Wasteland 2 Director's Cut - Highpool

Wasteland 2 Director's Cut - Highpool

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A great place for maps and general information for Arizona is game-maps.com. Here, we provide additional information about the various locations, and/or specific to the Director's Cut.

There are two versions of Highpool: If you choose to rescue the Ag Center and let Highpool be destroyed; or if you choose to rescue Highpool and instead let the Ag Center be destroyed.
The choice is not triggered until team Echo One moves far enough south from Ranger Citadel, whereupon they receive a distress call from both locations. This is independent of whether they are following the main quest and have the Repeater Units to install at the radar dishes. There is also a time limit before both locations are destroyed; a second warning distress call warns of this.

Compared to the Ag Centre, it's more straightforward. Perception needs to be 4 to find all the landmines, or 3 (which can be provided by Vulture's Cry, the recruitable NPC) to find most items.
We go through the rescue mission version of Highpool first. The destroyed version of Highpool is very straightforward.

General

World Map - Rail Raiders

• If you go east from Ag Centre to HighPool, you will avoid the radiation that is to the north of HighPool but you will instead encounter dangerous Rail Raiders who are hard for a number of reasons:
• If you are relying on Angela Deth's Outdoorsman skill, you have a 50% chance of evading them (which you really don't want to) but you also have a lousy starting position on the map with a lot of pipes.
• They are quite hard to hit.
• They shoot well and carry good weapons -- weapons which can be yours, along with ammuntion and, frequently, medical supplies to help you recover from a battle with them.
• You do want to engage them for the weapon upgrades they can provide, but hopefully not just at level 2 and with weak combat skills. Remember that you are not on a timer until you have triggered the distress calls from HighPool and Ag Center so if you like you can explore and grind the map a bit, although fighting weak raiders and animals is not likely to keep your ammunition and medical supplies replenished unless you use no-ammo-needed melee.

Roofs

• Watch for opportunities to get to high ground (roofs) to improve your aim and force raiders into the open as they come for you.
• If raider gunners insist on hiding behind cover, back off from the roof edge so you are out of their line of sight, forcing them to come out.
• If the raiders are too far away, sneak someone close and behind cover until you get your attention, then pull them back.
• When you first enter, there is a ridge on the right. Go up to get a good look. You'll notice most of the raiders are farther off and out of sight range.
• The closest is a melee raider looking the wrong way. Go around behind him to the water tower, then east to the building which has a ladder up the side. Go to the roof where there are two ammunition boxes, and prepare your positions.
• Still on this roof, move north to another group of raiders.
• If it's a bigger roof, be sure to get closer to the enemy or they might find a way up the roof as well, neutralizing your high ground advantage.

Below the Dam
This is the initial area all the way up to the dam wall. To get atop the wall you need the lift lowered.

• Alarmed Chest - Not sure what the alarm summons since when you get to the area you'll probably have already alerted the raiders.
• Mines
• Two landmines near the southern corner of the lettuce field need Perception 4 to spot. Some buried treasure also needs Perception 4 (or 3?). Perception 2 will spot many things including booby traps on some containers/searchable items, but not all.
• Townie near Alexey - If you don't speak with him before ending the siege, he vanishes and you lose the opportunity to get dialogue XP. Kiss Ass 2 or Hard Ass 2 required.
• Jesse-Belle
• The three thugs in the house can be intimidated by Hard Ass 4; you might be lucky and find a Ranger Star somewhere for a Hard Ass +1 bonus in which case Angela Deth can do it with her Hard Ass 3 + 1 bonus from the Star.
• If you intimidate them they leave and you get about 50 XP each plus XP for the person who passed the dialogue check. It is not clear if they reappear elsewhere later.
• If you kill them you get 90 for each team member plus 30 per kill to the person who landed the killing blow. Typically weak loot.
• If you delay too long and the safe is opened, you cannot get the note to initiate Jesse-Belle's quest. If you end the siege prior to getting the quest, she is found killed by the Wreckers.
• After she gives you the quest, conversation will initially end. Talk to her again to get clues to her father's whereabouts, although that doesn't really help so much as a thorough search of HighPool.
• Mortar
• If you fire it, it doesn't appear to actually cause any harm or casualties whether you adjust the aim successfully with Demolitions or not.
• You can also fire it after the siege for different radio chatter.

Atop the Dam
This is the area you are taken to when you radio to get elevated up, after killing Jackhammer and the last of the Wreckers.
Once you get up here, your priorities are:

• Talk to Sean Bergin. This automatically starts unless you deliberately try to evade talking to him.
• After you recruit Vulture's Cry, his dialogue about them replaces his initial dialog which he will not initiate. You can manually enter some topics but he won't respond to all of them and you won't get the full dialog.
• In terms of XP, the only thing you would really be missiing is a Hard Ass 2 check about "McNamara".
• Recruit Vulture's Cry so she can start collecting group XP; also her Perception 3 helps to find all hidden items except 2 landmines in the fields (Perception 4 needed).
• Then put out the fire on Mark's house because that has a time limit, after which the house completely burns down.

Other notes:

• Chickens - Animal Whisper them for BAWK! (Luck +1)
• Graves
• Depending on which grave you dig, you can avoid the Townies going hostile for one or two graves.
• If you have the BB Gun in inventory you will immediately make Sean Bergin hostile when he spots it.
• The bone in Rex's grave won't help you with the barking dog nearby.
• Digging up Vicstrom's grave immediately makes everyone hostile.
• During the vote (once you've repaired the valves in the Underground area), when everyone is away to vote, the graves are not watched and you can dig them all up without making anyone hostile.
• Mark Stachowiak's burning house
• After you reattach the valve, the easiest solution in terms of Skill Points is to use the Mechanical Repair skill. Otherwise you can use Hard Ass 4, Kiss Ass 2, or Smart Ass 4.
• Sean Bergin
• If for whatever reason you want to avoid speaking with Sean Bergin when you first get to the top of the dam, exit your characters 1 at a time. There should be just enough distance to avoid triggering dialog with him. If any character doesn't hug the edge of the cart and drifts closer to him, conversation will start.
• Hard Ass 2 to ask about Red Scorpion McNamara.
• Vulture's Cry
• Ask her about the juvies to get XP (no Skills involved) but her speech changes.
• Talk to Sean Bergin and use Kiss Ass 1 for XP after breaking her out.
• Her Perception 3 will find a lot of hidden items at HighPool.
• If you develop her Outdoorsman skill you can avoid a lot of combat for an easy way to get XP for her as well as to explore the western part of Arizona all the way up to Rail Nomads Camp.

Underground
The HIghpool Underground map is really straightforward.

• Cockroaches - If you have at least one or two persons with melee skills you may want to conserve ammunition and clear this area with melee since there is a doctor in town -- there's no fear of being out in the wilderness far from healing and having to use your own first aid supplies.
• Kathy Lawson - Until you talk to Kathy Lawson, the water system isn't in danger of blowing. You can therefore leave first to take care of the Wreckers Stronghold and come back.
• Secret Tunnel - You need Perception 3 to uncover it near the statue Atop the Dam.
• Skorpion Key - Opens the trunk that has a mine nearby and a booby trap on it (also bypasses the booby trap) but gives no XP.
• Safe - Derringer is Jesse-Belle's dowry.
• Toaster - Keep going into the tunnel with debris. Watch for the mine just around the corner,

Highpool Destroyed
If you came after first going to the Ag Centre, Highpool is destroyed. Find Sean Bergin in Jesse-Belle's house to get the Wrecking Crew's location. Otherwise, very straightforward map. The Double XP gate is also here.