With that bit of business done in Diamond City, it’s time to find Dogmeat outside of Kellogg’s House. Get him to sniff the cigar, then follow him out of Diamond City. This officially ends “Getting A Clue” and begins “Reunions” .

The Cigar Trail¶

Dogmeat will lead you south-west to an over-turned chair near a pond where a certain cigar can be found. Interact with it to “provide a clue” and Dogmeat will continue, heading west. Keep following him along some railroad tracks, disposing of some Mole Rats along the way, and eventually he’ll lead you down some stairs and show you the scene of a battle. Here you’ll find two bodies you can loot as well as a broken turret. The “clue” you are looking for here is the “bloodied bandages”, which is by the door leading up the nearby stairs to the north. Pick them up and Dogmeat will be on the trail again.

Continue up the stairs with Dogmeat and follow him along more railroad tracks. Kill a group of Feral Mongrels as you go, then further on dispatch a Stunted Yao Guai. Eventually you’ll reach a Waystation (south of Oberland Station, you’ve been here before). Dogmeat will lead you into a metal building and down some stairs. Disarm the Can Chimes at the bottom, then continue into a tunnel and follow Dogmeat to another chair with a bottle of Gwinnett Stout nearby, which is the next clue you need.

Catch up with Dogmeat now as he heads south, south-west out of the tunnel area and onto a bridge. Here you will be ambushed by Ghouls, so be ready to kill them as they reveal themselves. Past the bridge Dogmeat will turn west (you are by Forest Grove Marsh by the way - the Ghoul town, which figures…). Follow Dogmeat as he will eventually lead you to a destroyed Assaultron. Talk to the cyborg for info, learning that it was also tracking Kellogg and you are on the right track. Loot the place and continue on.

Follow Dogmeat as he continues west, then up a road to the north. He’ll eventually head off-road and uphill to the north-west, then west. When you reach a fence, grab some more “Bloodied Bandages”, but you can also search the nearby sign for a clue. It appears that your mercenary has hidden in Ft. Hagen. Dogmeat will soon stop at a blocked-up door, barking fiercely. Talk to him to confirm this is your destination and he will now leave, if he’s not your legitimate companion. Since you should have Nick with you, bid Dogmeat adieu (if you have Nick as a companion), as his job in tracking Kellogg is over.

Now… to find a way in. Head around the building (follow the walls to the back side) and you’ll see a ramp heading up to the roof. Be careful here, as you will come across turrets set up to stop you. Take them out tactically with hit-and-run VATS hits until they are destroyed (Nick makes a great distraction, by the way). Head up to the roof and continue following the path, taking down the turrets you find until you come to a hatch in the roof that lets you enter Ft. Hagen itself properly.

Fort Hagen¶

As soon as you enter, go into sneak mode and be ready to fight. You are going to face several Synth enemies here. There are also turrets in this area, to the west and the northeast room, so be careful of them and get ready to take them out as well. After taking out all the Synth enemies and turrets you can explore a bit. There is a bathroom back near where you entered that has a lock [Novice] for some health items. There is also an Ammo Box near a turret with a lock [Novice]. The most important thing here however is the copy of Guns And Bullets in the corner break room. It is on the corner of the table, so be sure to grab it. Can’t complain about that!

Once you are done looting, you need to head to the west to find the stairs downwards (it was guarded by a turret). Head down and you will see a Protectron being charged with a locked terminal nearby (it is a terminal [Novice]).

Go ahead and activate the Protectron for some help down in this area. He will start to head east and will get in a fight with some Synths. Be sure to beat him there if you want the extra XP from killing them yourself. Your goal once again is to take out every enemy on the floor and then we will go over what goodies there are to find. We should warn you though: there is a mine on the way to the south-west (by the big red pipe). You will have to make your way around to the south-west (and west) to continue through this area. Watch out for a turret as you go (it will be on your right as you enter a new room). Past that is a hole in the wall you can follow to come upon more Synths.

This room is actually noteworthy, for enemies and loot. It is a long room with a mine nearby that you should enter VATS with and target to destroy. You’ll have to kill the levelled Synth behind the pillar as well as the Laser Turret behind him. After this battle you should have cleared out all of the enemies on the floor, which means it is time to raid the place! This long room has an Army Trunk with a ton of ammo you can grab. There is also an [Advanced] Terminal in the middle of the room, which is used to control the turret. It also unlocks the Army Door nearby, so be sure to use it or have Nick do it if you can’t. Once the door is opened, you can enter it for some goodies as well as an ammo box [Novice] locked inside. Not too bad!

