Why Can't We Be Friends? is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Side Quest: Why Can't We Be Friends? | |||||||||||||
| Speak with Samuel Cooke and/or Philip Lem in the overseers' offices in Vault 19. | |||||||||||||
| Enter the sulfur caves beneath the vault. | |||||||||||||
| Cooke's objective: Kill all the fire geckos within the caves. | Lem's objective: Find a way to block off access to the sulfur caves. | ||||||||||||
| Report back to Samuel Cooke or Philip Lem. | |||||||||||||
| Lem or Cooke: Ask Papa Khan about the Powder Gangers joining the Great Khans. | Lem only: convince Philip Lem to surrender the group to the NCR. | ||||||||||||
| Report back to Samuel Cooke or Philip Lem. | |||||||||||||
| Reward: 300 XP Powder Gangers fame | |||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
East of Bonnie Springs, following the road, one comes across an old parking lot and once getting near the gates, the Find Vault 19 challenge completes and Vault 19 is marked on the map. Entering through the toll booth sewer grate "door", one finds the door to the Vault sealed and must be opened with the nearby console. There are two overseers' offices at either end of the hallway, the right-hand one is occupied by Samuel Cooke while the left-hand one is occupied by Philip Lem. Both will ask the player character to do something about the sulfur contents of the caves below the Vault: Cooke wants the fire geckos in the caves cleared out while Lem wants the sulfur deposits blown up to stop Cooke from using them to make explosives and antagonizing the NCR. Talking to both of them will grant the color-coded sector keycards to ensure easy access to all parts of the Vault.
Reaching the caves involves going through either the Red or Blue sectors of the Vault 19 living quarters. There are a few frag mines and fire geckos to deal with upon entrance. Inside the living quarters, the hole burrowed up from the caves by the geckos can be found in the common room with the pool tables.
Samuel Cooke[]
Completing Cooke's objective simply requires hunting down the fire geckos inhabiting the caves, with all of them marked on the compass and easy to find. Once the last one has been killed, return through the hole and go back to Cooke. The player character is rewarded with Powder Ganger fame and caps. Cooke then sends the player character to Red Rock Canyon to meet with the Great Khans, where the player has to convince Papa Khan to let Cooke's Gangers join the Khans (completing Oh My Papa beforehand will help in this). After Papa Khan is persuaded, return to Vault 19 and talk to Cooke to finish the quest.
Philip Lem[]
Completing Lem's objective is more complicated. Once in the caves, follow the path to the right into a large cave. To the left is a large yellow rock formation peppered with lumps of gray rock. This is the “Microcline Rock”. Upon activating it, a message pops saying that the deposit contains enough potassium to create an explosion large enough to block the caves or destroy the Vault itself. To block cave access, the player character will need 40 Science or more to receive the options, then choose "Plant enough C4 to blow up the caves" (requires 60 Explosives and 3 C-4 plastic explosives). Returning from the caves, talk to Lem and let him surrender the gang to the NCR to finish the quest and earn Powder Gangers fame and caps. Alternatively, with 40 Speech, the player can convince Lem to have the group join the Great Khans. Same as Cooke, Lem asks them to visit Red Rock Canyon and talk to Papa Khan to secure an alliance.
Apart from any C4 the player character brought with them, some additional units can be found in the Vault:
- Between filing cabinets in the clinic, behind the front desk.
- Located between the two vending machines in the cafeteria.
- Outside the underground entrance to the overseer's office elevator near the doorway with the fire hose box. When facing the fire hose box turn left towards the junk pile, the C4 is on the left side of the junk pile.
- Located under a couch in the Blue Sector living quarters (not the first floor). Go to the second room on the right, then to the couch left of the door. The C-4 should be next to the right front leg of the couch (looking at it; left leg sitting in it). However, it may be completely invisible or disappear when the player approaches it. It can easily be found by crouching and inspecting the floor close to the leg.
Destroy the Vault[]
Alternatively, choosing the "Plant enough C4 to destroy the caves and the vault then run like hell" option (requires 60 Explosives and 5 C-4 plastic explosives) results in the screen going black, the sound of a loud explosion, and the player character appearing outside the gated parking lot with the toll booth entrance now billowing black smoke from the Vault's destruction.
WARNING: This will fail the quest, and the player character will not earn any XP.
