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Reed Tobson Quest Guide
Reed Tobson is an NPC in The Outer Worlds. NPCs are not able to be controlled by the player, but interacted with and are often a part of Quests within the game. Some will play a larger role than others, and some can even be recruited as Companions.
Reed Tobson in The Outer Worlds
He is in charge of the city of Edgewater and a member of Spacer’s Choice.
Reed Tobson Location
He can be found at Edgewater – Emerald Vale Region
Reed Tobson Related Quests
- Stranger in a Strange Land
- Comes Now the Power
- Die, Robot
1. Stranger in a Strange Land Walkthrough
This is the first quest players will do, and will take them down to Haycilon’s Emerald Vale region. You have unfortunately landed right on top of your supposed meetup, so you must now make your way to their ship and assume control of it.
The game will give you some movement tutorials as you move forward, as well as pointing out stealth mechanics to avoid some dogs. You’ll come to a cave where you meet with an injured NPC, Guard Pelham. You can select to cure him of his wounds and persuade him to give you his gun, which will result in obtaining Light Ammo x111, Light Pistol and Sentry Sabre. Or you can kill him and take his Riot Control Armor and Riot Control Helmet. Loot the items scattered to the right of the NPC and then blow up the barrels blocking the exit.
Crouch through the narrow exit and you’ll soon see some Marauder enemies. Deal with them as you see fit, and then loot the area. There is a locked container that has a Telescoping Staff.
If you continue down toward the ship, you’ll come to meet Lieutenant Mercer. She tells you about an unauthorized landing and Marauders in the area, and you have several options to reply. You can tell her that you met Pelham and patched him up, and then persuade her to deal with the outlaws, or take on them yourself.
After the Marauders are defeated, enter the ship and talk to ADA to gain command of the ship. You can loot several items inside, as well as access the ship’s Workbench. Here you can also Respec at the Vocational Competence Respecification Machine.
Once you exit, Mercer will confront you about the ship’s ownership. You can point out that you saved Pelham to avoid the fine and be on your way toward the town or you can kill her and loot 6x Bit Cartridge, 5x Energy Cell, Adreno and Light Assault Rifle. This will negatively affect your Reputation though.
You can explore the area and you’ll find a dead resident that is holding a Shovel, and there is also a Hatchet and Armor Parts to be looted. Be careful not to go toward the nearby Crash Site yet as the Primal enemies there are too strong for your level.
Detour: Marauder Encampment
Onward, a contained with 2x Weapon Parts can be looted before coming to a group of Marauder Hooligan enemies. Past them, there’s the Marauder Encampment. Here you’ll face 1x Marauder Lookout and 2x Marauder Vandal alongside a Marauder Goon and 2x Tamed Canid. Defeat them all if you want to loot the place and get some XP. The items you can pick up are 8x Bit Cartridge, 1x Necklace, 1x Spacer’s Chaw, 1x Mock Apple, 1x Mock Apple Juice, 10x Heavy Ammo, 60x Light Ammo, 1x Adreno, 1x Gourmet Saltuna Fillets, 30x Bit Cartridge, 1x Tremor Cleaver (Weapon), Armor Parts, Weapon Parts, 25x Energy Cell.
There’s also a locked container that has??
Toward Edgewater
Backtrack a bit to the place where you met the first Hooligans and then continue toward your map marker. You’ll come across two dead residents and cann loot 1x Revolver and 1x Tossball Blocker before climbing a hill and getting your first view of the town.
Upon arrival, you can talk to Silas, Junior Inhumer for the town of Edgewater. You can ask him about the Power Regulator you’re after, he says to go to Reed Tobson’s office. He then asks about your job, and you have the option to accept some collector’s duties – this is the Task: A Small Grave Matter.
