Liberty Prime

Liberty Prime is a unique U.S. Army robot.

Background
Liberty Prime was found and brought to working order by the Brotherhood of Steel. Its total restoration was due to the assistance of Dr. Madison Li, who solved Prime's power issues. After its destruction at the satellite relay station, it remained in disrepair until it was brought to Boston for restoration and activation.

Prime is the result of military contract 38917, for which the United States Army contracted RobCo Industries and General Atomics International to collaborate on an unprecedented joint project. The goal being to create the most powerful combat robot in the history of warfare, to liberate Anchorage, Alaska from Chinese occupation. Development commenced in 2072, and in the words of General Constantine Chase, initiator of the project, Liberty Prime "will be the very embodiment of American military might -- a walking, talking, nuke-tossing hero who will remind the world what it means to be a super power." Confident that the project would soon yield result, General Chase publicly confirmed in June 2072 that the U.S. Army was working with General Atomics and RobCo to create a superweapon meant to establish dominance of the United States on the Alaskan front.

However, while the chassis, voice module, and weapons systems were all completed by the projected date, the developers were unable to develop a power source compact enough to power all of its systems. Stanley Bloomfeld, project lead, was unable to ascertain a solution and Vault-Tec was unable to help, as the only person capable of solving this conundrum - Stanislaus Braun - went into seclusion shortly before the problems manifested. The robot could technically move and navigate terrain, but it would only do so with all weapons systems offline. The delay was unacceptable and the U.S. military was forced to press on without the aid of Liberty Prime. The Alaskan campaign was won, at a heavy cost in men and materiel, while Liberty Prime remained in a bay below the Pentagon, waiting for a solution to its power management problems.

Capital Wasteland
In 2255, Owyn Lyons and his Brotherhood of Steel expedition arrived in Washington and found Liberty Prime beneath the ruins of the Pentagon. This impressive find led them to claim the Pentagon as the D.C. Bunker, their Citadel, and resuming development of the failed pre-War project. However, the same problems would plague the program as before the war. Chief among these was energy consumption. The Brotherhood had no way of powering the behemoth robot, even with Reginald Rothchild heading the project.

For 20 years, the Brotherhood struggled to launch the robot. Every attempt to gain ground was met with minimal progress. As of May 8, 2277, the research team had managed to restore 46% power to internal processors, 45% to weapons, and 37% to power management systems, and attempted to redistribute power to bring the robot online. The attempt proved fruitless, with problems coming from the least expected direction: Liberty Prime himself. Rothchild's team attempted to bypass the aggressive combat subroutines by trying to fool the robot with a neural dampener that power was being redistributed from a source other than its weapons. However, the onboard AI routines detected the attempt and again refused to allow the researchers to draw power away from its weapon systems. The attempt fried some of the robots circuitry and set the project back three months.

Another attempt was made on July 13, 2277. This time, a faulty power capacitor caused a power spike and degraded system performance, dropping internal processor, weapons, and power management power to 12%, 13% and, 1% respectively. Tired of struggling with rerouting power, Rothchild ended power management experiments and resumed work on Accelerated Vector Fusion module to simply meet the power demands. Inspired by the work of Dr. Madison Li in Rivet City, Rothchild hoped for a breakthrough. The attempt caused injury to several individuals. In its first major experiment on August 1, 2277, the AVF device resulted in second degree burns for Scribe Bowditch, while an accidental weapon discharge nearly killed Elder Lyons. These events led to stricter control imposed on the experimentation team.

Despite the accidents, Rothchild's team was able to restore much of the power and improve its distribution bringing power to internal processors to 87% and weapons to 60%, but problems with power management (operating at 3% efficiency) made deployment impossible. Mobility and navigation translation remained at 0%. Only the voice module worked at 100% at all times, mocking the researchers.

When the Enclave attacked the Jefferson Memorial and seized Project Purity, Dr. Madison Li arrived at the Citadel. With her experience in fusion research and applications, Rothchild and his team were able to resolve the power management problems.

Liberty Prime was brought online for the first time and deployed against the Enclave in the battle of Project Purity. Liberty Prime made its way towards the Jefferson Memorial over the Key Bridge. The massive robot acted as a spearhead of the Brotherhoods advance, destroying Vertibirds and entrenched Enclave positions.

Lyons's Pride and the Lone Wanderer followed the robot's path of destruction, engaging any remaining Enclave personnel that survived the initial assault. Liberty Prime continued up to the purifier, destroying photonic resonance barriers set up around the island to deny land access. Upon arrival at the Memorial, Liberty Prime and Lyons Pride set up a security perimeter, while Sarah Lyons and the Lone Wanderer headed inside the facility.

