Vault-Tec Agricultural Research Center

Vault-Tec Agricultural Research Center is a location in Fallout 76.

Background
A pre-War facility established to experiment with crop automation and fertilization, the Agricultural Center was one of the major landmarks in the small town of Flatwoods. The fleet of Mr Farmhands (customized Mr Handy robots) would automatically take care of crops, fertilizing them, planting seeds, and collecting the harvest with barely any need for human oversight. While the Great War put the facility offline, it was reactivated by McFadden and restored to operation - somewhat. McFadden was no robot technician and so didn't have a lot of ideas on how to manage the fleet beyond simply reactivating them with help from the Responders. He continued his work, but his lack of technical skill culminated in the Farmhands going rogue and Handy overseers turning the robots loose on anyone who breached the perimeter.

Points of interest

 * The agricultural center is one of the first dungeons encountered by the player on their way through Appalachia, sitting just over the river from Flatwoods and straddling the road leading out into the green wasteland. While hangars that sit near Flatwoods offer some loot, the primary attraction is the main building, with the Mr Farmhands floating around it and attacking unwary travelers. These low-level robots are fairly easy to dispatch, but can overwhelm lower level players.
 * Inside, the facility opens first into the main foyer, with a Vault 76 cache on the counter and the first of the Overseer's holotapes. The building is in a state of disrepair and navigating it yields minor loot, with some plants growing in the abandoned cultivation labs. The most important locations are the offices at the top floor, which contain McFadden's journal and makeshift living space, a locked safe, and a locked room which contains a pre-placed pipe pistol.
 * In the rear are the greenhouses with more plants to harvest and a lot of Mr Farmhands.

Related events

 * Event: Fertile Soil: The players can put the reins on the Farmhands and make the Ag Center safe for humans - for a time.

Notable loot

 * Overseer's Journal, Entry 1: On the counter in the foyer.
 * Potential bobblehead: In or on the open rusty fridge, one of three in the western corner of the hydroponics room (lower level) with the flower pots, opposite a fertilizer hatch, left of the wood door (interior).
 * Potential bobblehead: In the urinal, inside the men's restroom, by the stairwell (interior).
 * Potential bobblehead: In the filing cabinet tray with the office desk fan, on the floor in front of the empty filing cabinets, in the upper (east side) filing office (interior).
 * Potential bobblehead: On the corner of the metal desk with the destroyed terminal, just left of the empty filing cabinets, on the dry part of the basement laboratory level (interior).
 * Potential magazine: On the cardboard boxes sitting on the sofa, by the sleeping bag in the office with Macfadden's Terminal in it; upstairs and southwest of the stairwell, in the Research Center (interior).
 * Potential magazine: On or around the shelf in the northwest corner of the small storage room (blue wallpaper), between the ruined conference room (hole in the wall) and the filing room (across the hallway), in the Research Center (interior).
 * Potential magazine: On the desk with the destroyed terminal and telephone, northeast corner of the filing office, left of the propped "atom" picture, upstairs inside the center (interior).
 * Potential magazine: On the large sink and wire shelving, in the southwest washroom area of the basement laboratory of the Research Center (not in the flooded area) (interior).


 * Dynamic spawns

Appearances
Vault-Tec Agricultural Research Center appears in Fallout 76.