• Fallout New Vegas Map Locations

Red= Primary locations Blue= Vaults Early concept of the Fallout: New Vegas map, explained by Chris Avellone during the Rezzed 2013 Developer Sessions. It features several names which were eventually cut from the game.

Fallout: New Vegas has been scientifically proven to be the greatest game of all-time, and you can’t argue with science. Well, maybe these days you can, but you shouldn’t.

Sure, New Vegas was riddled with bugs, the combat is bland, and it didn’t exactly look pretty even when it was released in 2010. But it more than makes up for its deficiencies with some of the best writing in gaming, and a level of freedom granted to the player that has never been matched before or since. The fact that the game was made in just 18 months is an incredible testament to the skill of developer Obsidian Entertainment. Many Fallout fans would argue they’ve shown more respect to the Fallout IP than Bethesda has with Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

One of the great things about Fallout: New Vegas is that it doesn’t hold your hand; a rote saying with games these days, but in this case, it’s entirely accurate. New Vegas gives you to the tools to succeed and then kicks you out into a wide-open world to mess around with and influence. Because of this (and its predilection to unmarked quests), there are a huge number of quests that a lot of players may have missed entirely. And because of that grueling, short development cycle, a lot of quests that had to be cut down, but still exist in the game’s code today.

In honor of this masterpiece, let’s take a look at 25 of these hidden quests that even the most hardcore Fallout fans might have missed.

Continue scrolling to keep reading

Click the button below to start this article in quick view

Start Now

25 A Final Plan For Esteban

A Final Plan for Esteban is one of several small, unmarked quests in Fallout: New Vegas. It’s also pretty well hidden. To start this quest, you must talk to Christina Morales, a private in the NCR sitting in the concourse of Camp McCarran.

Morales tells you that her husband perished in a fight with some nearby Fiends, and that the NCR is so overrun they can’t even get his body. She asks you to go in, clear out the Fiends, and bring his body back to a nearby NCR encampment. Interestingly, this quest doesn’t give you any reward whatsoever; perhaps one of New Vegas’ subtle messages.

24 A Team Of Moronic Mercenaries

Speaking of places you have no reason to go to: the Vikki and Vance Casino. After talking to Nash during They Went That-a-Way, you never have any reason to go back in, as you can get another quest from the Primm Slim at the same time, and the building is otherwise empty.

To start this short quest, you first have to complete My Kind of Town, finding a sheriff for Primm. Then, leave town and come back a few days later, entering the Vikki and Vance. As soon as you do, a group of NCR deserters will try and rob you.

23 Keith's Caravan Charade

Aerotech Office Park is perhaps the least used location in video game history; chances are you probably don’t even know it exists. There’s nothing there, save for a few war refugees and a some NCR troops. But there’s also an unmarked quest here.

Talk to Captain Parker, and he’ll ask you to investigate a strange character at the camp called Keith. He suspects Keith of dealing chems and cheating at Vegas’ favorite card game, Caravan. The ending of this quest is quite something.

22 Maud's Muggers

Fallout has always had a wacky sense of humor, and New Vegas is no different. Maud’s Muggers isn’t really a quest, per se, but it’s an interesting encounter nonetheless, and one you might not know about if you don’t use Wacky Wasteland.

Maud’s Muggers refers to a roving gang of old ladies, branding pink summer dresses and rolling pins, who mug denizens in Freeside. With Wacky Wasteland on, you’ll likely encounter them at Cerulean Robotics, but don’t expect to talk your way out of it. They immediately attack without warning.

21 I Love Bananas

Easily the strangest named quest in Fallout history, I Love Bananas is a quest that’s easy to miss for a number of reasons. It’s located in a location you never have to go to except for a side quest, and when you do run into it, it’s all too easy to either miss it completely or complete it accidentally.

For this quest, you must go to the Fiend controlled Vault 3, and go to the main room. There, you’ll find a prison cage full of prisoners. You can pick the lock, but you’ll miss the quest. Instead, you must talk to one of the prisoners to start the quest.

20 Not Worth A Hill Of Corn And Beans

Private Morales isn’t the only one waiting for you in Camp McCarran’s concourse. There’s also William Farber, a cook for the camp who complains about having to use subpar equipment to cook with. He asks you to get him parts for some kind of magical “food processor” that makes the food for him or something.

It’s basically a boring fetch quest in which you need approximately three million worthless or hard to find parts. Pilot lights, pressure cookers, firehose nozzles, the cure to disease, that kind of stuff.

19 Coming Out Of Her Shell

Coming out of Her Shell is actually a marked side quest, but it’s in the DLC Old World Blues, and only available at a certain point, and if you have a good enough relationship with its giver, Dr. Dala.

