Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas

75 Achievements

1655 XP

60-80h

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You'll Know It When It Happens

You'll Know It When It Happens

Complete You'll Know It When It Happens.

20 XP

3.0%

How to unlock the You'll Know It When It Happens achievement in Fallout: New Vegas - Definitive Guide

SPOILERS!!!

This is a mission you get during the "For the Republic" mission line for the NCR, while president Kimble visits Hoover Dam. While there may be a couple of ways of completing this, here is the method I used.

Once you are talking to Ranger Grant, ask all question you can of him, make sure you get his itinerary. Then, access the computer terminal next to him(requires science 50), to determine some one has hacked into the system. Now talk to ranger Grant initiate the president event, and while its flying in head to the ladder behind Ranger Grant that leads to the top of The visitor center, where the copter will land. Once it has landed, an engineer will begin fiddling with the plane. examine the plane, and with an explosives or repair of 65 or higher, you will find a bomb. Quickly go tell Ranger Grant, and the speech will be ended(thank god, it is the most boring speech in all of the post apocalypse), Kimble will be hustled to his copter, and the achievement will pop.

Note that there are a lot of "waypoints" on this mission, I imagine there are other methods to complete this, such as possibly catching the sniper, but you would probably still need to remove the bomb anyways, so this is probably the shortest way.

Edit: This can also be done during the Yes Man storyline if the NCR are friendly towards you. Thanks Radiant Viper for the hint!


Edit... This being a Fallout game, there are a number of ways of completing this mission. So I have posted some alternate solutions that have been given by people in the comments section...

Edit:(taken directly from comment, thanks VoodooAK !!)
You can also go to the closest tower behind the stage area that President Kimble will speak at. From the ground you can see a NCR Ranger posted there. Go up to the top and join the Ranger, after a bit into Kimble's speech another NCR Ranger will come up through the hatch and will be shown as an enemy (he attacked me on sight). Kill the enemy Ranger (presumably spy for the Legion), then return to Grant and tell him about the sniper. He will end Kimble's speech, but first a person will run up and try to kill Kimble but is stopped by the Rangers. The 2nd assassin actually killed a Ranger when I played.



Edit(11/17/10): Another solution from BearsinGames...
I went into the storage closet under the stairs up to the roof, and there was a pool of blood. This required a Perception above 6 to analyze, and gives you the result that someone in an Engineer suit is going to attack the President. During the middle of his speech, a third engineer joins the crowd. If you talk to him and insist he comes with you, he attacks you. After killing him, the President escapes safely with no further interactions needed.
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23 Oct 2010 22:54

13 Comments
hey, im at that part now and it says the Terminal Needs Science 50 and not 25
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By Brendan695 on 29 Oct 2010 03:12
The rangers turn hostile whenever I try to use the ladder.
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By Bob Almighty125 on 09 Nov 2010 22:54
I had a completely different run of events for this, going through the The House Always Wins VI \ You'll Know It When It Happens quest. I did not get an itinerary off of Ranger Grant. When he asked me to do a preliminary search, I went into the storage closet under the stairs up to the roof, and there was a pool of blood. This required a Perception above 6 to analyze, and gives you the result that someone in an Engineer suit is going to attack the President. During the middle of his speech, a third engineer joins the crowd. If you talk to him and insist he comes with you, he attacks you. After killing him, the President escapes safely with no further interactions needed.

I was playing on Normal (Non-Hardcore) so perhaps this reduces the number of steps to resolving this quest.
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By BearsInGames on 18 Nov 2010 01:20
If you're idolised by the NCR and have Rex, you can complete this quest in less than a minute. Just go up the visitor's centre ladder and talk to the engineer. Select "My dog doesn't like you" and threaten to call the MPs/ talk in private and he'll attack you. Simply kill him and loot the detonator to finish the quest- probably before or just after the vertibird lands!

I'd suggest you do it properly, though. My method isn't very rewarding- and it glitches Grant.
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By Blues Cowboy on 26 Dec 2010 21:16
i got very lucky on my run through, i did it on 'the house always wins VI' i found the legion sniper on the first tower, killed him and radioed grant who said he'd stop the speech, but he didn't move and the president finished his speech and just stood there - in the end, i took the sniper from the legion on the tower and shot one of his guards which unglitched him and he got away. Achievement unlocked
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By Davin0th on 08 Jan 2011 17:36
JUST 2 CONFIRM "VOODOOAK" POST WORKED 1ST TIME FOR ME(.I WAS ON EASY LEVEL 20) CHEERS FOR THE HELP GUYS,KEEP UP THE GD WORK :>}
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By MAGIC MACCA on 12 May 2011 11:52
I can't get this quest to work. I can't get the NCR to like me. I've done lots of side missions and killed Mr. House, and I'm fighting for them on the Yes Man questline. I kept a save before I did it in hopes that I can get them to like me, but I'm completely at a loss. What do I do?
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By xBrushedRedx on 17 Aug 2012 10:58
Yeah.. I'm keeping lots of older saves so if anyone wants to help me out with how to make them like me, please PM. thanks!
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By xBrushedRedx on 17 Aug 2012 11:06
I got this during the The House Always Wins questline from MR. House.
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By Kennyannydenny on 23 Jul 2013 07:49
keep in mind this has been updated, there is only one engineer that joins the speech now. i'm not sure when you have to attack him but i waited until the president was finished with his speech, like immediately and i killed the engineer. then i went on to speak back to the ranger and the achievement popped.
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By Supertray17 on 15 May 2020 06:20
Just FYI, you can also do this mission during the Yes Man quest line, as long as the NCR like you.
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By RadiantViper on 27 Oct 2010 20:18
You can also do this quest by going for Mr.House storyline ... as it is part of The House Always wins VI ... at least I got it that way
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By DNAxxsk on 29 Oct 2010 16:26
You can also go to the closest tower behind the stage area that President Kimble will speak at. From the ground you can see a NCR Ranger posted there. Go up to the top and join the Ranger, after a bit into Kimble's speech another NCR Ranger will come up through the hatch and will be shown as an enemy (he attacked me on sight). Kill the enemy Ranger (presumably spy for the Legion), then return to Grant and tell him about the sniper. He will end Kimble's speech, but first a person will run up and try to kill Kimble but is stopped by the Rangers. The 2nd assassin actually killed a Ranger when I played.
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By on 30 Oct 2010 04:32
View all 13 comments Show less comments