The victory at the purifier set the pattern for attacks using Liberty Prime. For two weeks, the Brotherhood mopped up Enclave forces throughout the Capital Wasteland, until the Battle of Rockland. The attack followed a standard pattern. Liberty Prime was deployed as spearhead, destroying the bulk of the enemy forces and bypassing their fortifications, while ground troops under Tristan's command followed the robot, mopping up any stragglers. The initial attack went well and the combat group penetrated enemy defenses right up into the facility. Liberty Prime proceeded to create an access point into the facility, by punching through the concrete walls.
 * Destruction

However, this was a ruse by the Enclave. Liberty Prime was lured into the cul-de-sac in front of the Rockland facility in order to be destroyed. Just as it opened the facility to the Brotherhood's assault, the Enclave initiated a tactical missile bombardment from the Bradley-Hercules orbital weapons platform, turning the area into a kill zone. Liberty Prime was destroyed, with Tristan's forces just barely able to reach minimum safe distance. The destruction of Liberty Prime put the Brotherhood in a very difficult position, as it removed the only significant military advantage it had over the Enclave. Lyons had little in the way of men and resources at the beginning of the conflict with the Enclave, and after the loss of Prime all of these problems surfaced, exacerbated by the ongoing water delivery program. With the resources pooled into defense against the Enclave, the Brotherhood had to rely on the Lone Wanderer as their trump card. Meanwhile, Rothchild immediately began work on rebuilding Prime, hoping to restore him to working condition. Eventually, the project was shelved due to a lack of success.

The Commonwealth
Proctor Ingram was ordered to resume the attempt to fix Prime in 2287. Despite the terrible state of salvage, she labored for several years to reconstruct the robot. When Elder Arthur Maxson realized that the Institute could be tracked down and confronted in the Commonwealth, Prime's components were loaded onto the Prydwen and brought along for the campaign. A special gantry was constructed in the ruins of the Boston Airport, to assemble the war machine under Proctor Ingram's orders - as long as the Brotherhood would be able to salvage the components that would allow for it to be deployed.

There were several problems that had to be rectified. The fragile CPU blew itself out whenever the scribes tried feeding power to it, due to the complexity of the robot's power system. The missile strike that destroyed Prime also wrecked the power system, necessitating the development of a new system, enlisting the aid of either Doctor Madison Li or Professor Scara. They helped restore the total corruption of the memory core, caused by improper salvaging of Prime and flaws in its original design (lack of inertial dampeners and titanium shock casing to protect it).

The next step in the reconstruction was rebuilding its limbs. Electromagnetic actuators were used for this purpose, constructed on site using high powered magnets. The restored memory core posed a constant problem, as explaining to a combat robot why it can't move was a drain on the scribes' patience. Following the successful assembly of the limbs, the penultimate component of the combat robot was a supply of modified Mark 28 nuclear bombs, necessary if it was ever to operate at more than half capacity. The nukes salvaged from the Commonwealth at Sentinel site Prescott had to be adapted to remain stable in the unconventional launcher.

The final step in bringing Liberty Prime back to life was reactivating its fusion reactor, which lay dormant ever since its destruction. Kept online by power leeched from the Prydwen, Prime's reactor required the experimental Beryllium Agitator to cold start the reactor. The agitator - located at the Mass Fusion Building - would provide the power surge necessary to start the reaction.

Liberty Prime has two primary weapons, including a head-mounted liberty laser and a back-mounted supply of Mark 28 nuclear bombs. Prime was able to destroy fortifications by walking through them.

The robot had drawbacks in function, including lacking a sufficient fusion power source. As the war with China dragged on, the project was eventually put on hold. The self-sustaining fusion reactor remained active, powering the robot, until finally Madison Li resolved the power distribution and management problems, allowing it to be deployed into combat. In addition, the machine's slow speed and large size made it vulnerable to high-yield artillery and orbital missile strikes capable of overwhelming its armor.

Fallout 3

 * Notes
 * Liberty Prime is first seen in the lab beneath the Citadel in its inactive state. The Lone Wanderer can gain information about the robot, as well as hear some of its dialogue by using a nearby computer terminal to initiate a dialogue test.
 * Liberty Prime fires dual, head-mounted energy beams, which are similar to shots fired from a Tesla cannon. The beams can kill multiple Enclave soldiers with a single shot. Its backpack holds a limitless supply of explosives that it throws at enemies. These munitions detonate on contact.
 * Prime is immune to all kinds of conventional attacks and is able to defeat energy barriers simply by walking into them. The robot will sometimes grab them and rip them down. While traversing the wasteland, it repeats anti-communist phrases and declares that "Democracy will never be defeated" and "Communism is a temporary setback on the road to freedom."
 * Due to its size, Liberty Prime primarily follows pre-scripted paths whenever it appears and has little independence outside of them. The walk to the purifier is filled with scripted elements.
 * As it is being lifted out of the Citadel lab, Liberty Prime will hit the wall of the Citadel, dislodging some pieces of the wall.
 * Although it cannot be killed, it is possible to cause it to turn hostile, in which case it will attempt to eliminate the player and their followers.