After that, unlock the chained door nearby and activate the elevator. Do not take the elevator quite yet (you will in a second), but go through the chained door and on the right in the room with the radio is a locked suitcase [Novice] you can open. Now feel free to explore this floor. Notable things here include the Chemistry Station in the south-east corner and the bathroom in the middle of the area with a First Aid Box. There is also a bunch of workstation cubby areas in the north-east corner that you should visit. In one of them you can find a Bobby Pin box and an safe [Advanced] with some decent stuff.

Now, if you noticed earlier, you have a path choice here: take the elevator or keep going down the stairs by the Protectron Charging Station. This is a false choice though: you have to take the elevator, but there’s some goodies to be found down the stairs so head down them first. On the way down the stairs you’ll come across a locked toolbox [Novice], but at the end of the path you’ll reach a chained door and a Commonwealth Exit. Now, if you want to you can leave this area and end up back outside, but just to the north is a “save room” with a bunch of good stuff and a Chemistry Station. That is if you haven’t found it already playing around outside.

Head back to the elevator and take it down now. Once you exit you can unlock the door on the left which leads back to the stair area you were just at (a nice shortcut). Down the hallway is a Machine Gun Turret. If you can, snipe it and stay in stealth for that critical bonus. If you take it out, there’s a good chance some Synths will come to investigate. There are two of them back there, so kill whoever shows up (you may not get two of them - you may only get one). As you head down the hallway though, watch out for an electric trap on the right wall that will send out several shocks to the area. Back up and wait it out. As you continue, note that the left side of this area has Armor and Weapon Crafting benches so use them if you wish. Head forward and head down the stairs you’ll find.

You’ll actually get a call from Kellogg at this point. He knows what you are here for. Heh. Watch out for the electric trap after opening the door (back away and wait it out). This small intersection coming up has a bunch of good stuff, such as Pulse Grenades , a first aid kit, and a [Novice] ammo lock. The right path is very dark, but only has some lockers. Go loot as you wish and head down the stairs, taking out the turret at the bottom of the stairs. You are now going to load into the “Fort Hagen Command Center”, which is your final destination.

Fort Hagen Command Center¶

At the start of this area note that there are three Synths down the hallway. Go ahead and sneak/snipe them if you can. One is melee and near the start while two are much further down the hallway and will shoot at you. Use Nick as a decoy and snipe them down if you can, or just rush up to them for much better accuracy and heal up afterward.

Continue down the hallway and follow the corner (the doors to the left and straight ahead are locked; we’ll get to these later). The first door after the corner to the left has some bunks in it. Check out the boxes under the bed in here for various goodies and note that there is a locked terminal [Expert] in here. Once you can get into the terminal, you can turn off the turrets in the area (a good idea), but note that the “Remote Door” option doesn’t do anything. Kind of a bummer, but you’ll see why in a bit.

Past the terminal on the right is a locker room. There is a locked door [Novice] here that you can pick to claim various junk and goodies. Continue on down the hallway and note the stairs on the left. There is a bathroom past the stairs, but there’s nothing worthwhile down there so head down the stairs and kill the two Synth enemies you find. The room on the left here has an office full of junk. The room on the right is some sort of machinery room, but there is a locked Toolbox [Novice] in the back if you wish.

Continue on the hallway and the next point of interest is the double doors on the right. There’s a first aid kit in here and a ton of medication (look on the shelves). Past that take the right-hand side and go down into the ultra-narrow maintenance hallway. There is a toolbox in the back that has a key item: the “Fort Hagen Armory Password”. They tried to hide it from you, but failed! Ha! Head back and now enter the door on the left to a cafeteria area. Lots of junk, but in the back between the two fridges is the Energy Weapons Bobblehead . Very nice! Picking this up causes two Synths to come and attack you, but you have a little bit before they get there - head to the back here and pick the Explosives Box [Novice] you find (the yellow box), then go out and deal with the Synths that attack you (one is levelled).

Continue on and there will be two more Synths coming up. Take them out and Kellogg will continue to ask you to leave as you keep advancing, which means you are on the right track. You will come up to a terminal here that will use the “Fort Hagen Armory Password” that you found. This opens up the armory, which needless to say has a ton of goodies! Inside are also two lock-picking opportunities: both the Security Gate [Novice] and the Toolbox [Novice] can be picked. The gate in particular has a Fatman inside, along with a ton of ammo and some random guns.

