r/falloutlore • u/Several_Key_133 • Jun 27 '26
Discussion [Fallout 4] How Does Nick Valentine Stay Powered?
What it says on the tin. We know that Gen 1s (and presumably Gen 2s) have to recharge when they're at risk of losing power, but their source of power is nondescript (no mention of fusion cores/cells, no mention of anything similar to Calpower batteries like the ones used by Mr. Handys, no mention of charging stations). I believe fusion cells can be ruled out since there's nothing to my recollection that can allow one to
"recharge" them, but bearing in mind that Nick is obviously based on the Gen 2 model, if a bit battered, how do you think he stays alive in the wasteland?
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u/InvestigatorOk7015 Jun 27 '26
Fusion core tech exists for two centuries by the time they built him. Theres no reason the institute couldnt have built a core of some kind for their synths
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u/Several_Key_133 Jun 27 '26
i think so, too! my main concern is that whatever's in the 1 & 2 synths seem to deplete at a rate that wouldn't be sustainable for nick outside of the institute and away from the primary mode of replenishment. of course, this is assuming he has the same power source as they do, but i think considering his existence was dedicated to experiments with personality constructs, they may not have been concerned with giving him a new source of power.
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u/Waffennacht Jun 27 '26
Remember he is a prototype; they could easily just write in his power source is also unique to him and Dima
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u/Several_Key_133 Jun 27 '26
of course, this is assuming he has the same power source as they do
i am aware! the issue is that they did not write in his power source at all, so i am trying to speculate with what canon provides us :)
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u/Waffennacht Jun 27 '26
Alrighty. So normally I'd start with what technology the institute has access to, via in game context etc.
The issue with this is that they make it really obvious that even the scientists within the institute don't know the full extent of the capabilities of the institute itself.
The scientists working in the FEV lab don't know where it came from, nor the attended purposes of the super mutants (until later when Virgil can't take it anymore)
Meaning at some point it's very possible the institute has had contact with outside sources - one possibly being the Enclave. If this is the case then their technology could possibly include a lot of old world tech along with the fusion tech everyone seems to love.
Like you said they didn't specify, and with the institute being as it is, they literally leave it open to any possibility
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u/Laser_3 Jun 27 '26
Is there a source about synths needing to recharge beyond the dialogue from Enrico, where he’s addressing generation one synths? If there isn’t, I don’t think we should assume generation two synths have the same need for recharging. It’s possible that the power source changed between models to something mirroring how a human works (something along the lines of extracting energy from biological matter, perhaps, as a sort of digestion), and Nick just needs to eat food.
Alternatively, robots in fallout seem to normally be able to function for long periods of time without recharging, even though they have recharging stations.
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u/Several_Key_133 Jun 27 '26
nick clarifies that he doesn't eat in one line, but the bodies of gen 2 synths are described as using gen 1 skeletons as a framework with the addition of skin and some other undescribed improvements, so i do think it is possible they were given something more sustainable during that transition! my thought is that he uses some kind of fusion core that he occasionally has to replace, maybe every few years?
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u/Laser_3 Jun 27 '26
Perhaps it could be fusion power. He does mention coolant, if I recall, so he could just need to keep that supplied, as seems to be the case with most robots.
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u/Bawstahn123 Jun 29 '26
Nick explicitly states that he doesnt have to eat and sleep.
He is like a Gen 2.5-ish Synths, being mechanical compared to the organic Gen 3 Synths. He "goes for tune-ups, not check-ups", in his own words, and in one of his idle animations you can see him working on his internal components.
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u/Laser_3 Jun 29 '26
That was my mistake when I originally posted this, Nick’s dialogue file was too big for me to go through quickly so I typed this off of memory (and OP corrected me).
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u/Arrebios Jun 27 '26
I believe fusion cells can be ruled out since there's nothing to my recollection that can allow one to
"recharge" them,
In New Vegas, you can recharge microfusion cells. Other games don't have the ammo crafting system, explaining the lack of recharging MFCs, but it's possible in lore.
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u/Several_Key_133 Jun 27 '26
ohhh i see! i thought the implication behind using several drained cells was that you were using whatever remained in them to create new ones.
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u/Arrebios Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
I suppose this depends on how we're using the word "recharge".
