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Untitled[]
A deathclaw can spawn right in front of you by the crater at the top, confirmed on PC. Most untimely glitch ever? Also, hint: have a level 20 or higher character for a manageable journey up the hill. It's pretty easy with Ed-e sensing the nightkins for you at long distance--usually one sneak-critical with anti-materiel rifle will take them down. Ultimately the loot makes this a very profitable quest. -LR
That Deathclaw appeared for me too I thought it was stalking me the first time it slaughtered me and then it caught me in a battle with 2 nightkin, but since I was only level 8 is was barely making it there as it was, but man did that deathclaw make my journey to retrieve Raul more difficult.--24.165.179.157 02:11, December 7, 2010 (UTC)
any relation to black mesa
- What the hell do you think this is?! It's a radio complex, not a scientific research compound. And the name is more a reference to Iron Mountain, which is mentioned as being "offline" by ENCLAVE Main Comm., along with NORAD and others. Nitty Tok. 22:13, April 12, 2010 (UTC)
You do realize there is a section of the Black Mountains in Arizona known as Black Mesa, right? And who the hell said anything about a "scientific research compound?" Blutteufel 04:41, July 12, 2010 (UTC) A reference to Black Mesa is more likely to be one to the scientific research facility that is central to the events in the Half Life universe. As such any reference to it in Fallout would have to be of some sort of scientific nature, otherwise it would just be another pile of rocks out in the Mojave.. TestECull 08:36, August 5, 2010 (UTC)
Wow....narrow-minded much? Blutteufel 19:40, August 9, 2010 (UTC)
Greetings from Arizona! I can confirm TestECull's reference to the Black Mountains, and indeed, if it is a Half-Life reference, then it will be a scientific compound. If not, then the gameplay area may be larger than anticipated, reaching well into Arizona. TJbrena 16:31, October 18, 2010 (UTC)
Loot[]
I stumbled through here trying to take a shortcut to Novac. I ended up running into evolved minotaurs and fell off a cliff right on top of a corpse wearing t-51b power armor. I died about a half second after that. Not sure if it was from the minotaurs or the insane radiation. - Namelesswalaby 19 October 2010 1928hrs
I only see one dead brotherhood member.... although I also note that the centaurs can respawn in the area it seems...
All Masters/lag issues[]
I just dinged 20 before I started heading up Black Mountain, and I'm getting nothing but super mutant masters for spawns at every corner, is this even remotely normal for the area....or did I wait too long to go up there to avoid master mutant spawns? Also, I'm finding I'm having insane lag issues on things like reloading, bringing up my pipboy and even pausing the game while I'm in that area, occasionally my targets health bar in VATS won't budge after unloading 3+ shots into their faces with no DT shield warning (Attempted with both normal and AP rounds just to make sure). Is anyone else having weird bug problems trying to climb the mountain? Even Scorpion gulch was giving me these same issues the closer I go to Black Mountain's base. - The Godchild --67.193.11.186 07:33, November 5, 2010 (UTC)
It could be all the poorly placed rock resources throughout the area, from a 3D stance, the area is totally cluttered with redundant resources. Lots of polygons, and in turn a bunch of tiny shadow detailed, some of them you can't even see. That would only explain the lag though, I don't know about the masters showing up at every turn.AryeonosWhat!? 08:36, November 8, 2010 (UTC)
Rollback[]
You don't need to bypass the roadblocks with any special rock climbing skills to discover the location, the crater is at the base of the mountain and can be reached without fighting anything but the enemies near it. Mictlantecuhtli 12:42, November 9, 2010 (UTC)
Led Zeppelin Refrence[]
Why would the Led Zeppelin refrence get deleted? Seriously, theres a song called 'White Summit/Black Mountain Side' by Led Zeppelin. What if the developers were Zeppelin fans? 99.228.7.240 03:02, November 12, 2010 (UTC)Anonymous
- It's a hell of a stretch. For one thing, there's a mountain called "Black Mountain" near Las Vegas. For another, all the song references in the game are to songs of the style and vintage used in the game - Vegas lounge songs, cowboy songs, yodeling, etc. So while it could be a reference to Zeppelin, it's highly unlikely. So unless you have some other reference, like a developer saying in an interview that it's a sly reference to Zeppelin, it's too "out there" to fit in the wiki. Dmunsil 03:22, November 12, 2010 (UTC)
- I see, that really clears things up. Thanks. 99.228.7.240 05:37, November 14, 2010 (UTC)
Purpose of the 4 switches around the radio tower?[]
Has anyone figured out what these 4 switches are for? They're on the platform around the radio tower where the Nightkin sniper with the Annabelle missile launcher is standing. You can activate all 4 but nothing seems to happen.
