Cheat: Infinite Experience in Big Town
Here’s a glitch that will allow you to get infinite amounts of experience (as long as your Speech skill is high enough). Try the following steps:
1.) - Go to Big Town and find the NPC named Pappy.
2.) - Select the dialogue choice “You came here with Bittercup, right?” If this dialogue choice doesn’t show up, find Bittercup, exhaust all of her conversation chains, and then try speaking with Pappy again. ([Speech 100%] should appear next to the dialogue choice if your Speech skill is at its highest. If it’s not there yet, don’t risk trying to convince him. Speech failure will result in this glitch permanently disappearing.)
3.) - Selecting that dialogue option successfully will net you six experience points. Speak to him again and you can get the experience again. Repeat as much as you want for as much experience as you want.
Hint: V.A.T.S. Spotting
If you’re heading into seemingly-hostile territory or simply want to survey the area around you for enemies you might not yet see, try hitting the VATS button over and over again as you make your character turn around, searching all angles. Doing so will alert you to any enemies you may not yet see by zooming in on them in VATS mode. You’ll realistically be unable to do damage to your foes from such a distance, but it’s a good way to spot foes before they spot you so you know what you’re getting yourself into before the crap hits the fan.
Hint: Hacking Indefinitely
Here’s a great tip (though it will be obvious for some people).When you hack a computer in the game, you have four tries to hack it successfully. If you don’t hack it successfully on the fourth attempt (as in, you don’t guess the proper password), the station you’re trying to hack will permanently shut down. But if you only try three times and bail out of the process before trying for a fourth time, the password will reset, giving you three more options. You can do this indefinitely without risking shutting the terminal down.
Hint: Extra Inventory Space
If you’re running out of room in your inventory and don’t want to ditch any of your gear, consider trying to find a companion character. These companions can be found at various places throughout the world and will agree to join you on your journey (temporarily). You can trade equipment with these characters, which will allow you to dump your equipment on them, making you virtually unencumbered. Consider this option when you not only need help with bad guys, but help carrying your crap as well!
Hint: Carrying Goods
Here’s an interesting way to avoid becoming encumbered by holding too much gear and too many items. Say you pick up a heavy piece of gear, like forty pound Power Armor, but when it’s added to your inventory, it makes you encumbered. Drop the item and then press the right analog stick (or corresponding button for PC gamers) to pick the item up and hold it in front of you. Since it’s being held and is therefore not part of your inventory, you won’t be charged for its weight and can get to where you need to go from there without being too encumbered.
Hint: Unlimited Items
If you have a sneak rating of at least 60, you can attempt this infinite goods trick, which takes place at Fort Independence. Head to Fort Independence with a bunch of Scrap Metal in your inventory. Once there, speak with Protector Casdin and tell him you’ve got junk you’d like to give him. In return, he’ll offer up 5.56mm Rounds, Frag Grenades, RadAways, and Stimpaks, and you can choose which you want. Then, save your game (in case you fail the following) and steal your Scrap Metal back from the Protector. Sell the Scrap Metal back to him over and over again, thereby netting you infinite amounts of 5.56mm ammunition, Frag Grenades, RadAways and Stimpaks.
Hint: Stowing Goods on Dead Bodies
Here’s another great technique, if you’re carrying too much stuff and find yourself encumbered. You know how you can search downed enemies’ corpses for the goods they carry? Well, you can also place your own goods onto the corpse. Since corpses tend to stay around after they die seemingly indefinitely (or, at least, for a good long time), you can drop presently unneeded items onto the corpse of a foe you’ve slain, and then go back at a later date to get your stuff back. This is a great way to never become encumbered.
Hint: Infinite Experience in Andale
To try this, you’ll need to have the Mister Sandman perk activated, which will mean you have to be at least at level ten. You’ll also need a sneak skill of at least 60. If that fits your character, then travel to Andale. Andale is full of kids that can’t be killed (killing kids in Fallout 3 is an impossibility). During nighttime, when everyone in Andale is sleeping, break into various houses and kill the kids while sleeping using the Mister Sandman perk. They won’t die, but you’ll still be rewarded experience for having killed them. You can then repeat the process over and over again for infinite experience points.
Hint: Free Evil Items at Paradise Falls
If you have bad karma (or don’t mind having even worse karma), head over to Paradise Falls, a place a group of evil slavers call home. To gain entrance without having to open fire, you have to be friendly with the slavers, which will give you an evil slant. But if you can do this, you’ll find a guy endlessly walking around the settlement (he’s usually at or near the bar, but can be elsewhere). When you get near him, he’ll stop you automatically, tell you he found some cool stuff on a recent raid, and give you some of what he got (it will be either some ammunition, Bottle Caps, or various aid items). After your first encounter, all you have to do is keep speaking to him to earn more and more free stuff.
