Overview:
Estimated achievement difficulty: 5/10
Offline: 75 (1655)
Online: 0 (0)
Approximate amount of time to 1280: 35-45 hours.
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 4 playthroughs.
Number of missable achievements: Lots. See below.
Do cheat codes disable achievements?: No cheats.
Does difficulty affect achievements?: No. (See Below)
Glitchy achievements: Yes. (See Introduction.)
Unobtainable achievements: None.
Extra equipment needed?: No.
Note Difficulty does not affect any of the achievements in the game, however, the Hardcore achievement requires you to play on Hardcorde mode. Within the first few minutes of playing, you will be notified of playing the game on Hardcore mode. You can turn the option on, but MUST keep it on for the duration of your playthrough. Turning it off at any point, will void the achievement and you must start a brand new game. Hardcore mode doesn't necessarily turn the difficulty up, as you can play through the game on Very Easy difficulty, but makes playing much more challenging.
Introduction
Welcome to the Mojave! Fallout: New Vegas feels very much like its predecessor, Fallout 3. The game's story is very different from Fallout 3, as the story splits off into 4 separate ways at a certain point. Completing all 4 story splits unlock achievements, so you'll be needing to play through the game at least 4 times. You could save at the point where the story splits off, but it's very early in the story. The game is littered with glitches and bugs, but there are no bugs that make any achievement unobtainable. However, the glitches and bugs can make it so some of the missions are impossible to complete. If this occurs, you can replay the game and complete that mission.
Note If you have yet to start a playthrough and you have Gun Runner's Arsenal, be sure to check the challenges frequently and complete them whenever you can.
Mr. House Playthrough: (15 achievements; 360)
Playthrough 1 will be your Hardcore playthrough. When you first begin the game, you will be in Doc Mitchell's house setting your SPECIAL and skills. Try focusing on Strength and Agility for your SPECIAL, and Repair, Stealth and Lockpicking for your skills. These skills high will make Jury Rigger, Artful Pocketer and No Tumbler Fumbler much easier. You can work on any certain damage achievement depending on which skill you chose to level up. Once you are about to leave his house, you will be notified of Hardcore mode. Turn the option [on] and get ready. Be sure you turn the difficulty down to Very Easy to make it easier. You will earn Ain't That a Kick in the Head after leaving the house. Continue on through the story, until you reach Novac. Here, you can earn Come Fly With Me. Also, a companion will be here, (Boone) so be sure to pick him up for Ol' Buddy Ol' Pal. North of Novac is the HELIOS One station. Here, you can unlock That Lucky Old Sun and have the ability to glitch your way to level 30 within 30 minutes. You WILL need to play offline and clear your system's cache for it to work though. Get to level 30, and you'll unlock New Kid, Up and Comer, and The Boss. Once you've reached level 30, you can continue on with the story until you reach New Vegas. You'll unlock They Went That-a-Way and Ring-a-Ding-Ding along the way. Afterwards, you can start Mr. House's story line. Continue with his story line, and you will unlock The House Always Wins and All or Nothing. You will also unlock the Hardcore achievement.
NCR Playthrough: (9 achievements; 165)
For this playthrough, you will be siding with the NCR. When setting your character, focus on Strength and Intelligence for your SPECIAL. For your skills, focus on Science and Speech. Having these skills higher will make Hack the Mojave and Outstanding Orator much easier. Depending on which skill you chose to increase, you can work on the Damage achievements throughout your NCR playthrough. Continue with the story as usual. When you get to The Strip, you can complete G.I. Blues and Talent Pool. You can earn Stim-ply Amazing and Desert Survivalist easily by drowning yourself and healing yourself. Continue on with the NCR story-line and you'll earn For the Republic, You'll Know When it Happens, and Eureka! before finishing the game.
Caesar's Legion Playthrough: (9 achievements 155)
For this playthrough, you'll be focusing on completing the story for Caesar's Legion. Focus on having high Charisma and Luck for SPECIAL, along with barter and guns for your skills. With your high Luck, you can earn The Courier Who Broke the Bank without many problems when you get to the Strip. You can also earn One Armed Bandit, Little Wheel and Double Down while in any casino. After you've unlocked The Courier Who Broke the Bank, you'll have plenty of money to spend on mods and weapons. Install 20 weapon mods, and you'll unlock Mod Machine. You can also unlock You Run Barter Town, since you'll be swimming in caps. You can also earn any weapon damage achievements while playing through the game. You'll earn Render Unto Caesar, Arizona Killer and Veni, Vini, Vici before finishing the game.
Mop-Up Playthrough: (17 achievements; 320)
For you final playthrough, you will focus on all other achievements that you have yet to complete. You will be siding with Yes Man during the story, to unlock Wild Card and No Gods, No Masters. You can recruit all 7 companions for The Whole Gang's Here achievement. Discover 125 locations, and you'll unlock both Walker of the Mojave and Master of the Mojave. While uncovering these locations, you can find all snow globes for the Globe Trotter achievement. Win 30 games of Caravan, and you'll unlock Know When to Fold Them and Caravan Master. By now, the only other achievements you may be missing are the side-missions and the 10,000 damage achievements. Both of these work hand-in-hand, and can be completed with ease.
Conclusion
Fallout: New Vegas isn't hard, but the achievements require quite a bit of effort, as they are (mildly) time-consuming. Reaching 10,000 damage for each weapon type sucks, but since there are four separate story-lines, they shouldn't cause too much problems. There are multiples glitches within the game that can ruin your experience, but the glitches that can help pay off in the long run. Be sure to clear your system's cache for the glitches to work in your favor, and you'll have the full gamerscore in no time!
[x360a would like to thank Tracker4502, YUNDER, and L1E for this Road Map]