Debt Collector is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Side Quest: Debt Collector | |||||||||||||||
| Speak with Francine Garret in the Atomic Wrangler Casino. | |||||||||||||||
| (Optional) Pass a 35 Speech/Barter skill check to demand additional caps from Francine. | |||||||||||||||
| Collect Grecks' debt. | |||||||||||||||
| (Optional) Pass two 41 and 60 Speech skill checks to extort Grecks for additional caps and his clothes. | |||||||||||||||
| Reward: Karma loss | |||||||||||||||
| Collect Santiago's debt. | |||||||||||||||
| Intimidate Santiago with violence or pass a 50 Speech skill check to convince him to pay up. | Persuade Santiago to clear his debt by working for the Garrets. | ||||||||||||||
| Collect Lady Jane's debt. | |||||||||||||||
| Pass a 40 Speech/Barter skill check or a 7 Perception attribute check or use Lady Killer to convince Lady Jane to pay up. | Agree to recover Lady Jane's debt from her lost caravan in the Broc flower cave. | ||||||||||||||
| Return to Francine. | |||||||||||||||
| Deal with Caleb McCaffery outside Gomorrah on the Strip. | |||||||||||||||
| Kill McCaffery and recover both the caps and his hat. | Pass a 40 Speech skill check to convince McCaffery to give up the caps and his hat peacefully. | ||||||||||||||
| Return to Francine. | |||||||||||||||
| Reward: 600 XP 150-300 caps Freeside fame Atomic Wrangler corner room as player housing | |||||||||||||||
| Leads to: Hat's Entertainment | |||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
The quest is started by traveling to the southwestern half of Freeside and across the street from the King's School of Impersonation to the Atomic Wrangler Casino (noted by its neon sign of a cowboy riding an atom). Inside, the one to talk to is Francine Garret, co-owner of the casino along with her brother James; Francine usually works behind the bar counter near the front door throughout the day and up to 9 p.m. after which James takes over. One can ask about the rules for partaking of the casino's services including prostitutes and booze, as well as whether she needs any work done.
On the subject of work, Francine will inform the player character of three outstanding bar tabs owed to the Wrangler that she wants collected. If they can bring back the 600 caps owed in total, she offers 150 caps as reward; passing a 35 Speech or Barter skill check will convince her to increase it to 300 caps.
The debtors[]
Francine sends the player character to collect the caps amounts from Grecks, Santiago, and Lady Jane. She prefers that they get the caps without killing her potential customers, but once their debts are clear, she no longer cares what happens to them. It is also possible for the player character themselves to pay off the debts.
Grecks[]
The ghoul squatter Grecks owes 138 caps and is typically located outside the Old Mormon Fort, behind the southeastern wall (near where one of the missionaries appears during G.I. Blues).
Grecks will pay up the 138 caps as soon as one mentions the Garrets to him, completing his respective objective. Passing a 40 Speech check will lead to extorting him for an additional 41 caps, then passing a subsequent 60 Speech check leading to him giving up his dirty pre-War casualwear; passing the latter check will incur Karma loss.
It's also possible to goad Grecks into a fight by repeatedly commenting on his deformed eye, turning him hostile, after which the bag of bottle caps worth 153 caps must be taken off his body to pay the debt. Killing Grecks will incur Freeside infamy.
Santiago[]
The smooth-talking skinflint Santiago owes 212 caps and is typically located behind the collapsed building opposite from Mick & Ralph's (near the second missionary location during G.I. Blues).
Santiago will try to talk his way out of paying the debt, including offering a "VIP discount" at Mick & Ralph's, but one's options for collecting his debt are ultimately unaffected:
- Intimidation
Select the dialogue options to punch him in the face three times (instead of attacking him outside of conversation) or threaten to "collect from his corpse" to get him to pay up the 212 caps.
- Manipulation
Pass a 50 Speech skill check to persuade Santiago that the Garrets are planning to send bounty hunters after him to get a higher amount of 256 caps.
- Negotiation
If one also started Wang Dang Atomic Tango by talking to James Garret, a unique option is unlocked to convince Santiago to pay off his debt by taking up James' offer to work at the Wrangler, which also fulfills the suave talker objective for that quest. Choosing this method will clear Santiago's debt and one will only have to get the 388 caps from the other two and will still get the full reward for collecting all the debts for Francine.
