HELIOS One

 is a Poseidon Energy solar plant and a refractor mirror that can provide energy to the Strip and other places. It contains the control system for a massive space-based laser weapon, Archimedes II.

Background

 * A pre-War installation, Helios was hailed as the Dawn of a Golden Age by Poseidon Energy.
 * The NCR took control of the Helios One from the Brotherhood of Steel by force. However, before the Brotherhood fled, they enacted security measures on the installation to ensure that the NCR would not have much to gain.

Storyline development
At the beginning of the events of Fallout: New Vegas the facility is controlled by the NCR, who have a "technician" named Fantastic working on getting the power plant functioning. Entering the room adjacent to Fantastic you will locate another scientist, Ignacio Rivas, who has the password to the eastern console. Fantastic has the one for the west.

If all NCR troops are killed here, the Legion will take it over later.

Layout
Behind the main plant and around the tower are all the reflecting mirrors. Before you enter you need to connect to the mainframe from both the Eastern and Western reflector control terminals. Both are in the fenced cages within the reflector yard. The eastern terminal is guarded by mines and a rigged shotgun, the western terminal is guarded by attack dogs.

Inside the Solar Collection Tower building, past a small straight path there are three hostile turrets and at least one Protectron on the cat walk leading to other side and down to the lower level which should contain one Robobrain. Going straight ahead leads to an unlocked door, (closed) which is defended by two mines on each side of a rectangular stone desk. (mines are armed) There is a computer behind the desk which can shut off or turn turrets against robots. (If you have ED-E leaving the robot at the door is advised, it can die a lot so it is suggested that the player go solo.

Downstairs is a small room with an average safe and two pulse grenades. It is guarded by a Robobrain.

Despite almost always heading downstairs when inside the Solar Collection Tower, the player starts at the bottom and upon exit ends at the top. (The Courier takes an elevator up to the tower from the lower part of the bunker)

Notable Loot

 * D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine upstairs, lying on a bed in the same room with holotapes for the east and west terminal passwords. (head to the right from main entrance, through the pool room, and right up the stairs)
 * Programmer's Digest on the upper level before big doors inside the Solar Collection Tower
 * Fixin' Things on the table in the second flight of stairs after the tunnel in Solar Collection Tower
 * Pulse grenade on the shelves behind the desk in main hall. Also on the first floor of Solar Collection Tower in the room with safe
 * A Stealth Boy and some ammunition can be found in the lockers in the hall through the right door of the main room.

Appearances
appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Related Quests

 * That Lucky Old Sun
 * Sunshine Boogie
 * Classic Inspiration

Behind the scenes

 * Archimedes is beleived to have developed the plans for a 'death ray' super weapon. The weapon would harness the power of the sun through a series of mirrors and prisms, resulting in an intense beam of light that was intended to burn down and sink enemy ships.
 * Helios was the Greek God of the sun.
 * This location is based on The Solar Project located in the Mojave Desert.
 * The two passwords for the Eastern and the Western reflector control terminals are text encoded in hex and can be found in the notes. The decoded Eastern password is Too many secrets and the Western decoded password is My voice is my passport. - both are notable passphrases in the 1992 movie Sneakers.

Bugs

 * Sometimes when leaving the building via the back door, Rey, Colmillo, Basura and 2 Molerats will fall out of the air and will become hostile.(Confimed on Xbox 360) Note that if this happens, reloading the autosave made when you exited the door will correct this problem.


 * Also to add to the above, Old Lady Gibson might fall out with the dogs and molerat attacking the player. If you get near the NCR troopers with the dogs and Old Lady Gibson attacking you, they will also become Hostile.


 * Another possibility is just the dogs will appear, non-hostile, accompanied by invisible objects including barrels and a tin can(judging by the sound). The objects can be dragged, picked up, and interacted with but never become visible.


 * Occasionally, the dogs will appear floating in mid-air above the door, with Lady Gibson dead on the ground.


 * If you overload Helios one, upon returning to Ignacio Rivas, you can enter into a loop by telling him you overloaded the station. This will result in him giving you 2 doctor bags and 3 stimpacks as well as 350xp as many times as you want.


 * After exiting via the large metal door, the Lieutenant and accompanying troopers all turned hostile for no apparent reason. Boone and ED-E accompanying at the time. This happens if you entered the HELIOS plant from the side entrance without talking to the Lieutenant first. Simply exit from the side again and they will no longer be hostile.


 * Floating high above the top of the Solar Collecting Tower there may appear a hostile unnamed turret. It seems not to be targetable, destructible or even visible in normal play. With ED-E's Enhanced Sensor perk however, the turret may be targeted in VATS (appears stealthed) and shot with varying degrees of accuracy (13-20% with Gobi Desert Scout Rifle) although the shots seem to have no effect other than to change the HIDDEN status to CAUTION. (Confirmed on PC on VERY HARD-HARDCORE)

Gallery
Гелиос-1