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While Cass is a companion, she and the player gain Damage Threshold when they drink Whiskey. Additionally, the player does not suffer intelligence loss from consuming alcohol and ignores the negative effects of alcohol addiction.— In-game description

Whiskey Rose is a companion perk in Fallout: New Vegas.

Requirements[]

Gaining Rose of Sharon Cassidy as a companion requires progressing Heartache by the Number as far as being sent by Alice McLafferty to buy out Cassidy Caravans from Cass during You Can Depend on Me; this itself requires delivering an invoice to Thomas Hildern at Camp McCarran beforehand. Triggering the former quest can be accomplished either by talking to Cass directly at the Mojave Outpost (she will direct the player character to the Crimson Caravan Company) or by talking to Alice directly and being sent to the outpost to arrange the buyout.

To successfully get Cass to agree to the buyout, the player character must pass one of four skill checks:

  • 50 Barter - Pay 750 caps to sweeten the deal.
  • 75 Barter - Challenge Cass to a game of whiskey-drinking. Success requires 12 samples of whiskey and a minimum Endurance attribute of 6 (higher levels unlocks unique dialogue).
  • 50 Speech - Convince Cass that the outpost is a terrible place to spend her time. She agrees but still needs Ranger Jackson's signoff to leave; this requires completing Can You Find it in Your Heart? and clearing away giant ants before Jackson gives the all-clear.
  • 75 Speech - Incite Cass by telling her the loss of her caravan is entirely her fault.

After giving her signature on the papers, Cass will lament what to do with herself and can be offered to travel with the player character. She will remain seated at the bar in the outpost if one does not or cannot immediately recruit her.

Note: Cass will refuse to join the player character if they have -250 or less (Bad) Karma. If one's Karma drops to that threshold or lower while she is a companion, she will leave the party and walk back to the Outpost, where she approaches the gate in the southwest corner and disappears from the game.

Effects[]

When Cass is an active companion, the player character gains the ability to consume alcohol without suffering any negative effects, including penalties due to addiction. Additionally, specifically consuming whiskey raises one's DT by 2 to 6 points as well as wasteland tequila raises DT by 3 to 9 points, depending on the Survival skill level.

Notes[]

  • The perk does not remove the possibility of gaining alcohol addiction, but merely negates its penalties. The duration of the addiction remains unchanged. Losing Cass as a companion will apply the penalties if one is currently suffering from alcohol addiction.
    • The perk also suppresses the base addiction tracking effect, meaning that many dialog and script checks will not detect that the Courier is currently addicted to alcohol. This does not prevent the Courier from curing their addictions through doctors or the use of Fixer.
  • Consuming irradiated whiskey or Dixon's whiskey does not provide an increase in DT while the perk is active.
  • Despite the fact that large wasteland tequila is very similar to wasteland tequila, it does not get a special DT bonus from this perk aside from the natural DT bonus of 2 to 6.
  • The DT bonuses from all related liquor (whiskey, large wasteland tequila, and wasteland tequila) are stackable, and can provide anywhere from 7 to 21 extra DT when consumed all at once.

Behind the scenes[]

The original idea for the perk was to allow the carrying of more water items or receiving a healing bonus from its consumption. This was later changed to reinforce Cass's hard-drinking personality and make her more valuable of a companion gameplay-wise.[1]

References[]

  1. Interview with Chris Avellone: "We did iterations on her perks to make them more personality-centric (Cass's initial perk was carrying more Water, or giving a bonus healing for Water), but after kicking it around with Josh, we settled on the Whiskey Rose perk which we thought would make her more valuable as a companion game mechanic-wise and also reinforced her hard-drinkin' personality."
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