The game "Caravan" in Fallout: New Vegas is to easy and can be easily abused. I am not going into how to play but I never lose. My deck for caravan consists of 2s, 4s, 6s, 8s, 9s, 10s, Js, and Ks, nothing else. I don't even know what the queen or jokers do, that explains my expertise in the card game. I find myself never losing though. I use mostly even numbers to get to 26 with a lot of kings to double my points and if the NPCs get any ideas, I know how to use my jacks. Here is how the game can easily be abused, I abused the game on Lacey in the Mojave outpost. I talked to Lacey and went into her shop and noticed she had 7000 caps to barter with. I had no idea normal stores could have that much money so I decided to get some caps by playing Caravan. So the max ante that showed up was 2000 so caps and I matched that and I won, played again and the max was 1800 or so caps and I won again. I kept doing this till she had a measly 500 caps and I had around 23000. What I did next is what abuses Caravan. Lacey owns a shop. I took all my money, and bought everything. Then I saw she had around 5000 caps to barter with again and I played Caravan again without losing till she had no money or items left. I had my 23000 caps back and all the items in her store. This can be repeated with all stores that play Caravan. You can get all their items and money for free and then play for a day or two and return and do it again. Giving you as much ammo, money, stimpacks, armor, crafting materials, etc etc etc as you will ever need. I reloaded to before I did this knowing it would kill the game for me.

I believe Bethesda should figure a way to max the amount of caps you can get from an NPC or lower how much they can ante every day or figure some other idea, maybe increase the difficulty level of Caravan depending on your Win/Loss record. I lost 3 times in the beginning of the game to learn how to play and never have lost since. I no longer really play Caravan anymore unless I ante maybe 1 cap just to play the game.

tl:dr : You can abuse the game Caravan and rip off everything an NPC owns if you know how to play giving you anything you really would want by playing until you get all there money, buying everything in their shop and playing again to get all the money you just spent. I think this should be fixed.

I'm not sure if this is the right section. Cheats, hints and spoilers maybe? Anyways, good tip, but I won't be using it. Seems, gamebreaking.

Yeah I think so too, I didn't want it as a tip or cheat but more of a recommendation to Bethesda. I didn't think it was a bug or a glitch either so I just put it in general.

I've never even played caravan yet, it doesn't interest me but I should check it out. I make my caps by stealing EVERYTHING that has value, and selling what I don't want or what I won't use. I'm a negative karma player so I don't mind walking into someones home and robbing them blind, by carrying the item into another room out of sight and taking it. I had 25,000 caps when I first got to the Vegas Strip, because of my Fallout kleptomania.

Queens reverse the suit and Jockers have different effects on different cards. Check the last pages in the help section of the menu in-game

Too easy. The challenge of Fallout is to be good

yeah i needed 500 caps to buy the thrusters, i only had about 300, so i played caravan against no bark, saving right before I entered the game. lost twice in a row (before reading how to play), loaded each time, 3rd time i won and made like 330 caps. i noticed that the caravan system could be abused but no one is telling you that you have to. in anycase I went and bought the thrusters, and if there is ever an item i want real bad, might just have to play some caravan the ability to maximum bet, and then load if you loose is the main thing that makes it cheap, but like I said, no one is telling you to abuse it. just think of it as a last resort if you dont want to go scauaging around the wasteland for hours trying to get enough loot to sell.

Keyan, you're even making it more complicated than need be. A deck of nothing but 6s, 10s & Ks is unbeatable. The game is broken. Well, not broken, it's just too simple and far too easy to take advantage of.

I'm no good at card games so I haven't won a game of Caravan yet, despite trying multiple times when able. I'm determined to win at the game.

Yeah I'm always good karma and never though of bad karma but I like ZombifiedRacoon's term of "game breaking". Even if you bad karma it's within the games means.

i mean its a single player experience, i could care less if some player is farming bottle caps.

The PDF manual also spends close to 2 pages explaining the rules.

(I haven't read it yet... it hasn't clicked with me so far.)

@Capea
I've never had that many 10s, 6s, or Ks to try it but yeah that does sound unbeatable, and yeah the game is basically broken and doesn't seem like much though was put into it. I hope they can work on fixing it in the future.
@Trizz
I know it's a single player experience but I would really enjoy playing Caravan if it could be fixed and right now I sorta stay away from it.

Yes it might be too easy, but the game gives you the option to steal if you want to. Therefore there is nothing wrong with it. Just about the most important thing to have in Fallout games is caps. Next to Stimpacks, weapons, and armor. Everyone plays a different way, that is just how I play, and being "good" doesn't mean I can't steal everything. Unless you mean the challenge is to keep your character in good karma. In which case I don't care, because again you can play it anyway you want.

I agree that Caravan is far too easy, at least against the 4-5 NPC opponents I've found.

I've also experienced what I consider to be a completely unacceptable AI bug in the game. If you have bought 2 Caravans and the third is up for grabs, the AI will actually buy the third one, thereby handing you the win! I don't care if they want to pad the game a little to make it winnable, but this is tantamount to the computer forfeiting.

Caravan would be a decent game to play against human opponents, but a tiny bit of strategy and purchasing a few higher cards for your deck means that you probably should never lose against the NPCs I've encountered. I honestly hope that there are some NPCs that I've not yet met/read about out out there in the Wasteland that have good decks and better AI.


Oh, and if you don't know what Jokers do: find out.

@CHA1N5
Haha, not that I need people explaining what the cards do, I know I could look it up. I was just giving an example about how I don't even know what all cards do and I never lose a game.

Yes, point taken: you can reliably win at this game without anywhere near maximal cards or strategy.

I agree, i made so many caps, It's like i am the 'Bill Gates' or Trump, of the wasteland.