Fallout: New Vegas/Tropes A to L: Difference between revisions

** The "Cowboy Repeater" is an old Winchester 1886 Lever-Action rifle; Thethe "Trail Carbine" is a Marlin Model 336, and the "Brush Gun", while not a direct representation of any single real gun, is primarily based on large-borethe Marlin riflesModel 1895.

** The "9mm pistol" is the Browning Hi-Power, and the "9mm Submachine gun" is a [[WW 2]]miniature M3A1 "Greasegun".

** The "Hunting Shotgun" is the Remington Model 870, the player even pumps it one handed after reloading just like Sarah Connor in ''Terminator 2''. The "Riot Shotgun" is a semi-auto Chinese copy of the same weapon. Speaking of ''Terminator'', the lever-action Winchester 1887/1901 shotgun that Arnold uses appears as the "Lever-Action Shotgun" as well.<ref>Sort of. The gun in the game is a 20-gauge, wherewhereas the Winchesterreal 1887/1901 was only madechambered infor 12 10-gauge (black powder) and 12-guage10 gauge (smokeless) respectively.</ref>.

** theThe Silenced .22 Pistol is the Ruger 22/45.

** The "Service Rifle" is an AR-15/M16 with wood furniture, the Assault Carbine is an M16-based Colt Commando, and the "Marksman Carbine" is another M16-esque weapon with a variety of real-life modern features. Strangely, the Assault Carbine and the Service Rifle/Marksman Carbine don't use the same ammo; the former uses the Minigun's 5mm round.

*** Strangely,The the"All-American" Assaultis Carbinea andunique the Service Rifle/Marksman Carbine don'tthat useprominently bears the samelogo of the real-life 82nd Airborne ammoDivision.

** Two of the weapons that come with the ''Dead Money'' DLC are the M1918 BAR and Colt Official Police revolver, appearing as the "Automatic Rifle" and "Police Pistol", respectively.

** The ".45 Auto Pistol" in ''Honest Hearts'' is the Colt M1911. This one merits special attention because Joshua Graham goes out of his way to tell you about the gun's history without actually naming it:

** The "Grenade Rifle" is an M79 grenade launcher, known by its nickname: "the Blooper". Notable in that the sound effect is spot-on.

** The "Grenade Launcher" (a different weapon) is a [[Rare Guns|China Lake NATIC]]. The Holorifle from Dead Money also resembles a China Lake, though only visually: the internal components have been stripped and replaced with advanced [[Hard Light]] weaponry.

** The S&W Model 29 returns from Fallout3''[[Fallout 3]]'' as the ".44 Magnum.".

** The "Hunting Revolver" is a Magnum Research Big Frame Revolver.<ref>Although the Hunting Revolver is a double-action gun with a pop-out cylinder, where the actual BFR is single-action and has a loading gate.</ref>.

** "This Machine", as well as its non-unique "Battle Rifle" version from the Gun Runner's Arsenal, is an M1 Garand. The unique version's name is a reference to the motto carved into Woody Guthrie's guitar "This Machine Kills Fascists". Hilariously, the gun has a carving of its own responding "Well This Machine Kills Commies".

** A ton of ''Fallout'' only weapons have their own in-universe brand names, obviously not being real guns, but having real companies behind them.

** Two former Followers of the Apocalypse. Both of them know they're addicted and ''really'' want to quit, but the withdrawal is too much for them - they've tried several times, already. Whether they recover or not, is up to you.

** The King has two places in which he sits when you enter the King's School of Impersonation. One of them is next to a Jukebox. Apparently, turning a jukebox on or off is a crime worthy of being shot at, punched, hacked or stabbed by everybody in the building. This could be a reference to ''[[Wasteland (video game)|Wasteland]]'', where in the Quartz Bar several punks turn hostile for coming close to a jukebox playing [[Hair Metal|Ratt]].

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: You can invoke the trope while trying to seduce {{spoiler|Benny}}, via Black Widow or charisma options. He is understandably disturbed by the offer... at least, at first.

* [[All Hail the Great God Mickey]]: The Kings became a gang of [[Elvis Impersonator|Elvis Impersonators]]. After finding a school filled with memorabilia, instructions on how to act like him, and a metric ton of hair gel, they figured it must be a place of worship, and that they'd keep his memory alive. They're not wrong, per se...

* [[Americans Hate Tingle]]: In-universe. While Sunset Sarsaparilla was popular in what became the Mojave Wasteland, where it was first produced commercially, it sold very poorly in the Northeast. This is also a [[Hand Wave]] as to why it didn't appear in ''[[Fallout 3]]''.

* [[An Aesop]]: The DLC, together, all pretty much end with the lesson, "Let go of the past." All the antagonists of the DLC are, in some way, unable to move on after a point in their life <ref>Elijah's defeat at Helios One, Graham's (although he's not the antagonist, but still) "execution" by Caesar and his own past, the Think Tank's refusal to cease their experiments, and Ulysses' witnessing {{spoiler|the unwitting destruction of the Divide by the Courier}}.</ref>, to say nothing of the huge emphasis on old-world technology.

** The Marked Men of ''Lonesome Road'' are ghouls with their skins torn off by the harsh winds of The Divide, only to be healed and kept alive by the radiation all over the place meaning that they're in constant pain.

** "Let go" and "Begin again" stretch from ''Dead Money'' through ''Lonesome Road''.

* [[The Artifact]]: The trope is invoked in some of the gameplay mechanics due to several traits and perks from ''Fallout'' and ''Fallout 2'' being left in the game. Thes have gone from being anywhere from decent to some of the best options to being to being nearly useless due to the changes in the game engine.

** Tag! is one of the more obvious examples. A tagged skill in ''Fallout'' and ''Fallout 2'' leveled up twice as fast as a normal skill. This skill also became available around the same point in the game where Energy Weapons and Big Guns started to legitimately be useful weapons. Instead of the ignorable +15 skill points, the old version was +20 skill points and it now progressed twice as fast as normal like the other tagged skills. On top of that, it worked retroactively with skill points already spent in the skill. Taking this skill could basically turn a skill too low to be useful to being essentially mastered.

** Swift Learner used to make at least some sense to take. You didn't normally hit the level cap in the old games unless you intentionally farmed random encounters for experience for a long time. In the newer games, hitting the level cap is easy, which makes taking this perk completely useless unless you're playing through the core game quickly and want to level up fast.

** Life Giver was a much better perk in the older games. Evenbecause enemyit mooksmade couldyour potentiallymax oneHP hitincrease killwhenever you, soleveled extraup... healthsomething wasthat anormally legitimatelydidn't usefulhappen, thingand toquickly have.added Evenup withif enemiesyou intook it as soon as you could. ''Fallout: New Vegas'' beingflips morethis dangerousaround, thangiving Falloutyou HP for each 3level, extrabut healthmaking justLife isn'tGiver thatjust useful.a Anyfixed enemyHP capableincrease ofthat killingquickly youbecomes usuallynegligible has(equivalent noto troublesix goinglevels throughin thea extragame 30with healtha giventhirty to byfifty thelevel perkcap).

** The Pyromaniac Perk increases damage with fire weapons and was initially nigh-worthless, as the only real fire-based weapon (the flamer) was grouped with much more potent miniguns and rocket launchers. The Perk's requirements were based on Big Guns, the skill that governed said Flamer. In Fallout3''Fallout 3'', this was moved to Explosives, but when combined with the Melee Weapon, Shishkebab, produced the highest melee DPS in the game. It gains [[The Artifact]] status in ''Fallout: New Vegas'', where it is ''still'' dependent on Explosives, despite Explosives having almost no weapons that use fire damage (and those that do are grenades that are used up quickly), as opposed to literally every other combat skill having more reliable, fire based damage (Thethe Shishkebab again for Melee, the Superheated Saturnite Fist for Unarmed, incendiary ammo for Guns, and a bevvy of flamethrowers for Energy Weapons).

** Fast Shot used to be an amazing trait. YouBy gavegiving up the Aimed Shot skill, which is mostly useless (byprecursor theto time you can reliably hit specific body partsV.A.T.S.), you should have little trouble just killing enemies), to reduce the AP needed per shot by 1. This usually translated into getting at least one extra shot per round. Depending on your weapon and Agility, this could very well mean you were shooting twice per round rather than once, meaning it doubled your damage output. The new version (due to the lack of the Aimed Shot skill) reduces accuracy for a minorfire rate and AP reduction. For anyone who didn't want to cripple limbs at range it was great; for characters who used heavy weapons, which couldn't make aimed shots anyway, it was even better.

* [[Artifact of Doom]]:* ARCHIMEDES I. Arcade Gannon will leave you on the spot if you use it [[Kick the Dog|to kill all the NCR personnel on the ground]]. He doesn't care about [[Kill Sat|ARCHIMEDES II]], though.

** Unfortunately for its inhabitants, {{spoiler|the Divide}} is practically ''built'' on top of an [[Artifact of Doom]], in the form of a {{spoiler|massive nuclear missile silo complex.}}. Similarly, {{spoiler|ED-E can qualify as one, because something as minor as the audio logs in his memory banks were able to set off quite a few of the dormant nukes.}}.

** A particularly nasty case of this occurs with First Recon Alpha Team, Camp McCarran's elite snipers ([[The Captain|Gorobets]], [[Old Soldier|Sterling]], [[New Meat|10 of Spades]], [[Defector From Decadence|Bitter]]-[[Cold Sniper|Root]], and [[Rape as Backstory|Betsy]]). Upon wiping out the leaders of the Fiends, the entire squad will make the transfer to Camp [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Forlorn Hope]], but the route they take going there -- by foot -- leads them past a [[Gosh Hornet|Cazador nest]]. Typically, they will lose at least one or more members to giant wasp abominations of death, though only Gorobets' death is remarked on. Of course, this will only happen if you pay attention to them. Advance the clock a few hours, and they'll bounce right to the camp no worse for wear.

** Autodocs appear in three of the four DLCs, many of which ''can'' be used by the player. The reason why they're here but not in the Wasteland proper is {{spoiler|they were an experimental tech from Big Mountain from not long before the nukes fell. They made it to the Divide because there was a military facility there, and they made it to the Sierra Madre because Sinclair had agreed to let the Think Tank test their new inventions there.}}.

** The Alien Blaster falls into this trope due to the fact there are, not surprisingly, [[Too Awesome to Use|no sources of alien ammo outside of where you get the Blaster]]. It also requires the Wild Wasteland trait, which makes ''New Vegas'' ''funnier'', but a ''whole'' lot less serious. It also replaces the YCS/186, the unique Gauss Rifle, which is the hardest hitting and longest ranged weapon in the game. The only thing that does more damage is the Fat Man, which fires ''nuclear weapons''.

** Euclid's C-Finder. Not only will you probably screw up your chances of getting it on a normal playthrough, but if you want to get it, you have to sacrifice a skill book. But, assuming you do, the weapon causes a contained [[Kill Sat|orbital strike]] to completely destroy anything it hits. [[Too Awesome to Use|Unfortunately, you only get one charge per 24 hour period]], it can only be used outdoors, and it takes a couple seconds to actually fire while the satellite links up. Try to use it during the epic final battle, and it'll more than likely glitch your save. [[Too Dumb to Live|Also you can hit yourself with it if you're not careful.]] [[Rule of Cool|But MAN it looks cool!]] Veronica explains this trope to Elder McNamara at the end of her companion quest. Citing the long recharge time and the fact it can only be used outdoors, she explains that, far from being a game-changing doomsday weapon, the ARCHIMEDES system the Brotherhood sacrificed most of its members trying to obtain turned out to be essentially glorified artillery.

*** The Giant Robo-Scorpion from ''Old World Blues'' is another in-story example, suffering from the same issues as Liberty Prime from ''Fallout3Fallout 3''. Sure, it's a nearly unstoppable walking tank, but the power requirements for it are so massive that it has to be powered by a direct connection to a building-sized power generator, meaning it can't leave the facility where it was built.

** The [[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|Holy Frag Grenade]], of which you get only [[Too Awesome to Use|three]], causes an explosion on par with the Fat Man. Sounds great, until you try throwing it far enough that you won't be caught in the blast radius yourself. Add [[Cute Bruiser|melee-oriented]] [[Heroic Dog|companions]] and the [[What Were You Thinking?|result can be nasty.]] Only happens with Wild Wasteland, though.

** The Meltdown perk. Shoot an enemy with an energy weapon, and they explode, possibly causing chain reactions. The downside? Friendly fire possible, including SELF Friendly fire. You can shoot an enemy point blank with a laser pistol, and you take damage like a grenade went off in your face. With the Gauss Rifle/YCS-180, it can cause a meltdown up to 300 hit points. Even the Compliance Regulator, a high tech taser, can cause a meltdown. But the worst is the Thermic Lance, an melee weapon that counts as a energy weapon, which can cause a very powerful close range explosion with its ridiculous crit chance (it has ''5 chances'' to score a critical hit '''a second''').

** Most of the crafting recipes. By the time you've hauled the necessary items to the appropriate site, you could've bought a useable-to-better equivalent, without the inventory shuffle, or backtracking to clutter caches. And since the nifty weapon recipes of FO3''Fallout 3'' aren't craftable, there's never a significant payoff to carrying around vendor trash. There are exceptions to this rule. In Hardcore Mode, you need to eat to survive and Stimpaks aren't as effective, which greatly elevates some simple recipes like Gecko Steaks and Bloatfly Sliders. It's also worth mentioning two more: Doctor's Bags and Weapon Repair Kits. Doctor's Bags CAN be bought, but they are relatively expensive and only certain vendors have them. On the other hand, Weapon Repair Kits can't be bought at all and can only be found very rarely... {{spoiler|unless you find the replicator recipe for them in Dead Money, in which case you can buy them cheaply and get as many as you want}}.

** The Silenced .22 Pistol, Switchblade, Bladed Gauntlet and the BB Gun are all very, very weak (the BB Gun has a base damage at 100% condition of ''3''; your ''fists'' do more damage), but ammunition and repairs are extremely cheap, and they all have the "Bonus Critical Chance" trait times two. If you max out your luck, your skill with the particular weapon type, and take all the traits &and perks that increase your critical chance, you'll be surprisingly effective. If you max your Sneak skill, you'll also do even more critical damage if you attack while hidden; ''almost'' everything will die pretty quickly. But your overspecialization will cripple your other skills and lock out perk choices, and anything that ''doesn't'' die will be able to kill ''you'' in short order.

** On the more hilarious side, the Terrifying Presence perk is basically useless. It doesn't convey any significant benefit and uses up a perk spot you could have spent on something more useful. But it's also the single most awesome perk in the game, because you can send the biggest badasses in the wasteland running (momentarily) with a [[Badass Boast]].

** The requisite [[BFG]], the Anti-Material Rifle, is 10 gallons of ass-kicking for anyone that's maxing out their Guns skill. The problem is that the 10 gallons of ass-kicking comes in a 100 pound barrel: the AMR weighs in at a hefty 25 pounds, and the ammunition for it is, somehow, even heavier. 25 rounds of .50MG will hit you for ''thirteen pounds'' of weigh. It is, without a doubt, the single most damaging non-energy, non-explosive weapon in the game, and the Gun Runner's Arsenal DLC adds ''explosive'' bullets, but you're not going to be carrying much else with it. The only advantage is that by the time you're able to get and ''regularly'' use the gun, ''you don't need any other weapon''.

* [[Badass]]: This is ''Fallout''. There's... [[World of Badass|quite a few]]. Aside from the main characters, the main factions' top-tier NPCs get a special mention:

** A single MK II Securitron essentially has more firepower than an entire platoon of NCR troopers. Armed to the teeth with an SMG, Gatling Laser, missiles, Grenade Machine Gun, self-repair, AND the kitchen sink.

