Fallout: New Vegas bugs

General advice and notes
Bethesda's FNV support page offers many simple solutions to common problems.
 * Make sure your game is patched to the latest official patch. If your game is not up-to-date, do not report any bugs you may experience.
 * Save often and in different slots. Do not rely too much on autosave. A frequently overwritten autosave slot can become corrupted.
 * Make sure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements. If any component of your computer falls below the minimum system requirements, do not report any bugs you may experience.
 * Installing the game can help greatly cut down load times and lessen glitches triggered by entering certain locations or interacting with certain NPCs. If you are experiencing game freezing and frame rate drops, loading screens that last 60 seconds and longer, or multiple crashes ensuing from the same action or location, installing the game can help with some of these issues. It may also help to clear your console cache (found under "memory > device options") which will then prompt you to re-download any patches issued on XBL when you next launch the game. EDIT: For example, to emphasize the degree to which this helps, I have had the game installed since release day and after extensively playing I have encountered just two glitches: a Centaur fell through a rock, and one load screen locked up.

Mods

 * fixed:When you attach a mod onto a Weathered 10mm pistol, you hold a large red error marker indicating it has a missing mesh. This will also affect the item when dropped, and will not be able to pick it back up. This was corrected on the latest PS3 download patch.
 * fixed in new 1.02 update

Using the console
On the PC, many NPC, quest, and player-getting-stuck issues can be resolved through the use of console commands.

Crashing, freezing and other hardware- or software-related issues

 * Stuttering, crashing, freezing, and slow-down issues are often hardware- and/or software-related. Please visit the Bethesda Fallout: New Vegas hardware forums for information regarding these issues. In particular, read through the stickied threads at the top of the forum pages.
 * Alt-tabbing out of the game can cause problems of all sorts.
 * When playing the game, for uncertain reasons, your entire field of vision can become permanently blurred, without having any head injuries at all. The blurring is absolute and total, not fading in and out of focus in cycles like when you have a crippled head. There appears to be no fixing this bug, turning the pipboy light on and off, sleeping, fast travelling, getting killed, and reloading the game and rebooting the system several times did not fix the problem. Perhaps getting a crippled head may make a difference, but more likely the cycles of blurriness would not even be apparent as your vision is already at maximum opacity.
 * A message that reads "This save game relies on downloadable content that is no longer available. Some objects may be no longer available. Continue loading?" may pop up. Even if the player selects the "Yes" option, the game will return to the main menu with a message reading "The storage device you selected is no longer available. Load canceled." This can happen even though no downloadable content has been downloaded and even if the Xbox has never been connected to Xbox LIVE. This issue appears to be caused at multiple points in the game. It is fixed in the 1.2.0.315 patch.
 * Equipping cowboy hats via mapped key sometimes causes the console to freeze (as of latest patch)

Patch 1.1.1.271 "Everything's Essential" bug

 * Patch 1.1.1.271 introduced a bug - Any creature or NPC could suddenly become essential. This bug is fixed by the next patch 1.2.0.285.

Gameplay bugs

 * Boxes or jars of ammo primer or powder are useless and take up weight until dropped or stored in a container, and then picked up again, at which time the quantity of weightless ingredients is added to the inventory. This applies to most boxes and jars with a few exceptions, such as "Ammo Box, Micro-fusion Cells", which are correctly added as ammo immediately. In hardcore mode, this 'bug' is actually a benefit; a box of 250 x 5.56mm Surplus rounds weighs only 5 WP as opposed to 250 x 0.03 = 7.5 WP.
 * Purchasing the strength implant does not increase strength when at level 7.
 * Jumping on the Sarsaparilla crates results in a loud crash, followed by your character abruptly taking serious damage. Process is repeatable.
 * Occasionally clothing and armor is not properly unequipped, resulting in being attacked for no reason by enemy factions. Example: If the NCR starts attacking for no reason, re-equip Legion armor and unequip it again. Make sure you receive the message that you are no longer dressed in Legion clothes.
 * The above fix doesn't always work. In that case, you'll have to use the console command "setreputation factionid x y".
 * Sometimes weapons do not properly hot key when multiple items are being assigned.
 * Failing quests due to reputation problems may not reset upon restart. Ex: I received bad rep in Freeside because a companion killed a resident. When I restarted from auto-save, the game would not allow me to begin the mission with the Kings.
 * The "Sneak" skill has no difference in effect from 50 - 100. Only factors are the amount of light, running (pre-perk), stepping on some obstacles, and line of sight.
 * When pickpocketing ammo cases the "pick" is not counted, does not count towards the challenge and achievement, and your karma will not be adjusted,you can take it freely as if it wasn't owned.
 * Sometimes in VATS, if queuing up multiple attacks with a firearm and attacking, the player will not do anything, just stand still. However, AP is not lost when going out of VATS after a few seconds.
 * Occasionally a corpse may sink into the ground then fly back up and around the map while it's limbs extend dozens of feet.
 * Occasionally a corpse or Item (Or several) that are visible upon entering/exiting a room or building, may fall from a few feet above ground after loading. Some items are known to float after this effect.
 * Frequently in V.A.T.S the player will not do anything at all, and will just stand still for either a very long time, until you die, or the game is restarted. Note on the Xbox 360 you can push the "back" button (wait command) allowing you to exit the V.A.T.S.
 * occasionally when the player ventures in and out of the casinos (the Topps when the player confronts Benny in particular) will remove all non-holdout weapons from the player's inventory and not return them when the player leaves.
 * When a new game is started sometimes vendors and traders stock will never change and you won't be able to buy new things through the entire game. (Confirmed Xbox 360)
 * Sometimes the players hand and equipped weapon will simply vanish from the screen as if it had been holstered but the player is still able to fire. The pip-boy also becomes invisible at the same time. Movement causes the players hand/weapon to reappear and disappear erratically. Quitting to the main menu and reloading usually solves this.
 * Started a game in Hardcore Mode, and can't level up. Gotten enough XP and then some, but remain at level 1. This also happened after completing the game in hardcore mode then creating a new game in casual mode. Deleting old games will fix it. Seems to be caused by being low on memory
 * Occasionally, doors appear not to be present and instead you will see the horizon, although this doesn't actually affect the gameplay.
 * Corpses will often become either immovable or unlootable, which also happened within Fallout 3. Occasionally, revisiting the body will result in it being able to be looted, but at other times it still will be set in and you won't be able to interact with it.
 * If you take advantage of your companion's inventory to store weapons, and then enter an area where your weapons are confiscated, the weapons you stored in your companion's inventory will not be returned once you leave these areas and are gone forever.
 * There are several locations where you can become trapped within a rock, wall, or hill. You may also fall into a few areas where large rocks are built, which put you "inside" the map. You may also become trapped or you may just be able to walk though the texture to the game play area.
 * Sometimes when fighting a small Radscorpion it will glitch and get stuck in the ground. Also on Fallout3. (Confirmed)
 * After completing the game along Mr. Houses questline, you can load a different game during the end cinematic, stopping the cinematic. But, after loading the game and playing for a few minutes, the end cinematic starts to play again, refuting any new progress.

