Back to Novac
Broc Flower Cave
Nipton Mission
Repconn
Visit Helios One
Camp Forlorn Hope
Missions
Rescue in Nelson with a Sneak Attack
Missions Around 188 Trading Post
Pick up Morales' Corpse
Walk down to Boulder and do the mission
Get some nearby map markers
Vault 34
Freeside Missions
More Crimson Carvan Missions
Graff Attack
Mr. House
Boomer Missions
Win Over (or Kill) the Kahns
Clear Out the Deathclaws
Other Tips
See all the documents listed on the Contents page before reading this document.
Goodsprings:
You can get a rifle and a scope, merchant clothes, Sneak book.
Doc Mitchell's:
- Loot everything and save before using the Vit-O-Matic so you can start future games there.
- Specials and Traits -- Str=3, Per=5, End=1, Chr=8, Int=10, Agl=6, Lck=7.
Traits: Early Bird and Good Natured.
- Do the 3 speech checks with the Doc before leaving.
- Go back and repair the SMG and get Stimpaks from the Chemistry Station. Save.
- Shoot the crow in front of the porch, the one wast of Chet's and the one in front of Chet's.
- Go in the house west of Chet's to get some loot but especially for the star bottle cap which
will trigger Malcolm Holmes to show up when you wait outside. Shoot and loot him.
Put on his trader clothes. Go to the northeast side of the bar, lockpick it, loot the moonshine.
- Go to Chet's to sell stuff. Check for a Varmint rifle scope and a Salesman Weekly magazine.
Save the armor with the most protection and sell the rest.
- Loot the trailer north of Chet's and check all the mailboxes for magazines.
- Loot the houses on the south side of town, including Victor's. Upgrade your machine gun.
- Enter the north side of the school. Change back out of your trader clothes. Kill all the bugs,
Pick up mags: NE niche, East counter, South counter. Hack terminal. Pick safe lock.
- If you haven't gotten a Varmint scope yet, go to Chet's. Wait 3 days for his stock to update.
Find Sunny in the Saloon:
- Ask her about work in the area before asking to be tutored. She leaves; pick up the magazine.
- When she gives you a Varmint rifle, add the mod(s) you bought.
- Drop all your 5.56 ammo and tell her you ran out. She'll give you 30 more rounds.
- You only get XP for geckos you kill. You get first crack at the first two, but then she will jump in, so save first.
- After the first two, loot the whole area down to the camp fire. Save. Report back to Sunny.
- Switch to the SMG and run ahead of Sunny for the next 3.
- Immediately after killing them, save. Go over the cliff towards the next 3. Use VATs to target them all.
- Even though you may have the Xander root already, go to the school to kill the 2 mantises.
- Go to the cemetery, killing the scorpion on the way.
- At the cemetery, circle around to the left, killing the bloat flies as you come to each one.
- Before the last one at the back-right, shoot the raven.
- Dig up 5 graves and get a snow globe atop one grave.
- Pick up the Distinctive Cigarette Butts near the open grave.
- Pick the Broc Flower in the back right. Walk down the road to get back to Sunny.
- Watch for coyotes in the distance to the left near their cave and snipe them.
- After Sunny's mission is over, shoot Barton Thorn near the campfire across from the nearby trailer.
If you go where he says, or go too many steps past the trailer, you will trigger the final set-up, so save
before approaching him or the trailer. If he is well past the trailer, don’t go to him; he’ll come to you.
If he has any clothing with a name starting with "Wasteland", take it. If it is medical gear, keep it
for the +5% Med skill boost; otherwise, use it to repair Malcolm's Trader gear.
Preparing for the Big Battle:
- At the saloon, Trudy is arguing with Joe Cobb.
Stop behind him next to a bar stool so he can't pass you. Interrupt to ask if this is his territory and what he went to jail for (20 XP).
- There are several ways to go from here. This is the way I normally go:
- When you exit the conversation with Cobb, immediately kill him
The battle will still go on, but it's harder with him in it, so if he gets away,
reload the game from when you entered the saloon and try again.
- Talk to Trudy and get the job fixing her radio.
- When you reach Level 3, get Speech=25, Medical=30 and put the rest into Explosives if you have the Courier's Stash grenade launcher; otherwise, put the rest into Guns. You will be resetting shortly, and can change these settings. With a jumpsuit, you only need Speech=23 or 20 with Businesswear. With a medical outfit (sometimes from Thorne), you only need Medical=25.
- Go to the station and talk to Ringo. Loot the place, but don't steal the ammo. Go talk to Sunny and Trudy.
- Ask the old man on the porch for explosives then go ask Chet for supplies.
- Go ask Doc for some meds. With 30 Medical, ask him for more (You get no XP for this.)
- Go to Victor's and ask for his help.
- Go back to the station but before going in, change into your armor and then Wait until 6 a.m.
- When Sunny comes to tell you the gang is coming, let the others go out and steal the ammo.
- Stop in front of Chet's. Save. Optionally, take a Psycho.
- If you have the grenade rifle, read a Patriot's Cookbook (explosives) magazine, then when you get close enough to hit them (not too close), start shooting grenades at them. Shouldn't take long.
- With just the machine gun, optionally take a Med-X. Run straight at them (between the fence and the road) and when close, use VATS to hit 4 of them once each, then manually shoot at the 5th. You only get XP for the ones you kill or help kill.
- Loot the bodies, sell the loot. If injured, sleep in the trailer behind the store until 6 a.m.
- Ask Victor why he didn't help and get 28 XP. Check all the mail boxes again.
- Sell unneeded loot except stuff with no weight.
- The main alternative is called the XP Glitch.
