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. A level 3 player was once traveling to Tenpenny Tower to blow up Megaton when a Deathclaw spawned there. It killed Tinker Joe, the Mr. Handy and the Protectron and RL-3 was left to fend for himself, which, seeing as he is unkillable, he did quite quickly. He then just stayed hovering in the location where he killed the Deathclaw, seeing as Tinker Joe was dead so he could not follow him.

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 fission cells and scrap metal later 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.

Preferred Weapon of Choice: 10mm Pistol or Repellent Stick

When you hack the mainframe, you will have a few options:
 * Basic Functions: The robots will just walk around normally
 * Pest Eradication: Kill radroachs and mole rats
 * Total Liquidation: on/off attack humans
 * Stress Test: 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.

Notable Loot

 * Lying, Congressional Style & Pre-War Book - Factory floor, on large desk at back of the foyer where you enter.
 * Big Book of Science - Factory floor, by the Protectron Pod area to NE, on console. Also, a Pre-War Book and RobCo Jumpsuit.
 * Buffout and 2 Rad-X - After entering Offices and Cafeteria from the RobCo Factory Floor, go right, and take the first door on the left (a washroom). Chems are in the corner behind the leftmost toilet.
 * 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. Mentats on the bookshelf to the left.
 * 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.
 * Three Pre-War Books:
 * 1 in the main entrance area, on a shelf along the backwall. This is near where the Lying, Congressional Style book (mentioned above) can be found.
 * 1 in room where you attach device to mainframe
 * 1 in room containing Big Book of Science. It is on the same console where the Big Book of Science can be found, a little to the right.
 * Four Stealth Boys:
 * Same room as D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine
 * Same room as Nikola Tesla and You
 * In room where you attach device to mainframe
 * In cubicles in room just to the right of the bathrooms near main entrance
 * If you don't have the Vault 101 Utility Jumpsuit for some reason, be sure to pick up the RobCo Jumpsuit. It gives +5 to Repair. Found in a utility room across from the main entrance, near the bathrooms. It is grey and on a small pile of rubble, so it is difficult to spot. Look to the right of two six-door lockers, on the ground.
 * Bottlecap Mine on shelf of workbench in room off the factory floor, bottom floor connecting hall, eastern end. Two Sensor Modules for making Bottlecap mines are on the metal shelves - make more mines with Lunchboxes and Cherry Bombs, elsewhere in the building. There is also another RobCo Jumpsuit here.
 * Ammuntion,stimpacks and carton's of cigarettes are in the room with the offices near the main entrance

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 protecterons can be looted again. (this does not count for the protecterons 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 protectorns while you were looting them, causing their corpes to gib, when you reactivate them their parts will try to inneffectivly join back to them resulting in strange one legged or headless protectorns roaming the halls. This has no effect on gameplay and the bulk of the protectons move as normal 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.

=Easter Egg= As soon as you enter the facility, you will notice two restrooms on your left. In the restroom closest to the main entrance (presumably the ladies' room due to the lack of urinals), you will find a broken protectron seated on the toilet in the stall in the far left corner of the room. Upon moving the protectron, you will find a single unit of scrap metal in the toilet bowl. This hints that the protectron died while defecating.