They Who Returned

What does the quest They Who Returned give? The blueprints of a Voltaic Staff: in its part Audience with the Autophage, the Autophage hand over the Fibreglass Grip, the Atlantideum Chamber, and the Concentric Transducer. Across its 5 parts it also gives the Scan Harmoniser and the Polyphonic Core for your multitool's scanner, and Atlantideum.

How it starts

The quest begins with a navigational hijack: your starship is pulled toward remote coordinates, and the source is an abandoned camp where a disembodied Autophage head waits.

The steps

Each part is one entry of the log. After the Polyphonic Core, the quest opens Audience with the Autophage, which gives the staff, and Prayers of the Machine, which gives Atlantideum, side by side and waits for both; then the last part takes the staff to a hidden gateway. The table gives every step as the log names it, with the hint the game shows under it, and on a part's last step everything that part gives along the way.

Part	Step	Hint	Gives
1	Investigate the hijack source	Navigational hijack: averted remote coordinates: retained.
1	Explore the extracted coordinates	The hijack source was an abandoned camp, where I met a disembodied Autophage head.
1	Converse with the Autophage head	New vocabulary learned from altered monolith.	Scan Harmoniser
2	Meet the Autophage	Scan Harmoniser installed.
2	Consult with Nada	These Autophage appear to be an entire civilisation of alien lifeforms, previously imperceptible to me.
2	Locate an Echo Seed	In hope of better understanding the Autophage, Specialist Polo is assembling their own Construct. They believe that the Construct's spark, their final piece, might be found on a dissonant planet, in the form of an Echo-Seed.
2	Awaken the Construct	The Scan Harmoniser revealed the presence of more echo seeds, all over dissonant worlds. Each seed was harvested from the rusting remains of a Construct.
2	Consult with the Construct	Consult with the Construct
2	Report back to Nada	Report back to Nada
2	Expand the investigation	Nada suggested learning more about the Autophage through direct interaction with them, as well as experimentation with the properties of Atlantideum.	Polyphonic Core
3	Install a Polyphonic Core	Attach the Construct's Polyphonic Core to your Multi-Tool Scanner.
3	Enter an Autophage Site	The Assembled Construct, drawing upon a buried memory, provided blueprints for a Polyphonic Core.
3	Complete a mission for the Autophage	The Autophage are a culture founded upon hard work and cooperation. Contribute to their society to earn their trust, and improve your standing.
3	Converse with the Autophage	The Autophage, evidently impressed, have gifted a partial schematic for a Voltaic Staff.
3	Construct the Fibreglass Grip	The Fibreglass Grip blueprint is an unusual gift from the Autophage, forming part of a staff Multi-Tool.
3	Warp to meet more Autophage	Meet more Autophage in another system.
3	Earn a core for the Voltaic Staff	The Autophage have bestowed an unusual gift: a blueprint for a Voltaic Staff handle.
3	Construct the Atlantideum Chamber	The Atlantideum Chamber blueprint is an unusual gift from the Autophage, forming part of a staff Multi-Tool.
3	Earn a head for the Voltaic Staff	The Autophage have bestowed an unusual gift: blueprints for parts of a Voltaic Staff.
3	Construct the Voltaic Staff	The Autophage have offered the gift of friendship via blueprints for a Voltaic Staff Multi-Tool.	Fibreglass Grip, Atlantideum Chamber, Concentric Transducer
4	Research properties of Atlantideum	The Construct claims that all 'electronic hearts' will react to the presence of Atlantideum.
4	Seek the Fragment of a New Atlantid	My starship computer, stimulated by the presence of Atlantideum, has detected a trace of the ethereal substance somewhere in deep-space.	Atlantideum
5	Seek a hidden gateway	The Voltaic Staff may open doors that were once closed.
5	Speak with the Atlas	I have been summoned, for a purpose unknown.
5	Consult with Nada	I have faced the Atlas, and presented it with crystals of Atlantideum.

Every step in the order the log shows it, with the hint under it; what a part gives stands on its last step.

What the items do

Everything the quest hands over, with the description the game gives it.

Item	What it does
Scan Harmoniser	An attachment for the Multi-Tool Scanner that allows the device to detect and decode the cloaking signal of nearby Autophage units.
Polyphonic Core	An attachment for the Multi-Tool Scanner that allows the device to detect and decode the cloaking signal of nearby Autophage units.
Fibreglass Grip	A strap of flexible resin, securely wrapped around a steel pole.
Atlantideum Chamber	A compact box of circuitry and ethereal crystals, painstakingly wired by hand.
Concentric Transducer	An electrified arrangement of mechanical wheels. Transforms stored energy into beams or propulsion, according to the specifications of weapons and laser attachments.
Atlantideum	This ethereal substance spills from the bodies of corrupted Sentinels as they fall, a shower of prismatic grains seeking out their next host. It evades all attempts to contain it, as if it had a will of its own, a strong desire for its own freedom.

Every item the quest gives, in the order it comes, with the game's own description.

Which staff head to fit, and where the terminals that build staffs stand, is in the staffs guide, and the staff is assembled at an Autophage Synthesis Terminal; the scanner modules are in the multitool modules guide.