Assuming you have Tale of Two Wastelands installed, and the Quick Start mods enabled, you find yourself in a cave. Walk forward and interact with the door to trigger some character creation options. When you're done, go thorugh the door and choose "Memory." The New Vegas intro cinematic plays, then you find yourself talking to a bald man.
Go through the character creation options again, and follow Doc Mitchell's instructions. After you use the Vigor Testor, if you have Cheat Terminal installed, ignore the computer on the wall for now and instead follow the Doc. When you're done conversing, ignore him and loot the place to your heart's content. A Repair of 25 will allow you to repair a broken gun, and a Science of 25 will get you some goodies from the science lab. When you're ready, talk to the Doc to receive your starting items. A Medicine of 30 will get you an extra 3 Stimpaks, and then follow that up with a Speech of 30 for 2 more.
Spend some time in the options menus. Keep careful track of your keybindings. Press ESC and go thorugh the vanilla game's settings, then the Tweaks. Press N for some UI settings, then M for the Mod Configuration Menu settings. Save the game, then exit and restart to apply many of those settings.
Exit Doc Mitchell's house and talk to the blue robot, who should be wheeling around down the slope right in front of you. There are four main factions in New Vegas: the NCR, the Legion, Yes Man, and Mr. House. You won't meet the last two until the end of the game, and maybe not even then. You'll deal with the first two factions throughout the entire game. Victor belongs to Mr. House, but you should feel in no way indebted to him, considering your headwound and all.
Follow the tutorial quest to the Saloon and talk to Sunny. Ask her about work, and she'll give you some goodies and and unmarked side quest, which you'll do later. Observe the exchange between a man in blue and the bar's owner. Talk to the man before he runs out, and a Speech of 20 will grant you an extra dialog choice. Follow Sunny out back, then help her kill some Geckos.
When she turns you loose to find some herbs, start at the schoolhouse. Go inside and use her goodies to open the safe, thus completing your first sidequest.
Head up the hill to find the other herb. Pick up the Shovel and just keep it in your inventory; this allows you to loot graves. Unlike previous games, there is no negative consequence to doing so. Pick up the Snow Globe collectible. There are 7 total in the vanilla game, and you'll hold on to them until near the end.
Return to Sunny to finish the tutorial. A man named Barton Thorn should run up to you and ask for help. Find a path to the south and kill the geckos as you go. Disarm the bear traps on the way to the chair, then loot something. As you go back down the path, Barton will talk to you, then attack you.
Head back into town and loot everything in every building that's not in red. Stealing decreases your Karma with friendly factions, and this walkthrough assumes you want to be a good person. Pay attention to Sunset Sasparilla. Drink it as soon as you loot it, and you will sometimes get a Star Cap. When you have 50, a side quest will become available. At some point, while exporing the wilderness, a man will run up to you and steal your attention, then tell you all about these special caps.
With Repair 20, in the Saloon, talk to Trudy and offer to fix her radio. You can hear it, but it's actually broken. With a Barter Skill of 20, you can ask for more money.
Ask people for work, and you'll learn about a man named Ringo who's hiding in the gas station. Optionally learn the card game Caravan from him, but I won't cover it because I see it as a waste of time. The "good" solution is to agree to help him. With Science 25, talk to Victor both before and after speaking with Trudy. You'll need some Skills of at least 25 (Sneak or Speech for Trudy, Barter for Chet, and Explosives for Pete, Medicine 30 for Doc), for many of the options, but you don't really need the help. Do help defend the town. If you have Dynamite, ensure it's equipped, then run to the entrance of town and throw it at the attackers.
Get your rewards from the townsfolk, then loot a Powder Ganger outfit, but don't equip it yet.
Explore the world. Hit up the nearby points of interest, but don't go north of the Graveyard or the Yangtzee Memorial, and stay west of the mountains. Follow the highway south. When you come to the big prison, the NCR Correctional Facility, don your Powder Ganger outfit and head in the main gate. Pay the doorman his 100 caps, then go through the building to the courtyard.
Go in the building to the south, then up the stairs and talk to Eddie, who's sitting behind a desk. Take his quest and do the first two steps. When talking to Chavez, Speech 30 will get him to leave peacefully. For the second task, Speech 30 will also resolve the situation peacefully. The third step will take you to Primm. You should remove your Powder Ganger disguise when you're clear of the prison.
Instead of going into town, stay west of the road and talk to the NCR leader. Tell him you'll clear out the town. Enter the Vicky and Vance building. Interact with the empty display cases in the middle, then with Science 50, convince the robot that they're empty. Talk to the Nashes. Rescue the Deputy and clear out the rest of the upper floors. To get his help, you'll need Speech 40. There are some Lockpick 75 locks in the hotel. Return to the Nashes and ask Mr about the main quest, once he's back in his Mojave Express office.
Your options for a new Sheriff are 1) return to the NCRCF visitor center and get the guy in the cowboy hat, Meyers (Speech 30), 2) reprogram the robot in the museum (Science 30 or parts), 3) ask the NCR across the road. If you do the last, it'll be awhile before you can finish this quest.
Continue south, exploring as you go, but do not approach the Canyon Wreckage, as that will start a DLC quest. You will hold off on doing any DLC until near the end of the game, or you can wait until after the end credits, as TTW gives you that option.
