Early in The Outer Worlds, you’ll have to deal with an underworld information broker named Gladys at the Groundbreaker. To continue your main story quest, you’ll need to reach a place called Stellar Bay on the planet Monarch, but it’s been sealed off by the Board. The only way to instantly land your ship at Stellar Bay is by getting a Stellar Bay NavKey from Gladys — and there are multiple ways to do it.
What makes this quest so annoying? Gladys doesn’t tell you what she wants. She’ll send you to Roseway for information, but if you don’t bring her all three, you’ll fail the quest and won’t even know it. Then you’re stuck paying 10,000 bits, which is a huge, huge amount this early in the game. If you don’t have the money, don’t worry! There are alternative ways to complete the quest without spending a dime — and you don’t even need to go to Roseway at all.
More The Outer Worlds guides:
- The Outer Worlds: 20 Tips, Tricks & Secrets I Wish I Knew | Beginner’s Guide
- The Outer Worlds: How To Recruit Every Companion | All Party Members Guide
- The Outer Worlds: How To Find All 5 Science Weapons | ‘Weapons From The Void’ Locations Guide
- The Outer Worlds: 10 Tips To Help You Survive Supernova | Hardest Difficulty Guide
How To Complete Gladys’ Quest Without Spending All Your Cash | Navkey Guide
In the main story, you’ll eventually encounter Gladys on the Groundbreaker. Before you can continue the main story and reach Monarch, you’ll need a NavKey to land at Stellar Bay. There are four solutions.
- Complete Gladys’ request and bring back three pieces of valuable information from Roseway colony.
- Purchase the NavKey for 10,000 bits.
- Steal the NavKey from Gladys’ safe.
- Ignore the NavKey and just go to Monarch.
If you complete any of the quests at Roseway and don’t bring her all three pieces of rare information, Gladys will not give you the Stellar Bay Navkey. She doesn’t make this clear at all in-game.
Purchasing a NavKey is ridiculously expensive, and if you’ve finished every quest and still don’t have enough cash, there’s only two options left; steal the NavKey, or ignore it completely.
How To Steal The NavKey: The Stellar Bay NavKey is located in Gladys’ safe, in her office. She’s carrying a safe key on her body — you can break into the safe using Lockpick skills, or kill Gladys and take the safe key.
You can safely Lockpick the safe by crouching down behind the safe to the left of the entrance. Hide behind the safe, and you can just barely crack it while no one can see you. While hiding to the left of the safe, look at the back of the safe, not the front!
There are other quest items here too, so you’re saving yourself future trouble by grabbing them! You must have at least [20+ Lockpick] to crack open the safe — make sure to grab lots of Mag-Picks. You can buy them from basically every vendor in the station.
How To Reach Stellar Bay Without The NavKey: You don’t even need the NavKey! Not really. The Stellar Bay NavKey makes life a little easier — you’ll land in the main town on Monarch, but you can still land in the wilderness. Drop into the middle of the wilds, and then mark west to the around on the map surrounded by water — that’s Stellar Bay. You’ll have to fight through aliens and outlaws, but it won’t cost you anything.
More The Outer Worlds guides: