Wasteland 2

Wasteland 2

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Wasteland Historian Achievement
By irthinker
This guide specifically discusses where you can acquire the books for Wasteland Historian as of December, 2014.
   
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Overview
My first guide!

Let's get one thing clear - there is not an abundance of books that you can leisurely pick up. You need to strive for perfection in getting these books. At this time, this is a single playthrough achievement. If you are crazy enough to pursue this achievement, let this guide help preserve as much of your sanity as possible.

You need to try to get every last book; some folks talk about how there are oh so many lore entries in the game and you "only" need 45. Well, to the best of my knowledge from three play throughs, if you rescue Ag Center then there are at most 47 books that you can get that count towards the achievement as of the writing of this guide. One of those 47 was from a random encounter in California.

What if you rescue Highpool? If you rescue Highpool, you will still only miss out on 2 books - the Garden Journal and Lab Journal. You will still find the four "History of the Ag Center" books [Thanks to ValDeez for this information]. So, you should still be able to complete it with either choice. However, you may still need Ag Center for the gorilla suit, so if you are going for every achievement in a single playthrough, I would recommend saving Ag Center.

I am not sure if this is achievable if you fail to rescue either Ag Center or Highpool.

Many of these books are easy to overlook. This is an achievement of perseverance. You will not be able to come back and get books in Arizona when you leave, so make sure you have them all before you leave.

Finally, some books may require a certain Perception level to spot. For example, Napolean Blownaparte reports needing a Perception of at least 4 to spot the Garden Journal in the Ag Center.

What follows are notes on how to find 47 books.
Arizona Lore Entries
I found 35 of my 46 lore entries here.

  • (Ag Center - Central Complex) Lab Journal: Rose's Desk
  • (Ag Center - Basement) History of the Ag Center Part 3: Pickup
  • (Ag Center - East Field) History of the Ag Center Part 4: Safe in East Field behind heavy growth, building near entrance
  • (Ag Center - Lab Area) History of the Ag Center Part 1: Matt Forestal's safe
  • (Ag Center - West Field) Garden journal: Mound in north west; Perception test
  • (Ag Center - West Field) History of the Ag Center Part 2: Pickup
  • (Canyon of Titan) The Servants of Titan Part 1: Crate south of Outpost 2, near where pig farmers almost blow themselves up
  • (Canyon of Titan) Your Friend The Great Glow: Mound in camp with Honey Badgers & Tom's dead wife
  • (Damonta) Blood-stained journal: Dead body just south of radio station
  • (Damonta) Double Six tragedy report: Crate in Tinker's hangar; or laying on a box in Sierra Madre plane in Silo 7 w/ Perception
  • (Damonta) The History of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base: Body near west of tail of airplane that Rick occupies
  • (Damonta) KPOW playlist for Monday July 21st: Refrigerator in Wally's station
  • (Prison - Happy Valley) Farmer's diary Part 3: Crate near Red, crate near his entrance gate
  • (Prison - Happy Valley) Farmer's diary Part 1: Dead body near entrance
  • (Prison - Happy Valley) Farmer's diary Part 4: Gun case near RSM blockade
  • (Prison) Farmer's diary Part 2: Crate in Auwerter's Farm - Far NW corner
  • (Prison) Farmer's diary Part 5: Mound in Cactus Henge near/before 2nd RSM group; near crate and tower; Perception test
  • (Rail Nomads) The Story of John Henry Part 1: Mound as you first enter, to right
  • (Rail Nomads - Atchison's Camp) The Story of John Henry Part 2: Mound behind Casey Jones's House
  • (Rail Nomads) The Story of John Henry Part 3: Mound beind train car with model trains
  • (Prison) Anger Management for Angry Managers: Dropped for me at fight near Cactus Henge twice
  • (Ranger Citadel) Intelligence report Part 1: Shelf near Cartographer Thrasher
  • (Ranger Citadel) Intelligence report Part 2: Shelf near Egg
  • (Ranger Citadel) Memories of My Time in the Rangers Part 1: Shelf in Vargas's Office
  • (Ranger Citadel) Memories of My Time in the Rangers Part 2: Shelf in Vargas's Office
  • (Ranger Citadel) Memories of My Time in the Rangers Part 3: Shelf near Egg
  • (Ranger Citadel) The History of the Desert Rangers Part 1: Shelf near Egg
  • (Ranger Citadel) The History of the Desert Rangers Part 2: Shelf near Egg
  • (Ranger Citadel) The History of the Desert Rangers Part 5: Shelf near Egg
  • (Ranger Citadel) The History of the Desert Rangers Part 3: Shelf near Cartographer Thrasher
  • (Ranger Citadel) The History of the Desert Rangers Part 6: Shelf near Cartographer Thrasher
  • (Ranger Citadel) The History of the Desert Rangers Part 4: Erik Tidemann gives you this after you give him a certain number of pain killers
  • (Temple of Titan - Underground) The Servants of Titan Part 2: Crate with locked electronic door; just below where Dale is
  • (Temple of Titan - Underground) The Servants of Titan Part 3: Crate en route to launch computer
  • (Temple of Titan - post defuse) The Flame Deluge Canticle: Toaster near Canyon end of zone, by cactus

If you rescue Highpool instead, you will be unable to acquire the Garden Journal or Lab Journal, but you can still acqurie the four "History of the Ag Center" books [Thanks to ValDeez for this information]. However, you will gain two more books by rescuing Highpool, so you should be equally capable of completing this achievement either way:

  • (Highpool) The Legend of the Red Ryder: Jesse-Belle's house, chest with alarm
  • (Highpool) The Ballad of Bobby & Rex : Up top?
California Lore Entries
I obtained 11 of my 46 lore entries in California. I never found any lore item in Rodia, in spite of what has been recorded in various wikis on the interwebz.

