Suckish Fallout 3 player needs help!

[imaloony]

Actually, I really don't find Fallout 3 that hard. Even on Very Hard (I get a LOT of Stimpaks).

You want to get Small Guns, Repair, and Lockpick to 100 ASAP.
The small guns bobblehead is in the National Guard Depot in the armory at the end (Not the one you need the password to get into, the first section you get into normally by flipping the switch)
The repair bobblehead is in Arefu, in Evan King's house.
And the Lockpick is in the Bethesda Officies, on a desk next to a wall safe, very close to one of the doors to the bridge for the offices.

You'll need Small Guns to kill things, Repair to make sure your stuff is in tip-top shape for killing things, and Lockpick to open doors, safes, and containers to get objects that make it easier to kill things.

There's also a perk/SPECIAL combination that's devastating, although you need to be at a fairly high level to get it:

Get Luck up to 10 (If you want to conserve SPECIAL points, put 7 or 8 in at the beginning, and then get the Luck Bobblehead, then get the Lucky 8 Ball from Timebomb in Big Town, and then the Lucky Shades from Lucky's store close to Tenpenny Tower [They're on a mannequin in the store], and the Ranger Battle Armor, Tribal Power Armor, and Ausher's Power Armor, the ladder of two are from The Pitt, also give a luck boost)
Now, get the perks Finesse, which increases your critical chance by 5%, and then Better Criticals, which increases critical damage by 50%. This gives you a 15% critical chance PER ATTACK to do a Critical with a 50% bonus to that damage. That's a lot.
If you're a melee/unarmed specialist, also get Ninja, which will give you another 15% crit chance boost while using Unarmed or Melee.

As for Armor, if you can't get Power Armor yet, just get the Ranger Battle Armor by doing the Riley's Rangers quest. That's the best Non-Power Armor in the game. If you have Operation: Anchorage and got Power Armor Training early, use the T-51b Winterized, which is one of the best suits of armor in the game due to a glitch.

And for Weapons, get the Xuanlong Assault Rifle as quickly as possible. It's one of the best Small Guns in the game. And then get the normal Combat Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Hunting Rifle, Pistol setup. If you really want the good stuff, go for the Victory Rifle, Lincoln's Repeater, The Terrible Shotgun, Sydney's 10mm "Ultra" SMG, and maybe Ol' Painless.

That's the basic stuff, good luck!

 

[Gameslayer_93]

My loadout by lvl 23
-Scoped .44 Magnum (Headshot kill on lone,light armoured targets)
-Deathclaw Gaunlet (First strike well-armoured foes,or a crowd)
-several pounds of mines and grenades to reverse pickpocket (For what can survive a DCG sneak crit and will wreck me otherwise)
-Combat Shotgun (For when stealth fais)
-C.Assault Rifle (Backup for crowds)
-Sniper Rifle (I forget why I still have this...Omit if you want)
When I get to the pitt,I'm probably going to replace the shotgun with the Metal Blaster, which is a laser rifle shotty. On sterroids. From Hell.

u should try and get blackhawk (unique .44 Magnum) since it is AMAZING!!! get it by giving Agatha some sheet music

 

[GundamSentinel]

-snip-

Fixed.

Start with Intense Training until better stuff becomes available (level 4)

Ignore all stat boosting perks. They're useless.

Get Entomologist & Robotics Expert.

Ignore Educated. With high intelligence and Comprehension (skill books) all of your stats will easily get to 100.

True, but most early perks are total crap. I usually get some that are immediately useful even though they lose some of their use over time. Intense Training might be a decent choice if there's nothing else you're interested in, but personally I think it loses its use just as much as the +5/+5 perks without the immediate boost (especially with Broken Steel, though if you have Broken Steel, there's really no use in extra skill points either. Meh, all early perks suck).
There are very few insects so I don't like Entomologist. Robotics Expert does have some interesting effects and uses so it can be a very good choice.

Really, to each his own.

Oh, my weapon loadout:

Lincoln's Repeater
Ol' Painless
Reservist rifle
Dart Gun (for Deathclaw encounters)
XuanLong Assault Rifle

 

[The Paradigm]

No matter how badass it feels to be a loner, getting companions can really help, especially Dogmeat. You know, the more the merrier?
Oh, and if it helps, my main hotkeyed weapons are:
Col. Autumn's 10mm
Xuanlong Assault Rifle
Ol' Painless
Terrible Shotgun
Dart Gun
Wazer Wifle
Victory Rifle
Stabhappy

 

[xXGeckoXx]

How I build my character:

For special:
Get 9 intelligence, 6 for strength (you can get +1 from a quest, +1 from a bobblehead and +2 from power armor), 2 for charisma (you really don't need it), 5 or 6 for the others (maybe 7 for agility).

