A volatile experiment gone wrong sends you chasing unstable energy bursts across Eridanos. To finish “Fiddling with Fulgurating Fulminations,” you’ll need sharp aim, sharper wits, and the nerve to handle a scientist who thinks explosions are a form of art.
How to start the ‘Fiddling with Fulgurating Fulminations’ in The Outer Worlds 2
To pick up the “Fiddling with Fulgurating Fulminations” side quest in The Outer Worlds 2, head to Praetor and locate any of the five lightning rod towers scattered across the map. Interact with the terminal inside a tower’s control room to recalibrate it, which adds the quest to your journal and reveals the remaining towers needing attention. Alternatively, visit the Grounding Station near the landing pad, speak to Exemplar Simon at the main tower after climbing rocks to his room, and accept his request to handle the calibrations.
There are two methods to unlock the “Fiddling with Fulgurating Fulmations” side quest in The Outer Worlds 2. The first one simply requires you to find one of the five lightning rod towers and recalibrate it. By doing so, the side mission will be added to your journal, noting that there are more towers to be found.
The second method – and the one that gives you a bit more context about the situation – involves talking to Exemplar Simon inside the Grounding Station, south of the landing pad in Praetor.
Exemplar Simon is in the main tower inside the station. To access it, use the stairs on your left and follow the walkway to the south. At the end of the walkway, there will be some rocks you can climb to your left. Use these rocks and follow the main path upward to find the room where Exemplar Simon is. Talk to him and he will explain the whole situation, what you will receive from helping them, and what exactly you need to do.
If you haven’t visited the station before, there will be an energy shield preventing you from entering. Talk to the guard so they give you access to the station. Be aware that, if you have become an enemy of the Order, these NPCs may be hostile toward you.
All tower locations in ‘Fiddling with Fulgurating Fulminations’ in The Outer Worlds 2
The five lightning towers in the ‘Fiddling with Fulgurating Fulminations’ quest sit across Praetor in The Outer Worlds 2. Players locate the Northeast Tower north of the landing pad near the Tomb of the Matriarch, the Northwest Tower south of Central Control amid Verachnids, the Central Tower south of the Automech Facility past the blockade, the Southwest Tower between Auntie’s Chemical Factory and the Rift Modulator area, and the Southeast Tower in the southeast sector. Each requires recalibration at a terminal after overcoming local hazards like enemies or locked doors, linking back to Exemplar Simon at the Grounding Tower for completion. Lightning strikes mark their positions from afar.
Regardless of how you started the quest, your goal is to find all five towers and recalibrate them by accessing a terminal in their control rooms. The terminal gives you access to the Praetor Lightning Tower Operations System. It will display the option to “Recalibrate Lightning Tower,” which you should always choose.
In case you just want a tip on how to find these towers and their respective control rooms, you can just look to the sky and wait for lightning to strike. Since lightning strikes the towers, you’ll get an idea of where to go based on that. However, not every control room is near its respective tower. To find the control room, follow the large pipes coming out of the lightning rod tower.
Below, you will find the exact location of every lightning rod tower control room and how to access their respective terminals.
Northwest tower
To reach the northwest tower control room, you can go to the Interstitial Reconfiguration Center fast travel spot and head north following the main road. At the fork, turn left to where there’s a broken bridge. Jump to the other side and walk a bit forward to find the control room where you can recalibrate the lightning tower.
Southwest tower
The quickest route to this tower is by using the Interstitial Reconfiguration Center fast travel. When you get there, you will see that to access the southwest tower terminal, you must use the two rift anomalies outside the building to reach an opening on the control room’s roof. To use these rifts, you must have completed the “An Instrument to Unfold Space & Time” main quest and obtained the Rift Anomaly Modulator.
First, open the rift near the door of the central room. It will make a couple of boxes appear on the outside wall. Next, open the other rift, which creates a gate, locking you on the outside.
Use the boxes created by the first rift to jump over the gate, and climb the ones to your right (they appear when you activate the second rift) to get to the roof. Enter the control room using the opening and access the terminal to recalibrate the tower.
Central tower
This tower is located south of the Automech Production Facility fast travel point. Although the path is pretty straightforward, the door to access the room with the terminal is locked. If you have Lockpick 2 and one Mag-Pic, you can open it. However, if you don’t, you can use the rocks beside the door to reach the roof, where there’s an opening. Enter the room and use the terminal to check this tower off your list.
Northeast tower
Starting from the landing pad, go north following the main road. You will find the northeast lightning tower control room when the path forks. Enter and access the terminal. It will tell you the system is missing an important piece and the tower can’t be recalibrated. Check the panel to the left of the terminal to learn about the scrapper camp to the east.
