The Superhuman Gambit

 is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also an Xbox 360/PC achievement and PlayStation 3 Trophy.

Objectives and Walkthrough
The town of Canterbury Commons has become the battleground of a supervillan named the AntAgonizer and the superhero, called the Mechanist. Its inhabitants are not very happy about it and want you to help them get rid of them.

Upon arriving in Canterbury Commons, the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist will be engaged in a brawl. Once the dust clears, Uncle Roe will speak to you, asking you to handle the ordeal. With a speech check, you can double the pay, from 200 to 400 caps. After you have accepted the quest, speak to Derek Pacion. He gives you the best info on where to find them. The AntAgonizer lives in a cave north of town and the Mechanist lives south of town in an old robot factory. (Both locations will be marked on your map.) With the Child at Heart perk, you can ask Derek for their weaknesses. The Mechanist doesn't harm the innocent, and other than the royal guard, the AntAgonizer's ants are weak.

AntAgonizer's Lair
If you decide to take out the AntAgonizer, you head to the AntAgonizer's Lair north of town. Inside, keep an eye out for frag mines. (The path to the right immediately upon entering the cave leads to random equipment that is guarded by a combat shotgun trap.) Down the stairs and to the right is an empty room. A button on the wall lowers a staircase to a cave. Continue through the cave, killing a few ants and you'll soon reach her lair. A flamer is excllent for genocide in the tunnels, and even at level 18 the tunnels are far easier to access than the mechanist's forge (with sentries, gutsies and turrets).

Alternatively, you can sneak in the back entrance, a pipe to the west of the entrance at the top of the same mountain of rocks that the main entrance is on (requires a lockpick skill of 50.) This route bypasses all of the ants in the tunnels. It is also possible to use this entrance if you pickpocketed the AntAgonizer's key during the brawl when first entering town.

Once in her lair, there are no ants to fight, just the AntAgonizer. There are several ways to interact with her at this point:


 * If you have already received the Mechanist's armor and are wearing it, after a brief introduction she will attack the player, believing you to be the Mechanist.


 * If you have the Mechanist's armor, but are not wearing it, you have the option of giving it to her. You will be awarded with the Ant's Sting, a knife that poisons an enemy for an additional 4 damage per second for 10 seconds, and negative karma (as she remains a delusional "supervillain").


 * By firing on her, or speaking with her and being aggressive, you can engage her in battle. Killing the AntAgonizer will not affect your karma.


 * Speaking with her, you can choose to help her destroy the Mechanist. The Mechanist will barge into her lair and you'll have to fight him.


 * With a high enough Speech skill, coupled with her real name given to you by Joe Porter, you have the option to convince her see the error of her ways. This is an extremely difficult speech check and may require several reloads to avoid a fight. If you succeed, she will give up her career as a supervillian, hand you her costume, and leave quietly. Be sure to keep the costume if you plan to also convince the Mechanist to end his "career": he will want to destroy it.


 * With the Lady Killer perk you can gain the 'speech' outcome listed above regardless of how low your speech skill is.


 * If you have been to Hubris Comics and read the note to the editor about AntAgonizer's canceled Grognak the Barbarian comic, you can use this to point out that she can still be redeemed. Doing so will yield good karma. This bypasses the gender-specific perk and means you don't need to make the very tough speech check. You will also receive her armor.

Mechanist's Forge
The Mechanist's Forge is located just south of town on higher ground, inside the Robot Repair Center.

To reach his hideout without having to fight through his robotic security, you can lockpick the elevator near the entrance with a skill of 75 or above, bypassing the heavily guarded stairs. Otherwise, the facility is broken up into four sections: Office (left of Entrance), two Maintenance areas (Sector A and B, which are connected by a control room on the upper level) and the Forge (where the Mechanist is hiding). Sector B is closest to the entrance (metal door past the elevator), and the Forge entrance is on the upper level of Sector A.

The security terminal for Sector B is in the control room on the upper level, which allows you to disable the automatic turrets and security robots. The security terminal for Sector A is located in a small control room near the back of the bay, close to the Forge entrance (upper level). From this terminal, you can disable the automatic turrets in this room, as well as emit an emergency pulse explosion that will destroy any active robots in this sector.