** Legate Lanius. In the G.E.C.K, he even has the unique class "Legionary Bad Ass.".

** The Courier before the game even starts. His journey started at the Mojave Express in Primm, South of Goodsprings. Most people who have been working as couriers for a while should notice the local wildlife, and as many people discovered, there are Cazadores north of Goodsprings. The Courier's route would have led straight through the swarm if hes/shehe hadn't been shot. Planning to go through a swarm of Cazadores is either badass or [[Too Dumb to Live]].

** [[Colonel Badass|Colonel Royez]] and [[Asskicking Equals Authority|Gaius Magnus]]. The first is a NCR officer who pacified the whole Long 15 (and still does today) and wears the Scorched Sierra Armor, a pristine [[Power Armor]] almost custom-made for him ; the second is a calmer clone of Lanius who assimilated his whole tribe in the Legion by force and received the Armor of the 87th tribe (his own version of the Legate armor) as a token of bravery from Caesar. Both {{spoiler|survive (at the cost of becoming Marked Men) a nuke on the face if you nuke Dry Wells and/or the Long 15}} and, alone, WILL wipe the floor with anything in the game, including the Courier if {{spoiler|he goes to the Long 15 or Dry Wells after ''Lonesome Road'' and the nuking of said zones}}. [[Fridge Logic|Makes you wonder why nobody sent those guys to Hoover Dam.]]

* [[Bastard Understudy]]: Benny tries to be this to Mr. House. {{spoiler|You can be one to House as well, and succeed where Benny failed}}.

* [[The Beast Master]]: The Animal Friend perk is upgraded again from ''Fallout 3''; this time, it will also cause domesticated animals to fight with you, or even turn against their masters to help you.

* [[Beef Gate]]: Used liberally in the beginning. The two north roads to Vegas lead you right into Cazadores and Deathclaws, the latter of which has twice as much health as a standard Deathclaw. To the south, straying from the road is a good way to get giant Radscorpions on your tail, and those things are hard to kill in the early game. It's a good sign that if something manages to kill you in two hits while anything you currently have can't inflict a single scratch in return, you should probably not be in that area yet. On the plus side, limiting specific monsters to specific ecological regions avoids the "anything can pop up anywhere" problem seen in ''Fallout3Fallout 3'', where you'd have Deathclaws showing up just outside the walls of major settlements once your character reached a high-enough level.

* [[Being Good Sucks]]:* Almost all of the Followers of the Apocalypse endings {{spoiler|has them taking on more responsibility than they can handle or being screwed outright. One of the only ''"good"'' endings, ironically enough, is an ending which Caesar lives. [[Pet the Dog|He spares their lives and lets them leave the Mojave Wasteland peacefully out of respect, as they had taught him as a boy]].}}.

** InTheir anotherbest ending, also somewhat ironically, {{spoiler|is if you get the Followers to support the NCR and youthen choose to end the game by siding with the NCR,. Old Mormon Fort expanded its services and is able to aid more people, becoming a refuge for the less fortunate citizens of New Vegas.}} It is notironic asbecause badthe asFollowers theare otherparticularly endingswary forand ambivalent about the FollowersNCR, and would prefer independence, an ending which either mildly or severely screws them over, depending on your choices}}.

** Subverted with the Courier;: even though [[Evil Is Easy]], so much good karma is rewarded for winning unavoidable fights with evil enemies that no matter how much you [[Heroic Sociopath|kill]] and [[Kleptomaniac Hero|steal]], you'll almost always be seen as a saint.

** Also played straight in the ''Honest Hearts'' DLC. {{spoiler|No matter which ending you choose, Daniel will still get the short end of the stick.}}. Sure, sometimes it's only as bad as missing the paradise-that-could-have-been Zion, but it's ''very'' easy to make "good" decisions that cause him trouble.

* [[Best Served Cold]]: {{spoiler|Dean Domino}} of ''Dead Money'' is a firm believer in this. If you try to get the better of him in your first meeting (by beating him in a Barter check,), he'll patiently wait until the circumstances favour him again before stabbing you in the back.

* [[Betting Minigame]]: As expected of a game with [[Viva Las Vegas|Vegas]] in the title; the game has a grand total of five casinos you can play in (and a few more you can't), each with their own theme and win limit. You can also play the Mojave's very own card game, "Caravan,", if you're willing to learn the rules.

* [[Big Damn Gunship]]: You can see up to two of them in the final battle, provided you do their prerequisites. First one is the Boomers in their B-29 Bomber, the other is the {{spoiler|[[Retired Badass|Enclave]] [[The Atoner|Remnants]] arriving in a Vertibird to kick the ass of your choosing}}. It's even stated that the second one reminded everyone in the Mojave why they had feared the {{spoiler|Enclave}}.

* [[Bi the Way]]: In one of her lines of dialogue, Cass says that once she is drunk enough, she doesn't care who she ends up in bed with whether they be male or female. If you try to invite her into your party when it's occupied by someone else (male or female), she says "I'm not in the mood for a threesome... today".

** The Biological Station in ''Old World Blues'' threatens to seed the ''shit'' out of you, and has seeded Muggy before.

** There's an example of this {{spoiler|if Arcade gives you his father's Enclave armor}}. He's really proud of it and brags that it will stop almost anything short of a plasma bolt. But due to its associations, wearing it could get you hunted down and killed, or if you're lucky, just thrown in an NCR jail for a long, long, long time. (Which which {{spoiler|is what happens if ''Arcade'' wears it during some of his endings.}}). Uh ... thanks, man? What a ''blessing''. Luckily, [[Story and Gameplay Segregation]] is in full effect if you decide to wear it.

** The Gauss Rifle often send the opponent flying for considerable distance. Anyone who's heard the spiel from the drill instructor on the Citadel in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' will understand why.

** Averted, however, with Armor Piercing rounds... which do a little LESS damage on unarmored opponents than regular rounds BECAUSE of their overpenetration, which is actually [[Truth in Television]].

** ''Dead Money'' perk "And Stay Back" grants 10% chance per shotgun shot of throwing the target back. The sawed-off fires 14 buckshot per blast, practically guaranteeing an airborne ragdoll if fired at close range.

** ''Honest Hearts'' introduces the 'Fight the Power!' that gives the bonus in combat with members of 'lawful' factions. It is accompanied by the picture of stereotypical rioter with a scarf on his face and holding Molotov cocktail.

** TheSeveral StrongPerks Back, Educated, and Rapid Reload perks. Theywhich don't do anything flashy, but pay off massively in the long run qualify. In particular:

** From ''Dead Money'', the Cosmic Knives. Not only are they easy to find, but you can clean one [[Incendiary Exponent|and superheat it later]] to give it a massive stat boost and the power to set things on fire. Helps out in the first few quests, when you have almost no ammo or items. The Knife Spear (a stick with knifes taped on it) iscan evenactually morecarry you through the entire DLC, barring a few instances where shooting things is usefulnecessary.

* [[Butch Lesbian]]: Corporal Betsy from Camp McCarran. Just [[One of the Boys]], though she's been hitting on every woman in the Camp after having been {{spoiler|raped by Cook-Cook. One side-quest is getting her to see a psychologist.}}.

* [[But for Me It Was Tuesday]]: In the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC, {{spoiler|a single unremarkable package the Courier delivered prior to the start of the game accidently caused the destruction of the Divide, robbing Ulysses of his home, teaching him the power certain individuals hold to radically reshape the world, and sparking off some rather dangerous obsessions. When he tells you what that package did, you can respond that the package was so unremarkable to you, you can't even recall it clearly.}}.

* [[The Cake Is a Lie]]: In ''Old World Blues'', {{spoiler|the Think Tank enlist your help in defeating their enemy, Dr. Mobius, on the promise that they'll let you go once you retrieve your brain and get it back in your skull. In truth, they plan on keeping your brain for themselves, because they need it for their own agenda.}}.

