There are a lot of fun challenges you could
try your hand at in Fallout New Vegas. Restrict yourself to certain weapons, remove
vital aspects of the core gameplay, install a mod to take a hands off approach to wasteland
destruction. But what if you wanted something more… permanent? Can You Beat Fallout New Vegas With Only 1
Life? This challenge probably works exactly the
way you thought it would, if I die at any point in the playthrough, I start the entire
game over. Simple as that. But if you’ve seen my videos, you know I’m
a fan of the cheese technique. I usually rely heavily on the quick save feature
to save scum my way through the game, which is why I decided that I would only reload
a save if the game crashed. My SPECIAL stats were fairly standard, I drained
Charisma, put points into Endurance, Intelligence, and Luck, then spread out the rest to have
a decent selection of perks to choose from, and picked Barter, Guns, and Medicine as my
Tag skills. If you wanted to play it safe, you’d go
for Speech to avoid confrontation, but relying on Speech all the time is boring. What’s the point of doing a perma-death
run if you change your mind and talk your way out of a fight. Barter was only to be able to afford supplies
early on. My traits were Skilled to provide a small
boost to all skills and Fast Shot because why not. It’s the opposite of Trigger Discipline,
which is what I usually take. After looting Pink Mouth’s house for all
his toys, I went outside, made a failsafe YOLO save, sold what I didn’t need to Chet,
bought myself a Silenced Weaponry, and entered the saloon looking for a good time. And by god did I find it. With my only Holy Point round, I gently sent
this Settler to the afterlife, draped his body over the toilet as an homage to me during
movie night in the Mitten Squad Discord server, borrowed this cup’s handgun, blew apart
their cousins outside in the firefight of the century, and got to work haggling with
the barkeep. You might be asking yourself why I’m buying
food, well that’s because I’m also playing on Hardcore Mode. But I’m not, like, what’s the word, good
at video games, so I’m only playing on Normal instead of Very Hard. From there I did the usual Ghost Town Prom
Night song and dance involving failing to convince Trudy to join us, failing to convince
Deputy Dynamite to join us, getting some Tylenol from the doctor, and blowing those convict
s to kingdom come. I used the Grenade Launcher Jesus got me for
my rebirth to do most of the work on the Power Gangers. Corn on the Joe was for some reason sitting
back not helping his brothers, I gave him a hand, leveled up, did the patented “carry
the naked corpse to the door of the store so you’re not over encumbered” technique,
sold the remainder of my garbage, and set off for the rest of the game. I was more careful with the Powder Gangers
than I should’ve been, probably. The Varmint Rifle I got from Sunny Delight
was more than enough to end their life, but you can never be too careful when living as
Professor YOLO. The puppies were similar, the baby was tougher
than you’d expect. Not that it mattered, it still looked kinda
like this [pile of BB’s] by the time I was done with it. Once I’d fixed Snuffle’s leg and stole
some ammo from the Prospectors for daring to interrupt me, I spent most of my 10mm ammo
on a few Bark Scorpions for some easy experience, leveled up, put the points into Guns, Explosives,
and Survival, tried in vain to shoot a few Super Mutants from 190 yards away with a handgun,
the issue there was that I could see nothing, so I left to stew in my own failure and continue
on through the Valley of Bowser, Deathclaws, whatever. I’ve done this with my feet, I’ve done
this with a Guitar Hero controller, it’s not hard. Closer to the Strip, I got lucky when an NCR
Soldier got turned into toast. The stench of burning death on his uniform
didn’t bother me, so I snagged it, looted a few fiend bodies, and went all John Wick
on these ants hiding out in this building. I also went down into their hidey-hole to
see what all the fuss was about. The fuss was the giant pregant ant queen in
the basement. The babies in her stomach did a good job of
taking the brunt of the explosive damage from the 19 sticks of dynamite I chucked under
her. She also spasmed for quite a while after she
died. Probably the leftover ants in her tummy causing
a ruckus. In a moment of stupidity, I swapped out a
