ED-E My Love

ED-E My Love is a companion quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Overview
The robot ED-E lies deactivated and in need of repair in Primm. It is a prototype "duraframe" eyebot containing research data and voice recordings from Whitley, an Enclave researcher. Damage sustained by ED-E over time has made accessing the data difficult. The voice recordings, however, can be unlocked with certain keywords spoken by various inhabitants of the Mojave Wasteland when spoken to by the Courier. Accessing these audio logs brings ED-E to the attention of the Brotherhood of Steel and the Followers of the Apocalypse, who both wish to examine the robot further. They will determine ED-E's upgrade as a compensation for the research data it is carrying.

Quick walkthrough

 * 1) Find and examine ED-E in the Nash residence in Primm.
 * 2) Talk to Johnson Nash and mention the robot sitting in his store.
 * 3) Repair ED-E with either:
 * 4) A Repair skill of 65, or a Science skill of 55 and a subsequent lowered Repair skill of 35.
 * 5) 1 scrap electronics, 3 scrap metals, and 2 sensor modules.
 * 6) Take ED-E with you as a companion.
 * 7) Trigger ED-E's first audio log via dialogue about technology or the Enclave.
 * 8) Allow five in-game days to pass.
 * 9) Trigger a second audio log via dialogue about technology or the Enclave.
 * 10) Allow two in-game days to pass.
 * 11) A Brotherhood of Steel member named Senior Knight Lorenzo will contact you through ED-E. After finding the dead Brotherhood patrol on the top floor of REPCONN Headquarters, the Followers of the Apocalypse will also contact you.
 * 12) Give ED-E to Senior Knight Lorenzo in the Hidden Valley bunker, or April Martimer in the Old Mormon Fort. With either choice, ED-E will be removed as a companion.
 * 13) After three in-game days, the upgraded ED-E will return to Primm.
 * 14) Talk to ED-E to complete the quest.

Finding and repairing ED-E
There will be a broken robot found on a counter in the Nash residence in Primm. This building is on the corner opposite both the Vikki and Vance Casino and the Bison Steve Hotel; it'll be on your on your right if crossing the bridge into Primm from the nearby NCR camp. The Nash residence is also known as the local Mojave Express office, according to the large sign on the roof.

Talk to Johnson Nash, the owner of the store, and mention the robot sitting on the counter. He will reveal that he does not know much about it, and will offhandedly suggest taking it to the junkyard near Novac.
 * Nash will be inside the Vikki and Vance Casino when you first meet him, since the town is overrun with convicts. Once you bring stability to the town, Nash will be found inside his store, sitting at the counter.

Examining the broken robot will reveal that it can be fixed with the appropriate skills, or items:
 * A Repair skill of 65, or a Science skill of 55 and a subsequent lowered Repair of 35.
 * 1 scrap electronics, 3 scrap metals, and 2 sensor modules.
 * Note that you can repair ED-E before or after talking to Nash. His dialogue will change slightly, but the quest will be unaffected.

After ED-E is repaired, enable its companion protocol.

Playback event triggers
There are two pre-recorded messages within ED-E regarding the data banks it is carrying. The triggers for these messages are specific words or phrases found in the dialogue of different non-player characters, usually occurring while talking to someone who used to be in (or talks about) the Enclave, or someone who talks about technology.
 * NOTE: Many individuals on the following lists can be spoken to in order to trigger either audio log 1 or 2. However, once they have triggered the first message, the same person cannot trigger the second. The message will also not be triggered if you have completed a quest for that person.