* [[The Caper]]: What the ''Dead Money'' DLC is all about.

* [[Cattle Punk]]: The closer you get to big cities, the more it becomes like a gangster flick, but the more rural areas have a definite old west feel to them. What do you expect, it's set in Nevada. Let us count the ways: ''Twotwo'' cowboy robots (Victor and Primm Slim), [[Revolvers Are Just Better|prominent revolvers]], cattle barons, extra-big bighorn sheep, moody guitar riffs, "prospectors" as a euphemism for "scavengers," a Cowboy perk that makes you better at all things Gunslingers ought to be, a chain gang on the run... and these are all just in the first few hours of the game.

* [[Chainsaw Good]]: As well as the Ripper, a full-sized chainsaw can be found {{spoiler|in Vault 3, wielded by Motor-Runner, or on high-level Legionaries}}. Thanks to its incredibly high-damage VATSV.A,T.S. attack (high enough to completely ignore a Ranger's DT and kill him in one hit), it is one of the best weapons for Sneak Attacks in the game. Despite whatever common sense may tell you about using a bulky, awkward and loud weapon for stealth work.

* [[Chaos Architecture]]: Invoked if not displayed. In ''Old World Blues,'', Dr. 0 says that they can't give you specific directions to the labs in Big MT because "sometimes they move around. Or disappear. Or blow up."

* [[Character Development]]: {{spoiler|The Enclave Remnants really humanize the faction of [[Card-Carrying Villain|Card-Carrying Villains]] they were in ''[[Fallout 2]]'' and ''[[Fallout 3]].''}}.

** In the ''Old World Blues'' expansion, {{spoiler|the injury you sustained at the ''very beginning'' of the game ends up as one of these. It creates a bit of a "wrinkle" in your brain that caused the Auto-Doc responsible for the brain-extraction process to alter its programming, and keep you sane and lucid after it was done.}}.

* [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]: {{spoiler|Benny has betrayed three people before the game even started, can betray you if you are gullible enough to believe him about talking to you in private at the Tops penthouse, and has the audacity to betray you yet again if you free him from the Fort by running away for good instead of helping you.}}.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Played with; No-Bark Noonan is actually pretty perceptive about strange events that are happening around Novac, and good at looking through people with less-than honest intentions. Too bad he blames them on the Chupacabra and the mole people. {{spoiler|Of course, the mole people are actually real, and he sometimes lays blame on exactly what the problem is but obfuscates it behind his choice of words.}}.

* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: Cass has a delightfully foul mouth, and can't help swearing repeatedly. The game plays with this during her side-quest, while {{spoiler|taking revenge for her ruined caravan}}, she states that they'll settle accounts with one group, and then go to the leader of the other group and "make that bitch eat her own hair." When you look in the quest menu, that statement is recorded word for word as your goal for this quest. Some characters have a wonderful way of personalizing their own quests, you know?

'''The Courier''' [[Captain Obvious|"Yeah, I kinda guessed that."]] }}

* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: One torture path available when interrogating Silus is to kill him for your personal pleasure. Of course, doing so before he's said anything of importance just gets Captain Boyle angry. Still, you can simply beat him around until he relents.

* [[Cold Opening]]: While the first 3 DLCs start with a narrated slideshow, ''Lonesome Road'' skips this in favor of dropping you right into The Divide.

*** She also subverts it with her {{spoiler|vulnerability and mental trauma after being raped by Cook-cook.}}.

** The Boomers. The artillery barrage you must run through upon approaching their base is a scripted event, and cannot be avoided in any way or gives any third options besides 'duck and cover'. Stealth won't work, even with Stealth Boys. You can't snipe the spotters, because there aren't any. You can't make them run out of ammo. You can't return fire with the Fat Man. All you can do is run and take cover and wait for the reloading breaks... (which, given the number of shells they're shooting per barrage, implies they've got a 20-gun battery firing at you (you can, however, use [[Bullet Time|Turbo]] to run past them).

** Remember [[Fallout 2|the crashed vertibird outside Klamath?]] [[Cool Old Lady|So does its pilot.]] So does the Nightkin who fashioned one of its rotor blades into a [[BFS]].

** There are also a surprising amount of references to ''[[Fallout 3|]]''Fallout 3'']], both explicitly and thematically:

** Veronica wishes the Brotherhood could help the ordinary people and look at changing the philosophy to fit the changing world they live in. This is basically what the Capital Wasteland BoSBrotherhood Of Steel did. She even vaguely refers to this, mentioning that the BoSBrotherhood Of Steel has had schisms and breakaway groups in the past (although that could refer to the ''Tactics'' BoSBrotherhood Of Steel as well).

*** If you're low of intelligence, when asked about what you think about the Brotherhood of Steel, you can reply something along the lines of them being "giant monsters in power armour that shoot lasers from their eyes." ...which is pretty much Liberty Prime in a nutshell, or Frank Horrigan.

** ED-E is {{spoiler|an Enclave eyebot from the airbase in the "''Broken Steel"'' DLC. And was headed to Navarro. He was also the only prototype finished because funds were being pulled to create Hellfire Armor, also from ''Broken Steel''. Colonel Augustus Autumn is explicitly mentioned in his backstory, specifically in ''Lonesome Road.''}}.

** The {{spoiler|aliens from the ''Mothership Zeta'' DLC}} show up if you have the Wild Wasteland perk.

** Emily Ortal, a Follower and a native of Arroyo, may reward you with medical supplies for completing a small side quest she gives you. She hopes that they are of no use to you... just like Hakunin, the shaman from when it was still a tribal village, from ''[[Fallout 2]]''. Except a little less cryptically.

** Dog from ''Dead Money'' seems to always need orders because he had a master as long as he remembers. Starting with ''The'' Master (the [[Big Bad]] from ''Fallout'').

*** [[The Master (trope)|The Master]] is also mentioned by other Super mutants and Nightkin.

** You can get the recipe for the delicious Deathclaw omelet from the great niece of its creator, who somehow got a female Deathclaw to provide a steady supply of eggs in Modoc. Until some stranger came along and "[[Go for the Eye|shot it in the eye]],", anyway.

* [[Cowboy Cop]]: Meyers, one of the (better) options for Primm's new sheriff, was sent to the NCRCF for "taking the law into his own hands one too many times". {{spoiler|If he becomes sheriff, the epilogue reveals he does his job well and Primm prospers under him, but occasionally a body of a suspected criminal is found lying in the gutter.}}.

* [[Cultured Badass]]: Arcade Gannon and possibly a high-intelligence Courier.

* [[Cutting the Knot]]: In the ''Old World Blues'' stealth lab, you have to sneak past laser tripwires and robobrains to grab a "secret document", in order to calibrate the stealth suit. You can pretty much blow the robobrains, and, if you have 55 Science/Repair, hack the tripwire IFF circuit/disable the tripwires to make your run a lot easier.

* [[Dead Character Walking]]: Has a similar bug as ''Minecraft'' game. If you save while character just died, there's various bugged things that happen, from floating hollow heads to weird corpses that's still alive. [http://www.cracked.com/article_19507_the-8-creepiest-glitches-hidden-in-popular-video-games_p2.html Cracked explains it the best...]

* [[Dead Man's Hand]]: In the expansion "''Dead Money"'', the player can get an achievement for getting the dead man's hand from the deadly, abandoned casino Sierra Madre.

** Rene Auberjonois brings a delightful snideness to Mr. House. Especially if the Courier tries to get uppity with him.

* [[Death World|Death City]]: The Sierra Madre Villa is an isolated town choked by a toxic gas, inhabited only by [[Humanoid Abomination|Ghost People]] and full of traps. It only gets worse when you find out that not only the Casino itself was {{spoiler|intended as a death trap}}, but that the town was {{spoiler|a test lab for some Think Tank experiments}}. Ulysses even refers to it as a "special sort of hell".

