Cambridge Polymer Labs (quest)

Fallout 4 side quest
Cambridge Polymer Labs
The Polymer Coating Applicator
Location	Cambridge Polymer Labs
Given by	Molly
Rewards	200+ XP 25 Pre-War money Optional: Piezonucleic power armor
Related quests	Underground Undercover
Technical
Editor ID	DN015
Form ID	000284BC

 

Cambridge Polymer Labs is a side quest in Fallout 4. The objective is to find chemical samples in the abandoned Cambridge Polymer Labs and complete a 200 year old science experiment.

Quick walkthrough

Side quest: Cambridge Polymer Labs

Enter Cambridge Polymer Labs.

Accept a job from Molly.

(Optional) Follow the orientation procedure.

Follow Molly to the clean room.

Complete the research project.

Find another way to escape the laboratory.

Recover sample 611 (Gold).

Recover sample 3111 (Lithium hydride).

Open the containment room.

Enter Dr. Bergman's lab.

Recover the U-238 radioactive material.

Access the Facility Defense System folder in the terminal. Use the emergency override.

Places the samples and the reagent in the receptacles. Use the terminal to complete the experiment.

Escape the facility.

Report back to Molly.

Reward: 200+ XP Piezonucleic power armor

Follow Molly to the director's office.

Take care of the director.

Reward: 25 Pre-War money

Detailed walkthrough

Upon entering the Cambridge Polymer Labs, the Sole Survivor is greeted by a Miss Nanny robot named Molly. She asks if the Sole Survivor has come to fill a job position. Answer yes and Molly will give the player character a one question survey for qualification, asking whether or not the player character has any research experience. She will assign a job and provide a uniform (set of clothing and items) based on the answer given:

1. Expressing confusion: Janitor, a mop and a green mechanic jumpsuit.
2. Yes: Researcher, a lab coat and clipboard.
3. "You need me" (Charisma check): Sales Coordinator if successful, a dirty tan suit and a pen. Lab Assistant if failed.
4. Threaten: Security, dirty army fatigues, a baton and a pair of patrolman sunglasses.

Molly will then ask if the Sole Survivor would like an orientation, which is optional. If they agree, she will move into a side room with a broken slide projector and relate the history of the company. The Sole Survivor is asked to change into suitable attire and Molly leads the player character through a changing area with sets of lockers, then the Survivor is told to proceed to the clean room.

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Note: This is the last chance to leave and switch followers before being locked in. Curie has a significant affection boost (35 points) for completing the research, so it can be beneficial to retrieve her before moving forward. Furthermore, do not override the lockdown until the research is complete. The affection boost will not happen unless the experiment is completed first.

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As soon as the Sole Survivor enters the clean room, Molly locks the door and informs the player character that Director Elwood has issued a mandatory overtime edict to the staff and that no one may leave the laboratory until the project has been completed. The room will then fill with high-level radiation, though Molly will decontaminate it shortly. The player character may then ask Molly questions, but her responses are generally that the player character should look at the research already done and see if it can be moved forward.

Just past the clean room, the player will come to a room with a terminal directly in front and a large machine called the Polymer Coating Applicator filling the right side of the room. The terminal will have the research data of the experiment that's been performed up to this point.

To complete the project, the Sole Survivor must supply the applicator with the reagents lithium hydride and gold in addition to the radioactive material, U-238. Sitting right on the applicator is a silver canister that contains unidentified sample 11317, which when inserted into the applicator will identify it as hydrochloric acid. The Sole Survivor must explore the rest of the facility and find the components for the project.

There is a door leading from the room with the applicator out into the main atrium, which is filled with feral ghouls. Roughly 8-10 ghouls will attack at once, but once they are dead, the Sole Survivor is free to explore with only occasional interference from stragglers.

Entering the atrium there are two doors straight ahead. The storage room on the left contains unidentified sample 3111 (lithium hydride). The adjacent door leads to another small lab containing unidentified sample 413 (gallium). In this room is a hole in the wall leading into the next lab, which contains unidentified sample 65 (tungsten), a window to view into the containment room, which contains the U-238, and a wall-mounted terminal that opens the containment room. Opening the room causes alarms to sound and a glowing one to rise out of the standing water in the containment room. The containment room can be accessed via the door on the ground floor at the bottom of the stairs, to the left of the door leading back to the applicator room.

