Turning on the power in Nuka World requires the player to complete a few steps. First, each section of the park must be cleared, as outlined in the mission of The Grand Tour. Clearing and claiming all five sections of the park and speaking to Gage will result in a relative rise in instability and unlock an important choice.
After speaking to Mackinzie Bridgeman in the Nuka-World USA market, the player can choose to engage in the Open Season mission. This task the player with hunting down the bosses for all three gangs which will incidentally set every gang member in Nuka-World against the player). After defeating all the gang bosses and clearing the streets of enemies, the player can then progress to turning on the power.
Alternatively, by helping the Raiders and conquering three Commonwealth settlements, the player can trigger a gang uprising. After putting down the uprising, the player can then continue to the steps below.
The Nuka-World Power Plant entrance is around the back end of the building, a blue door near the ground floor. Depending on the choices you’ve made, the area may be inhabited by either Ghouls or gang members.
Advancing through the plant, your ultimate goal is the roof, but you’ll begin by heading downstairs. The course winds through the plant, with tracks heading down, up, down, and up again.
Note that there’s a suit of Power Armor hidden on the bottom floor behind this locked door.
Fallout 4: Nuka World includes a quest called Star Control in which players must track down 20 Star Cores in order to repair a mainframe. Optionally, they can collect a full set of 35 to unlock a new set of power armor.
This mission is a necessary step in the main quest The Grand Tour and takes place in the Galactic Zone. You can complete Star Control simply by wiping out every robot and turret on the map and its associated dungeons (marked with ride symbols), but it is worth doing it “properly” by tracking down the Star Cores. Doing so will automatically unlock all the Galactic robot mods added in Fallout 4: Nuka World, and of course, there’s that power armor, innit. A fine reward for your hard work.
Fallout 4 Nuka World is full of these waypoint-less fetch quests, so we feel no shame about providing a guide for them. So here you go: directions to every Star Core in Fallout 4: Nuka World.
By the way, we have a huge Fallout 4 guide you can check out if you’re struggling with any other part of the game. If you have questions, we have answers.
Galactic Zone dungeon Star Cores
There are four dungeons in Nuka World’s Galactic Zone – Starlight Interstellar Theater, Robco Battlezone, Vault-Tec: Among the Stars, and Nuka Galaxy. Clearing these dungeons will net you a total of 23 Star Cores – more than enough to reboot the mainframe. These are the easiest Star Cores to find because you know how many there are in each area, and once the enemies are down, it’s just a matter of poking carefully into each corner.
Still, it’s pretty easy to miss a couple, so we’ve listed the location of each Galactic Zone dungeon Star Core below. Where applicable we’ve arranged them in the order you’ll encounter them along the linear crawls, so if you’re missing just one or two Star Cores as opposed to vacuuming them all up at once, just wander along the crawl route and check in at each of the Star Core locations to see if you’ve grabbed it.
Starlight Interstellar Theater Star Cores
There are four Star Cores in this short, non-linear dungeon:
- From the entrance, take the left corridor until you reach the bathrooms towards the far end. Enter the men’s bathroom (blue paint) and look for a crack in one wall. There’s a dead trader in here with a Star Core.
- From the entrance, explore the right corridor until you reach the kitchen at the far end. There’s a door in here behind which you’ll find the second Star Core.
- Enter the main cinema area. There’s a console towards the rear of the room, opposite the screen, with a third Star Core.
- Take either of the elevators to the catwalks or the control room above the cinema. There’s a fourth Star Core in a console in the control room.
RobCo Battlezone Star Cores
- There are six Star Cores in this dungeon, but you’ll need to survive some tough robot encounters to claim the last one. If you don’t need every Star Core, skip the fourth one here.
- From the entrance, enter the audience seating area and immediately turn left. Search along the wall for a locked door leading to a room with two Star Cores.
- Take one of the passages between the blocks of audience seating to find the souvenir shop tucked away at the back. There’s a Star Core on a shelf.
- Facing the robot battle arena, circle anti-clockwise to enter the tunnels underneath it; beware the sentry bot. There’s a Star Core on a console.
- Finally, make a save and then enter the arena itself, where you can collect two Star Cores. Three waves of hostile robots will spawn in before you can exit, so be careful.
Vault-Tec: Among the Stars Star Cores
- There are six Star Cores in this confusing and occasionally deadly dungeon. Check the scenery in each room to orientate yourself.
- From the entrance, take the elevator down to the start of the “ride”. In the area with rocks and Protections, look for a locked door hidden away from the ride path. There’s a Star Core in the room beyond.
- Follow the ride path until you reach a living room display. There are multiple exits from this room. One locked sliding door leads to a small observation room with a Star Core.
- Two of the exits from the living room area form a short loop. Along this route, there’s a highly radioactive room. There’s a Star Core in this room.
- Finally, there’s a nursery off the living room display area. Pick the locked sliding door here to enter the central office – watch out for the Novatron. One of the doors in this room leads to the main observation center, where three Star Cores and a loot chest await.
Nuka Galaxy Star Cores
- This linear dungeon includes seven Star Cores. If you’re a stealth character, activating ride lighting at any active terminal will make it easier to sneak up on the many enemies and turrets. Otherwise, the standard emergency lighting makes navigation and spotting Star Cores much easier. Turn up your screen’s brightness!
