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The Frightened Engineer
The Outer Worlds

The Frightened Engineer

Need help with The Frightened Engineer side quest in The Outer Worlds? Follow our guide to find all three volumes of 'The Young Spacer's Guide to Mechanical Engineering' and complete the quest.

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Need help with The Frightened Engineer side quest in The Outer Worlds? Follow our guide to find all three volumes of 'The Young Spacer's Guide to Mechanical Engineering' and complete the quest.

Alright, let's get this side quest sorted! The Frightened Engineer is pretty straightforward, but it involves a bit of searching. You'll be helping out a guy named Thomas Kemp, who's trying to brush up on his engineering skills.

Walkthrough
  1. 1
    Where to Start: Head to the Botanical Lab on Terra 2 in the Emerald Vale region. Look for an NPC named Thomas Kemp.
  2. 2
    The Request: Talk to Thomas. He's a bit of an engineer wannabe and wants to find three specific datapads: "The Young Spacer's Guide to Mechanical Engineering" volumes 1, 2, and 3. He'll give you the quest to find them. You can try to pass an Engineering check here for some extra XP, but it doesn't change the quest outcome.
  3. 3
    Finding Volume 1: This one is located in the Emerald Vale Community Center. Head inside and go upstairs. Search the desks in the central room, and you should find the datapad.
  4. 4
    Finding Volume 2: You'll need to go to Edgewater and find the Saltuna Cannery. Once you're on the factory floor, look for an elevated walkway. Climb up there and enter the eastern room. The datapad will be on some filing cabinets.
  5. 5
    Finding Volume 3: This is the trickiest one. You'll need to start the main quest "Comes Now the Power" to get access to the Geothermal Power Plant. Once you have Reed Tobson's passcode and are inside, make your way to an area called "the pit." Descend to the very bottom. You'll find a survivor named Higgins down there. Search the northwestern corner of the pit, near a bedroll, to find the datapad.
  6. 6
    Turning Them In: You can turn in the datapads to Thomas as you find them. Each one you hand over will give you escalating rewards, so don't wait until you have all three if you find them one by one!
Tips
  • Keep an eye on your inventory for the datapads as you explore.
  • The third volume requires you to progress a bit in the main story, so don't worry if you can't get it right away.
  • You can complete this quest even if you miss one of the volumes, but you'll get better rewards for finding all three.

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