Restoring Hope

Restoring Hope is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Detailed walkthrough
Travel to the Camp Forlorn Hope command center and speak to Major Polatli and ask what can be done to help around the camp. He says that a lot of things can be done and then tasks you to speak to Mayes in the quartermaster's tent.

Mayes will send you to retrieve a supply shipment that didn't get delivered to the camp. He sends you to Lieutenant Haggerty at HELIOS One to get more information on the shipment. Haggerty will reveal that the missing shipment has a GPS in it, so it can be located on your Pip-Boy map. The location is northeast of the Southern Nevada Wind Farm which is west of Camp Forlorn Hope. From the wind farm go northeast until you come to a small cliff that drops into a small valley. Continuing to look northeast, you should be able to see a few dead NCR soldiers along with a storage crate that contains the supplies you need several yards away by another small cliff. Taking the supplies triggers an ambush by 3-4 Legion soldiers.
 * Note that if you can remain unseen (maximum detection level [CAUTION]) by the Legion soldiers that spawn, they will not be hostile. If, at the time they appear, any of them that suspect your presence (but cannot locate you) will put you in [CAUTION] as usual, but revert to non-hostile once you are [HIDDEN] from them. They will then remain non-hostile.

After recovering the shipment, return to Camp Forlorn Hope and return the shipment to Hayes, then consult with Potatli. He sends you to the camp's medical center and asks you to assist Dr. Richards if you can. Speak to Richards and he will give you a few tasks. First he says that he would appreciate a hand in treating some of the injured soldiers. There is an option to say you cannot assist in this task. There are no negative consequences for choosing this option. Examine each of the three patients in the medical center and treat them accordingly. (Note: All equipment except the super stimpak, and two of the three required Med-X can be found in the tent and taken for free during the time of the quest only, after you complete the quest the items become red again.) After treating all of the soldiers, return to Richards and let him know.
 * Patient 1 suffers from machete wounds. A Medicine skill of 35 is required to treat him or a Med-X, whiskey, and a surgical tubing is required for treatment.
 * Patient 2 suffers from a leg injury. A Medicine skill of 50 is required to treat him or a medical brace, Med-X, and a bonesaw is required for treatment.
 * Patient 3 suffers from close range blast trauma. A Medicine skill of 75 is required to treat him or a tweezers, Med-X, and a super stimpak is required for treatment.

Note: Everything you need for the non-medicine solutions is inside the tent itself, and you will no longer be penalized for taking anything within it.

Note: Although the option is given to use items in lieu of meeting the requirements for the skill check, you still need a minimum Medicine score of 25 to successfully treat all the patients. If your Medicine skill is lower than 25, you will botch the treatment (rather humorously) even if you have collected all the required items. This will result in Richards throwing the player character out of the medical center and will net some NCR infamy. However, the quest will still continue as normal, with Polatli acknowledging that he likely sent the wrong man for the job.

From there assault Nelson at your own or return to Polatli and tell him the soldiers have been treated. He then sends you to meet with Cooper between the camp and Nelson. Meet with Cooper and his squad and assault Nelson. You will decide whether to attack from the cliff at the east (distance, good for sniping) or from the north (close quarters). Also, Cooper's squad will vary depending on your success in completing the various side quests and unmarked quests in Forlorn Hope. If every quest was completed in the best possible manner causing a high morale boost for Camp Forlorn Hope, Cooper will be flanked by Rangers with sniper rifles. Alternatively, lower ranks of morale will respectively result in Rangers with standard weapons, a 4-man regular trooper squad, or a 2-man trooper squad. There is a cliff nearby if your plan of attack includes sniping. Otherwise, storm Nelson and kill the legionaries in the town. Head to the northeast barracks and kill Dead Sea. He will have a few legionaries with him. After this, return to Camp Forlorn Hope and tell Polatli of the victory. This will complete the quest.

Counter-quest
This quest is in direct opposition to We Are Legion. Finishing either will always cause the other to fail. For example, this quest requires the death of Dead Sea who gives (and closes) We Are Legion and vice versa (with Major Polatli).

Behind the scenes

 * The name of this quest is a reference to "Operation: Restore Hope", a U.S. initiative to create a protected environment for conducting humanitarian operations in the southern half of Somalia in 1992-1993.

Bugs

 * The "Diagnose Patients" bug may leave you unable to complete the quest in the "Help Dr. Richards with his patients" section. After talking to the doctor and getting permission to treat the patients, interacting with the patients does nothing. You can bypass this by telling the doctor you are unqualified to assist. However, you should still be able to diagnose patients as the quest notes suggest. This occurs only if you have started the "We Are Legion" quest (verified on xbox360 and PC) (only if a current quest state is 10).
 * If you have this bug and do not want to bypass it as described above just reset the "We Are Legion" quest by the command . Alternatively you can kill Dead Sea, thus failing and ending the quest "We Are Legion". To do this without affecting your status with either group use a Stealth Boy and enter Dead Sea's cabin. Reverse pick-pocket a grenade or similar on him but do not leave the room. Note that killing him also prevents the last part of "Restoring Hope", where you assault Nelson, from starting and you only have to speak with the Major.
 * After helping Dr. Richards, Polatli may be walking around the mountains between Camp Forlorn Hope and HELIOS One. Fast travelling may fix this.
 * When going to the tent to talk to Dr. Richards about helping his patients, you may find inside that every patient is standing up alive and well. You will still be able to operate on them.
 * After treating each individual soldier for Dr. Richards, an non-player character hostile towards the NCR (Powder Gangers, Great Khans, etc.) may spawn at the tent entrance, attacking and likely killing Richards, causing the quest to fail.
 * If you kill the Legion raiding party when you come across the Helios-Hope shipment and fast travel right after to Forlorn Hope, the entire camp will be alerted as if there is an enemy nearby and you wont be able to speak with anyone. Solution: Wait for the alert to recede, or leave the area.
 * You won't find Haggerty if you have completed the quest "That Lucky Old Sun" and killed all NCR people in that area.
 * The area around Nelson and Camp Forlorn hope is one of the more bugged-up and crash-happy areas of the game. Save regularly to avoid lost progress.
 * If you kill the Legion raiding party after coming across the Helios-Hope shipment and you fast travel shortly after to Forlorn Hope, a group of legionnaires will sometimes appear inside the camp with you and attack the NCR soldiers. Although they are easily dispatched, similar to a previously mentioned glitch, you may be unable to interact with any NCR soldiers due to them being in a "perma-alert" mode.

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