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Update 17 ? Getting To It
Make sure to watch this intro slideshow if you haven't played Dead Money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Play stupid, play clever, make the mistake of saying "no?" That collor on your neck'll go off and take your head with it.
What do you want?
That structure you see above the Fountain ? the Sierra Madre Casino... you need to break inside. A... heist. Too many years in the making. But to get inside, avoid its traps... you'll need to gather a team. As I've found, one cannot do it alone.
So I need others to pull off this... heist. Who?
And should you get any ideas about killing each other and taking the treasure of the Sierra Madre for yourself ? a warning. All your collars are linked... one of you dies, you all die. If taht's what it takes to make you cooperate, so be it.
Why would you do that?
Because in some respects, breaking in to the Sierra Madre is easier than breaking human instinct. Greed. The Villa is filled with corspes. Some killed by the dangers here, some by me. Others... turned on each other.
All right. So find the other three people with bomb collars, bring them back here?
I've downloaded the instructions and markers on your Pip-Boy... in case you forget. And yes, I have access to that device on your wrist. Get the other three here, after that... I'll have more instructions for you. Do this, I'll let you go. I'll let all of you go.
Any suggestions for who I should get first?
I lost contact with him some time ago... probably after he dragged you here from the trap. Find him, he'll follow you, collar or no.
Where can I find him?
Travel West, towards the Villa Police Station ? follow the radio frequency and the alarms. Although there's a great deal of interference at the source. Perhaps that's why I lost contact with him.
The inhabitants? There's people alive here?
Yes... the inhabitants... avoid them if you can, they are difficult to kill. Whatever has created them, bullets, explosions, energy... it can make them inert for a time, then they seem to crawl back up, restored. Perhaps it's the Cloud... perhaps something in their physiology.
What is the Cloud?
As for its origins... I am not certain. Pre-War industrial pollutants... something in the Sierra Madre structure... It is unique across the wasteland... and deadly. It has kept this place preserved since the Great War.
Will exposure kill me?
The air here is lethal only if you enter concentrated pockets of the Cloud. Too long inside one, you'll die, so be careful where you step. I've seem some survive concentration of the Cloud for short periods of time if healthy enough ? others were too weak. Rebreathers, chemical suits... there is no protection against it, it decays all it touches. I've found fighting it useless.
Is there any safe place to rest?
Anything the Cloud has touched has preserved it one way or another... but only the Holograms in the Villa truly remain.
What Holograms are you talking about?
Ghosts... they fill the Villa. More in the Casino... much more. They carry out the functions the dead once did. They cannot be harmed... they only perform the same rote tasks until their power dies.
Why?
Most Holograms perform specific functions. The Security Holograms, ever since the bombs fell, now perform their function.
Their design limits their field of view, enough to avoid detection. Each has an emitter ? destroy or disable it, and they cease to be a threat. Still... at least they work as intended. Other technology here is more of a threat to you... notably, the Villa's radios and speakers.
Radios and speakers?
Yes, music was intended to be broadcast all over the Villa... over time, however, the radio signal has decayed and emits a different frequency.
About 80-90% of what I hate about Dead Money, right here.
It is an unfortunate side effect, one I did not anticipate. I was unable to calibrate the collars to block the signals ? so you'll have to make do.
So I have to deal with them ? or I explode?
Yes. But not immediately. You'll here a beep from your collar's detonator ? when you do, step back, scan the area, and find the signal source. There are damaged speakers, and shielded ones... the damaged ones you can destroy at range ? don't get close, you can't switch them off like a radio.
Aside from switching them off, what can I do?
Gunshots, energy blasts ? even spears thrown with great force ? can puncture their exterior.
That's all I needed to know.
Good. If necessary, I will guide you through the Villa's broadcast systems ? if you get lost, return here, and I'll direct you. I've downloaded instructions on an audio log to your Pip-Boy in case you can't read... if you forget why you're here, let my voice remind you.
Well. Shit. We've been kidnapped and forced into service by Veronica's crazy granddad.
This card is here to point out a challenge that I'm honestly not really gonna do since scavenger hunts for piddly rewards annoy me.
There's a different challenge for collecting a few hundred of these ? and that one I'm gonna do without really trying since just getting them is enough.
We start out with a weapon, but it's Energy Weapons and we aren't good at those.
It's scoped though so things could be worse!
We're gonna do what Elijah suggested and go get the crew member in the old police station. Not so much because I want him, though, I just really need to get to the station for a couple other things that are there.
Some exploration nets us a 9mm pistol which is crap but ehhh what're you gonna do. It's more things.
We follow the signs off to the old station.
Elijah reminds us about the Villa inhabitants, in case you don't go to the effort to talk to him. We'll be taking that spear, by the way.
Ahhhh shit.
Double shit. All the Ghost People are Abomination type enemies ? heavily mutated and powerful creatures. Also in this class are Deathclaws and Nightstalkers. They're quite strong. This guy is a Harvester, so he uses spears.
Note the Bonus Limb Damage effect ? this is on quite a lot of Dead Money equipment, for a reason.
You see, he's not actually dead. If we just leave this guy alone, he'll rise again and attack us.
So I whack him with the spear. Note that his right arm is gone now.
This graffiti looks new. The terminal on the right side of this screen is one of the ones that activates holograms.