You need to explore the scrapper camp, seeking the Grounding Tower Replacement Part. If this is your first time visiting the place, be sure to have enough ammo to deal with multiple enemies – and don’t forget to collect the high security lockbox hidden in the camp.
With the area clear, head to the southeastern side of camp to find the piece you need on the top of a box. It’s near the remains of a building with a fire camp inside it. Now that you have the piece, go back to the control room, replace the missing part, and recalibrate the tower.
Southeast tower
The southeast tower is close to the Grounding Station, but you need to find the right path that will take you there. First, leave the Grounding Station, where you met Exemplar Simon, and head southeast.
Enter the tunnel to the east – but be prepared to face a group of Raptidons. Clear the enemies and start climbing the rocks at the end of the tunnel to find the path to the southeast tower. Access the terminal inside the central room and recalibrate this tower.
Where are all five lightning rod tower locations on Praetor
There are five lightning-rod (grounding station) towers on Praetor: Northeast, Northwest, Central, Southwest, and Southeast. Each is tied to a small control building (Grounding Station) you enter to recalibrate the tower.
Northeast tower
-
Located in the northeast section of Praetor, along the main road that runs directly north from the Landing Pad, just before the Tomb of the Matriarch.
-
This station initially lacks a part; the missing component is found further east at a Scrapper camp, then brought back to this Grounding Station.
Northwest tower
-
Found in the far northwest of the map, west of the northwestern bridge and across a small lake or broken bridge section, reachable by following the main road north from the Interstitial Reconfiguration Center and veering left.
-
The approach is infested with Verachnids, so expect heavy bug resistance on the hill leading to the Grounding Station.
Central tower
-
Sits slightly south of the map’s geometric center, off the road that runs south from the Automech Production Facility.
-
The Grounding Station here has a locked door south of the Automech Facility; you can either lockpick it or access the roof and drop in.
Southwest tower
-
Located near the southwestern edge of Praetor, roughly midway between Auntie’s Chemical Factory in the far southwest and the Rift Modulator facility to the northwest.
-
Reaching this Grounding Station’s roof requires using the Rift Modulator on nearby rifts to spawn climbable boxes and a portal you can jump through.
Southeast tower
-
Situated in the southeast part of the map, south or southeast of the main Grounding Station where Exemplar Simon is, and generally south of the Landing Pad area.
-
The path commonly runs through a tunnel system with Raptidons before you emerge near the Grounding Station and its associated lightning tower.
Show map markers for each lightning tower on Praetor
The game does not show custom user-placed map markers for each lightning tower, but the five towers on Praetor always appear in the same fixed spots on the in-game map.
How “markers” work in-game
-
Each tower is represented by its nearby Grounding Station icon once you have discovered or entered that location; there is no separate toggle just for the tower itself.
-
The journal entry for “Fiddling with Fulgurating Fulminations” lists the five towers (Northeast, Northwest, Central, Southwest, Southeast), but does not add quest waypoints; you must navigate by the map and landmarks.
Approximate map positions to look for
-
Northeast tower:
-
Marker appears along the road at the far northeast edge of Praetor, just before the Tomb of the Matriarch icon.
-
On the interactive Praetor map, it is labeled “Lightning Tower – Northeast” near the top-right corner.
-
-
Northwest tower:
-
Marker is across a broken bridge and small lake in the north-west corner of the map, west of the “Northwestern Bridge” landmark.
-
On the interactive map, look for “Lightning Tower – Northwest” near the upper-left edge.
-
-
Central tower:
-
Appears just south of the center of the Praetor map, off the road that runs below the Automech Production Facility icon.
-
Labeled “Lightning Tower – Central” slightly below the geometric middle of the Praetor map.
-
-
Southwest tower:
-
Marker is in the lower-left quadrant, between Auntie’s Chemical Factory (far southwest corner) and the Rift Modulator facility to its north.
-
On the interactive map it appears as “Lightning Tower – Southwest” close to the left edge, a bit above the very bottom.
-
-
Southeast tower:
-
Located in the lower-right quadrant, southeast of the main Grounding Station where Exemplar Simon is, and south/southeast of the Landing Pad.
-
On the interactive map, look for “Lightning Tower – Southeast” near the bottom-right edge.
-
To visualize the exact markers, use an interactive Praetor map site and toggle or filter for Lightning Towers / Grounding Stations; these overlays match one-to-one with the in-game map positions listed above.
