Section 19: Nuka Cola Quantum - therabidsquirel/The-Fallout-Shelter-FAQ GitHub Wiki

19.1

Q: What are Quantums used for?

A: They're used to speed up time for or skip various things. They can instantaneously finish wasteland return time, quest start and return time, crafting time, SPECIAL training time, and barbershop customization time. They can also be used to skip objectives after your daily skip has been used, to skip some quests, and to unlock themes without having to collect all the fragments. Quantum costs are as follows:

  • 1 Quantum per 2 hours of time skipped. Any amount over 2 hours will take an extra Quantum. Remaining crafting time at 2h 1m for example will take 2 Quantums to skip, but 1h 59m will only take 1. Use this to your advantage and wait a couple minutes to use Quantums if you're that close to a 2 hour mark.

  • 2+ Quantums to skip an objective. The first skip after your free skip always costs 2, and any skips after that are 150% the price of the previous skip cost rounded up. This results in the pattern 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 18, 27, 41, 62. The cost does not increase past 62 and the cost resets back to 2 once you get another free skip.

  • 1 Quantum to skip a quest (daily, weekly, and blue quests only).

  • 3 Quantums per missing fragment to complete a theme recipe. This means it will take minimum 3 Quantums (8/9 recipe fragments found) and maximum 27 Quantums (0/9 recipe fragments found) to complete a recipe.

19.2

Q: How do I get Quantums?

A: Like with lunchboxes, Mr. Handy, and pets, you can get them free from objectives and quests or by buying them from the in-game store. They can also be found as the resource card of lunchboxes, and while it's not too common it's also not too rare. They can additionally be gotten from Bottle (more on Bottle and Cappy in 21.2).

19.3

Q: What's the best use of Quantums?

A: First off, I don't think it's very useful to complete theme recipes. They're entirely aesthetic and offer no advantage, so you might as well save your Quantums for anything else as you'll get all the fragments eventually from quests and exploration.

If you really don't like the listed daily or weekly quest and you have the Quantum to spare you can skip them and immediately get a new one. For blue quests there are only a limited number, and skipping just puts it to the back of the queue, so they're not really worth skipping unless they have a requirement you just can't meet right now, or you really do want to hope the next one in line has loot you like better. On that note you will always be able to craft the required weapons and outfits for quests (the exception being limited time holiday quests that require holiday outfits, but even if you can skip them there's no point). There was an example (53045248437532743874) of a quest that required a lunchbox only outfit, but this has since been updated to require something much easier and not based on luck to obtain.

For the remaining time skips and objective skipping, keep in mind that a Quantum is worth 2 hours of time, and it takes 2 Quantums to skip an objective (so 4 hours worth). Since any amount of time into the next two hour period will cost an additional Quantum, wait to use Quantums if you're only a couple minutes off of it costing 1 less at a 2 hour mark.

In terms of where you should use them that depends on what you want.

  • Objective skips might be really worth it, as 4 hours of Quantums compared to waiting up to 24 hours for a daily skip could definitely be a huge time saving compared to other uses.

  • Keep in mind periods for which you can't play, sleep of course being a big one. If an explorer is returning in an hour, but it's late and you really need to go to bed to get up early tomorrow, that 1 hour is effectively however many hours you sleep of them waiting at your door.

  • If you don't have enough dwellers yet to fill a crafting room, and if you don't have good outfits yet for a stat you'll use in crafting, skipping time on the first +5 outfits for example could save a lot of time. You just have to send your best dwellers there long enough to spend Quantums on good outfits, which will greatly help the few dwellers you can afford to keep in the room.

Beyond these tips use them where you see fit. Maybe it'd really benefit you if a dweller finished training right now, or maybe if dwellers got to a quest right now, and so on. There are a lot of ways you could spend Quantums usefully, just think about whatever you want and how you'd be spending your time getting there, versus how Quantums would affect that time.