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`------------------------------------------------------------`

Full Survival Guide by Absolute Steve

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With contributions from:

• noz3r0

• Absolute Daniel

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big project, and it was especially nice to be the first Oo__________________oO

person in the world to ever beat FF XIII outside of the

development team. I'm glad to present you THE follow-up guide of a longlasting

and popular series: Fallout.

The series of guides I've made for Fallout 3 was created with the intention of

not leaving a single irradiated stone unturned, but there's always room for

improvement. This guide is the result of many days and nights of long labour,

so here's hoping you'll enjoy the redesign of the layout, and may the in-depth

strategies and vast descriptions greatly enrich your gaming experience. In any

case, be sure to like this guide on facebook (see link above) and tell your

friends about this guide!

Fallout New Vegas does feel like a very stretched DLC and hardly has graphical

improvements over Fallout 3, but that doesn't take away any of the fun. The

game mechanics have been tweaked with, making the game harder and more balanced.

There are minigames now, there's still plenty to explore, but the 'Fallout 3'

feeling is gone (duh, it's Vegas!), the point being that the game doesn't really

breathe the same atmosphere as Fallout 3 both in terms of exciting storytelling

and areas. There are once again numerous annoying bugs that shouldn't exist,

long loading times included , especially on the Xbox 360. Resetting your Xbox

can sometimes do wonders combined with clearing the cache, though. All in all,

the game has its improvements, but is hardly as epic or revolutionary as it's

big brother. As such, be glad it's not called Fallout 4. :) On a closing note

I do want to mention that some events in FNV are painfully unfunny, sometimes

even disgusting and on the border of acceptable as to what you can put into a

video game. This has nothing to do with gore, more so with ethics. Some of

those people at Obsidian should give me a call - as a psychologist student I'd

gladly study them as field cases.

Lastly, be sure to check out Supercheats.com soon for an enhanced version of the

guide, which features video content at tight spots that might require additional

assistance. Having said that, please glance at the next few sections before

diving into the table of contents and take the opportunity to read more about

donation options and the future of guide writing. Thank you for your kind

consideration and enjoy the guide and the game!

~ Absolute Steve

P.S. Also on behalf of noz3ro, absolute daniel, and other future contributors

that may very well follow; welcome!

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______________________________________________

[AND TERMS OF USE IN A SENSE]

• If you found this guide helpful, feel free

to consider one of these options to donate:

• 1. Paypal donation at: [email protected]

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• 2. Make a purchase at Amazon.com by searching

for your item through my referral search

box (this grants me 4% profit with no

additional costs for you), found at:

http://www.shillatime.org/amazon.html

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• 3. Tell someone dear how special they

are to you and remember their smile.

[And afterwards, of course, return to

blasting off heads in New Vegas!]

Thank you very much for your consideration!

http://www.shillatime.org/amazon.html

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_________________________________________________________________________[TOC]

Use CTRL + F and copy/paste the [TAG] to find the section you're looking for.

I. . . . . . . . . . . . CONTROLS, BASICS & TIPS [BSC]

1.1 ................... Game Controls [BSC-1]

1.11 .................. XBOX360 Controls [BSC-1.11]

1.12 .................. Playstation 3 Controls [BSC-1.12]

1.13 .................. PC Controls [BSC-1.13]

1.14 .................. Companion Controls [BSC-1.14]

1.2 ................... Understanding the compass [BSC-2]

1.3 ................... Tips and Tricks [BSC-3]

1.31 .................. General Tips [BSC-3.1]

1.32 .................. Hacking Tips [BSC-3.2]

1.33 .................. Lockpicking Tips [BSC-3.3]

1.4 ................... Pre-order Bonuses [BSC-4]

1.5 ................... Game Difficulty & Hardcore Mode [BSC-5]

II. . . . . . . . . . . . WALKTHROUGH [WLK]

2.1 ................... Ain't That a Kick in the Head [WLK-1]

2.2 ................... Back in the Saddle [WLK-2]

2.3 ................... By a Campfire on the Trail [WLK-3]

2.4 ................... Ghost Town Gunfight [WLK-4]

2.5 ................... They Went That-a-Way [WLK-5]

2.6 ................... Come Fly With Me [WLK-6]

2.7 ................... Ring-a-Ding-Ding [WLK-7]

2.8 ................... G.I. Blues [WLK-8]

2.9 ................... Wild Card: Ace In The Hole [WLK-9]

III. . . . . . . . . . . . SIDE QUESTS [SDQ]

3.1 ................... Aba Daba Honeymoon [SDQ-1]

3.2 ................... Ant Misbehavin' [SDQ-2]

3.3 ................... Anywhere I wander [SDQ-3]

3.4 ................... Back in Your Own Backyard [SDQ-4]

3.5 ................... Beyond the Beef [SDQ-5]

3.6 ................... Birds of a Feather [SDQ-6]

3.7 ................... Bitter Springs Infirmary Blues [SDQ-7]

3.8 ................... Bleed Me Dry [SDQ-8]

3.9 ................... Booted [SDQ-9]

3.10 .................. Boulder City Showdown [SDQ-10]

3.11 .................. Bye Bye Lover [SDQ-11]

3.12 .................. Can You Find It In Your Heart? [SDQ-12]

3.13 .................. Classic Inspiration [SDQ-13]

3.14 .................. Climb Ev'ry Mountain [SDQ-14]

3.15 .................. Cold, Cold Heart [SDQ-15]

3.16 .................. Come Fly With Me [SDQ-16]

3.17 .................. Crazy, Crazy, Crazy [SDQ-17]

3.18 .................. Cry Me a River [SDQ-18]

3.19 .................. Debt Collector [SDQ-19]

3.20 .................. Don't Make a Beggar of Me [SDQ-20]

3.21 .................. Ed-E My Love [SDQ-21]

3.22 .................. Eye For an Eye [SDQ-22]

3.23 .................. Eyesight to the Blind [SDQ-23]

3.24 .................. Flags of Our Foul-Ups [SDQ-24]

3.25 .................. For Auld Lang Syne [SDQ-25]

3.26 .................. G.I. Blues [SDQ-26]

3.27 .................. Ghost Town Gunfight [SDQ-27]

3.28 .................. Guess Who I Saw Today [SDQ-28]

3.29 .................. Hard Luck Blues [SDQ-29]

3.30 .................. Heartache by the Number [SDQ-30]

3.31 .................. High Times [SDQ-31]

3.32 .................. How Little We Know [SDQ-32]

3.33 .................. I Could Make You Care [SDQ-33]

3.34 .................. I Don't Hurt Anymore [SDQ-34]

3.35 .................. I Forgot To Remember To Forget [SDQ-35]

3.36 .................. I Fought The Law [SDQ-36]

3.37 .................. I Hear You Knocking [SDQ-37]

