Okay, you have finished up the Boneyard, hopefully gaining some much needed experience in the process, the next step is something of a toss up if you have played the game more than once since you will know where the Military Base is located and you can go there if you choose. Otherwise, the only place you know the location of now that is a viable choice is the Cathedral, if you didn't get the location from Katja make sure to ask her. If you don't have the location of the Cathedral and just want to go there then head due south of the Boneyard and you will run into it.

If you talked to Nicole at the Followers library then four NPC characters will show up to join your party. There are several ways to get access to the secret areas of the Cathedral. One avenue is by talking to Laura in the room on the left when you first enter the Cathedral, unless you have talked to Nicole she won't help you. Laura will let you in on the secret door that Morpheus the leader of the Children uses to get downstairs. If you have NPC characters with you the next portion of the Cathedral can be difficult. Laura will let you into the upper right hand area of the Cathedral. If your lockpicking skill is tremendous you will be able to pick the lock on the secret door that Laura shows you, otherwise you will have to head up the stairs to get the key from Morpheus. Morpheus is several floors up and each floor has Nightkin on it that are well armed. The easy way to get up there is to use the NPC's that Nicole gives you to help kill the hostiles downstairs, this gives you access to a couple of the Children's robes. If you wear the robes and don't carry a weapon openly then you can sneak through most of the Cathedral unscathed. Unfortunately, you can't sneak by anyone if you have NPC characters with you, so you either have to avoid getting them from Nicole or get rid of them, (i.e. kill them). This is option one.

Cathedral Option 1: Sneak in and blow up the Nuke.

This strategy assumes you have no NPC characters with you (including the dog). Take out all the people on the first floor that are hostile, then grab a robe from one of the Children. Head up the back staircase behind the door that Laura opens or pick the lock on that door if you don't use Laura. You should be able to go by the next floor and the one after that without being attacked. When you get to the top floor you will find Morpheus in the room on the far left. At this point you will have to kill him and the Nightkin that are on this floor, save often. The Tesla Armor is on this floor in a chest along with a Power Fist, the armor is quite useful against energy weapons, but not good for much else, the Power Armor is still the best. There are also Stealth Boys and various large weapons on the nightkin, you can also grab an electronic lockpick off the bookshelf. Grab the keys that Morpheus has on him (look like circles with x's in them) and head downstairs making sure to put your weapons away and to wear the robe. You should be able to sneak back down to the main floor.

On the main floor, use the black key to open the door and make sure to be wearing your Power Armor as the Nightkin behind the door will not be fooled by the robes at this point. Take out the Nightkin and put the robes back on. Head downstairs (check out the designer's dog Sasha outside to the north before you do) and you will find yourself in an apparently empty room with no exit. If you wait a while a Child will come through a secret door in the southeast corner of the room behind a wall. You can find this door by using your Traps skill on the bookshelf to the left of the far right section of wall. You will find a latch and then you can use the latch to open the secret door. You will encounter some creatures in some caves and then you will find yourself in front of a Vault. Surprise, surprise right?

You can bluff your way past the Nightkin and you will see an active computer terminal in the Vault to the right of the elevator. Use your science skill on the computer to find the location of the Military Base. Now that you have that you can head back over to the Military Base or if you are quite confident you can continue here. Since you are being sneaky about things you should be able to take out the Cathedral no problem, provided your science skill is at 90%. Make sure that you buy a lot of books from the bookstore in the Hub and jack up those skills before attempting the rest of this, also it is a good idea to have both the electronic lockpick and the regular lockpicks as well as a moderately good lockpick skill. Head for the elevator and go down to the bottom level. Since we are being sneaky we are going to try and avoid conflict for the most part. Once you are on level 3 head over to the northwest corner in the room where all the nightkin are hanging out. There you will find a door leading to an elevator. Use the electronic lockpick on the first door and the regular lockpicks on the elevator. You will find some Nightkin guarding a nuclear bomb. You need to use your regular lockpicks to unlock the door that they are behind. You can't really bluff your way past these two although you can talk to them for a little bit, but you will eventually have to kill them so you should just put on your armor and go in guns blazing. Once you take out the Nightkin you can set off the nuke by using your science skill on it (I said that was going to be important right?) if your skill isn't high enough, tough luck you should have studied more in school. The nuke will start a four minute countdown when you arm it, you need to put away your weapons put on the robes and run your butt back all the way out to the world map. That's right all the way out! Enjoy the show.

Cathedral Option 2: Sneak in and convince the Master to blow himself up.

This strategy assumes the same as above, but it also assumes that you have the information from the Brotherhood, specifically the data disk that Vree gave you proving that mutants can't reproduce. You will also need a fairly high intelligence and speech skill for this one. Once you get into the Vault you need to head to the second floor, go to the room in the northwest corner and talk to Gideon, unless you have the Empathy perk you should save before conversing with him as his dialogue is strange. You need to follow his dialogue through and convince him to give you the crown that he has. This is a psychic nullifier that will protect you from the Master's mental attacks, by the way if you have the Mental Block perk you don't need to do this. I could give you the dialogue options for Gideon, but what fun would that be for you? If you don't have a high enough Intelligence and probably a good Speech skill too you won't get the proper dialogue. This isn't the strategy for the dumb bruiser character.

Once you have the nullifier head down to the third level and run on over to the southeast room, there you will find a door in the east wall. Go into that door and head north to talk to the Master. He is quite a sight, now talk to him and tell him that he needs to convince you that his plan is the correct one, I'll leave the rest up to you, save before talking to him as you might not get the correct dialogue options on the first try. Once you convince the Master that he cannot win because his mutants are sterile he will set off the nuke himself and you will have to run out to the world map to get away.

Cathedral Option 3: Give everyone a big smack in the head and blow that joint.

This is the straighforward plan. If you are a tough guy all you need to do is shoot your way through everyone in the upper and lower levels. You will find more stuff this way, but it is a tougher road. You will still need to either blow up the nuke yourself, convince the Master to blow himself up, or shoot the crapola out of the Master. Shooting the crapola out of the Master is by far the most challenging, don't forget to grab the psychic nullifier from the people on the second floor before you try and kill him. The Master has also got dual gatling lasers on his pedestal so save often as one critical will kill you. The Master also makes Nightkin appear out of thin air behind you and start shooting at you. Fun for the whole family.

All of these strategies boil down to one thing, run your butt out of there before everything blows up. By this time I am not going to give you the exact details of what is located in each area as they are much too large, I'm sure you can find the obvious stuff yourself, and with all the crap that the Nightkin are hauling around you will be well stocked by the time you get through with this area.

Next you can head over to the Military Base, which you should have the location for now.