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I wouldn't mind plugging a few holes in some kidnappers. A little frontier justice never hurt anyone...well, at least not me.— John Cassidy

John Cassidy[1] is a veteran wastelander, bartender and a potential companion who resides in Vault City in 2241.

Background[]

An old man with deep wrinkles, John Cassidy is a veteran of the worst places of the wastelands and has the scars to show for it. These memories of an adventurer's life include scars from a 2203 knifing and old wounds from shootings in 2195, 2199 and 2201. He also has a metal plate in his skull and a fake eye.[2] John Cassidy is a pleasant but prejudiced man to talk to, provided the person doing the talking does not get on his bad side or happen to be the wrong race as he despises ghouls for existing and generally dislikes people he perceives as despicable.[3] He can be direct at times and he has further issues with tribal prejudice, but overall he is a great companion.

Cassidy settled down in Vault City after a life of adventure when his heart started to fail him. He requires regular cardiac booster shots to keep his heart working properly, essentially leaving him stuck in Vault City.[4] He runs a bar, the Spittoon, in the Courtyard, paying a hefty fee for a license to sell real alcohol on the premises. He manages to get by well enough, able to pay his rent, license fee, and afford booster shots from Doc Andrew. His business took a hit recently, as Sergeant Stark led a raid on his bar, confiscating his alcohol and detaining several customers. Already disgusted with the city, it is practically the final straw for him.

Later life[]

Cassidy joined the Chosen One in his journey, leaving Vault City behind. The two eventually parted ways, with Cassidy settling down again with a tribal woman, despite his reservations about tribals. At his ripe old age, John became a father of a daughter who took after her father.[Non-game 1] A few years later, he left the two and journeyed east of California, never heard from again. He went on to search for Texas, breaking south through NCR and past Dayglow.[Non-game 2][5]

Interactions with the player character[]

Fallout 2[]

Interactions overview[]

Interactions
Paving the Way
This character is a permanent companion.
FO76 ui trading team
This character is a merchant. Sells: drinks

Effects of player's actions[]

  • If the Chosen One uses Jet, Psycho or Buffout on Cassidy, he will immediately die of a heart attack.
  • He declares that he is skilled with shotguns and rifles mostly (he begins equipped with a sawed-off shotgun), as well as pistols. He can also use brass knuckles and spears; he claims that he used to hunt with a spear but expresses shame about making him seem like a tribal. At this point, the Chosen One can state they are tribal, after which Cassidy will sincerely apologize and claim that spears are fine weapons used by many of his tribal friends.
  • Cassidy can be given heart pills and he exclaims he "feels" better, but the pills have no real effect and goes back to complaining about his heart again.

Other interactions[]

  • Talking to Cassidy in his bar in the Vault City courtyard will reveal his dissatisfaction with life there and how Citizen Sergeant Stark busted up his establishment.
    • The player character can confront Sergeant Stark once they become the Captain of the Guard in Vault City and pull rank, so that he pays Cassidy reparations and wipes his record in Vault City. The player character receives $500 and 500 XP in return.
  • Cassidy has a fair few interactions with other members of the player character's party.
    • He will harass Myron every step of the way as long as the two are in the party together.
    • Cassidy will repeatedly tell Lenny to keep his distance, due to stink.
    • K-9 will also prompt a number of reactions from Cassidy, mostly related to his ferocity.

Companion[]

  • As Cassidy explains, he is handy in unarmed combat and can use spears. However, he truly shines with pistols and rifles. The sawed-off shotgun he has by default is a decent weapon, but his abilities will show the full potential of a hunting rifle or full size shotgun. His skills truly shine with a high end weapon such as Pancor Jackhammer or M72 Gauss rifle.
  • Cassidy only has animation frames for unarmed weapons, spears, throwing weapons, pistols, and rifles. He cannot use weapons that use other animations, such as plasma rifles, laser rifles or pulse rifles.
  • Giving Cassidy power armor of any kind will boost his Unarmed skill above Small Guns.
  • The player character cannot recruit Cassidy if they have less than 4 Intelligence, karma below -101, or the Slaver or Childkiller reputations.

