Pitch Black - Recruiting Riddick

lrayek

First time out of the vault
After completing the Pitch Black special encounter with everyone surviving (including Riddick), I am still unable to recruit him. I have tried going to all five bunkers (through epsilon) in case the location mattered, but he is still not available. Does anyone know why this is happening or what I may be doing wrong? Thanks for the Help.
 
You're not doing anything wrong.

Riddick is a Junior Knight. You're just going to have to wait until you can recruit Junior Knights from the recruitment pool.
 
That is strange because I am already a Paladin Commander and can recruit Paladin Commanders. Is there something else that might be the cause? I would REALLY like to get him in my party as Riddick is pretty much my favorite Sci Fi character. Thanks.
 
Yeah, I couldn't get any of the special encounter NPCs except for pipboy if he joins my team directly.

I figure its another corrupted file from CD3. But I don't really know.

Not that it really matters, the special NPCs aren't that great.
 
dooms said:
Not that it really matters, the special NPCs aren't that great.
IIRC, the PIPboy that joins you in the encounter has some pretty good stats, particularly Luck. The one that you could recruit at the bunkers after that wasn't so good. (It was 10 compared to 4}
EDIT - From a walkthrough:
The Pipboy random encounter, if you have less than 6 people, gives you the
pipboy character, his statistics are as follows....
Level 10
ST-7
EN-7 (I believe.. I used the vitality drink a few times so it's either 6 or 7)
PE-6
CH-5
IN-6
AG-6
LK-10

His tags are:
Small Guns
Bigs Guns
Energy Weapons
Sneak
Certainly not a bad addition.
 
Wondering if anyone has any updated information on recruiting Riddick. I am currently Rank 6 (Knight), and cannot recruit junior knights yet so I am hoping it is the solution proposed above. However, I am somewhat disheartened by the person who still wasn't able to. Any information or assurance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

FYI - I have all the patches installed.
 
The only possible thing I can think of for you not getting Riddick is if you didn't wait for him to get to the exit grid first before you exited. I also believe you need to be at bunker gamma to recruit him.

As for phimseto, I'm going to hazard a guess that you have a high charisma pc in which case you'll be knight before mardin. IIRC most knight/junior knights aren't available before finishing bunker beta campaign, regardless of current rank, as they are coded not to be released until that chapter is completed.
 
Oh, and just to tack on, ya the SE npcs aren't that great...oh wait we're forgetting Jim, the best fucking possible heavy gunner ever ;p

Also, if you really, really, really want Riddick and he's not available even when you're Junior Knight or higher, have finished and are at bunker Gamma, and he survived the pitch black encounter and was waiting in the exit grid before you left...copy his .ent file and overwrite one of the other bunker gamma recruits BEFORE finishing Mardin. Ed, hm15.ent, would be an easy one to lose and fits the bill.
 
Success

Just finished Mardin, and got Riddick! Thanks again for the encouragement!!!!!!!

Who needs "Escape from Butcher Bay"? I have "Fallout Tactics" :wink:

Though I have to say...seeing the new recruit list (deathclaws included) makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Riddick is staying for certain, b/c I am a sucker for nods like this. Right now, my current party is myself (pilot, energy weapons specialist), Stitch, Rebecca, Riddick, Babs, and Brian (who is my current MVP when equipped with the CAWS). Two questions:

- Any recommondations on who I might want to look into?

- Riddick represents the first HtH/melee fighter I've really used. Any tricks or tips on how to use him? How effective can such a character be? I confess that I am somewhat concerned about the limitations.

Again, thanks a ton for your response. Also, your guess was right. I am high charisma, and I now realize I wasted a "Brown Noser" feat in a misguided attempt to get Riddick earlier (this was before I got a response). No biggie, though.
 
HtH characters are a mixed bag. Can they work and do very well? Yes they can (the Slayer walks the earth!). They can be almost as effective as your average ranged person shooting nothing special. They can be a little fun (I liked going through the first couple of missions just beating the crap out of raiders with your All-American baseball bat) but when burst weapons start to show themselves in earnest they're gonna be a lot of stress. For one thing, its more or less counterproductive to mix ranged and melee in your squad. For example, you see a mutant. Order Riddick to charge, your guys start shooting, oh shit my own squad just shot and killed Riddick. 2nd situation, they miss but that mutant with the browning just blew Riddick away anyways. As you might guess by now they're something of a headache to deal with.

As you will find, there's precious little a HtH person can do that a ranged character can't do better and with less of a headache. Even in close quarters combat a browning is gonna do more damage quicker.

Now, I said that HtH characters can be effective and I haven't lied to you. If you think Im joking Bob, Pump, and Joe Grimm once beat a full health behemoth to a large robotic pulp in about 7 seconds flat with cattle prods set on overload. Cattle prods set on overload are very effective against robots in the hands of a good melee (I'm going to hazard a guess that perhaps overload does electrical damage) person. Your probably gonna want to use the ripper (melee) or power fist (unarmed) for most of the living stuff, and powerfist will do okay against the 'bots too. Now, the fact that they can do damage (when they get the Slayer perk its on big time) when they get close depends on them getting close. There's two ways of doing this. 1. you get up close without being seen-the high sneak/silent running type- or 2. very good armor and a psycho each mission so that normal damage does no/negligible damage to them should allow them to just charge with impunity. Ultimately I recommend going with #2 as sometimes sneaking is just impractible and power armor is really gonna cramp up your sneaking style.