Fallout 4

 * Notes
 * When Liberty Prime is brought back online at the Boston Airport in 2287 after its destruction in the line of duty, the Brotherhood of Steel has already implemented several upgrades to its systems, including an almost complete redesign of his limbs and arms which has replaced old liquid-feed hydraulic systems with electromagnetic actuators. They have therefore designated him as Mk. II. Other changes include its eye laser which now fires a single massive red beam instead of a salvo of blue beams as well as a new supply of Mark 28 nuclear bombs to throw at enemies after completing the quest Liberty Reprimed.
 * Liberty Prime MK II autonomously switches from a land-based route to an amphibious assault during its attack on the Institute whereas before it only demonstrated the capacity to overcome straightforward obstacles such as energy barriers. Prime was also able to correctly deduce that the Institute was a subterranean complex and utilized its laser weapon to bore a tunnel directly into the facility.
 * Liberty Prime is able to 'super-charge' its laser weapon while boring an access hole into the Institute, or firing at the Prydwen, releasing a more powerful version its standard laser.
 * The robot may throw nukes directly at its own feet if enemies are close. The robot will not incur damage but it will cause damage to the player and companions.
 * Prime still broadcasts anti-communist propaganda slogans, such as "Democracy is truth. Communism is death" and "Embrace Democracy, or you will be eradicated."
 * It is possible to target Liberty Prime in V.A.T.S., but will not incur damage. It never turns hostile against the player if struck. However, the Sole Survivor can be trampled underfoot if they are in its path.

Statistics

 * Fallout 3


 * Fallout 4

Appearances
Liberty Prime appears in Fallout 3, its add-on Broken Steel, Fallout 4 and is mentioned in the Operation: Anchorage and Automatron add-ons. Liberty Prime also appears in Fallout 76 as a power armor skin in the Atomic Shop and the Fallout 76 update The Legendary Run on the Legendary perk card Power Armor Reboot. Liberty Prime also appears in Fallout: The Board Game, where the Brotherhood of Steel may send him out to take out Project Purity during the Capital Wasteland scenario, ending the game.

Behind the scenes

 * The Art of Fallout 3 shares that the Iron Giant was one of the inspirations for Liberty Prime.
 * Emil Pagliarulo denied any intentional relation between Liberty Prime and Optimus Prime.
 * Prime has several unused animations, one of which is named "DLC03PrimeWalkSmashedVertibird" in the game files.
 * According to Emil Pagliarulo, the original plan for Fallout 3 had Liberty Prime being much larger than seen in-game. He added that, "the player was going to ride in his head, anime style".
 * The G.E.C.K. lists a cut quest called "Infiltration" which was situated between The American Dream and Take it Back! and had the player character stealing a power source from Rivet City to power Liberty Prime.
 * Liberty Prime appeared in an advertisement for the PlayStation Now service, where he appeared alongside a cast of characters from various video games, including a Fallout 4 Deathclaw.

Bugs

 * Fallout 3
 * Liberty Prime often gets stuck. Although the most common places for this glitch is on the left side of the highway when heading to retake the purifier at the Jefferson Memorial, and on the first large bridge the Lone Wanderer crosses.
 * If all else fails, you may be able to fix this by selecting Liberty Prime in the console and typing "moveto player."
 * If you kill Vargas at any point in the game before starting Take it Back!, Liberty Prime will stay immobile, preventing the player from continuing the questline.
 * The only way to fix this issue is using the console command: 1 to respawn Paladin Vargas and proceed with the quest.
 * It is possible to get around this by baiting Liberty Prime into chasing after you by attacking BoS initiates.
 * Liberty Prime may launch into the air and remain there. The best way to solve this is to wait (real-time). If this fails, the player may need to reload the previous autosave.
 * If the Lone Wanderer manages to get far enough ahead of Prime when it is attacking Enclave forces, it is possible for the player character to be killed by its attacks.
 * If the Lone Wanderer manages to get too far ahead of Liberty Prime before it disables the first "force field," Liberty Prime may stop walking across the first bridge after shutting down the first "force field."

Liberty Prime often stops right before the body of water on the way to the Institute.
 * Fallout 4

Gallery

 * Fallout 3