** The Divide in hethe addonadd-on ''Lonesome Road'' after suffering a [[Apocalypse How|regional Class 3 apocalypse]] in the last decade has become a [[Death World|death city]] all of its own. It is an almost completely inhospitable place to anything that hasn't mutated and adapted to live there, like the [[Body Horror|Marked Men]], the [[The Juggernaut|deathclaws]], and other... [[C.H.U.D.|things that live underground]] that are making their way to the surface, which even in small groups can [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|rip a deathclaw to pieces]]. In fact, the conditions of the Divide are possibly a good representation of how most cities like [[Fallout 3|the capital wasteland]] looked in the first few decades after the bombs fell.

* [[Democracy Is Bad]]: Vault 11. {{spoiler|The computer stated that unless people were sacrificed at regular intervals, everyone would be killed. The citizens decided to choose those sacrifices with elections.}}.

** Resulting in the rather darkly funny 1950s style campaign posters which say stuff like "Haley is a known adulterer &and Communist sympathizer, vote for Haley!" in bold red, white, and blue.

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Ulysses refers to the Think Tank as "the gods of the Big Empty,", and remarks that not even he, or even "a hundred Elijahs" could defeat them. {{spoiler|The Courier can, thanks to a certain gunshot wound to the brain that allows him/her to bypass their pacification field.}}.

* [[Disc One Final Boss]]: Benny serves this role, being the main object of the player's pursuit for the 1stfirst half of the main quest line.

** ED-E can also count as this. He's the first companion you can find, and you can repair him with parts from Goodsprings if you loot the town. His Enhanced Sensors perk is the ultimate in enemy spotting, and his laser isn't that bad, either. He can't compare to Boone, of course, but pair him with Boone, and you will have a murderous duo that will hunt down and kill anything that might dare to harm you.

** From ''Dead Money'': Dodo anything to upset Dean, including behaving like anything other than his snivellingsniveling lackey, and he'll try and kill you when you get inside the Sierra Madre.

'''Dr. Usanagi:''' Uh, no. Implants, not plants. They're little machines I can put inside you to make you faster, quicker, or smarter. I recommend the smarter implant. (She'll offer a discount on it out of pity.) }}

* [[Double Entendre]]: As a male with the Confirmed Bachelor perk, you can ask Major Knight in the Mojave Outpost if he wants to be [[Ho Yay|"friends."]]. He'll get really awkward and explain that he would like to have you as a "friend,", and the NCR technically doesn't have rules against guys having "friends,", but the outpost has a somewhat conservative climate and he can't afford to have a "friend" while having to get up and work with these people every day, but maybe you can be "friends" when he's transferred somewhere else.

** {{spoiler|If you side with the Legion. Especially if you leave [[Complete Monster|Legate]] [[The Dragon|Lanius]] in power. Because [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Caesar]] is now dead, the Legion devolves from a evil empire into a band of raping and pillaging marauders, and every single settlement gets either enslaved or destroyed. Or enslaved ''then'' destroyed.}}.

** Even the Legion ending is absolutely nothing compared to {{spoiler|siding with Elijah in ''Dead Money''. The ending explains that Elijah proceeded to release the Cloud upon the Mojave, which brought horrible painful death to everything in it's wake, before releasing his army of invincible laser shooting holograms to mop up. No living thing set foot in the Mojave for years after due to rumors of ghosts immune to gunfire and a red cloud that brought death in its wake. All that remained was Elijah and the Courier, waiting in the Sierra Madre for the world to [[Arc Words|begin again]].}}.

** {{spoiler|No matter what you do, not everyone will be able to have a happy ending at the end. For example, the only way to get a good ending for the Followers of the Apocalypse is by making them cooperate with the NCR and leave the Republic in control of New Vegas. However, doing so will also result in Arcade getting hunted down by the NCR as a war criminal due to his former connections with the Enclave.}}.

*** Only if you {{spoiler|tell him to join the Enclave Remnants for the battle, rather than going back to the Followers' camp. He gets a much better ending, only being mildly disappointed that Freeside is no longer independent.}}.

** {{spoiler|Lily has nothing but downer endings. Either she dies, stops taking her medicine and goes insane, takes her medicine regularly and forgets her family, or takes it semi-regularly and tries to find her family. That last one may not seem so bad, but you have to remember that she's been around for nearly 200 years. If they're not mutants, they're corpses. And those two aren't even mutually exclusive.}}.

** You to {{spoiler|Mr. House, if you choose to do so.}}.

** Yes-Man to Benny and {{spoiler|possibly to the Courier, if you so choose.}}.

* [[Dragon Their Feet]]: Although it's possible to keep them alive, {{spoiler|both Caesar and President Kimball can possibly be dead by the time the final battle rolls around}}. Regardless, {{spoiler|Legate Lanius and General Oliver are still around to lead Caesar's Legion and NCR against each other for the endgame fight. [[Dragon Ascendant|Lanius even becomes the new Caesar]] if you side with the Legion, kill Caesar during his surgery, and help them win.}}.

* [[Drunken Master]]: Cass, by extension, you with her companion perk. Normally, alcohol boosts your Str at the cost of Int, but with Cass, the reduction is removed and addiction is no longer an issue. She also causes whiskey to ''boost your armor''.

* [[Dull Surprise]]: Matthew Perry's [[So Bad It's Good|surprisingly bad voice acting for Benny]] means that we don't just get [[Dull Surprise]], but a whole range of lukewarm emotions from {{spoiler|a rather hilarious G-rated sex scene}} to {{spoiler|1=a variety of bland reactions to his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naUBwRrpbTk impending death]}}.

** When picking S.P.E.C.I.A.L. scores, Perception is commonly regarded as worthless. It doesn't affect your aim, only your ability to detect threats. ED-E's companion perk eliminates that weakness. There are about four or so high Perception checks in the main game, and a few more in the DLC. From a minimum of 1 you can buff yourself to 9 with various drugs and alcohol (7 in ''Dead Money'', since some of the drugs don't exist in that add-on), more than enough to pass any check in the game. Most hats will boost it by 1 anyway and the Riot Gear and Advanced Riot Gear helmets from ''Lonesome Road'' can boost it further by 1 and 2, respectively, with both bonuses stacking with hat bonuses, as they count as eyewear. Its one, true use is meeting the requirement for Better Criticals (+50% critical damage), which you don't really need to kill effectively.

** And it doesn't help that they dashed into the Southwest with their fully-exposed [[Zero Punctuation|assault-rifle shaped erections]] blazing at anything that opposed them, forgetting that overextension only gets worse when ''the Legion and the Brotherhood of Steel hate you.''.

** Hey, what's left of the Enclave? {{spoiler|They'd like to be left alone, but Arcade Gannon's a Type 1.}}.

* [[Elaborate Underground Base]]: Numerous factions have them:

** Dean Domino {{spoiler|plannedIt's theheavily heistimplied ofthrough the Sierre Madreinvestigation that doomedthe hiswhole Rivalreason SinclairJeannie andsold hisBonne's loverwife turnedto stoogethe Vera,Legion was because Sinclairshe wascritiqued "happy"her and Dean wasn't.hotel}}.

** [[Evil Versus Oblivion]]: Arguably, the entire ''Dead Money'' DLC if your character is evil. Evil!Courier is a horrible person, no doubt, but {{spoiler|Elijah is an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] out to wipe out the population of the Mojave and the NCR. You ''can'' side with him, but it results in a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]. Not even going ahead with Ulysses plan to nuke the two major powers does that.}}.

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: {{spoiler|The reward for the quest ''The Legend of the Star'' is just Festus retelling you why the Sunset Sarsaparilla logo exists to begin with. It does lead to another quest with a better reward though.}}.

* [[Exposition Fairy]]: Lampshaded --: Doc Mitchell, who patches up your gaping head wounds and [[How Many Fingers?|walks you through the character building process]] waves off your gratitude, saying, "It's what I'm here for."

