Render Unto Caesar

 is a quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Quick Walkthrough
(Note: Leave Boone or he will attack any Legion you encounter.)

Part I: The Platinum Chip Travel to Cottonwood Cove and take the barge to the Caesar's camp. Caesar will give you the Platinum Chip and tell you to destroy whatever you find in the vault. Either destroy the generators or upgrade Mr. House's security and return to Caesar. Kill or release Benny if you haven't already.

Detailed Walkthrough
This quest begins once you exit The Tops Casino after completing Ring-A-Ding-Ding. A representative of Caesar will approach you and inform you that Caesar wishes to meet with you. He will give you the Mark of Caesar, which allows you to safely travel through Legion territory. This is essential if you have a poor reputation with Caesar's Legion. He will also mark Cottonwood Cove on your map.

Note: If Boone is in your party, he will inform you as you approach Cottonwood Cove that he will attack any Legion that you encounter. If you plan on attempting a diplomatic approach, now would be a good time to part ways with him--at least temporarily. He can always be found again in Dinky the Dinosaur or in his house in Novac.

Once you have arrived at Cottonwood Cove, talk to the man that is standing at the end of the dock. He will take you upstream to Caesar's camp.

Part 1: The Platinum Chip

Upon arriving at Caesar's camp you will have your weapons removed with the option to keep your holdout weapons. If your speech skill is high enough then you can keep your medications by saying that you suffer a heart problem.

To your right will be a vendor who can sell you cards and weapon mods. He can also repair your holdout weapons.

Make your way towards the top of the hill and enter Caesar's inner camp. Here you will find a gladiator arena and, most notably, Caesar's tent. If you wish to partake in gladiatorial combat, now is a good time to do so.

When you're ready to advance the plot, enter Caesar's tent and talk to him. Caesar will tell you that there is a vault underneath the camp with the markings of the Lucky 38 Casino. He asks you to enter the vault and destroy whatever you find. He then returns the Platinum Chip.

If you haven't already killed Benny, Caesar will inform you that you will get to choose his manner of death. At this point, you can talk to Benny, who will recommend that you do exactly what Mr. House has asked you to do.

The vault is located within a concrete bunker behind Caesar's tent. Upon entering, a Legionnaire will return all of your confiscated items. Putting the Platinum Chip in the computer will provide subterranean access to the irradiated vault.

Once you are inside the vault, you will see a large screen on which Mr. House is displayed. In conversation he will tell you the purpose of the chip and of Victor's objectives before asking you to finish the job by upgrading the computer's security protocol. You can agree to cooperate or defy him. Either way, he will inform you that he has no control over the vault's defenses and that you'll have to fight your way to the computer.

Down the stairs you will encounter a hostile Protectron, a door, and the rest of the path. Behind the door you will find two locked and one unlocked computers. The locked computers are medium and hard can be hacked to disable the vault's defenses. The medium one disables the Automated Turrets and the hard one disables the Protectrons. If you are able to hack both, your path is clear for now.

Either way, head down the hall. If your Repair skill is above 50, you can open the door on the right and disable the Sentry Bots while they are harmless. In the next room, you will encounter two turrets and two Protectrons. If you look through the windows on your left and right you will see Mr. House's army.

The next room is protected by four Protectrons. It is the generator room. If you plan on following Caesar's orders, destroy the four generators by shooting them. As they explode, the facility will destabilize and radiation (+4 Rads per second while wearing the Space Suit) will be released. This will set off the facility's security system, which at this point should only consist of the Sentry Bots that you had the opportunity to disable.

If you plan on following Mr. House's orders, continue past the generator room into the computer room. It is protected by two turrets. Use the Platinum Chip and the computers will start upgrading Mr. House's security system. (If you change your mind at this point and decide that you would rather help Caesar, you can still destroy the generators.)