Custom button-mapping bugs
Using custom control-mappings can cause problems when attempting to activate or use objects, fire weapons, reload, etc.
 * Fix: Unload all your equipment into a container. When you pick it all up again you can once again use the D-pad (Xbox 360).

Caravan bugs

 * When buying cards for your caravan deck, they will just sit in your inventory and you won't be able to add them to your deck until stored in a container and taken back out one at a time, works best when waiting a moment for the card to be added to the deck before taking the next one out. (fixed in the latest patch)
 * When discarding cards from your hand in your initial turn (before you place any cards down on the table,) the third card from the left in your hand seemingly changes randomly to another card in your deck. Once the animation for drawing a new card is completed however, the card returns to its initial value. For example: The three right most cards in my hand might be a 7, 9, and a Queen. Once you choose to discard the Queen for example, the 7 changes to another card in my deck, possibly a 9. Therefore, while the animation for discarding a card and drawing a new one is taking place the two rightmost cards will appear two nines. Once the animation is finished and the player is able to make another move, the nine will then change back to its actual value of 7.
 * Upon winning, the player receives the amount of caps in the pot added to their cap total, though the in game message only reports adding half the pot. This is only when the player wins, if the NPC wins the caps are removed and added properly from both. (i.e. NPC bets 800, you call. If You win you get 1600 caps instead of 800, if NPC wins they only get 800.) This is due to the player not having their caps taken from them when they place their bet, and obtaining their caps "back" as if they did.

Pip-Boy bugs

 * The Pip-Boy screen may increase in brightness to a point where you can't see anything on the screen. (Saving and loading the new save can fix this on PS3 and xbox 360)(Turning on then off the pip boy light can fix this on PS3 & Xbox)
 * In some instances when the player turns on their Pip-Boy's light, the entire sky may glare up, regardless if day or night.(Confirmed)
 * In H&H Tool Company the dates on the journal entries hidden on the secret network drives do not match the dates of the same journal entries on the Pip-Boy (they are ten years earlier on the Pip-Boy).
 * When bringing the Pip-Boy screen up, the Pip-Boy moves partially off screen, occluding the view of the Pip-Boy screen. This can be fixed by equipping or unequipping a weapon.
 * Occasionally the damage threshold indicator (Ex: DT 10.0) in the top-right of the Pip-boy screen will disappear (Just the letters 'DT' and the value - all other parts of the screen are fine). Resetting the console, and reloading the save, seems to fix it.
 * On the 'Stats' screen, certain stats are not accurately reflected. For example, I have consumed water hundreds of time so far, yet 'water consumed' reads as zero. Unsure if the bug is related only to the pip-boy display, or if the game is not properly tracking (confirmed)
 * The pip-boy glove can sometimes disappear and not enable to take it back.
 * While on the world map, and the dashboard button is pressed the background of the world map will vanish leaving only the map icons, this can be fixed by removing the pipboy.
 * after starting a new file, pip-boy map had all locations discovered on previous file marked when pip-boy was first recieved. exiting pip-boy and re-entering fixed the map.

NPC-specific bugs

 * For NPC-specific bugs, please see the respective NPC article page.
 * For bugs that apply to NPCs in general or to followers in general, please see the General NPC bugs section below.

