The best strategy here is to split your party into two
3-person groups with a Browning in each.  Send one of them around through your
original entry point to the power station's front door.  Bring both groups in
simultaneously to split the pacification bot's attention.  Its attack has a
stun effect that lowers your Perception and Intelligence, but the Brownings
don't need Perception to pump it full of .50 cal.  The Small Energy Cell
salvage isn't worth it, but the tactical experience you get from this fight
helps you handle the bigger fights to come.
 You can now head for the west avenue to clear it for more loot.  There should
be four humanoids remaining here: one behind a barricade to the west with two
hover bots for company, a melee humanoid that charges you from the north
depressions, a laser humanoid in a depression and a Vindicator to the north of
him.  Start with the melee, who will charge to his own doom fairly quickly. 
Now head to the west street and watch out for the hovers - Brownings or EMP
Pancor on burst are desirable here.  Swing north and stay covered to kill off
the last two robots on the level and collect a chest full of ammo, including
250 rounds of .50 cal.  Don't forget to grab the loot you already left in
front of the power station on your way out.  Incidentally, if you want to buy
any drugs off Kerr at the bunker, now is your last chance to do it.

17: Buena Vista
Objectives: Destroy the reactor, destroy the robot manufacturing plant
Promotions: none
Enemies: Humanoids w/ laser rifles, sniper rifles, flamers, and Vindicators,
 scurry bots, tank bot, security bots, and the Behemoth.
Contacts: none
Squad: 2-3 Big Guns specialists, the rest Energy Weapons specialists, trapper
Special Equipment: 2-3 Brownings and the Gatling Laser, 5 T86 Acid Sprayers
 from Junction City
Time: Day
Strategy: Kill bigger, badder robots in a labyrinth
Note: Your PIPBoy is useless in this mission to provide you with recon
 information or enemy radar because of radiation from the nuclear reactor.
Plan:
 If you've still been hanging on to a melee fighter for some reason, now is
the time to ditch him for someone useful.  The robots only get harder and
denser from here on out, and everyone in your party should either be using
Brownings or Energy Weapons at over 120%.
 You start the mission and should immediately notice that the complex you're
supposed to enter is protected by impassable laser walls on most entrances. 
The alley just southeast of you has a Vindicator humanoid and a friend for
easy kills, but it doesn't lead anywhere useful.  Head southwest to the
graveyard and destroy the scurries here.  Send a couple of your best snipers
through the gate into the corner enclosure, where a humanoid with a flamer is
waiting.  Stay next to the wall and snipe him to death, then use the southeast
wall as cover to take some shots at the four humanoids in the tent around the
corner.  When they're dead, send someone in to loot them and kill off another
scurry in the process.
 Proceed through the metal door and kill two more scurries hiding here.  The
pit surrounded by broken walls contains two grenadier humanoids, so use laser
rifles to keep your distance and keep firing until they're parts.  There's
more scurries at the rubble pinch that are compounded by the plasma humanoids
in the bunker to the south.  Kill the scurries quickly to focus your
attention, then proceed forward when the humanoids are dead to kill two
scurries and another pair of humanoids in the U-shaped pit at the corner of
the map.  In the pit, use the terminal to switch off the energy walls around
the complex.
 Before you go any further into the complex, backtrack to the west corner and
use the opening just to the north.  Kill off three scurries here, then focus
on the rest of the area.  Entering through here puts a fence between you and a
tank bot, which you can now waste at range without any danger to yourself. 
There's also a hover bot keeping the tank company which can't cross the fence.
The tank bot may bolt to the far corner when it starts taking damage, in which
case you can either accept a much lower chance-to-hit or pop the gate in the
fence open and go through on foot.  When you're done, loot the chest and
return to the U-pit.
 The opening to the north of you is now passable, so enter with Brownings
flanking the door to clear a few scurries.  Don't move forward until the
smaller threats are dealt with.  Behind the large laser wall is a Behemoth,
the nastiest robot in the game with essentially _two_ Brownings on the sides
of its head.  If you brought them, put all 5 mines just outside the lasers.
Send the weakest member (or longest-range member) of your squad toward the
small opening to the left to bring it out of hiding.  Hit it with everything
you've got and it should go down, but not lightly.  Station your troops in
front of the cage to make it step forward onto the mines, which should take a
chunk out of its HP.
 With the behemoth down, the small opening is unguarded and you can pass into
the chamber where Paladin Lancelot gave his troops their orders in the speech
at the beginning.  Line up your snipers with laser rifles right against the
door and use Science skill on the terminal to open it.  A turret at the bottom
of the ramp immediately opens fire with rockets, but at this range it probably
won't hit you at all.  Keep the laser rifles firing until the turret goes
