Drinkin Buddy

Drinkin' Buddy, also called Buddy, is a modified Protectron, located in the basement of the Shamrock Taphouse in 2287.

Background
The owner of the Shamrock Taphouse, Patrick Merryweather, was contracted by the Hotel Rexford to design and manufacture a specialized brewing robot capable of producing beer at an accelerated rate, with the intent of serving ice cold beer to hotel patrons. The project was fronted by Jack West, the manager of the establishment.

To build the robot, the entrepreneur started with a consumer RobCo Protectron, stripped out the robot's main assembly and replaced it with a custom miniaturized micro brewing unit fabricated with unlicensed parts (thus voiding its warranty) that was capable of flash-fermenting mash, producing alcohol at a faster rate. He designed the robot to accept recipe holotapes thus allowing it to brew a wide range of different types of beer, also programming in a wide variety of jokes to be told for the customer's amusement.

However, the Hotel Rexford was under contractual obligations to only serve Gwinnett beer. As a result, Patrick was unable to use his own recipes. However, he managed to get in contact with a person who was able to illegally crack the encryption on one of the brewery's proprietary brewing holotapes. This allowed the robot to produce Gwinnett pale ale by default.

After days of tinkering and perfecting, Patrick managed to finish the robot. He had no respect for copyright, considering the recipe holotapes and the unlicensed microbrewing equipment and modifications, but he was able to complete the robot before the Gwinnett Brewery's lawyers caught up with him. The final product was Drinkin' Buddy, the ultimate automated drinking experience. He designed the robot to be ready for mass-production with the main customers being bars and restaurants. Patrick had the original prototype unit scheduled for delivery via truck to the Hotel Rexford. However, this was cut short by the Great War, leaving Buddy still inactive in his charging pod, his delivery 210 years behind schedule.

Character overview
He can be given holotapes containing alcohol recipes that he will store in his inventory. He can also change regular beers and soft drinks into their ice cold variants granting 35 AP in addition to the usual STR/CHR +1, INT -1; this is done by following the dialogue option to request a beer but instead placing drinks into his inventory. Alternatively, the recipes may also be removed just by trying to talk to him. Drinks that one can give to him to make ice cold are any Gwinnett beverage, any Nuka-Cola and any Vim.

Brewing
Giving Buddy any "Gwinnett," "Nuka" or "Vim" will cause it to become ice cold after about 12 hours in-game time. This increases the benefits of the item upon consumption by a variable amount but does not remove the rads present in the beverage.

Buddy cannot make generic beer ice cold.

List of Gwinnett recipes
To give Buddy recipes, one must play the recipe holotape on their Pip-Boy. Once this is done, the Sole Survivor automatically initiates dialogue by stating "Buddy, I have some recipes for ya...," after which they are removed from the inventory and Buddy will be able to produce them in the future. If this dialogue doesn't trigger when speaking to him with a recipe in one's inventory, try dropping the recipe from the inventory and picking it up again. This especially helps with recipes obtained prior to meeting Buddy.
 * Gwinnett ale brewing subroutines - behind the bar of the Colonial Taphouse.
 * Gwinnett stout recipe - in the terminal in a sealed control room on the roof of the Gwinnett Brewery.
 * Gwinnett brew recipe - on Tower Tom's desk in the Beantown Brewery.
 * Gwinnett lager recipe - behind the bar counter under the collapsed floor of The Shamrock Taphouse.
 * Gwinnett pils recipe - on the counter behind the bar of The Third Rail. It is marked as owned, and taking it will be considered stealing, turning everyone there hostile.
 * Gwinnett pale - already found inserted into Buddy.

Combat
Buddy is equipped with a flamer and a laser gun. Buddy alternates between them when in combat.
 * These weapons are not apparent when viewing Buddy's inventory.
 * Buddy's ammunition appears alongside the brewed beer; these munitions are needed for the weapons. If these are looted with the beer, Buddy will only use melee attacks.

Settlements

 * Buddy will gravitate toward the left side of a bar, provided one is present. If a trade caravan post is available, Buddy then will patrol between the two.
 * Buddy cannot be changed in a robot workbench.

Quests

 * Trouble Brewin': Rufus Rubins will ask the Sole Survivor to retrieve Drinkin' Buddy for the Hotel Rexford. Alternatively, they may claim the robot for themselves and send it to an allied settlement. Keeping him will have the quest marked as incomplete.

Effects of player's actions

 * Buddy is found in the basement of the Shamrock Taphouse. The Sole Survivor can choose to keep him or send him to the Hotel Rexford at the request of Rufus.
 * If selecting to keep him, he will ask for his default "HOME" which will be any of the settlements the player character selects.
 * If the Sole Survivor elects to send Buddy to Hotel Rexford, he will be found in the hotel near the bar upon arrival.

Appearances
Buddy appears only in Fallout 4.

Bugs

 * If Buddy still provides the dialogue choice to be sold to Rufus after choosing to keep him, one can fix this with the command . The player character will respond "No thanks" from then on.
 * If deciding to keep him, the quest remains active. The Sole Survivor cannot finish the quest and keep drinking Buddy. Since the quest continues, when sending Buddy somewhere, the player character will be able to track his movements using the quest marker on the map.
 * If the player attempts to remedy the quest remaining active after keeping Buddy by killing Rufus, the "No thanks" dialogue option will work the same as the "I've sold you" option, causing Buddy to leave the player's settlement and go to the Hotel Rexford.
 * If Buddy is sent to Sanctuary Hills he may try to reach the settlement by crossing the river and will stop halfway across the river. If this happens, send him to a different settlement (preferably the Red Rocket truck stop due to its proximity) and then send him back to Sanctuary.
 * After sending Buddy to Hotel Rexford, he may not leave the Shamrock Taphouse and instead continuously greet the player character.
 * This can be fixed on PC by using the console. First, reset the Trouble Brewin' quest using, then meet up with Rufus and accept the quest again. After doing so, head back to the Taphouse and in the console, enter . This should reset the dialogue and allow to re-do the quest from that point onward.
 * Attempting to send Buddy to Hotel Rexford results in Buddy accepting request but not going. Talk to Buddy again and tell him you're keeping him for yourself, give settlement destination, then do Hotel Rexford dialogue again will get him to go.
 * Overfilling Buddy's inventory with various drinks can cause some of them to double in quantity when being made ice cold (16 brew, 23 pilsner, etc. came back as 32 brew, 46 pilsner, etc.).
 * Sometimes after having sent Buddy to a settlement and having him there for a while, without further instructions he will start walking towards the Hotel Rexford and will remain there.