I Forgot to Remember to Forget

 is a quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Activating the quest
Note: You must talk to Manny Vargas in Novac first about his tour of duty in NCR and Bitter Springs before related speech dialogs are avaliable with Boone.

The player requires 5 "history" points with Boone. These must be earned with Boone in your party, listed below:
 * Camp McCarran
 * When torturing the captured Legion POW Silus at Camp McCarran, if he dies during the torture: +1.
 * During the mission 'I Put a Spell on You' at Camp McCarran
 * If you kill the spy: +1
 * If you disarm the monorail bomb: +1.
 * The Fort
 * Killing Caesar at The Fort: +2.
 * Legion Raid Camp
 * During the side quest Booted at Legion Raid Camp, rescuing the hostage Powder Gangers: +2
 * Nelson
 * During the side quest Back in Your Own Backyard in Nelson
 * If you kill the hostages: +1.
 * If you save them: +2.
 * Camp Searchlight / Cottonwood Cove
 * During the side quest Eye for an Eye (begun at Camp Searchlight; executed at Cottonwood Cove), eradicate the Legion for: +2.
 * After killing Aurelius of Phoenix in Cottonwood Cove.
 * The Tops (or The Fort if Benny escapes)
 * Confronting Benny at the beginning of Ring-a-Ding-Ding.
 * After the mission 'Ring-a-Ding-Ding' if you kill 'Benny'.
 * Killing Vulpes Inculta: +1

Also, during Wild Card: Change in Management, if you kill all the legionaries including Caesar, it should bring up the dialogue option after Boone mentions Caesar's death.

Note: You must always advance in dialogue with Boone when "history" is earned.

Note: If you have enough history points but the extra dialogue does not trigger, then go to Cottonwood Cove and kill the Legion, this should trigger the dialogue and quest for you.

''Note: If you have done all the above and the dialogue still hasn't triggered, go back to Novac and make sure to talk to Manny Vargas (The other Sniper). He should have a "new" dialogue about Bitter Springs. Exhaust those dialogue options with Manny and it should open up new conversations with Boone.

''Note: If you've killed Aurelius of Phoenix at Cottonwood Cove or Vulpes Inculta, you can resurrect them and kill them again to get more History points.

Walkthrough
In Novac, you must first talk to Manny Vargas about the Bitter Springs Massacre. This is the only way to actually get Boone to talk about Bitter Springs. Without Manny talking about it, the dialogue to activate the quest will not appear until after you have spoke to him. Once the player has gained Boone's loyalty, he will speak with you about Bitter Springs. The player can suggest going there, but he will initially refuse. Later, however, he will talk to you again, and request that you go there.

NOTE: It is strongly advised you complete the Bitter Springs quests prior to going there with Boone as the Legion raid on Bitter Springs often results in either Lieutenant Markland or Captain Gilles getting killed, making all three quests unobtainable. The quests are: No, Not Much, Bitter Springs Infirmary Blues and Climb Ev'ry Mountain. Also, make sure your companions are not carrying explosive weapons. When they use grenades or missile launchers, they may kill a Great Khan or NCR member in error, ending in infamy and possible hostility from the attacked party.

Once you get to Bitter Springs, he asks you to go to the point he was stationed, where he tells you exactly what happened during the massacre there. He then asks you if you don't mind staying overnight. If you say yes, the screen will fade out and fade back in, with Boone telling you that a Legion raiding party is on the way. The Legion raiding party is not so easy to defeat, you may want to be a high level or have good weapons, having the alien blaster could help very much, although with Boone it is much more simple.

The attacking Legion forces come in three waves. The first two waves come toward Bitter Springs up the sloping hill. The third wave comes through a small gap in the side (where the graveyard is located). The battle is much easier if you mine these locations before going with Boone to Coyote Ridge.

You must then defeat the Legionaries to save Bitter Springs. Once they are all dead, Boone will talk to you again, and at the end of the conversation his armor is upgraded depending on your last answer. ''Note: The armors are only cosmetically different, their stats are identical.
 * 1st answer yields 1st Recon survival armor
 * 2nd answer yields 1st Recon assault armor

Bugs

 * Boone will not talk to you once you have activated the quest when you arrive at Bitter Springs.
 * Dialogue with Boone will not start when you reach coyote’s tail ridge making the quest incompletable (this can be fixed by reloading an earlier game)
 * Sometimes, if Boone approaches you saying that he's ready to go to Bitter Springs, but you don't immediately accept, he may become stationary and will not move again until you talk to him and tell him that you want to go to Bitter Springs.
 * If you have played the entire game with another companion and cannot earn any additional history points, on the PC, go to the console and "setstage 001349A7 10" to start this quest.
 * PS3 Version: After the start of the Legion raid, the game freezes (requiring hard reset of PS3) every time I try to enter Bitter Springs to fight the legion off.  Tried multiple times, but can't complete the quest.  Seems like all of the commotion and/or NPC's in the area all at once overloads the game/system.  Would like to hear if others have had similar experiences.

Behind the Scenes
This quest title is a reference to the song 'I Forgot to Remember to Forget', performed by Elvis Presley and written by Stan Kesler and Charlie Feathers. Released in late August 1955, it became one of Elvis' top singles for two weeks during the following year.

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