The NuCaloric faction offers much-needed survival gear, such as shields, health, and shield consumables, as well as upgrades to withstand environmental hazards. Out of all of the factions, NuCal should be the top priority. These items and upgrades will shift the tide in your favor more often than not and let you withstand much more lethal forces.
As NuCal had a large financial stake in the Marathon ship, most of their contracts focus on retrieving samples of what the colonists left behind or uploading archived data surrounding the colony’s agricultural and medical teams. And a few involve those pesky little ticks. This guide will cover not only their Priority Contracts but also how to increase your rank and their upgrade matrix.
Priority Contract: Survival Directive
After completing the intro quest, you will be tasked with downloading data from two different terminals on Perimeter: one in Station, and the other in Overflow. This thankfully does not need to be done in one run, nor does it require a successful exfil, so less pressure overall. Below is a quick guide to the locations of these terminals in each POI.
Overflow Terminal
The Overflow terminal can be found on the second story of the building complex towards the southeast. The fastest way to get to it is by climbing up the boxes in the picture below, taking a right down the hall, and then looking left to find the terminal on a workbench.
Alternatively, you can enter the building complex from any other point, heading upstairs, and going southeast until you see a room like the one below:
Enter through the door, and look right to find the terminal.
Station Terminal
The Station terminal is found in the building above, which can be accessed via a bridge from the large complex or from the outside platform. Once inside, it should be rather easy to find this one sitting on a desk.
And that’s it! Once you leave the run, either by exfil or death, turn in the quest to receive your rewards and unlock the next set of Priority Contracts for NuCal.
Data Reconstruction [⅓]
With your first priority contract complete, you’re ready to move on to the next, which is broken down into three parts, each with different objectives and rewards. This guide will cover the first stage of the contract, which, at the time of writing, can be completed very quickly if you bring along one other person who is also on this stage. This is because the same bioprinter can be interacted with again by a different person, meaning there is no need to scour for both. Still, we’ll show you where both can be found. Keep in mind these need to be done in the order below, as you will not be able to interact with the items until the previous step has completed.
Sparkleaf Bioprinter – South Relay
The first of two bioprinters within South Relay can be found within a small science building, located on the north side of the POI.
Once inside, look for one of the cubicles on the west wall of the building to find the bioprinter atop a workbench, surrounded by some roots.
The second of these two can be found within the bottom floor of the main building in South Relay. This is located in the southeast of the POI, and you’ll want to enter from the north to find it the fastest. Once inside, look for the door on your left and enter it to find the bioprinter on a shelf.
Fungal Bioprinter – Overflow
Thanks to Overflow having one large complex, it’s much easier to find the two printers here. The first one is located upstairs on a shelf in the northeast corner. You’ll know you’re in the right spot if the room adjacent to it is a largely empty room with a cargo lift.
The next one can be found opposite of the terminal we had to activate for the Survival Directive contract. From the first one, head back west across the sky bridge to reach the room, enter it, and it will be on your left.
Agricultural Report – North Relay
With all four printers scanned, it’s finally time to complete our journey. Head to the northwest building of North Relay, but instead of going right to the terminal, enter through the big blue door on the ground floor of the building.
From there, head through the door on your right, and then turn right once again to see a “Reactivate Power” prompt above a handprint reader.
Once activated, head upstairs and look for the same bright orange terminal that’s been used for other contracts.
Activate it, and you’ll complete Stage 1 of the Data Reconstruction Priority Contract. On to Stage 2!
Data Reconstruction [⅔]
With the agricultural data and samples from Perimeter secured, Gaius tasks us with heading to Dire Marsh to uncover more information regarding the colonist’s attempts at sustaining their people. This time, we are looking for harvest logs and information found within an array of Data Repositories. These can be done in any order in any amount of runs, so don’t fret if you don’t do it all in one go.
Data Repositories – AI Uplink
This one is the easier of the two, thanks in no small part to them being right on top of each other. On the eastern side of the POI lies a large catwalk with rectangular “beams” holding up a canopy of sorts. These beams are actually the Data Repositories themselves, and the ones you need to interact with have a simple orange touchscreen affixed to them.
Once all three are interacted with, you can head to Algae Ponds for the next objective.
Harvest Logs – Algae Ponds
The terminal here can be found on the second-floor of the northernmost side of the building. You can enter from really any point, but the fastest is from the windows or door in the photo below.
You’ll know you’re in the right spot when all sides but the back wall are made of glass. Look for the terminal sitting on a bench, opposite of the north side windows.
Download the logs, and that will close out the mission, along with progressing you to Stage 3. Turn it in, and get ready for the last leg of this Priority Contract.
Data Reconstruction [3/3]
This is likely going to be the most frustrating part of the set to complete, due in no small part to the requirement that this is all done in one shot, though you can complete the first two objectives in any order. Be patient, be sharp, and you’ll make it through this in just a few runs. And just in case you need to bail out of a fight, you can hit one data repository per POI and still progress the first objective.
