Nuka-Cola Quantum (Fallout 3)

 is a reformulated Nuka-Cola to which radioactive isotopes have been added. It has the ability to raise your action points.

Background
Nuka-Cola Quantum was a marketing pitch and tryout by the Nuka-Cola company before the War. Quantum is supposed to contain "twice the calories, twice the carbohydrates, twice the caffeine and twice the taste" of a regular Nuka-Cola. Reports that can be obtained in the Nuka-Cola Factory show that product development had not been without failures and casualties. Ultimately, according to Milo the Shipping Foreman, the company found a suitable isotope in strontium. The product was made in small experimental groups, which were then sent out around Washington D.C for feedback. Unfortunately, while the product was being sent out for response, some of the packages were caught out in the Great War.

Bottle locations
There are a total of approximately 97 bottles located in preset locations in the game. See the table below for a full list of locations. Bottles found in vending machines are random and are not included in this list.

In addition, there is a random encounter on the map in which a traveling salesman will offer to sell a Quantum for 100 Caps (or 50 if a speech check or barter check is passed). This can happen a theoretically unlimited number of times, but he will only sell one Quantum per encounter.

Chance of Nuka-Cola Quantums present in Vending Machines
When accessing one of the 178 Nuka-Cola vending machines scattered indoors and outdoors throughout the Wasteland there is approximately a 10% random chance of finding a Nuka-Cola Quantum. The contents of a Nuka-Cola vending machine load the first time you enter a cell and never reset. Therefore, to maximize this chance you should save before entering a new cell and travel to the vending machine. If it doesn't contain a quantum, load and try again. Remember, outdoor cells frequently encompass several map markers.

With this in mind, it should be possible to get approximately 120 extra Nuka-Cola Quantum bottles with extreme dedication. The reason extreme dedication is a prerequisite is that some locations have two vending machines, meaning a 1 percent chance of getting 2 Nuka-Cola Quantums (and a 18 percent chance of getting one). Furthermore, some vending machines are hard to find or are located deep inside an environment, so getting to them to determine the contents takes a lot of time. And to top it off, some locations like the Chryslus Building have 3 or more vending machines in certain cells. You're welcome to try to get 3 or more Quantums, but given the incredibly low probability (0.1 percent for 3 machines, 0.01 for 4 machines), this seems an exercise in futility. Ultimately, ~120 bottles (from vending machines) is a fair estimate of your net haul if you get approximately two bottles at every location with 2 or more Nuka-Cola vending machines, and 1 bottle at locations with only 1 Nuka-Cola vending machine. This number should be obtainable even if you make a few careless mistakes (such as blundering into an outdoor cell early in your playthrough and then later realize it contained a Nuka-Cola vending machine).

With the Quantum Chemist perk added by the Broken Steel add-on, every 10 normal (not ice cold) Nuka-Colas that you have in your inventory automatically become one bottle of Quantum. Since Nuka-Cola respawns in several shops with this perk the Quantum count is raised from approximately 211 to an infinite amount. This perk is extremely useful if you have already used too many Nuka-Cola Quantums to complete "The Nuka-Cola Challenge" quest.

My Bottles Don't Glow!
Unfortunately for the owners of the PC version running either on lower-end computers, or users who have turned down effects due to FO3 crashing, the endearing blue glow of Nuka-Cola Quantum is not clear unless HDR is on. One way to tell if the Nuka-Cola is a Quantum when HDR is off is by looking at the label on the bottle; the regular Nuka-Cola bottle's label is red, and its emblem is styled to look like that of a Coca-Cola bottle. The Quantum's label, on the other hand, is brown, although it takes close observation to tell the difference (see the comparison picture in the infobox). The alternative method is to simply move the crosshairs over the bottle and see if the "Take" option reads "Take Nuka-Cola Quantum". Also the Nuka-Cola Quantum's bottle cap is red while regular Nuka-Cola's bottle cap is rusty.

Appearances

 * Nuka-Cola Quantum appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * The concept of adding radioactive materials to a soft drink actually happened in the real world.
 * Nuka-Cola Quantum's proposed slogan "Take the leap... enjoy a Quantum!" is a pun dealing with the scientific term "quantum leap", which refers to the phenomenon where an electron near-instantaneously jumps between two different energy levels.
 * Nuka-Cola Quantum may be a reference to the short lived Coca-Cola C2 which was advertised as having "half the carbohydrates, sugars and calories" of regular Coca-Cola, an almost opposite of Quantum's advertisement of "twice the calories, twice the carbohydrates, twice the caffeine and twice the taste" of regular Nuka-Cola.
 * The isotope found by the Nuka-Cola Company to be stable enough was most likely Strontium-90, as it is the most common isotope of strontium that gives off radiation. However, the radioactive fallout of Strontium-90 has a half-life of only 28.9 years, so the fallout would have dissipated in about 60 years, yet 200 years later, it is still radioactive to drink.