Are you nearing the end of the main quest and starting Overseer’s Mission? The last part of this side quest requires you to fire a Nuke, firing Nukes can also trigger a boss fight that gives you unique rewards.

Completing Nuclear Silos can be quite lengthy, so that’s where this guide comes into play. In this guide, I’ll walk you through what you need to acquire, strategies on how to survive Nuclear Silos’ defenses, how to get through the silos normally, and finally I’ll show you what glitches you can exploit to run through the silos quickly.

Preparation

Before you even think about setting foot in a silo, you’ll need to acquire a few essential Fallout 76 items: a Nuclear Keycard and a Nuclear Launch Code. You can get Nuclear Keycard by activating the mission at Enclave Bunker.

The second thing you’ll need is a Launch Code. Normally you should activate a quest to find Scorched Officers wandering around the map, take their codes, and then decrypt them to eventually get Launch Code.

The last thing is Nuclear Silo State Holotape. You don’t need this, but it’s good to have one because it tells you the state of Silo. They are sold by the vendor in the command bunker, right next to the room where you start Keycard quest. You should only use it when the silo is ready to launch. Of course, you must have discovered at least one silo.

How To Get Through A Silo?

Currently, there are two major ways to get through a silo, Brute Force or Stealth.

Usually, Brute Force involves using Power Armor and Heavy weapons. I use Overeaters Union Power Armor and Troubleshooter’s Explosive .50 Cal Machine Gun. It’s not the best choice, but I use that machine gun in silo all the time.

Some people choose to use Troubleshooter’s Power Armor just for the silo, but I don’t think it matters unless you want to face the entire silo at once. So basically just wearing Power Armor is enough.

It’s a good idea to equip all Damage Buffs and Power Armor specific perks. Even if it makes you overweight, it doesn’t matter since you won’t be doing much sprinting, anyway.

Almost every enemy uses energy weapons, so if you’re having trouble, Legendary perk to recharge your Fusion Cores is very useful. But it’s by no means critical.

Stealth requires using hard hitting silenced weapons, and not being detected. I use Silent Gauss Rifle, and of course all the perks that increase damage and protection.

You can use a Stealth suit, but in my experience it doesn’t prevent you from being detected, so your tactics are more important. You have to stay hidden, or at worst be cautious, and eliminate enemies one by one with Stealth state.

If you have three Hacker perks, then you have the option of manipulating Turrets. You can disable them all, so that only the bots are left to deal with. It’s easier to deal with them. You can make them hostile to everything, which means they even shoot at each other. Then you can sit back and eliminate the remaining enemies.

But sometimes these glitches and you can’t disable them afterwards. Therefore, disabling Turrets right away is probably the safest option. You can usually also choose to take control of one bot. They will usually die right away, but this way you have one less bot to deal with.

Questline Step-by-Step Guide

Now I’ll walk you through how to use a silo properly. There are a few stages to this, and I’ll cover each stage in a separate section. These Silos are pretty much the same, but you can occasionally get a silo with slightly different interiors.

Get And Register An ID Card

The first stage is getting an ID Card and registering it. But before you open the door, there’s a terminal on your left. It allows you to command Turrets if you want. Then go to your right and read the instructions for the terminal.

We were lucky enough to find an old card right away, but the location is randomly set. It’s usually on tables, shelves, and other surfaces. I’ll go through the bunker and show you some locations where you can find them. Multiple cards will spawn, so you’ll almost certainly find one here. If you still can’t find one, be sure to check all the remaining side rooms.

Once you have the card, you’ll need to get your biometrics. You’ll have to use one of Biopods, and this is also the only time you’ll have to leave Power Armor. Then go back to the terminal and swipe the card. This will reset it. Now you can make your own cards.

The last step is to register it on the command console. It may take a little while to register, but you should be able to get through the laser grid.

Repair The Reactor

There are two paths through this section. I recommend going through the storage, as there is a raider down the other path that will usually become hostile. If you have mutations, it’s a good idea to enable Starched Genes perk at this point.

