Restoring Hope

Restoring Hope is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Detailed walkthrough
Travel to the Camp Forlorn Hope command center and speak to Major Polatli and ask what can be done to help around the camp. He says that a lot of things can be done and then tasks the Courier with speaking to Mayes in the quartermaster's tent.

Mayes will send the Courier to retrieve a supply shipment that didn't get delivered to the camp. He directs them to Lieutenant Haggerty at HELIOS One to get more information on the shipment. Haggerty will reveal that the missing shipment has a GPS in it, so it can be located on the Pip-Boy's map. The location is northeast of the Southern Nevada Wind Farm, which is west of Camp Forlorn Hope. From the wind farm, go northeast until reaching a short cliff that drops into a small valley. Continuing to look northeast, one should be able to see a few dead NCR soldiers, along with a storage crate that contains the supplies needed several yards away by another small cliff. Taking the supplies triggers an ambush by 3-4 Legion soldiers.

If the Courier can remain unseen (maximum detection level [CAUTION]) by the Legion soldiers that spawn, they will not be hostile. At the time they appear, any of the Legion soldiers that suspect the Courier's presence (but cannot locate them) will put the player in [CAUTION] as usual, but revert to non-hostile once the Courier is [HIDDEN] from them. They will then remain non-hostile. The Courier can also disguise themself as a Legion soldier to avoid confrontation.

After recovering the shipment, return to Camp Forlorn Hope and return the shipment to Mayes, then consult with Polatli. He sends the Courier to the camp's medical center and asks them to assist Dr. Richards. Speak to Richards and he will give the Courier a few tasks. First, he says that he would appreciate a hand in treating some of the injured soldiers. There is an option to not assist in this task. There are no negative consequences for choosing this option. Examine each of the three patients in the medical center and treat them accordingly:
 * Patient 1 suffers from machete wounds. A Medicine skill of 35 is required to treat him or a Med-X, whiskey and surgical tubing is required to carry out treatment.
 * Patient 2 suffers from a leg injury. A Medicine skill of 50 is required to treat him or a medical brace, Med-X, and a bonesaw is required for treatment.
 * Patient 3 suffers from close range blast trauma. A Medicine skill of 75 is required to treat him or tweezers, Med-X, and a super stimpak will be required.

Everything needed for the non-Medicine skill based solutions (except a super stimpak and two of the three Med-X) is inside the tent itself and the Courier will not be penalized for taking anything within it until they have finished with Richards. Regardless of this, a minimum Medicine skill of 25 is still required to successfully treat all the patients. If the Courier's Medicine skill is lower than 25, they will botch the treatment (rather humorously) even if they have collected all the required items. This will result in Richards throwing the player character out of the medical center and will net some NCR infamy. However, the quest will still continue as normal, with Polatli acknowledging that he likely sent the wrong person for the job.

After treating all of the soldiers, return to Richards and let him know. From there, return to Polatli and tell him the soldiers have been treated. He then sends the Courier to rendezvous with Cooper between the camp and Nelson.

Meet with Cooper and his squad and assault Nelson. The Courier will decide whether to attack from the cliff at the east (distance, good for sniping) or from the north (close quarters.) Cooper's squad will vary depending on the player character's success in completing the various side quests and unmarked quests in Forlorn Hope. If every quest was completed in the best possible manner, causing a high morale boost for Camp Forlorn Hope, Cooper will be assisted by Veteran Rangers with sniper rifles. Alternatively, lower ranks of morale will respectively result in Rangers with standard weapons, in the form of a 2 or 4-man trooper squad. There is a cliff nearby if the plan of attack includes sniping. Otherwise, storm Nelson and kill the legionaries in the town. Head to the northeast barracks and kill Dead Sea. He will have a few legionaries with him. After this, return to Camp Forlorn Hope and tell Polatli of the victory. This will complete the quest.

Counter-quest
This quest is in direct opposition to We Are Legion. Finishing either will always cause the other to fail. For example, this quest requires the death of Dead Sea who gives (and closes) We Are Legion and vice-versa with Major Polatli.

Camp morale
Camp morale will determine how many and how strong reinforcements are during the NCR assault on Camp Nelson. There are various local quests to be completed, and the player character's success in completing them will determine how much morale is raised.

