The Brotherhood of Steel have been a staple of the Fallout series since its first entry, with some spinoff games entirely centered around them. The Brotherhood was built from the remnants of the U.S. military. They operate under a strict hierarchy with Elder Maxon currently at the lead. They are infatuated with pre-war technology while simultaneously being concerned with the dangers of technology. This is one reason they feel the Institute needs to be destroyed. They are developing technology that could be incredibly dangerous to the Commonwealth.
In general, they are against any life form that is not human. This includes ghouls, super mutants, and especially synths. They believe themselves to be saving humanity from the horrors of the wasteland. In a sense they are a force for good, and they truly do want to help people. However, they will do this through any means necessary. They completely disregard the potential rights of the aforementioned groups. They will even kill people for associating with those groups.
How to Find and Join the Brotherhood of Steel.
Reville
This quest is not necessary. After the main story quest “Reunions”, you will see the Brotherhood of Steel ship called the Pryden flying across the Commonwealth. If you have not previously completed the Brotherhood quest “Fire Support”, then this quest will become available.
The quest will ask you to investigate the ship at the Boston Airport. When you arrive, a Brotherhood Knight will tell you to meet the Brotherhood at the Cambridge Police Station.
Sometimes you will get the quest, but the marker will not show up at the Boston Airport and the Knight will not speak to you. All you need to do is travel to the Cambridge Police Station to complete the quest.
Fire Support
Somewhere around Lexington, you will pick up a radio signal named “Military Frequency AF95”. If you listen to it, you will hear a distress signal coming from the Cambridge police station. This will start the quest and mark the Cambridge Police Station on your map. You may also find the Brotherhood in the quest “Reveille” mentioned above.
When you arrive, you will find Brotherhood of Steel members fighting off several ghouls. Assist the Brotherhood and speak to Paladin Danse. He will introduce you the Brotherhood and his team, but he will not yet make you a member.
Call to Arms
Once you’ve become somewhat acquainted with the Brotherhood of Steel, Paladin Danse will ask you to go on a mission with him to prove your worth. You will be in search of a deep range transmitter at Arc Jet Systems. Paladin Danse will lead the way with only some minor resistance.
The power inside the building will not be functional, so the elevators will not work. You will need to get to the bottom of the building to the reactor room. Be prepared to fight an army of synths. You will reach a column that leads down, but the stairway will be destroyed. You will have to go up and find your way around.
Once at the bottom, you will find the reactor room. You also need to access a terminal in the room that will allow you to start the auxiliary generators to turn the power back on. When leaving the room, you will find that more synths are in the engine core area fighting with Paladin Danse. At the terminal, you will be able to activate the engine rocket to kill all the synths inside. This will not kill Danse or turn him hostile. Afterwards you can speak to Danse to make sure he is ok.
You can now take the elevator up to the control room. After clearing the synths inside, you will find the transmitter. All you have left to do now is head back to the police station.
Semper Invicta
This quest will involve completing at least one mission for both Scribe Haylen and Knight Rhys. I recommend completing these before you continue, as you will not be able to receive the Brotherhood’s T-60 power armor until you have done so.
Scribe Haylen will give the quest “Quartermaster”. You will travel to some location in search of a piece of technology. Knight Rhys will give the quest “Cleansing the Commonwealth”. You will have to go to some location and kill whatever enemies are there.
Shadow of Steel
This quest is all about becoming acquainted with the Brotherhood headquarters. Once you are ready, Paladin Danse will take you on a vertibird ride across the commonwealth to their main ship, the Prydwen. The point of the trip is for you to meet Elder Maxon. When you arrive, Lance-Captain Kells will give you a short debriefing on the Brotherhood. From there, you will find Elder Maxon addressing some of his soldiers. You will learn a bit more about the Brotherhood from these two meetings. After Maxon’s address, speak to him personally and he will officially make you a knight of the Brotherhood of Steel.
Major Quests
All you need to do here is meet four of the Brotherhood’s important crew members. Proctor Ingram is their mechanic, and if you have become a knight, she will give you your power armor. It will be in the same room as her in bay 3. Proctor Teagan is the Prydwen’s merchant. Proctor Quinlan is the head of research and collects documents for their archives. Knight-Captain Cade is the ships doctor.
Show No Mercy
This will be your first mission as a Brotherhood of Steel Knight. Elder Maxson will tell you about a super mutant base called Fort Strong. He will tell you to ride in a vertibird gunship to the fort.
