History FalloutNewVegas / TropesAToB

* BribingYourWayToVictory: The ''Courier's Stash'' and ''Gun Runners' Arsenal'' DLC, the former moreso than the latter. ''Courier's Stash'' is a compilation of several pre-order bonus packs which gives the player four full item sets at the start of the game, including a bottomless water canteen which reduces the amount of water you need to drink. No matter which set of armor you choose, you're a lot better off than in the vanilla game. ''Gun Runners' Arsenal'' adds a ton of new weapons to be purchased from shops, as well as weapon mods for them. At least these you actually have to buy in-game.

** The requisite BFG, the Anti-Material Rifle, is 10 gallons of ass-kicking for anyone that's maxing out their Guns skill. The problem is that the 10 gallons of ass-kicking comes in a 100 pound barrel: the AMR weighs in at a hefty 25 pounds, and the ammunition for it is, somehow, even heavier. 25 rounds of .50MG will hit you for ''thirteen pounds'' of weigh. It is the second most damaging non-energy, non-explosive weapon in the game, (surpassed only by the [[SawedOffShotgun Big Boomer]] and the Gun Runner's Arsenal DLC adds ''explosive'' bullets, but you're not going to be carrying much else with it. The only advantage is that by the time you're able to get and ''regularly'' use the gun, ''you don't need any other weapon''.

** The requisite BFG, the Anti-Material Rifle, is 10 gallons of ass-kicking for anyone that's maxing out their Guns skill. The problem is that the 10 gallons of ass-kicking comes in a 100 pound barrel: the AMR weighs in at a hefty 25 pounds, and the ammunition for it is, somehow, even heavier. 25 rounds of .50MG will hit you for ''thirteen pounds'' of weigh. It is, without a doubt, the single most damaging non-energy, non-explosive weapon in the game, and the Gun Runner's Arsenal DLC adds ''explosive'' bullets, but you're not going to be carrying much else with it. The only advantage is that by the time you're able to get and ''regularly'' use the gun, ''you don't need any other weapon''.

** LesserOfTwoEvils: On the other hand, while the NCR is Grey, the Legion is such a darker shade it's almost Black. The radio stories about the Legion include stories of Lanius ordering his men to kill each other while the NCR stories include troop redeployment reports. Furthermore, while few people are welcoming NCR with open arms, general opinion among the wasteland inhabitants is that the Legion taking control of them instead would be far worse.

* AllAmazonsWantHercules: Red Lucy, who was probably named after [[TheRedSonja Red Sonja]], but doesn't quite fit that trope. You can sleep with her, but only after you've brought back eggs from the most dangerous creatures in the Mojave, which typically means raiding their nests.

** Part of the job description for raider gangs like the Jackals, Vipers, Scorpions, and ''especially'' the [[CompleteMonster Fiends]].

** [[LargeHamRadio Tabitha]], [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies the Vault 34 Overseer]], [[HumanoidAliens the Alien Captain]], and [[CompleteMonster Jean-Baptiste Cutting]] are all quite tough, each of them being a fairly worthy boss encounter.

* BottleFairy: Cass.

** The entire game. Not accounting for evil factions like the Fiends and Powder Gangers, there is no way to make the world 100% peaceful and happy no matter what ending you take due to how quests conflict. Some quests don't have a happy ending regardless of who you side with, there's just terrible endings and less-bad ones.
** The "best case scenarios" for Arcade, Veronica and Lily qualify big time. For Arcade, [[spoiler:the only endings where he ends up in a somewhat good position are the NCR and Wild Card endings, and even then he ends up somewhat disappointing with the negative aspects of each outcome, but nevertheless resolves to continue helping the Wasteland any way he can]]. Veronica, [[spoiler:she either stays with the Brotherhood and reluctantly keeps her mouth shut about her disagreements with their methods, or she leaves, willingly or they banish her, and she wanders the wastelands as a lone tinkerer fearful of getting close to people in case the Brotherhood is monitoring her]]. As for Lily, her "good" endings either have her [[spoiler:go off to find her grandchildren, who are almost assuredly dead by now, or finally having her mental state stabilized at the cost of the memories of her past.]]
** The best ending you can hope for in ''Honest Hearts'' is [[spoiler:The Sorrows and Dead Horses are safely evacuated from Zion and the White Legs' threat is neutralized [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath one way]] [[KillEmAll or another]], And Joshua Graham finally makes peace with his inner demons, but Zion itself is lost forever (polluted, conquered, and ravaged), and Daniel spends the rest of his days wondering if abandoning it was the right decision after all...]] Or, you can [[spoiler: help Graham crush the White Legs. If you convince him to spare Salt-Upon-Wounds, or at the very least make it a fair fight, then the only "good" character who gets a sad ending is Daniel who, as mentioned above, is so idealistic that he's screwed no matter what happens.]]

