Dangerous Minds is a main story quest and achievement/trophy in Fallout 4.
Quick walkthrough
| Main Quest: Dangerous Minds | |||||||||||||
| Retrieve a Piece of Kellogg's brain. | |||||||||||||
| Talk to Doctor Amari. | |||||||||||||
| Sit in the Memory Lounger. | |||||||||||||
| Explore Kellogg's memories. | |||||||||||||
| Talk to Doctor Amari. | |||||||||||||
| Reward: 300+ XP | |||||||||||||
| Leads to: The Glowing Sea Emergent Behavior Long Time Coming | |||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough
Lounging around at the Memory Den
After killing Conrad Kellogg, loot the cybernetic brain augmenter to delve deep into his memories. Gather it from Fort Hagen (as part of the previous quest, Reunions) if it hasn't been taken already.
Follow Nick Valentine's advice and locate Doctor Amari. This involves a trip into Boston, through the ruins of the Financial District, to the rough-and-tumble fortified settlement of Goodneighbor. Greet the locals, then head to the Memory Den, owned by Irma.
Down in the basement, converse with Doctor Amari. After Nick Valentine volunteers to help out, the Sole Survivor is invited to sit in the lounger to experience snippets of Kellogg's past.
Memories
The Sole Survivor wanders through the ethereal strands of Kellogg's memory. Stepping from memory to memory, scenes play out revealing pieces of his life. In most of the memories, various things can be activated to trigger additional monologues, where Kellogg will go into more detail about them.
The memories reveal that Kellogg does indeed work for the Institute, took Shaun from Vault 111, and that they use some kind of teleportation to operate freely. The final scene reveals that Kellogg's current mission is to hunt down a runaway scientist named Virgil, who likely escaped into the Glowing Sea.
| Segment | Photo | Characters | Items |
|---|---|---|---|
| Childhood | 
|
Kellogg, Kellogg's father and mother | Bedroom, listening to radio broadcast |
| Young adulthood | 
|
Kellogg, Sarah, Mary | Kitchen/living room of home, taking care of infant |
| Corridor | 
|
Kellogg, unknown voice | Walking down hallway, taunting voice can be heard |
| Bar | Kellogg, wastelander, bartender | Meeting in a bar to plan a hit | |
| Meeting the Institute | 
|
Kellogg, synth, Institute agent | Kellogg first offers services to Institute |
| Vault 111 | Kellogg, Institute agent, Sole Survivor, spouse, Shaun | Cryopod scene, child abduction | |
| Final | 
|
Kellogg, Shaun, Institute courser | Dr. Virgil's file placed on desk, Kellogg given task to retrieve him |
Back to reality
Upon conclusion of the final scene, Doctor Amari will instruct the Sole Survivor to interact with the television to leave the memory. Back in the Memory Den, speak to Amari about Virgil.
When leaving the Memory Den, there is an optional conversation with Nick Valentine where he will first seem to have been taken over by Kellogg's memory, only for Nick to seemingly regain control. He will also offer additional advice about hunting Virgil.
Quest stages
This quest branches into an unmarked subquest, Shattered.
Dangerous Minds (MQ202)
Shattered (MQ203)
Companion reactions
Every companion except Curie likes when the memory playback is completed. Curie is indifferent, and Nick is always present for the event to trigger.
Notes
- If the player has previously told Piper or Nick Valentine to wait at a settlement, they will instead be at Valentine Detective Agency or Publick Occurrences, waiting for the player as part of ending the previous quest and beginning this one.
- Under normal circumstances, Emergent Behavior cannot be advanced until after this quest is completed. However, if the player character used console commands to advance through it before completing this quest, the game will use unused audio files, causing Doctor Amari to say, "Wait. I remember you. I helped you with the robot-to-synth transplant for Curie."
- When the player interacts with a character or object, the scene will freeze and Kellogg will start a monologue about them. The player can activate them again to get him to stop and resume the scene.
- During the scene with Kellogg and the Institute scientist, the three synths will look in the direction of the Sole Survivor and continue to follow them as they move around the room.
- Sometimes, if The Memory Den quest has been completed before this one, Kellogg and the two Institute scientists will still be labeled as "mysterious figures," as seen in the prologue of Fallout 4.
- Aside from the final scene, viewing the memories is not required and may be skipped by running to the next section of the neural pathway. After the final memory plays, one must use the television screen to exit, which does not enable until Amari finishes her monologue.
- During the memory of Kellogg kidnapping Shaun, Doctor Amari will apologize for putting the player through that horror again. This occurs whether or not the quest The Memory Den is complete. If the quest was completed, she will preface entering the memory with an "Oh God no, not again. I'll try to find another memory quickly, just try to endure it."
- When X6-88 and Shaun teleport during the memory, the player may be damaged by the teleporter's radius, if standing close enough.
- In the last scene, Shaun is sitting near two Massachusetts Surgical Journals and one Tesla Science magazine. The magazine Shaun can be seen reading is called Geckos and Gamma Radiation - The Key to Prolonged Life?
- Companions that are accompanying the player upon exiting the memory lounger will have unique comments if the player asks them their thoughts.
- When exiting the memory lounger and heading upstairs, there is a character that appears to be Deacon inside one of the loungers. The Sole Survivor cannot interact with him. If Deacon has been met previously, he will not be present.
- There is a cut memory between the Vault 111 memory and the final memory. This depicted a scientist installing implants into Kellogg. There were two narrations of this missing memory:
- Nick Valentine will automatically exit power armor when he is going to use Kellogg's implant.
- During the scene with three synths, the weapons can be looted after Kellogg kills them. Doing so will make the player become visible.
Behind the scenes
The radio announcer in Kellogg's childhood scene in the NCR is voiced by Fallout 4 lead designer Emil Pagliarulo. The bartender in the bar scene is voiced by Veronica Cartwright. The two wastelanders are voiced by Brandon Keener and Bruce Thomas. The agent at the desk in the Institute scene is voiced by Misty Lee.
Bugs
Rarely in the same scene, one can pick up one of the first two rifles dropped and keep it after exiting if it spawns with non-standard modifications. [verified]- Shortly after finishing exploring Kellogg's memories, the objective may not register as complete. A door icon will be seen underneath Doctor Amari's office and is inaccessible. Reloading a previous save seems to be the only way to fix this. [verified]
- This bug may be triggered by picking up the Institute synth weapons during the memory sequence. Reloading the save and not picking up any weapons during the memory sequence should prevent it from triggering.
- While exploring the memories, sometimes, (seen during the wastelanders' kill request memory and later) even after the end of exploring the area, the screen will freeze and Kellogg and the environment will not move or talk, but the player is able to proceed further and explore the other memories. [verified]
- If one wishes to watch the memory that has been frozen, they may simply walk back to the path of the brain that led them to the memory, then walk back into it. This will cause the scene to continue to play out.
- If Nick has power armor equipped during this quest after he exits it, all parts will be marked as owned. [verified]
- On PS4 there can be a glitch going through Kellogg's memories that will not let the progression continue. [verified]
- To fix this load a previous save prior to sitting in the memory lounger.
Gallery
.jpg "Young Kellogg (Fallout 4).jpg (420 KB)")
.jpg "Mary Kellogg (Fallout 4).jpg (329 KB)")