Skills:
Invest in Repair, Small Guns and Lockpick at first, they are really the key skills at the start of the game. (Science is less necessary, you'll need lockpick way more often. Where you need science, there is often a Lockpick option as well. The other way around less often).
30 for Explosives can be useful for an early quest, but unless you really like grenades and mines, leave it at that for the time being. About 40 for medicine is good (don't forget to get the bobblehead in Vault 101).
I usually don't bother with Melee and Unarmed. Sneak only gets effective above 50, but can be very useful. Speech is useful too, Barter less so. I usually roll in the caps anyway. Energy Weapons and Big guns can be goals for later in the game. Energy weapons only really becomes useful once you get access to plasma weapons.

Perks:
Get:
Gun Nut - Nice skill boost for useful perks
Thief - I like Lockpick and Sneak
Comprehension - There are lots of books around. More points is better
Educated - Again, more points is better. Get this!
Commando - Very decent VATS upgrade
Strong Back - More carrying strength = more loot = more caps
Finesse - Criticals are your friends
Silent Running - I like sneaking
Sniper - I like headshots
Action Boy/Girl - More VATS points is better
Better Criticals - Better criticals is better
Grim Reaper's Sprint - Just keep on killing!

Don't get:
Swift learner - Unless you want to do a speedrun it's a waste
Lady Killer - Most enemies are male, the speech options really aren't worth it
Rad resistance - Unless you like swimming and drinking polluted water
Here and Now - Like Swift Learner, a total waste
Nerd Rage - Getting better at melee when close to death really doesn't help much
Adamantium Skeleton - Only real damage to limbs is from explosives, which you don't run in to too often. Just watch out for mines
Master Trader - Do you really need even more caps?
Computer Whiz - Just save before hacking...
Infiltrator - Just save before picking a lock...

Don't rush things, take it easy and explore.

Perfect Guide. I'll add by saying that you should start by tagging small guns repaiir and lockpick/science (most people prefare lockpick but by the end of the game I had maxed both as well as sneak and energy weapons and was pretty close to max with big guns and explosives).

Then get as many of the bobbleheads as possible and DEFINITELY GO FOR THE BOOKS WITH THE COMPREHENSION PERK. Using that I got almost max on everything.

For special, start with good int and balance the rest. If you are finding combat hard leave charisma low (but not as low as zala said). you can don some charisma boosting nightgear when you need it (mostly in towns).
Luck is good but between the lucky shades, lucky 8 ball and bobblehead you dont need to start that high. Keep an ok strenth and endurance like zala said (I got to seven or eight by the end but it is nice to be able to carry stuff). And I recommend aiming to increasing perception and agility to 9 as well. By the end of the game high perception makes you a radar and allows you to forse combat for miles around. Agility allows you to start and end most conflicts in one rond of VATS and when you reach level 20 and get grim reapers sprint you will never leave it (unless you want to try trick shots).

Stealth is very good. Get operation anchorage and take the stealth suit. You will be able to walk up to a target and blow its face off. Stealth crits to the head with better criticals kill almost everything (I once insta killed a behemoth with the terrible shotgun). THe stealth suit also allows you to take the peace route and walk in and out of a heavily guarded enemy base and take the piece of equipment you want without a fight.

And remember that If you don't know what to use for a perk then intense training is always a good one.

 

[xXGeckoXx]

My loadout:

Xialong Chinese Assault Rifle (the extra clip is extra good)
Ol' Painless (my fave gun - but not the most powerful)
Terrible Shotgun (great short range/ high power gun)
AE-21 Plasma Rifle (for those "oh shit" moments)
Victory Rifle (or Reservist Rifle) (Sniping)
Shishkebab (flaming swords are cool)

BEST LOADOUT. GO FOR THIS. A nice addition is a silenced pistol for stealth.

 

[cornmancer]

Remember to never completely max out a skill with points. At a maximum, bring S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats up to 9 (then use the bobblehead to get it to 10) and skills up to around 85 (bobblehead and books to get it up the last bit). Plan out what your stats are going to be like ahead of time and always wear the best armor you can get your hands on until you are a higher level. You may not like it but it will save your life.

Bah, armor is for pussies. I went through the entire game the first time with nothing but the sheriff's duster, sheriff's hat, and a pair of sunglasses. I looked dead sexy, and didn't die much either.

