Fallout: New Vegas bugs

General advice and notes

 * Make sure your game is patched to the latest official patch. If your game is not up-to-date, do not report any bugs you may experience.
 * Save often and in different slots. Do not rely too much on autosave. A frequently overwritten autosave slot can become corrupted.
 * If you are playing on the PC, make sure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements. If any component of your computer falls below the minimum system requirements, do not report any bugs you may experience.

Bethesda's support page
Bethesda's FNV support page offers many simple solutions to common problems.

Mods

 * The Vault does not cover information concerning third-party mods for Fallout: New Vegas.
 * If you have any mods installed, do not report any bugs you may experience, even if it seems to you that your issue is not mod-related. Please visit the Bethesda mod forums for information.

Using the console
On the PC, many NPC, quest, and player-getting-stuck issues can be resolved through the use of console commands.

Crashing, freezing and other hardware- or software-related issues
Stuttering, crashing, freezing, and slow-down issues are often hardware- and/or software-related. Please visit the Bethesda Fallout: New Vegas hardware forums for information regarding these issues. In particular, read through the stickied threads at the top of the forum pages.

Gameplay bugs

 * Boxes or jars of ammo primer or powder are useless and take up weight until dropped or stored in a container, and then picked up again, at which time the quantity of weightless ingredients is added to the inventory. This applies to most boxes and jars, with the exception of a few, such as "Ammo Box, Microfusion Cells", which are correctly added as ammo immediately. In hardcore mode this 'bug' is actually a benefit as a box of 250 x 5.56mm Surplus rounds weighs only 5 WP as opposed to 250 x 0.03 = 7.5 WP.
 * Purchasing the strength implant does not increase strength when at level 7.
 * In the wasteland, things that fall though the floor, you might see again on what seems to be a phantom wall.
 * Phantom walls appear seemingly at random throughout the wasteland.
 * Jumping on the sarsaparilla crates results in a loud crash, followed by your character abruptly taking serious damage. Process is repeatable.
 * Occasionally clothing and armor is not properly unequipped. Resulting in being attacked for no reason by enemy factions. Example: If the NCR starts attacking for no reason, reequip legion armor and unequip it again. Make sure you receive the message that you are no longer dressed in legion clothes.
 * All black suits disappear from the game, they appear as black when dropped but when equipped they are white. - Post patch
 * Occasionally, some NPC's heads will do an 'exorcist', or will turn completely upside down, being near their chest. This is extremely rare, but the most notable person to do this is Antony.
 * Sometimes, your fingers will 'break', and your index finger will bend and partially clip through itself. The easiest way to recreate this is to fight Silus inside Camp McCarran, he may do an uppercut or strength attack, and your screen will shake, then return to normal with your fingers 'broken'. Another way is in the Legion's Arena, after you successfully win a match with a Machete (Fallout: New Vegas) equipped. (Unknown if this is a problem on other consoles as well, but I wouldn't doubt that it isn't.)

Custom button-mapping bugs
Using custom control-mappings can cause problems when attempting to activate or use objects, fire weapons, reload, etc.

Caravan bugs

 * When buying cards for your caravan deck, they will just sit in your inventory and you won't be able to add them to your deck. This is fixed by putting the cards into any container, then retrieving them.  The cards then go straight into your deck. Similarly, placing them in a companion's inventory and removing them also adds the cards to the caravan deck.

Pip-Boy bugs

 * The Pip-Boy screen may increase in brightness to a point where you can't see anything on the screen. (Saving and loading the new save can fix this on PS3 and xbox 360)(Turning on then off the pip boy light can fix this on PS3 & Xbox)
 * In some instances when the player turns on their Pip-Boy's light, the entire sky may glare up, regardless if day or night.
 * In H&H Tool Company the dates on the journal entries hidden on the secret network drives do not match the dates of the same journal entries on the Pip-Boy (they are ten years earlier on the Pip-Boy).

NPC-specific bugs

 * For NPC-specific bugs, please see the respective NPC article page.
 * For bugs that apply to NPCs in general or to followers in general, please see the General NPC bugs section below.

Quest-specific bugs
For quest-specific bugs, please see the respective quest article page.


