Fallout 3 Walkthrough

This page features a step-by-step, full text walkthrough for the role-playing game Fallout 3. The game takes place in the year 2277 on the east coast, and centers around a youth from a fallout shelter known as Vault 101. This fallout shelter has been sealed for the last 200 years, but the character's father opens it and disappears. Through a series of misunderstandings, the main character finds himself fleeing a squad sent to arrest him and is basically forced outside in the footsteps of his father.

The principal area of play is known as the Wasteland. This encompasses what was once Washington DC. There are also several small cities that the character can visit. The player is brought into the Brotherhood of Steel and sent on missions of mayhem and destruction against the principal foes. These are super mutants that are at war with the humans, as well as The Enclave, inheritors of the governmental powers of the United States.

The game features real-time combat in first or third person perspective, differing from the previous games in the series which implemented a turn-based and isometric combat system. Liam Neeson makes an appearance as the characters father and Ron Perlman voices the narrator. Other members of the cast include Malcolm McDowell, Heather Marie Marsden, Erik Dellums, Wes Johnson, and Odette Yusman.

In this walkthrough, you will find information on the main story quest, along with various side quests. Additionally, information will be available for the locations of all twenty bobbleheads and other useful information.

"Fallout 3" is the third installment of the "Fallout" series. It was released by Bethesda Softworks on October 28, 2008 and carries a M rating for Mature by the ESRB. The game was extremely well received by critics and reviewers, garnering a host of awards, including Game of the Year by both IGN and PC Gamer Magazine.http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/links/fallout3-awards.php

Below the main walk through, you'll also find links to other walk through resources and information for Fallout 3.

Fallout 3 is a post-apocalyptic RPG for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Collector's Edition

Fallout 3 has been released in both standard and collector's editions, with the latter coming packaged in an old-school metal lunchbox with a bobble-head toy, a hardcover art book and a behind the scenes DVD.http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/fallout3/news.html?sid=6189509&mode=press

The official strategy guide has also been released in two editions, with the Collector's edition coming in hardcover format with behind the scenes information.http://www.primagames.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780761559979

Basics: V.A.T.S

The Vault Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S is a special feature in Fallout 3 that allows you to pause time and turn the real time combat of the game into a turn based combat system.
As the title implies, V.A.T.S is a targeting system that allows you to target the specific body parts and weapons of enemies and shows you the probability you have to hit them
Use of V.A.T.S is governed by the number of Action Points (AP) that you have. Every action you take in V.A.T.S uses up action points, with some weapons using more AP than others.
Your AP either replenishes over time or immediatly through the use of certain items like Quantum Nuka Cola.
Using V.A.T.S will also give you a 15% chance for a critical hit and graphic body part explosions every time you use it.
While your first instinct would be to go straight for the head each time, and usually that is in fact the best option, there are times where you must be more tactical about where you aim.
Shooting an enemy in the head will deal double damage and may eventually cripple the enemy's head.
If an enemy has a really powerful weapon, is really far away, and you have a low chance to hit their head, you'd probably be better off aiming for one of their arms which are likely to have a much better chance to hit. Crippling an enemy's arm will cause it to drop its weapon temporarily and dramatically decrease their accuracy.
Another option would be to shoot the gun to break it, rendering it totally useless. Unfortunately it means it'll be broken for you too when you go to loot it.
If you're fighting against really fast characters that have a habit of running away from you, take out their legs to dramatically decrease their running speed.
Some enemies, like robots and ants, have antennae or some sort of combat inhibitor. If you manage to destroy these, the enemy will be put into a frenzy and will start attacking their own allies. If you ever get surrounded by two or more of these types of enemies, aiming for these parts may get you out of trouble.
Note that V.A.T.S doesn't have to be used for just targeting. It's also a great way to scout the area for enemies and to focus your aim for real time combat. All of this can be done even without AP.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L

