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You can order anything you want. As long as it's corn or beans.

Corporal William Farber is a mess officer for the NCR Army stationed at Camp McCarran in 2281.

Background[]

The corporal is the Camp McCarran mess officer, responsible for cooking, preparing and serving meals to the NCR troopers stationed at the base. Recently, Farber has been struggling to maintain an acceptable quality for his dishes, as it is hard for him to secure a reliable supplier of fresh meat, although he has an abundance of vegetables.[1][2][3] Moreover, the cook's food processor has broken down, which does nothing to help his situation.[4] This has made Farber suspicious of health inspectors, who he has been having trouble with ever since he started to have problems with depleting stock and failing machinery, having to bribe them to keep the yearly inspections approved.[5]

Interactions with the player character[]

Interactions overview[]

Interactions
Icon quest starter
This character starts quests.
FO76 ui trading team
This character is a merchant. Sells: Food

Quests[]

  • Not Worth a Hill of Corn and Beans: Farber asks for the player's help in improving Camp McCarran's food supply: finding new meat vendors, repairing a broken food processor, and obtaining special spices.

Effects of player's actions[]

  • Farber will give the Courier a discount of up to 28% on his food inventory for completing his requests in Not Worth a Hill of Corn and Beans. The list of which request gives what discount percentage can be found here.

Inventory[]

Equipped inventory[]

Apparel Weapon Other items On death
Merc grunt outfit
Bandana

Merchant inventory[]

Farber's merchant inventory contains an exact, non-randomized amount of the following items. His vendor container, Farber's Mess Store (VendorContainerFarber), is located under the floor of the mess hall and can be found if the console command tcl is used.

Farber's Mess Store

Notes[]

  • The Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide claims that the quest Not Worth a Hill of Corn and Beans involves Farber being interested in sampling Ruby Nash's casserole. This is untrue, although the quest does include trading with Ruby for meat.[Non-game 1]
  • He carries a large stock of purified water (50 bottles), as well as a large stock of certain other food items.
  • Although Colonel Hsu laments Farber's cooking abilities, he is looking for new cooks, as Farber's cooking currently sends many soldiers to the latrine.[6]
  • The first time the Courier talks to him, he mistakes them for an NCR health inspector who scammed him recently for 50 caps.
    • Even if the Courier is female, Farber will still mistake them for a male health inspector.
  • When encountering Keely in Vault 22, while sharing information about her research, she mentions that Farber may be interested in a sample derived from the vault's spore plants, as it acts as a mild stimulant.[7]

Appearances[]

William Farber appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes[]

His line "You can order anything you want. As long as it's corn or beans" parallels Henry Ford's famous answer when he was asked why Ford manufactured only black cars: "You can buy your car in any color you want, as long as it's black.”

Bugs[]

  • Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 For some reason, he sometimes lacks any items or caps in his shop inventory, even after a supplier has been found. [verified]
  • PCPC Xbox 360Xbox 360 A bug can occur when you try to speak to him that will cause the camera to zoom in as if you were going to speak to him but no dialogue options are available and then the camera will zoom out as if dialogue has ended even though you have not spoken to him. There is currently no known way to fix this. On the PC version pressing tab will fix the bug until the player tries to speak to him again. [verified]
  • PCPC Farber will not take the food additive from your inventory, if you try to give him BEFORE speaking with Fitz. You can use setquestobject efae0 0 command to make the Food Additive a non-quest item. [verified]
  • Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 It is possible to not receive XP points even if you pass the Speech check (60) with Fitz. [verified]
  • PCPC It is possible to have the food additive stuck in your inventory, with Farber's dialogue options remaining as if the quest is still going, even after fixing the food processor and making a deal for meat. [verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 Farber will indirectly misgender female characters by stating that they 'look like a man that shook him down'. [verified]

References[]

  1. The Courier: "Where would you suggest I find meat in the amount you'd need here?"
    Cpl. William Farber: "It doesn't need to all come from the same source. There are a bunch of different vendors around who sell meat. Fitz, the Nash's, Crimson Caravan... We've never really tried to go out and organize deals with merchants to supply our food. Already having an overstock of food, we haven't needed to. But we really need some good-old red meat on the menu soon, so I'm willing to divert some caps in their direction if they're open to supplying us."
    (William Farber's dialogue)
  2. The Courier: "Got anything to eat?"
    Cpl. William Farber: "Oh yeah. You can order up anything you want... as long as it's corn or beans!<Laughs> Just kidding. Haven't you heard? With few shipments from home and little variety, the troops are getting restless for some quality grub. You can only do so much as a chef with just corn, beans, onions, and peppers."
    (William Farber's dialogue)
  3. The Courier: "Can anything be done to improve your supplies?"
    Cpl. William Farber: "Well, we haven't had any quality meat in months. Everyone in the camp just eating beans for protein... It isn't pretty. Some of my kitchen machinery is broken down, too, so we've been eating mostly raw vegetables. And I'm desperate for spices or seasonings. Anything. Just something to the general mood around here."
    (William Farber's dialogue)
  4. The Courier: "What parts are needed to fix the food processor?"
    Cpl. William Farber: "Here is the list. We've been scrapping together quick-fixes to keep it running for months. I think it finally crapped out and needs a full overhaul. It's the goofy machine behind the counter in the corner next to the stove. I'd be much obliged if you could take a look at it and get it fixed up."
    (William Farber's dialogue)
  5. Cpl. William Farber: "Listen, asshole. I know you're not really an NCR health inspector, so you can cut the restaurant critic routine. And I want my fifty caps back, 'cause I looked it up and there ain't no disease called colorectal implosion syndrome. So I paid you to look the other way for nothing. Wait. Wait. You're not... oh wow, I'm sorry. You looked just like- never mind. Sorry. So... what can I serve you up?"
    The Courier: "Is there a health inspector bothering you?"
    Cpl. William Farber: "Ah, it's nothing. You just looked like the health inspector who stopped through for the yearly inspection a couple weeks back. I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait another 11 months to see his crooked ass to get my caps back. Ah well, anything I can get you?"
    (William Farber's dialogue)
  6. The Courier: "I'm here to provide support. Is there anything I might be able to help with?"
    Col. James Hsu: "Hmm... you don't cook by any chance, do you? Farber's doing his best, but it's hard to manage an army with half my staff in line for the latrine. Honestly, we're fighting a lot of fires right now. The Fiends keep pressing their position from Vault 3. We've got the Legion breathing down our necks across the river. We actually took an officer alive last week, but so far he hasn't spoken a word."
    (James Hsu's dialogue)
  7. The Courier: "Has your research here turned up anything interesting?"
    Keely: "A few things here and there, but a lot of the data has been corrupted, and all of the live samples have been contaminated by the spore plants. One interesting thing I found is that one of the chemicals secreted by the spore plants serves as a mild stimulant when ingested by humans. As far as I can tell, it has no side effects or addictive properties, aside from the inherent psychological ones, of course. Now that I think of it, there was a Cpl. Farber back at McCarran who'd probably be interested in it. There's a sample of it around here somewhere."
    (Keely's dialogue)

Non-game

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