Going Extinct¶

That’s enough messing around with the Khans and the Fiends, it’s time now to focus on Veronica’s quest. You can trigger this quest by taking her to different areas and exposing her to choice bits of dialogue. If you haven’t done this already, take her to the Boomer Museum and expose her to Pete’s history lesson. Then take her inside Camp McCarran’s Terminal Building and stand around the central entrance. Finally, take her to the outskirts of Cottonwood Cove. Each time she should comment on the situation, and after three such comments, she’ll talk to you and ask to take her back to Hidden Valley. This starts the quest I Could Make You Care .

Fast-travel to Hidden Valley and talk to the Elder, or rather, let Veronica do the talking. After her words go nowhere, she’ll talk to you and suggest a new course of action; find irrefutable proof that the Brotherhood is wrong and force them to change. What is this tantalizing evidence? Pre-war tech, of course. What else does the Brotherhood fixate on?

Three Flavors of Proof¶

Leave the Hidden Valley bunker and make your way back to HELIOS One. From there, travel south-west into the desert to find Gibson’s shack, and unmarked and otherwise uninteresting area. Loot the place for some chems, then play around with the “Comm Station Terminal” on the floor to learn about some interesting technology, which will provide you with three options you can pursue to advance this quest; find the rangefinder connected with HELIOS One (Euclid’s C-Finder), learn about some new farming technology (possibly done during There Stands the Grass) or locate a Pulse Gun.

If you completed HELIOS One without activating Archimedes II (the suggested course of action) you won’t be able to recover Euclid’s C-Finder to complete this quest. If you go after the farming technology, you’ll need to go through Vault 22 and get the data off the main frame… but if you already completed There Stands the Grass by either destroying the data or giving it to Hildern, this option is out the window, too. This leaves you with the Pulse Gun, which was supposedly stored in Nellis Air Force Base. The lead you’re looking for is in a Filing Cabinet in Pearl’s Barracks on Nellis Air Force Base in the form of the note “Inventory Transfer Order”. The key will allow you to bypass a lock [Very Hard] and the note points out Vault 34 as the locations of the Pulse Gun you’re looking for.

It doesn’t matter what technology you’re looking for, but if you’ve been following this guide, the Pulse Gun is the only one left on the table. If you can - and want to - go after Euclid’s C-Finder or the farming technology, see text under the header “Euclid’s C-Finder” in the HELIOS One section of the guide. Alternatively, if you want to go after the the farming technology skip to the “Vault 22” section of the guide. Or just follow along and explore Vault 34, which is the next objective for those following chronologically… well, after another, short detour…

NCR Sharecropper Farms¶

Fast-travel to the NCR Sharecropper Farms, which you may have discovered en route to Camp McCarran. In any event, it’s just south of the Gun Runners stall, along the eastern walls of New Vegas. In the north-eastern corner of the fenced-off area that makes up the NCR Sharecropper Farms you’ll find the Sharecropper Barracks building. Inside of this “L” shaped building you can find a Chinese Army: Spec. Ops. Training Manual on the floor near a desk and a First Aid Box [Easy] worth looting. More importantly talk to Morgan Blake and she’ll ask you to check out a nearby pump station to see if there’s anything up with the water, which may be poisoning the crops here. This starts the quest Hard Luck Blues … and guess where this quest will ultimately lead you?

East Pump Station¶

Leave the NCR Sharecropper Farms and make your way east and slightly north to find the East Pump Station. Inside you’ll find some forgettable loot (components and food) and the “Pump Station Terminal”. Activate it and pass a [Science 50] check to repair the network connection, and/or just activate it to find out that there’s a radiation leak polluting the water.

From the East Pump Station make your way east, south-east to find Vault 34. You’ll find it behind some hills east of the road running north from the Grub n’ Gulp Rest Stop along the eastern end of the New Vegas outskirts. Pass between some rocky, unscalable hills and you’ll spot some Golden Geckos - never shy about congregating near radioactive hotspots - lurking around the entrance. Ratslayer, some distance and stealth will make it quite easy to exterminate them all. You should also notice another location on your compass, and sure enough, south-west of Vault 34 you’ll discover Cannibal Johnson’s Cave. Might as well explore it while you’re here, right?

