Spoils of War is a Brotherhood of Steel main quest in Fallout 4.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Brotherhood main quest: Spoils of War | |||||||||||||
| Speak with Proctor Ingram. | |||||||||||||
| Inform the Institute. | |||||||||||||
| Board the vertibird and fly to Mass Fusion building. | |||||||||||||
| Leads to: Mass Fusion | |||||||||||||
| Read the terminal to locate the Beryllium agitator. | |||||||||||||
| Retrieve the executive keycard. | |||||||||||||
| Proceed to the Reactor level. | |||||||||||||
| (Optional) Restore power to the elevator. | |||||||||||||
| Enter the reactor room. | |||||||||||||
| Take the Beryllium Agitator. | |||||||||||||
| Eliminate the security robots. | |||||||||||||
| (Optional) Assist Brotherhood forces in the lobby. | |||||||||||||
| Exit Mass Fusion. | |||||||||||||
| Speak with Proctor Ingram at the Boston Airport. | |||||||||||||
| Reward: 600+ XP | |||||||||||||
| Leads to: Ad Victoriam | |||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
Fly to Mass Fusion[]
Proctor Ingram explains that in order to fully power up Liberty Prime, they need a beryllium agitator. The only beryllium agitator available is located in the Mass Fusion building. Ingram insists that she should accompany the player character to get the agitator because her technical knowledge will be essential for the mission, however it is possible to refuse to let her go by passing a series of speech checks. There is a Vertibird docked at the Prydwen that will fly to the roof of the Mass Fusion building when the player character is ready to go. Taking the Vertibird officially makes the player character get Banished from the Institute.
As the Vertibird closes in on the Mass Fusion roof, a contingent of synths will open fire. Take out as many as possible with the Vertibird's minigun. Make use of the various explosive containers spread across the roof. After a period of time, the pilot informs the player character that the Vertibird has sustained a dangerous amount of damage and needs to leave.
Jump to Mass Fusion's roof[]
At this point, the player character is given a prompt to disembark from the Vertibird and land on the roof. Clear out any remaining synths and head inside the structure.
Locate the beryllium agitator[]
Proceed to the upper level and take the Mass Fusion executive lab password and ID from a desk. Access the marked executive research lab terminal-- either with the password or by hacking if the password was left on the desk-- and read the file from 07-30-77 to determine the location of the agitator.
Retrieve the executive keycard[]
If the player character did not grab the ID before the previous step, leave the terminal room and take it from the desk on the left to complete this objective. The ID is needed to use the elevator that leads into the building.
Proceed to the reactor level[]
Use the ID on the card slot in the elevator to activate it. After a short spectacle of riding the elevator down while overlooking the Boston skyline, the player character will load into the building's interior. While the elevator slowly descends, synths will teleport into the building on the various platforms around the room and attack the player character and Proctor Ingram. As the elevator approaches a glass floor, the synths will set off an explosion, knocking out the power and stopping the elevator.
Next, the player character must reach the lobby either by reactivating the power and continuing to ride the elevator down or by dropping down a hole in the floor and traversing to the bottom. If the player character chooses the latter, a number of synths will attack them along the way; choosing the former avoids most of these encounters (unless otherwise sought after the fact).
- (Optional) Restore power to the elevator
- There are two methods of turning the power back on: the player character can either hack a computer located in a room to the left of the elevator or climb to the floor above and throw a switch (also located in a room to the left).
The Strength bobblehead is located in the upcoming area.
Once in the lobby, take care of the nearby synths and head to the left to find the marked elevator. Swipe the ID card to open the doors and ride down to the reactor level. After exiting the elevator, head to the right and down the stairs to the control room.
Enter the reactor chamber[]
Removal of the beryllium agitator will trigger the security system, which consists of five ceiling-mounted turrets, a sentry bot, two Assaultrons and two Protectrons. If the player character cannot hack Master terminals, they may want to manually take out as many robots as they can access before going into the reactor chamber. Otherwise, they can hack the reactor security control terminal in the main control room. This terminal has the option to disable security, but it fails; instead, use it to open the security doors. Go into the now-open room that contains the inactive sentry bot and access the facilities terminal inside to disable the security system.
If the player character approaches Ingram, she will ask whether they have enough radiation protection on hand. Any answer given will lead to her giving the player character two Rad-Xs. Ingram indicates that there are probably some items lying around that can also help. There are three hazmat suits in the area - two regular, one damaged. One is in the locker room, on a locker's shelf. The other regular suit is on top of a safe in the office under the stairs next to the decontamination airlock. The damaged suit is in a drawer in front of the window of the airlock. Power armor is also a sufficient method of protection if the player character happens to be wearing it.
