Fallout New Vegas Companion Quests Guide: Triggers and Outcomes
How to recruit every New Vegas companion, build their hidden quest triggers, and pick the outcomes with the best rewards.
New Vegas doesn't hand you its companion stories. Eight permanent companions are scattered around the Mojave, every one of them has some kind of personal quest, and most of those quests run on hidden counters the game never mentions. You wander around with the right person behind you, a score quietly ticks up, and one day they walk over and start talking about their past. Miss the counter and that conversation never happens.
The whole system is knowable, though. Every trigger has a list, every fork has a payoff, and the lockouts are all avoidable with a little planning.
Recruiting Each Companion
Ground rules first. You can keep two companions at once, but only one humanoid plus one non-humanoid, so a person and ED-E works fine and two people doesn't work at all. Anyone you dismiss teleports home instantly, or to the Lucky 38 presidential suite once you have access, and rehiring is free. Their passive perks keep working even while they're told to wait, so rotating your roster costs nothing.
| Companion | Location | How they join | Personal quest | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Arcade Gannon | Old Mormon Fort, Freeside | Followers rep, Speech 75, Confirmed Bachelor, INT 3 or less, or help for the Followers | For Auld Lang Syne | | Craig Boone | Dino Bite gift shop, Novac (9 PM to 9 AM) | Complete One for My Baby | I Forgot to Remember to Forget | | Cass | Mojave Outpost bar | Talk her into selling Cassidy Caravans | Heartache by the Number | | Lily | Jacobstown, by the bighorner pen | Ask during Guess Who I Saw Today | Guess Who I Saw Today + Lily and Leo | | Raul Tejada | Prison building, Black Mountain | Free him during Crazy, Crazy, Crazy | Old School Ghoul | | Veronica | 188 Trading Post | Just ask her | I Could Make You Care | | ED-E | Nash Residence, Primm | Repair 65, or Science 55 with Repair 35, or 3 scrap metal + 2 sensor modules + 1 scrap electronics | ED-E My Love | | Rex | Freeside, with The King | The King hands him over | Nothin' But a Hound Dog |
Veronica is the easiest hire in the game: one conversation at the 188 Trading Post, no checks. Raul just needs a trip up Black Mountain - deal with Tabitha during Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, then spring him from the prison building.
Boone and One for My Baby
Boone stands in the dinosaur's mouth between 9 PM and 9 AM, and he won't deal with you if your NCR reputation has slipped below neutral or your Legion standing is higher. Wearing NCR armor papers over it while the gear is on.
The quest: he hands you his beret and asks you to find who sold his pregnant wife to Legion slavers. The culprit is Jeannie May Crawford, and the proof is a Bill of Sale in the floor safe behind the Dino Dee-lite front desk. Pick the easy lock or lift her key (no karma hit either way), lure her in front of the dinosaur between 10 PM and 9 AM, put the beret on, and Boone does the rest. Show him the bill and he joins you, along with 150 XP, 100 caps, and his 1st Recon Beret.
Two ways to ruin this. Frame someone innocent (the McBrides, Cliff Briscoe, Manny Vargas, Ranger Andy, No-bark) and Boone is never recruitable. Or skip the evidence and bet on the Speech 55 check - fail it and he might shoot you, and at best he's lost as a companion. Grab the Bill of Sale first and neither risk exists.
Cass and the caravan buyout
Cass sits at the Mojave Outpost bar and can't leave until someone sorts out her caravan contract, which means taking Alice McLafferty's job at the Crimson Caravan Company (You Can Depend on Me) and talking her into selling. Four doors in: Barter 50 with an extra 750 caps, Barter 75 for a drinking contest (twelve bottles of whiskey), Speech 50 by doing a chore for Ranger Jackson, or Speech 75 by blaming her for her own caravan's fate.
Do it early, too. A known bug lets There Stands the Grass jam Thomas Hildern's dialogue and leave You Can Depend on Me stuck, which locks Cass out of your party for good.
Arcade's five doors
Arcade joins if any one of these is true: you have good standing with the Followers, you finished High Times and gave Julie Farkas the medical supplies (ask "Do you need any help?" first), you pass a Speech 75 check, you have the Confirmed Bachelor perk, or your Intelligence is 3 or lower, which he finds pitiful enough to tag along. One hard block: positive Legion reputation or Legion gear makes him refuse you. NCR armor gets around it.