Cannibal Johnsons Cave¶

Inside Cannibal Johnson’s Cave you’ll find… Cannibal Johnson! Despite his name, he’s not unfriendly, despite being an old codger waiting for death. Ask about his past and succeed at a [Speech 30] check and he’ll tell you where he got the “cannibal” moniker. Otherwise, however, he doesn’t have much of interest to say… which naturally means it’s time to start looting. Sneak around a loot a Sunset Sarsaparilla Crate, then an Enclave Footlocker [Average], then grab a magazine and some food off some metal shelves. Be sure to grab a copy of Grognak the Barbarian off the corner of his bed, then leave the cave and return to the entrance to Vault 34.

Vault 34¶

Some warnings before you enter Vault 34 are now in order. As you should have guessed by now, Vault 34 is thoroughly irradiated, sometimes quite heavily so. And Advanced Radiation Suit is highly recommended for basic exploration. Secondly, you will want to bring plenty of Rad-X and RadAway with you. In Hardcore Mode you’ll need to pop RadAway regularly, as it will not instantly remove RADS, but instead will lower your RADS over time… almost certainly faster than you accumulate RADS, but still.

When you’re ready, enter Vault 34… or at least the caves leading to the Vault. Here you’ll find radioactive barrels and some Golden Geckos wandering around. Make your way north through the radioactive tunnels, then turn west to find the open door to Vault 34. At the final bend in the tunnel leading to Vault 34 you’ll find a skeleton, near which are some 10mm Rounds and a 10mm Pistol.

Vault 34 - 1st Floor¶

Head through the open vault door to reach the irradiated confines of Vault 34, which is now crawling with the ghoulified feral vault dwellers. The normal ghouls here aren’t too bad, but the Vault Security Officers (especially the Glowing One variants) can be rather tough. You’re probably better off served wandering around and clearing out whatever Ghouls you find before doing any serious exploration; it’ll at least remove a distraction while you do so… and don’t be afraid to leave the Vault to get healing (especially for RADS) if you need it. A visit to Doc Mitchell will cost a lot less than a half-dozen RadAway.

Anyway, clear Ghouls if you want, then return to town and get those pesky RADS removed before coming back fresh… or just start exploring normally. From the vault entrance room head into a small side-chamber to the north and search a desk to find the note “Overseer’s Journal Fragment”. Read it, love it, then head through a doorway to the west to reach a multi-leveled room that is (or perhaps was) crawling with Ghouls. Continue across a metal bridge to the west, then enter a room to the south and check out a terminal on a desk in the north-eastern corner to learn a bit about Vault 34 from the partially corrupted data. Grab a 10mm Submachine Gun from the desk, then return to the multi-level room outside.

Find a door to the north-east which will lead to some stairs that’ll take you down to the lower level, or just jump over the railing for a quicker trip. Eliminate whatever Ghouls get in your way and ignore a barren room to the south, then head through a doorway to the west to reach a hallway beyond. Turn south to reach a rubble-filled room and search to the north-west to find a skeleton, near which is a 10mm Submachine Gun, a Patriot’s Cookbook magazine, a Doctor’s Bag and a First Aid Box.

Leave the room, return to the hallway and continue through the previously ignored door to the north. Go down some stairs then follow another hallway to the west until you find a room to the south, wherein you can locate a First Aid Box behind some rubble in the south-western corner and a 10mm Submachine Gun and some 10mm Rounds on a metal object to the east, as well as on and near a metal shelf. Return to the hallway and follow it as it zig-zags south and west, past a sealed room occupied by some Ghouls. Eventually you should find a flooded stairwell to the west. With the Rebreather, this little bit of diving should be a cinche (just remember to re-equip it!), but it’s not necessary; descend the stairs to the north and swim into a small room, in which you’ll find the body of a ghoulified Vault Technician under a desk in the south-western corner of the room. Search the body to obtain the “Vault 34 Security Terminal Password”, which will allow you to bypass having to hack a terminal [Very Hard] later, which you must do to gain access to the lowest reaches of this vault. Grab the password, then return to dry land… vault… whatever. The trapped Ghouls in the room you passed earlier will have broken free, forcing you to put them down, but on the plus side you can now loot it to find a 10mm Submachine Gun, a Fixin’ Things magazine and a First Aid Box.

Continue south past the flooded tunnel to shortly find a partially obscured room to the east, within which you can find a Patriot’s Cookbook magazine as well as some other mundane loot. Return to the hallway and follow the zig-zagging tunnels to the south-west to find another room, this time to the west. Loot it for a Milsurp Review magazine and some other junk, then reunite with the hallway once again until you find a more interesting room to the north. If you continue around the corner to the east you’ll find the Overseer’s Quarter, which is currently locked, so ignore it and instead enter the room to the north.

