Legionary assassins are high-end assassins living in the Mojave Wasteland in 2281. They work for Caesar's Legion and travel in groups of four.
Background
Legionary assassins are small groups of four elite killers for Caesar, led by a Decanus, a Praetorian Guard or a centurion, dispatched to eliminate the Legion's enemies.
First group are composed of:
- 1x Recruit Decanus (leader)
- 2x Veteran legionaries
- 1x Vexillarius
The second group are for most important Caesar Legion's enemies, composed of:
- 1x Centurion (leader)
- 1x Prime Decanus
- 1x Veteran legionary
- 1x Vexillarius
The last group is for the Caesar Legion's worst enemies, composed of:
- 1x Praetorian Guard (leader)
- 1x Veteran Decanus
- 1x Veteran legionary
- 1x Vexillarius
Also during these assassination missions, Praetorian Guards are allowed to use firearms additionally or instead of their unarmed weapons.
Characteristics
Legionary assassins begin to appear if the player obtains a Shunned or worse status with Caesar's Legion. They will travel across the wasteland from their original spawn point towards the player's current location, not stopping until they finally encounter the player. As a result, they can end up attacking the player almost anywhere in the wasteland. Assassins may also attack other non-player characters they pass near while searching for the player, such as NCR settlements or traveling merchants (as with all non-player character vs non-player character combat, this only occurs if the player is currently in the same active map cell as the non-player characters).
Legionary assassins typically attack in 4-man groups; a Recruit-Prime-Veteran Decanus, a Legion Vexillarius, one Veteran legionary and after:
- a veteran legionary
- a centurion
- a Praetorian Guard
Legionary assassins may also appear after aiding the Legion's enemies, namely the NCR, by successfully completing the quests Three-Card Bounty, I Put a Spell on You, I Don't Hurt Anymore, or any other quest that improves the reputation of the player with the NCR.
They will have weapons and armor depending on your standing with Casear's Legion and your level. They can range from simple 9mm pistols, caravan shotguns and machetes to 12.7mm pistols and sub-machine guns, assault and Marksman carbines, brush guns, thermic lances and super sledges.
As of patch 1.4.0.525, Legionary assassins level with the player, up to level 45. At higher levels this gives them very high health on par with an non-player character companion. Additionally, the Praetorian and Veteran assassin may be equipped with Legion centurion armor instead, making them all the more difficult to kill.
Interactions with the player character
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
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This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed. | |
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This character is a permanent companion. They grant the - perk. | |
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This character is a temporary companion. | |
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This character starts quests. |
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This character is involved in quests. | |
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This character is a doctor. |
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This character is a merchant. |  -Sells: - |
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This character can repair items. | Max Repair condition: - |
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This character can modify weapons. |
- |
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This character rents beds. | -.
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This character plays Caravan. | They can bid caps. |
Inventory
Decanus
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items | On death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player level: <10 Legion Recruit Armor and Recruit Decanus helmet Player level: 10-20 Legion veteran armor and Veteran decanus helmet |
Player level: <10 10mm pistol and machete Player level: 10-20 Hunting shotgun or sniper rifle and machete |
Purified water, antivenom, Legion Denarius, healing powder, various food items |
Vexillarius
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items | On death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legion vexillarius armor Vexillarius helmet |
Player level: <10 9mm pistol and machete Player level: 10-20 9mm SMG and machete 10mm SMG or Marksman carbine or assault carbine, and Ripper |
Bitter drink, antivenom, Legion Denarius |
Centurion
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items | On death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legion centurion armor and Legion centurion helmet | Player level: <10 9mm SMG or caravan shotgun or .44 magnum revolver and super sledge and dynamite or long-fuse dynamite Player level: 10-20 Hunting rifle and super sledge or thermic lance and frag grenade |
Legion Denarius, purified water, antivenom, healing powder |
Praetorian
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items | On death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legion praetorian armor | Player level: 10-20 Trail carbine and frag grenade and plasma grenade or pulse grenade Player level: 20-30 12.7mm submachine gun and C-4 plastic explosive |
Legion Denarius, bitter drink, antivenom, healing powder |
Veteran
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items | On death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legion veteran armor and Veteran helmet | Player level: 10-20 12.7mm pistol and super sledge and dynamite or frag grenade and pulse grenade Player level: 20-30 Brush gun and super sledge or thermic lance and C-4 plastic explosive |
Cave fungus, Legion Denarius, purified water, antivenom, healing powder |
Notes
- If the player also has a bad reputation with the New California Republic, NCR Ranger hit squads can also be encountered.