Up the stairs on the second level and turning around, there will be two doors at the end of walkways on either side. At the end of the left walkway is an office space in which the player character will find unidentified sample 49 (cobalt) sitting on a desk. Near this desk is a ramp leading into the ceiling ducts, which will grant access to the aforementioned right hand office, if one is unable to hack the Expert-level terminal at the door outside. Deal with the ghoul inhabitant, disable the tripwire and mines before they can go off, then look around the lab.

This is Dr. Wilfred Bergman's lab and the final reagent, unknown sample 611 (gold), can be found sitting on a desk next to a terminal. At this point, one has two options:

Option 1: Complete the experiment

Return to the applicator room and insert the components. Insert unidentified sample 3111 (lithium hydride) and unidentified sample 611 (gold) into the chemical reagent slots on the left and U-238 into the isotope sample slot on the right. Use the terminal to start the fabrication process by selecting "Run loaded fabrication routine".

Watch the polymer lining be applied to a piece of power armor, producing the Piezonucleic power armor, a unique Legendary power armor piece. Collect it on the far right and present it to Molly.

With the project completed successfully, she will unlock the clean room, adding that the director will be impressed and will want to meet the Sole Survivor. Following her will lead to the director's office on the second floor of the main entrance area. Upon opening the door, the director, now a feral ghoul, tries to attack the Sole Survivor. Molly intervenes, re-informing the director of company policies about assaulting coworkers before killing him with her saw arm. If the Sole Survivor has already killed the director before this, Molly will apologize and refer to an office flu. At this point Molly pays the Sole Survivor for their efforts (in pre-War money), apologizes on the director's behalf and shuts herself down for good, ending the quest. The piece of power armor remains available for the Sole Survivor to use as they see fit.

Option 2: Override the lockdown

Alternatively, activate the terminal in Dr. Bergman's lab and access the "Facility Defense System" directory. It provides the opportunity to use the emergency override, which will open the clean room and fulfill the optional objective of finding another way out of the facility, but it also activates all defenses in the facility including turrets and Molly, which means the player character will have to fight them on the way out of the facility.

Experiment samples numbers & names

Sample number	Name	ID
11317	Hydrochloric acid	0009BC88
3111	Lithium hydride	000A50F7
413	Gallium	000A018C
49	Cobalt	000A0190
611	Gold	000A50F5
65	Tungsten	000A018E

Quest stages

Stage	Status	Description
30		Complete the research project - (Optional) Find another way to escape the laboratory
100		Armor Prototype Complete
200		Follow Molly to speak with the Director
300		Quest complete
400		Quest failed

Notes

• The player character can choose to destroy Molly before entering the clean room. Subsequently entering the clean room will cause Molly to respawn, lock the door and activate the decontamination process.
• Occasionally Molly will become hostile when opening the clean room doors. The key to the director's quarters will be in her inventory when searched. This can complete the quest, but one can still complete the research project afterward and get the power armor piece.
• Once the player character enters Cambridge Polymer Labs, the Piezonucleic power armor chest piece model is set as dependent on the player character's level from the moment the player character steps in the interior cell (the "labs" collectively).
• A segment of the Railroad quest Underground Undercover sends the Sole Survivor to Cambridge Polymer Labs to retrieve a password from Dr. Bergman's terminal. If the player character has not yet completed this quest, it will become a prerequisite to leaving the facility.
• Shooting any of the turrets in the facility will set Molly to hostile.
• If the player does not follow Molly to the director's office after completing the research project, Molly can be heard making apologies for the director's condition, but no fight will be heard, nor will she comment on him attacking the player character. Upon entering the director's office after Molly's shutdown, he will be dismembered on the floor anyway.
• Curie loves it if the player character opts to complete the research.
• If the player character chooses option 2, but does not loot Molly's body, her corpse may despawn after leaving, making it impossible to enter the director's office without picking the door.
• If the player character hacks Molly and shuts her down prior to entering the clean room, this may cause the quest to remain uncompleted despite obtaining the unique power armor. This can be fixed by destroying Molly and collecting the key to the director's quarters from her inventory.

