Updated Title Publisher
Updated Title Publisher
Updated Title
Published Title Score Editor's Choice
Published Title Score

Fallout 4

Purchase on Amazon

A New Threat

By
Nathan Garvin
Important Items in This Area
Mechanist Device
Radar Beacon
Tesla Science*

*If not picked up prior to this DLC quest.

Just as the last quest mentioned, you need to check out the Mechanist’s robots at the General Atomics Factory. It is very likely that you’ve already cleared this place out, but if you haven’t for some reason it’ll be rehashed a bit, for the sake of simplicity. Also note that whatever enemies would have been populating the building sans this DLC have been replaced with Mechanist Robots, so be ready for Swarm Bots, Eyebots and Junk Machines.

General Atomics Factory is of course south-east of Diamond City, along the eastern coast (near Four Leaf Fishpacking Plant). If you fast travel or walk there, remember the Super Muntants in the ruined building nearby and don’t forget that Ghouls love to inhabit the Fishpacking Plant!

General Atomics Factory

In the room you enter into you can find a “Receptionist Terminal” which contains utterly no useful information. If you head into a hallway to the south you can find two bathrooms, one of which has a Nuka Cherry in it, amongst other junk.

Return to the lobby and head north up some stairs and waste any Mr. Handy robots you find, then pick a locked door [Expert]. In the office beyond you’ll find a “General Atomics ID Card” on a desk near “Kincaid’s Terminal”, the latter of which is just full of the whinings of an old man. Leave this office and continue into another room to the west where you can find a “Tesla Science” magazine on a desk… if you didn’t claim it on a previous run-through of this area, of course.

Return downstairs to the lobby continue through a door to the south to reach an assembly line room, where another pair of Mr. Handy Robots patrol. Deal with them and head upstairs to find a Laser Turret and some junk to loot, but your next goal is to the east, which you can reach by jumping on the assembly line and following it east through a hole in the wall, or by hacking a Terminal [Novice] on the ground floor, which can be used to open the nearby double doors.

Mrs. Nanny Testing

Clear out the robots here and head through a door to the south (use the “QA Department Terminal” to get it open) where you’ll hear the soothing accented voice directing you to do things. Curie? Or limited voice actor pool? We report, you decide. Head into a room to the south and the robot will tell you a story about bad ol’ Timmy, whose role is played by a very dead skeleton on a couch. After the robotic voice is done talking, turn off the radio and you’ll be directed to the next room, which is to the north. In this room a Teddy Bear will helpfully play the role of a baby, and you’ll be directed to figure out what’s wrong to shut the thing up. Grab the Large Baby Bottle off a nearby dresser and plant the bottle in the Teddy Bear’s inventory.

After this, return to the hallway, head west, then turn south to reach the third and final test room, where your “hazard detection matrices” will be tested. Pick up a box of Abraxo Cleaner from a table near a couch, grab a Machete that’s lurking in the fridge, then pick up an Adjustable Wrench on the floor under a footrest. After this, head out into the hallway again and turn west to find a Safe, which will be unlocked for you. Pillage it for several Fusion Cores and some other junk.

Objective Reward
For completing a trial 98 XP (each trial)

Return back to the room to the north and head east through a doorway and up some stairs. Enter a room on the second floor and loot a Toolbox [Novice], then head east to find a door [Advanced] leading to a small room, where you can find a wall Safe [Novice] and a First Aid Box. Loot, leave and head south to find two sealed doors with a Terminal in front of them.

Finding the Mechanist Robots

This upper room in General Atomics Factory, where the Terminal is that opens the double doors and the Steamer Trunk is, is where your quest marker leads you. From the entrance it is easy to get there by taking a left,going up the stairs in this conveyor belt room, jumping on the belt to go through the wall and taking a right to the upper floor. All of this is after you explore the building (up above) if you haven’t done so of course.

Once you get to the terminal and door you’ll see that The Mechanist’s Robots are inside. They can only come out of this door to face you, meaning you could grenade or mine them pretty easily but that is fairly over-kill to be honest. Open up the door and take them out as they come at you. You will likely face two Swarmbots and the target: a “Quantum Robobrain”. This big guy on treads looks worse than he is: just take him out from a distance as he is equipped for melee (let Ada tank for you if you wish).