good shotgun for A Really Terrible Shotgun that did like 10 damage total. Didn’t know that at the time though. I learned me that real good when I tried to
help a drug addict with her addiction problem and my shots barely tickled her. Inside Camp McCarren, I perused the humans
for anyone offering supplies in exchange for the local currency or equipment of equal value,
found this cute little bounty hunter, entered the Strip via the NCR Thomas, somehow this
freak knew I had guns on me, and I entered the Tops ready to make the real game begin. As is tradition, sometimes, when I feel like
it, I got myself some chips and gambled my way into the upper echelon of society. Only took me about 15 minutes to earn 10,000
chips and get kicked out of the Casino. Before taking the fight to Bennifer, I traveled
out to the Gun Runners to acquire me some new toys. I also met this Oreo Monroe piece of filth
who was rude to me after I broke into his house. The old man new his way around a blown off
leg, and I had some sort of aneurysm right as he died, but I assumed it was nothing,
left, and arrived at the Gun Runners. I was hoping for an affordable child-friendly
sniper rifle of some sort, but they were sold out. One day the Delightful Children From Down
the Lane are gonna get what’s coming to them for stealing guns from hard working Americans. So I settled on a Battle Rifle, an M1911 because
what’s a video game without a 1911, a set of Combat Armor, a Remington 870, and a couple
thousand caps worth of ammo. I’d need all the help I could get to take
down Benny. Unlike other playthroughs, I only had one
shot at him. Armed to the teeth with enough bullets to
take down a baby giraffe, I returned to the Strip, ready to execute my plan. I had almost everything I needed, I was just
lacking one key ingredient: lingerie. See, what you didn’t know but might’ve
noticed is that my character’s purple hair and pink skin was originally intended for
this guy [Vault Ditto thumbnail]. That didn’t really work out, the idea seemed
better suited for Fallout 4 than New Vegas, but I used the character anyway. I’ve explained this before, my New Vegas
is almost as ed as my Fallout 3, I can’t start a new game, so any time I “start”
a new playthrough I load a save I made right after I get up from Doc Mitchell’s bed which
is also after I disabled most of the additional features from the World of Pain mod, things
like sprinting and bullet time and getting perks at every level are disabled and any
damage or level modifiers are set to their vanilla default values. The only thing I use is the inventory sorter. Where was I? Oh right, getting a nice bra for Professor
YOLO. Turns out the lingerie doesn’t increase
your Luck, which was what I wanted to increase to run this casino out of business. I still had Luck of 9 though, so once more
I gambled until I’d won enough chips to be kicked out, cashed out, noticed an interesting
looking stripper, and entered the Tops again, and handed over all my weapons. You, just like the Chairmen, fell for my trap. I was going to systematically and metaphorically
disembowl every Chairmen in that god forsaken casino. Sneaking is the name of the game. Unfortunately, I put almost no points into
Sneak. It would appear that what I lack in hair I
also lack in my ability to plan ahead. The small upside to this massacre was that
I had a Stealth Boy, Hollow Points, and enough points in Guns to be able to take down Benny
in a few shots. I’d have let him me and leave in the dead
of night but the Confirmed Bachelor perk doesn’t let that happen. With the Platinum Chip in my still invisible
pocket, I met Yes Man, returned to the Gun Runners who were temporarily out of order
for some reason, was interrupted by Malcom Holmes, he got what was coming to him, and
I realized what I had to do. I wanted the prettiest puppy in the window,
the Medicine Stick. The only problem is that it’s almost 30,000
caps. That meant I had to do something I’ve never
done before. What was that thing I had to do? That’s right. But to do that, I had a couple stops to make
first, the first of which was Primm. I witnessed a clash of the titans on my way
there, I’m a little glad the squirrel won, I would’nt have been able to bring myself
to kill the roach. Before paying a visit to Johnson and Mr Nash,
I entered the Bison Bteve Botel to gain some easy experience in the form of Convicts and
collect as many sellable weapons from their corpses as I could. I have a Battle Rifle and Combat Armor, death
was never an option. The Deputy was rescued from his vacation,