3.38 .................. I Put a Spell on You [SDQ-38]

3.39 .................. Keep Your Eyes On The Prize [SDQ-39]

3.40 .................. Left My Heart [SDQ-40]

3.41 .................. Medical Mystery [SDQ-41]

3.42 .................. My Kind Of Town [SDQ-42]

3.43 .................. No, Not Much [SDQ-43]

3.44 .................. Nothin' But A Hound Dog [SDQ-44]

3.45 .................. Oh My Papa [SDQ-45]

3.46 .................. One For My Baby [SDQ-46]

3.47 .................. Pheeble Will [SDQ-47]

3.48 .................. Pressing Matters [SDQ-48]

3.49 .................. Restoring Hope [SDQ-49]

3.50 .................. Return to Sender [SDQ-50]

3.51 .................. Run Goodspring Run [SDQ-51]

3.52 .................. Someone To Watch Over Me [SDQ-52]

3.53 .................. Still In The Dark [SDQ-53]

3.54 .................. Sunshine Boogie [SDQ-54]

3.55 .................. Talent Pool [SDQ-55]

3.56 .................. Tend To Your Business [SDQ-56]

3.57 .................. That Lucky Old Sun [SDQ-57]

3.58 .................. The Legend Of The Star/

A Valuable Lesson [SDQ-58]

3.59 .................. The Coyotes [SDQ-59]

3.60 .................. The Finger Of Suspicion [SDQ-60]

3.61 .................. The Moon Comes Over The Tower [SDQ-61]

3.62 .................. The White Wash [SDQ-62]

3.63 .................. There Stands The Grass [SDQ-63]

3.64 .................. Three-Card Bounty [SDQ-64]

3.65 .................. Unfriendly Persuasion [SDQ-65]

3.66 .................. Volare! [SDQ-66]

3.67 .................. Wand Dang Atomic Tango [SDQ-67]

3.68 .................. We Are Legion [SDQ-68]

3.69 .................. We Will All Go Together [SDQ-69]

3.70 .................. Wheel Of Fortune [SDQ-70]

3.71 .................. Why Can't We Be Friends [SDQ-71]

3.72 .................. You Can Depend on Me [SDQ-72]

IV. . . . . . . . . . . . MOJAVE MAPS [MAPS]

V. . . . . . . . . . . . STATISTICS [STA]

5.1 ................... Are you S.P.E.C.I.A.L.? [STA-1]

5.2 ................... Skills [STA-2]

5.3 ................... Perks [STA-3]

5.4 ................... Traits [STA-4]

5.5 ................... Derived Statistics [STA-5]

VI. . . . . . . . . . . . GENERAL INFO [GEN]

6.1 ................... Level Up Chart [GEN-1]

VII. . . . . . . . . . . . INVENTORY [INV]

7.1 ................... Weapons [INV-1]

7.2 ................... Armor [INV-2]

7.3 ................... Recipes [INV-3]

7.4 ................... Food [INV-4]

VIII. . . . . . . . . . . . APPENDIX [APX]

8.1 .................. Xbox 360 Achievements [APX-1]

8.2 .................. Playstation 3 Trophies [APX-2]

8.3 .................. Snow Globe Locations [APX-3]

8.4 .................. Skill Book Locations [APX-4]

IX. . . . . . . . . . . . VIRGIN HISTORY [VIR]

X. . . . . . . . . . . . CREDIT CHIPS [CRD]

XI. . . . . . . . . . . . RIGHTCOPY [COPS]

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_________________________________________________________________________

AN ESSAY ON THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF THE VIDEO GAMEGUIDE INDUSTRY

A PLEAD FOR ENDLESS IDEALISM AND ULTIMATE RESOURCES

INTRODUCTION

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Wow, what exactly is this? This is an essay on how the guide writing industry

is changing, an essay on FAQ writing, and an essay in which I plead for more

recognition for, and more cooperation between guide authors. Why is this here?

Because otherwise you wouldn't have been reading this. Feel free to read it,

but feel just as free to proceed to the main bulk of the guide. I hope you

enjoy this FREE guide "as is". This essay is NOT going anywhere. :)

THE PAST

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Game guides have been around for almost as long as videogames themselves, but in

a world where information is becoming increasingly more accessible, how is the

format for game guides evolving? In the early nineties, game guides were usually

featured as an appendix to videogame magazines, until Prima launched a series of

game guides back in 1990. The guides were qualitatively poor and fairly

unpopular by today's standards. Another company called Bradygames started

selling guides in the nineties. It spawned various over the years, including

infamous - yet best selling - books for popular RPG's such as the Final Fantasy

series. Halfway the nineties, hotlines also started to gain popularity, if only

through heavy marketing. By dialing a certain hotline you had "instant access"

to hundreds of cheats for the most well-known games. The hotlines were rather

expensive (a buck per minute at least), so it wasn't the preferred option for

getting your daily cheatcodes. If you were stuck in a game back then, you either

had your friends or big brother help you. If your friends sucked at gaming and

you didn't have a big brother (I for one, didn't), then "that was life for 'ya."

At the end of the decade, two new companies arose in the game guide industry,

and interestingly, both took base in Hamburg, Germany. Piggyback quickly

conquered the European market with high-quality guides for well-known games

such as the Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy Series. FuturePress filled in

the gaps with 'lesser' titles and remains to do so to date, mainly for the

European and German market, one of the reasons it's hardly known elsewhere in

the world.

The internet brought aspiring game guide writers the excellent possibility to

spread their information worldwide, but it wasn't until around the millennium

that the majority of people started to gain internet access. The most popular

games were quick to be covered in so-called FAQs: Documents in which Frequently

Asked Questions were answered. Jeff Veasey, founder of GameFAQs, started

collecting these documents and brought them all together at what remains

the

biggest online gaming helpsite to date. FAQs started including full-fledged

walkthroughs and some of these in turn evolved into strategy guides that left

no stone unturned. Lately, since the late 2000's, wiki pages have gained

interest. This format allows communities of people to cooperatively work on

creating a network of informative pages regarding a certain game. While the

obvious benefit is that the amount of people makes contributing easy and the

network quickly grows, some of the major downsides are inaccuracy of

information, poorly written and vague walkthroughs, and the constant need to

browse back and forth between pages. Most FAQ authors foresaw that accessibility

was easily enhanced and had already solved the tedious searching problem by

implementing a simple Ctrl + F search system with [tags] into their documents.

