Fallout 3 Help

[DoctorObviously]

I always thought Fallout 3 was a difficult game to understand. Some stats for some players are utterly useless. I'm sorry, but my advice is this: Restart the game and take a long time to decide what points you want to spend where. I know, it sounds stupid, but it really works. At least, that's what I did.

 

[Blazing Steel]

As said by others the game starts hard but gradually starts to become easier. If you reach the level cap of 20 not even Behemoths should be too much of a problem. If you have the Broken Steel DLC then the difficaulty gets ramped back up in the form of Super Mutant Overloads wielding gatling laser. To give you an idea of how powerful they are, I had just killed everything in the deathclaw sanctuary and ran into a random encounter consisting of an Overload and a handfull of other mutants. Dogmeat was alive for maybe 3 seconds and Fawkes (one of if not the best follower) only lasted about 5 more before also being killed. I launched a mini nuke (which I assumed that would be the end of it) before being lasered to death as I didn't notice that my health was no longer existent.

If you buy either the Pitt or Operation Anchorage you should be fine. The Pitt I found was a quick way to level up and Anchorage let me use power armor and gave me the chinese stealth armor which would greatly enhance your sneaking.

 

[ClunkiestTurtle]

if you are really, really stuck to the point you aren't enjoying the game type "fallout wiki" into google

This my friend is sound advice!

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:Fallout_3

I pretty much play with this open in my laptop beside me every time i play this game, its so useful to just read up on everything and making sure you don't miss things or find stuff you wouldn't of otherwise found and i find it really interesting to read about the alternative paths and consequences that would of happened if you took a different approach. Although read with caution so as not to spoil anything for yourself!

My advice would be crank up your repair skill, stick with mainly small guns for now but slowly level up big guns and energy weapons as they will be useful later in the game. And just loot everything you can carry, go into every building, search everything, hack and lock pick everything (unless it means losing karma) and just explore the areas of the waste around where your next objective is before you start the next quest and you will have a ton of caps and good guns and a better character for it. Take you're time! The main quest isn't all that long so don't just rush through all the main missions get the most out of the game by just exploring the wastes and finding every side quest.

Also here's another piece advice that someone gave to me when i started out,collect the nuka cola quamtums don't drink them cos theres a quest involving having 30 of them and theres only like 98 or something in the whole game (unless you have broken steel)I can imagine it would be a real ***** if you've gone around drinking them the whole time so just collect them and give them to you're companion or store them somewhere or something and then that's an easy side quest/achievement to get when it could of been a real *****!

Anyways good luck!!

 

[Life_Is_A_Mess]

You should discover locations and pillage everything to earn caps and bullets. I remember a library on the opposite side of the river, to the left of Rivet City. Arlington Library. There is a scribe there that gives you 100 caps for each pre-war book you find and bring her. Ask for the money. Explore the library and some houses and you'll have 1000 caps in no time.
Use the money to buy a nice armor and a house.
Go to Megaton. Do what the good guy would do in the Megaton Nuke Quest.

 

[Evil the White]

Use the Anchorage DLC. It's the only one that can be taken on at the lower levels and gives you a nice stat boost, as well as the use of power armour and such. The only bit you may struggle with is after the simluation, but... I won't spoil it for you. But by that time, the armoury is open.

 

[Buleet]

Another hint is AVOID POINT LOOKOUT.all the new enemies there have an unblockable 35 damage per hit.and they have ridiculously powerfull weapons as well.Make sure your sneak skill is high.And lastly find a poster of some chinese guy or go into a straigt line from the boat untill you see a hotel and go into the only open door and start the quest the velvet curtain.at the end you will get a gun that is almost better then lincons repeater and a TON of ammo.

 

[Pink dragon]

pop in some cheats and you will be ok

 

[drdamo]

Do operation anchorage first if you have it.
Since it is a simulation your gear doesn't matter (you get digital placeholders while in the simulation) and the reward is amazing.

After that The Pitt, getting to the entrance might be tricky (cake with Anchorage reward), and once inside gear won't matter either here as you'll loose your stuff temporarily once you enter.
(watch out for the boobytraps on the bridge!)

Both rewards combined create a semi-godmode and really takes off the edges, especially early on in the game.

Now that i mention it, time for my 3rd 200h+ playtrough!

 

[imnot]

a decent way to level up and get some stuff is that wastland survival giude quest you get from Megaton.

 

[Polaris19]

I'd say get yourself Dogmeat. Best companion in the game, if you ask me. And easy to get.

Wrong!

Fawkes is by far the best. Can carry lots of stuff, uses a freaking laser mini-gun. Fawkes owns. Simple as that.


BUT!
At the start of the game, Dogmeat is invaluable. You should head to the junkyard and get him.

 

[E-Penguin]

Dammit, I've already spent over 500 hours on fallout 3 and this thread has made me want to start playing it again.

Well, if all else fails, turn the difficulty down. Oh and if you see fire ants, I'd run, unless you have a ton of stimpacks.

or if you have really good long range gun

Spoiler

also; the alien blaster will destroy them

Seen it, need to get it. Deathclaws' are screwed now.

If you want to get it you HAVE to disable the Mothership Zeta DLC. You can't get close to it without activating the DLC. Afterwards it will be missing.

 

[Brisingr]

I'd recommend doing the Moria Brown missions for a bit at the start, they are a good way of leveling up plus you sort of learn the basics of the survival as well. The only other advice I can give you is to stay well clear of DC until your a higher level, those super-mutants will tear you to shreds.

Oh I almost forgot:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki

That wiki proved to be a great aid to me. Helped with a lot of the custom weapons etc. Have fun

 

[Chris^^]

flee the fireants!
if you're struggling, avoid quests for a bit and just scrap with easy enemies till you level up.. just persist.

 

[ben---neb]

I'm at the beginning of the game right now, and these are my stats:

Quest: Find the Museum of Technology

Level: 5

Wearing: Armored Vault 101 Jumpsuit, Vault 101 Security Helmet

Using: Hunting Rifle (Current Damage 17)

Actual Stats(SPECIAL):

STR: 6
PER: 6
END: 8
CHA: 3
INT: 5
AGI: 8
LUK: 4

Skills specialized in:

Small Guns: 60 points
Lockpick: 50 points
Sneak: 76 points

Perks:

Educated
Gun Nut
Thief(2)

I'm having trouble in the game and I'm wondering if I'm doing anything wrong. I've typed in my basic character sheet as an aid to the experienced Fallout 3 players of the Escapist in hopes of critiquing my current build and seeing if they have and tips or recommendations for me.

I found the game to be hard until level 12 where it suddenly becomes easy. Just keep slogging away.

 

[SimuLord]

My no-death run build went like this. Keep in mind I have Broken Steel installed. You should too. I'll spoiler this little walkthrough so it doesn't turn into a giant wall of text.

Spoiler: SPECIAL

Strength 1
Perception 9
Endurance 4
Charisma 3
Intelligence 9
Agility 9
Luck 5

Note that I really don't care about Strength because I don't fight in melee and don't feel any great need to carry a bunch of stuff, just my weapon loadout and whatever's light enough to sell to the merchants, who never carry enough caps to make pack-muling a necessity. Endurance is 4 for a reason I'll go into in a bit (and no, it's not about HP. Play the game right and keep your Stims hotkeyed and HP rarely enters into the equation.)

Spoiler: Tag Skills:

Small Guns, Repair, Lockpick. Early boosts to Lockpick in particular make the game easier at lower levels. Plus, it never hurts to be able to get places and open stuff. Repair's useful for what should be obvious reasons, and Small Guns doesn't become an obsolete skill until VERY late in the game, when you're looting plasma rifles off of Enclave soldiers.

Spoiler: Perks (Lv 2-5)

LV2: Lady Killer. A few extra bits of damage to female characters, plus dialogue options to make life a bit easier.
LV3: Intense Training (1). Put into Endurance, raising it to 5. Reason evident later.
LV4: Educated. 3 extra skill points per level make a "perfect" character possible later and a better character in the early- to midgame.
LV5: Comprehension. I NEVER read a skill book before level 5. EVER. You shouldn't either.

Spoiler: Things Done Between Lv2-5:

Disarmed the bomb in Megaton. Quick 100 caps, plus a house. I should point out I shoot for good karma. Also, I like those big lugs in Megaton. Killing Mr. Burke is optional, but a silenced 10mm pistol can be a useful thing to have early on.

