Ain't That a Kick in the Head (quest)

For for the song with the same name, see Ain't That a Kick in the Head?, the achievement with the same name, and Ain't That a Kick in the Head (achievement).
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**Ain't That a Kick in the Head** is a tutorial quest in *Fallout: New Vegas*.

## Synopsis

After being shot in the head by a man in a checkered suit, the Courier is rescued by Victor and taken to Doc Mitchell who fixes them up with a little brain surgery. To make sure the Courier is all there, Mitchell asks them to perform a few of tests.

## Quick walkthrough

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## Detailed walkthrough

After the intro cinematic, the Courier wakes up with blurred vision in a small town called Goodsprings. It has been a particularly bad evening, and the Courier has been rescued by Victor the Securitron. The Courier finds themself inside Doc Mitchell's house. As the Courier's head begins to clear, they sit up to see Doc Mitchell, the man who fixed them up and is the owner of the aforementioned shack as well as the town's only doctor. The doctor will ask the Courier their name and hand them a Reflectron to examine (and customize) their appearance. The Courier will then have the opportunity to assign their SPECIAL points through the Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester after walking across the room. The doctor will then ask them to have a seat on his couch, where the Courier can tag three skills after word-association, personality profile, and Rorschach blot tests, and also select up to two traits.

Once character creation is complete, the doctor will guide the Courier to a door that leads out into the town of Goodsprings, where he will give them a Vault 21 jumpsuit as well as a Pip-Boy 3000 and any pre-order bonus items. There is no theft penalty for anything in the Doc's house. The doctor has a fair amount of medical equipment, as well as a laser pistol and ammunition in a metal box. The chemistry set in the room the Courier awoke in can be used by a character with a Science skill of at least 25 to produce either five stimpaks or a small assortment of chems (Psycho, Jet, Steady, Buffout, Rebound, and Mentats). There is also a broken 9mm SMG laying on a crate near the bed in which the Courier woke up, which can be repaired and taken if their Repair skill is at least 25. Also if the Courier has high enough Speech or Medicine they can talk to the doc, who will give them a number of stimpaks.

### Reward

After completing the tutorial, every character gets 4 stimpaks, 18 caps, a couple of bobby pins, possibly one ranged weapon (9mm pistol is default if no weapon skills are selected) or one hand-to-hand weapon, dependent on the selected tag-skills.

Main article: Psychological evaluation

## Notes

* Before the Courier leaves the doctor's house, the game will offer the option to play the game in hardcore mode. The reward is an achievement/trophy. There is no in-game reward for completing the game in hardcore mode.
* If the Courier talks to the doctor again before leaving the house, they are given the option to use a Medicine or Speech check (30). If the speech check is successful then the Courier is rewarded with 3 stimpaks.
	+ If the Courier has a Speech skill of 30 and a Medicine skill lower than 30 it is possible to pass a total of 3 speech checks receiving a total of 8 Stimpaks and 90 experience points. After passing the first Speech check, use a Today's Physician to raise Medicine skill to 30. Then talk with Doc Mitchell again to pass the Medicine speech check, followed by a Speech check of 30.
	+ Alternatively, if Speech and Medicine skills both exceed 30, then Medicine can be lowered below 30 (e.g. with the alcoholic drinks usually present in Doc's refrigerator), then the Speech check passed, and then once the alcohol wears off the Medicine and second Speech check can be passed before leaving the house.
* Doc Mitchell will comment on any extremes in the Courier's special skills (e.g. 1 in Intelligence, 8 in Luck, etc.)
* If the Courier is not given a laser pistol by Mitchell, one can be found on a shelf with ammunition.
* Since the items in Doc Mitchell's house are not assigned to him, they can be collected without losing Karma.
* In *Fallout 3*, if the Lone Wanderer says they hate their Pip-Boy and asks how to get it off, Stanley Armstrong says it's impossible. However, Doc Mitchell took his off somehow and it is possible in Mick and Ralph's store to swap it out for the Pimp-Boy 3 Billion after resolving Mick's problem.
* No matter what name the Courier gives Doc Mitchell, he will always say: "Can't say it's what I'd have picked for ya."
* During the tag skill segment, replying to Doc Mitchell's last question *"Mother"* with *"Human Shield"* results in him making a unique comment about it.

## Behind the scenes

* *Ain't That a Kick in the Head?* is the name of a popular Dean Martin song. The song is also featured on the in-game radio station Radio New Vegas and played in the casinos.
* The final ink blot shown to the courier is an exact copy of an ink blot used in the episode "shock theater" of the show Quantum Leap.

## Bugs

* Template:Platforms While using the Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester, clicking on the up/down arrows to increase or decrease a statistic, or the left/right arrows to shift between statistics, may not work. If this happens, it may be that the game thinks that the arrow is somewhere else, in which case clicking elsewhere on the screen will produce the desired result. Another workaround is to use your keyboard's arrow keys (NOT the wsad keys) to increase/decrease statistics and shift between statistics. Template:Verify
* Template:Platforms If you start to use console commands, the game will completely freeze and when reloaded it will restart. Do not use console commands for this mission at any time. Template:Verify
* Template:Platforms After gaining the ability to move, you might walk slowly and not be able to sit. Just restart the system and make a new save to fix this.Template:Verify

## References

1. ↑ Doc Mitchell: *"Hmm. Sometimes when you give tests like this, you learn more than you was hoping for, and I reckon that ain't always the best thing. But I guess maybe it explains a thing or two about your predicament."*
(Doc Mitchell's dialogue)

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de:Gehirnerschütterung für Anfänger (Quest)
es:Menudo patadón en la cabeza
fr:Un bon coup dans les gencives
pl:To dopiero kopniak w łeb
pt:Ain't That a Kick in the Head
ru:Удар по голове
uk:Удар по голові
zh:谁打爆了我的头 (quest)