This Fallout: New Vegas beginner’s guide is here to keep you upright in the Mojave Wasteland. With a free gun and a few stimpaks from good ol’ Doc Mitchell, you’ll get a quick boost — after that, it’s about sniffing out abandoned campers, digging up valuables, and steering well clear of Quarry Junction.
Here are the best early-game tips and tricks to get through your first hours in New Vegas without becoming gecko chow.
Install mods for quality-of-life improvements
New Vegas is a phenomenal RPG, but without a few fixes, it can feel creaky in 2025. Do yourself a favor and grab a reliable mod setup like Viva New Vegas, which rolls in bug fixes, visual touch-ups, and smart quality-of-life tweaks so you can actually enjoy the Mojave instead of wrestling it.
After installing, pop into the mod configuration menu in-game and tune a few basics: adjust your field of view, tweak or disable head bob while sprinting, decide how you want objective markers to behave, and set up the weapon wheel to your liking.
Charisma is the “dump stat”
When you’re allocating S.P.E.C.I.A.L. at the start, Intelligence and Endurance pay off immediately. Charisma? Not so much. It mostly nudges barter, speech, and companions, and it’s widely considered the least useful stat in New Vegas. Drop Charisma to 1 to free up points for the stuff that actually keeps you alive.
To compensate, make Speech one of your three tagged skills on the next screen so you can still pass those early dialogue checks. And if you already finalized your build, don’t worry — you’ll get one more chance to tweak your attributes just before leaving Goodsprings for the first time.
Rob Doc Mitchell for free goodies
The Doc is generous — and, conveniently, his stuff isn’t marked as stealing. In New Vegas, red text means “don’t touch,” but his items show up in yellow, which means you can help yourself. Scour his house for scrap, stimpaks, energy cells, and yes, a free laser pistol sitting on a shelf near the character creator gizmo.
Once you’ve lightened the Doc’s inventory, sell the haul at the Goodsprings General Store next to the saloon. If you’re overencumbered, take what you can, come back for the rest later.
Save regularly or face the consequences
Autosave exists, but it doesn’t trigger often enough to rely on. It’s very possible to finish a quest step, fast travel, make progress elsewhere, die, and get punted back farther than you’d expect if you didn’t drop a manual save. Also, vanilla New Vegas can still crash. Get in the habit of quicksaving often.
Get a shovel to dig up valuables
Why a shovel? For entirely respectful, not-at-all-dodgy grave… investigating. Pick one up at the Goodsprings store and keep it on you. The Goodsprings Cemetery, just north of town, is a great first stop. Keep an eye out for the snow globe there — it sells for a hefty pile of caps.
Don’t forget about these useful features
New Vegas doesn’t surface some handy controls very well. A few to remember:
- Flashlight: Hold the Pip-Boy button to toggle it — Tab on PC, Circle on PlayStation, B on Xbox.
- Holster weapon: Hold reload to put your gun away — R on PC, Square on PlayStation, X on Xbox.
- Pass time: T on PC, Select on PlayStation, Back on Xbox.
- Fast travel: Once you’ve discovered a major location, you can jump to it from the map instantly.
Find a place to sleep through the night
Night fights in the Mojave are rough when you can’t see anything. If you need a safe spot in Goodsprings, there’s a sleeping bag in an old camper just north of the store and saloon. It’s also got a little free loot and a place to stash gear.
Note that sleeping here won’t give you the Well Rested bonus. That requires a bed you own or pay for, which grants 10% bonus XP for the next 12 in-game hours. An easy early option is renting a room at the Dino Dee-lite motel in Novac.
Avoid angering Goodsprings or the Powder Gangers
After “By a Campfire on the Trail” and “Back in the Saddle,” Sunny Smiles points you to the Prospector Saloon to talk with Trudy. Inside, you’ll walk into a standoff between Trudy and Joe Cobb of the Powder Gangers.
You can back Goodsprings or throw in with the Powder Gangers, kicking off either “Ghost Town Gunfight” or “Run Goodsprings Run.” It’s worth doing — just maybe not immediately. A hostile faction in your backyard is awkward when you’re undergeared. Grab the Doc’s freebies, sort out your loadout, and unlock a few fast travel points first.
Don’t visit Quarry Junction
If a veteran New Vegas fan tells you to swing by Quarry Junction (near the Great Khans’ territory) “for loot,” they’re messing with you. Do not stroll in there early. It’s crawling with some of the nastiest enemies in the game — read: deathclaws — and they will mulch low-level couriers. Give it a wide berth until at least level 15, and level 20 is even better.