Warning! This guide contains spoilers for the main story quest “Ring-a-Ding-Ding!”
Maria is a unique 9mm pistol used by Benny, the man who shot you in the opening cutscene of the game. In this guide, I’ll go over the easiest way to kill Benny and get his pistol.
Quick tips before you follow the guide:
- No skills required. You don’t need any particular skills to follow this guide.
- Bring a Stealth Boy. While not required, bringing a Stealth Boy will allow you to perform this trick far more easily.
Getting a Silenced .22 Pistol
To perform this trick, you must have a Silenced .22 Pistol. There are several places you can get one.
- Chet, inside the Goodsprings General Store
- Vendotron at the Gun Runner’s Kiosk
- Mr. Holdout at the Strip, opposite the Lucky 38
Seeing as you’re going to be at the strip anyway, I recommend you visit Mr. Holdout. You can find him next to the entrance to the Gomorrah, opposite the Lucky 38. He may even speak to you on his own if you get close to him.
Simply buy the Silenced .22 Pistol and some hollow point .22 rounds from him.
Once you have the gun and the proper ammo, you’re done with this step.
Finding Benny
Next, you’ll need to head to the Tops casino, located in the middle part of the Strip.
Once you make it there, a man will speak to you and tell you to give him your guns.
Select the “<Keep holdout weapons> Sure, here you go.” dialogue option. This will allow you to bring your Silenced .22 Pistol into the casino.
Go past the front desk. You’ll see Benny walking down a flight of stairs right in front of you.
Don’t get too close, just follow Benny until he stops. He’ll stop in a secluded corner of the casino. This is the place where you’ll want to kill him.
Killing Benny
Now for the actual trick.
There are potted plants in the corner, behind all of the guards. Go there and crouch. You should enter a “[HIDDEN]” state, if not, move around from side to side for a while and you’ll become hidden eventually.
If this doesn’t work, you can use a Stealth Boy to make the process easier.
Once you become [HIDDEN], make a save and draw your pistol. Do not draw the gun earlier, because if you do, the guards will become hostile.
From here, simply shoot Benny in the head.
He may or may not die. If he doesn’t, holster your gun immediately. If you holster your gun quickly enough, the guards and Benny will forgive you and become neutral again.
Now you can shoot him one more time. This time, he should die no matter what. If he still somehow doesn’t die, then you can load that save you made and decrease the difficulty temporarily. This will decrease Benny’s HP considerably (especially if you are normally playing on a difficulty like Very Hard) and allow you to easily kill him.
Once he’s dead, holster your weapon and loot his corpse. He has 3 items of interest.
- The Platinum Chip (Quest Item)
- Benny’s Suit (Unique Apparel)
- Maria (Unique Pistol)
