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Fallout 3

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Growing Up Fast

By
Nathan Garvin

You are presented with the Pip-Boy 3000 (left), an indispensible tool that you’ll be using quite a bit over the course of the game (right).

1) Pip-Boy 3000

You’re now ten years old. The setting? Your birthday party. Wonder how many times all those party favors have been reused? Whatever, as a “gift” the Overseer will give you a Pip-Boy 3000, an indispensible part of Vault life. Wonder why the Vaults in the D.C. area get Pip-Boy 3000s, whereas the California Pip-Boys got stuck with crappy 2000s? Ah well… You can use your Pip-Boy to look at your Stats, including your Status, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes, Skills, Perks, and General information, your Items, divided into Weapons, Apparel, Aid, Misc, and Ammo, and finally Data, which includes Local Map, World Map, Quests, Notes, and Radio. You’ll be messing around with this little device quite a bit over the course of the game.

Trophy/Achievement Icon

Vault 101 Citizenship Award

Got the Pip-Boy 3000.

Trophy icon
10

2) Amata’s Gift

Book - Grognak the Barbarian

When you’re done fiddling around with your Pip-Boy, walk forward and talk to Amata. It doesn’t really matter what you say/do here… she’ll hand over a copy of Grognak the Barbarian.

3) The Sweetroll Confrontation

Ignore the Overseer, who plays the role of the authorative douche rather well, and instead talk to Old Lady Palmer, who is sitting down across from the Overseer. She’ll give you a Sweetroll, no matter how much of a brat you are. Which is fortunate, since behind us our friendly robot Andy is busy destroying our birthday cake. This prompts Butch, one of the incorrigible little rascals attending your party to threaten you for your newly acquired Sweetroll. You can try to be a sissy, diplomatic, crude, mean… or meaner. If you provoke Butch, he’ll come after you. Just run around the tables until he is stopped by Officer Gomez. You can talk to Gomez and some of the other kids attending, but there’s really no point. Amata will talk to you about Butch after the confrontation is over.

4) Ditching the Party

Next talk to Stanley, who is sitting beside your dad. He’ll tell you a bit about the Pip-Boy, and you can fish a Kid’s Baseball Cap off of him. Eventually your dad will get up to recieve a message from Jonas. He’ll tell you to duck out of your own party. On the way out you’ll be bothered by a lady named Beatrice, who will give you a… poem… for your birthday. What a lame party, eh?

5) Dad’s Gift

Exit the door where your dad is and head down the tunnel to the north, then west, then down some stairs to the north. If you look around, you might find Officer Kendall in the hallways… who really doesn’t have anything interesting to say. You can sneak by pressing the left analogue button, and if you’re lucky, you can lift two Stimpaks off of him… although since you don’t get to keep them, there’s really no point. Anyways, at the bottom of the stairs you’ll find Jonas, the man in the lab coat. He’ll tell you to wait around for your dad, who will be arriving shortly. When your dad arrives he’ll give you what is by far the best present yet-a BB Gun!

6) Target Practice

Follow your dad and Jonas into a room to the south, talking to them both on your way past. Go to the far end of the room, where you goal is to shoot the three targets to the south… Yes, you can shoot Jonas and your dad, but there’s not really any point. Shoot the three targets beyond the locker until a Radroach crawls out. Enter V.A.T.S. mode to take the critter out if you want to get the hang of using it. Once the Radroach is dead, dad decides he wants a picture. Go up to him and Jonas will oblige… and your childhood vanishes in another flash of light…

Target practice, both shooting from the hip (left) and in V.A.T.S. (right). You’ll be doing both quite a bit.

6) Target Practice

Follow your dad and Jonas into a room to the south, talking to them both on your way past. Go to the far end of the room, where you goal is to shoot the three targets to the south… Yes, you can shoot Jonas and your dad, but there’s not really any point. Shoot the three targets beyond the locker until a Radroach crawls out. Enter V.A.T.S. mode to take the critter out if you want to get the hang of using it. Once the Radroach is dead, dad decides he wants a picture. Go up to him and Jonas will oblige… and your childhood vanishes in another flash of light…

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Bethesda Softworks
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS3, XB 360
  • Genre
    Action RPG
  • Guide Release
    7 February 2015
  • Last Updated
    7 December 2020
  • Guide Author
    Nathan Garvin

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War never changes. The Fallout franchise certainly has, however. In 2008 Bethesda revived Interplay’s famous “Post Nuclear Role Playing Game”, moving from third person to first person, and from the west coast to the east coast. You are the Lone Wanderer, an outcast from Vault 101 who sacrifices a relatively easy life in order to brave the terrors of the post-apocalyptic Wasteland and find your Dad, whose mysterious departure from Vault 101 sets a chain of events in motion that will change the Capital Wasteland forever…

This guide is intended to be the ultimate completionist’s guide to Fallout 3.

  • Every area in the game covered extensively including all side quests and main quests.
  • All the Bobbleheads, skill books and schematic locations.
  • A full trophy/achievement guide.
  • An in-depth information about character creation is also provided so you can create whatever Vault Dweller suits you best.
  • Good, evil and neutral alternatives to quests will be presented where applicable.

Become the Last, Best Hope of Humanity… or add to the continuing sum of human misery in your selfish quest for survival. Sneak past foes, talk your way out of confrontations, shoot everything in the head, or create a character who can do it all. The Wasteland is a big, dangerous place, and this guide will help you experience as much as possible.

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