Following the lead you discovered in Hopetown, you’re off to the pleasure city of Neon. This walkthrough will take you through what is a typically brief faction mission for the Freestar Collective, this time with very little combat. Instead, it’s more dialogue heavy, and contains exposition about how the Rangers operate. There are a couple instances of branching paths for the player to shortcut through some content, but other than that, it’s pretty cut and dry.
You’ll have to meet with the Ranger on Neon to get the lay of the land. If it’s your first time on Neon, you will exit your ship on the landing pad, then proceed through the security checkpoint to the elevator. This will put you in “Neon Core” – the main drag. The Ranger Station is hard to miss; it is near the center of the long street and has a giant star on it (Image 1).
Neon’s main street can turn you around, so just follow your , and it should lead you right there. Inside, you’ll meet Jaylen Price. He’s a good ranger, but his instincts are honed to the criminal environment of Neon. He’ll tell you that he has a contact that could help with the stolen ship.
Follow Jaylen Price and Talk to Billy Clayton
This is one of the longer companion follows in the game. Jaylen will give you a tour of Neon while he leads you to his contact, Billy Clayton. When you finally arrive, Billy will say that he can help you, but he needs help first – they always do. He has a loan shark coming after him, and he wants you to get them off his back. You can try to [Persuade] him to just give you the info, but it’s a rather difficult persuasion that you’re likely to fail (Image 2). There’s an option to pay him for the info, but he won’t accept it.
If you succeed at the Persuasion attempt, skip down to Confront Grace Early.
Acquire a Warehouse Key
You’ll receive a new waypoint that’s on the other side of Neon at a factory. The might lead you to it by going through the Neon Core, or under, through the Underbelly. When you arrive, there will be a guard outside; you have four options for getting the key from him:
[Persuade] Him – An easy persuasion check that you have a good chance to pass.
Pay Him – 1000 credits of cold hard cash usually gets you what you want.
Pickpocket Him – It’s easy to sneak behind him, and there’s no one around to detect you.
Kill Him – “It came to violence.”
Confront Emmet Goodman
When you have the keycard, you can enter the warehouse, and no one will shoot at you – not yet, anyway. Go up the stairs to Goodman’s office and strike up a conversation. Again, this conversation can be resolved in three different fashions:
[Persaude] Him – It’s a difficult persuasion check, but worth a shot.
Pay Him – You can pay off the debt with 4000 credits.
Attack Him – This makes everyone in the building hostile towards you.
If it’s only coming to violence because you want that sick-wicked suit he has on, then I have bad news. You will not be able to loot the suit off his body. Personally, we don’t feel like paying the syndicate 4000 credits is worth it. If you attack, it’s not a very hard fight, and in our estimation you’ll be doing Neon a favor.
If you decide to fight, then start it out with a shotgun to handle Goodman and his assistant, then use a ranged weapon from the top of the stairs to pick off the rest of the minions. Be aware that the guard will also attack you – if you didn’t kill him already – outside the warehouse when you leave. You won’t get a bounty or anything for killing the guard out in public.
Talk to Billy Clayton
Mosey on back to speak with Clayton; he’ll be happy that you worked it out and will tell you the location of the ship stealer. She’s in Madame Sauvage’s place, and Ranger Price will offer to give you back up – even though he would’ve been much more helpful dealing with the syndicate.
Confront Grace Early
You can follow your tracker to Madame Sauvage’s; it’s not very far way. You’ll find Grace at the end of the bar. She has some attitude, but will tell you what you need to know. What’s interesting is that you have the option to [Persuade] her, but if you choose the other option, she’ll tell you the same thing (Image 5).
Go to Akila City and Talk to Alex Shadid
Grace’ll tell you about a couple of her contacts in The First, and hand over an encrypted slate with information on them. Fortunately, the Rangers have a guy in Akila City that’s a tech wizard, Alex Shadid. Fly back to The Rock, then go upstairs to find Alex – usually at his desk. He’s a funny ranger that has some entertaining dialogue (Image 6). Hand him the slate and he’ll get to work on it.
Talk to Daniel Blake
Once that’s done, you can walk upstairs and talk to the Marshal. He has some pertinent information about your two persons of interest, Maya and Marco. He’ll tell you where to start looking, then the mission will end, and you’ll have your choice of either going after Marco (On the Run) or Maya (Surgical Strike) first. Either option is fine, but in our walkthrough, we’ll be going after Maya first.
Kelson is a spud head from out west. He is most happy when holding a milky tea with too much honey and playing a sprawling role playing game or reading a fantasy novel. His video game tastes vary but his main genres are looter shooters, RPGs, and real time strategy games.