The Thorn is an underground arena located by the Westside South Entrance in Fallout: New Vegas.
Background
Publications
Almost completely surrounding the main arena is a perimeter corridor that allows access into the arena, as well as The Thorn’s Cages below (through any of five blast doors). The sealed door to the north cannot be accessed until you offer yourself in the arena.”— Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide/Tour of the Mojave Wasteland
Layout
When approaching the Westside south entrance, a barricade of sorts can be seen, spelling out the location's name. The "R" in the sign points to the sewer below, distinguishing the main entrance. The Thorn serves as a sporting arena, where bets can be placed on the outcome of fights between wasteland creatures. Access to the Thorn is denied from 1:00 AM to 6:00 AM. The arena is surrounded by a system of raised catwalks for the guards and spectators, and surrounding the sides are cages holding the wasteland creatures grown and kept by Red Lucy for arena battles.
Custom fights can be arranged by speaking to Red Lucy. The player chooses what creature and how many of such will fight on each side. Since the creatures are expensive to breed, keep, and maintain, the player must pay for the fight. If the team chosen by the Courier is victorious, the amount of Caps originally given will be returned as well as an additional sum.
It is also possible to participate in the bouts. The creatures available to fight are fire geckos, Giant Mantises, radscorpions, Nightstalkers, Cazadores and Deathclaws, and the number of creatures is determined by the player. The screen will fade to black to enter the arena. The winnings are dependent on which and how many creatures are fought. The most the Courier can fight is three deathclaws at once. The player must bring Red Lucy several eggs of the animal they wish to fight before they can fight them in the arena, to replenish her creature inventory.
Loot
- Dinner Bell - A unique variant of the Hunting Shotgun, given By Red Lucy as a reward for completing Bleed Me Dry.
Related quests
Notes
- Quickly looting the dead nightstalkers will provide Dog Hides and Dog Meat, instead of Nightstalker Blood and Nightstalker Tails.
- Entering the arena when a fight is in progress will cause all the guards in the Thorn to become hostile and attack. However, attacking or killing the guards does not cause the spectators or Red Lucy to become hostile.
- With ED-E as a companion, the robot may help by firing at any enemies fought against in the arena. This will not result in hostilities from guards or spectators.
- Companions must be spoken to and requested to follow the Courier again after fighting in the arena, having been put into "wait here" mode while the fights take place.
- Boone's Spotter perk may help see the creatures fought in the darkness at the other side of the Thorn arena.
- Occasionally, Fiends may be pitted against radscorpions, giant radscorpions, nightstalkers, or cazadores.
Appearances
The Thorn appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.
Behind the scenes
The Thorn guard's may comment "We're watching you... ssstranger" which is a reference to the voice line "We're watching you... sscum" spoken by the Ordinators in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
Bugs
- Bugs (10+)
After setting up a custom fight, the door allowing combatants out of the arena may not open, preventing further fights from happening and any winnings from being collected.
When fighting any number of cazadores or deathclaws, the creatures may turn on each other. The doors will not open after they are dead, requiring a reload.- When entering the arena and going to fight, the door may open, but you cannot get through it. An invisible wall will block your path. You can, however, get through it by crouching then jumping or just walk forward and keep jumping.
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Sometimes the enemies will back out through the door they came from before it closes or even if it has already closed. This prevents the battle from being completed, and so stops the player from leaving. - After asking Red Lucy to fight and she telling you to go to the cage and your screen going black, rather than reloading in the arena below, you may simply reappear in the same spot, with Red Lucy in a permanent bug state refusing to talk to you or turning hostile.
- When two radscorpions are chosen to fight, the animation on their attacks will lock, only tilting back and forth, and neither of them will die, even after zero health.
- When talking to Red Lucy on the stairs closest to the main entrance, especially following a match against creatures, your companions can get stuck as if you told them to wait. When you tell them to follow you again, they run down into the arena and start running against a flaming barrel.
- After completing Bleed Me Dry and collecting all of the eggs required, the Strip may become inaccessible. The player can no longer enter The Strip, as a "Requires Key" message under the usual "Enter The Strip" message is present. This can be fixed if you have completed the quest I Put a Spell on You in Camp McCarran or if you have a reputation higher than neutral with the NCR and ride the monorail from Camp McCarran to the NCR Embassy on the Strip. Traveling to Freeside without fast-travel will fix the bugged Strip door, no longer needing a key. However, if you have not passed the credit check for the securitrons, they will attack you once in Freeside. This can be done as many times as needed.
- When fighting three deathclaws, one or more deathclaws may spawn in the player's cage but will not attack until provoked.
- If you fall into the ring, without a fight happening, Red Lucy may attack you.
- Sometimes after completing Bleed Me Dry and sleeping with Red Lucy, she will repeat "Lay down with me, my hunter."
- When the guards in The Thorn become hostile, Red Lucy may not attack you, although her name will appear in red as she is still hostile. If you attack her first, she may retaliate.
- Saving in The Thorn can sometimes result in the game getting stuck on the initial loading screen after clicking continue on the main title upon startup. Loading your last save before inside The Thorn, then loading the most current one should fix this.
Gallery
Red Lucy's Chamber
The arena
The cages
Names in other languages
| Language | Title | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | El Thorn | The Thorn |
| French | L'Aiguillon | The Thorn |
| German | Das Thorn | The Thorn |
| Italian | The Thorn | The Thorn |
| Russian | Торн | Thorn |
| Polish | Thorn | Thorn |
| Czech | Trn | Thorn |
| Japanese | ザ・ソーン | The Thorn |
