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For the location, see GNR building plaza. For the radio station, see Galaxy News Radio (radio). |
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Galaxy News Radio is a main quest in Fallout 3. It is also an achievement on the Xbox 360 and PC; and a bronze trophy on the PlayStation 3. The quest involves retrieving the communication relay dish from the Virgo II Spacecraft in the Museum of Technology and installing it at the top of the Washington Monument.
Quick walkthrough
| Main/Side Quest: Galaxy News Radio | |||||
| Find the Museum of Technology | |||||
| Retrieve the Communications Relay Dish | |||||
| Find the Washington Monument and repair the relay | |||||
| Speak to Three Dog about Dad | |||||
| Reward: 400 EXP | |||||
| Leads to: Scientific Pursuits | |||||
Detailed walkthrough
Quest start
The quest may be given immediately after meeting Three Dog.
Commonly, completing the Megaton portion of the main storyline quest Following in His Footsteps, by Three Dog will offer you information about your father, in exchange for restoring the satellite relay dish for Galaxy News Radio. Accepting his offer to start the quest immediately, or failing the speech check, begins the quest on those terms.
Succeeding at the speech check makes this an optional quest, with the reward being the location of a weapons cache. The cache still exists if Three Dog does not give the information, and its location is near that of the Blood Ties quest, which can be started in Megaton.
Find the Museum of Technology
Three Dog will give directions to (place map markers for) the Museum of Technology and the Washington Monument. A door leading north in the Galaxy News Radio building leads downstairs, with a one-way door to the northern section of Dupont Circle and the Metro Junction entrance; the Metro is the only access to the Museum and the Monument. There is a quicker southern route to the objective as well (see notes), particularly suitable for those who pass the speech check.
Retrieve the Communication Relay Dish
Inside the Museum of Technology you need to find the Virgo II Lunar Lander, which is located in the West Wing of the building. You can obtain this information from a terminal in the Atrium to the right of the entrance when you come in. Note however that the place is crawling with super mutants. Your goal is to reach the West Wing going through the Vault-Tec demonstration vault, upstairs. You can also attempt retrieving Jiggs' loot using the Museum Information terminal in the Atrium.
In the west wing, locate the Virgo II Lunar Lander. The west wing is divided into 3 areas: the Planetarium, the Delta IX Exhibition, and the Virgo II Exhibition. Be ready for a fight as all these areas are patrolled in some way by super mutants. You need either a Science skill of 25 or Lockpick skill of 50 to get through the Planetarium. So if you do not have those stats it's recommended that you go through the Delta IX rocket exhibit.
Once you've found the Lander and cleared all hostiles, grab the dish by interacting with the Lander and make your way to the exit; note that you must aim your crosshairs at the dish, not just any part of the lander, for this to work.
Safe passage
If you are doing the main quest in order without going for supplies then you may be a bit underleveled, especially if you are playing on Normal or higher. Even if this is the case, it is still possible to get to the Museum of Technology relatively unharmed. Opposite the GNR Plaza is a building (which if you followed Sarah Lyons you would have already been through). Sitting on one of the windows is a hunting rifle and some ammunition, which is all you will need. Head out through the back door to Dupont Circle and straight across the street to the Metro Junction. Travel through this area, killing the feral ghouls (which only require 2 headshots on normal). Once exiting, there will be a feral ghoul and a feral ghoul roamer which carries a blue pass card. Down the road, you will see a raider camp which makes the journey quite a lot harder than it should be. Luckily however, there are some ghouls near the next metro station which you can easily lure back to engage in combat with the raiders, buying you an excellent distraction.
Head into Dupont Circle station (in sneak) to engage in battle with 2 super mutants. The best way to go about this is run straight across (taking some damage) and open then close the doors you need to go through. This will stall the super mutants and get you just enough time to run straight through the small raider camp and maybe even make the two parties engage in battle. If you focus on the Mutants during the battle, then you will have to deal with them for a shorter time (it's a given that the raider will die). If you have a Stealth Boy (possibly from the super mutant behemoth killed earlier) you can also use it to evade the Mutants. After passing through the railroads, there's a small enclosure with a raider, but also some valuable first aid supplies. You'll come to a dungeon with a large amount of raiders. If you have 50 Science you can hack the terminal to change the nearby turrets trajectory, killing a few of the raiders. If not, you'll have to either kill them all or sneak past them. After this you will come to a Utility Gate with a (hopefully) injured raider which you can easily take out. Head on into Metro Central.
You'll come upon two raiders against two ghouls. Run straight past them into the station. Turn right immediately and just run straight down the tunnels. Ghouls will try to attack you, but it's not very hard to outrun them and they usually stop chasing you about halfway down. You'll run into a pack of vicious dogs but you can usually just run straight to the Museum station.
