Alien Tablets (Disambiguation)

Alien Tablets are items required to disable Forcefield Controls in Alien Bases and other alien structures, like Sanctuary Caches.

The Alien Tablets are flat metal-like objects featuring various holes on the outer edges, with a large alien symbol visible in the middle of the object. the tablets come in three colors: purple, blue, and orange.

How the devices were used by the Precursors is unknown. The data bank entry for the Blue Tablet suggests that as well as granting security clearance, they may have functioned as personal computer, possibly similar to a PDA. It is known that the Precursors possessed a form of telepathy that allowed them to interface with their technology in ways that humanity is unable to.

Commonly found with the Alien Tablet are the Ion Cubes, which are needed for fabrication of the Ion Battery and Ion Power Cell.

A total of 10 Alien Tablets of mixed colors can be found around the map.

Purple Tablet
The Purple Tablet is usually the first Alien Tablet to be found, and is very frequently used in a number of locations. There are currently eight found in the game. The Quarantine Enforcement Platform requires two to unlock either the upper entrance or the anti-gravity elevator, and the control room. The two Purple Tablets needed to unlock these doors can be found onsite; four on Mountain Island, and one inside the facility in the room before the deactivation terminal. A sixth can be found in the Degasi Seabase on the Floating Island, which was discovered by Marguerit Maida, and investigated by the other Degasi survivors. The rest can be found in the Mountain Island's Caves. After scanning the broken Purple Tablet in front of the Quarantine Enforcement Platform's land entrance, the player can craft Purple Tablets at the Fabricator using an Ion Cube and two Diamonds.

The Purple Tablet can be used optionally to access the three Sanctuary Caches. It is also used to unlock certain doors in the Alien Thermal Plant and Disease Research Facility.

The data bank entry notes is that the Alien character on the artifact resembles the letter "U".

Tablet ID:

Purple Tablet: precursorkey_purple

Orange Tablet
The Orange Tablet is the rarest Alien Tablet that can be found, and can be found in the Deep Grand Reef Degasi Seabase on a desk, and is presumed to be what Marguerit Maida had discovered, as shown in this log. This Alien Tablet is exclusively used to access the Lost River Laboratory Cache. The Orange Tablet is craftable, but only one terminal requires the artifact.

The data bank entry notes that that alien character on the artifact resembles the English letter "N".

Tablet ID:

OrangeTablet: precursorkey_orange

Blue Tablet
The Blue Tablet can be found in the Alien Thermal Plant, and is used to access the Primary Containment Facility. One Blue Tablet is needed to gain entrance to the facility, and a second one is used to unlock the Moonpool room. However, only one Blue Tablet is available for pickup from the Alien Thermal Plant. It is craftable after the player either picks this Blue Tablet up, or scans it.

The data bank entry notes that the alien character on the tablet resembles an upper-case “H”.

Tablet ID:

Blue Tablet: precursorkey_blue

Gallery
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Trivia

 * On the Databanks for the Alien Tablets, there is what appears to be the Precursor alphabet.
 * There used to be two other Alien Tablets colored red and white, but they can no longer be accessed in game.
 * The Blue Tablet used to require one Ion Cube and two Diamonds.
 * At one point it was not possible to drop the Alien Tablets to scan them, and just picking up the Blue Tablet would not unlock the Blueprint.  Making it possible to accidentally render the Blue Tablet uncraftable.
 * The former name for the Alien Tablets were Precursor Keys and Alien Artifacts.
 * The old encyclopedia for the orange Alien tablet said "It's a secret to everybody." This was a reference to a famous line in the original The Legend of Zelda video game.
 * The Orange Tablet, requiring two Nickel Ore, is easier to craft than the Blue Tablet, which requires two Kyanite, although it is used later in the game.