Hat's Entertainment[Non-game 1] is an unmarked quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Unmarked Quest: Hat's Entertainment | |||||||||||||
| During Debt Collector, agree to find Caleb McCaffery for Francine Garret and reclaim her stolen money. | |||||||||||||
| Enter the Strip and deal with McCaffery outside Gomorrah. | |||||||||||||
| Attack and kill McCaffery, then take the caps and his hat as proof of death. | Pass a 40 Speech skill check to convince him to give up the caps and his hat while letting him live. | ||||||||||||
| Return to Francine. | |||||||||||||
| Reward: 150-300 caps Atomic Wrangler corner room as player character housing Ability to hire prostitutes in the Atomic Wrangler (after completing Wang Dang Atomic Tango) | |||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
This quest is simply the final stage of the side quest Debt Collector. During the quest, after bringing the sum total of the requested caps debts to Francine Garret at the Atomic Wrangler Casino, she will offer the player character one more job in the form of a pseudo-bounty hunt, as the Garrets' former debt hunter, Caleb McCaffery felt snubbed by her hiring the player character and stole a sum of caps before fleeing to the Strip. Francine wants the caps back and McCaffery made an example of, with his hat serving as proof of the kill.
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 a 35 Speech/Barter check was passed at the start of Debt Collector) and the key to the Atomic Wrangler corner room formerly inhabited by McCaffery, where one can also bring any hired prostitutes in the Wrangler (after completing the side quest Wang Dang Atomic Tango).
Bugs[]
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 Debt Collector 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 either 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]
- Even if one has finished both quests, the items in the corner room are still owned by another person. One can only sleep in the bed for free. [verified]
Behind the scenes[]
The quest name is a reference to both the 1952 song written by Arthur Schwartz for the musical film The Band Wagon, and the 1980 song by British punk rock band The Jam, one of the two all-time biggest selling import singles in the U.K. alongside their other song "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?"
Gallery[]
References[]
Non-game
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition pp.333–334: "Free Quest: Hat's Entertainment"
