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This page is about the tutorial quest in Fallout: New Vegas. For the song with the same name, see Ain't That a Kick in the Head?. For the Fallout: New Vegas achievement with the same name, see Ain't That a Kick in the Head (achievement). |
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Ain't That a Kick in the Head is a tutorial quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Tutorial Quest: Ain't That A Kick in the Head | |||||
| You wake up in Goodsprings and Doc Mitchell will explain what happened to you. | |||||
| Pick your appearance (race, age, appearance and name). | |||||
| Pick your SPECIAL points by the Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester. | |||||
| Pick your Tag skills and traits. | |||||
| Doc gives back all possessions, along with a Vault 21 jumpsuit and a Pip-Boy. | |||||
| Reward: Doc tells you to talk to Sunny Smiles, leading to Back in the Saddle. | |||||
| Leads to: Back in the Saddle | |||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
After the intro cinematic in which they suffered a gunshot to the head from a man in a checkered coat, the Courier wakes up with blurred vision and finds themselves inside Doc Mitchell's house. Doc Mitchell himself is sitting at their bedside and is amazed they pulled through. The doctor asks for their name and hands them a Reflectron to examine (and customize) their appearance. To gauge their physical wellbeing, Doc Mitchell helps them out of the bed and has them walk across the room to the Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester to assign their SPECIAL points. The doctor confirms the Courier's attributes, then brings them into a living room where he takes them through word-association, personality profile, and Rorschach blot tests to gauge their skillset and then gives them a form to help identify one, two, or no key personality trait(s).
Once the player character's starting elements are decided, Doc Mitchell walks the Courier to the front door of his house and reveals that they are in the town of Goodsprings, where he will give them a note he found on them while in his care as well as a Vault 21 jumpsuit (his own if male or that of his late wife if female) and a Pip-Boy 3000. He directs them to talk to the other townsfolk about finding the ones who attacked them, Sunny Smiles in particular. He can also be asked about who rescued them and says that it was Victor, a quasi-resident of the town who is also a robot.
Before leaving, one can explore the house. There is no penalty for stealing items here, so taking everything to sell for caps is possible. The doctor has a fair amount of medical equipment, as well as a laser pistol and ammunition in a metal box. The chemistry set to the left of the bed the Courier woke up on can be used by a character with a 25 Science skill level to produce either five stimpaks or a small assortment of chems (Psycho, Jet, Steady, Buffout, Rebound, and Mentats). There is also a broken 9mm SMG laying on a crate near the bed which can be repaired and taken with a 25 Repair skill level. If one has at least 30 Speech or Medicine, when talking to the Doc a second time, they can convince him to give them an additional 3 stimpaks.
Rewards[]
After meeting with Doc Mitchell at the door to his home, he gives the following: 4 stimpaks, 18 caps, a couple of bobby pins. Depending on the player character's chosen Tag skills, he possibly gives either a ballistic or energy ranged weapon (with relevant ammo), melee weapon or unarmed weapon (he gives a 9mm pistol and 9mm ammo by default if none of the weapon skills were tagged):
| Tagged Skill | + Rewards based on the tagged skill. | Equipment |
|---|---|---|
| Lockpick | 12 bobby pins instead of 6 | |
| Guns | 9mm pistol and 43-46 9mm rounds (instead of default 15-30 rounds) | |
| Explosives | 8 sticks of dynamite (if neither Guns nor Energy Weapons are tagged also) | |
| Energy Weapons | Laser pistol and 20 energy cells (if Guns isn't tagged also) | |
| Melee Weapons | Straight razor (regardless of any other tagged weapon skills) | |
| Unarmed | Boxing gloves (if Melee Weapons isn't tagged also) |
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- Once Doc Mitchell finishes his ending dialogue, the game will offer the option to play the game in Hardcore mode. The reward is an achievement/trophy. There is no in-game reward for completing the game in Hardcore mode.
- If one has a 30 Speech skill level and a Medicine skill level lower than 30, it is possible to pass a total of 3 Speech checks receiving a total of 8 Stimpaks and 90 experience points by talking to Doc Mitchell again. After passing the first Speech check, use a Today's Physician to raise the Medicine skill to 30. Then, talk with Doc Mitchell again to pass the Medicine check, followed by another 30 Speech skill check.
- Alternatively, if the Speech and Medicine skills both exceed 30, then Medicine can be lowered below 30 (e.g. with the alcoholic drinks usually present in Doc's refrigerator), then the Speech check passed, and then once the alcohol wears off the Medicine and second Speech check can be passed before leaving the house.
- None of the items in Doc Mitchell's house during and after the quest are marked as owned by him, allowing them to be stolen without incurring Karma loss.
- No matter what name is chosen when asked by Doc Mitchell, he will always reply with "Huh. Can't say it's what I'd have picked for you. But if that's your name, that's your name."
Behind the scenes[]
- The quest name is a reference to "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" by Dean Martin. The song is also featured on the in-game radio station Radio New Vegas and played in the casinos.
- The final ink blot shown during the Rorschach test segment of the psychological evaluation is an exact copy of an ink blot used in the Quantum Leap episode "Shock Theater."
Bugs[]
While using the Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester, clicking on the up/down arrows to increase or decrease a statistic, or the left/right arrows to shift between statistics, may not work. If this happens, it may be that the game thinks that the arrow is somewhere else, in which case clicking elsewhere on the screen will produce the desired result. Another workaround is to use your keyboard's arrow keys (not the wsad keys) to increase/decrease statistics and shift between statistics.[verified]
If you start to use console commands, the game will completely freeze and when reloaded it will restart. Do not use console commands for this quest at any time.[verified]- After gaining the ability to move, you might walk slowly and not be able to sit. Just restart the system and make a new save to fix this.[verified]
