The El Dorado substation is a building near HELIOS One in the Mojave Wasteland. It is located southwest of Vault 11 and northwest of El Dorado Dry Lake.
Contents
Layout
The location consists of a single building and a large array of transformers. The building itself is a tall concrete structure with a garage door entrance and a barricaded side door. In front of the building, on its east side, is an empty dumpster and a short distance from the north side's outer wall is a collapsed power line frame.
There are eight NCR troopers guarding the area, one being a sergeant, some of which may be sleeping in the building. The guard will instruct the player character not to enter the building or the fenced-in area, whereupon if they do, the soldiers will become hostile. No matter what reputation the Courier has with the NCR, the troopers will not allow entrance to either restricted area.
Notable loot
- Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap - On a trash can inside the substation building.
Related quests
Notes
- The friendly trooper, once triggered to approach, will chase the Courier until they can deliver the message, even all the way to the gates of Freeside.
- The soldiers and the sergeant will respawn if killed.
- Using the override chip will result in NCR infamy.
- If the Courier is traveling with Boone as a companion, he will leave their party as soon as the Courier is detected within the restricted areas. If the areas are accessed covertly after completing the quest I Forgot to Remember to Forget, convincing Boone to be bloodthirsty, he will single-handedly murder every soldier inside the substation control room and remain a companion.
- The gate to the fenced-in area is secured with an Average locked gate. Even if the lock is successfully picked while hidden, the NCR troopers will still become hostile.
Appearances
The El Dorado substation appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.
Behind the scenes
The El Dorado substation is located in the same geographical area as the real world El Dorado Solar Power Plant substation near Boulder City, Nevada.
- Cut content
| Spare Us the Cutter |
|---|
 Once the substation was turned on, a further quest stage was intended to kick in where the player would follow a Securitron to a nearby mountain ridge and watch the lights turn on at the Lucky 38. It's not clear why this sequence was cut (possibly due to lack of time, possibly as the actual graphical effect of the Lucky 38 is quite feeble compared to the script description: "the tower of the Lucky 38 lights up brilliantly in the distance" ), as full dialogue was recorded. Unused dialogue from Yes Man says turning on the reactor makes the Lucky 38 (and the strip itself!) independent from Hoover dam, and the reason to conquer that area would then be mere dominance of the region and to sell the unneeded electricity back to the NCR. It's not clear if this is canonical or not, as it seems to rob that questline from some of its urgency. |
Bugs
From inside the substation, the exit will read "Open Garage Door to Crimson Caravan Company" when highlighted. This is aesthetic only and will not result in being transported to the Crimson Caravan Company. [verified]- Sometimes the soldiers may not spawn at all. [verified]
