Fallout: New Vegas Story Explained: Plot and Endings

Fallout: New Vegas came out in October 2010, made by Obsidian Entertainment. It's set in 2281 in the Mojave Wasteland, four years after Fallout 3 and 40 years after Fallout 2. A courier is shot and left for dead over a package, and tracking down the shooter drags them into a three-way fight for New Vegas and Hoover Dam. This page covers the whole plot, all four endings and the story add-ons, so it has full spoilers. (Fallout: New Vegas)

Before the story begins#

By 2281 the New California Republic had pushed east into the Mojave. Four years earlier, at the First Battle of Hoover Dam, NCR troops had beaten Caesar's Legion, an army of slaves and conquered tribes from Arizona. The Legion's commander there, Joshua Graham, was blamed for the defeat. Caesar had him covered in pitch, set on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The NCR held the dam, which powered the region. The Legion massed on the far side of the Colorado River. In between sat New Vegas, run by Mr. House, a pre-war tycoon who had protected Las Vegas from most of the missiles on 23 October 2077 and had been rebuilding it ever since with his Securitron robots and three tribes he turned into casino families. Nobody had seen him in person. (Fallout: New Vegas)

Shot in Goodsprings#

The Courier was one of six couriers hired by the Mojave Express to carry packages to New Vegas. Theirs was the Platinum Chip, which looks like a poker chip but holds data. Near Goodsprings, a man in a checked suit, backed by a group of Great Khans, took the chip, said the game had been rigged from the start and shot the Courier twice in the head. A Securitron named Victor dug them out of their grave, and the town doctor, Doc Mitchell, saved their life. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The trail ran south and east. In Primm, escaped convicts called the Powder Gangers had taken over. In Nipton, the Courier found the town burned and crucified by the Legion, and met the Legion's spymaster, Vulpes Inculta, who wanted them to tell the world what Caesar had done. In Novac, a sniper named Boone was hunting the person who sold his wife to the Legion. At Boulder City, the Khans who helped Benny were holed up in the ruins. The man in the checked suit was Benny, boss of the Chairmen, who ran the Tops casino on the Strip. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The Strip and Mr. House#

The Courier got onto the Strip and confronted Benny at the Tops. Benny could be killed, or he could escape and later be found as a prisoner of the Legion at Caesar's camp. Either way, the chip came back to the Courier, and Victor invited them up to the Lucky 38. (Fallout: New Vegas)

There, Robert House spoke to them from a screen. He was still alive, sealed in a life-support chamber deep in the casino, over 260 years old. He had built the chip before the war. It held upgrades for his Securitrons and the key to a bunker under Fortification Hill, Caesar's camp, where an army of advanced robots was waiting. Benny had planned to use it with a reprogrammed Securitron he called Yes Man to take Vegas for himself. (Fallout: New Vegas)

From here the Courier could work for any of four sides. Each wanted to deal with the Mojave's other powers in its own way: the Brotherhood of Steel in its bunker at Hidden Valley, the Boomers at Nellis Air Force Base, the Great Khans at Red Rock Canyon, the Followers of the Apocalypse, and the NCR itself. (Fallout: New Vegas)

Caesar and the Legion#

The Legion summoned the Courier to Fortification Hill. Caesar had been Edward Sallow, a Follower of the Apocalypse from the NCR, who had united the Arizona tribes into an empire modelled on ancient Rome. He wanted the Courier to destroy whatever lay under his camp. He also had a brain tumour that was killing him, which the Courier could treat or let kill him. (Fallout: New Vegas)

Caesar's field commander for the coming battle was Legate Lanius, Joshua Graham's replacement. Whether Caesar lived or died, Lanius would lead the Legion at the dam. (Fallout: New Vegas)

On the NCR side, the army was run by General Lee Oliver, and President Aaron Kimball came out to visit Hoover Dam. The Legion and other enemies plotted to kill him during the visit, and the Courier could stop the assassination or carry it out. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The ending explained#