Go into the town and you’ll gain 600xp for your discovery. Find the Saltuna Cannery and go inside. You have the option to steal some items and use a terminal. Go into the nearby lift and make it go up to arrive at Reed Tobson’s office. He’s talking to Parvati about a malfunction of the machinery. You can ask for a power regulator and get 1028xp to advance the quest.
The Power Regulator
Reed informs you that there is a Power Regulator at the nearby Geothermal Power Plant, that is “mostly abandoned”. He wants you to reroute power from the botanical district over to Edgewater, and then you can take the regulator. You can press the conversation to learn that the plant is inhabited by deserters (former workers) and he needs them back because their quotas are down, and they might be shut down for good. He tells you to talk to the leader, Adelaide and warn her about the power – this is a separate quest called Comes Now the Power. You will get the Geothermal Passcode item.
Parvati will offer to join you. Accept to gain your first Companion. Leave the office and talk to Parvati, she will want to share some information about the people that have deserted their post. She will reveal Adelaide left after her son’s death, and propose that you talk to Max, the town Vicar. This updates objectives for the quest Comes Now the Power, which you should do before continuing.
Go on to do the Comes Now the Power quest.
Once you complete Comes Now the Power speak with Ada on the Unreliable and then install the Power Regulator. Speak to Ada again to blast off the planet, ending the quest and beginning the quest Passage to Anywhere.
2. Comes Now the Power Walkthrough
You will obtain this quest during Stranger in a Strange Land, by talking to Reed Tobson and asking questions about the welfare of the deserters’ community.
You should talk to Parvati after leaving Tobson’s office to obtain an optional objective to talk to the Vicar. You can do this by going left after exiting the cannery, and going into the large building past the square. Vicar Max, who is a priest for The Order of Scientific Inquiry (Scientism). You can talk to him to learn about the Grand Plan, Grand Architect, and his role within it all.
Bring the conversation to Reed’s request and earn a bunch of xp. If you have high Intelligence, you can comment that it’s a responsible choice based on whether the leader can provide. Max will advise that if you wish to save as many as possible, uniting the people and bringing them back to Edgewater would be ideal. Ask if that is possible, and Max will warn you that outside the walls is a dangerous place. You can ask why he says this and he will reveal he wants to retrieve heretical books in the possession of a collector outside the walls. He claims it is to keep it out of layman hands. Ask to know more about it and he’ll mark you on your time and initiate the Companion Quest: The Illustrated Manual.
You can loot 1x OSI Vial from a mission counter before heading out.
Go North from Edgewater and you’ll come to an intersection with several Marauders to take out and loot. Further ahead, the Edgewater Community Center area is swarming with them so give it a wide berth to avoid heavy combat for now. The road ahead has dead thugs to loot and a container with 25x Light Ammo and 20x Heavy Ammo before you make a left and arrive at the Botanical Lab sign. There are dead Canid Feral that can be looted for Canid Tail around this area.
The Botanical Lab
Discovering the Botanical Lab gives you 400xp. An armed guard ahead is Grace Romero, who you should talk to. Tell her that you’re looking for Adelaide and mention Reed- she’ll let you through after telling you Adelaide is over at the hothouse. If you ask about her problems she will mention someone named Zoe has gone missing. You can offer to keep an eye out and unlock the Side Quest: A Few Kindred Spirits. You can ask her follow-up questions about Zoe to assist with that quest, she will mention Stefan might know more about it.
Go to the greenhouse and you can speak to Adelaide McDevitt. Tell her Reed sent you to make peace, you will get a lot of XP. You can tell her about Reed’s plan to cut off the power, or opt to say that he’s willing to make amends. She will not believe Reed’s good intentions, and you must tell her that he asked you to divert power. She will ask why you have agreed to his plans, and you can explain your need for a power regulator. She will counter that you should instead divert power from the town to the Botanical Lab, and free the town from service to the cannery.
If Parvati is in your party, Adelaide will comment that her father died of overwork. Parvati is not ready to accept that as a fact. If you pick up the Gold Teeth nearby and ask her about them afterwards, you can find out that she is using the corpses of dead bodies to fertilize her soil if you pass a Science (15) check.