At the Mojave Outpost are two buildings. In the western one, ask the clerk for help with Prim (Barter 20), assuming you want them to take over. Find Ranger Jackson and take his quest.
In the other building, talk to the woman who's drinking at the bar - Cass - until she gives you a quest, which you'll hold on to for a long time. Eventually, she'll be a companion. On the roof of this building is Ghost, and you should take her quest.
If you chose to install NCR as the new law in Primm, return and inform Hayes at the Prim's NCR camp. Talk to Mr. Nash about main quest stuff. Repair the eyebot with Repair 65, or Science 55, or the proper parts. It becomes your first Companion: ED-E (more on its companion quest later). With Speech 30 or Barter 30, ask Mr. Nash about plans to attack the NCRCF, then tell Hayes you want to help. Meet your NCR contact, then wipe out the Powder Gangers.
On your way to Nipon, again stay west of the hills, and feel free to explore to the south, but avoid the Mojave Drive-In, as that will start another DLC that you don't want to do yet.
As you approach Nipton on the road from the west, two people will be shooting at each other. The winner will run up to you and steal your attention. You should be suspicious. With Speech 50 or the Terrifying Presence Perk, you can get the 7 Star Bottlecaps, or feel free to kill this person and loot the Star Caps.
As you enter the town itself, a crazed Powder Ganger will grab your attention. Learn what you can from him, then feel free to kill him or not.
Go in the first building on the left and talk to Boxcars. Do NOT give him any Med-X, or even mention that you will. Doing so messes up a side quest later.
Back outside, walk past the crucifixes and approach the men in pseudo-Roman garb. Their leader will talk to you. Agree to spread word of his atrocities as he requested. No matter what your other responses are, he and his men will walk away. If you're feeling up to it, save, then kill them all. You may want to start near a small home, then duck inside for a momentary respite when things get tense. They'll follow you in, but you should have a few seconds to heal and take up position to pick them off.
Loot the town. The town hall building has a closet that requires Lockpick 50. Return to Mojave Outpost. Turn in "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" to Ghost, and "Cold, Cold Heart" to the man outside wandering around the statues.
Put your explorations on hold. Return to Nipton, then follow the road east and north.
Go in the home with the brahmin outside and agree to help the rancher. Crouch in his pen and Wait until just before midnight. Look west for a shimmering cloaked figure, then break cover and kill it. Loot it, then talk to the rancher for your reward.
Enter the big dinosaur and head up the stairs to the sniper nest. Assuming it's still night time, talk to Boone and agree to help him avenge his wife. Still at night, go in the Motel lobby and loot a note from the safe (Lockpick 25). The culprit is the proprietress, and her home is kitty-corner west of the Motel. Ask her to follow you. Put on Boone's Beret, then follow her until she dies. Return to Boone and ask him to join your party. Assuming you have JIP CC&C installed and active, this mod allows you to have all of the Companions at once, and I will indeed assume you do.
Back outside, go in the cabin with all the NCR stuff on it. With Speech 30, Ranger Andy will teach you a new unarmed technique. Talk to him again, and agree to check on his friends.
In one of the Motel's upper rooms is a singer. Tell him you'll let him know if you can find work for him.
One of the downstairs rooms is Manny's. If he's not there, he'll be up in the Dinosaur. Ask him about Benny, then agree to deal with the town's ghoul problem. Follow the road west and enter the big building. Agree to the demands of the voice on the intercomm. Feel free to clear this building out first. There is one safe that requires Lockpick 50.
Once you meet the man behind the voice, he won't acknowledge that he's actually human, no matter what. At least not yet. The quickest solution is to just kill everyone, then return to Manny.
But if you want more rewards, feel free. When looking for fuel, Barter 30 will get you a discount from Cliff in the Novac Gift Shop. You'll have an opportunity before the end to convince the engineer that his isn't a ghoul (Speech 50 or Black Widow Perk), and then you can encourage or discourage his idea to sabotage the project. Alternatively, with Science 55, you can use the Launch Controls to to sabotage or improve the rockets' trajectory.
Back in Novac, with the motel's proprietress dead, Cliff should give you the key to your very own room.
Make a little side trip just north of Novac to the Gibson Scrapyard. Introduce yourself to Old Lady Gibson in order to trigger ED-E's first hidden recording. The second will occur after 73 hours, and then when you find another trigger point. To get the last part of the quest, wait 48 hours more.
From Nelson, follow the road south until you meet a frightened NCR soldier. Agree to find his friends. Barter 45 will get you some extra Caps. Continue down the road and enter the cave. Kill all the enemies and free the men, then return to the NCR soldier. If you can't find the Key to their cages, you'll need Lockpick 50.
From the Cave, go south and discover Ranger Station Echo. In the depression south of that is an Abandoned BoS Bunker - don't go in that, as it'll start a DLC. Instead, continue south until you discover Cottonwood Cove. Just get close enough to unlock it, then go west.
When you find the radiated town of Searchlight, skirt around it and find the NCR soldier patrolling along the north and west sides of town. Agree to help him. There are 10 dogtags you need to collect. Start with the 9 outside and ignore the quest marker on the house. Near each pair of turrets is a Terminal you can hack with Science 100 to bring the guns online. Turn in the 9 tags you've found so far, then go after the 10th.
The last tag belongs to a non-feral ghoul in a house. First, ask him what he's afraid of, then agree to kill the radscorpions for him. When that's done, convince him that the NCR accepts ghouls.
