Black Mountain (2024)

“Travelers along the Long 15 have complained to NCR rangers that caravans have been harassed and attacked by fearsome super mutants living in the irradiated ruins of Black Mountain.”— Fallout: New Vegas loading screens

Black Mountain is a location in the Mojave Wasteland that serves as a radio station for the State of Utobitha. It can be located on the main map easily by spotting the winding road roughly east of Goodsprings and Sloan. Neil's shack is situated at the bottom of the mountain and marks the start of the road.

Background

Black Mountain, a dominant feature of the area, was unoccupied for over a century after the Great War. The satellite array was a pre-War communications array and monitoring station focused on China's satellite network.^[1] When the bombs fell, it was shielded from a direct strike by the mountain but became highly irradiated.^[2] Following the fall of the Master, many of the first generation super mutants headed east. At Black Mountain, they discovered the array was still operational and the mountain provided a secluded and defensible place in which to settle.^[3]

Over time, nightkin and the more thuggish second generation super mutants trickled into Black Mountain and this eventually caused problems. The de facto leader of the community was Marcus, from Broken Hills. Due to the influx of mentally unstable super mutants, including one particular nightkin named Tabitha, Marcus was pushed out of the group at Black Mountain. He left with a small group and went on to found Jacobstown.^[4]

Tabitha progressively turned the satellite array into a fortress against any and all outsiders. She quickly convinced the lower-intelligence super mutants and schizophrenic nightkin that she is a prophet, subsequently founding the "State of Utobitha" and ordering humans to be killed on sight.^[5][6] Tabitha now uses the array to broadcast her radio program's ramblings throughout much of the Wasteland.^{[Non-canon 1]}

Layout

On the road to Black Mountain, there is an overturned satellite dish that is used as a makeshift camp. It contains several trunks, two of which contain several hundred caps. There is also a transceiver, whereupon passing a 75 Speech check, Tabitha will declare death to all "dumb-dumbs," and after which the transceiver will stop working.

When entering the radio facility via the road, the closest building to the player character will be the prison building. Inside there is an imprisoned ghoul mechanic named Raul Tejada, who is a potential companion. The door to his room is locked, and the Courier must either have a Science skill of 100 to hack the nearby terminal, a key to open the door, or must access the second terminal near the building's entrance to read entry 6. This gives the Courier the password, which is "123456789," to unlock the door without hacking the terminal.

The storage building is located between the prison building and the broadcast building, and it contains several random items, a Nuka-Cola vending machine, locked chests, and a broken Mister Handy robot by the name of Rhonda (requires 60 Science to fix).

The broadcast building is at the far end of the property and is identifiable from the single satellite dish on the roof. The building is two floors high and has two doors on the ground floor, one of which is inaccessible from the outside. Once entering the building, the other door can be accessed, it leads to a staircase which then leads to Tabitha's room. A key is required to access her room, which can be found underneath the staircase. The door to the first floor inside the fence can be interacted with from the outside, potentially granting access to the top floor while bypassing most of the enemies.

Notable loot

• Cuddles' toy car - In the prison building, on the table. Details of the item are mentioned in the nearby computer terminal (note: unless the Courier reads the terminal it remains a generic toy car).
• Annabelle - A unique missile launcher used by the nightkin sniper on the radio tower platform.
• One Nuka-Cola Victory - In the storage building.
• A Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap - In the storage building, between two Sarsaparilla crates on the bottom shelf, left of the training dummy.
• Sheet music book - On a stand in Tabitha's room.
• Repair note #3 - A note, on a console in Tabitha's room.
• Treasure hunt - A note, attached to the training dummy's midsection inside the storage building.

Endings

Narrated by Neil

Notes

• When arriving at or standing around Black Mountain, the sound of thunder can be heard.
• By fast traveling or returning to Black Mountain, super mutant masters will spawn, generally in groups of threes. They will not be hostile to the player character, and cannot be spoken to. Killing one will not cause the others to attack. This is in line with Neil stating that super mutants are still streaming in, and he is going to stay and direct them to Jacobstown. The nightkin encountered will still be hostile however.
• If the Courier enters the storage room and doesn't fix Rhonda within three in-game days, she will disappear and won't come back. To repair Rhonda, don't enter the storage room until a 60 Science skill is achieved.
• The ambiance that plays at Black Mountain is the same ambiance that plays at Necropolis from Fallout, "City of the Dead".

Appearances

Black Mountain appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

Black Mountain is located in the same geographical area as the real world Black Mountain, within the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area near Henderson, Nevada.

Bugs

• When using the terminal in the prison building, the screen may become blurred but not bring up the monitor interface for the computer. This will fix itself by leaving the building and re-entering but using scoped weapons will now show the image of the computer terminal. ^[verified]
• When climbing back down the mountain after reuniting Tabitha with Rhonda, it is possible that attacking any nightkin or centaur will cause Rhonda and Tabitha to join the fight and attack you. After the original attackers are dead they will disappear altogether. Fast traveling to Jacobstown will show that Tabitha is still hostile to the player. ^[verified]
• When fast traveling or climbing the mountain normally, random non-player characters will spawn at Tabitha's compound or in the crater area. They will be non-hostile to both the super mutants/nightkin and to the player. If the player starts a fight with the mutants/nightkin, they will not join regardless of faction reputation. ^[verified]
• When meeting Neil for the mission that begins with him, you may be given the optional task to meet him by the overturned satellite dish. Meeting him there, he will ask if you are ready. No matter what reply you give him ("Let's go" or the equivalent of "No not yet. There's some things I have to do first"), he will always respond to the latter. A possible fix for this is telling Neil you're ready to go BEFORE you talk to the super mutant on the radio. ^[verified]
• A variety of non-player characters may spawn on the roads on your way to the summit including, Sunny Smiles, an NCR trooper, a Powder Ganger, some Boomers, and a Great Khan. They won't be attacked by the super mutants if you're around them, they will go straight to you and completely disregard the other non-player characters. ^[verified]
• Sometimes the nightkin sniper will not spawn, making it impossible to get Annabelle.^[verified]
• The back door to the ground floor of the broadcast building can be entered from outside the fence. ^[verified]
• Sometimes a deathclaw may spawn in the crater at Black Mountain or along the winding road leading up the mountain. ^[verified]

Gallery

References

Non-canon