Overview
Have you ever been wandering the Wastes and thinking to yourself, “Man, I wish I understood the motives of all these factions around me”, or maybe, “I wish I could understand my companions better”, or even, “I wish I understood the locations I’ve been passing.” If so, this guide is definitely for you! So read it! Read it. Reading this guide won’t hurt you in any way… so read it. I said read it. READ IT NOW DAMN IT! READ IT OR ELSE…*creepy laughter*W A R N I N G This guide is still WIP. I might be changing some stuff up and I still have to do the characters section.
Welcome!
Welcome to my new guide for Fallout: New Vegas! Here, I will teach you all about the world, characters, and factions of the Mojave. Don’t worry, I’ll keep this nice and simple, especially since that’s all I’m capable of doing…
Yes, this isn’t a serious guide. If you want to actually immerse yourself in the lore of Fallout: New Vegas and the other Fallout games, I’m sure that there are plenty of other guides on Steam, or better yet, the Wikia, YouTube videos, and many other places.
Anyway, I hope this guide won’t be a total trainwreck. If you do happen to read this, I’d love to hear some feedback in the comments!
To make your waste of time reading this guide more enjoyable, here’s some music for you to listen to. Your choices are:
Or you could even listen to your own! Wow!
Okay, on to the guide…
THIS IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS
The Mojave
It’s just a desert…
Alright, fine…
The Mojave Desert is the driest desert in all of North America. The Mojave can be found in southern California, southern Nevada, and parts of Utah and Arizona.
In Fallout: New Vegas, the Mojave has become the site of a conflict between two factions, the New California Republic (see NCR) and Caesar’s Legion (see Legion). These two factions of differing ideologies have clashed in the Mojave on their conquests to take back the Wastes. After the NCR triumphed at the Battle for Hoover Dam, the Legion forces were driven across the Colorado River, where they are now regaining their strength for another attack. The NCR currently holds most of the Mojave, but areas to the South are starting to be overrun by the Legion.
But who the hell cares, amiright? You’re just a courier who needs to deliver a package to this one guy in New Vegas. Nothing will get in your way!
And picture it, the Strip, with it’s beautiful lights, great nightlife, and surely many, many activities to enjoy. You just can’t wait to get there.
WELL ♥♥♥♥ YOU, BUDDY. YOU’RE GETTING ROBBED. IT WAS RIGGED FROM THE START.
*bang bang*
The Factions
Oh no. You’ve been robbed by these weirdos in these Mongolian-esque outfits and some guy in a checkered suit (see Benny) and buried in a shallow grave after being shot in the head. It couldn’t have been…
These tribal idiots from the West Coast think they’re Mongolians. They live in huts, wear biker jackets, jeans, and make drugs. Oh and they’re allied with the Legion, unless you have anything to say about that. They just do whatever, anyway, and aren’t honestly a threat to anyone, ignoring the fact that it’s partly their fault for the Fiends… SPEAKING OF FIENDS:
The Fiends are addicts who are really just reskinned raiders. Most of them use energy weapons. BECAUSE ROLE-PLAYING IS DEAD, you can’t be a Fiend. They’ll always be hostile, with the exception of Vault 3 during a quest where you wear Great Khan armor to deliver drugs to the Fiend leader there, Motor Runner. I’ll go into detail on the Fiend leaders under Characters.
Goodsprings is a town in southern Nevada. The locals raise Bighorners and grow some crops. After a Securitron (see Victor) digs you out of your grave, which was ironically in a graveyard. The town’s doctor (see Doc Mitchell) saves you because he’s obviously your guardian angel or something, and they help you recover by being the tutorial for the game. THANKS GOODSPRINGS.
Primm is a dodgy gambling town near Goodsprings. Two run-down casinos can be found there: the Vikki and Vance and Buffalo Bills. You’ll also find the piece-of-♥♥♥♥ courier service you worked, the Mojave Express. The town has been “taken over” by the Powder Gangers, so you better go save it!
The Powder Gangers are a bunch of convicts who took over their NCR prison in a prison riot. There is literally no good reason to give a ♥♥♥♥ about them, so…
Because naming things is hard, the people of Novac named their town after the No Vacancy sign outside the motel. Anyway, the town is the kind of place where you’d probably get abducted or something. There’s not much to the town, just like the real towns of Nevada out in the desert.
