Mojave Survival Guide

Overview

Saving wastelanders since 2022!

Introduction

Hello wastelander! Are you wandering the wastelands wondering what the hell went wrong with your character? If so then this guide may be just for you! Hopefully you will be able to learn some good areas to go to in a emergency for guns, certain unique items, achievements, progressiong and even XP!

Please refer to the table of contents in order to browse the guide more fluently!

Character Setup! | Tips and Information

In Fallout 3 – Fallout New Vegas, your S.P.E.C.I.A.L is what defines you as a person! You can be the Bulky-Big-Boots, or the Skimly-Small-Sneakers, or the Normal-Medium-Shoes. Okay maybe not like THAT but the point is that S.P.E.C.I.A.L defines you!

NOTE! THESE ALL HAVE EFFECTS ON GAINING CERTAIN PERKS AS WELL

Strength:
This will effect your health, certain skills, inventory weight capacity, and more!

Perception:
This effects your radar distance, certain skills, aiming, and more!

Endurance:
This effects your health, and contains alot of misc. bonuses! (Not to be mixed up with Misc items)

Charisma:
This effects how you communicate with some companions, skills related to conversation (Barter & Speech), and more!

Intelligence:
This effects your XP, level ups, some conversation situations which will contain possible prizes, and more!

Agility:
This effects your speed, and action points, skills, and more!

Luck:
This will effect your critical chances, gambling, and more!

I reccomend selecting your layout with special as this:

S : 5
P : 5
E : 5
C : 5
I : 10
A : 5
L : 10
When you first get the chance to add to special, max out your intelligence, it will help ALOT.

When you get leveled up select the perk “Swift Learner” which will make leveling up happen more frequently, 3 times.Once thats done, select the “Intense Training” perk 5 times and on all 5 times select luck so you can gamble and get more critical chances.

(THIS IS RECCOMENDED, NOT SOMETHING THAT IS VITAL TO PLAYING THE GAME, JUST THE SETUP I ALWAYS USE AND WORKS WELL FOR ALOT OF PEOPLE)

Progression | Tips and Tricks to Kill Benny

The first thing you want to do when you leave Goodsprings, is head on over to “Boulder City” and talk to the “Great Kahns” in the building with hostages. Once you do that, they will tell you that Benny has went over to “The Strip” or also known as “New Vegas” and give you his lighter.

You want to go to Freeside and get a passport via quests, paying 2000 caps, or a level 80 science level. Then head to “The Tops” and find Benny. Kill Benny INSIDE THE TOPS. If you dont you will bust your ass hunting down Benny. The easiest way to kill him is to get a level 50 or so speech level and ask him to show you where your suite is when you talk to him. (NOTE: If you do not have a large speech level, there are magazine dispensers outside that you can use to find something to help you)

< These dispense magazines when opened

He will come inside your suite ALONE and you will get a chance to murder him with a pool cue or any other weapon that you snuck inside.

Oh also hes got a sweet suit and gun so take those too.

After that you will basicly be setup for beginning the ending. I will not show you how to beat the game for every ending or any ending because then we will be here forever and you will probably end up kicking your screen or eating abunch of oreos or whatever I dont know. Also by the time you kill benny you will should be near level 10 or so.

Locations | Important Hot Spots for Player Activity

This section of the guide will show you 2 useful locations for items and things of like that. This wont cover every large area, it just covers the ones that you will be gettin’ alot of in-n’-out of when your wandering the wasteland.

1. GUN RUNNERS
Gun Runners may be the most important area in New Vegas for the reason that they well… make guns and armor and pretty much everything you would need if you wanted to threaten a bloody deathclaw. Metaphorically of course, do not actually attempt to threaten a deathclaw because you wont. Trust me. I learned the hard way. They have ALOT of great weapons at the Gun Runners. Such as the Anti-Material Rifle which may as well be the equivalent of a Fat Man if it was a sniper. They also have great armor, not the best armor you could find in the wasteland of course, but they do have Class-2 Combat Armor which is pretty good if you know what Im sayin’ yeah!

2. THE STRIP

The Strip contains many different features like gambling, being a douchey mafia guy, and being in a casino full of masked people who eat *CENSORED FOR SPOILER*. Its also full of quests that give you awesome prizes! For example, if you help Mick & Ralph get buisiness from Gommorah then Mick will award you with the Pimp-Boy 3 Billion which is a solid golden version of the regular Pip-Boy 3000. Yeah. Solid gold. Aint no caps pay for dat.

I would mention more but there are so many other important areas that listing them all here would take forever.

Shelter | Tips and Info

There is a vast majority of housing options when it comes to the Mojave Wasteland! This housing can vary from the smallest shed, to the highest penthouse, to the largest mansions! When you find an area to choose as a considerable housing area, it is advised to look up the location on the Fallout Wiki, in order to make sure your items will be safely contained in the location, for some houses can have enemys spawn inside at random who could STEAL your items!

One of the most common housing options are the Novac Motel Room, whos key can be purchased from the front office of Novac for 150 caps! The room contains a safe, television that doesnt work, dresser, fridge, and other containers along with a bed, some chairs, and a bathroom incase you wanna throw up or release your bowels or even drink from!

