“People have been counterfeiting bottle caps forever, but it's always been small scale. A bottle cap press is a whole other threat. We can't have anyone devaluing our currency by mass producing new bottle caps.”— Alice McLafferty
The leadup to the quest requires completing the side quest You Can Depend on Me given by Alice McLafferty at the Crimson Caravan Company. Once that quest is complete (and assuming one did not complete the related companion quest Heartache by the Number via the violent path of killing her with Rose of Sharon Cassidy), return to Alice at the CCC compound's main office, where she offers them another job, this time dealing with an economic crisis: a prospector recently came through and spent some bottle caps that were found to be authentically made and brand-new at that, and Alice wants the bottle cap press serving as the source disabled before inflation kicks in and Crimson Caravan profits are impacted. She directs them to investigate the Sunset Sarsaparilla headquarters, the only place around New Vegas where a working pre-War bottle cap press might be found and sabotage the machine to prevent it being used again. One can then ask her additional questions about bottle caps as a currency and the thriving, if time-consuming market behind counterfeit caps.
Reach the Sunset Sarsaparilla headquarters west-northwest of Camp McCarran and locate the bottle cap press in the shipping area; one can immediately access the area by entering from the exterior loading bay on the north side of the building. If one is entering the HQ for the first time, there will be four or five security robots that are hostile, along with the press set in between the two stacks of crates in the middle of the shipping area. Interacting with it will bring up a prompt to leave it alone or sabotage it; the latter will result in the objective updating and gaining 3 pieces of scrap metal. Return to Alice afterward, completing the quest and garnering XP and NCR fame.
Quest stages[]
Stage
Status
Description
10
Disable the bottle cap press.
20
Return to Alice McLafferty and let her know the bottle cap press is disabled.
Notes[]
Despite being indicated to be functional by Alice, the player character cannot use the bottle cap press to produce bottle caps for themselves.
The following companions have been reported attacking Mr. Janitor: Arcade Gannon, Cass, Lily, Rex, Craig Boone, Raul Tejada and ED-E.[verified]
