One of the new time wasters in Fallout: New Vegas is the inclusion of in-game challenges. These task the Courier with a wide variety of objectives while he explores the Mojave Wasteland. Most of them are as simple as using your chosen weapon to land ‘X many criticals’ or to do ‘X amount of damage’ but there are a few that actually ask for some slightly trickier things. The purpose of this guide is to help you acquire these various challenges as efficiently as you possibly can.
Linked to most of these challenges are a wide variety of Achievements (or Trophies / Steam Achievements for those of you not on the Xbox). In addition to achievements that are linked to the challenges there are a bunch of achievements that stand entirely on their own, trying to give you reasons to play through the game multiple times. Oh yeah, if you want to 100% this title you’re looking at quite the time investment here boys and girls. Without seriously glitching or really screwing with the game you’re looking at about fifty hours or so to finish this bad boy up.
Keep in mind that no matter how big of the completionist you are it’s unbelievably hard and almost a complete waste to even bother trying to go for all of the challenges / achievements in one run. Without even getting into the fact that it would take dozens of saves at separate parts of the game as well as using numerous weapons you’re not fully trained in it’s just not advised. You would basically have to hunt down and kill everything that moved in the Mojave Wasteland for that to be worth doing. So just sit back, relax and prepare for a bunch of playthroughs assisted by your friends at GamesRadar.
Enemy Challenges
Abominable
Task: Kill 50 Abominations. This includes Feral Ghouls, Super Mutants, Centaurs, Nightstalkers, Spore Plants, Spore Carriers and Deathclaws.
Reward: 50 XP and Abominable Perk
Perk: Abominable – Grants a damage bonus against abominations. This bonus increases each time the challenge is won. It’s 3% first, 6% the second time and 10% the third time.
Note: This challenge repeats itself but the perk can only be acquired three times. However several times it has been noted to NOT give experience. This may be a glitch.
Locations
• Feral Ghouls are fairly common in any abandoned areas but most notable is probably the REPCONN Test Site near Novac
• About 10 Nightstalkers can be found in Charleston Cave, north of Jacobstown.
• Many Spore Plants and Spore Carriers can be found in Vault 22.
• Centaurs can be found anywhere Super Mutants are, notably Black Mountain.
• Deathclaws can be found en masse at Quarry Junction and Dead Wind Cavern.
• This challenge also includes the Ghost People from the Dead Money DLC.
Animal Control
Task: Kill 50 Mutated Animals. This includes Lakelurks, Gecko, Mole Rats, Giant Rats, Dogs, Coyote, Brahmin and Bighorners. Nightstalkers do not count.
Reward: 50 XP and Animal Control Perk
Perk: Animal Control – Grants a damage bonus against animals. This bonus increases each time the challenge is won. It’s 3% first, 6% the second time and 10% the third time.
Note: This challenge repeats itself but the perk can only be acquired three times. However several times it has been noted to NOT give experience. This may be a glitch.
Locations
• Lakelurks can be found in Ruby Hills Mine, Lake Mead or the Camp Guardian Caves and each of these locations can net you about ten kills.
• Bighorners are most often found in the mountains near Jacobstown but can also be found anywhere in the Mojave Wasteland.
• Coyote are found mostly around Goodsprings and the Coyote den north of Nipton.
• Dogs kills can be obtained by fighting the ones that come with the Legion (Legion Mongrels), the rare NCR dogs or the Fiend attack dogs.
Bug Stomper
Task: Kill 50 Mutated Insects. This includes Radscorpions, Cazador, Bloatfly, Giant Ants, Mantis and Radroach enemies.
Reward: 50 XP and Bug Stomper Perk
Perk: Bug Stomper – Grants a damage bonus against animals. This bonus increases each time the challenge is won. It’s 3% first, 6% the second time and 10% the third time. It also allows you to stomp on bug corpses when searching them, destroying the corpse and granting you some extra experience.
Note: This challenge repeats itself but the perk can only be acquired three times.
Locations
• Radscorpions, Bloatflys, Mantis and Radroaches can be found all across the Wasteland.
• Giant Ants are found mostly in the desert area south of Goodsprings off the road.
• Cazador are ridiculously common once you go north of Goodsprings across the length of the entire map. They’re quite common in the mountain areas especially.
Demise of the Machines
Task: Kill 50 Robots. This includes Mister Handy, Mister Gutsy, Protectron, Securitrons and Sentry Bots. Heck it even includes Rex if you’re picking fights with everyone.
Reward: 50 XP and Machine Head Perk
Perk: Machine Head – Grants a damage bonus against animals. This bonus increases each time the challenge is won. It’s 3% first, 6% the second time and 10% the third time.
Note: This challenge and perk are highly glitched. The challenge repeats itself but you get no experience for it and the perk cannot be obtained three times like it should be. When you get the first level of the perk the game tells you that you got the second. Upon getting the second you are told that you got the third. This means it’s impossible to get the actual third level of the perk.
Locations
• An appreciable number of Mister Handy’s, Sentry Bots and scanners can be found in the REPCONN Headquarters.
• A variable number of robots can be found around the Crashed Vertibird.
• There are a handful of robots in Vault 11.
• H&H Tools Factory contains a fair number of robots as well.
• Some more robots can be found in New Vegas Steel.
• Lastly more can be found in the Solar Collection Tower of Helios One.
Super Mutant Massacre
Task: Kill 50 Super Mutants.
Reward: 50 XP and Mutant Massacrer Perk
Perk: Mutant Massacrer – Grants a damage bonus against Super Mutants. This bonus increases each time the challenge is won. It’s 3% first, 6% the second time and 10% the third time.
Note: This challenge repeats itself but the perk can only be acquired three times. However several times it has been noted to NOT give experience. This may be a glitch. Also both Super Mutants and Nightkin count for this challenge.
Locations
• Non-hostile Super Mutants and Nightkin in Jacobstown.
• Super Mutants and Nightkin can be found on the main road up Black Mountain.
• Nightkin can be found in the basement of the REPCONN Test Site.
• Super Mutants and Nightkin can be found on top of Black Mountain.
As you can tell from a simple glance all of these achievements are gained from simply killing enough enemies of a particular type. Most of these enemy kills will be gained as you play through the game. Robots can be a bit tough as they’re often only found inside of a few very specific buildings in the Mojave Wasteland, but there are enough of them to fairly easily get at least the first rank of this challenge completed.
The only one of these challenges that will provide you with issues is Super Mutant Massacre. There honestly aren’t all that many Super Mutants or Nightkin in the entirety of New Vegas. The majority of them are located in the REPCONN Test Site basement, a few more can be found on Black Mountain in the State of Utobitha and Jacobstown. If you’re playing as a positive Karma character who is resolving things without violence then it can be basically impossible to get this challenge finished.
Depending on how you approach eachyou can actually avoid fighting almost every Super Mutant in the game. The only completely hostile Super Mutants are the ones on the road leading up to Black Mountain and a few scattered in caves elsewhere. It really feels like to get this you’re going to have to take the jerk route and kill every FEV-infused beast you find anywhere in the Wasteland.
