The Thorn (Fallout: New Vegas)

The Thorn is an underground settlement located within the outer walls of the Westside, New Vegas. The R in the sign is pointing to the sewer, letting you know that is the main entrance. The main interest of The Thorn is the arena, where you can bet on the outcome of fights between wasteland creatures or fight in the Arena yourself. Access to The Thorn is denied from 1:00 am to 6:00 am.

Layout
The Thorn is a large arena surrounded by a system of raised catwalks for the guards and spectators, and surrounding the sides are cages holding the wasteland creatures grown & kept by Red Lucy for Arena battles.

If you like you can set up custom fights by talking to Red Lucy. You get to choose what creature and how many of it will fight in red vs. blue team. Since the creatures are expensive to breed, keep and maintain you will have to pay for the fight. If the team you bet on wins you get your caps back plus a little extra. To initiate the fights simply talk to Red Lucy and select "let's talk about The Thorn" and ask "What's fighting in the next match".

You can also tell Red Lucy that you want to pit yourself against the creatures. The creatures you can fight are fire geckos, giant mantises, radscorpions, nightstalkers, cazadores and deathclaws. You can choose what and how many creatures you want to fight. The screen will fade to black and you will be moved to the arena cage. The winnings are dependent on what it is you fight and the number you are facing. The most you can fight is three deathclaws at once. You must bring her the eggs of the animal you wish to fight, before you can fight them in the arena.

Related quests

 * Bleed Me Dry
 * Fight Night

Appearances
The Thorn appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bugs

 * Crash-to-Desktops are very common in this area, especially while fighting in the Arena.
 * After defeating any animals in the Arena, the doors open allowing you to leave. A second or two later all the gates that just opened for you to leave instantly seal and the only way out is through the side of the Arena, which itself is sealed unless this glitch occurs. This can easily cause you to get caught in between the two doors leading into the Arena with no way out except the console. This doesn't happen every single time but it's extremely common.
 * When fighting any number of cazadores or deathclaws, the creatures may turn on each other, stinging/clawing each other to death. The doors will not open after they are dead, leaving you trapped in the arena. Also the fight never ends when fighting one deathclaw, the doors do not open, and you are trapped forcing a reload.
 * After choosing multiple participants for a fight (3 Rad Scorpions on one team, for example) the cage doors will open and the participants will walk out toward the middle of the arena but they will not all stop in the correct "zone" to initiate the fight. As a result both teams will just sit there and no fight will take place. Early attempts at leaving/returning/fast traveling/letting a few days pass did not seem to reset this. If you attempt to "move" the participants by jumping down and nudging them, or if you try shooting them, the inhabitants of The Thorn will open fire on you for interfering. This makes it impossible for any further fights to take place. To fix either kill one of the teams, exit The Thorn, wait a few (game)hours then return, Things should be normal. Or if Lucy is facing the arena, to her right and behind her there is an area you can sneak where one team is visible. With a silenced weapon, kill that team and the match will end. You can exit the pit from the stairs located behind Lucy. If you kill the team undetected, things will be normal. A Stealth Boy may help in this.
 * Sometimes when the creatures freeze, shooting one of them in plain sight of everyone will not render the New Vegas citizens hostile, and you can proceed to talk to Lucy to collect your bet.
 * When entering the arena and going to fight the door opens but your cannot get through it. An invisible wall blocks your path. You can however get through it by crouching then jumping or just walk forward and keep jumping.
 * Choosing to fight in the arena may cause any current followers to go missing.
 * When using a Plasma or laser weapon type, and disintegrating enemies into goo/ash, the goo/ash will not disappear immediately like corpses would.
 * It is easily possible to walk through the gate before entering the battle area.
 * Sometimes the enemies will back out through the door they came from (before the gate) before it closes or even if it has already closed. This prevents the battle from being completed, and so stops the courier from leaving. If you're lucky enough, the enemy may reveal itself through the door by walking into it (a giant radscorpion's claws, for example), and you may be able to get a few cheap shots at it. It's advised to save before the battles, and not to use explosives on creatures from a distance before they get free as this can throw them back through the door or possibly hit spectators, which will turn them hostile. Though to avoid this altogether the player can hug the right wall of the arena and go around the column (next to the exit gate) to approach them so that they will be too close when engaged in combat and will not run away.
 * After asking Red Lucy to fight and she telling you to go to the cage and your screen going black, rather than reloading in the arena below, you may simply reappear in the same spot, with Lucy in a permanent bug state refusing to talk to you.
 * When two creatures start to fight they can disappear thus resulting in Red Lucy refusing talking to you, plus you lose the bet.
 * If you kill the animal(s) you are fighting before they exit their gate, the match will not end, and you will be trapped in the pit. Even noclipping through the exit gate, Red Lucy will be stuck saying "The crowds are waiting for you, stranger." You can press console key "~" select animal and write . Kill the animal again and exit to cage door.
 * When two radscorpions are chosen to fight, the animation on their attacks will lock, only tilting back and forth, and neither of them will die, even after zero health.
 * Before you start a fight between 3 giant radscorpions, one will sometimes spawn in your gate but will not be hostile until the gate opens, also possible with deathclaws.
 * When talking to Red Lucy on the stairs closest to the main entrance, especially following a match against creatures, your partner can get stuck as if you told them to wait. When you tell them to follow you again, they run down into the arena and start running against a flaming barrel.
 * After completing Bleed Me Dry and thus collecting all of the eggs required, The Strip can become inaccessible. The player can no longer enter The Strip, as a "Requires Key" message under the usual "Enter The Strip" message is present. This can be fixed if you have completed the quest I Put a Spell on You in Camp McCarran or if you have a reputation higher than neutral with the NCR and ride the monorail from Camp McCarran to the NCR Embassy on The Strip. Traveling to Freeside without fast-travel will fix the bugged Stip door, no longer needing a key. However if you have not passed the credit check for the Securitrons they will attack you once in Freeside. This can be done as many times as needed.
 * When visiting The Thorn's cages, do not attempt to kill caged creatures using melee or unarmed attacks and V.A.T.S.. Otherwise you may end up inside the cage, with no way to exit except by reverting to an earlier save.
 * When you place a bet on a fight they don't fight with each other, this leaves you unable to talk to Red Lucy and you can't win the bet.
 * When fighting 3 deathclaws, they may get stuck behind the door and the match will not end.
 * If you fight three deathclaws and win, all the doors will remain locked and will say "Requires key" and you will be unable to leave the arena. This happened 3 different times, leaving no option but to reload a previous save each time.
 * If you fight three radscorpions and win, all the doors will remain locked and will say "Requires key" and you will be unable to leave the arena. Leaving no option but to reload a previous save each time.
 * When fighting three deathclaws one or more deathclaws may spawn in the player's cage but will not attack until provoked.
 * Sometimes the creatures in matches may spawn nonhostile making the matches easy wins.
 * If you fall into the ring, without a fight happening, Red Lucy may attack you.

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