down, then move forward cautiously.  Line up your snipers against the cover
wall facing south and appoint someone as cannon bait to move forward.  There's
a slough of security bots inside waiting to ambush you (two on the left side
of the entrance, two on the right, one behind the turret at the desk and one
in each far corner) but they're all Sneaking and won't show themselves until
you cross into the building.  As soon as they start firing on your bait, run
back to the snipers' cover, bringing a few of the bots with you.  Don't let
your big guns chew up your bait.  Move forward into the room slowly until
you're sure that all 7 bots are down.  Blow the power node.
 Proceed into the room to the southeast and kill another security bot, then
access the console here.  You'll get some more information about the
Calculator's plans, as well as a rundown on the Hellion craft under
construction in this factory (scroll northeast to see it).  Initiate Percy is
in the northeast room, but he dies as soon as you talk to him.  Loot his
corpse.  The room to the southwest is empty so proceed into the hall with your
big guns.  Take out the load lifter that cruises the hallway, then the
security bot at the southern end.  Use snipers to kill the northern security
bot before you get close.  Go through the southeast door and then north to the
terminal room.  There's a humanoid at the terminal who may or may not be
visible and a few scurries buried in the floor to give you trouble.  When
they're down, hit the terminal to open the door at the end of the lifter's
hallway.
 Go through the door to find stairs.  At the top of the stairs, your squad 
will start taking hits from two security bots in a sealed room to the right,
but they'll probably start firing on the load lifters below that make easier
targets.  Force the snipers to fire on the security bots until they drop
before letting them loose on the helpless lifters, who can't hit you anyway.
 There's a Vindicator humanoid at the end of the walkway that must be killed
very quickly as soon as he sees you because he can activate the alarm console
in front of him.  If that happens, the laser wall behind him goes down and six
pissed-off security bots wake up and start shooting at you.  After he's down,
climb the stairs and take out the rising/retracting turret at the end of the
walk out from as long a range as possible - it's much more accurate than the
turret at the ramp in the beginning.  When the way is cleared, you can choose
to kill off the security bots if you didn't already by setting up on the north
and south ends of their laser cage from the walk above.  You can't hit them
from alongside, you must have a long shot.  This can be quite painful and
there's no way to get the salvage, so it's up to you to judge whether it's
worthwhile.  The other option is to just let the humanoid open the gate for
you.
 Go down the ladders into the lifter area you already cleared.  There's
nothing to do here for now, so climb the ladder on the north side.  A
suspiciously familiar turret will start firing on you and a humanoid will
charge, but the humanoid can't hit you if he's next to the wall, leaving you
free to kill the turret with energy weapons.  Switch to laser rifles and start
working on the turret in the far corner of the room.  When they're both dead,
send someone with a big gun backed up with laser rifles through the door
underneath you to kill the humanoid.  Move your entire squad through this door
and kill another humanoid on the far side of the room behind the machinery.
 Now set up an ambush of big guns on the door you just came through.  Choose
the weakest member of your party and sent him through the door at the end of
the chamber into the power node room.  This activates a whole bunch of scurry
bots that were hiding in the lifter room and will now storm after you, only to
get totally scrapped by your Browning ambush.  If they're reluctant to show,
send someone back to spot them.  When the scurries are done, destroy the
second power node.
 Get your snipers back on the walkway and proceed southeast.  Use the walkway
as a sniper nest and take out the four humanoids in the room at the end.  One
of them is a grenadier and may charge, but the others will stay put.  After
the way is clear use the walk to access the room the security bots were using
when you got on the first walkway and loot their corpses.  Ignore the Hellion
for a moment and blast the last power node to the northeast, disabling the
robot manufacturing plant.
 Now head for the Hellion room with your entire squad and post an ambush with
Big Guns leading.  The room beyond is full of robots making a last-ditch
defense of their facility: three charging load lifters from the left, right,
and middle, two humanoids with plasma rifles flanking the door, and two hover
bots flanking the middle walkway.  If you still have mines left, drop them in
front of the door to help with the lifters, which are the biggest threat. 
Keep your troops back from the door and set up an ambush within your room. 
Hit the Hellion's console to disable it and open the chamber door, at which
point you'll probably start shooting at the middle lifter and bring all three
of them down.  The hover bots drop easily enough, but you'll need to enter the
room to kill the humanoids.  Shoot the power plant and turbines to complete
the mission and backtrack out to the extraction point at either your insertion
point or the Behemoth cage.

