The Glow is an interesting place, definitely one of the premier sites for weapons and if you do it right you can get through it quite easily. First of all if you don't know where the Glow is you should head over to the Brotherhood of Steel. If you don't know where the Brotherhood of Steel is then you obviously haven't been talking with the right people all through the game. If you have saved the Brotherhood member in the Hub you should have the location. If you still don't have the location get a job with one of the caravans such as the Crimson Caravan and they will take you over to the Brotherhood, but the catch is they only leave on certain days of the month. Now, before you actually head out of the Hub go over to the drug dealer's shop over in Old Town and buy about six Rad-X pills and about six Rad-Away. Now make sure that you have some rope, if you don't, head over to the general store in Downtown and get some. When you go to the Glow it is good to have a bunch of NPC characters with you because you can load them up with your extra stuff by using the steal skill on them (they don't care if you steal from them).

Once you get to the Brotherhood, talk to Cabbot the guy on the left side of the door. Ask him about joining the Brotherhood and he will tell you that they need you to perform a quest for them that involves going to "The Ancient Order" and bringing something back for them. That is about all that you get out of him. Agree to take the quest then talk to the Paladin on the right side of the door, he will give you some details about the Glow including where it is located.

Crater:

From there you can head down to the Glow. Right before you get to the circle that surrounds the Glow location make sure that you stop, then use enough Rad-X to give you 100% radiation resistance. Once you do this head into the Glow area. You will find a pit that looks like this picture. Attach your rope to the outcropping that extends into the pit. Then go down.

First Floor:

On the first floor there is not much to see, a big crater, some burnt up dead guys, etc. Check out all the burnt out dead guys that you see in the various rooms. This is a good rule of thumb as they do have important stuff on them, so make sure to check all the burnt bodies on all the levels. There are several lockers in the southwest corner above the elevator and in the northeast corner, make sure to check those out. There is also that dead guy in the power armor lying in the room in the north. Check him out, take the orange key card off of him and take the Pipboy tape that he has on him. You can download the data from the tape, but make sure you don't throw it away! Make sure that you check out the dead bodies for items. I'm going to assume that you do this and not tell you to except where a dead body has a special item. The computer next to the dead guy in power armor is hooked up to the power controller, you can only turn on and off the emergency power (which doesn't help you as turning off emergency power deactivates the elevators). The primary power gives you an error when you try to mess with it, you will find out why. Now go back to the southwest corner where the elevator is located. Use the orange key card on the elevator and it will deactivate the traps set on the door. Notice that the elevator is color coded around the edge with the particular key card color that is needed to open it. You can see a faint orange outline around the first floor elevator door. Now go to the second floor.

Second Floor:

Okay, you step off the elevator on the second floor behind you, around the elevator is a room with some deactivated sentry robots. Head in there and go into combat mode and kill all those robots. If you don't do this, when you reactivate the primary power they come online and it is much more difficult to kill them. Check out the lockers for some stuff and then head over and check out the dead bodies in the southern rooms. Then go up to the northeast corner room and search the burnt body there for the red key card. Don't forget to search the sentry robots with the arms, they are carrying assault rifles. Head back to the elevator and use the orange key card to get back on. Go to the third floor.

Third Floor:

Go to your right and destroy the robots that are lying around in there, search them for items. Now head up to the northwest corner and check out the goodies in the lockers there. Get out the red key card that you found on the last level and use it to open the elevator door in the northeast corner. Not much to do on this level, so head for the fourth floor.

Fourth Floor:

Head through the robots to the left and destroy them, then go check out the lockers in the northwest corner, pay special attention to the book and the tool. Use the book to raise your repair skill (time passes while you do this so make sure you check your radiation resistance and if necessary take more rad-x, take rad-away if you see that you are radiated). The tool will enhance your repair skill when you use it on something you want to repair. Head over to the southwest corner and grab the blue key card off the dead body over there. Then check out Zax the mainframe computer in the center of the level. Talk to Zax for a while about himself and his existence and what not, ask him to play a game of chess. This generally helps in that Zax lets you have access to the Mainframe much more easily. Gain access to the mainframe (you should have a fairly high science skill, at least 40 or so, if you want to do this) and you will see several options, explore the various options and notice that there is the security section where you can deactivate the robots (only since the power is off you can't do it right now) and the power terminus will tell you that there is a problem on level 6. Make sure to talk to Zax about the FEV virus as well. Go back to the red elevator and use the red key card on it and head down to level 6. You can't use the elevator in the northeast corner as it doesn't have enough power to run.

Sixth Floor:

Head over to the northwest corner where the blue elevator is and destroy the robots over there. Then head over to the room in the southeast. This is where the power generators are located. Use your repair skill or use the tool on the generators. If your repair skill is high enough you will get the generators working again. Then go to the terminal next to the generators and reactivate the primary power. To avoid having to battle a bunch of robots head back up to level four and access the mainframe through Zax. Go to the security menu and make sure the security robots are disabled. Now head over to the blue elevator and use your blue key card to take you to level five.

Fifth Floor:

On the fifth floor you will meet up with some more deactivated security robots, destroy all of them and head over to the south end of the level. There are a bunch of stand up lockers and lockers in the wall around here. Search all of them. Grab all the stuff, give some to your NPC's if you have too much, make sure to get all the Pipboy tapes and download them and read them as they have good plot stuff in them. If you have to leave stuff behind make sure you don't leave the Plasma Rifle as this is the best weapon that you will find next to the Alien Blaster. Once you are done ransacking the place you are done with the Glow. Leave the area and head back to the Brotherhood to collect your reward.

The Brotherhood