The University
The University sends Joel and Ellie on horseback across the University of Eastern Colorado near Boulder, looking for the science building where Tommy says the Fireflies are based. It mixes quiet exploration with a dorm full of infected and a fight against armed looters inside the lab building.
- Type
- Story
- Region
- Boulder
Storylines
Part 8 of 12 in Main story
Found in
- BoulderBoulder, Colorado is where Joel and Ellie search the University of Eastern Colorado for the Fireflies in The University chapter. Left Behind's present-day story picks up nearby at the Colorado Mountain Plaza mall, so this region covers both the campus and the mall.
- University of Eastern ColoradoThe University of Eastern Colorado is the Boulder campus where Joel and Ellie expect to find the Fireflies in The University chapter. You search it on horseback and on foot through the Go Big Horns and Science Building sections, and it holds 17 collectibles.
Good to know
- Chapter 8 of 12; set in the fall.
- Sections: Go Big Horns and Science Building.
- 17 collectibles: 9 artifacts, 5 Firefly pendants (the most of any chapter), 2 training manuals and 1 comic.
- Ellie names the horse Callus here, since Joel forgot to ask Tommy its name.
- Tommy describes the science building as looking like a giant mirror.
- Enemies: runners, clickers and a bloater on campus, then armed looters in the science building.
Sections in order
1. Go Big Horns: the campus, the dorm and the gate generator. 2. Science Building: the empty Firefly lab and the fight with looters.
Go Big Horns
You ride Callus across campus while Joel opens up a little: he wanted to be a singer, never went to college because he became a father young, and he explains football to Ellie. To open a locked gate, Joel goes alone through a dorm packed with infected to start a generator. The only living things you see out in the open are monkeys in a square, and Joel guesses the Fireflies leave the infected around as a defense, the way Bill used his traps.
Go Big Horns collectibles
Most of the collectibles are on the campus: five artifacts (a newspaper clipping, a snipers' nest log, a student's journal, the UEC campus map and a wall panel note), four pendants (Griggs's, H. Pino's, Rohner's and Warren's), the comic Free Radicals and the manual Health: Sterilization.
Science Building
Inside, the Fireflies have clearly left in a hurry. A recorder by a dead scientist explains they were testing the infection on monkeys, and that he was bitten while trying to free them instead of putting them down. Another recording says the group has moved to Salt Lake City. Then looters ambush you, and you fight floor by floor through the building. The Firefly's recorder, lab and office recorders, fungal X-rays, Hickman's pendant and Molotov: Deployment are in here.
Joel's injurySpoilerShow
A looter bursts through a door and drags Joel over a balcony with him. The looter dies in the fall, and Joel lands on a length of rebar that goes through his side. Ellie helps him up, guards him on the way out, and shoots a looter trying to take Callus. They ride off, but Joel slumps and falls from the horse, and the chapter ends with Ellie begging him to tell her what to do.
- CallusCallus is the horse Joel and Ellie ride from Jackson County to the University of Eastern Colorado and beyond. He first carries Joel when Ellie runs off in Tommy's Dam, and Ellie names him on the road to the university.
- Ellie WilliamsEllie Williams is the 14-year-old girl Joel is hired to smuggle out of Boston, and your companion for most of The Last of Us Part I. She was bitten weeks earlier and never turned, so the Fireflies believe her immunity could lead to a vaccine. You play as her in the winter chapter and in the Left Behind DLC.
- Joe WarrenJoe Warren is the only named bloater in the game. He lurks in the spore-filled lower floors of the dormitory at the University of Eastern Colorado, and you have to kill him to collect Warren's Firefly pendant in The University.
- Joel MillerJoel Miller is the man you play for almost all of The Last of Us Part I. A hardened smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone, he takes a job escorting 14-year-old Ellie out of the city, and the drop-off turns into a year-long trip across the country to find the Fireflies.
- Firefly's recorderThe Firefly's recorder is an automatic artifact in the university science building. Joel picks it up from a dead Firefly in a cutscene, so it cannot be missed, and you can play the whole message later from the Artifacts menu.
