Mastering the Shadows: How to Eliminate Targets in Fallout: New Vegas Without Tarnishing Your Reputation

Fallout: New Vegas, a game celebrated for its intricate world and complex morality system, presents players with difficult choices. Sometimes, these choices involve eliminating certain individuals. While going in guns blazing is always an option, it often leads to a negative reputation with the victim’s faction, a penalty that can significantly impact your playthrough. This guide will explore the nuanced methods of dispatching targets without incurring the wrath of their allies, allowing you to maintain a clean reputation (or at least, a cleaner one) while getting the job done. We’ll delve into the mechanics of the game, covering stealth, disguises, and environmental manipulation, providing you with the knowledge to be a true shadow in the Mojave Wasteland.

Understanding the Reputation System

Before diving into the specifics, it’s crucial to understand how the reputation system works in Fallout: New Vegas. Your actions in the game, particularly those that involve a faction, will affect your standing with them. Killing a faction member will usually lead to a reputation loss, which could result in hostile encounters, vendors refusing to trade, or even impacting quest outcomes. However, there are exceptions and mitigating factors we’ll exploit.

The system focuses on your actions when witnessed. This is the key to maintaining your reputation. If no one sees you perform the action, there will be no reputational penalty. This means we’ll be focusing on stealth, isolating our targets, and exploiting the environment. The game considers the faction of the person you’re killing and if a faction member sees you do it, you will lose reputation. Killing someone inside a building with no witnesses won’t necessarily affect your overall faction reputation.

Key Concepts for Stealth Assassination

To successfully eliminate targets without damaging your reputation, you need to master several key mechanics:

• Stealth: This is the cornerstone of any successful covert operation. Your stealth skill determines how easily you can move undetected. Enhancing this skill through perks and gear is paramount. Consider perks like ‘Silent Running,’ which allows you to move faster while sneaking, and ‘Light Step,’ which prevents triggering mines and floor traps. Gear with +Sneak can also greatly improve your effectiveness.
• Vision Cones: Understanding how NPCs perceive their surroundings is vital. Their vision cones are displayed as red arcs in VATS while sneaking. Stay outside these cones to avoid detection. It’s also critical to understand the difference between “hidden” and “caution.” When hidden, you’re completely undetected. When in caution, an enemy is aware of your presence, but has not seen you, moving or remaining in caution can alert them and ultimately lead to them spotting you.
• Line of Sight: The most basic, if an enemy can see you, they can witness your actions. Positioning is everything. Use objects and corners to break line of sight, ensuring your actions go unnoticed. If an enemy is facing away from your target, they cannot witness your action.
• Sound: While moving, your footsteps and weapon sounds can alert enemies. Crouching and moving slowly helps minimize noise. Silenced weapons are also incredibly useful for stealth kills, and are paramount for avoiding detection.
• Night: The darkness provides an advantage in stealth. NPCs have a harder time spotting you in the dark, making it an opportune time to strike. Using night vision devices or abilities to see in the dark can greatly improve your chances of success.
• Combat Mechanics: For close-range assassinations, the “sneak attack” system is key. If you’re undetected, you get an automatic critical hit that deals significantly more damage. This allows you to dispatch weaker foes quickly.

Practical Methods for Clean Kills

Here are some detailed methods you can use, categorized for easy reference:

1. The Isolated Kill

This method relies on separating your target from any witnesses. Here’s how you do it:

1. Scout the Area: Before any attempt, thoroughly scout the area. Understand the patrol routes of the target and surrounding NPCs. Identify potential choke points and hiding spots. You should determine the patterns of people and their routines.
2. Lure the Target: Use distractions or other methods to pull the target away from their usual location. For instance, you can throw a rock, or use a different noise maker to lure the target away from others. Luring to a secluded area will let you eliminate them.
3. The Silent Strike: Once isolated, use a melee or silenced weapon for a quick kill. Aim for the head for maximum damage with any kind of weapon. Ensure you’re in stealth, so you get the sneak attack bonus for a critical hit.
4. Clean Exit: After the kill, immediately leave the area. Don’t linger, as any nearby patrol might discover the body and become suspicious.

Example: Imagine you need to eliminate a Legionary scout patrolling near Nipton. He’s usually accompanied by other Legionnaires, but he takes a short walk alone at certain times of day to the edge of the encampment. By carefully waiting, you can quickly kill him while he’s alone at the edge of camp and dispose of his body without anyone knowing. This will give you experience with out hurting your reputation.

2. The Environmental Hazard

This method relies on manipulating the environment to cause the target’s death, making it appear as an accident:

1. Identify Hazards: Look for environmental hazards like explosive barrels, weak structures, or high places. A high building or cliffside can be used to kill an enemy.
2. Lure the Target: Guide your target near the hazard. You can use a lure, or create circumstances where the target will move to the hazard location. If you can cause the target to move in a direction, you can use that to lead them to their doom.
3. Trigger the Hazard: Use your weapon to shoot explosive barrels, push weak structures, or make the target fall to their death. For example, shooting a mine near a target will kill them and make it look like an accident.
4. No Witnesses: Ensure you are out of sight and hearing range when the accident occurs. If no one sees you or hears you, you can be sure to be safe.

Example: Suppose you want to take out a Powder Ganger inside the NCRCF. There are several explosive barrels located near the guard towers. If you can use a silenced weapon to shoot the barrels when they are near it, you can kill them and they will believe it was an accident, so long as they don’t see you.

3. The Disguise Method

Disguises in Fallout: New Vegas are a tricky business. The most important thing to know is that a disguise only works if you are not seen getting into it by a member of that faction. Disguises can be used for easy access into enemy territory, and can be exploited to take out a target.

