We've all tried this, right? Sigh wearily at the prospect of yet another Primm-Nipton-Novac loop and attempt to sneak up to the big city at a perilously low level?
What's the method you favor?

My current favorite is 160 North from Goodsprings. You'll want one or two stealth boys (graciously provided by the game via Joe Cobb's corpse and the school house safe) and a moderately strong weapon; some mines or powder charges help as well. I'm usually level 3, here.
Head west and up into the hills from Goodsprings. Go North, carefully following the ridge line until you are above Chance's Grave. Activate a stealth Boy; grab the Knife from the grave and sneak across the small canyon. There will be Cazadors to the right and left. Go straight and clamber up on the cliff face and go left. Stay as high as you can as the cliff veers to the east. You will find yourself above Bonnie Springs in a perfect sniping position. Lay down some mines on the paths to your position. Then start killing raiders. It's a tough fight but you'll get a Trail Carbine, Combat armor, a unique set of Knuckles (Love and Hate) and other good stuff.
Now, carefully head North on the west side of 160, watching for Bighorners and Fire Geckos. When you see Violet's camp angle East. VERY carefully sneak past this and Driver Nephi's hangout (unless you are up for some combat, like I was the last time I did this), shooting for the Samson rock crushing plant.
Now just run for Mccarren or straight to Westside.
I like this method because it's pretty suspenseful and there is very good loot.

I still don't understand what people have against the Primm/Nipton/Novac loop to get to Vegas. I've used it to get to The Strip at lvl-1 (lvl 2 if I grab Boone first because his quest tends to push you over to the next lvl). It doesn't take that long. I don't have to fight a thing (in the vanilla game). What's the big deal? One day I'll have to make a video or something. It's easy peasy.

...of course, if you want to be able to grab some phat loot on the way, or just see what big baddies you can kill/sneak by at lvl-1 for the challenge, there isn't too much of that...hunting rifle in Novac, bandits, few other things. You can get quite a bit of caps from the empty buildings/train stations along the way, but that slows you down time-wise of course. No more than fighting all those things you're mentioning tho.

Edit: and you can get the two combat armors w/no fighting from one of the Caravan wrecks near Freeside.

1. Get out of Doc's House.
2. Leave Goodsprings immediately and head to Primm.
3. Skip Primm immediately and head for Nipton staying on the road. Mojave Outpost is optional for a friendly place to stop by.
4. Ignore/Observe Inculta and head for the cliff the in the south of the town.
5. Go up the cliff and kill 15 Bighorners to get MONSTER XP.
6. Go on the road to Novac, fighting Vipers on the way.
7. When you see a group of 2 caravans, follow them, until you reach the Legion Assault.
8. Observe the Legion Assault and loot from whoever wins. (Remember, the Legion doesn't assault you, just the caravan)
9. Head on the road to Novac.
10. Arrive to Novac, look at Manny Vargas's terminal. (Boone is optional)
11. Go to 188 TP and recruit Veronica if not Boone already. Then go buy stuff from Alexander if you use Guns.
12. Go to Boulder City and deal with Jessup. Go to the Strip.
13. Head to McCarran. If you have Boone with you then go to the Strip for free. If you don't then head for GunRunners.
14. (Non-McCarran way) Arrive at GRs and buy and sell stuff if you want.
15. (Non-McCarran way) Go in Freeside and head into the Strip with 2000 caps for the credit check.

@ice625 - yeah, exactly. Even doing those few things (looting, a little bandit killing) if you skip all the quests and just book it through the loop, it doesn't take long + you've cash etc.

....but you can also avoid the bandits/fighting at all if you want. If you have Boone (you don't have to keep him once you've gotten to the Strip), you can enter McCarran then the Strip via the Monorail at lvl2 w/out even needing to have collected 2000 caps. Then if he's not the companion you want, just fire Boone.

edit: sorry, you did mention the Boone-no-caps way. I read too fast.

Console teleport bliviongate:

I like going pass Scorpion's Gouge, easy to get Companions and weapon.

oh boy, you guys all go the hard way, i like getting a hunting rifle early so i head to black mountain, the only thing you need to worry about are the deathclaws on the left near the quarry but just stay on the black mountain side near neils shack, there is a bed there to heal up, after i kill the supermutants and get my hunting rifle, just stay on the black mountain side and stay up on the rocks and the deathclaws will not be a problem, sneakmode helps, you'll eventually pass the deathclaws and be able to climb down from the rocks and go straight to new vegas if you want, but i usually pick up veronica first.

