Liberty Prime, later renamed to Liberty Prime Mark II is a unique robot originally constructed in the pre-War era as a superweapon to achieve American victory in the Sino-American War, but never saw deployment against China due to its lack of a suitable power source.[1] Left dormant within the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. for 200 years following the nuclear apocalypse, it was discovered by the D.C. chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel under Owyn Lyons, who were able to restore it to function and later with the help of scientist Dr. Madison Li, Prime's power issues were resolved in the year 2277, enabling its first deployment as a war asset in the Brotherhood's conflict with the Enclave in the Capital Wasteland until its destruction from an orbital strike at the tail-end of the war.
Prime remained in disrepair afterward until 2287 when it was transported to the Commonwealth aboard the Prydwen to aid the Brotherhood once again during the War of the Commonwealth against the Institute and their army of synths. It appears multiple times in the Fallout series.
Background[]
Pre-war origins[]
In response to the occupation of Anchorage, Alaska by the Chinese People's Liberation Army during the Sino-American War, the United States Army contracted both RobCo Industries and General Atomics International to collaborate on an unprecedented joint project, formally known as military contract 38917, with the goal of creating the most powerful combat-ready robot in the history of warfare.[2]
Development on the robot, named "Liberty Prime," commenced in 2072, and in the words of General Constantine Chase, the project overseer, Liberty Prime was to be "the very embodiment of American military might -- a walking, talking, nuke-tossing hero who will remind the world what it means to be a super power."[2][Non-game 1][2] Confident that the project would soon yield result, General Chase publicly confirmed in June 2072 that the U.S. Army was working with General Atomics and RobCo to create a superweapon meant to establish dominance of the United States on the Alaskan front.[3] Propaganda posters also purported the existence of a Chinese super robot, dubbed Warmachine, and called for the United States to build its own.[4]
However, while engineers were able to complete Prime's chassis, voice module, and weapons systems by the projected date, they were unable to develop a power source compact enough to power all of its systems for mobile deployment. Project lead Stanley Bloomfeld was unable to ascertain a solution and requests for assistance from the Vault-Tec Corporation were fruitless, as the only person capable of solving the technological conundrum - Stanislaus Braun - had already gone into seclusion at Vault 112 shortly before the problems manifested. While the robot could technically move and navigate terrain, it would only do so with all offensive weapons systems offline.[5] The project delays was unacceptable, but untenable, and U.S. military operations were forced to move ahead without the aid of their superweapon. The Alaskan campaign was ultimately won, at a heavy cost in men and materiel, while Liberty Prime remained in its construction bay below the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., waiting for a solution to its power management problems.[6]
Post-War discovery[]
Decades after the nuclear apocalypse, around 2255, an expedition of members of the Brotherhood of Steel led by Elder Owyn Lyons arrived in the ruins of D.C., now known as the Capital Wasteland, where they occupied the damaged, but intact Pentagon. Searches of the structure's interior turned up the intact Liberty Prime, an impressive find that led them to fortify the pre-War building as their main stronghold in the Capital Wastes, thenceforth known as the Citadel, and put their supply of scribes to the task of resuming development of the failed pre-War project.[7] However, the same problems met by its pre-War creators blocked the Brotherhood's progress. Chief among these was Prime's immense energy consumption as they had no feasible way of powering the behemoth robot, even with Head Scribe Rothchild leading the project.[8]
For 20 years, the Brotherhood struggled trying to make its robot combat-worthy.[8] Every attempt to gain ground was compensated with failures. By early May 2277, the research team had managed to restore 46% power to internal processors, 45% to weapons, and 37% to power management systems, and attempted to redistribute power to bring the robot online.[9] The attempt proved fruitless, with problems coming from the least expected direction: Liberty Prime himself. Rothchild's team tried to bypass the aggressive combat subroutines by trying to fool the robot with a neural dampener that power was being redistributed from a source other than its weapons. However, the onboard AI routines detected the attempt and again refused to allow the researchers to draw power away from its weapon systems. The attempt fried some of the robot's circuitry and set the project back another three months.[10]