Talk to the man in charge in Searchlight and tell him about Cottonwood. Agree to his quest. Return to Cottonwood Cove. As you go down the road, free the crucified man in biker gang clothes, being sure you're not wearing any NCR gear when you do. He'll thank you later. Wipe out the settlement the conventional way. (At the Overlook, you can let out some radioactive barrels, but this fails a nearby quest.) When the dust settles, plant the bug and get the evidence.
You should have looted a Key from someone, or you can Lockpick 75 the cage gate to free the slaves for a quick side quest (you'll meet them later). Instead of giving them the Key, you can also use Explosives 50 to disarm each of their bomb collars. If you convince them to leave before they disarm their collars, they will explode.
Turn in your quest at Searchlight. In the basement of the church, talk to Logan and agree to help him. Use Science 50 on the terminal, then talk to him again. The entance to the Hidden Supply Cave north of Nipton requires Lockpick 50. When Logan asks you to loot a building, you only need items with "NCR" in the label, but I've found it requires looting everything not nailed down.
After Logan's quest, feel free to explore all of the other points of interest to the south. The Sniper's Nest has a footlocker that needs Lockpick 100.
From Nelson, go north to Camp Forlorn Hope. Pick up and do the quests here. There are two unmarked repeatable quests that you should start: one for collecting Legion Ears and another for NCR Dogtags. The NPCs who start those tasks will give you Caps for every item you turn in.
Go in the main tent and speak with the colonel? to start his meta quest. "Medical Mystery" requires Medicine 50 and Speech 60. Helping the patients requires Medicine 75 or several items, only most of which should be lootable in the MASH tent. The radio operator starts "Return to Sender," but it'll be a long time before you can complete that. For now, just give the codes to the camps you've visited already.
"Restoring Hope" will eventually take you to Helios One, which has the quest "That Lucky Old Sun." Speech 30 will get you in the front door. You'll need Repair 89, Science 75, and Lockpick 50. If you can, loot the broken solar panels outside for a later quest. The best outcome is to distribute power evenly. Initially a computer will say that brown-outs are likely, but you'll fix that at the end.
On your way north from Camp Forlorn Hope, take the side path to Hoover Dam. Inside the visitor center, loot the Snow Globe on the reception desk.
Make your main quest active and follow it to Boulder city. As you enter the ruins, an NCR soldier, Lt. Monroe, stops you and gives you a side quest. With a Speech of 45, the best outcome is to convince the Khans to leave peacefully. Just be sure you're not wearing any NCR clothing, otherwise they'll just shoot you. You'll also have to convince Lt. Monroe that peace is the right solution, or you can also bribe him with Barter 45.
In the train station, a safe requires Science 50 or Lockpick 75.
If you shoot the memorial, it'll take a Speech of 30 to calm Private Kowalski.
From Boulder City, go north and slighty west to Camp Golf. Inisde the main tent, take the Seargent's quest to help get his soldiers into shape. The best outcome is Mags's idea, for which you'll need Speech 50, Guns 45, Explosives 45, and Science 75.
In the main bulding, on the ground floor, go down the hallway behind the reception desk and unlock the terminal in the office to the right for one of the Lucky 38 overrides. In the office across from that, loot a security key.
Due south of Camp Golf is the 188 Trading Post. A boy under the overpass can tell some fortunes if you really want to pay him for that. Alexander will only trade with you if you have Guns 40. Upstairs is Veronica, another Companion. Her quest comes later.
In Vault 11, loot the Differential Pressure Controller. You'll need Lockpick 75, Science 50, Repair 22, and Explosives 30.
Explore the area, then continue northwest to Repconn HQ. Upstairs, loot a holotag from some dead BoS scouts. to fully loot the place, you'll need Lockpick 100, Repair 65, Science 100, Speech 60, Luck 7 and Intelligence 7.
From Repconn HQ, follow the road southwest, then south, until "Crazy, Crazy, Crazy" starts. Approach the shack, then agree to the intelligent Super Mutant's plan. Speech 50 gets you Neil's assistance. Kill your way along the road to the top of the mountain. Once there, with Speech 75, agree to Neil's 2nd phase, then run your companions as far away as possible so they don't shoot the fleeing Nightkin. Or just stand there and shoot them anyway; Neil doesn't care either way.
Go in the middle building and use Science 60 on the inert Mr Handy. Once outside, Tabitha will thank you and leave, completing the quest.
In the other small building is Raul, a Companion. If you don't have Science 100, the password is on the other terminal. His sidequest is unmarked, and he'll just have a few converstions with you during your travels: Loyal at Nellis, Cpl Sterling at Camp McCarran, and Ranger Andy in Novac. Do the last one now. The best outcome is to convince him that he's not useless, and that he should hang up his gun.
From the top of Black Mountain, go down and southeast to explore Black Rock Cave. There should be a radioactive crater nearby where you should loot a holotag from a dead BoS scout. After that, west southwest to Hidden Valley.
Find the bunker where the BoS hide out, and Veronica will talk her way in. Or Lockpick 100 will get you in. Take the Elder's quest, then leave. As you leave, a Paladin will ask you to help him take over. Refuse. It will be awhile before you can finish up here.
Exit the valley to the northwest and enter Sloan. The mayor will ask for your help wiping out some deathclaws. Before you leave, talk to the molerat and heal it with Medicine 30, then Repair the Generator. Tell the mayor that you did both. Go in the diner and agree to the cook's request for some Deathclaw Eggs.
