You're standing in the middle of the Mojave Wasteland. Dust is in your lungs. A Cazador is probably buzzing somewhere behind a rock, ready to end your entire career. But you aren't thinking about survival. You’re thinking about the pop. That specific, digital chime that tells you that you’ve finally, mercifully, finished the grind. Chasing Fallout New Vegas all achievements is a rite of passage that most players start with optimism and end with a thousand-yard stare. It’s not just about playing the game; it’s about breaking it, manipulating saves, and praying the engine doesn't crash during a 10-hour poker session.
The thing about New Vegas is that it isn't a modern "hand-holding" RPG. Obsidian Entertainment built a sprawling, messy, beautiful masterpiece that rewards curiosity but punishes completionists. If you want that 100% badge on Steam or Xbox, you're looking at a minimum of three full playthroughs—or some very clever manual saving before the "Point of No Return" at Hoover Dam.
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Honestly? It's exhausting. But we do it anyway.
The Faction Deadlock and the Save Game Shuffle
Most people getting into the hunt for Fallout New Vegas all achievements realize pretty quickly that the game is designed to lock you out of content. You can’t be the Caesar’s Legion MVP and the NCR’s golden child at the same time. The achievements For the Republic, Render Unto Caesar, The House Always Wins, and No Gods, No Masters are mutually exclusive.
Here is the trick everyone uses: The House Always Wins. Basically, you play along with Mr. House until you reach the quest "The House Always Wins IV" or "V." At this point, you should have a hard save that you never, ever touch. This is your nexus. From here, you can branch out to finish the Legion's blood-soaked path, reload, help the NCR, reload again, and finally go for the Independent Vegas ending.
It feels like cheating. It’s not. It’s survival. Without this, you’re looking at 100+ hours of repeating the same early-game fetch quests just to see a different flag fly over the Dam.
Hardcore Mode Isn't Actually That Hard
There’s this huge misconception that the Hardcore achievement is a nightmare. It’s not. You just have to drink water and sleep. In reality, the most annoying part of Hardcore mode is the fact that stimpaks heal over time instead of instantly. That’ll get you killed in a firefight with Deathclaws faster than dehydration ever will.
If you want this achievement without losing your mind, speedrun it. Stick to the main quest. Don't wander into the DLCs on Hardcore unless you’re a masochist. Just get to the end. The achievement triggers the second the credits roll, provided you never toggled the difficulty off in the settings.
The Real Villains: Caravan and the Gambling Grids
We need to talk about Know When to Fold 'Em. This achievement requires you to win 3 games of Caravan. Simple, right? Wrong. Nobody knows how to play Caravan. Even the people who say they know how to play Caravan are usually lying. It’s a game of building "tracks" of cards, but the UI is clunky and the AI players like Ringo or Ambassador Crockett seem to pull cards out of thin air.
But Caravan is a joke compared to The Courier Who Broke the Bank.
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To get this, you have to get banned from all three major casinos on the Strip: Gomorrah, The Tops, and the Ultra-Luxe. This involves winning a specific amount of caps at each (9,000 to 15,000 depending on the house).
- Luck is everything. If your Luck stat is below 7, don't even try. Go to the New Vegas Medical Clinic and buy the Luck Implant. Wear the Naughty Nightwear.
- Blackjack is the path. Slots are a trap. Roulette is a scam. Blackjack with 10 Luck is basically a legal printing press for caps.
Once you get banned from all three, the achievement pops. You’ll be rich, hated by the pit bosses, and one step closer to the full set.
The DLC Grind: From Zion to the Big MT
The DLC achievements are where things get weird. Dead Money is polarising—people either love the atmosphere or hate the "cloud" and the radios. For the Cash Out achievement, you’re dealing with Elijah in the vault. It’s a narrative masterpiece, but if you want all the gold bars AND the achievement, you’re going to be overencumbered and creeping past a senile old man at 1 inch per hour.
Old World Blues is the fan favorite. The achievements here are mostly completion-based, like finding all the personality holotapes for the Sink. It’s quirky. It’s fun. Then you hit Lonesome Road.
The Warhead Hunter achievement in Lonesome Road is a scavenger hunt from hell. There are 30 detonatable warheads scattered across the Divide. Some are hidden behind rubble, others are in plain sight but easy to miss when you’re being hunted by Marked Men. Missing one means backtracking through a linear, difficult map. Use your ED-E upgrades. He can help sniff them out.
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Combat Challenges: The "Talk About a Hole-in-One" Problem
Some of the combat-related achievements in Fallout New Vegas all achievements lists are just bizarre. Take Talk About a Hole-in-One. You have to kill Mr. House with a 9-iron or Nephi’s Driver. It’s a reference to Bioshock, sure, but it’s also just hilarious. You’re taking down the most powerful man in the Mojave with a golf club.
Then there’s Pros vs. Cons. You have to kill 15 named Legion members with throwaway weapons like spears or throwing knives. It’s tedious. You’ll find yourself sneaking into Cottonwood Cove just to huck spears at people who are much better armed than you are.
Pros vs. Cons Target List
You don't need to kill everyone, but focus on these guys:
- Dead Sea (Nelson)
- Aurelius of Phoenix (Cottonwood Cove)
- Canyon Runner (Cottonwood Cove)
- Cursor Lucullus (The Fort)
- Vulpes Inculta (The Strip or Nipton)
The 10,000 Damage Milestones
The "Master of the Mojave" types usually get stuck on the "damage dealt" achievements. Old-Tyme Purity (10,000 damage with 1-handed melee weapons) and Lead Dealer (10,000 with guns) usually happen naturally. But Desert Survivalist? Healing 10,000 points of damage with food? That’s a grind.
Pro tip: Go to Lake Mead. Drown yourself a little. Surface, eat a bunch of Bighorner steaks, and repeat. It’s stupid. It’s boring. It’s the only way to do it quickly without playing for 400 hours.
Technical Gremlins and Achievement Glitches
Since we're talking about a game from 2010 running on an engine held together by duct tape and dreams, achievements sometimes just... don't trigger. This is especially true if you use the console commands on PC.
Using the tilde (~) key to open the console will disable achievements for that session. If you accidentally open it, you have to save, quit the game entirely to desktop, and relaunch. If you don't, you could finish the entire game and get nothing. It has happened to the best of us. Steam Cloud can also be a jerk. Always make sure your status is "Online" before doing something big like finishing the final quest at the Dam.
Final Steps for the Completionist
If you’re serious about hitting that 100% mark, stop playing randomly. You need a plan.
- Start with a high Luck/Intelligence build. You need the skills for checks and the Luck for the casinos.
- Commit to Hardcore immediately. Get it out of the way on your first run so you can relax later.
- The "Meat" of the game happens at the Strip. Once you reach Vegas, make that Master Save.
- Work the DLCs in order. Honest Hearts is easy and fast. Old World Blues gives you the best gear. Dead Money is a test of patience. Lonesome Road is the finale.
- Clean up the "Damaged Dealt" trophies last. These are just numbers. Find a group of respawning enemies (like the Fiends around Vault 3) and go to town with whatever weapon class you’re missing.
The journey to Fallout New Vegas all achievements isn't about being the best gamer. It's about being the most persistent. It's about dealing with the crashes, the weird physics, and the terrifying sight of a Deathclaw clipping through a wall. When you see that final achievement unlock, you won't just feel like the ruler of the Mojave. You'll feel like you finally conquered the chaos of the wasteland itself.
Now, go check your Pip-Boy. You've got work to do.