So…spoilers will be not only acceptable but really the only way to answer the questions or discuss the game. If you haven’t played Dead Money but think you will and you don’t want it spoiled then you probably should close the thread at this point.
I’m looking for 'dopers who have completed the Dead Money DLC for Fallout New Vegas. Basically, I just finished the DLC (finally) and I feel like there was a lot I missed. What I want to know is whether it’s worth it for me to go back and try and get into all the rooms that were locked that I never could get into because you were supposed to find a key somewhere. Also, when it was over it said I had only found 3 of 4 parts to the real story (don’t remember exactly what it was called), and 7 of 8 parts to another story line that was part of the story…am I missing anything by not completing those things (besides a few achievements that I never look at in Steam)?
Another thing…when I completed killing Elijah and made it out of the vault section, should I have gone and looked for the other characters to say goodbye…or something? I didn’t, basically just left and got a message about the 3 characters. I assume they were all still there somewhere and that you could talk to them…should I?
Another thing…how did you complete the final quest and get out? Was there an easy way to do that? I didn’t have 100% to science so I couldn’t do anything to the laser turrets, but my sneak was high and I had the assassins suit and a stealthboy, so managed to complete the optional quest of sneaking out of the vault. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to trap Elijah in the vault (were you supposed too??), and essentially just shot him in the head and took his stuff. Then it was a nightmare of trying to get out before the collar blew my head off (it took me about 4 tries to finally make it out…just before the collar blew up). Was there an easier way to do all this? Was there some way to get him to go in the vault and activate Sinclair’s private codes and get trapped inside? I tried several things, but it always ended with Elijah hearing an alarm and then the turrets going off and me killing him and taking his stuff.
If you want to talk about the DLC in general that’s cool too…I know there was a thread on it earlier, but I didn’t check it out because I hadn’t played Dead Money yet and didn’t want it spoiled at that time.
It’s been a little while since I played it. I too felt that I finished it off in a rather crass and brutal manner - just shooting Elijah and scarpering. I don’t even remember getting particularly rich from the venture - that gold bullion being too heavy to steal. I think the greatest benefit from the whole thing was the Holorifle, which you get right at the start of the thing. Overall, I really liked the characters you meet (esp. Dog/God), but found this DLC very drab, and the casino itself quite a letdown frankly.
I tried saying goodbye to the other characters after I’d fled the vault - you can return to the casino - but I couldn’t find them.
I ended up getting 2 of the gold bars out which was quite a haul (they are worth over 9000 caps). Had to drop a bunch of stuff I had picked up to do it, but I came out of the DLC with the holorifle, a Gauss Rifle, a machine gun (looks like an M-60 and fires .308) and a boat load of stimpaks and doctors bags. It was worth it just for those things.
So, you didn’t find the characters to say goodbye too either? I guess I didn’t miss anything then. I’ve thought about going back to pick up more gold bars but I don’t really need the caps for anything…I really have everything I need in the game.
You apparently missed out on a few things that are really worth having.
Did you get all the upgrades for the holorifle? Fully upgraded, it is arguably the best energy weapon in the game, doing damage on a par with the anti-materiel rifle.
Did you gamble and win enough to get “banned” from the casino? If not, you missed out on a constant stream of free food, ammunition, stimpacks, and whatever else you found templates for the Sierra Madre vending machines to produce. If you get banned, the drop box back at the abandoned BOS bunker will have vouchers worth several thousand chips in it on a weekly basis that you can cash in at the vending machine also located there.
Did you upgrade the BAR? If you have the strength to wield it effectively, it is one powerful mofo of a weapon in close-to-mid-range combat.
I’ve been through the entire place and there isn’t much else that is really remarkable or worth obsessing over. I got out with 5 gold bars, but did that by dropping everything except the holorifle, my upgraded BAR, my superheated Cosmic knife, Dean’s tuxedo and Elijah’s robes. The last two aren’t remarkable items in and of themselves, but I am big into decorating the Presidential Suite with trophies. They look great next to Caesar’s armor and Motor Runner’s chainsaw.
I got both achievements. My unarmed skill was high enough that I could disable the turrets by smashing the generator that powers them. Save at that point. It is right by the door just inside the vault. Tricking Elijah isn’t hard. You just wait til he finally shuts down the forcefields and then you run like you have a stolen ham under each arm. Your collar activates, but he doesn’t follow you. He goes in, reads the file you aren’t supposed to read and traps himself. To get the other achievement, reload from where you saved, wait for him to shut down the force fields and give him a dose of hot hologram gun love.
If you beat the clock and make it out of the vault, you’re free to wander around the casino and the grounds, all except the vault. It’s easier to get around as you won’t have to deal with the collar any more and there is a lot less of the toxic cloud. I don’t recall any memorable interaction with the other characters while I was scavenging, so I don’t believe you missed anything by not saying good-bye.
Forgot to mention something. If you get the template so the vending machines will produce weapon repair kits and get banned from the casino, you now have a limitless supply of the weapon repair kits. I have the jury rigger perk, but some weapons can be repaired using only the repair kits or by cannibalizing weapons that are themselves rare/expensive. It ended up freeing a lot of space in inventory for me as I am no longer carrying around scrap metal, duct, tape, wonder glue, or scrap electronics from which to make kits. It’s great being able to shoot the hell out of the holorifle, All American, Gobi rifle, This Machine, Tesla-Beaton, and other kewel guns and just slap a weapons repair kit on them when they start to degrade. They’re also a great income stream because you get them for free and can use them to patch up scavenged weapons to sell.