- This option will not be available if Old Ben was recruited as the suave talker before going to talk to Santiago.
There is no dedicated dialogue option to incite Santiago to violence, but one can still kill him and collect the bag of bottle caps containing 256 caps from his body.
Lady Jane[]
The pretend high-roller Lady Jane owes 250 caps and is typically located to the right of the Strip North Gate, near where Old Ben hangs around.
She will also attempt to smooth-talk the player character into believing that she does not owe money to the Garrets, but it similarly has no effect on the options to proceed:
- With a 7 or higher Perception attribute level, Lady Jane can be called out on her false poverty and get the 250 caps, causing her to run out of Freeside to return to New California.
- Passing a 40 Speech or Barter skill check leads to offering to let her pay off the debt with her assets, resulting in her handing over 156 caps, 3 sensor modules and 2 cartons of cigarettes (the items have a total base worth of 170 caps) and again running off.
- A male Courier with the Lady Killer perk can charm her to hand over the 250 caps, as well as giving out the location of her lost caravan.
- If one fails both skill checks, another option becomes available for her to hand over a reduced 156 caps and allow the Garrets to think her dead. From here, one can either accept the 156 caps she is willing to give or choose to attack, which turns her hostile and allows for collecting the bag of bottle caps containing 256 caps) from her corpse.
If none of the skill or attribute checks can be passed, nor does one want to kill her, Lady Jane will offer to give the player character the location of her lost caravan to recover the debt from, directing them to find it in the broc flower cave east of Wolfhorn Ranch and northwest of Camp Searchlight. Inside the location, the uniquely named Jane's brahmin will have 276 caps on it to give to Francine.
- The brahmin will not spawn if the cave has been entered before starting the quest.
- The brahmin also will not spawn unless one offers to retrieve the debt this way or if they get the information through using Lady Killer.
Dealing with a thief[]
Upon returning to the Wrangler with all debts repaid, Francine will take the caps and offer a new job: Caleb McCaffery, the man the Garrets previously paid to take care of debt collecting, stole money from the casino after feeling cheated that the player character took over his role, and fled onto the Strip. Francine wants the caps back and McCaffery made an example of why it's bad to cross the Garrets, with his hat serving as proof of the kill, starting the unmarked quest, Hat's Entertainment.
Caleb can be found in the northern section of the Strip, just outside Gomorrah. If one has not entered the Strip before this point, see the relevant article section for possible ways of entry. Passing a 40 Speech skill check will lead to him giving up his hat and a small portion of the stolen caps (57 caps). Any other dialogue option will turn him hostile and must be killed to obtain his hat and caps.
Note: On PS3 and Xbox 360, a major bug may render the game essentially unbeatable if Caleb is killed. See the Bugs section for details.
Return to Francine in the Wrangler to give her the caps and the hat, after which she will reward the player character with the promised 150 caps (or 300 if the requisite check was passed) and the key to the Atomic Wrangler corner room formerly inhabited by McCaffery, completing the quest and garnering Freeside fame.
Quest stages[]
Behind the scenes[]
Area designer Robert Lee, who worked on Freeside and the Atomic Wrangler, wrote for this quest and the characters within.[Non-game 1]
Bugs[]
If the player character has finished the first part of the quest and returned with the caps to Francine Garret, they may be able to get double the caps. When one gets to Santiago, ask about the free VIP and his discount with Ralph's brother. Later on, one will find out it was a fake but will be unable to bring it up again to Santiago if the player character has collected the caps. Before killing the twins' old bounty hunter, do James Garret's quest on more hookers. Upon returning to Santiago, one will have the option to tell him about his fake discount. After that, one can now chase after their old bounty hunter. Get his hat and return to Francine Garret. She will bring about the old quest you already finished and give the player character the reward again. [verified]
If one has already completed the quest Wang Dang Atomic Tango and hired Santiago as the suave talker, there is a possible bug that the player character will not be able to talk to Santiago to collect his caps. It is still possible to complete the quest by pickpocketing the bag of bottle caps off of him. [verified]- Upon completing this quest and killing McCaffery, any attempts on re-entering the Strip will result in a black screen crash and the autosave corrupting (some users have reported the Strip door also requiring a key). To fix the black screen crash, wear the old cowboy hat (or even Caleb McCaffery's hat) that can be found at Crimson Caravan's store (it is near a bunch of first aid boxes). Wearing it before entering the Strip from Freeside will stop the game from crashing. The key-requirement for the Strip gate can easily be solved by taking the NCR monorail in Camp McCarran to the Strip, and then opening the gate from the inside. If one cannot use the monorail, kill one of the securitron guards near the gate and loot the key from its corpse. [verified]
- To avoid the black screen crash, try not to decapitate Caleb; if McCaffery's body is intact when removing the hat and other items from it, the visual of the hat disappears from the corpse. The image of the hat on McCaffery's head remained, even when his corpse was looted, causing the bug above.
