPLE} from one of the crates.  There's also a floor safe here, but it's got a hard lock.

Note: If you have a Repair skill of 20 you can repair Trudy's radio behind the counter.  She'll hand you 50 Bottle Caps (or more with 20 Barter).