There are a lot of different ways to deal
damage to enemies in Fallout New Vegas. Some like to take them out from a distance,
some like to become a maniac with an axe, but there’s one method of attack that is
not used very often. Can You Beat Fallout New Vegas By Only Reverse
Pickpocketing Explosives? Pickpocketing explosives relies on the Sneak
skill, which is influenced by Agility. Luck also provides a boost to all skills. Strength is effectively worthless and any
skill impacted by Charisma can be raised on its own upon leveling up. My skills were Sneak, duh, Lockpick, and Medicine. I checked online to see if Explosives had
any bearing on the damage caused by stuffing a live grenade down someone’s pants, but
found nothing so I ignored it. My traits were Skilled to provide yet another
boost to all skills, and Good Natured because none of the combat skills is takes points
from are worth having in the first place. I then raided Doc Mitchell’s house for any
supplies I could find, went outside to explore a vibrant new world with an ENB that caused
more problems than it was worth so I disabled it after about 45 minutes, and stopped by
Chet’s shop to sell every weapon I had and buy the dynamite he kept on his keychain for
emergencies. Also a shovel in case I came across any graves
I could rob. Sunny Smiles offered to teach me a thing or
two out back, I used the sight I bought from Chet to make sure I didn’t miss, spoke to
Trudy, and found my first target. Deep in his heart, I think Easy Pete always
knew dynamite would be his downfall. Joe Cobb decided when he looked at me funny
in the saloon that he would be my next victim. From behind the safety of a building I carefully
dropped an explosive inside his shoe and sent him to Easy Pete. Before leaving town I stopped by the old schoolhouse
to pick a lock. I got hit by the Brock Lesnar of Mantises,
a single it was all it took to break my leg, the other one broke as well. I healed myself in Victor’s shack and set
off on the road to wherever the wind would take me. Being low on any sort of explosive weapon,
I decided to see if the roller-coaster in Primm was still functioning after all these
years, and maybe ask Johnson Nash if he had any dynamite he didn’t need. Two Powder Gangers had their lives ended a
bit outside of town. With the explosives they had on them and around
them, I had an ample supply of toys to share with those I wanted dead, but went to Primm
anyway. Closer to Primm, it occurred to me that I
am powerless to attack any non-human creatures. Deathclaws don’t have pockets, therefore
I cannot stuff a grenade down them. The NCR Soldier guarding the mostly empty
NCR camp was an unwilling participant in my little game. Also because it wouldn’t hurt to have an
NCR uniform to use the Monorail at Camp McCaren. The thing about pickpocketing explosives is,
you need to remain hidden until they stop screaming. If you’re detected when they die, it doesn’t
count as a sneak attack, meaning that you’ll be an enemy of that faction. Good news is that if you’re not caught it’s
a guaranteed kill regardless of what explosive you use or how high your Explosives skill
is. Sergeant McGee learned that the hard way. I sold most of my nonsense to Johnson Nash
and bought all the dynamite he had, which was unfortunately only 4. When I was snooping around the casino for
stuff to steal, Mrs Johnson Nash had the audacity to speak to me, so I stuck some dynamite in
her pocket. As I expected, nobody cared that she died. With the contents of a few containment cubes
safely inside me, I left to tackle my biggest challenge yet: The Bison Steve Hotel. There are at least a dozen Convicts scattered
throughout the building. The problem is that there’s one walking
towards reception right when you enter the building. Avoiding him is one part luck and one part
hiding behind a puddle of cement and trying not to sneeze from all the dust. Then it’s as easy as waiting for him walk
the other way and starting a surprise game of hot potato. In theory, the rest would die the same way. But I have a knack for making things harder
than they need to be. This Convict in particular is a real nuisance. He generally follows the same path as the
last one, but for whatever reason he seems to be more perceptive of his environment. He also kept walking back and forth between
the doorway and the wall I was hiding behind which didn’t give me enough time to plant
a dynamite in him. Then the game glitched a bit and I stood in