You take me too seriously. I've done exactly as you describe at least three times and probably will again. I've got nothing against it.
I just think taking the shortcuts is fun because you save walking, you're employing a mild exploit (though I'm sure the devs give us a bounty of stealth boys early for this reason) and you're getting replay value.
And it is a hell of a long walk. :biggrin:
PS: I also stop and grab the black combat armor. Never found two, though. Huh.

Never saw any advantage in getting to New Vegas at level 1.

Come to think of it, there is exactly zero advantage in rushing to New Vegas. Never has been.

There are two corpses. One is left of the caravan, the other right of it.




Agree. The only possible point of interest could be the Gun Runners. I usually pay them a visit at around Level 10 to buy some 5.56 APs for my Ratslayer. then I wander off to the southern part of the map again, and don't show up before I've reached Lvl15, when it's time for me to buy the PE implant.

Getting an Intelligence implant? You get 17or18 more skill points altogether.

Then the Gambling, and better vendors.

Getting more of what I have more than enough aleady anyway?
After reaching Level 26 or 27 I already start allocating points to skills I don't use anyway, like EXP.
With the level cap raise in the DLCs, it becomes even less meaningful.
I never buy the INT implant, I never take Educated, and my char is almost maxed out nevertheless.

With the merchants, I agree.

1. Go east towards Sloan.
2. Follow the road.
3. When reaching the over turned truck go to the east cliffs and climb up on them.
4. outrun the deathclaws.
5. profit.

At vegas by lvl 1.

It's more like 4-7 skill points. Just because they're not making a bee-line strait to the clinic doesn't mean they're doomed to get to the clinic at level 35. Following the intended path you should be hitting Freeside at levels 9-12 with enough caps for upto two implants. When you have to bust out a calculator to tell the difference between a character that rushed and one that didn't it doesn't matter.

Also, both the gambling and better vendors are not going anywhere. Both will be there at all levels.

My motives for going off-path and sneaking to Vegas have little to do with number crunching (I do like having access to more merchants -- there's an awful lot of loot in Nipton to download).
It's just about doing something different and having fun. That's all. Sheesh, some of you guys are so serious.

I should mention, though -- by 'Vegas' I don't mean the Strip. I'm never in a hurry to get there.

I want to distribute skill points, I need to distribute skill points - I might be addicted or smth...
Educated at lvl 4 + Comprehension at lvl 6 for good measure
Starting with 9 INT and doing everything to get 2000 caps to enter The Strip to exchange the Snow Globe for 2000 caps to fund the INT implant

1. loot everything in Goodsprings and sell most of it
2. postpone the tutorial
3. Snow Globe at 'youknowhere'
4. Yangtze Memorial
5. Sloan
6. sneaking between the Deathclaws on the road and Neil's Shack to ascend the mountain
7. then directly to New Vegas Medical Clinic (both times I've done it - didn't fire a bullet or got hurt)
8. more looting
9. credit check at The Strip gate to exchange the Snow Globe for the caps and then back to Dr. Usanagi for the operation
10. return Goodsprings to make the townspeople happy and then the usual Primm, Mojave Outpost, Nipton, Novac and so on

I have 4 ways that you could go to New Vegas

1. The Normal Way you go to Primm, Nipton, Novac etc

2. You attack the Tribal village from above that gets you some experience and a couple of Fire Axes and other goodies. You could attack Bonnie Springs but you can get better stuff in different places with no difficulty.

3. You head up to Sloan you sneak up north up the road near Neils shack then you time a Stealth Boy and sneak your way to Repconn.

4. I don't like this path but it still works head towards Hidden Valley and run past the Rad Scropions in the Scropions Gulch. That way takes you near Helios One and gives you early access to Novac.

The fastest and most fun path to Vegas before level 2 is to follow the road north from Goodsprings, cripple the Cazadors, run through Fiend territory and you're in Vegas!

I just made the trip from Sloan to Vegas with a level 4 charachter! :foodndrink:

It cost me one stealth boy, one med-x and three turbo's, and on the way I had a close encounter with a deathclaw which followed in my heals all the way till the Repconn, where I managed to hide (heroically?) behind the train station until I deared to sneak away further towards the Grub'n Gulp.

Although I realize this wasn't an original or groundbreaking or avantgardish thing to do in Fallout New Vegas it really felt amazing to avoid the old Primm-Nipton-Novac-tour and suddenly be in Vegas, baby! I feel like a kid in a candystore, and now I'm going to go out there and hunt fiends! Again!!

:shocking:

See? Fun!