Another VERY common housing option is the Lucky 38 Penthouse, for it contains some costomization options, and enough storage to stash a million pounds of coca- I mean weapons and armor. It also comes with a snowglobe exhibit which can be used by giving Mr.Houses personal assistant snowglobes you find across the wasteland. (Spoiler alert: One of them can be found in the Goodsprings Cemetary)

Though these options are common, and other sheds that are found across the wasteland are common too, you can always turn to mods! As a “Veteren” house modder, I can very much reccamend some mods if you feel as if all the houses you find at as pitiful as a dead cat.

Human Population | Backstory and What to Expect

The human race in Fallout New Vegas can be unpredictable, maybe your wandering around, taking a little stroll and someone walks up to you and gives you a airplane or something and runs away, or maybe someone walks up to you and stabs you then eats you and sends a letter to your family saying “F*** YOU!”, you just never know. This section will cover some of the most common groups.

1. NCR

The NCR stands for the New California Republic and you can think of them as the military replacement for the enclave after they became extinct from the Mojave. They wear battle armor, and usually are equiped with something across the lines of a Service Rifle, 9mm Pistol, Combat Knife, or sometimes a Hunting Rifle if they are snipers. However, they’re are different classes of the NCR Military, I only just covered the main infantry. They’re are also Rangers, and then they’re are the rangers I like to call Badass Mc. Gotta Shoot Someone. Lets cover the basic rangers first, basic rangers are usually equiped with either a Cowboy Repeater or a 357. Revolver, and they can be found in some NCR outposts, camps, or just wandering around the wasteland. Then we got the Badass ones that appear when you get in higher levels. These guys have red eyes, helmets, dusters, full sets of body armor, Anti-Material Rifles, and huge as F*** revolvers. Luckily, they only appear when you get to a high enough level, so if your a legionair they wont be seen as often as they would when you get farther in the game.

2. LEGION

The Legion is a group of intimidating school bullies who wear football armor with spikes and hit you with swords made of rocks. Spoookeeeee…? That was my first reaction to the Legion when I first saw them. I mean what kind of scary gang throws bloody spears and wears football armor I mean CAMAN! But once you go in their camps your like: AW S*** IM OUT OF HERE because your greeted by people being burned on tires, hung on crosses, hung in general, being enslaved, being executed by machetes, and people wearing foxes as helmets along with people wearing feathers from a turkey walking around. Yeah. Doesnt sound like play time at the nursery anymore now DOES IT. This group of angry teenagers is led by the one and only Ceaser. I dont know how to say his name because Im pretty sure its like See-zer but everyone in the Legion says ky-zar so I dont know call him see-ky-zerar.

3. FIENDS

The fiends are abunch of knocked up douchebags who live in a vault and sometimes eat people. Oh yeah they also have a S*** LOAD OF ENERGY WEAPONS. Dont ask why, because I have no bloody idea, but every time you see one they either have something like a pipe, or a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like Plasma Nuke Sniper Jetpack 3000, you just never know.

Animals | Basic Overview and Best Way to Handle Them

Along with humans, there are also a vast amount of animals! There isnt alot to talk about when it comes to animals since they are all basically mutated versions of real animals. For example: Brahmin are a mutated version of a cow, Yao Guia are a mutated version of a bear, and Big Horners are mutated versions of a bulls. Oh and funfact, deathclaws are military experiments that where going to be used for a war. The best way to deal with a animal, is to NOT USE A MELEE WEAPON.

Robots | Overview and How to Protect Yourself

Robots are a uncommon encounter in the wasteland, but when you do come into contact with one, it is important to understand what you are dealing with and how you can outsmart their programming. You can take down any robot with one well placed pulse grenade, although they are hard to come by.

Mister Gutsy:

Mister Gutsys are modified versions of a house maid cleaner called Mister Handy, and he is equiped with a saw, plasma gun, and a flamethrower. The trick to take down a Mister Gutsy is to keep walking close to him so he will change weapons and right before he changes weapons walk away so he changes back to a ranged weapon. This strategy will practically always work unless you are trying to melee the robot. If you are VERY fast though you may actually be able to do this strategy while trying to kill the robot. Another strategy to take one down is to run around in circles around the robot so he has to turn to get you.

Turret:

Turrets dont have any strategy besides either finding a terminal to deactivate them, or just going in and shooting them like normal.

Sentry Boy:

Okay Ill be honest I have no strategies to kill these guys besides spamming a huge amount of pulse grenades or sneaking past them.

Protectron:

These are the most basic robots, and they are also the easiest to kill. The only weapon they have is a laser pistol and it has a 3 second delay so they are pretty easy to kill, especially with something like a sledge hammer.

Trading | Tips

Trading is something that is pretty much vital to making money unless you have a large amount of luck to gamble with. The easiest way to make money from trading is when you find a new weapon that you think is nice but the ammo is rare, then you can keep it and use the ammo for something then sell it for a mighty fine bag of caps. Along with that, misc items are really useful when it comes to trading. When you travel across the wasteland pick up AS MUCH SMOKES AS POSSIBLE. They are worth alot when you sell them, they are very common, especially on fiends corpses, and they do not weigh alot.

One more tip, when your selling stuff, ALWAYS check the traders money to make sure they have alot. If they dont have alot you probably shouldnt try to sell them everything you have.

Now You’re Ready!

Now you are ready to travel the Mojave Dessert for search of riches, survival, or thrill! I hope this guide has helped you get on your feet, now go out there and pwn some n00bs!

By: Fireapple9