Arcade Gannon

"It's...a thing. A science thing. It hurts robots. Don't worry about it."

- Arcade

Arcade Israel Gannon is a possible companion in Fallout: New Vegas. As a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse in 2281, he researches the potential medicinal uses of naturally occurring compounds for the chapter that resides in Freeside's Old Mormon Fort.

Background
Arcade Gannon is the son of an Enclave officer, born in Navarro in 2246, four years after the destruction of the Poseidon oil rig. His father died while Arcade was still an infant, killed in combat on an away mission; to this day, the specifics of his father's death are unknown to him. As he grew up, he bonded closely with his mother and his de facto family, the Enclave Remnants, a group that had formerly served in the same unit as his father. In the wake of the NCR's capture of Navarro, the group fled the area and attempted to integrate into civilian life, but this was short-lived. Between the Republic and the Brotherhood of Steel both launching aggressive campaigns to track down all personnel that hadn't already been killed or detained during the siege, the Remnants were forced to retreat further into the eastern territories.

They eventually settled in the Mojave Wasteland and started new lives, their past associations kept secret for fear of further reprisals. Gannon joined the Followers of the Apocalypse to find a peaceful application for his skills and began working in Freeside. Though he's attempted to put the past behind him, he continues to dwell on the shared experiences of his family and his father's old unit, hoping that some day he can repay the Remnants for their unwavering loyalty to both him and his mother. Gannon trained as a doctor with the Followers in the NCR. He prefers research to healing because he’s “not good with people.” In his spare time he reads “Pre-War books about failed socioeconomic theories”. Gannon speaks fluent Latin, although he is quick to assure the Courier that it was not a skill he picked up from Caesar's Legion.

Arcade is highly intelligent, personable, and quick-witted. He sports a strong self-deprecating sense of humor, which he frequently uses to deflect questions of a personal nature.

He shares the idealism of the Followers, but he also tries to be more pragmatic than some of his colleagues. He understands the post-apocalyptic world is one in which sometimes, people just have to be shot in the head.

He has a deep-seated desire to affect societal change on a broad spectrum, but he is only too familiar with what can happen when ideals become more important than the needs of individuals. This has led him to take a more balanced approach to the troubles of the post-war landscape, taking up the Followers' cause to help those around him achieve independence, assisting in the effort to make the less fortunate communities become more self-reliant. Though he may concede that the NCR's motives are in some ways similar, it's likely that he sees their 'clean up' efforts as distressingly corollary to what he offhandedly describes as the 'fascist' tactics of the Enclave.

Despite doing a great deal of good for people in Freeside, he still worries about whether or not the path he's taken is one his father could be proud of.

Relationships
Forced to conceal his past for fear of NCR persecution, he has a desire for companionship from someone he knows he can trust. While he admits to having had many men in his life, he says "lovers make poor confidantes." The only people he remains close to are the Enclave Remnants, whom he sees as an extended family, though they've grown distant from each other over the years. His closest bond is with Daisy Whitman, who he describes as being "the only woman in [his] life" after the death of his mother.

Recruiting as companion
There are several ways for the player to recruit Arcade. In each case, assuming the requirements are met, the player just needs to talk to him, exploring the dialogue options until some variant of "Why don't you come with me?" shows up. He will agree if any of the following are true:
 * The player has a high reputation with the Followers.
 * The player has successfully completed High Times and given Julie Farkas the needed medical supplies.
 * Note that for this approach, the player needs to first ask, "Do you need any help?" after which Arcade will thank the player for their work for the Followers and a "join me" option will appear.
 * The player can pass a speech check of 75.
 * The player has the Confirmed Bachelor perk.
 * The player has Intelligence 3 or lower while speaking with him, Arcade will take pity on the player. Temporary intelligence-reduction effects can be useful in this situation, for players who can't pass any of the other checks.