* BlingBlingBang: All of the unique handguns.

** The HuntingRifle comes back in all its BoringButPractical glory. It has enough counterbalances to higher-tier precision-specialized Guns-category weapons to stay in your pack all the way to endgame. Though the Sniper Rifle has rate of fire and silencer fitting in its favor, the Hunting Rifle (after mods) has a higher-zoom scope, longer magazine, and far greater durability (allowing it to fire the higher-wear-and-tear Jacketed Soft Point handloader ammo for far longer). The Anti-Materiel Rifle may have sheer damage in its favor, but the Hunting Rifle doesn't weigh as much as a railroad tie and has far cheaper ammo.

* BigBad: We have plently of contenders...
** Ceasar, as the leader of Legion, who are basically Roman Nazis hellbent on assimilating Mojave. However, none of the storylines requires you to deal with, since he's lesser evil compared to Legate Lanius.
** Legate Lanius, TrueFinalBoss for three out of four storylines. Ruthless and brutal leader of Legion's army.
** Mr. House, lord of New Vegas. Even tough everyone wants him dead (or disabled), he is only interesed in Platinium Chip and maintaing his control in New Vegas.
** Aaron Kimball, president of the NCR. Only for Legion storyline.
** General Olivier, officer of NCR army tasked with protecting the Hoover dam. Acts as FinalBoss for three out of four sides.

** For ''Honest Hearts,'' it's Salt-Upon-Wounds, chief of White Legs.
** For ''Old World Blues'', it's [[spoiler: the Think Tank, rather than Dr Mobius]]. However, none of them are truly villanious.
** For ''Lonesome Road'', it's Ulysses, former courier, who has personal grudge against Courier, and it's a good one.

** Two former Followers of the Apocalypse. Both of them know they're addicted and ''really'' want to quit, but the withdrawal is too much for them - they've tried several times, already. Whether they recover or not, is up to you.

* AltumVidetur: Caesar's Legion uses ''a lot'' of Latin. Latin names, ranks, currency, uniforms, punishments, etc. You need to use it for a small side-quest against [[spoiler: a captured Legion Centurion POW that the NCR captured, provided your Intelligence is high enough.]] They're also pronounced correctly (Caesar is pronounced with a hard C).

** The Powder Gangers get pretty close, being anarchistic at best and downright bullies at worst. They tend to rob or attack anyone they don't like, which is almost everyone. They do trade with at least one town (which happens to be full of degenerates lowlifes anyway).

** Dead Money perk "And Stay Back" grants 10% chance per shotgun shot of throwing the target back. The sawed-off fires 14 buckshot per blast, practically guaranteeing an airborne ragdoll if fired at close range.

* BombThrowingAnarchists: Averted by the Followers of the Apocalypse who, despite being derided as anarchists by some, arguably are the only "truly good" faction in the game, next to the Kings.

** 'Honest Hearts' introduces the 'Fight the Power!' that gives the bonus in combat with members of 'lawful' factions. It is accompanied by the picture of stereotypical rioter with a scarf on his face and holding Molotov cocktail.
* BonusBoss: The four Legendary monsters. The toughest of them, the Legendary Deathclaw, is by far the most powerful thing in the entire game, with almost as much health as the final boss ''and'' an insanely high armor rating (significantly more than a full suit of the best power armor available!). Like all deathclaws, it is also very, very fast. He also [[OneHitKill one hit kills]] pretty much all but the toughest and most heavily armored of characters. [[DeadpanSnarker Nice knowing you.]]

* BonusDungeon: Up to three are added by ''Lonesome Road,'' the Courier's Mile, the NCR Long 15, and the Legion Dry Wells. The latter two are only accessible if [[spoiler: you decided to nuke them.]] None of these are particularly long, but they're overflowing with radiation and irradiated ghoul soldiers (causing them to hyper-regenerate) with some chests of high-grade equipment hidden in back.

* BoringButPractical: The Marksman Carbine. Powerful. Durable. Versatile. Ammo-efficient. Completely unspectacular and ugly.

** From Dead Money, the Cosmic Knives. Not only are they easy to find, but you can clean one [[IncendiaryExponent and superheat it later]] to give it a massive stat boost and the power to set things on fire. Helps out in the first few quests, when you have almost no ammo or items. The Knife Spear (a stick with knifes taped on it) is even more useful.

** From the Lonesome Road DLC comes the flare gun. Doesn't have the greatest damage, but uses a fairly common ammo type only used by a few other weapons in the entire game, and has the distinct power to SCARE DEATHCLAWS.

* BottleFairy: Cass

* BullyingADragon: Keith, a hustler at the Aerotech business park, gets cornered by Captain Parker after you provide Parker with evidence of Keith's misdeeds. Parker tries to arrest Keith, who resists. Keith then starts taunting Parker about how his wife left him. Which prompts Parker to let fly with his service rifle. Taunting a man armed with a military rifle about his estranged wife... [[TooDumbToLive smooth.]]

** The "9mm pistol" is the Browning Hi-Power, and the "9mm Submachine gun" is a WW2 [=M3A1=] "Greasegun".
** The "Hunting Shotgun" is the Remington Model 870, the player even pumps it one handed after reloading just like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. Speaking of Terminator, the lever-action Winchester 1887/1901 shotgun that Arnold uses appears as the "Lever-Action Shotgun" as well[[Sort of]]The gun in the game is a 20-gauge, where the Winchester 1887/1901 was only made in 10-gauge and 12-gauge.[[/Sort of]].

** Two of the weapons that come with the Dead Money DLC are the M1918 BAR and Colt Official Police revolver, appearing as the "Automatic Rifle" and "Police Pistol", respectively.

--->'''Joshua Graham''': "This weapon was designed by a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Browning member of our tribe]] (the New Cannanites, a sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or Mormons) almost four hundred years ago. Mastering it is a New Cannanite rite of passage."

** There's some debate over how "Caesar" would be pronounced. "Kai-zahr" is one interpretation to the original Latin pronunciation, as is "Kay-zahr" - or "Kay" (rhymes with say or day) plus "zahr" (rhymes with bar, car or star), or a softer "s" sound, such as "Kay-sahr".

** Fast Shot used to be an amazing trait. You gave up the Aimed Shot skill, which is mostly useless (by the time you can reliably hit specific body parts, you should have little trouble just killing enemies), to reduce the AP needed per shot by 1. This usually translated into getting at least one extra shot per round. Depending on your weapon and Agility, this could very well mean you were shooting twice per round rather than once, meaning it doubled your damage output. The new version (due to the lack of the Aimed Shot skill) reduces accuracy for a minor AP reduction.
*** Actually, Fast Shot was only amazing for heavy weapon characters, since they couldn't perform aimed shots anyway. A targeted shot to the eyes (which wasn't all that hard to do if your skill was decent enough) with weapons like the gauss or laser rifle resulted in up to 5x normal damage, which was enough to kill an Enclave soldier or tough deathclaw with a single shot, or at least knock them out.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: On the edge of Searchlight is a church with a sign with Revelations 9:6 on it. In case you've forgotten, [[spoiler: the town is filled with feral ghouls you've been sent in to euthanize]], but then again, Revelations is rarely ever [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast quoted when things are swell and dandy.]]

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Legate Lanius is a MadeOfIron murder machine [[spoiler:and serves as the game's "final boss" for every non-Legion ending path.]] Averted with the NCR President Kimball and General Oliver, and even Caesar himself, who are all bog standard humans that go down after a couple decent headshots. Also a case of AsskickingEqualsAuthority, as Lanius got the job as Caesar's right hand man by singlehandedly killing off his entire former tribe in combat.

** Salt-Upon-Wounds, the leader of the White Legs and "final boss" of the DLC, is no slouch himself. He has more health and armor than a Deathclaw Alpha, and is armed with a custom Power Fist. Graham pretty much curbstomps him, though.

* AwesomeYetPractical: The Healing Poultice. Heals a good amount of HP and restores crippled limbs, all for the penalty of -2 Agility for a minute or two. They're even more useful in Hardcore mode when healing items are less effective and Doctor Bags don't heal limbs to full condition. The only catch is that the mixing compounds for it are a bit uncommon in the Mojave, but the poultice comes with the ''Honest Hearts'' add-on, and the ingredients are quite plentiful in Zion.

* AnAxeToGrind: A few of them, especially the fire axe.
** Throw in some RuleOfCool and technobabble, and you get the Protonic Inversal Axe.

** The Courier before the game even starts. His journey started at the Mojave Express in Primm, South of Goodsprings. Most people who have been working as couriers for a while should notice the local wildlife, and as many people discovered, there are Cazadores north of Goodsprings. The Courier's route would have led straight through the swarm if he/she hadn't been shot. Planning to go through a swarm of Cazadores is either badass or TooDumbToLive.
*** Word of god is that the courier was unaware of the danger.

** [[ColonelBadass Colonel Royez]] and [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Gaius Magnus]]. The first is a NCR officer who pacified the whole Long 15 (and still does today) and wears the Scorched Sierra Armor, a pristine PowerArmor almost custom-made for him ; the second is a calmer clone of Lanius who assimilated his whole tribe in the Legion by force and received the Armor of the 87th tribe (his own version of the Legate armor) as a token of bravery from Caesar. Both [[spoiler: survive (at the cost of becoming Marked Men) a nuke on the face if you nuke Dry Wells and/or the Long 15]] and, alone, WILL wipe the floor with anything in the game, including the Courier if [[spoiler: he goes to the Long 15 or Dry Wells after Lonesome Road and the nuking of said zones]]. [[FridgeLogic Makes you wonder why nobody sent those guys to Hoover Dam.]]

** One house owned by a lovesick nerd contains not only a very hostile Mr Gutsy, but also roughly a dozen mixed weapons hidden conspiciously around the place, including a laser rifle in the bathtub. And out by the trailer park you can find a dead guy with another laser rifle... next to a pile of dust and a Legion armor. Nipton did not go quite as quietly as Vulpes Inculta would like to claim.

* BadassLongcoat: The NCR Ranger combat armor; it's the armor shown on the cover, also worn by the sniper at the wall around the Strip in the intro. Later [=DLCs=] add the Desert Ranger Combat Armor and the Elite Riot Gear, each Longcoat more Badass than the last.

* BallisticDiscount: Can be done of course, but many traders and shopkeepers are usually heavily armed themselves as well as having guards and the risk of making the whole town hostile. The Silver Rush is the epitome of this, as they have half-a-dozen guards and one boss character guarding the shopkeeper. Keep in mind that the merchants' inventory and money gets replenished every few days, so killing may be a bad idea for a different reason.

* BeefGate: Used liberally in the beginning. The two north roads to Vegas lead you right into Cazadores and Deathclaws, the latter of which has twice as much health as a standard Deathclaw. To the south, straying from the road is a good way to get giant Radscorpions on your tail, and those things are hard to kill in the early game. It's a good sign that if something manages to kill you in two hits while anything you currently have can't inflict a single scratch in return, you should probably not be in that area yet. On the plus side, limiting specific monsters to specific ecological regions avoids the "anything can pop up anywhere" problem seen in ''Fallout3'', where you'd have Deathclaws showing up just outside the walls of major settlements once your character reached a high-enough level.

* BeingGoodSucks: Almost all of the Followers of the Apocalypse endings [[spoiler: has them taking on more responsibility than they can handle or being screwed outright. One of the only ''"good"'' endings, ironically enough, is an ending which Caesar lives. [[PetTheDog He spares their lives and lets them leave the Mojave Wasteland peacefully out of respect, as they had taught him as a boy]].]]

