Wasteland 3: Battle of Steeltown guide — Confrontation: Choose a side

Whatever you decide to do with Blue and Di in the Ghost Garage, you’ll eventually find yourself back at Steeltown Gates. You’ll be presented with a fateful decision on who to side with in the coming conflict. Here’s our walkthrough and guide to help you choose between Abigail Markham or Salene Crow in this pivotal moment in Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown.

Note: For more information about Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown and the base game, check out our guides/features hub and expansion walkthrough. Likewise, please remember that this guide contains minor spoilers.

Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown walkthrough – Choosing a side (Markham vs. Crow)

As soon as you reach Steeltown Gates, you’ll witness a confrontation between Abigail Markham and Salene Crow (assuming you helped her out in the Factory Level). Trying to smooth things over won’t work, so you really need to decide:

• Siding with Markham – You’ll continue following Markham’s orders, and you can take out Crow and the other workers. You can use Disruption tech if you want.
• Siding with Crow – You’ll battle Markham and her security bots/turrets. Regardless of getting Blue to reset Di’s function, she’ll be hostile towards you if you do this.

This fight can be tough if you aren’t prepared, so make sure you’ve got a lot of ammo, grenades, and even decoys. If Markham and the security forces are your foes, then be ready for large AoE blasts. Meanwhile, Crow and the workers love to use tar effects and elemental shields. Still, you do have the Kodiak at your disposal, so you can use it to ram your enemies.

Note: To be clear, I haven’t seen the outcome if you sided with Ludlow in the Factory Level.

The fight doesn’t end there. You’ll need to enter the Admin Level where more hostiles are around. There will be three encounters here.

There’s one upon entering, another at the right side near a turret, and the last one just before Markham’s office.

What to do with Markham

After taking out your opponents, you can talk to Markham. If you sided with her, then she’ll tell you to go to the Steeltown Spire to reset the Computation Engine using the Synaptic Core that you obtained from Blue’s room.

If you sided with Crow, you have the option to depose or kill Markham. Crow will still have you reset the Computation Engine.

Note: The R&D vendor sells more items now, including new crafting blueprints. Unfortunately, they’re a lot more expensive than just a buck.

Markham’s room

It’s possible to enter Markham’s room now or later (i.e., after going through Steeltown Spire and after the epilogue) as long as the guard isn’t there. For instance, if you sided with Markham, the guard won’t be posted on this spot as long as you don’t reload your save. If you sided with Crow, the coast is clear since you eliminated the security forces.

Here are some additional tidbits:

• Markham’s Gun Rack – Disengage the safety -> chamber a round -> pull the trigger. This lets you grab several Cryo Armor blueprints, the “Fireball” auto rifle, 6x Tellurium, and a cassette recording of a conversation between Markham and Blue.
• Container (Lockpicking 7) – This has a Disruption weapon and Markham’s Personal Journal.

Note 1: Beware in case Di is still with you (if you sided with Markham). Following the pathway past the tripwire as it loops around to the south will make her accuse you of trespassing and she’ll become hostile.

Note 2: There’s also a minor issue if the guard is still there and it aggroes. All the scientist NPCs, barring Markham, will become hostile and you won’t be able to interact or buy from them again. Just reload your save if this happens.

In any case, it’s time for us to reach the Computation Engine in the Steeltown Spire.

Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides/features hub and expansion walkthrough.