The House Always Wins I

The House Always Wins is a 7 part quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Quick walkthrough
This series of quests leads to one of many Fallout: New Vegas endings. Mr. House tasks you to retrieve the Platinum chip from Benny and either use it at The Fort to upgrade the Securitrons, or bring it back to the Lucky 38 so that Mr. House can upgrade them. You will then have to eliminate, take control of, or gain the trust of different factions so that Mr. House's plan will work. You may kill Benny along with House to allow you and Yes Man to take over the plan.

Part One
You must retrieve the Platinum chip from Benny and bring it back to Mr. House. The easiest way to do this is by telling Benny's number two (Swank at the front desk) about his planned rebellion-3 speech checks will needed to be passed to get full exp. from swank, the last one being 45-, then going up to Benny's suite, exploring it, informing the number two of the plan, and then going back up to the suite, murdering Benny, and taking the Chip from him. Also, you can convince Benny to remove his guards and meet you in the suite. Go to the safe, pick the average lock, and take Benny out with the weapons inside.

After talking to Swank, and receiving your weapons back, killing Benny should reap a positive Karma bonus and no retaliation from the remaining gamblers and bodyguards in Vegas. Doing so also completes the quest Ring-A-Ding-Ding.

Another way of completing part one is to talk to Benny at the Tops and meet him in the Presidential Suite. You can talk to him and either agree to help him take over Vegas or you can leave dialog and kill him. Loot his body for the Platinum chip. If you convinced Benny to come without his guards, and then decided to think about his offer you will be ambushed by Guards, and Benny will run off to The Fort and get captured by Caesaers Legion. If you keep the combat inside the suite, and were able to convince Benny to come to the room without his guards, then there should be no further commotion. Next, return to Mr. House with the chip and watch his demonstration. It is likely that you will never return to the basement that House sends you to, so take the opportunity to loot everything in the area before leaving.

If you have the Black Widow Perk, you can seduce Benny and get into his suite without any trouble. You can choose to attack him as soon as you get into his suite, or you can have sex with him and then kill him in his sleep after doing the deed. Either way, the quest proceeds as above. You can also sleep with him and then just fall asleep in which case Benny will be gone in the morning and have left you a note. Benny would then be captured by Caesers Legion forcing you to go to the Fort to retrieve the platinum chip.

Part Two
For part two of the quest Mr. House will give the Platinum chip back to you and instruct you to go to Cottonwood Cove.

If you have not done so already, start the quest Render Unto Caesar -- a loyalty quest -- via Vulpes Inculta. He can be found in Nipton, though he may find you first on The Strip after you kill Benny and exit the tops casino. Starting this quest you will be granted the Mark of Caesar which will protect you as you venture into Legion territory. Be careful of which companions you bring, as some, such as Boone, will attack the Legion even if you are attempting to prove your loyalty to them.

If you killed Vulpes, you can still do the quest. After taking the chip to Mr. House, Caesar sends a messenger, Alerio, to you when you exit The Lucky 38, who tells you that Caesar pardons you and grants you his mark and safe passage on your road to Cottonwood Cove.

When you get to Cottonwood Cove go to the docks and take the raft to the fort. When you arrive at the fort you will be stripped of all "banned" items. Items that are "banned" are all your weapons (that can be detected when you are searched), certain medical supplies, and most importantly the Platinum chip. The next step is to meet up with Caesar and discuss what he wants you to do. He will tell you the plan and give you the chip back.Next you will need to head to the bunker. Here a Legionary will give you your equipment back.

If you haven't killed him yet, Benny will be in Caesars tent and Caeser will give you the choice to decide how he dies or you can decide to help him escape. You only have two choices for his death, the first is crucifixtion, and the second is battle him in the arena in a fair fight.If you decide to help him escape you will either have to kill all the Legion in the Fort or you can give him a stealthboy and a bobby pin to help him escape but you must have high sneak and a stealth boy for yourself or the Legion will become hostile. You can ask him what he will do if you set him free and he tells you that its your choice he can either take over the strip at your side or he will walk off into the sunset and never see you again; however it doesnt give you a choice to pick one or the other after that dialogue you can only kill him or set him free. If you set him free he takes off and hasnt been seen since so not sure where he actually goes.

Open the doors on the ground using the Platinum chip and venture down the stairs. Through the doors you will encounter Mr. House who will de-brief you on the mission. Your goal is to reach the terminal inside the bunker to upgrade the Securitrons to the Securitron Mark II Operating System. (NOTE: Caesar sent you into the bunker to destroy the bunker, this walkthrough doesn't follow the request of Caesar.) With a science skill of average (50) you can disable the turrets via the first room you encounter. With a science skill of 75 you can also disable the robot security. This makes the trip much easier as it is simply a walkthrough to the console at the end. The entire bunker has a +1 radiation effect, so plan accordingly.

