Camp Guardian Caves

The Camp Guardian caves is a unmarked location in the Mojave Wasteland. The entrance to Camp Guardian Caves is found at Guardian Peak in the north-east part of the map near Lake Mead.

Layout
The Camp Guardian caves is a large network of tunnels and a few large open areas with its main entrance being at Camp Guardian Peak, directly north of the tent. There are also two additional exits toward the southern end of the cave. The first comes out on a ledge over top of the pathway you took up, just past the Camp Guardian sign. The second is located in an underwater passage at the southern most point of the cave and comes out in Lake Mead, a short walk south of the Camp Guardian sign. The cave is inhabited with 15 to 20 lakelurks and a lakelurk king.

Following the passages will lead you to the injured Private Halford. With a high enough Medicine skill (50) or a doctor's bag the Courier can heal the Private at which point you can either tell him the path is clear to leave, which unless true will result in his certain death, or you may ask that he help you clear the caves of the remaining lakelurks with a speech check (50). Note: Though the pathway that you took to reach him is clear and the quickest way out, he will not take this route to leave, but rather he will head even deeper into the cave.

If you approach either entrance to the Caves, Halford will leave the party stating that he is close enough to the entrance to get out himself. The largest number of lakelurks are found in the area with the King, egg clutches, and the 11 dead NCR Troopers as well as a dead caravan brahmin. Connected to this room is a mostly flooded chamber containing 1-2 lakelurks. At the far end of this chamber is a flooded passage that exits into the Colorado River.

Notable loot

 * Schematics - dog tag fist - Rewarded for saving Halford or from his corpse.
 * 7 C-4 plastic explosives - just inside the cave, 5 in a crate, 1 on top of the crate and 1 on the ground next to the crate.
 * There is a dead pack brahmin in the center of the room with the lakelurk king. It contains various ammunition, armor, and weapons.

Appearances
Camp Guardian caves appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bugs

 * If the player heals the wounded private's leg, compliments his weapon, and convinces him to help clear the caves, then leaves prematurely, you should be able to infinite loop "You said you would help clear the cave" and "you said I could have your rifle", to produce an infinite number of service rifles, 5.56mm rounds and armor piercing 5.56 rounds.
 * Sometimes if you do not help the injured soldier (Private Halford) before exploring the rest of the cave, when you come back the option to help him is no longer part of the dialogue.
 * The entrance section of Camp Guardian Caves may be pitch black even with Cateye. Once you walk further in this will correct itself. However it may bug and walking further into the cave, sometime it will not light up. It will also randomly turn pitch black while inside the cave.
 * Upon exiting the lower cave, ED-E may appear in Black Rock Cavern. Fast travelling or entering a load screen will return him to you.
 * The game may freeze repeatedly while in the caves.
 * If you don't clear out all the lakelurks before you exit, Private Halford can follow you outside, and even though you're safe from the caves, he will still tell you to whisper in case you alert more lakelurks. Even when you fast travel across the map, he'll still think he's in the caves. He'll fight with you (along with your companion) but he can die, unlike your companion (Casual Mode).
 * There is an exit in a large room that is underwater, if you take it before you finish clearing the lakelurks, it can bug out so the private disappears from the game.
 * If you attempt to save by waiting while in the caves, your may experience a system freeze in the middle of the save. Because this occurs in the middle of the save and the only way to recover the system is to reboot, your game save may become corrupt. If you do not have another save, you will need to start a new game, losing all progress.
 * Sometimes when fast traveling away from Camp Guardian, the screen will become very blurry and dark and can make the game virtually un-playable. One way to fix this is to fast travel back to Camp Guardian, then to Lake Mead caves, enter the caves and then exit and it should fix the problem. Taking a Cateye is also effective, and the issue will resolve by the time the drug's effect has faded.
 * Upon exiting the cave from the underwater pool that the Private runs through, all relations with NCR, Khans, Fiends, and Legion may be reset.
 * When leaving the Caves via the underwater exit, if you still have Halford following you he will get stuck on the roof of the exit tunnel, swimming forever and you will not get Private Halfords Note to make the dog tag fist.
 * Be careful while searching through the egg clutches. You may become stuck and short of reloading a previous save, you may be forced to either use an unarmed or melee attack on a lakelurk or companion to break free.
 * Occasionally, the lakelurk king will fight with the lakeurks within the room containing egg clutches, making clearing the caves much simpler.
 * When you first encounter a lakelurk after meeting Private Halford, Victor's corpse may be sprawled out on the ground. However, he will still be around New Vegas and will continue to inform you as scripted.
 * Some of the dead NCR troopers in the deeper part of the cave may be wearing some clothes, but you won't be able to find them in their inventory.