The Outer Worlds is full of side quests and companion quests for you to do. Check out this The Outer Worlds side quest guide to find and complete them all. You wouldn’t want to botch them and miss out on some good gear.
The majority of side quests in The Outer Worlds are simple. Speak with an NPC, follow the objectives, done. Make sure when you are attempting a specific quest, that it is selected in your journal. You can only track one quest at a time, so you want to ensure you’re chasing the correct markers.
This guide focuses entirely on side quests. If you need help with other quests, check out our Task guide and Companion side quest guide.
A lot of side quests have important choices to make. We don’t go into great detail on those points here. If you want more information, check out our choices and consequences guide.
Emerald Vale Side Quest Guide
This quest is found in Edgewater from the Constable Reyes. You will have to kill three lead marauders and collect their fingers. Each one of them is at a camp with other marauders so be ready for a fight. After you collect all three fingers, return to Reyes and get your reward.
You get this quest from Martin Abernathy in Edgewater. He will ask you to collect some medicine from him at the old community center. When you leave another person will ask you to sell the medicine to them instead. Follow the way marker to find the medicine at the community center. From there you need to choose who gets the medicine. Both of them give you bits but Esther gives you more. You can intimidate or charm her for a bonus as well. Oh and you get rep with The Board for choosing her.
You also get reputation with Spacers Choice for giving the medication to Martin. You can further persuade or intimidate for additional rewards, 300 Bits.
You can find this quest right outside of Edgewater on the landing pad. Speak with Ludwig there and ask him what he is talking about. He wants you to kill a robot that is outside of Edgewater. The robot can be killed or repaired if you bring Parvati or have 65 engineering. Either way, deal with the robot and return to Ludwig to get the location to his secret stash. Return to Ludwig and he will say the next part requires a password from Mr Reed. This is story related so progress to that point if you haven’t already.
The final part of this quest is in the Geothermal Power Plant. Do not go in before you give the message to Adelaide on the main quest or that objective fails. Once inside, you need to travel to the lower levels. There’s a large silo type structure here with a crazy man talking to himself at the bottom. Speak with him about the brain and he will place the objective on your map. Make sure you’re tracking this quest.
You can find this quest here on the map, in the Botanical Lab.
Talk to the cowboy girl at the entrance and ask her if she is having trouble. Head to Zoe’s room to look for clues about Zoe. There are two pieces of paper you need to check. One on a desk near the door, and a second one on a smaller table near the door. Speak with Stefan near her house as well for all the info you can get. From there you will have to clear out the Marauder camp on the map and speak with Zoe. You need 15 persuade to get her to come home.
This quest is at the Botanical Garden next to the vending machine. Speak with Thomas there and he will say he isn’t really an engineer. If you offer to help him he will need three volumes of a book. Go to the way markers on your map and collect them all. Each book is worth 500 credits and all of them will net you a nice exp bonus as well as some Deserter reputation.
The first book is on your map, the second and third may not be, depending on past conversations and events. To locate the second go to Parvati’s house in Edgewater. There’s a terminal upstairs in her dads old room. Access the terminal and read about the engineer manual.
Then head to the Cannery. It’s in one of the offices upstairs. The final one is inside the Geothermal Power Plant. Progress through the area until you run into Higgins, he’s in the silo section, on the lowest level. Near Higgins, it’s resting against a nearby wall.
The Unreliable Side Quest Guide
After you have access to the Captains Quarters on the Unreliable, read all of the messages on the terminal inside. This unlocks this side quest. Go to the Crew Quarters on the Groundbreaker, it’s just past Customs and past Security. Once inside, there is a small vent on the wall. Climb through there to the Repair Hangar. Kill the enemies, loot the keycard and go into the nearby room. You’ll find the weapon in a box on the desk.
Once you’re done with that, speak with Gladys on Groundbreaker and select the Trade option. You need to buy the “Hephaestus Mining Archive” item from here to open a new objective for the quest. Then return to your Captains Quarters on the Unreliable and play the cartridge on the terminal. Head to Scylla and grab the weapon there.
Finally, get the weapon from the lab. At this point, you will need to discover more clues. Proceed through the main story until you reach Fallbrook, it’s on Monarch, via the Stellar Bay area.. You need to speak with Duncan and buy the Damaged UDL Datapad and SubLight Datapad, this reveals your next clues. Both weapons are on the planet, just follow the objectives.
The one in the UDL Lab has a really high hacking requirement. If you don’t have the ability to hack it, you can find the key upstairs, on a desk near a monitor.
After speaking with Gladys on the Groundbreaker, she gives you a Distress call. Return to the ship and speak with ADA to play it. Travel to Terra 2, Roseway. There’s quite a few objectives here but they are all easy enough to follow. There are some optional objectives.
Dealing with the Raptidons. There’s a queen in one of the rooms. You must gather some items from nearby and gas the room for that objective.
When you run into Cassandra, agree to help her. Clear the paths, speak with security etc. Once she is free, you can convince her to give the research or kill her. If you save the queen, take out the mercs, and get the research, you get a lot of XP, Bits and Auntie Cleo rep.
After you play the distress signal received from Gladys, you get this quest. Head to Terra 2, Roseway. This is a very long quest involving multiple objectives, but it’s all simple stuff, following objective markers. When you get to the part where you can get the research from the computer, with 60 hack you can take an additional piece of research and also give to Gladys. Complete the quests on Roseway and the rest is done. If you decide to give all the research back to the individual scientists on the planet, you will have to pay the 10,000 Bits.