Building Hidden Quest Progress
This is the part the game hides. Three companions run invisible trust scores (Boone, Arcade, Veronica), one runs on three specific conversations (Raul), one advances by touring quest locations (Cass), one has a hidden checklist (Lily), and ED-E's quest is basically a calendar.
Boone: five history points
Boone tracks "history points" for hitting the Legion, and you need five. He only earns them while recruited - telling him to wait somewhere is fine, but he has to be on your roster. The sources:
- Kill Vulpes Inculta anywhere (Nipton, the Strip, the Fort): +1
- Kill Silus, the captured centurion at Camp McCarran: +1
- Kill the spy or disarm the monorail bomb during I Put a Spell on You: +1
- Kill Caesar: +2
- Rescue the enslaved Powder Gangers during Booted: +2
- Nelson, during Back in Your Own Backyard: rescue the hostages for +2, then kill one after for +1 (all three from one quest)
- Wipe out Cottonwood Cove: +2, but only while the Eye for an Eye objective "Kill all Legionaries in Cottonwood Cove" is active
You also need to have heard about Bitter Springs from Manny Vargas in Novac or Bitter-Root at Camp McCarran. After each event, use the companion talk option - new dialogue about his past unlocks each time. Push far enough and he'll say going back to Bitter Springs is a bad idea, then reconsider a few minutes later and start the quest.
The trap here is real: use up all these events before recruiting him and the math becomes impossible without console commands. Cottonwood Cove is the usual wasted one.
Arcade: like points
Arcade keeps two tallies, and only the "like" one matters for For Auld Lang Syne. You need roughly five points to get his offer rolling on your own, or as few as two if a main-story milestone has already fired. The big sources:
- Take him to the crashed vertibird southwest of Camp Searchlight: +1
- Take him into REPCONN Headquarters: +1
- Talk him down at The Fort with level-headed answers: 1 to 2
- Talk to Thomas Hildern with Arcade along, then side with Arcade's read on the man: 1 to 2
- During That Lucky Old Sun, agree the power should go to Freeside and Westside (the chat before you touch the terminal is what counts): 1, or 2 with an Intelligence 7 follow-up
- The White Wash endings where Tom Anderson gets a break: 1 to 2
Points only register once Arcade actually comments, so don't sprint past him. The main-story triggers that wake the quest up: reporting the Brotherhood bunker wiped out to Mr. House (The House Always Wins V), installing Yes Man (Change in Management), reporting House's death to Colonel Moore (For the Republic, Part 2), or installing the override chip at the El Dorado Substation (Finishing Touches). No Legion quest will ever start it.
His dislike tally is separate: three points earns a warning, six and he's gone for good. Killing innocents in front of him is the fast track there.
Veronica: three of nine conversations
Veronica's quest starts once three of her nine possible trigger talks fire, and patched versions reportedly cut it to two. Three triggers can never be missed: walking through the main doors of the Camp McCarran terminal building, the entrance ramp at Vault 3, and traveling near Nelson or Cottonwood Cove.
The other six are one-shot lines that burn out fast: Tom Anderson at Casa Madrid, Hildern's introduction, Julie Farkas' greeting, Jason Bright's Great Journey speech at the REPCONN test site, Pete's museum lecture at Nellis, and Gloria Van Graff's Silver Rush welcome. If she doesn't pipe up in a trigger zone, talk to her through the companion wheel or wait about 30 seconds - her dialogue fires on a delay.
Raul: three old-timers
Raul's unmarked quest needs him as your active companion while you chat with three veterans, in any order: Ranger Andy in Novac, Corporal Sterling, and Loyal at Nellis. Sterling starts at Camp McCarran and moves to Camp Forlorn Hope after Three-Card Bounty, and you have to exhaust his dialogue tree. With Andy, cover what he does in town and what happened to his leg, then step outside so Raul can catch up and talk. Your answers to Raul after each chat are what steer his final decision.
Cass: the wreck tour
No hidden score here. Once recruited, talk to her with neutral or good karma (evil karma and she'll chew you out, maybe even quit), then visit three caravan wreck sites in order: her own caravan's grave, the Griffin Wares wreck by the billboard southwest of Horowitz Farmstead (those ash piles mean energy weapons), and Durable Dunn's caravan, where the bodies include a Van Graff thug and a Crimson Caravan guard. That's the whole mystery in three stops.
