Fallout/The Hub

Notable areas

 * 1) Entrance
 * 2) Merchant Center
 * 3) Old Town
 * 4) Heights
 * 5) Water Merchants
 * 6) The Underground

Notable characters

 * 1) Police guards (dressed in metal armor and combat armor)
 * 2) Guards for the Far Go Traders, Deckker, Hightower, and Jain
 * 3) Caravan Drivers/Guards
 * Townsfolk
 * 1) Skags (only in Old Town)
 * 2) Decker, the criminal leader
 * 3) Kane, Decker's assistant
 * 4) Beth, gun shop owner, likes to gossip around
 * 5) Butch, owns Far Go Traders
 * 6) Rutger, Butch's assistant
 * 7) Demetre, owns Crimson Caravan
 * 8) Keri, Demetre's assistant, has sex with you if you're male
 * 9) Sheriff Justin Greene, keeps the law; he'll be on your side when you kill Decker
 * 10) Deputy Fry, police officer in the entrance of the Hub
 * 11) Loxley, leader of the Thieves' Circle
 * 12) Jasmine, Loxley's assistant
 * 13) Jake, heavy weapons merchant
 * 14) Vance, drug dealer at old town
 * 15) Hightower, owns water merchants, quite rich
 * 16) Jain, Children of the Cathedral priestess
 * 17) Harold, the old mutant at Old Town, has seen Deathclaw
 * 18) Slappy, crazed uncle of Beth, knows where Deathclaw is
 * 19) Irwin, his house has been taken over by raiders
 * 20) Mitch, owns the General Store (or All-In-One store)
 * 21) Mrs. Stapleton, Librarian
 * 22) Lorenzo, loan shark, owns Friendly Lending Company

Stuff to get

 * 1) Cathedral Robes (probably the most important item)
 * 2) Chemicals in Cathedral Armory, most notably the super stim, other stimpacks, RadX's, RadAway's, and any Psychos you get plus the Hunting Rifle
 * 3) Hightower's Necklace
 * 4) Any stimpacks or guns found off of Hightower's and Jain's guards
 * 5) Spiked Knuckles (later - see Hub Revisited)
 * 6) .223 Pistol (ditto)

Stuff to buy

 * 1) Combat Shotgun
 * 2) Sniper Rifle
 * 3) Combat Armor
 * 4) Books if your small guns, science, outdoorsman, and repair skills are below 75%. Beware that they can get very expensive.
 * 5) 10+ Stimpacks
 * 6) Ammunition (be sure that you have something like 200 rounds for the shotgun, 50 for the sniper, and loads of 10mm JHP for the SMG if you like spraying bullets)

Stuff to sell

 * 1) Your leather jacket and your 10mm Pistols for the books
 * 2) Your leather armors, metal armor, and shotgun for combat shotgun and/or sniper rifle
 * 3) Your Desert Eagles for stimpacks, extra books, extra ammo
 * 4) Your SMG and maybe a Desert Eagle for the 14 mm Pistol
 * 5) Your .44 JHP / FMJ ammo, extra armors, first-aid kit and doctors bag for either very large weapons and / or an extra two pairs of dynamite if you can't get the robes (lockpick the door). Also useful for buying the books.
 * 6) Your SMG and its 10mm ammo after the brawl with Decker

Caravan Notes
The Hub, of course, is a big merchant trading center. It is only natural to find caravan companies there who want to hire extra guards. It is a good idea to take a caravan to Necropolis, Brotherhood of Steel, or the Boneyards if you don't know where the cities are located. Here is a list of the two caravans:


 * Crimson Caravan: Their pay is $600, and they leave on the 3rd and the 17th of every month. They go to the Brotherhood of Steel, Junktown, Necropolis, and the Boneyards. The company travels on dangerous routes, so it is a good idea to have something like a combat shotgun and metal armor ready. If you return to the Hub with them, you get an extra $600. To get the job, talk to Demetre, accept the job, and then to Keri.
 * Far Go Traders: Their pay is $400, and they leave on 8th, 18th, and 28th of every month. They go to the Brotherhood of Steel, Junktown, and the Boneyards. The company travels on safe routes, so you don't really need much combat gear - probably metal armor and a shotgun max. If you return to the Hub with them, you'll get an extra $400. To get the job, talk to Rutger, accept the job, and then talk to the caravan driver in the left side of the Far Go Traders building.
 * Water Merchants: Their pay is $200, and they leave on the 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, and 25th of every month. They go to the Boneyards and Junktown. The company travels on extremely safe routes, so having combat gear isn't always necessary. Like the other caravans, you can go to the Hub with the company for an extra $200. To get the job, talk to the caravan leader in the Water Merchants building, accept the job, and then talk to the caravan driver who is standing outside of the building with the brahmin.

The Water Chip
If you're pressed for time (i.e., you don't have the water chip and time is about to run out), you can buy one hundred days' worth of water sent to Vault 13 for $2000 from the water merchants. Even though this move gives you experience, the mutants will be able to locate Vault 13 faster. You'll only have 400 days to destroy the mutant threats, opposed to 500 if you don't get the chip. I think the 1.1 patch removes both of the dates, but the 500 day limit will be removed with the patch.

If you want to find the water chip, go to Necropolis (with your combat armor) and get the water chip after you accept the quest to get a special item from the Glow. Instead of going to the Glow, go to Necropolis first and get the water chip (optionally return it to Vault 13), and then go to the Glow and back to the Brotherhood.