Fallout: New Vegas exploits

Exploits are "holes" in the game programming which allow a player to do something which the developers did not intend and which alter the balance of the game in a way that benefits the player.

Experience

 * In Cottonwood Cove, speak to Aurelius of Phoenix. With 35 Barter you can convince him to allow you to trade NCR tags for supplies so that you can stick around "racking up kills". This check never goes away, allowing the player to level up for free.  This may also be the easiest XP exploit that the player can reach in the beginning of the game, making it a good one if you're playing new games to build various characters. (fixed on all platforms as of 2010-11-16?)


 * During the Three-Card Bounty quest, after killing the fiends you can talk to Major Dhatri about Ten of Spades and Betty. You can repeatedly pass a Speech check of 35 and 46 worth 20xp.


 * In the Vault 11 sacrificial chamber, you can access the mainframe in the room to the left after sitting through a presentation by Vault-Tec. Once you access the mainframe, you can repeatedly earn 550xp every time you select the third option and you do not exit the mainframe. (Patched)


 * During That Lucky Old Sun, if the Courier chooses "Full Region (Emergency Output Level)", the dialogue option with Ignacio Rivas to turn in the quest is not removed upon completion. This allows you to repeatedly obtain 350xp, 3 Stimpaks, and 2 Doctor's Bags. After the words "Level Up" appear for the first time the experience will cease to show but it will still make the sound as though you were getting experience. Once you exited out you will not hear the sound or see the experience show up, but you are gaining it all the same. Both statements also apply to the items.


 * At the Aerotech Office Park, speak to Captain Parker about Keith. Find Keith in Aerotech Suite 200. You can repeatedly pass a Barter check of 45 worth 50xp.


 * In Freeside, recruit Santiago to work for James Garret, then convince Old Ben as well with a Speech check of 50. You will find Ben sitting at the bar and be unable to tell Garret that Ben is willing to join. However, you can speak to Ben and repeatedly pass a Speech check worth 50xp.


 * In Goodsprings during the Run Goodsprings Run quest, you can get infinite XP, and loot using a speech check. Bear in mind this means you cannot use this exploit to gain Perks and then continue the game from Level 1.
 * IMPORTANT NOTE: It can be time-intensive and tedious to reach Level 30 by using this exploit...
 * Takes approx 5 mins to do a 100 checks. (Timed at less than 3 hrs, but more than 2 & 1/2 hrs; With And Without Swift Learner Stackup.)


 * Beginning at Level 1, it takes 66,700 XP to reach Level 30. Each speech check is 25 XP. 66,700 / 25 = 2,668 Speech checks.
 * You can speed this up by taking all three ranks of the Swift Learner perk, increasing your earned XP by 30% to make each worth 33 XP. In contrast: 66,700 / 33 = 2,022 Speech checks.
 * Agree to kill Ringo for the Run Goodsprings Run quest, kill him, return to Joe Cobb, agree to shake down store owners for supplies. Kill all the gang members, including Joe Cobb for good karma (and thus failing the quest).
 * Go to Chet in the general store and ask him to donate some supplies to the Powder Gangers. Select the first option (barter 25), then the second option (speech 25), afterwards the dialog doesn't disappear, and you can keep shaking him down indefinitely. (EDIT: You can keep selecting only the first option if you want. Choosing the 2nd option doesn't affect the exploit.  You can use the 2nd option but its more clicks on the Xbox/PS3 )
 * Loot from Chet: 25xp, a completed speech check, some Powder Gangers Fame (which you really need, since you just killed a whole bunch of them), 1 leather armor & 30 9mm rounds, which can be sold back to Chet, unlike what ever you steal from him.
 * You can do the same thing with Doc Mitchel (need medicine 25), the town's doctor. Rewards is 25xp, a completed speech check, spare medical supplies (worth 100caps, and weighs nothing).
 * On leaving Goodsprings (if you have not left before) (A save is recommended prior to leaving):
 * You can simply leave and keep the current build, perks and level.
 * You can choose to rebuild your character. If you choose this option, your level will be reset to 1 but certain perks  will remain. You will immediately level up again to the point you were before. This is what you should choose to pick even more perks as you will again be allowed to choose perks at each even level (2,4,6,8,etc).
 * If you rebuild and change any of your SPECIAL stats, you WILL LOSE any perk that has a minimum requirement that it no longer meets. The best way to avoid losing any perks is to use exact same SPECIAL distribution when you rebuild. Also, once you rebuild you can take the Intense Training perk, but do not take it before leaving Goodsprings or the points be lost.
 * SPECIAL stats DO NOT have to match previously chosen perk requirements. Tested by choosing Nerves of Steel (AG 7), Better Criticals (PE 6, LK 6), Action Boy (Twice, AG 6), Sniper (PE 6, AG 6), and Animal Friend (CH 6). Performed glitch and created a new build with 3 Perception, 5 Charisma, and 3 Agility, and all listed perks were retained.
 * Tested on confirmed.
 * Still functional after the November patch on (confirmed 2010-11-23)
 * From what I found SPECIAL does not have to match but any that rely on Actual Skills disappear Tho Ninja stays.