0 - 3 Points = No morale (Two Standard NCR troopers)

4 - 6 Points = Low morale (Four Standard NCR troopers)

7 - 8 Points = Medium morale (Four NCR Patrol Rangers with rifles or revolvers)

9 Points = High morale (Four NCR Veteran Rangers)


 * An Ear to the Ground; 1 point awarded for every set of 10 ears turned in, for a maximum of 3 points for 30 ears.
 * Medical Mystery; 1 point for turning in Stone or for Stone turning himself in (and checking back with Dr. Richards).
 * Restoring Hope; 1 point for returning supplies to Quartermaster Mayes.
 * Restoring Hope; 1 point for helping Dr. Richards perfectly.
 * Tags of Our Fallen; 1 point awarded for every set of 5 NCR dogtags turned in, for a maximum of 3 points for 15 dogtags.

Doing the best quest paths possible will yield a total of 9 points.

In older versions of the game, 10 points were required for high morale. Player character had to successfully complete the Return to Sender for additional points. As of version v1.4.0.525 completing the Return to Sender doesn't yield any morale points.


 * Removed in patch: Return to Sender; 2 points awarded for telling Reyes the truth or 3 Points for keeping Hanlon's secret safe and having Reyes join in the secrecy pact. (Note that there will be no objective marker for returning to Reyes at this point, as the quest completes after interacting with Hanlon.)

Behind the scenes
The name of this quest is a reference to Operation: Restore Hope, a U.S. initiative to create a protected environment for conducting humanitarian operations in the southern half of Somalia in 1992-1993.

Bugs

 * Major Polatli might not recognize the raise in morale points correctly, despite that all previous objectives and side quests were done in the best possible way (i.e. getting 9 morale points). This results in only four NCR troopers showing up at the final stage of the quest, instead of four Veteran Rangers. This might be the result of a bug in Medical Mystery, which doesn't allows for Major Polatli to recognize that the task is done.
 * This can be fixed by resetting Medical Mystery with the console command . Once Major Polatli comments on the missing medical supplies after completing the quest, it means the morale point is counted correctly for Restoring Hope.
 * The "Diagnose Patients" bug may leave the player unable to complete the quest in the "Help Dr. Richards with his patients" section. After talking to the doctor and getting permission to treat the patients, interacting with the patients does nothing. One can bypass this by telling the doctor they are unqualified to assist. However, one should still be able to diagnose patients as the quest notes suggest. This occurs only if the "We Are Legion" quest is started (verified on xbox360 and PC) (only if a current quest state is 10).
 * Alternatively, reset the "We Are Legion" quest by the command . One can also kill Dead Sea, thus failing and ending the quest "We Are Legion." To do this without affecting the Courier's status with either group, use a Stealth Boy and enter Dead Sea's cabin. Reverse pick-pocket a grenade or similar on him but do not leave the room. Note that killing him also prevents the last part of "Restoring Hope," the assault on Nelson, from occurring.
 * After helping Dr. Richards, Polatli may be walking around the mountains between Camp Forlorn Hope and HELIOS One. Fast traveling may fix this.
 * He may also be found at Black Mountain.
 * When going to the tent to talk to Dr. Richards about helping his patients, one may find inside that every patient is standing up alive and well. Operating on them is still possible.
 * After treating each individual soldier for Dr. Richards, an non-player character hostile towards the NCR (Powder Gangers, Great Khans, etc.) may spawn at the tent entrance, attacking and likely killing Richards, causing the quest to fail.
 * If one kills the Legion raiding party when they come across the Helios-Hope shipment and fast travels to Forlorn Hope immediately after, the entire camp will be alerted as if there is an enemy nearby and conversation will not be possible. Simply wait for the alert to recede, or leave the area.
 * The area around Nelson and Camp Forlorn hope is one of the more bugged-up and crash-happy areas of the game. Save regularly to avoid lost progress.
 * If one kills the Legion raiding party after coming across the Helios-Hope shipment and fast travels to Forlorn Hope shortly after, a group of legionaries will sometimes appear inside the camp and attack the NCR soldiers. Although they are easily dispatched, similar to a previously mentioned glitch, one may be unable to interact with any NCR soldiers due to them being in a "perma-alert" mode.
 * If one assaults Nelson on their own and kills Dead Sea before getting the "Kill Dead Sea" part of the quest, it may not be possible to turn the quest back in to the Major.
 * When opening the supply shipment and taking the supplies the game may crash and must be reloaded.