The House Always Wins I

The House Always Wins is an eight-part quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Summary
This series of quests leads to one of many Fallout: New Vegas endings. Mr. House tasks you to retrieve the Platinum chip from Benny and either use it at The Fort to upgrade the Securitrons, or bring it back to the Lucky 38 so that Mr. House can upgrade them. You will then have to eliminate, take control of, or gain the trust of different factions so that Mr. House's plan will work. You may kill Benny along with House to allow you and Yes Man to take over the plan.

Part One
You must retrieve the Platinum chip from Benny and bring it back to Mr. House. This can be accomplished several ways:

Option: Speak to Swank
One of the easiest ways to do this is by telling Benny's #2 guy, (Swank at the front desk of the Tops hotel) about Benny's planned rebellion. Swank is initially suspicious of your accusation, but you can convince him one of two ways:
 * Passing 3 speech checks (15, 30, and 45), OR
 * Showing Swank Benny's preferred brand of cigarettes (left by your grave in Goodsprings); showing Swank the note that Benny's bodyguards left for Manny in Novac (can be pickpocketed from Manny in Novac if not previously acquired, OR by reading the terminal in Manny Vargas' room), AND showing Swank Benny's lighter (obtained from the remaining Great Khans at Boulder City).

Once Swank is concerned you may be right, he will return your weapons to you and tell you to go up to Benny's suite to search for additional evidence. Once obtained and shown to Swank, he will help you eliminate Benny. After talking to Swank, and receiving your weapons back, killing Benny should reap a positive Karma bonus and no retaliation from the remaining gamblers and bodyguards in Vegas. Doing so also completes the quest Ring-A-Ding-Ding.

Option: Speak to Benny
Another way of completing Part One is to talk to Benny at the Tops, which will lead to a meeting in the Presidential Suite. Benny will prefer to meet you with his bodyguards, but you can convince him through a Speech check to leave them outside. Once you and Benny are in the Presidential Suite, you can:
 * Kill him and take the chip
 * If you are without weapons, you can go to the safe on the left side of the room, pick the average lock to obtain some weapons,(or use your holdout weapons), and kill him that way.
 * If you keep the combat inside the suite, and were able to convince Benny to come to the room without his guards, then there should be no further commotion.
 * Agree to partner up and help him take over New Vegas
 * Say you'll consider his offer partnership offer.
 * If you convinced Benny to come without his guards, and then decided to think about his offer you will be ambushed by Guards, and Benny will run off to The Fort and get captured by Caesar's Legion.

Option: Seduce Benny
With the Black Widow Perk, you can seduce Benny and get into his suite without any trouble. You can choose to attack him as soon as you get into his suite, or you can have sex with him and then kill him in his sleep after doing the deed. Either way, the quest proceeds as above. You can also sleep with him and then just fall asleep in which case Benny will be gone in the morning and have left you a note. Benny would then be captured by Caesers Legion forcing you to go to the Fort to retrieve the platinum chip.

NOTE: Options 1 and 3 grant direct access to Benny's Suite, which grants you access to Yes-Man and the 4th conclusion (the Independent Vegas route) via the Wild Card set of quests. Option 2 will also lead to Yes-Man, but you will first have to loot Benny's Suite key from his corpse to gain access to Yes-Man.

Once you obtain the chip, meet with Yes-Man or don't, and return to Mr. House with the chip and watch his demonstration. It is likely that you will never return to the basement that House sends you to, so take the opportunity to loot everything in the area before leaving.

Part Two
For part two of the quest Mr. House will give the Platinum chip back to you and instruct you to go to Cottonwood Cove.

The player must begin Render Unto Caesar via Vulpes Inculta (or Alerio if Vulpes Inculta is dead); he can be found in Nipton, though he may find the player first, on The Strip after Ring-a-Ding-Ding is completed. Starting Render Unto Caesar grants the player the Mark of Caesar, which will protect them in Legion territory. (Be careful of which companions are brought, as some, such as Boone, will attack the Legion even if you are attempting to prove your loyalty to them.)

Travel to Cottonwood Cove, go to the docks and take the raft to the fort. Upon arrival the player will be stripped of all "banned" items (all detectable weapons, certain medical supplies, and the Platinum chip*). The next step is to meet up with Caesar and discuss his wishes. He will reveal his plan and return the Platinum Chip. Next you will need to head to the bunker. Here a Legionary will give you your equipment back.


