Fallout New Vegas Act 2 – Wild Card

So we’ve got to the Strip and dealt with Benny. We have to think about who we want to work with and decide the fate of the Mojave. For the most part, each of the four options want us to deal with the same things, but in different ways. I’ll cover each of the four options one by one. It may seem a bit repetitive but the options and outcomes are different for each. We’ll start with Wild Card, the Yes Man Route.

Wild Card: Change in Management

In order to secure an Independent Vegas, you need to get rid of Mr House and install Yes Man onto the mainframe. Once you have your hands on the Platinum Chip you can get down to where Mr House actually is. He’s used technology to keep himself alive all these years.

You have to disconnect him from his systems, although you don’t need to kill him, opening his life support chamber will result in his death eventually due to exposure to germs. You will be able to kill him if you choose to and he publishes an obituary he had written for himself. He expresses a preference to be killed rather than just disabled from his cerebral control system.

Once this is done, you can go back to Yes Man and install him on the network. This gives him access to everything on the network. Then you have a lot of work to do to prepare for the fight for Hoover Dam.

Wild Card: You And What Army?

This quest is centred around the secret vault under Fortification Hill, the Fort where Caesar’s Legion are set up. Luckily you get an invitation from Caesar himself to go and meet with him. Yes Man wants you to use the Platinum Chip to upgrade the Securitrons to the new OS. Caesar wants you to destroy whatever you find in the bunker.

You get given your gear back and go into the Bunker at the Fort. There’s a few aggressive robots to deal with, then you get the choice of upgrading or destroying the securitron army. If you choose to destroy it, you get attacked by some sentry bots and Yes Man makes many passive aggressive comments about it. Upgrading it gives you the better outcome though.

Luckily the noise of the upgrade makes Caesar think you did as he wished and you can leave without any problems. Your next task is to meet with a bunch of smaller factions and get them on board or out of your way.

Wild Card: Side Bets

Side Bets is a multi stage quest where you must meet with some smaller factions and decide what to do with them. On the Yes Man path you have the option of ignoring all of them. Or recruiting all of them to be on your side.

The Boomers

The Boomers are a group who left Vault 34 and settled at Nellis Airforce Base. They bombard anyone who gets close with long range missiles and heavy artillery. If you work with them and complete their quest, Volare, then you will have air support in the battle for Hoover Dam! The B52 Bomber from Lake Mead gets fixed up.

The Brotherhood of Steel

The Brotherhood of Steel are equally as wary of outsiders and it takes a lot of work to get in their good graces. You can get both the Brotherhood and the NCR to agree to a truce, with the Brotherhood then aiding in the battle for Hoover Dam. This means working for the NCR for a bit as well and keeping Elder MacNamara in place. If you choose to help Paladin Hardin become Elder, there is no possibility of a truce with the NCR.

The Great Khans

The Great Khans are a tribe that are based in Red Rock Canyon. They have a long history of enmity with the NCR. During the game they are on the verge of joining the Legion. You can get them to break this alliance and either convince the Khans to attack the dam or to leave and seek glory elsewhere.

The White Glove Society

The White Glove Society and the Ultra-Luxe have some issues going on due to their history of cannibalism. A brahmin rancher’s son is missing, and one of the leaders of the society wants them to return to cannibalism. You have a few options, including offering one of your own companions in place of the rancher’s son. or convincing a man named Carlyle St Clair to go to them and become their ‘dinner guest of honour’.

The Omertas

The Omertas in Gomorrah are planning something. You can help Cachino stop what the bosses are planning or you can help the bosses attack the Strip. Either way, you will be able to tell Yes Man and this will complete the Side Bets quest.

By this point, the NCR and the Legion know you are not working for them. The Legion will become hostile to you, but NCR won’t unless you have done something to damage your reputation with them. NCR won’t officially work with you but if they don’t hate you, you will be allowed to do You’ll Know It When It Happens.

You’ll Know It When It Happens

This is optional for the Yes Man route, but it seems that House thought it was important to ensure that the President of NCR survived. There’s a planned visit from President Kimball and it is highly likely the Legion will attempt to assassinate him. You will be tasked with helping to prevent this.

There’s a number of things you can do, from spotting and killing snipers to catching a fake engineer planting a bomb on the vertibird. Deal with one of them and tell Ranger Grant, and he will cut the visit short and ensure the President gets away safely.

Wild Card Finishing Touches

Finally you are tasked with installing an override module near Hoover Dam, so the securitrons outside of the Strip can be controlled. This is at the El Dorado substation. The NCR will warn you away, and if they see you they will turn hostile. But they can be fooled by an NCR disguise or using a Stealth Boy.

After this, you are asked to convince the Followers of the Apocalypse to help the full region of Vegas. This means you need to reach idolised status with the Followers.

The Eve of Battle

You’re at the point of no return now. You need to finish off any side quests and tie up any loose ends before you go forward. The battle is imminent. The Yes Man route is interesting because it really has very few restrictions on how to approach it. You can ignore all the small factions, destroy the securitrons and refuse to help prevent the assassination of the President. Yes Man doesn’t like it, even if he can’t complain about it.

You can have the smaller groups on your side and have an army of upgraded combat robots at your back. You can keep the NCR on side for the most part, as well as the Strip itself. Fallout New Vegas. Because the story really is what you make of it. Your character can be any kind of person you want. There is so little of the Courier’s back story that is set in stone.  

Thanks for reading. Next up we’ll talk about Mr House’s route and how it differs from the Yes Man route. I hope you’ll join me for that. For more details on all of this, you can find my playthrough on YouTube here.

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