Exit town and follow the road north, then enter the Quarry and kill all of the deathclaws. Loot some trash/crafting item Eggs and some quest item Eggs from the nest at the west end, then head up the hills to the west. Make sure you're not wearing any NCR gear, and optionally don some Great Khan gear, then enter their Encampment. Agree to help Mellissa, then take a few steps forward to ensure that you've unlocked the fast-travel point.
Back in Sloan, search the big bulding upstairs and loot something from the suitcase, then confront the Mayor. Go to the NCR camp at Prim to get the supplies from Tyrone (Strength 7, Speech 40, Barter 35, or Black Widow Perk), then give them to Melissa.
From Melissa's camp, head northwest. Once in the canyon, go up the upper path into the big building on the right. If it's night, wait until after 10am, when there are three men behind the long table. Talk to the two on the ends first, then Papa Khan in the middle. Ask him to ditch the Legion, even though he won't.
When you exit the building, Regis will give you a quest. Talk to the people he tells you to. At the end of the north branch of the Canyon, talk to Jack first with Speech 66. Give him whatever recpies you know (Survival 75 and Science 50), then ask him to leave the Legion (Speech 60). Tell the same thing to Diane (Speech 60), and take her quest, which you'll do later. With Speech 60, you can convince one or both of them to switch to selling medicinal supplies.
Back in the main lodge, go in the room to the back left and close the door, then crouch to go Hidden. Loot the document, then go talk to Papa Khan and convince him to leave the Legion. Or Speech 75 should work. The best outcome for this gang is to go independent.
Stay on the lower path as you enter the Canyon. If Jerry the Punk isn't in front of the training ring, he'll be in the first open tent above and behind. With Speech 33, tell him you'll ask the Followers if he can join. It'll be awhile before you get around to it, though.
Go north and enter Vault 19. You may want to wear some Powder Ganger clothing. Find the two overseers. Lem's idea has the better outcome. Convince him to join the Great Khans.
Before entering Vault 3 itself, be sure you have one Doctor's Bag, then put on a Great Khan disguise if you have one. The Fiends outside will attack you, but should allow free passage inside Vault 3. You'll need Speech 64 to talk down the guard at the door, and to keep the Fiends friendly. Follow the quest maker down to Motor Runner and give him the drugs that Diane sent you there with. You can sell him more drugs with Barter 65. Speech 25 gets you some extra dialog.
Once the quest updates, remove your disguise and kill everyone in there, being sure to loot Motor Runner's Head and the Reverse Pulse Cleaner. You should rescue Ranger Anders on your way out, and Speech 75 will get him to follow and help fight your way out. The other skills you'll need are: Repair 22, Explosives 30, Medicine 35, Lockpick 75, and Science 75.
Return to Diane to get the next part of her quest. She'll lament the death of the gang leader, but will give you your next task anyway, which you'll hold on to for awhile.
There are tons of quests here. One dude outside wants three of the heads of the leaders of the Fiends gang. If Dhatri isn't around, you can spawn him in front of you with the console command player.placeatme 000f56f8.
Also outside, find a sniper team for "I Don't Hurt No More," and Medicine 30 or Speech 60 will complete the quest. Talk to Corporal Sterling with Raul in your party, then afterwards you'll have a short conversation with your companion.
Inside on the lower level, get Doctor Hildern's quest. Speech 40 gets you double the pay, and his assistant will give you an optional objective on your way out.
Hand in Motor Runner's Head to Colonel Hsu, then ask him for work. Talk to Boyd upstairs, who's interrogating a prisoner. Once you get the information you need, ask her for more work.
For the unmarked break-in quest "Dealing with Contreras," Science 50 is necessary to hack the terminal in the supply shack. The quickest reward is to just take the evidence back to Boyd.
For the spy quest, "I Put a Spell on You," go out to the ramp with the airplanes and search the computer at the base of the tower, then wait out of sight until 0055 or 0250. Follow the man into the tower, then listen to his conversation until the quest updates. Go immediately to the monorail to diarm the bomb. Talking to Hsu first makes you too late.
Inside the terminal gate area, the food quests given by the chef are unmarked. To fix the food machine, you need Repair 80 or a bunch of parts. There's also an unmarked quest given by a woman in the hallway, sitting on a bench.
For "The White Wash," you'll need Intelligence 6, Speech 80, and Barter 50, but you'll deal with the quest later.
Once your reputation is high enough, Hsu will give you a key to their safehouse, inside which you'll find all the NCR Ranger gear. It looks cool, but dressing in an NCR "disguise" messes up quests.
North of the South Vegas Ruins is the Sunset Sasparilla HQ, but you don't have enough Star Caps do do anthing in there yet. Come back later when you do, and you have Lockpick 100. Give the caps to the animatronic dude in the lobby, which fails the quest but starts another, which leads to a room with a lot of loot.
Go in the Manhole to the north and enter The Thorn. The woman on the scaffolding overlooking the arena gives the side quest "Bleed Me Dry," which invovles a lot of travel. To increase your caps rewards, you'll need Barter 90. After completing it, she'll have sex with you, regardless of your gender.
Along the northern edge of Vegas is the H&H Tools Factory. Loot the Lucky 38 VIP Keycard in here. You'll need Lockpick 75.