 * Note that you may retrieve your confiscated weapons and chems from the footlockers by the entrance gate by pick-pocketing the guards for the key, however as soon as it is opened, even with a high sneak the Legion will immediately turn hostile.
 * Note(PC): The player can open the pip-boy before the guard confiscates their items and drop them on the ground then pick them back up (fixed in latest patch).

If you haven't killed him yet, Benny will be in Caesars tent and Caesar will give you the choice to decide how he dies or you can decide to help him escape. You only have two choices for his death, the first is crucifixion, and the second is battle him in the arena in a fair fight. If you decide to help him escape you will either have to kill all the Legion in the Fort or you can give him a stealthboy and a bobby pin to help him escape but you must have high sneak and a stealth boy for yourself or the Legion will become hostile. You can ask him what he will do if you set him free and he tells you that its your choice he can either take over the strip at your side or he will walk off into the sunset and never see you again; however it doesn't give you a choice to pick one or the other after that dialogue you can only kill him or set him free. If you set him free he takes off and hasn't been seen since so not sure where he actually goes.

Alternately, if you become vilified with Caesar's Legion after talking to Alerio you can still complete this quest.
 * You can simply impersonate a legion. Do not take any companions as they have the tendency to alert gaurds and start fights. Make your way through Cottonwood Cove. Put on some legion armor and talk to Cursor Lucullus at the dock who will give you passage to Fortification Hill. Do not talk to anyone else or the whole camp will become hostile. Make your way up the hill to the fort. Run to the back to the weather monitoring station. Save before entering. When you enter a guard immediately confronts you and the three of them will turn hostile. A stealthboy can be useful before entering.
 * You can make a frontal assault on the fort and fight your way through Fortification Hill. Feel free to take companions with you as all guards will be KOS. Make your way through Cottonwood Cove to the dock. Kill Cursor Lucullus who usually grants you passage on the ferry. If you target the raft you will get the option to travel to Fortification Hill. Save and be ready to kill 5-6 guards upon arriving. Make your way up the hill killing a few more guards. When you open the door to the camp area, be ready to kill multiple guards and dogs (10+). Caesar's tent is in the middle and you do not have to enter it to complete this quest unless you are vilified and want to kill and loot Caesar. Make your way to the back where several more guards are training. Save before entering the weather monitoring station as you will have three heavy damaging guards attack at once. You can die fighting them even in VATS mode.

Open the doors on the ground inside the weather station using the Platinum chip and venture down the stairs. Through the doors you will encounter Mr. House who will de-brief you on the mission. Your goal is to reach the terminal inside the bunker to upgrade the Securitrons to the Securitron Mark II Operating System. (NOTE: Caesar sent you into the bunker to destroy the bunker, this walkthrough doesn't follow the request of Caesar.) With a science skill of average (50) you can disable the turrets via the first room you encounter. With a science skill of 75 you can also disable the robot security. This makes the trip much easier as it is simply a walkthrough to the console at the end. The entire bunker has a +1 radiation effect, so plan accordingly.

Whether you have the science skill or not, reach the terminal at the other end of the bunker and upgrade the Securitrons. If you talk to Mr. House before exiting the bunker he will simply congratulate you. Exit the bunker, surrender your equipment to the Legionary at the door, return to the raft that you came on to get to the fort, tell the Legionary there that you are ready to return to Cottonwood Cove and take the raft back. (NOTE: Extra experience can be gained by going back to Caesar regardless of whether or not you chose to destroy the bunker. He will assume that the task is complete.) The game will give you a message informing you that your equipment was returned to you on the raft. You will notice that you still have the Platinum chip in your possession. Next head back to the Lucky 38 and talk to Mr. House to begin part three of the quest.

Alternately, you can just kill the legionaries inside the weather station (for instance, by reverse-pickpocketing explosives unto them) after they give you your gear and the platinum chip back. After that you can just use their armor to dress as a legionary and head back to the exit of the camp. Killing off the guards (can be done easily with reverse-pickpocketing explosives and using hold-out weapons) will vilify you with the legion, but allow you to leave with the platinum chip and go back to Mr. House.

