By the time you reach the Mojave Wasteland, the Enclave is supposed to be dead. Dead and buried. If you played Fallout 2 or Fallout 3, you spent dozens of hours blowing their oil rigs to pieces and storming their high-tech bunkers. They were the big bad. The "remnants" of the United States government gone genocidal. But in Fallout New Vegas, the Enclave is a ghost. Or rather, a group of ghosts living among us.
They aren't an army anymore.
Honestly, that is what makes them so fascinating this time around. Instead of fighting a faceless wall of power armor, you're tracking down a group of retirees who just want to be left alone. It’s a complete subversion of what we expected from the franchise’s most iconic villains. You don't find them by following a main quest marker; you find them by earning the trust of a humble, gray-haired doctor in Freeside.
The Enclave in Fallout New Vegas: Not Your Average Villains
Most players spend their first twenty hours in the Mojave thinking the Enclave is just lore fluff. You hear about them in passing. You might find a piece of scrap or a terminal entry mentioning the "great collapse" of their power in the West. But the reality is that the Enclave in Fallout New Vegas exists solely through the "Remnants"—a handful of survivors hiding in plain sight.
Arcade Gannon is your way in. He’s a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse, a group of pacifist nerds, but he carries a heavy secret. His father was an Enclave pilot. If you drag Arcade along on your adventures and show him that you aren't a total sociopath, he eventually triggers the quest For Auld Lang Syne. This is easily one of the best-written pieces of content in the game because it forces you to view "monsters" as human beings.
These aren't the guys trying to poison the tidal basin. They're just people.
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Take Daisy Whitman. She’s a grandmotherly figure in Novac who happens to be one of the most talented Vertibird pilots to ever live. Then there’s Cannibal Johnson, who lives in a cave because he hates everyone, and Orion Moreno, who is still so bitter about losing the war that he’ll turn his plasma rifle on you if you suggest helping the NCR. It’s a motley crew of aged soldiers who have spent decades trying to forget who they used to be. Or, in Orion’s case, trying to find a reason to remember.
The Power of the Remnants Bunker
The payoff for finding the Enclave in Fallout New Vegas is the Remnants Bunker. It’s tucked away in the northwest corner of the map, hidden behind a mountain path that’s frankly annoying to navigate if you don't have a high enough Luck stat or a good map. Once you gather the five members—Daisy, Cannibal Johnson, Orion, Moreno, and Judah Kreger—they reunite for one last mission.
It’s a nostalgia trip. Seeing them standing there in their old uniforms is jarring.
They offer you a choice that defines the endgame of Fallout New Vegas. Do you want them to support the New California Republic (NCR) or Caesar’s Legion at the Battle of Hoover Dam? It’s a weirdly personal decision. The NCR represents the democracy they theoretically served, but the Legion represents the kind of authoritarian hammer the Enclave used to be.
If you side with the NCR, Orion Moreno loses his mind. He cannot fathom helping the "squatters" who took everything from them. You either have to talk him down with a high Speech check or kill a man who’s basically a disgruntled grandpa in high-tech ceramic plating. It’s messy. It’s complicated. That’s Obsidian’s writing at its peak.
Why the Gannon Family Tesla Armor Still Matters
Let's talk gear. If you’re looking for the Enclave in Fallout New Vegas, you’re probably looking for the armor. Specifically, the Remnants Power Armor and the Gannon Family Tesla Armor.
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The Remnants Power Armor is objectively the best physical protection in the game. It has the highest Damage Threshold (DT) of any suit. But it breaks quickly. It’s old. It’s brittle. It feels like a metaphor for the faction itself—imposing and powerful, but one stiff breeze away from falling apart. You find the helmet at Silver Peak Mine (guarded by a very angry legendary cazador) and the body armor at the Deathclaw Promontory.
The Promontory is a nightmare. Dozens of Deathclaws. No mercy.
The Tesla version, which you get through Arcade’s quest, is even more iconic. It’s the sleek, glowing suit that graced the cover of Fallout 2. In the context of New Vegas, wearing this armor makes you a walking target for some and a god to others. It’s the ultimate reward for engaging with a faction that technically doesn't even exist anymore.
Misconceptions About the Enclave Presence
A lot of people think the Enclave has a secret base somewhere in the Mojave like the one in Fallout 3. They don't. The "Enclave" as a political entity is gone in the West.
- The NCR Hunted Them: After the destruction of the Poseidon Oil Rig, the NCR launched a scorched-earth campaign. They hunted every person with an Enclave ID tag. That’s why the Remnants are so paranoid.
- They Aren't All Evil: Arcade Gannon is the proof. He’s arguably the most moral companion in the game, yet his roots are tied to the most "evil" faction in the series.
- The Hidden Valley Connection: People often confuse the Brotherhood of Steel with the Enclave. They hate each other. If you bring Arcade to the Brotherhood bunker, he gets incredibly nervous, and for good reason. They are ideological opposites.
The Enclave here isn't about world domination. It's about legacy. It’s about what happens to the soldiers of a lost cause when the war ends but they’re still alive. Do they repent? Do they hide? Do they try to go out in a blaze of glory?
How to Maximize the Enclave Questline
If you want the full experience with the Enclave in Fallout New Vegas, you need to play your cards right. You can’t just walk up to them.
First, get Arcade Gannon. You find him at the Old Mormon Fort. If your Intelligence is low, he’ll join you out of pity. If it’s high, you can charm him. You need to trigger "points" for his quest by visiting specific locations like Repconn HQ, the Crashed Vertibird, or the Fort. He needs to see that you have an opinion on the world.
Once the quest For Auld Lang Syne starts, don't rush the dialogue. Listen to their stories. Each of the five Remnants has a different perspective on what the Enclave was. Judah Kreger saw it as a necessary order. Cannibal Johnson saw the cracks in the facade early on.
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When you finally get to the Battle of Hoover Dam, the sight of a Vertibird dropping off these old-timers in full Power Armor is one of the most satisfying moments in gaming. They clear the field. It’s a reminder of why everyone was so afraid of them in the first place.
Moving Forward in Your Playthrough
To truly wrap up the Enclave narrative in your current run, you should focus on these specific actions:
- Secure the Armor Early: Don't wait for the quest. Head to the Deathclaw Promontory with an Anti-Materiel Rifle and explosive rounds. This armor makes the rest of the game significantly easier, even if the repairs are expensive.
- Balance the Speech Skill: You need a Speech of 80 to convince Orion Moreno to stay and fight for the NCR without a bloodbath. If you're going for a "good" ending, this is non-negotiable.
- Decide Arcade's Fate: At the end of the quest, you can tell Arcade to stay in Freeside or fight at the dam. If he fights, he gets a unique ending, but he can no longer be your companion. If he stays, he continues his work as a doctor. Think about what the character actually wants versus what you want as a player.
- Visit the Remnants Bunker After the Quest: Even if you haven't finished the game, the bunker remains a safe house. It’s a great spot to store high-end energy weapons.
The Enclave's story in the Mojave is a closed loop. It’s a masterful way to handle legacy content without it feeling like fan service. They aren't the main course; they’re the bitter, complex seasoning that makes the world feel lived-in and heavy with history.
Once you’ve completed their arc, you'll likely have a different view of the "bad guys" in the next Fallout game you play. They were once the masters of the world, and now they’re just five old people in a bunker, waiting for the end of a long, radioactive day.