“Long story short the power failed a few days ago because giant ants have tunneled in to the generator room and set up a nest.”— Raquel
Ant Misbehavin' is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Quest: Ant Misbehavin' | |||||||||||
| Restart the 2 array generators, then reset the main breaker. | |||||||||||
| (Optional, if you can get Speech 55) Kill all the ants in the generator room. | |||||||||||
| (Optional) Get the sonic emitter from Loyal and place it on the ant mound. | |||||||||||
| Reward: 400 XP and Boomers fame. | |||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
Required objective[]
- Restart the two array generators, then reset the main breaker.
- Begin by talking to Raquel to receive the quest. She'll inform the Courier that there is an ant infestation within their communications array building.
- It is actually not necessary to kill the ants as long as the power is turned back on. The Courier can then return to Raquel and lie about the ants being cleared out with a Speech check (55). This will result in a loss of Karma, but will still award Boomer fame, XP, and will successfully complete the quest.
- Walk to the Nellis array near the eastern side of the base.
- Using the key Raquel provided, enter from the south side of the array.
- Take the first left and follow the catwalks to the descending metal stairs.
- Go down the open metal stairs to the factory/generating room floor.
- Optional: If wanting to use Loyal's sonic device, look for a conical pile of trash about chest high. Place the sonic device on the pile and trigger it. This kills all nearby ants inside of the array.
- If decided against using the sonic device, then it will be required to personally kill all of the ants in the first room of the generating room floor.
- In the second area, flip the two array generator switches on the east wall (look for the lights).
- Flip the final switch, which is halfway down the stairs that was descended to get down into the generating room floor.
- Once the three switches have been flipped, return to Raquel to complete the quest.
Optional objectives[]
- After receiving the quest from Raquel, talk to Loyal (in the barracks or hangar). If the Courier can pass a skill check of 50 in either Speech or Science, they can ask him for the sonic emitter.
- Locate the ants' nest, in the second area of the building (the dirt pile against the corner almost due south of the doorway and entrance ramp).
- Place the sonic emitter on the ants' nest.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- The ants will explode and cause massive damage to any nearby creatures if killed with most weapons, including: explosives, energy weapons, the ballistic fist, the Ripper, or the chainsaw. Most conventional weapons appear to be fine, although not in the case of guns added in the Honest Hearts add-on. (See the Bugs section.)
- Thump-Thump, a unique grenade rifle, is found in the section east of the ant mound (near a skeleton) on the bottom floor.
- There are several shelves of ammunition boxes, and cartons of ammunition in several different rifle and handgun rounds along with two mini nukes on the northern side of the bottom floor, right next to the garage door ramp.
- Boomer armor, helmets, ammunition, and standard grenade launchers can be found on the first floor by looting the two dead Boomer soldiers Raquel mentioned they lost. An assault carbine and marksman carbine can also be found by the bodies of the Boomers.
- Be careful not to accidentally shoot the howitzer shells while killing the ants. If they are damaged, they will explode, causing an even bigger explosion with the death of any ants.
- The catwalk is not high enough to avoid the explosion of howitzer shells below the Courier if an explosion accidentally occurs.
- Activating the sonic emitter will kill any ants in the vicinity without them exploding.
- ED-E's electrical zap, as well as Arcade Gannon's Plasma Defender causes the ants to explode, so leave them outside to prevent this.
Behind the scenes[]
"Ain't Misbehavin'" is a 1929 song written by Fats Waller and is featured in the musical of the same name. It would later feature in Fallout 76 on Appalachia Radio.
Bugs[]
When completing the quest, the terminal near the solar panels seems to magically disappear leaving no trace whatsoever.[verified]- When speaking to Raquel after completing all objectives, the only available option may be "Goodbye" or "See you later," making it impossible to complete the quest.[verified]
- On occasion, the main circuit breaker switch will not register being activated. The switch will move up and down, but the quest will not advance. Using completeallobjectives 1083de gets the Courier past this. For the xbox360, just simply leave the 3 switches alone, then do a quest for the Boomers and return to turn on the switches after the quest is complete.[verified]
- All Honest Hearts guns are confirmed to cause ants to explode, from the .45 Auto submachine gun to the Survivalist's rifle.[verified]
- The Courier receives credit for killing the ants with whatever weapon they currently have in their hands when activating the sonic emitter. Activating the emitter with a one handed weapon equipped counts towards one-handed weapon kills, etc.[verified]
