Having a little trouble with the Contrera’s unmarked side quest.

Did a few errands for him.

Then he sent me to that pawn shop to make contact with the a buyer, the one who is actually an NCR trooper.

He tells me the jig is up, I pass a speech check.

He tells me that Contreras has to be a informant or something to that effect, and I need to go tell Contreras what the new deal is gonna be.

I return to Contreras, but I get no dialogue prompt to discuss what happened. I check back w/ the NCR trooper but he has nothing new to say.

Am I missing something? Did I forget to do anything?

Thanks for the help.

I had the same deal... couldnt find a fix, sorry

Did you give Contreas' supplies to the NCR Ranger at the pawn shop? If so, you may have ended the side quest there.


*Super Mega Spoiler Alert*


It's a trap! The real buyer was caught and locked up. The NCR Ranger is undercover trying to find out who the supplier is. Save your progress and try killing the Ranger, then return to Contreas. Or revert to an earlier save and try again. The reward is worth it.

If you want a reward you'll have to either turn Contreras in to one Lt. Boyd who is wandering around inside the terminal area or go back and kill the Ranger for Contreras. Then Contreras will reward you or be arrested if you work with Lt. Boyd to bust him. Keep in mind that if you get Contreras busted his large stock of ammo will no longer be available for sale...he's one of the best vendors in the game.

I did that quest today, and wanted to keep the vendor around, and since I am sorta playing an assassin-type lady killing the NCR guy at the pawn shop was no problem. Weird thing was though, even though Contreras asked me to do that, when I went back to him having done it (after posing the dead NCR guy in a chair in the pawn shop with a toaster balanced on his head) there was no dialogue option to tell him he was dead. Contreras just 'knew' that I had made a deal with the guy, and sent him off somehow? Same end result, he is still vending and the quest is over.

this is how you do it, like the other guy said, you go into sneak mode and kill the ranger with a silenced weapon and then go back to contreras and he will give you the rifle.

I had the same problem as the OP, apparently the option to end the quest without either killing the Ranger or turning Contreras in is bugged.

Lol...
I didn't realize how good he was until I turned him in..knew I should have bought those gun mods before snitching on him.

Live and learn

If you're aligning with the NCR, don't worry about killing the undercover ranger. I did and did not get any messages about losing rep with them. I'm not sure why did it as I'm playing a good character, but it just felt right to off him. Anyway, back with Contrarres, I told him something like "it's taken care of" and I got the reward - and what a reward it is! :gun:

I had trouble with this as well the speech challenge IMO is bugged but if you bribe the Ranger and then return to contreras he seems to have dialogue options then.What puzzled me was when I killed the ranger it implied that I had made an arragement eith the Ranger.

Are the ONLY ways to get this reward to either turn in Contreras or kill the NCR guy?

I know there are other ways to complete this unmarked side quest that would fit with my character's attitude better, but I'm probably not willing to give up this reward for a pretend man's life.

The quest seems badly bugged....the option to bribe the Ranger doesn't work. But since if you out the Ranger without him figuring out you're the mule Contreras tells you to go back and kill him as a loose end....maybe they wanted the choice to be either narc on Contreras or protect him by killing the Ranger.