Fallen Rock cave is a location in Zion Canyon in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts.
Background[]
In the years leading up to 2077, the cave was used by a United States Geological Survey research team for unknown studies. They abandoned the cave at the breakout of the Great War, presumably to try and get back to their families if they had any.
Following the nuclear apocalypse, the cave was left abandoned until Randall Clark arrived in Zion after hiking on foot for five days all the way from the destroyed Salt Lake City. He made camp deep inside the cave where the USGS equipment had been left behind, avoiding being poisoned by the radiation still lingering outside from the bombs. To cope with his isolation, Clark used the researchers' terminal to begin keeping a journal wherein he wrote down his thoughts and particularly his regrets about not being home with his wife and son in SLC when it was destroyed. Clark also actively monitored the levels of radiation outside with a Geiger counter, forced to rely on his supply of water bottled from the stream running through the cave's lower level.[1][2]
After spending two months in the cave, by January of the next year, Clark had become concerned over the levels of radiation that had not gone down as much as he had thought they would. Towards the middle of the month, though, circumstances changed as the winds blowing through the canyon caused the rad count to drop significantly, though that was followed by a green-colored snow that glowed. Towards late January, he found that radiation had gone down enough that he could attempt short walks outside before being endangered and more importantly, he could resume bottling the cave's water supply but only by mixing it with Rad-X. By the end of January, Clark only remarked that "there was nothing alive out there."[3][4]
Clark continued to reside in the cave until sometime between January 2078 and March 2083, by which time he had moved to a new campsite within Two Skies cave closer to the Virgin River.
Layout[]
Situated near the Eastern Virgin, across from the entrance to Angel cave in the Dead Horses camp, one entrance to the cave starts as a small, circular room. There are mines and trip-wires connected to rigged shotguns throughout the cave. There are also some boxes of ammunition lying around, often near the shotgun traps. The traps extend throughout the entire cave.
Towards the center main room at the split leads to more mines and shotgun trip wires. There is also a mine hidden behind a teddy bear in the entrance of the central room. In boxes and workbench crates are aid items and ammunition. Eastwards are more mines and a skeleton with a recharger pistol.
To the very east is an exit back to the Eastern Virgin with a tripwire and grenade bouquet just before the water. Disarming the grenade bouquet (located at the beginning of the down-sloping exit hallway) requires jumping to reach it.
Notable loot[]
- Compliance Regulator - a unique variant of the laser pistol, found in the campsite chamber hidden behind an open wooden box containing ten energy cells and three drained microfusion cells.
- Survival cache - To the left of the terminal in the campsite chamber.
Notes[]
As it is one of the first locations the player character will naturally come across while following the add-on's story, once cleared of traps, the cave is an ideal base of operations during Honest Hearts due to it containing all three crafting platforms placed right next to each other, and a few containers for storage. However, as with other caves, items stored or dropped will be lost upon returning to the Mojave Wasteland during Departing Paradise, so it is advisable to gather any needed items or supplies stored in the cave before leaving.
Appearances[]
Fallen Rock cave appears only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts.
