Prey guide: ‘Reboot’ walkthrough (2024)

Completing "Shipping and Receiving" will give you access to Cargo Bay B, but the elevators are still out of commission, and none of the airlocks work. So, until you figure something else out, you’re kind of out of options. You’ll still have the objective and HUD marker for "Keys to the Kingdom," though, so you might as well follow it.

Head through the GUTS loading bay door (it’s the one to the right of the recycler in the Cargo Bay), then turn left to find the door to life support. When you arrive on the other side of the load screen, you’ll get a call from Mikhaila Ilyushin, and she’ll give you a solution to your problem.

There’s not much straightforward about what you’re going to do here — you’re going to explore a lot of this area before you complete your task. We’ll walk you through all of the twists and turns (and call out optional objectives) as we go.

Table of contents

• Access the Reactor Control Room
• Life Support
• Atmosphere Control
• Reactor Control Room
• Water Treatment Facility
• Monitoring Station
• Water Quality Lab
• Power Plant
• Power Plant Monitoring
• Coolant Chamber
• Parts Storage room
• Assist Mikhaila Ilyushin
• Find Mikhaila’s medicine in her office
• Get the medicine to Mikhaila
• Access the Reactor Control Room
• Reboot Talos Power Plant
• Fix or replace the damaged reactor diverter
• Complete the reboot sequence and Reboot Talos Power Plant

Access the Reactor Control Room

Life Support

As you enter Life Support, you’ll have to deal with a pair of etheric phantoms. After them, turn your attention to the Service Requests booth on your left. Smash through the window (or mimic into something small enough to pass through the broken doorway) and get inside. Look around to find some trash, a couple sets of spare parts, three EMP charges, a weapon upgrade kit and a suit repair kit fabrication plans.

Cross back across the main hallway and climb the stairs. Take a right at the top to find a med bay.

Back outside, head into the bathroom before you explore the security booth hall. Smash your way inside, and loot everything you can find. At the back of the bathroom, lift the grate on the floor to find the security booth keycard. You can use the maintenance access tunnel to skip over the hallway, or smash through the GLOO. At some point, explore the access tunnel for the corpse of Tobias Frost — you’ll get a the "Psychic Water" optional objective from his TranScribe and the psychoactive particle injector that you need to complete it.

Either way you go, make sure you check all the bodies in the hallway for loot — Erica Tegue’s corpse has a security booth safe keycode.

Use the keycard from the bathroom to open the security booth. Handle the corrupted operator inside, then loot the lockers. Use the computer to download the area map. Reading the emails will get you the "Missing Engineer" optional objective.

Atmosphere Control

Head back downstairs and take the right to go through the airlock into Atmosphere Control. On your right, you’ll find a locker room. Take out the corrupted operator, then sweep the room for stuff to pick up. If you have Leverage 2, you can move a crate out of the way to get to an access tunnel that will lead you to the main Atmosphere Control room, otherwise, just go back and use the door in the hall.

There are a couple thermal phantoms inside to handle. Once they’re out of the way, make your way around to the far side of the room, directly across from the entrance. You’ll find a computer there that controls the airflow in the station. Hit the interrupt button, then jump down next to the fans. The middle fan on the right is blocked. Pull out the pipe and get out of the fan area. When the fans restart, the blockage is cleared and air is flowing.

Turn left from the fan control computer and make your way around the catwalk. You’ll come to the Oxygen Flow Control Room. It’s locked with a Hacking 4 keypad, but if you continue a little further, there’s a window right at the top of the stairs you can smash through. There’s a corrupted operator and a poltergeist waiting for you. Clear the room, then loot everything you can find. There’s a note on a console right next to the door with a storage closet keycode.

On the other side of the Atmosphere control room is the Air Filtration Control Room. Sweep it for loot and make sure to grab Jean Faure’s TranScribe. There’s a locked door at the back that you won’t be able to open until later. Now you can backtrack to the main room by the grav lift.

Once you’re back through the air lock, turn right. There’s an arcing electrical junction electrifying some steps. Use some GLOO to get past. Take the grav lift down toward the Reactor Control room.

Reactor Control Room

There’s a fabricator immediately to your left when you land. Behind the grav lift is a hallway that leads to the non-functional Escape Pod Bay. There’re a couple phantoms in your way. Use the turret to help you take it out, then explore the room, picking up everything. You’ll pick up a TranScribe from Emily Carter — in the second escape pod on the left — that will give you the "Drunk Tank" optional objective.

Finish sweeping the room, then head back toward the grav lift, then into the hallway straight ahead of you. The reactor control room is on your right, but the door won’t open yet. Go down the lefthand hallway instead, toward the Water Treatment Facility.

Water Treatment Facility

The main door is unpowered, so you can only open it with Leverage 3. Instead, it’s better to backtrack along the hallway and use the pipes to climb close to the ceiling. You’ll find a walkway along the right side of the hall that lead to an access tunnel. Go through and out onto the catwalks over the Water Treatment Facility.

