Beginner's Guide: Tips and Tricks for Fallout New Vegas

Fallout New Vegas thrusts you into the Mojave Wasteland, an unforgiving place filled with opportunity and death. Learn valuable tips and tricks for better survival before you get started in Fallout New Vegas!

Beginner's Guide to Fallout New Vegas

Tips and Tricks

1. Specialize Your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stats 2. Explore the Wasteland 3. Know the Faction-Specific Quests 4. Exploit the Goodsprings Quest 5. Sell Weapons and Armor to Vendortron 6. Choose Your Decisions Carefully 7. Get the Well Rested Bonus 8. Remember to Use Consumables 9. Repair Your Equipment 10. Access Terminals 11. Pick Locked Doors 12. Remove Aggro by Holstering 13. Emulate Sprinting With Console Commands 14. Load Special Ammunition 15. Prioritize the Educated Perk 16. Use V.A.T.S. Smartly 17. Find Snow Globes for Caps 18. Obtain Companions 19. Drag to Hidden Places 20. Respec Appears Once

Specialize Your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stats

When building your character, it is better to focus on select stats than making a jack-of-all-trades character. Despite feeling counter-intuitive, removing points from unnecessary S.P.EC.I.A.L. stats depending on your build is imperative.

Best Starting SPECIAL Stats
5	5	6	1	8	8	7

Note: The red numbers mean that they are interchangeable.

The best starting SPECIAL stat allocation revolves around having high intelligence and luck but low charisma. This stat set-up allows you to get perks from most aside from perks that rely on charisma.

Best Starting SPECIAL Stats and SPECIAL Explained

Explore the Wasteland

While the Mojave Desert may feel like it is out to get you in every corner, it rewards players who go out of their way to explore its many abandoned places.

Not only does finding landmarks reward you with experience, but you will also find resources such as ammo and materials. Furthermore, you may find better weapons and armor stocked in locked rooms!

For example, you can get the Q-35 Matter Modulator at the REPCONN HQ, a unique variant of a plasma rifle!

Interactive Map

Know the Faction-Specific Quests

Specific actions in quests will sometimes lock you out of content and railroad you to endings you do not want. It is recommended to have partial knowledge of what quests have overarching consequences to avoid regretting your decisions!

How to Get All Endings and the Best Ending

Exploit the Goodsprings Quest

If you want a broken start on your run, you can get infinite experience and resources by exploiting a quest in Goodsprings. However, this takes significant time to execute but is well worth doing to start strong early in the game.

EXP Farming Guide: How to Level Up Fast

Sell Weapons and Armor to Vendortron

If you have a surplus of weapons and armor that you want to sell, consider selling them to the Gun Runners through Vendortron.

The benefits of selling to Vendertron are that you can fast-travel to its location. Furthermore, Vendortron has better deals for weapons and armor while having 8000 caps every 72 hours.

Money Farming Guide: How to Get Caps Fast

Choose Your Decisions Carefully

Fallout New Vegas is known for its immersive roleplay and a rich cast of characters that react differently to your decisions and dialogue. So always talk first, then shoot bullets later if a character approaches you.

Getting or losing reputation from a faction can lead to you losing side quests and having different paths, rewards, and endings. Choose your words carefully!

How to Change Faction Reputation and Reputation Chart

Get the Well Rested Bonus

Resting with a lover or in specific inns will give you a well-rested status. Being well-rested will increase any experience (EXP) gained by 10% over 12 hours, which also stacks with other EXP-increasing perks such as Swift Learner stack with it.

Get this bonus before you start exploring or finishing sidequests just for that extra boost in EXP as the additional 10% makes a huge difference!

Romance Guide and Best Romance Options

Remember to Use Consumables

If you lack the necessary skill points for a specific task or are close to death's door, use one of the many consumables the Mojave has to offer!

For example, you can use the magazines to get a +10 in any skill if you need to do a skill check. Furthermore, use skill books, as they will increase the points of your skills permanently!

Skill Books Map Locations and Guide

Repair Your Equipment

If you ever notice that you are dealing less damage, your weapon is probably in a low condition. You can repair your weapons by visiting weapon shops or repairing them yourself by accessing the Pip-Boy.

Jury Rigging
Requirements	Level: Lv. 14 SPECIAL: - Skills: Repair 90
Description	Repair any item using a roughly similar item.

