The House Always Wins V is a House faction quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Main Quest: The House Always Wins V | |||||||||||||
| Gain access to the Hidden Valley bunker. | |||||||||||||
| Bring Veronica as an active companion. | Deal with Ranger Dobson during Still in the Dark. | ||||||||||||
| Attack and kill all Brotherhood members in the bunker. | Activate the bunker's self-destruct protocol. | ||||||||||||
| Optional: Hack a Hard-locked terminal to turn the bunker's automated turrets against the Brotherhood. | |||||||||||||
| Return to Mr. House in the Lucky 38. | |||||||||||||
| Leads to: The House Always Wins VI | |||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
The next stage of Mr. House's plan involves cleaning up a loose end from the past: the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel was previously thought destroyed by the NCR years ago, but evidence points to their continued presence in the region. Mr. House wants them wiped out for a final time, advising to look for a self-destruction mechanism typically built into the bunkers used by the Brotherhood as a failsafe, to ensure the job is done right.
It is impossible to convince House to spare the Brotherhood and progressing his faction arc will only be possible by completing this quest and destroying them. One can also learn additional information from House about his dislike for the Brotherhood.
Accessing the bunker[]
The reported location of the Brotherhood bunker is at Hidden Valley, northeast of the NCR Correctional Facility and east of Goodsprings. There are multiple bunkers in the area of Hidden Valley, with the one in question being the one on the north end with a tree stump over the surface entrance. Upon entering the exterior level of the bunker, access to the next two levels where the Brotherhood resides is gained via one of two methods:
- Assisting the Brotherhood. One will be intercepted inside the bunker exterior by a team of paladins who will demand they hand over everything in their inventory; refusal will turn the entire Brotherhood hostile. Agreeing will lead to meeting Elder McNamara and trigger Still in the Dark, where one will have to deal with a NCR Ranger, Dobson residing in the vicinity of Hidden Valley, either getting him to leave or killing him, before the Elder will allow access to the bunker interior.
- Bringing along a friend. The above option can be skipped entirely if one has Veronica as an active companion; she can be found at the 188 Trading Post or the Lucky 38 presidential suite if sent there. Upon entering the exterior level with her in tow, the paladins will not appear and she will speak to Paladin Ramos to gain entry for the player character; Ramos will direct them to speak with McNamara, skipping to the next stage of Still in the Dark.
Dealing with the Brotherhood[]
Once access to the inhabited levels of the bunker has been gained, wiping out the Brotherhood per Mr. House's orders can be accomplished via a couple of methods:
Option A: Initiate the self-destruct[]
Per House's advice, in order to initiate the bunker's self-destruct sequence, one must obtain 3 unique keycards to generate the password used to arm it or can directly hack the activation terminal with a 100 Science skill level. If the latter is not possible, the three keycards are carried at all times by the Elder, the Head Paladin, and the Head Scribe. Depending on the outcome if one completed Still in the Dark beforehand, the elder in possession of the card may be McNamara or Edgar Hardin. If one did not oust McNamara as Elder, then Hardin will be the Head Paladin; if they did, Ramos will now be Head Paladin, wheras the Head Scribe will always be Taggart. The keycards must either be pickpocketed or taken off their bodies, though the latter may be difficult to achieve without turning the entire base hostile as one or more are almost always in the presence of other Brotherhood members.
All three relevant characters are located on Level 2 of the bunker. McNamara and Hardin will either be in the meeting room or the adjacent quarters. Taggart is usually right by the self-destruct. Ramos can be found at the security station on Level 1 near the entrance (if Hardin became Elder).
With all three keycards, the password for the self-destruct can be generated from the Override Code Generator terminal (green) next to the actual self-destruct terminal (blue). Once activated, one will receive a large amount of Brotherhood infamy and the entire bunker turns hostile, forcing one to either kill them or sneak out.
Upon exiting, the bunker will be destroyed with the door inaccessible and black smoke pouring from the surface vents. However, there is a chance that there will be 5 paladins waiting to kill the player character outside. However sometimes if one Fast Travels quick enough the paladins will not have time to spawn.
- If Veronica is an active companion when activating the self-destruct sequence, destroying the bunker may set the player character's reputation with the Brotherhood to Vilified, in which case she permanently leaves as a companion and cannot be recruited again. If one has completed Pistol Packing, Still in the Dark (favoring McNamara) and Eyesight to the Blind, this will earn enough positive favor with the Brotherhood to remain at a Soft-Hearted Devil reputation and Veronica will stay.
- Favoring Hardin during Still in the Dark allows for earning a "Merciful Thug" reputation without completing either of the other two quests. In this case, Veronica will also stay, although she will warn the player character about continuing to fight the Brotherhood.
Option B: Attack the Brotherhood[]
The quest can also be completed by directly attacking and killing all Brotherhood personnel in the bunker. Doing so will lead to a large amount of Karma loss, as some of the named Brotherhood scribes and paladins are considered "Good Karma" NPCs.
That said, this option can be accomplished without Karma loss by hacking the automated turrets via a Hard-locked terminal in Ramos' office on the first level and causing them to attack the Brotherhood. Note however that one will still have to kill the elder and his two paladin guards themselves since there are no turrets in the elder's office.
If one wishes to avoid turning the Brotherhood hostile by killing everyone, but still wish to keep Veronica as a follower, then they can do the following:
- 1. Go to the bunker with Veronica. Hack the turret control unit to turn them against "Brotherhood Personnel." Let the turrets kill off everybody.
- 2. Dismiss Veronica.
- 3. Go undetected (must say 'HIDDEN') and successfully kill anybody remaining on the first floor and everyone on the second floor. It is also possible to kill everyone without sneaking by using Stealth Boys but one's murders cannot be witnessed by others. Through this method, one's reputation with the Brotherhood will not drop to negative and Veronica will stay as a companion.
Quest stages[]
Part V
Notes[]
 | The following is based on Fallout: New Vegas cut content. |
|---|
There is an unused optional quest stage stating "Inform Mr. House that you've negotiated a peaceful solution with the Brotherhood." However, this stage is inaccessible in the final version of the game, leaving it impossible to convince Mr. House to spare the Brotherhood.
Joshua Sawyer stated that this route was deliberately cut because it was deemed nonsensical for Mr. House to spare the Brotherhood. He states that he and John Gonzalez discussed the situation and agreed that it would be in-character for Mr. House to not tolerate the Brotherhood. Additionally, he thought it would be a more difficult and compelling choice to make for a player sympathetic to the Brotherhood while seeking the House ending. Sawyer also stated that, after release, he saw many players report that being tasked with killing the Brotherhood led to losing their support for Mr. House.[1]
| End of information based on Fallout: New Vegas cut content |
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Bugs[]
When one has activated the self-destruct sequence in Part V, sometimes the door to leave the bunker will be locked. The player character must pick the lock with a level 100 lockpick skill, pickpocket the bunker key, or kill a person with the bunker key. On the latest patch, almost every Brotherhood member in Hidden Valley possesses the key. [verified]- During Part V, even if one has begun killing members of the Brotherhood and are vilified, some members will not attack the player character. [verified]
- If one has any companions with you during Part V, they may die as a result of the explosion if they do not get out of the bunker in time. Station any companions one has with them outside before setting off the self-destruct, or be prepared to lose them. [verified]
- Sometimes after assuming the role of Elder, Hardin will have neither key card, making it necessary to kill all BoS members if a science skill check of 100 can't be made. [verified]