18: Scott City
Objectives: Kill Bartholemew Kerr
Promotions: none
Enemies: Humanoids w/ energy weapons and Vindicators, scurries, pacification
 bots, hover bots, load lifters, security bots, turrets, and behemoths - in
 short, pretty much every robot enemy in the game.
Contacts: Elaine (west prisoner warehouse), Sebastian (west prisoner
 warehouse), Derry (ditto), Bartholemew Kerr (top floor of northern building)
Squad:  Fine-tune your squad to fit your strategy.  Whatever it is now, get
 experience with this group so you can take them through the last two
 missions together.  Also bring a trapper and a locksmith.
Special Equipment: all the electrical/pulse stuff the Quartermaster will sell
 you that you can reasonably use.  Skip the rockets if you don't bring a
 launcher and the grenades if you don't have a grenadier.
Time: Night
Strategy: Get your PIPBoy working and just keep killing 'em.
Plan:
 The bad news is that this mission is the single most grueling mission in the
game and it will knock down a Tough Guy several times over.  The good news is
that it will allow you to kill Behemoths several times over.  No, wait, that's
bad too.  Use this mission to stretch your squad for maximum effectiveness and
consider it a practice run for the final missions.
 When you land, your PIPBoy is down again.  The mission map tells you that the
reason for this is the four jamming towers the robots have put up.  If you're
comfortable fighting without enemy radar, proceed directly to the complex at
the north end of the map, merrily killing Behemoths along the way with six
hands tied behind your back.
 The rest of us should proceed cautiously north until we hit the street.  Look
right and you'll see a hover bot patrol that needs to die from laser rifle
fire before it sees you.  Look left and there's a Behemoth and accompanying
humanoids bearing down on you.  And there's no cover.  That just about sets
the tone for this mission.  If you like, you can use the southern fence for
edging to help kill off the hovers first, but you'll still have to face the
Behemoth without cover of any kind.  There's a few scurries to your extreme
left on the street as well.
 The four jamming towers are located on the left, middle, and right parts of
the map just to the north of you.  I recommend taking the right one first
because there's at least some cover that direction and you can't get pincered.
Surrounding the tower are three Vindicator humanoids, a hover bot, and a
pacification bot that may patrol this far south but also can be found in the
north junkyard.  There are scurries near the corner as well, but they don't
seem to come out until a few seconds into the fight which is enough time to
get your big guns into position and scrap them quickly.  Take the other robots
at range and scrap the tower. 
 For the junkyard in the middle, there are scurries along the southeast wall
and around the alarm console, the patrolling pacification bot if you didn't
kill it at the first tower, and about six humanoids with various energy
weapons in the center and north parts of the yard.  Move carefully and keep
your gunners covered.
 There's a secret spot on the two-story shack at the north end that's very
useful.  On the street to the north is a patrolling Behemoth that's naturally
very difficult to take down on foot.  If you stand on the second story of the
shack at the end of the line of barrels you should be able to get a bead on it
with a pulse rifle.  Start shooting and it will charge, but as it does it
passes out of sight behind the fence and can't shoot you.  It stays there
until it gets bored, then wanders out for you to shoot it a couple more times.
Just don't move until it's dead and you'll have killed a Behemoth without a
scratch on you.  On the bottom floor of this building is a chest guarded by a
security bot you'll want to liberate.  The metal building to the southwest
you'll have to pick open; it contains a Guns and Bullets mag and other equally
useless junk.
 When the junkyard is cleared and the tower in the north corner is down, it's
time for the west one.  The street between the yard and the west warehouses is
patrolled by a number of hover bots and a humanoid leader that can be quite
dangerous no matter how you engage them.  Try to spread your troops out so the

