Overview
People actually care about this game even now, in a serious way, which is good. So I decided not to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for once.Going to keep it updated until it’s full of pretty much everything.
Starting up : On SPECIALs
SPECIAL in Fallout New Vegas plays bigger role compared to that of Fallout 3, but it’s not that important as some “True fans” might say due to obvious meta & dump stats and such.
STR, Strength determines your raw power. Giving it beyond 7 is pointless; You get extra 1 from implants, 1~2 from OWB perks. But weight perks require 4 STR, so keep that in mind.
PER, Perception is your literal perception. It’s know to be completely pointless, since it does nothing except extending compass red tick detection range. And if that is even a problem at any point, you know you can just take ED-E with you. You need 6 PER for critical perks, and you need 6~7 of PER to understand Christine in Dead Money.
END, Endurance is, well, your endurance. Other than being part of max HP calculation it’s pretty much pointless, EXCEPT, that it determines number of Doc Usanagi’s implants you can use. You need 9 to hear the awesome line of “You already have all implants we’ve got” but who needs that lame regen implant? Choice is yours though. Besides, you can beat Cass in drinking competition… Without cheating with Buffout.
CHR, Charisma is known to be pretty much pointless since the classic days. Actual skills do the hard lifting, not your looks. But in New Vegas CHR also modifies “Nerve” modifier, which raises current companion’s damage and DT by CHR*5%. Still not a very good stat to dump points, considering that you have Party Time Mentats- A meme drug that gives baffling 5 CHR boost. Giving it 5~6 to meet Animal Friend requirement is alright, since many people take that perk as game changer.
INT, Intelligence determines your skill points gained when you level up. Game’s got enough skill books to turn Dog into God in a single day, so putting too many points in this stat is waste. There are certain “Dumb” lines reserved for low INT characters. Not many, though. Devs learned lesson from classic games. (That dumbass lines are good, but also require more work to widely implement, and also are effectively locked out for most characters)
AGI, Agility is quite important. Not only you need at least 5 points for rapid reload perk (One of who wouldn’t pick this kinda perk) You need 7 for melee meta perk, Slayer. You could pretend it’s not meta stat and give it less than 3. Sure, go ahead, I’ll just wait here for you to start game again with new character. Too high AGI is known to cause glitches even with patches and fixes, like quickdraw perk causing pistols to go inside your body, so don’t do it.
LUK, Luck is the one SPECIAL to rule them all. You CAN beat the game with 1 luck, but you miss out so much things in exchange of probably pointless stat you didn’t even need. Also decides your luck at gambling. You need at least 6 to get Better Critical perk. You need at least 7 for fair chance at gambling. (Gambling minigames are made by literal gambling game dev. House always wins, as usual) 8 guarantees you’ll hit the casino earning limit, someday. 9 is ez mode and 10 guarantees you’ll win even if you made a macro to roll slot machines indefinitely. Also raises all your skills by a bit, but no one cares about that.
Starting up : On Traits
Traits are back. Not saying that they are good. They had all the time in the world to add wacky stuff, but they decided to keep it simple and boring… And result is this.
At least Gifted is gone. Ah well. Anyway, pick your poison. (None or up to 2 of them)
Built to Destroy gives +3% final crit bonus. (It’s not multiplied) In exchange you get 15% condition penalty. As if all those paper guns, CND penalty hand loaded rounds were not enough. If you’re fine with melting guns this is good enough, but I say you take that 1st Recon Beret off and stop being obsessed about 100% crit rate.
Trigger Discipline, Fast Shot trade accuracy for rate of fire / VATS AP Cost. It’s more of “Drawback Insurance” instea of minmaxing. Extra ROF on Minigun is worthless when you’re spraying the rounds everywhere. Extra accuracy on Anti Material Rifle (a.k.a “You must be new here if you think this is cool gun”) means nothing. What happens if you take both? You end up with -4% ROF & Accuracy penalty.
Four Eyes reduce BASE PER by 1, but gives you 2 bonus if you’re wearing glasses. How this got through testing baffles me. See, you lose BASE stat. And you know base + Implant stats are only thing that matters when it comes to PER.
Small Frame. +1 AGL bonus for… Cost of… 50% weaker body parts. Has good synergy with Eye for an Eye perk. Otherwise pointless.
Good Natured is simple. +5 for all non-combat skills. -5 for all combat skills. If you’re playing TTW you might regret your choice, but it’s good choice for regular Mojave start. You could switch it away when you leave Goodsprings / Do Psych eval with Sink Autodoc.
Heavy Handed gives +20 base melee damage at cost of -60% melee crit damage. There are two unique weapons in this game that has terrible crit damage- (i.e benefits most from this trait) Oh, Baby! and Two-Step Goodbye. If you’re going to build character around it, it’s okay trait. Otherwise detrimental or waste of trait point.
Kamikaze gives 10 AP at cost of -2 DT. Simple.
Loose Cannon gives 30% ROF / AP cost bonus for thrown weapons at the cost of 25% range. It’s bad, really bad- VATS doesn’t take reduced range into account so you always miss. Effective at killing yourself with your own grenades. Seriously, don’t take it.
Wild Wasteland is all about memes. And Alien Blaster for unfunny people. Game’s like 10 years old and there’s dozen videos covering all Wild Wasteland encounters. You can ignore this trait safely.