Another attempt to jumpstart Prime was made on July 13, 2277.[11] This time, a faulty power capacitor caused a power spike and degraded system performance, dropping internal processor, weapons, and power management power to 12%, 13% and, 1% respectively.[11] Tired of struggling with rerouting power, Rothchild ended the power management experiments and resumed work on Prime's Accelerated Vector Fusion module to simply meet the power demands. Inspired by the work on energy resources conducted by Dr. Madison Li in Rivet City, Rothchild hoped for a similar breakthrough with the Liberty Prime project.[12] The next attempt caused injury to several individuals. In its first major experiment on August 1, 2277, the AVF device test resulted in Scribe Bowditch suffering second-degree burns, while an accidental weapon discharge nearly killed Elder Lyons.[13] These events led to Lyons imposing stricter control on the experimentation team.[14]
Despite the accidents and setbacks, Rothchild's team was eventually able to restore much of the robot's power and improve internal distribution rates, bringing power to internal processors to 87% and weapons to 60%, but their lackluster efforts with power management (still operating at 3% efficiency) made field deployment impossible still, with mobility and navigation translation remained at 0%. Only the voice module worked at 100% at all times, continuing to spew wartime anti-communist propaganda when powered on.[15]
2277 revival[]
Later in 2277, following the loss of Project Purity to an emergent faction of the Enclave and the death of her research partner James, Madison Li led the surviving scientists and James' teenage child to the Brotherhood's stronghold seeking shelter and a capable power base to retake the Jefferson Memorial and the project. With Li's extensive experience in fusion research and application, Rothchild and his team were finally able to resolve the power management problems that hampered Prime's reactivation.[16][17]
Once repairs were completed, Liberty Prime was brought online for the first time in centuries and was immediately deployed against the Enclave occupying the memorial, being lifted out of the Citadel's walls by a crane (clipping a part of it with a foot in the process). Bulldozing through the enemy's resistance, including destroying multiple vertibirds, Liberty Prime made its way towards the Jefferson Memorial by crossing the Francis Scott Key Bridge, with support from the elite Lyons's Pride and the Lone Wanderer who engaged any Enclave personnel that survived the initial assault.[18]
At the site of the Memorial, Prime directly sabotaged the Enclave's photonic resonance barriers set up around the island to deny land access. The Pride and Prime remained outside the Memorial, setting up a security perimeter while Sarah Lyons and the Lone Wanderer headed inside the facility to defeat Colonel Autumn and reactivate the purifier.[18]
Destruction[]
Paladins deployed alongside Liberty Prime
The Brotherhood's victory over the Enclave during the Battle of Project Purity set the pattern for Prime's continued strategical value. For two weeks following the project's reactivation, the Brotherhood deployed the robot to wipe out the remaining Enclave forces throughout the Capital Wasteland, a lengthy process that lasted until the Battle of Rockland. The Brotherhood's offensive played out as was usual: Liberty Prime was deployed as the spearhead, destroying the bulk of the enemy forces and bypassing their fortifications, while ground support followed the robot's path, mopping up any stragglers. The success of the initial attack allowed Brotherhood forces on the ground to penetrate enemy defenses right up into the satellite relay station being targeted. Prime proceeded to directly open an access point into the facility by punching through the concrete walls.[19]
However, the Brotherhood's offensive tactics had become predictable, and the Enclave had set a trap to put an end to their superweapon. Liberty Prime was lured into the cul-de-sac in front of the Rockland facility and just as it opened the facility to the Brotherhood's incursion, Enclave command initiated a tactical missile bombardment from the Bradley-Hercules orbital weapons platform, turning the area into a kill zone. The main target, Prime was destroyed, with the assault team just barely able to reach minimum safe distance beforehand.[20][19]
The loss of Liberty Prime as a war asset put the Brotherhood in a very difficult position, as it removed their most significant military advantage against the Enclave.[21] Due to the previous split with the Brotherhood Outcasts, Lyons' Brotherhood had little in the way of men and resources at the beginning of the conflict with the Enclave, and after the loss of Prime all of these problems resurfaced, exacerbated by the significant investment into their ongoing efforts to supply the wasteland with Aqua Pura from the purifier. With all resources pooled into a renewed defense against the Enclave, the Brotherhood had to rely on the Lone Wanderer as their trump card.[22] Meanwhile, Rothchild immediately began work on rebuilding Prime, in the hope of restoring it to working condition. Ultimately, however, lack of progress on the new project led to it being shelved and the remains of the robot kept in storage.