Nearby, go in Anthony's house office and use a terminal inside for the 3rd and final Lucky 38 Override.
In a house west of H&H, find the robbers of the Vicky and Vance casino. Get the items back from them either peacefully (Speech 55) or through violence (Lockpick 100), then return Vance's Gun to Prim.
Enter Westside and talk to a man hanging out around near the playground to do "Someone to Watch Over Me."
Continue west and deal with Vault 22. The best outcome is to convince Keely to save the Data. A copy can be used by Veronica for her companion quest. Be sure to loot the HEPA 20 Cartridge Filters in a blocked-off section of Level 2 -Oxygen Recycling. Getting there involves going through the caves on Level 5 or 3. Look for the wooden door back into Level 2.
There is also the Food Additive, which the cook at McCarran wants, though a bug prevents you from actually giving it to him. It's on Level 3 on a desk with some spores growing out of it.
Return to McCarran to let Hildern's assistant know that Keely is safe, and to complete the quest.
From Vault 22, go north, then follow the small road up into the mountains. The Brewer's Beer Bootlegging has some loot.
Stop by Ranger Station Foxtrot to hand the new codes to the radio operator. You can also take care of "Lenk's Bad Debts" with Speech 30.
Continue up the road to the Jacobstown Lodge. Ask Marcus for work. Inside, loot the Snow Globe on the reception desk. Help the scientists inside with their research. Outside, talk to the super mutant with the yellow hat. This is Lily, a Companion. There are two triggers for her companion quest that are easy to miss. Just talk to her periodically to see if she has any new dialog options. Her best ending is to convince her to keep taking her medication.
The best outcome here is to cure the Nightkin. There's a door in the cave that needs Lockpick 75. If you choose to peacefully resolve the confrontation with Keene, you'll need Speech 80.
On your second visit to the super mutant town, some mercenaries will try to attack. You can convince them to leave peacefully with Speech 65, or just kill them. No consequences either way.
Go around the north end of the city and enter Freeside North Gate. The adobe building on the left is the Old Mormon Fort. You may have a quest to hand in here. You'll meet the family you rescued from Cottonwood cove. Talk to the leader, who is a woman in a doctor's frock with spiky punk hair. "High Times" requires Speech 50, and Science 50.
Arcade Gannon is a Companion, if you have Confirmed Bachelor or Speech 75. His side quest has you visiting several points of interest all around the wasteland, and then will trigger later. Have him in your party when travelling to the Crashed Vertibird in the far south and the Repconn HQ. Talk to Hildern in McCarran and take him along during "The White Wash." The quest "For Auld Lang Syne" won't actually trigger until you're deep into one of the faction quests at the end.
If you visit Mick & Ralph's, Speech 50 will get you Ralph's passport to the Strip, and access to Mick's special items.
Exit the area south and ignore the entrance to the Strip, which is a long walk anyway. Pick up the two quests in the Atomic Wrangler and do those. "Debt Collector" requires Barter 40, and Speech 60. Lady Jane will also tell you where here stash of Caps is. "Wang Dang Atomic Tango" requies Speech 50, Barter 40, Science 60, and Lockpick 50. You may want to visit Ralph to get a special programming disk.
Do the King's quests, but don't ask for a favor or use it. "GI Blues" requires Medicine 30 or Intelligence 6, and Speech 60. Barter 50 will get you more Caps from Orris. Get the robodog Rex as a Companion. If you want the junkyard dog brain, you'll need either Barter 70, or Speech 50, or the Lady Killer Perk. Talk to Rex with the Animal Friend Perk to get his unmarked side quest "Jimmy's Well," which then spawns next to Fields' Shack.
At the Van Graff's, leave your companions outside - especially Cass - and do their quest, "Birds of a Feather." You'll need Speech 75. Stop when they ask you to kill Cass. Or you can also advance the quest by using the following console commands in order: SetObjectiveCompleted VMS29a 40 1, SetObjectiveCompleted VMS29a 46 1, and SetObjectiveDisplayed VMS29a 49 1. This allows you to complete it successfully.
Leave Freeside via the north gate and enter the Crimson Caravan compound. Ask Alice for work. This will put Cass's quest on hold until you do a couple of quests. "You Can Depend on Me" requires Speech 50 and Barter 50.
When you're able, get Cass to sell out to Alice, and have Cass Join as a Companion. Finish her companion quest with Speech 75, Barter 75, Lockpick 75, Science 75.
South of Crimon Caravan, go in the Sharecropper Farms and get the quest "Hard Luck Blues" from the lady outside. You'll be taken to the East Pump Station where you'll learn the next stage of the quest from a computer with Science 50. As you exit, you'll have to kill some cazed civilians.
In Vault 34, you'll need Lockpick 50 to loot the safe in the medical bay. There is a footlocker that needs Lockpick 100 to get the Pulse gun. To drain the flooded area requires Science 100, as well as unlocking the Overseer's Quarter. When you find the pump computer, it will open a door to the reactor. Use the Reactor Computer to choose whether to vent the radiation and save the vault dwellers, or shut it down and provide water to the farms. Even if you do save the farms, NPCs will continue to lament the lack of water.
South of the Sharecropper Farms is Aerotech. Find the NCR soldier in charge and take his two quests. "The Coyotes" takes you to Westide, and requires Barter 50 and Lockpick 50. The unmarked one has you find Keith. You can loot his Marked Cards from a room in the back for no Karma loss, then talk to him with Barter 45 and Speech 60 to learn about his racket and drug selling. Return to the NCR soldier to turn him in, and the NCR guy will kill Keith.
