Volare! is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough
| Side Quest: Volare! | |||||
| Once the Courier is idolized by the Boomers, report to Pearl in her barracks. She tells about the Boomers' dream of raising a sunken bomber, the B-29. | |||||
| Talk to Loyal about the airplane, he tells it's at the bottom of Lake Mead. He will give Loyal's detonator and two floating devices to attach to the plane. | |||||
| (Optional) Get a rebreather from Jack to let breathe underwater indefinitely. The Courier must have a science skill of 45 or a pressure cooker to obtain it. | |||||
| Travel to the map marker to find the Crashed B-29, near Callville Bay. | |||||
| Attach the ballasts to the underside of each wing. | |||||
| Equip Loyal's detonator and fire. | |||||
| Travel back to Nellis and speak to Loyal then Pearl to complete the quest. | |||||
| Reward: 500 XP Boomer flightsuit & Boomers helmet Boomer fame | |||||
Detailed walkthrough
Volare! is the final quest for the Courier to complete for the Boomers, and the first one will receive upon entering Nellis.
The Courier needs to help Boomers around Nellis enough to become Idolized by them. Possibilities to ‘help out’ and achieve fame are:
- Young Hearts
- Ant Misbehavin'
- Sunshine Boogie
- Bear Necessities
- Malleable Mini Boomer Minds
- Missing a Few Missiles
- Iron and Stealing
- Helping Argyll with his patients.
- Listening to Pete in the museum.
It's not necessary to do all of them, just enough to achieve high fame.
After gaining reputation, report back to Pearl in her barracks. She tells about the Boomers' dream of flight.
Talk to Loyal about the airplane. He will tell that it is at the bottom of Lake Mead. He will give Loyal's detonator and two flotation devices to attach to the plane.
At this point, one can proceed directly to the submerged airplane, or get the optional rebreather from Jack to allow breathing underwater.
- To get the rebreather, talk to Jack before setting out. Jack will offer to give a rebreather, but requires to pass a Science check (45) or bring him a pressure cooker.
Travel to the map marker to find the Crashed B-29, near Callville Bay. Quickly dive under and attach the ballasts between the two engines on each side of the bomber under the wings. Once the Courier reaches those parts of the plane, they'll find a hollow 3D image of where one is able to place the ballast.
Once both of the ballasts are attached, travel to Callville Bay (fast traveling to Crashed B-29 map marker will safely put in a desired spot on the pier). At Callville Bay, Loyal's detonator will start to beep, indicating the Courier is in the correct position. Equip Loyal's detonator as a weapon and fire it to raise the plane.
Travel back to Loyal and speak with him (optional Intelligence check of 7, with no impact on the outcome). Then talk to Pearl to complete the mission, further raising reputation with the Boomers.
Quest stages
Notes
- One must complete this quest if wishing to convince the Boomers to aid for whichever side with in the Battle of Hoover Dam.
- To avoid a deathclaw nest on the rail line leading to Callville Bay, one can approach from the south by fast traveling to Boulder City and swimming across Lake Mead to the bomber (lakelurks can attack the player character if they are in the water and they will follow so keep distance while swimming).
- Killing Pearl at any time fails the quest, and immediately drops reputation with the Boomers to "Hated".
- Completion of this quest while following the Independent path will also allow to bluff General Oliver into backing down, with the threat of the Boomers bombing the Dam.
- Going underwater with the rebreather poses no threat to any companions (they stay on the surface).
- Rocket souvenirs can no longer be given to the Mini Boomers once this quest is completed, it can only be done during the quest.
- Radio New Vegas will mention the B-29 upon completion, talking about the "Lake Mead Monster" and how unfortunately the pictures are "grainy and underdeveloped". Mr. New Vegas will also mention a plane flying over Freeside.
- It is sometimes possible to start the B-29 segment of the quest line with a Liked reputation.
- Talking to Pete in the Boomer Museum is objectively the fastest way to advance this mission, as a good amount of fame - enough to take the player character from Neutral to Accepted - can be gained simply from listening to the story of the Boomers and then exhausting all the dialogue options with him afterward. Every dialogue option has a skill check, which can be passed for additional fame each time, but just choosing the positive answer is enough to gain fame rapidly.
Behind the scenes
- Volare! was outlined by Joshua Eric Sawyer and later fully implemented by Akil Hooper.
- "Volare" means "to fly" in Italian.
- "Volare" is the name of an Italian song by Domenico Modugno. An English version was sung by, among others, Dean Martin. Martin is famously associated with Las Vegas through the career-spanning performances and movies he made that were in/set in the city. [1]
- A B-29 did crash in Lake Mead, mostly intact, in 1948.
- The sequence in the museum may be a reference to a famous similar sequence in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" in which a group of children tell Max the story of their town through cave paintings.
Bugs
Sometimes after completing the quest, the bomber in the hangar will not be repaired. It will look the same as if the Courier did not start the quest. Note the fix on the Nellis hangars bugs section. [verified]- Sometimes when starting the history lesson at the museum in Nellis AFB, Pete will begin talking about the boomers, then when he finishes his first part of the speech, he wont move and will stand still forcing to either "push" him a short distance by walking straight into him to get him to restart the story, leave the building, load the game, or stay in the museum and sleep in the bed after he finishes the first part of the history. It seems that activating Pete's other dialog options causes the bug. To avoid the bug, select only the second dialog option (the one that activates the story).[verified]
- Sometimes Loyal will not be in the hangar after this quest, making Raul's side quest useless since one won't be able to talk to him. He will not appear in his home either, he can likely be found glitched into Black Mountain (still making the quest useless). [verified]
- Sometimes the quest is made active after the first conversation with Pearl, regardless of reputation with the Boomers or Karma.[verified]
- It's possible to enter Nellis AFB at the gate via non-player character conversation in the middle of an active artillery barrage, unfortunately after doing so however, continue to be barraged when leaving Nellis AFB later on. [verified]
- If choosing to kill Pearl and Loyal while Jack isn't present, there is a chance he will not be hostile and will behave as though the Courier helped raise the B-29 bomber and one can still give scrap metal to him. If haven't spoken to him about his crush yet, the dialogue will still be available though the Courier still can't begin the quest due to failing it by killing Pearl. [verified]
Gallery