Here's the hologram activated. The Ghost People are afraid of all holograms, so what we've done here is create a "safe zone" of sorts.
Aaaaand nearly all the rest of why I don't like Dead Money. Meet the Cloud. The Cloud will kill you and there's nothing really you can do but get through before your health drains away. If I were in Hardcore mode this would actually happen to a lesser extent all the time.
Very interesting graffiti.
We enter and Elijah gives his spiel about the speakers and radios again. It's important here because, well... This area is loaded down with speakers and radios. Also note the super mutant dead ahead. He won't talk to us just now, we have a hoop to jump through first.
Seriously, we have to sprint around and deactivate these radios everywhere 
Some info on a computer:
Also the radios are seriously everywhere.
Electric hot plates replace campfires for Dead Money.
We will also encounter these old timey styled radios. We had one like this when I was little. I guess we got rid of it around the time we moved to Houston for Enron ( 
) because I don't remember seeing it since then.
Buuuuut the radio's not the important part of this hallway. See those file cabinets waaaay at the end?
Say hi to the first of our Vending Machine codes! We can make weapon repair kits now!
We wanna keep wandering though. We want to head through the door on the right-hand side of the entrance.
This hand mark is a sign that there's a suitcase with goodies nearby.
I also will not be bothering to get all of these.
Computer has some more info. This implies that there's ammo codes around places!
One of the things I wanted was in the Armory.
Surprise! It's armor.
A broken bathroom down this way contains a weapon code for .308 rounds. Not bad, not bad.
Hacking the terminal on the Chief's desk is required to get into the contraband room, and some backstory.
There's actually a bottle of whiskey under his desk if you look for it too 
Yeeesss that's the ticket.
This is ALSO the ticket as these two weapon types are gonna be our main damage source for the entirety of the DLC. A Police Pistol that I didn't show myself picking up uses the .357 rounds and is gonna be actually useful unlike that 9mm peashooter we had earlier.
The basement has progress though.
Boy let me tell you taking these screenshots while panicking about the collar beeping isn't fun
Copy of Grognak down here. +3 Melee Weapons. Hooray.
Does everyone know to expect us? Do we have a herald or something?
Dog/God decides to stand with all the light source right behind him and make shadows. After some thought I decided to not redo this section and try to make better lighting, I kinda like it this way.
Still... even if you aren't my intended guest, you take direction. Good. You can't have been an idiot to figure out how to release me from my cage... or perhaps you are, with that leash on your arm and the one around your neck... with our collars and manacles, why, we may as well be kin.
What happened to your voice?
It doesn't transfer to the screenshots, but Dog and God speak very differently. Dog is angry, scared, like the other Nightkin you meet. God is... much calmer.
I'm the voice of reason. I sleep sometimes... down in the basement, in the cage. Now that I'm a wake, Dog goes back in the cage. Dog knows I'm here, but can't do anything about it. I'm his... conscience. Keep him tame, keep him from hurting us... doing foolish things.
Dog and I take turns in the cage... one steps out, the other goes back in. Now ? what do you want?
I needed to come out of the cage to protect Dog. From clever humans... like you. Do you see those wounds of his, covering his skin... the bear trap on his arm? He placed his own hand in it.
...he cuts, hurts, and tries to murder me out of him. He won't succeed. Just makes me angrier. Dog is the beast, we simply change cages. Like the ones here.
I was looking for someone with a collar like mine. Where is your collar?
Now the collar's a part of me. Inside. I can feel its electronic heartbeat, clicking and burning down below... like before.
How the hell did you... or whoever... eat one of these collars?
They... detatch. When segmented, they look like nothing more than metallic Radscorpions... and if they're attached to neck flesh, warm, red...
Dog can't help himself... hungry... greedy. And now the collar's inside, alive again. And we're trapped here until it goes cold.
If that collar inside you is active, I didn't switch it on.
Maybe you shouldn't go around shoving Old World tech in your stomach.
As if I had a choice. Sometimes instinct takes over, and that's when I go into the cage. It's like curiosity that way.
I hid the key on me so Dog wouldn't know... I just need the Old Man to show up, so he and I can talk. If Dog was in control when the Old Man appeared... well, he would just do whatever he commanded, as always. And I can't have that.
If you have the key in there, the "Old Man" can order Dog to open the cage.
The Old Man's voice is on my Pip-Boy, just like yours.
Calm down. Follow me, willingly, I won't do it.
No, you wouldn't. If you did, you won't escape this place alive. I'd shatter every one of your limbs to splinters and leave you here.
I have the power to let Dog out of his cage. I'm going to prove it by not doing it.
Hnh. No... no, you're not. Even though Dog's more docile... easier to control.
He is as vicious, more vicious than them. His hunger can help you more than I can. When I am in control... this shell is difficult to... fight in.
What do you mean?
The... inhabitants of the Villa. They are difficult to kill. They need to be chopped apart, hacked on the ground... disintegrated, if you can.
If he is with you, when they fall, he will fall on them, end them. If I am with you... fighting will be far more difficult.
Even if Dog is more helpful, we can manage.
I am not sure you belong here. No, you don't belong here.
All right, let's get out of here.
Very well... lead on.
That's God's companion perk. Dog's is different, of course ? as God has implied, he will be helpful in actually killing the Ghost People.
Next time, we will play the audio recording anyway and talk to Dog, since uhh, it's necessary for a few things.