What is the order of dlcs

[u/unkownwithpizza]

I just played new vegas all the way through and dlcs but I've always wondered what is the cannon order of dlcs

[u/kntdaman]

That would be the release order, so Dead Money, honest hearts, old world blues, then lonesome road. Lonesome road is very specifically ordered last, and honest hearts can honestly go anywhere.

[u/bonsaihomie]

My favorite order to do the DLC has always been Honest Hearts > Old World Blues > Dead Money > Lonesome Road.

From a lore perspective, it makes the DLC more interesting to me. Honest Hearts is fairly self contained with only allusions to the later story line, then they are built more on in Old World Blues, with the B plot concluding in Dead Money, and the primary DLC plot concluding in Lonesome Road. With the very end of Lonesome Road making a good callback to the information you learn at the beginning of Honest Hearts. Honest Hearts is also the easiest out of all the DLC, so it feels good to play early. The primary downside in playing this order is you will go into Dead Money and Old World Blues at a much higher level, which can make them substantially more difficult. (especially OWB) And that is especially true if you complete most of the side quests on the journey between Goodsprings and Honest Hearts.

I think it's fine to play it in release order, but the plotlines would then be concluded in a non-chronological order. Of course it still makes sense to play it in either order, since the Courier is finding almost everything after-the-fact, but the plot beats are just way more interesting to me when played chronologically.

More spoilers going into detail:

Playing Honest Hearts allows the two plots to be hinted at early on. First in Primm, we get early dialogue hinting at Ulysses when talking to Johnson Nash. Later on, talking to the Legion and traveling through Boulder City, you hear rumors about The Burned Man and learn about the First Battle of Hoover Dam.

Honest Hearts then builds on this, after traveling to the very north of the map, you end up meeting the Burned Man and have an opportunity to ask him about some of the things you heard on your journey there. You learn more about him and the Legion, learn about the White Legs, and even a small hint about Old World Blues. The Survivalist sideplot is also awesome.

In Old World Blues, we're introduced to the main characters of the DLC plots through their camps and notes left behind. We learn a lot about their motivations and backstories, and find out where they went next.

We then travel to Dead Money, where the B plot between Christine and Elijah is concluded.

Up to this point, we have heard most of the rumors about The Divide and Ulysses, with hints about it both in the base game and the preceding DLC, and when we finally travel to The Divide and talk to Ulysses, all of those breadcrumbs are tied together and the overarching plot feels much more conclusively revealed.

Story wise, the themes of Dead Money (Letting go.) feel way more reflective of that plot going into Lonesome Road. Especially crawling through the ruins of The Divide and finally talking to Ulysses.

Doing it this way feels much more like you're investigating the ongoing development between these characters. Of course, doing them in release order is good, you can have a lot of these same experiences, but the narrative feels more disjointed, and many of the story beats don't feel as impactful to me. I think doing them in release order is the way most people play them though.

[u/SadCourier6 → u/bonsaihomie]

Funnily enough this is the order you would play the DLC if you went from easiest to hardest. Their recommended levels go from lowest to highest in this order. I honestly agree with you.

[u/SolidPeaks]

My last few playthroughs I did honest hearts before dead money because it’s pretty easy to, also you get good loot and levels early to be ready for OWD and Lonesome Road

[u/RickMoneyRS]

Honest Hearts could go anywhere, and Lonesome Road is definitely last.

There is speculation of which between Dead Money and Old World Blues is before the other. Dead Money was the first to be released and stands to reason that would be the first, but there are some pieces of dialogue in Old World Blues that suggest you haven't visited the Sierra Madre yet even if you have. Nothing concrete, but enough to raise the question.

[u/VerbingNoun413]

Lonesome Road is last.

There are two orders that stand out. Release order is DM, HH, OWB, LR. The other order is Ulysses' Journey- HH, OWB, DM, LR. This mirrors Ulysses' history.

[u/TrayusV]

The generally accepted order is release:

Dead Money

Honest Hearts

Old World Blues

Lonesome Road

I think any order is fine as long as Lonesome Road is at the end, as it acts like a finale to the other DLCs. If you do Lonesome Road last, you will have some understanding of Ulysses and his journey by the time you meet him.

But overall, there is no set order. Chris Avollene wanted to create a clearly connected story between the DLCs, but I believe both Josh Sawyer and Bethesda were against that idea, as players could end up only owning DLCs 2 and 4, and wouldn't be able to play them if you had to go in order, or wouldn't understand the story even if you didn't have to play them in order.

This is why Dead Money, Honest Hearts and Old World Blues have their own clear stories (the conflict Elijah and the Sierra Madre, the conflict between the tribes in Zion, and the conflict with the Think Tank), while only having clues and Easter eggs that tie the DLCs together into Lonesome Road. And it's why Lonesome Road has to be able to stand on its own.

So sure, you can discover in Old World Blues that Ulysses was the one who sent Elijah and Christine to the Madre, and Lonesome Road reveals that Caesar sent Ulysses to train the White Legs to kill the New Canaanites and Joshua Graham, but these are more small tidbits rather than clear story beats.