The slave collar is a pre-War prisoner control device, adapted by slavers after the War for the purpose of capturing and forcing slaves into submission.
Background
A relatively simple design on the outside, the collar is actually a little marvel of engineering. It comes with a signal transmitter that broadcasts its position to its controller, contains enough explosives to blow the wearer's head off without destroying the surroundings and some models include built-in microphones for surveillance.
After the war, they've found widespread use among the survivors, usually slavers. However, some also use it for simply ensuring cooperation, such as the Brotherhood of Steel and its Father Elijah, without the risk of hostilities.
The collar's self-destruct mechanism is not well-shielded as it can be set off by Mezzer rays and some radio frequencies.
It is said on one of the Fallout: New Vegas loading screen tips that there is no known pre-War usage for these collars, yet it is undisputed that they are pre-War technology.
Appearances
Fallout 3
It is used by the slavers from Paradise Falls. The collars send a frequency to Paradise Falls to keep track of where every collared slave is.
It is possible to remove a collar from an enslaved NPC simply by talking to them and select the appropriate conversation choice. Success in removing the collar is based on the player's Science skill: your level must be at least 25 to attempt to remove the collar, with only a 50% chance of success. The likelihood of success increases in steps (at levels 50 and 75) up to a 100% success rate.
Outside of initiating conversation, the player character may be approached in the Wasteland by an escaped slave still wearing a slave collar, who will beg for the collar to be removed.
The collar will also explode if struck by the Mesmetron, so be sure to Mez only NPCs who aren't yet wearing one. As the slave collar's instructions state, "The Mezzer rays trigger the collar's self-destruct mechanism, so once the collar's on, don't shoot the slave with the Mesmetron, unless you want to pay me for a new collar.".
Fallout 3
There are two versions of this item; the first is a quest item given to the player by Grouse for use in the quest Strictly Business, along with a Mesmetron. It has a weight of 1 and a value of 0, and cannot be removed from the player's inventory except by enslaving an NPC.
The second version of this item is a hidden apparel item that is generated on NPCs enslaved by the player. It can be worn by the player on the PC by typing into the console: player.additem 0002F563 1 to add the collar to the inventory, then player.equipitem 0002F563 to equip it. player.removeitem 0002F563 will remove the collar.
Related quests
Fallout: New Vegas
A slave collar is put on the Courier by the Brotherhood during the quest Still in the Dark to ensure that he does not give away their presence at Hidden Valley to the NCR Ranger he is sent to remove.
In Freeside, there is a corpse labelled Man, who is equipped with a destroyed slave collar that the player can equip on their person. It is identical to normal collars.
Dead Money
Slave collars, obtained by Father Elijah from the Big Empty, are used by him to force cooperation from people captured by him to break into the Sierra Madre.
Old World Blues
A number of inert slave collars, labeled deactivated bomb collars, can be found in the watchtower at the Little Yangtze internment camp. These are presumably ones that Father Elijah left behind when he went to the Sierra Madre. There does not seem to be any way to reactivate them.
Behind the scenes
- Exploding collars are frequently used as plot devices in fiction entertainment. The earliest known use of an exploding collar was in the Starchild Trilogy, a trio of novels published between 1964 and 1969.
Bugs
- If the player receives more than one slave collar, enslaves multiple people, and then returns to Paradise Falls, Grouse will say that you have lost the collar, and will make you pay for a new one. Also, if the player receives more than one slave collar and enslaves more than one person, Grouse may still pay you for only one slave, and you will receive one collar.
Removing a collar via dialog from any NPC who has been enslaved by the player (other than Red, Flak, Arkansas, and Susan Lancaster) may cause a crash to desktop. A small number of NPCs, such as Bone, will always cause a crash in this instance.- If you put a slave collar on an Enclave scientist (the ones wearing a glass helmet), their body will become invisible leaving only their hands and head visible.
- If the player receives the slave collar for the quest and kills Grouse the quest will end, and the slave collar will be 0 WG instead of 1 WG it usually adds.
Exploits
- If you stand outside Paradise Falls, where the merchants are (for an example Crazy Wolfgang) and wait for a caravan to arrive, equip the Mesmetron and save the game. After you've done that, enslave the caravan guard (this will make the merchant hostile). Ignore the merchant and run to Grouse, he will give you 250 caps and a slave collar. After you've received your reward, follow the enslaved caravan guard to the slave pen, then run back to Grouse. You will receive 250 caps again and another slave collar.