Nipton

"City of the Dead"

Nipton is a small town located in southern Mojave Wasteland, ravaged by Caesar's Legion in 2281.

Ranger Ghost, an NCR sniper found on the roof of the compound at the Mojave Outpost, will ask the Courier to investigate the lack of traffic from the town, noting the visible smoke from the town's direction.

Background
Nipton was a small town in its early history, and it eventually became a tourist destination, offering Nevada hikers and travelers a place to restock, park their RVs and set up their tents. Those willing to test their luck could partake in the Nevada State Lottery and potentially win a jackpot worth millions of pre-War dollars.

It would remain a small town even after the Great War, wholly due to Robert House's defense of Las Vegas. In the 23rd century, it gained a seedy reputation under the leadership of Mayor Joseph B. Steyn. Prostitution and thievery thrived under the dubious leadership of the one-time Hub crook. Following the NCR Correctional Facility prison break, Steyn extended a hand to the Powder Gangers letting them know Nipton was open for trade. Steyn was able to arrange servicing NCR soldiers in the night and Powder Gangers in the day and keep the two separated. The town's undoing came when Steyn arranged a deal with Caesar's Legion to turn over both NCR soldiers and Powder Gangers to Vulpes Inculta in return for 8,000 caps.

Instead, Vulpes used his small Legion force to round up the residents along with aforementioned groups, including the mayor. What followed was a massacre. Those who resisted were shot. Those that did not were subjected to a lottery. Using Nevada State Lotto tickets, the fate of those gathered was decided. The lucky losers were decapitated, followed by crucifixions, enslavement for third place winners, crippling for the runner-up, Boxcars, and freedom for Oliver Swanick, the sole winner. The mayor was was burned to death a pile of tires after his ticket was called.

Layout
By approaching from the west along Nevada State Route 164, the player character will be greeted by Oliver Swanick, an ex-Powder Ganger. Swanick won the lottery, resulting in the Legion sparing his life. As the player character approaches the town hall, Vulpes Inculta (or alternatively Gabban if Vulpes is killed before the player character enters Nipton) greets the player character or becomes hostile if they are wearing an outfit that aligns them with the NCR. Venturing through the settlement, the player character will see multiple crosses with the remains of the lottery's losers. The rest of the town is in ruins and actively burning.

Outside of Nipton Hall are several crucifixes, along with skulls on a post, and a pyre. Vulpes Inculta meets the Courier outside of the hall and tells them to spread the word of Caesar's Legion’s atrocities. After speaking to him, the quest Cold, Cold Heart begins. Alternatively, if the Courier is clothed in NCR faction armor, Vulpes and the other legionnaires will be hostile and attack on sight. Inside the hall itself, one will find many Legion mongrels. They are automatically hostile if the player character does not have the Animal Friend perk, even if dressed as a member of Caesar's Legion. Killing the mongrels does not give the player character Legion infamy.

The Nipton General Store is located close to the western side of town. A man named Boxcars sits inside and will speak about what happened, opening up the quest Booted. To the left of the town hall, one will find the Nipton Hotel, a small building with four NCR Trooper corpses dumped unceremoniously inside.

There are several houses available for the player character to explore. The house with the sand bags in front of it is heavily booby trapped. Inside, one can find are frag mines in the corner of the living room, kitchen and the bathroom. Both doorways conceal shotgun traps. There is a cage with three bark scorpions directly inside the house. There is an Easy locked safe with a grenade rifle inside, but if the pressure plate to the front of it is triggered, the scorpions will be released. The Average locked cabinet in the kitchen contains some provisions, as well as a dead Legion recruit with a machete, armor and a helmet.

A campfire can be found in the trailer area, proceeding south by southeast of the Nipton General Store.

Buildings

 * Nipton General Store
 * Nipton Hall
 * Nipton Hotel
 * Nipton house
 * Good Luck trailer park

Nipton town hall

 * Worn key - Upon entering Nipton Town Hall, directly to the right, behind the counter. There is a mine behind the counter. The key unlocks the first door on the right down the hall, which leads to a basement.
 * Big Book of Science - On the Town Hall's third floor in the mayor's office, on his desk.
 * Nuka-Cola Victory - Behind the Average locked door in the mayor's office on a shelf.