Head into the airlock and press the button. The doors will shut and the player character will be sprayed, which will cure any radiation poisoning. After decontamination, the door to the reactor chamber will open. The player character will begin soaking up a lot of rads upon entering the chamber, so be prepared before continuing.
Unlock the reactor[]
Walk up the scaffolding to the top of the room. Press the marked interlock release button to the right of the gray orb with blue lights in order to expose the agitator.
Take the beryllium agitator[]
Take the agitator from its housing, which triggers the security system if it is still enabled.
- Eliminate reactor level security
- If the security system was triggered, destroy all of the aforementioned active robots to complete this objective.
Exit Mass Fusion[]
Go back down the scaffolding and out of the reactor room. Press the button for the airlock and wait for the decontamination. Return to the elevator and take it back up to the lobby.
As the elevator ascends, another explosion occurs. The Institute has sent reinforcements, but so has the Brotherhood of Steel. Ingram will tell the player character to leave with the agitator while she stays behind. The player character can either heed her advice and run for the exit, or stay and help finish off the synths.
- (Optional) Assist Brotherhood forces in the lobby
- Staying until all of the synths are defeated will complete this objective.
Return to Boston Airport[]
Leave the building and travel back to Boston Airport.
Speak to Proctor Ingram[]
Once at the airport, speak to Ingram at the base of Liberty Prime to complete the quest. If Tactical Thinking is already finished, Ad Victoriam will begin. Otherwise, Ingram will take the beryllium agitator and store it until Ad Victoriam starts.
Quest stages[]
Companion reactions[]
Notes[]
- Boarding the Vertibird results in the Sole Survivor becoming an enemy of the Institute:
- Any incomplete Institute quests (including Mass Fusion) automatically fail; Banished from the Institute begins.
- Underground Undercover automatically fails; Burning Cover begins.
- This quest can be completed without starting Liberty Reprimed by informing the Brotherhood of Steel during Mass Fusion, however Ad Victoriam will not start afterward if the Sole Survivor had previously gained access to the Institute with help from either the Minutemen or The Railroad.
- Drinking the water in the reactor room or physically touching the agitator's housing before the reactor is turned off will instantly kill the Sole Survivor. If the 3rd rank of the Lead Belly perk is acquired, drinking the water will not be instantly fatal but will still cause a small amount of damage.
- If X6-88 is the active companion during this quest, he will drop out of the Vertibird (because the Sole Survivor is an enemy of the Institute) as it takes off and start a firefight on the ground with the Brotherhood soldiers on the ground. This firefight will continue until the end of The Nuclear Option, as X6 will no longer be considered essential if the Institute is destroyed and can be killed by anyone, including the player character.
- Simply warning Proctor Ingram beforehand garners no hostility or even negative affinity, just a reaction about how she might slow him and the Sole Survivor down by coming.
- Proctor Ingram will address the player character as paladin when exiting the Vertibird onto the roof of Mass Fusion, even if they have not been promoted from the rank of knight.
- Piper will say "You go get it. I'll stay out here with Ingram... and all my hair" when the player character reaches the reactor room, even if Ingram was not brought along to Mass Fusion.
Bugs[]
It's possible to have Ad Victoriam not be given after completing Spoils of War.[verified]
- Fix: Reload the game to a point before making the decision to either choose the Institute or the BOS. Talk to Elder Maxson to make sure the quest Outside the Wire and From Within are started, if available. Step into the Vertibird to start Spoils of War when these quests are completed.
- After completion and once back at the Boston Airport, Ingram may remain silent and can't be interacted with (despite the quest marker above her head), thus making the final step of the quest impossible to complete.[verified]
- One possible fix is to reload a save prior to accepting the quest, and during dialogue, insist to go alone to Mass Fusion building. She will stay at the airport and can be talked to when the mission is complete.
- PC players can use the following console command to set the quest as completed: setstage bos303 255
- If the Vertibirded need to board is destroyed just before accepting the quest while Ingram is outside, for example when the quest Liberty Reprimed is available, Ingram and the pilot will be on the ground under the Prydwen.[verified]
- One possible solution to fix this: 1. Reload save file before the vertibird is destroyed and use the console to check its ID. Type these commands in the console: prid *vertibird's id*, resurrect, enable
- When attempting to board the Vertibird, some companions may just stand on the edge of the Vertibird, unable to board because Proctor Ingram is in their way. Seen with: Danse, Preston Garvey, Nick Valentine, and Strong.[verified]
- An event problem may occur that causes no explosion to occur when riding the elevator with the agitator, which prevents completion of the quest. If fixed with console commands the next mission for Brotherhood will not be launched. [verified]
- Sometimes during Spoils of War, when leaving to enter the quest specific vertibird, it randomly detaches itself from the docking station and flies away, leaving no vertibird to enter and the player gets stuck on the quest. This bug can be fixed by either reloading a previous save or fast traveling to another location and back. [verified]
