Make Timmy Neusbaum cry. This can be achieved by: punching him three times; using a Speech check to convince him that his parents are getting divorced and it is all his fault; presenting him with the military school brochure (found on the kitchen table of the Nuesbaum house) and telling him he's being sent away; or murdering one of his parents.
Break up the Rockwell's marriage. This can be achieved by passing a Speech check to convince Janet that Roger is cheating on her; placing the lacy underwear from the Simpson household bedroom on the Rockwell basement desk and inform Janet that Roger is either cheating on her or that he's a crossdresser; or read Janet's diary in the Rockwell bedroom discover her rivalry with Martha Simpson and kill Martha with the rolling pin in the Rockwell kitchen, bringing her death up to Roger or Janet afterwards.
Kill Ms. Henderson, but in a creative way. In the Henderson house, one may rig the chandelier to fall when someone walks under it; slide a roller skate from the door frame to the top of the stairs; tamper with her oven's pilot light and ask her to bake a pie; or access the security terminal in her kitchen and enable a security lockdown to trap Mabel in her home, and then begin her Mr. Handy's security program after disabling the security parameters data.
In the abandoned house, one can activate several objects to emit tones in an order which cause the failsafe to appear. This order is: radio (F), pitcher (C), gnome (D), pitcher (C), cinder block (B), gnome (D), bottle (A). Select the "Chinese Invasion" option on the failsafe terminal to put all of the residents out of their misery.
Making Timmy Cry will result in a -50 karma penalty.
Breaking up the Rockwells' marriage will result in a -50 karma penalty, except by killing Mrs. Simpson and blaming it on Mrs. Rockwell, which will be a -100 karma penalty.
Killing Mrs. Henderson results in a -100 karma penalty except by using the roller skate, which is a -50 karma penalty.
Killing people as the Pint-Sized Slasher causes -50 karma penalty per person or -400 karma total for killing everyone.
Activating the fail-safe, however, rewards +300 karma.
Attacking Betty at anytime will cause her to scold you momentarily before killing you immediately with an electric shock.
Your Pip-Boy is removed while in the simulation (a Vault-Tec wrist watch is present instead with the time always being 2:55); however V.A.T.S. still works as intended.
Similar to the Anchorage Simulation, once you have left Tranquility Lane, you cannot return.
The tones to activate the failsafe reflect the ditty that Betty occasionally whistles while at play and is played multiple times by the marimba and once by the flute throughout the simulation.
The background music of Tranquility Lane will become slightly lower in pitch and more depressing after activating each individual thing to access the failsafe.
The main musical theme heard in the simulation can be heard as a nursery mobile tune during the tutorial quest Baby Steps.
The layout of Tranquility Lane is slightly similar to the layout of the lounger room in Vault 112. A central hub (the power supply and monitors/the circular park where Betty stays) connected to several smaller nodes in a radiating circular pattern (the tranquility loungers/the houses of the lane).
When you leave Tranquility Lane after activating the fail-safe and then read the Resident Status terminals, they all display:
DISPLAY RESIDENT STATUS
Pulse: 0 bpm
BP: 000/00 mmHg
Temp: 85 F
Respiratory Rate 0/min
***RESIDENT REQUIRES IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION***
DISPLAY RESIDENT STRESS LEVEL
Stress Level: No Reading
***RESIDENT REQUIRES IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION***
Behind the scenes[]
Game Informer rated Tranquility Lane as being among the ten most memorable moments in 2008 games.
Early in development, the Lone Wanderer would instead place a frag mine in the oven, however the copy of the pristine frag mine mesh that it uses is deleted.
Bugs[]
PCPlayStation 3Xbox 360 Your follower may not return to their original location upon entering the simulation, and instead disappear. Sometimes they can be found in the pod area later on.
PlayStation 3Xbox 360 Mrs. Rockwell can skip the argument with her husband if you decide to use the lacy underwear. She will just run away when she's within speaking distance of her former husband. One way to avoid this is to exit the basement before she does and make sure Mr. Rockwell is not too close to the basement door.
PlayStation 3Xbox 360 When you check your watch in Tranquility Lane, the game may freeze.
PlayStation 3Xbox 360 If you start the Chinese invasion while trying to break up the Rockwells' marriage, they will survive because they can't die during that part of the quest.
Xbox 360 If Mabel Henderson is not in her house, or leaves during the time you are arranging her creative death, she may not return. You may need to disable the security lockdown and find her, you may kill her and Betty will restore her to her house, otherwise you may have to load another save.
Xbox 360 If you become hostile with one of the residents and get a fair distance away from him/her you will hear your character say "I guess it was nothing" in young Amata's voice.
Xbox 360 If you save your game within the simulation then try loading it, the screenshot in the load options will show Tranquility lane in color.