Guide for The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition

Groundbreaker—Page Summary

1. Main Story Quest: Passage to Anywhere
2. Talk to Udom Bedford to release the ship from quarantine
3. Talk to Gladys to obtain a Navkey and initiate The Distress Signal
4. Talk to Junlei for Groundbreaker side quests and Parvati’s companion quest

Groundbreaker—Path of Phineas Roadmap and Key Decision

• Key Decision: Do not divulge Phineas’s whereabouts to Udom Bedford
• Obtain Udom Bedford’s Seal
• Max’s Companion quest, The Empty Man: Obtain a data cartridge for Max
• Weapons from the Void: Obtain first science weapon
• Recruit Ellie as a companion
• Parvati’s Companion quest, Drinking Sapphire Wine: Support Parvati’s romantic aspirations
• Groundbreaker side quests

Passage to Anywhere

Now you're in space. After a call from Phineas, head all the way upstairs. In a dimly lit closet to your immediate right, you'll see a rather ominous dead robot.

Interact with him to startThe Cleaning Machine(Companion Quest 2/10). Go back downstairs and talk to ADA. She suggests you check the terminal in your stateroom. Go halfway upstairs to your quarters. Check Alex Hawthorne's logs on his terminal to advance the objectives. The companion quest updates Your next task is to recover an acid steeper. For now, we're gonna put that on hold.

Pick up the Holographic Shroud next to the terminal for a large XP bonus. Interact with the large chest in the corner. This is your stash. Keep a few consumables and armor that provides useful bonuses and deposit items currently surplus to your needs in the stash.

Reminder: There are a lot of items in the ship. It's best not to pick them up until needed. A future mission requires 3 bottles of Spectrum Vodka Red, for example. At this point, though, the bottles are just extra weight. Leave them where they are until the WT tells you to pick them up.

Back downstairs, in front of ADA, you'll have two options at this point: Go to the monster-filled planet of Monarch—on Supernova, it’s pretty much a suicide run--or.......go to Groundbreaker and pay for a ticket to a safe landing pad. We'll be taking the safe option here.

Note there is a third choice. You can go to Phineas’s Lab. There is reason to do so. From Hawthorne's logs on his terminal, we learned of a powerful weapon there. Reading the entry initiated the Weapons from the Void side quest. Nevertheless, the story will take us to Phineas's Lab eventually, and we can pick up the science weapon at that time. Accordingly, expediency dictates we go straight to Groundbreaker.

Equip the armor that provides a +5 dialog skills bonus with the Silver Tongue mod kit applied for an additional dialog skills +5. Wear headgear that provides a +5 in persuade.

Exit the ship. Take Parvati and Vicar Max with you. While in your party, Parvati increases persuasion skills and Vicar Max increases intimidate skills. If you haven’t already done it, allocate Max’s perk point to give you a hacking bonus. All other perk points are at your discretion.

If possible, equip the companions with armor that provides a dialog skills bonus and headgear that provides a persuade bonus for Parvati and an intimidate bonus for Vicar Max. If you don’t have it, it’s not a big deal. All upcoming dialog checks will be well within your skill levels without the need for equipment bonuses on companions.

The highest upcoming skill check is a Persuade of around 45. Your base, if you’ve followed the WT, is 21 with the Cashier aptitude giving a +1 adjustment. Parvati, at her level and without equipment bonuses should provide a +8 adjustment. The Dialog Skills +5 armor with Silver Tongue Kit will increase it by +10 to 40. If you’re short, a caffeine drink will give you a short-term bonus of +5 and an alcohol drink will give you a short-term bonus of +4 (before the hangover sets in).

If you are below 45 without the consumables, the WT will alert you when to take them. If you have a different build and cannot get any of the 3 dialog skills to 40 even with consumables, you will have to wait until Felix joins as a companion. When he is in your party, he will provide a +18 bonus to Persuade initially that will increase as he levels up.