** Also played straight in the Honest Hearts DLC. [[spoiler: No matter which ending you choose, Daniel will still get the short end of the stick.]] Sure, sometimes it's only as bad as missing the paradise-that-could-have-been Zion, but it's ''very'' easy to make "good" decisions that cause him trouble.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: The game's most powerful NPC is none other than Primm Slim, the Protectron sheriff robot in the Vikki and Vance Casino, who has more than 2,000 HP at level 30. That's just health, of course. It may take you a while, but he's a dolled-up Protectron and couldn't kill you if he wanted to.

** For Dead Money, it's Father Elijah, former head of Mojave chapter of Brotherhood of Steel
** For Honest Hearts, it's Salt-Upon-Wounds, chief of White Legs.
** For Old World Blues, it's [[spoiler: Think Tank, rather than Dr Mobius]]. However, none of them are truly villanious.
** For Lonesome Road, it's Ulysses, former courier, who has personal grudge against Courier, and it's a good one.

* BiTheWay: In one of her lines of dialogue, Cass says that once she is drunk enough, she doesn't care who she ends up in bed with whether they be male or female.
** If you try to invite her into your party when it's occupied by someone else (male or female), she says "I'm not in the mood for a threesome...today".
* BittersweetEnding: The entire game. Not accounting for evil factions like the Fiends and Powder Gangers, there is no way to make the world 100% peaceful and happy no matter what ending you take due to how quests conflict. Some quests don't have a happy ending regardless of who you side with, there's just terrible endings and less-bad ones.

** The Biological Station in Old World Blues threatens to seed the ''shit'' out of you, and has seeded Muggy before.

* BlatantLies: Those radioactive barrels you see both here and in Fallout 3? In the REPCONN headquarters, they're "safety barrels", and being buried in the ground is supposed to be totally safe! Some extremist hippy whackos are just lying to you about their radioactivity!

* BrokenAesop: The overall theme of the DLC ''Dead Money'' is how greed can make people unable to let go of their own vices. To illustrate this point, the casino vault is filled with dozens of gold bars that are far too heavy for you to carry to escape alive, proving that even the player must set aside their greed in order to move on. ... Except that with a stealthboy and some very precise timing, it's fully possible to make off with all the gold without a scratch. So in the end the moral is 'you need to let go of your greed, unless you're clever enough to get away scott free'.

** And even then, it's easy enough to just scrounge around the Sierra Madre Villa and Casino to grab everything that isn't nailed down, and go back to the Mojave with a ton of loot. Letting go of the gold bars is a lot easier when you would be insanely rich even without them, making the Aesop "You can get away with greed as long as you carefully pick your battles and have a strong enough obsessive compulsive disorder".

* AnAesop: The DLC, together, all pretty much end with the lesson, "Let go of the past." All the antagonists of the DLC are, in some way, unable to move on after a point in their life [[hottip:*:Elijah's defeat at Helios One, Graham's (although he's not the antagonist, but still) "execution" by Caesar and his own past, the Think Tank's refusal to cease their experiments, and Ulysses' witnessing [[spoiler: the unwitting destruction of the Divide by the Courier]], to say nothing of the huge emphasis on old-world technology.

** Caesar. [[spoiler:He is a well educated man and talks in a polite manner when interacting with the player. He also used to be a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse, and does still believe in some of their ideals.]] If you don't mind all the murder, misogyny, mass murder, and slavery, he's actually a nice guy.

** The "Hunting Shotgun" is the Remington Model 870, the player even pumps it one handed after reloading just like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. Speaking of Terminator, the lever-action Winchester 1887/1901 shotgun that Arnold uses appears as the "Lever-Action Shotgun" as well[[hottip:Sort of.: The gun in the game is a 20-gauge, where the Winchester 1887/1901 was only made in 10-gauge and 12-guage.]].

** The Thompson Sub Machine-Gun appears in ''Honest Hearts'' DLC as the ".45 Auto Submachine Gun", and has a laser variant in the form of the "Laser RCW".

** The "Hunting Revolver" is a Magnum Research Big Frame Revolver[[hottip:*:Although the Hunting Revolver is a double-action gun with a pop-out cylinder, where the actual BFR is single-action and has a loading gate]].

