Nuka-Cola Quantum (Fallout 3)



Nuka-Cola Quantum is a consumable item in Fallout 3.

Characteristics
Drinking a Nuka-Cola Quantum will increase your Action Points by 20 for 4 minutes and your radiation by 10. Mixed in a tin can with Abraxo cleaner and turpentine, it creates a Nuka-grenade, which is much more powerful than normal grenades. Nuka-Cola addict and fanatic Sierra Petrovita has created a recipe in which mixing Nuka-Cola Quantum with flour and vodka makes a delicious pastry.

Locations
There are 94 bottles found in the base game, and 14 additional bottles included with the add-ons; a total of 108 bottles. See the table below for a full list of locations. Bottles found in vending machines are random and are not included in this list. Bottles sold through a specific random encounter merchant are also not included.

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.

Random spawns can also be found in Nuka-Cola vending machines. When accessing one of the 178 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.

Behind the scenes

 * 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 nearly instantaneously (within a few nanoseconds) leaps from one energy level (aka quantum state) to another.
 * 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.
 * Despite being under the jurisdiction of the PepsiCo company, Quantum's debatable safety concerns can be linked to Pepsi Blue. The dye was a cause for concern regarding allergic reactions in consumers- much like Quantum's sketchy effects on the body.