All,

SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY.

So I go into the Strip for the first time. I'm an all unarmed character. I was intent on ignoring the main quest. I'm level 8 ... maybe 500 xp before level 9 or so. I decide to pop into The Tops to gamble since I've never done it yet.

I see Benny. Holy crap. Wasnt really expecting that. Just seeing him leveled me to 9, or entering the casino.

I get in a dialog immediately, demand the chip, and when he says it doesnt work like that I tell him its time to die. Even tho I have no weapons, I whip his butt and only go through maybe 8 stim packs as the other 12 guys are shooting me. I just got the knockdown perk so that really helped. I got my chip and all his stuff and without hurting anyone else I ran outside and ... leveled up to 10. Holy crap. Killed 1 guy and I hit level 10. Saved my game. Fortunately I had saved it prior to ever entering The Tops, so thats cool.

So as a quick test to see if the guys at The Tops will calm down, since I only killed Benny andhe had it coming, I quick-travel elsewhere in the world fight some stuff and rest 24 hours and come back to The Tops. The Tops people are still pissed at me. Am I permanently locked out of The Tops since I aced Benny and got my chip in the public foyer with my bare hands?

So I decide to continue with this situation. I go to Lucky 38 in hopes that meeting Mr House could maybe settle down things on the strip. I've never been in before so this is all new to me. I go in, meet Jane. She takes my snow globe. NICE. I go downstairs to the big tv screen, quicksave as a precaution, and I am ABOUT to click on his screen to talk to him about the chip I have now when I notice a terminal on the wall to the left.

Well I'm a melee + science character and I cant resist hacking terminals so I stroll over and its not even locked with a secure terminal. I unlock the next room, the robots go crazy! I ran in the room and saw more robots ... but another terminal. I'm a hacking fiend and I'm intrigued now, so I run to the terminal and again ... not locked. I open the next door and go in. I find a big crazy room with Mr House all wired up and a terminal to open him up. I cant resist opening stuff up with terminals on this character so I do.

He is pissed and asks me why I did it. Well, I would have answered "I love hacking and opening up crap" but it wasnt an option. My options are "I dont like you" and "Its just business". Neither is true, I'm just poking around, but I pick "Its just business." I'm offered a choice to kill him or just unhook him, etc. I choose to unhook him. He is pissed and wont talk to me, but I didnt want to kill him.

Damn.

So now all the robots are aggressive but they are all confused and erratic. But they hate me. I can easily avoid them, but man. I'm not sure what I've just done.

I kinda want to run with this, because it was such a cool and weird chain of events. But I'm afraid the Strip will forever hate me, and I assume I cant collect any snow globes now, which is fine. But I'm worried I'm screwing myself somehow.

Any suggestions?

My intent for this character was to entirely ignore the main quest until I hit level 30. I just wanted to gamble. I could reload to before I ever walked into The Tops. But damn. What will the repercussions be? Will I be able to still play through and do stuff in the game or did I just bring the main quest crashing down?

Thanks for any help. I dont mind spoilers. That's why I'm here.

Having not quite done things this way (O.o), I can only make an educated guess, but no, you should not have brought the main quest crashing down. There are myriad ways to go about it, but some of the tangents include killing Mr. House, and obviously they had to take into account the fact that you might ice Benny as soon as you saw him in the Tops. You should not be locked out of the Tops, per se, just stuck with a bunch of dudes trying to whack you, but if you can explore the whole place despite that you should be able to find what you need to push forward with basically all the options of the main quest. (To go minimal spoiler: Get to the elevator that leads to the floor 13 and check it out thoroughly.)

I don't recall if House gives you access to the Presidential Suite right away. If not, and you don't have it yet, I don't think you'll get it. That's something you definitely want. You've nuked several quest possibilities. And if you can't get to floor 13 in the Tops, that's going to restrict your options as well. But the main quest structure is in large part reliant on the NCR and the Legion fighting over Hoover Dam, so that will remain intact.