 * During The House Always Wins if the player character 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. House will send the player to activate the bots but he doesn't return the chip to the player so that he can actually enter the vault and thus the quest is broken. The only way around this is to activate the bots before turning in the chip to Mr. House.-Confirmed on Xbox360
 * The unnamed quest to find the food processor parts doesn't allow you to fix the processor even if you have all the parts, one more pot is needed. This was found on the Xbox and PC version, unknown if PS3 is affected. EDIT (different author): I was able to fix the food processor when carrying an extra Pan(Pot?) in my inventory (2 instead of 1). Upon fixing the processor, only 1 Pan(Pot?) was removed from my inventory, however.
 * During I Put a Spell on You the bomb will explode even if disarmed.
 * If you do Wang Dang Atomic Tango quest before picking up Debt Collector quest, talking to Santiago will automatically add the debt collector quest, but the dialog and the last stage of the Debt Collector quest get messed up.
 * During I Could Make You Care you can explore the terminal stations at the brotherhood bunker. Scribe Ibsen will ask your assistance in isolating a virus on the terminals. There are two methods to complete this mini-quest, a normal attempt at finding the virus on the terminals and a speech check of 70 to partition the terminals. The speech check of 70 method is bugged where all three terminals are found and partitioned but the quest does not complete (not confirmed on PC version) EDIT (different author) This didn't happen to me on the PC version. EDIT (new author), I have three terminals stuck on the "check partition" status and I can't isolate the virus no matter which other terminals I check. EDIT (new author) If you are having issues here, please speak to Scribe Ibsen once more to re-activate the quest. Note that to complete the quest, you must speak to Scribe Ibsen to request that he track the virus on his terminal; he will then announce that the virus has jumped, after which you have approximately 20 seconds in which to access all terminals where the virus has jumped to. If you run out of time, speak to Ibsen again to re-initiate. I believe this is moreso a confusion regarding the quest criteria/objectives, rather than a bug.
 * During I Could Make You Care Veronica will walk up to and talk to Elder McNamara to initiate a scripted sequence of dialog. If the player walks up to McNamara thus leading Veronica to engage the scripted dialog and then speak to a NPC (such as a brotherhood of steel knight standing guard at the doorway) right before the scripted sequence, it will bug the sequence and both McNamara and Veronica will stand idle. The player will not be able to engage McNamara or Veronica in dialog and the companion wheel is disabled when talking to Veronica. Console commands of disable then enable, kill then resurrect, will not restore McNamara or Veronica to their previous states. (McNamara can jump out of script even without Veronica. He then just stand in the hallway on 1st flor, tellig player to wait for him to return to office.)
 * Return to Sender If you talk to Ranger Andy in Novac before you start this quest Ranger Station Charlie gets wiped out so there is no way to bring the update that Station. It will remain a quest objective until you return to Rayes where you can finish the quest. (EDIT: I did that, and it didn't show as an objective on PC - Jay of Gamerfill)
 * Mr. New Vegas' radio news announcements do not properly reflect the conclusion of I Fought the Law if the player sided with the NCR instead of the Powder Gangers.
 * After the guard duty mission for the Van Graffs at Silver Rush, going back outside and stealing the Van Graff armor makes it a permanent item in your inventory that cannot be dropped as it is considered a "Quest Item".
 * During Guess Who I Saw Today, before letting Doctor Henry experiment Lily Bowen, when you kill Calamity the quest will get stuck at the moment Calamity is supposed to say something, the quest will get stuck and you cannot complete it.
 * In the Debt Collector quest, if you kill Caleb McCaffery, there will be a blackscreen crash every time you try to load The Strip and the autosave will become corrupted. The only known way around this is to equip an Old Cowboy Hat whenever you try to load The Strip.
 * During Bye Bye Love Carlitos might now spawn in Vault 21. (Check the Bye Bye Love page for a fix around this)
 * On the quest The House Always Wins If you open the Doors to Mr. House's Cryo Pod and KILL him and revert your save you will be unable to talk to him making you unable to complete the quest. (EDIT- Please clarify. On PS3, performing this sequence of events causes no apparent issues: Save->Kill Mr. House->Load Save->Speak with Mr. House)
 * If two Mantis's fight in the Thorn they will not attack each other, ever. Pushing guards into the area doesn't do anything. Any quest related to Red Lucy in the Thorn can then not be completed.
