Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Summary
Ghost, an NCR Ranger from the Mojave Outpost, is concerned when she notices plumes of smoke rising from the reclusive town of Nipton. To add to her concern, there have been no travelers from Nipton as of late. Ghost contracts the Courier to investigate the disturbance.

Detailed walkthrough
Upon approaching the town, the player is greeted by an ecstatic (if not manic) Powder Ganger by the name of Oliver Swanick who proclaims life is grand after winning the lottery. Moving past him into town reveals a row of crucified Powder Gangers along the first street on the left (north). To the left of that is the Nipton General Store, where Boxcars is located. At the end of this road is the town hall. Either location yields a non-player character who will give you the information required to complete this quest.

Inside the General Store is Boxcars, a crippled Powder Ganger who will tell the Courier what happened in Nipton. At the entrance to the town hall, a contingent of Caesar's Legion led by Vulpes Inculta or Gabban will be encountered. He will initiate dialog, offer to tell the tale of Nipton's demise, and after a brief exchange, spares the player's life in order for them to spread the word of Legion atrocities across the wasteland, thus giving the quest Cold, Cold Heart.

Talking with Ranger Ghost again after this point will complete the mission.

Behind the scenes

 * "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" is the name of a folk song that became popular during the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.
 * It is also an English idiom suggesting to keep your focus to achieve a positive end result.

Bugs

 * If you accept this quest much later in the game (after receiving the quest "Render Unto Caesar" outside The Tops casino) and have not engaged Vulpes in front of the Nipton Town Hall until after that (he'll simply engage/disengage conversation), it is possible that you will be unable to complete this quest. Talking to Boxcars only offers the "I'll be going now" option, and thus there is no dialogue to complete the quest. Ghost will continue to ask you to investigate, rendering this quest forever incomplete.
 * If this bug is encountered on the PC, it is possible to complete the quest by using the console command.
 * Engaging Vulpes and killing all the legionaries also completes the quest.
 * If you enter the house that Boxcars is in before the initial dialogue with Vulpes, he may not appear and the four legion recruits will just stand in front of the town hall endlessly.
 * If you manage to kill Vulpes without ever meeting him in Nipton and kill Boxcars before speaking to him there is no way to finish the quest.
 * If Vulpes is not present (though the legionaries may be), using the console command will place Vulpes in front of the player and he will respond to dialog (note that the legionaries will not follow Vulpes out of Nipton and they may be killed after Vulpes' departure with the subsequent loss of faction standing with the Legion).
 * If you go to Nipton and talk to Vulpes without activating the quest from Ranger Ghost, you may be able to complete the quest with Ghost but the quest will not show up in your Pip-Boy as completed and will not show up in general.

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