- From the entrance, proceed through the queueing lanes to the boarding area. Facing the direction the ride travels, look for a door to the right of the ride path. There’s a Star Core in this room.
- From the last room, take the door leading deeper into the ride. When you reach a large room with multiple planets, cross to the opposite side of the ledge you start on and find some stairs leading down. Cross the room to reach a corridor, and collect a Star Core from the console part way along with it.
- Continue along the corridors and take the elevator on your left. Turn left out of the elevator and find a small opening leading to the next room. There’s a console directly opposite this entrance where you can collect another Star Core.
- Proceed right through the rocky set to reach a hidden door leading to a long set of stairs leading up. When you emerge back onto the ride track, immediately turn left and climb a short flight of stairs to reach a console with another Star Core.
- At the end of the ride, you can collect a Star Core and a key from a console at the disembarkation zone. Use the key on the nearby door to open a path back to the ride entrance. In the short tunnel between the ride entrance and ride exit, there’s a short flight of stairs leading to an office. Collect a Star Core in here.
Finally, enter the tiny control booth off the office mentioned in the last bullet point and grab the last Star Core from the computers.
Nuka World and Galactic Zone Star Cores
Although there is a stack of Star Cores to be found in the dungeons listed above, a further 12 Star Cores are lying around in the overworld or miscellaneous cells. Seven of them are found in the Galactic Zone, while five are scattered around the broader Fallout 4: Nuka-World map.
Galactic Zone Star Cores
There are seven Star Cores to be found around the Galactic Zone park. Clear out or avoid enemies to make this easier.
- One Star Core is found near a corpse near the mainframe in Starport Nuka.
- A second Star Core is found in a locked display case on the upper level of Starport Nuka.
- At the base of Starport Nuka, go through the mesh gate and search the huts and sheds for a third Star Core near another corpse.
- There’s a Star Core on the console at the top of the long stairs leading up to the Arcjet G-Force ride near Nuka Galaxy.
- Facing the entrance ramp to Nuka Galaxy, search to the right for a small shed with another Star Core.
- There’s one Star Core on the console near the bottom end of the Spacewalk; if you’re coming down the ramp from Starport Nuka, it’s on your right just at the end. Approaching from Robco Battlezone, it’s on the left before you go in and harder to see.
- The final Star Core is on the top level of Starport Nuka and is only accessible after completing the main story quest to restore power to Nuka World.
Nuka-World Star Cores
To get the last five Star Cores, you’ll need to range all over the greater Nuka-World map.
- On a table in the Nuka-Town Market, on the north side.
- Inside Nuka-Cade; turn right from the entrance and head back into an employee area.
- In a barn northeast of the junkyard found in the southwest of the map (the Hubologist quest will take you to the junkyard if you’re having trouble finding it).
- South of Doc Phosphate’s in Dry Rock Gulch, near a corpse.
- Near a corpse in the Nuka-Cola Bottling Plant; face the Quantum area and turn right to locate it.
Fallout 4 Nuka-World Tip: Where to Find the Power Plant Key
Fallout 4’s Nuka-World DLC is the last of the six different DLC packages to come out for the game. In Nuka-World as you walk around you’ll start to notice that most of the power in the park and various zones are turned off. This stops you from being able to use the workshop in the Red Rocket Settlement and build your own slice of entertainment in the park.
How to restore power to Nuka World
Knowing how to turn on the power in Nuka-World can be done in two different ways and you don’t need the power plant key. The good guy way or the bad guy way.
Being the good guy…
Going down the good route means turning on the three gangs in Nuka World and killing all the raiders. By starting the mission “Open Season” which is given to you by Mackenzie Bridgeman in Nuka Town USA you will be quested to kill the three leaders of the gangs. Once completed, you’ll be pointed toward the Nuka-World Power Plant on the west side of the map, Climbing to the top of the Power Plant you’ll find a security cage, and inside all, you’ll need to do is hit the big red button.
TA-DA! The park will come to life and you can head to the North East Area of the map to use the workstation in the Red Rocket Settlement.
Being the bad guy…
If you want to become the king of the raiders then you must talk to Shank and start the mission “The Grand Tour” which tasks you with reclaiming the different zones around the map and assigning any of the three gangs to the areas. Once you have assigned the last zone, one of the gangs will turn on you and lock themselves away in the Nuka-World Power Plant and you’ll have to go play some retribution for turning on you.
Once you get inside the Power Plant just work your way up through it, taking out any Raiders you see along the way. When you get to the top you’ll see the security gate and you’ll be able to push the big red button.
Magical! Watch Nuka-World power up and come to life right before your eyes. Now you should be able to use things in the park that require power like the workstation.
Now you have the power back on, tell us your best bits about Fallout 4’s last DLC Nuka-World.
Also, beware of the Bloated Glowing Ghoul you may encounter… he’s carrying a Fat Man. Knock him down quickly and from a distance.
When you reach the area near the pool table and employee terminal. look at the upward-facing ramp hidden nearby. In the darkroom beyond is a ladder to the roof.