Quest-specific bugs

 * During The House Always Wins if the player character returns to the Lucky 38 and gives the Platinum chip to Mr. House before activating the securitron army at the fort, the quest becomes stuck. Mr. House will send the player to activate the bots but he doesn't return the chip to the player so that the player can actually enter the vault resulting in a broken quest. The only way around this is to activate the bots before turning in the chip to Mr. House.
 * The unnamed quest to find the food processor parts doesn't allow you to fix the processor even if you have all the parts, one more part is needed. You will need one extra Pot in your inventory, only one pot will be removed when fixing the food processor.
 * If the player picks up or buys 5 or more Rocket souvenirs they will be marked as a part of the quest Volare! and cannot be dropped, even though you haven't started or have finished the quest.
 * Return to Sender If you talk to Ranger Andy in Novac before you start this quest, Ranger Station Charlie gets wiped out so there is no way to bring the update to that Station. It will remain a quest objective until you return to Rayes where you can finish the quest. (EDIT: I did that, and it didn't show as an objective on PC)
 * After the guard duty mission for the Van Graffs at Silver Rush, going back outside and stealing the Van Graff armor makes it a permanent item in your inventory that cannot be dropped as it is considered a "Quest Item". The only way to drop the Van Graff armor is to start the 3rd Side quest for the Van Graffs. Once you are arrive in the building with the Legion you are able to drop both sets (the set you stole and could not drop before, and the set they gave you for this quest) *Note: The only way to start the 3rd side quest for the Van Graffs is to (obviously) do the 2nd quest, but to complete the 2nd quest you must let them kill you're companion, Cass. You can also do the Brotherhood quest Tend to Your Business and kill the Van Graff, allowing the armor to be dropped as you fail the related quest for them.
 * Sometimes creatures that fight in the Thorn will not attack each other, ever. Pushing guards into the area doesn't do anything. Any quest related to Red Lucy in the Thorn can then not be completed.
 * If you kill one monster in the pit when hidden and with silenced weapon (such as sniper rifle with silencer) guards don't attack you, and you can speak with Red Lucy again.
 * If you finish various quests (The House Always Wins, G.I. Blues, Volare! and others) you might not get the achievement.
 * This can be caused by using console commands, as it will lock the player out of unlocking any achievements for that play session. Closing and reopening the game fixes this.
 * (Update) In The House Always Wins II when you try to go to the Lucky 38 to talk to Mr. House the robots attack you and the quest fails automatically. This happens if, when you show up on the strip for the first time you go see Benny (and follow the story to activate the securitrons in the bunker) before you go see Mr. House.
 * If you start the Young Hearts quest before completing Volare!, Jack may not be anywhere at Nellis AFB. Following the compass arrow will eventually lead you to Black Rock Mountain to a rock face just past the satellite dishes but Jack is still not to be found. Companions may some times disappear into this same Rock, but will usually reappear after fast travel.
 * Loyal may disappear from Nellis after Volare!, making Old School Ghoul quest undoable.
 * During I Fought the Law even if you successfully complete the siege on the prison and get NCR back in control Mr. New Vegas will still say the siege failed on Radio New Vegas. This also affects the ending involving the NCRCF in which it states the NCR never retook the Prison. (RE: Try going to NCRCF and go upstairs and see if the guards are still running in circles, if they are, then you have to push SGT Lee out of the way so that they can touch the marker he is standing on. All guards have to touch this marker in order to resove the NPC action of taking the prison, they are still in fight mode. Also check cell block B and C for other prisoners and kill them to resolve this.)
 * During the game, a glitch may occur if you do the following: Kill Caeser in his fort, and then go kill Benny. Because you can receive a platinum chip from both characters, killing them both will give you two. (Under normal gameplay circumstances, it is impossible to travel to The Fort until Benny has either died or fled. It is therefore impossible to receive two Platinum Chips unless console cheats are used.)
 * In the unmarked quest A Two-Bit Hustler you are asked to provide evidence that Keith is cheating at cards and selling drugs. Once you provide this information to Captain Parker he will enter Aerotech Suite 200 and confront keith.  Captain Parker will begin a dialog with him.  If Keith was awoken by  Captain Parker he will go back to sleep as soon as the conversation is over.  Captain Parker, who wants to kill Keith for insulting his wife, will spin around in circles with his gun drawn above the sleeping Keith.  You can correct this by talking to Keith.  As soon as Keith gets up off his bed, Captain Parker will kill him.
 * Before initiating the quest For Auld Lang Syne after Arcade Gannon may lose the conversation option to invite to party causing his quest to become unobtainable.



