Drinkin' Buddy, also called Buddy, is a modified protectron, located in the basement of the Shamrock Taphouse in 2287.
Background
The owner of the Shamrock Taphouse, Patrick Merryweather, was contracted by the Hotel Rexford to design and manufacture a specialized brewing robot capable of producing beer at an accelerated rate, with the intent of serving ice cold beer to hotel patrons.
To build the robot, the entrepreneur purchased a consumer RobCo protectron. He stripped out the robot's main assembly and replaced it with a custom miniaturized microbrewing unit fabricated with unlicensed parts that was capable of flash-fermenting mash, in turn producing alcohol quickly. In doing so, he voided the robot's warranty as the modification was not authorized by the manufacturers. He designed the robot to accept recipe holotapes thus allowing it to brew a wide range of different types of beer, also programming in a wide variety of jokes to be told for the customer's amusement. Unfortunately the Hotel Rexford was under contractual obligations to only serve Gwinnett beer, so therefore Patrick was unable to use his own recipes. However, he managed to get in contact with a person who was able to illegally crack the encryption on one of the brewery's proprietary brewing holotapes. This allowed the robot to produce Gwinnett pale ale by default.
After days of tinkering and perfecting, Patrick managed to finish the robot. He had no respect for copyright considering the recipe holotapes and the unlicensed microbrewing equipment and modifications, but he was able to complete the robot before the Gwinnett Brewery's lawyers caught up with him. The final product was Drinkin' Buddy - the ultimate automated drinking experience. He designed the robot to be ready for mass-production with the main customers being bars and restaurants. Patrick had the original prototype unit scheduled for delivery via truck to the Hotel Rexford. Unfortunately this was cut short by the Great War, leaving Buddy still inactive in his charging pod, his delivery 200 years behind schedule.
Character overview
He can be given holotapes containing alcohol recipes that he will store in his inventory. He can also change regular beers and soft drinks into their ice cold variants granting 35 AP in addition to the usual STR/CHR +1, INT -1; this is done by following the dialog option to request a beer, but instead placing drinks into his inventory. Alternatively, the recipes may also be removed just by trying to talk to him. Drinks that one can give to him to make ice cold are any Gwinnett beverage, any Nuka-Cola and any Vim.
Brewing
Giving Buddy any "Gwinnett," "Nuka" or "Vim" will cause it to become ice cold after about 12 hours in-game time. This increases the benefits of the item upon consumption by a variable amount but does not remove the rads present in the beverage.
Buddy cannot make generic beer ice cold.
List of Gwinnett recipes
- Gwinnett ale brewing subroutines - behind the bar of the Colonial Taphouse.
- Gwinnett stout recipe - in a sealed control room on the roof of the Gwinnett brewery.
- Gwinnett brew recipe - on Tower Tom's desk in the Beantown Brewery.
- Gwinnett lager recipe - behind the bar counter under the collapsed floor of The Shamrock Taphouse.
- Gwinnett pils recipe - on the counter behind the bar of The Third Rail.
- Gwinnett pale - already found inserted into Buddy.
To give Buddy recipes, one must play the recipe holotape on their Pip-Boy. Once this is done, the Sole Survivor automatically initiates dialogue by stating "Buddy, I have some recipes for ya...," after which they are removed from the inventory and Buddy will be able to produce them in the future. If this dialogue doesn't trigger when speaking to him with a recipe in one's inventory, try dropping the recipe from the inventory and picking it up again. This especially helps with recipes obtained prior to meeting Buddy.
Combat
Buddy is equipped with a flamer and a laser gun. Buddy alternates between them when in combat.
- These weapons are not apparent when viewing Buddy's inventory.
- Buddy's ammunition appears alongside the brewed beer; these munitions are needed for the weapons. If these are looted with the beer, Buddy will only use melee attacks.
Settlements
- Buddy will gravitate toward the left side of a bar, provided one is present. If a trade caravan post is available, Buddy then will patrol between the two.
Buddy cannot be changed in a robot workbench.
Interactions with the player character
Interactions overview
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
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This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed. | |
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This character is a permanent companion. They grant the - perk. | |
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This character is a temporary companion. | |
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This character starts quests. | |
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This character is involved in quests. |
- |
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This character is a doctor. |
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This character is a merchant. |  -Sells: - |
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This character can repair items. | Max Repair condition: - |
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This character can modify weapons. |
Beer, soft drinks |
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This character rents beds. | -.
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Quests
Trouble Brewin' - Rufus Rubins will ask the Sole Survivor to retrieve Drinkin' Buddy for the Hotel Rexford. Alternatively, they may claim the robot for themselves and send it to an allied settlement. Keeping him will have the quest marked as incomplete.
Effects of player's actions
Buddy is found in the basement of the Shamrock Taphouse. The Sole Survivor can choose to keep him or send him to the Hotel Rexford at the request of Rufus.
- If selecting to keep him, he will ask for his default "HOME" which will be any of the settlements the player character selects.
- If the Sole Survivor elects to send Buddy to Hotel Rexford, he will be found in the hotel near the bar upon arrival.
