How to recruit Curie in Fallout 4

Erudite, soft-spoken, and cheekily named after the physicist who discovered radioactivity, Curie is one of the seven romanceable companions you can find in Fallout 4. 

Unlike other romance candidates like Piper or Cait, Curie is somewhat hard to find. She’s locked behind the Vault 81 quest, Hole in the Wall. You have to find the optional vault and successfully pursue the quest chain in order to recruit her to your group of companions. So, here’s how to get started. 

How to get into Vault 81 in Fallout 4

Vault 81 is unique because it’s the only Vault in Fallout 4 that isn’t infested with hostiles. Instead, it operates like a small NPC settlement of its own. You can find it east of Diamond City by following a trail that leads uphill from Chestnut Hillock Reservoir into a fenced-off junkyard. The cave under the construction scaffolding serves as the vault’s main entrance. 

Entering the cavern and plugging your Pip-boy into the interface draws you into a slightly hostile conversation with the main security officer. After some back and forth, you’re asked for three Fusion Cores in exchange for entry into the vault. You can bypass this with a moderately difficult Charisma check, but you won’t get the 100 caps reward for retrieving the Fusion Cores. 

Any general goods vendor around the Commonwealth has a chance to carry a small stock of Fusion Cores. If you’re low on caps, three easy looting locations are the locked room at Starlight Drive-in, the underground sewers at Concord, and the Mole Rat Den near the Red Rocket truck stop settlement just south of Sanctuary Hills. 

Once you return with three Fusion Cores to trade, Overseer McNamara opens the vault doors and grants you entry. 

How to start Hole in the Wall in Fallout 4

After being introduced to the basic history of Vault 81, you can follow McNamara down the hall to take the main elevator into the vault proper. You’re immediately approached by Austin, a young boy, who offers you a tour of the vault for five caps. You’re free to turn him down, but his tour is useful for learning your way around. He guides you to the main points of interest in the atrium and then the residential area, ending with an introduction to his friend Erin. 

Speak to Erin immediately after the tour concludes to pick up the Here Kitty, Kitty quest—you’ll need this in a bit. Head back down to the medical clinic to speak to Dr. Forsythe and agree to give him a blood sample. After a short scene, he thanks you for your contribution and you’re free to go on your way. 

You want to head out of the vault to go find Erin’s cat, Ashes—set Here Kitty, Kitty as your main quest in your Pip-boy, and the quest marker will lead you right toward the cat. Coax it to return, then follow it back into the vault to trigger the first part of Hole in the Wall. 

The vault residents start mentioning that Austin has fallen ill and is quarantined in the medical bay—head over there to start the quest in earnest. You don’t even need to complete the cat quest with Erin beforehand, though she does give you a Fusion Core as a reward when you turn it in. 

Once the conversation between Dr. Penske, Dr. Forsythe, and Bobby De Luca concludes—and you agree to help find a cure—Bobby leads you down to the entrance to a secret area. Follow him as closely as possible. He needs to interact with the entrance to actually make it accessible, and leaving the vault or keeping him waiting for too long can bug the interaction and lock you out of the quest. 

How to find Curie in Secret Vault 81 in Fallout 4

Here’s where you start one of the most annoying and finicky combat sequences in the entire game. Secret Vault 81 is infested with the same infected mole rats that bit Austin, and they’re more than capable of infecting the player as well. A single melee hit on you or your companion will confer a permanent minus 10 HP debuff that even ignores God Mode and can only be cured by the Vault 81 Cure. 

The problem is, there is only one dose available at the end of the quest. If you end up infected, you’re forced to choose between letting Austin die (and forfeiting your potential honorary residency in Vault 81) or carrying the debuff forever. To get the best outcome possible, you have to kill every mole rat from a distance. Stock up on long-range weapons, AP-replenishing consumables, and keep your fingers on the V.A.T.S. and quick save/load buttons. 

Save-scum your way through the vault until you get to an Expert-level locked terminal. You can either grab the password from another room farther down the walkway to your left—which has two more groups of mole rats lying in wait—or hack through it to continue. Shortly after, you finally meet Curie, a trapped Miss Nanny robot with a distinctive French accent.

Talk to her to release her from her protocol and receive the Vault 81 cure from her, then make sure to grab the Medicine bobblehead off her desk before exiting the area. 

Make your way back down to the medical bay to turn in the quest. Regardless of whatever you decide to do with the cure, the quest concludes, and Curie asks for permission to accompany you through the Commonwealth. You can either turn her down, dismiss your current companion to take her with you, or send her to one of your settlements to pick up later on. 

How to unlock Curie’s romance in Fallout 4

As you might have already guessed, Curie isn’t romanceable in her initial state. Mechanically speaking, her affinity meter is capped one point below the romance threshold as a Miss Nanny robot. To uncap her affinity and pursue her romance, you need to complete her companion quest, Emergent Behaviour. 

The quest is triggered when she expresses her desire for a more human-like body so she can better pursue her studies. If you’ve completed the main story quest, Dangerous Minds, you’re able to mention Doctor Amari and the Memory Den as a possible solution. 

You can progress the quest by taking Curie to the Memory Den, but keep in mind this makes her unavailable for 24 hours afterward. Furthermore, she won’t have her Miss Nanny body anymore, so make sure to take off any valuables and robot mods before starting the quest. 

After speaking to Amari, leaving Curie with her and returning after 24 hours takes you to the next stage where Curie will actually go through with the procedure. Depending on your choices thus far, you might need to pass a Charisma check to proceed. 

When all is said and done, Curie will be downloaded into her new body. With her affinity meter uncapped, the rest of her companion dialogue is unlocked and she is fully romanceable from there on out. Tragically, her new synth form is also the weakest of all companions with the worst S.P.E.C.I.A.L. distribution, so make sure to load her up with powerful gear before taking her with you through the wasteland.