In a tent, talk to Frank Weathers. All of his dialog options require Speech 35, and the outcome of each should be obvious.
Assuming you don't want to side with the Legion, by now, you should be strong enough and have enough companions to wipe out The Fort. Just head there and refuse to disarm when the guard asks you to. Kill everyone inside. Doing so should trigger Boone's companion quest.
From Vault 34 head east. Enter Bitter Springs. Do Boone's companion quest, assuming it's available.
Do the quests in the camp. For the supplies, you'll need Lockpick 25 to get inside the locked gate in the cave. Be sure you're not wearing any NCR armor, and that Boone is not in your party when you approach Oscar, then Speech 50 will convince him to leave peacefully. When you turn in the Supply Cache, Science 25 is needed to avoid loosing Karma.
Ranger Station Bravo, to the east, needs new radio codes for "Return to Sender." Assuming that quest takes you back to Forlorn Hope, your next stop is Camp Golf to confront the culprit. If you alredy killed Caesar, you can convince him to just stop. Otherwise, the best thing you can do is to convince him to turn himself in.
From Bitter Springs go south. The path up to Camp Guardian is tricky, but when it loops around to the south side again, look up to the right. Clear the cave and help the wounded NCR soldier inside. You'll need Medicine 50 or a Doctor's Bag to patch him up, then Speech 50 to get him to help you clear the caves.
Leave Las Vegas along the road to the northeast past Fields' Shack. A man will stop you and make a wager that you'll be able to get in to the base alive. Speech 60 helps, and Barter 40 increases your bet. Once the shooting starts, just hug the left edge of the ruins and run to the fence, then follow it east to the entrance. You'll be teleported to the leader.
Agree to help. Do the unmarked side content first. During the day, some mini boomers are in the school house, while others are playing outside. Lucy's bear is missing, and you'll find it among some crates in the first hangar. Listen to the museum kid's story, then ask him all the questions you can. Loot the Snow Globe in the museum. With Medicine 60, you can treat all the patients in the medical quonset hut. For more boomer fame while talking to folks, you'll want Sceince 35, Explosives 40, Survial 40, Speech 55, and Repair 40.
Find Loyal and Luke and get their quests. Start with "Young Hearts," which requires either Speech 35 or Black Widow / Confirmed Bachelor. You'll need Speech 75 or Barter 65. After speaking with Loyal about everything, Raul will have his third and final conversation; his best outcome is the peacefull one. Changing his mind requires Speech 66.
Do the other quests while you wait for the girl to make her way to the base. For "Ant Misbehavin'," you can get the Sonic Emitter with Science 50 or Speech 50. During "Sunshine Boogie," on the roof, you can use all of the panels you salvaged earlier from Helios One, or Repair 65 on each of the broken panels.
Don't turn in "Volare!" untill all of the side quests are done. Then you can raise the B-29.
One of the missing BoS patrols is in a crater at the entrance to the base. Loot the holotag.
Once that's done in favor of McNamara, you can deal with Veronica's companion quest. As you exit the bunker, you'll need Speech 95 to talk down the paladins, otherwise you have to kill them. If you told Veronica to leave, once at the Follower's outpost, there is no possible peacefull solution.
Finish off the side quests in here. Talk to the quartermaster to start the unmarked quest to find the Lost Laser Pistol.
Enter The Strip. Finally. You can get past the securitron with Mick's passport, or 2000 caps, or Science 80. Inside, Victor will snatch your attention and insist you go inside the Lucky 38 to speak with Mr. House. Hold off for a minute.
To avoid a bug, before you do anthing else, go through the second set of giant gates and find the old lady on a bench at the base of the stairs to the LVB rail station. Talk to her, then convince her husband to not kill anyone.
The first time you try to enter a casino, Mr. Holdout will approach you and offer to sell you a concealed weapon. Speech 50 will get you some extra dialog, but you should take him up on his offer. Just be sure you have enough ammo for whatever gun you buy. Every time you enter a casino, a guard will take all of your weapons, but if you bought a holdout weapon, you can opt to keep it, and no one will notice.
Michael Angelo will send you all around the wasteland to take photos of places you've been. You'll need to equip the camera like a weapon, and some of the signs are tricky to get the quest to recognize that you've photographed it.
In Vault 21, pay to stay the night. In the room next to yours, loot the Snow Globe. Lockpick 50 the door will result in a small loss of Karma, but oh well. With Barter 65, you can sell vault suits to Sarah.
At the Ultra-Luxe, Have Percepton 7, Speech 75, Barter 90, Lockpick 50, Repair 35, Medicine 55, and Survival 75. Leave all of your Companions outside, as they just get in the way. Talk to the man in the cowboy hat at the bar. Be sneaky while learning about cannibalism, and don't ever pick the dialog options that mention it.
Downstairs, get the chef's normal-meat recipe, then Use the Pan on the stove behind him when he leaves. Use the intercomm to call a waiter, then run and Hide in the storeroom in the back until he leaves with the food. Rescue the son, by hacking or lockpicking the door in the pantry just off the kitchen, then Sneak up to the dining hall and remain Hidden until the speech finishes before confronting the majordomo. Return the son to his father, then talk the rancher out of killing everyone there.