Armor is only really necessary if you run in head first without thinking, or if you suck at dodging.

I did the same thing until I got power armor training. Now my Sheriff's outfit is my casual attire, and I put on some power armor during big fights. Yes, the sheriff's outfit is my casual clothes, because I'm just that bad ass *puts on sunglasses*
I think I'm going to have a suit and tommy gun for walking around town in New Vegas.

OT, as much as I play Fallout 3, I don't think I can help sadly. Most people have stated my advice already. I would advice lots of exploring, and doing Moira's quests to level up a bit.

 

[LWS666]

I really wish I had gotten FO3 on PC after reading about that mod.

At least I have oblivion...

EDIT: woop, new page! that means I'm lucky.

 

[Yeager942]

As the game progresses and you max out your small guns, switch to laser weaponry. The plasma rifle is a beast. Oddly, if my memory is correct that is, the plamsa rifle was more accurate in VATs for me than the sniper.

 

[Georgie_Leech]

When levelling up skills,NEVER jack them up over 90 unless you've already found the associated bobblehead. Save often,ESPECIALLY before where you expect a major conflict to arise.
Those are my tips. That's how I run,and I only died three times. And I run on Hard mode. I feel certain it will work for any difficulty,though.

Actually, if the damage rating on my guns isn't broken, the game keeps track of the ability score beyond 100, but doesn't let you increase them manually. After I found the energy bobblehead (I already had max Energy), all my lasers got a boost.

Personally, I started with a high INT character and specialized in Medicine, Science, and Lockpick. I got through the early stages of the game by being VERY careful with where I explored and what I engaged. Most of the early perks were useless, so I threw a few into Intense Training to up my Agility (for a sneak and AP boost) and Perception (So I wasn't caught by surprise). After maxing out my initial skills, I filled up sneak.

 

[Therumancer]

Here is some practical advice:

For starters this is an open world game, being impatient won't get you anywhere since it's an RPG and that means stats matter, you need to build up your levels and skills before you do the big stuff. Very basic, but keep it in mind. The first step/lead after you get to Megaton is to tell you to go to Galaxy News Radio, notice that not only is it a long way off, but to access it your likely going to have to go through the subway tunnels. A starting character fresh out of the vault isn't going to have the ammo to make that, never mind the skills. In this game the "side quests" exist for a reason.

At any rate, here is my advice:

#1: Ignore the chuckleheads telling you to head for Rivet City to begin with. It's not a bad move, but a move for expert players. It's a long way off, and if your getting your tail kicked badly trying to follow the main quest before that, chances are you don't have the experience to pull a 1337 powergaming move yet.

#2: *DO* however pick the lock to the sheriff's house and grab the +1 to strength Bobblehead doll there (In Megaton).

#3: Wear a vault jumpsuit, and talk to Moira at Craterside Supply the first time and she will give you a FREE armored vault jumpsuit which is better than what you have right now.

#4: If you can get your explosives skill up to 25 or so with chems or by other means, do the quest right there in town to disarm the nuke. This nets you experience points, and most importantly a house which while empty works great for storage and has a bed where you can rest. Also periodically you can ask the robot in there to make you a few units of purified water to heal.

#5: Offer to help Moira with her guide, the first quest you should probably take is the one to get supplies from a neaby supermarket. Inside that market are some low-end raiders, some guns (including a couple of badly damaged laser pistols you can repair by "merging" them if your an energy weapon user), some meds, and other stuff. What's more when you return to Moira she gives you a food sanitizer which lowers the radiation you take from eating most food. This is VERY important through the entire game as it can save you from using too much Radaway, especially at the beginning when you don't have a ton of it.

Her other quests to begin with can also act as a quick tutorial on how to do things and a good source of starting gear and experience points. Always try and complete the bonus objectives by full exploration.

Another easy one is to take her quest to study rad poisoning, go stand in the radioactive water around the bomb for a while until you've got severe sickness, and then mosey back in and she'll cure ALL your rads and give you more exps.

The quest to check out Minefield is likewise another good one because with a bit of saving and loading you can disarm a bunch of mines and bring them back to sell. If your not planning on being evil and making friends with slavers later on you can also kill the sniper guy here and nail a sniper rifle pretty early if small guns are your thing.