 * In Camp Golf, accept the quest Flags of Our Foul-Ups from Sgt. McCredie, then go talk to O'Hanrahan and mention helping the squad, he'll ask you to talk to the misfits. Go find Razz, the man with the mohawk, and ask him about his squadmates, as long as you have 40 speech, you can repeat the dialog over and over again for 40xp each time. This appears to be fixed on PC as of 18 December 2010.


 * In the Vegas Strip when you talk to Mr. House you can ask him as often as you want about the "You seem more like a computer than a man." Which requires 35 Medicine Skill and always gives you 35xp.


 * 'Mister Sandman Glitch' is back: In Bittersprings, after taking the 'Mister Sandman' perk wait for one of the refugee children to go to sleep and use the "Murder" option you get 50 XP, afterwards the kid keeps sleeping and you can simply rinse and repeat as necessary. Most children are invulnerable to the Mister Sandman perk and will only display a "talk" option when you attempt, however due to a possible labeling glitch these count both as children who can't be killed and adults who can be targeted.

Money

 * After recruiting Fisto to work for the Garrets as their 'sexbot'. Talk to him at the Atomic Wrangler, he will offer to provide services to you. Just exit the conversation and you will receive 10 caps. Repeat this as many times as you wish to build up vast sums of money however quite slowly.


 * Any trader who plays Caravan can be exploited for caps. There seems to be a logic error that involves all the different types of currency, if you buy everything so that you have no caps you can still gamble with your NCR and Legion money, the game gives you back all the money in caps. If you continue to do this until the the trader has 20 to 30k it never diminishes his/her total caps. You can keep feeding the trader more caps by buying and selling stuff. Do not make bets of over 49999 caps or the game will crash on payout. So once you get the trader up to around 180k caps you can just match bet and make more money then you can ever need.
 * Currently, Caravan is bugged so you win twice as many caps as you should.
 * With the 1.02 patch, merchants have been limited to five games of caravan apiece, limiting this exploit. However, the player can still reverse-pickpocket caps into the inventory of non-merchant NPCs who play caravan (such as No-bark Noonan or Isaac). This allows the player to exploit the 'double caps' bug.


 * At HELIOS One, if you chose not to reroute power to Archimedes II, Ignacio Rivas will give you 3 Stimpaks and 2 Doctor's Bags, if you continue to click on this option he will continue to give you these medical supplies allowing you to sell them and resupply your Stimpacks at anytime.


 * EDIT: Please verify. did not work with a 0 condition plasma gun at gunrunners. An exploit carried on from Fallout 3, the player can repeatedly buy and sell a weapon. For example, a broken minigun can be used. Sell your 0 condition minigun for 0 caps.  Buy it back for 0 caps.  The minigun will be at 100% condition.  Sell it for profit and the minigun will be back at 0 condition in the vendor's inventory.  Repeatedly buy/sell it until the vendor's cash is drained.  You can buy other things from the vendor but you should start the buy/sell of the weapon first and then purchase additional items so you can recover your cash from the other purchases.  When you are finished with the vendor, sell the weapon to the vendor  one last time and at the same time (before confirming sale) purchase the same weapon back in a single transaction.  This will give you the un-repaired weapon for future sales.  Some vendors are difficult to get the exploit to begin, especially if its the first or last weapon in the list.  Profit from the sale is the difference between the current condition of the weapon and the full 100% condition of the weapon so choose a very damaged weapon to buy/sell.
 * When I tried this, it worked for one transaction, and then didn't work. I had two Cowboy Repeaters. In order for this glitch to work for me, I had to wear one down to zero condition, and then sell them both to the Gun Runners, who also had a cowboy repeater. When I bought and sold the zero condition repeater, it sometimes gave me one of the other rifles, or sometimes the zero condition repeater. Just keep buying the zero condition repeater, and selling whatever you get.