Audio log 1
To trigger the first message, talk to any one of the following:
 * Old Lady Gibson at Gibson Scrap Yard. (Note: If you have already gone through her conversation options before starting this quest, talking to her will no longer trigger this message.)
 * NCR Troopers standing outside of HELIOS One. You can also gain entrance to HELIOS One and talk to several troopers inside there.
 * Doctor Henry at Jacobstown. Talk about his experience with the Enclave.
 * Ignacio Rivas at HELIOS One. Talk about Archimedes and the Brotherhood of Steel.
 * Torres, the quartermaster of the Brotherhood of Steel armory in Hidden Valley.
 * Apprentice Watkins. Talk about HELIOS One.
 * Thomas Hildern, director of the OSI at Camp McCarran. Much of the dialogue involves the quest There Stands the Grass.
 * Colonel Moore. Talk about the first assignment for the quest, For the Republic, Part 2.
 * Michael Angelo at Michael Angelo's Workshop on The Strip. Talk about his "lack of inspiration," and choose the Medicine skill check. Failing it will still count as a trigger word.
 * Mr. House. Talk about the Brotherhood of Steel.
 * Quartermaster Mayes, found in Camp Forlorn Hope. Speak to him about the quest, Restoring Hope.

When the message is triggered, you will be turned to face ED-E and an audio file will begin playing:

After this message has been triggered, the quest will be added to your quest log, and ED-E will not react to any of the keywords until at least five in-game days have passed.

Audio log 2
After passing at least five in-game days, do any one of the following:
 * Listen to the Brotherhood Scribe (found in a classroom inside the Brotherhood bunker in Hidden Valley) teaching his class.
 * Speak with Veronica Santangelo while on the quest I Could Make You Care, and again after accessing Father Elijah's terminal.
 * Interact with the members of the Brotherhood of Steel in Hidden Valley.
 * When trying to gain the Brotherhood of Steel's trust (without the help of Veronica), a keyword is spoken after killing or convincing the NCR ranger to leave Hidden Valley.
 * If you have gained enough trust with the Brotherhood, a scribe will thank you and point you to a footlocker stashed with energy weapon ammunition. Talking to the scribe again will trigger a keyword.
 * Talk to Apprentice Watkins both about her parents and her decision, and ask her about all the computers.

NOTE: All of the non-player characters that can trigger audio log 1 can trigger the second audio log so long as they haven't triggered the first one.

As with the first triggered message, you will be turned to face ED-E and the second audio file will begin playing:

Other possible triggers

 * Talk to Senior Knight Lorenzo in Hidden Valley.
 * Talk to Quartermaster Mayes at Camp Forlorn Hope about retrieving NCR dogtags.

Additional log notes

 * Other possible keywords have been reported as being the Enclave, Navarro, Poseidon, HELIOS, Air Force Base, Eden and ARCHIMEDES.
 * A way to incorporate another companion to help in this quest is to have Arcade Gannon present, as his personal quest being undertaken will result in many of the key words being spoken.
 * Using the "wait" feature will also speed up ED-E's speech events. Use the wait feature in increments of 1 hour inside Old Lady Gibson's house and after that, anywhere else.
 * It is possible to get both logs 1 and 2 from Doctor Henry in Jacobstown.
 * It is possible to be contacted by Brotherhood and the Followers without obtaining both logs.

Upgrading ED-E
After both the logs have been triggered, the Brotherhood of Steel will express their interest in ED-E through a radio transmission.

Two in-game days after the second recorded message is triggered, Senior Knight Lorenzo of the Brotherhood of Steel will contact you through ED-E: “ "Uh... Hello. Hi. Are you there? ..." (the message continues, and ends with a Russian janitorial voice-over as a placeholder for Lorenzo) ”

He goes on to say that he would like to examine ED-E and wants you to bring it to a patrol near the REPCONN Headquarters. Once there, go to the third floor where you will find a dead member of the Brotherhood scouting party. A holotape note will be next to, or in the inventory of the corpse. Once you retrieve the holotape, (if you visited the Mormon Fort in Freeside prior to this), April Martimer of the Followers of the Apocalypse will contact you through ED-E, requesting you bring ED-E to her.

Brotherhood of Steel
Once you acquire the holotape, you will be prompted to go to Hidden Valley, where their bunker is located. To gain entrance to the bunker, Senior Paladin Ramos, the head of the security, will strip you of all your belongings and will closely escort you to meet Elder McNamara. The elder will require your trust, and will fit you with an explosive collar to carry out this task.