Changing Your Setup:
Level 3, 828 XP, 2276 Caps.
The first and only time you leave Goodsprings, you are given the chance to change your settings.
See Changing Specs after Goodsprings
After changing your specs, turn to the right and head for the downed tower. Go up the hill that it is on and you will run into a gecko or two. Kill them. There are a half-dozen or more geckos in the area to the right. Kill them too. The end of this area goes up hill a little and up more to the right to a sniper's nest to loot. Watch out for traps.
Lonesome Road DLC:
Level 4, 128 XP, 2322 Caps.
From the sniper nest, walk south, sticking to the cliffs on the right. As you go, watch to your right until you see a trailer. Loot it. Don't read the skill book until you get to level 4 so that you can get 2x the benefit from skill books and magazines. If you are running low on ammo or high on carry weight, fast travel back to Goodsprings to buy and sell, then fast travel back to the trailer. Continue walking along the edge of the hills, watching on the left for geckos to snipe.
As you approach the entry to Lonesome Road, you will see this area ahead with some coyotes and loot.
The trailer on its side has 3 grenade boxes in it.
It is way too early to do Lonesome Road all the way through, but we can duck in to get several things:
- A mod for ED-E which lets him repair your weapons to shoot better and to greatly increase their value.
- Many thousands of caps from having ED-E repair weapons you find to 100%.
- Riot armor with high enough DT to last the whole game.
Enter Lonesome Road Silo. Loot the main room. Use the monitor to open the door on the right.
Use the monitor in the next room to release Lonesome Road's ED-E. Save first.
Do NOT sell stuff yet (except small value items if you wish to unload their weight).
Move all your weapons and heavy outfits over to ED-E. Go back to the main room
ED-E will hack the controls on the right to bring up a switch to restore power. Flip the switch.
Go through the door that opens and see a destroyed Eyebot down the hall.
From the Eyebot, get a circuit board which will let ED-E repair your active weapon.
It will also show a couple of items for which you can get XP just by clicking on them.
Save before hacking the door's terminal (in case your hack fails), then go in and loot things.
In the next room, go left at the stairs to a store room. Loot it. Do the hard ammo box later.
Tell ED-E to wait. (He won't.) You don't want him causing trouble later.
Up the stairs is a room with a sentry bot. Go past the door to a computer to turn it off.
Loot this room. Up the stairs is a room with good loot. Loot it, but don't go beyond it.
There's a really bad bot waiting for you and not much in the way of loot.
Back in the previous room is a desk with a Hard lock (75 lockpick) which has some good loot.
If you have 2+ Lockpick magazines and can get to 75 with one of them, do it, then go do the ammo box, but check the time first. If necessary, Wait until 6 a.m. Following this walkthrough, these lockpicks were enough to get me to level 5 which allowed me to up my Barter which is about to pay off big time.
Tell ED-E to follow and go back down to the commisary machine to sell your gear.
Get all your loot back from ED-E. The most valuable items are two nail guns.
Follow these steps to repair all your weapons to 100%.
Put on any merchant gear or CHR gear, read a Salesman Weekly, take a Mentat, drink booze.
Just to give an idea of the value of these things:
Say an item has a list price of 5796 caps and you have Barter of about 44...
the base price you can sell it for is 3886 caps.
Add your trade gear and hat to get 4147 (+261)
Read a Salesman Weekly mag for 4669 (+527)
Drink a beer or other booze for 4721 (+52)
Take a Mentat for 4773 (+52)
The sum of these bonuses is 887 which is 22.8% of the base value of 3886.
Sell all your extra stuff. Technically, it's best not to sell stuff with no weight unless you really need the caps now because even if you have Barter of, say, 40 now, it will rapidly increase and there is no carry cost until then.
Buy the Riot Gear. (I don't like the Riot Helmet.) Sell the weapons you want to sell. The commisary only has 6000 caps and will run out of caps. Get it down to zero, selling ammo you don't need if you must. Exit. Open the commisary again. It will show 6000 caps again and you can sell more loot.
Return to the Lonesome Road portal.
LR's ED-E can't leave with you, so make sure you got everything back from him.
When you go back through the LR portal, coyotes will be waiting for you, so be prepared
Get Primm's ED-E and Missions: (Wait for 6 a.m.)
Level 5, 1803 XP, 10161 Caps.
Keep heading to Primm and jump over the little wall to the left side of the wrecked buildings.
A med box is on wall to the right and a safe is in debris across the room.
A little loot is in the 2nd tent from the left at the end of the road.
Return and go upstairs in the building next to the bridge. Loot.
Save, then cross the bridge, picking up the 3 frag mines.
Turn left and go to the two shacks. Loot them.
After the 2nd shack, get out your rifle and start looking for a bad guy behind the casino.
Shoot him and wait for a 2nd one to appear and shoot him. Loot the bodies
Take the roller coaster tracks over the front-center of the building for loot.
Cross in front of the casino over to the next building.
The door on the left leads to ED-E. Take the door to its right, go upstairs and loot the room
Go back for ED-E, but first steal a couple of magazines by Nash's bed and loot other stuff.
Repair ED-E using parts. You should have saved what is needed from Lonesome Road.
First try repairing with Science or Repair. Make sure it's between 6 a.m. and noon.
Exit and go around the building clockwise. A safe is in the debris behind where ED-E was.
Keep heading out to where some houses are. Check the mailboxes. Loot the houses.
Go into the casino, talk to Nash, buy magazines you want and sell expendable loot.
Get the mission to rescue the deputy, but let's take a side trip first.
To Sloan: (Need Med=30, Repair=35.) (You will get Explosives and Repair skill books.)
Level 5, 1913 XP, 10398 Caps
Head up the road North towards Sloan.
