By a Campfire on the Trail is a tutorial quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Tutorial Quest: By a Campfire on the Trail | |||||||||||||
| Find broc flower and xander root | |||||||||||||
| Collect xander root by the tree trunk outside of Goodsprings schoolhouse. | Collect broc flower at Goodsprings Cemetery | ||||||||||||
| Bring the broc flower and xander root to Sunny Smiles and use the campfire to make healing powder. | |||||||||||||
| Reward: 30 XP | |||||||||||||
| Next Quest: They Went That-a-Way | |||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
Upon completing Back in the Saddle (if it wasn't completed early at any stage), Sunny Smiles will offer to show the player character how to utilize resources and the campfire to create supplies on their own to help survive in the Mojave Wasteland. If the previous quest was finished at any stage before clearing the Goodsprings source, this quest will not be available.
If one agrees to learn more, Sunny will ask the player character to find and retrieve at least one sample of two kinds of plant: xander root and broc flower. Map markers for both place the former near the Goodsprings schoolhouse and the latter within the Goodsprings Cemetery.
The marker-relevant plants only spawn during the quest. At the schoolhouse, a new xander root is added to the patch where only two had grown near the building's east entrance, along with two giant mantis nymphs that now guard the area. The cemetery has a broc flower stalk added near the open grave at the back, as well as four bloatflies and a bark scorpion. The new plants are permanent and will respawn after being picked, but the creatures will not. Going up to the cemetery is also a good time to retrieve at least one of the distinctive cigarette butts that will become important later as well as the snow globe near the northwest direction of the circular area.
After retrieving both items, the player character must return to Sunny who has relocated to a campfire close to the third water source. She will congratulate them on their find and direct them on how to use the campfire to produce a single unit of healing powder. Sunny further explains the same principle of gathering the right resources and having higher skills will also benefit using a workbench and reloading bench.
At the end, Sunny will direct the player character to return to the Prospector Saloon to talk to Trudy, saying she will help them start looking for the man in the checkered coat. Going to the saloon and entering it for the second time will cause Trudy to appear as she's being confronted by Joe Cobb with a warning for the town to hand over a man named Ringo, only for Trudy to dismiss him. She can be talked to after and asked on the whereabouts of the man and his Great Khans group, pointing them to the south towards Primm and starting They Went That-a-Way.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- If one acquires the marked plants, then sells or consumes all the broc flowers and xander root in their inventory before giving them to Sunny Smiles, the waypoint will disappear, but the ingredients will respawn every 72 hours.
- If healing powder is already in the inventory, Sunny will move on with the quest as if they had created it using the campfire.
- Some unmarked broc flowers and at least one xander root can be found on the cliff where Barton Thorn sends the player character as part of Barton the Fink.
Behind the scenes[]
- As well as acting as a crafting tutorial for the player, retrieving broc flowers and xander roots is also a reference to the start of Fallout 2, particularly Hakunin who will make healing powder upon returning to him with the same two ingredients.
- The quest name is a reference to the song "By a Campfire on the Trail" by The Sons of the Pioneers.
Bugs[]
When following Sunny Smiles and talking to her at the campfire, the quest will become marked as done on the Pip-Boy. Sunny will go back to the Prospector Saloon without teaching the Courier how to make healing powder and no broc flower nor xander root will appear on the hill south of the campfire. So it's better to go to the Goodsprings Schoolhouse and to the Goodsprings Cemetery and talk to Sunny with all the ingredients. [verified]- Once the player has collected sufficient ingredients, if they interact with a campfire before they have talked with Sunny, even if they haven't actually made anything (just exited), she will approach the player, tell him/her they have enough, then immediately enter the dialogue as if you just crafted healing powder. [verified]