Take out the technopath waiting for you — start with an EMP charge and finish it off with whatever’s loaded.

Monitoring Station

There’s a recycler on the ground floor of this room on the left side. You can use the stairs in the front left corner to get up to the catwalks (if you’ve dropped to the ground). Take a moment to explore the rooms these catwalks give you access to. On the left side of the room, you’ll have to fight through a voltaic phantom to get to the Monitoring Station. Check inside for loot and some emails.

You can get Price Broadway’s computer password from the cooler to the left of his desk. Check his email, then use the utilities tab to unlock the Eel Tank Controls.

The next computer belonged to Abby Foy. Check the email, then loot her desk.

Water Quality Lab

Continue out the back door of the Monitoring Station to continue around the catwalks. Loot Pablo Meyer’s corpse when you come to it. The door to the Water Quality Lab is busted, so you can only get inside with mimic matter 1. It’s easier to use the catwalks and pipes to jump around to the other door — it’s just ahead and to the right from where you first entered the Water Treatment Facility through the maintenance access tunnel.

Inside, handle the corrupted operator, then loot anything you can — make sure you don’t miss all the raw materials on the desks. Right in front of the door is the flow injection override terminal. Install Tobias’ psychoactive particle injector to turn all of the station’s water fountains into psi rechargers and complete the "Psychic Water" optional objective.

Hop back down to the ground level of the Water Treatment Facility, and head back toward the front door — the one that is unpowered. To the left of the door, there’s a power control terminal that will allow you to reset the power breaker. This will (finally) unlock the door to the Power Plant.

Before you leave, go to the back of the room, straight back from the main door, to find a grav lift. Take this down to Waste Processing. Use the eel harvesting console (ew) to dump the tank. Inside, you’ll find a greater mimic and the body of Price Broadway, completing the "Drunk Tank" optional objective.

Power Plant

Go through the door and down the other branch of the hallway toward the Power Plant. On the other side of the load screen, you’ll see a security booth straight ahead of you. Clear out the cystoids inside. If you have Hacking 2, you can use the computer to check some email, download the area map and unlock the door ahead of you.

If you can’t hack the computer, you’re going to have to crawl through a vent. Look above the operator dispenser on the right of the door. Climb onto the dispenser and up into the vent. This will deposit you in the hallway on the other side of the locked door. Turn around and hit the manual override to unlock it, then start looting and shooting mimics.

On the right side of the hallway, loot the corpse of Lan Nguyen. Then repair and pick up the grounding resistor on the left and install it the panel over his head. If you can’t repair it, you’ll call out a location where you can find replacements below. This doesn’t do anything obvious right now, but it’ll help in a minute.

Power Plant Monitoring

The room on the left side of the hallway is blocked with a hard-to-reach, arcing junction box. The trick is to shoot your GLOO cannon at the floor as close to the junction as you can get. This will give you enough time to get inside without getting electrocuted.

Once the junction is repaired, check the computer in the middle of the console for a TranScribe and some emails. There’s a poltergeist and some cystoids on the far side of the room. Use some combination of GLOO, the poltergeist’s lift attack and the pipes along the ceiling to cross the electrified water of the room. On the far side, deal the the typhons, then loot the platform you’re on. You’ll find the Q-Beam and typhon lure fabrication plans, a neuromod, a suit chipset and a TranScribe.

After you’re done looting, make your way back out to the hallway and into the grav lift at the end of the hall.

Coolant Chamber

It’s very easy to get distracted in here — there’s a lot going on and a lot of levels to explore. Make a loop of the topmost level (where you land in the grav lift) to clear out any fires, mimics and phantoms you encounter. And there are plenty of all three.

There’s a Parts Storage room on the right side. You can get in with Hacking 3, or you can get in the back way with a little work. Drop down to the second level. There’s a door on the right that you can’t get into. Loot the corpse you find there. There’s another locked door on the far side of the room. That one’s your goal.

Parts Storage room

Let’s get to the Parts Storage room first. Drop all the way down into the lowest part of the room. Watch the right side of the wall for a tunnel you can walk into — it’ll lead you back underneath the locked maintenance room (which is underneath the Parts Storage room). Follow the tunnel to the end and climb up into the maintenance room. Unlock the door with the manual override, then look at the ceiling. There’s a hole you can climb through that will get you into the Parts Storage room.

The Parts Storage room is full of mimics. Just be careful what you pick up while you loot everything you can. This is also where you can pick up replacement grounding resistors if you couldn’t repair the one earlier.

Use the manual override(s) to get back outside and head to the ground floor. The door to the Coolant Chamber requires a keycard. Turn to your left. There’s an area of the floor that’s on fire. Put it out with your GLOO cannon, then smash through the GLOO to find the corpse of Talia Brooks. Loot it for an EMP Charge, a neuromod, the Q-Beam cell fabrication plan and the Coolant Chamber keycard.

There’s a phantom waiting on the other side of the door when you unlock it. Before you go into the office on your right, loop around the room clockwise to activate the airlock (it’s still locked down, though) and visit the med bay. Now, use Talia’s keycard to go into the office.