Watch for a Powder Gangers "PGs") camp on the right. Snipe and loot them.
Next are some destroyed buildings with cabinets which may have an outfit with +5 Speech.
Next is Jean's Sky Diving. Two PGs are behind it to kill and loot.
Inside is a desk with a key to a locked locker. The one next to it is unlocked but often empty.
Keep going up the road towards a trailer with a Powder Ganger walking around on its right. Snipe.
At the trailer, stop by the door and look ahead for two more PGs coming over the tracks.
The second dead Brahmin has a little loot. A big trailer on its side usually has coyotes.
Look to the left ot it and a couple of PGs come into view around the railroad tracks.
After looting them, use VATs to see some red pips which are more PGs in the distance.
You can snipe them for the fun of it (and a little XP).
Fast travel to Goodsprings to buy/sell.
Use Trudy first. She buys at full value magazines and ammo you don't need.
Walk back towards the big cross. To the right are some coyotes to snipe.
On the left are giant scorpians and just before you get to the cross, there is a cabin on the left.
(All this random sniping really stacks up the points for leveling up.)
After looting and shooting around the cross, go back to the road and loot under its overpass.
Continue to Sloan.
Two Skill Books are in the first shack on the left. Save. If people are inside, try again later.
If just 1 guy stays working on equipment, wait for him to kneel down to pick them up.
Fix Snuffles (30 medical) & repair (35) a broken generator to the left of the 2-story building.
Upstairs in the office building is an average safe and a suitcase (needed later for a Kahn mission)..
The next room has two unlocked footlockers with about 600 caps to steal.
The guy who welcomed you will pay for the repair, but not for fixing Snuffles.
Fast travel back to Primm to rescue the deputy.
Primm, Rescue the Deputy: (Neeeded: Lockpick=75, Repair=35, Speech=40, Science=50.) Check the time.
Level 6, 2578 XP, 16126 Caps.
Look for the red pip of a guy walking on the roller coaster tracks. Snipe him.
Get on the tracks behind the hotel and follow them to a 2nd floor entry.
Clear out the Vipers on that floor and the floor above.
Take the stairs to the first floor and clear out that floor.
If injured, sleep on one of the mattresses.
Loot the room with the deputy tied up but leave him for now.
Go to the gift shop with a hard safe (LP=55 + magazine) with great loot, including the Lucky pistol.
Run to the storage room near the front doors and pick the hard lock on that door for XP.
Hack the terminal on the counter for XP. It unlocks the door if you couldn't pick it. Loot that room.
Replace whatever pistol you have been using with the Lucky pistol.
Untie the deputy (Speech=40 then Speech=25), go outside, talk to him.
Enter the casino if Science=50+ (or 30+ and magazine). Look at the V&V display near the center.
Program the Robot to be sheriff. (If you prefer, you can do the mission where you raid the prison.)
Ask about the display case & fix him.
After everyone leaves, loot the safes in the left side room, 2 magazines and a safe in the back room, etc.
I wouldn't waste a magazine on the safe with a hard lock. Junk.
Wait three 24-hour days (in-game) and some bad guys will appear, claiming the casino is theirs.
You can talk them down or just kill them.
To Mojave Outpost:
Level 7, 3918 XP, 17390 Caps.
Nevada Hwy. Patrol building: (You get a Guns book.)
- Wait for 6 a.m. and head down the road towards the Nevada Hwy. Patrol building.
- Snipe two guys out front from a distance.
- 2 more will be around the left side of the building. If one wanders out, snipe him/her.
- Go up the hill to the right of the building and kill some ghouls for XP.
- Continue around the building and shoot the 1 or 2 Vipers still along side the building.
- The middle car in front has good loot in 2 suitcases.
- Enter the building and kill 2 women. Let ED-E kill the insects.
- Sleep in a bed in the cell if health needs restoring.
- A Skill Book (Guns & Bullets) is on a desk where two desks are back-to-back.
Kill Ants and Scorpions:
- After the Hwy. Patrol building, Wait for 6 a.m.
- Cross the road and continue towards the Mojave Outpost as you shoot ants for XP.
- Alternatively, just stay on the road. Not all that much XP is given for ants.
- Come up near the gas station and kill some scorpians.
- Watch for some pips by the road going up to the Outpost. Those are merchants to sell to.
Mojave Outpost: (Sneak book)
- Go to the second building to get a mission from Ranger Jackson. Do it. Turn it in.
Alternatively, wait until you have to go back later with Boone and do it with his help.
- Go to the top of the first building on the left for the Nipton mission or wait as above.
- Go to the back building to sell loot.
- Carry a Sneak book from behind the counter to the next room and pick it up.
- Talk to Cass to get the Crimson Caravan mission.
Passing Through Nipton:
Level 7, 4484 XP, 18438 Caps.
Take the road towards Nipton. You'll come across some Vipers shortly.
As you approach Nipton, keep an eye out for a couple of pips which are 2 people shooting at each other.
One will kill the other and come to tell you about it.
Shoot and loot her/him ("frontier justice") then loot the person s/he killed.
Funny thing: the survivor killed for caps, but the one killed still has caps (usually).
Look through your scope at a guy jumping around on the road into Nipton. Snipe him for XP and loot.
After getting Nipton noted on the map, don't do anything else there.
You will be coming back later with Boone (and ED-E) and a Well Rested bonus for the XP here.
Dangerous Trip to Novac: (Lockpick book)
Level 8, 5061 XP, 23863 Caps.
As you leave Nipton, turn right on the RR tracks, circle up into the hills, shoot a bunch of Bighorns for XP.
Two Vipers are ahead of you about half way up the hill. Best is to circle to the right past them.