Is that the one you can buy in the vending machine? If so, yes, I got that one.
I actually didn’t gamble at all. In the end, I still had like 1500 chips that I hadn’t done anything with (still have them in fact).
Nope, never saw this upgrade at all. Do you remember where it was? I didn’t use the BAR a lot, since I had the holorifle and the police pistols and plenty of weapons repair kits and ammo for both.
I didn’t keep the clothes, nor did I keep my own Cosmic knife, but I took Elijah’s Gauss Rifle as I said (I’ve found it one of the best weapons in the game), the holorifle, the BAR and 2 bars of gold. If the vault is unavailable now I guess that’s all I’ll ever get…not that I need the caps. I think I’ve bought everything in the game I’d ever want.
I tried several times to get him to go into the vault but he always seemed to just hang outside and then the alarms would go off and he’d rush back to his little protected area. He would shut down the force field when he came out, but every time I tried to rush it the alarms would go off and the force fields would come back on before I could get close to them.
It was a nightmare trying to get out the long way. I kept getting to just before the door out and then my head would blow off. You had to do every jump right and not hesitate on the route out to make it, and even then it was maybe 1 second before the collar exploded.
No real reason to go back unless I run short of weapons repair kits…that’s about the only think I really need (I have like 8 of them in the BoS safehouse that I use as my personal base). I have plenty of stims and everything else.
There are a total of three for the holorifle. You can buy the first one from the vending machine as soon as you have the chips. You have to find the templates for the other two before you can buy them. One of the templates is at the top of the tallest building in the villa, but I don’t remember where the other one was. IIRC, what the three do is increase damage, increase condition, and decrease spread. There’s only one upgrade for the BAR, IIRC it increases condition. I can’t remember for sure, but I think the template for it was somewhere in the Police Station.
If you decide you want to gamble and get banned, it isn’t hard. There’s piles of old world money everywhere in the villa and in the casino, plus after you’ve beaten Elijah you probably have a mountain of chips. Cash in your old world money for chips at one of the cashiers and play a slot machine. Save when you begin. Bet the maximum every time. Sooner or later, sooner if you have luck of 6 or more, you’ll hit a jackpot. Save again. Play until you hit a second jackpot and you’re banned. It took me about 20 minutes. Go back to the cashier and trade in your chips for old world money or caps if you want to spend it back in the Mojave. The same strategy will get you banned quickly from the other casinos as well. For most of them, a single jackpot is enough and doesn’t take long at all. You end up with a heap of caps and a couple achievements. I’m not much on gambling, but I did want the achievements. I’ve yet to play even a single hand of Caravan and don’t know if I want the Caravan-related achievements enough to learn how to play.
There’s also an achievement for finding all of Dean’s stashes. There are six of them, I think. If it is your goal to finish up without having to kill Dean, don’t grab any of them while he is with you. There’s nothing remarkable in any of them.
Speaking of Dean, I managed to get through without killing him on one playthrough and then regretted it when it came clear what a monster he was. His superficial similarity to Desmond Lockheart from 3, who I liked very much, influenced me too much, I think. On my second playthrough, I was resolutely nasty and threatening to him and took great delight in gunning him down and stripping his corpse.
Another thing I forgot to mention is that getting banned from the Mojave casinos gets you the keys to the VIP suite in a couple of them. These rooms can’t otherwise be accessed. There isn’t anything unique in them, just booze and stuff, but they are a couple more places you can use as a base if you have the notion.
I ended up letting him live after killing him in an earlier test run…he didn’t seem to have anything on him that I really wanted, and generally I play a ‘nice’ guy in the Fallout games.
I haven’t been back to the villa yet…currently doing Honest Hearts (just started), but I think I’ll return when I finish to look around and maybe see if I can find the other two mods you were talking about for the holorifle. I might as well spend my chips on weapons repair kits as well, and maybe see if I can get into the vault to sneak out a couple more gold bars…if for nothing else as decoration.
I got out with all of the goldbars by exploiting a trick I found online. If you pick up all the bars and then drop them all at once they appear as one bar. You can drop that one bar on the other side of the forcefield protected exit. You run around the long way to the exit while the self-destruct is going down. Once you get inside the protected area, pick up the one bar and although you can’t run you can make it to the elevator literally with seconds to spare.
I walked around and tried to find Dean and Christine but couldn’t -Dog/God killed himself on my runthrough. I ended up with two copies of Vera’s dress and gave one to Veronica (the BotS companion)–I expected something special from that conisdering she continually asks for a dress AND she has the connection with Elijah, but nothing.
Now… I have no idea what to do with the gold bars. Can I trade them in for caps at the Casinos? I imagine casinos are the only vendors that carry enough caps to cover it.
…are you playing on the PC? I know in the console version, once you leave, you leave and can’t get back.
The bars are worth approx. 8000 caps…I think I sold the two I had to the Gun Runners and BoS, since they both had the caps to buy them.
I’m playing on the PC, and it certainly looks like you can’t go back once you’ve left. Shame, as I was wanting to go back to collect some of the weapons I left behind for my trophy wall. You can go back with either of the other DLCs.