With that quest done, it’s finally time to turn your attention to Benny. The most direct way to deal with him is to just go in guns blazing, but it’s not a very sophisticated approach, is it? There are many different approaches to this quest, so you may want to read ahead before making any choices.

Swanky Solutions¶

Before you talk to Benny directly, talk to Swank, who is behind the counter at the front of the casino and talk to him about the other casinos, Mr. House, the Legion and the NCR. You can also seduce 100 Caps out of him with [Black Widow] by asking for work.

More importantly, tattle on Benny to Swank and either succeed at a series of Speech checks ([Speech 15], [Speech 30] and [Speech 45]) or show him three pieces of evidence; the Distinctive Cigarettes found at Goodsprings Cemetery, the “Khan Hospitality” note, which can be found on Manny Vargas in Novac or on his terminal in his motel room, and the Engraved Lighter you got from Jessup at Boulder City. Once done, Swank will give you Benny’s Suite Key and encourage you to explore his suite for dirt on Benny (all this does is bypass an [Average] lock). If you say you need to take Benny out now, Swank will offer to give you your weapons back, send Benny to his room, and keep the rest of the Chairmen (save Benny’s inner circle) out of the fight. This will allow you to kill Benny at will with your chosen weaponry and without turning the rest of the Chairmen against you.

If either of these courses of action appeals to you, head to Benny’s Room by going west from the entrance to the casino, pass the stairs that lead up to the cashier’s cage and the Aces Theater and a gambling pit beyond said stairs to find some elevators, one of which will lead to the 13th Floor. On the 13th Floor you’ll find some double doors [Average] to the north, which can be opened with Benny’s Suite Key. If you told Swank that Benny needed to be put down and Swank consequentially sent Benny to his room, he’ll be here, where he’ll try to convince you to talk things out in the Presidential Suite. Failing that, things will end in violence, and you can safely kill Benny and loot him for the Platinum Chip and his gun Maria . If you go to the Presidential Suite, (return to the Casino Floor and head west from the northern gambling pit) Benny will no-show, taunt you over the intercom near the elevator, and send up his goons to try and kill you unless you pass a [Speech 35] and [Speech 50] check. Either kill the thugs and inform Benny his plan failed when he checks in over the intercom, or leave after talking him out of it.

If you sneak into Benny’s room, or you come back to search it after you kill Benny or he tricks you into the Presidential Suite, head through a door the north, then through another door to the east to find a reprogrammed Securitron called Yes Man, who is… very forthcoming with information about Benny, his plan, and what you can do with the Platinum Chip. In fact, the robot was reprogrammed to be helpful to any and everyone! The conversation will be covered more under the heading “Yes Man” , but for now, there are yet more solutions to cover. If you sneaked into Benny’s Room and talked to Yes Man, you can now return back to Swank and tell him what you plan to do. Selecting the violent approach will get Benny sent to his room, and… well, the ways that can play out were covered a few sentences ago. If you tell him you’re going to talk it out, you can proceed with the other options of this quest, but with all your weapons handy, in case words fail.

Confronting Benny¶

If you want to go directly to confront Benny, you can also do that and bypass Swank altogether, or you can get Swank on your side, collect your weapons, search Benny’s Room and talk to Yes Man, report back to Swank and then decide to confront Benny with some advantages; namely, your weapons and the neutrality of the rest of the Chairmen, save Benny’s bodyguards.

In either event, approach Benny and he’ll be quite surprised to see you, to say the least. From here, you have several more options. First, the cleanest, more interesting option is to use [Black Widow] on Benny repeatedly. As smart as Benny is otherwise, he can’t turn down a roll with a girl he shot in the head, which is all kinds of wrongs. Of course, you can always just use this as a ruse to get him in his room where you can kill him or question him, but if you have sex with Benny you can really live up to the name of the perk by killing Benny in his sleep. If you just go to sleep afterwards, however, Benny will have fled when you wake up. In the former case, the Platinum Chip and his gun Maria are yours. Otherwise, it’s just a glorified way to get into Benny’s Suite and scare him off without having to deal with his assassination attempt in the Presidential Suite.

Speaking of that, pick nearly any other option (except for overtly hostile ones, the option should be self-explanatory) and he’ll invite you to the Presidential Suite. Accept his invitation, then either head up to the suite as suggested, pass a [Barter 35] check to get him to pay you for your trouble, or succeed at a [Speech 60] to get him to actually show up at the Presidential Suite, given that he has to drop the bodyguards and go there with you. If you’ve been reading along, you already know how things normally go in the Presidential Suite, so the only course of action that’s of any interest now is if you pass the [Speech 60] check.

In this case, head up to the Presidential Suite, which is west of where Benny hangs out on the Casino Floor and meet him by the bar. After he asks you how you’re alive and how you tracked him down, ask him about the Platinum Chip, the factions in New Vegas, and his schemes. You have two options here, as you exhaust the dialogue options; pick a fight with Benny, send him away (he’ll send his bodyguards up to kill you when he leaves) or try to work with him. In the latter case, you can then either forgive him or agree to work with him… in both cases he’ll reward you by trying to assassinate you.

Yes Man¶

All in all, there are two ways this can end, and many ways to get there. Benny can either die in The Tops or he can flee. The former will happen if you kill him with [Black Widow], sneak into his room (with Swank’s help), kill him on the hotel floor (get Swank’s support unless you want to fight off the entire casino) or pass a [Speech 60] check and lure him into the Presidential Suite to kill him. Alternatively, he can escape from you, which will happen if you seduce him with [Black Widow] and don’t kill him, or otherwise end up with Presidential Suite without passing a [Speech 60] check first. The net outcome doesn’t matter much; it’ll just get you the Platinum Chip a little earlier.

There are some constants, however, and now it’s time to focus on those. First, in almost every path you could have taken, you’ll end up with the room to the Presidential Suite, as most of the ways Benny can run off involve giving you the key to the suite, then running off. If you kill Benny (or his guards) they’ll have the key on them, too. The only way you can really miss this place is by using [Black Widow] to sleep with Benny, then don’t kill him afterwards, but even in this case, you can always pick-pocket one of his guards downstairs to get the key. However you have to do it, get the key and search the Presidential Suite, as you can find a copy of Pugilism Illustrated on a desk in the north-western corner of the room. You can also find plenty of beverages lying about and a well-stocked Wall Safe [Average] along the northern wall.

Finally, you will need to talk to Yes Man at some point, no matter how you went about during Ring-a-Ding-Ding. The overly helpful robot will lay out part of the plot for the rest of the game. Mr. House wants to upgrade his Securitrons to keep New Vegas independent from the NCR and Caesar’s Legion (and under his control). Benny, smart little rat that he is, realized that anybody could control the Securitrons and set themselves up as the overlord of New Vegas, not just Mr. House. That, then is the dividing issue; do you want an independent New Vegas, or not? And in either case, who do you want to take over a subjugated New Vegas, the NCR or Caesar’s Legion? If New Vegas remains free, do you set yourself up as Mr. House’s right-hand man, or do you take the robot army for yourself? The quests Wild Card: Change in Management , Wild Card: You and What Army? and Wild Card: Side Bets will all start and Ring-a-Ding-Ding will have ended. There’s no need to make any decisions on what to do with the “tribes” yet, so ignore it for now. It’s time to report to Mr. House and tell him about how things went down with Benny… and perhaps to make your first serious political moves.