- Free RadicalsFree Radicals, issue 7 of Savage Starlight, is on the rusty hood of a car up the hill behind you as The University begins.
- Fungal X-raysThe Fungal X-rays are an optional artifact in the university science building. After you follow Ellie through the short tunnel, turn left and check the far table next to the window.
- Griggs's Firefly PendantGriggs's Firefly pendant lies on a table in the last tent of a camp outside the science building, in the Go Big Horns section of The University. It belonged to Erik Griggs.
- H. Pino's Firefly PendantH. Pino's Firefly pendant hangs from a tree near the flamethrower room in the Go Big Horns section of The University. It belonged to Hope Pino and needs knocking down.
- Health: SterilizationHealth: Sterilization is a training manual on a desk in an upper-floor room off the university courtyard in The University. It makes crafted health kits 67% stronger.
- Hickman's Firefly PendantHickman's Firefly pendant is on a shelf in the monkey lab inside the science building, in The University. It belonged to Sadie Pearle Hickman.
- Lab recorderThe Lab recorder is an optional audio artifact in the room with the caged monkeys in the university science building. Go to the large table on the right and pick it up from the corner.
- Molotov: DeploymentMolotov: Deployment is a training manual behind the shiv door to Room 104 in the science building of The University. It doubles the radius of a thrown Molotov.
- Newspaper clippingThe Newspaper clipping is an optional artifact in Room 209 of the university dormitory. After you deal with the bloater and climb the next stairs, enter the first room on the right and look on the mini fridge to the left.
- Office recorderThe Office recorder is an optional audio artifact in the university science building. On the third floor, go through the door on the left, then straight into the storage room on the left and take it from the far table by the window.
- Rohner's Firefly PendantRohner's Firefly pendant is on a desk in an upstairs office room in the Go Big Horns section of The University. It belonged to Alex Rohner.
- Snipers' nest logThe Snipers' nest log is an optional artifact on a lookout balcony at the University of Eastern Colorado. From the depot where you find the flamethrower, take the stairs to the top level, step out onto the balcony and check the corner beside some crafting parts.
- Student's journalThe Student's journal is an optional artifact in Room 202 of the university dormitory. Climb the stairwell to the second floor, enter the second door on the left and open the drawer next to the door.
- UEC campus mapThe UEC campus map is an optional artifact in the dormitory's main office at the University of Eastern Colorado. Duck under the furniture barricade into the office and pick it up from the counter straight ahead.
- Wall panel noteThe Wall panel note is an optional artifact taped beside an electrical panel in the university library area. After you pass the first metal gate and hear runners nearby, head to the next gate on the right and look at the wall to its left.
- Warren's Firefly PendantWarren's Firefly pendant is the only one you loot from an enemy: it drops from the bloater in the spore-filled lower level of the university dormitory in The University. It belonged to Joe Warren, a Firefly who became that bloater.
Related missions
Image: Naughty Dog / PlayStationStoryLakeside Resort
Lakeside Resort jumps to winter and puts you in control of Ellie near Silver Lake, Colorado, hunting with a bow and searching for medicine. She runs into two strangers, David and James, and for part of the second half the game switches you back to Joel.
- Story
Tommy's Dam
Tommy's Dam brings Joel and Ellie to Jackson County, Wyoming, months after Pittsburgh, where they find Joel's brother Tommy helping run a hydroelectric plant for his wife Maria's settlement. It is a short chapter built around a reunion and two fights with bandits, one at the dam and one at an old ranch house.
- Story
Back in a Flash
Back in a Flash is the first chapter of Left Behind. After a short flashback to Riley's surprise visit at Ellie's school in Boston, you play Ellie in the snowed-in Colorado Mountain Plaza, searching the mall for anything that can help Joel.
- Story
Escape from Liberty Gardens
Escape from Liberty Gardens is the final chapter of Left Behind: Ellie and Riley run from a horde of runners through the Boston mall, climbing scaffolding to find a way out. It has no collectibles, and finishing it unlocks the gold trophy Don't Go.