rocket attacks won't do much splash damage.  Now face the warehouses.  There
are four humanoids here, two with Vindicators.  Kill the two you can see, then
dart around the debris against the warehouse to find one more and drop him.
Blow the third tower.
 Use the holes in the black warehouse wall panels to kill security bots inside
each with laser rifles before you unlock the doors and enter.  The east
warehouse has a crate with some dynamite, the north warehouse has a traps book
in the south corner and the south warehouse has three prisoners in it.  One,
the mutant Sebastian, volunteers to fight the robots.  If you let him do it he
gets vaporized by the turrets up the road, but if you don't send him nothing
else happens.  There's a raider named Derry in another cage that doesn't do
anything useful and a ghoul named Elaine in the last one who tells you that
Barnaky was held here and tortured by the robots.  A key in Elaine's pot
unlocks the metal building in the junkyard that you already raided.  Rescuing
Elaine and Sebastian is worth a chunk of experience, but Derry gives you jack.
 Head north for the last tower.  There's a humanoid with a grenade launcher
behind the car and another with a plasma rifle behind the trailer.  When it
goes down your radar comes back up.  Proceed up the street to the corner and
take some shots at the security bot patrolling the walkway around the complex.
You may have to kill a couple more scurries along the right side of the road.
 The turrets that wasted Sebastian are now waiting for you with their laser
weaponry.  They still don't have much accuracy, but it's better to stay long-
range and kill them with laser rifles, especially when they summon their big
brother Behemoth from inside the complex.  When that happens, run back to the
telephone poles and use the fence to just barely be able to see the Behemoth
around the edge.  For some reason this makes it stop and wait patiently for
you to bust it up - I recommend laser rifles for the range and cheap ammo.
Finish off the turrets and raid both that behemoth and the one you killed
earlier over the fence for precious .50 cal.
 Now it's time to invade the complex proper.  First, line the entrance with
energy snipers to wipe out a patrol of hover bots inside the base that will
cause trouble for you later if you don't deal with them now.  Now use the
outer stairs to the northwest to get up to the walkway.  The room on the left
leads to a two-leveled room that allows you to snipe the load lifters on the
ground floor without much risk to yourself, plus two humanoids with energy
rifles.  When it's clear, go down and kill another humanoid in the room to the
southwest.  Loot and back out to the second floor walk.  The other room on
this level is empty above and below.
 Cross over the entrance arch with the turrets below and pause on the bridge.
Switch to laser rifles and take out two security bots in the building on the
right.  Go down the stairs to find two more security bots and a hover bot in a
room filled with gas tanks that make it much easier to blow them all to hell.
Find a humanoid in the room with a locker who likes to kneel under the window
so you can't see him.  Plunder the locker and head back up.
 Proceed farther on the walk to the other side of this room and kill a
patrolling humanoid and security bot on the other side.  The building farther
to the east contains a security bot and a sleeping hover bot (yeah, I don't
get it either) that should be child's play when you storm it.  There's another
security bot and a hover bot patrolling that you can hit through the northeast
windows.  Don't go down the stairs, you're walking into a trap.
 Continue on the walk northeast to the second bridge.  Some scurry bots should
surface underneath you for easy kills, but you attention will be drawn to the
humanoid standing at the door to the north.  Shooting him attracts the
attention of several other humanoids in the area as well as a behemoth.  When
it shows up, back off and use the laser rifles to engage it from range.  It
should retreat, so follow up as much as possible to make it easier when you
have to fight it on the ground later. 
 Continue up the walkway to the north and unlock the door into the warehouse.
The ground floor of this building is strewn with hover bots that you should
try to wipe out from the walkway so they can't kamikaze you.  When your half
of the building is clear, go down the stairs with the gatling laser leading to
kill a few more in the passage to the next half including two humanoids.  Loot
the dead civilians for healing supplies and the lockers for ammo.
 Now you need to head out on the ground for a bit to loot corpses and clear
the next behemoth and some more humanoids and scurries.  You can choose to
either use the door immediately in front of you or backtrack to the entrance
and circle around the pipes.  I recommend the second because it insures that
the path behind you is clear if you need to retreat, but it takes longer. 
 Scurries next to the wall should be easy kills.  Use the door in the middle
of the first building you pass along the map edge to position your laser
snipers inside.  There are a few humanoids gathered at each end of the
building.  Kill them all from range and loot them.  Proceed through the
northeast door and kill off any scurries or humanoids still hanging around
here.  The behemoth should still be around the east corner so ambush it if
possible.  Continue around the corner with your snipers and kill a few more
scurries on the way.  There's yet another behemoth hanging around the north
corner - attack it from a distance and keep backing up as it advances so it
doesn't get a chance to hit you before it goes down.  If it retreats, pursue
and keep harassing.  Don't go around the corner under any circumstances until
the behemoth is dead.  There are about seven scurries buried there, so advance
carefully with small steps.  With the circuit around the complex complete, go
back to the middle of the back wall and reenter to climb to the walkway again.
 It's time to take on the last behemoth in the level.  Climb the stairs to the
second level and use the bridges to head for the central island.  Kill some
scurries that emerge below you on the way.  If there are any patrols still
around the perimeter, take them out now.  Unlock and de-trap the small room to
the southeast on the second level to kill a couple more security bots and snag
some loot.  There are three entrances to the main chamber on the second level:
northeast, southeast, and southwest.  Deploy a gunner and a sniper to each
entrance and open fire on the behemoth in the middle of the floor.  It will
charge the closest pair; pull them back when they start taking damage out of
sight so it picks a new target.  Run them back in when it's safe.  In this way
you should be able to keep it moving through the whole fight and not get hit
much. 
 Clear any security bots on the ground floor from the catwalk before you go
down to loot.  Hit the console to deactivate the turrets on the roof guarding
Kerr.  Head for the office at the north end of the building and kill a
security bot behind the stairs, then pick the door and enter.  Climb the
stairs and take out yet another security bot to raid an ammo crate.  Use the
stairs at the southeast wall to climb to the third level.
 Here's Barnaky, only messier than you remember.  Inspect him for experience
and a locket that might be important later.  This also seems to unlock the
exit grid, even though the official objective of exterminating Kerr isn't
complete yet.  Use the cover of the doorway to waste the two turrets in front
of Kerr's chamber to the north.  Take the central room slowly because it
contains five robots with nasty guns - use the windows to engage only one or
two at a time.  One of them has the MEC Gauss MiniGun, the best weapon in the
game for a Big Guns specialist.  The west and north rooms don't hold anything,
so proceed directly to Kerr's room.
 Despite the fact that he's on an operating table and covered in blood, Kerr
is apparently unhurt.  Talk to him to learn that even if he's not a Brother,
Kerr's quite loyal and didn't leak.  Shoot him to put him out of his misery.
Dekker's pissed that you didn't rescue him, but you literally have no choice.

