Retrieve Yossarian's Tools

Description

Retrieving Yossarian's Tools is a sidequest of The Junkyard in the Mysterious Island Quest. Yossarian, The Junkman needs your help retrieving some tools stolen from him by gremlins. The quest is available immediately when fighting as a Frat Warrior, and after 192 Frat warriors have been killed while disguised as a hippy.

Tasks

• Talk to Yossarian. He will tell you about the gremlins, and give you a molybdenum magnet.
• Talk to him again, and he'll mention seeing one of his tools somewhere. Go over to where he tells you and start fighting the gremlins. You do not need to be wearing either side's uniform to obtain the tools in combat.
• Each tool can be dropped by one particular type of gremlin. There are two subtypes of each gremlin type, one who is holding the tool you're seeking and one who is not. If it has a tool, it will be mentioned in most of their attack messages.
  
  Keep combat going until the tool-holding status of the gremlin is identified. If it's not the tool-holding gremlin, attack as you wish; if it is, use the molybdenum magnet right away.
• Because there are two types of gremlins which are initially indistinguishable, sniffing with a Nosy Nose or Transcendent Olfaction is next to useless here.

Tool	Gremlin	Correct Location	Non-tool-holding attack message	Unique tool-holding attack message
molybdenum hammer	batwinged gremlin	Barrel	"It does a bombing run over your head..."	"It whips out a hammer (you're not sure from where), and hammers on your head with it. Dude, you're so hammered."
molybdenum crescent wrench	erudite gremlin	Tires	"He uses the random junk around him to make an automatic eyeball-peeler..."	"He whips out a crescent wrench from somewhere, places it on your finger, and carefully calibrates how tightly he has to adjust it to make you scream bloody murder."
molybdenum pliers	spider gremlin	Refrigerator	"It bites you in the fibula with its mandibles..."	"It whips out a pair of pliers and fastens them firmly on your <arm>. If only it'd tried to ply you with booze instead."
molybdenum screwdriver	vegetable gremlin	Car	"It picks a beet off of itself and beats you..." or "It picks a radish off of itself and tosses it..."	"It whips out a screwdriver and stabs you with it. Where did it get the vodka and orange juice? Oh, wait, it was just the regular, metal, stabby kind of screwdriver."

• If the monster you are currently fighting isn't the one that can drop the tool, kill it like any other monster; it can't help your quest. You can also banish it without preventing the tool-wielding version from appearing.
• If you're fighting the correct gremlin type for the tool Yossarian is asking for, watch its attack messages carefully. When the message mentions a tool, use the item molybdenum magnet, which will use the magnet to catch it. When you catch a tool, you automatically win the fight. Because you need the gremlins to attack you to find the tool, skills or items that cause a monster to be unable to attack are useless.
• Make sure you don't kill the correct gremlin before it shows its tool. Use a very low-level attack (such as a turtle totem), a reusable skill that doesn't damage (such as Tattle), or a repeatedly-usable but ineffective combat item (such as a beehive, seal tooth, or the spectre sceptre, which has the added benefit of occasional deleveling).
• Go talk to Yossarian to see where the next tool is. Repeat this until you've acquired his hammer, pliers, screwdriver, and crescent wrench.
  • You no longer need to wear the appropriate uniform when talking to Yossarian; if you are not wearing a uniform, this just results in a different message about Yossarian mumbling the location of the next tool.
  • You also don't have to talk to Yossarian at all between getting the magnet and turning in the completed quest. Each zone's tool-using gremlin exists and can use its tool from the start of the quest, and the tools can be acquired in any order.
• Once you have all his tools, talk to him again to finish this quest and claim your reward.
• If you miss the message without using the molybdenum magnet, you will have more chances within the same combat.

Rewards

• If this sidequest was finished in War Hippy Fatigues, you will encounter Bailey's Beetles on the Battlefield (Frat Warrior Fatigues) when fighting against the Hippies. Additionally, gremlins (both pre- and post-war) will be able to drop Extra-potent gremlin mutagens. Yossarian will give you one of the following:
  • A spark plug earring, woven baling wire bracelets, or a gearbox necklace
• If this sidequest was finished in Frat Warrior Fatigues, you will encounter War Frat Mobile Grill Units on the Battlefield (War Hippy Fatigues) when fighting against the Frat Boys. Additionally, gremlins (both pre- and post-war) will be able to drop gremlin mutagens. Yossarian will give you one of the following:
  • A rusty chain necklace, a sawblade shield, or a wrench bracelet
• If this sidequest was not finished, you will receive 1,500 Meat per tool you recovered in special non-combat adventures in the post-war Junkyard.

Text

Visiting Yossarian without wearing War Fatigues:

"Hey there, soldier, could you help me ou -- wait, you're not a soldier, you're just some damn civilian. Never mind. I've got a real problem here and I was hoping a fellow military man could help me out. If you see anybody in uniform, send them my way, okay?"

If you have already begun the quest:

He wanders off, muttering something about a <tool> and <its location>.

