I Forgot to Remember to Forget

I Forgot to Remember to Forget is a companion quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Activating the quest
The Courier must have Boone with them as a companion to activate this quest. In order to access the necessary dialogue options, the player character must have spoken to Manny Vargas in Novac or Bitter-Root in Camp McCarran about his tour of duty in the NCR and Bitter Springs. In order to trigger the quest, one must accumulate at least 5 "history" points with Boone.

Note that these "history points" can only be earned while Boone is in their party, although he need not be by the Courier's side (they can have him wait elsewhere). If all of the following have been completed before recruiting Boone, it will be impossible to accumulate the required history points without using console commands See note for details.


 * Killing Vulpes Inculta: +1
 * Vulpes appears at multiple points, providing several opportunities to kill him. He first appears in Nipton. If spared, he'll appear on the Strip to give one the Mark of Caesar. If Vulpes is killed when he approaches the Courier on the Strip, Securitron guards will not become hostile, nor will anyone else. He will also appear at the Fort by Caesar's side.
 * Camp McCarran
 * Killing Silus, the captured Legion prisoner of war : +1
 * Note that this history point is earned for Silus's death at any point, not just during the quest where you interrogate him - though the room might be locked if the quest is not active. Therefore the ideal way of earning it is by sneaking C4 into the room during the interrogation and placing it near Silus. This will let you detonate it after you have finished the quest and gotten the rewards. Or using console commands to re-enter the interrogation room with a weapon after the quest is over.
 * During the mission I Put a Spell on You
 * Confront and kill the spy in act: +1.
 * Disarm the monorail bomb: +1 (no additional point awarded for this after patch 1.4.0.525, see Bugs)
 * The Fort
 * Killing Caesar: +2.
 * Legion raid camp
 * During the side quest Booted
 * Rescuing the enslaved Powder Gangers: +2
 * Nelson
 * During the side quest Back in Your Own Backyard
 * Killing all the hostages: +1.
 * Rescuing all the hostages: +2.
 * After making a comment about untying or killing the hostages, Boone will have an additional dialogue about "mercy killing" when initiating conversation with him. This is purely lore-wise and has no relation to the "history" points.
 * Note: It is possible to gain all three points from this quest. First untie all the hostages, wait till Boone finishes his comment about saving them, which gives the two points as intended. Then wait at least ten seconds before killing one of the hostages, which should make Boone comment about "could've saved them", gaining the one remaining point.
 * Camp Searchlight / Cottonwood Cove
 * Eradicate the Legion: +2. While the eradication can be done at any time, for it to count towards Boone's history points it has to be done while doing Eye for an Eye and the currently displayed objective is "Kill all Legionaries in Cottonwood Cove." Killing Aurelius of Phoenix repeatedly using the console is a viable option for farming all five trust points on PC.

The +2 history points will provide some dialogue which the Courier can respond to, which will affect Boone's opinion of them when the actual quest begins. Sometimes Boone will make comments while the events are happening or just completed and sometimes he will not comment. Each time history points are accumulated, one can choose the companion option to "talk to" Boone. As his history/trust with the Courier improves additional dialogue options about his past and Bitter Springs will open up. Depending on dialogue choices, one can eventually persuade Boone to consider returning to Bitter Springs. If that final dialogue option is unlocked, the conversation will come to a close (no more dialogue options) and Boone will say it is a bad idea. Waiting next to Boone for a few minutes will result in him approaching the Courier and saying he has reconsidered what they have said, changed his mind, and will ask if they can go to Bitter Springs together. Agreeing to do so will initiate the quest to begin.

Some of Boone comments:
 * When talking to Boone about Caesar's death, he will say that Caesar has an entire line of succession and this will barely slow the Legion down. Regardless he is happy with the death of their leader.
 * If the Powder Gangers were rescued during the quest Booted, Boone will tell the Courier about the state of affairs with the NCR and Caesar's Legion in the Mojave Wasteland. If they get across the Colorado River, it will be too late to save them and the NCR should be patrolling for Legion raiders and setting up checkpoints rather than spreading themselves so thinly if their objective was holding Hoover Dam.
 * After killing or rescuing the hostages at Nelson, he will talk about what the NCR had to do to the crucified or captured NCR soldiers as the Legion would use gruesome torture tactics to demoralize the other side. To save them the pain of torture, NCR snipers have to perform mercy killing. If they were saved, Boone will be glad the Courier saw another option.
 * After eradicating the Legion at Cottonwood Cove, Boone would be rather pleased to know the camp where his wife and unborn child were being sold and put out of her misery was wiped out and wish that something like this would happen more often.

