How to avoid the molerat disease

This guide will help you to avoid getting bitten by a mole rat in Vault 81. I've seen that many people got the molerat disease in Vault 81 and decided to cheat to get a second vaccine for the cure. But you can easily avoid getting bitten. Just check the guide below. I've made this guide in order to help you. Tell me if you liked it or if you disliked it.

General

Hello. First of all, it's important to understand something. If a mole rat bites you in Vault 81, then you will probably catch the molerat disease. And I say "probaby", because there is a small possibility that you won't catch the disease if they bite you once. Still, chances are against you. You can easily catch the disease just by one bite of these vicious creatures. The molerat disease is something you don't want to catch, because you will lose 10 HP permanently. And Fallout 4 expects you to catch the molerat disease from this mission, in order to have to take a very difficult decision in the end of the mission. So, remember not to risk and save all the time. You killed a few mole rats and a room is clear? SAVE! You climbed the stairs? SAVE! Save all the time. Always check your stats after each fight, to see if you caught the disease. If you did, load your last save. But keep in mind that you should keep different save files. You wouldn't like to keep only one save file and, when you have just saved, immediately have your leg bitten by a mole rat, right? Even if you would load this save file, you wouldn't be fast enough to avoid the bite of that mole rat. So, try to save in different save files, because quicksaving won't help you here.

Companions

The simplest solution is to avoid having any companions. Why? Because Fallout 4 thought it would be funny if mole rats would bite your companion and you catch the molerat disease because of your bitten companion. Yes, that's exactly what happens. So, it would be wise to avoid having any companion during this quest. Of course, you can have a companion with you during this quest and make him/her stay behind you. You can either make your companion stay a bit behind you in order to help you fight the mole rats (but there is a big chance that mole rats will attack him/her too) or make him/her stay a lot behind and don't help you at all (so, why have the companion with you at all - well, only because he/she will probably react positively to some of your actions). But the thing is that it's much easier to just go alone inside the Secret Vault 81. Another thing is to avoid activating that protectron inside the vault, because if the mole rats bite it, you'll still catch the disease.

Armor and guns

About the armor, it doesn't really matter. Even if you have a power armor or you are naked, you should remember that you will still catch the disease if the mole rats bite you. But keep in mind that you won't face only mole rats in this vault, so just equip an armor that can take some damage. Your equipped gun is the most important thing in this mission. It must have a large clip size, do a lot of damage, and let you do a respectable amount of shots in V.A.T.S. I personally chose the Alien Blaster pistol (you can obtain it by killing the alien near the U.F.O. crash site), but maybe it's not the best option - still, it's a good option, mostly because of its damage and its large clip size. Remember not to reload all the time. If you have a large clip size, you don't need to reload all the time. Just kill the mole rats in V.A.T.S. and only reload when it says "HIDDEN" when you sneak (this means that no enemies are searching for you). You will also want to have some mines with you (grenades won't really help you).

Hacking skill

It will be much easier when you are near the end of this mission, if you have the Expert hacking skill. This way, you will avoid fighting many vicious mole rats. Just hack the computer that is near a door, so you won't have to go get the password and to fight a lot of tough mole rats.

Get to know your enemies

Your enemies are mostly mole rats. But at first, you will have to face some turrets and a protectron. Don't worry, you can take damage from them without the fear to catch the molerat disease. But obviously, the enemies that you must be careful of, are the mole rats. You've probably fought mole rats before this mission, so you know that they can pop up from anywhere. They can just dig their way and suddenly appear behind you. And it would be ok if it was just one mole rat, but the Vault contains multiple mole rats. On the bright side, most of the mole rats can get killed with only one hit. The bad thing is that some mole rats are much tougher and may require more hits, depending on the weapon (3 or 4 usually).

Movement

It's very important to sneak all the time. You always need to know when the mole rats are searching for you and when they are not. The mole rats will suddenly appear after you cross some specific areas, so you must always know when they are going to attack you. I don't think that a good sneak skill will really help you in this mission, because the mole rats will appear and attack you anyway.

So, how to do this?