Continue to a tall pointy hill and go up to the first ledge about 1/3rd of the way up.
Look back to spot the two Vipers you bypassed and snipe them.
You usually see 1 Viper down by the road that you should snipe and another around the top
of the hill across the road. Snipe him and try to remember where he falls in order to loot him.
Come down to the overturned truck and loot it.
On the road are a total of 3 traffic cones, each covering a mine.
Shoot the cone to knock it back enough to expose the mine and disarm it..
Go down the road a bit until you see a windmill on the right and red pips on the left.
Optionally, you can snipe and loot the pips.
Then go up the hill on the right to the lookout and down the hill to the shack.
The shack has a Tumblers Today book on the floor by the fridge. Take the cleaver on the stove.
Make sure you have your Riot gear on and your grenade launcher equipped. Sleep until 6 a.m.
Exit the shack and go under the overpass.
Ahead are four Legion Assassins ("LAs"), 2 on the left leaning on a billboard.
If you get on the overpass, that will trigger a merchant convoy to appear, but they just get in the way.
When you get within grenade launcher range of the LAs on the left, fire a couple of rounds at them.
That should kill them, so next look across the road for the other two.
Loot the bodies and change into your trader gear.
When the merchants arrive, sell your loot to them and walk on ahead of them.
When you see red pips on the right, get off the road to the right and sneak up on mole rats.
On the other side of the mole rats is a tall narrow hill with 2-3 Vipers by the billboard. Kill 'em.
Stand by the billboard and snipe at Vipers way across the road to the right of the RR tunnel.
(I like sniping, but it may be more efficient to just charge in after them.)
Loot them. By now, you should have gotten some regular grenade rifles. (Usually, not always.)
The Courier's Stash one will not take the long-range mod, so sell it and keep a regular one.
You'll get the mod later. (Again, usually but not always.)
Continue up the road and get Ranger Station Charlie on the map but just keep going.
Enter Novac, Get Boone as Companion: (Get Sneak book, owned bed, That Gun.) (Need Speech=41)
Level 9, 5821 XP, 32832 Caps.
At the intersection, go left to check mailboxes. Optionally, enter house on left and get Nightkin mission.
Enter hotel's front desk room, talk to Jeannie enough to get referred to the gift shop. (Gets a discount.)
Rent a room. It's $100 forever and is your first owned bed, giving you a 10% XP bonus for sleeping.
Sleep until 6 a.m. Go to the gift shop. Wait an hour at a time until the merchant appears.
Sell stuff, buy magazines. If you have more stuff to sell, go to Gibson's junk yard.
Visit Andy's room. Get the NCR mission. Steal Sneak book from his bed.
Sleep until midnight and go kill the Nightkin (optional).
Go to the shelves outside the workbench shed and steal parts for Weapon Repair Kits. Save first.
Enter the gift shop. Steal stuff you can use off the shelves.
Pick the closet door. Steal 5+ rockets from left end of the middle shelf on the right.
Steal That Gun from the same shelf.
Go up the stairs, talk to Boone. Get the job using Speech=41.
Since you lose Skill points at night, you may need +5 Businesswear for speech.
Go to Jeannie's office. Open the safe to get and read the bill of sale. Get other loot too.
Go to Jeannie's house (first on right on road west), ask her to follow you.
Let her leave the house, then loot her refrigerator. Complete the mission.
Sleep until 6 a.m. and then turn the mission into Boone to get the Well Rested bonus XP.
Get Boone to join you. You will be attacked by Legion and could use his help.
Return to Nipton:
Level 9, 6288 XP, 33226 Caps.
Sleep until 5:30-6:00 a.m.
Fast travel to Nipton. Kill Legion. A grenade launcher makes short work of the Legion.
You can loot the big building and all the houses, but I normally do not.
The first room on the right has 2 Turbos which are handy for getting into the Boomers.
The only corpse in the big building worth looting is on the 2nd floor.
I make this visit mainly to trigger attacks by the Legionaires which are a good source of XP.
House by burning tree stump is booby trapped. House with skull on mailbox has a Mr. Handy.
Return to Mojave Outpost. Turn in the Nipton mission. Sell loot.
Ranger Station Charlie:
Level 9, 6288 XP, 33226 Caps.
Fast travel to Ranger Station Charlie. Have the grenade rifle ready for Legion attackers.
The Legionaires should approach from the northeast. Kill and loot them.
I usually return to Novac now, but to complete Andy's mission...
Go in the building, loot it, but watch for mines and trip wires. One body has loot in his undies.
Report back to Andy. If your Speech is low, you get a check you can't pass, but if you boost Speech, you don't get the check.
Unload your loot into containers in your room, sleep until 5 or 6 a.m. and go to RSC again.
Repeat as often as you want to get loot and XP.
Alternatively, you can go to Gibson's Junk Yard to sell some loot, then continue north.
Legionaires will approach from the north-northeast. Kill, loot, sleep, repeat.
Go to New Vegas Area:
Head for the Helios marker due north. Talk your way in, loot behind the front counter. Take the right hallway until you reach some stairs going up. There is a skill book on the bed. Exit now without doing the mission.
Keep going north to the 188 Trading Post at the overpass. Start with the merchant over the bridge, behind the truck, on the left, then another merchant below the bridge, if needed.
Sell loot and check merchants for 10mm SMG to replace the 9mm SMG and check in Misc for mods for the Sniper Rifle and 10mm SMG.
What makes 188 so good is that each of these merchants has as many caps as Gun Runners. So in total, they will have twice as many caps.
Head for the Crimson Caravan map marker. The Medical Clinic is just east of it.
If you can put together a Lockpick of 75, go northeast of the clinic to a trashed building
with a large window broken out next to a door.
This is handy because the door is mined on the inside and the door on the other side has a trip wire.
See picture.
So just go in the window, disable both (picking up a Lockpick magazine from a bookcase by the mines). A store room in the next room has a hard lock.
Inside are two skill magazines, a first aid box, a sniper rifle and two boxes of ammo. If you can't scrounge up LP=75, you can come back later. Meanwhile, you'll soon get another sniper rifle at McCarran.
Return to the medical clinic and get implants. I get Strength (an Anti-Material rifle requires Str=8), Perception (boosts lock picking and explosives), and Charisma (boosts speech and barter,
although some prefer Agility). Instead of Agility, I have been getting the Regeneration implant.
Make sure the time is 6 a.m.-Noon. Go into Crimson Caravan ("CC") to sell loot and get a mission at McCarran.
McCarran:
Before going back to Novac, I go to McCarran. Here's what it offers:
Another sniper rifle in case you didn't get the first, at least 3 Skill magazines, a couple of quick and easy missions, a couple of longer missions, a quick hop into Vault 3.
From CC, turn left and when you get to the Freeside East Gate, you may choose to go in
and get the Grenade Machinegun ("GM") from Mick in Mick and Ralph's store on the right.
You have to ask to see his special inventory. Get some ammo for it while you're at it.
Update: After many games using the GM, I decided that I don't care for it.
Continue the way you were walking to get Gun Runners on your map.
Fast Travel to CC and this time go towards the Freeside North Gate.
You get several map markers going this way, even though it's a longer trip.
Eventually you'll see Monte Carlo Suites on the left with a gangster out front. Enter and loot.
Back on the road, across the street, is a house with a proximity booby trapped mail box.
There's nothing worthwhile inside, and gangsters are waiting for you outside. Skip it.
After entering the door to McCarran, have Boone and ED-E wait.
Loot all the sandbag areas when you first enter McCarran, the non-red ammo boxes only.
Get the sniper rifle off the top bunk of the middle tent. 2 magazines are on the floor under the bunk.
Get the Betsy mission from Lt. Gorobets, talk to Betsy (Med:40 or Speech:60).
Talk to the Lt., go to the Medical bldg and come back.
You can loot the other tents if you wish, but most of the loot is red. I skip it.
Go in the left-most doors of the terminal building. The inside door on the left is Hsu's office.
Walk straight across to a door to deliver invoice to Hildern. (I hate the V22 mission and skip it.)
Come back and go through all of Hsu's speech to get missions, including V3.
Talk to Capt. Curtis in the office to the right of the far right escalators about the security leak.
Go upstairs to where Lt. Boyd is holding a prisoner.
Ask questions and she will give you the key to the tower.
On the same level, go down the passageway through the doors.
Talk to a girl on the left. Her mission is just in a note. She gives a map marker NW of 188 Trading Post.
Continue to the right of a large round post in the middle of the large room and
pick up a lock pick magazine on the floor in front of a bench.
The magazine is red (has to be stolen), but I've never gotten into trouble just picking it up.
Follow the hall that bears left. Go through a door on the right, and sell stuff to Contreras.
Optionally, go upstairs to his computer, hack it, download his loot list.
Many times in the past I have done this and used it to turn him in as the thief, but most
recently after doing it, when I went out his back door, several people started shooting
at me. I don't know why, but the only bad karma I had was from hacking his computer.
Exit his door to the outside, turn right, loot an elevated stand. Wait until 1 a.m.
This way to tower.
Continue walking to the tower. Use the key Boyd gave you and eavesdrop on Curtis.
Stay by the door. Your screen will tell you when to go defuse the bomb.
Walk to the left of the airplane in front of you and go in the
doors to back of terminal.
Go up the stairs on the right. Go to the end, turn left, exit door on right.
Enter the train, turn left to the end, find and defuse the bomb.
There's no rush to turn in the mission, so we can go sleep.
Fast travel to the East Gate and walk to the gate to the Strip.
Let Victor verify that you have at least 2000 caps, then go to the Lucky 38 tower.
Talk to House and he will comp you the Presidential Suite. Use it to sleep and leave.
Fast travel back to McCarran and turn in the mission.
Optionally, go to Lt. Boyd and report Contreras as the thief.
Ask about helping her. You can fast-click through talking to the guy and get a decent reward.
While waiting for Boyd to call you in, go across the hall and there is a chest with a very hard
lock. If you can pick it, it is full of skill magazines and other good loot.
- McCarran - Fiend Missions and Vault 3:
These missions cover a lot of ground, including inside a very large fiend compound and Vault 3 inside of that. So a lot of pictures have been included. In order to make printing this walkthrough reasonable, we have tried to keep pictures in separate documents such as at this link.
Return to Crimson Caravan, turn in the Hildern mission, and get more missions.
Your Choice:
The missions so far have been planned to maximize your XP, Caps, weapons, and gear.
Having pretty much accomplished that, the rest of this walkthrough can be done in whatever order
you wish without the order costing you or benefitting you substantially.
You also have a choice of who to have as a companion.
I would have trouble giving up ED-E's ability to repair weapons, but I might be convinced
to swap out Boone. I do get sick of his constantly shouting "Mine!" "All mine!"
But he is said to be the best shot in the Mojave.
Have fun ---
Broc Flower Cave:
You already have a real Sniper Rifle (or two), and this cave is a pain, but if you must...
To get the Ratslayer Sniper (Varmint) Rifle, follow this route in the cave:
Go R by the cart, bear R at barrel, L of burning barrel, R on cliff to room with gun on floor by desk.
Return: cliff, L at torch, follow lights/internal map.
