No Gods, No Masters is an Independent/Yes Man faction quest and achievement/trophy in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Main Quest: No Gods, No Masters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Enter the Hoover Dam offices. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Install the override to give Yes Man control of the dam's systems. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Decide whether to sabotage the dam or activate the Securitrons. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reach Hoover Dam Power Plant 1 and power on the East Power Plant. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reach the Legate's camp on the eastern side of the dam. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deal with Legate Lanius. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fight and kill Lanius. | Pass a skill check of 100 Speech or 100 Barter to convince Lanius to retreat. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deal with General Oliver. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fight and kill General Oliver. | Pass a skill check of 100 Barter or Speech to convince Oliver to retreat. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Speak with Yes Man. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: Game completion Achievement/trophy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
This quest will trigger once one has completed Wild Card: Finishing Touches, whether or not the Followers of the Apocalypse were enlisted for aid and President Kimball was saved during You'll Know It When It Happens. Once everything is ready, talk to Yes Man in the Lucky 38 and agree to head to Hoover Dam once he confirms the Legion is marching to attack.
The battle begins[]
Appearing outside the visitor's center, there will be NCR troopers and legionaries fighting, with the latter coming from both the west side of the dam and from the drainage towers along the northern side of the dam. The objective is to cross the main path of the dam up to the last tower to the right, then entering and taking the elevator down to the Hoover Dam offices.
After entering the offices, the quest marker will lead to a large metal door guarded by two NCR heavy troopers that will refuse to allow them entry to the control room. One can either kill them, sneak past them, or pass a 75 Speech skill check to convince them to leave. Afterward, one must install the override chip into the large terminal with several screens attached to it, at the far end of the room. Once installed, Yes Man will contact and tell that they have two options to succeed at their plan for Hoover Dam:
- Reroute the dam's power to activate the Securitron army underneath Fortification Hill.
- Deactivate the dam's power output, rendering it useless to the NCR.
Choosing either option will not affect the ending, however, if the Securitron vault was destroyed for Caesar, the first option will not be available and will affect the ending.
After making a choice, one must continue through the offices to find the manual override switching, dodging attacks from legionaires and possibly NCR troopers as well. Going from the control room, turn and follow the hall to the left after exiting the control room, then turn to the right down the next hall and go to the end of the hall and turn to the right and open the door to a balcony overlooking one of the dam's eastern plants. Turn to the right and flip the switch.
Return straight down the hall and turn through the open doorway to the left, and use the elevator to ascend to a room inside one of the eastern towers. Inside the room is a staircase to the right after coming out of the elevator. In the room upstairs from the elevator is a first aid box hanging on the wall. Before continuing to cross the dam, exit through the door to the left of the elevator if the elevator is behind the player character.
Reaching the Legate[]
Upon exiting from the tower, if the Securitron army was not destroyed and one chose to activate it in the control room, one can see across the dam as the Fort is covered in flames from the attack (easier to see at night than the daytime). One must now reach the eastern end of the dam. Several more legionaries will be coming from the power output towers to the left and from the eastern end of the dam and may try to take cover behind the sandbags. There are also some NCR snipers on top of the towers, including the tower one exited.
If one recruited the Boomers by completing Volare! instead of killing or ignoring them, the restored B-29 will fly over the dam and bombard a swath of the Legion's troopers before flying off. Further on, if one recruited the Enclave remnants by completing For Auld Lang Syne and sent them to assist the NCR against the Legion, they will join the player character and fight the Legion; note that this is only if one does not have a negative reputation with the NCR, otherwise, along with NCR troopers being hostile, Cannibal Johnson will also immediately the player character and likely force one to kill the remnants as well. Furthermore, if one activated the Securitron army, multiple Mark II Securitrons will spawn to aid in attacking the Legion.
After crossing to the eastern end of the dam, one will have to cross the bridge to the right and follow the path to the gate leading to the Legate's camp.
Final confrontation[]
Once through the gates, follow the path down the hill from the gate and enter the Legate's camp to the right. The camp is occupied by both regular legionaries and praetorian guards. After killing or sneaking past them, go up the hill on the far end to meet Legate Lanius. Dealing with the Legate can be done with one of a couple of methods:
- Fight the Legate and his army. The straightforward approach of directly attacking Lanius which includes killing both him and the multiple praetorian guards that join the fight with him. Alternatively, if one has Good Karma, a unique option appears to convince Lanius to fight one-on-one, preventing his guards from supporting him in the fight.
- Convince the Legate to retreat. Instead of attacking, one can engage Lanius in dialogue, culminating in a 100 Speech or Barter skill check that will result in him fleeing back into his tent which is inaccessible afterward.
After the situation with Lanius, one must go back to the gate at the camp entrance, leading to a confrontation with General Oliver back by six NCR Veteran Rangers. Dealing with Oliver can be done with one of a few methods:
- Fight the General and his squad. Another straightforward approach of directly attacking Oliver which includes killing both him and the Veteran Rangers with him. Unlike with Lanius, it's possible for a pair of Securitrons to be posted behind the group and they will assist in fighting and killing all targets.
- Convince the General to retreat. Instead of being hostile, one can engage Oliver in dialogue, culminating in a 100 Barter or Speech skill check that will result in Oliver standing down.