If you investigate the rooms and pick up Gold Teeth, and learn about Eugene’s death from the people of Edgewater, you can piece it together and ask Adelaide about it. You will find out that her fertilizer is being made of the dead of Edgewater, and she claims it is this natural process of proper decomposition that is making the greenery around the Botanical Lab and preventing the Deserters from catching the Plague.
Head over to the Geothermal Power Plant to continue the quest, but be mindful that the world state will change upon completing so you might want to finish up tasks, side quests and companion quests available first.
The plant is guarded by Mechanical Sentry robots. and there are some corpses that can be looted for Adreno, Ammo and some Armor. Head inside, and you’ll discover the place has six floors to explore!
Power Plant Entrance (6F)
Pick up some Dervish Mist, Energy Cell, and loot containers for Adreno, Gyro Syght, Mag-Num, Bit Cartridge and other goodies. Head toward the control room and pick to redirect power. You’ll be warned of an error and asked to active all three electrical track switches to perform the action manually. Go back toward the entrance and take the path going down to the 5th floor.
Power Plant Security Lockdown (5F)
Read the nearby terminal and learn about the replacement of guard personnel with machines, their malfunction and events that lead to the security lockdown. You can then lift it with Reed Tobson’s passcode and explore area. There is a locked door that that requires high lockpicking or the Security Chief’s Card item (found in 4F) a bunch of loot and the Corrupted Logic Module, needed for the Die, Robot quest (1700xp) so make sure to grab that and the Adrena-Time, Weapon Parts, Adreno loot.
First Switch & Repair Bay (4F)
The first switch is found soon after you descend to the 4th floor. Activate the switch then explore a nearby room to find Jeremy from Die, Robot has made its way here. Talk to Jeremy and he will say the logic is defective and all other automechanicals must be permanently dismantled. Accept its offer and explore the are to further advance your understanding of Die, Robot events. From the Repair Bay, take the staircase leading up and follow it to a room where you will find the Security Chief’s Corpse. Loot the Geothermal Security Chief’s Keycard from it and pick up Light Machinegun if you want. In this same room, if you have Chester’s Passcode you can hack a terminal.
Second Switch (4F)
Go back to the first switch ant take the side room with the reddish light. You can go down a floor (You’ll see 02 on the wall) and can then use a door to access a passage. Pick the lock on the next door you encounter to your right and you’ll access a Workbench and a path that is blocked by steam. Take the ladder going up instead to return to the 4th floor and use the switch.
Third Switch (5F)
From the previous switch, take the door on that level and you’ll come to a larger area with a drone and some sentry enemies. Defeat them and go up a level. The next switch is here. You can now unbar the door that was blocking your access to here. Back in the room with the second switch, going down will allow you to access a terminal and use Engineering (20) to turn off the steam you encountered before.
Higgins (1F)
Go back to the red room and descend the ladders until you see 04, your map will show you the 1st floor. Here you meet Higgins, who is convinced you are not real. Talk to him and calm him down, he will introduce himself as Chester D. Higgins. He was an engineer that got trapped when lockdown happened. You can ask him if he can stop the mechanicals, but you need Persuade or Intimidate 20 to succeed. If you persuade him, he will reveal that you can rewrite the mechanicals to attack each other. You need Engineering 10 to reveal someone tampered the logic module. Chester will give you Chester’s Passcode and 1800xp. You can pick up Impact Hammer from nearby before heading off to the 5th floor to access the terminal. Redifine intruders as Spacer’s Choice Automechanicals if you’d like.
Redirecting the Power
Back at the master control room, it’s time to make a choice. If Parvati is in your party, she will ask you if you understand what you’ll do. You can hear her opinion: she thinks that you should not cut off Edgewater’s power as people there are just living their lives the only way they know how. She thinks that Ms McDevitt is delighting in Edgewater’s suffering and you would be part to it if you sided with her. You can thank her for talking to you as you end the conversation for some appreciation from her.
Redirect power to Edgewater:
- Spacer’s Choice Reputation Up
- Deserters Reputation Down
- 2828xp
- Possibility to earn trophy to “Permanently Save Edgewater” later
Redirect power to Botanical Camp:
- Deserters Reputation Up (major)
- Spacer’s Choice Reputation Down (16% negative)
- 2828xp
Return to Reed
You can go back to Edgewater to talk to reed and pick up the Power Regulator that you need in order to advance Stranger in a Strange Land.
Reed can be found down the stairs in the Saltuna Cannery. He wants to talk to you and will ask you why you did it. Selecting “To Teach you a Lesson” and “You’re all slaves to Spacer’s Choice. I’m Liberating You” will have him tell you he never asked to be liberated. He says he has guards posted with orders to fire on you. You can apologize, ask what will happen to Edgewater, or intimidate him (30). Pass the intimidation test and you’ll earn 350xp for the check, then 1800xp for the objective and 15000xp for the quest. Reed will walk away and not talk to you anymore. You are now on Stranger in a Strange Land.
Return to Adelaide
If you redirected power to Edgewater then you’ll need to speak with Adelaide. When you speak to Adelaide she tells you that you have to convince the others, and when you probe further you find out that her son died of the plague in Edgewater and is buried in the cemetery because Reed refused to use medicine on him. She will give you the optional objective to get Reed to step down or she will not return to Edgewater.
Speaking to Thomas Kent, you can convince him to go back if you’ve completed his quest The Frightened Engineer, by telling him to become an Engineer. If you plan to get Reed to step down, tell him to wait.
Grace will agree to return if you let Zoe die or you killed her, since she feels she cannot defend the settlement. If you plan to get Reed to step down, tell her to wait.
You can Persuade (15) Reed to step down or you can kill Reed by attacking him. If Parvati is in your group she will freak out if you kill him and she’ll tell you she needs to leave. You can Determination (10) to keep her from leaving. You will obtain “Reed’s Key” from looting his corpse, and you will gain max negative Reputation with Spacer’s Choice from killing him.
Speak to Adelaide for 22,500 XP, Deserter’s Reputation up, The Board Reputation down (by a couple percent) and you will receive Adaelaide’s Watch, which is worth 1,750 but has no other use.
3. Die, Robot Walkthrough
Go to the Landing Pad which is in the South of Edgewater to get this quest by talking to Ludwig Miller and agree with the mechanical uprising theory and accept the quest to head north for the Junkyard.
There will be a robot at the junkyard that needs to be fixed and Parvati will fix it if you have her then you can go back to Ludwig upon which you will XP and location of a secret weapon.
Then you need to go to the Canteen and check behind the toilet where you will find Ludwig’s Sealed Bundle and you will get 1700xp.
Go back to the landing pad to meet Ludwig and get another 1700xp and Mag-2-Zap (Weapon Mod). A Geothermal’s Plant passcode is needed which can be obtained if you talk to Reed Tobson for the Stranger in a Strange Land quest.
Geothermal Plant Repair Bay (4F)
You have to find switches the first of which is on the 4th floor close to where you descend on it. Explore the room nearby and you will find Jeremy who will tell you that all the autmechanicals need to be put down because of flawed logic in them. You need to accept this offer.
You will need to get the Security Chief’s keycard from his corpse by going up the staircase from the repair bay. There is also an LMG there if you want. In case you have Chester’s Passcode you hack the terminal in the same room.
Geothermal Plant 5F
Go to the fifth floor at the place of the first use of the passcode, The corrupted logic module is inside the room there that you can unlock using the Keycard you acquired. Mag-Pick, Adrena-Time, Adreno and Weapon Parts can be looted from this room.
Give Ludwig the item at the Landing Pad and get your reward.