Fallout: New Vegas Tips & Tricks
A beginner's guide for new players entering the Mojave Wasteland. Covers character building traps to avoid, faction armor tricks, companion quest mechanics, and economy shortcuts the game never explains up front.
10 Tips · 4 categories
1 tipEconomy
Unlock Jury Rigging for Cheap Gear Repairs
As your weapons and armor degrade in the Mojave, you can normally only repair an item by consuming an identical copy. The Jury Rigging perk removes that restriction and lets you repair any item using a similar item from the same category. This is essential for maintaining rare and unique gear without burning all your caps on vendor repairs. It requires 90 Repair skill to unlock but pays off across every playthrough.
3 tipsExploration
Use the Goodsprings Dumpster as Your Early Stash
Many containers in New Vegas reset their contents over time, which means any loot you store inside them will eventually vanish. The dumpster behind the Goodsprings saloon never resets, making it a safe early stash for gear you want to keep but can't carry. Once you unlock the Lucky 38 presidential suite, you'll have a better home base, but the dumpster has the advantage of requiring only one loading screen to access from the starting area.
Use Faction Armor to Infiltrate Camps and Sway Companions
Wearing a faction outfit causes NPCs to treat you as a member of that group, which can open or close access to camps that would otherwise be hostile. Be careful in friendly towns though: putting on a Powder Ganger uniform in Goodsprings can turn the residents against you even if you've helped them. Faction armor also affects companion recruitment. Arcade Gannon normally refuses to join you if your Caesar's Legion reputation is too high, but equipping NCR armor changes his response regardless of your actual standing.
Quick Save Constantly Across the Mojave
New Vegas is prone to crashes and doesn't auto-save frequently in open-world areas. Get into the habit of quick saving before entering new locations, starting conversations with important NPCs, and any time the situation feels tense. Also maintain a few separate manual save slots so a corrupted file doesn't send you back hours.
5 tipsProgression
Trigger Companion Quests at Specific Locations
New Vegas doesn't use an affinity meter for companion quests. Instead, trust builds through conversations that trigger automatically when you visit certain locations with a companion in your party. Arcade Gannon, for example, starts a conversation when you reach the crashed Vertibird site in the southern part of the map. Note that locations tied to multiple companions will only fire one trigger per playthrough, so the Silver Rush in Freeside, for instance, won't trigger a second companion conversation once the first has already fired.
Complete a Quest Line to Unlock Power Armor Training
Unlike Fallout 4, you cannot wear Power Armor in New Vegas without formal training. The fastest route is finishing the Brotherhood of Steel quest line in the Hidden Valley bunker. Alternatively, completing Arcade Gannon's companion quest grants training from the Enclave remnants, though this requires first doing Julie Farkas's quest in Freeside and earning enough trust points with Arcade through location triggers.
Prioritize Endurance and Buy Medical Implants
Your base Endurance stat at character creation determines how many implants you can ever install. With only three Endurance, you are capped at three total implants for the entire run. The New Vegas Medical Clinic just outside the Strip sells implants that each grant a permanent plus one to a SPECIAL stat for 4,000 caps. The Intense Training perk also lets you invest one additional point into any SPECIAL stat on level up if you want to push a specific attribute higher.
Skip a Low Intelligence Build on Your First Run
Starting with three Intelligence or fewer unlocks unique dumb dialogue options that can be entertaining, but it significantly reduces the number of skill points you earn every time you level up. The drawback compounds across the whole playthrough, leaving you noticeably underpowered in skill checks. Save this for a novelty run after you know the game well.
Hold Skill Books Until You Have the Comprehension Perk
Skill books grant a permanent plus three to their associated stat by default. The Comprehension perk raises that to plus four, so if you plan to take it, avoid using any books until the perk is active. Skill magazines work differently: they give a temporary plus ten and are best saved for moments when you fall just short of a stat check. A single Meeting People magazine can be the difference between passing or failing a critical speech option.
1 tipCombat
Delay the Goodsprings Gunfight Until You're Geared
One of the first side quests pits Goodsprings against the Powder Gangers. Completing it and siding with the town turns all nearby Powder Gangers permanently hostile, which becomes annoying when they're chucking dynamite at a low-level character exploring the surrounding Mojave. The quest has no time limit, so there's no penalty for waiting until you're better equipped before taking it on.
Verified: 2026-05-23 · All content is original with full credit to original creators.