Quest stages[]
For Philip Lem:
For Samuel Cooke:
Notes[]
- Despite the fact that the convicts in the vault are escapees from the NCR Correctional Facility, they are not labeled as Powder Gangers, and while they will comment on the Courier relative to their Powder Ganger reputation, it has no effect on being able to obtain and complete this quest (the convicts will [usually - see talk] not attack the player with low Reputation). However, either convincing Philip Lem to join the Khans or agreeing with his decision to surrender to the NCR after destroying the caves will gain favor with the Powder Gangers.
- Killing Papa Khan will cause the immediate failure of this quest.
- The doors to Philip Lem's overseer's office will be locked after completing the quest by helping Cooke, and the only way to get in is through the cave. Upon entering the room, there is only a puddle of blood with unidentifiable body parts. Going back and talking to Cooke reveals that he has killed Philip Lem.
- The doors leading to Philip Lem may not always be locked.
- If the quest is completed by either helping Samuel Cooke or Philip Lem form an alliance between the Great Khans and the Powder Gangers, or convincing Philip Lem to surrender to the NCR, the vault will be empty the next time it is entered.
- If the Vault is destroyed, despite all of the occupants being killed including Cooke and Lem, the ending slide still claims that the Powder Gangers persisted as a threat in the wasteland.
- If the C4 is used to destroy the vault, the car park at the entrance will become a small mound of debris with smoke billowing out of it.
- Having Boone as a companion will sometimes cause trouble, as he may start attacking the Great Khans, which will result in failure.
Behind the scenes[]
The name of the quest is a reference to the 1975 song Why Can't We Be Friends? by War.
Bugs[]
If following the Lem quest line, the map marker will tell you to go to the "Sulfur Caves" entrance (now blown up and billowing smoke) to find and talk to Lem about joining the Great Khans after talking to Papa Khan. Lem is actually located in the Overseer's Office, and if you've opened the stairs leading to the sulfur caves he can sometimes be found stuck there. [verified]- If you kill Motor Runner it will overwrite this whole quest and end it for an unknown reason. [verified]
- If you enter the Overseer's Office from the elevator entrance (Hard Lock) in Sulfur Cave and open the Overseer's Office with the Average terminal, or just go through this route at any time, you may have some issues with your companions as mentioned above in less detail. When you ascend the stairs into the office your companions become confused and instead of following you up will run out the door back into the caves. If you are at the top of the stairs with a companion and run down they will run back into the vault. It is possible, however to keep your companions with you during this if you manually "push" your companion up and down the stairs. Just crouch and slowly move them and they will glide up, or down the stairs from your push. [verified]
- This seems more like a path finding issue. Your companions will go back the way you came and reappear by your side a few minutes later, the same way they will if you jump from a ledge.
- If the player chooses to destroy the sulfur caves and the vault, but didn't kill Cooke personally, then the ending sequence will still show Cooke still alive and the Powder Gangers terrorizing the Mojave. [verified]
- After speaking to Papa Khan for Cooke and returning with the news, it is possible to enter Lem's office through the main door (not the overseer tunnel) to see the piles of bloody entrails. Returning to Cooke will not trigger the dialogue where Cooke admits to killing Lem; he asks you once again to go and speak to Papa Khan on their behalf even though this is now impossible. [verified]
- This can sometimes lead to problems gaining full rewards for the quest, as the final option of informing Cooke will be marked as incomplete even though the mission will be marked as completed.
- The dialogue options can be gotten by viewing the entrails first before telling Cooke about Papa Khan's decision. If you talk to him again after finding out he killed Lem, he will still ask you to go to Papa Khan.
- If you have initiated the quest Oh My Papa and haven't triggered the conversation with Regis, the option to ask Papa Khan about Philip's/Samuel's group is not a dialogue option, making it impossible to finish the quest. [verified]
- A detonator is not required to detonate the C-4 plastic explosive, although it is required to use C-4 during regular combat. [verified]
- If you close the Vault 19 door then climb the ladder into The Wasteland before the door closes, the next time you try to open the door it won't work. You will have to climb back out and re-enter. [verified]
- Sometimes when entering Lem's room via the passage under the Overseer's desk you will not be able to enter even though you have disengaged the lock from the terminal on the wall. An invisible barrier will keep you from entering. If you go back to Lem's room and walk down the stairs you can then leave the same way. [verified]