 * It is possible to exploit any casino for infinite caps simply by getting around 33,000 Chips and then dropping them on the ground. The game gets confused since it's, for some reason, never expecting you to drop this many at once. The result of dropping them is a negative number of chips the player can then pick up and use to trade for caps, NCR or Legion money. The exploit can be done with values higher than 33,000 but the negative number dropped will be smaller the more chips you originally drop. Dropping 33,000 Chips will give you a number close to -32,000 and every time you turn Chips in for Caps, NCR or Legion money you will gain that amount, only in positive numbers. Note, save before dropping the chips; they sometimes disappear on the floor. When picked up, they don't show up in inventory anymore, but may be turned in for money over and over. If done right out of Character Creation the player may be able to get infinite caps before reaching level 2 if careful. (confirmed Xbox360)... 33,536 chips dropped equals exactly -32,000 chips.

* I can confirm the above exploit. I followed the method explicitly and have already taken a good deal of caps.


 * After you're done with the quest "My Kind of Town" in Primm, wait 3-7 in-game days and go to the Vikki and Vance Casino there you'll be able to gamble and give caps or any other sort of many for chips and then asking to return chips you'll get many and keep your chips

Loot

 * The two guards outside the gun runners factory can be killed without Karma loss or penalty. They both wear combat armor and carry a hunting rifle, all in roughly 50% condition, and can be then sold to the Vendortron at the booth for an easy 6000+ caps profit.  This can be repeated every time they respawn. The guards can be difficult to kill at lower levels. Note: They DON'T respawn, so this is not a repeatable exploit.


 * Using the Save/Load feature allows you to earn infinite caps and loot in a roughly low time. First, you need a caravan deck (You get this by talking to Ringo in Goodsprings). Go to Novac and enter the Dino-Bite Gift Shop and if the shop keeper is in there, buy all the items you can while keeping a good amount of caps on your body. You should then save and play a game of Caravan with him, betting all in. If you win, save and play again. If you lose, reload and try again. When you have a decent ammount of money again, buy more of his stuff and repeat. When he runs low on cash, just wait untill he restocks and do this again. In 15-20 minutes. Caravan is not affected by luck as the only part of it the game controls is the order in which you draw cards, and the AI has no way of knowing what cards are beneficial to your strategy or not. Another proof is that Ringo explains that Caravan is not played in casinos because it is not based on luck.

Artificial Intelligence Flaws

 * The artificial intelligence governing Deathclaws is unable to correctly determine when a player is within reach.
 * For example, in Quarry Junction, deathclaws do not attack players when they are mounted on the taller rocks or machinery, even when they are in reach. This flaw in the deathclaw AI can be exploited to safely kill the Alpha Male and deathclaw Matriarch even at lower levels. However, when deathclaws are actively pursuing the player onto rocks or machinery, they will recognize the player as within their reach, allowing them to attack.

Barter and Repair Exploitation

 * The infinite money glitch still works, and it has been carried on to New Vegas. Go to a store that has two identical items with different values. Buy the cheapest, and you should be able to sell it back for more. Repeat. If you have a heavily damaged item that usually costs a lot of caps, sell it to any store that already has that item. Exit the sale screen and dialog, if it is still there you can buy it back. When you buy it back it is fully restored and you can sell it for max price (depending on your barter). Repeat until you clean them out. Note: this does not work when trading with the Brotherhood of Steel at the Hidden Valley Bunker. Also if you mess up the first time, the game realises that you are glitching and stops the exploit, so you have reset the console.
 * After the Casino opens in Primm, when you choose to cash your chips in, no chips are removed from your inventory even though you are given currency for the chips. The player can cash chips in indefinitely for an infinite amount of NCR currency, Legion currency, or caps. - Removed in the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 version after patching.