Location-specific bugs

 * In the Lucky 38 Presidential Suite the terminal used for purchasing extra features does not have the items properly mapped and you must click of to the right of the right of the item to select it. EDIT: Or you can just close the Computer and the using the standard menu.
 * After upgrading the Lucky 38 Presidential Suite the containers by the workbench can reset causing you to lose any items placed there.
 * When fast traveling or walking to Camp Forlorn Hope, the game freezes or drops to around 2 frames per second. Rendering the game unplayable until Major Polatli is dead.
 * At some point, the gate to the Strip might be locked requiring a key. It's unknown what causes this or when it happens. However, killing the Securitrons outside the gate will provide you with keys. It's recommended to sneak-kill them to prevent any infamy.
 * Entering the Strip may cause console to crash showing only black screen. Wearing the old cowboy hat can prevent this (source: Bethseda development team). Tested\works.
 * North of the cove location towards the south, standing on the highest rock will result in becoming stuck and unable to move.
 * At the Gomorrah, the dealer may talk to a Gomorrah floor manager like he is a visitor of the casino
 * It's possible to go outside of the map due to a ledge southeast of Morning Star Cavern.
 * In Vault 34 it is possible that the overseer will push you throught piles of rubble off the map causing you to have to reload.
 * In No-Bark's house, if you jump in between the fridge, the wall, and the bed area, you will be stuck. Reloading the last save or using the TCL console command are the only ways to get out.
 * In the rail way path, at the south of the Boomer "mortar town"(very hard locked door) the path has about 6 ghouls and traps. There is a small side room and the stairs are fall through. You, or anything else cannot cross it.
 * After upgrading Mr. House's Securitrons, the gate to the Strip is locked by key and the guarding securitrons aren't upgraded.
 * At Repconn Headquarters, it is possible despite gaining an Executive Level pass from hacking Isley's computer, that the robots in attendance upstairs will not acknowledge the pass and the alarm will be sounded after 30 seconds. Verified on PS3 and XBox 360.
 * At the Brotherhood of Steel's Hidden Valley Bunker, you can possibly become stuck within the bunker. The door in Level 1 will be locked and you will need a key to open it.
 * When making your way to Nellis through the train tunnel, half way through there's a room to the side but when you try to enter it there's a hole in the map, you fall through and go back to were you came in.
 * At the NCR Military Police HQ, prisoners in cells (If attacked) can open the cells to their freedom.
 * At HELIOS One when you walk out the door to the solar panels sometimes you will see Old Lady Gibson, her dogs, and molerats or any combination of these. If you have a companion they might accidentally hit Old Lady Gibson when they are attacking the molerats and they will kill her. In addition, a collection of invisible barrels can also load, causing collision noises as you walk.EDIT(Devon of Granite) this has also happened to me (X-Box 360). The only way to not kill the dogs, molerats, and/or Old Lady Gibson is to load the autosave created by opening the door, or an older save. NOTE: This does not happen every time.
 * At New Vegas Medical Clinic, entering at night requires you to pick an Average lock. After picking the lock and entering the clinic, approaching the door from the inside can sometimes display the message 'Locked Door: Average. [Pick lock]'. Pressing 'A' (Xbox 360) does not enter the lockpick screen, instead it takes you to a frozen loading screen. To fix, reset the 360 and load prior save.
 * At the NCR outpost west of Primm the tent with no npcs in it well nearly always crash upon attempted exit. Only work around is to load a save outside the tent and never go in it.
 * at the Mojave Drive-In, there is a scene where a prospector is being attacked by many mole-rats (unsure if scripted specifically or randomly). Even if you are quick enough to save him from the creatures, he will disappear almost immediately after.
 * After you enter the Fortification hill and speak to Caesar about Benny and Platinum chip you will have the option to go on and enter the bunker in which you will either destroy securitron army or upgrade them for your own use, after this done you can either go back to Caesar or go on to do other quests outside this location. Only there's a problem, When you get to Cottonwood gate to leave the fort it will not allow you to leave. The only way past this I found was to jump to the location outside of the fort.
 * During the quest For Auld Lang Syne be warned; Save before entering the Remnants Bunker and before starting the quest, Because If you convinced him to return to Freeside right completing the quest, he might not even be outside the Bunker to give you the item Gannon family Tesla armor to you or the Dialogue won't even appear.
 * Sometimes, Little Buster's dead body won't spawn near the train tracks near Freeside's North Gate.
 * At the Lucky 38, the automatic doors before the real doors to go inside will not open and you wont be able to go in (talking to victor won't fix it)

Exploits
Please see Fallout: New Vegas exploits.

General solutions

 * Leave and re-enter the area.
 * Load a save from before the glitch occurred.
 * Exit the game, restart the game, and load a save from before the glitch occurred.
 * PC users may be able to fix some issues by using console commands.

Clipping

 * Clipping (items and actors getting stuck in the ground or in other items) is a common problem.
 * The Courier may be pushed through objects, such as the ground, and launched forwards.
 * Sometimes, if you pick up an object from a table or other surface, all other objects on it will fall through the table.
 * Some clothing have bad clipping problems such as the weapons going through the armour.
 * During the quest Come Fly with Me your characters Pip Boy glove may completely vanish instead allowing your standard clothing to display the regular glove. (I.e Wearing NCR Ranger Combat armor you can see both black gloves and a bit of the trim of the coat.) It has happened to me on 2 different characters on Xbox360.

