Wasteland 3 The Psychopath Quest - How to get Victory Buchanan out alive

In Wasteland 3, while there were multiple interwoven quests involved in dislodging Val from his hiding place, The Psychopath is one long, sprawling story that takes a good while to complete.

To get Victory Buchanan back to Ranger HQ in custody, you'll need a fair few high stats. Before making your way to Aspen at Level 17, I'd recommend having one team member with at least Perception or Kiss Ass 8, Lockpicking 8, Mechanics 8, and Nerd Stuff 8. It's not required, but you could also use a medic with First Aid 8 too.

By this point in the game you probably already have these squad members, but complete some side quests to level up the right skills if you don't.

With these skills, travel up to Aspen when you're ready. It’s up in the northwest corner of the map, probably further than you’ve been. To get there drive up into the Rocky Mountains by taking the pass just to the left of the entrance to Colorado Springs.

Keep heading upwards, and you’ll pass multiple points-of-interest on the way - but if you’re at the right level already, there’s little need to stop.

Nearly at the top of the map, you’ll find Aspen.

Wasteland 3 The Psychopath Quest - How to arrest Victory Buchanan alive

As you enter Aspen, you’ll be hailed by someone claiming to be a Desert Ranger on the radio. Say you copy, and he’ll identify himself as a captured member of the original Team November who were jumped by the Dorseys at the start of the game.

He’ll ask you to attempt a rescue, and that the Breathers, Vic’s gang of raiders, will kill you on sight.

Strap in for the slog ahead.

Your first task is to lower the bridge so you can get across, and that means taking on your first squad of Breathers up ahead, position yourself as usual on the edge of their field-of-view and take the first shot.

In this first battle, you’ll have the Kodiak to help you too.

After taking down the baddies, Vic will hail your radio, and you’ll find the key to the welcome lodge on one of the corpses. Open the welcome lodge door and you’ll battle through another group of Breathers to get to the terminal that lowers the bridge.

Alternatively, lockpick the truck on the left hand side of the area to open the employee lounge door. This leads to a corridor which lets you get the jump on the Breathers, and if you’ve got the lockpick skill to open his door, lets you save and trade with a merchant named Opie. He has the Survival Skill Book which is worth grabbing.

Head down the stairs after Opie, disarming the trap, then hack the computer through the door on the right to make the defences target the Breathers, then you can wade into battle with the upper hand.

Or, since you’ve pinned the Breathers into the other half of the room, you can just run over to where the terminal is and back past Opie the way you came, since you’re outside their field of view.

When you’re done head across the bridge towards the Ski Lodge.

Wasteland 3 The Psychopath - Weapons Bunker and The Gauntlet

On the other side, Woodson will hit up your radio warning you about an incoming squad of Breathers.

Ask him for advice and he’ll tell you about a cache of weapons stored by the Hundred Families that the Breathers are trying to snag.

Your choice is now to go left - to The Gauntlet - or right to the bunker.

Go right to the bunker first, as it lets you build up XP for the tougher fight after The Gauntlet.

So, go right and around the corner into the construction yard, and to your left is a load of breathers.

Disarm the alarm at the bottom of the stairs on your left and sneak up there to get higher ground, then attack. Two more will run in from outside of your field of vision, but it’s not a tough fight.

Now go and repair the Mechanics 8 generator on the other side of the construction yard. This boots up a terminal nearby. Raise the crane on the terminal and this opens up a side path into the bunker Woodson mentioned.

This way you don’t have to fight all the Sawpups and Shockdog, or can at least get the drop on them if you want the XP (which you should).

Disable them first with the terminal and Nerd Stuff 6 to loot and position yourself favourably.

With the Bunker looted, now it’s time to fight to the Gondola. Past the computer terminal you interacted with is a set of double stairs. At the end of the path is the mini-boss Federico, but if you want the jump on this battle, you have to run The Gauntlet.

Head back next to the bridge before you turned right and go up to the Lockpick 7 door.

The Gauntlet solutions

First off someone has to go and stand on the switch on the right, then go past where the fire was and interact with the switch to lower the gate on the right.

Now run someone through the gate and take the first person off the switch to clear the right pathway.

Stand a third person on the top-right switch to clear the first person’s path, then run everyone around.

Next up is the windmills. Run around the bottom side and interact with the red button to switch one off. Then you can go around the others switching them off now one is inert.

At the next part, you can either pick the locks and fight through the growlers, or go up the staircase to the left, repair the valve and gas them out.

Either way, there’s a weapons cache on the left behind a gate you’ll want to loot.

The grave that you have to disarm with explosives had some great armour in for me.

You can take the Growler Cub as an animal companion if you’re wanting for one. It buffs your armour.

The Growlers serve as the final part of the Gauntlet, so you can now sneak over to the Generator for Federico’s Turrets. Disable it, then press your high-ground advantage by positioning yourself in cover, then strike first.

Beating Federico’s squad gets you the Gondola key, so it’s time to make a date with Vic.

Before you leave, grab the stash of loot from the hidden room to the right of the Gondola building.

Pull the switch on the wall to power the terminal.

Wasteland 3 Little Hell - How to rescue the hostages

In Little Hell, you can run over to the right and free Hardee Knox from the spit. Doing so increases your fame. You probably met his wife in the church while you were doing the Unwelcome Guests quest, so make sure to do so.

He tells you that there are other hostages to save inside, so save your game and head into the resort.

Vic immediately sets the Breathers on you, three from the left, four from the right. Take cover and take them out.

Once the fight’s over, you can save Woodson from the room on the right.

He’ll tell you that there are hostages in different locations and that one of the inner circle of Breathers has the key to the Patriarch’s wing where Vic is hiding.

