Kings' Gambit

Kings' Gambit is a quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Objective
Kill Pacer in a way that implicates someone other than the NCR, or talk The King into ceasing hostilities with the NCR.

Detailed Walkthrough
Once you have completed the quest Things That Go Boom, speak to Ambassador Crocker, who will assign. Crocker tells you about all the violence in Freeside being caused by The Kings. He gives you two options: either kill Pacer (the main source of the violence) or solve the problem diplomatically.

Option: Kill Pacer
If you have already talked to the ghoul Rotface, he may have given you tips, two of which include the fact that Pacer has a heart problem and too many drugs will kill him and another is he has a feud with the Van Graff family. This will add two optional objectives to the quest, one to kill Pacer by adding Psycho to his Jet and the other is to kill Pacer in a way that implicates the Van Graff family.

Method: Frame the Van Graff family (Jean-Baptiste Cutting's note)

 * 1) Examine Pacer's stash of Jet, then return to Ambassador Crocker.
 * 2) Talk to Ralph at Mick and Ralph's and ask him to forge a handwritten note written to Pacer from Jean-Baptiste Cutting.
 * 3) Go to Pacer's room (first room on the left, third floor of The King's School of Impersonation).
 * 4) Replace Pacer's stash of Jet with the handwritten note.
 * 5) When Pacer checks his stash, he will immediately run over to the Silver Rush and get himself killed.

This method works even if you killed everyone in the Silver Rush building earlier. Just follow Pacer there after planting the note in his room and kill him yourself with a plasma or laser weapon to frame Van Graffs.

Method: Frame the Van Graff family (plasma grenade)

 * 1) Go to Pacer's room (first room on the left, third floor of The King's School of Impersonation).
 * 2) Wait for Pacer to appear. If your sneak skill is low, wait for him to fall asleep.
 * 3) Reverse-pickpocket a plasma grenade onto him.
 * 4) Sneak out of the building.

NOTE: All of the Kings members attack you, on all floors if you select this option. (Same thing as happens if you sneak-kill Pacer with a silenced weapon. Somehow, the Kings instantly know you killed him anyway, and all go hostile.) NOTE: Whilst "hidden" reverse pickpocket pacer, plant a plasma grenade and when he is dead, take his clothes and wear them. This way the kings will not become hostile, and you can leave without any hostility or losing fame.

Pacer can also be killed with any plasma based weapon to finish the quest. It is possible to throw plasma grenades in his general area while he is asleep (without using VATS) and kill him without losing Freeside fame or turning the other kings hostile.

If you haven't done the Birds of a Feather quest yet, there is an opportunity to easily kill Pacer without any consequences:
 * 1) Start the Birds of a Feather quest and stand on the Silver Rush entrance until Pacer comes.
 * 2) Talk to him and wait until he starts walking away (in conversation say the worst and let him make the first move then finish him.
 * 3) Now is your chance to hide somewhere and shoot him with a plasma gun without anybody noticing.

Method: Frame the Van Graff family (plasma mines)

 * 1) Begin when Pacer is downstairs with The King.
 * 2) Go to Pacer's Room, Wait until after 7. Pacer and The King will begin making their way back to their rooms.
 * 3) Drop a few Plasma Mines next to Pacer's Bed, on the side away from the Cabinet.
 * 4) Make your way to the front door.
 * 5) Wait until Pacer is killed and exit.

If you wait after dropping the mines they will disappear (cleaning lady?). If you exit before Pacer is killed the mines won't trigger. When you re-enter they will though.

Method: Spike the Jet with Psycho (Requires 60 Medicine and 1 Psycho)
Before you do this, speak to Rotface and keep giving him caps until he tells you about Pacer's addiction, and then go and do these steps.


 * 1) Go to Pacer's room (the first room to the left on the third floor of The Kings' School of Impersonation)
 * 2) Add the Psycho to the stash of Jet under his bed. The stash appears to be a carton of cigarettes.
 * 3) Pacer will die immediately when he checks his stash.
 * 4) The stash under his bed will only show up if you had paid Rotface for a tip, and he tells you of Pacer's Jet stash.

Method: Just kill Pacer
You will fail the quest and lose a substantial amount of fame with Freeside, however you do get a reward (if you apologize) and are still allowed to move onto the next quest. If you wish to easily regain fame with Freeside, go the Atomic Wrangler and talk to James Garret. You will have to pay more caps depending on how infamous you are.