 * (PC Version) If you finish various quests (The House Always Wins, G.I. Blues, Volare! and others) you might not get the achievement. EDIT: This can be caused by using console commands, as it will lock the player out of unlocking any achievements for that play session. Closing and reopening the game fixes this.
 * During ED-E My Love when you receive a message from the Brotherhood of Steel, at the end of the message between the Brotherhood and the player, the player may be unable to move but will still receive status updates and NPCs will still function. *Xbox 360 version only, unknown if PS3 and PC versions are affected. (PC Version is affected, this particular PC player experienced it though it automatically ceased when an NPC entered and completed combat, though the Pipboy and weapons are no longer accessible afterward.)
 * In the Come Fly With Me quest, if you clear Harland of his post for Davison, Davison may attack you, regardless of whether you touched Antler or not. (PS3) Happened to me on 360 also.
 * During Come Fly With Me even if you decide to help Davison to get rid of Harland, if you get attacked by a nightkin near Davison, Davison’s attitude will turn hostile and he will attack you. (New Author) This is not a bug, This is intended and is even in the strategy guide. In order to succeed in assisting davidson you must not kill any Nightkin in Davidsons vicinity. He will also become hostile if you kill all other nightkin in the basement under any circumstance. The idea is to ensure you can only help davidson OR Harland not both. (New Author:PS3) If you search the "Jail" (basement) before speaking with Davison or Harland you can complete both quests. (New new Author:360) Confirmed on my game, I was able to finish both quests and everyone was happy.
 * In Come Fly With Me if, before the launch, you tell Haversam of Jason's plans for him, and convince him to go to Novac, after the launch, Haversam will still be in the basement, he'll stay in the basement, and he'll only reply to you with dialogue indicating that the launch hasn't happened yet: "Not now. It is almost time for the Great Journey!"
 * If you complete You'll Know It When It Happens after being given the quest by both Mr. House/Yesman and the NCR, the quest will not register as complete and you'll be unable to proceed down the NCR questline (the Mr. House/Yesman questlines are unaffected).
 * In Come Fly With Me, after you leave the second floor of the REPCONN building, it will be locked. Console commands can unlock the door, but otherwise you will be locked out forever, and unable to turn in the quest (Until a patch is issued to fix this, and similar bugs)).
 * In One for My Baby, if you allow Boone's Beret to reach 0% repair you will be unable to wear it and therefore unable to complete the quest. Quest items will not show up in the item list when you go to a merchant to have them fixed, and you can't find a second one, so the only way to replace the hat would be in the command console which will remove your ability to unlock achievements.
 * (360) If you set up a fight between two Giant radscorpions and two Fire geckos at The Thorn they will come out and have a staring contest and not attack each other. Leaving and reentering the area does not fix this. Due to this you can not start dialog with Red Lucy. She will just say "It's time for blood. We'll talk. Find me after the fight." -Confirmed Xbox360 Also happens with several other creature types, recommend saving before each match.
 * (PC) In the quest How Little We Know If you talk to Cachino after dealing with Troike but before killing Clanden, he will give the dialogue options for killing the bosses. If you say you're not ready and go kill Clanden, you will fail the mission with the associated Wild Card quest being updated with "Clanden has been dealt with" and "Go tell Yes Man that the Omertas hate you". Going back to Cachino will find him already in the room with the bosses with both bosses having drawn their guns and not moving. Speaking to him will initiate the boss dialogue/fight.
 * (360) In the quest How Little We Know If you choose to turn Cachino in to his bosses he will be killed in the meeting. This will trigger two new quest goals with one goal being to obtain a shipment of chlorine and one about recovering a weapons shipment from fiends.  If you try to blackmail Clanden about the hooker he will not have any speech options about it and the hooker will not act like she is dead although you still get the option to perform an autopsy.
 * (360) Sometimes in VATS, if queing up multiple attacks with a firearm and attacking, the player will not do anything, just stand still. However, AP is not lost when going out of VATS after a few seconds.
 * (PC)The quests Ed-E My Love and Still In the Dark. At the repConn HQ The bodies of the fallen brotherhood of steel members have a holotape describing thier mission. Once you grab the holotape it disappears and becomes a note in your pipboy with password, but no recording to listen in your pipboy. Also since the holotape disappears you are unable to complete the doomed patrol portion of Still in the dark quests.