S.P.E.C.I.A.L stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. They are your primary statistics that are distributed at the beginning of the game and will play a huge part what kind of character you make.
Strength: Points to strength will make you do more melee damage and allow you to carry more items in your inventory.
Perception: Perception makes enemies easier to detect on your compass and grants bonuses to the skills: Lockpicking, Energy Weapons, and Explosives.
Endurance: Endurance is related to how much health you have and how resistant you are to the effects of radiation and poison. It also gives bonuses to the skills Big Guns and Unarmed.
Charisma: Charisma dictates how well you are able to talk your way into or out of situations. Specifically, it gives bonuses to the Speech and Barter skills.
Intelligence: Every point in Intelligence gives you an extra skill point to distribute when you level up. In addition to that, it also gives bonuses to the Medicine, Repair, and Science skills.
Agility: Agility deals with your action points. The more points in Agility that you have, the more action points are available to use with V.A.T.S. It also gives bonuses to the Small Guns and Sneak skills.
Luck: More points in the Luck stat will improve your critical strike chances and will provide small bonuses to all skills. (Note that even with luck at level 10, you can only get a +5 bonus to all skills)
TIP: There is a Bobblehead for each stat which will give a +1 bonus to that stat. Since you cannot go beyond 10 points of a specific stat, the bobbleheads will be useless if the stat is already maxed out.

Karma

Your Karma is a measure of how good or bad of a person you are based on your actions and conversations with NPCs.
Karma affects a couple of important things. It affects what kind of ending you receive at the end of the game, whether or not you can enter certain areas of the map like the Raider Headquarters at Paradise Falls, what kind of Followers will join your party, and it will change how many of your conversations play out.
Generally the lower end of dialogue choices are the ones that will bring down your karma. You can also lose karma by stealing, pick pocketing, killing a good or neutral character without them attacking you first, or completing evil sidequests.
On the other hand, the upper end of dialogue choices are generally the positive ones. You can gain karma by finding solutions to problems without having to kill anyone, killing evil characters that are causing suffering, and completing good sidequests.

Skills

Skills are what truly make your character who he or she is. There are total of thirteen skills to choose from and they include:
Barter: Lowers the prices of items in stores and raises the prices of the items you sell.
Big Guns: Increases the effectiveness of guns like the Missile Launcher, Fat Man, Rock-it Launcher, etc.
Energy Weapons: Increases the effectiveness of any gun with the words laser or plasma in it.
Explosives: Increases the effectiveness of all types of grenades and mines in addition to improving your ability to disarm mines.
Lockpick: Having points in lockpicking will let you pick harder locks. You need 25 for easy locks, 50 for average locks, 75 for hard locks, and 100 for very hard locks.
Medicine: The more points you have in medicine, the more effective aid items like stimpacks will become.
Melee Weapons: Points in Melee Weapons affect not only the damage you deal with melee weapons, but also the damage you take from enemies melee weapons.
Repair: Repair affects your ability to repair your equipment. Weapons and apparel will have their conditions degrade over time. With points in repair, you can repair these yourself by using parts from similar items. Without points in repair, your only option for restoring your equipment is bringing it to a merchant or weapons dealer and paying them a hefty sum of caps to repair it for you.
Science: Science affects your ability to hack into computers. Like lockpicking, you won't even be able to attempt to hack many computers without having a certain number of points in science. Science is also a prerequisite for five unique perks.
Small Guns: Points in Small Guns will improve your effectiveness with all types of conventional guns like pistols, rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, submachine guns, etc.
Sneak: With more points in sneak, you are less visible while crouched, have a better chance to pickpocket someone, and are more likely to perform sneak attack critical hits.
TIP: Like with the S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats, there is a bobblehead for each skill that will increase it by 10 points. Since you can't improve a skill past 100, bobbleheads are only effective if the specific stat is at 90 or lower.

Compass

The Wasteland is a huge place and the compass can keep you from getting lost. It is located in the bottom left corner of the HUD.
The compass not only shows you the direction you are going, but will also point out nearby enemies, allies, and will tell you which way to go for your active quest.
Your compass' ability to pick up enemies is determined by how many points you have in your perception stat.

Fast Traveling

The wasteland is an expansive and dangerous place, so in order to forgo walking, you can fast travel to locations you have already found.
Whenever you discover a location, its marker will appear on your map. From then on, you can fast travel to and from that location whenever there aren't any enemies around and assuming that you're not inside a building or some place with a ceiling.
If a person gives you directions to a location, you'll get a marker on your map, but you won't be able to fast travel to it. You must follow the marker on your compass and reach your destination on foot before you can actually discover the location.

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