Whether you have the science skill or not, reach the terminal at the other end of the bunker and upgrade the Securitrons. If you talk to Mr. House before exiting the bunker he will simply congratulate you. Exit the bunker, surrender your equipment to the Legionary at the door, return to the raft that you came on to get to the fort, tell the Legionary there that you are ready to return to Cottonwood Cove and take the raft back. The game will give you a message informing you that your equipment was returned to you on the raft. You will notice that you still have the Platinum chip in your possession. Next head back to the Lucky 38 and talk to Mr. House to begin part three of the quest.

NOTE: If you are vilified with Caesar's Legion you must kill Caesar to obtain the chip.

Part Three
You must make your way to Nellis Airforce Base and befriend the Boomers. Getting access to Nellis AFB is the hardest part, as you must dodge a barrage artillery shells, which do a substantial amount of damage. You will then be allowed to enter Nellis AFB and you must complete quests to earn fame from the Boomers. Once you have completed all the quests for loyalty and have earned the status of Accepted, talk to the Boomer leader and this portion of the quest will be complete.

NOTE: When you enter the area where the boomers start shooting the artillery. Move to and from the houses, on the far west side, then when they stop firing move to the next house and repeat until you get to the fence line then just walk along to the right until you reach the entrance.(you should only have to go to two houses and maybe only one). the boomers will not attack when you're by the fence because they do not want to harm their own men. Another option is to just run straight for the fence as it takes 3-4 good hits to kill you. You can just hit tab as needed to use doctor's bags/stimpacks.

Another easy way is to hug the wall to the left, there is a small space there where you can hide until the bombardment stops. Once it stops, run to the fence of the base and stick to it until you reach the entrance

Alternatively, if you have already become Idolized by The Boomers, you can simply tell Mr. House that The Boomers have sworn to help assist you, and Part 3 ends.

Part Four
This quest asks you to go to the Gomorrah Casino and convince the Omertas faction to ally with Mr. House. You can do this by doing the How Little We Know quest. Like the other quests, you could complete.Mr. House's quest by killing all the Omertas, but that's not recommended. Mr. House will inform you about the Omertas and send you to find out why they have been so silent lately. You first need to go to the Gomorrah Hotel and talk to the receptionist.After talking to the receptionist, go talk to Cachino and wait until he walks away. You can either crouch, activate a Stealth Boy, and pickpocket his journal from him or go to his room and take it from his desk. Confront him about it and find out the information needed. Head to Troike and the talk about Cachino and then lie to him. (This will cause a loss of karma) He talks about thermite and have him put it with the weapons. Exit the casino and re-enter and talk to Cachino. You find out that he got caught and told the bosses your name. Talk Cachino into killing them during the meeting. Follow him and you will be given a sawed-off shotgun. Whichever way suits you, make sure the bosses are dead. Return to Mr. House.


 * Keep in mind that if you complete the Quest The House Always Wins: IV, you will fail both Beware the Wrath of Caesar! and Don't Tread on the Bear!
 * This part of the quest can be avoided if you have previously killed or helped the Omerta leaders in another quest.

Part Five
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 either take all of his supplies and smash his radio in his hideout (one of the other bunkers) kill him. Your equipment will be stripped when entering the Brotherhood's bunker, but on your way out it is in a supply crate (to your right as you are exiting), be sure to grab your stuff before going to deal with the Ranger.

After you have gained the Brotherhood's trust, you can enter their bunker. Once you have access to the bunker, you need to steal 3 keycards from 3 main personel 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. There is a computer to the room on the left when you enter the bunker that controls all of the turrets. If you have a high enough level to hack the computer, you can aim all of the turrets at "registered brotherhood personnel." This will make your job easier as you can search the dead bodies for valuable weapons/armor, and it is basically a walkthrough to get to where you are needing to go with a few pockets of resistance from the Brotherhood. It is suggested you have a follower (such as Boone b/c he can carry 250 lbs) and ED-E (because it can carry 220lbs) with you, this way you can use them to store items when you become too heavy. This way you can carry 3x's as many valuable things out as you would without them. 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. If you've completed the quest which makes Hardin Elder, you can get the Elder key card from him and the Head Paladin key card from the new Head Paladin, Ramos. 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.

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. After activating the self-destruct sequence with the password, you will become a villian in the eyes of the Brotherhood so again, it would be a good idea to pack some stealth boys. Before begining the sequence be sure to pickpocket 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 begin the sequence and make your way to L1. You should either be using a stealth boy or have alot of stimpacks, ammo and good weapons to fight your way out or even have no weapon equipped at all(run faster) and have a few stimpacks and turbo handy to make a run for the bunker exit. Your best bet is to use stealthboys to avoid combat all together. 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 Mr. House.