Claustrophobia, Early Bird is result of someone testing stuffs with engine, then someone else using that test perk to make couple of filler traits. Can be used for minmaxing… But still, too much hassle to use.
Hoarder is meta for TTW. Especially with jsawyer. 25 encumberance bonus at cost of conditional stat penalty? Count me in. It’s overkill for vanilla New Vegas though.
Hot Blooded gives 10% damage bonus when you’re below 50% health. Oh, you get PER and AGI penalty of 1 because no fun allowed.
Logan’s Loophole set level cap at 30, and gives bonus for chems. Not sure about this one. Up to your choice.
Skilled is the objective meta stuff for you crazy people looking under every nook and cranny. (Is that expression right?) +5 points for all skills at the cost of 10% exp gain. Like, who even needs EXP bonus outside of well rested, anyway?
An Overview : Energy weapon or regular guns?
(Unlike this hidden gem called Outer Worlds) Fallout New Vegas offers lots and lots of detailed guns. Some are carbon copy of real ones. Some are series classics. Some are completely made up creation, though loosely based on real life counterparts.
“Guns,” small or big, is supposed to be run-of-the-mill, true-and-tested good old lead spitters. I’ll focus on comparing them to their direct rival, energy weapons.
Availability
You get your first gun in Doc Mitchell’s house. First energy weapon? You have to buy one from Chet. Batteries sold seperately. There are +10 vendors that sell guns. Dedicated energy weapon vendors? You only got two of them- And you might have to take them out!
Durability & Maintenance
Guns are supposed to be tougher than energy weapons. It’s not, thanks to all those sweet hand-loaded rounds with insane CND penalties. But guns come out on top when it comes to maintaining, because jury rigging a Ranger Sequoia is much easier than jury rigging humble Laser Rifle.
Other things to consider
Energy weapons are loud, and can’t be silenced. Also energy pistols are okay at best- Meanwhile guns have TWO end tier pistols.
On Weapons : One-Handed Guns
The gun that started the game.
9mm Pistol is one of your starting weapon candidate. It’s light, weak, and common as cold. Don’t dump them if you’re going for pistol build though- With Jury Rigging perk, you can pretty much use this gun to repair any non-energy one-handed guns. It’s boosted by Grunt perk and can be upgraded, yes, but it’s not something you’d want to use for long.
Unique variant Maria IS something you can definitely use though. 2x Crit modifier and damage boost makes this gun highly viable. Load JHP into that thing and you can roll over most of common pest (Including ones with two legs and dynamites) without breaking a sweat. You have to kill or pickpocket Benny to get this baby though.
.357 Magnum isn’t that better than 9mm pistol. It’s got better potential than that gun thanks to upgrades and JPF hand loaded rounds, but reloading one is literal nightmare.
At least unique variant, Lucky is very easy to get. Just pick the Hard locked ground safe at Bison Steve shop- It’s direct upgrade of base weapon with x2.5 crit modifier.
Police Pistol is relative of .357 Magnum. While being arguably best choice in that caliber, you have to go through Dead Money DLC to actually use this in Mojave. Only good at destroying speakers and giving you Benny flashbacks, as you miss your shot and see Gas Bomb breaking your limbs.
10mm Pistol in this game is a joke. Sell the gun, break down the ammo. You will need those large pistol primers.
9mm SMG might look like a bargain bullet hose, especially considering the fact you can get free one from Doc Mitchell’s house with bit of skill-check. But it’s great as dedicated pest control gun : Stock up on JHPs and go full auto on them Cazadores. Watch them melt.
Vance’s 9mm SMG is direct upgrade from regular version. You can take this from couple living in a shack far west of H&H Tools Company. They are wearing outfit of Vicky and Vance, which they stole from Vicky & Vance. (duh.) Pass a speech check to make the woman drop their galaxy brain plan. Get the key for their safe, pop the safe open, get the gun and run.
10mm SMG is, just like 10mm pistol, outclassed by 9mm SMGs. You can consider using one if you’re playing TTW because 9mm rounds are rare in that place, but only because you don’t have any other one-handed full auto gun.
Sleepytime is GRA variant of 10mm SMG. On top of extra damage, it has a integrated suppressor. Unless you’ve modded the game and have the forbidden combo that is suppressed ALSID, this is one of the best one-handed gun for sneaking around. Regular crit chance for automatic weapons are divided by RPM, but it doesn’t apply to sneak crits.
That Gun is weird gun. It uses 5.56mm / .223 rounds. Used to be a total garbo, but patches saved it. It’s not that weak and gets Cowboy perk boost, and has x2.5 crit modifier! Best against “I don’t have time for this ♥♥♥♥” kind of enemies. Buy it from Cliff Briscoe or steal it. You could buy the storeroom key and take the gun, if you’re short on money or / and (X) Hate stealing. Also a great QOL weapon for one-hander wanderers playing TTW.
Yes, there’s non-unique variant, .223 Pistol, but it’s pointless.
.44 Magnum is the real thing. Major step-up from .357, thanks to speedloader reloading.
Mysterious Magnum is the unique variant of .44. Makes Mysterious Stranger sounds when drawn / holstered. Better overall stats.