* [[Exposition of Immortality]]: Mr. House, once you finally get to meet him, reveals himself to be quite a bit older than you might have been expecting. He's got quite the collection of pre-war artifacts, and he's more than happy to pay you to increase them, too. {{spoiler|He's also reduced to living in a life support system and communicating entirely through electronic screens and his robot minions, but given that he was born 260 ago, that's not bad going.}}.

* [[The Extremist Was Right]]: If you're familiar with the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131210002847/http://www.nolanchart.com/faq/faq8.php Nolan Chart], you'll notice that each of the factions is run by one of the corners, insisting that this is the case. [[Multiple Endings|And you get to choose who wins.]]

** As for libertarians, they get the Wild Card ending, in which {{spoiler|'''''[[Atlas Shrugged|YOU ARE JOHN GALT!]]''''' You can waltz into New Vegas, talk to Yes Man and decide that all the jerks fighting over the place desperately need to be taken down a peg. Then you can depose Mr. House, brutalize Caesar's Legion and sucker the NCR. Then you can unleash an army of Securitrons upon the Mojave, turning it into [[Utopia|a paradise of freedom and wealth]], rule over the place as a dictator, or turn the Mojave into a lawless hellhole, depending on your actions up to the ending.}}.

** According to Ulysses, {{spoiler|the residents of the Mojave, if the Tunnelers beneath the Divide expand their territory}}...}}.

** The "inhabitants" of Y17a Trauma Harnesses. Walking suits created to pick up wounded on the battlefield and walk them out. Somehow, they forgot to walk them out so these wounded are kept within a walking suit which does whatever it wants without any chance of getting out.

* [[Fiery Redhead]]: Cass.

* [[Five-Man Band]]:

** [[The Hero]]: The Courier.

** [[The Lancer]]: Boone/Raul/Cass.

** [[The Big Guy]]: Lily/Boone.

** [[The Smart Guy]]: Arcade/Veronica/Raul.

** [[The Chick]]: Veronica.

** [[Team Pet]]: Rex/ED-E.

* [[Flaming Sword]]: The Shishkebab from Fallout3''Fallout 3'' comes back in ''New Vegas''.

* [[Flat What]]: In ''Old World Blues,'', if you have high enough Intelligence, you can inform Doctor O that he could simply draw a vertical slash through his name to specify "Zero" and not "O.". He reacts this way.

* [[Fluffy the Terrible]]: Super Mutants, eight foot tall muscular green monsters, have names like Neil, and Tabitha (and in one case, Cuddles). Though most of them are fairly friendly unless provoked these days. Emphasis on 'most'.

** [[Deathbringer the Adorable]]: Mean Sonofabitch is just there to scare away any wannabe criminals and to bash in the heads of Fiends. He's a pretty nice guy if you get past his inability to talk coherently, actually. (Hishis tongue was cut out).)

* [[Gambit Pileup]]: The NCR, Caesar's Legion, and Mr. House are competing in a high-stakes tournament with New Vegas as the prize, and they're all trying to stack the deck in their favor --... and you're the [[Wild Card]]. {{spoiler|You can even [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|take advantage]] of the fact that everyone's plans rely on you for success to set ''yourself'' up to steal the whole pot}}.

** To elaborate;: the core conflict is NCR and the Legion both fighting for control of the Dam and New Vegas. Beyond this basic plot, {{spoiler|House has an army of robots waiting to swoop in and steal the land literally right from under the Legion. The NCR and Legion both know this, and potentially have him assassinated. On top of that, Benny is planning to take over New Vegas by overthrowing House, as are the Omertas, except they plan on allying with the Legion first. You, the Courier, can at the same time also be planning to take over New Vegas by overthrowing House and stealing his army with the help of Yes Man, while either aiding or foiling the Omertas. Then the DLC just adds more gambits; Father Elijah of ''Dead Money'' manipulates the Think Tank, Courier, Dean Domino, and Dog/God into helping him obtain experimental pre-war technology in his attempt to conquer the Mojave by [[Kill'Em All|killing most of post-apocalyptic America's remaining population]], and can potentially succeed in bringing what's left of the world under his control (though unlike other options, this gives a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]). The Think Tank of ''Old World Blues'' manipulates the Courier and Mobius in hopes that they'll be able to break out of Big MT and cause trouble in the Mojave. And on top of all of this, Ulysses from ''Lonesome Road'' is planning on nuking both the Legion ''and'' the NCR while leaving the Mojave to die.}}. That's about nine gambits, all trying to top one another. You decide which one (or combination of them) comes out on top.

** Also, having too few skill points in a skill check during dialogue will display an option not as suave/competent as the one with the player having the proper amount of skill points in a given check. Unlike ''Fallout3Fallout 3'', where the check is a matter of chance and gives the same sentence whether or not the player passed a speech check, passing or failing a speech check is directly tied to skill. Insufficient skill gives the option a different sentence ([[Hulk Speak]] or some overly emotional or annoying words when failing speech check for that option). Failing may also open up other options in some cases.

** Although that of course assumes the Courier was at full health when the scene begins. HeS/shehe is already captured and tied up, it's not a great stretch to imagine hes/shehe may have taken some damage resisting earlier.

** {{spoiler|Nuking the NCR or Legion home territories}} has no effect on the final battle at Hoover Dam, aside from royally pissing off the factions in question (and both factions will forgive you no-questions asked if you do this before you get their [["Get Out of Jail Free" Card|Get Out Of Jail Free Cards]].

** You can {{spoiler|kill Mr. House and install Yes Man on the Lucky 38's mainframe, effectively giving you control of the Strip,}}, at any time after you meet Yes Man, but the Securitrons on the Strip won't treat you any differently.

* [[Gang of Hats]]: The Three Families of New Vegas personify different sides of the city

*** The ChairmenOmertas: Personifyingpersonifying the "cool"sleazy side of Vegas.

*** The White GlovesChairmen: Personifyingpersonifying the "classycool" side of Vegas.

* [[GIS Syndrome]]: The very first result for "happy face" is used for {{spoiler|Yes Man's avatar.}}.

* [[Global Currency Exception]]: ''Dead Money'' plays this ''hard'', because you can't get any caps. Instead, you use Sierra Madre chips (for vending machines) and Pre-War Money (for holographic vendors, who are still programmed to accept it). Justified in that the Sierra Madre runs on old world equipment, and that the chips themselves are actually [[Matter Replicator|transmuted by the vending machine into the goods that you purchase]].

* [[God Guise]]: Randall Clark, a survivalist living in Zion area helps a group of kids living nearby trying not to be noticed (he drops medicines, food and tools near their camp at night). When he notices that the kids see his help as the gift from God or angels, he doesn't want to break this illusion and show himself as a dying old man. Shortly before his death, he leaves the notes stating that he has to depart deep into the mountains, but he will always watch for them. The kids were ancestors of the Sorrows tribe, and Clark is a Father from the Caves from their legends.

* [[Golf Clubbing]]: There are 9-iron golf clubs around, with the VATSV.A.T.S. "Fore" attack that aim for [[Groin Attack|one particular region]].

* [[Golden PathEnding]]: DependingThe onpath whothere youzigzags carea aboutlot, thebut there is one for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEX-d0yuxGk NCR], Mr. House, and Yes Man pathsrespective couldquestlines, where every good faction to know peace and prosperity, and every evil faction to either reform or be thisbrought to justice. ThoughHow "golden" the implicationsendings ofare depends on which quests you completed, how, and which questline you followed to the end, {{spoiler|Yesbut in each of those three there Man's'is'' "upgrade"some andmeasure Mrof good to be had in each ending slide. House'sThe iron-fistedcatch is that methodsall of government}}these maygolden makeendings at some point require the latterplayer twoto ado bitsome morally questionable things, but the endings may put players at ease that ultimately it did benefit the greater good.