Part Three
You must make your way to Nellis Airforce Base and befriend the Boomers. Getting access to Nellis AFB is the hardest part, as you must dodge a barrage artillery shells, which do a substantial amount of damage. You will then be allowed to enter Nellis AFB and you must complete quests to earn fame from the Boomers. Once you have completed all the quests for loyalty and have earned the status of Accepted, talk to the Boomer leader and this portion of the quest will be complete.

NOTE: When you enter the area where the boomers start shooting the artillery. They shoot 10 rounds when you are found by them. Wait until a 10-round attack is over, and run to the the gate of the Nellis Air Force Base.

If you have already become Idolized by The Boomers, you will still need to go see Pearl to ask for their support of Mr. House, which you will be able to earn. Then you can report back to Mr. House.

P.S. If you want to avoid most of the artillery, and have a high lock pick (100 lock pick skill or 80+ locksmith's reader with comprehension) You can take the train tunnel from the southeast (watch out for deathclaws) by picking the doors for the train tunnel. Be careful inside the tunnel as it is filled with mines and ghouls. Be forewarned that if you intend to use the locksmith's reader, you will either need two of them, or be very fast and damage resistant to run from one end to the other and pick the other lock before it wears off.

Part Four
Mr. House asks the player to go to convince the Omertas to ally with Mr. House. The player can achieve this by completing How Little We Know, or killing all the Omertas. Upon doing either, the player must then return to Mr. House.


 * Completing The House Always Wins: IV will cause the player to fail Beware the Wrath of Caesar!, Don't Tread on the Bear and Render Unto Caesar.
 * This part of the quest can be avoided if the Omerta leaders have been previously killed or helped.

Part Five

 * Wipe out the Brotherhood of Steel by destroying its underground bunker

The player must travel to Hidden Valley and enter the Brotherhood of Steel bunker. If the player has not interacted with the Brotherhood of Steel, they must complete an orientation by convincing a Ranger in an adjacent bunker to leave (if Veronica is a companion, the player can enter without the orientation). For details on this portion of the quest, please see Still in the Dark.

Once the player has access to the bunker, they may complete the mission by activating the self-destruct sequence, or by killing all Brotherhood personnel.

Option: Initiate bunker self-destruct sequence
In order to initiate the self-destruct sequence, the player must obtain 3 keycards, or have a science of 100.

Travel to L2 of the bunker, where the player will find Elder McNamara, Head Paladin Hardin and Head Scribe Taggart; each of which have a needed keycard. Head right, and locate McNamara (the easiest to steal from as he is sitting in his chair). Hardin can be found to the left of this room in one of the three bedrooms sleeping, standing, or on his computer. Go back towards the door to L1 and go all the way up the left hallway. At the end is the self destruction room, where you will also find Taggart (to steal from Taggart, the player may require a stealthboy). Once the player has all keycards, return to the room were Taggart is and obtain the password from the the Override Code Generator terminal (green) next to the actual self-destruct terminal (blue). Before beginning the sequence, steal a bunker key from the guards protecting the Elder on the other side of L2; once the destruction sequence is activated, the door to the bunker locks; opening it again requires the key or 100 lockpick. After activating the self-destruct sequence with the password, the player becomes vilified by the Brotherhood (plan your supply of stealth boys/ammo/weapons accordingly). As the player makes their exit from the bunker, they will encounter many hostile Brotherhood of Steel personnel. The player can avoid confrontation using sneak or fight their way out. Upon exiting, the bunker will explode. There is a chance that there will be 5 paladins waiting to kill the player outside. Although, if the player wore Brotherhood faction armor such as Brotherhood T-51b Power Armor before activating the self-destruction sequence, Brotherhood personnel will not become hostile towards you which makes this part of the quest easier to complete.
 * If the player chose to oust McNamara as elder during Still in the Dark, making Hardin elder, the player can obtain the Elder's Keycard from him, and the Head Paladin key card from the new Head Paladin, Ramos.
 * A terminal in the room on the left when entering the bunker controls all of the turrets. With 75 science, the player can hack the computer to set all of the turrets to attack "registered brotherhood personnel." This makes completing the quest as simple as searching the dead bodies for keycards, with only a few pockets of resistance from the Brotherhood. (The player may encounter a few Brotherhood members that have not become hostile despite just murdering everyone else in their bunker, such as the paladin at the shooting range.) A companion can carry Brotherhood items that may be too heavy to carry.


