Meeting Haylen and Rhys, Clearing College Square, and Completing The Lost Patrol in Episode 3
Watch Fallout 4 Gameplay Walkthrough Episode 3: College Square, Super Mutants & The Lost Patrol | 4K 60FPS PC Ultra Graphics
Our Fallout 4 walkthrough picks up exactly where we left off, stepping back inside the Cambridge Police Station alongside Paladin Danse. With the Deep Range Transmitter safely recovered from ArcJet Systems, Danse successfully installs the device to boost the Brotherhood of Steel’s radio signal. He then officially introduces us to the remaining members of Recon Squad Gladius: Scribe Haylen and Knight Rhys.
After taking some initial radiant quests from them to help secure the area, I head straight over to the nearby College Square Station. This heavily irradiated subway hub is absolutely swarming with feral ghouls, but methodically clearing it out provides excellent early-game experience before reporting back to Danse to receive our first major faction quest, “The Lost Patrol.”
Scavenging Taffington Boathouse and Malden Drainage
On the way to track down the missing Brotherhood scouts, the Commonwealth wasteland offers up plenty of distractions, starting with a small, picturesque waterfront property known as Taffington Boathouse. Unfortunately, the house is infested with massive, heavily mutated bloodbugs, which I carefully clear out before looting the area and discovering my very first combat shotgun—a massive upgrade for my close-quarters arsenal.
Continuing our journey, I take a quick detour into Malden Drainage, a dark and damp subterranean area where I manage to score a highly valuable Fusion Core. Exploring these unmarked or minor locations is a cornerstone of any good Fallout 4 gameplay guide, as it ensures your character stays stocked on essential ammunition and crafting components.
Lore Fact: Bloodbugs are the horrific, giant descendants of the common mosquito, mutated by the ambient radiation of the Great War. They are notorious in the Commonwealth for aggressively impaling their prey and draining them of blood in a matter of seconds.
Fighting Super Mutants and Hammer at West Everett Estates
The journey north takes a violent turn as I arrive at West Everett Estates, a ruined pre-war neighborhood that has been completely overtaken by a vicious band of Super Mutants. Here, I face off against my first Legendary Super Mutant, surviving the tough encounter to loot a legendary Cavalier’s hook weapon from its corpse. The fight escalates when I confront the local boss, a skull-rated Super Mutant named Hammer who rains down explosives with a deadly missile launcher. After a tense shootout using whatever cover the ruined houses provide, I finally take Hammer down, clear the rest of the town, and do some much-needed inventory management to prepare for the Brotherhood mission ahead.
Lore Fact: Unlike the Super Mutants found in the Capital Wasteland (Fallout 3), the Commonwealth Super Mutants were actually created by the Institute. They kidnapped wastelanders for years, experimenting on them with the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) before dumping the mutated results back onto the surface.
Tracking the Distress Signals for The Lost Patrol
With my inventory sorted and my new combat shotgun equipped, I finally focus on the distress signals for “The Lost Patrol,” a quest that tasks us with uncovering the grim fate of a previous Brotherhood recon team. I track the first signal to a ruined battlefield, finding a fallen knight and listening to a tragic holotape that points me further north.
Following the frequency leads me to the ghoul-infested National Guard Training Yard. After discovering a new set of Power Armor on the premises, I use the heavy suit to safely clear out the surrounding ghouls, locate the second missing Brotherhood member, and retrieve their holotape to piece together the squad’s doomed final movements.
Surviving the Super Mutant Ambush at the Satellite Station
The third holotape directs me eastward toward the Revere Satellite Array, an imposing location that turns out to be a massive Super Mutant stronghold. Because my weapons were still a bit underleveled for this specific zone, what should have been a standard skirmish turned into a grueling, frantic 7-to-8-minute firefight.
Dodging mutant hounds and incoming sniper fire from the massive satellite dishes tested all of my Fallout 4 combat skills and served as a harsh reminder to always come fully prepared when exploring higher-level zones. Eventually, I managed to clear the exterior, climb the towering arrays, and find the remains of Scribe Faris, whose final log pointed to the squad’s last known fallback point.
Recon Bunker Theta and the Tragic End of Paladin Brandis
Following Faris’s coordinates, the final leg of the quest takes me to Recon Bunker Theta, located in the remote northern reaches of the map. Inside, I find the sole survivor of the lost squad, Paladin Brandis, who has been isolated and slowly losing his grip on reality for years.
In a classic, chaotic open-world RPG moment, rather than attempting to talk him down, I instantly assumed he was a hostile threat and killed him on the spot – a harsh end to a tragic story! After looting his bunker for supplies and his unique gear, I traveled all the way back to the Cambridge Police Station to report my findings to Paladin Danse, officially completing “The Lost Patrol” and bringing this wild episode to a close.
Lore Fact: The Brotherhood of Steel’s Recon Squads are incredibly dedicated, often operating deep in hostile territory for years with no backup. Paladin Brandis survived alone for three years in Bunker Theta, setting up heavy traps and isolating himself completely after losing his entire team to the Commonwealth’s horrors.
