“That Lucky Old Sun” is a quest in Fallout: New Vegas that revolves around reactivating the Helios One solar power plant. Your choices in this quest lead to several different outcomes for both you the player, as well as to the region of New Vegas.
A few quick tips before I get into the guide:
- Bring armor-piercing ammo. Throughout this quest, you’ll get into a few fights with robots. Bringing EMP grenades, armor-piercing ammo, or an energy weapon that deals EMP damage is highly recommended.
- NCR-controlled area. The quest takes place in an NCR-controlled area. While it’s technically possible to finish the quest while being hostile to the NCR (by wearing a disguise and playing in a specific way), it’s incredibly difficult and not recommended.
Starting the quest
To start the quest, make your way to the Helios One power plant, located North of Novac.
Once there, you’ll see an NCR soldier called Lt. Haggerty. She’ll speak to you as you approach, and ask you to state your business.
There are many ways of proceeding, but the best 3 are stating that you are working with the NCR, using one of the following 3 options.
- Informing her that you work with the NCR. Only works if you have an Accepted or higher reputation with the NCR.
- Saying that you work with the NCR while wearing an NCR disguise.
- Lying and saying that you work for the NCR. Requires a Speech skill of 35 or more.
Alternatively, you can also kill the NCR soldiers, but that is not recommended due to it turning most of the NCR soldiers inside of the base hostile.
However you deal with Haggerty, you’ll be told to go inside and “Find the idiot wearing sunglasses”, also known as “Fantastic”.
To get to him, enter through the main entrance.
Once inside, turn to the left, you’ll see a door there. Go through it.
You’ll enter a corridor. Exit out of it using the next door.
Now you’ll see a metal staircase leading to a door on the second floor, go there.
You’ll enter a metal corridor. There’s only a single way to go, so follow the corridor until you reach another metal staircase.
On the metal staircase, you’ll see another hermetic door on the floor below. Go through it.
You’ll enter another corridor. At the end, there is yet another hermetic door. Once you’ll walk through it, you’ll see Fantastic.
Speak to Fantastic and exhaust his dialogue options. You’ll eventually learn all you need to know about your task.
Once you’re ready, exit the conversation. He’ll give you a computer terminal password. You’ll need the second password too (unless you have a Science skill of 100).
In the next room, you’ll see another scientist, Ignacio Rivas. Speak to him.
Here, select the following dialogue option to guarantee that you’ll get the terminal password.
- “My interest in this place is purely scientific.”
- “I just do what’s necessary to keep the peace.”
- “The NCR has asked me to help increase the plant’s power output.”
That should be enough to get the second terminal password out of him.
Now, proceed out of the back door to the next part of the quest. Head out of the back door you can see from Ignacio’s workplace.
Unlocking the terminals
You’ll need to unlock 2 terminals that you received the passwords for in the previous section.
Once you exit out of the back door, you’ll find yourself in an area full of NCR tents and solar panel arrays.
Walk around the area and look for two fenced-off areas. Each one will have a single terminal inside it.
The first one will be located just down the hill from the entrance. Watch out for the trip wire, bear traps, and landmines that are located inside of the fenced-off area.
The second one is located deeper into the camp. It’s also fenced off, but it’s also filled with sandbags. Watch out for the hostile guard dogs inside. The terminal is located inside the shack behind the sandbag barricade.
Once you’ve reactivated both of the terminals, you can move on to the next step.
Routing the power
Next, you’ll need to route the power to a destination of choice using a terminal located deep within the robot-patrolled corridors of the Helios One power plant.
Use your quest marker to locate the entrance to the solar collection tower.
Once inside, you’ll see a metal staircase. Right as you reach the bottom, you’ll be attacked by 3 turrets and a Sentry Bot. Sneaking past them is rather difficult, so try to take them out. Make sure to take cover as much as you can to avoid getting attacked by all of the turrets at once.
Once you’ve dealt with the robots, use the metal walkways that the Sentry Bot was on to reach the next room. The room is on the left end of the walkways. You’ll see a hermetic door in that room. Go through it.
Once you walk through that door, you’ll find yourself in a concrete corridor. There’s a high likelihood you’ll see another sentry bot here. If you don’t, he’ll be in the next hallway.
To reach the next hallway, go to the end of the corridor and turn left.
In this hallway, take the first door on the left.
This will lead you to a room with several levels of metal stairs. This room is patrolled by Mr. Gutsies. Kill them or sneak past them.
At the bottom, you’ll see another hermetic door. Walk through.
Here, first, turn right and take the door to the left at the end of the corridor.
You’ll find yourself in a C-shaped room. Right around the corner, you’ll see a holotape on the ground. Pick it up.
Once you have the holotape, retrace your steps to the previous corridor and go the other way. The corridor will split into 2 paths. Here, turn right. At the end of this corridor, there will be a door to your right.
This door leads to a room full of Protectrons. There is a laser trip wire that you can jump over or disable with a Repair skill of 85 or above, or with a Science skill of 65 or above.
Activating the laser will release all of the Protectrons. Luckily, you can actually shoot the arms of the Protectrons while they are still locked inside their force-field pods.
Once you’ve dealt with the Protectrons, enter the room. You’ll see another door in that room. Go through it.
You’ll enter a room with an elevator, and use the elevator to proceed.
You’ll enter a room with a metal staircase that leads to another room above you. Go there and search the room for a deactivated Mr. Handy named PYTHON.
Interact with PYTHON and select the “Insert Poseidon Energy ID Card.” option.
Follow PYTHON back down to the first floor. He’ll fix a few wires and then deactivate again. This will allow you to interact with the terminal that the wires are connected to.
Interact with the terminal and select the “Configure Power Grid” option.
You’ll be presented with 5 options.
- McCarran and Las Vegas Strip
- Fremont and Westside
- Full Region
- ARCHIMEDES II
- Full Region (Emergency Output Level)
Each one will have different benefits for you.
- Option 1 will give you a lot of NCR reputation.
- Option 2 will give you the most Followers of the Apocalypse reputation.
- Option 3 will give you some Followers of the Apocalypse reputation, as well as several rewards from Ignacio Rivas when you talk to him at the end of the quest, including an otherwise unobtainable Big Book of Science.
- Option 4 will allow you to use Euclid’s C-Finder to fire laser air strikes on command once per day. To acquire Euclid’s C-Finder, follow this guide.
- Option 5 will overload the powerplant and result in you getting no reputation with any faction and only a very small reward from Ignacio Rivas.
Pick whichever option suits you best, select it, and move on to the final part of the quest.
Finishing the quest
Go back to the room where you found PYTHON and go through the hermetic door that’s opposite the entrance.
You’ll find yourself at the top of the Helios One tower. Walk down the metal walkway to the level below.
You’ll see a control panel there. Interact with it between 6 AM and 6 PM to turn the Helios One power plant back on.
Depending on which option you picked, you’ll be given the objective of talking to either Ignacio Rivas or to Fantastic. Speaking to either and telling them that you reactivated the power plant will finish the quest.