When you’re ready to head out, go down the left hand hallway.

Saving all of the Hostages

Interact with the first door on the left and you’ll speak to Ash. He says if you barge in there, all the hostages are toast. Go down the hallway past that room then and deal with the gas hopper and two more will come around the corner.

This area is now divided into two hallways: left and right.

Before you press on, grab the picture of The Gift from above the fireplace in front of you.

Head right, then there’s a basement of loot on your right. At the far end is Llewellyn who you can speak to.

He’s a member of staff that you can save. With First Aid 7 you can fix him up and get a key to the treasury. Alternatively, you can kill him and cut it out of him. Kwon and Lucia won’t like this though, so you’ll probably have to leave him be. You can pick into the vault yourself with 10 lockpicking. There's a barter +1 accessory, along with some decent weapons and armour and a $2000 junk item - so not a disaster if you can't get in.

However the next door on the right hand corridor is full of Breathers. This is the Guest Suites.

Make sure you run all the way into the Suites or you’ll get stuck in the doorway and it’s a real pain to fight. Once they're down, the baddies in here give you the keys to guest suites 1 and 2.

Guest Suite 2 is at the far end of the room. Inside you’ll find Rook - free him and give him first aid. There’s a creepy doll to collect in the rucksack next to his cage.

In Guest Suite 1 nearer the front of the room though, the situation is a little tougher. Inside you find Violet and Priscilla Reed. Tell them to stay put, then interact with the electrical box at the end of the room. Remove the panel, then if you have Mechanics 8 you can reroute the power to save them.

With them in the clear, it's time to move to the other side of the corridor.

In the first room on the left, you’ll find The Gift, along with some non hostile Breathers and the second Ranger hostage.

Speak to The Gift, and tell her you plan to deal with Vic. Show her the picture and ask if she needs to escape. With 8 Perception, you can talk her into seeing Victory is the psychopath he is.

Talk to her about Vic, then if you’ve convinced her with the perception check, you can ask her to stay out of the fighting so you can deal with him. She agrees and lets the Ranger go. With Kiss Ass 8 you can skip those other checks.

Before you leave, you can heal yourself at Dr Hyde for 100 bucks.

In the next room on the left-hand side of the corridor you need to take out Gertrude the Gruesome to save La Loca. This isn't too tough since there's only three of them.

Finally, make you way to the end of the left hand corridor, disarming the trap on the way.

There’s a load more enemies to clear out around the pool. They spam gas grenades so if you’re worse for wear then head back to Dr Hyde. Either way, when they’re dead they give you the sauna maintenance key.

Use it on the door on the other side of the pool. With Nerd Stuff 8 you can hack the computer on your left to drain the pool and loot some corpses. Otherwise, you can interact with the Breather Gas Tank on the wall to halt the flow of Gas to the Sauna with Mechanics 7.

Alternatively, you can use Nerd Stuff 7 on the Terminal next to the Sauna Door to stop the experiment that way.

This saves Estin Ward, who you can now talk to.

That should be all of the hostages, so you can now head back to Ash's security room without fear when you’re breaking down the door.

You can either arrest Ash, kill him or set him free. I arrested him. With Hard Ass 8 you can worm out of him that Vic is planning to gas Colorado Springs to keep the citizens compliant.

With the key in hand it’s time to take it to Victory. To get past the gas, put someone on the pad in the guest suite then interact with the canister on the other side.

Wasteland 3 Victory Buchanan

Inside, to kick things off disable the generator at the side of the stairs in front of you to disable the turrets.

Now go through the door on the left to speak to Gwendolyne Reed. Tell her you rescued her daughters and she’ll leave.

Take the path through the door at the top of the room Mrs Reed is in to get behind the Breathers and take them out.

With that last fight finished, interact with the intercom to speak to Victory.

To arrest Victory alive:

• First, tell him to surrender
• Then if you have Kiss Ass 10 or First Aid 8, you can get him to give himself up regardless of your previous actions
• Alternatively, as you’ve been following along with this, you can tell him that the Gift turned on him and that the other rangers are free and ready to jump in
• At this point, in a hilarious turn of events, he’ll offer to join your team
• You can either accept or hold fast and arrest him alive
• Remember to search the Patriarch's Suite where he was hiding before you leave either way

If you add Victory Buchanan to your team then he has the following stats and skills:

Wasteland 3 Victory Buchanan Attributes and Skills
Attributes:
Coordination	6
Luck	2
Awareness	9
Strength	4
Speed	4
Intelligence	6
Charisma	6
Skills:
Small Arms	10
Big Guns	8
Hard Ass	7

If you take Vic in, the rescued rangers will confront you at the exit. You can then either kill them, make them stand down with Hard Ass 8, or kill Vic.

With that sorted peaceful, Pizepi will also ask to join the squad. She has:

Wasteland 3 Pizepi Attributes and Skills
Attributes:
Coordination	4
Luck	2
Awareness	8
Strength	4
Speed	4
Intelligence	8
Charisma	6
Skills:
Automatic Weapons	10
Weird Science	7
Nerd Stuff	7

Return to the Patriarch with Vic in your party and he’s a bit disgruntled, but still gives you your reward. You’re now free to return to HQ and learn more about the location of Liberty Buchanan.

If you'd prefer to keep Victory locked up where he belongs, then arrest him and make your way out. Be sure to check the chest behind him for a unique AR, leadership skill book, and some dirt on the Patriarch.

On your way out, speak to the Rangers, and Pizepi will again offer to join.

Drive back to The Patriarch’s Palace and he’s happier with this outcome, but your next destination is still Ranger HQ to learn more about Liberty.

For more on Wasteland 3, check out our Character Build guide, here.