1. Obtain a Disguise: You’ll need to acquire the uniform or gear of the faction to which the target belongs. This can often be acquired by completing a task, or killing one of their members and taking the disguise from the body.
2. Use the Disguise: Be aware that while you can be in a faction, if they see you doing something suspicious, they will become hostile. Try not to pull out a weapon or act strange when disguised to maintain the guise.
3. Isolate the Target: Once inside the area, use the disguise to get close to the target without arousing suspicion. Isolate the target and eliminate them as fast as possible.
4. Dispose of the Body and Disguise: Dispose of the body somewhere it won’t be found, or use an environmental method to kill them. Immediately after eliminating your target, you must dispose of your disguise or change into another disguise. Otherwise, other faction members will start becoming suspicious of you.

Example: The Legion camps along the Colorado River present a perfect opportunity for disguise. If you have a Legion disguise, you can waltz right into camp and talk to the legionaries, and if you act normally, they will believe that you’re one of them. You can then kill them while not wearing your faction’s clothing without gaining any negative faction.

4. The Manipulated Combat Method

This method relies on forcing your target to be killed by others.

1. Identify Potential Combatants: Look for opposing factions or creatures in the vicinity of your target.
2. Provoke a Conflict: Use actions or items to instigate a fight between the target and a third party. For instance, using a silenced gun to shoot the target but not do enough damage for them to find you, will cause the target to aggro a nearby enemy.
3. Let the Combat Play Out: Hide yourself and allow the combat to resolve itself. If your target is killed by another faction member, you won’t be blamed for it.

Example: You need to kill an NCR Trooper, but don’t want to lose NCR reputation. You can use a silenced weapon to shoot them without fully killing them. They will then go into attack mode and target the first enemy they see, and if there is a hostile faction nearby, the target will attack them. The hostile faction will kill the NCR trooper, but they will not get any negative standing with the NCR. You have successfully made someone else kill your target and you remain blameless.

Specific Target Examples

Now, let’s look at a few specific targets and suggest how you could handle them without reputation loss:

Benny

Benny is a key target early in the game, found in the Tops Casino in New Vegas. His location is in a crowded casino. While you can kill him in the middle of the floor, this may result in a loss in reputation. However, if you use the “Get to Benny’s suite” quest, you will find yourself in a room with Benny. There is a single guard that you can take out stealthily, and then proceed to fight Benny by himself. After defeating Benny, nobody will know that you were the one who killed him, meaning that you can get away with his death without losing reputation.

Mr. House

Mr. House, located in the Lucky 38, is another major target. Unlike Benny, Mr. House is in a secure location with a great deal of robot guards. You will need to work through several missions for Mr. House before having the ability to go into his office and eliminate him. However, when you do, you can eliminate him without losing reputation, as long as you kill him without his robot security noticing you. Stealth killing Mr. House’s robot security will lead to no loss in reputation, meaning you can take him out without causing any long lasting damage to your reputation.

Caesar

Caesar, found in the Legate Lanius Fort, is one of the trickiest targets to eliminate without a faction loss, given he is surrounded by Legionaries. He is always watched and guarded. There are multiple approaches that can be taken for Caesar. One way is to eliminate the fort from the outside using an environmental method, and then killing him in a stealthy manner, but this can be very tricky given the large amount of Legionaries at the fort. However, with enough patience, this task is not impossible. The other way is to work with the legion, get a legion disguise and assassinate him, making sure you do not get caught doing it.

The Omertas

The Omertas are a group in Gomorrah Casino in New Vegas. If you do a quest that involves them, you may find that you need to kill them. You are typically given a quest by a secret faction to take out the Omertas, which makes this quest easy for a player that does not want a negative reputation. All you have to do is sneak and isolate the key members of the Omertas, and kill them without being caught. As long as you do not alert any other members, your reputation will not take a hit.

Essential Gear and Perks

To maximize your efficiency in these methods, you should acquire certain gear and perks:

• Silenced Weapons: Essential for avoiding detection during close kills. The ‘Varmint Rifle’ and ’10mm Pistol’ can be acquired early and silenced.
• Stealth Armor: Gear with a +Sneak bonus. The ‘Stealth Suit’ is particularly powerful if you can find it in game.
• Lockpicking Skill: Crucial for gaining access to secluded areas. Level this skill early for greater freedom.
• Hacking Skill: Can be useful in some specific cases to disable security systems or create distractions.
• Sneak Perks: Such as ‘Silent Running’ and ‘Light Step,’ to move more effectively in stealth.
• Critical Hit Perks: Improving your critical hit damage for sneak attacks will help to eliminate targets quickly.
• Survival Skill: While not necessary, survival skill can help in some cases.

Tips for Success

• Save Often: Before attempting any risky kills, save your progress. This will allow you to load a previous save if the attempt goes wrong.
• Be Patient: Stealth takes time and patience. Rushing in can compromise the kill.
• Study the Environment: Pay close attention to your surroundings and use them to your advantage.
• Practice: Hone your stealth skills by practicing on lesser enemies.
• Explore All Options: Always look for alternative solutions or ways to use the environment to your advantage.

Conclusion

Eliminating targets without losing reputation in Fallout: New Vegas is a challenging but rewarding endeavor. By understanding the mechanics of the game, utilizing stealth effectively, and manipulating the environment to your advantage, you can become a master assassin, able to shape the Mojave Wasteland to your liking. It’s not about brute force but smart, strategic gameplay. So, take to the shadows, use these techniques, and become a legend known only by whispers in the wind. Happy hunting, Courier.