Edit: Realized you said you didn't click on House, so I'm guessing you don't have the suite. If you can reload the quicksave, talk to him, get the suite, then go downstairs, you can essentially set it up the same way while obtaining the central meeting place for any companions you pick up.

Is there some way I can ice Benny in private instead of right in front of everyone?

I kinda like that I just greased him in front of everyone, took my chip, and left. But I came there to gamble and I dont want to miss out on gambling at the Tops.

I also kinda like that my high tech curiosity ended up weakening Mr. House. I did re-load my save game from right before I offed him and saw what he'd do with the chip. Is there any way I can give him the chip, get the penthouse apartment, and then disconnect him?

Or could I perhaps reload before punching Benny, go see House without the chip, get the penthouse, then jump Benny, and then ice House?

I kinda want to keep with the spirit of what I did in my "native" run, but I dont want to lock out all my gambling opportunities and peaceful roaming of the strip.

Thanks!

I'm pretty sure The Tops wouldn't welcome you anymore since you just took out their boss out in the open and as far as anyone knows, without any reasons. You should be fine in the other casinos but I don't think there's anyway back to get into The Tops good books.

Well dang. I kinda like the way it went down in a way, its just too soon.

Maybe I'll reload to before I ever went in the tops, and just not even talk to Benny. I noticed he doesnt initiate conversation with me at all. So I could at least go in, gamble until they kick me out, and THEN do it all.

What happens to The Strip if Mr. House is a vegetable? Does it change things radically, in terms of the Strip Politics? Remember I'm only level 10.

Thanks!

I'm not sure if this will work, but you can go to the Garretts at the Atomic Wrangler and pay him to make people on the strip "forget your previous actions". I haven't done anything that I've needed to use this option for, but it sounds like what you're looking for.

He told me there was nothing to do for undoing my rep for the things I'd done, but he was able to make me liked in Freeside for 1000 caps, but not the Strip. That seems to imply that somewhere on the Strip there might be someone who can fix mistakes and up reactions for the Strip.

Does anyone know if there is a similar person for The Strip zones? I'll start looking. Hopefully it isnt someone in The Tops.

Thanks!

There's not, unless s/he is hiding in a very deep, dark hole.

I'm curious why you want to gamble so badly in each casino. Is there something about it that I'm missing? The same games are offered in each.

For what it's worth, there's an achievement for getting banned from every casino, if you want to work on that. >_>

the main quest isn't broken at all. You just have to enter benny's room now and find the secret he's been hiding in there.
In your case that means sneaking or killing through the tops i guess.

I dont want to get Vilified on the Strip tho, so I guess that when it comes time, I'll just bring 30 stim packs, run past everyone and take the hits. Maybe I'l bring a stealth boy. Not sure if that will help. My sneak is unenhanced on this character.

If you took out Benny and all guards present, you are tough enough to fight your way through the Tops any time you want, easily. Also, even if you're not that tough, your 30 stimpak plan is only necessary to continue the MQ. Come back at level 30 and I don't think it will be a problem.

My instinct says you should still be able to gamble at the Tops as long as no guards are around, but on second thought you probably can't. Why do you care about gambling in the Tops anyway? The games are the same anywhere. I think it's MUCH cooler that you walked in and punched them all in the face and you do your gambling elsewhere. Go with your first instincts and face the consequences. Believe me, it's the fun way to play this game. From the tone of your posts, you clearly WANT to follow through with what's already happened. Don't lame out.

As for rebuilding rep on the Strip, the Chairmen and Mr. House aren't the whole Strip. Go to other casinos, the Vault hotel, and Michael Angelo's, and do their quests. You'll be back to at least "Merciful Thug" in no time.

You are completely right, and thats what I've done. I decided to go with it, and actually, things are fine. House is powerless, and there is no reason to go into The Tops ever again until I want to pursue the MQ.

Thanks!

Cheers