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Cleanup (Issue: Quick walkthrough - adjust pathing for coherence)
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Arizona Killer is a Legion faction quest and achievement/trophy in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Main Quest: Arizona Killer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Talk to Cato Hostilius. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Infilitrate Hoover Dam and meet with the disguised Cato. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assassinate President Aaron Kimball. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attack and kill Kimball. | Plant the bomb on the vertibird (50 Explosives required). | Plant a C-4 plastic explosive on Jeremy Watson's helmet and detonate it near Kimball. | Rig the howitzer to explode/shoot down the vertibird (50 Science/Repair required). | Sabotage the vertibird. (50 Science required) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: XP Legion fame Achievement/Trophy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leads to: Veni, Vidi, Vici | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
The start of this quest is influenced by the outcome of Et Tumor, Brute?, determining whether it is triggered by speaking with Caesar or with Lucius (if Caesar died during the surgical operation). The Legion's leader reveals that the New California Republic's standing president Aaron Kimball is making a scheduled visit to the Hoover Dam to boost troop morale, and they want to exploit it as an opportunity to weaken the enemy ahead of battle by assassinating their leader. If Colonel Moore was been killed at any point prior to starting this quest, it will fail immediately after being activated.
The player character is told to first meet with the frumentarius Cato Hostilius, who has been gathering reconnaissance on the NCR garrison at the dam. Cato's camp can be found northwest of Ranger Station Delta, south of the road leading down to Ranger Station Alpha. Upon meeting, Cato will advise they rest before the president's arrival, and the screen turns black. Once awake again, Cato will lay out the intel he's gathered and offers some suggestions, including donning an NCR disguise to get into the staging area. If one has at least a 50 Explosives skill level, Cato will provide a vertibird bomb to be planted directly onto the president's aircraft, Bear Force One after it lands at the dam. After one confirms they're ready, Cato will don his own disguise and make his way to the dam to blend into the crowd of spectators outside the visitor center.
The entire area of the Dam is heavily guarded by combined patrols of NCR troopers and Rangers, the latter of which will be able to recognize the player character even when disguised. One will have a limited time to make some preparations before talking to Cato again in the crowd and telling him that they are ready. Waiting for too long (around an hour or more in real time), leaving the location before completing the assassination, killing any Ranger atop or in the immediate area of the visitor center (including while undetected and including the named trooper Jensen), or not arriving at the dam at all will fail the quest.
Assassination plan[]
Immediately after talking to Cato again in the crowd, provided one has not been detected by Rangers, he points out the arriving Bear Force One, landing on top of the visitor center. President Kimball will make his way to the stage to deliver a speech accompanied by NCR Veteran Rangers, and the window of time to assassinate him will commence.
If there is any suspicion that an assassination attempt is imminent, the Rangers will interrupt and hurry the President back to the landing pad or a secured location within the visitor center if the aircraft is inoperable. Otherwise, after the speech ends, the President and his security detail will simply leave. The President's death completes the quest, and if he successfully leaves the area, one must report failure back to the Legion's leader.
- One can use any normal combat methods to kill Kimball. Alerting the crowd prior to Bear Force One appearing will prevent the Vertibird from entering the area, and the Courier will not be able to complete the assassination. Once the Vertibird is visible in the sky, it will maintain a course to the landing pad on the Dam, even if directly fired upon. If combat has been initiated prior to landing, Bear Force One will attempt to take off immediately after landing. At any point, Bear Force One can be shot down directly by the Courier. Otherwise, Kimball will exit the aircraft and proceed to the stage for his speech.
- In addition to open hostilities, stealth is a viable option to complete the quest. The use of Stealth Boys or silenced weapons can be used to prevent detection. With an active Stealth Boy, the crowd will not react to any weapons being drawn in proximity to the stage. Vantage points such as the large concrete tower north of the stage (the same tower used by the Legion assassin during You'll Know It When It Happens) are beyond the alert range for weapons being drawn, allowing the Courier to take a sniper's position.