There is a feral ghoul roamer in here. He's on the stairs leading to the entrance. Sometimes he will glitch through the floor to attack the raider above him which he will usually kill. If not, you'll need to kill him as it's quite hard to get past him. The easiest way to kill him is to activate the switch, then use the pool table as a blockade between you while pumping him with headshots. Either way, activate the electrical switch to open the floor. Make sure to grab the Grognak the Barbarian on the table before heading into the tunnels. Be careful here, as there is a raider with a 10mm submachine gun a bit further into the tunnel, and can easily make mincemeat out of you while trying to attack him. Use the pillar as cover to avoid his shots and attack when you can. You can avoid the last few enemies by running up the escalator and exiting the station.
The Museum is almost directly to your right after you exit the station. Be careful as there are several super mutants in the area, so it's best to cut directly into the museum.
Find the Washington Monument
The mounted dish
Exit the Museum and head west for the Washington Monument. It is also in The Mall area and can be seen from the entrance of the Museum of Technology as a giant obelisk. There are Brotherhood guards stationed there and you'll need to use the terminal to open the security doors. The password is given to you in your notes at the beginning of the quest. Take the elevator to the top and interact with the radio equipment to install the dish. Finally, return to Three Dog at Galaxy News Radio to finish the quest.
Quest stages
Rewards
- 400 XP
- Information about James' whereabouts.
- You can receive an additional reward if you finish this quest after discovering your father's whereabouts from someone other than Three Dog, or by using a successful Speech check to have him tell you where your father is. In addition to good Karma, Three Dog compliments your dedication and then gives you a note titled "the weapons cache", the key to the weapons cache and the map marker for Hamilton's hideaway where the cache is located. The cache is behind a cell door in the northwestern-most area of the hideaway, behind some rubble. It contains a Guns and Bullets, a mini nuke, a Stealth Boy, a leveled helmet and armor as well as other random loot.
Notes
- Upon installing the relay dish, the player will be given +200 karma.
- Even though you are led to this quest through the main story line, it is one of the quests that can be skipped. You can retrieve the Project Purity Personal Journals from the Jefferson Memorial, go directly to Doctor Li at Rivet City, or even straight to Vault 112 in the basement of Smith Casey's garage, where James is imprisoned in a pre-War simulation, thus bringing about the quest Tranquility Lane. If you do elect to skip this quest, then you can always return to Three Dog and ask to help with the "good fight," and he'll offer you the quest.
- After you replace the satellite dish, the Galaxy News Radio signal increases in quality and can be heard all over the map. Tune into GNR and, shortly after you fix the dish, you'll hear Three Dog talk about the improved signal.
- It is possible to take an alternate route to the Museum of Technology and avoid the long metro trip. Exit the GNR building through the front entrance and make your way to Rivet City from the closest location you have already discovered by following the Potomac in the south-east direction. Across from Rivet City is the Anacostia Crossing Station, which connects directly to Museum Station.
- If you fail the speech check, or don't select it in dialogue, you can't get into the weapons cache in Hamilton's Hideaway. Even with killing him, the key will not be found when searching his body; however, if you find out where your father is before completely finishing the GNR quest (fixing the dish at the Washington Monument), Three Dog will give you the key as a reward, as he doesn't want you to walk away empty-handed for your effort. This is done by talking to Doctor Li in Rivet City about Dad or by going straight to Vault 112.
Behind the scenes
After the relay has been repaired, Three Dog makes a one-off broadcast which includes the phrase "you can't stop the signal." This is a tagline of Mr. Universe from the 2005 sci-fi movie Serenity. Mr. Universe broadcasts the truth, whether pleasant or not. This is similar to Three Dog fighting the "good fight".
Bugs
When first discovering Galaxy News Radio, the Brotherhood of Steel might not show up, and you are forced to fight all the super mutants, even the behemoth, by yourself, which can be very difficult at low levels. If you discover the whereabouts of your father from someone other than Three-Dog this will occur. [verified]- If you successfully pass the speech check which allows you to circumvent taking the Galaxy News Radio quest as a requirement for getting information on James, whenever you talk to Three Dog in the future, he will always respond with "Ready to make a deal?" and is under the misapprehension that you still "need" information on your father. Even if the player successfully completes all quests related to James and his story is completed, Three Dog will still only talk about taking on his "deal" and that without it, there will be "no dad." [verified]
- Sometimes, after you mount the dish, the front door to the Galaxy News Radio Station will be locked, and will need a "key." There is no way to get the key for the door, and, if you talk to the intercom, it will only repeat "Door's open. Quit buzzin me, willya?" This happens if you exit out the front door instead of the back door when Three Dog tells you to, or if you exit out the back door before or after you talk to Three Dog. [verified]