Raised Small Guns as high as it'd go. The sooner you max this, the better. Wasted skill points once you clear 100 and get Guns and Bullets magazines? Sure, but when you get the scoped weapons, you want to shoot true. Speaking of, finding the Hollowed-Out Rock (look it up...or don't, your choice) does a body good. Like milk.

Two Wasteland Survival Guide quests: getting irradiated and finding food and medicine in the Super-Duper Mart. Keep in mind that if you use Buffout before talking to Moira, your Endurance will go to 7+ and you can work toward getting the best Survival Guru perk, the one with the 6% DR boost. And I shouldn't need to tell you this, but don't half-ass this quest!

I don't find Raiders all that difficult, as you can clearly see here. If you're having trouble with them, either learn to love VATS or just hang around Megaton as the caravan guys come through. Lady Killer will get you access to Moriarty's terminal to advance the main quest (via Nova), but don't let Moriarty know that right away---pick up 300 caps from Silver in Springvale, THEN hack his terminal. With those caps, buy a better weapon like a hunting rifle or assault rifle, then go to town on the Raiders. Or repair that sniper rifle you found and use that.

I'll continue this later---but again, I went through the whole game on normal difficulty without dying once. Following my advice might make you good enough at Fallout 3 to do the same.

 

[pedobearlongcatlazor]

if its for pc then i would mod it

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I think you should consider starting over.

The only stat that really matters is INT. You should always start with 9. The INT bobblehead is the only reason you don't push it all the way to 10. Your skills will increase much faster, and skills are everything in this game.

STR, END, and CHA can stay at 5. Go with 6s for PER, AGI, and LUCK so you meet the prereqs for some very enticing perks. If you run out of points, spend your spare perks on Intense Training for additional stats.

For skills, go with repair, small guns, and lock picking. Small guns are by far the most common early on, so you'll be able to keep your weapons in great condition - and condition dramatically impacts damage output. Lock picking will grant you access to tons of additional ammo and gear as well.

If you can help it, don't spend perks on "skill increasers" like Gun Nut. With a high INT, you should be maxing your primary skills right about the time you hit level 20. You're better off spending perks on bonuses that help you survive in combat. Anything that increases your damage output or improves your damage reduction/avoidance should be a priority.

Finally, make sure you fully exhaust the quests in Megaton before you embark on the main story quests. You'll grab a ton of skills, perks, gear, and combat experience finishing off the various side quests, all of which should make your treks into downtown more bearable. Moira's survival quest to the supermarket should outfit you with absolutely everything you need to, well, mow down raiders, ghouls, and super mutants.

Oh, and shoot super mutants in the head with the combat shotgun at close range. That really solves their whole "having a head" problem.

 

[Nannernade]

Well with my characters I always put my build as this

Strength: 6
Perception: 6
Endurance: 6
Charisma: 1
Intelligence: 9
Agility: 6
Luck: 6

Oh here's a little secret I found around Megaton, go around behind Megaton and you should see a rock with three trees surrounding it it will be hollow walk up to it and inside will be a Sniper Rifle and a note, enjoy. =)

And if you want to survive locate Dogmeat as soon as possible, he resides within the Scrapyard, which is located just east of Agatha's House. He really comes in handy if you're getting attacked by Ants or Scorpions anything really he's a really tough companion to have you could probably cut him in half and he'd still be alive. Also I don't know if this is a glitch or something but if you have Dogmeat and have the Mothership Zeta DLC and decide to explore it don't take Dogmeat with you when the tractor beam hit me I got a message saying Dogmeat died, so I reloaded not to take the risk.

Have fun

Nannernade

 

[saintchristopher]

One of the ways I've found to make the beginning of the game easier is to not do the beginning of the game first.

Huh?

Yeah. First thing out of the Vault? Head straight to The Pitt. There's little enough combat there (if you play your cards right) and you get some pretty baller weapons (Metal Blaster? Thank you, horrifying Slaver!) and some decent armor for finding Steel Ingots (for which there are copious online guides)

Plus, I use going to the Pitt first as an excuse to make my guy evil. After the shit that goes on there...

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

There's only one wrong way to play Fallout 3 early game, and that's to run towards Old Olney.

Deathclaws will murder you.