Fallout: New Vegas exploits

Exploits are "holes" in the game programming which allow a player to do something that the developers did not intend, and as such, alter the balance of the game in a way that benefits the player. These differ from the console commands created by developers to aid in testing and debugging the game. Information on console commands may be found at Fallout: New Vegas console commands.

Experience Via Skill Challenges

 * During the quest Come Fly With Me, when Chris Haversam requires Isotope-239 igniting agent, you can travel to Novac and ask Cliff Briscoe about the toy rockets. While doing this, there's a Speech check (requiring 40 Science) that you can repeat to earn Speech challenges an experience.


 * During the Three-Card Bounty quest, after killing the Fiends speaking to Major Dhatri about 10 of Spades and Corporal Betsy provides two Speech checks (Speech 35 and 46 respectively) that may be repeated for 20xp.


 * When asking Bryce Anders about Vault 3, you can repeatedly ask him why he's there, the Speech check (25) can be exploited for infinite experience.
 * In the Vault 11 sacrificial chamber, one may access the mainframe in the room to the left after sitting through the presentation by Vault-Tec. Once accessed, every time the third option is selected, 550xp is gained. If the player chooses the Here and Now perk at any point after performing this exploit, any subsequent level-ups will not occur.


 * After accepting the quest Flags of Our Foul-Ups from Sgt. McCredie in Camp Golf and talking to O'Hanrahan and about helping the squad, he'll ask the player to talk to the Misfits. This will open a Speech check with Razz (Speech 40) that may be repeated for 40xp.


 * Speaking to Mr. House yields a Medicine check (Medicine 35) that repeatedly yields 35 XP.


 * Speaking to Mr. House about retrieving the platinum chip yields a Barter check (Barter 50) that will provide 50xp every time the dialog path is completed.


 * Prior to saving Deputy Beagle in Primm, the player must speak to Manny Vargas in Novac. The player will now be presented with a Speech check (Speech 40) which may be repeated for 40 XP. Should the player speak to Beagle prior to talking to Vargas, the check will not be repeatable.


 * After Oh My Papa, speaking with Jack in the Red Rock Drug Lab will yield a repeatable Speech check (Speech 60) that provides 60xp. This exploit may be used to "break" the level cap. The objective to find Anders must gotten from Dianne and be completed without talking to Jack and all other objectives need to be completed before speaking to Jack about the alliance.
 * After returning the data for Dr. Hildern during There Stands the Grass, talking to Dr. Williams provides a Speech check (Speech 25). This option appears after asking her "What do you think of Dr. Hildern?" The conversation may be repeated unlimited times.


 * The player must first initiate the Run Goodsprings Run quest, and kill Ringo. Upon returning to Cobb, one must then agree to shake down Chet for supplies. The player must then fail the quest by damaging or killing any of the Powder Gangers present. The player may then go to Chet in the Goodsprings General Store and ask him to donate supplies to the Powder Gangers. The player may choose either the Barter check (Barter 25) or the Speech check (Speech 25). Both choices may be used repeatedly and each success provides 30 9mm ammo and a leather armor. This exploit may also be used with Doc Mitchell, but the spare medical supplies he gives the player cannot be sold or dropped. Note that you will have to perform these checks approximately 5600-5700 times to reach Level 50 with all 3 levels of the 'Swift Learner' perk, granting 33 experience per check.


 * At Cottonwood Cove, there will be a man named Aurelius of Phoenix standing atop the balcony of a building. The building is the largest in the settlement. While talking to him, you can activate a Speech check. To activate the Speech check, one must have a Speech skill of 35 or more. The Speech check is about trading an NCR dogtag for supplies. Once the Speech check is done once, it can be done as much as the player wants.


 * During the quest Birds of a Feather when the third customer, who requires a 65 speech check to search, arrives at the store, can be talked to infinitely many times and be mined for XP by passing the speech test.

Experience Via Combat

 * The Mister Sandman perk may be utilized on the children in Bitter Springs. The child will not die, but the player will still receive 50 xp.


 * The same situation as above may be used on the Boomer children at Nellis children's barracks.

Miscellaneous Experience Exploits

 * The player will gain 60 to 1000 xp when moving a mantis foreleg (Must at least be 6 of them stacked) from his/her inventory to a container, corpse, companion inventory. This may even happen when first removing the mantis foreleg from the mantis itself. This can be done inside the tutorial area and is faster than Chet's Speech and Barter checks, therefore this can be used with the more perks exploit to do so faster but without the added benefit of a surplus of 9mm ammo.