Before starting the quest, traps such as C-4 plastic explosives can be placed anywhere in the area. The explosives will persist even after the quest has been assigned and after meeting with Cato to trigger the scene of Kimball's arrival. If landmines were used, the detonation will alert the crowd, even if one was properly disguised and undetected. Alternatively, the vertibird can be shot during or after Kimball's speech which will cause it to catch on fire and eventually explode.
Skill checks[]
In addition to the ability to assassinate Kimball using normal combat methods, there are several optional actions tied to specific skill checks:
- Explosives
- Plant a bomb on the Vertibird while it's on the helipad.
- Cato will provide the explosive necessary to blow up the Vertibird when it takes off, if one passed a 50 Explosives skill check; it can also be pickpocketed from him. Accessing the helipad requires bypassing Jensen through stealth, passing a 50 Speech skill check, or going disguised as an NCR engineer (a NCR engineer jumpsuit can be found in the supply closet, beneath the first floor stairs in the visitor center). Once planted, the bomb will explode when Kimball returns to the landing pad and takes off.
- Plant C-4 in Jeremy Watson's helmet.
- Jeremy Watson is the NCR trooper standing outside the sandbags near the left of the stage, set to be awarded a medal by President Kimball, and is looking for his missing helmet. The helmet is on a table next to the stairs below the visitor center, close to where one patrolling Ranger can approach. One can interact with it to plant a C-4 plastic explosive in the helmet (this requires a 50 Explosives skill level as well as at least one unit of C-4 and a detonator in the inventory), after which Watson can then be pointed towards his missing helmet. With the sabotaged helmet, Watson becomes a walking bomb that one can detonate when he approaches Kimball during the president's speech (this occurs around 2 minutes into the speech).
- If one cannot pass the Explosives check, any C-4 can still be directly placed into Watson's inventory via reverse pickpocketing to achieve the same result.
- Jeremy Watson is the NCR trooper standing outside the sandbags near the left of the stage, set to be awarded a medal by President Kimball, and is looking for his missing helmet. The helmet is on a table next to the stairs below the visitor center, close to where one patrolling Ranger can approach. One can interact with it to plant a C-4 plastic explosive in the helmet (this requires a 50 Explosives skill level as well as at least one unit of C-4 and a detonator in the inventory), after which Watson can then be pointed towards his missing helmet. With the sabotaged helmet, Watson becomes a walking bomb that one can detonate when he approaches Kimball during the president's speech (this occurs around 2 minutes into the speech).
- Repair
- Rig the anti-aircraft gun to explode.
- This is accomplished using the console located at the top of the exterior staircase, just east of the visitor center doors, next to a ham radio. The option is only available with a 50 Repair skill level. If performed, the AA gun situated behind the stage will explode and kill Kimball around 2 minutes into his speech (just before Jeremy Watson approaches him).
- Science
- Sabotage Bear Force One's flight computer.
- This is accomplished using the computer terminal inside the visitor center (the one near where one finds the snow globe - Hoover Dam). The option is only available with a 50 Science skill level and can also be executed before talking to Cato to trigger Kimball's arrival. If performed, when Bear Force One lands, the program will be uploaded automatically and after Kimball finishes his speech safely and returns to the aircraft, the vertibird will subsequently spin out of control and crash behind the mountain west of the dam.
- Program the anti-aircraft gun to shoot down the Vertibird.
- This is accomplished using the same console as in the Repair skill check option, only requiring a 50 Science skill level, and can also be executed before talking to Cato to trigger Kimball's arrival. If performed, the anti-aircraft gun will target the vertibird as it's flying over the dam (either arriving or leaving) and blow it up.
- This method serves as the quickest route to successfully assassinate Kimball as it does not require his speech to occur. It also does not immediately turn the NCR hostile upon Kimball's death (as long as one avoids being discovered by Rangers during the escape).
- This is accomplished using the same console as in the Repair skill check option, only requiring a 50 Science skill level, and can also be executed before talking to Cato to trigger Kimball's arrival. If performed, the anti-aircraft gun will target the vertibird as it's flying over the dam (either arriving or leaving) and blow it up.