Crashing, freezing and slowdowns
Crashes and freezes may happen occasionally to anyone. Crashes and freezes are only notable when they are repeatable (e.g. they happen under the same set of circumstances often). If the crash only occurs on one particular save, then the save itself is most likely the source of the problem. Please verify that crashes and freezes are repeatable on more than one save game before reporting.
 * Crashes often when you near completion of the game.
 * Crashes in VATS are somewhat common.
 * Crashing or freezing when entering or exiting areas is somewhat common.
 * Crashing or freezing upon entering The Strip is fairly common.
 * Severe slowdowns are occurring on all platforms. Restarting your system may help.
 * Turning the pip-boy radio off and leaving it off seems to help quite a bit. Try it if nothing else seems to help.
 * The game freezes when repairing/wearing/unwearing the NCR Bandoleer Armor found in the tent next to Lieutenant Hayes' Tent. Don't even go near it. This also happens in the Supply Shack at Camp McCarran. This may be due to the fact that they're of the same condition, and may happen with other stackable items as well.
 * If one saves at the beginning of the game while editing your character the Level up system can crash.
 * After entering the Hidden Valley Bunker. In the main office, after handing over your Weapons, Clothes and Ammo. (Occurred during ED-E My Love quest)
 * Workaround: Don't bring any companions inside the bunker with you during the "strip"
 * Attempting to fire Euclid's C-Finder at any time with the Heave Ho Perk. (After arming the Archimedes-II)
 * At any time the game will freeze up and crash followed by a message box stating that required downloadable content is not present, and then continuing to load will bring up another message saying selected save device is not present.
 * Equipping the sniper rifle may cause the game to slow down severely and most likely freeze. On the PS3 equipping the sniper rifle can cause the weapon hotkeys to stop functioning, and the game to crash shortly thereafter on attempts to sleep, save, enter a new area, or just walk around the map for a minute or so.
 * If the game has been installed to an Xbox 360 hard drive, there is a chance that the files will become corrupted. The game will crash extremely often with a notification saying that the disk is unreadable. This issue can be fixed by uninstalling (and reinstalling, if desired) the game to the the hard drive. If this happens when Fallout: New Vegas wasn't installed, it is likely that the hard drive itself is at fault.
 * Entering Dead Sea's Barracks in Nelson may cause the game to freeze. This may have been caused by meeting Dead Sea in Nipton beforehand.

General NPC bugs

 * The NCR Rangers that follow you when you have a bad reputation with the NCR will hunt you down in locations they should not have access to, such as the brotherhood of steel base.
 * Certain NCR personnel will become hostile toward you, despite having your infamy cleared and being "Liked" by them again.
 * After calling an NCR Ranger to assist you, despite them saying 'Ranger at the Ready' you have had to actually approach and talk to the Ranger, having them repeat 'Ranger at the Ready' to get them to follow your party. If not they will remain where they originally arrived.
 * When attempting the quest Still in the Dark I went to talk to Elder McNarmara about the 3 Scouts and upon entering Level 2 of Hidden Valley an Initiate ran towards the command center. Upon entering the command center McNarmara stands up and equips his Laser RCW, he then proceeds to run in place towards Paladin Hardin's room and it is impossible to start conversation with him. Every NPC after this is frozen including followers not in the party.
 * Sometimes items placed into a followers inventory are not listed making them inaccessible.
 * It is possible for NPCs present in the Atomic Wrangler to randomly aggro an unseen enemy, running to a room on the second floor and staying there. Leaving and re-entering the building may fix this.
 * ED-E may sometimes, upon waking up from being unconscious, make a sound as if he is slamming into metal and then disappear unable to be brought back even when fast traveling. He will not come back even if using Vault 22's elevator as well. He will still be considered a companion, so you will not be able recruit Rex later on if this happens.(Confirmed Xbox360, PS3, and PC)
 * game crashes/console freezes after trading with some wandering merchants, either upon exiting transaction screen, or when trying to save immediately after, or leaving the environment. In one particularly bad case, it seems that the merchant would still have the stock you just bought from him when you go to trade again. This might be related to the crash, if one were to re-buy the same item in this way.
 * Sometimes when items are being added to your inventory you will hear a ticking sound. Wait for this sound to stop BEFORE exiting the barter menu.  This seems to prevent the bug.
 * When Veronica was about to be knocked unconscious my screen went low-light blue. Checking her inventory later I find that one of my Nuka-Cola Quartz was missing.

Engine Bugs

 * Control and HUD loss on reload from save. Known to happen on all three Gamebryo Engine games.
 * If for some reason the engine hangs for a while, the terrain thread can get stuck which means A) the terrain will never update again, leading to the player being able to access the lower LODs B) the thread never closes which means the game hangs on exit

Radio-related bugs

 * Subtle audio-normalization issues on the radio, making some songs noticeably quieter than the announcer (Mr. New Vegas).
 * Some songs played much more often than others. (Seems to only be radio stations with an announcer, Mojave Music Radio appears to randomize correctly)
 * A noticeable distortion is present in Mr. New Vegas' speech when in Freeside or the New Vegas Strip caused by the ambient sounds.

Animation bugs

 * If you are using the Gatling laser and you switch weapons, the Gatling backpack may sometimes glitch onto your back. It cannot be removed even if you drop all your weapons and/or armor. There are two ways to fix this; reload to a previous save not affected by this phenomenon OR reset the game console (in case you auto-saved with the bugged backpack on).
 * Occasionally, when you try to engage in sex dialog with another character, the screen goes black for a moment before returning to normal. Money is subtracted but there is no blacked out sex scene. Fisto seems to work correctly, however.
 * If "True Iron Sights" is disabled, many modded weapons when aimed will block the target reticule and obscure all view.
 * Sometimes your character will hold the gun above the screen if you're in first person. Switching from first person to third person and back will fix this bug; alternatively, you can access your Pip-Boy.
 * Sometimes the players hands will grow in size for no reason but this can be corrected by reloading the game.
 * Hitting a stack of books using power fist in the docs bedroom in his house in goodspring will cause them to bleed (like when you hit an NPC with it).
 * When putting away pistols if you're running the pistol will enter your characters back and stay there until you draw your weapon again, if you hold still while holstering your weapon it will go to your side as normal.
 * When equipped with a two-handed gun in first-person mode, the weapon often clips mid-view, distorts, and slides to the top of the screen and behind the player's perspective.
 * Zooming in with Guns equipped with the scope mod sometimes results in a black screen with a hack computer screen.If you exit the game completely, restart it and "load" a save game rather than "continue", the bug is cleared. (ps3)
 * Zooming in and quicksaving the game and then loading the game will cause the zoomed-in view to overlay the first-person view, you will be able to move around normally but most of the screen will be covered. (PC)
 * When you kill something and the cinematic death is presented, pressing and holding the 3rd person button and then rotating the camera will cause you to spin while you gun stays in place. The view stays in 1st person and you can't switch to third.  You can still move and shoot but not aim down the sights.
 * Looking through binoculars sometimes results in a black screen with a hack computer screen but can be fixed by getting out of the game completely and back in.
 * Sometimes when telling a follower to switch back from melee to ranged will result in their ranged weapon to be holstered where their melee weapon was. (Example: Boone unequipping his machete and equipping his rifle. The rifle will be at his hip instead of on his back).
 * Some caravan card games may not load up a screen, but rather load up the options to choose cards. The screen will remain with you looking at your opponent.
 * When wearing the Prostitute Outfit and strafing to the left, the arm will twist and morph, causing the player's skin to show through the clothing.
 * Occasionally, some NPC's heads will do an 'exorcist', or will turn completely upside down, being near their chest. This is extremely rare, but the most notable person to do this is Antony ( This bug can be solved changing the screen texture settings in "PAUSE" menu, tested by me).
 * Sometimes, your fingers will 'break', and your index finger will bend and partially clip through itself.
 * Many NPCs seem to sit about 2 feet to the left or right of chairs instead of actually in the chair in several places throughout the game.
 * Sometimes, when a character is talking, their mouth won't move or there mouth will move when they aren't talking anymore. This happens (generally) when a message pops up on the screen during a conversation.
 * Sometimes whilst sitting with Brotherhood T-51b power armor the shoulder plates start turning upside down
 * When activating a computer console for use, the screen becomes blurry, rendering the terminals unusable, but you can hear the typing on the computer as if nothing is wrong. Players can still back out from the screen.
 * Numerous NPC's will sit down at a dining table or empty desk and begin to type on a computer that isn't there. You can hear the keys and their fingers will move, but no computer will ever appear in front of them. Note that this has occurred in locations where a computer isn't present.
 * Equipping Lucky .357 revolver to Cass causes a regular .357 model to be displayed on her person (not sure if it effects other companions)

Weapon Bugs

 * Many weapons, when modded will block the target reticule and obscure all view when aimed if "True Iron Sights" is disabled.
 * Anything related to the hot-key functionality will cause the PS3 to hang, requiring a hard reset. Including: using R2 to assign a weapon to the D-pad hot-key from the pip-boy interface, using the D-pad to change weapons.
 * After reloading a pump-style or drum shotgun the fire trigger may not work from 0 to 60 sec [not good in combat as you can imagine] after the reload. Also occurs with the Cowboy Repeater rifle and lever-action shotgun (if I need to reload and shoot again I start pulling the trigger before the last shell/round is loaded into the gun to avoid the "full load lock up") . Solution: Do not let the ammo in your gun run out, i.e., reload before it's absolutely required to fire another shot.
 * It affects more than the fire trigger: pipboy cannot be accessed, cannot aim or search bodies/crates either.
 * Performing a quick 360-degree spin or taking a step backwards, allows the weapon to be fired once again.
 * Hitting the fire key/mouse button won't fire the weapon while in this glitch, but fixes it quickly.
 * This bug happens with all guns you load rounds into individually such as .357 Magnum, Hunting Shotgun, and Cowboy Repeater. It happens with all reloads whether it's firing every shot, pressing reload button, or switching ammo types. All controls including pressing Esc will be locked out. The last thing you press before LMB (Fire) will happen except if you press LMB (Fire) twice. Solution: Press Tab then LMB (Fire) to bring up the PipBoy menu then press Tab again to get back in the action. Obviously beware having to reload any of these weapons in VATS as you will sit there doing nothing for a while.
 * If you use a lever-action or revolver that you have to reload bullet by bullet. This may help click your ammo switch button real fast till your back at the ammo you was using. You now only reload one bullet and ta-da.
 * The Weathered 10mm pistol is missing a mesh, that is, a graphics file needed to display the gun correctly with gun mods added. Consequently, when you add mods to the gun, you end up with severe visual distortions. A couple examples below:


 * when using the Grenade Machinegun it is impossible to kill a mole rat with high-explosive ammo  Verified: Tried to use the Grenade Machinegun to kill a mole rat, emptied the magazine with no damage.  One shot with the sniper rifle killed it.