War of the Commonwealth[]
Years after the final defeat of the Enclave in the Capital Wasteland, the reformed East Coast Brotherhood enjoyed their stable power base in the region. Despite the peace, Proctor Ingram was given the order by the new Elder Arthur Maxson to revive the project to restore Liberty Prime. Faced with the terrible state of the robot's salvaged remains,[23] she labored for several years to reconstruct Prime.[24]
Ingram's efforts took a step up when the Brotherhood received scouting reports from Recon Squad Gladius all the way from the Commonwealth that confirmed the existence of the Institute, a reclusive cabal of scientists that had created an artificial lifeform, the synth that the Brotherhood considered a threat to their mission. With Maxson deploying the bulk of the chapter's forces to the Commonwealth to combat the Institute, this included having Prime's components loaded onto their airship, the Prydwen and brought along as a potential asset. Upon arriving in the Commonwealth and securing the pre-War Boston Airport as a stronghold, a special gantry was quickly constructed to assist in the assembly of the Brotherhood's war machine under Proctor Ingram's orders.[25]
Interactions with the player character[]
Interactions overview[]
Fallout 3[]
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
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This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed. | |
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This character is involved in quests. | |
- Notes
- Liberty Prime is first seen in the lab beneath the Citadel in its inactive state. The Lone Wanderer can gain information about the robot, as well as hear some of its dialogue by using a nearby computer terminal to initiate a dialogue test.
- In combat, the robot fires dual, head-mounted energy beams, which are similar to shots fired from a Tesla cannon. The beams can kill multiple Enclave soldiers with a single shot. Its backpack holds a limitless supply of explosives that it throws at enemies. These munitions detonate on contact.
- Prime is immune to all kinds of conventional attacks and is able to defeat energy barriers simply by walking into them. The robot will sometimes grab them and rip them down. While traversing the wasteland, it repeats anti-communist phrases and declares that "Democracy will never be defeated" and "Communism is a temporary setback on the road to freedom."[26]
- Due to its size, Liberty Prime primarily follows pre-scripted paths whenever it appears and has little independence outside of them. The walk to the purifier is filled with scripted elements.
- As it is being lifted out of the Citadel lab, Liberty Prime will hit the wall of the Citadel, dislodging some pieces of the wall.
- Although it cannot be killed, it is possible to cause it to turn hostile, in which case it will attempt to eliminate the player and their followers.
- Quests
- Take it Back!: The Brotherhood of Steel, with the help of Dr. Li, manages to fix the power issues with the robot. With the pressing need to reclaim Project Purity, Elder Lyons orders Prime deployed without proper testing. Liberty Prime makes its way to the Jefferson Memorial, while destroying Enclave energy barriers, vertibirds and troops. Once there, Liberty Prime assists the Brotherhood in guarding the memorial's entrance, after taking down the force field surrounding it. The giant robot will then remain there for the duration of the quest.
- Death From Above: Liberty Prime joins the Lone Wanderer in the assault on the Satellite Relay Station, an Enclave base located beyond the Rockland Car Tunnel. After the Enclave hits Prime with an orbital strike, Prime crawls from the wreckage and initiates its self-destruct sequence to prevent being captured by the "communists." Its head, feet, and what appears to be a forearm are taken back to the Citadel. Similar to Deputy Weld, its head can be activated, which will cause it to playback some of its anti-communist phrases, although they sound much more garbled than they are during the 'Take it Back!' quest.
- Three Dog will make a news report as a eulogy for it on Galaxy News Radio when it is destroyed.
- After Broken Steel is completed, Liberty Prime's head can be found on the table in the Citadel lab. However, it is not removed from the satellite relay station, and it will remain there as well.
- Getting Ready for Prime Time: At the conclusion of Broken Steel's main questline, Scribe Rothchild vows the Brotherhood of Steel will rebuild Prime, although it may take months, or even years. He then asks for the player character's help in scavenging sensor modules and cameras to assist in the rebuilding process.