Turn left. At the end of the walkway by the ship’s landing pad, you’ll encounter Felix Millstone arguing with a couple of people. Talk to him and exhaust his dialog. He’ll join us as a companion but we have to wait a short bit.

Go to the far left of the area surrounding the landing pad. Turn right when you get to the wall. Proceed until you get to a flight of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, you’ll find a Mardet ID cartridge. Pick it up. You are stealing so make sure you are not seen. Climb the stairs. You’ll see a Restricted Area notification in front of a locked door. Wait for the sentry to leave if one is present, and unlock the lock with a lockpick skill check of 30. Note that Parvati also boosts your lockpick skill but your unadjusted base should be at 50.

After unlocking the door, you will enter an area restricted to Mardet personnel. The holographic shroud begins to work since you have the Mardet ID cartridge. Exit the door to your left. Wait for the shroud’s charge to fail. One of the 3 people in that room will challenge you. Respond with the dialog skill check of your choice—lie, intimidate, or persuade. They are low values and you should easily pass. Do NOT leave the restricted area. The shroud will recharge. Wait for it to lose its charge noting that moving causes it to discharge more quickly. Again, you will be challenged. The skill check values are slightly higher but should not be an issue.

Do NOT leave the restricted area. The shroud will recharge. This is the money skill check for the achievement. Drink a caffeinated beverage (Mind +1 will boost Persuade by +5) and alcohol (Personality +1 will boost Persuade by +4) just before the shroud discharges if you need an extra boost to get Persuade to 40. When the shroud runs out, use whatever skill allows you to pass the dialog check and the achievement will pop.

You can now exit the restricted area. Go out the way you came in and go around the structure to the front gate. You'll encounterCpl. Leonard Wheeler.

He'll impound your ship and tell you to take it up with Udom Bedford. Further conversation with Leonard can offer the side questSolution Vital. While you're here with both your companions, interact with Max to startThe Empty Man(Companion Quest 3/10) and talk to Parvati to beginDrinking Sapphire Wine(Companion Quest 4/10).

Make The Empty Man the active quest. As soon as Wheeler lets you enter, talk to Comdt. Sanita on your immediate left. She gives you the side quest Who Goes There? She wants you to kill Captain McRedd and bring back his lighter as proof.

Talk to Pvt. Lee Flores next to her and pass a Persuade check to authorize you for a tour of the area. The skill check might be as high as 45. If you can't pass it, it is of little consequence, because the holographic shroud will disguise you and let you in the area.

Follow the quest marker inside. Lockpick a door—skill check of about 30—to find a security terminal. Copy the manifest to a data cartridge and give it to Max. The companion quest updates. We won’t be able to work on it for a while—until we reach Monarch. There, our next tasking is to speak to a scholar, Reginald Chaney.

You’ll have noticed that Sanita and Lee were in the restricted area where we worked on Impossible Mission. We could have accessed the terminal then. The reason we didn’t was just to squeeze a few extra XP by passing the Persuade check. After doing so, you’ll find the MarDet spaces are no longer secure and you no longer need the Holographic Shroud.

Head to the Groundbreaker Promenade to findUdom Bedford, a haughty representative of The Board.

When you speak with him, use these speech options in the order they'll be presented to you:

• Alex is dead.
• What was your relationship to him?
• [Lie] Uh. Yup. He sure did.
• [Lie] He was eaten alive by feral canids.
• "Again, I'm very sorry. Can we get back to the topic at hand?"

After these speech checks, Udom will lift the impound on your ship, then he'll ask about the location of Phineas Welles. We arenotgoing to disclose this at the present time.

Walk back to your ship. Don't fast travel because you want to encounter Felix just before you get there. Exhaust the dialog and accept him as a companion.

On the ship, apply Felix's first skill point to the Persuade Bonus. It's the one on the top row far right. This is in addition to the ordinary Persuade bonus Felix provides when in the party. Felix also provides bonuses in stealth and lockpick that we will be making use of in just a minute.

