***--- Minor Spoilers Ahead ---***


Okay. So i've got my character up to level 20. I've tweaked him to be a crack shot sniper who is siding with the NCR. I load up on all the AP .308 I can find and head off for Quarry Juntion (aka Deathclaw Central).

I end up walking right past it and meeting up with the miners at Sloan, who give me the quest to kill off mommy and daddy deathclaw. I came in from the north, and already killed 5 or 6 deathclaw, so I figure i'm up to the challenge. If I'm not, I can always come back later.

So I fight my way into the quarry, tactfully trying to piss off only one deathclaw at a time as not to be overwhelmed. I manage to take down daddy without too much trouble. I clear out the central area and spot mommy and her cubs at the max range of my scope. This is where things begin to go horribly wrong.


Attempt One:

I start out shooting with a perfectly aimed sneak attack to the head. Mommy's health is down to 75% and she is pissed. She is charging at me, ignoring my companions completely. I resist the urge to panic and unload the remaining four rounds in my clip into her head. She pauses her charge, writhing in agony as her head is crippled. Her health bar is down to about 25%. I load up VATs and use up all of my action points for two direct shots at her head, with an estimated 95% accuracy. I figure I have this in the bag.

BLAM BLAM!!. Two perfectly directed shots fired, both scoring critical hits!!

Unfortunately, ED-E in his infinite animatronic wisdom decided to fly directly inside my line of fire just before I executed my final two kill shots. Both my shots ended up hitting that [censored] little flying metal baseball. ED-E fell to the ground with a sad little "bloop", leaving mommy deathclaw to unleash her fury on Victoria and me in short order.

Time for a reload.


Attempt Two:

"I'll get her this time!" I think to myself as I wait for my save game to load. This time, I decide to get clever and mine the path between me and mommy deathclaw. I figure 4 or 5 frag mines ought to slow her charge down a little, allowing me to unload a full two clips before she gets to me.

Again, I lead off with a sneak critical to the head. She angerly charges towards me, unwittingly on a direct course towards my minefield. I'm unloading my clip, waiting for the inevitable explosion when, once again, ED-E decides to prove his usefulness. Instead of shooting his puny little laser at the deathclaw, the stupid little robot decides he is going to shoot the minefield before mommy even gets close to it.

Mommy Deathclaw runs right through the prematurely detonated minefield, on a direct course for me, who is standing there stupidly with my jaw wide open. I suppose you can guess how that ended.


Attempt Three:

Cursing ED-E's name as I reload for the second time, I decided to run back to the quarry entrance and get that stupid, degenerate, floating tin-can to wait as far away from the action as reasonably possible. After leaving the twit-bot behind, me and Veronica head back into the quarry to our little hiding spot and try to line up another shot at mommy. I lay down my mines and get ready to make my initial sneak shot when I realize that mommy deathclaw has completely disappeared.

Her cubs are still there, walking around in a nice neat formation, but mommy is nowhere to be found. After I spend the next few minutes looking for her, I finally take a frustrated pot-shot at one of the cubs. The cubs go down in quick succession, but after they're all dead, I notice I'm still in combat, and there is still one red bar on my compass. According to my perception meter, mommy is right in front of me.

Next thing I know, veronica is taking swipes at thin air with her power fist until she is knocked over by some unseen force. I can hear mommy deathclaw huffing and panting, but I can't see anything. And then it occurs to me.

Mommy Deathclaw is underground!!

She had completely fallen through the earth and was still, somehow, able to kill me. Because the next thing I know, the death cutscene is playing and I'm watching the loading screen once again..



Eventually I did kill her. I did not expect it to be so difficult. Furthermore, I didn't expect said difficulty to come as a result of bugs and bad companion logic.

Oh well. All is well that ends well.

:rofl: Haha! Thanks, that was funny. :cookie:

On a serious note though I hate Deathclaws, especially mole-Deathclaws :unsure2:

A very easy quest to do if your careful, I had no problem clearing out the quarry and I had 1 close encounter with a deathclaw who I proceeded to shoot its head off with the Anti-Material Rifle.

That story deserves a hug! :hugs:

I lol'd. I had a similar problem with Rex. ED-E seems to be flying above my line of fire most of the time, so I haven't taken him out yet.

Great story.

[Using a John Madden voice] Now here's a guy who can't enjoy a good story.


[look up Frank Caliendo impressions if you don't get that]

I had a pretty easy time at level 14 (I managed to get a sniper rifle) with this quest onVH/HC. Except for mommy. She kicked my ass 20 times before I killed her (wish I'd thought of mines!). My strategy, since I couldn't really kill the death claws before they closed, was to snipe with 5 sots, then switch to my power fist. I would then use the ranger move to knock the deathclaw down, and then use vats to finish it off. That ranger move is almost too powerful, if you can manage to pull it off before getting hit, you can basically stun lock a single creature (which is why mommy was so hard since all the babies come too, so that strat didn't work). To kill the mom, I used the shot gun with the bean bags, knocked everyone out, then killed all the little ones and once mom was 1v1 it was manageable.