Location-specific bugs
For location-specific bugs, please see the respective location article page.
 * (PC Version) In the Lucky 38 Presidential Suite the terminal used for purchasing extra features does not have the items properly mapped and you must click of to the right of the right of the item to select it.
 * North of the cove location towards the south, standing on the highest rock will result in becoming stuck and unable to move.
 * At the Gomorrah, the dealer may talk to a Gomorrah floor manager like he is a visitor of the casino
 * It's possible to go outside of the map due to a ledge southeast of Morning Star Cavern.
 * In No-Bark's house, if you jump in between the fridge, the wall, and the bed area, you will be stuck. Reloading the last save or using the TCL console command are the only ways to get out.
 * In the rail way path, at the south of the Boomer "mortar town"(very hard locked door) the path has about 6 ghouls and traps. There is a small side room and the stairs are fall through. You, or anything else cannot cross it.
 * After upgrading Mr. House's Securitrons, the gate to the Strip is locked by key and the guarding securitrons aren't upgraded.
 * Sitting in some of the chairs inside the H&H Tool Company, your screen will turn to third person mode, and you will not be able to move. Your character will still be standing up, however.
 * Xbox360 On top of the Nellis array if you get to close to the edge that divides the roof you'll fall through the roof and be stuck "inside" the build with no way to get out. You have to restart from last save.  Just repair the arrays buy standing between them and clicking avoid the edge.- Clipping issues in areas without enemies are easily fixed by fast travelling.
 * Inside the H&H Tool Company, sitting in some of the chairs near desks on either the lower or upper level will result in your camera turning into Third Person mode, and your character will be standing up. S/he will never sit down. The only way to fix this is to revert to previous save points.
 * Inside the Train Tunnel (Fallout: New Vegas), when going up the stairs you glitch through the level and reset inside. Ghouls and mines respawn a few times. Didn't crash the game.

