The Mysterious Magnum is one of the most interesting weapons in Fallout: New Vegas, thanks to it playing the Mysterious Stranger jingle whenever you draw/holster it. It also has some of the best starts of any revolver in the game. In this guide, I’ll go over how to get the gun, explain how it differs from the base gun, and give you a few tips on how to use it.

Quick tips before I get into the guide:

• Barter 50 required. In order to get the gun the non-violent way, you’ll have to have a Barter skill of 50 or more.
• Access to the Strip required. To get the gun without failing any quests and without violence, you must have access to the New Vegas Strip.

Acquisition

There are 2 methods of acquiring the gun. The first one is non-violent and involves completing one objective in the quest “Talent Pool”. The other involves failing the quest and killing a friendly character, but it’s a lot faster and doesn’t require you to have access to the strip or any skills, meaning it can be done far earlier.

If you want to take the latter approach, simply skip the ‘Starting “Talent Pool”’ part of the guide.

Starting Talent Pool

To get the gun the non-violent way, make your way to the Tops casino.

Next, make your way to the second floor. You’ll see an entrance to the Aces theatre. Go there.

Inside the theatre, you’ll see a man wearing an eye patch called Tommy Torini. Speak to him.

Next, select the following dialogue options:

• “What do you do here?”

• “Really? What kind of entertainment do you have?”

• “Maybe I could help you find some more acts for your show.”

• Either the [Barter 50] check, or “Sure, I’ll keep an eye out.”

Recruiting the Lonesome Drifter

Now that you have that part done, travel to the location “El Dorado Gas & Service”, located just down the road north of Novac.

Head down the road north. You’ll see a man in a leather duster next to a campfire in front of a Sunset Sarsaparilla billboard. 

If you want to this the violent way, simple kill him and loot the Mysterious Magnum off of his corpse. Doing this will lead to you failing the quest and losing reputation with the Strip. Alternatively, you can also pickpocket the ammo off of him, then fast travel away, wait for a few in-game days, and return back to the stranger. By then he should have put the gun into his inventory, meaning you can pickpocket it.

However, if you want to do it the non-violent way, speak to him instead.

While speaking to him, simply always select the first dialogue option from the top.

Eventually, you’ll reach a dialogue option that says “Tommy Torini at the Tops is looking for musical acts, if you’re interested.” Select this option.

Lastly, select the [Barter 50] dialogue option. 

This will lead to you finishing this particular part of the quest, in addition to giving you a full-condition Mysterious Magnum.

Unique Effects

All of these stats are taken from the 100% condition weapon when compared to a 100% condition .44 Magnum Revolver.

• Increased damage (42 vs 36).
• Increased fire rate (2.44 vs 1.88).
• Decreased AP cost to fire in VATS (22 vs 25).
• Decreased spread (0.5 vs 0.7)
• Decreased durability (745 vs 1245, or 1870 in the case of the upgraded version of the .44 Magnum Revolver)
• Plays the Mysterious Strange tune while drawing and holstering the weapon. This jingle has no practical effect.

Usage Tips

• Due to its low critical hit damage and chance multipliers, it’s not a good choice for critical hit builds.
• Being a simple-to-acquire unique revolver, it’s a great choice for early-mid-game Cowboy builds.
• Thanks to its already high damage and great fire rate, the Cowboy perk makes this revolver powerful even into the mid-late game.
• Due to its low magazine size, I recommend using the Rapid Reload perk to mitigate the frequent reloading breaks.