Data Repositories – North Relay
The North Relay Data Repositories can be found on the east and west sides of the POI. Much like in Stage 2, the repositories will be affixed to these large towers, so once you find a grouping of them, that’ll be your cue to start searching. The eastern Data Repository lies amongst the green towers, and the western one amongst the blue.
[FILE NEEDED]
Data Repositories – South Relay
Similar to North Relay, the Data Repositories in South Relay are on opposite sides of the POI, but this time on the northeast and southwest ends. The northeast one is affixed to an orange tower near some shipping containers, and the southwest one can be found on a turquoise-colored tower with a planter of sorts sitting to the right of it.
AI Maintenance Protocol – Hauler
If you happen to spawn closer to Hauler than either of the relays, you can nab the AI Maintenance Protocol before heading out. This might be the hardest of the two to do as Hauler is a hotbed for both AI spawns and players looking for loot, so try your best to keep a low profile.
Regardless of where you enter Hauler, head to the southern side of the POI and walk up the staircase on the west. The fastest way is entering from the side facing Overflow.
Once upstairs, turn left to see a doorway into a server room of sorts. The AI Maintenance Protocol will be accessible via a datapad on the east wall of the room.
Exfil – Good Luck
Once you have both the Data Repositories and AI Maintenance Protocol recovered, it’s time to leave. Exfil anywhere you can, and be ready for a fight to defend it. If you really want, you can wait it out until the Final Exfil appears, but that’s a risk not worth taking. Also, you do not need to be the one to make it out. Since some contract progress is shared, regardless if others have it, your squad mates can exfil on your behalf and it will still complete this part, though you still need someone to actually make it out. Dying at any point resets all of this progress, so, good luck.
And that will close out the first set of Priority Contracts for NuCaloric. Once you hit level 10 within the faction, a new set will unlock, and we’ll cover that as soon as we can.
How to increase Faction Rank with NuCaloric and Upgrade Matrix
Once you complete the first set of Priority Contracts, it’s likely to be a bit until you hit Rank 10 with NuCal, so to help get there, do the following:
- Complete NuCaloric Contracts: Repeatable NuCaloric Contracts give around 120 Rep per and are usually a drop-off styled mission, so these should be quick and easy to do.
- Loot Medical Containers and Tick Nests: Medical Containers can typically be found in lab-type rooms or buildings, and Tick Nests are those large, red masses that spawn the Tick enemies. Tick Nests can be silently destroyed with two knife swings.
- Harvest Plants: Plants can be found scattered around the map, the most common one at this time being Sparkleaf. While others might exist, we haven’t found them quite yet.
- Participate in supply drops: Supply drops are events that will spawn a few waves of UESC forces while a supply ship descends onto a platform. Survive, and four loot boxes will be available to sift through. Be careful as an alarm will go off during the descent phase, and will likely draw in nearby players.
- Exfil NuCal Valuables: All factions have certain rare items that can be found on any map and directly increase your reputation with the faction. While we haven’t found the NuCaloric items, expect them to be medical or biological in nature.
The main objective of ranking up NuCal is to upgrade your defensive capabilities, and that’s achieved via the following:
- Shielded (Rank 5): Unlocks Enhanced Shield Implants for purchase in the Armory. An unwritten effect is that there is a free one available each daily reset.
- Reinforce.EXE (Rank 6/16/26): Increases your Hardware stat by 20 per level. Hardware helps resist environmental (MCH) effects such as Toxin or Overheat.
- Unfazed.EXE (Rank 7/18/27): Increases your Firewall stat by 20 per level. Firewall helps resist electronic (OS) effects like EMP or Hack.
- Recovery.EXE (Rank 9/19/29): Increases your Self Repair Speed by 20 per level. This boosts the speed at which your health or shields recharge from consumables.
Another large boon NuCal gives is granting free Shield Charges and Patch Kits, along with allowing the purchase of some much needed healing items:
- Safeguard (Rank 1): Grants a free daily Shield Charge
- Restore (Rank 3): Grants a free daily Patch Kit
- Advanced MCH (Rank 6)/Advanced OS (Rank 7): Allows for the purchasing of Advanced Mechanic’s Kit/Advanced OS Reboots. These clear MCH or OS effects, respectively
- Self-Revive (Rank 12): Allows for the purchase of Self-Revive Kits
Lastly, there’s the Capstone Upgrades, each of which unlock after a set of 6 nodes have been purchased. The main ones here are:
- Resilient (Capstone 1): Rook now starts with a shield charge and patch kit, better wares for bartering.
- 2ND_CHANCE.EXE (Capstone 4): Self-Revives have a small chance to not be consumed on use
- Reinforced: Allows for the purchase of Superior (purple) Shield Implants, much better wares for bartering.
And that about covers it for now. Check back in every so often as the world of Marathon evolves to catch what is new with NuCal. Until then, stay safe out there, Runners.
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