place without him managing to find me, the problem was still there though. I went back to the dust corner to use the
tactic that worked for me before, it didn’t, why would it, so I decided that I could take
whatever punishment they dished out, and I pushed through the Convicts to rescue Detective
Snoopy. He was right behind me for a while, until
he wasn’t. I took the diary off his corpse, picked up
a few stimpaks, and got out of there before they had a chance to turn me into a spit-roast. Johnson Nash didn’t seem to care that Beagle
was dead and since I was feeling exceptionally lazy, I instituted marshal law by making Prim
Slim the new sheriff. The convicts outside tried to interfere with
my looting of the nearby buildings. That is, they did until the sheriff arrived
on the scene to handle them. Turns out that Slim isn’t really suited
for combat. A Convict turned him into swiss cheese while
I used him as a shield. Two sheriffs have now died on my watch. I wasn’t going to let there be a third. I left Primm to do something more productive
with my time. Nipton was my destination, I had big plans
for that town. The Legion proved how nefarious they really
are when they crucified everyone before I had a chance to. I went ahead and agreed to spread word of
the Legion’s atrocities before I got to work, which is when I noticed something unfortunate. I killed three people with a single pocket
pants explosion, but I only got experience for a single kill and I’m not entirely sure
why. If nothing else, their corpses gave me a solid
amount of things to sell. But there was one man left standing, the big
cheese, Vulpes himself. The problem here is that I have no way of
taking out the dog and with the dog always behind Vulpes, I can’t sneak any dynamite
into his pocket. I was more than okay with waiting for my opportunity
to strike, so I followed him for a long while to see where he went. I realized how futile my ideas were when the
radscorpions left both him and his dog alone for some reason. He eventually went back towards Nipton, then
he took the train tracks to the Mojave Drive-In. It was here my patience ran out. I clearly would not be able to kill him, so
I began heading South across the desert to Mojave Outpost. Once I got there, I sold a few things to Lacey,
bought 10 more explosives, told Ranger Ghost what happened at Nipton, sent her to the afterlife,
and saw how horrendously ugly she is. Before beginning the journey to the Strip,
I bought a few things from Chet, fixed Snuffles leg, and avoided all the Deathclaws and Super
Mutants infesting the area on the way North. I made a quick detour to discover the El Dorado
Substation, failed at hiding in a bush, and made my way to Boulder City. I exploded the pussy looking at the cement
slab and sent him to his brother. Monroe let me head into the city proper to
deal with Jessup. It didn’t really work out, so I just blew
up his companion and then J-Dog himself. The NCR soldiers opened fire on the Great
Khans, I looted the corpses, shattered a few limbs when Monroe turned into confetti, and
the past came back to haunt me. The Terminator found me. Victor is relentless in his quest to say Howdy. I ran far and I ran fast, but nowhere was
safe from him. I took off the clothes that were weighing
me down and sought refuge in the lake. It worked, I was safe, but only for a time. He was determined to confront me. It wasn’t long before he began pushing his
luck by making his way into the lake. Once he learned he was in over his head, literally,
he turned around to try and escape. But it was too late, the water had him wrapped
around its finger. The harder squirmed the deeper into the water
he went. Soon he was trapped in his watery grave, condemned
to be fully conscious as his housing rusted away and his components began to fry. With the peace of mind knowing that Victor
will die in agony years from now, I stopped by the Gun Runners to sell weapons I didn’t
need and to buy explosives. The Vendor had none, so I bought Combat Armor
instead, persuaded Mick to open his special armory, and with all the explosives in the
world, I made my way towards Freeside. But before that, I went inside the King’s
School of Impersonation to pay a visit to the King himself. I couldn’t smooth talk my way inside and
I wasn’t parting with my money, so I blew up Pacer, took the key off his corpse, then
paid my respects to the King by send him into orbit. With my good deed for the day done, I finally