Always keep in mind all of the things that I wrote before and don't forget to do whatever I said. And if you save often, as I said before, you can also test when mole rats appear, in order to load your last save and be ready for them. So, to start, it'll be a piece of cake to kill the protectron and the turrets, because no mole rat will appear to attack you at that point. Also, remember NOT to activate the "sleeping" protectron, as I said before. When you get to the area with a dead mole rat and a lot of dirt, you need to get ready. Follow all my previous advices and remember to sneak. The mole rats will attack you when you climb the stairs. And the mole rats can dig their way to you, so they can suddenly appear behind you. So, why not just climb some boxes then? Whenever you face mole rats, try to climb up some boxes, crates, etc., because the mole rats will not be able to reach you this way. If no box high enough is near you, then try to be near a corner, in order to avoid getting surrounded. You can also get behind tables, crates, etc. to avoid multiple attacks. No need to risk when shooting them. Always shoot them in V.A.T.S. and at the body part that you have the higher chance to hit them. If you're lucky enough (I am obviously talking about the Luck skill), then you will be able to shoot a lot of critical hits. Try using the critical hits at the tough moles rats only (when I say tough mole rats, I mean the ones that don't get killed just by one hit). When you are above some high objects (as I suggested before), there is a big possibility that some mole rats, EXCEPT the ones that see you directly, won't chase you. Kill the ones that are near you and wait till you see that you are "HIDDEN". They'll probably try to chase you when you get to the ground again, so be careful. Also, as I said, there is only a possibility that they will stop chasing you when you're above high objects, so this doesn't mean that this will necessarily happen, so don't get too excited. You will meet more mole rats when you pass each of the next two security doors. If you follow my tips, you will be ok till now and, if you have the expert hacking skill, your hardest fight will be in a big room with multiple boxes, that has rooms in both sides, which have cells inside them. You can throw some mines around you, move a bit more forward, and be ready to climb the two boxes near the center of the room at the right side or just be ready to move behind some boxes that are near the walls (better climb the two boxes though). When you'll proceed near the center of the room, mole rats will suddenly appear from the cells and attack you. Climb the two boxes and start shooting the mole rats in V.A.T.S. Better not get too arrogant, so try to kill each mole rat before they even get near you. Trust me, it is possible. Especially if you put some mines in front of you (around 3, because you don't have enough space), you will hardly need to shoot a few of them. If, and only if, the room is clear and you see that you're "HIDDEN", then climb the stairs and do NOT turn left. If you have the expert hacking skill, just hack the computer in front of you and open the door next to you. After this point, you will not meet any other enemies. BUT, what if you don't have the expert hacking skill? You will just push your luck too much, because it'll be a really hard fight. Throw as many mines as you can near the boxes you want to climb and prepare for some very tough mole rats. When you get near the cells, the mole rats will attack you, but the mines will probably stop them, if you put them at the right place. They'll come from the cells, but they can dig, so be careful around you. Remember that they are tough, so they can't get easily killed. When you kill them all, then take the password for the computer that you couldn't hack before and open the door next to you. The nightmare has ended.

Something I want to tell you

English isn't my native language, so forgive me if I made any mistakes. I'm not a fluent English speaker/writer. Maybe you won't find my text very legible, but I think it will really help you. Tell me if you disagree with anything that I wrote or just thank me. I could use some feedback, because it's my first guide ever. If you're Greek and because I'm also Greek, tell me if you need this guide in Greek too, if you find it too hard to read it in English. Thank you for reading my guide. Have a nice day. Good luck surviving in the wasteland.

[Lucky Shot]

Well, this is not that easy to achieve, but if you are sure you didn't catch the disease, then you are lucky indeed.

[Underdog]

Just did this today, got lucky I think? Cause I was looting molerats and everything. But I kept my distance and mag dumped every single rat

[Ninjamantis]

so for some reason i think killing them was causing me to contract the disease if i was close enough, also molerat attacks that MISS me were causing it, at the end of the mission cait was mad at me for not saving the virus syringe for myself and letting the child die even though i didn't have the virus (what in the fuck cait)

[Lucky Shot]

Perhaps they were attacking your companion or the protectron that you activated?

[Ninjamantis]

kept getting molerat disease while standing on a crate nowhere near molerats without taking dmg wtf

[Kyntosis]

apparently english learners are better than natives according to Konigs

[Lucky Shot]

Thank you for both of your compliments. Yeah, I guess I wasn't so confident of my English proficiency back then.

[Kriva Flerta]

it's a very nice guide, but, i must say, your english is fine, better than some native english speakers i have seen.

[smoak]

Good guide, but I let the kid die anyways. It's just a video game after all

[Kyntosis]

is gud