Camp Guardian Caves

The Camp Guardian Caves is an location in the Mojave Wasteland. The entrance to Camp Guardian caves is found at Guardian Peak in the northeast part of the map near Lake Mead.

Layout
The Camp Guardian caves is a large network of tunnels and a few large open areas, with its main entrance being at Camp Guardian, directly north of the tent. There are also two additional exits toward the southern end of the cave. The first comes out on a ledge over top of the pathway heading upwards, just past the Camp Guardian sign. The second is located in an underwater passage at the southernmost point of the cave and comes out in Lake Mead, a short walk south of the sign. The cave is inhabited with fifteen to twenty lakelurks and a lakelurk king.

Following the passages will lead to the injured Private Halford. With a high enough Medicine skill (50) or a doctor's bag, the Courier can heal the Private. At this point they can either tell him the path is clear to leave, which unless true will result in his almost certain death, or may ask that he help clear the caves of the remaining lakelurks with a Speech check (50). Note that although the pathway that was taken to reach him is clear and the quickest way out, he will not take this route to leave, but rather will head even deeper into the cave.

By approaching either entrance to the caves, Halford will leave the party, stating that he is close enough to the entrance to get out himself. The largest number of lakelurks are found in the area with the lakelurk king, egg clutches, and eleven dead NCR troopers as well as a dead caravan brahmin. Connected to this room is a mostly flooded chamber containing one to two lakelurks. At the far end of this chamber is a flooded passage that exits into the Colorado River.

Loot

 * Dog tag fist schematics - Reward for saving Halford, or found on his corpse.
 * Seven C-4 plastic explosives - Just inside the cave, with five in a crate, one on top of the crate, and one on the ground next to the crate.

Related quests

 * Help for Halford

Appearances
The Camp Guardian caves appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bugs

 * Sometimes if you do not help the injured soldier (Private Halford) before exploring the rest of the cave, when you come back the option to help him is no longer part of the dialogue.
 * The entrance section of Camp Guardian caves may be pitch black even with Cateye. Once you walk further in this will correct itself. However it sometimes may continue to bug and walking further into the cave will not help, and it will not light up at all. It will also randomly turn pitch black while inside the cave.
 * Upon exiting the lower cave, ED-E may appear in Black Rock cave. Fast traveling or entering a load screen will return him to you.
 * Sometimes when fast traveling away from Camp Guardian, the screen will become very blurry and dark and can make the game virtually unplayable. This may also occur when specifically leaving through the underwater exit. One way to fix this is to fast travel back to Camp Guardian, then to Lake Mead Caves, enter the caves and then exit and it should fix the problem. Taking a Cateye is also effective, and the issue will resolve by the time the drug's effect has faded.
 * Upon exiting the cave from the underwater pool that the Private runs through, all relations with NCR, Khans, Fiends, and Legion may be reset.
 * When leaving the caves via the underwater exit, if you still have Halford following you, he will get stuck on the roof of the exit tunnel, swimming forever and you will not get his note to make the dog tag fist.
 * If Private Halford is asked to support you in killing the lakelurks and you exit through the mid-level exit, then he will continue to follow you for all eternity. When spoken to he believes he is still in the cave and asks you to remain quiet. He will kill any enemies that approach or are nearby, just as a companion would.
 * No matter what cave exit you take with Halford, he will always run back to the underwater exit.
 * If you use the speech check to make Halford help you clear the caves, but then reach an exit, you can collect infinite Service Rifles and ammunition from him by saying "Hey, I thought you said you would help", then "hey, you said I could have your gun", and repeating, as long you don't select the 'goodbye' dialogue option.