 * The Anti-Materiel Rifle will cause people to spontaneously combust if you target them in V.A.T.S, then cancel before firing with Incendiary rounds equipped.
 * the 9mm AP ammo is displayed as +P, just a typing bug. This isn't a typing error, +P is a type of 9mm ammunition which is loaded to higher pressures and thus has more kinetic energy.
 * I'm not sure of the scope or range of this bug, but I had Boone equipped with a Riot Shotgun and gave him ammo, then realized that when he ran out of ammo, the game would lock up, not sure if he was unable to switch weapons or what, but I had a save where he had 4 12ga rounds left, and every time we engaged an enemy, the game would lock up, requiring a hard reset. This happened with multiple enemies, including Radscorpions in Radscorpion Gulch, Caesar's Legion, and Cazadores, if he fires the last of his rounds, the game locks up.
 * Aiming down the sight of any weapon may cause a blank terminal screen to come up instead of the scope.
 * So far this has only happened to me at the NCRCF: After entering attack commands in VATS, my character stood idle, w/o firing and only taking damage. This lasted about 30-40 seconds, and happened twice, but only at this location so far.
 * I had the same thing happen at the Legion Raid Camp during the Booted quest, coupled with the Cowboy Repeater reload bug. Made the ordeal quite a bit more difficult.
 * whenever i shoot the controller turns off meaning i have to turn on my controller again ; I also had a similar problem in fallout 3, try switching your controller
 * Firing a missile launcher until it breaks with either HE or HV missiles equipped, and then switching to another weapon using the Pip-Boy, will cause any remaining missiles to be loaded into the selected weapon. This weapon will now fire missiles instead of its normal ammo. This works with almost all weapons I've tried, including melee and thrown! For example, instead of my hunting shotgun firing 7 buckshot pellets at 10x7 dmg, it fires a spread of missiles at 24.3x7 dmg. This only costs 1 missile worth of ammo. Doing this with the Big Boomer and HE rounds killed everything, including myself, within a huge radius and sent my body to the top of the map. For thrown weapons, a missile is thrown instead (quite funny), and for melee/unarmed, a massive damage bonus is applied (like 106 dmg boxing gloves). This bug lasts until the weapon is switched out or the save is reloaded. Warning: pressing up on the d-pad as if to switch ammo types will cause the game to freeze.
 * When trying to use Euclid's C-Finder the targeting animation will play but no shot will come down. This keeps repeating over and over again even if you change to a new weapon and the effect follows your reticle around. The only way I know of to make it stop is to reload a save from before you tried firing it. Don't know why this happens or how to fix it so that you can actually use the weapon again.

Barter system bugs

 * Do not at any point attempt to sell any faction armor that is currently equipped as it will result in you receiving the notice that the armor has been removed and you are no longer dressed as the said faction. You will be unable to select "A" to accept the message, if you do hit "A" it will simply sell or buy the next item in the list. When this happens, if you press the start button and then resume, you are then able to get rid of the notification.
 * The vendor's name is blank when the barter screen is first opened. If the category of the vendor's items is changed, when you cycle back to the vendor's name, it is now displayed.
 * When purchasing any items from Blake at The Crimson Caravan Company the game will freeze or suffer a severe slowdown immediately after the transaction is complete. Has happened many times and occurs occasionally with other merchants. Occurs most often however with Blake.
 * Selling a modded weapon, and then subsequently trying to buy back the weapon, will result in the purchasing of a different form of the weapon(if it is stocked). Example: Trying to buy back an extended mag 10mm Pistol while other 10mm Pistols are present will result in the purchase of the unmodified weapons first. Purchasing all weapons did not solve this problem, as the modded weapon would not be transferred, though caps were lost
 * If the user abuses the infinite caps glitch with a vendor, the item the player is buying may duplicate in their, or the vendor's inventory. If the item duplicates in the players' inventory and the player is already carrying an item of that type, all the duplicates will not be listed. However, once the player drops or stores that item, the duplicates will appear.
 * When repeatedly buying items from vendors, the item the player is buying may simply disappear when the player accepts the trade. The player will still be charged for the purchase, but never receives the item.
 * Old Lady Gibson may stop giving you caps for any items that you sell to her. The items will disappear from your inventory, but no caps will appear in their place. The items will not appear in her sell screen or inventory, either.
 * When bartering with a traveling merchant, the barter system may freeze upon finalizing a transaction when purchasing one or more cards. It is quite likely that this only occurs when trying to purchase a card that you already have one of within your inventory.
 * First time bartering at 188 Gun Runners or Robotron Gun Runners: save, quit to main menu, continue from lasted saved game will refresh the inventory (including 45-70) once you leave the area the bug will stop working but if you continualy go through the process you can get unlimited amounts of stuff (I was able to buy 1200 rounds of 45-70)

Schematics/Workbench/Campfire bugs

 * If you obtain the Rock-it Launcher Schematics or Food Recipes, they will not show up in the workbench or campfire crafting menu (works fine for me, made cook-cooks fiend stew no problem, xbox)
 * Unable to use Schematics/Workbech/Campfire because it don't show enything what you can make.

