Aint That a Kick in the Head¶

Your adventures in the Mohave start out inauspiciously enough; after your latest delivery goes horribly wrong, you’re left for dead by a sharply-dressed man (who ain’t no fink, mind you) and his goons. Fortunately for, you, you’re rescued by the kindly Doc Mitchell, whose efforts to help make sure you’re fully recovered serve as this game’s character creation process. Follow his instructions to customize your appearance, then hit the “Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester” to assign your SPECIAL Attributes. These are covered in greater detail in the Character Creation section of the guide, but if you want to just follow along without all the messy explanations, assign your Attribute Points as follows:

Once done, follow Doc Mitchell into another room and endure a word-association test and a rorschach test which serve to set your Tag! skills. These skills get a +15 bonus when starting out, making them most likely your highest skills at the moment. Again, this is all covered in greater detail in the Character Creation section of the guide, but for those who can’t be bothered to read it, start out by tagging the Science, Lockpick and either Speech or Survival (only Tag! Survival if you plan to play the game in Hardcore Mode).

Lastly, Doc Mitchell will ask you to fill out a form about your medical history, which allows you to pick your traits. Traits are like perks, except they typically have a downside (whereas perks are usually solely beneficial). Not all perks are created equal, and neither are all traits; definitely pick the Skilled trait (by and far the best trait in the game) and up to one other trait of your choosing. Small Frame is probably the best of the remaining, as it boosts your Agility without imposing a significant handicap.

Follow Doc Mitchell to the door and he’ll give you whatever gear you had on you before you decided to headbutt a bullet, as well as his old Pip-Boy 3000 and some clothes. Then he’ll proceed to give you some advice on who is worth talking to around town before finally letting you go. Pick whether you want to play the game in Hardcore Mode, then leave the doctor’s office.

Tutorial: Pip-Boy 3000¶

Before you get on with things, let’s first take a look at the Pip-Boy 3000. If you’re not familiar with how this thing works… well, you need to be, as it’s your character screen, inventory, quest screen and map all in one. To bring it up, press [Circle] (PS3) or [B] (Xbox) and note the three tabs on the bottom, which can be navigated with [L1] and [R1}.

The first tab, “STATS”, has all your vital character information. CND shows your current status, particularly the damage each part of your body has taken. If a limb loses condition, it’ll stop functioning, affecting your movement speed, causing you to have blurred vision, and other unfortunate side-effects. RAD shows you your RAD count; the more RADS you have, the more irradiated you are, the more penalties you’ll suffer, as follows:

Finally, the EFF tab shows what active effects you have, either from injuries, radiation poisoning, water, food or sleep deprivation, or bonuses gained from attire. H20, FOD and SLP show thirst, hungry and tired your character is, on a scale from one to one thousand. The lower the better.

The second tab, “ITEMS”, is your inventory, where you can equip, drop, or repair weapons and armor, use “Aid” items, or manage miscellaneous items and ammo. As weapons and armor are used, their status will deteriorate, being less effective in combat. Weapons will jam more while reloading and deal less damage as their condition worsens, and damaged armor will protect against less damage. To Repair items, press [Triangle} (PS3) or [Y] (Xbox 360). You must have a similar item to the one being repaired to be able to salvage the former for parts (consuming it in the process) to repair the other.

In this third screen, “DATA”, you’ll find your maps (both local and world), a “Quest” tab (you should have the quests Back in the Saddle and They Went That-a-Way active) a “Misc” tab (with the note Mojave Express Delivery Order (6 of 6) in it, which describes the details of your last, fateful job) and finally, the “Radio” tab, where you can tune into the unfortunately limited broadcasts in the Mojave. In the “Misc” tab you can toggle between Notes, Active Quest Notes, and Challenges. Completing challenges, either by killing or damaging foes or by doing other miscellaneous actions (disarming mines, picking pockets, hacking terminals, discovering locations, etc.) can earn you trophies/achievements and XP.

Most importantly, hold down the [Circle]/[B] (PS3)/(Xbox 360) buttons to toggle your Pip-Boy light on and off. If you’re trying to see stuff nearby, it’s great. If you’re trying to sneak, turn it off.

With all that done, search Doc Mitchell’s house. There are some First Aid Boxes you can loot, a Gun Box with a Laser Pistol in it and an Ammo Box on some metal shelves. This loot is welcome, if for nothing else than the Caps they can be sold for. There’s also a Broken 9mm Submachine Gun on a Sunset Sarsaparilla Crate, but you’ll need a Repair score of 25 to be able to restore the weapon to working order.

First Steps¶

There’s one quest you can pursue in Goodsprings right now, the tutorial-quest Back in the Saddle . It’s not necessary to complete at this time, and, like pulling on a single thread, completing it will lead to more quests which will ultimately unravel the ball of string informally known as the “Goodsprings Questline”. It’s a good place to start, but for more power-gamey players, there’s another course of action which should prove more alluring… the New Vegas Medical Clinic Run.

If you complete the tutorial quests, you will level up. It’s an RPG, it’s not a bad thing… but there are implants you can get which will permanently boost your attributes, including Intelligence. The more Intelligence your character has, the more Skill Points they’ll gain when leveling up. The more levels you get before getting the implants, the fewer Skill Points you’ll get to play around with. Sure, rushing off to New Vegas isn’t necessary to max out all your Skill Points, but it will get you there faster. Plus, a little brave exploration now will make everything in the early-going much, much easier, especially if you’re playing on Hardcore Mode. If this interests you, read the following section; “The New Vegas Medical Clinic Run” . If not, skip to “Rise From Your Grave!” .

Before doing either, though, track down a robot named Victor who will be rolling through town. He’ll tell you about rescuing you from your attackers, but has little else of interest to say. Still, it checks off an optional objective, and some people care about that stuff… Victor won’t stick around Goodsprings for long, so be sure to talk to him if you care to, especially if you plan to head to New Vegas soon.