The dog tag fist is a weapon in Fallout: New Vegas.
Characteristics
An unarmed weapon consisting of three NCR Army dogtags clenched between the fingers on each fist, with the bead chains wrapped around the knuckles, proximal to the palm. It deals a low-end amount of damage per strike, albeit at a high-end attack speed. It also deals moderate critical hit damage, albeit at the second-highest AP cost of all unarmed weapons (below the industrial hand 
) as well as having moderate durability and a low-end weight, but also the lowest caps value of all unarmed weapons. It requires no Unarmed skill level and just 1 Strength to use effectively.
V.A.T.S. special attacks
| Legend | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | - Type of attack |  | - Skill required | |
 | - Damage per attack in V.A.T.S. |  | - Action point cost | |
 | - Damage per action point |  | - Additional effects | |
| | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 0 | 40 | 35 | 1.14 | |
| Stomp | 50 | 80 | 20 | 4 | Only on knocked down enemies |
| Uppercut | 50 | 46 | 20 | 2.3 | |
| Cross | 75 | 44 | 20 | 2.2 | 2.5x damage to limbs |
- Note: Unarmed weapons do double normal damage in V.A.T.S.
Durability
The dog tag fist can successfully strike about 495 times from full condition before breaking.
Crafting
The weapon cannot be found in the game, instead it must be crafted. The schematics required to build it are given by Private Halford after completing the unmarked quest Help for Halford in the Camp Guardian caves. They can also be found on his corpse.
Creation requirements
| Materials: | Requirements: | Produces: | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
NCR dogtags (20) |  | Repair: 30 |  | Dog tag fist (1) |
¹ Craftable without a workbench via a dialogue option with Veronica, or with ED-E once the add-on Lonesome Road is installed.
Variants
- Recompense of the Fallen - a unique variant found in the desk inside Aurelius of Phoenix's office on the second floor of the HQ building at Cottonwood Cove.
Comparison
| Legend | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | - Weapon name (melee or unarmed) |  | - Attacks in V.A.T.S. | |
 | - Weapon name (gun, energy or explosive) | | - Action point cost | |
| - Damage per attack (damage per projectile) | | - Damage per action point | |
 | - Damage per second |  | - Weapon spread | |
 | - Area of effect damage |  | - Magazine capacity (shots per reload) | |
| - Effect damage & duration |  | - Durability (number of attacks before breaking) | |
 | - Bonus effects |  | - Weight | |
| - Attacks per second |  | - Value in caps | |
 | - Critical chance % multiplier |  | - Value to weight ratio | |
 | - Critical damage | | - Skill required | |
 | - Critical effect damage & duration |  | - Strength required | |
 | - With all mods attached | |||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dog tag fist | 20 | 31.6 | 1.58 | x1 | 20 | 35 | 1.1 | 495 | 3 | 50 | 16.7 | 0 | 1 |
| Recompense of the Fallen | 25 | 47.4 | 1.89 | x1 | 25 | 35 | 1.4 | 745 | 3 | 250 | 83.3 | 0 | 1 |
- Note: Unarmed damage is doubled in V.A.T.S.
Notes
- Despite requiring multiple dog tags from multiple, separate NCR troopers, every individual dog tag as part of the weapon is shown as belonging to Sgt. James Merish, from the 452nd Battalion in Irvine, California who had a O negative blood type.
- Despite requiring 20 dog tags in total to craft, the weapon only shows a total of six, three clenched in each hand.
- Despite dog tags having no weight when in the inventory, the dog tag fist weighs 3 lbs.
- Dog tag fists cannot be manipulated/lifted to be placed on a shelf, etc, they can only be picked up or dropped.
Since NCR dog tags are a quest item, they won't be removed from the player character's inventory upon entering the Sierra Madre, allowing one to craft the dog tag fist there.
Behind the scenes
- Originally, Recompense of the Fallen would have been the reward for completing the unmarked quest Help for Halford. However, it was moved to Cottonwood Cove after it was decided that the location needed a unique item to acquire there. The quest reward was changed to be the crafting recipe for a non-unique dog tag fist.[Non-game 1]
- Denise McMurry and Sydney Wolfram worked on the art of this weapon, which shares a model with Recompense of the Fallen. Robert Lee performed scripting for Recompense of the Fallen, though it is unclear if he did the same work on the base dog tag fist.[Non-game 2]
References
Non-game