Freeside is the ghetto outside of the Strip. It’s full of crime, poverty, wannabe Elvis Presley’s, crime bosses who sell laser weapons, social healthcare warriors, and a sex bot. Yeah, that’s my kinda town! The faction itself includes the residents and the Kings. The Kings are a group of wastelanders who follow the King, who wears a Elvis outfit and talks like Elvis. They live inside of a dance school. The residents are just poor people. There’s not much to them. Except the criers. Who doesn’t love people who yell things like, “Hungry? Thirsty? Horny? Come on down to the Atomic Wrangler, where the booze is cheap, the tables are friendly, and the women are just like the booze!” everytime you walk through the gate from one part of the town to the other. Oh and screw the Atomic Wrangler and their false advertising. There are no women to be found there, except a ghoul if you do a quest for the owners.
The Flowers of the Pock Lips (crappy reference to an in-game dialogue option) are a group of doctors and intellectuals who just want to help the people of the Wastes. That’s pretty much it. There’s nothing else to them. They’re 2D. They’re nothing. They’re boring. They didn’t even deserve to be mentioned here. THAT’S WHY I ALWAYS SHOOT THEM ON SITE. Nah, I’m kidding. They’re cool, I guess.
Ah, the Strip, the place where you get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ both finacially and sexually. What’s not to love? The Strip houses (hehehehehehe) three casinos (not counting the Lucky 38), a Vault, a sign designing warehouse thingy, and the NCR Embassy. The Strip is under both Mr. House’s and the NCR’s control. The three casinos are okay, your girlfriend (see Sarah Weintraub) is in Vault 21, the sign shop has Sarah’s brother, and the NCR Embassy is just where you’ll get your NCR quests. Also there’s a police station the NCR uses to bring troops onto the Strip via monorail, but the NCR says you no go in there ’cause you no in good terms with NCR enough for electric choo choo ride.
They’re casinos. Whoopty doo.
Mr. House was the founder of Robco, a giant Pre-War robot manufacturing company that made many of the robots that roam the Wastes. He loved Las Vegas, so he set up anti-air defenses to prevent the city from being nuked in the case of war. When the bombs fell, he fled to the Lucky 38 to save himself through some life-sustaining machine so that he could rule over Vegas someday later. You can either let him see his dream come true or pull the plug on him for the lolz, but who could do such a thing to such an innocent man who loves his snow-globes ^-^ and mistrisses who he downloaded their personalities onto robots for his pleasures *insert lenny face*. Well, Obsidian cut the second sex bot and the other one just sits in the same place doing absolutely nothing.
The NCR is a republic from, well, California. Born in Shady Sands, this great force-to-be-reckoned-with is easily stopped by a bunch of guys wearing football pads armed with lawnmower blades. That’s right. THE MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED FACTION IN THE GAME (ignoring Mr. House and his robots) CAN’T DEFEAT A BUNCH OF WANNABE ROMANS. WHAT.
While you may think this is the morally-good faction in the game, think again. They’re a bunch of greedy and self-centered ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who don’t give a ♥♥♥♥ about the Mojave. They just want resources.
Sadly, this encounter was cut from the game due to time limitations, but here are the voicelines from the game files of Mojave locals and NCR troops clashing at Camp Golf:
Obsidian intended (or at least originally did) for the NCR to be a harm to the Mojave. Even in the game, the NCR hordes supplies from the locals.
10/10 best faction
On the other hand, you have a bunch of tribals who are enslaved under an ex-Follower of the Apocalypse who thinks he’s a Roman emperor that rape and pillage the land. They have enslaved countless people, taking men and boys for soldiers and women for, well… you know. Women are nothing more than tools for making more soldiers to them, and they honestly just hate women in general. The Legion murders people for their vices, like prostitution and gambling, and burn whole towns to the ground, including the residents of said towns. They refuse to use most forms of modern technology, with exceptions being a howitzer and pneumatic gauntlets. They are obviously the morally-wrong faction of the game, and unless you enjoy the Roman empire that much, they’re likely not be your choice. They’d be a much worse choice for the Mojave compared to the NCR.
Yes Man is a Securitron that Benny stole from Mr. House for a scheme to take over New Vegas and the Mojave. According to the game, the ending with him is anarchy, but that just won’t due. I think he’s the best choice for the ending since it wipes the whole slate clean in the Mojave, and you can use your imagination and role-playing skills to create your own ending. Do you want to become a dictator? NOW YOU CAN! Do you just want to let the people do whatever? YOU CAN! Do you want to kill everyone? YOU CAN! Screw everyone else, the Courier is number one!
These people are living the American dream: BLOWING ♥♥♥♥ UP AND SHOOTING GUNS. AMERICA! WOO! Okay, so they’re just the faction that you can use to support your faction at the Battle for Hoover Dam, but hey, you could always just kill them all for the lolz.
These washed-up grandparents are the last known members left of the Enclave in the Mojave.
THE BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL
That’s right, the BOS gets their own section because of how great they are!