- When asked to kill McCaffery, there is a possible bug where one is unable to select any dialogue options (pressing Start when this happens will fix it). [verified]
- Following closure of the dialogue when asked to kill McCaffery, he may be involved in a firefight inside the Atomic Wrangler. He will appear friendly in V.A.T.S. and be fighting with Wrangler staff. One can kill him here and get the reward before entering the Strip. [verified]
- If Caleb McCaffery is the first bounty one gets and completes by passing a Speech check, returning to Francine Garret will complete the quest without having to find Grecks and Lady Jane. [verified]
- If the player character goes after Caleb McCaffery before Lady Jane, they complete the quest. However, his room does not become the player character's, despite Francine awarding it to them; all items in it are still 'owned' by someone else and one cannot sleep in the bed. [verified]
- In some cases, there is a bug where if one kills Caleb McCaffery before starting this quest, one will not be able to complete it or if McCaffery's hat is picked up, one will not be able to drop it, as it will still be marked as a quest item. [verified]
- The player character may be unable to ever open dialogue with Lady Jane (attempting to simply triggered a passive statement about ED-E). Repeated attempts will cause her to repeat the statement. This makes it impossible to collect her debt without killing or pickpocketing her. There is no known fix. [verified]
- It is possible to turn in the quest with Francine before it is finished and thereby adding Caleb McCaffery to the existing quest line but at the same time making it impossible to talk to Lady Jane. [verified]
- The player character should not do this quest and Wang Dang Atomic Tango at the same time. Otherwise, they can only return 388 caps to Francine, it is 250 from Lady Jane and 138 from Grecks. The game will assume that the player character did not collect caps from Santiago. [verified]
- This bug does not always happen, or perhaps it was fixed in a more recent patch.
- Even if one has finished the quest, the items in the room are still owned by another person. One can only sleep in the bed for free. [verified]
- Santiago will sometimes disappear and is nowhere to be found, or he will be found dead and his bottle caps will not be on his body. [verified]
- If the player character gets the caps from Lady Jane with the Lady Killer perk after talking about her caravan, finding Jane's caravan will be still an optional objective. However, sometimes the brahmin will not spawn, thus leaving one without the extra caps. The side-quest can be still completed without the optional objective. [verified]
- If one kills Santiago after receiving his debt, the objective 'Collect 212 caps from Santiago' will uncheck, and a quest marker will appear on his body. One can, however, still complete the quest normally by turning in 600 caps to Francine and dealing with McCaffery afterwards. [verified]
- Sometimes, Jane's brahmin does not spawn. To fix this with the console, type player.placeatme 00116af4 1. This will spawn the brahmin alive, which can then be killed and have its body looted. It is not necessary to kill the brahmin; it can be looted alive. [verified]
- There might be a chance of finishing this quest twice and getting the reward twice by returning the 388 caps (250 from Lady Jane and 138 from Grecks) and then returning 600 caps to Francine by getting all caps plus going to Lady Jane's caravan and getting the caps from there, the player character will first give the 300 caps and get the reward, then give the 600 caps and get the reward once more, after giving the caps the first time, the option to say one completed the debt collecting will still be available and will give the player character the opportunity to return the next pack of caps. [verified]
Gallery[]
References[]
Non-game