Sleep 6 hours and take care of any hunger and thirst. Equip your Stealth Skills +5 armor and lockpick +5 headgear. Equip Felix and Parvati with the same if you have it. Exit the ship with Parvati and Felix in the party. We're going to lockpick a container and steal its contents.

The stealth bonuses will help with both and the lockpick bonus will, obviously, help with lockpicking. Our base, unadjusted skill of 50 for lockpicking and 40 for sneak is sufficient. Nevertheless, we're going all in for the overkill.

We’re going to use consumables—caffeinated, sugary, and alcoholic—to boost lockpick and sneak. The caffeinated beverage (Mind +1) gives 5 points to Perception. The sugary drink (Body +1) gives 4 points to Dexterity. The alcohol (Personality +1) gives 3 points to Temperament. The result is Lockpick +9—Perception and Dexterity. It also boosts Sneak by +7—Temperament and Dexterity.

Make Passage to Anywhere the active quest. Follow the marker into Groundbreaker—no need to stop for Cpl Wheeler in security. Right after you enter the big bay doors, take a left into the Rest-N-Go. Do NOT talk to Gladys.

When you're at her room, consume both sugary & caffeinated drinks and crouch behind the safe. Hug the corner between the safe and the wall as tightly as you can in the manner depicted in the illustration below. Our base lockpick skill and bonuses are both higher than the player-character in the screenshot so we don’t need any Mag-picks. Remember that Parvati and Felix each provide a significant lockpick bonus and Felix (but not Parvati) provides a significant sneak bonus for stealing.

We are going to first pick the lock and, then, steal its contents. Each action has the potential to alert the surrounding NPCs. The reason we went for overkill on the bonuses was to minimize the chance for detection.

We haven’t been doing much pickpocketing or stealing to discover how NPCs in the vicinity react. They go through stages as they do in combat. They alert, become suspicious, and become hostile. When they alert, they will start looking around and move towards you. If you go into TTD before they start moving everything slows down simultaneously. Your lockpicking and theft are as slow as they are.

So, the trick is to lockpick and begin the theft in normal time and enter TTD the instant you begin the theft. They will then be unable to reach you before the theft is concluded. If the theft is concluded when they are either unaware or alert but BEFORE they become suspicious, they will instantly forget it and will not confront you.

With the above in mind, we are going to further minimize our risk of discovery by executing the theft in the following manner:

You should get away scot-free. If you are confronted, use Persuade to get yourself off the hook. In the unlikely event you were confronted before stealing, load up the previous save and try again.

The goal of this exercise was to obtain Udom’s Seal. We won’t need it for a while but it’s convenient to get it at this time right after Felix joins the party. It’s a good demonstration of how Parvati and Felix, together, provide a substantial boost to lockpick skills. This same team also provides a substantial bonus to Persuade.

When you have the seal, talk to Gladys, a kindly old info broker.

In order to get her NavKey to Stellar Bay for the main story quest, you have the option of paying her 10,000 bits immediately or asking about her opportunity. Accept said opportunity and it'll lead you to accept her side quest, The Distress Signal. That entails traveling to Roseway so we’ll put that aside for now and continue exploring Groundbreaker.

Trade with Gladys. We don’t want to buy and sell normal items from her because, at this point, she doesn't offer a good discount. The Spacer’s Choice Vendor wearing the moon-man mask provides the best bargains. Gladys sells two unique items: The Battered Mardet Datapad and the Hephaestus Mining Archive Cartridge. Buy them. They relate to the Weapons from the Void side quest that was triggered when you read the entries on the terminal in your stateroom. Make it the active quest.

As you leave Gladys’s office, check the nearby vending machines for useful mods. Just before you leave the area, pickpocket Milo Ottinger to get a Rest-N-Go keycard. We’ll need two more identical keycards. The 3 keycards open 3 safes in the locked room behind Milo. The keycards can only be used once which is why we need 3. The loot inside the safes is well worth the trouble to get the keycards.

