Like in the original Red Dead Redemption, various individuals throughout the game world in Red Dead Redemption 2 will rope you into their own quests. These Stranger Missions flesh out the world and introduce interesting characters, such as the Serbian inventor Marko Dragic.
Based on Nikola Tesla, Arthur Morgan meets Dragic in Saint Denis and ends up helping him with his inventions.
Video Walkthrough
Text Walkthrough
Battleships
To start the “A Bright Bouncing Boy” mission, visit Saint Denis once you reach Chapter 4. You need to go to the lake on the west side of the city, a bit north of the stables. Here you’ll meet the inventor who is about to present his latest contraption to an investor, Mr. Marcelle.
Before the presentation kicks off, another man interrupts and berates Dragic in front of Marcelle in an attempt to discredit him.
Marcelle agrees to give the invention a chance, but only if someone unfamiliar with it operates it to prevent any foul play, and that’s where Arthur comes into the picture. The invention is a small remote-controlled model submarine that can fire explosive torpedoes.
Arthur is tasked with controlling the submarine in the pond filled with mines. You need to use the torpedoes to sink model battleships while avoiding the mines.
This mini-game lasts 2 rounds. In each round, you need to destroy 4 battleships using the remote-controlled sub. In the first round, they are stationary but move around in the second. You can also use the torpedoes to destroy mines at a distance to clear the way ahead and prevent a collision.
This mini-game can be made easy by moving really close to the battleships since the explosive radius of the torpedoes is tiny allowing you to fire from up close to ensure accuracy.
Once you’ve successfully destroyed both waves, Marcelle is impressed with the technology. In a cutscene, Dragic invites you to his laboratory as a reward for your help. If you stay after the cutscene, you’ll witness a conversation between Dragic and Marcelle.
The Lab
The next phase of the mission takes you to Doverhill where you can find the isolated lab of Dragic. Up far north in Roanoke Ridge at the top of the map, Doverhill is in the small outcropping. You need to arrive during nighttime for the mission to progress.
When Arthur arrives, there is a storm brewing and Dragic is convinced someone wants to rob the lab. He’s locked himself into his workshop and communicates with Arthur via microphone. He instructs you to take the three metal rods and the Detector device and place the rods where they can conduct the most electricity.
You need to go into the hills nearby while keeping an eye on the Detector. The light will flash quicker as you near a rod location and turn solid when you’ve reached it. The first one will be near the quest marker, the second is at the top of the hill ahead of the first, and the third is east of the second by a tree. Head back to the workshop.
When you have returned, Dragic will ask you to activate the energy device at the top of the tower of his workshop. Climb up the ladder. Here, the control panel will be a little puzzle. You need to manipulate the levers so that all the lights are on at the same time. To do this, activate the left one first, the right one second and the middle one last. This channels the conducted electricity into the laboratory.
A cutscene plays where Dragic reveals a robot he has been working on, and all the electricity was needed to power it up. The robot briefly moves but then powers down again, however Dragic is pleased and thanks Arthur for his help once more.
Finding the Robot
The quest isn’t finished yet. If you visit Dragic’s laboratory some time later, you’ll find the poor inventor killed inside, and the robot missing. You need to search and loot the lab, where you’ll find a note regarding the robot and an electric lantern. Loot the lantern and head out to search for the robot.
The robot can be found to the far northwestern edge of the map. It is on a cliff northwest of Colter, and there are footsteps nearby to help you find it. You’ll find the robot sitting on the edge of the cliff, sadly mumbling “papa” to itself over and over. The quest is now complete.
Trivia
Dragic, an easter egg based on the famous inventor Nikola Tesla has many parallels to the real scientist. Both are from Serbia and both were active in the USA around the same time.
Marko Dragić, which would be the accurate spelling of the name, consistently mispronounces his own name. He says Dragic like an English-speaker would, with a soft G sound and a C sound at the end. The accurate pronunciation has a harder G and a CH sound at the end, denoted by the ć. Whether this is on purpose and the character pronounces his name anglicized to better fit in, or if it is a developer oversight is unknown.
His Doverhill laboratory is inspired by Wardenclyffe Tower, Tesla’s facility which would have been used to test wireless energy transfer in the early 1900’s.