In order to be trusted by the Brotherhood, you will be required to dispose of Ranger Dobson, an NCR ranger posing a threat to the Brotherhood's secrecy by patrolling nearby their bunker. Getting rid of him by any means necessary will gain you the elder's trust, and will remove the explosive collar.

Alternatively, you will not need to do the tasks above if you have already gained access to the bunker before this quest. You will just be prompted to meet Senior Knight Lorenzo.

ED-E's upgrade by the Brotherhood
Lorenzo will upgrade ED-E's armor as a compensation for the data banks regarding Poseidon Energy research. This will give ED-E a defense bonus (+8 Damage Threshold), and a refurbished metallic surface, clean of its stickers. After three to four days, ED-E will return to Primm.

Followers of the Apocalypse
As Lorenzo is talking in his transmission, April Martimer of the Followers of the Apocalypse will interrupt the signal. She will ask you to bring ED-E to them instead, saying that its log data will serve a greater purpose if examined by the Followers. April Martimer is located in the Old Mormon Fort just inside Freeside's North Gate.

ED-E's upgrade by the Followers
April Martimer will upgrade ED-E's weapon system to compensate for the data that can help the greater good in the future. This will give ED-E a new laser zapper (+5 DAM, +8 DPS, +0.5% Critical Chance and +15 Critical Damage), and its armor will be cleaned of its stickers. After three to four days, ED-E will return to Primm.

Additional Notes

 * Either option will not affect the player's standing with the Brotherhood of Steel or the Followers of the Apocalypse, so the choice purely weighs on which bonus is more imperative to them.
 * If Lorenzo has already been killed as a result of Mr. House's quest The House Always Wins (Part V), waiting two days after talking to Ignacio Rivas and talking to ED-E will trigger April Martimer to contact you without having to travel to the REPCONN Headquarters. Note that April Martimer will not contact you until you have discovered Hidden Valley.
 * If you have already received the holotape note by previously exploring REPCONN Headquarters, April won't contact you until you open the metal gate that surrounds Hidden Valley or, if entering from the gap in the fence, until you have entered the Brotherhood compound.

Conclusion
When the wait for ED-E's return is over, the quest advances and a message will appear saying that ED-E has returned to the Mojave Express building in Primm. Once you enter the building, ED-E will interact with you right away and the quest will be completed.

Bugs

 * Sometimes, if you upgrade ED-E's laser in one save, ED-E may spawn with his upgraded laser in a new save. This enables ED-E to upgrade its armor while having a laser upgrade.
 * If the player talks to Old Lady Gibson and goes through all the dialog before recruiting ED-E, she will no longer trigger the log. Go speak with Ignacio Rivas or any NCR trooper inside HELIOS One instead. This can be resolved on the PC version by using the  commands in the console to reset.
 * Sometimes, when ED-E is given to the Followers, his laser appears to stop working, and trying to change his weapons on the companion wheel shows no name.
 * After completing the quest, ED-E may suddenly stop following you and be unable to attack, but will still be responsive to dialogue and can still be used as a storage container. He may begin following again once you fast travel or go through a door.
 * If you get the upgrade from Followers of the Apocalypse, ED-E will randomly disappear. Even though you can't see ED-E, he is still there to interact and fight, this can be fixed by reloading the save.
 * After getting ED-E back from the Brotherhood at Primm and restarting its companion protocol, it is possible to kill it and keep its Enhanced Sensors perk permanently.
 * Sometimes, ED-E's inventory doesn't reset when it is returned to you.
 * Sometimes ED-E will not respond to a second quest trigger, though his weapon system will be upgraded. This results with an ED-E covered with bumper stickers firing blue projectiles and the quest being unable to be completed.

Behind the scenes

 * The name of the quest is a reference to the 1956 song "Eddie My Love" by The Teen Queens.

ЭД-Э, любовь моя