MacCready was born in 2265. He has served as the mayor of Little Lamplight for three years (since he was 10), when he was chosen by the other residents due to his smarts, toughness, and the fact that he doesn't take guff from anyone. He has no fear of adults and is a perfect representative. He is belligerent, small (even for his age), very distrustful of adults, and willing to blow someone's head off to defend his young charges, but MacCready is also very loyal to those he considers friends.[1]
MacCready came into office in 2274[2] shortly after the five-minute rule of Princess. According to Sammy, when Princess demanded the title of Mayor to be changed to Princess, MacCready punched her in the nose and said that the children of Lamplight needed a leader, not a princess. He was then elected to the position of Mayor.
Unlike most of the residents of Little Lamplight, who tend to remain in a specific area, MacCready wanders around the whole town. He doesn't seem to adhere to a scheduled or fixed location path.
During the decade between 2277 and 2287, MacCready ended up marrying Lucy (Fallout 3) and had a son with her named Duncan. At an unknown point in time, feral ghouls killed Lucy while MacCready fled with Duncan. Some time later, Duncan contracted an unknown disease, prompting MacCready to travel to The Commonwealth to find a cure.
He was employed by the Gunners for some time but left - and ever since, has been hounded by them for money. He is still skilled with rifles and can make precise head shots. When the Sole Survivor meets him in The Third Rail, he's talking with two Gunners. After they leave, he can be hired as a companion for 250 caps (can be persuaded down to 200).
After becoming good friends with him and completing his quest; he will give you the Killshot perk, which grants a 20% accuracy boost for head shots in VATS.
Picking Up the Trail/Rescue from Paradise: When first met, MacCready will threaten to shoot you unless you leave the Little Lamplight cavern entrance. The Lone Wanderer has to pass a difficult speech check, use the Child at Heart perk, or complete the Rescue from Paradise quest in order to gain entrance to Little Lamplight. After gaining entrance to Little Lamplight, the Lone Wanderer will have a new dialogue path with MacCready which reveals the entrance to Vault 87 through Murder Pass.
Fungus Deal: After speaking with either Eclair or Lucy, the Lone Wanderer can convince MacCready to enter a trade agreement: swapping either strange meat (to Eclair) or Buffout (to Lucy) for cave fungus.
Those!: The Lone Wanderer can convince MacCready (using the Child at Heart perk) to accept Bryan Wilks into Little Lamplight.
Speaking to MacCready in quick succession too many times will raise his ire. Eventually he'll refuse to talk to you and will tell you to leave Little Lamplight. Although you can still talk to him, you must wait 24 hours.
Long Road Ahead: MacCready asks the Sole Survivor to help him take care of the Gunners who were harassing him, and later, to help him find a cure for his son...
MacCready can join the Sole Survivor as a companion for a price of 250 caps. He can be bargained down to 200 or 100 caps, depending on the size of the Sole Survivor's caps purse, though the latter persuasion attempt is very demanding.
If MacCready likes the player character enough he will give the perk Killshot, which boosts hit percentage for heads in VATS by 20% and may be bugged to go even higher.
He will occasionally give you few ammo of random types, including fusion core.
He and Cait are the only companions in the game that will steal for you; this can be used as an exploit as they are able to steal items undetected right in front of people.
Commanding MacCready to enter power armor can prove difficult, especially in tight spaces. This is due to his AI being unable to find a path to the back of the armor frame.
Caution: He will dislike when opening the cell door after Lorenzo's death, assuming you freed him. This can be avoided by having MacCready wait outside the cell area or dismissing him, and then waiting for him to leave via the elevator.
If taken to Nate/Nora's corpse in Vault 111, he will say "Hey, I'm really sorry. We don't have to be here if you don't want to...I...I'll leave you alone."
When he is your companion, upon talking to him he will give you some random ammo; ranging from one 10mm rounds to a fusion core.
Every time he enters power armor, he will unequip its helmet and place it into his inventory. You can force him equip the helmet again through trading, from then on he won't try to unequip the headpiece until he enters a new set of power armor.
Once idolized, MacCready gives the player a wooden soldier toy, a gift from his wife - Lucy. This highly suggests that she's the same Lucy from Little Lamplight, as they knew each other since childhood.
Whitechapel Charlie's quest is a great way to farm likes from him. Starting the quest, checks for more caps, picking owned locks on the warehouse, and stealing in the warehouses all boost his affection.
As an adult, MacCready makes attempts to curb the cursing habit he has as a child. Occasionally, he will stop himself mid-sentence after using vulgar language.
During Duty or Dishonor, MacCready hates it when you agree not to kill the ghouls and/or to let Initiate Clarke go free. This is presumably related to the fact that ferals killed Lucy.
MacCready likes it when you pass the speech check to enter Covenant.
"R.J. MacReady" is the protagonist from the 1982 John Carpenter horror film, The Thing. played by Kurt Russell, MacReady, like his Fallout 3 counterpart, is a no-nonsense, resourceful survivor who rises to a leadership position among his peers to deal with the threat of a shape-shifting alien.
The quote "Let's be careful. No human being would possibly pile books this way." is referring to a line said by Bill Murray's character, Peter Venkman, in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters.
pc Mayor MacCready is prone to disappearing. He tends to wander into obscure and dark corners. He may appear near the front gate if you go outside and fast travel back to town, or standing on the platform where he first stood when he let you into town. You can move to his current position with the console command player.moveto 0000313b. [verified]
pc Sometimes MacCready will not give you the option to open the gate, even if you are at that point and have followed the advice outlined in this wiki. One way to make sure that this does not befall you is to click all of the grayed out speech options when speaking to MacCready. The dialog option to open the gate comes after a line that is often grayed/dimmed. [verified]
pc It's possible for MacCready to not open the gate after being instructed to do so. He will run to it, and climb up to the catwalk but will not activate the switch to raise the gate. This is because the scripted sequence requires Princess to be on the other end, and she may not run with MacCready to perform this function. Short of using the console to activate the gate/toggle clipping, the solutions are to: use the other entrance, reload from a previous save, or attempt to move Princess in range of the event with the console command prid 000185d5 followed by moveto player. [verified]
pc Doing DLC quests before opening the path will end "Picking Up the Trail" resulting in Macready's and Joseph's dialogue options to vanish and making entry into Vault 87 impossible. The only solution is to resort to a save that still has "Picking Up the Trail" as an active quest, and redo whatever progress has been lost or to use the console command ResetQuest 00014e8c and go to the Citadel to start the quest again. [verified]
In the quest The Secret of Cabot House MacCready will not realize Lorenzo is dead and will dislike you for opening his cell door, thinking you freed him. This bug can be avoided by dismissing MacCready and waiting for him to leave via the elevator (It is possible to sleep in Lorenzo's bed to pass the time quickly). [verification needed]
His perk might add 2000% chance instead of 20%, this result in 95% accuracy for headshot at max V.A.T.S. distance with minigun.
↑The Fallout 3 Official Game Guide states he came into office "two years ago at 10 years old", contradicting his in-game dialogue where he states he has been mayor for three years.
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