Once you enter the forge, activate the coffee maker to reveal the Mechanist's lair. You then need to activate one of the little gears to the right of the door. Lying, Congressional Style is sitting on the desk in this room. While you're here, there's a huge amount of scrap metal and energy cells to be found in the facility (including a Nikola Tesla and You book in Sector A). The book is on a desk next to a toolbox on the ground floor next to the conveyor belt. On the desk there are two already dead Protectrons. There is also a larger than average wrench in his room.

The sequence of numerous hidden doors opening to reveal the inner lair is pretty fun (six, including the initial bare wall), a kudos to MST3K.

Once in the Mechanist's lair you have several options that echo the interactions with the AntAgonizer:


 * If you are wearing the AntAgonizer's armor, he will believe you to be her and attack you.


 * If you are not wearing the AntAgonizer's armor, but have it in your possession, you may give the armor to the Mechanist. The Mechanist will give you Protectron's Gaze, a laser pistol that fires bursts of laser fire like a shotgun, and you'll recieve negative karma (as he remains a delusional "superhero").


 * Attacking the Mechanist or using threatening speech, will of course result in the Mechanist turning hostile and fighting you. Killing the Mechanist does not result in negative karma.


 * If you choose to help him defeat the AntAgonist, she will appear in his room and you will have to fight her.


 * Convincing the Mechanist to end his superhero career and leave the town alone will grant you his suit and positive karma. The Black Widow or the Child at Heart perks give a dialogue option to tell him he is scaring the whole town. With that, he will give you his suit and leave.

Completion
Once you defeat either superhero, return to Uncle Roe to receive 200 caps. [400 if you got successful speech]. If you speak with Uncle Roe after dealing with just one of them, the other will disappear. If Uncle Roe has been killed somehow, talking to Derek Pacion will allow you to claim your reward.

Should you succeed in talking both of them into ending their "careers" (or just leaving Canterbury Commons) you will receive 200 more caps; 400 even if you didn't succeed in the speech attempt when given the quest, or 600 if you did.

Alternatively, you may kill one or both immediately upon entering town (they're invincible for a short time while talking, but can be harmed soon after). Doing this grants you whatever that one had on him/her, as well as 400 caps from Uncle Roe (without ever needing a Speech check). (Alternatively, you can sneak up to both of them, and reverse pickpocket mines or grenades. Regardless of how far along they are in the scene, they appear to be vulnerable to this 'attack')

It is also possible to successfully talk to both parties by talking them out of their ways of fighting and collecting both sets of armor off each one of them, however, you will not be rewarded with any weapons nor can you find these weapons in their lairs.

Receiving Both Reward Items
It is possible to complete this quest in a way that you'll receive both unique weapons: the Ant's Sting, and the Protectron's Gaze. After accepting the quest from Uncle Roe, proceed into the AntAgonizer's Lair. Save your game before approaching her. If you initiate dialogue with her, you'll be forced to resolve the quest now (which you don't want to do yet). If you're careful, you can get barely into range to steal from her without triggering dialogue. Plant some armor and a helmet on her (good condition Raider equipment will do). Now leave her lair, and re-enter it. She should have taken off her costume, which you can now steal. Steal it.

(*Note that the AntAgonizer and/or Mechanist may or may NOT actually remove their respective costume! It is advised that the player save before re-entering the AntAgonizer and Mechanist's "lairs" due to this. If you enter and the character has not removed their costume, reload and try again. You may also leave and re-enter VS saving and reloading, however, this may take a while or may not happen at all... PLUS if you are using stealth boys, this method may require the use of more than one unit. Regardless, I have had both methods work for me.)

Leave the AntAgonist's Lair again and head over to the Mechanist's Hideout, and gain entry to his room. The best way to do this will be to proceed straight inside and lockpick the elevator (requires 75 lockpick skill). This will give you the version of his room with the long hallway, so you'll have more time for thieving. Approach the Mechanist and he will initate dialogue. Give him the AntAgonizer's costume, and he'll reward you with the Protectron's Gaze as if you'd killed her. He'll thank you kindly and take off down the hall, but don't let him go quite yet. Go into sneak mode and steal from him, planting yet another set of armor/helmet (again, Raider equipment will do) on him. When he passes through the elevator door, follow him through, and you'll find that he has taken off his costume. Steal it. While you're at it, take the AntAgonizer's costume back, too! Might as well grab all the unique items possible.