Do yourself a favor and have Brother Thomas join your party so you can look at the four books in his inventory. Then you don't have to sweat finding them in/near the Bastion. I can, however, confirm that I did manage to find all four, so if you really don't want Thomas in your party even for a moment, then you can get by with searching around.

One of these lore entries is a random encounter, I think it may have been unavoaidable (e.g., a 0% chance to run away, but I am not certain if that was always true regardless of Outdoorsman skill); either way, if you read "Mannerites on nearby rooftops" be sure and have that fight.

  • (Angel Oracle) Mr. Manners' Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Etiquette: talk to "Mannerite" woman near booktable with brochure on it (note: the brochure on the table is *not* the lore book). [Thanks to Xelian for this information and senornacho for confirming]
  • (Hollywood) Welcome to Hollywood!: Medical crate in Swifty's sewer
  • (Los Feliz) The Griffith Observatory: A History: Mound near building with statue out front
  • (The Bastion) The Ten Commandments of James King: Medical crate behind refrigerator inside entrance of Penitent's pen
  • (Bastion or Santa Fe) The Story of Samson Part 1: Crate on top of main Bastion building or in Brother Thomas's Inventory
  • (Bastion or Santa Fe) The Story of Samson Part 2: Mound to the right of the Bastion main entrance or in Brother Thomas's Inventory
  • (Bastion or Santa Fe) The Story of Samson Part 3: Somewhere in/near Bastion or in Brother Thomas's Inventory
  • (Bastion or Santa Fe) The Story of Samson Part 4: Medical crate near Bastion Radio Tower or in Brother Thomas's Inventory
  • (Seal Beach) Your Golden Future: When you enter Seal Beach, circle around to left into cul-de-sac by construction equipment; in crate
  • (Seal Beach - Inner Compound) The Gospel According to Matthias: You pretty much walk out right by this crate in the Dugan fight
  • (Mysterious Shrine (SW-most)) Blood-stained journal [1 of 2]: On corpse
  • (Random Encounter) Stoll's Journal: You will have a random encounter "Mannerites on nearby rooftops" and find this on Stolls after you kill him

You may notice that there are no entries for Angel Oracle or Rodia. That's because, in spite of suggestions on the interwebz, I could not find any nor has anyone responded to my threads about those books. Ergo, I assume they are no longer in the game or something special must trigger their appearance.
28 Comments
irthinker  [author] 3 Nov, 2016 @ 4:28pm 
4ks, as noted in the guide, that one requires a Perception test. Is it possible your Perception is too low?
4ks 10 Oct, 2016 @ 10:32am 
I can't find Farmer's diary Part 5 >_< In original game, not DC. Help please ._.
Matt 2 Jun, 2016 @ 12:11am 
thanks for coming back to me irthinker.
I went came back to both these locations number of times with different party members at different stage of the story, but no luck, so in the end i gave up and flew to california. Hopefully I'll get all other books and achiev anyway. Keep your fingers crossed! :)
irthinker  [author] 1 Jun, 2016 @ 1:12pm 
Matt, sorry for the late reply, but I recall the Lab Journal literally sitting on her desk and being clickable. I know that at least one safe was hard to see/click, perhaps that is the one that is giving you trouble. Best wishes on finishing!
Matt 21 Apr, 2016 @ 5:57am 
for some reason i cannot find these last 2 in Arizona:
Lab Journal: Rose's Desk
History of the Ag Center Part 4
i checked practically everywhere in AG and East Field, but they're just not there.
Perhaps i overlook Rose's desk, I dont recall her giving any comment that it's the one, but I went through every room and checked every piece of furniture, so....
I also found the safe where History 4 should be, i don't recall what i got from it, but book wasnt there.
What are the chances it's a bug .....or it's me?
irthinker  [author] 17 Mar, 2016 @ 2:31pm 
Napolean Blownaparte, thanks for that detailed information. I will hold off on adding it for now. I remember the insanity of this achievement and I would hate to lead to someone being 1 short at the end...that would make me a sad panda, which is something you probably understand...being a panda and all.
Napoleon Blownaparte 17 Mar, 2016 @ 2:08pm 
Yeah, I just checked and in Director's Cut it pops up a Steam notice saying the count increased but it doesn't. Might also happen in Vanilla or he might have been playing DC.
Napoleon Blownaparte 17 Mar, 2016 @ 2:05pm 
The Engineer's Note is in one of the rail cars, probably in a chest, in the area of the bar and the arcade. It might pop up the +1 achievement note but I don't think it actually increases the book count. It's really intended as a clue to help you deal with the dangerous playset in the Rail Nomads camp, near where Ralphy's girlfriend is hanging out. There are some documents that do that on Steam, which is kind of misleading, especially in the Director's Cut.
irthinker  [author] 17 Mar, 2016 @ 1:18pm 
GERY, would you be willing to provide some more information, for example, exactly where did you find it in the Rail Nomad's Camp?
COSMIC_CONQU3RROR 21 Jan, 2016 @ 5:58am 
I found Engieneer's Note in Rail Nomads camp.I dont se this on the list.I read them and still +1 book pop up in the achievement .