Fallout: New California[]

John Cassidy can be acquired at the shop by any player character that has the Idolized trait. When the player character has him as the active companion and starts a fight, he can be exhausted, adding the ranged trait to the player character's weapon, and gain one reroll in the fight.

When the player character performs the camp action, he will become unexhausted. However, if the player character has any drugs in their inventory at this time, he must be discarded.

Statistics[]

Primary Statistics
Statistic Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Strength 06 06 06 06
Perception 07 07 08 08
Endurance 04 04 04 04
Charisma 05 05 05 05
Intelligence 04 04 04 04
Agility 06 06 07 07
Luck 09 09 09 09


Secondary Statistics
Statistic Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Hit Points 92 104 116 128
Armor Class 6 6 7 7
Action Points 8 9 9 10
Carry Weight 175 175 175 175
Melee Damage 1 1 1 1
Damage Resistance 0% 0% 0% 0%
Poison Resistance 20% 20% 20% 20%
Radiation Resistance 8% 8% 8% 8%
Sequence 14 14 17 18
Healing Rate 1 1 1 1
Critical Chance 21% 26% 31% 36%
Note: Unarmed will be tagged when Cassidy is equipped with power armor, as the Strength bonus it confers boosts his Unarmed skill above that of Small Guns.
Tagged Skills
Skill Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Small Guns 105% 125% 140% 160%
Energy Weapons 90% 100% 120% 130%
Unarmed 100% 120% 130% 140%
Melee Weapons 100% 120% 125% 130%
Throwing 70% 80% 90% 100%
Barter 80% 80% 80% 80%
Gambling 80% 80% 80% 80%
Outdoorsman 40% 45% 50% 55%

Inventory[]

Appearances[]

John Cassidy appears in Fallout 2 and the Fallout: The Board Game expansion Fallout: New California. He is indirectly mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes[]

  • Regarding Cassidy, Chris Avellone said, "[Cassidy] was mostly there because we wanted to do another companion in this location, and I was like, well I don't want to really do another talking head, I already did a lot with Myron, how about I do a much more simpler, just fun combat character, Cassidy, the gun-toting bartender, sure."[Non-game 3]
  • Cassidy was named after a pre-War comic book character by his father.[6] This may refer to Cassidy, an Irish vampire character with a fondness for whiskey and booze from Preacher. Cassidy says that he was a "mean sonuvabitch."
  • Cassidy's name was originally MacRae (Feargus Urquhart's middle name) and it occasionally appears in the game, such as if the player character sells him into slavery.

References[]

  • Cassidy's dialogue has numerous references to:
    • The Final Fantasy series when he says "Wish I had a limit break..."[7] Limit Break is an ability that has appeared throughout the Final Fantasy series.
    • The original Wasteland with attack taunts ("Gonna grind you into a thin red paste..." and "I'm gonna reduce you to an undertaker's nightmare.", both are direct quotes from the combat system).
    • He also breaks the fourth wall numerous times, referencing Action Points (when moving to attack, "*Huf*...I...*Huf*...need more...*Huf*.... action points."), critical hits (when attacking, "Nothing wrong with you a critical to the eyes won't cure."), chance to hit (when an attack misses him, "Missed me by a few % points."), turns ("Yer aim's off. Next turn, it's gonna be your head."), and save games ("Too bad YOU can't reload the game and try again...").

Talking head[]

CassidyTH

The fan-created talking head that inspired Cassidy's board game card.