Entering the junkyard in an outfit other than the War Hippy Fatigues, then switching to the War Hippy Fatigues and talking to Yossarian, when you haven't unlocked the junkyard as a Hippy yet:

"No."

Initially visiting Yossarian in War Fatigues:

"Hey, I see you're a soldier -- uh, of some sort. Man, the uniforms have really changed since back in my day. What war was I in? Oh, you know, that one between the Cola Wars and now. I'm sure there's a whole history of it somewhere.

Anyway, I'm hoping you can help a fellow military man out. Have you got a few minutes?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"So, when I was in the war, I was a bombardier in the Air Force. One day I looked out the window of the plane and saw something on the wing. Some...thing on the wing. Funny thing is, I'd been trying to get kicked out of the service for a while at that point, trying to convince them I was insane -- but they said not wanting to get in a plane and get shot out wasn't insane, so I had to keep flying. Anyway, once I told them about the gremlin I saw, they gave me a section eight without me even having to put on a dress.

The gremlin followed me here, though. For a while, I kept him as a pet, but then when I tried to give him a bath, he multiplied! There are two swarms of eleven gremlins running around here! I keep wanting to fix up some of the old junker cars here, but I can't because they stole my tools. I have no idea how I'm going to catch twenty-two of those creatures -- hell, there's probably even more of them now. Even worse, some dumb scientist was up here the other day. He did all sorts of experiments and the gremlins are mutating!

Anyway, so I'm missing my entire molybdenum tool set -- my hammer, screwdriver, pliers, and crescent wrench. You can probably use this magnet to get them away from the gremlins. If you can get me my tools, I could probably fix up some of these cars for your war effort."

You acquire an item: molybdenum magnet

Subsequent visits:

"Hey, have you found my tools yet? Remember, I'm missing my hammer, my screwdriver, my pliers, and my crescent wrench. Oh, I'm naked because they'll never recognize me without my uniform. Don't worry about it, just get my tools, okay?"

After retrieving all the tools:

"All right! I don't know how you managed to get these back, but now I can start fixing those cars. Take my advice, though, and get out of the military while you still have half a brain. Of course, if you still have half a brain, they won't let you out -- it's just like trying to catch twenty-two gremlins."

As you turn to walk away, he taps you on the shoulder. "I almost forgot. I made this while you were off getting my tools. It was boring, but I figure the more time I spend bored, the longer my life will seem. Anyway, I don't really want it, so you might as well take it."

Frat Warriors:

You acquire an item: rusty chain necklace

or

You acquire an item: sawblade shield

or

You acquire an item: wrench bracelet

War Hippies:

You acquire an item: spark plug earring

or

You acquire an item: woven baling wire bracelets

or

You acquire an item: gearbox necklace

Subsequent visits:

"Hey, you can tell your officers that I'll have the next shipment of cars ready by the end of the day. Do you want a little chocolate-covered cotton to munch on while you wait?

No? Okay, then. See you later."

Subsequent visits in other side's outfit:

"Sorry, but I've already been contracted to fix up cars for the other side of the war. Of course, you're only my enemy because I'm helping them, and I'm only helping them because they helped me first. So I'm pretty apathetic about the whole thing, I guess is what I'm saying. But I still don't have any time to make cars for your side, too."

Notes

• If you have Monster Manuel, and you have defeated (casually researched) each of the relevant gremlins in one of the subtypes, but never in the other (ie, you have defeated the form of the gremlin that carries the tool, but never defeated the form that does not carry the tool, or vice-versa), it's easy to see whether or not the specific gremlin you're fighting at the moment is the one that is carrying the tool. If you've casually researched the gremlin that carries the tool, and the one you're fighting does not display stats, it's not the one you want. contrariwise, if you have never casually researched the tool-carrying gremlin, and the one you're fighting does display stats, it's also not the one you're looking for. Note that this trick will only work as long as you have defeated one form and not the other.

References

• Wearing a dress to get a section 8 is a reference to the character Klinger on the M*A*S*H television series.
• Yossarian is the main character from the book Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
• 1st Lt. Milo Minderbinder, another character from Joseph Heller's book Catch-22, tried to sell cotton wool as candies, covering them with chocolate.
• The part where Yossarian mentions "it's just like trying to catch twenty-two gremlins," is also a reference to Catch-22.
• When Yossarian says "I figure the more time I spend bored, the longer my life will seem", it's a reference to the strategy used by his friend Dunbar to extend his life
• The monsters in this area, as well as Yossarian's recounting of his flight troubles, are a reference to a phenomenon made known during World War II, when some fighter pilots reported seeing something sabotaging their plane just before it malfunctioned. This is possibly a result of hallucination brought on by stress during combat.
• Seeing "something on the wing" is a reference to an episode of The Twilight Zone, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," in which William Shatner sees a gremlin on the wing of the plane, and exclaims "there's... something on the wing of the plane... some... thing!"
• The reference to multiplying when given a bath refers to the gremlins (or mogwai) in the movie Gremlins, in which any time one of them touched water, they would multiply.