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Build Mass with Sass!— The drink's slogan

Sunset Sarsaparilla is a consumable item in Fallout: New Vegas.

Background[]

The Sunset Sarsaparilla Company was founded in 1918, since becoming known across the former United States for its sarsaparilla flavored soft drink, advertised as "The Most Popular Beverage in the West!"[1][2][3] By 2077, the soda's popularity had spread nationwide and into Canada, and was still holding strong despite competition from the Nuka-Cola Corporation's Nuka-Cola Wild, an attempt to replicate the soda's flavor and success.[4][5]

Despite the widespread success of the drink, a study was conducted that claimed the soda was hazardous to consumers' health. Publicly broadcasted on television, the study showed that consuming large quantities of the product resulted in a wide range of harmful side effects, including kidney damage, nausea, digital numbness, anxiety, loss of visual acuity, dizziness, occasional nosebleeds, joint inflammation, tooth decay, sore throat, bronchitis, organ rupture and halitosis. The company disputed the claims as unverified but took steps to improve its PR after the story aired in attempt to mitigate any further financial loss.[6]

Shortly before the Great War, an urban legend began to spread that certain bottle caps from Sunset Sarsaparilla were marked with a blue star, and that collecting enough of them would earn a substantial prize from the Sunset Sarsaparilla Company. Instead of discouraging these rumors, the Company took advantage of them to boost sales. They commissioned Festus, a robotic kiosk, to encourage people to collect the star bottle caps and let collectors check if they had enough of them to earn the prize. Once someone had collected fifty star bottle caps, Festus would then give them their prize: a fictional account of the Sunset Sarsaparilla Company's founding and supposed origin of the blue star bottle caps. After several complaints, the prize was changed to be Festus' story and a Sunset Sarsaparilla deputy badge.

Following the destructive consequences of the Great War, the Sunset Sarsaparilla Company ceased to exist. Supplies of the soft drink remained intact throughout the surrounding Mojave Wasteland, and it continues to be a popular drink even in the renewed territory of New Vegas and beyond.

Characteristics[]

Sunset Sarsaparilla is a root-beer-type carbonated beverage found around New Vegas. The drink is widely available and has a low cost, provides a high health regeneration effect, and lacks the radiation present in other drinks. Thanks to these factors, it supplements the somewhat-scarce stimpaks as a primary healing item in the Mojave. Company spokesbot Festus provides a list of potential side effects, but only while playing in Hardcore mode does drinking Sunset Sarsaparilla have the negative effect of mildly dehydrating the Courier.

Crafting[]

With the Honest Hearts add-on installed, the Courier can obtain a recipe and make a home-brewed version of the drink. This is identical to the standard variety.

Materials:Requirements:Produces:
Range
Honest Hearts add-on
Level
Home-brewed Sunset Sarsaparilla (1)

Variants[]

Locations[]

Found in Sunset Sarsaparilla vending machines throughout the Mojave Wasteland.

Notes[]

  • Unlike Nuka-Cola, drinking Sunset Sarsaparilla will not give rads. The only exception to this rule is the irradiated Sunset Sarsaparilla bottles found in areas like Camp Searchlight and the Courier's Mile.
  • With each bottle consumed, there is a 5% chance of obtaining a Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap, which can be collected for the quest The Legend of the Star.
  • The side effects listed by Festus in the "Silly Ol' Advisory" are not present in the game, regardless of how many bottles are consumed.
  • When drinking a Sunset Sarsaparilla, a bottle cap is obtained. Upon looking at the icon on the Pip-Boy or removing them from the inventory, all bottle caps appear as Nuka-Cola caps.
  • After completing the quest The Legend of the Star, any Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps that are picked up or obtained from drinking a bottle will be added to the inventory as normal bottle caps, and will not show up as a star bottle cap.
  • Sunset Sarsaparilla is not affected by the Survival skill and does not count towards the Desert Survivalist achievement/trophy.
  • Homebrewed Sunset Sarsaparilla can still produce a Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap, despite only using regular bottle caps in its creation.

Behind the scenes[]

  • Although Sunset Sarsaparilla is fictional, generic sarsaparilla is a real world soft drink, popular in the United States beginning in the 19th century. It was originally made with safrole, an oil used as the flavor additive. In the United States, the FDA banned the use of safrole in 1958 as it had been shown to induce liver tumors in rats.[Non-game 1]
  • Joshua Sawyer came up with Sunset Sarsaparilla being a competitor to Nuka-Cola.[Non-game 2]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Poster; The Most Popular Beverage in the West!
  2. File:Sunset Sarsaparilla Logo.png
  3. Festus: "So one day a man, a saloon owner in a small town, decided to make a new type of soft drink, and asked his patrons what flavor they'd like it to be. After getting no help from them, a stranger at the end of the bar suggested the man make a sarsaparilla flavored drink."
    (Festus' dialogue)
  4. Sunset Sarsaparilla headquarters terminal entries; Terminal 3
  5. Fallout 4 loading screens: "Although the Nuka-Cola Corporation would never admit it, Nuka-Cola Wild was released to directly compete with Sunset Sarsaparilla after attempts to acquire that company met with failure."
  6. Festus: "Lastly, if you're here about the health advisory that aired on channel 6 recently, say "Silly Ol' Advisory.""
    The Courier: "Silly Ol' Advisory."
    Festus: "I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that. Could you repeat it?"
    The Courier: "Silly Ol' Advisory."
    Festus: "I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that. Could you repeat it?"
    The Courier: "Silly Ol' Advisory."
    Festus: "While Sunset Sarsaparilla is perfectly safe, a recent independent study - whose validity is currently being challenged - revealed the following: Excessive ingestion of sarsaparilla can lead to deleterious effects including, but not limited to: kidney damage, nausea, digital numbness, anxiety, loss of visual acuity, dizziness, occasional nosebleeds, joint inflammation, tooth decay, sore throat, bronchitis, organ rupture, and halitosis. Note that you'd have to drink a heap of Sunset Sarsaparilla to match the quantities used in the study. How much, you ask? A lot. A whole helluva lot. In fact, you'd have to get full as a tick on Sunset Sarsaparilla to even come close. Anyway, thanks for stopping by, partner! And keep drinking Sunset Sarsaparilla!"
    (Festus' dialogue)

Non-game

  1. Sassafras at ScienceDirect
  2. Josh Sawyer Fallout 4 Project Mojave Mod Stream 13.11.2021 (reference starts at 36:23)
    Joshua Sawyer: "'Who came up with Sunset Sarsaparilla being a competitor to Nuka-Cola?' That was... that was me."
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