You can run past any enemies at this point and exit the vault the same way you entered it. Before you leave the bunker, Caesar's Legionary will again take away your weapons (aside from holdout weapons.) Go back and talk to Ceasar.

Please note: No matter what you've decided, Caesar will not know what you did in the vault. He will have heard the noise and assumed that everything was destroyed.

At this point, he will let you choose how to kill Benny. You can have him crucified, kill him where he stands, or battle him to the death in the arena. If you're feeling cheeky you can help him escape by untying the ropes that bound him and providing him with a Stealthboy.

I recommend destroying him in the arena. He is not a particularly difficult opponent, especially compared to the other gladiators that you might have fought. As long as you keep moving and take one machete swing at a time, he should not even be able to touch you. Make sure to loot his body for Maria.


 * Edit:** I'm in the process of rewriting this walkthrough. I've rewritten Part 1 and will continue with Part 2 shortly.

Part 2: Mr. House

Caesar tells you that he wants Mr. House killed, as simple as that. Make your way back to the lucky 38 Casino, and notice that there are no Securitron to greet you outside the building. Since you destroyed the Building all Securitrons will be hostile towards you. Kill or pass the two on the first level and use the elevator to go to the penthouse. There are five Securitrons in the penthouse and they will all be hostile toward you(i have had one sometimes not be hostile, but rarely) in the same area with Mr. House's big screen there will be a computer tucked behind the stairs, use the computer to open the antechamber and there will be two more Securitrons waiting for you. On the wall in the antechamber next to a new door there will be another computer use this to access the elevator door next to it and take it down to the control room. use yet another computer to crack open Mr. houses medical pod ignoring the warning. Now talk to house and you are given three options after a few words you can kill Mr. house outright(for Caesar or yourself), you can just disconnect him from the mainframe(with the same results as killing him, just no bad feelings), or you can put him back in his pod, however he will still remain hostile towards you because you have doomed him to death within a year from microbial infection. If you kill him or disconnect him head back to Caesar and inform him and get another job in return.

Part 3: Boomers

Caesar wants you to get the boomers to use their artillery cannons against the NCR when he attacks Hoover Dam, The problem being that the use those cannons to bomb anyone that gets close to their base(if you already are idolized with them then skip to the end). Head to their base and a guy will stop you and offer information on how to get past the shells. You can use a speech check or pay him, but all it boils down to is to take a left turn as soon as you see the houses and follow the house line until you reach the end and make a beeline for the fence, once you are close enough to the fence(small suggestion: don't bring companions on Hardcore unless you don't like them, they tend to lag just enough that the near misses for you are direct hits for them). go to the gate and start, and finish the boomer quest line. after you have the Boomers support go back to Caesar and tell him they are with him.

part 4:

Behind the Scenes
The name of this mission is a reference to a Bible story in which, when shown a coin, Jesus Christ says to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto the Lord what is the Lord's."

Bugs

 * If you don't specifically tell Boone to wait for you at the Luck 38 or his house, the dogs and guards will be hostile even if you can't see him following you.
 * Caesar's Legion may still be hostile towards the player, even when carrying the Mark of Caesar.
 * While wearing Legion armor if you get too close to them in the inner camp they may become hostile.(try a stealth boy to bypass this while sneaking).
 * The above mentioned bug doesn't happen if you go straight to Caesar after his spy approaches you. It only happened to me when I spoke to Mr. House first.
 * Some players may find that if you leave the Lucky 38 bunker to sleep or to collect ammo you will not be able to re-enter legitimately. The security guard states nobody can enter without Caesar's permission. As well as this Caesar also will not re-engage in dialogue with the player - therefore you do not gain permission (despite the fact you have already done so). The only known way to re-enter the bunker is to attack the guard at the door of the bunker. This will allow you to open the door - however doing this will turn the entire camp hostile towards you and they will all follow you into the room and Lucky 38 bunker. You will also not receive your weapons back for doing this and possible (haven't tried yet) be able to leave to return to the wasteland.