Starfield Tapping the Grid: How to solve The Well brownouts
Power to the people! Just not those people...
In Starfield, underneath the glitz of the surface levels of the showpiece city, New Atlantis, lies The Well, a utilitarian rat run of shops, bars and residential accommodation. Brownouts are becoming more and more of a problem, because just like the rest of New Atlantis, The Well needs a stable supply of power to run smoothly.
So when a series of brownouts - a sparky name for power outages if you were wondering - threaten to topple the vibrant neighbourhood’s equilibrium, it’s up to you to investigate and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Tapping the Grid quest guide
After you hear about the brownouts and get the quest marker to investigate, make your way down into the underground residential and commercial area, The Well.
Talk to Louisa Reyez and offer to help investigate the power outages. She’s happy for the help and quickly tasks you with checking junction boxes around the area.
The first is right next to the UC Surplus shop, where you can get decent items and clothing, but mostly it’s a good place to sell your loot.
The second is over in the other section of the Well, past two locked doors you need to pull the nearby switches to open.
The third is just next to Jake’s bar, another one of the spacer spots where you can recruit crew members in New Atlantis.
Finally, the fourth is on the floor above the trade authority.
How to solve the door power puzzle
To flip the last junction box, you need to solve a quick puzzle to open the door.
Simply flip the right-hand box, then the one to the left of it - so number 4 and number 3 in the row. This illuminates all of the lights above the boxes and opens the door.
Speak to Louisa in the monitoring station when you’re done. The signs are pointing to the Trade Authority sucking up the juice, and you get a new quest to deal with the consequences.
Alternating Currents quest guide
Talk to Louisa again and agree to support her at the Trade Authority building.
Follow her and listen in on the conversation. After a pause, it seems someone has been using the authority’s building to reroute the power. Flip the switches as you have done a few times up to this point.
To get to the last box, take the stairs to the upper level next to Jake’s.
Pull the lever and you get two choices for how to proceed. You can either pull 47B on the save level as you are now, or 45A. 45A is apparently the right one.
The trail now leads topside, to the residential district.
At this point Zoe will offer to pay you for whatever info you find over and above what MAST will. You don’t have to make a decision just yet, but there are a few things to consider. First are your personal morals, second whether the reward is actually worth it, and third whether you’re travelling with Sarah Morgan. She has made her dislike of the Trade Authority clear and you need to think about whether the meagre incentive is worth the hit to your relationship.
Either way, flip the switch in the residential district and you find the source of the drain is at Athena Tower.
Unlock the apartment door with a digipick and head inside. Access the computer, then read through the entries. Turns out some hacking scam is being run out of the room, with the power for the program coming directly from a hotwired connection. Download the files and return to either Louisa or Zoe.
You get 75XP whoever you give the data to, but it’s your choice as to whose good graces you want to put yourself into - neither are too cut up about losing out either, so it really is up to you.
That's it for our guide to the Tapping the Grid quest. For help with other Starfield quests, check out our guides to the Ryujin Industries and Crimson Fleet questlines. We've also got guides on the Sabotage, Guilty Parties and Executive Level quests.