Clear the room of Ghouls, then get to looting. You’ll find a First Aid Box near the door, a 10mm Pistol and a 10mm Submachine Gun on some metal carts, and a Wall Safe [Average] with plenty of Rad-X and RadAway inside. Nice. Along the eastern wall you can find a “Broken Mk II Auto-Doc” which is currently useless. Ah well. Continue through a door to the north, down a hallway to the east, then through another doorway to the north. Here you can find another flooded area, and in a small flooded room you’ll find the body of another Vault Technician, this one holding the “Vault 34 Utility Terminal Password”, which you should also nab. You’ll find this pickled ghoul under a desk in the south-western corner of the room.

Return to the hallway again and continue north until you find a room to the west. In here, on a desk, you’ll find a Terminal [Very Hard] which can be accessed with the last password you found. Activate it and select the entries “System” then “Activate Pump Station”. Grab the 10mm Pistol and the 10mm Rounds off the desk then plunder a First Aid Box behind some rubble in the south-western corner of the room.

Vault 34 - Security Station A¶

Backtrack to the south to find a closed door where the last flooded room was which - when you go through the door - you’ll discover is now dry. Head down the stairs, then venture up a hallway to the west to find a door leading to “Security Station A”. Enter and follow a winding hallway to the south, killing Vault Security Officers as you go until you find yourself in a room at the end of the hallway. Search the room to find some Vault 34 Security Armor on a metal shelf and a Vault 34 Security Helmet on a table with a terminal on it. If you obtained the “Vault 34 Security Terminal Password” earlier, you won’t have to bother with hacking it [Very Hard]. Activate it, pick the entry “System” then “Disengage Lock to Overseer”.

Vault 34 - Overseers Quarters¶

Return to the main level of the vault and backtrack to the Overseer’s Quarters, once locked, now open to you. Head through the door and make your way down some stairs to the west, then down a hallway to the north, killing whatever Ghouls oppose you. Squeeze past a radioactive barrel and go down a hallway to the east to find the Overseer’s office… and the ghoulish Overseer beyond. Kill him, his turrets, and whatever Ghouls burst forth to help him, then loot his body to obtain the “Overseer’s Password”. With this in hand, access the terminal in the room ([Very Hard] without the password) and select the entries “System” then “Open armory door”. Ah… sweet, sweet loot now available to rapacious plundering….

Hard Luck Blues¶

Before you get to any plundering, however, head down the stairs under the Overseer’s desk and wade through irradiated water to the east, killing a Ghoulish Vault Technician along the way. Turn north when you must and entering a reactor chamber, which is even more heavily irradiated than the rest of the vault. Pop some Rad-X to keep the heat down a bit, then interact with a terminal along the western wall and pick the entry “SOS” to discover a complication in your plans. While Vault 34 is poisoning the NCR Sharecropper Farms, there are survivors in the vault in need of rescue. Unfortunately, you cannot do both, as you’ll learn by reading the options “Close exterior vents” and “Reroute vault control”. By doing the former you’ll end the pollution that’s plaguing the sharecroppers and doom the family, but if you do the latter you’ll save the family and ruin any chances of the sharecroppers succeeding. Although you get a bit more XP for saving the trapped dwellers, you get some NCR Fame for saving the Sharecropper Farm, and the difference in XP is really only the difference between killing one strong enemy… Make up your mind, then select the “Open Reactor Door” option, go through the door to the (which was previously inaccessible) and access another terminal, where you’ll get to make your decision on the fates of the surviving vault dwellers and the NCR Sharecropper Farms. Whatever choice you make, two ghoulish Vault Technicians will spawn in the room behind you.

Fight your way back to the Overseer’s office, then return to the hallway outside and continue exploring to the north to find another room to the east. Grab a Milsurp Review magazine and a Vault 34 Security Helmet, then return to the hallway. Follow it as it meanders north and east, ignoring an inaccessible door to the west but exploring a more friendly door to the north. Kill the ghouls in the room beyond, then grab a Doctor’s Bag, a 10mm Submachine Gun, and an issue of True Police Stories. With all that done backtrack to the south and return to the main area of the vault and proceed to the Armory, which is along the northern end of the area, north of the room where you obtained the “Vault 34 Utility Terminal Password”.