If you have 75 points in Repair, the Jury Rigging perk keeps your equipment in perfect condition by using only roughly similar items.

How to Repair Weapons and Armor: What is CND?

Access Terminals

The terminals of Fallout New Vegas provide the Courier with hidden information and access to controls and doors! For most terminals, you will need some points in Science to hack them, so invest in the skill sooner rather than later.

How to Hack Terminals

Pick Locked Doors

There are many locked doors with considerable loot in the Mojave Wasteland, so what is stopping you from opening them? Look to gather bobby pins you come across, increase your lockpicking skills, and then pick away by finding the lock's sweet spot!

Remove Aggro by Holstering

If you "áccidentally" shoot a person for disrespecting you, you can quickly holster your weapons to remove the NPC's aggression. To holster weapons, hold the reload button!

How to Holster Weapons

Emulate Sprinting With Console Commands

Since sprinting is not an option, you can get the Travel Light perk or use console commands to emulate sprinting.

Command	player.setav speedmult [value]
Example	player.setav speedmult 150

To avoid making the game feel unfair, set it to only 200 to double your movement speed. With this setting, you can transition to the original speed by inputting the walk command with capslock!

Can You Sprint?

Load Special Ammunition

Fallout New Vegas introduces a system where you can use hand-crafted ammunition with unique properties in Reloading Benches. Some deal more damage to unarmored targets, and some explode upon contact!

Hand Loader
Requirements	Level: Lv. 6 SPECIAL: - Skills: Repair 70
Description	When using Guns, 2x more chance to recover cases and hulls. You have all hand load recipes unlocked at any reloading benches.

Furthermore, if you unlock Hand Loader, you will have more recipes and scavenge more components for ammunition loading!

How to Farm Ammo

Prioritize the Educated Perk

As soon as you reach level 4, take the Educated perk if you want to maximize skill point gain.

Adding +2 skill points at every level will give you leeway for skill allocation, giving you more room for mistakes and access to content you would otherwise miss!

Best Perks and List of Perks

Use V.A.T.S Smartly

The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.), accessed by pressing the V button, allows the Courier to target specific body parts of their enemy. Take advantage of this mechanic by knowing what to shoot in the right situation.

For example, if an opponent has a weapon with consistent damage output, target the weapon arm to disarm it!

Find Snow Globes for Caps

Snow Globes are a rarity in the harsh sunlight of the Mojave, so get them when you come across one! Mr. House is an avid collector of these, so look to sell them to Jane for 2000 caps per snowglobe!

All Snow Globe Locations

Obtain Companions

Venturing the Mojave is a perilous journey, so look to bring companions with you! Each companion has a unique perk that helps you in certain situations, inside or outside combat.

While helping you throughout your journey, they will also unlock companion-specific quests that upgrade their perks and explore more of their background before joining you!

Best Companions and List of Companions

Drag to Hidden Places

If something at a shop catches your eye and you do not have enough caps, you can grab it by pressing the Z button and dragging it to a secluded place. You can then steal it from there without anyone seeing you, getting the item at the cost of Karma!

How Does Karma Work?

Respec Appears Once

After leaving Goodsprings, you can respec your character S.P.E.C.I.A.L., traits, and skills. This instance is the only opportunity you can respec apart from console commands, so consider if you are unsatisfied with your build after the tutorial!

How to Respec

All Tips and Tricks Guides

General Tips and Tricks
How to Get All Endings and the Best Ending	Romance Guide and Best Romance Options
How to Level Up Fast	How to Get Caps Fast
How to Farm Ammo	How to Get to New Vegas Strip Fast
Game Mechanics Guides
How to Hack Terminals	How to Repair Weapons and Armor: What is CND?
How to Respec	How Does Karma Work?
How to Holster Weapons	Caravan Rules and Guide
How to Change Faction Reputation	Can You Sprint?

Fallout New Vegas Related Guides

Fallout: New Vegas
Walkthrough and Guides Wiki

Fallout: New Vegas Wiki
Story Walkthrough	Side Quests
Weapons	Companions
Tips and Tricks	Interactive Map
SPECIAL	Perks
Skills	Traits
Armor	Power Armor
IDs and Item Codes	Trophies