Lily: the hidden checklist
Lily and Leo, her unmarked quest, starts when four things are all true: you've asked her about Leo, you've seen her psychotic break (drop her to about half health in a fight) and talked about it, you've watched her take her medicine and talked about that, and then you sleep, wait, or fast travel. A holotape of her grandchildren plays, and the dose conversation opens. Meanwhile Guess Who I Saw Today, the quest she's tied to, comes from Doctor Henry in the Jacobstown lodge and involves fetching a chewed Stealth Boy from Charleston Cave.
ED-E: logs and a calendar
Repair ED-E, take it along, and its first audio log unlocks from hearing certain keywords - Old Lady Gibson, the NCR troopers outside HELIOS One, Doctor Henry, Ignacio Rivas, and Thomas Hildern are all candidates. Wait five in-game days, trigger the second log with a different person, wait two more days, and both the Brotherhood and the Followers call. Hand ED-E to Senior Knight Lorenzo at Hidden Valley or April Martimer at the Old Mormon Fort, then wait three days for it to fly back to Primm, upgraded.
Companion Decision Points
Every one of these quests ends in a choice, and most of them change what your friend walks away with.
Boone at Bitter Springs
After the trust grind, Boone asks to revisit Bitter Springs. You camp overnight on Coyote Tail Ridge, then Legion raiders hit in three waves - up the slope toward the refugee camp, from behind the buses with mongrels out front, and through the west gap by the graveyard. Once they're dead, you tell Boone to make peace with the massacre or stay hungry for revenge. Repentant gets him the 1st Recon Survival Armor, bloodthirsty gets the 1st Recon Assault Armor. Both are weightless with DT 15, so it's really about which ending slide you want.
Arcade and the Remnants
For Auld Lang Syne sends you to five Enclave survivors: Daisy Whitman (Novac), Cannibal Johnson (his cave), Doctor Henry (Jacobstown - he won't agree until Guess Who I Saw Today is done), Orion Moreno (near the Sharecropper Farms), and Judah Kreger (Westside). Each gives one word of the passphrase "Dear old friends, remember Navarro" for the Remnants Bunker. Pick NCR at the bunker and Orion storms out - convince him with Speech 80 or Wild Child reputation with the NCR, otherwise you have to kill him. Pick the Legion and Cannibal Johnson and Arcade both walk.
Your answers as each remnant is recruited (people can change versus people can't) push Arcade toward rejoining the fight or going back to the Followers, and a Speech 80 check can flip him at the end. Either way he leaves your party permanently once the quest wraps.
Cass: revenge or paperwork
At the end you either help Cass kill Alice McLafferty and Gloria Van Graff, or gather proof and hand it to Ranger Jackson. The evidence route means a safe in the Crimson Caravan office (Lockpick 50 or McLafferty's pickpocketed key) and one behind a locked door at the Silver Rush (Lockpick 75 for the door, Lockpick 75 or Science 75 on the terminal for the safe). One catch: agree to the killing spree and the evidence never spawns in those safes. It's a fork, not a menu.
Veronica's crossroads
Veronica needs one of three techs to plead her case to the Elder: Euclid's C-Finder (buy it off Max in Freeside for 1,000 caps, or 20 with Barter 45, after sending HELIOS power to ARCHIMEDES), the Vault 22 data (keep a copy, don't let Keely purge it), or the Pulse Gun from the Vault 34 armory. The Elder stays unconvinced either way. The real choice is whether she stays with the Brotherhood or leaves for the Followers.
Getting out of the bunker is ugly - a squad of paladins wants her head for spreading subversive ideas, and a 95 Speech check or straight-up fighting settles it. If she leaves, those same paladins murder the Followers outpost later. Attack them before they shoot first and you can lose Veronica for good.
Lily's dose
For Lily and Leo, you pick her medication: full dose, half dose, or none. Full dose ends her psychotic breaks but locks her Melee Weapons at 60. Half dose (the default she's been on) means breaks at a quarter health, but she calms the second you crouch. Going off the meds gives her the Off the Meds stat boosts and sets Melee to 100, at the price of breaks at half health. Guess Who I Saw Today also has its own forks: talk Keene down with Speech 80 or hand over the Stealth Boy Mk II specs, and pass a Science 90 check with Henry for 590 XP instead of 500.
Raul's fork
Old School Ghoul ends with Raul choosing between the wrench and the revolver, pushed there by your answers during the three veteran chats. A Speech 66 check lets you override the direction he landed on. Mechanic Raul trades his jumpsuit for armored Petro-Chico workwear and upgrades his perk. Vaquero Raul dresses the part and shoots faster but keeps the weaker maintenance perk. Wishy-washy answers are their own punishment - give him mixed signals and he may never bring up the final conversation at all.
