Wang Dang Atomic Tango is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Side Quest: Wang Dang Atomic Tango | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reach the Atomic Wrangler Casino in Freeside and speak with James Garret; ask about work needing to be done. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Find and recruit the three requested types of "entertainer" for the Wrangler around Freeside; pass a 40 Speech/Barter skill check to negotiate increased payment per recruit. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recruit a ghoul cowboy. | Recruit a suave talker. | Recruit a sexbot. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Speak with Beatrix Russell at the Old Mormon Fort. | Speak with Old Ben near The Strip North Gate or Santiago near Mick & Ralph's. | Locate Fisto in Cerulean Robotics near the train station. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pass a 35 Speech/Barter check or obtain a bottle of absinthe to recruit Beatrix. | Recruit Old Ben: Pass a 50 Speech check or use the Black Widow/Confirmed Bachelor perk. Recruit Santiago: Choose passive dialogue options. | Pass a 60 Science skill check or acquire the sexbot holodisk from Ralph at Mick & Ralph's to reprogram Fisto. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Return to James. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: 450 XP 150-400 caps (depending on skill checks) Freeside fame | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
The quest is started by traveling to the Atomic Wrangler Casino in the southwestern half of Freeside, across the street from the King's School of Impersonation. The one to talk to is James Garret, co-owner of the casino along with his sister; James is normally found behind the counter just inside the entrance, to the left from where Francine stands, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Speaking with him, asking about work needing to done leads to him making a proposal to pay a "finder's fee" in exchange for scouting out new additions to the Wrangler's repertoire of suitable "escorts" that cater to clientele with very specific interests. His three requests consist of finding a genuine ghoul cowboy for one discerning client, a suave talker that can pull off the "boyfriend" experience, and an out-of-the-box request from the robot fetishist crowd for a sexbot. One can demand a 100-caps minimum payment for each, which James will agree to, followed by passing a 40 Speech or Barter skill check to negotiate for double pay at 200 caps per recruit.
The four potential hires all reside in and around Freeside, and as each one is recruited, one can return to James to take payment or find one or both of the other two before returning. Their locations and circumstances are as follows:
- The Ghoul Cowboy
The marker to find a ghoul cowboy will direct one to the Old Mormon Fort, where they can find Beatrix Russell, a ghoul woman working security for the Followers of the Apocalypse who's been around since the Great War with decades of experience, both good and bad, not to mention her taste for rough stuff with her intimate partners. Though she initially refuses to work for the Garrets out of pride in her skills, one can convince her to put her boots up at the Wrangler by either passing a 35 Speech or Barter skill check or bribing her with a bottle of absinthe.
- The Suave Talker
There are two markers to find a suave talker, with the candidates being either Santiago, one of the debtors that Francine Garret sends the player character after during Debt Collector found behind the ruined building across from Mick & Ralph's, or Old Ben, the world-wise man of many professions encountered near the Strip North Gate.
Recruiting Santiago can be accomplished as simply as telling him about the offer through passive dialogue options. If Debt Collector is also active, a unique option will be available to recruit him for James as a suave talker escort while working off his debt to Francine, completing both objectives for both quests simultaneously.
Speaking with Old Ben, he will refuse at the start due to bad experiences with escort work in his past, requiring one to either pass a 50 Speech skill check or use the Confirmed Bachelor/Black Widow perk to convince him of the value he'd bring to the service.
Note: It is possible to get both smooth talkers to agree, however, only Ben will show up at the Wrangler and one will receive no reward from James.
- The Sexbot
Asking James about the sexbot request has him suggest getting a holotape program to upload into the robot and reprogram it, for which he points them in the direction of Ralph at Mick & Ralph's. Mentioning the job to Ralph, he will find it humorous at first, then agrees to help by first giving the location of Cerulean Robotics to find an intact model, then offering to write a computer program to do the reprogramming for them at a price of 150 caps; passing a 50 Speech check will persuade him to make it for free, while passing a 35 Speech or Barter check will negotiate the price down to 100 caps. Ralph then says it will take about 24 in-game hours to be ready; speak to him once it's elapsed to pick up Ralph's sexbot holodisk.