I’m 12 and my profile pic is of a BOS member in T45d power armor because they’re so badass (don’t tell my mommy I used that word please 🙂 ).
Yeah, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite zenophobic, technology-obsessed freaks who have been in EVERY SINGLE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ FALLOUT GAME SINCE FALLOUT 1! FOR ♥♥♥♥♥ SAKE I’M SICK AND ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ TIRED OF THESE DAMNED GUYS IN POWER ARMOR BEING THE HEROES OF EVERY NEW FALLOUT GAME. DAMN IT BETHESDA STOP RUINING THE FRANCHISE. THE BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL WOULD NEVER ACCEPT NEW MEMBERS, THEY DON’T GIVE A ♥♥♥♥ ABOUT THE PEOPLE OF THE WASTES, AND THEY CERTAINLY DON’T GIVE A ♥♥♥♥ ABOUT CLEAN WATER! AND WOMEN CAN’T EVEN BE KNIGHTS AND PALADINS. WHY DID YOU ADD THAT IN FALLOUT 3 AND FALLOUT 4? WOMEN CAN ONLY BE SCRIBES. GET OUT OF HERE WITH YOUR ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ FEMINISM. AND WHY THE ♥♥♥♥ ARE THEY WEARING A SUIT OF PA THAT NEVER EXISTED? T60 ISN’T A THING FOR ♥♥♥♥♥ SAKE.
*autistic screeching*
With that fake rant out of the way, the local BOS chapter in Fallout: New Vegas is crumbling, and it’s up to you to save it. Hey, they’ll even let you become a Paladin. Isn’t that something…
brotherhood of steel best faction if you disagree fight me
The Characters
I’ll only be covering more major characters from the game, or at least who I think deserve to be mentioned.
That’s for you do decide. This is a role-playing game after all, unlike Fallout 4 where you have no control over your past.
Doc Mitchell is the town doctor and surgeon of Goodsprings. He was born and raised in Vault 21. It is thanks to him that you are still alive, because he apparently is a miracle worker who can fully heal a gunshot victim who was shot twice in the head with a 9mm pistol. Eh, what’s up, doc?
Victor is the Securitron that dug you up out of the Goodsprings Cemetary where the Khans and Benny left you for dead. It’s his job to make sure that you get the Platinum Chip to Mr. House. While travelling to New Vegas on the offical path (down to Primm and Nelson, following the road to Novac, up past Boulder City, and finally to Freeside), you’ll see Victor watching you. Approaching him will trigger dialogue with him about seeing each other again and again. Victor is actually not just one Securitron, he’s a personality that Mr. House can download onto any of them, so this means that he can be in two places at once, like Goodsprings and Novac, or the Strip and the Penthouse in the Lucky 38. Victor serves as the bellhop for the Lucky 38 if you side with House. If you don’t, then he’ll disappear, and the Securitron at Goodsprings will have a black screen and will be stationary.
He’s high and he’s an ex-Mormon. He beats people’s heads in with his 9 iron.
get ♥♥♥♥♥♥
He likes to cook, burn, and rape, in that order, probably…
i’m cook cook ♥♥♥♥♥
She’s severely burned and mentally insane. She loves dogs and drugs, mostly Pyscho.
ARF ARF ARF HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA ARF ARF
The Companions
These meatshields will follow you anywhere, as long as you don’t piss them off too much.
<BEEP>
She’s also a lesbian, so…
♥♥♥♥
Anyway, Veronica is your power fist-toting Brotherhood scribe who wears tattered rags because she’s self-confident and it’s part of her cover because MEANY NCR NO LIKEY BROTHERHOOD, which is why she hangs out AT A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NCR-CONTROLLED TRADING OUTPOST LIKE A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ IDIOT. As your companion, she’ll whine about wanting a dress and her home falling apart due to the Elder’s incompetence (see Elder McNamara). If you give her a dress, she’ll be all happy and stuff. Woo…
veronica best companion
I AM A SNIPER.
THE LEGION ARE MEANIES.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Anyway, Boone is, just like Veronica, whiney as hell. He whines about his dead wife and the Legion. WE GET IT BOONE. He was a 1st Recon Sniper with the NCR, so he know’s what he’s doing.
HE ALSO KILLED HIS WIFE BECAUSE THAT WAS THE SMARTEST THING HE COULD DO.
The End
Well, you’ve reached the end of the guide. Either that or you just skipped down here. How was it? Please, if you have any feedback, put it in the comments! Thanks for reading my crappy explanation of a game from 2010 in 2017. Yeah, I’m a bit late on this.
I’m probably going to be doing the same thing for Fallout 4, so look out for that.