All four paths end at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. What happens there, and in the ending slides after it, depends on which side the Courier finished with. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The NCR ending. The Courier fights with the NCR, deals with Lanius by killing him or talking him into retreat, and the NCR holds the dam. The Republic takes over New Vegas. The slides are mixed: law and trade come to the Mojave, but so do the NCR's taxes, corruption and land-grabbing. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The Legion ending. The Courier helps the Legion take the dam. Caesar, or Lanius if Caesar died, marches into the Mojave and then New Vegas. The roads become safe and the slave markets open. The ending is brutal for most of the people the Courier met. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The Mr. House ending. The Courier upgrades the Securitrons with the Platinum Chip, and House's robot army drives both the NCR and the Legion off the dam. New Vegas becomes independent under House's absolute rule. He has big plans for the future, but nobody else gets a say in them. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The independent ending. The Courier uses Yes Man, Benny's reprogrammed Securitron, to take over House's robots and kick out everyone else. House can be killed in his chamber or left there. New Vegas becomes independent with the Courier in charge, and whether that is good or bad depends on what the Courier did with it. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The point of the ending is that there is no clean answer. Each faction offers something and costs something, which is why fans still argue about which one is right. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The add-ons#

Four story add-ons fill in the Courier's past and the Mojave's history. (Fallout: New Vegas: Dead Money; Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts; Fallout: New Vegas: Old World Blues; Fallout: New Vegas: Lonesome Road)

In Dead Money, a former Brotherhood elder named Father Elijah traps the Courier in an explosive collar and forces them to break into the Sierra Madre, a pre-war casino full of gold and deadly red cloud. With three other captives, Dog/God, Christine and Dean Domino, the Courier reaches the vault and turns on Elijah, sealing him in or killing him. (Fallout: New Vegas: Dead Money)

In Honest Hearts, a caravan to Zion Canyon in Utah is ambushed by the White Legs, a tribe trying to win a place in Caesar's Legion. The Courier meets Joshua Graham, the burned man, alive and back with his Mormon roots, and the missionary Daniel. They choose between fighting the White Legs alongside Joshua or leading the local tribes out of the canyon. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

In Old World Blues, a group of pre-war scientists who had swapped their bodies for robot shells, the Think Tank, steal the Courier's brain at the research crater Big MT and send them after their old colleague, Dr. Mobius. Mobius turns out to have been holding the Think Tank back from causing harm to the outside world. (Fallout: New Vegas: Old World Blues)

In Lonesome Road, the Courier walks the Divide, a ruined canyon, to meet Ulysses, a former Legion courier who refused the Platinum Chip job when he saw the Courier's name. Years before, the Courier had carried a package into the Divide that set off old warheads and destroyed it. Ulysses wants to launch the last missiles at the Mojave. The Courier can stop him, or fire the missiles at the NCR or the Legion. (Fallout: New Vegas: Lonesome Road)

What later games treat as canon#

No ending of New Vegas is canon. No later game picks one. When the TV series went to New Vegas in its second season, set in 2296, the makers deliberately took what executive producer Jonathan Nolan told IGN was "the fog of war approach", leaving a Mojave where any faction might believe it won. (Jonathan Nolan on New Vegas and season 2)

New Vegas itself is the game that confirms a lot of earlier canon. Its characters remember President Tandi, the Chosen One's fight on the Enclave oil rig and the NCR's attack on Navarro, all from Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. (Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout; Fallout 2)

What it sets up#

New Vegas is the last West Coast game in the timeline. Fallout 4 moves to Boston six years later, and the TV series picks the West Coast back up in 2296. For how it all fits, see the Fallout timeline and the Fallout story explained. (Fallout: New Vegas)

Test yourself: think you know the Mojave? Try the Fallout: New Vegas quiz, twelve questions on the story above. (Fallout: New Vegas)