19: Cheyenne Mountain
Objectives: Bring the nuke transporter to the vault door
Promotions: none
Enemies: Everything the robots can scrape together
Contacts: Three terminals in the bunker
Squad: 6 people (or people-like things) with over 150% in the weapons skill of
 your choice, plus First Aid, Doctor, Repair, Science, etc.  This is NOT the
 time to be bringing in new recruits.
Special Equipment: Buy up all the ammo for your big guns that you think you
 might need, including all of the Quartermaster's 2mm EC for the Gauss Minigun
 and all remaining .50 cal and .50 cal DU.  Take everything out of your
 vehicles and lockers and load your troops down until they're immobile.  When
 you get to the mission you can dump the gear, but you can't return to the
 bunker between this mission and the end of the game.  Spend all your cash on
 drugs, healing supplies, ammo, and EMP grenades.  If you plan to get the
 "good" ending of the game, bring about 10 plastique, dynamite, or pulse
 grenades.  Also bring either Barnaky's Letter from Osceolla or Barnaky's
 Locket from Scott City, preferably both.
Time: Day
Strategy: Don't die and don't let the nuke carrier die.  Kill everything that
 gets in your way.
Plan:
 I highly recommend dosing all your troops with drugs for this mission, mostly
because the use effects won't wear off until after you've beaten the game. 
Even if they do, you can cancel the withdrawal effects by dosing yourself up
with more - you should have plenty to go around.  Amphetamine Gum is
particularly useful for the AP boost, and Mentats' boost to Perception is also
handy.
 If you followed my advice, your troops should all be encumbered and possibly
immobile.  Dump gear next to the nuke carrier so you won't forget it.  Leave
the nuke carrier here for now because you definitely don't want it attacked. 
It is possible to play through the level by firing from the safety of the
carrier and repairing it as it gets damaged, but you can't repair it from
inside so if a single firefight goes bad, you lose.  It's essentially a
modified APC, but the Vindicator/turret trap at the west edge of the map, the
mine fields, or the rocket turrets near the end can all destroy it very
quickly.
 Move forward and kill two scurries on the left side of the road, then two
humanoids behind the rocks.  Enter the bunker on your right and clear out two
security bots, then look at the consoles.  The two on the sides are both
repeats from Canyon City, but the one in the middle explains why the
Calculator started killing off humans.  This bunker will provide you with the
protection you need to survive a nuclear blast all of 50 yards away, but you
have to enter it from the other side because this door is locked. 
 Continue up the road.  As you approach the downed humanoids, another scurry
will surface and a Vindicator humanoid will try to flank you on the right. 
Remember while you're looting that you won't be going back to the bunker, so
you should only take things you can use with you - leave weapons behind.  Stay
off the road until you've taken out three humanoids across the junction, a
couple of scurries, and a hover bot patrol farther up.  There are a few mines
here that can be quite troublesome if you meet them in the middle of a
firefight.  Don't bother disarming these because they're quite difficult and
you won't have a chance to sell them.  Use a salvaged Vindicator to blow them
so you don't waste valuable ammo.
 The road splits into two.  Hiding behind a boulder in the middle is a
sneaking hover bot, and farther up behind a fence is a humanoid.  On the right
are a few more humanoids with laser rifles, including one on the cliff above.
If you take the left path, note the mine warning and advance carefully,
blowing them as you go.  The small guard post contains a crouching humanoid
that you have to get right behind in order to get him to stand up.  The turret
at the end of the road will only extend when you get close enough for it to do
some damage, so use bait and nail it with plasma and pulse.
 The humanoids on the right were guarding two canyons that pass under a road.
The first one is guarded by two scurries, some humanoids on the cliff above,
and a hover bot protecting a locked chest with dynamite and a repair kit.  In
the second one, you can find a scurry and sometimes a security bot above will
start firing down on you.  Hit the crate at the end of this canyon for 2mm EC
and .50 cal ammo, both of which you'll need a lot of.  There's another
enclosure just ahead that contains two scurries.
 Go up the ramp.  At the top hiding on the left is a pacification bot that
will probably surprise you.  The generator here powers the turret you already
destroyed, so theoretically if you could sneak up here and kill the
pacification bot you could take out the generator and not have to fight the
turret.
 Around the corner is a deadly ambush that raises a few humanoids hiding
behind the low wall on the right side of the ramp, plus four humanoids up the
road and turrets in a niche.  Basically you'll be taking fire at both close
and long range as soon as you start firing on the robots in the road.  I
recommend engaging from extreme range and using the pacification bot's cover.
Get someone on the far side of the corner to bring up the wall bots and take
them out quickly, then move your troops forward into the road and cover your
big guns with laser rifles.  Consider lowering your aggressive % threshold to
make your troops engage from farther out.
 After you've knocked down the ambush, proceed around the corner.  Three
humanoids here are sneaking behind the cars, so send a big gun forward as bait
and use energy rifles as cover fire.  Up ahead, clear the barricades and two
humanoids waiting behind them - they may already be dead from when you invaded
the canyon below.  Before you cross the bridge, circle north to take out two
security bots without interference from the turret, then move closer to
activate it and blow it.
 Up the road, there's a generator on the cliff protected by hover bots that
will use their height-enhanced range to rain rockets on you.  Blowing the
generator just deactivates turrets that you've already destroyed.  Take the
hovers out with laser rifles and then hit the humanoid behind the barricades
on the ground.  Don't approach the barricades until you've detected and
destroyed a line of mines in front of the bridge.  Watch out for humanoids on
the south cliff corner if you didn't kill them before from below and a hover
inside the building.
 As you cross the bridge, watch the far side and stop as soon as an enemy
presents itself.  Look for a humanoid at the building below you, another one
with a Gauss weapon behind a wall to the east, two hover bots behind a rock on
the north side of the road, and a handful of charging security bots.  Three
scurries are hiding next the the Gauss humanoid's wall and three more
humanoids are up the road, two of whom will charge.  The last three security
bots at the barricade up a ways will open fire at long range, so return the
favor.  Take it all slow and you should have no trouble.
 Now that the bend is clear, you can take some time to loot.  Climb down the
ladder on the south cliff and check the humanoid in the enclosure, the hover
in the building with a chest, and two humanoids on the cliff.  The ladder into
the ground is the other entrance to the nuclear shelter that's going to save
your life and the only entrance that you're able to use - when the nuke
carrier is armed, run back to here and climb down before it explodes.  For
now, just take out the two scurries guarding it and backtrack to the
barricades the security bot trio was stationed at.  Notice that when you climb
down the shelter ladder, the door opens - it is always locked from the other
side.
 Blow the barricades and climb the long ladder to the top of the cliff.  From
this vantage point you can see the last few enemies blocking the way to the
gate.  The turret to the east is still live and accompanied by a behemoth. 
Directly in front of the vault is a humanoid with a rocket launcher and two
hovers.  If you stand away from the edge of the cliff, the rockets from the
turret, humanoid, and hovers shouldn't be able to touch you.  The behemoth is
a bigger challenge, but from up here it won't be able to hit you.  It should
approach within range, then stand there for a while so you can whittle it down
to size.  The turret on the map border can be reached if you lower your attack
threshold, but you have to get closer to the edge of the cliff and may take
fire yourself.
 Climb down off the cliff and move forward slowly to eliminate a number of
scurries and possible hover stragglers that charged the cliff.  When you're
completely certain that the entire passage is clear, it's time to move your
troops to the bunker.  Transfer any gear you left on the ground next to the
nuke carrier to characters standing inside the bunker (anywhere within the
large room with the computers should be fine).  Leave the pilot outside and
fully mobile so he can drive the carrier to the vault door and then run to the
upper ladder mentioned above.  You have less than one minute to get back to
the bunker.  Anyone standing outside it will be vaporized and you won't be
able to replace them for the final mission.

