Do vampires dream of human blood? Of course! And what is about modern vampires from the Capital Wasteland who created their own gang inside one of the metro stations? Sounds interesting? That’s only one side quest from Fallout 3. It’s called Blood Ties and you want to dive into it for sure. This detective story with the confrontation of regular settlers and spooky hooligans is a wonderful way to meet the Capital Wasteland for any newcomer.
We offer a detailed walkthrough for the mission in this guide. Don’t read it before completing Blood Ties if you don’t want to face spoilers.
Mission start
You can dive into this story by finding Lucy West or Evan King. They are located in Megaton and Arefu, respectively. It’s also possible to start the mission by infiltrating into the Meresti Metro station and hacking the terminal there. So far as Megaton is the 1st large city you will locate, it’s logical to start from here. Lucy West is in following locations inside Megaton:
- Moriarty’s Saloon. The woman sits in this building often.
- Lucy West’s house. Most likely she will be inside at night.
- The streets of the city. It’s also possible to find Lucy exploring the city.
Anyway, you must start the dialogue and listen to Lucy’s story. She will reveal that her letters to parents remain unanswered. Lucy doesn’t worry too much but she asks you for delivering another letter to be sure that her family is OK. Accept this task and Lucy will tell you where Arefu is. It’s the place where her family lives. Obviously, you still have to travel there on your own without using the fast traveling option.
As for other starting locations, you can simply locate Arefu to face mentioned above King. He will give you a new task of exploring the settlement to reveal evidence of a crime. The last way to start the mission is to find Meresti Metro station, however, it’s pretty difficult. Vampires live there but they are friendly. Reveal their mysteries by hacking terminals to activate the mission. It doesn’t matter how you start is as only the number of side tasks is affected.
Arefu settlement
If you find Lucy West firstly, the main task is to find Arefu. Leave Megaton and go directly northwest. You should pass your native Vault 101 and then find Vault 106. Continue moving northwest from there until you see the large bridge. Arefu is located there! Upon your arriving Mr. King will greet you with a single grenade or rifle shot. Ignore it as the entire settlement is still friendly. Just talk with Evan to get new objectives.
This NPC reveals that Arefu is being threatened by strange bandits called The Family. Evan cannot leave his outpost, so he asks for checking buildings in Arefu. There are only 3 houses which aren’t locked:
- Ewer house. Rude man and insane woman live here but they are peaceful. Everything here is OK and you will not find any clues.
- Schenzy house. Only one woman live here and she is pretty informed about the world around. This residence is safe similar to the Ewer house.
- West house. This residence is exactly the crime scene. Rooms are in the blood and two corpses lay down on the floor. It’s clear that bodies relate to Lucy West’s parents but there is no trace of another their child, Ian West. You can explore corpses to find out interesting evidence depending on your level of Medicine.
Find your friend King and report to him about this case after finding bodies in West. Evan will mark 3 places to help you in locating vampires and Lucy’s brother. If your Medicine has 90+ points invested, Evan reveals the 4th place where the gang actually hides. If you unlocked Scoundrel perk you can come back to Lucy and ask her for extra 100 caps.
The Family
Good guy in Arefu will note 3 places:
- Hamilton’s Hideaway.
- Moonbeam Outdoor Cinema.
- Northwest Seneca station.
You can completely ignore first places or visit them just to find enemies and loot. However, the last place is the key to real vampire’s shelter. Friendly ghouls with cool items live inside the 3rd location from the previous list. Stealing these valuables will make ghouls hostile and reward you with bad karma. Otherwise, ghouls will guide you through this place.
Spot the manhole in the room with dangerous barrels behind ghouls and enter it. Be aware of numerous traps in the following tunnel. There are mines, shotguns, grenades etc. Try to survive in this deadly corridor to reach the entry to the Meresti Metro station. It’s guarded by a single vampire. There are a lot of options in the dialogue with him:
- Give the letter from Megaton.
- Take a Speech check to safely enter.
- Select a unique phrase offered by Cannibal perk.
- Pay 100 caps.
- Kill Robert.
Note that killing the guard means every NPC inside will be hostile as well. We strongly recommend completing this mission in a peaceful way without kill at all. But it’s only your decision so far as eliminating vampires will award you with a lot of valuable items.
The correct location can be accessed from the Meresti trainyard. Evan will mark this place if your Medicine is 90+. You can locate it on your own heading west of Agatha’s house. That way has much fewer traps.
Ian West
Your main goal, for now, is to find Ian West. If you entered the location of vampires peacefully, then everybody here will be glad to talk with you. Otherwise, all NPCs will immediately attack you. Ian is located in his own meditation room which has a combination lock. Choose one of the options to discover the correct code:
- Talk with Vance. This man is quite pleasant and he just tries to help his mates to overcome their cannibalism. Vance gives you the combination only after taking a check or after selecting a unique phrase from Cannibal perk. You can read rules of this gang and return to Vance after fail check. Then he also gives you the correct code.
- Talk with Alan. The only NPC which has not special checks. He doesn’t know the code, instead, he will claim that Justin knows more about Ian.
- Talk with Justin. In the conversation with this man, you can both take a Speech check or select a specific option which is available with Impartial Meditation perk unlocked.
- Talk with Karl. Seduce this NPC either with a high level of Strength or with Black Widow perk. Note that the last option works only for female characters.
- Talk with Brianna. This woman can be convinced by activating dialogue options from Lady Killer perk which is available for male characters. As well, you can use Scoundrel perk or simply have a high level of Charisma.
- Talk with Holly. Vance’s wife is immune to Lady Killer perk but you still can convince her with high Charisma or enable Scoundrel perk.
- Kill Vance. This decision will instantly make all vampires hostile. Each kill, in this case, leads to bad karma as well. Ian West isn’t affected by this decision until you are being respectful of Vance’s death.
- Force Vance to attack. Be aggressive and rude while speaking to the vampire. The result of dialogue is the same, so vampires attack you. However, kills will not decrease your karma but you still can loot bodies for cool items.
The code can be then obtained from Vance’s body. You can hack the terminal without talking to anybody, just with a high level of Hacking. Anyway, you must enter Ian’s room to talk with the boy. He claims that The Family didn’t kidnap him and that’s only his decision to move here. You can ask Ian for returning in Arefu. Just show the letter from Lucy or take a Speech check. It’s also possible to leave Ian, so he will stay with vampires. Note that any decision will merge two fractions in the single one, so, for example, killing Vance will turn hostile both members of Arefu and The Family.
Final agreement
At last, you must talk with mate King again and tell him about your adventures. A lot of good karma is the reward despite the exact result. There is another side objective for cool rewards. After Ian chose his way, you can speak with Vance again and ask him for protecting Arefu. The man will instantly accept not attacking citizens but you must have a high level of Intelligence, Medicine or Speech to convince him of cooperating with settlers.
According to the ending, you can obtain these rewards:
- Schematics of Shishkebab – after the final conversation with Vance.
- Hematophage perk – after successful cooperation between both sides of the conflict. This can be unlocked after another dialogue with Vance.
- A bottle of alcoholic drink – after final dialogue with Mr. King.
- A tin can – after final dialogue with Mrs. Ewers.
- A discount on repairs – after final dialogue with Ken Ewers.
- New marks on the map – after final dialogue with Karen Schenzy.
Congratulations, you have finished Blood Ties and revealed the mystery of post-apocalyptic vampires!