 * 00147889

Option: Kill all Brotherhood personnel
This part of the quest can be completed without destroying the bunker. Killing all Brotherhood personnel in the bunker will also complete the objective. This path will lead to karma loss, as some of the named Brotherhood scribes and paladins are considered "good" npc's.

Part Six
You must protect President Kimball from an assassination attempt. Start by proceeding to Hoover Dam and talk to the Ranger in charge, Ranger Grant. The game then forces you to wait until the next day. After talking to the ranger again he will explain the plan of the day. The quickest way to do this quest is to follow the Ranger to the observation deck, then tell the Ranger that you are ready and a Vertibird will land above you. Next, go up the ladder on the side and wait until you see an engineer.

Note: If you haven't been granted full access to all areas you will need to pass a 50 point speech test to get past the guard to the ladder without turning everyone hostile(for other ways to do this see the quest article You'll Know It When It Happens.

After he passes, examine the Vertibird and you will see that there is a bomb- if you have 50+ Repair or Explosives disarm it, but if not then you can also pickpocket that engineer and get a detonator. Talk to the Ranger once more and tell him about the bomb. The president is then rushed to the Vertibird and quest is completed. Alternatively if you are not on good terms with the NCR* Mr. House will direct you to El Dorado Substation to install an override module instead (part 6 of The House Always Wins will appear as failed then you will be given The House Always Wins part 7).


 * Be careful that you are not disguised as a member of the Brotherhood when you talk to House after destroying the bunker. You will not have any reputation with the NCR and immediately fail. (Actually, any disguise will override your current reputation with the NCR--even NCR disguises--so make sure you are wearing neutral clothing before speaking to Mr. House. Confirmed: PC, XBox 360, Playstation 3)


 * If you have a low standing with NCR you will fail this quest before it begins and House will give you part seven instead.

Part Seven
The player must install the override module at the El Dorado Substation. Several NCR troops guard the substation and warn the player that there will be trouble if they enter.
 * A stealth boy can be used here to avoid any conflict (companions will not compromise the player), make sure the player is crouched upon entrance and exit.
 * Alternatively, wearing NCR armor can cause the guards to refrain from shooting on sight.
 * Additionally, another way to avoid conflict with the NCR is to immediately fast travel upon leaving the substation, the NCR will not have time to "react".
 * A more violent, yet still subtle method is to use a suppressed sniper rifle to kill each soldier, utilizing the series of small rocks surrounding the garage as cover. A stealth boy can then be used to access the terminal undetected.

After accessing the terminal, the player will gain Infamy with the NCR. Upon completion, return to Mr. House.

Part Eight
Report to Mr. House when you are ready.

Journal entries
Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Bugs

 * Message indicating quest failed, despite not having started, while deep within Vault 11. May have been related to activating Lucky 38 override in H&H Hardware or at Camp Golf earlier in game while exploring. Possibly related to Still in the Dark Questline or be entirely related to Vault 11.Confirmed on PC Also confirmed on Xbox and PS3 as well.(Updating this bug)-The 8 turrets down in the bottom level of Vault 11 are of the Lucky 38 Faction. Killing them may be why you are failing this quest. Simply let your companions take out the turrets and you should be fine. If you want to reset failed quest do the following: 1.Open console and type: setally 001267ab 0001b2a4 resetquest 00147885 setstage 00147885 5 setobjectivedisplayed 00147885 5 1 2.Go to Lucky 38 Penthouse. Step to the Mr.House's terminal. Open console and click on the terminal so that "Mr.House" reference appears on the top of the screen. Type: setdestroyed 0. (Added Update)


 * If you are under the affects of mentats before you give the chip to Mr. House in the first part,when being transported to the basement you will be stuck at the door unable to do anything with no HUD and no pipboy, the solution is to let the mentats wearoff before you give the chip to house.


 * When transported to the basement to watch the Securitrons update, if you're wearing the rebreather gained in Nellis Base you'll be stuck at the door (can't move, can't use PipBoy) with no other option than reloading a save. So be sure to take it off before heading down. (No problems doing this on PC after patch)


 * After eliminating the Omertas from the equation, when you go back to Mr. House to tell him the Omertas are gone, the only dialog options to come up are the ones telling you to go and deal with the Omertas, and you can not finish the quest. To remedy this, load a save point before killing Big Sal and Nero, and go talk to Mr. House and make sure you go through all the dialogue on what to do about the Omertas. After this, killing Big Sal and Nero should allow you to finish the quest once you return to Mr. House.