.45 Pistol is mid-tier Grunt pistol. Only available in Zion (Honest Hearts) but finishing the DLC makes Zion guns available in Mojave. Also a more affordable, viable stealth pistol for those of you going strict vanilla. Not impressive, but…
A Light Shining In The Darkness, also known as ALSID or “Kek or cringe with Joshua Graham.” is unique .45 Pistol- And one of best pistols in New Vegas. Capable of doing 60 DAM per shot with x2 crit modifier when loaded with .45 Super, this is the best semi-auto pistol in this game.
12.7mm Pistol is weird one. Think of it as a bigger cousin of 10mm pistol. Also has no boost perks. Also only got hollow point special rounds. And 12.7mm rounds have better uses than being wasted on this gun. Technically one of the best stealth pistol in vanilla, since it can be upgraded with silencer.
Lil’ Devil is even weirder variant from GRA DLC. Combination of 12.7 JHP and its x2.0 crit multiplier can break “HP rounds can’t melt Deathclaws” myth. x2 DT penalty becomes nothing when you’ve got the DAM that’s just about to hit 100.
Meanwhile, Hunting Revolver is the best stock revolver. Comes scoped. GRA variant can be upgraded with 6-shot cylinder and match barrel. Not so great unless you really like to snipe with revolvers. On the other hand…
Ranger Sequoia is a Hunting Revolver variant that comes without scope. Also slightly more powerful with slower rate of fire, but comes with +0.5 extra crit multiplier. And hey, it looks cooler! Getting one is tricky though. Becomes more common than empty soda bottles once you progress main quest, because veteran rangers start spawning at NCR locations. You can use pickpocket trick on Chief Hanlon at Camp Golf to steal Ranger Sequoia from him, right away you walk out of your grave.
On Weapons : Energy Weapons
“Laser or Plasma?” – Some Van Graff dude that makes me reassign favorite slot numbers every single run.
Answer is always laser and don’t you forget it.
Laser Pistol is, supposedly a energy main starter weapon. There’s one in Doc Mitchell’s house. Don’t expect it to be useful though; Go drink ten cups of water and take a piss. That piss would be stronger than this glorified laser pointer. There’s GRA version, yeah, but no one cares.
Pew Pew is unique variant of Laser Pistol… But it’s more of a completely different weapon. Really. “Rewarded” as reward for gathering 50 blue star caps. Details are spoilers, but just know that this isn’t the gun for sane people. Think of it as a one-handed double-barreled Gauss Rifle.
Compliance Regulator is unique Laser Pistol variant you can find in Zion. Paralyzes targets for 10 seconds whenever you score crit. Effective against melee enemies. Not so effective against ranged enemies with big DPS.
Plasma Pistol is boring version of Laser Pistol. Also has GRA variant. Also pointless.
Flare Gun is a utility weapon you can get from the Divide. (i.e from Lonesome Road DLC zone.) It scares abominations away if you manage to hit them. Also a only viable Jury Rigging weapon for one-handed energy weapons. Too bad it’s not common like 9mm Pistol.
Recharger Rifle is the start of “Energy weapon rare” running gag. Look at it : A weaker version of laser rifle that shoots recharging ammo. Extremely heavy on top of that.
Meanwhile, Recharger Pistol is much better than rifle variant. Don’t ask me why, it’s a running gag in the game.
GRA Unique variant, MF Hyperbreeder Alpha is even better. It’s sold by Cliff Briscoe in Novac- It’s expensive, but it’s a major step up over regular version. It feels like miniature version of Laser Gatling with infinite ammo.
Laser Rifle is the first energy weapon that isn’t complete garbage. You can get it in Nipton… In trashed condition. It’s the weapon that got hit by “Energy weapons are rare” logic. Seriously, why would anyone use this when they have their Cowboy Repeater or Trail Carbine?
AER-14 Prototype is boring unique variant of boring unique weapon. Found in Vault 22, because it’s only logical to put failed prototype in place of failed experiment.
Tri-Beam Laser Rifle is great. GRA variant scream “META” when fully modded.
LAER is Laser Rifle on meth, found in Big Empty. Elijah’s Advanced LAER is LAER on meth. Turns New Vegas into point-and-click adventure game, with occasional repair minigame- Because it has durability of 50. Yes, 50.
Plasma Rifle is alright. Higher damage, lower efficiency, slow projectile… You know the drill. Outclassed by other guns when you get your hands on it, just like Laser Rifle.
Q-35 Matter Modulator, a unique variant is even more boring. It’s supposedly better than vanilla except for lack of projectile speed weapon mod. But you should go get it if you’re energy main, since it comes with 2 Tesla magazines and tons of MFCs. Go find it in REPCONN HQ.
Multiplas Rifle is technically a Tri-beam Plasma Rifle. Rare, powerful, easily broken.
Plasma Defender is probably the first energy weapon that’s useful enough to keep using. Eats SECs like no tomorrow, but its DPS is no joke. Also a good jury rigging candidate for one handed energy weapons, too- Like Flare Guns, it’s not too common though.
Laser RCW is good too. Combination of pinpoint spread and high RPM makes it a deadly gun- Too bad it’s made of paper.