Quests

 * After shifting the balance between factions and exploring several locations that trigger memories of his days with the Enclave, Arcade will offer the quest For Auld Lang Syne to reunite the members of his father's old squad in order to have them render assistance in the upcoming battle at Hoover Dam.
 * Beyond the Beef: The player can offer Arcade, or any other human companion, as a substitute to Mortimer for the banquet
 * Bitter Springs Infirmary Blues: Gannon can train Markland in being a doctor bypassing the part of the quest in having to retrieve Tiny, Tiny Babies: All You Need to Know About Pediatric Medicine and Stress and the Modern Refugee: A Primer for Markland.
 * Et Tumor, Brute?: The player has the option of selling Arcade into slavery as Caesar's personal doctor completing the quest.

Making him quit
Arcade will get fed up with the player if the player does or says things that he dislikes. He has an internal counter of "dislike" points that is increased by doing or saying stupid or mean things or doing things that hurt the Followers. Once he has accumulated 3 "dislike" points, he will warn the player that he or she is "acting crazy". At 6 points, he will leave permanently. Note that he also tracks "like" points, but those are only used to decide if he'll start the For Auld Lang Syne quest early or not.

The "dislike" points are triggered by the following statements or actions:
 * Relating to The White Wash quest:
 * 1 point for saying, "Right. "The Followers don't endorse his actions," and all that." when Arcade comments on Anderson, when visiting Westside after having earlier completed The White Wash without Arcade.
 * 1 point for saying, "They profit from crime, now I profit, too." when Arcade chastises the player, if the player finished the quest by extorting money from the Westside Co-op.
 * 2 points for saying "Anderson killed White. He deserved to pay for what he did." when Arcade challenges the player, if the player finished the quest by killing Anderson.
 * 1 point for saying "What's done is done." when Arcade challenges the player, if the player finished the quest by killing Anderson.
 * 1 point for saying "You're assuming a motive without evidence. Please be rational." (which requires Intelligence 7), followed by, "It was either this or spend the rest of his life in an NCR chain gang." when Arcade challenges the player, if the player finished the quest by killing Anderson.
 * During the first visit to The Fort with Arcade along:
 * 2 points for saying, "With how messed up New Vegas is, do you really think Caesar has nothing to offer?" followed by "Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting." when Arcade asks why they are there.
 * After speaking to Hildern (any conversation that ends with "Yes...Goodbye" or "Wrong turn?...") with Arcade (one time) he will talk about Hildern's motives.
 * 1 point for saying "But in the end, doesn't it all just come down to numbers anyway?"
 * 1 point for murdering non-hostile innocents. (Dislike isn't raised until Arcade comments negatively.)

Arcade will leave immediately and permanently if any of the following happens:
 * The player responds to one of his challenges with some variation on, "If you don't like it, leave."
 * The player enters the Legate's Camp in preparation to help Caesar attack Hoover Dam.
 * The player convinces the Remnants to support Caesar's Legion during the For Auld Lang Syne quest.
 * The player activates Archimedes I. (Diverting power to Archimedes II is not a problem.)
 * The player reports back to Caesar after assassinating Kimball. He will leave whether or not you are ready to move on to the final mission. He will stay as long as you don't report back.