entered the Strip and all my hard work was ruined when Victor greeted me. My first stop was the Tops to deal with Benny. I was pretty concerned with how this would
play out, not being able to sneak explosives into the casino would complicate things. But I had my dynamite stuffed away securely
enough that they didn’t find it during the ocular pat-down. The next problem was figuring out how to take
out Benny. My first thought was to blow up one of the
guards, but even with Sneak at 100 I couldn’t get into a position where I was both hidden
and close enough to plant a stick of dynamite. Then, a new idea. I talked to Benny and told him I’d meet
him in his Presidential Suite. Without having to worry about triggering dialog
by getting to close, I was able to hide dynamite in his pocket and take them all out at once. I didn’t get experience for killing them
all, but I did complete the Ring-A-Ding-Ding quest, got the Platinum Chip, met Yes Man,
and left to return the chip to Mr House. He upgraded the Securitrons as best he could
from the confines of his dungeon, the very same dungeon that I visited after telling
him I was going to meet Caesar. It was a classic lie, he never saw it coming. For the briefest of moments I forgot how to
deal with Mr House, then I remembered I could leave him out of his little tube to let him
rot away. With that out of the way, I returned to Nipton
to head SouthEast towards Cottonwood Cove. The sky was green, the sea was green, everything
was green in Camp Searchlight. Eventually I arrived at the Legion headquarters
and met with Caesar to get my first mission. He tasked me with going down to the irradiated
hellhole below the Fort. I wasn’t sure if robots could be pickpocketed,
but my limp spaghetti noodle body couldn’t survive the punishment inflicted while I tried
to find out. And rather than destroying the generators
with my fists, I upgraded the robots. Caesar is pleased regardless and this way
I don’t damage my delicate fingers. With that done, it was time to get to know
the factions around the Mojave. The Boomers were first because why not. Oddly enough even with Endurance at 1 I had
no problem getting through their missile barrage. After meeting with Pearl, I decided that the
total annihilation of the Boomers was the only option, starting with Pearl. This path requires that the rest of their
leadership also die, so I stuck a grenade in Raquel and killed her. That pissed everyone off. A smart person would’ve reloaded a save
and tried again. Not me, because I actually forgot that I had
to kill everyone. I’d killed Raquel for fun and ran away to
try to find a place to hide and fast-travel away. It was then I realized that I still had to
kill Loyal. This should’ve been easier than it was. It a certain point the roles were reversed. Instead of me running after someone, Loyal
and Loyal Jr were running after me with pipes in hand and cruel intentions in their minds. I decided after failing to pickpocket someone
in power armor that I wasn’t going to side with the Legion. From there, my only objective was to escape. As I got launched over a building it dawned
on me that I probably should have gone about this another way. I managed to find a place that was far enough
away from everyone else that I could finally leave the Boomers behind and set my eyes on
greener pastures. I traveled to 188 Trading Post to get Veronica
as my companion to make dealing with the Brotherhood easier. With her by my side, we entered the Hidden
Valley and she started killing radscorpions. Veronica turning a radscroption into paste
is not a pickpocketed explosive kill. I left her with Snuffles while I discovered
the actual location, something I still hadn’t done for some reason despite being there,
then went back to get her, and fast-traveled directly to the bunker entrance to keep her
from killing any scorpions. She did not like that. She was more interested in being a pouty bitch
than helping me out. After waiting for centuries she saw the error
of her ways, used her password, and got us inside the bunker. The Brotherhood were dealt with, Veronica
was sent to the Lucky 38 where she wouldn’t see me kill Paladin Ramos. The end was almost near, all that remained
was the Great Khans. The closest place I’d been to Red Rock Canyon
was Goodsprings. Chet and Doc Mitchell sold me their wares,
I ignored the warning signs, and pressed into Cazador country. I got one of my legs blasted off by a Cazador