** "This Machine", as well as its non-unique "Battle Rifle" version from the Gun Runner's Arsenal, is an M1 Garand. The unique version's name is a reference to the motto carved into WoodyGuthrie's guitar, 'This Machine Kills Fascists'.

* TheAlcoholic: Cass really likes her whiskey. You can become one, too.

* AllCrimesAreEqual[=/=]ShopliftAndDie: You haven't lived till you've had all of [[BadassArmy Camp McCarran]] come down on you like the [[DisproportionateRetribution fist of an angry god after ganking one of their butter knives]]. It hasn't improved since Fallout 3, where people would kill you for accidentally taking a tin can bound to their property.

*** This could be a reference to VideoGame/{{Wasteland}}, where in the Quartz Bar several punks turn hostile for coming close to a jukebox playing [[HairMetal Ratt]].

* [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Everything]]: Virtually all of the prewar technology left in the wastes is either no longer functioning or teetering on the very edge of breaking down permanently and irreparably. Some of the guns you can pick up are quite literally held together with electrical tape. Technology that was produced postwar, or which has been continuously maintained, generally averts this, though - the NCR and the Gun Runners employ some very skilled engineers.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Jackals, Vipers, Scorpions, and ''especially'' the [[CompleteMonster Fiends]].

** The White Legs in ''Honest Hearts'' have had a RapePillageAndBurn mentality for so long that they've never bothered to develop any skills they'd need to be self-sufficient, such as agriculture or forraging. Harassing caravans and settlements to steal supplies is the only way they know to survive.

* AmericansHateTingle: In-universe. While Sunset Sarsaparilla was popular in what became the Mojave Wasteland, where it was first produced commercially, it sold very poorly in the Northeast. This is also a HandWave as to why it didn't appear in VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}.
* AnachronismStew: The game starts off in an old west setting with cowboys, prospectors, a chain gang of escaped convicts, and sasparella. As you approach New Vegas it turns into a gangster setting with high-class casinos, shady backdoor dealings between crime families and merchant groups, prositutes and drug dealing. Then you get into the questlines of the three factions, a group of Roman Empire-inspired raiders wearing armor mostly made from football equipment and wielding firearms, an expansionist frontier republic, and the billionaire former head of a {{Megacorp}}.
* AnarchyIsChaos: Both subverted and played straight. [[spoiler:In the Wild Card (Independent anarchy) ending, assuming you solve every town's problems and know when to use diplomacy and when to answer with force, it's actually one of the better endings. If you don't, the Mojave collapses into mayhem and is overrun with raider tribes.]]

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler: A possible fate for Mr. House if you chose to bring him out of the chamber but spare him. He will be unable to control anything or have contact with the outside world. But his medical equipment will keep him alive for at least a year. He will be totally cut off from the outside world as he die a slow death.]]

** The Y-17 Trauma Override Harness was designed to bring a soldier automatically back to camp. However, several bugs in the software of the suit included malfunctions in the IFF and an "unpredictable wandering state". It left anyone who wore the suit to watch helplessly as it gunned down friends and loved ones and wander aimlessly and ceaselessly before slowly dying of starvation or dehydration.

* AnticlimaxBoss: Benny, if you opt to fight him in the arena, will tell you beforehand of his knife-fighting prowess from his tribal days. Depending on your level and skill, Benny is a pushover or, at worst, a mild inconvenience. He is in no way a serious threat. [[InformedAbility Some knife-fighter you turned out to be, Benny.]]

*** Assuming, that is, that one does the DLC at the recommended level or higher: Klein is the only one of the Think Tank[[hottip:*:The ''current'' Think Tank, that is. Mobius also scales with level.]] that scales with level, which all semi-regular and regular enemies also do. In other words, they keep pace no matter the level (indeed, they can even get ''worse''), while 4/5 of the Think Tank becomes less and less of a threat the higher the Courier's level.

** As in all previous installments, all 'final bosses' (save for Father Elijah mentioned above who can be tricked though) can be persuaded to abandon their cause.

* ArcWords: "Enjoy your stay."

