A Brain's Best Friend

A Brain's Best Friend is a side quest in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on, Old World Blues.

Quick walkthrough

 * 1) Try to find a trace of Gabe in Higgs Village.
 * 2) Find Gabe's bowl behind what used to be Dr. Borous's house.
 * 3) Return to Dr. Borous.

Detailed walkthrough
Begin the quest by talking to Dr. Borous and then going to Higgs Village. When the player first enters, their objective is the house to the left on the far corner; House #103. Behind the house is a doghouse with "GABE" spelled out below it on an AstroTurf mat, on the mat, along with Gabe's bowl which the player must now take.

If the player has taken the Wild Wasteland trait, a unique miniature deathclaw named Stripe will be inside the doghouse. His name will be on the doghouse. Stripe has the attack and health of a full sized Deathclaw alpha male, so caution is advised. It does seem to have a boundary of attack which may stop near the front of the house. This can be exploited by attacking from there. (It should be noted that his range of attack extends all the way to the fountain in the center of Higgs village on the PS3 version.)

The player should then proceed to the X-8 research center and go through the main quest line for this area, X-8: High School Horror!, till they reach the Residential Test Facility part of the quest.

When the player returns to Borous and gives him the dog bowl, he will reminisce about his dog and thank the player for killing him, as he believes it saved him the trouble. If the player kept Gabe alive, Borous will thank the player for sparing him. The player may also pass a Speech check of 45 and make him feel remorse for the horrid experimentation he did on Gabe.

Behind the scenes

 * The quest name is a nod to the common proverb that "A dog is a man's best friend".