THE PRESENT

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Presently, there are several camps in the guide writing business. There are the

well-known strategy guide writing companies that pay for exclusive publishing

rights, and there's the ever growing database of free guides online. We can

divide the four official strategy guide companies into two groups, not only

geographically but interestingly also qualitatively: On the one hand we have

the U.S.-based Prima and Bradygames, whose motto comes down to "selling as

many game guides as possible, for as many games as possible." The problem is

that they spawn not only strategy guides for games hardly justified for this

format, but more so that their books are qualitatively poor. Admittedly there

has been a slight rise in quality over the past 10 years, but the sloppy and

erroneous layouts and information almost never justify a purchase at these

companies. However, the majority of the gaming market - say 90% - doesn't even

look at the company name when buying a strategy guide, so there's no reason

beyond ethics for these companies to care. Fortunately, there has been a

slight shift in approach, where these companies are realizing that one author

simply cannot write a complete guide on his own, and as such the quality of a

few "big-name" guides has risen slightly. On the other hand, most layout

approaches aren't as good as they should be, and the same can be said about

various tactical tips, inaccuracy and incompletion of the content.

On the other hand we have the European companies, Piggyback and FuturePress,

of which the former is the uncrowned king in the guide writing business. Their

approach is to make very few guides a year - two to three at most - but to make

them perfect in almost every possible way. While strategy guides always remain

a product of marketing, if you need any reason to warrant a purchase at all,

it's because their books are in the best condition they could've possibly

reached you, having excellent binding, highly qualitative layouts and an ocean

of information and trivia. The only downsides to this approach are the fact

that not every game can be covered (only highly popular games can be), and that

a collector's edition might be pricey in these difficult times for some people.

Where Piggyback's fashionable office is located in the beautiful Hamburg city

center, my trip to FuturePress requires a little more dedication, but I

eventually manage to find their headquarters in a back alley of a more sober

neighborhood. The people are all very friendly, although it becomes immediately

apparent that they don't have the contacts Piggyback does. FuturePress still

makes better guides than Prima and Bradygames, but a sore reality is that they

only get to buy the rights from Prima and Brady themselves - mostly just for the

European market.

Then there's the free, online sources of gaming help, ranging from the vast

library of text-based documents on GameFAQs, to the - sorry to say, but poorly

made - semi-free guides of Gamespot and IGN, to wiki pages dedicated to specific

games, to in-depth guides by prolific authors at Supercheats, to more simple

websites that mainly offer cheats only. An interesting format sprung from

Youtube recently: Video talkthroughs. There are few reasons to be a big fan of

this format, if only for the reason that there's no proper search function, but

there are more downsides to it which are all discussed later. In this turbulent

world of ever-changing formats for game guides, which direction are we

headed

and better yet, which direction is best to be headed towards?

THE FUTURE

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It's mostly about making choices regarding the height of your standards and

arguably everyone would want the highest standard of quality, even if the

information is free. When looking for any source of game information, this

would translate into the following criteria: Getting everything out of your game

in the most convenient way possible. This is the approach that the better

official companies take when making their tomes, so it might as well be your

- admittedly ultimate - demand when looking for a free guide online. So let's

compare the different formats to see how well they work when this criteria

is applied.

LOW-QUALITY, SEMI-FREE GUIDES @ GAMESPOT & IGN

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I'll start off with the - usually widely promoted - semi-free game guides on

Gamespot and IGN. First of all, keep in mind that the guys writing these aren't

paid a top-notch salary, and that they have to spit out guides at a rather fast

pace. Add to this the fact that writing for video games as a job takes most of

the fun out of the gaming experience and you get rushed guides with half-decent

text and accompanied screenshots that have no existential purpose but to serve

as filler. It's true; the walkthroughs are usually rather globally written,

serving only to get you from point A to point B, and will help you only when

you're stuck and have absolutely no clue as to where to go. The "in-depth"

sections mostly cover only the basics and are hardly worth mentioning. Quite a

lot of people *will* however use these guides, simply because they're decently

advertised online. A solution for improvement would theoretically be simple, but

it's similar to the final conclusion we'll land at in the final section of this

essay, so let's stay patient and unspoiled for now. A permanent problem these

sites face is the low budget they're willing to spend on game guides (in other

words, they lack idealism altogether. This is one of the reasons I'd recommend

against using these sites, but that's a complete different story).

WIKI-PAGES; GREAT IDEALISM, LESS GREAT FORMAT

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Wiki pages are a newly born alternative and their pros and cons have already

been briefly discussed above. They suffer from the same problem as the

semi-free guides previously discussed, namely that they lack in-depth

information incorporated in the walkthrough itself. Wikis make up for this with

their nearly infinite amount of pages on subjects, but this is also a weakness;

this sometimes leaves you searching around and in circles. Credit is hardly

given when editing wiki pages, so for the exception of a few top-notch

contributors, it is a business mostly fueled in bit-sized pieces by a large

community of people. Unpopular games aren't covered by wiki pages at all, and

there are far too few contributors in the first place.

CHEAT SITES; INCORPORATED WITH GUIDES

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As for cheat sites in general, there's not much more to be found besides just

cheats. There's one major exception to the rule, being Supercheats. The guides

written here by prolific authors have a few nice additions, including video (and

sometimes screenshot) support. Not all guides are of the same quality, but

there's a solution for this problem we'll soon land at.

VIDEO TALKTHROUGHS; TOO FEW BENEFITS OVER TEXT

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Video talkthroughs have a few benefits, the biggest being that the author no

longer needs to write everything down into words when creating the talkthrough.

This doesn't benefit the user looking for help, and they are only helped in

very specific contexts by this format, which lends itself perfectly for "finding

hidden objects", and I dare say it lends itself for this purpose only. It works

great if you see someone walk straight to an item you were looking for and that

you struggled to find when reading through text. As such, videos are a great

addition to text, but not as a replacement. Why not? For one, videos don't have

a proper search function, and can never describe handy statistics, such as a

complete item/equipment list as featured in most role playing games (but very

thinkable in adventure games as well, where this can take the form of a table

that compares gunfire power for example). The viewer also needs to deduct

strategies from the video and comments of the author alone. This can work for a

straight A-to-B walkthrough or for beating a boss, but it's a pain when the

author decides against exploring optional parts when you wanted to do just that

- or vice versa. An other disadvantage is that videos contain spoilers. You

might be able to click away the video right before spoilers come up, especially

if the author warns you in advance, but you can imagine this is a stressful

situation. A last drawback of videos is that they're time consuming to watch,

so it's almost like you're playing the game twice; once by someone else playing

it for you. Videos can still be, it has to be said, an excellent addition to

text when they visually show something text has difficulties with to describe,

but they have little value beyond this feature.

FAQS: DO THESE TEXT DOCUMENTS REALLY HOLD THE FUTURE?

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If someone would ask me if there is still a need for text-based documents (FAQs)

in a few years, I'd wholeheartedly tell them yes, but I'd also tell them that

things are in need of a little tweaking. FAQs suffer from less problems than

other formats because they're well organized, rapidly downloadable, quickly

searchable by using [tags] and Ctrl + F, they're printable, easy to save onto

your hard disk, and they have all information stored in one place. There's only

one 'problem'; the big differences in quality between FAQs. Some guides remain

unfinished, some are finished but have a very poor layout, and only a handful

can be considered pure quality. Now I know (of course I do), these authors all

write in their spare time and we should all be thankful for whatever they

contribute - no arguing there. What would you expect from free guides? But if

it's easy to make things better, why not give it a try?