Once you’ve taken him out, check his body for the Mechanist Device . After you pick it up, you will need to talk to Ada, so go ahead and consult with Ada to learn that she wants to install the device on her to try and track down the Mechanist. Good enough for us! Don’t forget to pick up and take everything from the robot corpses here. You may just need the parts!

Scrap the Robobrain in the General Atomics Factory (left) then claim the “Mechanist Device” from its remains (right).

If you haven’t done so yet, you will be told to go build the Robot Workbench at a settlement (which again, you likely have already done if you followed the notes above). You need to do so now, so make that your priority at this time. This may mean collecting items:

Robot Workbench
Gear x6
Oil x4
Screw x4
Plastic x4
Aluminum x12
Fiberglass x6
Circuitry x3
Nuclear Material x4

You can get most of these items from workshops and robots, as well as various junkyards and offices. If you are missing any of these materials, tag them and do another random quest for awhile so you can gather them up, or kill things, earn Caps, then try to buy junk from general store merchants with the required components.

Ada will inform you that you need to perform some robot surgery to get the Radar Beacon working (left), so create a Robot Workbench and give your robot bloodhound an upgrade or two (right).

Once you have them, build the workbench and install the Mechanist Device on Ada as she requested. She will update the hardware and software and let you know that the device won’t change her. However, she isn’t able to track down the Mechanist with this device.

With her radar, Ada is able to sense another Robobrain in the Commonwealth, and suggests you head to it to obtain it. Looks like you are doing some hunting! It’s open season for Robobrains!

Robobrain Hunting!

It’s now time to hunt down some Robobrains! You’ll end up having to hunt down two of these things, just so you know. The first one is rather easy to find, but the second one is considerably more complicated (read: you’ll go through a “dungeon” later). First things first though! Check out your map to see where the first Robobrain enemy is. It should be just northwest of Hangman’s Alley, so head there and make your way to the target.

Trash another Robobrain to obtain a second Radar Beacon (left), after which Ada will give you some unfortunate news concerning the location of the next Radar Beacon… (right)

This Robobrain is just part of a convoy of robots, so sneak up on them and take them out. Beware of the guards and sneak-attack the more dangerous robots first (like any Tankbots). Once you have killed (and looted) them all, you will find the Radar Beacon on the Robobrain. Take this thing and talk with Ada, who will locate the second target for you. She will also tell us of a Raider group called the “Rust Devils” who utilize robots to do much of their dirty work. She will end up telling us to head to Ft. Hagen Satellite Array to find the next Robobrain.

Objective Reward
For building the Radar Beacon 690 XP
No Comments
Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Bethesda Softworks
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS4, XB One
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    16 December 2015
  • Last Updated
    2 August 2023
    Version History
  • Guide Author
    Nathan Garvin, Greg Wright

Share this free guide:

It’s just another day. Having just been accepted into Vault 111, you spend the morning with your family going about your daily routine. That is until alarms blare out, signalling a nuclear attack. You and your family sprint towards the Vault along with everyone else in the neighborhood just as a bomb explodes nearby. After surviving the blast, you are lowered into the Vault and enter cryosleep. Two hundred years pass and you awake to a world ravaged by nuclear war. You are the Sole Survivor and what awaits you is a mystery as you set out to conquer the Wasteland.

Our guide will be a complete companion while you journey through the wilds of Fallout 4. You can find a plethora of information including the following:

  • A start to finish walkthrough with every area in between covered.
  • Combat details, SPECIAL explanation and general gameplay information.
  • VATS And You!: Getting to know your PIPBOY.
  • All faction quests explained including the consequences of favoring one over the others.
  • Information on Settlements and items for construction.
  • Bobblehead locations, collectibles and full Trophy/Achievement guide.
  • Settlement Guide complete with how to set up and manage settlements, what perks are beneficial etc.
  • Companion chapter detailing each companion character, where to acquire them and the pros/cons of each.
  • A detailed Character Creation guide fully examining the best builds and what each perk does.
  • Automatron and Wasteland Workshop DLC information provided, including a full walkthrough for Automatron.
  • A complete walkthrough of the “Far Harbor” DLC complete with information on every side quest.

Get a Gamer Guides Premium account: