Cassidy has scars from his adventures following a stabbing in '03 and old wounds from shootings in '95, '99 and '01.[2] He also has a metal plate in his skull and a fake eye.[2]
Cassidy settled down in Vault City after a life of adventure when his heart started to fail him.[3] He requires regular cardiac booster shots to keep his heart working properly from Doc Andrew, and Vault City offers the necessary medical care.[3] He runs a bar, the Spittoon, in the Courtyard, paying a hefty fee for a license to sell real alcohol on the premises. His business took a hit when Sergeant Stark led a raid on his bar, confiscating his alcohol and detaining several customers.
Giving Cassidy power armor of any kind will boost his Unarmed skill above Small Guns.
The player character cannot recruit Cassidy if they have less than 4 Intelligence, karma below -101, or the Slaver or Childkiller reputations.
Cassidy has interactions with other members of the player character's party.
He will harass Myron as long as the two are in the party together.
Cassidy will repeatedly tell Lenny to keep his distance, due to his smell.
K-9 will also prompt a number of reactions from Cassidy, related to his ferocity.
He states he is skilled with shotguns and rifles mostly (he begins equipped with a sawed-off shotgun), as well as pistols. He can also use brass knuckles and spears; he claims that he used to hunt with a spear but expresses shame about making him seem like a tribal. At this point, the Chosen One can state they are tribal, after which Cassidy will sincerely apologize and claim that spears are fine weapons used by many of his tribal friends.
Note: Unarmed will be tagged when Cassidy is equipped with power armor, as the Strength bonus it confers boosts his Unarmed skill above that of Small Guns.
Chris Avellone stated that Cassidy was added for another companion in the location but without wanting to do another taking head, served as a "fun combat character."[Dev 2]
After the release of Fallout 2, a fan-made talking head for Cassidy was created for the mod Mutants Rising. It was later included in the Fallout 2 Restoration Project. Rumors and misinformation surrounding which parts of the mod were fan-made and which were taken from the game files led to this talking head being presented on as official unused content for a significant period of time. In 2018, the Fallout: The Board Game expansion Fallout: New California released a companion card of Cassidy with a design based on this fan-made talking head.
Cassidy references the Final Fantasy series when he says "Wish I had a limit break..."[5]
Josh Sawyer mentions that Cassidy had a child, Cass, after he traveled with the Chosen One.[Dev 1]
↑ 2.02.1COMBATAI.MSG (Fallout 2): # target hit in head "{40807}{}{Thank god for that metal plate in my head, or I'd be dead...}" # target hit in left arm "{40810}{}{Dammit! I got knifed in that arm back in '03!}" # target hit in right arm "{40820}{}{Dammit! I got shot in that arm back in '01!}" # target hit in right leg "{40860}{}{Dammit! I got shot in that leg back in '99.}" # target hit in left leg "{40870}{}{Dammit! I got shot in that leg back in '95.}" # target hit in eyes "{40886}{}{Thank god that eye was fake...}"
↑ 3.03.1Chosen One: "{144}{}{Why are you here if you hate it so much?}" John Cassidy: "{147}{}{I have a bad heart. Need cardio booster shots to keep it beating. This city's the only place to get real medical care, so I thought I'd settle here, try and make a living.}" (VCCasidy.msg)
↑John Cassidy: "{356}{}{Dad named me after some comic book character from before the war. Said he was a mean sonuvabitch, too.}" (VCCasidy.msg)
↑Geraldo Nascimento: "Bonus question: you didn't have any involvement with Fallout 1 right, but with characters from Fallout 2, like Cassidy, is he meant to be Tycho's son or something like that?" Chris Avellone: "No. He sort of shares a similar model, he was mostly there because we wanted to do another companion in this location, and I was like, well I don't want to really do another talking head, I already did a lot with Myron, how about I do a much more simpler, just fun combat character, Cassidy, the gun-toting bartender, sure. *laughs*" (Chris Avellone; Project Eternity: An Extended Interview With Chris Avellone)
↑Fallout Bible 5: "9b. Hey thanks for answering. You probobly can't find the other questions because I was at my bro's when i sent em. I asked about what happened to some of the fallout 2 npcs after the game. We know myron gets stabbed by a jet addict ironically in the den. And Marcus goes off to go do some heroics of his own. But what about cassidy, sulik and the EC squadren to name a few." "Cassidy and Sulik: Can't say, no documentation exists. To be honest, I'll probably leave their fates open, since I don't want to pigeonhole two of the most favorite NPC allies from Fallout 2. I kind of hope that Cassidy eventually got his heart meds, though. At last word, Sulik returned to the primitive tribe for a few moons (months) after breaking paths with the Chosen One, then headed east in search of his sister. Cassidy went on to search for Texas, breaking south through NCR and past Dayglow."