#6 In Moriarty's Bar in Megaton one of the girls there will give you a quest to go deliver a message. This starts a relatively easy quest. You basically head to where she sends you, find out that the people in that "town" are being terrorized by "The Family" a group of "bandits" who have apparently taken the kid. Search the houses, grab a repair bobblehead from the home of the sniper guy who "greets" you, and then head off to the trainyard. Go underground, disarm the bear traps (careful) talk to The Family, cut a deal with them, then return back to the town. Do it right (it's easy and pretty obvious) and you'll wind up getting a perk that will let you heal substantially off of blood packs. Plus that repair bobblehead which permanantly raised your skill will let you repair/combine items of the same type to a higher level. The better the quality of your guns the more accurate they are and the more damage they do (skill is not the only factor, keeping guns in good order is also important).


Simply put I recommend doing this kind of thing until you have a solid set of armor like Combat or Recon armor in decent shape, and a couple of solid weapons of whatever sort you use, plus about 40 or so stimpacks before you go tearing off on the main quest.

To put this into perspective, if your having trouble with wild dogs, mole rats, and rad scorpians and stuff around Megaton, when you enter the DC ruins interior and start fighting supermutants with their big arse guns, it's NOT going to get any easier. Plus while a "spoiler" when you talk to 3 Dogs his mission for you is to enter a mutant infested museum and recover a satellite dish to help expand/restore his broadcast range.

Being an RPG, getting your rear kicked like you described is usually a good hint your not ready for what your heading for. Also remember, when it comes to games like this it wouldn't be there if it wasn't intended to be used/done.

You do not have to do ALL the side quests, but you will need to do some of them at least to start to beef up your character.

That said the world doesn't level up with you quite the same way "Oblivion" does, so you do notice a marked improvement in your character capabilities as you play. At a certain point the game DOES become quite easy because your kicking around with maxxed skills, good/well repaired weapons and armor, and plentiful supplies. You'll hit that point long before you've seen a tenth of the game's content. this is why people have made mods to make it more difficult.

If you REALLY know what your doing and know how to make a B-line for the best stuff, you can make this game incredibly easy.

Also with some of the expansions installed, Mothership Zeta in paticular, it's possible to get really incredible loot very easily.

 

[Jack_Uzi]

Before I did much else, I completed the quests Moira gave me. They aren't that hard and you'll gain a lot of XP and stuff from it. Good luck.

*Edit: I've set my perception and strenght on +1 from the original setting, don't know much more about the rest. But that's just my point: You can end this game in so much different stat ways (unless you choose stats that are really stupid like a strengt of 1 or intel or such). I've ended the game and played it again a while ago, funny to still exlore different things the 2nd time around.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

People have already given you good character creation models so i guess all thats left is loadout.
Personally, I run round with the winterised T51b. It doesn't give the best stat boosts, just rad resistance, but it has a dr of 50 and it never needs to be repaired. Saves on carrying round multiple sets of armour for when you need to repair them. In terms of stat boost however the Reillys Rangers armour gives you good small guns bonus and i think extra action points (Lag bolts combat armour is the only one in the game to give you a bonus to big guns and action points but you can only get it if you have broken steel)
The laser Rifle is the best weapon for long range despite its weak power as it has a spread of zero and micro fusion cells are really easy to come by so you will never lack for ammo.
The metal blaster is my personal favourite close range weapon as it does high damage (It actually fires out nine separate laser beams) at close range and unlike the tri laser gun thingy it only uses one mf cell per shot. You get that from the pitt dlc.
I always take the gauss rifle from operation anchorage as it has a high knockdown chance. Time and again i've seen it knock down a supermutant overlord three times in row killing it without you getting touched.
Vengeance is the best big gun. Its a high power gatling laser with a pretty tight spread but it chews through electron charge packs like there is no tomorrow. But you find it in the deathclaw sanctuary so its not a good thing to go for at the low levels.
If you are a small guns character i recommend finding fort independence and offering to help the outcasts there. A suit of tesla power armour will net you 240 5.56 rounds and after you meet the enclave you will be swimming in the stuff. Word of warning with this, you get the same reward no matter the condition so don't go repairing them hoping to get more stuff. This quest is a really good way to pick up stimpacks and 5.56 ammo
Right now however, I'm running around with a space marine heavy bolter, plasma pistol and power sword. (I love all of the space marine mods XD) Nothing better than roaming the wastes as a grey knights terminator with a nemesis force weapon. Actually, i prefer the black templar sergeant armour as it has the flag sticking out of the backpack XD
Also, you see a feral ghoul reaver you run your arse off and don't look back
Also, in the replicated man quest in rivet city, if you side with the android and reveal its true identity to it you get the best plasma rifle in the game. It has a higher crit chance than an ordinary plasma rifle and higher damage

 

[Awake-]

I have all the DLC, by the way. GOTY EDITION FTW!!!.

