“Once the Great Khans have been killed or captured, you're welcome to retrieve any property they've taken from you.”— Lt. Monroe
Boulder City Showdown is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Overview[]
Jessup is holding two NCR troopers, Privates Gilbert and Ackerman, hostage in the Boulder City ruins. Lt. Monroe of the NCR asks the Courier's help in getting them released.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Side Quest: Boulder City Showdown | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Speak to Lt. Monroe in Boulder City. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Defuse the situation with the Great Khans. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Free the hostages via negotiation by talking with Jessup, leader of the Great Khans in Boulder City. | Free the hostages by killing the Khans. | Kill the NCR troopers. | |||||||||||||||||||
| By passing a Speech check (45), convince Jessup to have the Khans go peacefully. | Release the hostages. | Kill Lieutenant Monroe. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Return to Lt. Monroe and either pay him 500 caps (400 if a Barter check (45) is passed) or choose the correct Speech option to end the showdown peacefully. | Return to Lt. Monroe and speak to him. | Once all NCR soldiers are dead, return to Jessup. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: 300 XP NCR fame Great Khan fame | Reward: 300 XP NCR fame Great Khan infamy | Reward: 300 XP NCR infamy Great Khan fame | |||||||||||||||||||
| Leads to: Ring-a-Ding-Ding! | |||||||||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
In Boulder City, locate the small NCR outpost east of the Big Horn Saloon. Speak to Lieutenant Monroe to learn that a group of Great Khans have captured one of his patrols and are holding them hostage in the Boulder City ruins. The Courier can offer to negotiate the hostages' release or state that they are after the Khans to recover something of value from them. Either way, Monroe allows the Courier to go ahead but warns that the NCR will attack the Khans if they hear gunfire. Once the ruins are entered, the player is left with 3 options to finish the quest:
Free the hostages via negotiation[]
- Talk to Jessup.
- By passing a Speech check (45), the player character can convince Jessup to release the hostages and have the Khans leave peacefully.
- One can convince Jessup to shoot his way out.
- One can convince Jessup to release the hostages.
- By asking Jessup about the platinum chip, the player character will complete They Went That-a-Way.
- By passing a Speech check (45), the player character can convince Jessup to release the hostages and have the Khans leave peacefully.
- Go back and speak with Lieutenant Monroe. He informs the player character he has been given orders to kill the Great Khans, hostages or not.
- One can talk Monroe into honoring the deal and not killing the Great Khans. This results in the player character gaining both NCR and Great Khans fame, good Karma, and an additional 300 XP.
- One can offer to give him 500 caps (or less, with 45 Barter) to let the Khans escape.
Note: If one engages in hostile action with the Great Khans, the player will still be accepted with both factions. Also, if this option is chosen, Jessup will give the Courier the engraved cigarette lighter which can be given to Swank at the Tops, as evidence that Benny does not have the best interests of the Chairmen in mind.
Rescue the hostages by killing the Khans[]
- One may choose to free the hostages by killing all the Khans in the area. This means eliminating every one of them including the two in the hideout.
- Release the two NCR hostages in the building next to the hideout.
- Return to Lt. Monroe and speak to him.
- Upon completion, the player character will gain fame with the NCR and infamy with the Great Khans.
- Note: If one sneaks to the backdoor where the hostages are held and releases them, this will not alert the Great Khans. However, once released, the objective will change to kill the remaining Khans. Once the Khans are killed, the quest will be completed.
- Note: If instead of killing any Khans, the player character taunts them but allows the NCR troops to do the job, this will not result in any infamy with the Khans.
Save the Khans and kill the NCR troopers[]
- The player character must kill all the NCR troopers in the area, including Lieutenant Monroe. There are about five soldiers within the ruins.
- Once all NCR soldiers are dead, inform Jessup the Khans are free to go.
- Note: The hostages will remain tied up in the ruins. The player character can either leave them be, free them or kill them. Killing them results in XP and Karma loss, in addition to NCR infamy. The Great Khans will attack the player character if the hostages are engaged, so wait for them to leave the area.
- Upon completion, the player character will gain fame with the Great Khans.
Quest stages[]
Negotiation path:
Siding with the Khans:
Siding with the NCR:
Notes[]
- Telling Lt. Monroe that one will talk to the Khans causes them to be neutral upon entering the Boulder City ruins. Conversely, telling him one will fight it out makes them immediately hostile.
- Bribing Monroe will cause Jessup to speak lines similar to that of a regular Great Khan, however, if the Courier persuades Monroe to allow the Great Khans to go peacefully, Jessup will retain his original dialogue.
Bugs[]
If one goes to New Vegas and circumvents the entire Boulder City main-quest arc, Jessup's only dialogue response will be to say Goodbye, making the quest impossible by diplomatic means. This glitch can be rectified by completing the quest Oh My Papa.[verified]- The game may suddenly switch the objective from negotiations to kill all the NCR troopers in the area. This somehow will cause the hostages to immediately become hostile and attack you. You will be forced to kill them, initiating negative Karma loss and NCR infamy. However, the other NCR members do not become hostile and the quest can be completed by simply killing Jessup. However, sometimes simply killing Jessup will not fix the bug in which you will need to use console commands to set the quest stage to the desired point.[verified]
- If talking to Private Ackerman after freeing him, there will be a slight audio glitch on the "Thanks" in "Thanks for getting me outta there. I owe you one."[verified]
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