- The switches will each re-align one dish, though still no clue as to what they might do in-game. --Snapjak 21:30, November 15, 2010 (UTC)
- In one of Raul's journals he mentions being on that platform doing maintenance and being tempted to turn off the radio station with a pull of a switch. If that is what they are for they don't seem to do it. Could be a bug.
Invincible Super Mutant Masters?[]
At one point while playing the game, possibly after loading a quick save, I found that a few of the super mutant masters were basically invincible while I was attacking the mountain. The bullets just went straight through, even in VATS. The only way of damaging the mutants was through Lily...somehow her vertibird sword worked. Not even my combat knife of ED-E's lasers worked on them. Extremely frustrating, seeing as Lily is useless and you die a heck of a lot...having to go through it again.
Bugs[]
Most games have less bugs than Black Mountain. In one run, I was knocked to the top of a fence by Tabitha after having entered a door on the other side of a fence. VATS targeting got crazy as some mutants decided to fly, weapons stuck in the air or got duplicated, ED-E stuck in the wall, Centaurs respawned in just a few hours. Finish: sneak attacked by a Deathclaw from nowhere!?
On my PS3, I noticed Sunny Smiles near the fenced off crater on the way up Blackmountain, near the dead BOS. Attempting to protect her was impossible, but I decided to quick travel back to Goodsprings and wait near her normal spot. After a 4 hour wait she re-appeared in the normal spot. This also happened with Easy Pete near the top, same thing quick traveled and waited and there he was. Heard it happens with Trudy too, but that I can't confirm.174.89.63.237 13:53, July 2, 2011 (UTC)
I was also dissapointed to find when you reunite Tabitha and Rhonda, all the mutants outside I killed, dissapeared, so I never got to loot Annabelle off the super mutant on the radio tower.174.89.63.237 13:56, July 2, 2011 (UTC)
Great Place To Loot For Jury Riggers[]
Black Mountain is a great place to visit after completing the quest if you are looking for valuable weapons to sell or trade with.
The super mutants and nightkins respawn quite often and they carry miniguns, heavy incinerators, light machine guns, super sledges and bumber swords. Most of these weapons can be repaired with lesser and also cheaper items, especially the super sledge, which can be repaired with pool cues and shovels.
With a high bartering skill to boot, you can easily earn 20,000-30,000 in caps every time you visit this place.
2nd suitcase at 2nd checkpoint[]
I searched all around but only found one suitecase with 20 pre-war money in the small passage after the irradiated swamp. It's not for the (meager) loot but it really bugs me when I miss to find things. Anyone has better indications?
Spawing[]
The super mutants wont spawn at black mountain for me.... Any one have any idea as too why that is?
They take 3-4 in-game days to spawn. If they aren't spawning at all it's probably a bug.--69.204.216.160 04:19, August 29, 2012 (UTC)
Necropolis has the same ambiance[]
Was obsidian lazy or did the want to invoke some nostalgia? (I only recognized this because I was playing through fallout one again then cleared out black mountain)
Map origin?[]
I've been thinking about the many bugs reported with characters and enemies spawning at Black Mountain. Personally I've encountered Papa Khan (during the Oh My Papa quest, making the quest marker very confusing), a Boomer, and a Deathclaw in my playthroughs on PC (unrelated, I've also seen Sarah Weintraub appear at the Fort missing her hands. This game is funny). I have a theory for why that might be happening: Black Mountain is just about the exact center of the game's map, and may be the origin of the grid (point 0,0). Entities whose position data bugs out to an invalid value might default to the origin as a failsafe. I don't have the tools or knowhow to inspect the game's code to confirm this theory, though
I also noticed that they all seem to appear around the top of the path up the mountain, right in front of the crater and the village. That might be where the origin is