Holorifle is weird weapon. It’s a grenade launcher with NV scope that fires… Hologram beams I guess? It’s given as starting weapon in Dead Money DLC. Feels weak at first because it comes in shoddy condition and you start out with bulk MFC. It doesn’t help that your first target will be bullet spongy Ghost People. It’s good once fully repaired, upgraded, and you feed it good MFCs- Only downside is its weird handling.
Gauss Rifle is a thing, but you should be looking for YCS/186. Technically an unique variant, yes, but you can take it freely if you kill some mercs north of Horowitz Farm. Why would you go through cavity search at Van Graffs or fetchquests in Hidden Valley to “Buy” objectively worse regular Gauss Rifles?
Plasma Caster is powerful. Low VATS AP cost and good rate of fire makes it even better. But it’s heavy, breaks easily, and you can forget about jury rigging this gun.
Smitty Special is unique GRA variant of Plasma Caster. It’s automatic! Wow! Too bad it trades off pretty much everything for that pointless autofire ability. It’s very good at killing headphone users though.
You and the gang : Boone, Veronica
Fallout New Vegas has human companions, an Eyebot, and a useless mutt.
By the way, did you notice that every companions have exactly 50 skill level default weapons and their specializations hardly overlap? That makes companions useful enough to make use of CHR & relative perks, but leaves them room for improvement still. That’s some handcrafted stuff right there.
Craig Boone is a sharpshooter platform that supports human communication interface. Very first Synth in the waste.
Of course I’m joking. He’s ex-NCR first recon sharpshooter, who has lots of “My terrible past” issues.
I almost forgot to mention that his perk makes enemy glow red when you zoom in / Aim down sight. Very helpful perk regardless of engagement range.
Boone is a local guard / watchman at Novac. Manny is day shift guard and Boone does the night shift- And since Boone refuses to talk when he’s at his room or moving around, you need to go up the dinosaur at night to recruit him. After finishing his recruitment quest, of course. It’s short and full of spoilers so I won’t be covering that.
Boone comes with own scoped hunting rifle. The weapon is infamous for random crits and high DAM, and killed many a courier. Boone uses upgraded version of this gun, and gets bonus from your nerve. He’s deadly in all range, though he’s a bit squishy. Also sometimes does scripted “Draw knife and search for enemies” action, which is cringy and suicidal.
Boone is hostile against Legion no matter what, and turns all legion members hostile if you tag him around. Attacking NCR and helping legion pisses him off. He’ll leave your service if you ignore his warning or taunt him outright.
Fighting the Legion progresses his story. (i.e Do the quests that work against the legion) At some point you are required to learn about what happened in Bitter Springs. Learn about it from Manny Vargas at Novac or Bitter-Root of 1st Recon. Talk with Boone and discuss his past. If you get would it make you feel better if we returned there option, you’re ready to move on to final part of his companion quest. (CAUTION: If you ask him about returning to Bitter Springs but refuse to go with him, he’ll go there on his own, leaves you forever, and every related quest fails.)
His companion quest finale is battle against Legion slaving party. Pretty much straightforward. After the battle, Boone will ask you a question- Your answer will decide the fate of Boone and his new armor. (Same stats, different looks) Literally ONE ANSWER determines everything, so remember to save before making the decision.
By the way, Boone is infamous for having zero character AND zero chatters. When I do a new run I tend to only keep him around for NCR quests and companion quest closure. After that, into the 38 you go. Enjoy your stay, FOREVER.
Veronica is Brotherhood tech nerd lesbian punch girl. Nuff said.
She’s standing alone at the 188 Trading Post. She will ask you some questions before you can recruit her. There are variety of options depending on your faction relationship and gameplay progress, and also an intelligence check with hilarious fail dialogue. If you came here through Novac, chances are that you won’t have that many options though. In case you blew up Hidden Valley you have an option to reveal it to her, in which case she’ll instantly turn hostile.
Veronica is very powerful. Used to be even more so in earlier versions, due to a bug that caused her to be higher level than Courier’s current level. Not the case anymore but she’s still pretty damn powerful. Unlike other companions her weird garb is real armor- It’s recycled Oasis stuffs recon armor set with different looks. If you get her a Pushy or Ballistic Fist, she’ll be able to kill pretty much everything in couple hits.
Also Veronica can wear power armors. Companions do not “Benefit” from faction disguises, so she can wear BoS power armors and walk in front of NCR soldiers without any consequences. The armor does slow her down, but it also helps her meet weapon STR requirements. Ballistic Fist requires 9 STR. Veronica can meet that STR with T-45d. Veronica in power armor is the most meta thing you can see in the Mojave.
Also tagging Veronica alone gives you free access into Hidden Valley BoS bunker. It’s interesting how this is such a common knowledge now- People actually did that bomb collar thing because they didn’t know other way in.
To trigger her companion quests you need to visit major Mojave beehives. Metaphorical ones. Like Camp McCarran, Cottonwood Cove, Vault 3, Red Rock Canyon, Silver Rush, places like that. After asking your opinion on Brotherhood’s methods (NOTE : YOUR ANSWES MATTER). Regardless of your opinion Veronica decides that she need to change BoS somehow, making her to confront the Elder.
Elder can be McNamara (default) or Hardin (If you assisted him). Veronica tries to talk some sense into them, but it always fails. When you leave the place (Don’t forget to steal T-45d set from Elder’s room) you get a warm welcome from BoS members.