Exploits
Please see Fallout: New Vegas exploits.

General solutions

 * Leave and re-enter the area.
 * Load a save from before the glitch occurred.
 * Exit the game, restart the game, and load a save from before the glitch occurred.
 * PC users may be able to fix some issues by using console commands.

Clipping

 * Clipping (items and actors getting stuck in the ground or in other items) is a common problem.
 * The PC may be pushed through objects, such as the ground, and launched forwards.
 * Sometimes, if you pick up an object from a table or other surface, all other objects on it will fall through the table

Crashing, freezing and slowdowns
Crashes and freezes may happen occasionally to anyone. Crashes and freezes are only notable when they are repeatable (e.g. they happen under the same set of circumstances often). If the crash only occurs on one particular save, then the save itself is most likely the source of the problem. Please verify that crashes and freezes are repeatable on more than one save game before reporting.
 * Crashes in VATS are somewhat common.
 * Crashing or freezing when entering or exiting areas is somewhat common.
 * Crashing or freezing upon entering The Strip is fairly common.
 * Severe slowdowns are occurring on all platforms. Restarting your system may help.
 * On the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 version. Repairing two "NCR Bandoleer Armors" at the same condition will always result in a freeze. ( Happens when repairing NCR armor while it is worn, possibly other faction armor )
 * In Primm, there are some tents that the NCR forces stationed there use as their field HQ. In one of the tents, it is empty except for a bedroll and a shelf with a few containers. One of the containers holds two NCR facemasks. The game will crash fairly soon after trying to use these masks in any way after picking them up. Combining them to repair them causes the item to disappear from your inventory. The only safe method to interact with them seems to be to avoid that tent entirely or drop the masks after finding them. This bug was found on the Xbox 360 version and verified on the PS3; also when wearing or repairing NCR Trooper Armor.
 * (Seen on PC) The NCR facemasks are not the only bugged item. Sometimes you have an item in your inventory, which is shown as a single item. But if you drop it with a right click an item is dropped, but another identical item remains in your inventory. This seems to come from the fact, that they have some 'stacking rules', which are buggy. I found a 'Roving Trader Hat' on a NPC which immediately converted to 3 hats, but only my existing hat was shown. Dropping the only 'Roving Trader Hat' in my inventory yielded 3 more identical items! The best thing to do is to drop such buggy items, or put them to a container and forget them. A very similar thing happened before with a 9mm pistol, which was shown as one item, but really were two pistols. The problem is that this seems to lead to crashes, directly from the menu from a trader, even if you do not buy or sell such a buggy item. If it leads to other crashes, when the game tries to remove buggy items from the world (not from your inventory), or if the buggy save leads to generic crashes I cannot tell. But it seems best to try and fix this. The only way I found is to use an empty container somewhere and dropping all things from your inventory into it. Watch carefully, if things, which do not stack (ammunition stacks and has a number to indicate how much you have) or combine (correctly combined items have a plus sign in the list, so you can examine them) are really one thing or more. Drop buggy items, or put them to a container. There is no guarantee that will help, but at least it fixed the crash in the vendor menu for me.
 * If one saves at the beginning of the game while editing your character the Level up system can crash.
 * After entering the Hidden Valley Bunker. In the main office, after handing over your Weapons, Clothes and Ammo. (Occured during ED-E My Love quest) (PC).
 * Attempting to fire Euclid's C-Finder at any time with the Heave Ho Perk. (After arming the Archimedes-II) (360)

General NPC bugs

 * The NCR Rangers that follow you when you have a bad reputation with the NCR will hunt you down in locations they should not have access to, such as the brotherhood of steel base.
 * Sometimes the veteran ranger in the squad will have a Ranger Sequoia


 * A few times, specifically when exiting Helios One to the courtyard with the solar panels, a loud crashing sound happens, and Old Lady Gibson and her pack of dogs spawn in the doorway.
 * Rarely when you sleep a Random NPC can spawn next to you, they can be either Friendly or Hostile.(PS3)
 * Many NPCs seem to sit about 2 feet to the left or right of chairs instead of actually in the chair in several places throughout the game. (PS3)
 * Lakelurks sometimes attack eachother.

Engine Bugs

 * Control and HUD loss on reload from save. Known to happen on all three Gamebryo Engine games.
 * If for some reason the engine hangs for a while, the terrain thread can get stuck which means A) the terrain will never update again, leading to the player being able to access the lower LODs B) the thread never closes which means the game hangs on exit

Radio-related bugs

 * Subtle audio-normalization issues on the radio, making some songs noticeably quieter than the announcer (Mr. New Vegas).
 * Some songs played much more often than others (seems to only be radio stations with an announcer, Mojave Music Radio appears to randomize correctly) One song played twice in a row begining to end.
 * A noticable distortion is present in Mr. New Vegas' speech while on the New Vegas Strip or in Freeside. Only occurs on the ambient radio not while played via the Pip-Boy 3000.

Animation bugs

 * When putting away pistols (9mm and such) if you're running the pistol will enter your characters back and stay there until you draw your weapon again, if you hold still while holstering your weapon it will go to your side as normal.
 * When equipped with a two-handed gun in first-person mode, the weapon often clips mid-view, distorts, and slides to the top of the screen and behind the player's perspective.
 * Zooming in with Guns equipped with the scope mod sometimes results in a black screen with a hack computer screen.
 * Looking through binoculars sometimes results in a black screen with a hack computer screen but can be fixed by getting out of the game completly and back in. (xbox 360)
 * Sometimes when telling a follower to switch back from melee to ranged will result in their ranged weapon to be holstered where their melee weapon was. (Example: Boone unequipping his machete and equipping his rifle. The rifle will be at his hip instead of on his back).
 * Some caravan card games may not load up a screen, but rather load up the options to choose cards. The screen will remain with you looking at your opponent.
 * If you make a save file while being scoped in with the Anti-Material rifle, upon load the texture will overlay the player's view even when not zoomed in. One way to fix this is to zoom in with a different rifle and zoom out, however this doesn't work in all cases. (Confirmed ,)
 * When wearing the Prostitute Outfit and straffing to the left, the arm will twist and morph, causing the player's skin to show through the clothing.
 * After removing all the gear from Boone's inventory, the "shell" of his face completely disappeared leaving only his eyes and teeth where his face would be. This only happened once inside the Novac hotel room but I didn't try to duplicate it after reloading my last save. (PS3)