This part involves multiple common glitches. There should be two Vertibirds. One that takes you to the airport, and one that is the gunship you need to board. The second Vertibird may not appear. You can try saving and reloading the save to make it appear. If not, look below the Prydwen. It may be in the water directly below. If the vertibird does show up where it’s supposed to, you may not receive the prompt to enter it. Once again, you can try leaving and coming back or saving and reloading. If you cannot get the button prompt to show up, you can travel to Fort Strong by foot. The game will skip the Board the Gunship objective and move on to the next set of objectives.
At the Fort, there will be super mutants along with a behemoth. The behemoth will take a ton of damage before going down. Once the outside is cleared, you will have to go inside and secure the Fort. The fort is going to be full of mutants as well, and there will be some legendaries. Pay attention as you move through the fort, as there are several mininukes for you to scavenge. Once you have cleared the fort, Paladin Danse will be standing near the elevator waiting for you to speak with him.
From Within
This quest, along with “Outside the Wire”, will only be given if you work with the Brotherhood during “The Molecular Level”. Elder Maxon will tell you to convince Dr. Madison Li to return to the Brotherhood.
When you arrive at the Institute, do not make them hostile towards you yet. After meeting with Father, he will tell you to meet their four department heads. Dr. Li will be found in the Advanced Systems Lab. After some conversation, she will tell you that if you can bring her evidence of what happened to her friend Dr. Virgil, she will come with you. She will not believe you when you tell her you have met him before, so you will have to investigate anyway.
You will need to head to FEV Lab. You will find it in the bioscience labs. There are two entrances. One is locked by lasers, and the other by locked doors. The one locked by lasers will be accessible by a terminal on the other side. You can pick the lock on the other door.
Inside you will find the remnants of extensive super mutant testing. In the main area, with the suspended super mutants, you will find Dr. Virgil’s holotape explaining what happened. Retrieve this and bring it back to Dr. Li. You will also find the serum requested by Dr. Virgil in the lab. After Dr. Li listens to the tape, she will agree to rejoin the Brotherhood of Steel.
Outside the Wire
Proctor Engram will give a network scanner holotape before you teleport to the Institute for the first time. When you arrive at the Institute you must find a terminal and insert the holotape. When you leave the terminal, you will have the data needed. Simply give the holotape to Proctor Ingram back at the Airport.
Liberty Reprimed
Fans of Fallout 3 will be excited for what this quest entails. The wasteland’s best communist killer needs to be turned on the Institute. It is in need of heavy repairs though. First, you will have to convince Dr. Li to work on it. You can find her on the Prydwen. Afterwards, you will have to travel to a hospital in search of a high-powered magnet. A random hospital will be marked on your map. Once inside, just follow the waypoint. Once you return you will have to build four actuators using the airport’s workshop.
You will next need to secure enough nuclear weapons to arm Liberty Prime. You will be sent to a small outpost on the edge of the Glowing Sea led by Scribe Haylen. She will give you a distress pulser to signal them when you find the stockpile. The stockpile will be located in a bunker far into the Glowing Sea, so bring plenty of radaway, rad-x, and your power armor.
Once inside, you will need to make your way to the bottom of the facility. There will be an elevator to your right. You should find a tunnel, and this will lead you to the stockpile. You will find that the Children of the Atom have designated this a holy site. You may be able to convince them through charisma to let you inside. If not, you can kill them and access the terminal. Inside just place the distress signal inside and return to Ingram. When you leave the stockpile room, there will be a lift to your left.
When you arrive at the airport, Proctor Ingram will give you the honors of activating Liberty Prime. He will turn on, move his limbs, and go through some dialogue.
Blind Betrayal
Elder Maxon will inform you that Proctor Quinlan has determined Paladin Danse to be a synth and to be in exile. He will order you to find and kill him. Quinlan will give you a list of locations to search, but if you sympathize with Scribe Haylen, she will tell you where he is.
You will find him in the Post Bravo bunker. He will request that you follow orders and kill him, but you can try to talk him out of it through speech checks. Whether you convince him to flee the Commonwealth or not, when you leave you will be confronted with Elder Maxon standing outside the bunker. If you spared Danse, Maxon will order you to kill him. Once again, you may be able to convince Maxon to spare Danse through speech checks. If you are unsuccessful, you will still have to execute him. When you return to the Prydwen, Elder Maxon will make you the new Paladin and give you Danse’s old power armor.