And now you have to help Veronica’s plan to make her more convincing- By bringing a piece of ancient tech to Elder. There are three candidates : A) Pulse gun, B) Rangefinder, C) Farming tech. (Details will be covered in respective locations) Farming tech is arguably the easiest, but since all options give Veronica unique persuasion lines and both Elders’ respective responses, so choice is up to you.
Conclusion of quest depends on your responses to Veronica’s questions.
If you supported Brotherhood’s methods, Veronica will decide to stay in Brotherhood. But well, you remember those kind people in power armor who did some foreshadowing? They’re back, and they want Veronica dead. Butter them up with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ logic (Speech 95) or kill them all. Burp in their face if you’re drunk. Use Terrifying Presence perk on them to alleviate your frustration on picking ♥♥♥♥♥♥ perk.
If you told Veronica to quit, the power armor dudes will appear anyway… But leaves peacefully, since she’s quitting anyway. Then Veronica is admitted to Followers of Apocalypse- Well, only almost, because these PA dudes kill EVERYONE in Followers Outpost for “Trying to steal Brotherhood secrets.” So you have to kill them anyway. And Veronica decided not to join any club other than BoS, since they will meet the same fate.
You and the gang : Cass, Arcade
Rose of Sharon Cassidy, daughter of late John “No, not the Buffouts!” Cassidy. Ex-Caravan.
Cass is the second companion you’re likely to meet in the game. Not that you can recruit her right away. Her recruitment quest is rather… Unique. You have to get to the Crimson Caravan Office, talk to Alice McLafferty, then have to progress her quest to finish up Cass’ caravan ordeal.
Cass has unique perk that’s so pointless that I have to mention it. The perks give you tiny bit of DT for whiskey & Wasteland Tequilas you consume, and also removes penalty from alcohol addiction. Or was it the chance of addiction? Remember that you’ve got Fixer in this game.
In combat Cass is totally helpless. It does not help that her default weapon is freaking caravan shotgun. They gave her a Shotgun Surgeon perk, but it’s still not enough. Might be better to give her melee weapons or better guns… Or don’t. At all. I just keep her around long enough to finish her quest. She’s got unique lines and NPC comments but it gets old, eventually.
A word of warning : You MUST have good karma to keep Cass around. If you stay neutral or go bad, Cass will chew you out for being an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. If that happens a lot, Cass will leave you and head back west. Permenantly. This does not happen that fast, which is important, because of her quest I’ll be covering very soon.
Cass’ companion quest is very straightforward. She’s drinking herself to death at the start of the game, because someone “Vaporized” her caravan- And turns out her caravan is not the first one to meet such fate. Turns out Crimson Caravan and Van Graffs had a deal and killed all minor Caravans- A theory at best that Cass comes up in literal seconds, and you can tell her that there’s no concrete evidence. So you have to find them- Or follow Cass’ advice and kill the two people responsible.
You can break into Van Graffs & Crimson Caravan, find solid evidence, deliver that to Ranger Jackson and end the quest. Just like that. Or you could go “Kill ’em all” as Cass suggest. It’s easy. But here’s the real issue : Alice McLafferty has some quests. Van Graffs have some too. Killing Alice will automatically fail all related quests if you didn’t finish them. Also affects ending. Van Graffs are not important story-wise, but they are the only ever-available energy weapon vendor in Mojave.
So I say you should just turn in evidence to Ranger Jackson, calm Cass down, then send her to Lucky 38. Van Graffs will attack you outright after that and killing them has no consequences anyway. In case of Alice… Finish her request to steal Gun Runner schematics. Then see the ending slides. Witness the butterfly effect karma poetic justice in full swing, with manure-eating grin on your face.
Arcade Israel Gannon is a doctor working for Followers of Apocalypse. He’s at Old Mormon Fort, tending to boring projects he can only explain with much more boring, ancient and verbose quotes.
Arcade’s perk, Better Healing, does exactly what it says on the tin. You get better healing effect from all items. And he’s surprisingly good at fighting too. Plasma Defender modified with nerve effect is quite powerful. He has a ripper as melee weapon, but don’t you dare send the good doctor charging into Cazadores with glorified combat knife.
Unless you are working for the Legion, recruiting him is easy. Relatively. You can flirt with him (Confirmed Bachelor perk) or do a 75 speech check to recruit him on site. Do NOT tell him you need a doctor to fight Benny- He’ll refuse to be mixed up in that.
In case you failed to meet the condition, you still have a chance. If you build good reputation among Followers of Apocalpse, Arcade will join you since you’re one of good people. Of course, being too pro Legion (Legion rep > Other reps) is still out of question.
You’re awake, how ’bout that.
EVERYTHING in Doc Mitchell’s home is free to take, unless you apply some mod to “Fix” that.
There are unique responses for extremely low / high SPECIALs when you use vigor test machine. No reason to build your character around it though.
Tell doc that you think of human shield upon hearing word “Mother.” you get unique response.
Skill-check rewards in Doc’s home won’t be going anywhere, so you are free to come back and take it later.
(TTW) Doc has tons of pre-war books. Take it to Scribe Yearling.