Rewards and Perks
Every companion hands you a passive perk just for following them, and the personal quests upgrade four of them:
| Companion | Passive perk | What it does | | --- | --- | --- | | Arcade | Better Healing | Party heals 20% more from food, stimpaks, anything consumable | | Boone | Spotter | Enemies get highlighted when you aim down sights | | Cass | Whiskey Rose | No alcohol downsides, plus a DT bonus while drinking | | Lily | Stealth Girl | Stealth Boys last twice as long, +10% sneak crit damage | | Raul | Regular Maintenance | Gear degrades 50% slower | | ED-E | Enhanced Sensors | Big detection radius (like 10 PER) and better targeting of cloaked enemies |
Old School Ghoul is the headline upgrade: Full Maintenance bumps Raul's decay reduction from 50% to 75% for the whole party's gear, which is huge for gun-heavy builds. The vaquero path trades that for a 33% faster fire rate on his revolvers and lever guns.
The other quest payoffs: Cass gets Hand of Vengeance (+15% Guns damage, revenge ending) or Calm Heart (+50 HP, evidence ending). Veronica gets Bonds of Steel (+4 DT, stays) or Causeless Rebel (+30% unarmed attack rate, leaves). Both Boone armors are DT 15 and weightless. Heartache pays 500 XP peaceful or 650 violent, I Could Make You Care pays a flat 1000 XP, and One for My Baby drops 150 XP and 100 caps.
For Auld Lang Syne is the biggest payout in the bunch: 500 XP, Remnants Power Armor, Power Armor Training (hard to come by anywhere else), the optional Gannon Family Tesla Armor (DT 32, +10 Energy Weapons) if Arcade chooses the Followers over the fight, and the Remnants themselves fighting on your side at the second Battle of Hoover Dam. ED-E My Love ends with either +8 DT (Brotherhood) or a stronger gun (Followers), and Rex's brain swap gives +25 damage (Rey), +10 DT (Lupa), or +50% run speed (Violetta).
Two more systems worth knowing. Nerve adds 5% companion damage and damage threshold per point of Charisma, up to +50% at 10 CHA - one of the few reasons to raise that stat. And two player perks exist purely for companions: Spray and Pray cuts the damage they take from your own shots by 75%, and Ferocious Loyalty gives them +50 DR when you're below half health.
Avoiding Quest Lockouts
Most of these lockouts come down to order of operations:
- Recruit before you explore. Boone's history points, Arcade's like points, and Veronica's trigger talks only count with the companion on your roster, and several of Veronica's one-shot lines are gone forever once you've heard them without her, so picking everyone up early is free insurance.
- Don't burn Boone's point sources. Wipe out Cottonwood Cove or rescue the Nelson hostages before hiring him and those points are off the table, and the quest can become mathematically impossible.
- Watch your faction reputation. Positive Legion fame earns you exactly one warning from Boone, then he quits - even stashed in the Lucky 38, and he can't come to the dam on a Legion run at all. Arcade won't join with Legion fame in the first place, and he leaves instantly if you march into the Legate's Camp, point the Remnants at Caesar, or activate ARCHIMEDES. Cass just needs you to not be evil.
- Order of operations. Do You Can Depend on Me before There Stands the Grass (the Hildern dialogue bug). Finish Guess Who I Saw Today before For Auld Lang Syne, since Doctor Henry won't budge. And don't send HELIOS power anywhere but ARCHIMEDES if you want Veronica's C-Finder route open - though Vault 34's Pulse Gun works as a backup.
- Raul has three failure states. Getting branded a terrorist by the NCR blocks the quest outright (Ranger Andy sees through disguises), dead veterans can't be chatted with, and learning Ranger Takedown from Andy before recruiting Raul can jam the trigger on console versions.
- Casual mode protects recruits. Companions can't die while hired outside Hardcore mode, so dismissing someone into a rough area is riskier than keeping them.
Last thing: the game ends when the dam battle does. Every one of these quests needs finishing before you commit to Eureka!, Veni Vidi Vici, or No Gods No Masters - after the slides roll, there's no going back. A clean run grabs all six companions by the midgame, drags them through the Mojave's Legion problems, and still leaves time to decide whether Raul fixes your guns or fills legionaries full of holes.