Alternatively, you can pickpocket him without risking lots of infamy or death (although, this will cause infamy with the NCR as well as the Kings if you have chosen to pursue a diplomatic solution, and often causes a random NCR soldier to start a dialog with you and subsequently attack you, causing all NCR troops to become hostile):
 * 1) Find a place where you're alone with Pacer
 * 2) Pickpocket him and make sure he spots you (you will gain infamy to the King's)
 * 3) He should become hostile and start attacking you (other King's members shouldn't become hostile)
 * 4) Let your companion kill him (other King's members should remain peaceful)

Option: Solve diplomatically
If you haven't used your favor from G.I. Blues yet, you can use it to ask The King to stop the violence and turn the quest in. However, if you have already used it, the King will say no and you will have to return to Ambassador Crocker and tell him that the King will not stop the violence. Crocker will then give you two options (on top of the option to kill Pacer): Talk to Colonel Moore at the Hoover Dam or talk to Colonel Hsu at Camp McCarran.

Method: Colonel Moore

 * 1) Head to Hoover Dam and talk to Colonel Moore, she will tell you to tell the Kings to stand down or be destroyed and offers to send a squad to back you up.
 * 2) Anything you say to the King will cause him to refuse and a fight will break out, and you will fail the mission when you tell Crocker what happened. However you will not gain any Freeside infamy if you let the troopers do all the shooting, and you can get the King's unique suit and you even get a reward of 300 caps from Crocker if you apologize and you get to move onto the next quest.

Method: Colonel Hsu

 * 1) Go to Colonel Hsu at Camp McCarran and tell him about the situation in Freeside and he will tell you to offer the King support from the NCR.
 * 2) When you get back to the King and tell him the NCR have offered their support. If you are rude to him, his gang will open fire and you will fail the quest, although you will not gain any Freeside infamy if you let the troopers do all the shooting. You can get the King's unique suit and even get a reward of 300 caps from Crocker if you apologize and you get to move onto the next quest.
 * 3) If the player is polite, the King agrees to peace with the NCR, but Pacer will attempt an unsuccessful coup of The Kings, and a few Kings Gang Members will start shooting the NCR troopers. Help kill Pacer and the Kings' Rebels (it's best to just let the troopers and loyal Kings finish them off because if you draw a gun to help kill the rebels, most of the loyal King members will begin shooting you resulting in The King's death as well) and return to Crocker. (Recommended to leave any armed companions outside of the Kings club house.)

Reward
The player will be rewarded with 1500 XP, 300 caps(600 if resolved diplomatically) and NCR fame. In addition, the quest For the Republic, Part 2 will begin.


 * Received 1200xp and had an option (with a barter skill of 60) to ask for more caps (200). Diplomatic solution, using a favor from the king. (X360)


 * Received 1200xp, received 600 caps and had an option (with a barter skill of 60) to ask for more caps (200). Spike the Jet with Psycho solution. (PC)

Behind the Scenes

 * In Chess, a King's Gambit is an opening strategy where a pawn is sacrificed for a long term advantage.

Bugs
Possible bug fix: Though it might be no bug, after discovering the stash (and the King refusing your request) try talking to the ambassador first. With a medicine skill of 60 or higher you can suggest poisoning the jet, which activates the option.
 * Ambassador Crocker may not give you a reward when you complete the quest, yet will oddly give you a 300 cap reward when you fail it and apologize.
 * Ambassador Crocker dosn't continue with the conversation when you give him the update from Freeside after Pacer's death.
 * When attempting to lace the stash with Psycho, the dialog won't allow it, saying "You could lace it...if only you had some Psycho" despite having numerous Pychos in inventory.
 * No Jet stash under Pacer's bed (you must get the rumor tidbit from Rotface for the stash of Jet to spawn.) On the Xbox 360 sometimes whether or not you get the rumor tidbit the stash still doesn't appear under his bed. Possible bug fix: Type the following into the console: prid 001205BC enable This should cause the stash of Jet to spawn under Pacer's bed.
 * After telling Crocker that the King won't stop the violence, you can still request that the King do so as a favor but it will not accomplish anything in regards to the quest.
 * It is possible that if the player does try doing the "King's Gambit" before completing the "G.I. Blues" that the quest will be impossible to turn in to the NCR Ambassador after you have completed everything for the quest.
 * After completing King's Gambit the Courier may be locked out of the strip (you no longer have the key). There are several remedies to this bug:
 * Go to Camp McCarran and use the monorail to get to the strip. It is recommend that the player be on good terms with the NCR and have NCR armor. Otherwise, use a stealth boy (you may need to leave companions behind if you use a stealth boy).
 * Take the key from one of the robots. To do this make sure you are [HIDDEN] and snipe the robot from a distance.
 * After accepting the quest you may be approached by an NCR MP who will accuse you of an unidentified crime on the strip and attack you. Re-loading a previous (auto)save just before accepting the quest seems to reset the environment and prevents it from happening a second time. On PC, this seems not to work.
 * After talking to Colonel Hsu about NCR help, the option to talk to the King about finishing the quest will be unavailable.
 * After pacer turns hostile the game may encounter extreme amounts of lagg making it very hard to move