 * Using a suppressed sniper rifle, kill NCR veteran Rangers, and take their armor, which can be worth up to 7500 caps. They spawn at Camp Forlorn Hope. Make sure you are hidden before you kill them and no karma or faction penalty will be incurred nor will the NCR attack you. Simply sell their armour, fully repaired for max profit, and every time you fast travel to and from the merchants, the veterans will have respawned. If not, go to Ranger Station Delta.

Videos
left|infinite caps

thumb|400px|left|infinite caps guide on ps3 after the v. 1.1 patch

Karma

 * Flame damage kills do not count against your karma.

Followers

 * In the middle of battle, talk to your follower. Select the 'Stay at a Distance/Stay Close' option twice. Then exit the companion wheel. When you exit your followers health should be fully restored (although sometimes it requires the command to be pressed rapidly 4 or 5 times).


 * Increased follower weight limit: Give any follower that is near their maximum weight limit a small portion of ammo. You can then give them another small portion of that same ammo, and they'll still be able to carry it even if they go over the weight limit. For example, ED-E is at 200/210 weight and you have 20 missiles (weight of 3). You can give ED-E 3 missiles, which puts him at 209, then give him more missiles in sets of 2 until you're out of missiles, putting him at 260, but it displays it as 210/210. You do not lose any items, but taking off weight will leave your companion at their max weight until their actual weight is below their max weight.

Weapons

 * Using VATS, then simply leaving it when using an Anti-Materiel Rifle loaded with Inc rounds will cause your target to catch on fire and take damage without causing aggression from friendly NPCs including the one you caught on fire or those watching. Only tested on the PS3 which has currently not seen any patches at the time of this exploit.
 * Patch 1.01 removes this exploit from the PS3 version.


 * If you have done enough of the BoS questline that you are told you can have some of their recharged energy cells / mf cells, you can leave the bunker and re-enter it and the box will always be filled. You can do this as many times as you want and accumulate an outrageous amount of energy weapon ammo. EDIT - No need to leave the bunker; going up the stairs through one door is sufficient. Sometimes you can see the initiate walking off having restocked the footlocker.


 * Sometimes, killing an enemy with an incendiary grenade will cause the enemy to melt, as though they were hit by a critical plasma shot. The pile of goop might not spawn in the right orientation.


 * When using round-by-round reloading weapons the slow speed and glitching can be remedied by having more than one ammo type and quickly tapping the change ammo type button or key two or more times depending on how many ammo types you are carrying. For example using the .357 revolver carrying regular .357 rounds and hollow point .357 rounds, after firing all 6 rounds of ordinary .357 cartridges, immediately press the switch ammo button two times to instantly reload the weapon with the first of the two ammo types you wer using. (Tested on .357 revolver, cowboy repeater, trail carbine, brush gun, lever-action shotgun, and hunting shotgun. Can Confirm With Grenade Launcher as well.)


 * When using the Flamer and having the Meltdown perk, when killing an enemy with the Flamer it will cause the Meltdown plasma explosion instead of just plainly burning the enemy to death. (Need confirmation with Heavy Incinerator and Incinerator)

Freeside energy weapons kills
Using some doors in Freeside, such as the East Gate or shops, will count as an Energy Weapon kill upon loading of the entered area; a message will appear counting the killing of an enemy using an Energy Weapon, allowing for easy completiong of Energy Weapons-related challenges, and so achieving the XP you would normally earn upon completion of the challenge. Tested on Xbox 360. (Confirmed on PS3)

Perks

 * If a perk has a required skill level (eg.Animal friend has a survival requirement of 45), allocate your skill points to the number required, select the desired perk and return to the point allocation screen. You can now reset your points and put them to whatever you want but the perk is still selected even though you no longer meet the requirement.


 * It is possible to obtain a total of 28 perks on your character. By using the infinite speech glitch during the Run Goodsprings Run quest, you can reach level 30 before leaving Goodsprings. Once at level 30, travel far enough away from the town until you are given the option to rebuild your character. By selecting yes, you are put back to level one and all stats will be reset, but most (not all) of your perks will still be with you. You will then immediately reach level 30 a second time, allowing you to choose 15 more perks to add to your character. In-Depth HD Youtube Tutorial, contains a list of Perks which will persist.

Video
thumb|400px|left|Almost DOUBLE the amount of perks you can have The video verbally mentions that you can pick any of the Traits in your starter build for the glitch. These will apply only while you are in Goodsprings performing the glitch. You may want to choose Wild Wastelander as there is at least one event you can get to prior to exiting Goodsprings. When you exit and rebuild your character, you are given the opportunity to choose the two traits you intend to use throughout the remainder of the game.