On a side note, I wouldn't think the solution lies in the new html guides that

GameFAQs now features. It theoretically allows for a few decent features,

especially if authors would choose to include screenshots that enrich their

written text (but a danger lies in abundance). Better yet would be placing

videos at parts where text lacks in its descriptive function as argued for in

the previous paragraphs. Having a few videos to show difficult item locations

would be great. Besides these benefits, the format is no longer easy to print

(not a disaster), it is arguably not as easy to search through compared to a

compact text document, it is a pain to save onto an external space such as a

hard disk or USB stick, and for some reason they're not as easy to organize as

text. Besides this, it takes more time for both writers and administrator(s) to

create this format. If anything, this format reminds mostly of the unsuccessful

superguides at mycheats, the difference being that everyone can contribute to

those.

TEXT ENHANCED WITH PICTURES?

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Random screenshots as used in the semi-free guides on IGN and Gamespot don't add

much value for the reader, and the only purpose they serve is as eye candy.

Picture support, as one could call it, derives its purpose from *supporting*

the reader in getting something done in the game. One of the main purposes to

support a reader is to tell them where they need to go, or to show where a

player is headed towards. As a rule, screenshots don't lend themselves well

for this purpose. They're too static and can only show a limited frame of

information currently going on in the game. Maps on the other hand are much

more abstract, and can show readers a wide variety of (item) locations, as well

as giving a general overview. This is the biggest drawback of text documents,

and although text maps can be functional, picture maps are easier to use.

Fortunately, it's very easy to upload a picture map to GameFAQs and integrate

it in a text guide as a link. The main point here is that pictures generally

distract from the actual guide material. Eye candy is nice, but you'll get

enough of eye candy while playing your games.

GUIDE WRITERS UNITE!

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The solution is already partly being executed by some authors who co-author with

each other, but it'd be interesting and easy enough to take this to the next

level. You'll unlikely have found yourself staring at a few different FAQs,

wondering which one to pick. Perhaps you randomly chose one, perhaps one of an

author who sounded familiar, or perhaps you looked for recent updates and the

size of the document, or maybe you clicked on all of them and made your

decision after briefly browsing each. In any case, several authors all decided

to make their own version of a FAQ. Some of them don't cover much more besides

the walkthrough, others write complete guides, and still others make an attempt

at fully uncovering every aspect of the game. While there's something to say

for writing everything all by yourself - you get your own credits and you *can*

have fun while writing - it is worth asking the question whether or not you're

actually contributing something that hasn't already been done before; do guides

exist with better informative text that are faster available than yours, are

better searchable, more concisely and clearly written, perhaps more beautifully

laid out? Because if they do, realize that the only good reasons to continue

writing for such a game are either because you want to practice your writing

skills (a completely legitimate reason), or because you think you can do better

than the best existing guide available (legitimate, but sometimes difficult to

attain). A final, alternative point of view could be to take "a different

approach", which always comes down to either using more or using less humor, or

describing more or less spoilers, simply because "other approaches" don't exist:

The video game you're writing about demands a certain structured approach with

little variation possible. Do realize that even with a "different approach", the

most important goal is still to write just as qualitatively as the best

available stuff already launched elsewhere. Also keep in mind that the author(s)

of the most qualitative guide might've chosen to use a fair share of humor and

keep spoilers to a minimum (arguably a favorable combination for the majority of

readers). Even when there's no information available at all on a certain game,

which is common when games have just been released, it can still be important

to keep the highest possible quality in mind, simply because someone else might

outdo your guide soon.

While I realize that some of the above might sound radical in the ears of

certain writers, I think it also sounds very logical. If you compare the amount

of visits of a high-quality guide to a merely decent guide you'd notice a

drastic difference between figures. The star system already differentiates - and

rightfully so - between guides to make qualitative ones stand out. This is one

of the best features GameFAQs has implemented in a long time, and it would be

great to see it continue down that road to underline and stress the importance

of high quality work. I wouldn't want to argue that guides should no longer be

posted if they are of less quality than others (although it would be good to

have an unwritten rule that unfinished walkthroughs do not get posted if a

starred guide already exists for that game), as it also encourages writers to

start in 'the business'. The point here is that everyone would greatly benefit

if authors started to work together in an efficient manner.

ENDLESS AND OPTIMISTIC, YET NOT IMPOSSIBLE GUIDE WRITING IDEALISM

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Wouldn't it be great to have one (perhaps two) excellent - no, nearly perfect -

guide(s) for whatever game you desire? Or at least for the most popular titles?

The problem with raising the bar this high is that it starts to take very large

amounts of time to write such a guide, and few authors are in the favorable

position of having endless amounts of spare time (or are willing to devote so

much of their spare time to the writing of FAQs). Another problem with striving

for extraordinary quality is that the community at least partly consists of

younger writers who are still working on improving their guide writing skills.

If authors would form teams that work together on certain guides, they'd not

only be sure that people would love their cooperative work, it would also save

the authors a lot of time and they'd still have made a beautiful piece of work

in the end. This is the approach that the better official game guide companies

take. They work in teams, and it shows. Have people focus on a certain aspect of

the guide and beautifully shape the guide together, literally. In FAQ writing,

this could easily be put to practice. Someone could work on the walkthrough,

perhaps coordinating sections with someone else if their writing styles match

(which is no necessity by any means). Another author could provide ASCII

artwork, still someone else could help work on side quests and parts that

require optional exploration, someone could be working on assembling item and

equipment lists. Such a team of four to five people can easily be credited at

the top of the document, revealing their (alias) names in all pride and glory.

WHAT IS THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF GUIDE WRITING?

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The same idea could be applied to all online guide writing, and it would greatly

improve the overall quality of what's available. Ultimately it would find

sponsoring and receive some donations from the community, but even without this

it can make a great leap towards reaching the ultimate goal of guide writing:

To not only help someone from A to B, but to really *enhance* someone's

experience of a game in every possible way, giving people the option to fully

explore and enjoy a videogame. You can watch linear movies, you can read linear

books, but you must actively explore a video game, and in some cases, only a

high-quality strategy guide is going to help you do just that. It would be

unfair to demand from gamers to purchase such a strategy guide for every game

they buy. Ideally, the future of video game guides would have prolific authors

overcome their ego and team up to shape perfect text-based strategy guides.

Readers could in turn show a little more praise when truly deserved... Now what

are some ways to improve and promote quality?

INTRODUCE A FAQ OF THE YEAR CONTEST; OMG, GOLD STARS!?

