RobCo Facility

The RobCo Facility, owned by RobCo Industries, is located slightly northeast of Tenpenny Tower. The many Protectrons scattered across the D.C. area were once manufactured here.

Tinker Joe can be found in the parking lot outside the facility along with his robots, including potential NPC companion Sergeant RL-3. The parking lot is also a Random encounter location.

Inhabitants include many Mole Rats and Radroaches that offer good experience for new players. There are a number of unused Protectrons which remain in their charging stations and several Nuka-Cola machines on the various levels.

The Protectrons may be looted once while inactive. They will then respawn Energy Cells and possibly Microfusion Cells and Scrap Metal later (as part of The Wasteland Survival Guide quest) when the mainframe processor is installed, allowing them to be looted again after being killed. Note that grabbing any inactive Protectron to move it will cause that robot to not become active later, so to maximize loot do not grab any robots before installing the mainframe processor.

After you install the Mainframe Processor, you have the option to reconfigure the Mainframe to stop all the Protectrons in the facility from attacking you, as long as you have at least 50 Science Skill. To do this, hack the mainframe and select "Cease Total Liquidation". Also, you can activate "Pest Eradication", which will make all Protectrons start killing the radroaches and mole rats. If you do not have a high enough Science Skill to hack the computer, another way of avoiding confrontation is to equip a Stealth Boy before inserting the processor.

When you hack the mainframe, you will have a few options:
 * Basic Operation: The robots will just walk around normally
 * Pest Extermination: Kill radroachs and mole rats
 * Total Liquidation: on/off attack humans
 * Stress Testing: Causes robots and turrets to attack each other. This is applied to on top of any other command (ie if you did not turn off liquidation, robots will still attack you) However, turrets will be hostile regardless of other settings. (Turrets remain non-hostile as long as the "Total Liquidation" function has been ceased-XBOX360)

Notable Loot

 * Lying, Congressional Style - Factory floor, on reception desk at the back of the foyer where you enter.
 * Big Book of Science - Factory floor, by the Protectron Pod area to NE, on console. There is a Pre-War Book nearby
 * Nikola Tesla and You - After entering Offices and Cafeteria from the RobCo Factory Floor, go right, head straight (past the washrooms) and look on the desk in the second cubicle on the right.
 * D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine - Offices and Cafeteria first floor, southernmost room, left before the stairs going up. On a desk next to the Protectron Pod, against the wall of the room's door.
 * 3 Pre-War Books - One in the shelves behind reception desk, one around the computers in the control room (near the Big Book of Science), and one in the mainframe room.
 * Stealth Boy - In the mainframe room.

Related quests

 * The Wasteland Survival Guide

Bugs

 * All Protectrons destroyed inside the area with the mainframe can be looted twice, once the first time you enter the area, and when you have attached the device to the mainframe all protectrons can be looted again. (this does not count for the protectrons on the factory floor)


 * There are numerous "Garage Doors" you can open (look like Food Dispensers, but bigger), but nothing actually happens. They register as open and closed, and can be activated to toggle between the two - but there is no accompanying animation, sound, or passage to go through. With some tricky jumping, the ones on the walls can do the same.


 * The mainframe processor can be activated and hacked from behind. This will keep you hidden from the robot that activates in the mainframe room.


 * If, for some reason you decided to hit some of the deactivated protectrons while you were looting them, causing their corpse to gib, when you reactivate them their parts will try to ineffectively join back to them resulting in strange one legged or headless protectrons roaming the halls. This has no effect on game play and the bulk of the protectrons move normally despite the lack of a walk animation. This also has the problem of their arms being stuck in the roof so they are unable to shoot their target.
 * While coming down the metal stairs from the upper levels, like the cafeteria, I ran off the staircase becoming lodged between the wall and the handrail (Xbox360).
 * In one of the rooms there are two bookshelves that have ammunition boxes on them. On the bottom of one is a typewriter that, from just the right angle, registers as a Mark 1 Turret
 * Immediately after entering the door to the cafeteria area from the Factory floor, you'll notice, in the pod to the left, that the protectron's arms slowly move down to its sides, even though it's supposed to be deactivated. (Xbox 360)
 * Many of the Radroaches tend to get stuck in the walls and the piles of waste on the ground.
 * Just outside the facility I was attacked by a 3:4 scale Protectron.