sting but other than that, and getting lambasted by a group of Raiders for interrupting their
private time together, I got to Red Rock Canyon with only a few hundred scratches and a basketball
sized lump on my leg from the Cazador venom. Regis was the first man I spoke to, just to
ensure that no matter what else happened, the quest could be finished. Inside the Great Khan House, I reverse pickpocketed
a single explosive into a great khan and killed everyone in the room with it. I did the same thing to Karl and killed every
Karl in the room. In fact, the explosions were so powerful that
Papa Khan managed to take damage while he was sleeping in a locked room. He took even more when I blew his back off
his body. The two remaining factions were the Omertas
and White Gloves. Without going into specifics, all you need
to know about what happened at Gomorrah is that I briefly assumed the role of receptionist. There was absolutely not a puddle of corpse
just behind the counter. The White Gloves were a bit more difficult. I killed one near the entrance which seemed
to annoy a few people, including Mortimer. But it didn’t matter because all the pawns
had been dealt with, it was time for the major players to take their turns. I let the Legion do whatever they felt like
to the NCR President, installed the thing at El Dorado Substation, and began the Battle
of Hoover Water Power Plant, I can’t swear or… things will happen. The push towards the offices was easy enough. The Legion and NCR were distracted with each
other, the two groups unintentionally worked together to kill me when I was the only target
in the vicinity as I worked my way towards the power flipper. The path to the Legate’s Camp was handled
by the Securitrons, I entered the Camp, and things got difficult. As I leveled up through this run, I maxed
out Speech as a failsafe. My intentions were always to kill the Legate
with a pickpocketed explosive. But there are a couple problems. The first is that it is impossible to get
close enough to him to plant a grenade without triggering dialog. Even with a Stealth Boy and Sneak at 100 it
can’t be done. The dialog is automatically triggered when
you’re close enough to him. My next option was to engage in combat but
run away, hide, and stick a grenade in him. The problem with this tactic is that there
are Legion Soldiers everywhere. Avoiding the Legate would be troublesome,
but hiding while half a dozen Praetorian Guards are running after you make it nearly impossible,
not to mention the ones in the towers that I can’t do anything about. I tried finding spots to position myself out
of reach, hoping that they’d run off and my Stealth Boy would help me become Hidden,
but it just wouldn’t work. I saw nothing on the Fallout Wiki about being
able to pickpocket the Legate to begin with. What I did see, though, was a post on GameFaqs
from 8 years ago saying that you can reverse pickpocket Lanius. I based everything on that. But no matter what I tried, I couldn’t do
it. At one point, I managed to become hidden a
few feet from him while wearing a Stealth Boy. As soon as I moved in any direction, he became
aware of where I was and came after me. Before I activated the failsafe, I had to
know if it was possible at all, if the game would even allow you to pickpocket the Legate. There are two console commands that let you
disable NPC AI. One disables combat and one disables them
altogether. I use them both to turn everyone in the Camp
into a vegetable, used a Stealth Boy to become hidden, and reverse pickpocketed an explosive
into 2 different Praetorian Guards to ensure that it could still be done with the commands
I used, approached the Monster of the East, and pressed E to Pickpocket Legate Lanius. Nothing happened. I even recorded this short video to prove
that I was pressing E and that nothing was happening. I briefly considered going back and trying
a different ending, but the only other option is facing General Lee Oliver and if this doesn’t
work on the Legate, there’s no reason to assume it would work on Oliver either. So, I used Speech to convince the Legate to
live to fight another day, approached the entrance to the camp, Oliver arrived, and
in an ironic twist, I was able to stuff dynamite down his trousers, cripple his entire group
of Veteran NCR Rangers, avoid Yes Man for as long as possible, try and fail to escape,
drop a stick of dynamite at my feet just before I spoke to Yes Man, and beat
Fallout New Vegas by only reverse pickpocketing explosives.