Part Six
You must protect President Kimball from an assassination attempt. Start by proceeding to Hoover Dam and talk to the Ranger in charge, Ranger Grant. The game then forces you to wait until the next day. After talking to the ranger again he will explain the plan of the day. The quickest way to do this quest is to follow the Ranger to the observation deck, then tell the Ranger that you are ready and a helicopter will land above you. Next, go up the ladder on the side and wait until you see an engineer.

Note: You will need to pass a 50 point speech test to get past the guard to the ladder without turing everyone hostile.

After he passes, examine the helicopter and you will see that there is a bomb- if you have 50+ Repair or Explosives disarm it, but if not then you can also pickpocket that engineer and get a detonator. Talk to the Ranger once more and tell him about the bomb. The president is then rushed to the chopper and quest is completed. Alternatively if you are not on good terms with the NCR* Mr. House will direct you to El Dorado Substation to install an override module instead (part 6 of The House Always Wins will appear as failed then you will be given The House Always Wins part 7).


 * Be careful that you are not disguised as a member of the Brotherhood when you talk to House after destroying the bunker. You will not have any reputation with the NCR and immediately fail. (Confirmed: PC)

Part Seven
You must go to the El Dorado Substation and install the overide module. There will be several NCR guarding the substation and warn you that there will be trouble if you enter. A stealth boy can be used here to avoid any conflict, make sure you enter and exit crouched. Alternatively, dressing up in NCR clothing can cause the guards to refrain from shooting on sight. Now return to to Mr. House.

Journal entries
Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Bugs

 * Message indicating quest failed, despite not having started, while deep within Vault 11. May have been related to activating Lucky 38 override in H&H Hardware earlier in game while exploring. Possibly related to Still in the Dark Questline or be entirely related to Vault 11.Confirmed on PC Also confirmed on Xbox and PS3 as well.(Updating this bug)-The 8 turrets down in the bottom level of Vault 11 are of the Lucky 38 Faction. Killing them may be why you are failing this quest. Simply let your companions take out the turrets and you should be fine.


 * If you are under the affects of mentats before you give the chip to mr house in the first part,when you get transported to the basement you will be stuck at the door unable to do anything with no HUD and no pipboy, the solution is to let mentas wearoff before you give the chip to house.


 * When transported to the basement to watch the Securitrons update, if you're wearing the rebreather gained in Nellis Base you'll be stuck at the door (can't move, can't use PipBoy) with no other option than reloading a save. So be sure to take it off before heading down.


 * After eliminating the Omertas from the equation, when you go back to Mr. House to tell him the Omertas are gone, the only dialog options to come up are the ones telling you to go and deal with the Omertas, and you can not finish the quest. To remedy this, load a save point before killing Big Sal and Nero, and go talk to Mr. House and make sure you go through all the dialogue on what to do about the Omertas. After this, killing Big Sal and Nero should allow you to finish the quest once you return to Mr. House.


 * Sometimes the Platinum Chip will disappear, leaving you having to kill Mr. house.


 * If you tell the ranger about the brotherhood they will attack you, and leave you with no way to complete the quest without a level 100 lock pick skill.


 * When working on Part 4 of the mission, there will be an option while talking to the Omerta receptionist that says [Barter x/55], meaning you need at least 55 Barter to choose it. But upon using a Salesman Weekly to raise my Barter to 55 (Salesman Weekly is a +10 increase to your Barter skill), the option went away, and I was left with the [Strength x/8] option or the option to hand over 300 caps. I also tried leveling up to get enough Barter, but even then the option disappeared.


 * When you first open up this quest, you can use your barter skill (55?) to get infinite experience points, even with patch v.1.01. Just make sure you choose the barter option, then say you will not get the chip for him, and repeat. You can also do the medicine speech (35) challenge for infintite experience.


 * When trying to complete Part 2 of this mission, sometimes trying to talk to Mr House - or rather, his computer - fails. Instead of initiating conversation, the player only receives the dull click sound emitted when pressing the action button when no action can be made, despite the message 'A) Talk to Mr House.' This may be due to having helped the Boomers at Nellis before completing Part II. It renders the player unable to complete the quest in any way, leaving only the option of killing Mr. House.


 * When you have activated the self-destruct sequence in Part Five, sometimes the Door to leave the bunker will be shut. You must then pick the lock with a level 100 lockpick skill, pickpocket the bunker key, or kill a person with the bunker key. Current known people with the key are; The Elder at the time and Paladin/Head Paladin Ramos. Also verified on PS3.


 * When first confronting Mr.House in "The House Always Wins" if you have enough Barter skill (50) you can make House raise his reward for dealing with Benny.If you refuse to do the quest after that you can repeat the Barter test for unlimited XP(50).