Robes aren't working at Mariposa

[pberkhof]

I'm at level 9 in my first playthrough of this game and am trying to destroy the military base. It seems the common consensus is that power armor and a plasma rifle are the best way to go if you're looking for a combat solution, but I haven't found a plasma rifle, I don't have the skill to repair the suit of power armor at lost hills and every time I ask for power armor as a reward for rescuing the initiate in the hub, I'm given combat armor instead.

Though my character is more built for fighting than talking or sneaking, I decided to try and make things a whole lot easier for myself by using robes to get into the base. I show up at the entrance wearing combat armor(I don't wear the robes while traveling there cause I don't want to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by a bunch of minigun-wielding mutants), quickly switch to robes and disarm before any mutant guards see me, and then start walking in only to be stopped by the guard at the gate, who tells me to surrender prompting me to either give myself up or blow him to bits with my .223 pistol. The former option, I've found, isn't all that bad: he takes me to the lieutenant, I tell the lieutenant to shove his laser rifle up his ass, and then he(the lieutenant) starts walking towards me to beat me into submission, at which point I run away before he can catch me. His stupid AI then gets lost and he ends up standing in the middle of the room scratching his head. I then waltz over to the control room and set the base to self-destruct. I run to the elevator and take it to level 3, which seems to be the only area where the mutants think I'm a member of the Children for some reason, and then go to level 1 and head out the door. Only problem with this plan: the mutant guards at the entrance still see through my disguise, and so they initiate conversation telling me to surrender. I'm forced either to return to the building I just set to self-destruct in three minutes or tell the mutants that they are spawns from hell and must die. But the combined force of all of the mutants is too much for me to handle, and I'm always killed before I get away. Any advice or explanation of what idiotic mistake I've made here would be appreciated, especially one the pertains to the function of the robes.

[The Burning One]

Did you do the cathedral first

[pberkhof]

Nope, haven't been to the Cathedral yet.

[The Burning One]

Originally posted by pberkhof:

Nope, haven't been to the Cathedral yet.

I could be wrong but I think you have to do the cathedral first to get the options to sneak inside the military base

[pberkhof]

Huh. I wasn't aware of that, I'll look into it. I'm currently trying the "kill them all" solution, which is rather easy on the front gate guards if you have sniper rifle and the .223. Inside, well, that's a different story.

[The Burning One]

You could also use the 223 pistol

[Hat8]

Originally posted by The Burning One:

Originally posted by pberkhof:

Nope, haven't been to the Cathedral yet.

I could be wrong but I think you have to do the cathedral first to get the options to sneak inside the military base

Nope.

[The Burning One]

Well sorry nobody perfect

[dtt.scanner]

I do well with power armor and missile launcher. It helps to perk with extra movement, so that you can duck behind a corner and reload. Stealth boy also helps greatly, if you attack from a distance you can snipe them with a missile launcher and most of them in a group will not target. You can often just pick them off one at a time. Other encounters you need to tactically move to avoid being hit by their big weapons. I try to kill before they can get off a shot so that I can get lots of ammo from them.

Mini-gun also works well if they are close. You can spray several in a line and the close ones will be shredded. Except for the Lieutenant, of course. He actually takes several hits, and his group will stimpak themselves if they are still standing.

[pberkhof]

Unfortunately I'm nowhere near as effective as you are with a missile launcher because I made the ultimate noob mistake of picking the worst trait in the history of traits: Bruiser.

I also learned of the Lieutenant's incredible combat advantage by letting him chase me into the middle of the room -- where I would have the advantage of plenty of space to duck and cover after shooting and where he would be more vulnerable what with the distance of his lackeys--, shot him with a missile launcher and watched him briefly fall down, get back up, shake it off, and then tear me to shreds with his minigun.

Regardless, I have made it out of the base in one piece using a combination of my "run from Lieutenant" scheme and the use of mentats to boost my speech skill before walking out the front door(the mentats thing was pure guesswork; for some reason none of the forums I read while looking for the solution to this problem said anything more than "just wear the robes and you'll be good"), and now those muties are drowned in a sea a green goop and rubble. The wave of xp I received from blowing up the base also gave me a level up, which I used to enhance my speech and repair skills, so now I have a fully functional suit of power armor.

Thanks to everyone for their advice, including that one guy who just said "nope."

[Курт2000ua_AfD eSport-Pro]

The Glow has a plasma rifle..just make sure that you have a high repair skill (for the broken generator) and rad-x and rad away.
Concerning the power armor,the reason why the master-at-arms doesn´t give you a power armor after completing the rescue mission is due to the fact that you have an exceedingly low BoS reputation.
Only after you reach a certain amount of BoS reputation points,you will be able to receive it.
One way to do this would be to do every quest in which the BoS is involved.
For instance,tell them that you found the base of the supermutants,that shall be enough.

I know that it is hard to enter the base and leave it again in order to tell BoS about it.
Hence I will give you an easy way to do that.
(If you don´t want to know how to scout the base without being attacked by supermutant patrols,please do not read further)
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(Walkthrough)

Instead of running directly west to the base,go to your vault as an orientation and head south till you reach the end of the map (or nearly reach it).
Then travel west to find the coast.Follow this coast and you´ll reach the base without being attacked by muties.
Tell the BoS the location of it and you´ll get the BoS reputation pts you need for the power armor

[Dustin81]

Are you carrying a weapon in your active hand when using the robes? That will break the disguise. Have one of your weapon slots empty and change to the empty slot.

[The Burning One]

Originally posted by Dustin81:

Are you carrying a weapon in your active hand when using the robes? That will break the disguise. Have one of your weapon slots empty and change to the empty slot.

Oh yeah forgot about that