Look, let’s be real. Playing Fallout: New Vegas without touching the tilde key is like going to a buffet and only eating the garnish. You can do it. It’s "pure." But eventually, you’re going to get stuck in a rock near Red Rock Canyon, or a quest script will fail because a specific NPC decided to walk into a wall for three hours. That’s when you need the power. You need the Fallout New Vegas console commands.
Most people think using the console is just about giving yourself a million caps and a Gauss Rifle. It isn’t. Well, it is, but it’s also the only way to actually finish the game when the engine starts sweating. Obsidian Entertainment built a masterpiece, but they built it on a foundation of digital toothpicks and prayer.
The Basics (And Why Your Steam Achievements Just Died)
Before you start typing like a hacker in a 90s movie, remember one thing. If you open that console and trigger a command, Steam stops tracking your achievements for that session. It’s annoying. You’ll have to save, quit to desktop, and restart the game to get them back. To open the console, you just hit the tilde (~) key. It’s right under Escape.
If you're on a laptop and it isn't working, check your infrared driver settings. Seriously. Sometimes Windows thinks the tilde key is an IR signal. Weird, I know.
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The "I'm Stuck" Survival Kit
You’re wandering the Mojave. Suddenly, the floor loses collision. You’re falling through a grey void. Don't panic. Just type tcl.
This is Toggle Collision. It lets you fly. It lets you walk through walls. It is the single most important tool for anyone playing on PC. If a door is locked and you don’t have the skill? tcl through it. If Rex gets stuck in a fence? tcl. Just remember to type it again when you’re back on solid ground, or you’ll keep drifting into the stratosphere.
Then there’s fov. The default field of view in New Vegas feels like you’re looking through a toilet paper roll. Type fov 90 or fov 100 to actually see the world. You’ll thank me later. It makes the combat feel less claustrophobic and the vistas actually look, well, grand.
Mastering Fallout New Vegas Console Commands for Quest Fixes
We have all been there. You’ve spent forty hours on a playthrough, and then "G.I. Blues" or "Beyond the Beef" just... stops. The NPC won't talk. The trigger won't fire. This is where the Fallout New Vegas console commands move from "cheating" into "essential maintenance."
The sqt command is your best friend here. It shows you the current targets for your active quests. If you need to force a quest stage because it's bugged, you use setstage <QuestID> <StageNumber>. You’ll need the Fallout Wiki for the specific IDs, but this command has saved more save files than the actual auto-save feature ever has.
resetquest <QuestID> is the nuclear option. Use it sparingly. It can break things even worse if you aren't careful, especially with complex scripts like the ones involving the Strip or Mr. House.
How to Actually Use Item Codes Without Losing Your Mind
Everyone wants the All-American or the Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle early. I get it. To give yourself items, you use player.additem <ItemID> <Amount>.
The "0000000f" code is for Bottle Caps. You don't need all those zeros, though. Just player.additem f 5000 works fine. The game is smart enough to fill in the leading zeros for you. Same for Bobby Pins (player.additem a 50).
- Stimpacks:
player.additem 15169 50 - Anti-Materiel Rifle:
player.additem 8f21e 1 - 9mm Ammo:
player.additem 8ed1e 100
If you want to find a code for something you're looking at, open the console and click on the object with your mouse. The ID will pop up at the top of the screen. This is also how you use the kill or unlock commands. Click the door, type unlock, hit enter. Boom. You're in.
Changing Your Character on the Fly
Mistakes happen. Maybe you realized "In shining Armor" is a bugged perk that literally does nothing because of a coding error (it checks for the wrong energy type). Or maybe you just hate your character's nose.
showracemenu- Opens the character creation screen. Careful: doing this can sometimes reset your stats if you change your race.showbarbermenu- Just for hair. Safe.player.setav <Ability> <Value>- This is for stats.player.setav luck 10makes you a god at the Blackjack tables in the Tops.player.addperk <PerkID>- Want "Jury Rigging" without the level requirement? This is the way.
Actually, let's talk about player.setav vs player.modav. This is a nuance most people miss. setav sets the base value. modav adds or subtracts from it. If you have a hat that gives +1 Perception and you use setav, things get messy. Use setav for a permanent change to your core identity.
The Weird Stuff Nobody Tells You
There are "fun" commands, and then there are "utility" commands.
tm toggles the menus. It hides the UI completely. If you’re trying to take a cool screenshot of the sunset over Hoover Dam, use this. It also hides the console itself, so you'll have to type it again blindly to bring the UI back.
tfc is the Toggle Free Camera. Combine this with tm and you’ve got a professional photo mode. If you add a 1 (like tfc 1), it actually freezes time as well. Perfect for catching a screenshot of a Deathclaw mid-leap.
player.setscale <number> is hilarious. Set it to 0.5 to be a tiny courier. Set it to 2.0 to be a giant. Just know that your movement speed scales with your size. Being a giant makes you incredibly fast; being tiny makes a walk across Goodsprings feel like a trek across the continent.
Dealing with NPCs and Factions
If you accidentally shot a member of the NCR and now the whole Mojave hates you, you can fix it. Or, if you want to join the Legion without actually doing the dirty work.
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The command setreputation <FactionID> <Variable> <Amount> is your tool here.
The Variable is either 1 for "fame" or 0 for "infamy."
So, setreputation 000f43de 1 100 makes you a hero to the NCR.
If an NPC dies and they shouldn't have—looking at you, Cass, who loves to walk into landmines—you can bring them back. Open the console, click their corpse, and type resurrect. They'll stand right back up. Sometimes their AI is a bit wonky afterward, so it's usually better to just load a save, but it works in a pinch.
Is It Really Cheating?
People get elitist about Fallout New Vegas console commands. They say it ruins the "survival" aspect of the Mojave. Maybe. But I’d argue that the survival aspect is already ruined when a quest item falls through the geometry of the map.
The console isn't just a cheat menu. It’s a developer tool that we happen to have access to. It's the grease that keeps the rusty gears of the Gamebryo engine turning. If you use it to give yourself 100,000 caps, yeah, you’ve bypassed the economy. But if you use it to fix a broken script or get out of a stuck animation, you’re just finishing the job the QA testers couldn't.
Practical Steps for Your Next Playthrough
Don't just go wild. Overusing the console can actually bloat your save file or cause crashes if you spawn too many items or NPCs at once. If you're going to use these tools, do it with a plan.
- Always keep a "clean" save. Before you mess with quest stages or race menus, make a manual save.
- Use the Wiki. Don't guess IDs. Look them up on the Fallout Fandom site or use the
helpcommand in-game. Typinghelp "Combat Armor" 4will list all IDs related to those words. - Restart after using. If you want those Steam achievements, remember that a full game restart is mandatory after you close the console.
- Focus on FOV and TCL. These are the two biggest quality-of-life improvements that don't actually break the game's balance.
The Mojave is a harsh place. It's even harsher when the game code decides to quit on you. Knowing these commands isn't about breaking the game—it's about making sure the game doesn't break you. Go fix that FOV, get yourself unstuck from that rock, and maybe, just maybe, give yourself a few extra bobby pins. You've earned them.