So how do I maximize the Boss Blaubert events?(Spoilers will be plentiful, I hope)

[Jivebot]

So from what i've read there's two quests that have unique rewards involving Boss Blaubert but details are sparse. From what i've seen i think the two rewards might be mutually exclusive.

Please correct me if i'm wrong.

Is it possible for me to get both the unique Machete AND recruit Smiley? Do I have to kill Blaubert for either of these outcomes? Or is there a way to keep him alive and get both rewards? Does doing one quest cancel the other?

Is there even a reason to keep Blaubert alive?

[lx]

ive seen that if you go before the invitation, you can loot the place, but if you get invited there is no loot.
maybe they hide it, because they know you are a kleptomaniac?

[winter]

I don't know if there's any other rewards I missed, but it's definitely possible to get both the machete and smiley.

The way I did it, I first talked to smiley in the backroom of the church, this will make him go to Blaubert's mansion to confront him. This is the most difficult part, as smiley will initiate combat while standing out in the open next to all the melee enemies, but if you can keep him alive he will join.

Then you can simply go to the prison basement, there's a guy called Luigi in a cell, you can simply kill him and his henchman right there and he will drop the machete.

[Econ]

You go to the prison to free Luigi but then side with the Boss to get the Machete.

Then find Smiley and side with him to get him as a recruit. Sadly, the Boss has to die.

There's no reason to keep the Boss alive but I feel bad siding with Smiley, as the Boss did not kidnap Smiley's "girlfriend": she chose to be with the boss, not Smiley.

[Jammed Death]

wait, isn't smiley an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? I mean, i've reached all the points right now in this mission (know where smiley his, luigi, boss, pantagruel, etc) and before moving on i'm trying to figure out what's the best outcome. The boss is a criminal, but looks like he cares about his citizen (no slaves for example) and mollie looks happy.

What about luigi? boss wants to free him but luigi wants to kill him lol

[portent61]

Originally posted by Jammed Death:

What about luigi? boss wants to free him but luigi wants to kill him lol

Boss has you free Luigi so that he can make an example to people who double cross him.

But for OP, I free Luigi then have the confrontation at the mansion, then go save Smiley in Fleatown, back to the mansion and there you have three choices:

1:kill Sweety-Meaty Booboo and you get Smiley

2: kill Smiley

3:talk Smiley down and he will go back to Arulco

[Korgz]

Easiest option by far is to free Luigi then side with Boss but hide your whole party except one character who should heal molly. Luigi and his boys will kill the boss but then you help the remaining guards kill Luigi. Loot everything including the machete. Then go do the Smiley quest and you won't even have to do the fight at the mansion since the boss is already dead - Smiley will just join your team automatically without you having to do any real work.

[Takichi]

wasnt there a Option in the Church before, in which you could try and talk Smiley down to forget about his GF and so on? Maybe i missremeber but i think there was a Leadership Check.....

[sooshon]

when luigi and boss blaubert are about to have a fight, if you pick the option to "side with neither," they decide you are tricking them to fight each other and then pick the spoils so they gang up on you first before fighting each other. this can easily wipe out your whole squad since there are like 24 enemies that you can be thrown right in the middle of at once. I kinda had a bad feeling about that one so I camped 5 of my mercs near the exit fence and went to have conversation with balubert with 1...RIP Steroid (at least I got off a special punch of Blaubert w/ Steroid before he went down as a last hurrah). All other 5 managed to run their ass off and barely escape. When I came back to the mansion some in-game months later it was very strange because Blaubert and his side weren't aggro-d with me anymore, but Luigi was and still alive (guess they hadn't fought after all while we were off screen??). And you can go around killing Luigi and the prison allies he has without any of Blaubert or his goons paying you any mind...also can't seem to have any dialogue with Blaubert anymore and can't even finish the quest so it seems quite screwy at least and probably outright bugged.

[x_equals_speed]

I've played through twice now.

Game #1 Did the Luigi quest first, sided with Blaubert, easy fight got the machete. Then did the Smiley quest, sided with Smiley, very hard fight, got the merc.