he disappeared right before my eyes as I stood there for an hour, and I finally met the Legendary
Mister Nash. Got myself a couple hundred caps from him
and I thought to myself “hey, why not kill them all”. The idea was to go in all quiet like and take
them out one at a time with couple well placed torso-evaporating bullets. The first guy went down smooth but the second
one didn’t. There was a comedy of errors that occurred
here that ultimately led to everyone charging me and me having to put them down. To be honest, I was more concerned with the
.308 ammo I used to kill them than the ending of their lives. On the plus side, it leveled me up, which
allowed me to dump some points into Barter to make it easier to get that Special Gun. From there I continued my journey in one of
the four directions, killed some guys in the Viper Hideout, killed a bunch of bugs to accomplish
two things. I wasn’t going to use this gun later on
in the playthrough or in any situation where I was considered with the possibility of my
own demise, so I used it on the ants to get excess ammo out of my system and get more
experience. Then I made the most important discovery in
the history of Fallout New Vegas since that reload glitch that lets you fly. These ants are so light you can send them
soaring for like a mile. It wasn’t long before I found myself at
the bar where phase 2 of the plan unofficially began. I sold the weapons I didn’t need to up my
cap count once more, returned to the Strip, entered the Lucky 38, discovered that Mr House
has gotten sloppy in his old age, somehow Vulpes managed to get inside the casino. House wasn’t too impressed by me almost
not giving him the Platinum Chip. I would’ve gone all the way with the old
man to see if he’d send every Securitron after me, but I wasn’t confident that I’d
be able to survive that, so I agreed to go down to the basement instead. It was then the real game began. I entered the real basement where Mr House
keeps his body. I considered knocking him out with the golden
gloves, then I decided to just let him exist on life support forever trapped in the pod
he built with no way to die. Then, in the Ultra Lux, I laid the foundation
for phase 3. Back to the Blackjack table I went. This one went surprisingly well, quicker than
the others. I began Doubling Down any time I had to draw
another card. With Luck of 9 it’s more likely than not
that you’ll beat the house and win 400 caps in the process. The Ultra Lux actually let me win far more
caps than I thought they would’ve. I got 15,000 caps before I finally got that
achievement and got kicked out. Well, they asked me to stop gambling, so,
naturally, I went up to the hotel portion and kinda killed everyone. Then I left, went back to the Gun Runners
with 32,000 ing caps, and bought myself the Medicine Stick, all the ammo they had for
like everything I had as well as a silencer for my 1911, and, decked out with the best
equipment I could afford, I headed to 188 Trading Post to acquire a sentient tool and
more ammo from an under-the-bridge arms dealer. Somehow, in the dead of night as I struggled
to find the right bunker, Veronica almost ate the big one. I’m not sure if it was the souls of the
scorpions I’d killed earlier or some sort of an asthma attack from all that dust. Regardless, she got me inside, I never had
to interact with the Brotherhood again, and returned to Goodsprings to take the stupid
route Red Rock Canyon. I had a slave, Combat Armor, and arguably
the best rifle in the game, if I was ever suited to take on Cazadors, it was now. The Medicine Stick certainly proved its worth,
ending Young Cazadors with a single shot, if you’re using hollow points, and the big
lads in two shots. I’m not at all sorry to say that Veronica
didn’t survive the trip. That was a lie, sort of. I’d given her a lot of my food and beverage
to carry, so I had to play connect the dots to figure out what was worth carrying and
what was worth discarding to rot in her corpse. Speaking of things that didn’t survive,
I almost didn’t survive passing through this small settlement. They used hyena tactics and surrounded me
on all sides before they began their assault. I might’ve been exaggerating when I said
that I almost didn’t survive, but this was the closest I’d yet come to dying. To make myself feel better, I did away with
a few Bighorners, then arrived at Red Rock, killed one person because he asked what I