Goodsprings
To max out reputations, you need to play the full version of Sunny Smiles’ tutorial, AND save the local from Geckos.
Sunny’s dog can die in this tutorial. Sunny has unique lines when this happens.
Crops in the town are free to take, despite being marked as something you can only steal. Some mods fix this, so save before taking them.
Victor’s shack has a weapon repair kit and ammo box with SECs. One of houses have a copy of sneak skill book for some reason.
When you meet Ringo, he insists that you buy Skyrim play Caravan with him. Hear him out, take starter deck, then don’t play the game. This is important because you can temporarily get locked out from getting that starter pack if you start Ghost Town Gunfight quest too soon.
If you decided to side with locals in Ghost Town Gunfight, you can just skip all optional goals and start the fight. This can result in death of local(s). To ensure safety, persuade Chet to hand out armor and use sneak check when persuading salon owner.
You can stay back when shootout happens. Might save you from getting vilified by Powder Gangers. Might.
Victor goes offline when shootout happens.
Siding with Powder Gangers has single benefit: Chet, that greedy piece of Brahmin ♥♥♥♥, gives you permenant discount for everything once gangers take over Goodsprings. But you have to kill everyone including Mitch. So… Yeah.
In Goodsprings Source there’s this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ called Bardon. He asks you to go up the hill and save his girlfriend. It’s a trap. (duh) You can kill him without any consequence. Don’t forget to take the loot he was really looking for, a refrigerator and ammo box containing 10mm Pistol w/ ammo.
You can save the quest for later, especially if you want to do stuffs in NCRCF. This will be covered later.
Primm
On your way to Primm, you can enter the Divide as soon as you find it. It’s so good that you should always do it. This will be covered in later sections.
You need to find Deputy Beagle to finish the sheriff quest, even if you end up killing him yourself.
In Bison Steve hotel gift shop (?) there’s a Hard locked (Lockpick 75) metal box. It contains unique .357 revolver, Lucky. Definitely outclassed by later revolvers, but it’s a good gun.
Bison Steve hotel actually has second floor. It looks like someone’s attempt at copying one of Fallout 3 interior cells. Not many thing to loot, but there’s some lore stuff regarding kidnapping and ransom attempt- Which must have been foiled by Great War. (99% of Pre-War letters and holotapes are “Let me guess, then bombs fell, right?” story.)
The hotel has roller coaster tracks. You can walk on it too, if you reach it through second floor exit.
Fastest solution for My Kind of Town quest is to fix Primm Slim. It’s arguably best choice for the town, for some reason. NCR is all about T A X X. Sheriff Meyer does his job like imperial guards from Oblivion.
Talking about Primm Slim, this thicc boy is really sturdy. His max HP scales with you. One of abandoned development idea, I’d say. Someone tried to turn him into TES guard counterpart, then realized Primm is like glorified ruin.
Vince’s 9MM SMG, a unique variant, is missing. You can tell this to Primm Slim and tell its memory got hacked, but you can’t return the gun unless you mod the game.
Restoring the law instantly kills any and all gangers in Bison Steve. Except for 1 dude on middle of coaster tracks. His sole mission is to annoy you with his red compass tick, something you’ll keep seeing if you tag ED-E along.
Primm’s casino has lots of stuff to steal, actually. The people clear out once you bring the law back in town, and you’re free to take whatever you want at the cost of karma.
When you enter the recently emptied casino, NCR deserters will ambush you. You can easily drive them off. You can taunt them and then fight them, but you shouldn’t; Their corpses will remain there forever.
Primm casino opens AFTER the event mentioned above. It works just like other casinos, with quite low ban cap.
There is a fixed Powder Gangers encounter south of Primm. The forced dialogue zoom-in is really hilarious.
NCRCF
If you skipped Ghost Town Gunfight to get here, or finished the quest siding with gangers, you can enter (Have to buy key with 100 caps or steal the key) here peacefully and do quests for powder gangers.
Last part of the NCRCF quest makes you assault the place with NCR troopers. They will blow up a hole in the fenced wall, storm the place and kill all gangers except for certain ex-sheriff (If he’s still there). You can be a good ganger and kill NCR troopers, help the NCR, or stay neutral and see how the fight turns out.
Scrambler in Admin building has Spiked Knuckles.
NCRCF “Doctor,” Hannigan, is useless. Don’t count on him.
Locked safe in Admin building will always have grenade rifle and some ammo. The desk right next to it have some stuffs too.
One of buildings have powder charge schematics lying around. Probably one of the most useless explosive in the game though.
Mojave Outpost
If you’ve installed GRA (Funny how everyone has that DLC now. People hated it when it first came out. And people were also mad about jsawyer.esp requiring pre order packs.) The caravans locked up here have all the good stuffs for sale.
You can’t recruit Cass without finishing her part of Crimson Caravan quest. In fact, she will point you there when you meet her.
Ranger Jackson’s quest will make recruiting Cass bit easier, but will also make locked up caravans to leave the place. Also he gives you lots of early game goodies as reward; But it’s actually him “Accidently supplying you.” So you have to actually ask for reward, or you’ll just get some XP. You can ask for reward later though.
Vendor has Explosive skill book on shelf. It can be bought or has to be stolen, depending on your version and mods applied.