Once inside Cerulean Robotics (see the location page for directions), there are a few giant rats inside. The large L-shaped assembly room in the back area contains multiple pieces of scrap metal and sensor modules, and a couple of stasis pods on the lower lip of the L-shape, with the left one containing the requested robot, a Protectron. The terminal beside the pod has an Science|Average-level lock, for which it can either be hacked or one can acquire the keycard found in an Average-locked cabinet in the opposite corner from the pods; if that cannot be picked, the key to the cabinet can be found on the floor in front of the television under the decayed corpse.
Once access has been gained to the terminal, one can select the option to upload the sexbot holodisk or pass a 60 Science check to do the reprogramming directly. After the robot reactivates and processes its new programming, it will request the player character "assume the position" to test the capabilities of its hardware. One can then agree to "test it out," at which the screen goes dark and a drilling sound can be heard; afterward, one can pick one of a few humorous responses to the "test." Whether one decides to test the bot or not, the sexbot, now named "Fisto," is told that its owner is James Garret and it is sent to take up residence at the Atomic Wrangler.
Once all three escorts are found and sent to the Wrangler, return to James, completing the quest and garnering XP, caps, and Freeside fame.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- Completing this quest as well as Debt Collector for Francine will unlock a unique dialogue option when helping Hadrian get out of his contract with the Garrets in order to work for Tommy Torini at the Aces during Talent Pool, where one will leverage the work they already did for the Garrets to convince James to let him go.
- If one has a negative reputation with Freeside, it will not be possible to recruit Fisto via getting the holodisk, as Ralph will refuse to initiate dialogue thus it won't be possible to acquire it. This can be circumvented by either passing the 60 Science check or talking with James to restore/raise one's Freeside reputation.
- If Old Ben is hired as the suave talker, the player character will receive an additional 500 XP.[verification needed]
- After completing the quest, the player character may enlist the services of the newly recruited escorts (except for Old Ben).
- After recruiting them, there is no need to protect or follow the acquired escorts back to the Wrangler; they will arrive without being harmed.
- Upon informing James that one has found the ghoul cowboy, and telling him the ghoul is actually a woman, James reveals that the customer's request was for a male ghoul cowboy. Despite fitting perfectly into the desired characteristics, especially if during his companion quest Old School Ghoul he was convinced to wear his vaquero outfit, there is no mention of, nor option to offer up Raul for the escort job.
Behind the scenes[]
- The quest name serves as a play on the name of, and a reference to the pop song "The Wang Dang Taffy-Apple Tango," written by J. Leslie McFarland and Aaron Schroeder, and recorded and released by Pat Boone in 1959.
- This quest was designed by Robert Lee, who also wrote the characters within it. He initially wanted there to be a super mutant prostitute, but this was turned down by the development team, and Beatrix Russell was the replacement.[Non-game 1]
 | The following is based on the Wild Wasteland trait. |
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- If Wild Wasteland is an active trait, when exiting Cerulean Robotics after recruiting Fisto, one will be ambushed by a group called Maud's Muggers, consisting of three old ladies wearing pre-War spring outfits and armed with rolling pins that will attempt to kill the player character. This is a reference to the Monty Python skit "Hell's Grannies," in which a group of female senior citizens act as a criminal gang and mug random pedestrians.
| End of information based on the Wild Wasteland trait |
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Bugs[]
If one asks Ralph for the holotape and then uploads the program to Fisto by passing the Science check, the holotape will become stuck in the Courier's inventory as a quest item. It displays a weight of 1, but it does not add any weight, like all other quest items. [verified]- If one has obtained Fisto the sexbot, every time it is spoken to, but his "goods" are not purchased, 10 bottle caps will be added to the Courier's inventory. [verified]
- Once Fisto has left the building, if one attempts to head to the Old Mormon Fort, the game may start lagging heavily and eventually freeze, forcing you to restart the console. [verified]
- Solution: Go through a door leading to Freeside first and then head to the Old Mormon Fort. This should prevent any lagging or freezing.
- If one recruits Santiago before Old Ben but still recruits Old Ben afterwards using the 50 Speech option, he will make his way to the Atomic Wrangler yet will not work there, and payment cannot be received for recruiting him; however, if one talks to Old Ben, they will see another opportunity to choose the same 50 speech option which in turn gives 50 XP, and can be repeated as many times as desired.
- If one kills the Garret's, it is still possible to recruit Beatrix. She will agree to work for them and one will get XP by passing either a Speech (35) or Barter (35) check. One can continuously talk to her and pass the checks to gain as much XP as desired. [verified]
References[]
Non-game
