Nuka-Cola plant

The Nuka-Cola plant is a large, three-story factory building located at the southern edge of the Capital Wasteland.

It is populated with Nukalurks, Nuka-Cola security protectrons, and some radroaches.

Layout
The building is divided into four sections: Research and development, storage and mixing vats, offices, and factory floor.

Research and development
The first section of the factory contains the R&D department (the cells name "Factory Floor" refers to the part beyond the locked door). Look up at the ceiling immediately after entering the lobby to see a hole and part of a filing cabinet with a Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual in it. The terminals here contain some info on development of the Nuka-Cola Quantum and the difficulties (or rather casualties) that occurred in the process. There is an R&D safe here, that can be unlocked only with a key that is in possession of Milo, shipping foreman. The safe contains the Nuka-Cola Clear formula plus some random minor loot. The actual factory floor on the other side of the locked door can be reached by a detour through the rest of the building, starting with the door to the storage and mixing vats in the northwest.

Storage and mixing vats
The storage and mixing vats section of the factory is partially flooded with glowing blue liquid. Presumably it is water polluted with the strontium isotope used in Quantum. It gave rise to nukalurks, a special mutation of mirelurk, which can only be encountered in the Nuka-Cola plant (see below for more info). In the room with two nukalurks and the suspended protectron there is a note, "Welcome to the Nuka-Cola Family!," on the desk beside a working automated maintenance terminal. The note is addressed to a new worker Larry and contains his employee ID number that will be useful in the conversation with Milo later (sometimes the note will clip into the table that it is sitting on). It is dark and difficult to see against the green background of the desk.

To continue on, look for a descending passage. It leads to the flooded radioactive area of the plant. The exit to the offices you are looking for is located in the north east part of the main open area. Pass the first set of catwalk stairs you come to (or climb them for some radioactive respite and to check for any enemies), and look for a second set of stairs off to your left as you head north. Beware the nukalurks and the radiation. It is advised you take a dose of Rad-X and bring some RadAway. Follow the second stairwell around to the north east area where you need to drop down to ground level to access the exit (that is blocked by rubble at ground level). The other catwalks are all dead ends with no loot.

Offices
In the offices section of the facility there are several bottles of Nuka-Cola along with 2 skill books that are found on the second floor: Lying, Congressional Style on top of a safe and a Big Books of Science. A note can be found on the corpse of Winger Mercier regarding a contract to recover the Nuka-Cola Clear formula which was never completed. A Stealth Boy and an assault rifle can be found beside the corpse.

There is a locked room here (lock difficulty depends on level). The room contains four skeletal corpses and a note entitled "Help me." The note is a short diary of a factory worker locked in the closet by Milo as a punishment for taking a prolonged break time. After a few days another worker had joined the prisoner in his misery, apparently for bathroom misbehavior. Body count shows that more were punished later. It is in the same room as the one with a massive hole in the ceiling.

Factory floor
This is the area behind the locked door in the first cell. If you don't have sufficient Lockpick skill it can be accessed through the offices (follow the signs that say 'shipping'). In the bottom level of the factory floor a friendly Mister Handy, named Milo, shipping foreman, can be found. He is in possession of R&D safe key and the shipping computer password. The key and the password can be obtained either by introducing oneself as a new worker Larry and giving Milo his ID number (see "Welcome to the Nuka-Cola Family!" note above), persuading Milo with high enough Speech skill, resetting him with the Robotics Expert perk or simply by killing him (password is recorded on the holodisk, which causes a "PipOS Error - 26: File Not found for the image).

The packing computer (very easy) is located on the factory floor level two rooms before the entrance to the offices. It can be used to manufacture 3 Nuka-Cola Quantums before the bottling line jams permanently.

Factory floor (before passing locked door)

 * Dean's Electronics - Factory floor level, in the cafeteria, as you enter the building, take a right. It is on the corner of the large L-shaped counter in the cafeteria.
 * Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual - In the main entrance, after walking in the door look up and you will see a hole in the roof where a filing cabinet is lying face down. The book is inside the cabinet.

Factory floor (behind locked door)

 * Tumblers Today - Factory floor section, north section near entrance to the Office section. Past Milo, through a door you'll find a safe and the book is under the safe.
 * 3 Nuka-Cola Quantum - In the factory floor level, use the Packing Line terminal to select Quantums, then turn on the bottling line. It jams instantly, but 3 Nuka-Cola Quantums appear on the line.

Storage and Mixing Vats

 * Nukalurk meat - This is the only location in the Capital Wasteland in which the player can obtain the unique nukalurk meat.

Offices

 * Big Books of Science - On the middle floor, western edge of the map, due north of Winger Mercier's corpse, on a table.
 * Lying, Congressional Style - Also on the middle floor, east/northeast part of the map, on top of a safe, right next to a Marketing terminal.
 * Stealth Boy - Beside Winger Mercier's corpse in the Office section.
 * Help me note - Found on one of a number of skeletons in a closet telling about the draconian punishments enforced by Milo. The closet can be found on the first floor of the office on the north side. It is locked with a hard lock.

Outside

 * Nuka-Cola Quantum - Behind the Plant at the loading docks inside a truck, with 10 bottles of regular Nuka-Cola.
 * Dean's Electronics - Just northwest of the plant, in a truck-trailer on top of a hill. (See Andale).
 * When you are in front of the factory's entrance, go to southeast/south. You'll find the corpse of a wastelander under a bench, with a message titled "Marry me!" (sometimes the corpse doesn't spawn).
 * To the north, there is a U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes, along with some flour inside a Dot's Diner with a few raiders nearby. There is also a group of Enclave soldiers below the diner in a parking lot, three of which are carrying a laser pistol and the Enclave officer is carrying a plasma pistol.

Related quest

 * The Nuka-Cola Challenge

Terminal data
A number of terminals can be found throughout the plant which provide a variety of background information about the company and its products, with details on the development, marketing and (perhaps most importantly) shipment manifests for Nuka-Cola Quantum.

Appearances
The Nuka-Cola Plant appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * In the "Stage Three" log of the Marketing terminal, there are hints suggesting that Pepsi's "Pepsi Challenge" was carried out by hired actors rather than normal store patrons.
 * The password for the factory's shipping manifest "NC-C1864" is a nod to a Star Trek ship registry. While the NCC-1701 is the registry for the U.S.S. Enterprise, the NCC-1864 is for the U.S.S. Reliant. It is the ship that Khan steals in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
 * In the factory floor area, a research terminal has an entry "New Flavor Coming!", and mentions a new product, Nuka-Cola Clear, with the "same great taste" as regular Nuka-Cola. This could be an homage to Crystal Pepsi, from the early 1990s, which was a colorless soda but had largely the same taste as original Pepsi.

Bugs

 * There's a "garage door" opposite to Milo, Shipping Foreman in the same room. It's on top of some machinery where you can land in jumping from the stairs high above. You can click to open or close the door, but it doesn't open. Sometimes the liquid within the Storage and vats room will have trouble being rendered, possibly pulling off an effect where there were alternating bars of dark and light blue coloring which seem to move.
 * If you open the Very Hard door on the factory floor and go straight to Milo, he will interact with you once and the dialog will finish straight away with no options. You won't be able to interact with him after that, even if you find the ID later. You will have to kill him to get the safe key and the login code.
 * In the Storage and Mixing Vats section, sometimes the nukalurks you kill may sink through the floor and the player can't loot them.
 * Sometimes the blue water effect will appear randomly around the wasteland after you leave the plant.