Fallout: New Vegas Guide - Camp Forlorn Hope
Restoring Hope - Introduction
You can start this quest by talking to Major Polatli. He should usually be in the Command Tent during the day. Go inside and talk to him to find out how you can help Camp Forlorn Hope out a bit. The undermanned and undersupplied camp has a whole lot of problems.
While you’re in the command tent, you should probably also talk to Sergeant Reyes to pick up “Return to Sender.”
Restoring Hope - Finding Supplies
Talk to Quartermaster Mayes to learn about the supply shortage. It seems that they sent out some soldiers to find spare equipment, but they haven’t come back yet.
Walk across the desert to the west until you make it to the HELIOS One power station. Lt. Haggerty should be standing in front by the blockade (if you killed Haggerty by activating Archimedes, then you won’t be ablet to get the clue…although if you did that then I’m not sure why you really want to help the NCR in this one).
Haggerty will mention that they sent the troopers back with a box of supplies with a tracker in it. She’ll give you the code and mark its location on your map. It’s about halfway between HELIOS One and Forlorn Hope. Walk up to the crate and pick it up, but have a good weapon out. Some Legion troopers will appear and ambush you. Fight your way out of the ambush and then take the crate back to Mayes. Report the fate of the squad and turn in the supplies to finish this segment.
Restoring Hope - Helping Dr. Richards
Your next step for Restoring Hope is to talk to Dr. Richards in the medical tent. While you’re there, you should talk to Dr. Richards about his missing supplies too. It’s technically unrelated, but you might as well get “Medical Mystery” while you’re here.
Dr. Richards just needs some help with the wounded soldiers. If you need 20 points in Medicine or you can just lie. Frankly, there’s not much of a rush to do this at a low level, so you can just wait until you have the necessary points (you need to be able to clear out Nelson in the next mission, so you may have to wait a bit anyway).
In order to heal the soldiers, you need to either have the required points in Medicine (25, 50 and then 75) or the required tools. An important note is that everything in the tent is marked as unowned for the duration of this quest, so you should be able to get anything that you need from the medical tables and trays around the tent.
Note that there is no difference between using the tools or using your Medicine skill. You get the same result either way.
The first two soldiers just need 25 or 50 points in Medicine to be cured. You should be able to the required two doses of Med-X, a bottle of whiskey, surgical tubing, bonesaw and medical brace from around the tent if you don’t have the skills needed.
The tricky case is the third soldier. You’ll need 75 points in Medicine or tweezers, Med-X and a super stimpak. You should be able to find more Med-X and tweezers in the tent, but the super stimpak will be tricky. It’s very rare to find one of these. If you already have one, then just use it. The penalties for using super stimpaks makes them worthless in combat in both Hardcore and Normal mode. You can just chain up stimpaks or use food and water. If you don’t have one, then just see if any of the doctors you know have one. Doc Mitchell might have one. The roaming doctor in Novac might too. As I said, there’s no rush so just keep checking with doctors as you go (or get the points in Science to make your own).
Once the third man is healed, you’ll be ready to move on to the next section of the quest.
Restoring Hope - Taking Nelson
I guess it’s possible for this to complete instantly if you’ve already killed Dead Sea while rescuing the captured and crucified NCR troopers. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you’re fine. Note that sometimes the quest will just bug out and not recognize that Dead Sea is dead, which means that you probably just won’t be able to finish it up. Just keep your fingers crossed that the triggers register right.
As for the actual assault, it’s pretty easy. Just bring a good assault rifle (I brought a new LMG that I bought from the Gun Runners to make it extra fun, but you really don’t need that much firepower), and preferably a good companion. If you’re Pro-NCR, then there’s no reason to not bring Boone with you for the attack. Polatli will send you out to join up with three NCR troopers. Talk to their leader, Cooper, and you can follow them to Nelson. You’ll have a brief engagement after meeting up with them, but it should be a straight run to the base after that. Try to stick close to them and help them break right through the perimeter. There should be at least one guard behind the sandbags in a good firing position, so try to snipe him yourself to keep the troopers alive.
Watch out for melee rushers and enter Nelson. There actually shouldn’t be that many Legion guards inside the camp, so just try to keep moving and firing. Legion guards seem to come in pairs, so as long as you fire quickly you’ll be fine. They actually shouldn’t be armed too well. On the other hand, your troopers should at least have service rifles. Hopefully it will keep things balanced.
Your target is to just kill Dead Sea inside the main barracks. The NCR troopers with you will make a beeline for it themselves. Dead Sea will probably try to attack with his unique machete. If you’ve got a shotgun and good aim, he’ll fall apart really quick. He should also be by himself for the most part, so just take him out and collect his gear. Once he’s dead, you’re basically done. You may want to go ahead and finish off the Legion soldiers in the other barracks.
Note that you should check the NCR soldiers, since I believe some of them will have dog tags that you can give to Quartermaster Mayes.
Finally, if you didn’t do the quest already, and there are still three NCR members crucified in the center of camp, untie them and set them free for some NCR rep and a lot of points with Boone. This is a pretty good way to get his companion quest.
Report your success back to Major Polatli to complete the questline and fully restore Camp Forlorn Hope.
This post is part of the series: Fallout: New Vegas Walkthrough - Camp Forlorn Hope
The very cheerfully named NCR camp, Camp Forlorn Hope, is home to a few quests to help the NCR in their fight against the Legion in the region. I’ll cover how to find the Hydra Thief in Medical Mystery and drive back the Legion in Nelson through Restoring Hope.
