Nothin' But a Hound Dog is a companion quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Side Quest: Nothin' But a Hound Dog | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Complete G.I. Blues for the King in the King's School of Impersonation within Freeside. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Speak with the King again and ask about the cyberdog he keeps with him, Rex. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reach the Old Mormon Fort and talk to Julie Farkas about helping Rex. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Return to the King. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reach Jacobstown and speak with Doctor Henry in the lodge about getting a new brain for Rex. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reach the trailer compound and kill the Fiend mongrel Violetta to acquire Violetta's brain. | Speak with Old Lady Gibson at the Gibson scrap yard and pay her 700 caps (for free with 75 Barter) or kill Rey personally to acquire Rey's brain. | Speak with Antony at the Fort, then kill Lupa in the Legion arena to acquire Lupa's brain. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Bring one or more of the brains to Doctor Henry and decide which one to transplant into Rex. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: 500 XP Rex as a companion Use Rey's brain: Rex gains the Faithful Protector perk (+25 damage for Rex) Use Violetta's brain: Rex gains the Unshakeable Tracker perk (+50% movement speed for Rex) Use Lupa's brain: Rex gains the Blood of the Legion perk (+10 DT for Rex) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
A favor[]
The leadup to the quest starts by reaching the King's School of Impersonation in Freeside and speaking with the King, leader of the Kings gang, in order to trigger the side quest G.I. Blues, either independently or as part of the diplomatic path during the faction quest Kings' Gambit. After completing the former quest, return to the school and speak with the King again, where a dialogue option is available to ask him about the cyberdog with him, named Rex. The King will explain that Rex is getting old and with age comes problems, and the old hound is suffering a serious one with his organic brain starting to fail and causing him to have manic episodes, inevitably leading to his death if nothing is done about it. The King requests that they go speak to Julie Farkas at the Old Mormon Fort to see if the Followers of the Apocalypse can help at all.
In the fort, Julie elaborates that, while the Followers do not have the facilities or training to properly fix the cyberdog, she does know of someone who can help: Dr. Henry, a reclusive scientist who went into the mountains to the northwest to reside in the mutant enclave at Jacobstown. Taking this information back to the King, he will be happy to hear it but says that he cannot leave on a long journey like that due to the unrest in Freeside (regardless of whether the major conflict has already been resolved). Instead, he offers to let the player character take Rex themselves while he's getting his brain fixed, making Rex available as a companion. Just before letting them go, the King informs the player character know about Rex's peculiar personality traits, namely his hatred of rats and hats.
Old dog with new tricks[]
At Jacobstown, Doctor Henry can be found in the lodge along with his assistant Calamity; the topic of Rex's brain is entirely separate from his research on the nightkin cure, so it is not required to complete Guess Who I Saw Today to help Rex. Asking about their cyberdog companion, one learns that during his scientific training with the Enclave, Henry 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, and he offers a total of three suggestions for where to find one:
- The old-time scrapper, Old Lady Gibson owns several dogs that live with her at the Gibson scrap yard, just north of Novac. She will ask for 700 caps in exchange for euthanizing her oldest dog Rey and giving Rey's brain to the player character; passing a 70 Barter skill check will persuade her to do it for free.
- The savage Fiends are known to keep many mongrels with them at their camps. The objective directs one to the trailer compound near the Poseidon gas station occupied by the Fiend leader Violet, where among her legion of Fiend mongrels is a tough one named Violetta that must be killed to get Violetta's brain; killing Violet will also help progress the side quest Three-Card Bounty for Maj. Dhatri at Camp McCarran.
- Caesar's Legion employs hounds of their own, all grouped and trained at the Fort. The Legion's houndmaster Antony can be found next to Lupa, one of his best dogs near the Legion arena. In exchange for getting Lupa's brain, Antony requests that she be given an honorable death by combat in the arena. Accepting begins a deathmatch against Lupa in the arena, wielding only a machete and with no armor, after which her brain can be extracted.
Once one or more of the brains have been collected and brought back to Henry, he can be told which one to use, and the choice will complete the quest as well as influence Rex's ending and determine the unique perk he receives:
- Using Rey's brain grants the Faithful Protector perk to Rex, increasing his attack power (+25 damage)
- Using Violetta's brain grants the Unshakeable Tracker perk to Rex, increasing his speed (+50% movement speed)
- Using Lupa's brain grants the Blood of the Legion perk to Rex, increasing his durability (+10 DT).
Special dialogue is also 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 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 will not despawn, making it so that their brains can still be collected.
- 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.
Behind the scenes[]
- The quest name is a reference to the song "Hound Dog," first recorded by Big Mama Thornton in 1952 and famously covered by Elvis Presley in 1956.
- This quest was designed by Jeff Husges, who was also the area designer on Jacobstown and the Fort.[Non-game 1]
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.[verified]- 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 the player 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. This should not be done. Having two of the brains in the player's inventory will cause Doc Henry to not recognize that the player has 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. Make sure that only one instance of Lupa's brain has been acquired.[verified]- If the player has 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 one does not scavenge Rey's brain, its body will actually stay out back in the solar field.[verified]
- There is a chance, if one finishes the quest by talking to Calamity rather than Henry, that the variable for Rex's brain will not be set in the quest, and the player will receive the ending as if the brain had not been transplanted at all. The fix for this is as follows:[verified]
- Press ~ to bring up the console.
- Type: set "001176B8".nTransplantResult to X (the quotes are necessary 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.
- X is one of the following:
- This console command should fix the issue. This can also be used in comparison with the resetquest trick above. If one enters resetquest 001176B8, it will then be necessary 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 any other problems are encountered, 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 Doc 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 one completes the first part of the quest by speaking to Doc 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]
References[]
Non-game
