Deciding whether to pick Fairfield or Westport as a target for the crashing Vox Relay is a conundrum, though admittedly less so if you've got either hack level 4 or the lucky trait which allow you to send the relay to space instead. The Outer Worlds 2's first major decision comes after you've defeated Brigadier Montelli at the Vox Relay and have found De Vries' safe room.
Just as you're perusing her private correspondence, she appears in chat and lets you know that she's about to launch the Vox Relay on a collision course with Fairfield. If you're like me, you might not mind turning the Auntie's Choice stronghold into a crater, especially if it means not having to listen to any more corporate jingles, but you also have the choice to redirect the relay to Westport, the major Protectorate settlement on the island.
Decisions, decisions. Since the repercussions are unclear, I went through with all of the choices and have recorded the results below so you know exactly what you're getting into. This guide will, of course, contain spoilers for the climax of Paradise Island, so leave now if you want to avoid them.
Should you choose Fairfield in The Outer Worlds 2?
If you do nothing and don't interact with the Vox Relay console, it'll land on Fairfield when you escape. The consequences of this are:
- Fairfield is destroyed and no longer accessible
- Inez will leave your party
- You'll get -10 rep with Auntie's choice
- Some quests will no longer be available such as:
- Milverstreet or Kaur's quests
- Perilous Journey to the Grove
- The Mystifying Case of the Midnight Marauder
- Diabolical Drones of Doom
- All of the loot in Fairfield will be inaccessible
- Inez will leave your party
This is definitely the worst option, since frankly, there's a lot more going on in Fairfield than in Westport. You'll lose access to all sorts of loot, including a High Security Lockbox you find in the basement at the end of The Mystifying Case of the Midnight Marauder, which contains the Manager's Tasking Hat. You'll also lose access to all of Milverstreet or Kaur's quest rewards (if you haven't done either), including Kaur's Korroder and Milverstreet's top hat, which you can steal from their respective locker and safe if you pickpocket their keys.
You'll also lose access to the Advanced Decryption Keys you can buy from More Perfect Goods, plus the one you get from the Bounty Terminal for completing Diabolical Drones of Doom quest, provided you haven't grabbed these already, as well as a couple of Tossball/Pitchball Cards, such as the one in the Fairfield Saloon.
Weirdly, the only place that isn't destroyed is Ethel Tinsley's lab—kind of hilarious when her only purpose seems to be Inez's companion quest, but destroying Fairfield makes Inez leave your party anyway.
Should you choose Westport in The Outer Worlds 2?
If Inez is in your party, she'll insist that you change the Vox Relay's course to somewhere else. If you interact with the console and swap the target to Westport, the consequences are:
- Westport is… kind of destroyed. It doesn't look that destroyed, but the main part of the town becomes inaccessible.
- You can no longer access any loot in the main town of Westport
- Some quests will no longer be available, such as:
- The Saga of the Malfunctioning Mechanicals
- Milverstreet's quest to get all the Westport citizens to move to Fairfield
And that's about it. There's very little going on in Westport, and since the Protectorate doesn't have a rep system related to your actions, the immediate repercussions are very light. Despite asking you to kill Brigadier Montelli, Vigilant Hogarth, Westport's leader, doesn't even fork up a reward for it, either.
The main loot you can miss out on is the Adrenaline Edge Mk.3 knife, which passively accumulates energy and toxicity in combat, so it's good for certain builds. You can buy this from the Requisition Mech, along with an Advanced Decryption Key.
Similar to Ethel Tinsley in Fairfield, the blast doesn't touch Zeb's house outside the walls, so presumably, you can still complete Nile's companion quest, and you can access all the loot on the outskirts, like the High Security Lockbox and Tossball/Pitchball Card in one of the northwest houses.
Honestly, one of the best plays (if you don't have the necessary hack for the alternative) is completing Milverstreet's quest to get all of the Westport citizens to move to Fairfield, and then dropping the Vox Relay on the town, since it should be empty. Either way, between Fairfield and Westport, the latter is definitely the best choice.
Sending the Vox Relay to space instead
Skill-wise, if you have Hack Level 4 and a Bypass Shunt, you can redirect the Vox Relay into space instead, leaving both towns unscathed. Sadly, you can't back out of the area to level more once you've entered Brigadier Montelli's boss arena, but if you have an earlier save, I guess you could load that up and come back later. Obviously, this is the best choice of all since no one gets crushed by a giant relay station falling on them.