 * It is possible to pickpocket The Mechanist without initiating dialog, despite him "homing in" on you. Lockpicking in the back door, he will home in only when you cross the threshold of the door to his room. Sneak over the threshold, but back away right before he can get in range to speak. If you did this correctly he will stop, facing backwards, closer to the door - you should be able to "reach across" the threshold of the door to pickpocket him. Key point: as soon as you cross the threshold of the door, he will speak with you, so lure him closer to the door then run away, and then come back.

Now quickly head back to the AntAgonizer's Lair and give her the Mechanists' costume. She'll thank you kindly and reward you with the Ant's Sting as if you'd killed the Mechanist. Might as well go ahead and steal the Mechanist's Costume back from her while you're here.

You can't return to Uncle Roe yet for your reward because neither the AntAgonizer nor the Mechanist are actually dead. To resolve the quest, follow the AntAgonizer as she leaves her lair. She'll walk outside, and head over toward the Mechanist's place. Meanwhile the Mechanist will already be en route to the AntAgonizer's Lair. They'll meet halfway, and fight to the death. Talk to whoever survives to get thanked for the third time, and head over to Uncle Roe to formally complete the quest. This should net you a complete set of AntAgonist armor, a complete set of Mechanist armor, the Protectron, the Ant's Sting, and the caps reward from Uncle Roe.


 * If you don't mind killing both the Mechanist and the AntAgonizer, you can first reverse pickpocket the AntAgonizer, get her costume, go to the Mechanist, get the Protectron's Gaze and then kill him, getting both costumes, and then going back to the AntAgonizer, get the Ant's Sting, and kill her for the costume she took. You get the AntAgonizer's costume, the Mechanist's costume, Protectron's Gaze, and the Ant's Sting, as well as (of course) the caps from Uncle Roe, including the bonus for killing both of them.

Receiving Two Sets of Both Costumes
Using a variant of the above, it is possible to gain two sets of each costume and good karma. Proceed with pickpocketing both as normal - not initiating dialog with either. (Use the threshold trick with The Mechanist.) Then proceed to speak with each, using the speech option to have them "give up their ways". They will turn over their costumes - resulting in two sets (one stolen, one "generated" via quest trigger). You can now equip a follower to reenact the adventures of The Mechanist and Mechano-Lad, or The AntAgonist and her Royal Guard. Note, should you use this method to receive 2 sets of a costume, you won't be able to receive the weapon they would have gave you if you gave them the corresponding costume as well.

Another way of receiving two sets of costumes is a bit more trickier and dosen't involve stealing and the mesmetron. If you are playing a female and have Black Widow perk you should go to The Mechanist and speak with him about joining. After that, an extra line will appear thanks to Black Widow perk that will convince The Mechanist that all his actions are dangerous to the city. He will realize his mistake and will give his costume away. Now all that remains is to learn more about AntAgonizer. First, you must speak with Derek about the superheros. He will explain that Joe Porter knows something more. Asking Joe about AntAgonizer will reveal some sad information about the identity of AntAgonizer. All that's left to do now is go to her lair and try to convince her that humanity isn't all that evil (with Speech check). If you pass the check, she will realize that she is human too, and will give up the costume. Go back and report job done. Probably the same effect can be done with Lady Killer perk when playing male.

Tips

 * There is an extremely quick way to complete this quest. Just plant a live mine or frag grenade on the Mechanist and the AntAgonizer during their initial confrontation. You have to be very quick, however, as that when one dies the other runs off almost immediately. Uncle Roe will marvel at how you just "walked into town" and took care of them after all of the trouble they had caused, and will give you 400 caps for your trouble. You can still loot the bodies, but you won't receive either of their special weapons.


 * Using the Mesmetron, it is possible to frenzy one or both of the "characters" during their initial confrontation. After they have been frenzied, all units in the area will attack them (even their own "servants"). Interestingly, if they are frenzied the characters become killable (even though you are not supposed able to kill them during their conversation). This is any easy way to kill both characters, and receive the FULL award, meaning that if one of them dies you will receive 400 caps and if both die you will receive 600.


 * There is a Stealth Boy on a shelf in the installation area of AntAgonizer's Lair. It can be used to sneak past Sector B of the Mechanist's Lair. This makes it possible for a low level to reach the Mechanist without any investment in lockpicking.


