STORY 11 – Institutionalized
Objective: Enter the elevator
Note: You can use any terminal in the Institute for Brotherhood of Steel Quest 08 – From Within, Minutemen Quest 05 – Inside Job and The Railroad Quest 03 – Underground Undercover. The earliest terminal is in the bank of consoles immediately in front of you when you first teleport into the Institute.
Simply walk out of your initial room, through the doorway opposite and down the stairs to find the elevator. Shortly after Father talks to you, the door of the elevator will slide open. Step inside and descend deeper into the Institute.
When you emerge, important story events happen which I won't spoil for you here. After you are told to explore the Institute and meet the division leaders is where this walkthrough will resume.
Objective: Meet the division leaders
Normally the Division leaders can be found in each of their divisions. The Institute is mapped out like a circle with a cross through the middle, with the end of each line of the cross being one of the divisions. If that's too much trouble to visualize, just keep descending until you are on the ground floor with the plants and flowing water and then follow the lit blue, green, red and yellow signs into each area.
Inside each, you'll meet the division heads who have varying attitudes towards you. Doctor Li from the Advanced Systems division will upgrade your pipboy with a courser chip, allowing you free fast travel access to and from the institute. Yay! Provided of course that you don't piss them off. When you've spoken to the final leader, this story mission will come to a close and you'll get your first Institute quest: The Institute Quest 01 – Synth Retention.
IMPORTANT: From this point on, you will need to pursue one of the faction quests chains (brotherhood, minutemen, railroad or institute) to completion to access the final story mission. Quest that must be completed for a faction (unless mentioned in the quest) are marked with a number. Example – Quest 01 for the Brotherhood can be bypassed completely, which is mentioned within the quest walkthrough.