To even start this quest, you have to either have Perception of 8, Cherchez La Femme, or a Teddy Bear to give her. From there, Dala will begin to ask you some… let’s say, “interesting” questions about your body and psychology.

18 Wind-Brahmin Wrangler

Keeping with Fallout’s bizarre sense of humor, there’s the Wind-Brahmin Wrangler. Much like the other unmarked, hidden quests, there’s not much going on here. However, this one is an interesting one.

Tucked away in the far top right corner of the map is Brooks Tumbleweed Ranch. If you go out back to the fenced-in area, you’ll be approached by an unnamed Nightkin. He’ll tell you that he has “Wind-Brahmin” he wants to sell you. Except, he forces you to buy them for all your money, and if you say no, he attacks you. The “Wind-Brahmin” are just tumbleweeds.

17 We Must Stop Meeting Like This

You know Victor, the robot that says he pulled you out of your gave at the start of the game, and it turns out he’s working for Mr. House? Well, he’s actually in the game a lot more than you might think.

If you go the exact route the game wants you to go in the quest They Went That-a-Way, including walking in very specific places, you’ll run into Victor along the way, and you can talk to him about the trip. He’s usually hiding, like behind the No Vacancy sign in Novac, or the train station outside Boulder City.

16 A Family Affair

A Family Affair is hard to find side quest in the DLC Honest Hearts, involving the otherwise pointless character Walking Cloud. Again, there’s not much to this quest; this one only involves talking to Walking Cloud and Daniel.

Walking Cloud suspects there something about her family Daniel isn’t telling her, so go talk to Daniel, get the info, and you can tell it to Walking Cloud or withhold it. That’s it. It’s not the most exciting quest in the world, and frankly, none of the characters in this DLC are that interesting, but it’s there.

15 Thought For The Day

The 188 Trading Post is another location in New Vegas where there doesn’t seem to be much going on, at first glance. It’s where you pick up the Brotherhood of Steel companion Veronica, but other than that, there doesn’t seem to be anything of note.

But if you take a closer look, you’ll find a character known simply as The Forecaster under the bridge. He’s a kid, and he’s wearing a strange metal device on his head. Talk to him, and he’ll predict your future with surprising accuracy.

14 Strategic Nuclear Moose

Located deep within the desert of the Mojave wasteland (northwest of Sunset Sarsaparilla Headquarters, to be exact), you’ll find Brewer’s Bootlegging. Outside, you’ll also find the body of Gourd, as well as the tons of Cazadores that ended him.

But fight them off and make your way inside, and you’ll learn the story of Strategic Nuclear Moose, a brand of home-brewed drink Gourd planned on selling before he met his demise. Inside, you’ll see a homemade sign for the company, with a tagline.

13 Help For Halford

Nothing like a big, exciting rescue mission, right? It’s almost a shame that Help for Halford is so hidden within the game. But that’s New Vegas’ strength; letting the player find things for themselves, and deciding what to do about it.

Help for Halford is another unmarked quest in which you must rescue Halford, part of the NCR’s Military Police, from a cave near Camp Guardian. The cave is infested with Radscorpions and Lakelurks, and Halford is badly hurt.

12 Straus Calls

You may be familiar with “Doctor” Ada Straus in Novac because of her ineptitude. You never want to go to a doctor who’s wearing a shirt covered in blood and proud of how low their prices are. But if you are severely wounded, badly poisoned by radiation, and predisposed to who knows what, then it may be a good idea to pay Straus a visit.

If you get all three areas fixed by her, she’ll give you a discount on all medical services from then on. Sure, she might take off your arm if you have a cough, but it’ll be the cheapest one of your life!

11 Lenk's Bad Debts

The forgotten NCR Comm Officer Lenk, stationed at the equally unheard of Ranger Station Foxtrot, is an interesting character. An otherwise unassailable, hardcore, tough ranger, Lenk has one potentially fatal flaw: a gambling problem.

Simply talk to her, and she’ll be so scared out of her wits she’ll mistake you for an Omerta thug come to collect a long outstanding debt. But there’s more to the story than that, and as you’d expect from New Vegas, there’s more than one way to handle the situation.

10 Poor Meat Never Makes Good Soup

Farber makes another appearance in New Vegas, albeit just as hidden (and forgettable) as the first. This time around, you have to go to him and ask him about his meat supply, as any good friend would do.

From there he’ll tell you he needs a new vendor, and give you a list of potential sellers: the Crimson Caravan Company, the Grub ‘n’ Gulp Rest Stop (the location’s only real function), or Ruby Nash in Primm. After you choose whoever you want (Farber just wants the cheapest price), he’ll then ask you about fixing his food processor.

