Tag: strike

In The Outer Worlds 2, several factions operate in Arcadia, including one that may seem familiar from the first game. Auntie’s Choice resulted from the merger of Auntie Cleo’s and Spacer’s Choice, though it was really more of a hostile takeover. They’re glad to accept your assistance.

Auntie’s Choice prioritizes profits above all else, often exploiting their workers and selling products that seldom meet even basic standards. They want your help to get rid of an unusual obstacle at one of their factories—a workers’ strike.

This quest is part of the process to gain an audience with Auntie Cleo to negotiate an alliance between Auntie’s Choice and Ruth Basaar’s Order of the Ascendant. But there’s still a lot of work to do before reaching that goal. You need to investigate and handle a strike at the factory first.

After meeting with Ursula and Prendergrass aboard the Undisputed Claim, they ask you to go to an Auntie’s factory on Praetor, called the Fine Product Revitalization Center, and break the strike. The factory needs to be reopened because they’re puzzled about why the workers aren’t working. Your task is to resolve this as a helpful outsider, making the factory’s operation more profitable for Auntie’s Choice.

The factory is located deep in the southeast corner of Praetor, a large, easily visible building on the map, marked well before you arrive. The strike outside, led by a woman named Carol Sterling, makes it clear you’ve reached the site. The crowd is picketing, preventing anyone from entering or leaving. Talk to Carol for the full story. She’ll tell you no one can enter now but suggest you might find another way inside if you’re here for negotiations.

There are two ways to get into the factory. First, during your chat with Carol, if you have the Sickly negative trait, you can fake feeling sick and threaten to spread your illness, which convinces her to let you in easily. This allows free movement in and out of the factory.

Alternatively, you can find a side entrance by heading left from the protest toward the roof, where you’ll see an open vent. Climbing in drops you onto the second floor behind Griggs’ office—this sneaking route isn’t trespassing since you’re working under Auntie’s orders, and it’s a good way to enter unseen.

Once inside, you meet Griggs, the factory boss, who is resistant to the ideas of shorter work hours, free Adrena-Time, and bathroom access for workers. Negotiation options include skill checks such as Science, Medical, Leadership, Engineering, or using your Negotiator perk. Success can secure better terms for the workers while helping Auntie’s profits, but even without perfect skills, you can compromise, like securing a paid lunch break instead.

The workers demand shorter hours, free Adrena-Time, and constant bathroom access. Griggs dismisses these demands, claiming that giving workers access to the bathroom whenever they want would waste company time, which she considers unacceptable.

Negotiating these issues involves passing specific skill checks. For work hours, convincing Griggs requires checks like a Science or Medical score of seven, a Leadership of seven, or Engineering/Leadership of four, or using your Negotiator perk. Failing that, you might settle for a compromise, such as paid lunch breaks.

For Adrena-Time, negotiations revolve around her refusing to give it away for free. Using Speech or Medical skill checks (like seven Speech or seven Medical) or perks such as Pharm-thusiast or Renegade can influence her to provide it at no cost, benefiting the workers and earning you some money.

Bathroom access is the final point. Griggs refuses to allow unrestricted access, citing productivity concerns. Passing a Medical or Science check of four can sway her, but failing means you must accept her restrictions. If you succeed, the workers gain the bathroom rights.

After negotiations, you can report back to Ursula and Prendergrass. If the strike is resolved successfully, the workers will return, and Griggs will thank you. If you killed the strike leaders, they’ll be pleased that normal operations resume. Killing Griggs outright is an option if negotiations stall, but it’s better to deal with her first and only resort to violence if necessary.

While you could eliminate the leaders preemptively, it’s advisable to negotiate first. Any agreements reached will hold even if the leaders are later killed. If negotiations aren’t successful, you can threaten to shut the factory down by force, leading to combat with Dunbar, Leo, and security forces, with the best strategy being to take cover and pick enemies off carefully.

If you eliminate the strike leaders after failed negotiations, you can also talk to Carol for some harsh dialogue, which can be quite demoralizing for her.

To remove Griggs if negotiations fail, you may choose to execute her silently, especially if you’ve already weakened her position. Eliminating her may be necessary if the strike leaders are uncooperative or if negotiations are at a dead end. Kill her in her office to avoid alerting others, and inform Dunbar and Grey. They’ll appreciate her removal and may get a new overseer more sympathetic to workers’ rights.

After the strike is over, whether through negotiations or force, return to the Undisputed Claim to update Ursula and Prendergrass. If negotiations went well, they’ll be disappointed to give up some profit, but otherwise happy the factory is operational again. If you killed Griggs, reveal her embezzlement—something expected from her—and explain that her blatant theft damaged negotiations, which they accept as reasonable.

Now, you’re one step closer to meeting Auntie Cleo, but after finishing this, you’ll have one more quest to complete before the next chapter.