In the Gamorra, head straight through to the left and out to the courtyard. With Medicine 50 or Speech 75, follow Joanna to her room. Agree to help her, then optionally sleep with her. Finish her quest with Speech 85 and Barter 85.
Also in the Gamorra, advance "White Wash," which involves talking to a woman in the courtyard.
Do the other quests at the Gamorrah, resulting in you killing those in charge. You'll need Barter 60, Speech 80, Science 60, Lockpick 100, and Medicine 35. When speaking with the weapons guy, tell him you'll take care of the weapons yourself. For the sleezeball upstairs, Lockpick his safe, which is behind one of the desks in his bedroom. You can kill him without anyone noticing, or you can convince him to leave town forever. With a high enough Speech, you can get Cochino to off his bosses himself - just pick that dialog option when it presents itself.
Enter the Tops, but steer well clear of the man in the checkered suit for now. Instead, go up the stairs to the theater and do the side quest "Talent Pool." You'll need Barter 50 and Speech 50.
Go ahead and enter the Lucky 38 with Speech 50 and Medicine 35. After speaking with Mr. House, go to the Lounge level and find the Snow Globe behind a grey cash register. That should be all of them. Go back up to the Penthouse to sell them to Jane the Securitron. You can now see them on a shelf in your Executive Suite. Return after finding the DLC snowglobes to see them here.
As you exit the Lucky 38, a Follower should give you a quest, which might be bugged. You can just lie to her to complete it, or if you haven't already done so, you can go to the three computers around New Vegas to engage the overrides, then bug the computer in the Lucky 38, which is on the Casino Level.
With Tale of Two Wastelands installed, the DLCs can be done after the base game.
Go to The Strip. Enter the Tops and talk to Benny. If you're female, you can optionally get him to sleep with you first. As a male, you can convince him to ditch his body guards while you follow him to his suite upstairs. Either way allows you to follow him to his room and kill him silently without causing the whole casino to attack you. Loot the Platinum Chip from his corpse. Or, if you decide to side with him, hear him out.
As you exit the Tops, representatives from the Legion and NCR will approach you and request you speak to their leader, and your reputation with the major factions will reset. If you do kill Benny, you can still side with Yes Man by following that questline. Make a hard save, then decide who you want to finish the game with. Giving the Platinum Chip to someone will lock out and fail the questlines for the other three factions.
Even if you kill Mr. House, you'll still have access to your Suite in the Lucky 38.
After a couple of faction quests, Arcade will start his side quest, assuming you've taken him to several places and triggered dialog at each. Solving the crises at the end requires Speech 80. When it does start, you should finish it before advancing the main faction quest.
Go north from H&H Tools and enter the Northern Passage. If you have any companions, you will have to dismiss them and go solo.
Upon arrival, a fight will break out. Continue along the path, and Follows-Chalk will join your party uninvited. Ask him about the local wildlife and do his side quest "Bighorners of the Eastern Virgin." Pick up three Sacred Datura Roots, as you travel. You'll eventually need 3 for a side quest. They are low plants with white flowers. Pick up at least 3 Banana Yucca Fruit plants you find along the way, and don't kill any bighorners.Go ahead and discover the Dead Horses Camp, then continue past it up into the cliffs.
Now follow the main quest. During "Tourist Trap," the Snow Globe is at the bottom of the cabinet behind the register. Upon completing the quest, talk to Follows-Chalk for another side quest. He ends best by telling him to stay with his tribe.
On your way up The Narrows, Waking Cloud will grab your attention. Ask her about her glove for a side quest. Do "Rite of Passage." You should already have the 3 Sacred Datura Roots. Don't steal from the Sorrows' camp, as it'll fail all of their quests and turn them hostile, even if you remain Hidden and use a Stealth Boy.
Talk to Daniel to hand him the supplies. If you ask him for medical treatment, then about medical supplies, you can pass a Skill check to get him to trade with you. After speaking with Daniel, Follows-Chalk will leave your side, and Waking Cloud will offer to take his place. Accept her company, then ask her about her family for the side quest "A Family Affair." After getting Daniel's side of the story, her best ending is to tell Waking Cloud the truth.
You won't be able to fast travel for a bit, because on your way out of the canyon, Joshua will approach and talk to you. There's no consequence to this conversation, but the best outcome later will be to side with Daniel.
Next, is "The Grand Staircase," where you should choose to respect Waking Cloud's beliefs. (You can learn who their 'Father' is by searching a bunch of caves and reading all of the terminal entires.) Waking Cloud advises Sneaking for the next two quests. For "The Advance Scouts," you can Sneak into camp to steal the two War Totems, and also for "The Treacherous Road" to disarm all the bear traps, though the White Legs should be far enough away that you can ignore them.
After "River Monsters," "Gathering Storms" triggers. When you return to Daniel, Waking Cloud leaves, and you'll be given a choice of how to proceed. The better ending is to side with Daniel. Joshua joins your party anyway, and you should do the three optional quests. For "Sanctity of the Dead," you can talk to the one Sorrows warrior off to the side and convince him to not attack. As you approach the tunnel, Salt-Upon-Wounds will stop you. The fate of the White Legs is the same no matter what you decide.
Once you report in to Daniel, you'll recieve instructions to detonate the explosives. Press the key or mouse button like you would to bring up a weapon, then left-click to start the ending slides. Afterwards, you'll be facing a locker with some loot in it. This is your last chance to look around the valley. Optionally make "Departing Paradise" your active quest and go through the cave behind the locker to complete this DLC.