Weapons from the Void

Fast travel to your ship—we want to have a manual save before the next segment. Check the terminal in your stateroom. Buying data from Gladys results in new entries that, when read, give you some XP and additional guidance regarding the science weapons side quest. One of the two cartridges, the Battered Mardet Datapad, directs you to a location on Groundbreaker. Make Weapons from the Void the active quest.

Sleep, eat, and drink as necessary. If you have a set of Sneak +7 armor wear it, otherwise stick with the Stealth +5. Wear Sneak +5 headgear. We have decent base sneak skills but the higher the adjusted value the better. Save.

Exit. Take Felix and Parvati with you. Check your lockpick skill. With Felix and Parvati in your party, the bonuses they contribute should ensure the adjusted value is well above 60.

From your ship go straight through the security checkpoint. Turn left when you discover a workbench and an immediate right. Go through the door. Climb on some crates to your immediate left as you enter. From your elevated vantage point, go forward hugging the wall to your left. Drop through a vent hole at the far wall and crouch.

You find yourself in a room of enemies. The quest marker is to your front right. Stay out of sight keeping crates between you and the hostiles. Sneak to the door on your right and lockpick it without the enemies alerting to you. If you have employed a different character build and don’t have the sneak abilities and/or the lockpicking skill, you will have to kill the enemies and loot the bodies to find the Repair Hangar Keycard to open the door.

Once you open the door—either by picking the lock or using the keycard—you’ll find the Prismatic Hammer in front of you in a container on a table. To its left is the Prismatic Hammer Research Terminal. Read the messages to get some info on this science weapon. It is one of the weapons associated with the Weapons from the Void side quest.

You can’t leave the way you came in. Instead, check your map and exit via the narrow passage at the bottom. Unbar the door at the end to find yourself in a safe area.

Fast travel to your ship—we want to have a manual save. The next achievement is simple but you may have to try more than once. Take Felix and Parvati with you. Equip the Prismatic Hammer.

From your ship, go past security and through the big bay door. To your right is The Lost Hope Bar and just past it is an arms merchant, Belle’s Shells. Just past the vendor, also on the right, there is a door marked Trash. Enter.

Crouch and go straight hugging the wall until you reach a door. This is the door facing the one you entered—not to be mistaken for the door on the right.

At the door, crouch to the left hand side. Make sure that you have the Prismatic Hammer at the ready. There are two sprats on the other side—one on the left and the other on the right. Most likely, neither will be visible when you open the door but, as soon as one appears, activate TTD.

If you go into TTD, the sprat will remain unaware. While it’s still unaware, hit it in the face with the Prismatic Hammer. This is the tricky part because, melee TTD status effects do not appear until Melee level 40. Do your best to hit the Sprat right on the nose to unlock:

The achievement requires you be crouched and kill the enemy in a sneak attack while in TTD. That’s straightforward. The tricky part is you must kill the enemy by targeting a weak spot. Unlike ranged attacks where our high ranged skills depict weakpoints specifically, we don’t get similar notification with melee weapons.

Nevertheless, the sprat is small. If you miss the headshot, you are likely to still hit a weakpoint killing it with a maiming or crippling blow. Even so, you might miss it the first time which is why we made the manual save aboard the ship. If necessary, load it and unlock the achievement.

Near the sprat you killed for the achievement are two ladders. Take either one down. Loot the area to find a second Rest-N-Go Keycard. Looking at your map, it’s above the big hole in the center of the room.

Climb back up. Remember the door on your right as you entered the Trash area—the one I told you to ignore—it’s now on your left. Enter it. Crouch down. Equip your Automatic rifle. Be prepared to go into TTD and kill 4 rabid sprats. Continue on looting as you go. You emerge behind Belle Everson, the weapon vendor.

On the counter beside her is a Dead-Eye Assault Rifle. Put the targeting reticle on it. When Belle leans to the right, press to steal it. If you mis-time it, use Persuade when Belle or another NPC confronts you. Note that, even if you get caught stealing, you get to keep the weapon.