was doing, went back to Freeside, and began my journey to Nellis. I made sure to use the most powerful weapon
I had to end George. I got crippled and lost half my health on
the way to the border, met with Pearl, foolishly forgot to put enough points into Speech to
pass this check, and got to work doing you know what to you know who. The Doctor Gun is so powerful that it could
kill Raquel and a Boomer in Power Armor both in one shot each. The only thing left to do from there was go
back to the Ultra Lux because I still hadn’t made them extinct yet. With my Guns skill at 100 and all the weapons
I had, this was almost too easy. It was a beautiful annihilation. Yes Man rolled over to the Lucky 38, console
commanded himself inside the shell of Mr House, I told him how I really felt about all the
factions, decided to let the NCR President die, and rambled over to the El Dorado Sub
Station to activate the power flipper. The NCR soldiers guarding the place never
stood a chance. Before the 2nd Battle of Hoover Dam began,
I purchased a few last minute pieces of supplies from Doc Mitchell, thanked him for all he
did, had to kill a Settler because he overheard the ruckus going on inside the house on the
hill, and was finally at Hoover Dam. Given the nature of this run, you might’ve
expected me to spam Stimpaks and run passed all the Legion Shoulders, but that’s not
what I did. Again, a big gun means big fun. If I landed a critical shot, which was more
likely now than ever thanks to the Finesse perk I took earlier, the Centurions could
go down in 1 headshot. Without the bonus, they only took 2 shots. Inside the Offices, I swapped over to a double
barrel shotgun with slugs which made quick work of the two shiny bois. With the Hoover Dam Power Generators rendered
impotent, Quartermaster Baron put up a good fight until I blew his head off, the Legion
soldiers went down like the sacks of nonsense they are, I checked just to make sure I was
still in Hardcore Mode and on Normal, and exited the Offices back onto the dam itself. With several more lives ended and another
level under my belt, I entered the Legate’s Camp, ready for the real game to begin. I was a bit worried that I only had about
30 shots left for my big boy rifle. I still had the Anti-Maternal Gun, but it
fires so slow and is not great in close quarters unless you stick the barrel into someone’s
esophagus before you pull the trigger. That said, I was glad I had it, it made dealing
with the tower guys much easier than it would’ve been otherwise. I used the Grenade Rifle I borrowed from Pearl
to startle the Praetorian Guards, it really didn’t work that well, so I finished them
off with the Medicine Stick, killed a cow for good luck, and approached the Legate. Just like with every situation in this plathrough,
I had to be smart, I only had one shot at this, and if the Legate knocks you down with
his big stick you’re pretty much done for. I laid down a mine knowing that he’d hit
it as he retreated, took every drug I had to boost my damage and increase damage resistance,
among other things, whipped out the brush gun, and pumped 8 shots into the Legate. Those 8 shots from the 2nd most powerful rifle
in the game only knocked off about 60% of his health, but he ran away as I anticipated. After he made his move again me, New Vegas
finally found its moment to me. I entered VATS to get a headshot on a Guard,
and the game locked me in VATS with no way to move. I was sure that was it, the game was over,
but I slipped Lady Luck a crisp $5 bill after she slapped me, she helped me out, I survived,
barely, Now I did have to take a bunch of Stimpaks and use a couple Doctors Bags to
get my health to restore itself fast enough to offset the massive amounts of damage I
was taking, but I still managed to blow the Legate’s head off. The remaining Legion Vets worried me a bit,
often times it’s not the Legate that gives me trouble, its cleaning up the scraps. However, I still had a good amount of ammo
left and plenty of Stimpaks, so it wasn’t too bad. All that was left to do was deal with General
Oliver. I made sure to stick myself with as many healing
syringes as I could handle before the conversation started to keep my spirits up as his men filled
my body with lead, it worked like a charm, and I beat Fallout New Vegas with only one
life, but also without reloading any saves AND, arguably more importantly, without the
game crashing. That’s right, I only saved in case the game
crashed and it didn’t crash one ing time.