20: Vault 0
Objectives: Reactivate the elevator power nodes, destroy the Calculator
Promotions: none
Enemies: Humanoids w/ Vindicators, energy weapons, and the dreaded evil eye,
 security bots, scurry bots, turrets, load lifters, hover bots, tank bots, a
 pacification bot and a special guest star BUT no more behemoths - they
 couldn't fit through the vault door
Contacts: Dagger Squad at your insertion point, the Calculator
Squad: Your best men, women, and things.
Special Equipment: Every heavy punch you can muster: Brownings and the Gauss
 Minigun, Pulse Rifles, EMP ammunition and grenades; the ammo to power them
 all; healing supplies, including kits and powerful stimpaks; and explosives
 or pulse grenades if you plan to pursue the "good" ending.
Time: Any (immediately continues from Mission 19)
Strategy: Crush, maim, kill.
Plan:
 This mission picks up almost immediately after the last one ended, delayed by
only a few minutes for the nuclear explosion to settle and for you to enter
the Vault.  Your characters have not been healed - now's the time to do it.
There are several soldiers here (Dagger Squad from the briefing) for you to
trade with for gear.   
Khronis: Grenade (Pulse), Electronic Lockpick Mk II
Phoenix: YK42B Pulse Rifle, Gatling Laser
Maelyra: 2mm EC, lots of drugs
Maximus: 2mm EC
Tais: Grenade (Pulse)
 I cannot emphasize this enough: drug your characters for this mission.  There
is literally no downside because the game won't last long enough for the
initial effect to wear off and the withdrawal to take place.  The stat boosts
are critical at this point in the game.  The only drugs I would discourage you
from using are Voodoo, because it only lasts for one minute (save it for the
last few battles) and Mutie, because it only lasts one hour and you can get
the same effects from Psycho, Amphetamine Gum, and Buffout all at once.
 When you're ready, use Science on the south terminal to turn on the lights
and open the door.  Back your troops off and let Dagger Squad handle the
security bots and humanoids that rush in to conserve your ammo.  Only move
forward when you're certain that Dagger Squad has run out of targets so you
don't take friendly fire.  Loot the corpses and use the weapons as trading
fodder to secure any ammo from Dagger Squad that you might need.
 You need to get into the northeast section of this floor to activate the
elevator behind Dagger Squad and go deeper into the vault.  Unfortunately, the
power sector is protected by a dental scanner and the southeast door is
locked.  That leaves the southwest, the security sector.
 Set up your big gun(s) directly in front of the door and the snipers behind
them along the walls.  Open the door and start firing.  There are Vindicator
humanoids in the two far corners, two hovers in the center and south corner, a
humanoid at the north corridor, and two security bots on the northwest side.
If by some miracle you can kill the north humanoid before it hits the alarm
console next to it, you can prevent the robots from flooding the north
corridor as described here.  Kill off as many robots in this room as possible
before you cross the middle of the room.  When you do enter the room, robots
in the north corridor will start firing on you.  There's a whole bunch of
them, so keep your troops on the back wall for maximum dodge potential and
just keep shooting.  If you get close to the south corner cover, the robots
behind it will pop up and draw your attention away from the corridor.  Sit in
this room for a few minutes after the fire dies down to make sure that all the
robots in the corridor are dead and no more are coming.  Clear out the rest of
the room and heal up all your characters.  The south door is locked, so head
up the corridor.
 The way should be clear if the alarms were tripped, so don't worry too much
about the two side rooms.  At the north corner, turn and kill a charging tank
bot.  Use Science on the terminal to open the door to the north chamber and
take out two humanoids patrolling here.  There's one more in the next chamber.
Raid the lockers here for supplies.  There's a pulse pistol here that can be
quite useful for the tight quarters you'll be dealing with throughout the
mission, plus some drugs, books, and lots of ammo.
 Continue around the corner and open the door.  There are two Vindicator
humanoids guarding the northwest door in the next room, so quickly run in
either snipers with pulse weapons, gunners with Brownings, or both.  Scrap
them to clear the room and unlock the area they were guarding.  Kill the
turrets in the center of the room with Brownings and pulse again.  Raid the
lockers on the north wall for more loot.
 Now go through the south door in a spread pattern, big guns on the outside. 
You'll be taking fire in a 180 degree arc, so keep shooting and space your
troops out as you rack up kills and clear area.  There are humanoids all over
the place plus two load lifters that will charge and can be quite troublesome
in the firefight.  Don't be afraid to pull everyone back if the lifters break
your concentration.
 When the room is clear, proceed into the next chamber and use Science on the
terminal.  This unlocks the door to the Cryogenics wing.  You'll also get a
heap of experience, which is always fun.  The door back to the security desk
opens as a shortcut back.  Trade with Dagger Squad if you need to before
moving on.
 Open the door to the cryogenics wing without fear - there's no immediate
firefight this time.  Angle shots through the corner to kill off two security
bots behind a low wall, then finish the turn and take out the next two behind
another wall.  Two scurries will present themselves as you advance and will
fall easily.  Watch for more security bots coming around the corner and
exiting the room on the left.  There are a few more security bots in the
corridor.  If you like, use the small door in the security bots' chambers to
work your way south and take them all out now.
 The room to the northeast is heavily infested with .50 cal turrets and
security bots, plus humanoids for flavor.  Unlock the door, then flank it with
big guns and let the snipers fire through.  Hit the locker and corpses for
trauma packs and Mutie and loot the turrets for thousands of rounds of .50 cal
that you'll want to come back for whenever you run low.
 Back out and go south to the next room.  You'll see several people here, plus
a neutral humanoid bot.  Talk to them for a surreal trip - apparently the
Calculator protects them, but they're in a childlike state.  Take the severed
head from the dead man and activate the terminal to open the power wing.  Loot
the lockers and double back to the opened door.  Use the head on the dental
scanner for some more experience.
 Enter the room and use extreme range to take out two turrets and two
humanoids here.  Operate the terminal for access and kill off four more
humanoids in the pool room.  I'm not sure if it's a risk, but I took Rad-X at
this point to block any potential radiation damage.  General Dekker will warn