Anyway I'm doing okay now. I tagged repair, small guns and sneak. Repaired the old man's water... pipe thing. Did Moira's sidequests. Every mutant I see can be dispatched easily! My dear companion Dogmeat is great too. Ran into four strangers pointing guns at each other, apparently for the water. Shot all of them and looted them. Eeeevil, yes, but at least I'm doing okay now.

Hey many thanks to you all for the great advices. Much appreciated. Fallout 3 is frustrating and hard to like at first, but it's really awesome after you make the first step.

 

[Uber Waddles]

Pump it down, or grab some better weapons.

Personally, Rifles are the way to success for me. A handy Hunting Rifle is reliable, strong, and durable. Lincolns Repeater is also good; but Ammo is a bit harder to find.

Depending on what type of character you use, invest into that type of weapon skill. Small Weapons cover most of your weapons, Pistols, Rifles, Shotguns. Heavy covers Missle Launcher, Flamethrower, and Minigun. And the rest are self explanitory.

Repair is AWESOME to have. Seriously. Invest in it. Fixing your weapons saves caps, makes em stronger, and helps reduce waste and carry space.

If you find an encounter too hard, lower the difficulty. You can do that mid-run through.

Also, look closely at perks. Perks make the difference.

 

[Banana Phone Man]

Just do what I do with the skill picking. For me it never fails.

Pick the 3 skills:

Small Guns - This is so you will be some good in combat (this can be changed for big guns or energy weapons but I find I use small guns more often)

Repair - This is so you can keep using the weapons you have without them breaking. Always get this skill.

Then either, Computer hacking or Lockpicking - You will always need to get into place so have one of these to help with that. I usually go with lockpicking because I find that I use that more often.

With the SPECIAL always max out your intelligence at the start then run to Rivet city and get the intelligence bobble head at the start. This maxes your intelligence and gives you 20 skill points when you level up.

When you collect books while in the wasteland DON'T READ THEM. This is important. Always collect them up. At one level you can get a perk which means that you will get 2 skill ponts from each book instead of one. You will find a lot more books than you think. I think there is 25(ish) of each book in the wild which 50 skill points in different catagories with the Comprehension perk (if you can be bothered to find them all). For this reason I never max out my skills. Always leave a gap of about 10-15 short of 100. THis way you can find the books to fill the gaps and use you level skill points to fill other areas. With this I have managed to get a character with 100 skill points in every skill. Takes a lot of work though.

Another tip is to always use VATS. Especially if you are dying early on. THe shooting is kinda lousy in that game so let the VATS do the work for you.

I hope this helped.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Right from the start I went for speech, science, small guns, lockpick and stealth as my main setup. Then once I started getting heavy weapons later in the game (I completely missed the Fatman and the 8 nukes D I branched out and went for big guns and barter so getting ammo wasn't a big problem. I only just learnt how to repair my weapons today and all I did was steal weapons from traders and my, recently deceased, enemies and kept the best ones. I repaired my armour at shops or traders and if I needed expensive repairs I'd repair my armour and best guns and get the others too which brought me to almost nothing so I killed the trader. These tend to be roaming traders or the people in tenpenny tower who I was going to ghoul attack.

This got me through the game till about level 16 or so when I finished. But saved before finishing so I could go through the game and do any side quests I missed. I suggest you get the plasma rifle as soon as you can and use that extensively. I still use the Chinese rifle on a regular basis as well as the minigun and gatling gun if I come across super mutants or a band of enclave. If you come across a group of deathclaws or other brutal enemies and can't get past then I suggest you reload from a point not too far away from where you are now. turn around. and get the alien blaster (fallout wikia it) it's an amazing gun that has a phenominal critical hit rate that makes it almost 1:1 for shots to critical hits.

This pretty much got me through the game and most of the sidequests. Some I still need to do. Some I can't do because of my evil nature where I killed the quest giver accidentaly. But it totals around 2 or 3.

 

[Calbeck]

Operation Anchorage is the only place short of finishing the mainline quest where you can get Power Armor AND training for it early on. Not only that, it's some of the best Power Armor in the game, in terms of damage resistance. The weaponry you get at the end of that quest is similarly top-end, with something for just about any combat preference.

Plus the quest itself will pump you up several levels. By the time you get back out into "the real world", you'll be a walking Billy Badass...at least in terms of gear.