Nothin' But a Hound Dog is a companion quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Side Quest: Nothin' But a Hound Dog | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Talk to The King in Freeside at the King's School of Impersonation. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Talk to Julie Farkas about what can be done to help Rex. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Return to the King with the news that Rex can be healed. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Take Rex to Doctor Henry in Jacobstown to learn how he can be fixed. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Acquire a new brain for Rex from one of the Fiends's dogs. | Acquire a new brain for Rex from one of Old Lady Gibson's dogs. | Acquire a new brain for Rex from one of Caesar's Legion's dogs. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Return to Jacobstown and have Violetta's brain transplanted. | Return to Jacobstown and have Rey's brain transplanted. | Return to Jacobstown and have Lupa's brain transplanted. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: Rex as permanent follower Unshakeable Tracker perk 500 XP | Reward: Rex as permanent follower Faithful Protector perk 500 XP | Reward: Rex as permanent follower Blood of the Legion perk 500 XP | |||||||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
While talking with The King in the King's School of Impersonation in Freeside, he can be asked about the cyberdog with him, Rex. The King will explain that Rex is getting old and with age comes problems. The old hound is suffering a serious one with his organic brain starting to fail, which will inevitably kill him if nothing is done about it. The King requests that the player visit Julie Farkas at the Old Mormon Fort to see if she can help at all.
Talking to Julie reveals that the Followers cannot properly fix the cyberdog. However, she does know of someone who can help: Dr. Henry in Jacobstown. If the King is told of this, he will express happiness but say that he cannot leave due to the unrest in Freeside (regardless of whether the major conflict has already been resolved). The King allows Rex to become a companion of the Courier while he's getting his brain fixed, and lets the Courier know about Rex's peculiar personality traits, namely his hatred of rats and hats.
At Jacobstown, Dr. Henry can be found in the lodge along with his assistant Calamity. Talking to him reveals that during his scientific training with the Enclave, he specialized in neurology and canine cybernetics. From what he can tell about Rex, the only cure for the old hound's condition is to get him a healthy, new brain. He gives three locations where one could be found:
- The Gibson scrap yard, just north of Novac. Old Lady Gibson will ask for 700 caps in exchange for the brain of her dog Rey. A Barter skill of 70 or higher allows for obtaining it for free.
- A Fiend camp near the Poseidon gas station. Among a large group of Fiend hounds, look for Violetta, a boss guard dog. Killing her will also involve killing her master Violet, who is hostile. She is also one of the bounty targets in the quest Three-Card Bounty for Major Dhatri at Camp McCarran.
- The Fort, most easily accessed during the start of Render Unto Caesar. The Legion's houndmaster Antony stands next to Lupa, one of his best dogs. In exchange for taking her brain, Antony requests that Lupa be given an honorable death by combat in the arena. Accepting puts the player against the hound in the arena, wielding only a machete and with no armor.
Once a brain has been selected and brought back to Henry, he will perform the operation, which will cure Rex's condition and grant him one of three perks depending on the brain used:
- Using Rey's brain grants the Faithful Protector perk, increasing his attack damage (+25 damage)
- Using Violetta's brain grants the Unshakeable Tracker perk, increasing his speed (+50% movement speed)
- Using Lupa's brain grants the Blood of the Legion perk, increasing his damage threshold (+10 DT).
The quest completes after choosing a new brain for Rex. Special dialogue is available by taking the newly restored Rex back to the King in Freeside where the gang leader expresses his joy that Rex is in good health again. He will offer to let Rex remain in the Courier's company as a companion from then on.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- Despite it normally being impossible for a female Courier to participate in the arena at the Fort, she will be allowed to fight Lupa to recover her brain.
- If Lupa and/or Violetta are killed before starting this quest, their bodies won't despawn so that their brains can still be collected.
Behind the scenes[]
The name of the quest is a reference to the song Hound Dog recorded by Big Mama Thornton in 1952 and famously covered by Elvis Presley in 1956.
Bugs[]
When asking Henry to perform the transplant using any brain, the game might crash. This issue is related to timescale modifications, setting the timescale to its default value (30.0) should correct the problem.- Rey can occasionally be found outside Helios One when the Courier is attempting to adjust the reflectors. Rey may be one of the hostile dogs at that time. [verified]
It is possible to stealthily kill Lupa and loot Lupa's brain from her corpse. If she is successfully killed without the player being noticed, Antony may not "notice" that Lupa has died and will still give you the option to fight her in the arena for her brain. If the player accepts, it is possible to obtain a second Lupa's Brain. DO NOT DO THIS. Having 2 of the brains in your inventory will cause Dr. Henry to not recognize that you have the brain at all, making it impossible to give Rex Lupa's brain. To solve this, either revert to an earlier save, or enter "player.removeitem 0013d851 1" in the console, without the quotes. Make sure that you only have one instance of Lupa's brain. [verified]- If you have already killed Old Lady Gibson as well as her dogs, Rey's quest marker may change positions on the world map either showing up at Novac or Gibson scrap yard. In both cases, Rey's corpse may be stuck inside the ground, making it hard for the player to see Rey's body or even realize that the body is glitched. [verified]
- Old Lady Gibson may spawn at Helios One hostile. If you don't scavenge Rey's brain its body will actually stay out back in the solar field. [verified]
- There is a chance, if you finish the quest by talking to Calamity rather than Henry, that the variable for Rex's brain won't be set in the quest, you'll get the ending for if you hadn't actually transplanted the brain at all. The fix for this is as follows: [verified]
- - Press ~ to bring up the console.
- - Type: set "001176B8".nTransplantResult to X
(You must type the quotes for this to work in the console)
- X is one of the following:
- 0 for no transplant ending.
- 1 for Rey's brain ending.
- 2 for Violetta's brain ending.
- 3 for Lupa's brain ending.
- That will fix the issue.
- This can also be used in comparison with the resetquest trick above. If you do a resetquest 001176B8, you'll then have to pick up the quest from The King and do setstage 001176B8 30. Follow the quest through as normal then, and once the quest is over, do the command above.
- If you're having any other problems, try this command: set "0010d8df".ReceivedTransplant to 1
- Upon transplanting Violetta's brain Rex's Hit Points may become set at 0/0 making him impossible to heal. [verified]
- Sometimes the player is unable to enter a conversation with Dr. Henry; he spouts "Keep your head down, there could be snipers about" repeatedly. There is no known fix for this bug, however, it may work to disable, enable, kill, and resurrect him using console commands. To complete the quest via console, use the command: setstage 001176B8 100. [verified]
- If you complete the first part of the quest by speaking to Doctor Henry The King may act like the quest "G.I. Blues" is active and will say "My eyes on the street tell me you haven't paid our mutual friend Orris a visit yet. Until you do, we got nothing to talk about." [verified]
- When talking to The King after completing the quest, he will say "You're a man of your word," even if the player character is female. [verified]