Interactions overview[]
Fallout 4[]
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
| |
This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed. | |
| |
This character is involved in quests. | |
- Notes
- If one sides with the Brotherhood of Steel and helps to rebuild Liberty Prime, the advanced upgrades made to the robot, including an almost complete redesign of his limbs and arms which has replaced old liquid-feed hydraulic systems with electromagnetic actuators, lead to the restored robot being called Liberty Prime Mark II, with other changes include its eye laser which now fires a single massive red beam instead of a salvo of blue beams as well as a new supply of Mark 28 nuclear bombs to throw at enemies.
- Liberty Prime MK II autonomously switches from a land-based route to an amphibious assault during its attack on the Institute whereas before it only demonstrated the capacity to overcome straightforward obstacles such as energy barriers. Prime was also able to correctly deduce that the Institute was a subterranean complex and utilized its laser weapon to bore a tunnel directly into the facility.
- Liberty Prime may throw nukes directly at its own feet if enemies are close, dealing damage to its surroundings, including the player and companions.
- Even after being upgraded to the Mark II version, Prime still broadcasts anti-Communist propaganda slogans, such as "Democracy is truth. Communism is death" and "Embrace Democracy, or you will be eradicated."[27]
- It is possible to target Liberty Prime in V.A.T.S., but will not incur damage. It never turns hostile against the player if struck. However, the Sole Survivor can be trampled underfoot if they are in its path.
- Liberty Prime has a death animation that is impossible to achieve normally, in which it will drop onto its knees and then suddenly spring forward uncontrollably.[28]
- Quests
- Liberty Reprimed: Upon returning to Proctor Ingram after Outside the Wire, it is revealed that the Brotherhood of Steel is reconstructing Liberty Prime, who was destroyed in the war against the Enclave in the Capital Wasteland. The Sole Survivor is asked to help restore Liberty Prime to its former glory, in order to help the Brotherhood fight the Institute.
- Spoils of War: With Liberty Prime almost ready, the Sole Survivor is tasked with recovering a beryllium agitator in order to power him up. The Sole Survivor is to travel to the Mass Fusion building with Proctor Ingram to get the agitator.
- Ad Victoriam: With Liberty Prime fully operational, the Brotherhood of Steel is ready to launch their assault on the Institute. The Sole Survivor is to follow Liberty Prime to the C.I.T. ruins and put an end to the Institute. After completing the quest, Liberty Prime will be found patrolling Boston Airport after the endgame.
- When Liberty Prime reaches Bunker Hill it recognizes it as a memorial site and engages "patriotism subroutines," pausing to salute while saying "honoring the fallen is the duty of every red-blooded American."[29]
- If the player turns on the Brotherhood of Steel after completing their storyline, and then takes down the Prydwen during With Our Powers Combined, Liberty Prime will actually survive the fight against the Minutemen.
- Airship Down: After the Institute and Sole Survivor has dealt with the Railroad in End of the Line, the Institute will initiate their final assault against the Brotherhood of Steel. To take down the Prydwen, the Institute created a computer virus that will reprogram Liberty Prime's targeting system. After they push back the heavy resistance and the computer virus is uploaded, Liberty Prime will target the Prydwen as an aerial communist incursion and shoot the airship down. The wreckage of the Prydwen subsequently lands on Boston Airport, destroying both the Brotherhood outpost and Liberty Prime.
Statistics[]
- Fallout 3
| Name (Form ID) | Statistics | Behavior | Abilities | Items | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberty Prime 0005FD26 |
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| Liberty Prime 00001FCC  |
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- Fallout 4
| Name (Form ID) | Statistics | Behavior | Abilities | Items | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberty Prime 001337F2 |
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Notable quotes[]
| Capital Wasteland quotes |
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| Broken Steel quotes |
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| Commonwealth quotes |
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Appearances[]
Liberty Prime appears in Fallout 3, its add-on Broken Steel and Fallout 4, as well as being mentioned in the Fallout 3 add-on Operation: Anchorage and the Fallout 4 add-on Automatron add-ons. A power armor skin in the Atomic Shop in Fallout 76 resembles Liberty Prime, and the robot also appears on the legendary perk card Power Armor Reboot. It also appears in Fallout: The Board Game, where the Brotherhood of Steel may send it to take out Project Purity during the Capital Wasteland scenario, ending the game.
Behind the scenes[]
- Although appearing and speaking in both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, Liberty Prime's voice is uncredited in either game, with his voice actor unknown.