Bugs

• Playstation 4 Xbox One Rarely the player character will be unable to pick up the radioactive isotope U-238.^[verified]
• PC The player character will be unable to pick up the unidentified sample 3111, which is required to successfully complete the experiment. While the model for the sample canister (base ID 000a50f8[PP]) will appear correctly and hovering over it will display the correct name, actually picking it up will not raise the prompt message "Unidentified Sample 3111 added" nor trigger the correct audio cue for the picking up of the item. No unidentified sample 3111 (base ID 000a50f7) will be present in the Miscellaneous tab of the inventory, nor will it be presented as one of the options to be placed in the reagent tubes. A solution is to use player.additem 000a50f7. That command will place the item in inventory and allow placement of the sample in the reagent tubes for identification. Note however that doing so will not remove the item from the inventory, and it will still be presented as a choice for the second tube. Using player.removeitem 000a50f7 will solve the subsequent issue, but note that taking the canister (which remains base ID 000a50f8 when placed in the tube, both before and after identification) back out will once again not add the sample item back into inventory. ^[verified]
• PC Xbox One If the player places unidentified sample 611 into a receptacle, scans it to turn it into gold, but then picks it up out of the receptacle, the item can change into a misc item called "NONE." Thereafter it does not appear as gold, and thus the player is left unable to complete the quest. The solution is to re-add the gold sample to the player's inventory with console command player.additem a50f5 1, and to remove the "NONE" item with player.drop 9c2cb 1.^[verified]
• PC Playstation 4 Xbox One After completing the quest the player character will be stuck with the rest of the components (Gallium, Cobalt, Hydrochloric Acid and Tungsten) in their inventory. The solution is to ask a companion to inspect the reagent in the tube then Inspect Chemical Reagent will appear. One can then place another reagent in the tube while the first reagent is still in the tube. Keep asking a companion to inspect the tube, then place another reagent in the tube until all reagent quest items are removed from the player character's inventory. Another solution on PC is delete the items through the command console, using the command player.removeitem <base ID> 1.^[verified]
• PC Playstation 4 Xbox One After Molly shuts down when completing the quest, the quest log will mark the research portion of the quest as failed. The player character will still have the Piezonucleic chest armor. One can open console and use the commands CompleteAllObjectives 284bc or CompleteAllObjectives DN015 to complete the quest, but one will be need to used before Molly shuts down, or the quest will still be marked as failed.^[verified]

• PC Xbox One If the dialogue with Molly is bypassed (e.g. from sneaking past her or ignoring her) and the terminal in the Director's office (master locked) is accessed and the lockdown cancelled, the first stage of the quest will no longer be able to initiate and the only option to complete the quest will be to trigger security and kill Molly.^[verified]
• PC Playstation 4 When closing the door to the containment chamber after retrieving the uranium (e. g. to silence the alarm) a companion may get stuck in the chamber, even after opening it again, refusing any movement command through the (theoretically open) door.^[verified]
• PC Playstation 4 After creating a prototype, a quest notification for "Complete the research project" may appear, but the quest stage will not be marked as completed or "greyed-out" in the Pip-Boy. One can still speak to Molly (if not hostile) and proceed to the Director's office to complete the quest, but this will cause "Complete the research project" to be marked as failed in the quest summary in the Pip-Boy.^[verified]
• PC It is possible to complete the quest without doing the research project. Kill the first Molly that appears, and another Molly will appear from a normally-inaccessible room. Collect the CPL Director's key from the first Molly, unlock the director's room on the second floor, and kill the director, then go back and kill the second Molly. The quest will then complete.^[verified]
• PC When Molly starts the intro, if one walks straight to the lab door and unlocks it via picking or hacking, gets all the substances and manufactures the prototype and then goes back and completes the tour, they will not be able to complete the mission.^[verified]
• PC When choosing option 2, Molly becomes hostile and attacks the player. But it may occur that Molly cannot be killed as if she is essential. She resurrect and be killed until the player finishes the research portion of the quest, after which she becomes neutral to the player again. However, although the player has the Piezonucleic chest armor, the speech option saying that the research is completed is not available in conversation, making it impossible to complete the quest. This can be solved by manually setting the quest stage: SetStage 284bc 100, after which the quest can be completed normally. ^{[verification overdue]}

Gallery

A T-51 piezonucleic power armor torso

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