- Assassins can first be encountered while traveling towards Novac, where they will attack you if you kill the Caesar's Legionnaires and Vulpes Inculta at Nipton.
- Legionary Assassin parties can also end up attacking outposts or NCR garrisons like the 188 Trading Post without actively attacking the Courier (if he/she is Neutral or Ally with Caesar's Legion).
- If your reputation with Caesar's Legion is Vilified, it appears that the dialog with the assassins no longer occurs, even with the Terrifying Presence perk. It is advisable to carefully navigate your surroundings if you should notice several 'friendly' ticks on your compass close together, as it could be a pack of Assassins.
- This means that you will not able to get the first shot (via dialog), unless you see them coming. If this is not the case, they could quickly kill a level 20-30 Courier who is unaware of their location. If your reputation is under Vilified, however, they will initiate dialogue and you can scare them off with Terrifying Presence. One of the Legionaries will ask you "Do you ever give up?" to which you may reply "Not while there's still spines unshattered.". This will cause them to cry for help, and flee.
- The Legionary Assassins have a habit of appearing at the most inconvenient times and can potentially kill named non-player characters (traders, for example) at locations such as the Grub & Gulp trading post on the 188.
- On the other hand, sometimes groups of Legionary Assassins may be attacked by other creatures in the place where they appear, such as radscorpions, night stalkers, geckos, or deathclaws. This can result in a three- or even four-way free for all (between the player, the assassins, geckos, and radscorpions, for instance).
- Groups of Assassins can occasionally spawn on terrain impassable to non-player characters (such as on mountains or in valleys), in which case they can turn non-hostile as if the player had hidden from them. This may be associated with the "lead", dialog-initiating Assassin being unable to approach the player due to terrain, since other assassins are non-hostile until the leader concludes dialog.
- Legion Assassin teams commonly spawn at the Easternmost Powder Ganger camp, but only charge in once the player has engaged the Powder Gangers, if hostile. This can lead to the player being caught in a crossfire between both sides.
- If your reputation with Caesar's Legion is Vilified, and the player is at a high level, groups of Legionairy Assassins appear more frequently (maybe one group every day, attacking the player).
- They will stop appearing while your wearing faction armor(e.g. NCR ranger patrol armor and NCR trooper armor has proven to work)
Appearances
Legionary assassins only appear in Fallout: New Vegas.
Bugs
Legionary assassins are better equipped with high-tier weapons and armor (e.g. centurion armor, super sledge or thermic lances) from the early game (levels 7-11) instead of the middle or end of the game.- Legionary assassins may be carrying blocks of C-4 plastic explosive, but they never seem to be equipped with detonators, making the explosives useless (though highly lucrative for the player after they are defeated).
- They may occasionally be found setting up ridiculously inadequate attempts at ambushes (such as standing in the middle of the road at Novac staring in one direction), making it easy for the player to walk up behind and get the drop on them.
- Sometimes the player will engage with and kill one Legionary Assassin, only to find the others a bit further on waiting stationary in a set-piece ambush, even though they were within easy hearing range of the firefight.
- If the assassins are killed, and the player then waits - Upon dismemberment of a corpse, all corpses will suddenly disappear.
- Mid-way into an ambush, the Legion Vexillarius will often turn tail and run, leaving the remainder of his men to die.
- Wearing NCR Ranger Patrol armor seems to prevent legion assassins from appearing even though you have a vilified status with the legion. Just taking off the armor or switching to another armor before entering areas where assassins normally spawns seems to fix this problem.
- The Legion Assassins will often be aware of the player's exact location prior to attack, regardless of how stealthy the player is, and will run towards you to attack, making a stealthy option impossible.
- If you fast-travel to Ranger station Charlie and the assassins appear, once they are all defeated, you can go inside the station and sleep for 24 hours. Once you exit, the assassins will attack once again.
- This can be repeated for an unlimited supply of weapons and ammunition, as well as other items the assassins may be carrying.
- The assassins are essentially the same actual people at each ambush point, from occurrence to occurrence. The corpse or charred remains of a previous encounter gives you access to the inventory of the non-player character you can see standing in your sights. A body or ash pile previously pilfered can be not "empty," showing the inventory of a new non-player character, but until the new iteration of the same character, the Assassin, is killed, taking the items counts as stealing, and you can be caught at it. You can actually put items into one corpse and remove them from the other.
- Legionary Assassins can spawn near you after you wait for an hour or two at Nellis, which they shouldn't be able to do. This happened while waiting for Janet to arrive at Nellis to meet Jack during Young Hearts (might be related).