As for who you can look foward to at least in terms of HtH juggernauts, 2 names come to mind. Pump and Joe Grimm. Both supermutants, Joe is from a special encounter, but hands down the most effective HtH recruits out there.
 
I did get the Grimm Brothers while casting about for Pitch Black, and healed the one. I figured they would show up again, but since I hadn't seen any mutants yet, I was not expecting them any time soon. Glad to hear they will be forthcoming.

I like how, to paraphrase you a bit, when you discussed worthwhile HtH characters, Riddick was not one of the two you mentioned. Alas. I will be keeping him, again for nostalgia/camp sake so headaches will commence.

I wanted to take Mother, simply because I am intrigued by the idea of having a Deathclaw running around doing my bidding. I am surprised to see you do not mention her in the "worthwhile" category. Is there any particular reason?

Thanks again for another in-depth post. As you could tell, I am not that comfortable with the HtH concept, believing in you do in the many virtues of ranged fighting. I may limit myself to Riddick, who I understand can get Slayer, and stick with ranged weapons for the rest.
 
Heh. Don't sell Riddick short. All in all he's an excellent HtH recruit. Not the best, but definitely top 5. Plus the fact that he gets perks every 3 lvls vs the 4 for muties and deathclaws helps to make up for the somewhat lower damage he deals. I would advise pumping up his melee skill, as the cattle prod will allow him to dish out very nice damage (overload is very battery intensive though).

I forgot to mention Cookie as well-she's also a good Super Mutant HtH character.

As for the deathclaws...if you really want a couple of them for HtH, I'd go with Shriek and or Krldraav or however its spelled. As for Mother...well, if you're gonna take just 1 deathclaw, and are not focusing on HtH other than Riddick, take her. I did when I went for a politically correct kind of party (1 ghoul, 1 deathclaw, 1 mutant, 2 humans). Her stats are good, but the problem is domesticated has gimped her HtH damage. Couple that with the fact that deathclaws will do little unarmed damage on non-critical hits to robots, and deathclaws cannot wear armor...deathclaws honestly are quite handicapped from the time you can get them as recruits. I did find one good use for Mother though, and that was as my squads grenadier. Seriously. Decent PE, very good ST+AG and decent IN+a developed sneak skill all adds up to one hell of a grenadier. She can chuck grenades reasonably long distances and high AP means she can chuck a few in short order and regenerates AP fast enough to keep up a decent barage. It may seem odd at first but honestly if you take a deathclaw Mother should be the one, develop and utilize her as a grenadier, and she won't disappoint.
 
Mother single handedley did the first mutie mission for me. She receives perks every 3 levels, and starts with 3 traits. 1 of wich can be changed to anything you like.(mutate) THe other deathclaws have some hideous flaw that i could just not handle. 1 cannot take stims or any type of drug, which is a staple for HtH fighters in later missions. Without it, 1 browning burst or rocket will be enough to blow you to bits. i also took 2 levels of lifegiver and was on toughguy mode. Mother has almost 500 hp.

Definetly invest in a deatlhclaw if you like HtH. The later missions, the lack of armor does hinder you, but with a voodoo and a pyscho and 500 hp, mother can smash up 3 or 4 robots before needing to get doctored, and she can carry a hell of alot of grenades. Not to mention with silent running shes a super scout. no armor means no stealth hit.
 
Pitch Black (why won't Riddick leave?)

I already posted this on the DAC forum, but here it goes...

I've seen this topic posted elsewhere in this forum but there didn't seem to be a resolution reached over it. Basically it has to do with the Pitch Black encounter and Riddick's apparent refusal to leave it. I let him walk through the map all the way to the exit grid after which I snuck my entire squad through. The Deathclaws turned hostile (red) but didn't attack since they weren't able to detect anyone. So with Riddick and my squad in the exit grid I left the map and resumed my business locating other random encounters. After a while I re-entered the Pitch Black map out of curiousity and, surprise(!), Riddick is still standing in the exit grid (the Deathclaws still hostile but unprovoked). Anyway, I was wondering if this was the natural end to the encounter or if the trigger to recruit Riddick, once I complete Mardin, is still unactivated. I know if worse comes to worse I could just substitute his .ent file for another recruit's (goodbye Karl) but since I'm just starting out (I've only finished Brahmin Wood) I figure to try and keep it as legit as bugs will allow (and my recruit pool intact). Well, that's my ramble. Thanks.

... and there it went.
 
I've never had the encounter, but it seems a little sloppy not to deactivate him.

I've just had a look in the editor and the triggers just require he still be alive when you reach the exit grid. So he should show up once you've reached the required rank to recruit him from the pool.
 
Again it's not really a problem, they didn't turn that version off. Once you've reached the required rank you'll see another version of him available in the recruit pool.
 
it is really hard to play with a HtH char but my friend has one with hth attacks and hth evade and with riddick and 4 deathclaws - they all have silent running and no mutants or robots can stand up once the beating comences so i'd say it's a pretty gosu char -lvl 30 the only prob is that deathclaws (mother has 500 hp) have no armour and no resistances agains lasers n stuff but still its a pretty cool way to play the game :)) thanks for reading glhf
 
p.s. i didn't mean to be off topic since the problem is solved ...
- get through Mardin;
- get to rank junior knight;
- do not save if u get Pitch Black before Mardin;(optional but buggy)
- complete the encounter without losing riddick;
- recruit riddick;
:)
 
Back
Top