Return to Novac:
Get the mission from Manny to get rid of the ghouls. Sleep until 5 a.m. Do Repconn mission.
Repconn (wait until Speech=50 and Science=55):
All the outside loot is in the front, not on the sides or back of the building.
Kill all the ghouls and go up to see Bright. (See the Repconn building guide.)
Before entering basement, continue down hall, enter room, stay left, exit door, turn left, walk over debris, go down stairs, turn right, go to exit. FT to Novac. Sleep until 5 a.m. and return.
Enter side door, up stairs, turn right, go over debris, right into room, R to hall, etc.
Kill all the Nightkins or make a deal to not kill them.
After killing the nightkins, give the rockets you stole from the gift shop to use as fuel.
Fast Travel to Gibson's junk yard get the thrusters (Speech=50). Go sleep until 5 a.m.
At the end, Science of 55 gets you extra XP. Report back to Manny for his directions to Boulder.
Visit Helios One:
After resting at Novac until 6 a.m., fast travel to Gibson's Scrap.Yard. Sell loot, if any.
Start walking towards Helios, but usually Legionaries will attack from the right.
After killing them, go back to Gibson's and sell loot. If she is out of caps, FT to other merchant(s).
Although if you have weapons to repair, she may restock her caps while you do it.
Continue to Helios, talk your way in, loot the lobby.
Go through the door on the right. Enter the first door on the left and loot the room.
Continue down the hall to a room and loot it. Exit through the next door.
Go up the stairs to a room with a Medical book on the bed and a password you will need.
Go back and exit the building. (Do the mission later if you wish.)
Camp Forlorn Hope:
Head due east from Helios One.
When you get to the road with concrete barriers, snipe Vipers by the billboard to the left.
Loot them and return to the spot where you reached the barriers and continue east.
Continue a short distance to a supply crate and dead troopers.
Put your back to a cliff and take the supplies. Kill the legionaries that attack.
Continue to Camp Forlorn Hope, find the command tent, talk to Major Polatti.
Do his missions, one of which is finding the supplies you already found.
If you haven't already gone to Nelson, Major Polatti will give you that mission
Rescue in Nelson:
Normally you would go due east from Novac for this mission.
I prefer coming from Camp Hope because you get to sneak up on the Legion.
About half the time or more, they sneak up on you before you even get started.
Assuming you just finished the Forlorn Hope missions, now head south.
Before too long, you should run into the edges of Nelson.
Snipe the Legion troops as you approach Nelson.
Kill them all and rescue the NCR troops, then turn in the mission where you got it.
Missions Around 188 Trading Post:
Sleep in Novac then fast travel to 188 Trading Post.
If you got the unofficial mission from the woman in the hall of the McMarran terminal,
now is as good a time as any to do it:
- A map marker is west-northwest of the trading post. Put a manual marker on it and go.
- As you approach a couple of one-story buildings, use your sniper scope to see 3 fiends
- on a roof and snipe them. Another appears when you go between buildings. Shoot him.
- Morales' body is in the center of the courtyard by the buildings. Multiple bear traps are set
- between two buildings and a trip wire between two others.
- Pick up Morales' body and carry it to a couple of troops as shown.
- A Legion squad may appear about that time, so watch out.
Return to 188 and walk down to Boulder. Do the mission. Speech of 45 is needed.
I've always taken the peaceful option, but then I end up wiping out the Kahns
at the instructions of the NCR, so I recently decided to rescue the hostages
and kill the Kahns here. I wait until 1 a.m., equip a Stealth Boy, enter the
building where the hostages are held and kill the Kahns in that building.
Then I go to the adjoining building and kill those Kahns, but do NOT loot
them if I'm no longer getting the Well Rested bonus. Instead, FT to Novac,
sleep, FT back, go to the last Kahns I killed, one of whom is Jessup who
has a document (Chairmen Job Offer) you can loot from him in addition to
Benny's lighter. This ends the mission and you get the XP.
Before leaving, there are a couple of buildings to the right to loot when you exit this one..
While in the area, you can pick up a couple of map markers:
Exit out of Boulder on the road headed east.
A sign directs you to go right to get to the Hoover dam. The road dips south then back north.
You can't shortcut over the hills thanks to FONV's invisible walls blocking the way.
The road branches after a bit. Go right to visit/register an NCR camp.
Go back and follow the left branch to get to the dam.
Go to the sand bag barriers past the visitor center to register it on the map.
Optionally, enter the visitor center, take the elevator down, turn right, enter the door on the left, follow the first hall on the left until you get to the armory and take a look at their wares. He only has a couple of thousand caps, but a large amount of ammo.
Vault 34:
I consider this the worst mission in the game and always skip it.
V34 is completely irradiated, meaning you can never Wait to advance to 6 a.m.
Neither can you easily exit and reenter, so from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., your skills suffer
I always end up in the armory at the worst possible time for Early Bird.
I ran up 1000 rads just while in the armory. It took my last 10 RadAways to clear it.
I played it this time (12-2024) to double check the directions.
The vault is a terrible maze and even with the directions below, I got lost several times.
The payoff is a crummy armory, especially considering what you have to go through to get to it..
Everything was in terrible condition and it had no really special weapons.
A Very Hard locked box is in the armory, but just has a very low-DMG Pulse gun.
I had to use a Lockpick mag, a Vault 3 outfit, and Mentat to boost my 74 lockpick skill to 100.
It obviously requires tons of Rad-X/Away and lots of ammo.
You will also want the Space Suit from Repconn or other radiation suit.
Follow the tunnel to the opening to the vault. The first room past the entry to below.
Turn R to stairs then R thru door, R to Stairs sign, down, R at signs.