Ranger Ghost have different lines for you based on your current base sneak skill (60). Also she hates Nipton.
If you drop nuke on NCR side at the conclusion of Lonesome Road, this is the place you enter the nuked zone from. It’s possible to remain friendly to people here even after dropping nuke- I’ll cover this in later sections.
Nipton
On your way to Nipton you’ll meet couple shooting at each other, asking for help; Tomas and Jacklyn. Tomas has star bottlecaps and Jacklyn wants them. They have equal chance of winning, but in most case you’ll see Tomas winning and Jacklyn running away, asking for help. There’s also good chance of Tomas killing Jacklyn out of your view and go “DID U SEE DAT” on you. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve seen this encounter, but Jacklyn rarely wins due to her ♥♥♥♥♥♥ armor.
If Tomas wins, you can persuade him to hand over the bottlecaps. Or you could just kill him. Jacklyn doesn’t immediately kills you, but will attack you if you tell her that you’ve got some. Easiest karma free way to take all star caps. (Note : Killing Tomas result in negative karma)
Oliver Swanick shows good town of Nipton his middle finger, to show his appreciation. If you kill him when he’s doing it, his hand will stay like that- Even after death. Don’t bother saving him, because he’s scripted to run into Radscorpions and get himself killed. Even if you kill them all he’ll stay there and scorpions just respawn.
Powder Ganger in the general store (Who’s sitting on a chair) have some lines upon meeting you. It changes based on your Powder Gang reputation, so you’re likely to hear “Are you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kidding me” line all the time. (Just another moment of New Vegas design that kills own potential, nothing to see here) He’ll ask for Med-X. Give them for karma or keep them for yourself. Do NOT kill him, because he’s needed alive to complete Wheel of Fortune quest.
There’s house of some crazy dude full of traps. Upon entering that place you’ll hear landmine blowing up, because someone didn’t playtest that place and one of bark scorpion accidently activates frag mine around it. Same thing happens with Legion mutts in town hall.
Crucified Powder Gangers are still considered enemy of the Legion. Kill them and you get “A fair kill” response. This is probably the only time and place to hear that in this game.
Vulpes have multiple lines according to your gameplay progress. If you met him in NV Strip he’ll mention it. If he’s dead, he’s replaced by some dude called Gabban. He’s not immediately hostile, and will spare some time to tell you that he’s going to kill you. Good if you’re doing GRA challenge.
Novac
You can play Caravan with No-bark, but you shouldn’t. Definitely not. Never. Crazy old man is final boss of the Caravan game.
Meanwhile, Cliff Briscoe is the worst Caravan player in the Mojave. He can and will stop your rush tactics, but he’s still the easiest opponent for this card game. So if you’re looking for achievement cheesing he’s your guy. The real difficulty comes from boredom. Trying to win +10 Caravan matches in a single row is equivalent of existential crisis speedrun.
You can find That Gun in the locked room of Dino Bite Gift Shop. Buy the key to open it or pick it. On earlier versions the gun was pretty much useless, but they patched the thing to be viable as sidearm. Even better in TTW because DC has tons of 5.56 rounds. If you think Sawyer messed up THE .223 Pistol and spat in classic series fans’ eyes, wait until you get your hands on infamous FNV Bozar.
Boone goes inside the dinosaur at night. At first, you can only speak to him at there. He refuses to talk otherwise. Also you should know that his room is marked private, and you should NEVER enter that place. It’s marked private and you’ll be attacked instantly after some time, should you stand in there like a fool. And no, even if you finish his companion quest you’re not still allowed in there.
If you didn’t know, you can just enter Manny Vargas’ room and find evidence of Benny (and Khans’) whereabouts. This changes Manny’s lines, as you don’t need to learn that info from him.
Ranger Andy’s bunk is like temporal constant. Upon entering that place Andy will wake up from the bed, go to the gas stove, eat the Brahmin steak on it, and will likely catch you trying to steal his medicine skill book. He’s related to Raul’s questline (Infamous for being bugged, even after patches and fix mods) so I say you shouldn’t speak to him before recruiting Raul.
If you are playing this game for the first time (Lucky you) or type of person who do things ASAP, or just hate the damn Come Fly With Me questline and want to be done with it, you’ll be heading to REPCONN right away. I’ll be covering that right after this one.
REPCONN Test Site (Rocket Ghouls)
Words cannot describe how much I hate this place. It’s good at first. Wow, rockets! Wee! Then you see it again and again, then you will begin to hate every sorry living being in this cursed place.
It has good loots though. In your way you’ll see an outpost right in front of tunnel bridge. Good caps and loots. There is a lootable place up the bridge, if you climb it from behind.
The building exterior has nothing important to speak of. There’s bunch of respawning ferals (Good for doing challenges) but it’s just a backdrop.
As you enter you will be greeted by Party People Person (TM) Chris Haversam. He’ll tell you to go to the big room with metal staircase, then come up. Should you ask him to give direction again, he’ll get very much annoyed.
It doesn’t hurt to ignore Chris and poke around the building. Place has good loots- Including multiple corpses of Bright Followers. For you energy mains they are very important, since they have chance of spawning with energy weapons. For example they can spawn with :
- Recharger Rifle
- Plasma Defender
- Laser RCW
- Recharger Pistol
…And matching cells too. Remember that their weapon tier is determined by your level at the time you spawned them!