Endings

 * If he is tricked by the Courier and imprisoned by the Legion, Arcade remains Caesar's personal physician for several years. Caesar grows fond of speaking with such an educated man on philosophical matters. Arcade becomes his unwilling intellectual sparring partner. After years of such servitude, during an unguarded moment, Arcade uses a surgical scalpel and his bare hands to disembowel himself. Lacking any other skilled medical personnel, the Legion is unable to prevent his death. Caesar mourns his loss for months.
 * If he is sold into slavery and the Legion retreat from the Mojave Wasteland, Arcade is a sad casualty, one of many. His body is heaped with those of many others in a nameless ravine on the Legion's long march home.
 * If he fights with the Remnant at the Dam and NCR achieve victory, Arcade is proud of his role in the defense of Hoover Dam against the forces of Caesar's Legion. Unfortunately, when word spreads that Arcade was once a member of the Enclave, he is forced out of the Followers of the Apocalypse. Pursued by bounty hunters, NCR rangers, and the Brotherhood of Steel, Arcade pushes deep into the eastern plains and is never heard from again.
 * If he remains in Freeside and Freeside falls under NCR rule, Arcade is glad that Caesar's Legion had been stopped at Hoover Dam. He tends to the sick in Freeside for a while longer, then returns to NCR territory to become a teacher with the Followers there.
 * If he fights with the Remnant at the Dam and the Legion achieves victory at the Hoover Dam, Arcade is not among NCR's casualties. During the NCR's retreat from the Mojave Wasteland, he helps defend NCR citizens and refugees on their way to Mojave Outpost. Unfortunately, NCR rangers identify his father's armor as Enclave property. He is arrested, tried as a war criminal, and imprisoned indefinitely.
 * If he remains in Freeside and Legion forces approach New Vegas, Arcade does his best to help people escape with adequate supplies. A Legion explorer sees Arcade helping locals escape and points him out to a Centurion. Arcade's group is gunned down somewhere near Westside. There are no survivors.
 * If he remains in Freeside and Mr. House's pulls off his power play following the defeat of Caesar's Legion at Hoover Dam, Arcade remains in Freeside for a short time after the Securitrons establish widespread control, and eventually travels back into NCR territory. Disillusioned with the Followers of the Apocalypse, he settles down in the outskirts of the Boneyard, where he works happily as a family doctor.
 * If he is one of the defenders who turned back the Legion at Hoover Dam and Mr. House ascends to power, Arcade leaves the Mojave Wasteland for parts unknown. He is never heard from again.
 * If Arcade is one of the defenders who helped repel the Legion from Hoover Dam and the area is freed from the shackles of the NCR and Mr. House, he finds that independence for New Vegas is not all he hoped it would be, but he uses his Enclave knowledge and technology to keep order wherever he can.
 * If Arcade is tending to the locals of Freeside when Caesar's Legion are defeated and NCR is being pushed out of New Vegas, he finds that independence for New Vegas is not all he hoped it would be, but he does his best to help the locals govern themselves.

Inventory
Because Arcade's Plasma Defender uses Magical Companion Ammo instead of energy cells, it does not have the -2 DT effect that comes from using standard energy ammunition. The weapon has the same statistics as the standard version otherwise.

Notable quotes
“[N]ihil novi sub sole” (there’s nothing new under the sun) “I’m really very boring. You’d get better stories out of a Freeside junkie.” “[C]aveat Samaritanus.” (Samaritan, beware)

Appearances
Arcade Gannon only appears in Fallout: New Vegas, but was going to appear in Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 by Black Isle Studios (see Arcade Gannon (Van Buren).

Behind the scenes
"Arcade's conflict is about his identity. He is torn between a sense of loyalty and tradition to his father and adoptive family and a desire to be independent, self-made. He feels caught between generations and cultures and isn't sure who he should be or how, if at all, to use the "legacy" (material and otherwise) left to him by his father.

Arcade's endings are intended to reflect that no one is damaged more by reality than the idealist. He does his best to be practical and rational, but there is a strong idealist streak in him/the Followers in general. In some of Arcade's "best" endings (meaning, the circumstances he thought he wanted), he is still somewhat disappointed by how things turned out. In his "worst" endings, he can wind up bitterly disillusioned, brutally murdered, crucified, casually executed and discarded in a ditch, or even defiantly suicidal.

Arguably the worst ending is the one in which Arcade is given to Caesar as an enslaved doctor. The existence is so unbearable to him that he does what the historical Cato the Younger did at Utica: rather than give Caesar satisfaction, he disembowels himself. Like Cato, Arcade cannot live in a world where everything he tried to resist has come to pass."

- J. E. Sawyer

Arcade Gannon was one of several player characters J.E. Sawyer used while playing the Fallout tabletop RPG. As a character, he is also inspired by Sawyer's idealism.