Hint: Never Break A Bobby Pin
If you want to avoid breaking precious Bobby Pins when picking various locks in Fallout 3, exercise patience. If you’ve failed opening the lock on the first two tries, chances are a third try will break the Bobby Pin. If you back out of trying to pick the lock and then immediately reattempt it, however, your Bobby Pin’s strength will reestablish itself, giving you several more tries. Repeat this technique to never break a Bobby Pin.
Hint: Super Mutant Behemoth Locations
The game’s five Super Mutant Behemoths can be found at the following five locations: Evergreen Mills, Galaxy News Radio, Jury Station, Takoma Industrial, and The Capitol Building.
Hint: Finding Dogmeat
If you want your character to have a pet dog in the game, then head over to an area known as Scrapyard, which is northeast from Megaton, just over the river. The dog is automatically named Dogmeat, and you can get him at any time, whether it’s early in the game or otherwise. The dog can attack enemies endlessly and cannot die.
An amendment from druidfire1: Dogmeat can die. Keep him healed using Stimpaks! Once he’s dead, he’s dead for good.
Hint: Infinite Good Karma
Outside of towns like Rivet City and Megaton, you can find thirsty Wastelanders who ask you for Purified Water. Each time you give these guys a bottle, you will get a slight boost to your karma. Do it more and more, and you’ll gain more and more karma. You can theoretically do this as much as you want to any of these thirsty characters for as much positive karma as you desire.
Hint: Boosting Your Experience
Here’s a great (albeit cheap) way to gain lots of experience. Before you do anything that’s going to net you some experience (such as picking locks, hacking, et cetera), change the game’s difficulty setting to Very Hard. Then, hack the computer or pick the lock (or whatever). Successfully doing so on a harder difficulty level will get you more experience. You can also utilize this technique on mortally-wounded enemies to gain more experience from them as well. Just be sure to change the difficulty back to a more manageable level when you’re done!
Hint: Infinite Good Karma in Megaton
Here’s another technique for infinite good karma. If you head to Megaton, you can find the church for the Children of the Atom, religious people who worship the undetonated nuclear bomb which Megaton is built around. There’s a priest who will be near the bomb or in their building. Talk to him and he’ll ask for donations. Give him donations, and you’ll get a positive karma boost. Do this as much as you want for as much karma as you desire.
Hint: Super Mutant Karma
If you want to earn infinite amounts of good karma, head to Big Town. If you go there at night, the town will come under attack from a Super Mutant raiding party. For each Super Mutant you help the few residents of Big Town slay, a small amount of good karma can be earned. Repeat this process as much as you want for the amount of good karma desired.
Hint: Save Your AP
Here’s an awesome technique to save Action Points (AP) used in VATS. If you’re feeling confident when fighting an enemy or group of enemies, simply aim at an enemy in VATS, but don’t fire. You’ll retain your AP but still be aiming at the part of the enemy’s body in question that you were in VATS. If you shoot quickly enough, you should still strike the desired area without having to expend any AP whatsoever.
Hint: Infinite Caps (and more)
Here is a great way to earn seemingly infinite amounts of caps, items, repairs and ammunition.
Find any shop-based trader. The supply shop woman in Megaton is an ideal choice. She has some high value items that you would otherwise spend a fortune on, including all the stuff for your house and a schematic for the Rock-It Launcher.
1. Sell her any stuff in your inventory that you don’t need and complete the transaction. This will boost the amount of money she has.
2. Find something in your inventory that you have two of, or that you have one of as well as her. Sell this found item to her.
3. Check that the two like items are of different values once they are in her inventory. The bigger the difference in value, the better and the lower the cheapest item is the better.
4. Now buy back the cheaper of the two like items and complete the transaction, but do not leave the trade session. Look for the item in your inventory. The game should have glitched and the item should have gone up in value dramatically and should be 100% repaired, even though when you sold the item initially it wasn’t.
5. If it isn’t 100% repaired for whatever reason, sell the item back to her anyway and repeat step 3-4, trying a different item if necessary.
6. From here, the game will remain glitched and you will be able to sell the same item high and buy it back low until you have drained her money completely. If you want, you can hold onto the item as it will be fully repaired - simply keep it on the final round which will leave her with a small amount of money.
7. Either sell the item back to her again once she is out of money, or if you are keeping it, sell her something else of high value and she will owe you that amount. The transaction price will go dim and remain at whatever amount of money she has left.
8. Search through her inventory and find stuff you need. Stimpaks, ammo, miscellaneous item, weapons and armor are all fair game. Eventually, the transaction price will light up again and you may owe her a few caps depending on how much of her stuff you added to the deal. Complete the transaction.
9. If you wait three days she will have new stock and around 350 caps. The longer you wait, the more robust her inventory will become and the more caps she’ll have for you to take when you’re ready to do this all over again.