 * After killing Big Sal during How Little We Know, the player may continue to gain experience by punching his corpse. Each punch earns 50xp.


 * Tipping brahmin counts towards the Knocked Up challenge. This challenge can be completed unlimited times by getting into sneak mode and activating a brahmin, ie: using the A button on an Xbox 360, thus knocking it down. Repeat 100 times for 75xp each time the challenge is completed. One suggested place to do this is in the little corral at the Crimson Caravan's office. Knock down a brahmin several times and push it up against a wall of some sort and repeat.

Complimentary Voucher Stacking

 * When dropped the Complimentary voucher remains in mid-air, ignoring gravity. Exploiting this permits the creation of "stairs," allowing access to many areas previously unreachable.

Slot Machine Gambit

 * While playing slot machines in the Sierra Madre, it appears that it is possible to manipulate the outcome by pressing buttons as each slot is about to stop. (Any button will do really. Yet to be tested out on The Strip)

Agility Stat Boost

 * After finding the Sierra Madre Vending Machine codes needed to return casualwear (and related lightweight apparel that gives a +1 boost to Agility), you can raise your Agility well beyond normal limits. Simply equip the casualwear and then turn it in to the vending machine. The clothing will be removed from your inventory, but the +1 Agility boost will remain added to your stats. This exploit can be repeated any number of times, adding +1 with every equipped clothing item you return. This will not allow you to take perks requiring higher Agility. (If used several times this exploit will cause weapons to glitch through the character's shoulder if holstered while moving.)

Unlimited grenades

 * If Christine is locked in the Switching Station for the Mixed Signals quest, she sets traps in the Executive Suites during Last Luxuries. On the west side of the floor she sets a tripwire and frag grenade trap. The grenades can be disarmed and collected an unlimited number of times.

Unlimited XP Gain

 * After completing the Gala Event, Dog/God provides a repeatable Speech check. When speaking to God, the player must ask why they are here and why the collars have not been set off. With a Speech skill of 75, the player may speculate that the Pip-Boy is boosting the signal. This Speech check is not marked as such but will provide 75xp. This dialogue path may be repeated an unlimited number of times.

Easy "Sierra Souvenir Aficionado" Achievement

 * By repeatedly dropping Sierra Madre chips and picking them back up, the player will quickly earn the achievement and additional XP bonus challenge without having to actually locate/win the required amount of chips.

Puesta del Sol switching station tripwire exploit

 * The tripwire trap in the room with the terminal to shut down the shielded speaker can be avoided. This requires the player to save before going to the terminal and running into the trap detonating the explosives and killing your character. While the animation of your character dying is playing, the player now has to load the previous save tricking the game to activate the trap before going to the tripwire thus exploding the grenades without harming your character.

Easy "Dead Man's Hand" Achievement

 * Every time the player drops a Sierra Madre Card and picks it back up, it will count as if you found a new one.

Leave Dead Money with all 37 Gold Bars

 * There is a way to leave the Sierra Madre vault with all 37 gold bars. The player must have an abundance of C-4, gas bombs, or demolition charges and place them in front of the shield door where Elijah confronts the player in the vault. Then the player must grab everything in the vault and then talk to Elijah from the holographic projector. Co-operate with him then run (walk) out of the vault with everything and press up against the shield door where the charges are placed. Destroy one or two of his turrets (having Christine on your side will help), he will then open the shield (make sure you're walking into the door). You will phase through and fall but will get back up on the opposite side of the door near the exit. The charges should go off and kill Elijah and you will complete the quest and be able to escape with over a minute to spare along with all the loot in the vault.

War club glitch

 * When performing a forward power attack with a fully upgraded war club, the player is rocketed forward. If this is used repeatedly, one may actually move far faster than with a holstered weapon.


 * Using this same exploit, should a player charge into any form of ramp (IE: steps, curbs), the player may be launched into the air, possibly high enough to perish from the resulting fall damage.

Mantis EXP glitch

 * This glitch/exploit still works in Honest Hearts. Repeatedly transfer the mantis forelegs between your inventory and a dead creature's body. This should be done with Giant Mantis or Giant gecko for maximum XP.

Skilled trait glitch
Also note that if leveling a character to 50 within the tutorial area using an exploit taking the Skilled trait will slow the process by 10% - over 8000 25 point Speech checks!
 * When starting the game, one may choose the Skilled trait to gain +5 to every skill at the cost of earning 10% less XP throughout the game. When leaving the tutorial area, should the player rebuild their character and choose the Skilled trait again, one will gain an additional +5 to every skill (for a total of +10 total per skill) while still only suffering a 10% XP penalty. Note that you will lose 10% of your earned XP; at lower levels this may not be noticeable but a level 50 character that chooses Skilled when leaving the tutorial area will become level 47. The perk may be taken a third time during Old World Blues through the Auto-Doc's mental examination adding a further 5 points per skill, however your XP is not reset (e.g. you can't get extra perks).