The attack on Bitter Springs
In order for Boone to initiate a dialogue about Bitter Springs, the Courier must have both gained Boone's loyalty and talked to either Manny Vargas in Novac, Bitter-Root at Camp McCarran or Captain Gilles (only after the quest Climb Ev'ry Mountain) about the Bitter Springs Massacre. After a Speech check of 30 or better is passed the Courier may suggest going back to Bitter Springs. Boone will initially refuse, but will approach the Courier after a period of time about revisiting Bitter Springs.

Once arriving at Bitter Springs, Boone asks to go to Coyote Tail Ridge, where he was stationed and tells the Courier exactly what happened during the massacre there. He then asks the Courier if they don't mind staying overnight. If the Courier says yes, the screen will fade out and fade back in, with Boone saying that a Legion raiding party is on the way. It largely consists of recruits, but they can be tough to defeat, especially if trying to avoid casualties. Some tougher units will be mingled with the later waves.

The attacking Legion forces come in three waves.
 * Wave 1 starts close to the sloping hill up to the refugee camp, and by the time the Courier gets there, they could be among the tents. A single Legion vexillarius brings up the rear far behind and will typically be behind the Courier.
 * Wave 2 starts from behind the busses at the Bitter Springs recreation area. Legion mongrels run far ahead while soldiers walk.
 * Wave 3 comes through a small gap on the west side that leads to the graveyard. Legion mongrels lead the way. The soldiers come up behind as usual, but some or all may occasionally stand in the graveyard.

The quest is considered complete once all three waves are dead. Boone will typically immediately talk to the Courier once the last enemy is dead, but not always. The Courier does not gain NCR Fame until he speaks to them, so the Courier may put on (or take off) faction armor at that point, depending on whether the Courier wants to accept the fame adjustment. At the end of the conversation, his armor is upgraded depending on the last answer. Although both armors are only cosmetically different, this dialogue choice actually influences Boone's ending.
 * 1st answer: Telling him that, "he can't bring back the past but he can try to make things better," yields 1st Recon survival armor, making Boone repentant.
 * 2nd answer: Telling him that, "this is war and people die" yields 1st Recon assault armor, making Boone bloodthirsty.

Behind the scenes
The name of this quest is a reference to the song "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" sung by Elvis Presley in 1955.

Bugs

 * A serious problem has been noted with the PS3 version, with ALL add-ons installed. The huge lag caused by the massive save files will lag out the game every time. There is no fix, save for uninstalling the addons until the quest is complete.
 * After beginning this quest and traveling to Bitter Springs, Boone will sometimes not initiate the conversation necessary to continue the quest and will have only his default dialogue when spoken to.
 * Fast-traveling to the Coyote Tail Ridge map marker should trip the trigger to advance this part of the quest.
 * If that doesn't work, open the console and enter the command This will skip the part of the quest that's glitched, and allow for the start of the "Go with Boone to Coyote Tail Ridge" section of the quest.
 * With the 1.4.0.525 patch, disarming the monorail bomb no longer grants an additional history point during the I Put a Spell on You quest; Regardless of which method is used to disarm it, or if it was disarmed before Curtis dies. A history point will be granted only on the death of Curtis either by killing him before completing the quest, or upon completion of the quest (which results in his death from suicide).
 * If Boone approaches the Courier saying that he's ready to go to Bitter Springs, but they don't immediately accept, he may become stationary and will not move again until that the Courier tells him they want to go to Bitter Springs.
 * If Boone is still looking for enemies even after all of the Legion have been defeated, Boone might say "Let's get through this first," when he was supposed to say the scripted line.
 * Both points received during I Put A Spell On You may not count; the first (save the monorail or kill the spy) will count as one history point, but upon completing the other task the other history point will not register.
 * Occasionally, Boone will trigger the quest after doing Eye for an Eye, even if no other history points have been achieved. After sending the radioactive barrels down into Cottonwood Cove, Boone will say the phrase "Wish there was more of them, I wasn't done yet." If one waits for the barrels to kill every enemy in the camp, he will say this phrase 3 times total with each time giving the player 2 "history points."
 * One can talk to Boone after every phrase to listen to all parts of the dialogue.
 * In the assault on Bitter Springs, the waves of legionnaires may appear in their starting positions but then stand still and not attack the camp. They will be visible from Coyote Tail Ridge and can be fired upon with a long-range weapon. Killing them all will satisfy the objective. Reloading a save before spending the night on the ridge should cause the soldiers to attack normally.
 * It is possible that during a conversation with Boone and trying to get him to return to Bitter Springs, there will not be a Speech check needed to convince him, and the dialogue option in question will appear without the "[Speech 30]."