If your conscience does not allow you to pilfer the weapon, Belle also sells one in her shop. Whether you steal it or buy it, the Dead-Eye Assault Rifle will replace the Hunting Rifle as your sniper weapon. At the earliest opportunity mod it with a Mag-2-Power for plasma damage and an Extend-O-Sight to increase its range.

The latter replaces the Exact-O-Sight so we’re trading off some armor penetration for greater range. However, our tactics entail shooting at max range and we’ll modify all our long guns with the Extend-O-Sight except for the Hunting Rifles where it’s pre-installed.

Go to the Spacer’s Choice Vendor opposite Belle’s Shells. Enter the back room to find the third Rest-N-Go Keycard on the floor partially hidden by a crate. You can loot this room. Afterwards, trade with Martin, the vendor. At this time, he offers the best discounts. If there’s anything he has, buy it. More importantly, sell your junk and anything surplus to your needs.

If you haven't already sold 10,000 bits of merchandise to vendors, you will shortly. When you do, you unlock:

Worst Contact

Enter the Medical Bay to Martin’s right. Talk to Ellie Fenhill to get the Worst Contact companion quest.

Make Worst Contact active. Following the quest marker, stop in the next room to talk to Dr. Wanda Dorsett to advance the Solution Vital side quest you got from Cpl. Weaver. The next step is to go to Scylla so we’ll put it on the back burner for now.

Follow the quest marker into a restricted area. The holographic shroud will activate. The marker leads you to Jessie in quarantine. Agree to help her by speaking with Udom Bedford whom we met earlier.

Persuade Odum (Skill check of about 20) to allow Jessie to pay off her debt through indentured servitude. It may sound harsh but Jessie thinks it’s a better option than selling off her organs. Not only do you get Jessie out of her scrape but your Board Rep increases.

Once you finalize your deal with Odum return to Ellie. Everybody is happy with your resolution. Ellie offers to join your party. Accept. Keep Felix and Parvati in your party and send Ellie to the Unreliable.

Ellie is very cynical. To get the best ending, don’t be equally cynical. Always tell her your helping her out of friendship and that she is a valued companion. This has nothing to do with achievements but, if you want Ellie to feel less alone in the universe, extend a hand of friendship.

Pop back over to the Rest-N-Go. Since you now have three keycards, pick the door behind Milo. Direct your companions to stay put and close the door. We're going to do a lot of stealing and it's proper discipline to always shut doors between you and potential prying eyes.

Use the three keycards on each of the three safes. Pick the locks on the other locked containers. Once you've cleaned out the entire room, exit.

Drinking Sapphire Wine

Make Parvati's companion quest, Drinking Sapphire Wine active. Follow the quest marker. As you enter the Groundbreaker Promenade area, check out the two Public Access Terminals to the left and right. Read their entries. Among other things, you'll become aware of an opportunity called Salvager in the Sky. Continue following the quest marker to Junlei Tennyson's office. Speak with her.

Junlei needs parts to fix the heating problem. Volunteer your services, initiating the Happiness is a Warm Spaceship side quest. Exhaust all the conversational choices especially those related to Parvati making Junlei’s acquaintance. Encourage Parvati choosing the most positive options.

Note: There are reports of Drinking Sapphire Wine being bugged if one waits too long. For this reason, we want to do it immediately and, then, tackle Junlei’s side quest.

Fast travel back to the ship. Talk to Parvati. Exhaust the conversational choices. Parvati feels she needs a drink. Accompany her to The Lost Hope Bar. The quest marker will direct you. From your ship, it’s the establishment on your right just before you get to Belle’s Shells, the weapon vendor.

Parvati’s not a drinker and asks your advice. All choices lead to the same result. As before, stay supportive. Persuade her to drink water when the opportunity presents itself. If you continue to be supportive, you can pass a low level dialog check. Persuade Parvati to ask Junlei out.

Fast travel to the Unreliable and talk to Parvati. You’ll find Parvati hit it off with Junlei unlocking the companion quest Don’t Bite the Sun. Parvati wants to buy "fancy soap" so she doesn't smell like "propellant and underarms." Gladys sells it so we'll do that later when we finish Gladys's side quest and report back to her.