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A few great ways that could help promote authors to work together in order to

reach higher levels of quality (and faster, too) would be to not only hold a

FAQ of the Month contest, but also a FAQ of the Year contest (or alternatively

a FAQ of the Season, but that sounds kind of lame). There are too few monthly

contributions to really judge quality alone (game popularity and thus guide

demand also plays its role), but a yearly competition on top of the FotM contest

could really push author(teams) to the limit. Although it'd be nice, it doesn't

even need to involve prize money - I bet many guide writers would commit murder

to have a gold star featured next to their own or team's name for that matter.

A GUIDE WRITER CONTEST INSTEAD OF THESE REPETITIVE CHARACTER AND GAME CONTESTS?

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

It could also greatly help to put authors a little more in the spotlights. A

simple poll could do wonders alone, not to imagine a "favorite author" contest,

putting the building bricks of GameFAQs in the spotlight for once - the authors

of FAQs themselves - instead of the repetitive character contests that are now

being held yearly. A trial would be nice at the very least; contributors really

like these contests, as the writer's board has shown repeatedly year after year

for over a decade now. It'd also motivate aspiring writers to give it a shot of

their own - there's nothing to lose.

On a different but related note, an other possible way to easily motivate

qualitative work under authors would be by showing the amount of stars - which

implies recommendations or FotM prizes - on the author's forum account, similar

to how Karma is displayed.

GIVE SOME, GET SOME

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The idea is that when the quality of text guides jumps, the time is ripe for the

contributor recognition to rise as well, and quite frankly, it's been way

overdue for a long time. The only thing that currently fuels guide writers are

thank-you emails (or the general idea of helping people). With little extra

effort, the shrinking community of veteran guide writers can get a new impulse

and new goals.

JOIN OR START A DISCUSSION ON GAMEFAQS OR FACEBOOK

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We've got a long way to go, but it should be possible to push guide writing a

step in the right direction, starting here. Things like this don't take off

without discussions, so spread the word and let GameFAQs know about this.

You can also join the discussion on my facebook page, located at:

facebook.com/absolutesteve

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

On a closing note, I'm currently looking for prolific authors that share this

vision and want to join a team. Some spots have already been taken, and places

are limited. If you're interested, apply at [email protected] and send a link

to your contributor page and your best piece of work.

I thank you for taking the time reading this. Rests me to wish you a lot of fun

with Fallout New Vegas and this Full Survival Guide!

___ ___ ___ _ _ _____ ___ ___ _ ___

|_ _| / __/ _ \| \| |_ _| _ \/ _ \| | / __|

| | _ | (_| (_) | .` | | | | / (_) | |__\__ \_

|___(_) \___\___/|_|\_| |_| |_|_\\___/|____|___( )

|/

___ _ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___

| _ ) /_\ / __|_ _/ __/ __| |_ _|_ _| _ \/ __|

| _ \/ _ \\__ \| | (__\__ \_ | | | || _/\__ \

|___/_/ \_\___/___\___|___( ) |_| |___|_| |___/

|/ [BSC]

file://////__

=-=-=-=-=-=-=|

|Left Analog Stick |Switch between target's body parts |

|Right Analog Stick|Switch between different targets |

| X |Confirm |

| O |Cancel |

| R1 |Select target |

| R2 |Enter V.A.T.S |

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

1.13 PC CONTROLS [BSC-1.13]

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Note: I'm looking for someone to confirm and/or correct the PC controls, as I

don't own nor plan to own the PC version of the game. Thank you.

MAIN CONTROLS:

__________________ ___________________________________________________________


|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=|

| Mouse |Look/Turn Around |

| W |Forward |

| S |Backward |

| A |Strafe left |

| D |Strafe right |

| Left Shift |Run |

| Caps Lock |Run [permanently] |

| Q |Auto-Move |

| V |Enter V.A.T.S |

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

PIP-BOY 3000 CONTROLS:

__________________ ___________________________________________________________


|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=|

| Tab |Bring up/down Pip-Boy 3000 |

| Tab [hold] |Turn Flashlight On/Off |

| F1 |Bring up/down Pip-Boy 3000 [Directly in stats mode] |

| F2 |Bring up/down Pip-Boy 3000 [Directly in items mode] |

| F3 |Bring up/down Pip-Boy 3000 [Directly in data mode] |

|Left Mouse Button |Equip/Unequip/Use selected item |

|Right Mouse Button|Drop selected item |

| R |Repair selected item |

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1.14 COMPANION CONTROLS [BSC-1.14]

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The 'companion wheel' comes up whenever you interact with companions, and

provides us with several options. Going clockwise, starting at 12 'o clock:

________________________ _____________________________________________________


|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

=-=-=-=-=-=-=|

|Be Passive/Agressive |Modifies companion's AI to act passively/agressively |

|Use Stimpak |Use a Stimpak on companion |

|Wait here/Follow me |Forces the companion to wait or to follow |

|Talk to |Converse with the companion |

|Back up |Tells the companion to provide cover tactics |

|Keep distance/Stay close|Adjusts the companion's proximity to your character |

|Open inventory |Opens up the companion's inventory |

|Use Ranged/Melee |Switches between ranged/melee weapons |

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Note: You can have one humanoid and one non-humanoid companion with you at most.

Besides these two fixed companions you can get assistance from an NCR

Ranger or Trooper (if you're in a good reputation with them). Lastly,

hiring a bodyguard in Freeside cranks the maximum up to 4, but these guys

only help you during your stay in Freeside, so they hardly count.

_____________________________________________________________________

|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

| 1.2 UNDERSTANDING THE COMPASS [BSC-2] |

|_____________________________________________________________________|

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|HP The compass (left hand corner) is extremely

|||||||||||||||||||| important for exploration. It's not difficult

|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯v¯¯¯¯¯l¯¯¯l¯¯¯ to use, but a thorough explanation might give

|-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- you a few insights you would've otherwise

| /\ /\ missed out on. Let's go over all the features

|NE E SE one by one, going from top to bottom.

1. Your health is displayed on top and an indication of your remaining health is

given by the amount of lines: ||||||||||. In the example above, health is

not at it's maximum, but lies around 4/5th of the max.

2. The 'v' in the example is always at the same place. This denotes your

current direction. As you'll see below, directions such as NE, E, SE will

circle (i.e. move from left to right) as you move around. In the example

above, your character is facing E, meaning you're facing east.

3. Various markers can be spotted above or below the line (-.-.-.-.-.-).

Markers seen above this line can appear in [GREEN] or in [RED], and are

displayed in this example as (l). These markers notify you of any NPC's in

the area. Green means the NPC is neutral/good, red means hostile. The

higher your Perception SPECIAL stat, the faster these blips appear on your

compass.