Bugs

 * Sometimes he will still be recruitable after completion of For Auld Lang Syne. He will not display a companion screen and will die in casual mode instead of being knocked unconscious, but will still follow the player.
 * Give Arcade a pre-War bonnet to put on & the game rendering messes up. Might happen on other gaming platforms & maybe on different companions but not tested yet.
 * There is a way to get Arcade Gannon to still be your follower after For Auld Lang Syne, be sure to save before you go outside as he can disappear after he gives you the armor, you can follow him out when he is getting his father's Gannon family Tesla armor and then ask him to be your follower again, as many times until it works, you have to pick the option to go back to Freeside as this is the only way he will not be locked in the Remnant's Bunker's command center.
 * After recruiting him then attempting to recruit him while you have another team member, might make the dialog to recruit him without another companion vanish. (i.e.; if you talk to him at the lucky 38 without a partner after trying to recruit him with one, you will not see the option [I think we should travel together] anymore.) To fix this glitch, remove both companions from your group (both humanoid and non-humanoid) then the option should appear again.
 * The above fix may not always work, as he will say something along the lines of "You have quite the menagerie at your disposal", and the game will say that you can only have two companions at a time. The only fix currently is to load a previous save (happened after recruiting Arcade, then immediately firing him to get access to a previous companion's inventory, then trying to recruit again). However, before all hope is lost, try talking to him with ED-E, Rex, and neither. Because he has different dialogue options for each situation, one of them might be triggered (confirmed fix multiple times by adding Rex, also confirmed in not working at all sometimes).
 * Boone will take his plasma defender if both are waiting in the Lucky 38. He will use it instead of his hunting rifle, leaving Arcade Gannon unarmed. There is no way to fix this, as the weapons don't appear on the inventory.
 * A way to fix the bug is doing the companion glitch with Veronica.
 * After completing For Auld Lang Syne and convincing Arcade to stay in Freeside instead of returning to Freeside he may just wander around the lucky 38 suite unrecruitable and just becomes an information hub until all of his speech options are exhausted. This happens when Arcade is sent to the Lucky 38, then completing For Auld Lang Syne. If you don't want Arcade in the Lucky 38 send him back to the Old Mormon Fort when firing him.
 * Sometimes after entering a casino and you hand over your weapons, Arcade will not get his default weapon back (or any you issued him) and will attack with fists (During this glitch I could not issue him another weapon, due to the fact he would equip it and the first time he engaged in combat he would instantly deplete the weapons condition to 0% and drop it saying "This weapon is done for") Not sure if this problem is isolated to the Xbox360.
 * Sometimes when you don't have any followers, you may ask him to be a follower and he will claim that there is too many people in your party already. Recruiting Rex before asking Arcade to join will alter his response tree and get him to accept your offer to join.
 * After completing Dead Money and having Veronica as a companion, Arcade may no longer have the dialog option that allows him join the Courier as a companion. It is recommended to finish his quest line before undertaking the Dead Money DLC. It has been suggested that having REX as your robot ally can remedy this bug.
 * Arcade will occasionally die upon fast travel.
 * It is possible that after completing add-on Dead Money, Arcade will no longer join you, saying you already have a follower. Recruiting Rex before asking him can fix this.
 * Whilst in combat, explosions may occur around Arcade Gannon, and permanently cripple his legs. Trying to use Stimpacks and/or doctor's bags will not work, nor does dismissing Arcade as your companion and waiting a considerable amount of time. (after dismissing him you can watch him hobble around at the Old Mormon Fort at Freeside). A possible fix is to change his apparel and get him to attack, this should bring him out of his crippled state.
 * When attempting to load a saved game with Arcade a companion, the game will load indefinitely.
 * When going to Nellis Airforce Base it is possible that Arcade will be randomly seen running across the destroyed town leading to the base regardless of him being an active companion. The Boomers will proceed to bomb him and inevitably kill him causing you to fail the quest For Auld Lang Syne.
 * Sometimes when you enter the Old Mormon Fort, Arcade may become duplicated.
 * After For Auld Lang Syne he disappeared completely and reappeared upon entering Vault 22 or Vault 11 still as a companion with the dialogue ability to converse about the end of For Auld Lang Syne.