PC-specific bugs and issues
Stuttering, crashing, freezing, and slow-down issues are often hardware- and/or software-related. Please visit the Bethesda forums for information regarding these issues. In particular, read through the stickied threads at the top of the forum page.


 * Strange black and white boxes appearing at long view range with Nvida GTX 4xx cards in singular, and many SLI setups. I believe it's a Driver Issue--Omega. (may be fixed by latest GeForce 260.99 driver)


 * Indoor HDR lighting will frequently flicker in areas close to light beams and other nondescript areas. This bug is intensified when the PipBoy light is on. (verified on Radeon HD 4670, on window mode, full screen and using crossfire).

Leveling Bugs

 * After completing a playthrough and starting a new one as the opposite sex (tested male to female), the Courier may not level up past level 1 despite gaining more than 200 xp. This can be fixed by starting a new playthrough as the same sex you were on your original playthrough.


 * After completing a playthrough and starting a new one the Courier in some cases will not level up even after gaining 200 xp or more. If you tried changing sexes before or during your playthrough, you still might not level up despite progress. Contact support if you experience this problem.


 * IF you level up, immediatley save, I was killed as I leveled up, prior to level i needed 50 XP points. Once I leveled up, I died, and stayed at 13 instead of 14, but the XP get to 14 changed. Instead of needing 50 XP points, it kept the same level up from 14 to 15. Cost me a night.

Inventory Bugs

 * When first accessing a merchant's inventory, the merchant's name is not initially displayed as the inventory heading. After scrolling through the available item categories / headings (Weapons, Apparel, etc.) and back to the master list, the merchant's name appears.
 * Throwing Spears often stack incorrectly when moving to / from companion inventory and containers. For example, while you may have 30 Throwing Spears in your inventory, they will appear as 10.  Attempting to take all of them resulted in 3 being removed from the stack and 27 remaining. This has also been seen with dynamite and a few types of armor/helmets. This is caused by the game trying to stack several items of variable condition, meaning that they are counted incorrectly. No spears are actually lost, they are just hidden in your inventory, and will appear after you place/sell the visible spears.
 * When removing a weapon from several of the same type in your inventory, a "modded" weapon (as per the mod ability present in the game, not one added by a game mod) will lose the (+) indicating that it is modified. For example, I have five Varmint Rifles in my inventory, one, with a scope and silencer, indicates the presence of modifications with a "+" appended to its name.  After removing one of the "un-modded" Varmint Rifles from inventory, the "+" disappears from the weapon's title. Also present in bartering. Also happens when moving modded weapons to or from storage containers, such as the cabinet in your hotel room in Novac; in this instance at least it is temporary, and you can still see attached mods by holding the mouse over the modded weapon.
 * Motor-Runner's helmet cannot be removed after turning in the quest to General Hsu. Same goes for the Van Graff armor during the quest Birds of a Feather. I was able to remove the Van Graff armor only after killing all of them.
 * Items in all inventories (yours, companions, merchants and containers) will “hide” behind like items. Seen multiple times with many different items but two specific examples are:  Throwing Spears, inventory said 24 while in locker, upon removing the 24 another 40 appeared in the inventory.  While gambling at Vicky and Vance’s casino I was awarded a set of Leather Armor, Reinforced.  When checking inventory it only showed the set I was wearing, however after dropping that set the additional set appeared.
 * Numerous quest related items are not removed from your inventory once the quest has been completed and cannot be dropped. ie. Distinctive cigarette butts, Engraved Cigarette Lighter, Empty Hydra Syringe, Food Additive, Karls Journal and many others.  Other items remain in inventory stating they are quest related, yet no known quest exists.  ie. Camp Guardian Log pages.  Additionally items like the Rebreather and NCR Emergency Radio, though they may still be of use, you may simply wish to not have them in your inventory but they cannot be removed.
 * On occasion you might find armor, wepons, ect... in containers in pairs; if you repair one with the other you might delete them from your invitory. To avoid this, equip the item you want to repair then repair it with the other.

Graphics glitches

 * Black and/or White flashes may appear on screen at almost anytime during gameplay. These flashes seem sometimes to be part of the environment, staying in one spot as you move, and sometimes part of the HUD, moving with your HUD. This can usually be fixed by updating your graphics drivers, if this does not work setting Anti-Alias to NONE always works.
 * It seems the problem described above happens when a modded weapon is held in the players personal inventory with an un-modded weapon of the same type with better condition than the modded weapon. The weapons "stack" and cannot be accessed in the players inventory at the same time.


 * When crouched and holding a rifle while in first person mode, your arms will occasionally appear to be above your head as if the camera moved down your chest and arms did not follow. It can be solved by standing and crouching one or more times. Additionally, the gun seems to disappear altogether from view, even when holstered and redrawn. It can be solved sometimes by switching view to third person and back. EDIT: This glitch also affects the PiP-Boy.  If you attempt to look at the PiP-Boy while your arm is glitched, you will not see your arm or the PiP-Boy screen.  It also seems to affect your line of fire causing you to miss your shots frequently. This is fixable by selecting anything in your PiP-boy, including equipping weapons or taking any med from your PiP-boy.


 * When followers use the Ballistic fist, the smoke effect can be seen through some walls.