Weapon Bugs

 * After reloading a pump-style or drum shotgun the fire trigger may not work from 0 to 60 sec [not good in combat as you can imagine] after the reload. Solution: Do not let the ammo in your gun run out, ie, reload before its absolutely necessary to fire another shot.
 * Loading a Save Game where the player has a Service Rifle equipped sometimes causes the rifle to shoot one round after the load, after this occurs the fire and reload buttons are non-responsive, changing weapons does not solve the problem. To fix this reload the save game while holding in the reload/holster button while the Save loads.
 * The Weathered 10mm pistol is missing a mesh, that is, a graphics file needed to display the gun correctly with gun mods added. Consequently, when you add mods to the gun, you end up with severe visual distortions. A couple examples below:


 * When you have an upgraded as well as a standard 9mm Submachine Gun, moving them in and out of a container might make the standard one disappear (it reappears upon removing the other one) or be "magically" repaired to full condition. Similar problems with Plasma Rifles found, this happens with many weapons on the PC while trading with companions. (Added by another user): See also the bug list of 'Crashing, freezing and slowdowns' above: There seems to be a generic item bug which happens from time to time. Similar things can happen not only with weapons but with other items as well.

Barter system bugs

 * The vendor's name is blank when the barter screen is first opened. If the category of the vendor's items is changed, when you cycle back to the vendor's name, it is now displayed. [observed on PS3 and 360]
 * Confirmed on PC, as well.
 * When selling a 9mm Sub Machine to a caravan merchant outside of New Vegas may sometimes result in the "exit transaction* menu being stuck on your screen. The menu options cannot be selected and pressing X only results in more of your inventory being sold to the merchant. It can be resolved by simply pausing and un-pausing the game while the menu was up. Unfortunately, you may have to purchase back all your items from the merchant.
 * After you've bought all the stuff you need from Cliff Briscoe in Novac, if you save your game, quit to main menu, and then hit continue, he will have a new complement of stuff for you to buy (and new funds if you won all his playing Caravan). This basically means endless caps and endless ammo, as you can buy stuff for as much as you want, then win it all back + 6000 extra, then save, quit, continue and repeat. I had 100.000 caps, 1000+ of all ammo, and 10 of all skill-mags in less than an hour. Haven't checked this with other merchants yet, but will report back when I have.
 * When purchasing any items from Blake at The Crimson Caravan Company the game will freeze or suffer a severe slowdown immediately after the transaction is complete. Has happened many times and occurs occasionally with other merchants. Occurs most often however with Blake. (PS3)
 * Selling a modded weapon, and then subsequently trying to buy back the weapon, will result in the purchasing of a different form of the weapon(if it is stocked). Example: Trying to buy back an extended mag 10mm Pistol while other 10mm Pistols are present will result in the purchase of the unmodified weapons first. Purchasing all weapons did not solve this problem, as the modded weapon would not be transferred, though caps were lost.(360)

Schematics/Workbench Bugs

 * If you obtain the Rock-it Launcher Schematics or Food Recipes, they will not show up in the workbench or campfire crafting menu.

Crashing and other hardware- or software-related issues
Stuttering, crashing, freezing, and slow-down issues are often hardware- and/or software-related. Please visit the Bethesda forums for information regarding these issues. In particular, read through the stickied threads at the top of the forum page.


 * Strange black and white boxes appearing at long view range with Nvida GTX 4xx cards in singular, and many SLI setups. I believe it's a Driver Issue--Omega. (may be fixed by latest GeForce 260.99 driver)


 * Indoor HDR lighting will frequently flicker in areas close to light beams and other nondescript areas. This bug is intensified when the PipBoy light is on.