** In-universe, even. People are willing to kill for more Sunset Sarsaparilla Star Bottlecaps. Just rumor there's treasure out there, and Gold Fever (or [[One Hundred Percent Completion]] fever) will take hold of people. It's a shame that the fabled prize is absolutely worthless. You do get a powerful unique laser pistol for finishing, courtesy of your rival collector's suffocated corpse.

** For something simpler and earlier, there's the quest "I Fought the Law", which most good-inclined players will miss because they're likely to side against the Powder Gangers from the start, and because the inhabitants of the NCRCF will be hostile to them, making them likely to kill Eddie and immediately fail the quest. Or one might kill him because he's got a plasma pistol. Then again, the quest is bugged and leads to a bad ending even when it should be a good one, so that's for the better, really. Additionally, if you want the NCR to retake the prison, you have to work for the Powder Gangers until you're told to investigate the NCR's plans, then you have to switch sides and betray Eddie and help NCR attack the compound. Just waltzing into the compound and gunning down everyone yourself, which you're liable to do because again, you probably made an enemy of the Powder Gangers, denies you the option to just turn over the empty prison to NCR when you're done.

* [[Gun Porn]]: Vault 34.

* [[Half Truth]]: Elijah says that if you help him break into the Sierra Madre, he'll let you go, along with all of your partners. [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|He's planning to kill you all]], of course, but he ''is'' letting you go from his control that way, nonetheless.

** Arcade's ending {{spoiler|[for a Legion victory if you leave Arcade as Caesar's personal physician references the death of Cato the Younger, who also disemboweled himself rather than submit to Caesar.}}].

* [[Honor Before Reason]]: With high enough karma and speech skill, you can convince Legate Lanius to call off the other legionnaires and fight you by himself. However, whichever allies and companions you have with you will keep shooting anyway.

** Also {{spoiler|1=at the end of Veronica's personal quest, when you show McNamara proof that the Brotherhood is dying/a method of self-sufficiency, etc., he won't change anything. Why? Because the codex says he can't. Judging from his speech and sighing, he knows it's stupid, but he has his orders.}}.

'''McNamara:''' *sigh* {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|I know.]]}} .}}

* [[I Call It Vera]]: Some unique guns, such as Maria, Lucky, Annabelle, and Big Boomer. In addition, Ranger Milo calls his Cowboy Repeater 'Carmine'.

* [[I Can Rule Alone]]: {{spoiler|The Wild Card line of quests provides this option. You can [[Gondor Calls for Aid|go to the minor factions and ask for their help in creating a free Vegas]] or you can wipe them all off the face of the earth!}}!

* [[I Die Free]]: {{spoiler|In Arcade's Legion ending, as long as Caesar lives through the end he becomes Caesar's personal physician. In a moment that he is unguarded, he guts himself with a scalpel.}}. Though he was well loved by Caesar, and thus probably lived quite nicely, he considered having to serve the Legion (even in comfort) a [[Fate Worse Than Death]].

* [[Idiot Ball]]: {{spoiler|It could be argued that Caesar is holding one. He knows that his camp at Fortification Hill is sitting on top of a bunker protected by doors that can't be drilled or blasted open. He knows said doors bear the logo of the Lucky 38 and thus must be relevant to Mr. House's interests in some way. He knows the Platinum Chip he just confiscated from Benny fits the disc-shaped console near the doors and suspects it will open them. What does he do? Why, he waits for the Courier to finally decide to make his way to Fortification Hill, hands the Platinum Chip to the Courier when the man might very well have single-handedly destroyed all of his operations west of the Dam by this point (if you want some really funny dialogue, ''do this''), and trust him to deal with whatever is inside the bunker completely unmolested, confident that the Courier will do as asked and destroy it. You even get to keep the chip. Brilliant! The best part is, the Courier doesn't even have to report to Caesar after he is done inside the bunker, and can just walk out of the fortress completely unmolested by the guards! Caesar might be an extremely intelligent person lore-wise, but he sure displays a complete lack of common sense here.}}.

** It's actually acknowledged and explained if you discuss it via dialogue choices, though it does display an extreme amount of arrogance when it comes to [[Batman Gambit|you and your motivations]]. {{spoiler|Caesar has a worldview where advanced technology in the hands of the masses is actively harmful to their cultural development. Thus, he cannot send Legionaries down to examine the structure without teaching them about technology and disrupting his carefully-constructed culture... but he can send you, a Profligate. His argument relies on you to see the light of his wisdom, but if that doesn't work he's happy to intimidate you into doing his bidding. He won't let you leave the camp with the Chip without trying to kill you, and if you fight back, you're Vilified by the Legion forever.}}.

* [[I Found You Like This]]: After taking a bullet to the head, the courierCourier is dug up by Victor and brought to Doc Mitchell's house. He then [[Back Fromfrom the Dead|brings you back to life]] through surgery and gets you back on your feet.

* [[I Have This Friend]]: Turns out that the {{spoiler|sex-bot Garett is interested in isn't for a customer... though after slips of the tongue, he asserts that it ''is'' for "those sick machine-fetishists".}}.

* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: The White Glove Society used to be this. {{spoiler|Mortimer, however, still is and wants to serve the rest of the White Glove Society human flesh so they have no choice but to go back to the "old ways."}}. And, of course, [[Player Character|the Courier]] can be this as well if the player so wishes. A later perk even expands it [[Extreme Omnivore|to super mutants and ghouls.]] {{spoiler|There is even a special perk you can get as a reward for having Caesar, the King, Mr. House, and President Kimball for dinner}}.

* [[Immodest Orgasm]]: {{spoiler|Red Lucy}} in The Thorn, {{spoiler|Sarah Weintraub}} in Vault 21, and any prostitute you sleep with. Also, you can hear a few while walking around Gomorrah and Casa Madrid. Dr. Dala in ''Old World Blues'' takes this [[Up to Eleven]], despite (or ''because of'') being essentially a brain in a jar.

* [[Improbable Power Discrepancy]]: The White Legs in ''Honest Hearts'' are basically [[Elite Mooks|Veteran]] [[Badass Army|Rangers]] disguised as tribals. In addition to having as much health as the Veteran Rangers, they also carry as good or better weapons (like automatic shotguns, anti-tank rifles, Tommy guns, and 12.7 submachine guns) and are the most commonly found enemies in the DLC. The only break in your favor is that White Legs have poor armor and lack the 30% damage resistance that Veteran Rangers have.

'''Mr. House:''' [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"... Was that an attempt at humor?"]] }}

* [[I Never Said It Was Poison]] / [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]:

'''Slave trader:''' I don't know anything about the refugees going missing from the Aerotech Office Park. }}

* [[Infinity-1 Sword]]: Several. The regular Gauss Rifle, the Holorifle, the 12.7mm pistol and submachine gun, the hunting revolver, possibly the Anti-Materiel Rifle, the Super Sledge, and the Displacer Glove, just to name a few.

** There's a suit of Infinity Plus One Armor out there, as well. The Remnants [[Power Armor]], the complete suit having a DT 6 points higher than the T51-b and no faction affiliation. However, like all great ultimate items, you have to work for it: it's on the wrong side of the Colorado river and guarded by a nest of Deathclaws. Good luck getting there! (Or you could do Arcade's loyalty quest. You simply have to talk to 6 people around the Mojave Wasteland.)

** Joshua Graham is the [[Infinity+1 Sword]] of companions. He's ridiculously accurate, carries a default pistol that does more damage (both per shot and per second) than about 90 % of the guns in the game, and has such a large damage threshold (50) that he's practically invincible. Unfortunately, he's only available as a companion during the final battle of ''Honest Hearts''.