Heavily booby-trapped house

 * Note titled Declaration of Vital Essence - inside the heavily booby-trapped Nipton home with sandbags lined up in front of it directly east of Nipton General Store. This note can be found in the tool cabinet in the kitchen.

Other locations

 * Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap - In the wooden house directly south of Nipton General Store, on the bookshelf next to the Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle in the bedroom.
 * Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap - On the main road to the east of Nipton, across the train tracks, inside a wrecked truck with a Sunset Sarsaparilla case. The star bottle cap is laying on top. The traffic cones here are booby-trapped with mines.
 * A larger than usual red plate - On the table right after entering one of the Nipton Houses. Taking the plate and dropping it once will keep it the same unusual size, but picking it up and dropping it again will cause it to become a normal sized red plate.
 * The house directly in front of the Wild Wasteland Easter egg - A prototype Mister Gutsy (although the terminal in the house states that the previous owner had two). This is a good source of a few damaged weapons (2 x .357 Magnum, plasma pistol, laser rifle), various metal/electronic parts and items needed for weapon repair kits (e.g. wrenches, scrap metal, wonderglue, duct tape).

Appearances
Nipton appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * Nipton is based on the real world location Nipton, California. Similarly to the in-game equivalent, it is located near the state line. In addition, many physical features bear resemblance, including the proximity to railroad tracks, trailer park, general store, hotel and signage.
 * The two state line road signs directly outside of Nipton exist in the real world, but are located at the south side of the real world Primm.
 * The Legion's sacking of Nipton could be an allusion to Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery, in which the winner of the lottery is murdered by the other townsfolk. This is mentioned by the Caesar's Legion patrol, Mayor Steyn's office corroborates this, as well as the abundance of lottery tickets strewn across town hall. There are also strong parallels between Jackson's story and the social machinations of the experiment conducted in Vault 11.
 * If one has the Wild Wasteland trait and looks around in front of a destroyed building near the eastern entrance of the town, they can find the charred skeletal remains of two people named, respectively, Owen Lars and Beru Lars. This is a reference to a famous scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which Luke Skywalker returns home to find that his uncle and aunt of the same names have been incinerated in a similar fashion by stormtroopers.
 * The Declaration of Vital Essence may be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the film Dr. Strangelove, in which the character of Gen. Jack Ripper is highly and vocally paranoid about guarding his "precious bodily fluids" and "Purity of Essence." Admittedly, in the film he spoke of his essence as though he were referring to his own vigor "in the bedroom."
 * Even though both of Boxcar's legs are crippled from the lottery, he will still engage in combat if attacked.

Bugs

 * There's a glitch that prevents you from being able to speak with Vulpes Inculta, even when he triggers the conversation. The camera will zoom in on him like it would usually do when initiating conversation, but will then quickly retract, bringing the player back into control. Reloading doesn't seem to fix this issue. To Fix this issue you must go back to an earlier save.
 * Boone or ED-E will not enter the Town Hall (First Floor) but will teleport to the Assembly Floor when the Courier enters that floor. This can take place after killing all the legion personnel outside the hall.
 * Sometimes, when fast traveling to Nipton, you may find a crucified prospector instead of a Powder Ganger. He can't be removed from the cross but he can be interacted with. He will most likely be killed by the bark scorpions by the next time you travel there.
 * Standing near the entrance of the Town Hall may trigger an attack from a Jackal Gang Member. It is unknown whether or not this attack was scripted or if the member had simply walked close enough to detect the character.
 * The people on the crosses can be removed from them in the event that you enter and suddenly exit the Nipton Town Hall. They will not walk but just stand there in front of their crosses. Some can be interacted with and some can be pickpocketed.
 * A generalized version of the above: the game may freeze or crash upon leaving Nipton in any direction, either on foot or by fast traveling. This tends to happen after a prolonged period of play, like an hour or more. Supposedly Nipton is heavy on memory, and the engine is so "optimized" it uses raw pointers to moveable or even freed heap chunks, causing all sorts of corruption after a disk swap. This issue is not specific to Nipton, it's just very prominent here.
 * If the Courier activates the mine in Nipton Hall, the worn key may glitch and get to an inaccessible place. This can be fixed using an explosive on the counter, resetting the worn key position.