Vault 34 - Armory¶

Head down some stairs to the west… cautiously. There are plenty of Vault Security Officers here, and causing too much commotion can cause trouble. Fight your way into a hallway to the south, then head east to find a room where more ghouls lurk. Kill them, then loot the room to find some containers including a First Aid Box to the west. Once done, pick up a copy of Guns and Bullets between two couches.

Return to the hallway and make your way west, then go through another doorway to the south. Through another door to the south you’ll find the armory, which is crawling with ghouls that need to be removed before you can begin. When the last Ghoul lies still on the ground, it’s time to claim your well-deserved booty, which includes; 40mm Grenades, sixteen Ammo Boxes, a Minigun, a Marksman Carbine, two Assault Carbines, a Riot Shotgun, two Sniper Rifles, five 10mm Sub Machineguns, a Missile Launcher, ten 10mm Pistols, four suits of Vault 34 Security Armor and three Vault 34 Security Helmets, a Detonator, some Combat Armor and a Combat Helmet, three units of C-4 Plastic Explosive and, on an over-turned table in the middle of the room, the unique weapon All-American and 5.56 Rounds.

Before you leave, though, be sure to loot a locked Gun Case [Very Hard] on the floor in the south-western corner of the armory room. If you grabbed Col. Blackwell’s Key from Pearl’s Barracks you can bypass the lock and get right to the loot, which in this case is the Pulse Gun ; the piece of technology Veronica is looking for, and the entire purpose for coming here.

With the Pulse Gun in hand, return to Hidden Valley head towards the Elder. When you reach Hidden Valley Bunker L2 some Paladins will bother you and express their dislike of Veronica trying to rock the boat before storming off to do… whatever Brotherhood guys do. Afterwards, approach the Elder and Veronica will make her case, and the Elder will seem devoted to following the Codex into oblivion. After you leave the Elder’s chamber an exasperated Veronica will have a crisis of faith and muse about leaving the Brotherhood and joining the Followers of the Apocalypse. Your words here will influence her decision; if you urge her to leave the Brotherhood, she will. If you tell her to stay, or leave the decision up to her, she’ll stay.

Bonds of Steel¶

If she decided to stay, leave the bunker and you’ll be confronted by four Brotherhood of Steel Paladins, who have decided that Veronica’s heresy must be cleansed by the righteous fire of their Energy Weapons… and they’re not too fond of outsiders, either. They must not have received the memo that you’re a member in good standing of the Brotherhood of Steel. You can avoid conflict by passing a [Speech 95] check, but… c’mon, you want that Power Armor, right? It can be a wretched fight, though, being fired at by four heavily armed and armored Paladins with Gauss Rifles and Tri-Beam Laser Rifles. Pop some Med-X and Psycho and hope for the best. After you’re victorious, Veronica will talk to you and double down on her decision to help the Brotherhood, brushing off the fight as an uncommon - but not unheard of - incident. Veronica will get the Bonds of Steel perk which increases her DT.

Causeless Rebel¶

If you convinced Veronica to join the Followers, leave the bunker to get some fresh air. Once outside you’ll be confronted by four Brotherhood of Steel Paladins. Succeed at a [Speech 95] check to get them to go away or tell them Veronica is leaving and they’ll let you go, albeit with parting threats. After the exchange Veronica will decide that the hostility of the Brotherhood is a good sign that she should be parting ways with the cult, then she’ll ask you to take her to the Followers Outpost to the north-east, just south-west of Camp Golf.

Make your way there and enter the elevated structure. Once inside talk to Doctor Alvarez, who is interested in Veronica’s potential, but sadly, she doesn’t have the authority to induct new members. Yep. Even in New Vegas you’ll get the “you have to come back tomorrow” treatment. Head outside and rest for twenty four hours, then return inside to find out that somebody else paid the Followers a visit in your absence. Talk to the Paladins in the next room, and this time there’s no way to wiggle out of a confrontation. This fight is a little easier than the alternative outside of the bunker, because at least you have a wall you can retreat behind, but the same tactics are still suggested; pop some Med-X and Psycho, then poke them in the head with the Finger of God. Once they’re dead, a guilty Veronica will bemoan her actions, after which she’ll gain the Causeless Rebel perk, which will make her attack faster with Unarmed weapons.