Unlimited EXP gain

 * The X-42 giant robo-scorpion may be repeatedly disabled via the Robotics Expert perk. Shortly after being disabled, the robot regains function.


 * At the X-13 Research Facility, after completing all of the stealth tests and the related Project X-13 quest, all of the testing area's Robobrains and Mark IV turrets can be destroyed for extra exp. After destroying all "hall monitors," the Advanced Infiltration Test can be replayed an infinite amount of times for 173exp and a randomized test reward (usually a small amount of energy weapon ammo). If the player also disables the laser trip wires (50 Repair or Science), which also provides a small amount of exp each time, he/she can simply walk through the halls without any need for sneaking or Lockpicking.
 * The Expert Test can be replayed instead in order to obtain a ¡La Fantoma! instead of ammo, but keep in mind that the proximity mines re-arm themselves each time (The Expert Test provides the same amount of exp as the Advanced).
 * The Robot Compliance Test can be chosen in order to re-spawn the robobrains (the turrets do not re-spawn). The re-spawned robobrains can be destroyed again for a small amount of exp and randomized loot. This method can also be used to grind for challenges/achievements/trophies, such as Blast Mastery.
 * Due to the high rate at which robobrains drop energy cells, the sonic emitter is an excellent choice for this process, as the influx of energy cells often matches (or even exceeds) the rate at which ammo is spent defeating said enemies. Using the Robotics Expert perk can shut them down even more easily to destroy by melee/unarmed methods.

Level Cap Increase (PS3)

 * After beating Old World Blues and reaching the increased level cap of 35, the player appears to be unable to level up any more. On PS3 however, you can increase your level cap by deleting the game data utility of Fallout: New Vegas, but not the DLC of Old World Blues. The player must then download the 236MB patch and allow it to install. There will then be a 22MB patch that needs to download, the player cancels this download and disables their PS3 internet connection. They can now enter Fallout: New Vegas and load up their level 35 character. A message should appear stating that their level cap has been increased by 5 and they should even receive 100xp. The player's new level cap is now 40.

NOTE: The player may need to load up the game once before downloading the 236MB patch for this to work. It is also unknown at this point if this can be repeated multiple times to further increase the level cap beyond 40.

NOTE: The file size of the initial patch is 293MB at this point in time not 236MB. It works however it only appears to work once so you cannot get past the 40 level cap with this method alone.

Money

 * Upon recruiting Fisto to work for the Garrets as their "sexbot," the player may talk to the robot about provided services. Upon exiting the conversation, the player will be granted 10 caps. This may be repeated unlimited times.


 * Should the courier drop more than 32,768 (2^15) of any casino's chips, the game's engine glitches. Upon retrieving them, the player receives a negative number of chips that may be traded for caps, NCR, or Legion money. The exploit may also be done with values higher than 32,768 but the number of "negative" chips received is inversely proportional to the number of chips dropped. Dropping 33,000 chips will give you close to -32,000 chips. Every time the chips are turned in, the player will gain that amount, only in positive numbers. Bear in mind: when picked up, the chips will not show up in the player inventory anymore, but may be turned in for money over and over. Pressing the [start] button will end the exploit, and you will need to redo everything.


 * When cashing in chips from the Vikki and Vance Casino, the chips will not be removed from the player's inventory but the currency (caps, NCR dollars or Legion money) will still be acquired. Using this method, the player may repeatedly "cash in" without ever losing any chips. Deleting the title update allows this glitch to be done as with any other glitch, but when deleting the title update if you have any DLC items such as Gun Runners Arsenal, then any items you have on you or stored in containers at your "hideout" will disappear and will not re-appear (with the exception of any DLC items that are added to your inventory as soon as the DLC is loaded).


 * In Lonesome Road, there are many commissary terminals with 6000 caps to trade. Sell the terminal two weapons that are the same. (I.E. thermic lance, the marked men use this weapon a lot so it is a prime example.) Make sure that they have a different condition rating. Sell both and the buy the cheapest. Then sell it back to the terminal, if the exploit worked then the weapon should be sold at a higher price than you had bought it for. If it did not work then try again it can be picky. What makes this vendor special is the fact that when it has less than 200 caps, you can exit the terminal and re-enter it and it will have 6000 caps again, but no new inventory.