Outside the armory is a bedroom (Kellogg’s, supposedly). Inside you can check to the right of the bed for the U.S. Covert Operations Manual . There is also a terminal [Novice] that can control turrets that you shouldn’t need thanks to the earlier terminal Nick (or you) hacked. The door here leads to the bathroom, which you should check the mirror of and the locked First Aid Box [Novice] for items.

Continue onward, noting that the door on the right has a First Aid Box in the back and, behind another door in the washer room, you can find a Bobby Pin Box on the shelf. They are really giving you a lot of items (which you know what that means). You will soon come to a larger room that has a red ammo box in the middle (with a lock [Novice]) and a med kit on the right. Kellogg will tell his Synths to stand down at this point and ask to talk, opening the door here. As you can tell, this is a great time to save, as a boss fight is coming up.

Killing Kellogg¶

It should be noted that there are two ways of doing this fight: the diplomatic method and the, well, “easy way”. Perhaps you should call the easy way the “explosive way” because the easy way is taking that Fatman you found a little bit ago and using it to decimate Kellogg as soon as you enter the room up ahead and he shows up. No talking, no nothing, just shove a Mini Nuke down his throat and call it a day.

Perhaps you are a bit more chivalrous and wish to talk to Kellogg. Go ahead and approach him to talk. You can ask him some questions and learn where Shaun has been taken, but you don’t actually learn where he is. Kellogg isn’t about to share either and no matter what you do this is going to end in bloodshed… Time to take on one of your son’s kidnappers. Kellogg isn’t too strong on his own, which is probably why he’s got so much Synth backup. Once the fight starts the Synths will attack right away. If you have a powerful weapon and are sure you can take some hits, use VATS on Kellogg right away to greatly wound him, otherwise killing off the two Synth enemies isn’t a bad idea.

For his part, Kellogg is going to use his Stealth Boys to become invisible and will then try to get away from you while shooting at you. His shots are quite powerful, so be sure to heal if you get hurt too much or use some chems to boost your damage resistance or any other stat you wish (just be sure to keep that health up!). Despite using a Stealth Boy, you can still kind of tell where Kellogg is due to the distortion it causes, so you can shoot at him and target him in VATS again. If you used all your AP up right away, you can head to the upper left for a break to get out of the fire and recharge your AP before joining the fight again (Nick makes a great distraction!). When he is low on health, Kellogg will start to chuck grenades around the room, so be especially careful of those and get out of the way, preferably while still damaging him (bonus points if you can shoot any of them in mid-air using VATS!). Take out the synths and stay on Kellogg, putting an end to the “Legendary Mercenary”.

After you are done be sure to loot him for the “Kellogg’s Terminal Password” item, which is why you did not need to talk to him to begin with necessarily. Also take note of the note below, which may just cause you a re-start but with any luck it won’t. Of course there are a ton of goodies in this area. The right wall (from where you came in at) has an Army Box that you can loot for very good items, and there are all sorts of first aid and items in the middle area (near the terminal you are supposed to log into). There is also a copy of Robco Fun on the ground behind the terminal, which isn’t a skill book but “Includes the Pip-Fall Holotape game”, giving you a new game to play on your Pipboy!

Go ahead and use the computer terminal now and you will learn about the Institute and kellogg’s jobs, telling you just as much as if you had talked to Kellogg. Also be sure to open the doors from the terminal to make an easy way out for yourself. Once you are done with the computer, go ahead and discuss your findings with Nick, who unfortunately doesn’t have a lot to tell you of the place that made him. Grrr… he will recommend you “discuss your findings with Piper” back in Diamond City, which is your next objective. Go ahead and take the side doors to the nearby elevator and ride it up.

You have to open the door with the terminal nearby after riding the elevator up, but after you do that look up after going outside… Holy crap, that thing is a Brotherhood of Steel airship?! That is amazing. Witnessing this airship gives you the quest “Reveille” or “Shadow of Steel” , depending on your progress with the Brotherhood of Steel questline. If you’ve been following this guide, you should get the “Shadow of Steel” quest, which directs you to listen to “Military Frequency AF95”, which is the same broadcast that originally led you to Paladin Danse and company. It can wait for later, however. No sense in dealing with any of the factions anymore until you have to. You can now fast-travel back to Diamond City to go see Piper, but first, you might as well explore Fort Hagen and its environs while you’re here.