The House Always Wins II

The House Always Wins II is a main quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Quick walkthrough
For part two of the quest, you must travel to Cottonwood Cove and take a raft to The Fort, where Mr. House's secure bunker is located. If you already collected the platinum chip, Mr. House will return it to you; if not, you'll need to get it back from Benny when you get there.

The player must begin Render Unto Caesar in order to gain access to The Fort. This will be given to you by Vulpes Inculta, who will approach you in disguise on the Strip right after you leave the Tops. If you killed Vulpes, Alerio will grant this quest instead. You will be granted the Mark of Caesar, which resets your Legion reputation to neutral. Note that further violence against the Legion will not be excused.

From this point, you have several options.

Alternatively, you can simply speak with Caesar, let him give you the chip and escape. To do so (be sure to have a few Stealth Boys with you) all you have to do is walk to the exit, use a couple of Stealth Boys and steal the footlocker key from one of the guards (To retrieve your weapons) and simple walk out the door. Be aware, you will arrive at Cottonwood Cove so plenty of the Legions will be here. As soon as you spawn here be sure to use a further few Stealth Boys to reduce the risk of anyone seeing you, and then swim off into the water- you can then fast travel to The Strip North Gate and then carry on the mission.

Option: Play along with Caesar
Whether you intend to aid him or not, one way to get into The Fort is to do as the Legion says. Don't take Craig Boone, as he will shoot Legion on sight unless you're wearing Legion armor. Travel to Cottonwood Cove and meet Cursor Lucullus at the docks. He will take you to the fort. Upon arrival you will be stripped of all "banned" items (all detectable weapons, certain medical supplies, and the platinum chip if applicable). A Speech check can be used to keep the medical supplies. Your items will be stored in a locked box by the gates, the key to which is held by the guards. Even if you pickpocket the key without getting caught, opening the box will turn the Legion hostile on the spot, regardless of how you do it.

The next step is to meet up with Caesar and discuss his wishes. He will ask you to destroy House's bunker and return the platinum chip. The bunker is located in a weather monitoring station at the back of the camp. Note that while Caesar asks you to destroy the bunker, he will not actually check to see if you followed through. The objective for his mission completes regardless of your actions. Next you will need to head to the bunker. Here a Legionary will give you your equipment back. Open the doors on the ground inside the weather station using the chip and venture down the stairs to the elevator.

Inside the bunker, you will encounter Mr. House, who will 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. The entire bunker is mildly radioactive (+1 rads per second) and is inhabited by hostile protectrons and turrets. A nearby room has terminals which can be used to deactivate the turrets and robots. A science skill of 50 can disable the turrets, while the robots require a skill of 75. Upon reaching the end, you can install the chip and upgrade the Securitrons. Caesar will take the large rumble as proof of the bunker's destruction.

If you haven't killed him yet, Benny will be in Caesar's tent. Caesar will offer you the choice of how he is to die; crucifixion or a duel to the death with machetes. You have several options:
 * Kill Benny.
 * Untie Benny. Doing so will turn the Legion hostile and they'll probably beat him to death even if you survive.
 * Give Benny a Stealth Boy and a bobby pin to escape himself. This will end the same as the second option unless you sneak along with him. Assuming he escapes, you'll never see him again.
 * Note that while Benny is still tied up, you can pickpocket Benny's Maria without any repercussions. Even if he catches you, he will not try to retrieve it from you.

Option: Get past Caesar
If you've once again become vilified with the Legion, or simply don't like the Legion, you can still complete this quest.

The first option is to disguise yourself as one of the Legion. Don't take your companions as the guards will notice and a shootout will ensue. Make your way through Cottonwood Cove to the Fort as normal. Speak to no one but the dock officer and avoid all legion dogs or else you'll be caught. Make your way to the bunker. The guards inside will recognize you, but they can be killed without alerting the rest of the camp as long as you remain disguised. Complete the mission as before and return the way you came.

The second option is to simply kill everything in sight. Instead of speaking to Cursor Lucullus, whom you'll have killed, just target and activate the raft to get to the fort. Kill everything between you and the bunker and complete the quest as normal. You don't have to kill Caesar if you don't want to.

Completion
Once the Securitrons are upgraded, head back to the Lucky 38 and talk to Mr. House. If you just obtained the platinum chip, Part One will complete prior to Part Three starting.

Journal entries
Part II

Bugs

 * If you are under the affects of Mentats before you give the chip to Mr. House in the part II, when being 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 the Mentats wear off 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. (No problems doing this on PC after patch)
 * Upon completing part II, returning the platinum chip and receiving your reward, the dialog will end and the screen fades out. When the screen fades back in, the character may be frozen in place and unable to interact with Mr. House.
 * When trying to complete Part II, sometimes trying to talk to Mr House 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 caused by two things: either having helped the Boomers at Nellis before completing Part II, or not looking in Benny's suite and finding Yes Man
 * When trying to complete Part II, Victor may not be standing outside the Lucky 38. When you enter you will be attacked by the two Securitrons inside and the copy of victor that controls the elevator with no way to yield. The quest cannot be completed if this happens because you will not be able to get to Mr. house without the elevator. The suspected cause of this is killing Victor's original copy (the one that follows you). The only known way to fix it is by loading a save from before killing Victor.
 * In Part II after exiting the secret bunker, (Regardless if you did anything or not) Caesar's Legion may "forget" that you are trying to help them and you will then gain Legion Infamy and be attacked, leaving the player no choice but to fight them or reload an earlier save, before talking to Caesar.
 * During Part II of the quest when you go up to the elevator to go back to Mr.House you will be unable to speak to Victor rendering the quest unable to be completed. (Link to a solution: http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/falloutnewvegas/show_msgs.php?pid=959558&topic_id=m-1-57466971 (works even with the new update) )
 * Bringing a companion inside and talking to them, and then exiting the conversation while standing near Victor can cause the menu to change floors to pop up, thus fixing the glitch.
 * If the player returns to the Lucky 38 and gives the Platinum chip to Mr. House before activating the Securitron army at the fort, the quest becomes stuck. Mr. House will send the player to activate the bots but he doesn't return the chip to the player so that the player can't actually enter the vault resulting in a broken quest. The only way around this is to activate the bots before turning in the chip to Mr. House, or, if you're on PC, giving yourself another Platinum Chip using the console command "player.additem 1164fb 1".
 * During Part II of the quest when you go up to the elevator to go back to Mr.House you will be unable to speak to Victor rendering the quest unable to be completed. (Link to a solution: http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/falloutnewvegas/show_msgs.php?pid=959558&topic_id=m-1-57466971 (works even with the new update) )
 * Bringing a companion inside and talking to them, and then exiting the conversation while standing near Victor can cause the menu to change floors to pop up, thus fixing the glitch.