Barter and Repair exploitation

 * When meeting with Raul for the first time in the Black Mountain prison building, he can fix your weapons and you can pickpocket caps back from him very easily, making your repairs free. Just tell him to stay there(don't tell him he is free) and you can repeat this unlimited times as long as you pickpocket successfully every time so be sure to save before attempting. It's a very easy way to fix your equipment and earn some caps because you can buy low condition weapons, fix them with Raul for free and sell back for much higher price.
 * When the Brotherhood of Steel forces the Explosive Collar on you in the mission Still in the Dark, if you have the Jury Rigging perk you are able to use the collar to repair any light helmet as many times as you want without losing the collar.
 * Vendor exploit: 100% weapons and armor...as with Fallout 3, the player can sell damaged weapons and armor to vendors who already have at least one copy of same item in their inventory. After completing the sale (i.e. getting caps) repurchase the item (rinse and repeat) depending on how many of same items vendor started with, the player will eventually be able to purchase the item at low quality cost, then have 100% fully repaired item in their inventory which they can now either keep or sell back at 100% value. This exploit allows players to clean out vendors of their inventory without spending a cap, i.e. ammunition shortages will rarely be a problem assuming the player uses this exploit whenever he/she gets a chance. Profit from the sale is the difference between the current condition of the weapon and the full 100% condition of the weapon so choose a very damaged weapon to buy/sell.
 * Note: appears to only work if player starts with only 1 copy of item in their own inventory...not working? Confirm you do not have a "stolen" item or hidden duplicate in your inventory.
 * To avoid glitches in Fallout 3 and New Vegas choose a lightweight, high value item (such as the Plasma Defender). Get 2 of them and repair one to 100% and break the other. This way you can carry your own items that few, if any, Merchants will glitch on and you won't have to hope they have a broken version of the good item you may be carrying. You can now sell the 100% item first then the broken one. Buy the broken one back and you will receive the fully repaired item, then buy the broken one again and you will receive that one. This can also be done with MULTIPLE fully repaired items, but it runs the risk of becoming glitched. Using this you can clean out any merchant, the Big MT Sink or Lonesome Road commissary units.
 * I've tested this on many different traders, and I've been able to make this glitch perform perfectly every time. Have 2 of the same weapon: one fully repaired (or near fully, the more it's worth, the faster you can get your caps back. It's also possible to use this glitch to heal weapons to 100%) and one completely broken weapon(to break a weapon easily, have a companion wield it and target it in VATS). Keep the trader in questions' caps below 30k to avoid glitches. Some traders appear to "consume" weapons and make them unavailable to buy back, like Samuel Kerr at 188 trading post. This could be due to the fact that he is a food merchant and not a weapons/general merchant. There are 2 possible situations in which all of these criteria are met:
 * SITUATION 1: The trader does not have a copy of the 2 weapons(in my example I'll use the 10mm SMG) that you have. In this situation, buy everything you want. Then, sell the repaired 10mm SMG, followed by the broken one. Buy the broken one back, and you will have the repaired one. Sell the repaired one back, then buy the broken one again. This time, you will receive the broken one. Just sell it back and buy it again to receive the repaired one. Repeat to drain the trader of items and caps. To get all your weapons back, just keep buying the broken one back.
 * Note that also in this situation, you can use multiple repaired weapons to make the process faster. Sell the repaired 10mm SMGs, then the broken one. Then buy the broken one back, giving you a repaired one, but leaving the broken one in the trader's inventory. You can buy this back AGAIN to get the other full repaired weapon. Sell them back, repeat.
 * SITUATION 2: The trader (I'll use the Vendortron) DOES have a 10mm SMG in his inventory(usually slightly less than fully repaired, about 2338 caps). Buy everything as usual, being conscious to keep his caps below 30k. Sell the repaired 10mm SMG, then the broken one. Now, every time you buy back the broken one, you will get the repaired one, being able to quickly sell and buy back. When you are finished, to get your 10mm SMGs AND the vendor's, just keep buying back the broken 10mm SMG. This DOES NOT work with multiple 10mm SMGs as it did in Situation 1.
 * IMPORTANT Note: There is a problem now, which is easily fixed (I have tested this). The vendor's 10mm SMG is glitched underneath the broken 10mm SMG in your Pip-Boy inventory. To fix this, drop the repaired 10mm SMG, then the broken one. You will see that you are still left with a fully repaired 10mm SMG in your inventory. Leave the Pip-Boy, move over a little to separate it from the other 2, and drop it as well. Now, pick up the first fully repaired 10mm SMG that you dropped and equip it. Then pick up the other full repaired 10mm SMG along with the broken one. You will see that the second fully repaired 10mm SMG has reverted back to the original 2338 caps worth that the vendor originally had. The weapons are now unglitched and free to use for more barter glitches.