Groundbreaker Side Quest Guide
When you speak with Corporal Leonard Wheeler at the Customs Desk, he asks for a favor. Agree to get this side quest. Head to sickbay and speak with Dr. Wanda Dorsett. Follow the objective to Scylla and rescue Captain Irion. Return to get Groundbreaker Reputation, Bits, and XP
You get this side quest by offering to help Junlei Tennyson with the radiator issue aboard the Groundbreaker. Follow the objective to the lower levels. You can kill or bribe the enemies, you do get a flamethrower if you kill them. From there, just follow the objectives. You get Groundbreaker Reputation, Welders Goggles, Bits and XP
Roseway Side Quest Guide
After you speak with Anton, for The Distress Signal quest, he will ask you to find Jameson. Simple quest, follow the objective marker and rescue Jameson.
Speak with Vaughn in town and help with his problem. He’s in the South West building, near two vending machines. Follow the objective markers, it’s not a tough mission to follow. At the end, there are some choices.
If you want to re-calibrate the experiment, you will need 50 Science when you arrive. Otherwise you can purge or complete the experiment. If you purge, you can complete the mission but you fail the research objective.
If you complete the experiment, you don’t fail the research objective and you get experience points with Auntie Cleo.
Speak with Orson Shawo in town. He’s inside a small room near the Cysty Pit and 17th Bar. Follow the objective to the Storage Facility. Once you reach the final objective location, it’s a poster on the wall. You do need level 40 lockpicking to enter the door. There is also a code on the desk in Auntie-Biotics Lab. When you return with the research, you can decide to keep it and pay 100 Bits to get the Ultimatum pistol. 100 DPS, pretty weak. You also lose Auntie Cleo rep.
However, you can give him the schematics, increase your Auntie Cleo Rep and get the gun.
Speak with Edna Ingmire on the Groundbreaker, she’s in the engine room, nearby Junlei Tennyson. Simply fly to the relay station, turn it back on, and return.
Stellar Bay / Wilderness Side Quest Guide
When you arrive in Stellar Bay speak with Grimm, he’s directly in front of the elevator when you arrive. Follow the objective to speak with Velma. You learn someone else has it. You can intimidate her, bribe her or steal it, I chose the bribe option. When you give him the poster you get 19k XP, a Tossball Blocker, and 625 Bits – almost enough to pay for the bribe. And some Monarch Stellar Industries reputation.
After meeting with Nyoka in the Yacht Club, she asks for some caffeine pills. Follow the objective marker to the dispensary. You can use Medical [35] and [Lie 20] for XP but she won’t give you the pills. Head upstairs, break into the room and take the Caffenoid bottle. Return to Nyoka to complete the quest.
Speak with Tucker Needham, she’s near the South East gate of the town, she asks you to find her son. Travel to Amber Heights and speak with her son. There are a couple of methods you can use to get him to return, Persuade [55] encourages him to go back. You can either tell him to show him her skills or teach her the Iconoclasts philosophies. The choice doesn’t seem to have any effect, same outcomes.
Head to the South East side of town, you’ll hear a man screaming about a murder. Head inside and check the apartment on the right, that starts this side quest. Check the document on the table and the bag in the corner of the room for the clues. Follow the objectives until you are tasked with going into the alley, do not go there yet.
Go here on the map. There is a container with a Broken Tossball Stick inside. Pick it up then confront the group at the alley. You need to intimidate them to leave to get the best result. You get Monarch Stellar Industries rep, 600 Bits and some XP.
Speak with Velma in the large Stellar Bay warehouse in the middle of town, inquire about her missing worker. Go to his apartment and speak with the woman to learn of his location. Follow the objectives until you reach the house. Top floor, last room, search the body. You can escape the house without fighting. You get 18k XP, some bits.
Speak with Velma and ask about her foreman. Head to the objective near the bar, it’s a chest on the upper level. Enter the bar and then go up the stairs, exit via the roof and jump over to get the box to find Herricks stash.
Speak with Ash inside the bar at Amber Heights. Head to the outpost, interact with the terminal to get the intel. From there simply follow the objectives to complete the quest. If you give him the Memento you get Iconoclasts reputation.
Speak with Catherine at Fallbrook to get this quest. There is a secret entrance to the facility, in the a waterfall near the objective marker, or you can use the front door. It’s a restricted area, so you need to find appropriate ID if you want to complete the quest in an non violent way. Enter through the secret door near the waterfall and go up the ladder directly in front of you. Then there is another ladder, climb that.
You reach a small room with a door and a patrolling robot. Avoid the robot, wait for it to pass, then sneak in the door.
Follow the stairs down until you reach this area. Take the small gap on the right.
It leads to this locker, the item you need is inside. This lets you stay disguised.
Once disguised, you can use the terminals near all the pigs to increase the vitamin supply to the food by 4000% with [Medical 55]. You get 21k XP, Bits, and a Helm as well as SubLight Salvage and Shipping reputation.
Byzantium Side Quest Guide
There’s a lady arguing at this location, speak with her to get this quest. You need to head to the Maintenance Tunnels, you can fast travel to the Freight Port Landing Pad to get there quickly. It’s a simple quest, it involves fighting a lot of robots, so go in prepared. After you discover the truth about the retirement village, return to Hortense.
When you speak with her, if you tell her the truth, she’s delighted. You get paid. You can lie to her and convince her to check it out for herself, you get paid and get Board Reputation, then she vanishes into her home.
Head to Odeon Pictures and speak with Maverick Johnston. If you want to ace the audition, choose the following dialog options.
[list style='regular']
[list_item]Jokes on you pirate[/list_item]
[list_item]Remain stoically silent[/list_item]
[list_item]Exude wordless fury[/list_item]
[list_item]Say nothing[/list_item]
[list_item]Attack – Rehearsals over[/list_item]
[/list]
That wraps up our The Outer Worlds Side Quest Guide. Any questions, post a comment below.
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