Automatron was announced, along with Wasteland Workshop, Far Harbor and teases of other expansion packs, on the Bethesda Game Studios' blog on February 16, 2016.
Lamenting her inability to save her owners, Ada agrees to join the Sole Survivor in the hopes of getting revenge and thwarting the wider threat posed by the Mechanist, the person assembling robots which have been attacking settlers and caravans across the Commonwealth.
The Sole Survivor meets Jezebel, a RoboBrain unit held captive by the Rust Devils, and she agrees to help in exchange for building her a new body when they escape.
The Sole Survivor follows the Mechanist's signal to a robotics retailer and service center that was the cover for a secret military installation prior to the Great War.
Devastated that her good intentions led to the deaths of innocents, Isabel retires from being the Mechanist and offers to help the Sole Survivor track down and destroy the rogue robots terrorizing the Commonwealth.
IGN's Jared Petty gave a negative review of the PC version which they described as offering "piecemeal additions", with some aspects being "briefly enjoyable" but not "fully fleshed out".
At Kasumi's behest, the player switches focus to investigating the synth DiMA, leader of Acadia, and learns that he has stored some of his memories outside his body.
Alternatively, the player may establish a more permanent peace between all parties by assassinating or chasing away High Confessor Tektus, and allowing DiMA to replace him with a synth who will adopt a more moderate stance towards Far Harbor.
[15] It focuses on designing and constructing a Vault, as opposed to the prior workshop-based expansion packs that simply added settlement components.
By incorporating elements similar to the mobile game Fallout Shelter, the expansion pack allows for the Sole Survivor to build and freely explore their own interconnected Vault rooms.
Raider activity in the area has triggered the Vault's distress beacon, forcing the Sole Survivor to fight them off to gain entry.
Barstow reveals that Vault 88's original purpose was to test a series of devices designed to minimize "social waste", or turn unproductive residents into contributing members of society.
These include an exercise bike that provides power; a drinks station that can be spiked with a variety of drugs; and a device for examining eyes that can be used to read a person's thoughts.
Upon the successful conclusion of the final experiment, Barstow confides to the Sole Survivor her ambitions of contributing to the Vault program with her own invention, a slot machine that can be used to identify deviant behavior in the population.
After reaching the end of the Gauntlet, Gage, a raider occupying the park, contacts the Sole Survivor and proposes a deal to defeat current Overboss, Colter.
Dan Stapleton of IGN said the DLC had "a great setting that's densely packed with spectacle" but had a lack of meaningful decisions in comparison to Far Harbor.