Resetting Vendor Inventory/Cash

 * If a player saves the game when in the same cell as a vendor and restarts the console, the vendor's caps will be reset. Inventory will not reset, however.

Caravan

 * With the 1.02 patch, Cliff Briscoe, Johnson Nash, Lacey, and Quartermaster Mayes have been limited to five games of caravan a piece. However, the player can still reverse-pickpocket caps into the inventory of non-merchant non-player characters who play caravan (such as No-bark Noonan or Isaac). This allows the player to exploit the 'double caps' bug.
 * Any trader who plays Caravan can be exploited for caps. There seems to be a logic error that involves all the different types of currency, if you buy everything so that you have no caps you can still gamble with your NCR and Legion money, the game gives you back all the money in caps. If you continue to do this until the trader has 20 to 30k it never diminishes his/her total caps. You can keep feeding the trader more caps by buying and selling items.
 * You can reverse pick-pocket Dale Barton at The Fort and add caps to his inventory, and he will bet the caps, but they will not be removed from his inventory if you win. Using this method, money may be repeatedly duplicated. It has been reported that winning larger amounts of caps (around the area of 400,000 and up) causes the game to crash.

Weapons

 * If a player enters and then exits V.A.T.S. while wielding an anti-material rifle equipped with incendiary ammo, the target will be lit on fire as though they were shot at. Also, there will be no hostilities, (assuming the NPC was not hostile to begin with), so this can be used to kill without any repercussions. Note, however, that kills performed in this manner don't count for any challenges or award any XP.


 * If a player drops their weapons on the ground then talks to the door guard at the Silver Rush they will be able to pick up their weapons after speaking to him and proceed into the building without him taking the weapons.


 * If a player loots an enemy's weapon while wielding the alien blaster, any ammo carried by the enemy will be converted to alien power cells.


 * When using round-by-round reloading weapons, the slow speed can be remedied by having more than one ammunition type and quickly tapping the change ammunition type button. This will instantly load the weapon with a single piece of ammunition.


 * Break a missile launcher, when you fire the last missile and it says the message and takes away the weapon; now after the message appears and it takes the weapon go to pipboy, weapons, select a weapon depending on the ammunition you broke your launcher with.
 * If you had regular missiles equipped it will let you throw down as many placed explosives as you had regular missile ammunition.
 * If you choose to break if using HE or HV rounds, you will be able to throw the missiles by equipping a throwing spear or such weapon, even with C-4 plastic explosive.


 * During the Brotherhood of Steel quest line the player is informed that they may have some of the Brotherhood's recharged energy cells/microfusion cells. Every time the cell is reloaded, the container will be filled regardless of the amount of time passed.
 * One may find any weapon that would otherwise be in bad condition, fully repaired. By saving prior to picking the weapon up and reloading the game, the game glitches and registers the weapon as fully repaired. This only works for weapons spawned on the ground, not weapons dropped by the player or NPCs.


 * Equip the weapon with the ammo type you wish to hotkey. Press and hold the hotkey button. While still holding the hot key button, navigate to the ammo page and hot key the ammo of your choice. Now equip any weapon and press the ammo's hotkey button. The weapon will remain equipped up the ammo will change. All effects from the ammo retained. Guns that run on microfusion breeders do not need ammo to fire, only the initial hot key. Loading a save disables the glitch. Most, but not all combinations will work (IE: a Laser detonator with Tiny Tots). The ammo can be added to melee and unarmed weapons as well, and they will not consume ammo. Throwing weapons and mines are also effected, and will allow you to "throw" the ammo. By using 12ga, 4/0 buck will fire multiple shots from the weapon. When combined with placed explosives (IE: C-4 plastic explosive), multiple explosives will be created, and only the 12g, 4/0 buck will be consumed. This permits quick multiplication of said explosives. This exploit also works rather well for the Alien Blaster as its ammunition is limited to what you find when you receive the weapon.


 * Killing NPCs with ranged weapons will add Incendiary .50MG ammo to the player's inventory, anywhere from 1-16+ bullets per pick-up. However, for the ammo to be added, the NPCs have to have the weapon equipped and drawn. To utilize the glitch, kill the NPCs however desired and pick up their weapon and the Incendiary ammo will be added. The weapons effected are 10mm and 9mm pistols and their sub-machinegun counterparts, service rifles, .357 pistols, cowboy repeaters, laser and plasma rifles, laser RCWs, and hunting rifles. Melee and unarmed weapons and caravan shotguns are not effected.

Loot

 * If you decide to not ally with Caesar's Legion at the Fort, you have a chance to gain an unlimited supply of Legion money, armor, and weapons, as well as a possible source of infinite 12.7mm ammunition and 12.7mm SMGs. After clearing out the main area of The Fort and searching the bodies, find the corpse of the Legion Decanus and carry it to the drawbridge where you entered the area from. Drop the body and activate the drawbridge, which takes you to the outer area of The Fort. Immediately turn around and go through the drawbridge again. Check the body of the Decanus and he should have his weapon, ammunition, armor, and the spent shell casings he was carrying even if you had already cleared off his body. Repeat as many times as desired. Also works with all other human non-player characters in the area with the exception of the Praetorian Guard.


 * On the quest Come Fly With Me after informing Jason Bright that you've gotten rid of the nightkin and everyone runs to the basement, one or two Bright followers in space suits will walk instead of run when they're in the basement. If you kill them before they get to the rockets you will be able to get one or two more suits, depending if one or two Followers were killed. When you come back after finding the thrust modules and rocket fuel, and Jason gives his speech, go back to bright follower's corpse (or corpses) and another space suit will have spawned on it.


 * After you save Private Halford from the Lakelurks at Camp Guardian, ask him what he will do next. After that, ask him for his gun, this will get you a service rifle, 35 5.56mm rounds, and 15 Armor Piercing 5.56mm rounds. You can repeat this as much as you desire for virtually unlimited service rifles and ammunition.


 * Somehow there may be a way to duplicate items with the "take how many" screen. Though this happened at random and is unconfirmed to be a constant exploit. Using what is presumed at least more than 6 items (as to bring up the "take how many" window) and one of something under it, its possible to somehow get the take how many screen to come up for the one item underneath. For example, one service rifle under 30 rounds of 5.56, with some combination of keys (or maybe buttons, if on console) it may be possible to somehow get 30 service rifles, or the same number of X item that was over the rifle. This happened randomly, though, and was only duplicated 2 more times in the same container(the gun case in the Nipton Town Hall)

Perks

 * If a perk has a required skill level which you can reach with one level's worth of skill points (e.g. Animal friend has a Survival requirement of 45 and your current Survival skill is 40), allocate your skill points to the number required, select the desired perk and return to the Skill point allocation screen. You can now reset your points and put them to whatever you want - the perk is still selected even though you no longer meet the requirement.

Extra perks

 * If a player chooses to rebuild their character upon leaving the tutorial boundaries surrounding Goodsprings, the player will be reset to level 1, but not all perks are reset. After choosing again all stats, the player will return to level one but still have most of his/her perks. Also, if the player changes the character's sex during the rebuild, they can get gender-specific perks for both genders. A list of perks this glitch works with is found below.

Companions

 * In the middle of battle, talk to your companion. Select the "Stay at a Distance/Stay Close" option twice, then exit the companion wheel. When you exit, your companion's health should be fully restored (although sometimes it requires the command to be pressed rapidly four or five times).


 * By giving a companion ammo in smaller portions of 2 or 3, one may place more ammo in a companions inventory than they would normally be able to carry.


 * When a companion is given the 1st Recon beret they are granted the normal 5% critical chance bonus. If the player then toggles between ranged and Melee attack modes in the companion wheel, the companion will gain an additional 5% bonus. This may be repeated 18 more times for a 100% critical strike chance. The effect remains until the beret is removed.


 * Prior to one's visit to The Fort, a player can leave companions in wait mode. Upon exiting Caesar's tent, the companion will "teleport" to the player. The companion retains his/her inventory, allowing for an easier way to complete Challenges such as Historical Propriety, Against All Tyrants, and Even a God-King Can Bleed.


 * By going into a casino with a companion and placing more items in their allocated item box, the companion can hold infinite amounts of weight upon exiting.

Recruit all humanoid companions at once

 * To perform this exploit, the player must recruit Veronica Santangelo and trigger her quest I Could Make You Care. When Veronica opens dialogue, one must tell her that you do not have time right now and then fire her. If the player then hires another companion and talks to her, she requests that the courier take her to Hidden Valley. If the player declines with the first negative response, they will get a notification saying Veronica's "Scribe Assistant" perk has been lost, opening an additional companion slot. The player then needs to recruit another companion and repeat.
 * Through use of this exploit, companions may be brought into add-ons and other areas that perform "companion checks."
 * Non-active companions will not be stripped of weapons when entering casinos.
 * There is a quick way to do the companion recruiting. Since Veronica goes to the Hidden Valley Bunker once you've done the exploit the first time you need to be quick with this exploit. For example, you used the exploit to get Arcade Gannon and Lily, but hadn't hired Cass yet, and you then went to Mojave Outpost and tried to recruit Cass. She won't follow as you don't have enough companion slots (if you have done the exploit, they are probably all filled. To recruit all 6 at one time quickly, but since the companion slots don't go up yet you must dismiss them to the Lucky 38. When you do this, you can create a slot to hire Veronica, and then fire her to the Lucky 38. This will make her reset walking out of the suite, and you can do the recruiting a second time (the current companions are not removed). You must have Raul, Lily, Veronica, Cass, Boone and Arcade Gannon in order to do this. This means you can do the recruiting not in a complicated way, but in an easy way. This means you can form a "Gang of Eight" (including yourself and either Rex or ED-E) This means you can have 7 followers at a time. Dismissing your companions to the Lucky 38 will also delete their companion slots and you will need to redo the exploit to get them back.
 * Note that the use of this exploit can cause I Could Make You Care to become unable to be completed.
 * Also, the use of this exploit can cause your FPS to drop significantly. This is due to the engine having to render 5 more companions than usual.

Karma

 * Flame damage (damage over time) kills do not count against your Karma.


 * Just like in Fallout 3, if you attack an opponent but don't kill it then your companion finishes it off, no Karma will be lost. (most of the time)

Achievements/Challenges

 * While in Freeside, the use of some doors (such as the East gate) will count as Energy Weapon kills upon loading the new area. This happens at random and cannot be controlled by the player.


 * When pick-pocketed, the residents of Vault 21 will retain possession of their items regardless of a pickpocketing success. This bug may be exploited to quickly complete the pickpocketing challenge.


 * Any ants killed with the sonic emitter during Ant Misbehavin' will count as being killed by the weapon that the Courier has currently equipped.


 * Any time the player steps on and kills a mantis it will count as being killed by the weapon that the Courier has currently equipped.


 * Deathclaw Pro Hunter: A deathclaw will be considered killed by dynamite if a burning stick is en-route at the moment in time the deathclaw dies of other reasons, such as a companion shooting it or mines it walks into. This stick of dynamite needs to be in-flight and not have landed anywhere.

Artificial Intelligence flaws

 * The artificial Intelligence governing deathclaws is unable to correctly determine when a player is within reach.
 * For example, deathclaws will not attack players if they are standing on the taller rocks or machinery, even when they are in reach. This flaw in the deathclaw AI can be exploited to safely kill these creatures at lower levels.
 * This also happens to cazadores.

Barrel exploit
When a barrel is "squished" between two characters, the barrel will gain great speed and fly many yards away. In the process, both characters are damaged. When performed on NPCs by the player, the NPC will remain passive (assuming the character was passive to begin with).

Note: This seems to work with crates too. It is likely that other objects which react surprisingly violently when ran into by characters may also cause this effect.

Gaining access to Legate's camp

 * This point of interest can be reached early (pre-endgame) by getting out of the map near Bloodborne cave and running around to the south/southwest side of Legate's Camp and its cliffs until you reach a sandy hillside which will pretty clearly lead to above Legate's Camp. Then follow the clifftops down to near the Legate's tent (the tent at the top of the winding staircase) & reach the cliff point as close to the center of the camp as possible. This will trigger your Pip-Boy as having discovered the location, allowing you to fast-travel to and from the camp as you wish. Traveling this route can make you get stuck because of the invisible walls.


 * Another way to enter this location early is to access it from the Dam directly. In order to do this you will need a lot of 5mm ammunition (this requires 5mm staircases to be built). Walk across the dam along your left in the direction you would to the legate camp, until you come to a point where you can jump off the side (try to aim for the water). Once you hit the water, continue to proceed in that direction until you hit land again, and proceed along the wall until the wall meets a sloped surface and you can move no further. From here, you should build your first staircase out of the 5mm boxes. This is simple and should take no more than a minute. Once you get over this sloped surface, you'll see a huge drain. Work your way down into that drain until you hit the bottom. Immediately looking to your left, you'll see a ladder. Go over to the ladder, climb it, and you will be on top of the drain across from where you originally were. From here, move along the outskirts of the top of the drain until you are at the road/bridge leading out of the dam. From here, just follow the main road uphill towards the legate camp. Keep moving until you hit the first of 3 gates. Use your 5mm boxes to hop all 3 (which is extremely frustrating and time consuming), and you'll be in. At the second gate, if you look to your right, you'll see a slope and to the left of it is a rock that you can get onto. Jump on the slope, drop a 5mm round and push it into the corner near the rock. Jump onto it and you will get onto the rock. You can get over the next two gates if you stick to the edge. You will most likely run into 3 legion soldiers, 2 on the other side of the wall, armed with a rifle and an axe. After that, outside the camp walls, you will run into a guard armed with a ballistic fist. By killing him and taking his attire, you will be disguised from the 15-20 legion soldiers, including the guards. Once you make it inside this camp, you will be able to fast travel in and out as you please. Unfortunately, you will not be able to kill the end boss as he is not present until the last mission.


 * In order to do this you will need at least one companion, lots of stimpaks, an unarmed weapon like the power fist or zap glove, and not be playing on hardcore mode. First take your companion to the location you want to get out of (must be an angled wall or cliff) then you push them as close to the wall as you can. Next you will use your power fist and punch them towards the wall making them slightly go up it. Then you will use your fists and go into V.A.T.S. and target your companion, hitting them once which should bring you right next to them (make sure to heal them after this step or they will get knocked out and you will have to start this exploit over again). Then you reequip your power fist again hitting them farther up the wall and repeat the V.A.T.S. step to get farther up the wall and continue doing those steps to get up over the wall. Works great on the east side right behind the main dam part of Hoover Dam to get to the Legate's Camp.2562877728 c93d6a89d3.jpg


 * Yet another way to access the Legate's Camp is by getting out of the map at the Searchlight Airport. The only extra equipment required is a single 5mm bullet. Travel to the Searchlight Airport and approach the main building (the one without the air control tower). Notice the doorway blocked by debris, there is a ledge above the doorway that can be used to get out of the map. To get up on the ledge, get up on the piece of concrete jutting out of the rubble, and, if the jump is timed properly, the player will end up on the ledge. Now, drop a single 5mm bullet and place it on the ledge and hop onto the bullet and onto the roof of the building and run off the building to the outside of the map.

Now that you're on the outside, head to the right, towards the Mojave Outpost, because heading left only leads to a never ending out-of-map version of the Colorado river. In order to maximize speed, take off any medium or heavy armor that you may be wearing. Continue to run on the outside boundaries of the map, all the way past Jacobstown and other normal-map-bordering locations. If you did not tell any companions to "wait," they will continue to follow within the normal confines of the map. Make sure to save often, because although there are no enemies on the outside of the map, there are still very tall hills that can accidentally be fallen off of that could potentially kill the player character.

When you get you get to a row of electric towers outside the map, just past Nellis Air Force Base and heading south, the out-of-map version of the river is close. If you've discovered Hoover Dam, this part will be easier, because hoover dam is almost horizontal to the Legate's camp. Once you find a deep trench, this is the place. Get down to the bottom of the trench and run forward till you reach a brown or grey blurred wall facing you. This is actually water, so get in and start swimming. Unlike the water in the normal river, this water has rads, so make sure to bring along some RadAway.

Keep swimming until you reach some land that you can leave the water and walk up onto dry land again, there should be some boulders and rocks set into the ground. Keep going (and saving occasionally as you go) almost straight to the Dam (keep checking the world map to see if you are on the right track), and you will come across a clump of very high boulders, and the environmental music for the Hoover Dam will start playing. If you see an empty triangle in the midst of the high mountain, this is the right spot, and the Legate's Camp is inside.

All that needs to be done is to get up onto the ring of "boulder walls" ringing the Camp. Once on the walls, keep running till you can see the training ground in the middle of the camp. Make sure to have a few saves here, as the Camp itself is airtight with invisible walls bordering the immediate camp, and one wrong move can get the player character stuck. The map marker is not the Legate's tent, but rather the training ground in the middle of the camp. Getting right behind of the round training ground (and getting as close to the ground level as possible), with the Legate's tent to the right of the player character, and then dropping down will place the map marker on the Pip-Boy map. From then on, the Camp can be fast-traveled to without problems, although you can't leave the "normal" way by the gates, as they are all sealed. Although time consuming (expect to spend at least an hour outside the map if you don't go sightseeing), this way is the easiest, without having to create fragile 5mm stair steps.

Armor hopping
If you press grab just a few milliseconds after jump standing on a piece of armor you can jump on it repeatedly to get high off the ground. This glitch can be used to get to out of bounds, or places you are not supposed to be able to, like Legate's Camp.

Utilizing patched exploits
Any exploits that have been flagged as "Fixed" or "Patched" may still be used if the pertinent patches are deleted. Doing so, however, may also remove access to add-ons until the patches are re-installed.