4. Lastly, notice the markers below the line (-.-.-.-.-.-), as indicated by /\

in the example above. These show the location of your destination(s), such

as an active quest. There is a second marker that you'll sometimes notice

on your compass, which looks like a small hollow triangle (not covered in

the ASCII example). These small triangles denote a primary or secondary

location you haven't found yet. A filled small triangle denotes a location

which you have explored at least once.

- Considering its simplicity, a short description of the HUD on the right will

suffice: It notifies you of your currently remaining AP (Action Points,

as used in VATS), denoted by lines ||||||||||. The condition (CND) of your

equipped weapon is denoted by the small bar, and this interface also shows

the ammunition in your equipped weapon: (Clip/Total).

_____________________________________________________________________

|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

| 1.3 TIPS AND TRICKS: [BSC-3] |

|_____________________________________________________________________|

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Save yourself the trouble and read these tips once or twice. They will greatly

increase your self-sufficiency during your wasteland travels, and might even

prevent you from dying! Definitely read this before your first playthrough,

even if you're not planning to use the walkthrough.

1.31 GENERAL TIPS [BSC-3.1]

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• Be sure to save your game often, and keep multiple save games. Fallout

New

Vegas is a large game, and you might want to reload a previous save game in

which you hadn't messed up a particular quest, event, or where you missed an

important item. This is one of the most important things for a healthy and

enjoyable experience.

• Holster your weapon when there's no direct danger in proximity. This not only

allows you to travel faster (two-handed weapons slow your down, although one-

handed weapons don't), and it also scares neutral or friendly NPC's less

quickly.

• Keep your gun reloaded at all times. You never know what might surprise you

around the next corner.

• Never waste ammunition, and never waste Stimpaks, especially on hardcore mode.

If you're in need of healing, do it properly and rest. Use V.A.T.S to greatly

conserve precious ammo. [If you sleep in a rented bed or own bed, you'll get

the Well Rested status that grants 10% extra EXP until it wears off after a

couple of hours.]

• When you crouch nearby water you can drink from it. Hold down the button to

continuously drink from it, which is a good way to heal yourself at the cost

of a few RadAways instead of Stimpaks!

• Learn to use Fast Travel! After having explored a location, simply bring up

the World Map on your Pip-Boy and select the location you want to travel to.

This saves enormous amounts of time.

• Collect items just for resell purposes. You can check on the value (VAL) of

an item in your inventory, and it's wise to sell these whenever the next

possibility comes up; Don't let them clutter up your inventory, especially not

when you're on a lengthy quest.

• Pressing the Right Stick (on consoles) lifts items/bodies from the ground.

It can sometimes be worthwhile to lift up buckets or small wooden crates to

find they actualy contain a hidden treasure!

• Always search vending machines for Nuka Cola and Sarsaparilla Bottles.

• Get your Science and Lockpick up to 50 as soon as possible, which allows you

to pick locks on all average level locks and terminals. Alternatively boost

them to 40 at least, so you can pick locks with the aid of a skill magazine

that gives you a temporary +10 boost.

• It's the game's intention to make you explore the world. Don't rush through

the areas, look in every corner and behind every brick, and you'll be richly

rewarded. You propbably don't want to end up missing the neatest secrets.

• Fast Travel with your Worldmap! If you are on the worldmap and you find

yourself stuck, don't hesitate to use the fast travel option!

• Items with no weight (--) should always be picked up. Even if the item seems

useless, you can always sell it in larger amounts later on. If an item does

weigh something, look at its value. Is the weight 1 and the value 1? Then it

might be better to leave the item. Is the value 50 and the weight 2? You can

then sell the item later on and make a profit without putting too much weight

on your shoulders!

• The checklists in this survival guide feature two kinds of brackets:

1. [] means that the item doesn't cost you any Karma for taking it.

2. {} may cost you Karma and indicates you must steal the item. Therefore,

these items are optional pickups.

• Infinite Caps Glitch:

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1. Find a merchant that sells two of the same weapon or armor.

2. Buy the cheapest of their two weapons or armors.

3. Sell it back to the merchant with profit.

4. Repeat and profit more.

1.32 HACKING TIPS [BSC-3.2]

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You have four attempts each time you access a terminal before you get locked out

after the fourth erroneous password attempt. In other words, you have three

'free' tries every time you start up a terminal. The goal is to select the

correct password from the gibberish text. Depending on how high your Science

skill is, the easier hacking becomes.

Roughly speaking, there are three (combinable) methods for hacking terminals:

1. You try three 'free' attempts and back out of the terminal. Simply try your

luck once again and repeat this process until you've figured out the

password.

3. Whenever you attempt a password, on the right part of the terminal screen it

tells you how many letters you've got at correct places. In other words, if

you've got three letters correct, start looking for words that use similar

letters in similar positions.

Example: You attempted "FESTERS" and get 0/7 correct (nothing at all). You

can now say to yourself: Okay, all other passwords containing an

F as the first letter will be incorrect, all passwords with an E as

second letter are incorrect, etcetera. Thus "SYSTEMS" would be

incorrect as it contains an E on the fifth spot, and we know that

this cannot be a possibility.

If you get 1/7 correct, you know that at least one letter is in the

right position. This doesn't help you that much, but if you can

find any passwords that don't match *any* of the letters in the

same positions (compared to "FESTERS", the password "SUCKING" does

not contain an "F" at the first spot, not an "E" on the second spot,

not a "S" on the third spot, and so on for all other letters. Thus

you can conclude that "SUCKING" is not your key inside the terminal.

Not this time, at least...

If you get even more letters correct, such as 5/7 with the password

"TESTERS", look for words that have various similarities, such as

those ending with "TERS".

3. It's possible to replenish your attempts by looking for what I'd like to

call bracket combinations. These are brackets such as < >, [ ], () and { }

which are linked when highlighted. In other words, when you highlight one

of these brackets, more than one character is highlighted, and everything

between these brackets is also highlighted. An example would be: {.,::&}.

Selecting this can either replenish your attempts, or remove a faulty

password from the possibilities. It it wise to first attempt three passwords

and then search for brackets, resulting in removing several duds and a

possible allowance replenishment, greatly improving your odds.

If this doesn't help, either search for another bracket combination or back

out of the terminal and try again.

1.33 LOCKPICKING TIPS [BSC 3.3]

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EASY: AVERAGE: HARD:

__________ __________ __________

/::::| \ / \:::| \ / \::| \

/:::::| \ / \::| \ / \:| \

/ \::::| \ / \:| \ / \| \

| \::| | | \| | | |

| \| | | | | |

| | | | | |

\ / \ / \ /

\ / \ / \ /

\__________/ \__________/ \__________/

VERY EASY and VERY HARD have bigger and smaller correct zones respectively.

IS THAT A BOBBY PIN IN YOUR POCKET?

