Render Unto Caesar

 is a quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Quick Walkthrough
Notes:

Leave Boone or he will attack any Legion you encounter.

Do not enter Cottonwood Cove dressed as a member of the NCR or you will be attacked on sight.

Part I: 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 what 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. Choosing to kill Benny allows you to take his special checkered suit: +5 speech and +5 barter skill, whereas releasing him turns all the Legion in the area to turn hostile towards you.

Detailed Walkthrough
This quest begins once you exit The Tops Casino after completing Ring-A-Ding-Ding. Vulpes Inculta 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 that if you killed Vulpes Inculta earlier in the game, Alerio will then present you with the mark.

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 Novac (in Dinky the Dinosaur or in his house) or at Lucky 38.

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. All weapons will be returned upon leaving the camp. If you ask what items are banned then you can keep your meds/chems by saying that you suffer a heart problem (Speech Check of 35).

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 60, 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 three 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 felt the vibrations from either the blast or the update and assumed that you did what he asked.

At this point, he will let you choose how to deal with Benny. There are three options related to killing him: you can have him crucified (-100 karma, unable to loot body), kill him where he stands, or battle him to the death in the arena. If you tell ED-E to wait outside Caesar's tent, he'll be close enough to take shots at Benny during the duel.

If you choose to battle him in the arena you'll find that he is not a particularly difficult opponent as long as you keep moving and take one machete swing at a time. Make sure to loot his body for his unique 9mm, Maria, and Benny's suit.

Alternatively you can also choose to help him escape by either untying the ropes or providing him with a Stealthboy and bobby pin. Both options result in infamy with Legion and a karma gain (of 250 and 300 points respectively) however the nearby Legion also instantly become hostile and attack.

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. If you blew up Mr House's secret bunker, no Securitrons will greet you outside the building and they will all be hostile towards you. Kill or pass the one or two on the first level and use the elevator to go to the penthouse. There are five Securitrons in the main room of the penthouse and they will all be hostile toward you (occasionally one will sometimes not be hostile(37% chance)).

In the same area with Mr. House's big screen on the left 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. If you are not hostile against Mr. House, opening the antechamber will turn the Securitrons against 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. 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. However, the problem lies in that the cannons blast anyone that gets close to their base (if you already are idolized with them then skip to the end). While heading to their base, George 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 taking a left turn as soon as you see the houses and following the house line until you reach the end. Make a beeline for the fence, and once you are close enough to the fence enter the gate. (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). Talk to the Boomers and follow directions until you complete the quest-line and have support from the Boomers. After all this return to Caesar and let him know that the Boomers are on his side.

Part 4: White Glove Society
You must bring Caesar's`offer of alliance to the White Glove Society. After learning about the society you can either tell Caesar they do not want his alliance (which ends this part of the quest) or go to Mortimer after talking to Marjorie and help revert the society to cannibalism. Mortimer will give you a key to the kitchen where Ted Gunderson will be locked in a freezer. You have the option of killing him or freeing him and returning him to his father. If you kill him you must frame his father by putting blood samples around his penthouse. Also, if you release him and then kill him all of the members of the White Glove Society will be hostile towards you and you may end up killing Marjorie. If this is done, the only way to finish the quest will be to reload from an earlier checkpoint. Caesar will never allow you to tell him the Society is not worth their time. There will be two hired hands with caravan shotguns in the penthouse to try and stop you from planting the blood. Once you leave the room you will then get some securitrons to investigate the room and arrest Gunderson's father. Return to Mortimer two more times until you are informed the society is now cannibals and confirm your alliance by talking to Marjorie. If you choose to free Gunderson, your going to have to find a replacement for the cannibals to eat, return him and confirm that the society is cannibals by talking to Mortimer and then Marjorie. Now return to Caesar with the news.


 * You may encounter a problem with converting the White Glove Society to cannibalism if you have a good karma rating. Mortimer might tell you that you wouldn't have the stomach to help him. To get around this, you either need to have a high enough speech rating, or be a cannibal yourself, to convince him you can help.


 * This mission can be averted altogether if you have foiled Mortimers plan and rescued Ted Gunderson. You can tell Caesar that the society will not revert back to cannabilism, so the plan to blackmail them into an alliance will not work. This though seems to have little to no detrimental effects to the Legion actually conquering the Mojave.

Part 5: Brotherhood of Steel
You must go to Hidden Valley and enter the Brotherhood of Steel bunker. If you have not interacted with the Brotherhood of Steel, you must go through an orientation by convincing a Ranger in an adjacent bunker to leave. If you warn the Ranger in any way about the Brotherhood, the Brotherhood will become hostile and enter the bunker to kill you. If your reputation with the NCR is too low, the Ranger will not talk to you, so you are going to have to kill him. The brotherhood will confiscate your weapons, so it is recommended to carry some holdout weapons before entering. If you have Veronica as a companion, you can entirely skip the Ranger part, as she will let you in.

Once you have access to the bunker, you need to steal 3 keycards from 3 main personnel in order to get the password for the self-destruct sequence or have a Science skill of 100, at the same time you can look for a bunker key for your escape later on. It is suggested that you save before stealing from each character in order to avoid killing for the keycard if they catch you stealing. You need to go level L2 of the bunker, where you can find Elder McNamara, Head Paladin Hardin and Head Scribe Taggart. Head right, where you can find McNamara, who is the easiest to steal from and can be stolen as he is sitting in his chair. Hardin can be found to the left of this room in one of the three bedrooms. He will be in the room sleeping, standing, or on his computer. Crouch, wait until you are hidden and then steal his key card. Go back towards the door to L1 and go all the way up the left hallway this time. At the end is the self destruction room, where you will also find Taggart. For Taggart, you may need a stealthboy as the only time you can steal his card is when the girls view is blocked by the tower in the middle of the room.

NOTE: If you helped remove Elder McNamara in the Quest "Still in the Dark" the last keycard can be found on Paladin Ramos. (Confirmed XBox 360 10/27/2010 and PS3)

Once you have all keycards, return to the room were Taggart is and obtain the password from the the Override Code Generator terminal(green) next to the actual self-destruct terminal(blue). Now use the code on the self-destruct terminal to destroy the bunker and head out of the bunker.

After activating the self-destruct sequence with the password, you will become a villain in the eyes of the Brotherhood, so you will need a good exit strategy. Here are four alternatives:


 * A single Stealth Boy can get you out without firing a shot or getting shot.


 * If you kill the scribes and the apprentice in the computer room before starting the self-destruct and put on their robes, everyone in the bunker will be friendly except for McNamara. Go into his room kill him and the guards will stay friendly. Then pickpocket one of them for a key from the doorway. After that, everyone is a friend and you can walk out.


 * You may re-program the terminal in the first section of the bunker (after you speak to McNamara)(there should be a Brotherhood soldier on the terminal on the wall). You have the options to deactivate, or reset target parameters. Set to "registered brotherhood" for an easy level clear out and to avoid a tough chase out of the bunker.


 * Guns blazing: Before heading up to L1 to make your exit, kill the guards protecting the Elder on the other side of L2 and steal a key so that you are able to leave the bunker. If you do not steal a key, you must lockpick the final door (Lockpick skill of 100). Now make your way to L1. You should either have a lot of stimpacks, ammo and good weapons to fight your way out or have no weapon equipped(run faster) and have a few stimpacks and turbo handy to make a run for the bunker exit. Your best bet is to go unarmed and run for the exit. If you do not have a Stealth Boy and are having trouble running to the door, perhaps change your settings to easy for the time being.

After leaving the bunker, the bunker will explode and there is a chance that there will be 5 paladins waiting to kill you before you can return to Caesar. *Note:if you have veronica as a companion she will leave you after you initiate the self-destruct sequence due to you being vilified.

Part 6: Caesar's Illness
Caesar will now explain his headaches and tells you he needs a cure for his tumor. You must now complete the quest Et Tumor, Brute?.

Part 7: President Kimball Assassination
President Kimball is making a speech at Hoover Dam, Caesar wants you to talk to Cato Hostilus about his Assassination. You must now complete the quest Arizona Killer.

Part 8: Legate's Camp
Report to Legate Lanius

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

 * Caesar's Legion may still be hostile towards the player, even when carrying the Mark of Caesar.
 * 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.
 * Boone cannot be with you, even in spirit. Check to see if Boone's Spotter perk is active.  If the perk is active, tested by aiming at a target, then Boone is considered to be present and the Legion will attack you.  You must part ways with him prior to taking this mission, though he will return to Lucky 38's penthouse if you are on good terms with Mr. House.
 * Sometimes Rex can disappear when entering the Legion fort making it impossible to complete the quest. It is recommended to send him home or to the Lucky 38 casino.
 * 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. Unfortunately there is no going back from this. Once you become hostile to the Legion you will remain hostile. Currently there is no workaround for this bug.
 * Some players my never be able to advance in the questline if they killed the primary NPC's in The White Glove Society and/or the Omertas as you will be told to report back to Caesar but a dialogue option will not propagate. Other then reloading before those events, no workaround is known as of yet.
 * If you have made Hadrin the new Elder you may be unable to get his key card as well as McNamara.
 * There is a glitch where if you save inside Caesar's tent, including the autosave, you may not be able to load the save it will give an error message stating that the game runs on downloadable content that is no longer available and that the hard drive the file is saved to is no longer available.
 * During part one of the quest if the player chooses to fight Benny in the arena some of the players weapons may not be returned and will be lost forever.
 * When activating the self-destruct sequence of the Hidden Valley bunker, the bunker will not explode upon exiting.
 * If you decide to do as Mr. House asks, you may not be able to return to the strip. Entering The Strip will result in a black screen with the game music playing. This is fixed by wearing an Old Cowboy Hat.