If you reach the room Chris mentioned, you’ll see that there are some dead… Blue super mutants. If you never played classic or never looked closely into muties using stealth boys, your reaction would be What the duck is that? but this crazy train just started.
Up the stairs and through the door, you finally Get to see Chris. And he’s not a ghoul! For now he’ll just tell you to duck off if you tell him “bUt yOu aRE hUMaN” no matter what. Chris tells you to meet Bright. Then you meet Bright. He’s a non feral glowing one. Not feral, just nuts.
Bright asks you to “Cleanse the demons in basement.” So you get in there. If this is your first time, say hello to the Nightkins. They use stealth boys and move fast as you. Also comes with Rebar Club, a hideous weapon that deals extra limb damage.
“Cleansing” the basement has 3 options. It’s not really explained or hinted, but keep your le true RPG flag down, since it’s not that great. It doesn’t properly work unless you are aware of location lore, and even if you did it even makes less sense, in a bizarre way.
There are 2 non-hostile ticks in that place. One is Davison, who talks to a freaking Brahmin skull. The other one is a ghoul merc who worked for Bright, who has been forced to hide inside the storeroom due to Nightkin attack.
Davison believes the building has bunch of Stealth Boys. Nightkins need them badly due to handwaved lore reasons. But the suspected location happens to be the storeroom ghoul merc is guarding right now, and all attempts to break in has failed.
And the ghoul merc is looking for his girlfriend. She’s likely held up in even deeper parts of basement, and only way to reach her is to kill Nightkin jailer and using its key.
This part has so many ways to screw itself. If you step too further into storeroom the ghoul will attack you. (why? WHY?) If you kill too many Nightkins (Which happens 100% if you try to find ghoul’s girfriend w/o sneaking) Davison will attack you.
SPOILERS : There are no Stealth Boys in this building. Someone made a mistake and sent lots of them here, but they were sent back, except for 2~3 of them in the storeroom safe. If you kill the ghoul, see the mail about sending back Stealth Boys, you can talk to Davison and make Nightkins leave the place.
If you report your success to Bright he will go “pRaISe tHE cREatoR” and rush down into the basement. Then he asks you to help with finish preparing their “Journey” into space… Using antique pre-war rockets.
So this wacky ghoul is now asking you to go fetch stuffs, without giving you anything in return. And they say Chris isn’t ghoul indeed, and they don’t plan to take him to space. They played Chris like a fiddle since he was useful.
Then you get to talk with Chris, who tells you that there are 2 parts needed to finish the rocket- In such a soulless way that it’s almost foreshadowing his breakdown, should you tell him the truth right there. Yeah, he takes it hard, and even suggests sabotaging the launch. Decision to sabotage or not ultimately depends on your call. Chris is such a pushover that he’s like “I’m gonna kill them all” at one moment and stands down upon hearing “That would be murder.”
To finish the rockets, one way or another, you need 2 major parts : Thrust Controller and Atomic Fuel. Chris will ask you what kind of part are you going to get first. ALWAYS pick the Thrust Controller. I’ll explain why.
You can find Thrust Controller at Gibson Scrap Yard. Steal it from average-locked metal box or buy it with 500 caps. (250 if you pass 50 barter check. FREE if you use Lady Killer check, if you’re fine with that.) Option to buy the part only pops up if you chose to go find Thrust Controller first- This is why I told you to pick it first.
Atomic Fuel is much easier to find. 5 REPCONN rocket souvenirs work as fuel- But there’s alternative option. North of Clark Field, a radioactive ruin southeast of Novac, you can find a dead body wearing radiation suit. The body has an isotope container that works as fuel you need.
Sabotage option requires 3 sugar bombs too.
If you brought everything needed for launch, report to Chris. (Ominous “Good luck, I guess” happens regardless of your decision.) Bright will gather his followers and deliver some Brahmin manure speech. tl;dr “Creator good, sorry Chris.”
Then you’re off to the control room. AND WAIT! Before you pull that lever, take a look at the control panel on right side. With science 55 you can use it to modify rocket trajectory- You can help the journey or sabotage the rocket without help from Chris, right there. (If you helped Chris sabotage, no, you can’t fix that up here.)
Either way that “Ends” ghoul problem in Novac. You only get to see the consequences in the ending.
Into the Boulder City / Beyond the Boulder City
For first-timers, I suggest you skip HELIOS Solar Plant until you get to the later part of the game. I’ll be focusing on not-that-important areas around the Boulder City.
188 Trading Post is where “95 and 93 meet.” It is also a trading post, in case you missed.
You can recruit Veronica at here. Her default dismiss location is here.
There is a makeshift bar called 188 Slop & Shop right next to the bridge. Pointless little shop straight out of Fallout 3, complete with dirt farmer inventory and terrible repair skills. But hey, you can force the owner into endless drinking animation if you talk him when he’s about to drink!
There are 2 decent weapon merchants in this place. One is literal Arms Merchant who has bit of “Absolute state of NCR” lore. The other, more important one is Alexander. He’s one of Gun Runners. He only trades with big timers so he initially refuses to trade, so you have to pass Guns 40 skill check. His inventory scales with your level.