** [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|It Is Pronounced KAI-sarr]]/[[Insistent Terminology]]: Caesar's Legion uses the Latin pronunciations, while the NCR troops and everybody else typically use anglicized pronunciations. In fact, how a character pronounces Caesar is a pretty good indication of how much respect they have for him. Joshua Graham, callsfor himinstance, See-ser''should'' whenknow youbetter meet(after him in the Honest Hearts DLCall, thoughhe J.E.was Sawyerin statesthe thatLegion thissince hasthe morebeginning), tobut do with him being educated enoughdue to havethe knowncircumstances of thehis actualdeparture, Caesarhe beforeintentionally meetingpronounces Edward unlike theCaesar's othername Legionnairesincorrectly.

** Strangely enough though, Marcus uses the Latin pronunciation. Follows-Chalk does as well, which is likely because he first heard the name from Graham when he was still with the Legion.

'''Boyd:''' I'm getting entertainment. That's something. So what it's gonna be? }}

* [[The Juggernaut]]: Deathclaws. [[Oh Crap|Deathclaw Matriarchs]]. [[It Got Worse|Deathclaw Alpha Males]]. [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Legendary Deathclaw.]] Remember the old description of The Baron of Hell in Doom? ''"Tough as a dump truck and nearly as big, these Goliaths are the worst things on two legs since Tyrannosaurus rex."'' This perfectly describes an ordinary deathclawDeathclaw, to say nothing of the alphas, matriarchs and the legendary one.

* [[Kaizo Trap]]: In the House and Independent ending pathes, {{spoiler|1=you end up picking a fight with NCR's General Oliver after you defeat Legate Lanius}}. Your Securitron allies will gun him down easily, ''but'' they often fail to do so before his 5 Veteran Ranger [[Elite Mooks]] armed with the best guns in the game mow down your own character.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: After destroying the lives of two innocent people and sealing their fates to die alone, miserable and in extreme pain, Dean Domino can just walk right out of the Sierre Madre two hundred years later to start over in the Mojave if you choose to let him live. Then again, considering how easy it is to tick him off and make him plan to murder you (for example, by not constantly acting as his snivelling lackey) which results in his own death, you would really have to go out of your way to placate him - how to let him live isn't listed under [[Guide Dang It]] for nothing.

*** ''Gun RunnerRunners's Arsenal'' adds a challenge for killing him with his own gun, Maria. You know, the gun he shot you with?

** {{spoiler|In ''Dead Money'', Elijah can be trapped forever in the vault. Simply sneak out to the left exit corridor as he's coming down to meet you. He really wants to get in the Sierra Madre casino vault THAT badly? [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|You can give him all the time in the world]].}}.

** {{spoiler|Speaking of ''Dead Money'', YOU can have a [[Karmic Death]]. Haven't been paying attention to the "greed will get you killed" message of ''Dead Money''? [[Death by Materialism|Trying to take all 37 gold bricks that weigh over 1200 pounds with you?]] Have fun outrunning that explosion! (Itit can be done, but you either have to exploit the physics engine or time your escape just right so Elijah's scripted trap activates after you've passed through the doors, but not prematurely by approaching too soon.)}}.

** One of the challenges for ''Gun Runners' Arsenal'' is "Historical Propriety", where you re-enact the Ides of March and stab Caesar to death with a knife.

* [[Katanas Are Just Better]]: If you get the ''Gun Runners' Arsenal'' DLC, you can have a Katana as a melee weapon. It's got decent attack power, but it also attacks ludicrously fast, effectively turning you into an honourable Japanese meat grinder.

* [[Kick the Son of a Bitch]]: Caesar's Legions ending for the Mojave is an absolutely brutal [[Downer Ending]]... but in their ending, they are at least kind enough to take out the [[Smug Snake|Great]] [[Drugs Are Bad|Khans]], the [[Exclusively Evil|Powder]] [[Bomb-Throwing Anarchists|Gangers]], and the [[Complete Monster|Fiends.]]

* [[Kill Sat]]: The Archimedes II [[Wave Motion Gun|orbital laser]]. You can acquire a remote to it. {{spoiler|[[Fridge Horror|And that remote is in the hands of an unwitting child.]] The safety was on, at least.}}.

* [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better]]: Actually semi-justified, as Hoover Dam is the only genuine power source in the Wastelands (unless you get Helios One working) that could recharge energy weapons, thus it'd be far easier to use or manufacture bullets. The game actually intentionally makes pistol ammo be more prevalently dropped. Most notably, the laser tommy gun (Laser RCW) is less damaging than the real tommy gun (.45 Auto SMG).

** The Legendary Bloatfly takes this to an insane (and probably parodic) degree. Regular Bloatflies are perhaps the least threatening thing in the Mojave, second to Giant Mantis Nymphs or Radroaches and easy prey for even a low-level Courier. The Legendary Bloatfy is the second ''strongest'' enemy in the game. (noNo, not ''Old World Blues''. The game. Period).) The thing is somehow more dangerous than ''every single Deathclaw you will come across'', outclassed only by the Giant Roboscorpion, which at least appears in a room containing a few defences to turn against it and lots of things to hide behind. The Legendary Bloatfly appears in a small cave surrounded by regular Bloatflies and will likely notice you before you notice it. Generally, the player will round the last corner of its cave, oblivious, and be reduced to glowing goo with a single shot before they have any idea what the hell just happened. Unless they're at the ''absolute peak'' of damage resistance, in which case it might take two shots.

** The Think Tanks, especially Dr. Klein. Even his subtitles are in all caps. It's lampshaded as well, with him constantly complaining that the volume control of his loudpspeaker is awry. The Tick, Dr. Venture, and Captain Quark and Liquid Snake are 34 of the 6 scientists. Case closed.

* [[Lethal Joke Item]]: The Abeline Kid LE BB Gun is the ''Fallout: New Vegas'' equivalent of the [[Fallout 2|Red Ryder Limited BB Gun]], which gives a bonus critical damage and bonus critical chance.

** The LAER (Laser Assisted Electrical Rifle) in ''Old World Blues''.

** The Arc Welder in ''Lonesome Road''.

* [[The Load]]: Waking Cloud, a companion from ''Honest Hearts.''. Her only combat skill is Unarmed, the only combat skill in the game with no ranged attacks whatsoever (Melee Weapons has a handful of thrown weapons), but her hit points are so low she literally loses fights to plants with distressing regularity. Giving her a ranged weapon means she'll live an extra 2 seconds because now the monster she's fighting has to walk to her ''without'' her charging right up to it.

** The load redundancy makes this especially eg-- For example,(e.g. fast traveling places the player outside a location, without preloading the interior, which is the primary reason for traveling there in the first place). There's rarely a fast travel mark directly to commonly visited characters, some of which are instead ''two to four maps deep'' from arrival. It's almost as if they were relying on design shortsightedness to inflate the playing time.

* [[Loophole Abuse]]: Katherine Stone, the Overseer in Vault 11. {{spoiler|Since the Justice Bloc in the Vault used their majority to control who became Overseer and thus was sacrificed, she was forced to perform sexual favors to save her husband. When they nominated him anyway, she murdered several of them, because she knew she would be elected Overseer due to her crimes. Upon her nomination, she changed the voting process to selection by random number generation, effectively destroying the Justice Bloc's power. There wasn't any rule preventing her from changing the rules.}}.

* [[Luck Stat]]: A ''Fallout'' trope in general, but [[Deconstructed]] in this game. It's actually an ability to [[The Chessmaster|calculate probabilities]] and [[Winds of Destiny Change|know how to nudge them in your favor]]. The luckiest individual in the Wasteland, {{spoiler|Mr. House, who has a Luck state of 10}}, can in fact [[Xanatos Roulette|predict the future]] with his ability. Not that it helps him to any extent should the player decide to cross him -... and you can't see the NPC stats directly without console commands either. A better example of [[Doing inIn the Wizard]] on the matter of luck is that one of the implants you may obtain - a probability processing unit of sorts - actually increases your luck.

** Vault 21's [[Planet of Hats|hat]] was that everyone was equal and conflicts were solved with games of chance, essentially an in-game deconstruction of luck. Unlike most of the other Vaults, 21 did pretty well for itself... until House showed up and won the whole place in a game of blackjack.