- Unique to the Independent/Yes Man quest arc, if Oliver is convinced to stand down, one has the option of telling Yes Man to then throw him off of Hoover Dam, leading to a unique cutscene of a Securitron uppercutting Oliver and sending him screaming down the side of the dam.
After the situation with Oliver, approach Yes Man and confirm the defeats of both the NCR and Legion, as Yes Man tells that he intends to do some reprogramming of himself to ensure his loyalty to the Courier ahead of the new future New Vegas has to look forward to, completing the quest and ending Fallout: New Vegas.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- If Boone is an active companion during this quest, he may end up leaving permanently if one attacks any NCR troops during the trek across the dam. To avoid losing one's companion, it is advisable to go into sneak mode before approaching the hallway to the control room, hugging the wall to the left leading to the control room entrance. If one has successfully hidden from the heavy troopers and continues sneakily moving into the control room, one can successfully install the override chip without having to kill the troopers. Sneak back out just in case the guards become hostile again and make the journey to the Hoover Dam power plant 1. Blowing up the NCR soldiers, which is mandatory, will gain the player character infamy with the NCR, but if they leave the room without hanging around for too long Boone will not confront them. Run past the heavy NCR troopers and any other NCR members on the way back to the outside area of the dam, and one will have successfully avoided losing Boone.
- A Speech check convincing the troopers that their commanding officer is in trouble outside will get them to abandon their post allowing easy access.
- One does not have to worry about losing Boone if one has a mixed reputation with the NCR.
- Another way to avoid losing Boone is to wear NCR armor, even though one is gaining infamy he will not leave because the disguise sets the Courier's NCR reputation to neutral.
- If one progressed Render Unto Caesar up to the decision to fight at Hoover Dam for Caesar, then told Caesar they are not ready to fight, and then progressed the Wild Card quest arc up to starting this quest, when arriving at the fight with Legate Lanius for the first time, he will begin the standard dialogue that takes place prior to Veni, Vidi, Vici. The action of talking to Lanius for the first time also completes Render Unto Caesar, despite having failed the quest via failing Beware the Wrath of Caesar! The XP is still awarded for the completion of Render Unto Caesar, however, Veni, Vidi, Vici is not initiated. Speaking to Lanius a second time corrects this issue and allows the player character to finish No Gods, No Masters.
Behind the scenes[]
- The quest name is a reference to a phrase derived from the French slogan "Ni dieu ni maître!" (translated to 'Neither god nor master') and coined by the socialist Louis Auguste Blanqui in 1880. In the present, the slogan continues to find use in anarchist politics opposed to the rule of governments.
- Listening to the NCR Emergency Radio on the Pip-Boy during the battle, some of the battle chatter includes references to Doctor Who, with location Bravo Bravo Charlie (BBC) being mentioned just before saying "The Doctor is coming," and Lost, by telling 4 to reinforce 8, 15 to reinforce 16, and 23 to await reinforcement by 42.
 | The following is based on the Wild Wasteland trait. |
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- If Wild Wasteland is an active trait, another broadcast over the NCR Emergency Radio includes the lines "They're coming out of the walls man! They're coming outta the damn walls." and "Game Over Man! GAME OVER!" serving as a reference to Bill Paxton's character Private First Class William Hudson from the film Aliens.
| End of information based on the Wild Wasteland trait |
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Bugs[]
After the player character receives the briefing from Yes Man about what needs to be done at Hoover Dam, the game presents a pop-up warning about moving into the endgame. If one does not say that they want to move on to the end of the game, and leave New Vegas, this quest will not load and the gate to enter New Vegas will be locked, preventing them from getting back into the Lucky 38. A fix to get back into The Vegas Strip is to pull-up the console with the "~" key, click on the door to select it and type "unlock". This unlocks the gate and allows the Courier to continue. [verified]- If the player character chooses to run back out of the gate before facing the Legate, they can fast travel from the area. Doing so causes the Courier to be unable to fast travel from another location. This can be dealt with by walking into a building and back out, but this must be done every time to continue fast traveling. [verified]
- The game always crashes to desktop when engaging the first Legion soldiers. After leaving Boone inside the first building and engaging the Legion alone, the game works properly. [verified]
- After telling Yes Man that the Courier is ready to go to the dam and if you have ED-E as a companion, ED-E will stay in the same spot where one starts at, as no companions are allowed into the Lucky 38 penthouse, so he will stay in wait mode as he was left as in the floor he was in. To fix this one will have to open the companion wheel and tell ED-E to stay, afterward tell ED-E to follow the player character. [verified]
- - Xbox/PS3 unconfirmed. "East Power Electrical Switch". Before attempting the mission it is possible to activate this switch so when the player character is on the actual mission there are no interactions with it available. Simply continue and "Exit out to the east side of the Dam". This step in the quest log will remain uncompleted but will not affect the outcome. When confronting General Oliver the Securitron army will still appear. [verified]
- If one kills Legate Lanius by a sneak attack critical from afar the quest log will still tell the player character to deal with him, making it impossible to complete the quest. (Killing every legionary in the area and exiting through the gate will make the quest go on as it is supposed to.) [verified]
