Fallout New Vegas: Goodsprings XP

*Notes:

You can use this check list even if you don't use Early Bird and/or Four Eyes, but you may not be able to accomplish everything nor are you likely to level up as fast.

Doc Mitchell's Speech Checks are a little tricky. To get all 3, your Speech must be 30 or more but your Medical has to be 20+ but less than 30; otherwise, you will never even see these options. This works perfectly when using Early Bird and Four Eyes, but may not work with other Traits. For example, Good Natured adds points to Medical and may get it over 30, depending on your other choices

• After Doc gives you a Pip Boy, he will stop the conversation. You must talk to him again.
• You will see a 30 Speech option saying that you are in pain and want drugs, but Medical must be less than 30 to see this.
• End the conversation, read the Today's Physician to raise Medical from 20+ to 30+.
• Restart the conversation for the last two speech checks.

Random Powder Gangers: Very rarely, a Powder Ganger has wandered through Goodsprings Source when I was doing Sunny’s Tutorial and I got XP for killing him (which I did since I would soon be killing a bunch of them anyway).

A couple of times, he has come up behind Sunny after I killed the first 2 geckos and was going back to report to her. I stopped until he got past her then killed him. One time when I went back to finish the campfire part of the mission, I saw a red pip on radar and it was a second Powder Ganger. On that playthrough, I finished GS and when I was leaving, a 3rd one came gunning. Since it happens so seldom, I didn’t show it on the list.

To get all the Skill checks in the list, here are the Skill levels needed:
Doc’s: Speech (with Doc): 30, Medical < 30. Repair of submachine gun: 25. Chem set: 25 Science (no XP)
School: Hack terminal: 25 (30 XP). Pick safe: 25 (30 XP).
Level up. From here down, XP is 10% higher because of Swift Learner perk bonus.
Safe in house across from school: Lockpick 50 (44 XP – usually XP is at least as much as skill needed.)
Saloon: Safe: 30 (33 XP). Door by safe: 20 (22 XP). Moonshine room’s door: 20 (22 XP). Speech, Joe Cobb: 20 Radio - Repair: 25
Gas Station: Safe: 30 (33 XP)
Before the Fight: Trudy: 25 Speech. Pete: 25 Explosives. Chet: 25 Barfter. Doc: 30 Medical (no XP for it).
Ask Victor for help, but no Skill is required until...
After the Fight: Victor: 25 Science.

You will need a Lockpick magazine in Primm (see walkthrough) to get really valuable loot and they are hard to come by, so if you just have one, you can’t afford to spend it unlocking a safe in Goodsprings which has junk loot. You can unlock Trudy’s safe with an easy terminal hack, so even if you have Lockpick of 65, which is barely possible in our walkthrough, using a magazine to get to 75 is just not worth it. Just have to be happy with the 900+ XP you get in GS.

Ravens: After exiting Doc’s, wait on the front porch until you can see a raven in front and just to the right. Draw your pistol, move left to get a clear shot. Shoot it. Head down to the store but stop before the rock. Shoot the raven near the dumpsters. The third raven is on the west side of a big crate next to a small tree near the road. In the back-right area of the cemetery is another raven. As long as you don’t go charging back there, you should be able to see it in time to shoot it from a distance.

If the raven is not in the cemetery and/or the scorpion is already dead on the road, it may be because Victor has wandered up there. These are worth 2 XP each which is not enough to worry about.

Coyotes: Coming back from the cemetery, when you get to where there are some hills to the left in the distance a bit, keep pressing the button to check for "enemies" until you see some red pips in the hills. Assuming you have a scope on the rifle, you can kill the coyotes for a few XP. You cannot go to far off the road towards them our you leave the GS area and lose your GS settings. You can get on the first big rock near the road which makes sniping easier.