No falling damage
If one were to jump from an extreme height and save a bit before touching the ground, when they die and their save reloads, they will not take any falling damage depending on where they were relative to the ground when the save was created. Must be a hard-save, not a quicksave.

Barrel exploit
The player can use barrels to kill people. Simply find a empty barrel and push it against a NPC. The NPC will lose some health and the barrel will be sent flying. This can be repeated multiple times to kill someone. The person or others will not be aggressive when hit or killed. This allows lower level players to get armor and weaponry without karma or hostility. Note that you will also take some damage, but very little.

Armor Hopping
If you press grab just a few milliseconds after jump standing on a piece of armor you can jump on it repeatably to get high off the ground. This can be used to get to out of bounds, or places you are not supposed to be able to, like Legate's Camp.

Video
thumb|400px|left|Early Legate's Camp Item hopping demonstration

Infinite Legion Loot / 12.7 Ammo
If you decide to massacre Caesar's Legion at The Fort, you have a chance to gain an unlimited supply of Legion money, armor, and weapons, as well as a possible source of infinite 12.7 ammo and 12.7 SMGs. After clearing out the main area of The Fort and searching the bodies, find the corpse of the Legion Decanus and carry it to the drawbridge where you entered the area from. Drop the body and activate the drawbridge, which takes you to the outer area of The Fort. Immediately turn around and go through the drawbridge again. Check the body of the Decanus and he should have his weapon, ammo, armor, and the spent shell casings he was carrying even if you had already cleared off his body. Repeat as many times as desired. Also works with all other human NPCs in the area with the exception of the Praetorian Guard.

Infinite Ammo
For weapons that use ammo it is possible to exploit the inventory system to make a full magazine only cost you a single round. To use, you need at least a magazine's worth of ammo to start with. Start by fully loading your weapon, then drop all your ammo but 1 (or hand to a companion). Your weapon will still have a full magazine loaded, but your remaining ammo will now be a negative number. As long as your remaining ammo number is negative, every round you fire does not deplete the ammo in your inventory. You can fire the entire magazine as usual, and in the end it will only have cost you a single round. Moreover, all rounds before the last one in the magazine are ostensibly free using this exploit, so if you reload before firing the last round you can chain this exploit for unlimited free ammo. (Could not reload clip for infinite ammo on Xbox 360.)

Euclid's C-Finder
Put Euclid into a container and put ARCHIMEDES II ammo into container, take Euclid back out of the container storage before closing the container window down and then exit the inventory dialog. Container will show "Empty" when hilighted, even though it contains ARCHIMEDES II charge. Then wait for "ARCHIMEDES II Charge added" to appear in upper left corner. Open container and put Euclid back in again. You now have 1 charge in the container and one in inventory. Put your the charge from your inventory in the container and pull the Euclid out again. Charges will slowly accumulate in the container, not your inventory. Repeat this process until you have all the charges you want in the container, then for the last time pull the Euclid out and all the charges out. Note that the game will ONLY regenerate one ammo per day IF your ammo count is 0.- edit: Tried it on the ps3 today, seems the new patch fixed this exploit.

Easy Pickpocket Achievement
In Vault 21 you can keep pickpocketing the people staying in the the hotel below. When the inventory menu pops up, you can select their items but it will never leave their inventory. once you exit the menu you can keep pickpocketing the same person over and over without actually getting any items. It is recommended that you save every 3 to 5 steals because there is still the chance of getting caught and not being able to steal from that person anymore. 1 stealthboy could make this even easier than it already is.

Vendor Cash/Inventory Reset
You can either wait several game days using the wait/sleep menu or reset their cash/inventory immediately by exiting to the main menu. Procedure: Stand in front of the vendor. Save. Quit to the main menu. Continue from the main menu. The vendor will now be at full cash and inventory will be refilled including any randomized items. Load from in-game will not reset the inventory, you must exit to the main menu and load/continue from there. This will only reset a vendor(s) in the zone you are in, for example if you perform this inside the dino gift shop, that vendor resets but not any caravans outside in the courtyard. This can be used to quickly reset vendor cash or regenerate random items. Works with the weapon sale exploit. .