9 Power To The People

Sloan is a small town in New Vegas, inhabited only by workers who are supposed to be digging rock at Quarry Junction. But Chomp Lewis tells you the quarry is full of Deathclaws and you know how that goes. But there’s more to Sloan than that. As well as helping the mole rat with his limp, and the lady at the canteen with her food, there’s also a power generator.

Tucked behind one of the buildings to the point where it’s practically invisible, there’s a power generator you can either repair or strip for parts. You’ll be rewarded with either the parts, or $200 NCR dollars from Lewis.

8 Rotface To Riches

Rotface is the homeless ghoul you’ll find sitting in the streets of Freeside, outside Mick and Ralph’s. You can pay him for information, and if you pay him enough, he’ll eventually buy a hat. But this is, or was, only the tip of the iceberg.

Originally, there was going to be an unmarked quest in the game called Rotface to Riches. The more you paid Rotface, the more he’d buy. Despite not making into the final game, all the voice acting was recorded and most of it was scripted. A modder by the name of MoBurma80 went in and made the short quest available to anyone.

7 Defacing The Humble Stone

Less a quest and more of a neat little detail, “Defacing the Humble Stone” is the name of an interaction you may have with an NCR trooper at Boulder City. The first time you make it to the city, you might run into Private Kowalski viewing a monument. It memorializes all the NCR troopers who perished at the First Battle of Hoover Dam, four years before the start of the game.

Kowalski’s brother perished in that battle, so, as the name suggests, defacing the monument by shooting it or hitting it doesn’t make him very happy.

6 Underpass Water Purifier

Another cut quest that was mostly complete before it was removed (and later restored by modders) Underpass Water Purifier would have been located in the also cut settlement of Underpass; the group of buildings just outside Carlyle St. Clair's house and before the road to Nellis.

The quest would have been an epic 45 hour journey across the also cut New Orleans bayou in which you would have had to fight mutated crocodile beasts and Mardi Gras-inspired Fiends to discover the meaning of life… just kidding, you would have just fixed a water purifier, and that would have been it.

5 Infected Brahmin Meat

Located inside the Ultra-Luxe’s Gourmand you’ll find a mysterious item simply called “Infected Brahmin Meat.” The meat has no use whatsoever, classified as a miscellaneous item rather than food. However, scripts buried within the game files reveal this meat once served a very specific purpose.

These scripts show that you would have had the option to use the tainted meat at the Legion fort, either to poison a stew served to the soldiers, or their mongrels. The scripts show it would have ended the mongrels, but the effect on the soldiers is unknown. Also unknown is what the point of doing this would have been to begin with.

4 The Deathclaw Promontory

Perhaps New Vegas’ best-hidden location, the Deathclaw Promontory is where you go if you’re feeling self-destructive. Located at the very southeast of the map, this location isn’t marked on your map, and you have no reason to go there unless you were intentionally trying to explore every corner of the map.

The Promontory is full of 35 Deathclaws, some being Alpha Males and Mothers depending on your current level. Besides the deadly creatures, there’s little of note here, except two suits of power armor, a multiplas rifle, and a tri-beam rifle, all of which you can more easily obtain elsewhere.

3 Cajoling A Cudgel

The sewers beneath New Vegas are vast and complex, allowing you to travel just about anywhere you want around the city. They’re also completely useless and you have no reason to ever go down there. Which makes it the perfect place to hide an unmarked quest, Cajoling a Cudgel.

Fallout New Vegas Map Locations

If you find yourself in the Central Sewers, you’ll find the body of Blind Luke. He’ll have a key to a stash called “Luke’s Find,” where you’ll find a unique weapon. This weapon is… just a lead pipe with a fancy name.

2 The Thorn Mayhem

Ever thought it’d be fun to unleash all the creatures in The Thorn and watch them wreak havoc on the spectators? Well, you’re terrible, but you also almost had your wish granted. Another cut quest that was removed despite nearly being finished, The Thorn Mayhem would have allowed you to do exactly that.

Luckily you can (if you have the PC version anyway) with the help of Moburma80 once again. The quest was mostly complete before it was cut, so all the modder had to do was plug it back in, essentially.

1 The Moon Comes Over The Tower

Emily Ortega greets you on your departure from The Lucky 38, and asks you to bug House’s terminal. All the quest requires you to do is take the bug, put it in the first terminal in the lobby, and Emily will tell you House detected the bug and smashed it.

But the original iteration of this quest was much worse. This version would have had you traipsing all around the Mojave to H&H Tools, Camp Golf, New Vegas Steel, and the Central Sewers. And the quest would have had the same anti-climactic ending, too. Some things are better left on the cutting room floor.