 * Sometimes the Platinum Chip will disappear, leaving you having to kill Mr. house.


 * Upon completing part II, returning the platinum chip and receiving your reward, the dialog will end and the screen fades out. When the screen fades back in, the character may be frozen in place and unable to interact with Mr. House.


 * If you tell the ranger about the brotherhood they will attack you, and leave you with no way to complete the quest without a level 100 lock pick skill. (There is a key on the person of one of the fallen Brotherhood Paladins that will gain you access but after that they are all hostile with you)


 * When working on Part 4 of the mission, there will be an option while talking to the Omerta receptionist that says [Barter x/55], meaning you need at least 55 Barter to choose it. But upon using a Salesman Weekly to raise my Barter to 55 (Salesman Weekly is a +10 increase to your Barter skill), the option went away, and I was left with the [Strength x/8] option or the option to hand over 300 caps. I also tried leveling up to get enough Barter, but even then the option disappeared.


 * When you first open up this quest, you can use your barter skill (55?) to get infinite experience points, even with patch v.1.01. Just make sure you choose the barter option, then say you will not get the chip for him, and repeat. You can also do the medicine speech (35) challenge for infintite experience.


 * When trying to complete Part 2 of this mission, sometimes trying to talk to Mr House - or rather, his computer - fails. Instead of initiating conversation, the player only receives the dull click sound emitted when pressing the action button when no action can be made, despite the message 'A) Talk to Mr House.' This may be due to having helped the Boomers at Nellis before completing Part II. It renders the player unable to complete the quest in any way, leaving only the option of killing Mr. House.


 * When you have activated the self-destruct sequence in Part Five, sometimes the Door to leave the bunker will be shut. You must then pick the lock with a level 100 lockpick skill, pickpocket the bunker key, or kill a person with the bunker key. Current known people with the key are; The Elder at the time and Paladin/Head Paladin Ramos. Also verified on PS3.


 * When first confronting Mr.House in "The House Always Wins" if you have enough Barter skill (50) you can make House raise his reward for dealing with Benny. If you refuse to do the quest after that you can repeat the Barter test for unlimited XP(50).


 * During Part Five, even if you've begun killing members of the Brotherhood and is vilified, some members will not attack you.


 * If you have any companions with you during Part Five, they may die as a result of the explosion if they don't get out of the bunker in time. Station any companions you have with you outside before setting off the self-destruct, or be prepared to lose them.


 * Sometimes when trying to complete part 6 and protect president Kimball, President Kimball stays at the place where he is holding his speech, even after the speech was cut short. This results in not being able to finish the quest. Standing on the platform near the president does trigger the running animation but the president stays on his place. Reloading the save doesn't resolve this problem.


 * when trying to complete part two Victor may not be standing outside the lucky 38. if this is the case and you enter you will be attacked by the two securitrons inside and the copy of victor that controls the elevator with no way to yield. the quest can not be completed if this happens because you will not be able to get to Mr. house without the elevator. the suspected cause of this is killing victor's original copy (the one that fallows you) the only known way to fix it is by loading from before killing victor.


 * If you kill Benny, take the chip, and/or speak with Yes-Man before meeting with House (and thus prior to starting The House Always Wins, I), once you bring the chip to House, two bugs may occur:
 * First, you may be able to use Barter to increase the payment to 1,250, but House will still only give you 1,000.
 * Second, House will teleport you to the basement to observe the upgrade, but once there, the quest freezes. You can walk to the waypoint marker on the observation platform but the quest will not update and since you can't interact with the elevator, you'll be trapped.


 * After Blowing up the bunker in part V and returning to Mr. House he will not respond, The talk action shows but does not function. Unknown if there it any way around it.


 * In Part 2 after exiting the secret bunker, (Regardless if you did anything or not) Caesers Legion might "forget" that you are trying to help them and you will gain Legion Infamy and then attack you, leaving the only choices are battling the impossible legion or reloading a very early save, before talking to Caeser.