Tactical Thinking
The Railroad aims to help the mutants and synths, which makes them a thorn in the Brotherhood’s side. It is time to assault the Railroad HQ. You will be tasked with killing their primary members. As for P.A.M., you can either kill her or insert a holotape to into her terminal to repurpose her for the Brotherhood.
You will have to enter through the Old North Church. You will have plenty of backup. To be honest, the Railroad does not put up a formidable fight. The biggest point of resistance will come from Glory with her minigun.
Spoils of War
You will need to find a beryllium agitator at the Mass Fusion building to finish work on Liberty Prime. You will fly there with Ingram, and mow down synths on the roof of the building. You will then drop in and clear out the roof. You will find the elevator keycard in a desk on the second floor.
After descending to the main lobby, you will have to find a way down. You can follow the marker to the terminal to turn the power on or unlock a door you will find to your left and make your way down manually
Once you reach the reactor room, you will have to enter the decontamination room. Use this time to pop some rad-x. Quickly go up the stairs and retrieve the agitator. This will cause turrets to come online. Destroy them and reenter the decontamination area. A small army of synths, including a sentry bot, will come after you. You will then have to make your way to the lobby through a separate elevator. You can help the Brotherhood defeat the remaining synths in the lobby, or you can exit the building right away.
Ad Victoriam
This quest is a satisfying and funny escort mission of Liberty Prime. There will be a lot of enemies along the way, but you don’t have to worry about them. You can simply watch as Liberty Prime throws nukes and lasers at them.
There will be a moment when he crosses a river. If you are in power armor, you can follow the road and jump off the broken bridge. You will only have to traverse a small amount of water, so you won’t drown. Follow the road around to the vertibird.
There will be a major shootout at the CIT. Afterwards Liberty Prime will make an opening for you into the Institute.
The Nuclear Option
Upon entering the Institute, you will need to make your way through the abandoned area which you can find near the elevator. When you reach the center area, you will have to take the elevator to Father’s area. You can override the lockdown on his terminal. You will find Father laying down near the terminal. You can have one last conversation with him. You can leave him, try to convince him to help you, or kill him yourself.
You will then take the elevator back down and proceed to the reactor room. There will be more combat, including a legendary synth. Once they are destroyed, open the reactor door and place the charge. You will be teleported to the relay room where you will meet the synth Shaun. You can leave him to die or save him. You will not be penalized for leaving him to die. You will be teleported to the detonation site. When you’re ready, flip the switch and watch the Institute go up in flames.
A New Dawn
Back at the Prydwen, Captain Kells and Elder Maxon will promote you to Sentinel, the highest rank for a Brotherhood soldier. They will also give a jet pack mod for your power armor. From here, you can continue exploring the Commonwealth and completing missions.
Minor Quests
Quartermaster: This will be given by Scribe Haylen. It is a repeating quest that will send you to different locations to retrieve some piece of pre-war technology. Generally, you will have to fight through some amount of enemies until you find the tech.
Cleansing the Commonwealth: Knight Rhys will send you to various locations with the mission of clearing all enemies. This quest is also repeating.
The Lost Patrol: Kells will send you to find a lost recon team. There will be three locations where you must follow a distress signal to the remains of the team members, listen to a holotape, and head to the next. The third location will be a large super mutant camp. At the end you will find the remaining member, Paladin Brandis. If your charisma is high enough, you may be able to convince him to come back to the Brotherhood. Either way, you will find a fusion core and some supplies inside his bunker. You will receive a legendary chest piece for completing the mission.
Leading by Example: Simply talk to the young boy and take him on the mission. You will be assaulting a super mutant base.
Blood Bank: After taking the quest, you will occasionally find samples in the inventory of slain ghouls. You will be paid for turning them in.
Papers Please: You will find the technical documents in random lootable places throughout the Commonwealth. You will be paid for turning them in.
A Loose End: You can get away with lying to Captain Kells if you wish to spare Virgil. You can also just never complete the quest, as it is not necessary to the main Brotherhood questline.
Duty or Dishonor: When following Clarke, be sure not to follow too closely. When deciding his fate, no option will alienate you from the Brotherhood. If you want to kill all the ghouls, you will have to kill him though.
Learning Curve: Incredibly simple and easy escort mission.
Feeding the Troops: You can deal with the settlements however you wish, but if they are your settlements, you may want to be as kind as possible.
Reactor Coolant: This will only be available after completing the Brotherhood of Steel main questline. The materials needed are anti-freeze bottles, dirty water, gas canisters, and nuclear material. Anti-freeze canisters are quite rare, so it may take time to stockpile it.
