The Superhuman Gambit

The Superhuman Gambit is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also a Xbox 360/PC achievement and PlayStation 3 trophy.

Quick walkthrough
Convince (or kill) either one (or both) of these persons:
 * The Mechanist
 * The AntAgonizer

Detailed walkthrough
The town of Canterbury Commons has become the battleground of two self-proclaimed "superheroes" - the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist. Its inhabitants are not very happy about it and ask you if you can help them.

Upon arriving in Canterbury Commons, the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist will be engaged in a standoff. After a few scripted opening semantics, the two will engage in a brawl. Once the dust clears, both will run away, and 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. He will also comment that you should become a superhero named "Awesome-Claw", and suggest you lead an army of deathclaws against them. He may alternatively tell you that you should be called "Super Humongous" and command a group of super mutants to do your bidding. He may also call you "Shadow Bite," or the "Brilliant Shadow," commanding an army of mole rats.

AntAgonizer's Lair
If you decide to take out the AntAgonizer, you head to the AntAgonizer's Lair north of town. Go 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 to the AntAgonizer's lair.

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 costume 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 costume, 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 "super villain").
 * By attacking her or speaking with her and being aggressive, you can engage her in battle. Killing the AntAgonizer will not affect your karma even though she is an evil character.
 * 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.
 * You MUST have the Lady Killer perk, (coupled with her real name given to you by Joe Porter) to convince her see the error of her ways. After success, she will give up her career as a super villain, hand you her costume and leave quietly.
 * If you have been to Hubris Comics and read the note to the editor about AntAgonizer's cancelled 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 costume.

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.

If you killed the AntAngonizer earlier, then you will need a lock pick skill of 75 to open the Mechanists lair.

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.

Once in the Mechanist's lair you have several options that echo the interactions with the AntAgonizer:
 * If you are wearing the AntAgonizer's costume, he will believe you to be her and attack you.
 * If you are not wearing the AntAgonizer's costume, but have it in your possession, you may give the costume 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 receive negative karma (as he remains a delusional "superhero"). It can not be obtained by killing him; his body only holds a normal laser pistol when looted.
 * 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 AntAgonizer he will say something about her attacking the forge. You will then have to follow the Mechanist and help him defeat her and her ants.
 * Convincing the Mechanist to end his superhero career and leave the town alone will grant you his suit and positive karma (like with the AntAgonizer, it is a very difficult speech check).
 * Either 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 (If you have both perks, only the Black Widow dialogue choice will be available). This also results in positive karma while allowing you to bypass the speech check.

Completion
Once you defeat either the Mechanist or the AntAgonizer, return to Uncle Roe to receive 200 caps (400 if you passed the speech check). 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 also 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 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. Doing this grants you 400 caps from Uncle Roe (without ever needing a speech check).

The AntAgonizer will make her way to Megaton, walking back and forth from the entrance to where Deputy Weld is, unless she is killed by enemies outside Megaton.

Bugs

 * Exploit: It is possible to obtain both unique weapons, both sets of costume armor, and TWO of each costume helmet. To do this, reverse-pickpocket better armor onto the Mechanist (or AntAgonizer, although starting with The Mechanist is easier). Their costumes have 20 DR maximum, so anything with higher DR works. Leave the room, load an autosave, then return. Pickpocket the costume and helmet from The Mechanist.

Now, head to the AntAgonizer's lair, and save before approaching her throne. Drop The Mechanist's helmet, then talk to AntAgonizer and give her The Mechanist's costume. She will give the Ant's Sting knife. The original helmet will still be on the floor, so pick it up and you should now have two. Afterwards, kill the AntAgonizer, and loot her costume armor and helmet, as well as The Mechanist's costume.

Return to the Mechanist, and drop AntAgonizer's helmet. Talk to him and give him AntAgonizer's costume, getting the Protectron's Gaze in return. Now, you can kill him and loot the AntAgonizer's armor back from him. This should result in having the Ant's Sting, Protectron's Gaze, one of the Mechanist's and AntAgonizer's Costume, and two of the Mechanist's and AntAgonizer's helmets.

If you use the method of getting BOTH armors and getting BOTH weapons (reverse-pickpocketing both their armors and stealing them back when you hand the armors to their enemy), both characters will head out into the Wasteland and hunt each other down. This is easily observed if you do NOT complete the quest by talking to Uncle Roe which makes their locations shown by the quest markers.

If you kill the Protectron in the Forge and then choose the fight dialogue with the Mechanist, it will revive itself and defend the Mechanist as usual. You can loot the Protectron twice this way.


 * If you walk into Canterbury Commons from the north and enter Dominic and Machete's House first, you will not see the fight between the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist, yet Roe and everyone in town will act as if you did.
 * If you enter Canterbury Commons and kill either the AntAgonizer or the Mechanist immediately (or both), Uncle Roe will thank you and give you 400 caps but you will not get the achievement and Three Dog will continue to report on the situation at Canterbury Commons as though neither the AntAgonizer nor the Mechanist have been killed. Going into Uncle Roe's House before they are finished fighting and receiving the quest first seems to fix this problem.
 * If you do not stay to watch the event between the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist, and then immediately speak to Uncle Roe, all three characters may disappear. If this occurs, the quest cannot be finished.
 * 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.
 * The AntAgonizer's health sometimes won't decrease despite being hit numerous times - this occurs even in her lair. The only known fix is to continue hitting her until she randomly dies.
 * Reverse-pickpocketing a suit from either the Mechanist or AntAgonizer and giving it to the opposing party will update your quest status to "Report back to town for your reward" (as should normally happen). However, speaking to Uncle Roe will not reveal the normal dialogue choice to end the quest and receive your reward. This can be circumvented by killing either the Mechanist or the AntAgonizer, or both.
 * When you team up with the Mechanist and have to defend the Forge, he may 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.
 * 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 the player, meaning that the optional objective to kill her is impossible to complete.
 * After killing the AntAgonizer without talking to her, leaving via the ladder in the back will cause the game to freeze. The player must leave through the front entrance.
 * Sometimes the Mechanist's sentry bot will stay in the same position for the rest of the game; it can be handy as it makes a very efficient guard for the town.
 * If you passed the speech check with The Mechanist and you turned off the turrets in sector A instead of destroying them they will become hostile towards The Mechanist and kill him. If you reach the terminal before/after they kill him, it will show the turrets as still being disabled.
 * Very rarely, when you fast travel to Canterbury Commons after completing a quest, especially at a high level, a random enemy will spawn at the diner in-front of where you spawn. If you are a higher level, it could be a deathclaw or even an albino radscorpion. If this happens, usually it will kill almost everyone and then head for you. Just reload the game from the autosave and it will not be there the next time you fast travel.
 * Upon entering the Mechanist's forge after completing the quest, he will not appear where he should.
 * If either of the two robots the Mechanist controls in the encounter the player witnesses on arrival is killed, they may be replaced randomly at a later date by two functional robots, possibly different types. These new robots will be friendly to both the player and the town, and will attack enemies to either. They will remain at the entrance to the town.

Нечеловеческий гамбит