Hacking 1 will get you into Lan Nguyen’s computer so you can check emails. Loot anything else you see — especially the typhon lures and disruptor battery fabrication plans — on your way over to check on Mikhaila Ilyushin.

Assist Mikhaila Ilyushin

Mikhaila’s in pretty rough shape and in need of her medicine. If you’re a heartless monster, you can skip this next section, because we’re going to backtrack a lot to get it for her.

Find Mikhaila’s medicine in her office

The airlock right outside the office where Mikhaila is still won’t work until after you complete the "Reboot" objective, so if you’d like to wait, you’ve probably got time — Mikhaila’s got about two hours before she needs her shot. You can do it now, as well — it really doesn’t matter. We did it first because we didn’t know how long "Reboot" would take, so if you’re an explorer or just play slowly, it might be best to backtrack before you get distracted.

To get outside of the station, you’re going to have to backtrack all the way to Cargo Bay B, where you got inside after you escaped the station during "Restore from Backup." Exit the station the same way you came in.

Mikhaila’s office is a little "down" and on the other side of the station. You’ll know you’re in the right place when you spot a technopath waiting for you with a couple of corrupted operators.

Turn to the right and enter the breached offices. You’ll have to clear out some cystoids, but you’ll find Mikhaila’s medicine in the cabinet in the far right corner. While you’re in here, check her email, and keep an eye out for a free-floating neuromod.

Get the medicine to Mikhaila

Before you leave, go out into the hall to find two more neuromods — you can see these through the window in the hall where you replaced the grounding resistor. Continue across the hall and into Talia’s office to find a couple psi hypos.

Now you can backtrack again, all the way back to Cargo Bay B, and retrace your steps to Lan Nguyen’s office in Coolant Control.

Talk to Mikhaila to give her the medicine. This will earn you the "A Friend In Need" trophy/achievement as well.

Access the Reactor Control Room

Go out through the side door to the left of Mikhaila. Smash through the GLOO wall and enter the grav lift behind it.

The Reactor Core is another confusing and distracting room. The maintenance lift on the right is busted pretty badly, so you can ignore it for now. Instead, turn left and make your way to the stairs.

Head down one flight of stairs to the level below where you started. Use the walkway to cross all the way to the other side where the elevator shaft is. Use the button to open the doors, then look up. There’s an access tunnel a little ways above you. Use your GLOO cannon to build yourself platforms and climb up. Handle the typhons waiting for you, then follow the walkway around to the right to find Jean Faure’s corpse and the Atmosphere Control Room keycard, which is the next step in the "Missing Engineer" optional objective. (All that’s left is to return to the Atmosphere Control Room off of the Air Filtration Control room in the Atmosphere Control area of Life Support. There’s no trick to it, you just need to access the room. If you want to run and do it now, feel free. We’ll be right here when you get back.)

Loot anything else in the maintenance tunnel you can — there’s a neuromod and a suit chipset on the floor next to her. When you’re done, head back out and carefully make your way back down to the walkway where you started.

Head back to the other side of the room and take the stairs down two more flights. Make your way across the room to the elevator again. This is where the elevator crashed. Note this location, because you’ll be coming back here in a minute. Loot Nicholas Stillwater’s corpse for a neuromod and the Reactor Access keycard.

This time when you go back to the stairs, you can go all the way to the bottom. When you get there, if you’re very unlucky like we were, you might have to face a nightmare. Take your time and don’t panic. We wrote about nightmares and how best to handle them here. (However, because of the way nightmares spawn, you might be able to avoid the one here.)

The reactor control room is on the ground floor right below where you entered. You can mostly ignore the shiny, glowing reactor for now, but take a minute to clear the cystoids out — this will help in a minute.

Reboot Talos Power Plant

Now we can finally get down to what we’re here for. On the computer console ahead of you, hit the "Access Safety Switches" button. This will expose six switches on the console. You have to throw them in the correct order, though. There’s a book to your right that lists that order:

1. Magnetosphere
2. Substation Power Grid
3. Photovoltaic Rings
4. Gravity
5. Life Support
6. Main Reactor

Most of the way through the reboot sequence, something goes wrong because of course it does.

Fix or replace the damaged reactor diverter

There are several diverters you can get to. There are a couple in the Secure Storage Room over by the elevator shaft — which requires Hacking 3 to get to — but there are some even easier to get ones right above that. Take the main stairs up one level and head over to the elevator where you previously looted Nicolas Stillwater’s corpse. Grab one of the two diverters and get back down to the ground floor.

Head into the reactor and around to the back side of the main column. Your HUD will point you to a damaged diverter that you can pull and replace with the one you just retrieved.

Complete the reboot sequence and Reboot Talos Power Plant

Head back to the Reactor Control Room and push the button. That’s it. When you leave the room, there will be a technopath stalking you. Handle that (or run away) before you do too much exploring.

The recycler next to the control room works can be repaired now, if you need it.

Alex will call with your next main story mission, but before you see him out, let’s wrap up one more optional objective.