Inventory
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items |
|---|---|---|
| - | Built-in flamer Built-in off-hand laser gun |
Flamer fuel Fusion cells Ice cold Gwinnett pale Shamrock Taphouse key |
Notable quotes
- "Here for a laugh, or did you want a cold beverage?"
- "Would you like a cold one, or did you want to hear a joke?"
- "Care to wet your whistle, or do you require a laugh?"
- "Would you like a beer?"
- "Cold and refreshing."
- "I am a modified RobCo protectron, designated "Drinking Buddy." My internal microbrewers allows for the internal brewing, bottling and dispensing of beer at an accelerated rate. I am also programmed to tell a wide variety of jokes, for the customer's amusement. "
- "If provided with a holotape containing the recipe, I should be capable of brewing any type of alcoholic beverage."
- "How would you describe the testing sample provided?"
- "Ffft... Excuse me, just the fermentation process."
Jokes
- "I was banned from the airport last week. Apparently security doesn't like it when you call Shotgun while boarding the plane."
- "I see you have a dog. You should name him "10 miles". Then you can tell people you walk 10 miles every day."
- "I went to the zoo the other day. The only animal they had was a dog. It was a shitzu."
- "Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, “Dam.”"
- "Two Irishmen looking for work saw a sign for Tree Fellers. Pat turned to Murphy and said... If only Seamus were here, we could have gotten the job!"
- "I’ve decided to sell the vacuum. It’s just collecting dust."
- "Light travels faster than sound. Which is why dating the Irish seems like a good idea till they start talking."
- "There is a band called one thousand and twenty three megabytes. They haven’t had any gigs yet."
- "A Mayan asks his friend if he would like to grab a drink. His friend says, “Well, I’m supposed to finish the calendar, but I guess if I don’t it’s not the end of the world.”"
- "A blind man walks into a bar. And a table. And a chair."
- "Charles Dickens walks into a bar and orders a Martini. The bartender turns to him and asks, “Olive or twist?”"
- "The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar. It was tense."
- "Now, I’ve always run on batteries… But a Mr. Handy recently convinced me to try an internal fusion reactor and I can’t go back. I guess you could say he was a catalytic converter."
- "What do you call two crows on a branch? Attempted Murder."
- "Chemically speaking, alcohol IS a solution."
- "A Neutron walks into a bar and asks, “How much for a drink?” The bartender responds, “For you, no charge!”"
- "How do you kill a circus clown? Go for the juggler."
- "The bartender says, “We don’t serve faster than light particles in here.” A tachyon walks into a bar."
- "What is the best way to maintain a balanced diet? Keep a beer in each hand."
- "If 4 out of 5 people suffer from radiation poisoning… Does that mean the fifth guy enjoys it?"
- "How about a pizza joke? Nevermind it’s just too cheesy."
- "What is the best way to start a parade in South Boston? Roll a 40 down the street."
- "What did the commies light their house with before they used candles? Electricity."
- "A photon checks into a hotel and the bellhop asks if she has any luggage. The photon replies, “No, I’m traveling light.”"
- "C, E-flat, and G walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Sorry, but we don’t serve minors in here.” So e-flat leaves, while C and G have a fifth between them."
- "What do people from outside Boston have in common with a bottle of beer? They’re both empty from the neck up."
- "I heard Angus is on a whisky diet. He’s already lost three days!"
- "There’s no “I” in denial."
- "Arial, Papyrus, and Comic Sans walk into a bar and the bartender says… Oi, we don’t serve your type in here."
- "Relationships are a lot like algebra. You always look at your X and try to figure out Y."
- "I met an atheist who worked for a charity the other day. She said it was a non-prophet organization."
- "A priest walks into the bar and takes a seat next to a call girl. Then he turns to her and says... Error. Data Corruption. Punchline not found. Ha. Ha. Ha. That's a good one."
- "A communist, a spy, and a Chinese man walk into a bar. He orders a drink"
Appearances
Buddy appears only in Fallout 4.
Bugs
- If Buddy still provides the dialogue choice to be sold to Rufus after choosing to keep him, one can fix this with the command setstage 1761c7 120. The player character will respond "No thanks" from then on.[verified]
- If deciding to keep him, the quest remains active. The Sole Survivor cannot finish the quest and keep drinking Buddy. Since the quest continues, when sending Buddy somewhere, the player character will be able to track his movements using the quest marker on the map.[verified]
- If Buddy is sent to Sanctuary Hills he may try to reach the settlement by crossing the river and will stop halfway across the river. If this happens, send him to a different settlement (preferably the Red Rocket truck stop due to its proximity) and then send him back to Sanctuary.[verified]
- After sending Buddy to Hotel Rexford, he may not leave The Shamrock Taphouse and instead continuously greet the player character.
- This can be fixed on PC by using the console. First, reset the Trouble Brewin' quest using ResetQuest 0017d18c, then meet up with Rufus and accept the quest again. After doing so, head back to the Taphouse and in the console, enter setStage 1761c7 10. This should reset the dialogue and allow to re-do the quest from that point onward.
- Attempting to send Buddy to Hotel Rexford results in Buddy accepting request but not going. Talk to Buddy again and tell him you're keeping him for yourself, give settlement destination, then do Hotel Rexford dialog again will get him to go. [verified]