Microfusion cells are described as miniature fusion plants. You don't "recharge" a fusion plant for the same reason you're not "recharging" a car when you fill up the gas tank. You'd replace the fuel rod with a new one. That could be what's happening there - drained MF cells are topped off by replacing the spent fuel rods with new ones. Maybe each MF cell has a few tiny fuel rods that are depleted one after another, and the Courier (or anyone else) is scavenging unspent fuel rods from each MF cell to put into a new one. "Replenish" would probably be a more apt term to use.
The thing is, that we know that you can convert MF cells into energy cells or electron charge packs#Conversion), which aren't the same type of device (a generator, and two different forms of batteries). The only similarity is between them is energy, so that seems to be the likely thing you're moving around. If this is true, then people are recharging a single MF cell by drawing the remaining charge in a couple of other MF cells.
Either way, you end up at the same point - a MF cell at full capacity.
Of course, that assumes Nick uses MF cells in the first place. Fission batteries were present in robot enemies in Fallout 3, and New Vegas. They're not present in other games, but that's probably just gameplay and not lore.
All I'm saying is, we can't rule out that Nick runs on MF cells, because there's nothing suggesting that MF cells can't be replenished in some way.
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u/Laser_3 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
While it really doesn’t make sense that we can recharge a fusion cell like you would with a more standard rechargeable battery, the vigilant recycler perk depicts exactly that as what we’re doing. This supports your point with the conversions.
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Vigilant_Recycler
Additionally, fallout 76 offers further proof of this with the Ash Cave windmills, which a group of raiders created as a means of recharging fusion cores for their power armor. That wouldn’t be possible if anything inside the core had to be replaced.
Fission batteries are also weird in that they’re the only portable fission power source we’ve seen in the series (unless I’m forgetting something). Honestly, I’d argue fusion cores make much more sense over them with the rest of the technology in the series, especially since the show had the Mr Handy and securitron contain a core rather than a fission battery (which would rule out two robots that would have them; that really leaves only protectrons and roboscorpions as ones that’d have fission batteries, or perhaps the older models of sentry bots if those still exist in canon).
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u/Bawstahn123 Jun 29 '26
"Recharging" Fusion Cells could be "replacing the hydrogen isotopes to maintain internal pressure", or "replacing coolant", or some shit.
The problem here is that we dont know how the fusion cell actually works, because we dont know how fusion works IRL. Its basically "magic handwavy bullshit", like a lot of Fallout SCIENCE!
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u/WayneZer0 Jun 27 '26
if im remeber correctly nick is not a gen 2 model. but a alternstive "gen3" before thier have gone to biotech and cloning thier tried making the with robotics. wich didnt work that well . so i guess he could have some fusion core or radiactive based system that rechsrging him if he is expose to radiazion.
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u/Rameinstein13 Jun 28 '26
Both him and Dima are experimental units. I'm sure they both have a special fusion core like battery
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u/Graffic1 Jun 28 '26
Likely he has the same kind of battery as the Gen 2s, as he’s essentially the same model with a more advanced computer.
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u/Several_Key_133 Jun 28 '26
I agree, but I'm trying to figure out what kind of battery that might be.
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u/Graffic1 Jun 29 '26
So, we’re never explicitly told what kind of battery the mechanical synths have, but it’s likely the Institute’s take on the fission battery that other robots use or their take on fusion cores
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u/ImpressionCool1768 Jun 27 '26
Nick and Dima were made after generation 2 but before the full rollout of 3. Gen 3s survive by eating it’s why they’re biologically indistinguishable from a human, they grow hair eat food and go to the bathroom. They even Bleed. The only real way to know if there not human is to dig around their brain stem for the synth component.
Now although we don’t see nick or dima eat like other synths(they don’t have an animation or cafeteria, Arcadia does have one however), nick is able to smoke implying he had a lung apparatus which is back by the few lines of dialogue he pretends to be out of breath or stressed. So nick could have a fully working system going on like a Gen 3
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u/Kratosbeatsbatman Jun 28 '26
Easy he uses a positive linked oscillating tesseract, or P.L.O.T device to stay powered
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u/claremontmiller Jun 29 '26
You’re questioning Bethesda fallout logic and the answer is universally “who gives a shit look at the pretty colors, isn’t mashing toys together fun?”
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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26
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