Welcome to the Big Empty is the first main quest in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Main Quest: Welcome to the Big Empty | |||||
| Arrive at The Sink balcony. | |||||
| Take the elevator to The Think Tank. | |||||
| Agree to help the doctors. | |||||
| Reward: Variable XP If skill checks are passed: Various ammunition, a sonic emitter, a K9000 cyberdog gun, and caps | |||||
| Leads to: All My Friends Have Off Switches, X-2: Strange Transmissions!, X-8: High School Horror!, X-13: Attack of the Infiltrator!, Sonic Emitter Upgrade | |||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
Upon being teleported to Big MT, the Courier awakens on the balcony of the Sink, facing outwards towards the expanse of the massive crater beyond a protective forcefield. A message appears indicating they feel strangely heavier. The way to answers lies through the door behind into the Sink. The inside of the Sink is homey, but most of the appliances in there won't work, instead reporting that they lack the required personality modules. In the master bedroom, on a shelf to the right of the bed is a pair of mad scientist scrubs. The way forward is through the only unlocked door leading into the Think Tank.
Get ready to talk. A lot! Before entering the Think Tank you might want to prep for the initial conversation and follow-up chats with each doctor. Additional XP and loot options unlock at these thresholds (see below for more details on each):
- Perception: 7, 8
- Intelligence: 7, 9
- Barter: 25, 50, 75, 90
- Energy Weapons: 50
- Guns: 50
- Speech: 50, 55, 65
- Science: 25, 35, 70, 75
- Medicine: 50, 75
After entering, the player character gets a message saying a strange feeling of pacifism affects them, preventing them from drawing a weapon (Unarmed fists included) in the Think Tank. Proceed forward into the larger dome and approach the five multi-colored robots, with the one in front, Dr. Klein, speaking for the group, also called the Think Tank. Through conversation, the player character learns that the earlier heavy feeling is because the Think Tank performed surgery on them and removed their brain, their heart, and their spine, replacing them with advanced technology in the process. The brain in particular was lost by them and presumed stolen by their nemesis, Dr. Mobius who then broadcasts a threatening message to the Think Tank. Klein charges the player character with gathering three technologies to help defeat Mobius in his Forbidden Zone: the sonic emitter, the stealth suit Mk II, and the X-2 antenna; the former is already in the Think Tank's possession and soon after given to the Courier, but it still requires an upgrade that can penetrate Big MT forcefields to complete the puzzle.
After agreeing to stop Mobius, the Think Tank gifts the player character with access to The Sink as their personal quarters while in Big MT along with use of the Sink Central Intelligence Unit as a vendor to trade for needed supplies.
Through various conversation options, the Courier will be able to talk the doctors into giving various items for use in their quest. The "Revelation" audio file is automatically loaded in the sonic emitter upon receiving it and with 50 Energy Weapons, extra SECs for it will be given. With 50 Guns, the scientists offer up a K9000 cyberdog gun and with a further check of 75, extra .357 Magnum rounds for it will be given. Other potential gifts include supplies of doctor's bags, stimpaks, caps, and various skill magazines through Barter checks of 25, 50, 75, and 90 respectively.
Immediately after the main conversation, you can quickly talk to each doctor to take advantage of any temporary boosters still active:
- Dr Dala:
- Perception: 8
- Dr O:
- Do you have another name? (non-repeatable)
- Speech: 65, then Intelligence: 7, then Intelligence: 9
- Speech: 50
- Do you have another name? (non-repeatable)
- Dr 8:
- First approach:
- Science: 75 or Perception: 7, then Science: 75
- Second approach:
- Speech: 50
- First approach:
- Dr Klein:
- Did you retrieve the tech?
- Science: 70 or Speech: 55
- Who is Dr Mobius? (ask twice)
- Science: 25
- Medicine: 50
- You Said Dr Mobius might have my brain?
- Science: 35 or Medicine: 75
- Did you retrieve the tech?
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- The Think Tank area cannot be exited until the quest is finished.
- If no dialogue is skipped, this sequence can take up to 30 minutes, depending on what the player says.
- There is a dialogue option to skip past the first part of the sequence, learning about the surgery and questions from the doctors by pointing out that the large screen behind them has a message, proceeding straight to Mobius' threat and the technology quests triggering.
- The Brainless, Heartless and Spineless perks are added the moment one appears on the Sink balcony. The pop-ups telling the player that the perks were added will not appear until the dialogue with the doctors, but the perks can be viewed in the Pip-Boy menu and will be fully functional.
Bugs[]
Upon spawning on The Sink balcony at the beginning of the quest, the game may freeze. Restarting the system, and reloading the autosave will take the player right back to The Sink balcony. There is very strong, almost stand-still lag. Resetting the PS3 will usually fix this problem. [verified]
- One way to avoid this is to quickly turn to face south while the screen is still black and try to activate the door into the Sink before the player character's vision returns, bypassing the bug and allowing one to then walk back out onto the balcony without further issue.
- The lag does persist, but only if the player returns to or remains at the balcony. Reloading the save and/or restarting PS3 does not seem to help. There is always stand-still lag, even when trying to look around. Entering The Sink will usually fix this issue. [verified]
- Avoiding the lag issues mentioned above all-together can be achieved by saving and reloading the game immediately prior to teleporting via the downed satellite.[verified]
Gallery[]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