This quest is special in that it is given in the NCR, Mr. House, and Wildcard quest lines. For Mr. House and the Wildcard, the quest may not appear if you are not on good terms with the NCR. In either case, the main goal is to prevent the three assassination attempts against the President. There is a bomb on the vertibird, a sniper in the tower behind the president, and a fake mechanic with a knife. See a detailed walk through here.

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This is a main quest mission, only available if you are not on the Caesar's Legion ending path, and if your Reputation with the NCR is good. If your Reputation with NCR is bad, this mission will be skipped entirely denying you the opportunity to get this trophy. This trophy and Arizona Killer are mutually exclusive.

"You'll Know It When It Happens" will occur as part of either "Wild Card: Finishing Touches", "For the Republic Part 2" or "The House Always Wins VI". The mission is to prevent the assassination of President Kimball while he's making his speech at Hoover Dam, depicting the opposite side of "Arizona Killer". This mission is easiest if your Reputation with NCR is Liked or better, making Ranger Grant entirely cooperative with your efforts and allowing you unrestricted access to the entire area.

There are two main threats. There is a bomb on the President's vertibird (Explosives 50) to remove. A nearby engineer on the landing pad has a redundant detonator that with a high Sneak skill you can pickpocket. Bringing either one to Ranger Grant's will attention will cause him to cancel the speech and get the President out of there.

The second threat is a sniper in NCR Ranger garb that climbs the guard tower behind the stage. Depending on the timing of your initial search, the sniper may have time to still kill the President if you don't deal with him before you contact Grant. The sniper will kill the other NCR guard on the tower and then shoot the President shortly after this. If you have a sniper rifle, you can take out the assassin from afar (make sure you wait until after he kills the NCR guard, otherwise you look like the assassin). A safer approach would be to climb the tower itself. Once on top, if the NCR guard is still there he will continue his patrol as normal. Wait for the assassin to arrive and make his move, then dispatch him before he shoots the president. If the guard has already been replaced by the assassin, he will instantly challenge you. Insist that you call in the dead guard, and eventually he will turn on you allowing you to kill him.

If the disturbance has drawn attention, the President will be ushered off stage and back to Bear Force One, otherwise he will finish his speech and take off at the end like nothing ever happened. You'll get the trophy once the President is safely away.

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In fact, the quest can be completed much faster. Immediately after talking with Grant, we go up the stairs outside. To the right of the door there is a soldier guarding the stairs to the landing. If you have full access, we simply pass by, but if not, then we say that we have always dreamed of looking at the president’s helicopter (50 speeches), or we simply turn on the stealth gun and go up the stairs. A suspicious engineer is standing right at the entrance. We are waiting for the helicopter to land and this engineer to approach it. We inspect the helicopter and defuse the bomb (50 explosives or 50 repairs); in extreme cases, you can simply steal the fuse from the engineer. We return to Grant and say that the helicopter was mined. The President is immediately taken into a helicopter under guard, and the engineer is shot. Thus, the quest is completed, you don’t have to listen to a boring speech and you don’t have to fight with the engineer in the crowd and the sniper on the roof.
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19 Jan 2011 14:15

You will receive this mission after completing The House Always Wins V. Go to Hoover Dam, go into the bunker and talk to Ranger Grant. You are tasked with exploring the area. Go to the computer that stands in the center of the hall and BE SURE to hack it, read all the available information. After reading, targets from which a sniper can shoot at the president will be marked on the map; you need to check them (you don’t have to check them). From the computer, go to the stairs, go up to the second floor and exit through the door (Door to Hoover Dam). Go right and turn on the radio, check the gun control panel (it's to the right of the radio). Talk to Ranger Grant, he is standing to the left of the radio, that everything has been checked. Look at the cannon, behind it you will see a TOWER with an NCR Ranger walking on it. Go to this tower and stop not far from it. Look at the top of the tower. After some time, the NCR Ranger's body will be thrown from the tower. Check the dropped body and climb the stairs to the top of the tower. Talk to the shooter, insist that they need to report by radio. He's attacking you. Kill him and report via radio that you have found the shooter. As soon as the president flies away you will receive the trophy.
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29 Nov 2010 23:33