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You can only attempt more difficult locks when ___________ _______________

your lockpick skill has reached a certain |DIFFICULTY:|REQUIRED SKILL:|

leven. For example, in order to pick average |=-=-=-=-=-=|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=|

locks you'll need a lockpick skill of at least |Very Easy | 0 |

50+, and for hard locks you need 75+. The |Easy | 25 |

locks above indicate example ranges of where |Average | 50 |

your bobby pin can be placed at in order to |Hard | 75 |

unlock the lock with the screw driver. Placing |Very Hard | 100 |

the bobby pin correct is impossible without ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

trial and error. You know you're close to the correct position (or rather,

"correct zone" as shown above) if you can turn the screw driver nearly 90

degrees vertical. The further you can turn the screwdriver, the closer you are.

If you're haven't hit the right spot yet (and I could make a nice analogy here),

adjust your BOBBY PIN (if you know what I mean) and turn it to a better

position. In other words, you can turn it left or right. If you turn it to,

say, the right, and you get the feeling the bobby pin starts to tremble sooner

than before, you know the "correct zone" is the other way, and you can move

closer. Keep adjusting it until you hit the right spot and the treasures will

be yours... If you fail, your Bobby Pin *BREAKS*, and you'll have to try again,

that is, if you have another Bobby Pin left in your .. pocket..

_____________________________________________________________________

|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

| 1.4 PRE-ORDER BONUSES: [BSC-4] |

|_____________________________________________________________________|

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

There are four pre-bonuses you could've gotten by pre-ordering the game.

It's

an extremely lame marketing stunt to have these packages include exclusive

items, but that's the kind of modern world we're living in. The following

packages are available:

Caravan Pack: - Lightweight Leather Armor, Sturdy Caravan Shotgun,

Repair Kits x4, Binoculars.

- Available by ordering from Steam, Wal-Mart, Mighty Ape and

Play.com.

Classic Pack: - Armored Vault 13 Suit, Weathered 10mm Pistol,

Vault 13 Canteen, Stimpaks x5.

- Available by ordering from GameStop, GAME and EB Games.

Mercenary Pack: - Lightweight Metal Armor, Mercenary's Grenade Rifle,

Super Stimpak x3, Doctor's bag x3.

- Available by ordering from Best Buy and JB-Hi Fi.

Tribal Pack: - Tribal Raiding Armor, Broad Machete, Bleak Venom x5,

Throwing Spear x10.

- Available by ordering from Amazon.com and direct2drive.com.

Note: The armor and weapon in each package are exclusive content and cannot be

found in-game. The Vault 13 Canteen is also exclusive.

_____________________________________________________________________

|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

| 1.5 GAME DIFFICULTY & HARDCORE MODE: [BSC-5] |

|_____________________________________________________________________|

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Game Difficulty:

----------------

The game's difficulty can be adjusted during gameplay at any time, back and

forth, ranging from Very Easy to Very Hard. The table below summarizes the

effects of difficulty on gameplay:

.------------.-----------------.--------------.

|Difficulty: |Player's Damage: |Enemy Damage: |

|============|=================|==============|

|Very Easy | 200% | 50% |

|Easy | 150% | 75% |

|Normal | 100% | 100% |

|Hard | 75% | 150% |

|Very Hard | 50% | 200% |

'------------'-----------------'--------------'

Hardcore Mode:

--------------

Hardcore mode can be turned on at the start of the game, and while you *can*

turn it off at any point during the game, you can not turn it back on again.

Beating the game on hardcore mode grants you the Hardcore trophy or achievement.

Realize that Hardcore is not a difficulty setting, it is merely additional

realism making the game harder. This includes:

1. Wounds heal over time, meaning that stimpaks heal over time, and RadAway also

removes radiation over time

2. Ammo has weight, so you can no longer infinitely collect ammunition from

all over the game.

3. Your character will dehydrate, starve and suffer from sleep deprivation if

you don't drink, eat, or rest enough.

4. Companions will die instead of falling unconscious.

___ ___ __ ___ _ _ _______ _ _ ___ ___ _ _ ___ _ _

|_ _|_ _| \ \ / /_\ | | | |/ /_ _| || | _ \/ _ \| | | |/ __| || |

| | | | _ \ \/\/ / _ \| |__| ' < | | | __ | / (_) | |_| | (_ | __ |

|___|___(_) \_/\_/_/ \_\____|_|\_\ |_| |_||_|_|_\\___/ \___/ \___|_||_|

____________________________________________________________________[WLK]

______________________________________________________________________________

|FaLlOuTf|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

|AlLoUtFa| 2.1 Ain't That a Kick in the Head [WLK-1] |

|LlOuTfAl|

_____________________________________________________________________|

|LoUtFaLl|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

|OuTfAlLo| You've just been shot in the head - twice! - and left for dead. |

|UtFaLlOu| Except that you're not dead, so you swear for revenge. |

|TfAlLoUt|_____________________________________________________________________|

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯| |

"Kick in | QUEST REWARD: ?? XP + PIP-BOY 3000. |

the balls|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

perhaps?"| QUEST OUTLINE: 1. Walk to the Vit-o-matic tester. |

| 2. Use the Vit-o-matic tester. |

| 3. Sit down on the couch in Doc Mitchell's |

| living room. |

| 4. Follow Doc Mitchell to the exit. |

|_____________________________________________________________________|

AREA ITEM LIST: STARTING OUT:

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

A. Today's Physicial . . . . [] After the introduction scenes you'll be given

B. Blood Pack . . . . . . . [] the option to customize your character.

B. Med-X . . . . . . . . . . [] Select your gender (Note: Female characters

C. Sunset Sarsaparilla Crate [] no longer have a benefit over men, since male

C. Broken 9mm Submachine Gun [] charactershave an equivalent to Black Widow,

D. Stimpak x3 . . . . . . . [] which gives you an advantage over men, and

D. Rad-X . . . . . . . . . . [] gives extra dialogue options. There are

D. Antivenom . . . . . . . . [] many men in Fallout New Vegas...) and change

E. Bottle Cap x8 . . . . . . [] your head the way you see fit, then take

F. Pip-Boy 3000 . . . . . . [] control of your character. Before walking to

F. Mojave Express Delivery the Vigor Tester, do a little exploring of the

Order x6 . . . . . . . . [] room first: Grab the [TODAY'S PHYSICIAN] from

F. Bobby Pin x12 . . . . . . [] the desk behind the chirurgic table; it's next

F. Stimpak x4 . . . . . . . [] to the type writer. To your right you can

F. Bottle Cap x18 . . . . . [] find a [BLOOD PACK] and a [MED-X] from the

F. Laser Pistol . . . . . . [] medical cabinet, and inspect the Chemistry Set

F. Energy Cell x20 . . . . . [] on the desk with the computer: You'll need 25

F. Vault 21 Jumpsuit . . . . [] Science to fiddle with this, so just take note

G. Ammo Box . . . . . . . . [] of this for now. Inspect the [SUNSET

G. Buffalo Gourd Seed x3 . . [] SARSAPARILLA CRATE] next to the desk and

G. First Aid Box x2 . . . . [] ignore the [BROKEN 9MM SUBMACHINE GUN] lying

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ on top of it for now. The destroyed cabinet

to the Doc's left contains [STIMPAK x3], [RAD- X] and [ANTIVENOM]. The [GUN

CASE] on the bottom shelf is also worth a look, and contains some ammo and a

Laser Pistol. In general, most boxes like these contain semi- random contents,

so this guide will give you the general description and locations of these

boxes.