There is a lot of radiation in the area ahead, so you should be prepared. There should be some hazmat suits in the locker to your left. This terminal allows you to power up radiation arches to clean up any radiation you’ve been exposed to. A small tip is that the robots will take damage when they pass through the arches, so you can also use this as a defensive measure.

It’s a good idea to use a Rad-X or RadShield in this area. You’ll need to shut down the reactors before you can repair them.

Once you’re done, you can either go back to the terminal and power up the reactor manually, or you can wait for the timer to run out. Restoring power will open a sealed door on the south side of the room. Going through the door on the left will take you back to the room in front of the radiation arches, where you can find hazmat suits. This terminal controls the turrets in the next section.

Destroy The Mainframe

For some reason, this robot has a section underground. If you have explosive weapons, it’s enough to deal with it. The goal here is the mainframe modules to open the exit of this section.

One way to do this is to manually click on the cores and take them out. But you can also just shoot them. Using explosive weapons is ideal in this section. Just keep shooting until there are no more damage numbers.

Get The Cores

This isn’t exactly the same mainframe, but now you have to repair the damaged mainframe to open the door to the launch room. It’s a good idea to clear out the initial group of robots and turrets. There’s a sentry bot hiding to the right of the entrance. It’s a good idea to shoot it before it sees you.

Now that it’s quieted down a bit, let’s go back to the beginning of this section. The location of the cores you need to pick up is random, but I’ll tell you where they tend to be found. Using a headlamp in a low-light area will help. These rooms are worth going to if you have the three Lock-picking perks. There’s at least one core and a security terminal here.

Launch

Finally, after all of this is done, it’s time to launch Nuke. There will usually be a bunch of turrets, but sometimes you’ll get a silo without any turrets.

The launch console is to the left of the entrance room and above the stairs. Starting the launch will create the first of five robots, and after a while you’ll get two more and finally the last two, for a total of five.

It’s a good idea to walk around the silo before starting the launch process and clearing out the first wave of robots and turrets. It’s important to note that the rooms for crafting launch controllers are located around the central room, and if they are destroyed, you’ll need to use the terminals to re-craft them.

If you see damaged controllers, you can use Friendly Fire perk to heal them. It’s much more convenient to fire Flamers multiple times than to find a specific terminal and recreate them.

That being said, you can still make progress with fewer controllers, so if you’re close to the end, you can wait.

You need to be especially wary of Assaultrons, though, one of which can take out multiple controllers before you notice. The number of enemies you encounter depends on how many players are in the launch control room.

There’s a bug that can happen here that stops the progress bar. Usually it tends to happen around 75% and if it does, there is nothing you can do. You have to leave, let the silo reset, and then try again from the beginning.

Once the launch progress is complete, you can access the launch controls. They are located below where the first launch controller is. Before doing anything, look for the code for your specific silo. Double check where you are to make sure you have the right code.

Then insert the card into the left slot. And enter the code on the right keypad. If you make a mistake, you will lose your Nuclear Keycard, so double check before entering the last digit.

Now you need to set your target, you can choose anywhere outside of the forest region. Usually, people tend to launch at Fissure Site Prime to start Scorchbeast Queen event. You just need to include that place in the nuke radius to trigger the event.

People tend to miss a few locations to the right of the fissure because that includes the spawn location for the event and people tend to fast travel to Bunker. At least you should leave one fast travel point available so that people can get to the event before it starts.

Other locations include Abandoned Mineshaft 2, to trigger Nuka-World on Tour boss fight. Then there’s Monongah Mine, which lets you start the boss fight with Earl.

It’s pretty complex, and for low-level players, it can be pretty hard to learn how to do things. You’re definitely not going to run it perfectly the first time you try a silo. But I still recommend trying it at least once so you can get a feel for how the designers intended it to work. After a few times, you should start using the available shortcuts.

Anyway, that’s all the info you need to know about successfully launching Nuke Silos. So get out there and launch some more nukes so you can get some Repair Kits you’ve never seen before!