Arcade Gannon Companion Guide: Quest, Perk & Enclave Story

A doctor with a guarded past

Arcade works with the Followers of the Apocalypse in Freeside. He is intelligent, skeptical of grand political promises and initially reluctant to explain why certain parts of pre-War or Enclave history are personally significant.

Followers of the Apocalypse

Arcade’s work reflects the Followers’ emphasis on medicine, education and practical aid. His commentary often challenges both NCR expansion and more authoritarian alternatives, making him a useful companion for understanding the Mojave’s civilian stakes.

For Auld Lang Syne

His personal quest reveals his connection to the Enclave Remnants and asks the Courier to reunite several veterans. The quest ties New Vegas to the history of Fallout 2 while still treating the surviving individuals as people rather than a simple faction cameo.

Combat and perk

Arcade favors energy weapons and provides Better Healing while travelling with the Courier, improving the effectiveness of healing items.

Voice performance

Zachary Levi gives Arcade a dry, educated delivery that works especially well when the character is frustrated by reckless politics or the Courier’s choices.

Recruiting Arcade and the Better Healing perk

Arcade works with the Followers of the Apocalypse at the Old Mormon Fort in Freeside. Recruiting him depends on dialogue and circumstances rather than a single universal button: strong Followers reputation, relevant assistance, Speech, the Confirmed Bachelor perk or even a very low Intelligence option can open the conversation. Positive Legion reputation can make him refuse, which immediately tells the player that his politics are not decorative.

While Arcade is traveling with the Courier, Better Healing increases the amount restored by healing items. That makes him useful for difficult combat, but his larger value is contextual. He comments on science, medicine, Old World technology and faction politics with the skepticism of someone who has seen how organizations justify harm in the name of a future they claim only they can build.

For Auld Lang Syne and the Enclave Remnants

Arcade’s personal quest requires more than conventional affinity. As the Courier visits places and advances the political story, specific conversations accumulate enough trust for Arcade to discuss his family’s connection to the Enclave. “For Auld Lang Syne” then turns that private history into a major late-game choice by reuniting members of the Enclave Remnants and deciding whether their old armor and experience should be used at Hoover Dam.

The quest is one of New Vegas’s best examples of separating people from institutions. The original Enclave committed atrocities, but the Remnants are individuals who have lived for decades with different degrees of regret, nostalgia and denial. Arcade is not asking the Courier to restore the Enclave. He is deciding what, if anything, can be salvaged from people shaped by it.

Arcade’s politics and route compatibility

Arcade is broadly hostile to Caesar’s Legion and skeptical of authoritarian power. He is often sympathetic to an independent outcome, though his exact ending depends on the Courier’s route and the choices made during his quest. That makes him a useful companion for players who want dialogue about the political implications of the main quest rather than only a combat bonus.

Because the Legion can make him refuse recruitment or create severe conflicts, complete Arcade’s content before committing deeply to Caesar if you want his full story. He also connects naturally to ED-E, the Followers and several science-heavy locations, so rotating him into the party during those quests can reveal commentary that a pure objective-marker run will never surface.

What changes the experience

Arcade’s value is split between practical healing support and a guarded personal history tied to the Enclave Remnants.

For Auld Lang Syne is easy to miss because it depends on trust and story progress rather than appearing as a routine recruitment quest.

What to compare on another run

Different endgame routes change whether Arcade sees the Courier as building a future he can support.

Bring him through Followers-related locations and political conversations if you want his views on the Mojave to emerge naturally before the Remnants quest opens.

Arcade’s work at the Old Mormon Fort places him among the Followers of the Apocalypse, a group that approaches the Mojave through medicine, education and relief rather than territorial control. His dry skepticism toward the major powers becomes clearer when he travels with the Courier through places where those governments are failing ordinary people. He is particularly hostile to Caesar’s Legion, so taking him toward the Fort is not a neutral sightseeing trip.

For Auld Lang Syne reveals why Arcade is careful about his past. His connection to the Enclave Remnants links him to a generation whose history predates the immediate NCR-Legion war. Recruiting the surviving members is less about restoring the old Enclave than deciding whether people associated with it can use their experience for something different at Hoover Dam. The quest also gives the Courier choices that can affect Arcade’s own future.

Zachary Levi plays Arcade with enough restraint that many of his best moments arrive in optional reactions rather than dramatic speeches. On another run, keeping him around during faction-heavy quests can make those reactions easier to notice. He works well as a companion for players who want the political arguments of New Vegas challenged from a humanitarian angle instead of only from the perspective of another army or ruler.

His ending also changes noticeably depending on the side that wins Hoover Dam and the choices made around the Remnants, so his final outcome is worth reading as part of the political ending rather than as an isolated companion epilogue.

His story rewards patience because the Remnants material lands better after the player already understands his distrust of empires and nostalgia.

That restraint makes the late Enclave reveal more effective. Arcade spends much of the game arguing about present-day governments before the player learns how directly his family history connects him to one of the wasteland’s most infamous old powers.

Voice Cast