Follow hall: L, R, L, R halfway down the hall then R to stairs which go under water.
Save, then go down and look for a body to the left. Get the code and get back up the stairs.
Turn right to Clinic. Loot safe at far left corner then go thru the door to its left.
Go R to door on the right to more water. Save. Go down, R, straight to body under desk. Get out.
Up stairs out of water then R to next door on the left. Computer on desk starts water pumps (click Sys).
Exit room, R(?), then Left again to the stairs you just came up.
Enter door on R at the bottom of the stairs and open the door to Security.
Use the terminal to unlock the Overseer’s office (click Sys). Go back up the stairs.
Go through door, turn L to Clinic door on L. Cross clinic, exit, go L to Overseer’s office wing.
Go down the hall and into rooms killing all ghouls. Return to hall to Overseer's office.
Open door and destroy turret and shoot at Overseer/ghoul until dead. Loot the terminal's password.
Use overseer’s terminal to open the armory.
Go down the stairs under the desk, through the water to the end, turn left and enter door.
Use the terminal to unlock the reactor door you just passed.
Use the terminal by the reactor to seal the doors to protect the farmers. Mission completed.
More ghouls will attack.
Back thru overseer’s office, back through clinic, turn left to armory. Take all weapons and ammo.
Go back thru the clinic, go R, then L at the 4 signs on the right wall.
Just before the 4 signs is a room with the door blown off which was inaccessible before. Loot it.
Freeside Missions: (get snow globe, owned bed)
In Freeside, you get missions from the two proprietors of the Wrangler, from the Follower's doctor, and from The King. Their paths often overlap, so it is more efficient to tackle them all at the same time.
The main door between the two parts of Freeside is in the center, so call it the "center door".
Another door is in a building on the other side of Wrangler, so call it the "building's door".
Enter the north gate of Freeside. Enter the fort on the left.
Turn right, go to the corner, go up stairs for a snow globe. Mr. House pays 2000 for each.
Talk to the spike-haired doctor about help needed. Get the drug addict and the supply missions.
Go to Wrangler. Jamiston is at the slots. Talk to him for Crimson Caravan if speech is high enough.
Talk to Mr. Wrangler if he is at the counter about supplying Followers and get his Escorts mission.
If he is not there, keep Waiting 1-2 hours at a time until he appears.
Talk to Mrs. Wrangler if she is at the counter and get her Debtors mission. Rent a room ($10/day).
Sleep to 6 a.m. if needed, then go to The King and get his mission. (Speech=60 or pay to see him.)
Walk to inside the north gate and start the King’s mission which ends near the Vegas Strip gate.
Talk to Old Ben (near the gate) about being an escort. Talk to a debtor to the right of the gate.
Go back to The King to turn in mission and get next mission (talking to victims at the Followers).
Go through the center gate to the Fort side of Freeside.
Turn right on the first street and left at the pip ahead for a debtor and collect there.
Go to the next debtor pip but watch for a guy on the right in an alley. It's a trap. Kill 'em all.
Go across the street and collect from the 3rd debtor. Mission complete.
Head back down the street and turn right and follow to a pip for an addict.
He names his dealer. You can kill and loot him or talk him out of selling to your addicts.
Tell addict #1 that you took care of the dealer and talk him into going back to Julie.
Go to the Fort. Talk to Cowgirl Ghoul about being an escort. Talk to victims for King.
Tell Julie about Wranglers
Exit fort, turn left then right and continue as far as you can and then left and continue to find Fisto.
Need 75+ programming or 55 + magazine or a programming card from Mick to activatae Fisto.
Find the 2nd addict. Talk him into going to Julie.
Return to Wrangler and turn in the escorts mission to Mr. and the debtors mission to Mrs.
Mrs. wants you to kill McCaffery and get his hat. Go to the Strip, talk to him for XP. Optionally, shoot him.
Take his hat back. Mrs. gives you a room (at corner of upper hall) at no charge. Go sleep.
Tell King about victims.
Talk to the Doc at the fort then go like you went to Fisto but watch for 2 NCRs at a door on the left.
Talk to the left one. Go in and talk to the lady giving out food.
Go back and report to the King. Go through the building's door and talk to addict #2.
Pacer will stop you and bribe you to not tell the King. Take his money, then go tell the King anyway.
Go like you just went to the food hand-out, but turn right when you see bodies on the ground.
Loot them, walk behind the tower, talk to the lady, go back and report to the King.
Some times King will be in his room upstairs. Here's how to find him, starting in the main lobby:
right - left - right - stairs
right - right - left - right - stairs
left - right- 2nd door.
King gives you a choice of rewards. Hold off claiming one. Later you will need a favor.
This completes the Freeside missions.
More Crimson Caravan Missions:
At some point, talk to Jamiston at Wrangler, talk to Cass about selling (Speech=50). Do the Gun Runner mission (need a Stealth Boy). Turn them all in and get the bottle cap mission. It’s the last CC mission.
When all done, go talk to Cass and get the mission to kill the broad running CC. Do it, but save first.
One time it worked okay, but another time everyone outside got hostile. You can just sneak-loot the safe.
If you kill her, you can’t do the mission for the Boomers where you get a girl from CC.
Graff Attack: (Lockpick should be 75, or 55 plus magazine.) (Get tons of high-priced gear.)
There are two ways to wipe out and loot the Graff's Silver Rush energy weapons store.
The easy way:
Have Boone and ED-E wait outside by the door to Wrangler. Enter the gun store and ask the lady in charge for a job. She sends you out to talk to the guy guarding the door. He gives you a weapon and armor and tells you how to screen and search potential customers. Follow his instruction for the first 3. The 4th guy is scruffy looking. Let him in without searching him. He sets off a bomb that blows the door off, so edge around the side of the building when he goes in. When the bomb goes off, the guy in charge of you starts after you, but Boone and ED-E will kill him. Get them to follow you inside.