Game #2 Did the Luigi quest, sided with Luigi, medium fight but couldn't keep Luigi alive (He really fights like he doesn't want to make it) every named character died except Mollie. Then the Smiley quest didn't have choosing sides or a fight, he just joins up after Mollie blames him for hiring you to kill Blaubert (Which isn't how it happened but hey-ho)

I've heard of people having Smiley and Luigi show up at the same time, which is apparently one of the most difficult fights in the game if you want Smiley afterwards.

Also in the first game Smiley was a creep who wouldn't listen to anything Mollie said and didn't respect her choices about her own life to the point he was willing to get dozens of people killed for it and in the second game Mollie jumped to conclusions and wouldn't hear two words about what actually happened even though she literally saw Luigi do it. They're made for each other.

[zpc]

About the "easily wiping of the own squad" - well placed machine gunners will wipe the majority of hostiles in the first round.

[-S★inted-]

Originally posted by x_equals_speed:

I've played through twice now.

I've heard of people having Smiley and Luigi show up at the same time, which is apparently one of the most difficult fights in the game if you want Smiley afterwards.

Had this happen in my 2nd run through. Rescued Luigi before ever visiting Rimville and did the smiley quest properly along the way since in my first playthrough the wall in the church was broken from the fight so it sequence broke his quest more or less. Though the dialogue accounted for it at the time somewhat iirc. So my first arrival to Rimville had Smiley Luigi and Boss all in the yard ready to throw hands.

[leanbeef]

Played through three scenarios:
1. Sided with Luigi. Could not keep him alive. Even with Booboo dead, and Joseph and Mollie alive at the end, there is no follow-up quest from either of them. Oh, Booboo can drop a 60% DR helmet. Was able to get Smiley to join at the end.
2. Sided with Booboo. Easiest choice. Got 10 rep with Fleatown and $3000. And of course, the Thing from dead Joseph. No loot from Luigi. Got Smiley at the end.
3. Sided with no one. Great choice for people who enjoy pain as both Booboo's and Luigi's teams will join forces against you.

In any of the scenarios above, as long as Mollie is alive at the end, Smiley joins your team.

[leanbeef]

Originally posted by leanbeef:

Played through three scenarios:
1. Sided with Luigi. Could not keep him alive. Even with Booboo dead, and Joseph and Mollie alive at the end, there is no follow-up quest from either of them. Oh, Booboo can drop a 60% DR helmet. Was able to get Smiley to join at the end.
2. Sided with Booboo. Easiest choice. For beating Luigi, got 20 rep with Fleatown. For being Booboo's partner, got 10 rep with Fleatown and $3000. And of course, the Thing from dead Joseph. No loot from Luigi. Got Smiley at the end.
3. Sided with no one. Great choice for people who enjoy pain as both Booboo's and Luigi's teams will join forces against you.

In any of the scenarios above, as long as Mollie is alive at the end, Smiley joins your team.

So skipping scenario 2 above means losing out on those rewards.

[ROE]

As someone mentioned above, a couple of machine gunners will solve the toughest fights in the game. Throw in a good melee, cqc, dodge character and Bob's your uncle.

I've played through the game three times and haven't recruited smiley once. He is a crap merc that isn't good at any one thing. Even his perk sucks. Plus he creeps me out. He is good for training militia.

Siding with the Boss gets you money, a mag, respect, and a boost to mine income. I'll take that.

[uncle nick]

Smiley is one Merc who can take down 5 or 6 enemy in one turn using reckless rush. If you train him upto 15 action points and give him lots of free movement, each RR uses 5 action points, and you can do 3 in a row using the Commando smg. He collapses at the end and needs resting, but the ability is there if you need to get out of a sticky situation.

If you get the Thing, give it to Mouse or to your melee build IMP.

The reason why you free Luigi, is to get him to fight Booboo for you. You can also then side with Booboo, setup safely in the high ground, then double-cross Booboo and kill both Booboo and Luigi. It was a jagged alliance.