Make Happiness is a Warm Spaceship the active quest. Sleep, eat, and drink as required. Wear the Dialog Skills +5 armor with Silver Tongue Kit for an additional Dialog Skills +5. Equip headgear that boosts Lie.

Happiness is a Warm Spaceship

Exit the ship taking Felix and Ellie with you. As Groundbreaker residents, they have the best rapport with Captain MacRedd whom you will soon meet. Ellie provides a substantial bonus to Lie which is helpful in the dialogs. Follow the quest marker to the elevator facing the bay door to engineering. Take it down to the Back Bays.

You encounter Captain MacRedd. Exhaust the dialog and lie (skill check around 40) to get the parts. If you have a different build and can’t pass the dialog check, Felix’s presence in the party allows you to bribe him. Either way, MacRedd will not turn hostile and you can freely walk around the area.

Continue the conversation. You’ll recall Comdt. Sanita gave you the side quest Who Goes There? to kill Captain MacRedd bringing back his lighter as proof. Instead of killing him, persuade MacRedd to give you his lighter so he can fly under the radar with Sanita thinking he’s dead.

After exhausting all the dialog, go up the stairs and take the Radiator Parts highlighted by the quest marker. MacRedd’s given his permission so it’s not stealing. Taking other items is, however. So, do not loot unless you’re positive you are unseen.

Go back downstairs. Look at your map. Note the stairs on the right hand side going down. Head that way. In the room you enter, talk to Private Lettie Dixon. She’s one of Junlei’s people scouting the radiator parts that you have now recovered. Tell her to return to her regular posting.

You may get the feeling that hostilities are just around the corner. That's because you can complete the side quest by going scorched earth on everyone and everything. Nevertheless, we've opted to use diplomacy—a prudent option since we're playing on supernova.

Return to Junlei who gives you the next tasking. Follow the quest marker to an elevator at the back of Engineering. Take it down. Prepare for a relatively easy fight soon after you exit. Defeat the Mantipillars and Swarms. If they get the upper hand, you can always retreat back into the elevator and take it up out of harms way. They can’t follow.

Once you defeat your welcoming committee, the rest of the enemies are spread out and you can snipe them from a distance. When you’ve defeated the Manti- enemies, switch to the assault rifle with the Mag-2-Zap mod. There are a few automechanicals coming up and, you’ll recall, we have to kill 30 of them with shock damage for an achievement.

Defeat the robots. Looking through a grate, you’ll see 3 below you. You can shoot through the grate and kill them without exposing yourself to danger. Once you defeat them, go down the ladder. Interact with the terminal. Junlei, through the comms, will coach you how to Cycle the Pumps.

Report back to Junlei. In addition to XP and bits, the reward includes the unique headgear, Welder's Goggles. They provide a +15 bonus to engineering while exacting a Perception -1 penalty—a worthwhile tradeoff if you ever need a huge engineering bonus.

Junlei will give you another side quest—Silent Voices. This is completely OPTIONAL.

Leave Engineering. Talk to Edna Ingmire on the right hand side of the Engineering bay door just before you exit to learn about Silent Voices. Edna tells you a relay station is not communicating. It’s off station and you can make up your mind later whether or not you want to do the side quest.

Walk back to your ship stopping by Security. Give Comdt. Sanita MacRedd’s lighter to complete the side quest Who Goes There? At around this point, if not earlier, you will unlock:

The achievement pops when you get a positive reputation of 75% or higher with 3 factions regardless of their negative ratings. Most likely, you will have achieved a 100% positive rating with Spacer’s Choice and gotten above 90% with the Deserters. Adelaide’s reticence prevents the Deserters from reaching 100%. The quests we’ve done after leaving Emerald Vale should have got Groundbreaker past 75%. If it’s not there yet, it will be once we report back after completing the sidequests on Scylla, Roseway, and (optionally) GB-23.

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