THE VIG-O-MATIC VIGOR TESTER

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Your SPECIAL stats (which stand for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma,

Intelligence, Agility and Luck respectively) can now be adjusted. Each stat

starts at a base of 5 points, and you receive 5 spare points to spread over the

your stats. It's entirely up to you how you want to play the game, but overall

Strength and Intelligence are quite important, so it is recommended to spend

extra points on them. Charisma is required for very few perks and has very

little value - you can greatly compensate a low Charisma by putting extra points

in Speech.

If you want to customize your own build, feel free to do so. If you're a player

who likes to snatch the best from everything, creating a very balanced all-round

character build, try the following starting stats (and adjust to your liking).

It can also be a good idea to look at the stats and perk sections [STA-1] and

[STA-3] respectively to see which perks require certain SPECIAL tresholds.

STR: 8, PER: 5, END: 8, CHR: 1, INT: 9, AGL: 6, LCK: 3

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Tip: Never go over 9 in your initial build. You will be able to permanently

boost all your SPECIAL stats by +1 much later in the game.

Perky Awesomeness: With the above all-round build, the only notable perks you

miss out on are the ones that have CHR or LCK requirements.

Arguably, of these perks the only one of which it's a shame

you must skip it, is the Better Criticals perk, requiring

the high amount of 6 Luck. With the above build, useful

Perks are maximized, and it serves as the basis for making

a superb all-round character.

When you're done with the SPECIAL stats, move to the other side of the wall and

loot the cabinet for [BOTTLE CAPS x8]. In any case, sit down on the bench

before Doc Mitchell to finalize your character build.

SKILLS AND TRAITS

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

The Doc will ask you various questions. Depending on how you answer them, your

character build changes. You can still adjust the three skills you want to

boost in a menu after the dialogue options, and the same applies to traits.

Regarding skills, and this is only a personal recommendation, Lockpick, Science

and either Guns or Energy Weapon is a decent start. Regarding traits, it's

completely up to you, but I'd highly recommend Kamikaze since this boosts your

VATS AP by +10 points, and only reduces your Damage Resistance by -2.

Follow the Doc to the exit and he'll give you a bunch of goodies, the most

important being the [PIP-BOY 3000]. He'll also hand you [MOJAVE EXPRESS

DELIVERY ORDER x6], [BOBBY PIN x12], [STIMPAK x4], [BOTTLE CAP x18],

[LASER PISTOL], [20 ENERGY CELLS], and a [VAULT 21 JUMPSUIT].

You can now explore the rooms to the south of the Doc's House for some

more

items. Remember that you can use the 'compass bar' on the lower left to see

which direction you're facing.

The cabinet in the southern hall contains an [AMMO BOX],[BUFFALO GOURD SEED x3],

and [FIRST AID BOX x2]. While the bedroom to the east doesn't contain much,

you can check the dresser, and there are also packs of cigs in the small cabinet

next to the bed, which you can sell back to Doc Mitchell for a small sum of

money. Just tell him you need medical supplies to open up the shop window.

The last thing to loot is the refrigerator. Exit to the worldmap.

______________________________________________________________________________

|FaLlOuTf|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

|AlLoUtFa| 2.2 Back in the Saddle [WLK-2] |

|LlOuTfAl|_____________________________________________________________________|

|LoUtFaLl|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

|OuTfAlLo| Embark on your first real quest. So who exactly is Sunny Smiles? |

|UtFaLlOu| |

|TfAlLoUt|_____________________________________________________________________|

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯| |

| QUEST REWARD: 10 XP + 50 BOTTLE CAPS. |

|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

| QUEST OUTLINE: 1. Talk to Sunny Smiles in the Prospector Saloon. |

| 2. Meet Sunny Smiles behind the Prospector Saloon. |

| 3. Shoot 3 sarsaparilla bottles outside the |

| Prospector Saloon. |

| 4. Follow Sunny. |

| 5. Kill the Geckos at the well. |

| 6. Talk to Sunny Smiles. |

| 7. Kill the Geckos at the other wells. |

| 8. Talk to Sunny about your reward. |

|_____________________________________________________________________|

AREA ITEM LIST:

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

A. Fixin' Things . . . . . . {} When you're outside, look around the area for

B. .357 Magnum Revolver . . {} a security bot named Victor. This is actually

C. Varmint Rifle . . . . . . [] an optional part of the other quest you can

C. 5.56mm Ammo x30 . . . . . [] currently do (They Went That-a-way). In any

D. 5.56mm Ammo x60 . . . . . [] case, head into the Prospector Saloon to the

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ northeast.

Inside, Sunny Smiles almost immediately approaches you and tells you to meet her

outside. Snatch the {FIXIN' THINGS} skill magazine from the cabinet with the

world globe if you'd like, although you'll lose some karma. Stealing things is

best done when no one's around, and crouching also makes it less likely to

get

caught. You can also steal a {.357 MAGNUM REVOLVER} behind the bar, or even

open the cash register for a quick buck. From now on, items denoted with {}

brackets indicate a stealing procedure. Follow Sunny to the back and approach

her (she's standing towards the northwest). She'll then hand you a [VARMINT

RIFLE] and [5.56MM AMMO x30]. Shoot three sarsaparilla bottles from the fence

and Sunny will ask you to join her and waste some Geckos. You can either end

the tutorial, or join her.

KILLING GECKO'S

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Follow Sunny south, then crouch when you're approaching the geckos. Sneak as

close as possible to the windmill, then enter VATS (or not) and waste the two

geckos. If you've lost any HP, drink from the clean water to replenish your

health. Geckos can often be looted for gecko meat and/or gecko hides, so

always search bodies, including animal corpses. Report back to Sunny and she'll

once again give you the option to kill more geckos. After accepting, she hands

you an additional [5.56MM AMMO x60]. Not too shabby!

Follow Sunny to the other wells and kill the remaining geckos. Talk to Sunny

for your reward: 50 Bottle Caps. She's still got more to teach you, though!

Accept and you'll start the 'By a Campfire on the Trail' quest.

______________________________________________________________________________

|FaLlOuTf|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯�

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