you to kill the interior defense generators before proceeding to the nodes. 
 Open the door and blast two humanoids, then set up an ambush against the
laser wall along the corridor.  As soon as you activate one of the terminals,
the wall goes down and a tank bot charges directly into your guns.  Science
the second terminal as well and Dekker will inform you that the way into the
power nodes is now clear.  Well, sort of.
 Run up the corridor and through the door.  There are five security bots here
for target practice.  Kill them, go through the door, and storm the long
approach to the power nodes.  There's a pacification bot in the middle,
humanoids and security bots in the flanking areas.  By now they should be no
trouble for you.  As you advance, watch for several scurries to unearth
themselves and charge.  Back off if necessary to take them at range.  Make
sure the entire chamber is cleared before using the terminals to turn on the
power nodes and set yourself up for the next level.  You can crawl into the
south chamber to loot the lockers, but they can be quite difficult to pick.
 Backtrack to Dagger Squad's location at the elevator.  This is your last
chance to barter for ammunition.  Also consider salvaging anything you can
from the various corpses throughout the level.  You won't be able to come
back.  Renew your drugs if necessary.  Use the terminal by the lift to
activate the exit grid, then stand on it to descend to the second floor.
 Step out of the elevator and prepare yourself for a truly massive fight. 
When you open the door, you'll immediately start taking plasma fire from
entrenched robots against all the walls.  You can either use one person to
open the door and then run back while your squad fires from the sides of the
elevator to reduce the enemies' accuracy or put everyone up against the door
to split the damage amongst your squad.  Bust out with the Gauss Minigun if
you haven't already and lead with your big guns blazing.  Load your Brownings
with .50 cal DU if you've got it.
 As soon as you open the door, Barnaky (yes, Barnaky) gives you a little
speech.  All it means is that you have to kill him now.  He's the nastiest
enemy in the room and will charge as the battle is joined.  Try to use
accurate weapons like energy rifles to take his HP down.  At this point he
will detect Barnaky's Letter or Locket, whichever you're carrying, and turn
neutral.  If you shoot him again, or were in the process of shooting at him as
he turned, he'll attack again and you'll have to kill him.  For now you want
him alive.  Take out the rest of the robots in the room from range if
possible.  If he dies it's not a huge deal, but keeping Barnaky alive gives
you access to the bonus game ending.
 When you've wiped out the entire robot complement and have verified the
bodies, heal and redistribute ammo as necessary.  Guarding the bridge outside
are four turrets: two on the far side, two on your side.  Lead with Brownings
to take them down quickly and try not to let Barnaky get killed.  The turrets
won't attack him, but they can kill him with crossfire.
 Now you have your first chance to end the game.  Walk around the building to
the opening, but don't go in.  Set your troops to defensive and directly
attack the Calculator computer in the center of the room without crossing the
doorway.  You can blow it up from here, dodging several nasty fights and
getting Ending 1 while retaining your karma.  Barnaky will have stopped in the
room beyond.  If you decide to continue fighting or just want a different
ending, step over the threshold and watch the Calculator shield itself with
blast-proof walls.
 In this room with the Calculator are five brains in cryogenic preservation.
These are, in fact, five of the eight brains that provide the human component
of the Calculator's neural processes.  Unfortunately, they've been overridden
by the necessity of clearing the wasteland of mutations.  You must kill the
brains to open the door and proceed and can do this one of two ways.  If you
shoot the brains directly, they blow up quite easily but your karma takes a
severe hit.  By the end of the game, you'll have killed all eight brains and
your karma will have pretty much bottomed out.  This is a major disappointment
if you've spent the entire game trying to be a good person of the wasteland.
 (The following paragraph was inspired by Guiler's FAQ and credit properly
belongs to him.  I've tried to contact him to OK this, but he hasn't
responded.  I will keep it up unless he asks me to remove it.)
 The other option is to kill the brains indirectly with explosives or
grenades.  Set the explosive timer and drop them on the ground next to the
brains (placing explosives between brains allows you to kill two with one
bomb) or use remote explosives.  If using grenades, use <ctrl> + right-click
to throw them next to but not at the brains so that the splash damage kills
them.  As long as you don't actually shoot at the brains themselves, you don't
technically attack them and you don't get a karma drop.  Note that this
doesn't actually increase your karma; if you've been an ass throughout the
game and are negative at this point, you can't get positive karma by the end
of the game.
 When the brains are dead, the first door opens.  Head up there and start
blasting humanoids to bits.  There's only three more fights in the game
including this one, so use all your ammo and special weapons without fear of
getting screwed later.  The entire room is basically low walls for enemy (and
your) cover, plus two turrets at the back hallway.  Get to the back of the
room and use the terminal to drop the laser barrier.  Kill the brain here,
either directly by shooting it or indirectly as described above.  This opens
the next door.
 Use the same pattern here.  Approach the door, lead with big guns, waste the
robots and lower the laser barrier.  Seven brains down.  Open the last door,
made slightly more difficult because you don't have a clear shot on the robots
from the entry.  It still shouldn't trouble you too much.  Blow the last brain
and the Calculator will call to you for a chat.  Backtrack to the Calculator's
pit.
 Talk to the Calculator several times to get the full scoop on its offer. 
When the sales pitch is complete, you have one minute to decide what to do and
four options.  Whichever you choose, sit back and watch the ending movie.
OPTION 1: Do nothing.  The Calculator is destroyed at the end of the countdown
and you get Ending 1.  This is exactly the same as if you'd destroyed the
Calculator earlier before you stepped into the room.
OPTION 2: Use the terminal.  If your karma is negative (as is quite likely
if you've been shooting brains at massive losses every time) you get Ending 2.
OPTION 3: Use the terminal.  If your karma is positive from your actions
throughout the game plus not destroying the brains directly, you get Ending 3.
OPTION 4: If Barnaky is still alive, he will start babbling when the countdown
starts.  He overheard your conversation with the Calculator and volunteers to
use the terminal himself.  This gets you Ending 4.
 