The messy way:
Shoot the guard outside. Shoot others that come out. The "others" part is why a missile launcher is the best weapon for this. Assuming they are all dead, put on Stealth Boy, go in, shoot whoever's left.
If Lockpick is below 75, go out, read a LP magazine, open the chest by door, run in and open hard locked safe, and the two hard locked doors upstairs.
- Go to Gun Runners. Use ED-E to repair weapons to 100% and sell your loot.
Mr. House:
Talk to House. Go to your suite, loot and sell to the terminal there.
Loot casino. Cocktail lounge has a snow globe. Sell snow globes to the “Jane” bot for $2000 each.
Oddly enough, House is paying big bucks for the snow globes and displaying them in your room.
Go to the NCR office if asked. Get Boomer mission.
Cross the street and get the photo mission from Michael. It pays lots of XP. Need 55 Medical.
Michael can be hard to find: Go from the main lobby down some stairs then up the ramp to the right, then take the first right, go through another door and go right again. If you waited until 6 a.m., he will still be in bed. Save before talking to him because getting the mission is not straight-forward. You can start by telling him House sent you and you get some XP, but then you have to tell him you were kidding.
Boomer Missions:
Go up the road towards Boomtown. Talk the guy down to $200 for the XP.
Don’t forget to collect when done. Or you can just shoot him now.
SAVE. Take a Turbo or two and run to the left side of the fence.
No Turbo? Run to the inside far corner of first destroyed house then crouch.
When shelling stops, save, then run along the cliff wall to the fence. I never get a scratch.
Go to the medical hut and heal some people for XP.
The first of 3 quonset huts off to the right has a repair book.
The third had a kid who gives a history of the Boomers. When he is done, ask questions.
Keep asking the top question and when he continues, you get a speech check for XP,
then a new top question appears. keep repeating until no new questions appear.
There were 5-6 checks and the only one I didn't get required high Endurance.
Also, when he's done, look for a snow globe to sell to House for 2000 caps.
Get the Ant mission from the girl on the lookout near the gate (you can fast travel there).
Get the ant killer from Loyal and his mission to repair the solar panels.
Use the parts you get from Helios or use a 60+ Repair skill.
For the ants, go in the tunnel door on the left as you approach. Loot the shelves on the left.
Continue until you see two lights on the wall to the left. Flip the switch below each light.
Go to the metal stairs opposite. Go up to a light on the wall and flip its switch.
Come back down the stairs, go back to the middle and turn right.
Insert the ant killing gadget in the 2nd mound and activate it to kill all the ants.
Turn in the missions.
The last mission is raising the bomber. Get the underwater breather and also Loyal's detonator.
Go to the 188 Trading Post and follow the map marker to the lake.
Swim underwater to the plane.
Follow the map marker to get out of the lake and fire the detonator to raise the plane.
When that is done, turn in the Bomber mission and then the Boomer mission.
If you are doing NCR missions, you will be told to go to Hoover dam next.
If you previously went there, then you can just fast travel now; otherwise,
Walk to Boulder. On the road going east out of town is a sign pointing to Hoover dam.
Stay on that road to get there, though it is not a straight shot.
When you get to the big building, go past it to the sand bags to trigger the map marker.
Go back and enter the building.
Take the elevator, go right to exit the room, take the first door on the left, then on the right.
When you exit Moore's office, turn left and down the hall on the right until you reach the supply room.
He only has about 2600 caps, but a lot more ammo than other vendors.
If you are planning on doing Old World Blues, you may want to stock up on ammo here first.
Win Over (or Kill) the Kahns:
This is about going to the Kahns' main encampment, not the little encampment in the deathclaw area, which is addressed in the next section.
At some point you are supposed to go there. The easiest way is to go to Goodspring and go to the boundry on the west then keep going north along the boundry. Assuming you have a map marker, just keep going towards it.
Before long, you will be up on a mountain top looking down at an encampment with 4-5 tents and cazadores flying around. If you have a high explosive missile launcher, fire at the center of the encampment; otherwise, fire some grenades. When all are dead, go down and loot and continue on to the Kahn map marker.
When you get to the first destroyed building leading to the Kahn area, pass it on the left then look to the right to see a trap door leading to the Kahn's armory. I didn't think it was a big deal, but others make it sound like it is.
Clear Out the Deathclaws
You can do this at level 12-13 with the right gear, which includes a missile launcher and a sniper rifle with lots of all kinds of ammo for each. However, more often than not I can't get a missile launcher until level 16
See this page for details.
After clearing out the DCs, you can more easily get to the Kahns' small encampment and pick up an easy mission there.
Other Tips
When you go after Benny, after checking your weapons, talk to the guy at the counter about Benny and show him Benny's lighter and cigarette butts from the Goodspring cemetary. He'll give back your weapons and let you kill Benny and take back the chip from Benny.
When you go to Caesar, start by going to Novac and sleeping, then tell Boone to wait in your room. Otherwise, he'll screw things up.
Energy weapons vs guns: For about 14 years, I never used energy weapons because guns seemed better and more powerful, but I decided to give them a try. The game certainly doesn't encourage it.
You get virtually no energy weapons for a long time. I'm not going to go into the pros and cons of each. you can find such stuff online.
The Recharger Pistol is good if you like to play Old World Blues. You don't have to worry about running out of ammo with the Recharger.
Anyway, if you have played FONV a lot and want to try something new, switching to energy weapons is interesting.