 * If you're Evil, you can kill both the Mechanist, AntAgonizer and everyone in Canterbury Commons except Derek. He will let you complete the quest and earn 600 caps.


 * If you get the encryption key out of the Easy safe near the terminal on the upper level of Sector A (southwest corner), you can cause a pulse wave explosion in Sector A that will damage robots or cripple their combat inhibitors, causing them to attack each other, thus making your job much easier. However, unless you have high enough Sneak, you have to run a gauntlet of turret fire to get up to this control room. If you went directly through the Mechanist's elevator, though, this "back door" approach is cake. The pulse wave can completely take out the two turrets and the Sentry Bot in Sector A, but it appears the player is denied XP by using this method.


 * Alternatively, if you can handle an Average lock, open the door in the northwest office area. Immediately go left (down the ramp), then right, through the small doorway, and hack the Easy terminal. Turn off the Sector A defenses and fight the lone Sentry Bot opponent. Now go up the stairs to the control room between Sectors A and B, and hack the Easy terminal there to friendly ALL defenses in Sector B, including the wandering robots. You will take a few turret hits initially, but otherwise the entire Robot Repair Center amounts to fighting just one Sentry Bot, with this approach.

Bugs

 * If you have gained the Mechanist's suit and wear it in the AntAgonizers lair AFTER convincing her to give up and gaining her suit, she will STILL attack you thinking you are the Mechanist and claim to be the Ant Queen (without her outfit), even though that part of the quest has been completed and she has supposedly given up her ways.


 * There have been reports that if you do not stay to watch the event between the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist and then immediately speak to Uncle Roe, that all three characters disappear. If this occurs, the quest can not be finished. (Confirmed on 360; approach and speak to Roe immediately after the fight, assuming he doesn't reach you first, to avoid this)


 * Sometimes when following the AntAgonizer after she leaves her lair, she may just wander off west and loop round south towards the capital.


 * In the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, the AntAgonizer's health will not change despite being hit numerous times. This occurs even in her lair. Only known fix is to continue hitting until she randomly dies.


 * If you enter Canterbury Commons and kill either the AntAgonizer or the Mechanist immediately, Uncle Roe will thank you and give you 400 caps but you will not get the achievement on the Xbox 360 version. An easy way around this is to go into Uncle Roe's House before they are finished fighting receive the quest then go back outside and kill one or both of them.


 * When first meeting the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist, if standing near the AntAgonizer, graphics seem to stretch back and forth. This may be due to a overload or just a bug never fixed.


 * If you were to get a one-hit kill on either the AntAgonizer or The Mechanist while they're babbling at the beginning of the quest, the ants and the robots will act very odd, often wandering around Canterbury Commons, getting stuck. They more-often-than-not won't all follow their respective leaders back to their respective lairs.


 * It is possible to get the AntAgonizer to give you two sets of AntAgonizer's Costume if you have the Lady Killer perk. Do this by first making her realize the error of her ways with the Lady Killer speech option. When she thanks you, tell her she won't make it without her costume. She will say, "Oh! no," and end the conversation. You can now talk to her again (unlike if you choose the "you will be fine in your new life" option). Make her realize the error of her ways a second time, this time using a normal speech check (the Lady Killer speech option is gone). It is possible this only works after you have helped her defeat the Mechanist in her lair.


 * On the Xbox 360 version after you convince the AntAgonizer to leave, she will travel to Megaton. If you have blown up Megaton before this quest, she will enter through a door inaccessible to those not able to enter the door underground (all aside from PC users). This will make the optional objective not completable (Kill the AntAgonizer).


 * On the Xbox 360 version, as far as I know, after killing the AntAgonizer without talking to her, if you leave via the ladder in the back the game will freeze. This cannot be fixed; it can only be bypassed by going out the front entrance.


 * When you first come to Canterbury Commons and you see the Mechanist and the AntAngonizer fighting, when you target the ants, they will have no name and be blank.


 * If you start out in Canterbury Commons with the two fighting and Uncle Roe is out, you can still talk to Roe and have him talk as if everybody had just left. Even after the conversation, they still duke it out until they need to stop.


 * There have been some reports on the Xbox 360 version that when you team up with the Mechanist and you have to defend the Forge, he will wander off and disappear. When you talk to Uncle Roe after killing the AntAgonizer, it shows you that the Mechanist has died; therefore you are unable to receive the Protectron's Gaze.