Go south from Ranger Station Echo and enter the Abandoned BoS Bunker. All of your posessions will be placed in a locker, and you'll start this DLC in your underwear. Companions from the base game cannot come with you, nor can compansions from this DLC leave with you.
Use the provided Hologun to kill stuff. Pick up casino chips and trade them in at vending machines for better stuff. Be on the lookout for holotapes which will unlock more stuff to buy. Shoot anything with a speaker in it: ham radios, radios, and those silver speakers on the walls (the ones with blue lights - the red light ones can't be destroyed). Even with JW CC&C, you can't have more than one companion at a time.
Make Collar 8 your active quest. When freeing Dog/God, it doesn't matter if you switch his personality. Just get him out of his cages -the literal and psychological. Leave him at the fountain.
For Collar 12, before you open the autodoc, you'll want to ensure that you have subtitles on, because Christine is mute for most of the DLC. Changing subtitle status in the middle of conversation doesn't work.
Collar 14 is Dean Domino. Be nice to him when you meet him, and throughout the DLC.
Getting the three companions into position can be done in any order, and is quite straight forward.
The Snow Globe: During "Trigger the Gala Event," you'll head through a door in the eaastern part of the map to the bell tower portion. Go down the stairs to street level, then follow the only path until you get to some stairs. Go up and on to the eaves, then double back and follow around to a hole in the wall, just above where you entered. The Snow Globe is on some crates in that room.
During "Put the Beast Down," there is a Speech check to merge the personalities, regardless of whether you favored one previously. Doing so makes him unavailable, but you don't need him.
When you reuinite with Christine, she'll have her voice back, so you can turn subtitles back off again. Talk her down from personally killing Elijah.
You'll have to initially trap yourself in the vault. Don't read the personal account entry on the terminal. The vault unlocks after speaking to Elijah on the screen. You can kill him outright, or you can sneak out of the vault to the left, then continue up and around back to where Elijah emerged from the elevator - don't go right towards it, because Elijah will detect you through even a Stealth Boy field.
After you finish and exit back to the Mojave, go in the side room and download a note from the terminal. You're supposed to be able to ask Veronica about it later, but I've never gotten that to work.
From Nipton, go due south to the Mojave Drive-in and interact with the crashed satellite. Some weird shit happens. Follow the quest marker to a 30-minute conversation. Afterwards, talk to each of the scientists for another 30 minutes of conversation to get their side quests, all under the meta quest "Picking Your Brains." They should autocomplete as you speak with them, with the exception of "A Brain's Best Friend." Also, if you hack Doctor 8, you'll lose Karma, but you'll gain a bunch of stuff. This may be necessary if you want the peaceful ending with them.
Return to the Sink to install the first personality. Make "All My Friends Have Off Switches" your active quest. That and its follow ups, "Influencing People" and "Field Research," will lead you to nearly all of the locations. Be sure to switch active quests occasionally so that you can complete the main quests at the same time.
In Higgs village, you should also pick up Gabe's Bowl after killing the mini death claw by the doghouse.
In X-8, after the first Test, instead of heading back into the main facility, stay in the tunnels and kill the enemies, then loot a holotape and access a terminal to advance the quest. After the Advanced Test, stay and run the last, Residential Test. The dirt pile to the right as you enter should have the item you're looking for. You'll have to kill the giant dog when you loot it. Beware the explosion when it dies.
Also In X-8, grab the Dog and robot splicing experiment holotape, found in the room with the vivisection saws. From the entrance to the building, go left and use the computer in there to splice a robot and a dog. Talk to Roxie to have her follow you, but only in this building. Keep her alive for the best ending, so wait to activate her until you're done with the Tests.
The code for the Hazmat Suit at the Hazmat Testing Ground is located in Z-43 Innovative Toxins Plant.
The Snow Globe is in the X-17 Meteorological Station, on a desk in the control room.
Eventually, "Old World Blues" will trigger, and will lead you into the Forbidden Zone. After you deal with the giant scorpion robot, Make the "Field Research" side quest active and finish it off before continuing to deal with Mobius. The better ending is to kill Mobius. Whatever you decide to do with your own brain is fine.
Before you deal with the Think Tank, be certain you've unlocked every location and completed all of the side quests, because the ending slides will play after you either kill them or make peace. You'll want to turn on the subtitles for the ending slides, because Roxie will bark her ending.
From the California Sunset Drive-in, head up the hill to the northwest and enter the Canyon Wreckage. There is A LOT of talking in this. If you want a summary of Ulysses's history, this YouTube video is good.
Follow the quests until after "The Launch." At that point, you get a message about a new section opening up. Fast travel back to Hopeville and head through. Be prepared for a battle. You will find a couple of collectables here.
When you continue "The Divide," the explosions in the elevator and the silo won't harm you, but you do need to defend against Tunnelers.
When you enter the Maintenance and storage area, look for a side room in which you can respawn ED-E.
The next door is the point of no return. The peaceful ending is to talk Ulysses down and to not launch the misssiles. Don't worry: ED-E transfers its memories to the unit in the Mojave. Launching a missile against either the NCR or Legion has no effect on the final battle at Hoover Dam, assuming you haven't finished the base game already.
last modified 22 April 2026