- In The Art of Fallout 3, the Iron Giant is cited as one of the inspirations for Liberty Prime.[Non-game 2]
- In an interview with 1UP.com, Emil Pagliarulo denied any intentional parallels between Liberty Prime and Optimus Prime of the Transformers franchise but suggests the latter character might have been an indirect influence to the developers.[Non-game 3]
- Prime has several unused animations, one of which is named "DLC03PrimeWalkSmashedVertibird" in the game files for Broken Steel.
- In the early development cycle for Fallout 3, Liberty Prime was supposed to be larger than his in-game height in the final game, and it was planned that the player character was going to ride inside of its head during the final battle.[Non-game 4]
- During development of Fallout 3, Liberty Prime's immense size broke the navmeshing system, which was intended for characters of the same human size. Programmer Jean Simonet had to implement a two-pass pathing trick to make the sequence work.[Non-game 5]
- The G.E.C.K. lists a cut quest called "Infiltration" which was situated between The American Dream and Take it Back! and had the player character stealing a power source from Rivet City to power Liberty Prime.
- Liberty Prime appeared in an advertisement for the PlayStation Now service, where he appeared alongside a cast of characters from various video games.[Non-game 6]
Bugs[]
- Fallout 3
Liberty Prime often gets stuck. Although the most common places for this glitch is on the left side of the highway when heading to retake the purifier at the Jefferson Memorial, and on the first large bridge the Lone Wanderer crosses. [verified]
- If all else fails, you may be able to fix this by selecting Liberty Prime in the console and typing "moveto player."
- If you kill Vargas at any point in the game before starting Take it Back!, Liberty Prime will stay immobile, preventing the player from continuing the questline. [verified]
- The only way to fix this issue is using the console command: player.placeatme 0001d44e 1 to respawn Paladin Vargas and proceed with the quest.
- It is possible to get around this by baiting Liberty Prime into chasing after you by attacking BoS initiates.
- Liberty Prime may launch into the air and remain there. The best way to solve this is to wait (real-time). If this fails, the player may need to reload the previous autosave. [verified]
- If the Lone Wanderer manages to get far enough ahead of Prime when it is attacking Enclave forces, it is possible for the player character to be killed by its attacks. [verified]
- If the Lone Wanderer manages to get too far ahead of Liberty Prime before it disables the first "force field," Liberty Prime may stop walking across the first bridge after shutting down the first "force field." [verified]
- Fallout 4
Liberty Prime often stops right before the body of water on the way to the Institute.[verified]
Gallery[]
- Fallout 3
- Fallout 4
- Fallout Wasteland Warfare
- Fallout 76
Liberty Prime power armor skin in the Atomic Shop
Patriot Liberty Prime power armor skin in the Atomic Shop
- Magic: The Gathering
.png "Fallout Magic Liberty Prime, Recharged (Extended Art).png (283 KB)")
References[]
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Non-game
- ↑ Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition p.81: "Liberty Prime is a formidable but currently offline combat robot that is being tinkered with in the laboratory. Its original intent was to liberate Anchorage, Alaska, from the Red Chinese back in 2072. A mixture of patriotic propaganda messages and incredible firepower ensured victory! But can the robot be fixed in time to help the Brotherhood?"
(Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition Wasteland Census) - ↑ The Art of Fallout 3 p. 45: "And Liberty Prime. Who doesn't like a friendly giant robot? We definitely had a bit of Iron Giant in mind when we pictured this guy, but Adam came up with an original, perfectly proportioned, towering robot that captured Liberty's Captain America personality."
- ↑ Emil Pagliarulo, "Fallout 3 Afterthoughts" on 1UP.com: "Honestly, he wasn't named after Optimus Prime, as most people suspect. At least, not intentionally -- but the subconscious is powerful thing, and I pull a lot of stuff from there unintentionally."
- ↑ Emil Pagliarulo, "Fallout 3 Afterthoughts" on 1up.com: "Liberty Prime is kind of an interesting case. We knew we wanted to have this big, pre-war, anticommunist robot. In the original plan, he was going to be massive, and the player was going to ride in his head, anime style. And, well, yeah -- that never happened!"
- ↑ Fallout 3 on jeansimonet.net
- ↑ PlayStation Now advertisement
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