                   *************
                   *Other Stuff*
                   *************

                Salvage
For the first few missions, your party should be able to pack everything home
on their backs without slowing down.  After that, though, you're faced with
cheap, heavy stuff like spears and pipes that aren't worth taking home and you
start making tradeoffs, carrying only expensive goods back for bartering. 
This is a mistake.  Always take everything off every battlefield to maximize
your profit and help nullify the disadvantage from low Barter skill.  You can
do this one of three ways. 

1) If the mission provides you with a vehicle, you can stuff everything into
the vehicle's inventory since they have infinite carrying capacity.  Access
this inventory by entering the vehicle and bringing up your character's
inventory screen.  The vehicle will appear on the right.  This only works in 5
of the 21 missions.

2) Gather all the loot and put it in containers around the map.  Loot left on
the ground will almost always disappear when you come back.  Loot left on
corpses can disappear when the corpses do (sometimes even within a mission).
But loot left in drawers, crates, bookshelves, etc. remains intact.  Each
container has its own maximum carrying capacity, so spread out your junk. 
Take as many trips as you need to ferry it all back to the bunker.

3) After the exit grid appears, place the character with the lowest carrying
capacity just inside the grid.  Don't let your whole squad stand on the grid
at once until you're done.  Send your mobile squad members throughout the map
to loot corpses and containers and run them back to the chosen man on the
grid.  Fill his inventory with the loot so he becomes immobile, then run back
for more.  Don't be satisfied until the take from the entire mission is loaded
on that one guy, minus whatever your other characters can carry without
encumbering themselves.  Stand on the exit grid to switch to the World Map. 
Even though he's immobile, the squad can still travel on the World Map to the
bunker, where you will have to plant someone next to the Quartermaster and use
the mobile four squad members to transfer the goods from the loadbearer to the
barterer.  The disadvantage of this plan is that if you get stopped by a
random encounter on the way back to the bunker, you have to protect the
immobile man and then repeat the process to move all your loot to the grid,
which can be very annoying and/or deadly.

                Bartering
Most of the time you'll be selling your loot to the BoS Quartermaster.  The
upside of this is that he can give you unlimited quantities of cash - he just
prints whatever he needs.  The downsides are that if you sell him more than
10-15 of the same item the price starts to collapse and he's an excellent
Barterer, so he lowers your returns anyway and demands a pound of flesh when
you buy stuff from him.

If your main character has low Charisma, it's not a bad idea to use a recruit
as a designated barterer.  This person should have high Charisma and can be
kept in the recruit pool during missions, brought out to sell loot in between.
The disadvantage is that recruits never gain karma and cannot benefit from a
good reputation, plus your ability to barter within missions is limited.

There are a few other options.  The Medical Officer uses a separate market
from the Quartermaster and isn't as good at bartering, so you'll get better
prices there after AK-47s collapse at the Quartermaster's.  Some special
encounters such as the Farmer and the Merchant also give you access to new
markets.  Finally, there are a few characters that show up in the bunker
between missions that can barter with you.  Keep in mind that if you have a
designated thief you can relieve all these people (except the Quartermaster)
of their supplies without spending anything.

Tiduk and Shauri (Alpha after Freeport until you go to Beta)
Mechanic (Alpha after Rock Falls)
Medical Officer (Alpha after Rock Falls)
Mechanic (Beta)
Kerr the Merchant (Beta through Epsilon)
Bradley (Beta after Quincy)
Medical Officer (Beta after Mardin)
Mechanic (Gamma)
Tiduk and Shauri (Gamma)

 Kevin Johnston's Blog - http://www.300bucks.ca