* ArmorIsUseless: Refreshingly, [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Due to the way armor is implemented in this game, if you don't match or exceed an enemy's Damage Threshold, you only do 20% of the weapon's damage. This makes armor piercing rounds, overcharged energy ammo, or high damage, long-ranged weapons like a sniper rifle (or a combination of the above) a necessity when fighting deathclaws, Brotherhood of Steel paladins, and the like. For melee specialists, a very big weapon like a super sledge will usually beat the resistance out of just about anything. There are DT-ignoring unarmed weapons, as well.
** Deathclaws play this straight like they did in the last game, as they do a crapton of damage per hit. Since DT is additive instead of multiplicative, far less of the monstrous damage they inflict is negated by armor than in Fallout3.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: Literally, see above. Get your Unarmed Skill high enough and you can eventually take a perk that allows you to negate an enormous amount of an enemy's armor with your melee weapon or punch attacks. Combine this with the Bloody Mess perk that turns enemies into chunky salsa when they die, and congratulations! You are now the FistOfTheNorthStar.

* TheArtifact: The trope is invoked in some of the gameplay mechanics due to several traits and perks from Fallout and Fallout 2 being left in the game. Thes have gone from being anywhere from decent to some of the best options to being to being nearly useless due to the changes in the game engine.

* ArtifactOfDoom: ARCHIMEDES I. Arcade Gannon will leave you on the spot if you use it [[KickTheDog to kill all the NCR personnel on the ground]]. He doesn't care about [[KillSat ARCHIMEDES II]], though.

* ArtificialStupidity: While the AI is better than in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', you are still treated to the sight of a [[TooDumbToLive quest-important NPC strolling slowly through several mines]]. Companions still get stuck on obstacles (though they're better about finding their way to you), etc.

** A particularly nasty case of this occurs with First Recon Alpha Team, Camp McCarran's elite snipers ([[TheCaptain Gorobets]], [[OldSoldier Sterling]], [[NewMeat 10 of Spades]], [[DefectorFromDecadence Bitter]]-[[ColdSniper Root]], and [[RapeAsBackstory Betsy]]). Upon wiping out the leaders of the Fiends, the entire squad will make the transfer to Camp [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Forlorn Hope]], but the route they take going there -- by foot -- leads them past a [[GoshHornet Cazador nest]]. Typically, they will lose at least one or more members to giant wasp abominations of death, though only Gorobets' death is remarked on. Of course, this will only happen if you pay attention to them. Advance the clock a few hours and they'll bounce right to the camp no worse for wear.
* AscendedExtra: To the entire Nightkin sub-species. In the original ''Fallout'', they were little more than an UndergroundMonkey variant of regular Super Mutants (being translucent). Now they actually have plot relevance.
** Doctor Henry goes from being a random thievery target in a Fallout 2 side-quest and a way to get a cyber-dog if you do a bit of field-testing for him to being an important character in several of New Vegas' subplots.
* AscendedMeme: One of the inkblot tests that Doc Mitchell gives you resembles something that isn't available as an option: "Two bears high-fiving". A PC mod [[http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36850 rectifies that]], and it also elicited a response from several devs that that's what they thought it looks like too. Lo and behold in Honest Hearts, there is a Dead Horse tribesman NPC armed with a [[EverythingsWorseWithBears Yao Guai]] gauntlet named [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Two-Bears-High-Fiving "Two-Bears-High-Fiving"]]. However he only appears with Wild Wasteland, so don't go wasting time looking for him if you didn't pick the trait.
* AssholeVictim: An interesting example is Boone's wife Carla. Talking to the people of Novac makes it clear that she hated living there so much that she was prickly, rude, and aloof to pretty much everyone in town to the point that almost no one liked her. But even after all that, she didn't deserve to be enslaved by the Legion [[spoiler:along with her unborn child]].

** The White Legs in ''Honest Hearts'' have had a RapePillageAndBurn mentality for so long that they've never bothered to develop any skills they'd need to be selfs-sufficient, such as agriculture or forraging. Harassing caravans and settlements to steal supplies is the only way they know to survive.

-> [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesHToM I-M]]

-> [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesNToR S-Z]]