Should you side with Edgewater or the Deserters in The Outer Worlds?

What should you do in The Outer Worlds' Comes Now the Power quest? The first main conflict in The Outer Worlds is Edgewater vs Deserters, where the two factions battle it out for precious resources in the first hub zone of Emerald Vale. 

The first main quest of real consequence in the game tasks you with finding a power regulator for The Unreliable, which involves parlaying with the two opposing groups and carefully coming to a decision that will send shock waves throughout the area. Literally. In this guide, I'm going to run through how to complete the Comes Now the Power quest and side with the faction of your choice. Then I'll dive into the consequences felt in The Outer Worlds' redirect power dilemma to see which one you can live with.

How to start Comes Now the Power

When you arrive in Edgewater, head to Reed Tompson’s office in the Edgewater Saltuna Cannery and he will give you the quest. He asks you to travel to the Geothermal Plant out in the sticks and send the power his way to Edgewater. Think of the oppressed people crushed under the weight of greed, he says.

He also asks you to deliver a message to those who have deserted his lovely town. He wants you to pass one that he's going to cut their power and that they should head back to Edgewater.

From here you can deal with some optional objectives, of which there are only two before the plant. One is to deliver the message, which provides an alternative conclusion to the mission. This a useful means of seeing both sides, so follow the green arrow to the Botanical Lab and chat to Adelaide McDevitt about their situation. She states that she’s working hard on a cure for the plague, and by giving them the power you’d be liberating the oppressed people of Edgewater.

Parvati will also say that you should visit Vicar Max for some spiritual advice. He’s a potential companion if you complete his side quest, but he really has nothing to offer to aid you in your current predicament, so you can ignore him for now.

How to divert power from the Geothermal Plant

Now onto the crucial choice, so head to the Geothermal Plant outside of Edgewater. Progress through the robot-infested unit by following the green arrow. You can also head down to the bottom of the ringed pit and talk to Higgins, who will give you a code necessary to reprogram the robots to kill each other. This is useful if you’re finding it difficult to get through the plant.

Keep going through the terminal to the Master Control Terminal. Flip the three switches and use the keycard to get access to the terminal, where you can reroute the power.

Should you redirect power to Edgewater or the Deserters?

In making your choice, consider the consequences listed below:

• If you side with the Deserters, you’ll have to fight Reed and his men for the Power Regulator back at the cannery. You can convince him to stand down if your speech skills are high enough, but the whole town will lose power and you’ll have to get some blood on your hands. Parvati will also be sad.
• If you side with Edgewater, the people holed up in the Deserter camp will be somewhat convinced to come back to Edgewater. But Adelaide, dogmatic about her search for a cure, will be adamant about continuing her research alone, even if it kills her. However, she will give up if you convince Reed to skip town (or kill him), which takes a few speech checks. This is the 'nicer' option and Edgewater ends up doing better overall.

And with that, you’re done. Now you can power up The Unreliable and zip around The Outer Worlds' inviting, hyper-capitalist galaxy. Just don’t think too much about the people you left behind.