Fallout Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Fallout Wiki

 
Gametitle-FNV
Gametitle-FNV

Metallic Monks

People in Freeside generally fall into one of two categories. Those who've been here all their lives call themselves Locals. When people from the NCR and other places started pouring in, the Locals began referring to them as Squatters, and the name stuck. The Locals blame the Squatters for the scarcity of resources in Freeside, and the Squatters blame any act of violence against them on the Locals. They're both right to some extent, and violent outbreaks between the two are all too common these days.Rotface

Freeside is the main slum adjacent to but not controlled by Mr. House's New Vegas in 2281. It is protected by and or loosely ruled by the Kings and the Van Graffs, the streets are dangerous and lack the luster of the New Vegas Strip. There is a conflict between the locals and squatters that followed the NCR.

Background

Freeside was built up around the intersection of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard. The influx of destitute travelers in recent months has created problems for its local residents.Fallout: New Vegas loading screen

Las Vegas wasn't heavily damaged during the Great War, but people didn't immediately settle into the remnants of the old city. The various Vault tribes and indigenous people that emerged years later hunted and fought amongst themselves within the ruins, but it was not until the "return" of Mr. House and his robot enforcers that they ceased most of their open hostilities.

Mr. House's robots directed the tribes to use the sizable quantities of pre-War construction materials to build the crude (but effective) outer walls that separate The Strip and Freeside from the rest of New Vegas.

While House valued the area around Fremont Street, he ultimately viewed it as secondary in importance to the Strip itself and had a second, inner wall built that separated the two areas. When the NCR prospectors (and eventually the army) arrived in the region, people typically went straight for The Strip, leaving "Freeside" (as it had become known by locals) as an informal stopping point. Eventually Mr. House recognized that he could use Freeside as a filter for undesirables, and pulled his favored tribes and all Securitrons into the Strip, leaving Freeside to fend for itself.

In the two years that followed, Freeside slowly degenerated into a hostile, lawless den of ne'er-do-wells. For a while, it was completely without order, but two power groups managed to come to an understanding about how the area needed to be maintained. The Kings prevent all-out-chaos from erupting, but do little to deal with the day-to-day nastiness that Freesiders inflict on each other. The Followers of the Apocalypse, no longer associated with the NCR, settled in the Old Mormon Fort. They receive some protection from the Kings in exchange for help with the community's basic needs (food, water, health services, and some education). Despite the oversight from the Kings, and help from the Followers, the people in Freeside live in daily peril from each other as well as outside forces.[1]

Layout

Freeside is centered on the intersection of Las Vegas Blvd. and Fremont Street and is divided into two sections via a gate. The first section is C shaped and comprised of the western, northern, and eastern parts of the district. This section is the first that can be entered from the Mojave as it has both of Freeside's external gates. Several rough bodyguards stand near the gates, offering their "protection" on the mean streets for a paltry sum of caps.

Points of interest in this section include:

  • The Old Mormon Fort, the base of operations for the Followers of the Apocalypse, is just inside Freeside's North Gate.
  • Mick & Ralph's, which is just inside Freeside's East Gate. Ralph sells a fake passport to the strip if The King gives permission, or with a Speech skill of 50. The price is 500 caps, but a Barter skill check can be passed for a lesser price of 375 caps. Outside the store, a pair of children can sometimes be seen running around the streets, a boy and girl. The boy is named Max and if he is spoken to, the Courier can pay 1000 caps (or 20 caps with 45 Barter) for his "toy gun" the Euclid's C-Finder which is a unique energy weapon that is powered by the ARCHIMEDES II satellite. The C-Finder can also be pickpocketed from him while he is sleeping.
  • Cerulean Robotics, which can be found in the western part of this section.
  • A ruined store which holds an NCR food distribution center, also found in the western part of this section.

The second section covers the central and southern parts of the district. This section is reached from the north by passing through a wrecked-vehicle roadblock that divides the two parts of Freeside, or from the north-west through a zone door at the back of a ruin building between the Silver Rush and the Atomic Wrangler casino, or from the south via the The Strip North Gate.

Points of interest in this section include:

Campfires can be found up by the north gate to the New Vegas Strip. When facing the gate, the fenced off area guarded by Securitrons is flanked by empty lots. In each of these lots is at least one campfire.

Buildings

Inhabitants

Related quests

Notes

  • The background music is Metallic Monks, which has been originally used for Lost Hills.
  • The drunks in Freeside have a unique animation where they lean against the wall and vomit. An NCR trooper will use this animation when first entering the New Vegas Strip.
  • With Accepted reputation an unnamed King will appear and give the Courier either a few bottle caps or a random aid item.
  • With an Unpredictable reputation a local will approach the Courier and say that Mick & Ralph would like to offer a discount, so long as they: "Keep making waves".
  • If the Courier kills the giant rat that the group of kids are chasing they will eat it, using the cannibal animation.
  • With a good reputation/Karma with the Kings they will aid the Courier when under attack by local thugs.
  • In the ruins of the destroyed building across Mick & Ralph's is a uniquely named corpse 'man' wearing a destroyed collar.
  • The eastern-most gate in the first section of Freeside will have a one or several thugs spawn at the end of the street every four days.

Appearances

Freeside appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

  • The telephone poles in Freeside all have metal plates with "TES-04" stamped on them. This is a reference to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, another game by Bethesda.
  • Freeside is named as such due to the main sign losing all but the first three letters (Fremont Street), similar to Arefu, Novac, The Pitt, and the Fabulous New Vegas sign.
  • James Garcia created the 3D model of the neon sign letters.[2]

Bugs

  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 In Freeside you will notice a boy and a girl chasing a giant rat, talk to them as they run and the girl has a regular voice actor as well as the boy. After killing the rat, the girl or the boy (whichever is closest) will eat the rat. When you talk to them now they share a voice actor. So the boy now sounds like a girl, or the girl a boy.[verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 Sometimes after you kill the giant rat, the first boy chasing the rat will fall to his knees to take a bite but will continue to move forward at running speed despite being in a crouched position and going through the rat-eating animation.[verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 If you are outside of the Vegas Strip when you update the game, but have gained access to it at another point, you can be permanently locked out.[verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 Sometimes outside the Old Mormon Fort the super mutant Tabitha can spawn and become hostile; killing her results in the completion of the quest "Crazy, Crazy, Crazy" (if you have not started the quest it will add the quest to your Pip-Boy and just say the final bullet point).[verified]
  • PCPC If you achieve a certain level of reputation in Freeside, a Kings Gang Member will encourage you to keep up the good work and give a little present. However, sometimes those messengers keep coming in quick succession: as soon as one leaves the location, another one appears. This doesn't seem to fix over time.[verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 There is a bug where you can buy the Euclid's C-Finder gun from Max multiple times.[verified]
  • Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 The building by Mick & Ralph's sometimes glitches if you stand by one of the corners and walk forward and hit your Pip-Boy at the same time you will fly all the way up the corner of the building and be above and sometime it will summon you on top of the Lucky 38.[verified]
  • Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Sometimes the two kids will be going through the rodent chase animations but the rodent will be nowhere in sight.[verified]
  • PCPC After you've killed the giant rat for the first time, it will re-spawn a few days later, but the kids will no longer chase it. If you kill the rat, the kids will run and eat it again.[verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 Sometimes when the player fast travels to an area in the wasteland, the background effects of Freeside, such as dogs barking and glass bottles breaking, will be heard.[verified]

Gallery

References

Freeside
Advertisement