  • After the release of Fallout 2, a fan-made talking head for Cassidy was created for the total conversion mod Mutants Rising.[Non-game 4] It was later included in the Fallout 2 Restoration Project, an overhaul mod dedicated to fixing bugs, restoring cut content from the game files, re-creating content that was planned but never implemented, and overhauling the gameplay and story based on developer commentary and fan requests. Confusion surrounding which parts of the mod were fan-made and which were taken from the game files led to the talking head being presented on Nukapedia as official cut content for a significant period of time. In 2018, the Fallout: The Board Game expansion Fallout: New California released a companion card of Cassidy with a design based on the fan-made talking head.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. PRO CRIT.MSG (Fallout 2): "{8900}{}{John Cassidy}"
  2. COMBATAI.MSG (Fallout 2):
    # target hit in head
    "{40807}{}{Thank god for that metal plate in my head, or I'd be dead...}"
    # target hit in left arm
    "{40810}{}{Dammit! I got knifed in that arm back in '03!}"
    # target hit in right arm
    "{40820}{}{Dammit! I got shot in that arm back in '01!}"
    # target hit in right leg
    "{40860}{}{Dammit! I got shot in that leg back in '99.}"
    # target hit in left leg
    "{40870}{}{Dammit! I got shot in that leg back in '95.}"
    # target hit in eyes
    "{40886}{}{Thank god that eye was fake...}"
  3. Interactions with Lenny and Myron.
  4. The Chosen One: "{144}{}{Why are you here if you hate it so much?}"
    John Cassidy: "{147}{}{I have a bad heart. Need cardio booster shots to keep it beating. This city's the only place to get real medical care, so I thought I'd settle here, try and make a living.}"
    (VCCasidy.msg)
  5. The Courier: "Tell me about your Dad."
    Rose of Sharon Cassidy: "Not much to tell. He ended up walking East one day when I was young and never came back. Not a family deserter like some, though. Mom died waiting for him, and she had me to raise. She was sick but she held off dying until I was old enough to be getting into trouble with boys. As for Dad, I figure he just got himself lost or dead. Happens... and I'm not all boo-hoo about it, so save your glass for someone who's crying."
    The Courier: "Any idea why he went East?"
    Rose of Sharon Cassidy: "Not a clue. When he left, I was too in my crib to understand why, and around the time Mom passed, I was too into my teens to listen. Got his name, got this pendant, and that's about it. Gift from my Dad, along with my name. Rose of Sharon Cassidy. Mom said he got the name out of some Old World book about dirt pilgrims. Name sure sounds sweet, though. Anyway, pendant's a little rose. Originally thought it was one of Mom's tribal necklaces, but no, came from Dad."
    (Rose of Sharon Cassidy's dialogue)
  6. John Cassidy: "{356}{}{Dad named me after some comic book character from before the war. Said he was a mean sonuvabitch, too.}"
    (VCCasidy.msg)
  7. COMBATAI.MSG (Fallout 2):
    # attacking
    "{40940}{}{Wish I had a limit break...}"

Non-game

  1. Joshua Sawyer on Formspring
  2. Fallout Bible 5: "9b. Hey thanks for answering. You probobly can't find the other questions because I was at my bro's when i sent em. I asked about what happened to some of the fallout 2 npcs after the game. We know myron gets stabbed by a jet addict ironically in the den. And Marcus goes off to go do some heroics of his own. But what about cassidy, sulik and the EC squadren to name a few."
    "Cassidy and Sulik: Can't say, no documentation exists. To be honest, I'll probably leave their fates open, since I don't want to pigeonhole two of the most favorite NPC allies from Fallout 2. I kind of hope that Cassidy eventually got his heart meds, though. At last word, Sulik returned to the primitive tribe for a few moons (months) after breaking paths with the Chosen One, then headed east in search of his sister. Cassidy went on to search for Texas, breaking south through NCR and past Dayglow."
    "The punks on the tanker also survived, and they had a great view of the Poseidon oil rig exploding. They eventually into an uneasy trading relationship with the Shi after the destruction of the Hubologists, and the two groups went on to make San Francisco a major fishing and trading center."
  3. GameRanx Interview
  4. ModDB page for Mutants Rising showcasing Cassidy's talking head
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