How to sensibly rob the Sierre Madre Vault?

Question

Inspired by this question Which vendors have a lot of cash?, I was pondering how best to get all of the gold bars out of the vault?

Collecting these bars quickly exceeds the carrying capacity of the the courier and you then have to get out past Elijah. I am playing it on the PC and last time I just shrugged and turned god mode on to get around this. Trying to play it through without opening the console at all and I'd like to know if it's possible to take them all out even being overencumbered?

I guess the Long Haul perk would be vital (unless you fancy slugging back across the Mojave at walking pace from the Abandoned BoS bunker when you leave), but has anyone successfully done it?

Answer 1

It is possible, the methods are best described here.

The most common way is to destroy the turrets, and kill Elijah after dropping all the gold outside the force field. Using C4 is one of the best ways as you can decide when to detonate it, whereas mines can prove to be temperamental.

The other option is to sneak out when Elijah comes in. This requires you to deactivate the turret generator in the vault, and then quickly sneak around to the exit while Elijah makes his way to the vault. This can be particularly hair raising because if you move too slow at any point, you either get stuck fighting Elijah, or your collar detonates. Video examples are here and here.