Once Kimball has been dealt with, one must return to the Fort and speak with the Legion's leader where they are congratulated on a successful operation or scolded for allowing the enemy leader to escape alive, depending on the outcome. If the quest was failed by not attacking Kimball or letting him get away, Caesar will respond furiously when reporting back to him, asking why they didn't attack the enemy leader and screwed up their task. Depending on the response, he will respond that, if not for their previous service he would have them crucified and that he will overlook the error, moving on to the next quest. If one responds that they changed their mind, Caesar will either warn the player character about disobedience or turn hostile; if Caesar is dead and one talks to Lucius, he will regret that the Legion could not kill the NCR's leader before the start of conflict. Regardless, the player character will be charged with going to Legate Lanius' camp to meet with the commander and begin the Legion's assault on Hoover Dam to finish off the NCR, triggering Veni, Vidi, Vici.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- Drawing a weapon while near the visitor center and after the President has arrived will result in the President and NCR reacting as if he had come under attack, even if one is hidden and has not attacked. However, the NCR will not turn hostile unless they see through the Courier's disguise.
- Any method that involves destroying the Vertibird with Kimball aboard, employing explosives or high impact projectiles (e.g. a Gauss rifle) runs the risk of making President Kimball's suit and the Meat of Champions perk unobtainable due to the inaccessible or lost corpse.
- During this quest, the Legion sends Cato and the player character to perform the assassination, whereas during You'll Know It When It Happens, the NCR/House/Independent mirror version, the Legion still sends two assassins. Each of the three methods of assassination one must thwart as an ally of the NCR in the latter quest are also available as means of assassination during the former quest: placing a bomb on Bear Force One, sniping Kimball from the tower behind the stage, and attacking him directly from the crowd.
One can complete this quest along with the Gun Runners' Arsenal challenge Sic Semper Tyrannis by using a hunting revolver to snipe Kimball, killing him with the benefit of being at a distance one can then escape easily.
Behind the scenes[]
- Lead area designer Charles Staples worked on creating this quest, handling the majority of its implementation alongside You'll Know It When It Happens.[Non-game 1] Staples later said that he was dissatisfied with his scripting work on the quest, but was ultimately glad with how the quest worked out. He first scripted the Vertibird flying in, allowing Kimball to arrive at the dam, then worked on fleshing out options the player could use to kill him. For performance reasons, the team had to significantly scale back the number of NPCs in the crowd listening to the speech, as it was near 50 at one point in development.[Non-game 2]
- The quest name is a reference to the song "The Arizona Killer", popularized in the 2007 film 3:10 to Yuma. The song was written by Katie Lee who adapted it from an older 1942 song "The Tennessee Killer".[Non-game 3][Non-game 4]
Bugs[]
- If the Courier travels to the Fort, kills Caesar/Lucius and then returns to the Dam, President Kimball will be dead and characters neutral to the NCR will treat them as an assassin. [verified]
- Cato can spawn very close to the cazador nest, putting him in danger of death from the moment the quest begins. To avoid this, fast-travel to the area before taking the quest, clear out all the cazadores, and then go to the Fort to receive the quest. [verified]
- If the Courier visits the Dam after receiving the quest but before making contact with Cato, the quest will automatically fail when he leaves the Dam area. If the Courier waits at the Dam without having met Cato, the President will never appear. [verified]
- Sometimes the quest will fail immediately once started, forcing the Courier to report failure to Caesar. This usually happens if a specific male engineer stationed at the Dam has been killed prior to starting the quest, as he is a disguised Legion soldier. The death of this engineer sets a number of variables which set the NCR trooper guarding Kimball on alert, thus automatically failing the quest once it is taken. [verified]
- Occasionally, Kimball's Vertibird never arrives at the Dam, making this quest impossible to complete without the use of console commands. This can occur when reloading saves during the mission.[verified]
References[]
Non-game
- ↑ Question: "Who wrote You'll Know It When It Happens/Arizona Killer? Running security and checking for clues was great, especially Boone's comments about possible sniper locations"
Joshua Sawyer: "Charlie Staples handled the majority of implementation for those two quests."
(Joshua Sawyer Formspring posts/2011) - ↑ Memories of the Mojave with Charlie Staples
- ↑ Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle: A History of the American Cowboy in Song, Story and Verse. on Google Books
- ↑ 3:10 to Yuma FAQ on IMDb
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