So, after playing through the DLC and, due to many deaths, having to reload and go through several conversations multiple times I believe I have heard of every bit of Elijah's dialogue. Near the end, he explains that the reason he wanted into the vault is for the hologram technology and for the vending machines so he could use them to build his own society. That fits with the character, and I'm fine with that. What I don't understand is why he would want into the vault at all. There are no holograms inside the vault proper, though there are several in the basemant itself. However, there are more holograms littered about the casino itself, and even quite a few within the villa. The vending machines are found in the villa and casino as well, but I don't believe there were any in the vault/basemant. One could argue that he knew the gold was down there, but I don't see the reason in that. The vending machines don't take gold, they take chips, and there were no chips in the vault/basemant I'm aware of. Even if there were, there's thousands of chips in the villa and casino. You could say he wanted to use the gold to trade for caps or something else he wished to use for currency, but he doesn't seem one to be interested in creating an economy. He wants obedience. With the hologram technology he could kill anyone who disobeys and they would be helpless to defend himself.

I don't understand would dedicate all this time (years maybe?) to breaking into a place that houses absolutely nothing that he claims to want. Even if he did not know what was inside it, why would he put so much effort to get in when he could take all things he wanted without even entering the casino itself. He built a holorifle, I don't think it would be too difficult for him to replicate more vending machines or holograms once he had one in his possession to understand how they work.

On a side note: Any ideas how the vending machines are supposed to work exactly? They obviously hold more items then they would normally be able, and I imagine even if they did hold them all that they would eventually run out. I don't see how they could change the chips into the items either. Plastic and food are entirely different things.

I assumed there was another section inside the vault that had the controls.

the gold to fund his society

He did say he wanted to make the sierra madre a base, and you could guess that he thought he would find some kind of master control panel, instead of a trap at the console in the final vault. He said he got the holorifle and slave collars in the great empty. But your right, by simply grabbing a few holo emmiters, and a couple of vending machines, you would think he could reverse engineer something. He had mentioned that the red cloud was usefull too, if he could figure out a way to create his own. They never really explain the source though, other than possibly toxic waste runoff, like green pastures.

Wanted to harness the red cloud that covered the area. Saying that it preserved the casino and he could use it to preserve any monuments or old world buildings.
Elijah also wanted the cloud for easy clearing of people that might be between him and what he wanted.

Fix'd this.

Elijah was crazy before he even began the search. Crazy people don't often do things that "make sense"

That always made me wonder if tha vault isnt the control pannel, where is ?


I always thought the Madrae made the cloud, sinclair probablly had some research and made it so that it would pretect the madrae in case of war.

Did anyone else raise an eyebrow when we were told he wanted to supply his society with food and health aid....by using the vending machines..? :confused:

I didn't because it would most likely mean that the vending machines would have an unlimited amount of food and drinks since the vending machines apparently materialize items out of thin air, so having unlimited food would be immensly invaluable to any sort of society even if it is potato chips :spotted owl:

He thought that the Terminal would have all sorts of data that would be useful to him as well, mostly regarding the operation and design of the casino and its bounties, like the holograms, the vendors, etc.

You may remember one of the threats you can make is to destroy the data- he definitely doesn't like that. Unfortunately for Elijah, there is no data on the terminal about that stuff. There is a "personal accounts" file for Dean, which would seal the vault indefinitely. Dean would obviously want the personal accounts info so as to get access to the rest of Sinclaire's fortune, not just all this gold, so it was an irresistible bit of bate.

Elijah falls for that same bait, thinking that all the Data he wants will be in the personal accounts. So then he gets sealed in, like Dean was to be.