Any suggestions for taking it down? Want to get straight to Novac to grab a hunting rifle without having to go all the way down south. I've used a stealth boy and even with a sneak of 50 he rearranges my face every time I try getting past.

You can have a sneak of 100 and a stealth boy and he'll still rip you a new one. You're probably going to have to go around.

Go all the way down south?

If you're looking for a Hunting Rifle go to Hidden Valley; I've found a Super Mutant with a Hunting Rifle there really early game before.

Yeah, just wanted an upgrade to the varmint rifle before I found the sniper rifle. In the end I killed him, just stood on a rock and he ran around trying to 'look' for me. Took 69 bullets though.

on my second character i managed to get all the way up to the strip and gun runners without dying once, at level 2 by going north and just sneaking, running and rock hopping. Was rather chuffed with myself

Laydown 2 - 3 frag mines if you got em use vats to plant a few shots in his legs and when he rush in and hits the mines it should cripple him. then just run past him. If you have frags hit him with those instead of shooting him in the leggs the tend to cripple more often. I would use the stealt boy to land a critical hit on him with the nades.

He's a real toughie...I was never able to get him at an early level. I stick to the high hills above Nipton when going south and then north around them heading for Novac...and I do it in Sneak mode to avoid as much as possible. You'll see what's there and can avoid most of it and I hope you got ED-E in Primm because he'll help you get there. It was good practice and I breathe a real sigh of relief when I make it into Novac.

Blind DeathClaw is tough????

Have you try snipe it with Varmint Rifle and .223 rounds?

If you want to get to the Strip, there are shorter ways, but for Novac it's not that long to just take/sneak along the main route past Primm/Mojave post/Nipton, like Kicenna was saying I think. Takes me like 15 minutes from Goodsprings if I don't stop to sightsee/loot, I don't fight a thing, & I can get Boone before the end of his first game-day shift.

When you reach the Mojave Post xroads area, you just slip between the bandits on the road and the few scorps on the other other side, then to that drive-in next to Nipton (I dont trigger Nipton's 'location discovery' or the bottle-cap dude), then up the hill between the road and Caesar's safehouse. Travel along the hills with the bighorn, drop down in that area between Searchlight & the ransacked camper and run across the way to Novac. If it's before you do anything else the wandering Legion are neutral & won't bother you, so no problem.

if u focus on a melee character you can take out all the muties at black mountain by level 4, i've done this twice already. as for the deathclaw u should do that quest at the mojave outpost for ranger jackson, he'll give u 70 armor piercing rounds with a service rifle. once u see the deathclaw lure out till u go downhill and jump on a rock that is safe from the deathclaw. from there shoot the deathclaw but try your best not to miss. hope this helps :tops:

The Hunting Rifle in Novac seems easiest tho...unlocked chest, no fighting/killing etc. If your objective is to get the weapon before doing anything else in the game, at least.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the muties at Black Mountain have miniguns and missile launchers, which is a bit much for a level 4 character to handle. Guess anything's doable if you have enough stimpacks though.

I don't think you're wrong if you try to take them on going straight up the winding road but there's a way to get up to the top from the back and if you use Stealth Boys, they don't know you're there and you can run in and fix Rhonda. You just have to be very sneaky.

L.C., where's that rifle hidden? I can't figure that one out!

IIRC, it's in Cliff's house.

edit: checked, and yeah, Cliff's house. It's at about 50% condition.

they have hunting rifles till you reach level 10. only super mutant masters carry miniguns,lmgs,and super sledge. if u don't believe me start a new character and go to black mountain as soon as u can.
well this is true on 360 cuz i have 1 but am pretty sure it will be the same on pc, just try it without a mod :tops:

Sneaking svcks, just go another way.

When you put on a stealth boy, it gives you 100 sneak for as long as the stealth boy lasts.

There's also one in Boulder City, beside the locomotive. Right out in the open. Don't remember the condition.

Don't go through Primm Pass. Go North of NCRCF to the little pass that takes you into Hidden Valley. From there, go through Scorpion Gorge (or w/e it's called) and you will end up behind Helios One just North of Novac. In my current playthrough (using IWS and XFO--so the South is VERY tough at low levels) I used this route to avoid going South until I had a ton of allies (using Phalanx) and was at a much higher level (it's still a bit tough against the Legion). Basically, I sneaked past the Powder Gangers around NCRCF and then only had to kill scorpions en route to Novac. MUCH easier than going against the blind deathclaw. When I went the Primm Pass way in one playthrough at a low-to-mid level, I managed to kill the blind death claw and then came across a cave called Dead Wind Cavern and I was like "hmmm....I wonder what's in here..."

Oh, my ... :ahhh: