FALLOUT 3

[AntiFreze]

So I just got my house last night and got the quest to go to the mine field. I stopped by the junkyard and got dogmeat, which is awesome. Now, he has a health bar... can he die? Do I need to keep his health up? Can he really find you ammo and such as the dialogue indicates (i didnt have much time to expirement)?

Also... I'm broke a lot. I spend most my money on small guns to repair my current one and on ammo. I'm popping off 6-10 shots per enemy. (shotgun for scorpions, 10mm for people). Should i melee ones that try to melee me to save on ammo? Any general advice?

I use VATS when I can, but i usually end up backpedaling while firing.

 

[Kev]

Yes he can die. In fact he dies way too easily. I use to reload my last save when he died, but I just gave up and let him be dead for good. Yes he can find ammo.

For ammo, I would say take the perk that gives you extra ammo in boxes as soon as it is available. Or take the one that gives you extra caps, but not both. By the time you hit level 10 you will have plenty of both.

 

[Born2bwire]

You can tell Dogmeat to stay while you go clear out an area or to go to Vault 101 and wait for you there (it took him a long time to show up when I did that, got worried he was lost in a glitch). However, I do miss the damage messages that arose when Dogmeat would enthusiastically go for the enemie's groin area in the previous games.

 

[9mak9]

dogmeat is good if you are running around in an open area taking on scorpions, bandits, etc. but when you go instead building or fight lots of enemies in a particular quest, you should leave him outside. I never used him to find ammo, because he would end of up finding enemies at some point and die, and I also never really had problems will ammo. If you explore all of the game you will have more ammo then you will ever need.

Same thing for money, just pick up as much as you can carry (add strong back perk) and sell of a lot of things. You'll find so many guns that you can sell half of those and never have to worry about money. Make sure you have repair skill very high throughout the game, it will make sure that you will save money (not have your merchants repair the guns and you can sell guns instead of using all for repairing) and your guns are more effective.

Also use you ammo effectively. Shotguns only at close range, pistols at mid range and rifles and longer range...most of the time. You can also build the rock-it-launcher which is unlimited ammo (I like to use forks and spoons because they are only half a pound and fun to shoot ). There are so many guns and ammo just switch them up depending on your enemy of amount of ammo.

 

[Sureshot324]

I find it's too much of a pain to give him commands since you have to bring up the dialog screen and go through like 3 screens and listen to him go "woof" every time. I actually found him quite useful as a tank keeping the enemies off me, and he can take quite a beating. He does virtually no damage so he won't survive if you let him go off on his own. If he does die you can bring him back with a console command if you're playing the PC version.

 

[Adam8281]

I never have to buy weapons or ammo - are you searching all crates, boxes, etc., that you find?

 

[katank]

Easiest way is to make Dogmeat invincible w/ the console. This avoids reloading or resurrecting him via console if he dies. His options for fetching weapons and ammo is frankly only good for two things. One is finding the alien power cells that fall from the sky (can be hard to hunt all of it down otherwise). Another is having him get weapons in containers that are locked which you don't have sufficiently high skill for opening.

Use VATS more and you shouldn't take that many shots. w/ a lincoln repeater at full condition (easy to do given high repair skill) and max small arms, even on very hard the toughest enemies take 3-5 shots to drop. 6-10 is far too much. Get better weapons.

Also, Rock-it launcher is indeed nice for ammo saving. Note however that damage depends on weight. Similarly, ballistics depends on weight and shape. Thus, potentially try for similar loads or just use it as shotty replacement. Overall, if you do a good job of exploring, even without scrounger perk, you should be able to find enough ammo to feed all your guns w/ the exception of .44 magnum ammo and .308 ammo if you are using those as primary.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire
You can tell Dogmeat to stay while you go clear out an area or to go to Vault 101 and wait for you there (it took him a long time to show up when I did that, got worried he was lost in a glitch). However, I do miss the damage messages that arose when Dogmeat would enthusiastically go for the enemie's groin area in the previous games.

Dogmeat hits Slave in the groin for 15 pts
Dogmeat hits Slave in the groin for 17 pts
Dogmeat hits Slave in the groin for 15 pts, Slave falls to the floor groinless and screaming
Slave is killed.



I love Fallout 3, but the old Fallouts always made me laugh.

 

[imported_Imp]

When I picked up Dogmeat, I told him to stay until I was ready to take him back to my house, and make him permanently camp out there. Same goes for the other NPCs that I picked up; too much of a liability.

Ammo was never a problem for me. I did a lot of exploring and killed everything that would have shot at me first if it had the chance. Also, I picked up practically everything that was worth more than 1:3 in terms of weight to value. I proceeded to sell everything and trade it for all the ammo available at stores.

 

[Frodolives]

For pc players, as you know you enter console by ~ then enter the following:

setessential 0006a772 1

This will set Dogmeat as essential, so that he can be stunned/unconscious as a result of combat, but will not die.

I'm not one to recommend cheats or hacks, but if the alternative to losing Dogmeat is as much saving and reloading as I did, then it probably makes sense to use this if you like travelling with him.

 

[ibex333]

I used dogmeat through about 80% of the game, but at some point I stopped using him because he dies to easily to tougher enemies. As for money, the only way someone can have a problem with money in fallout is due to lack of time.

Anyway, I made tons of money by exploiting the hell out of game mechanics. It involves absolutely no cheating or hacking. This is within game rules:

**spoilers to follow**

Basically this "exploit" revolves around respawning enemies at certain places in the game which are found by trial and error. An example would be "wheaton armory" and "fort bannister". One will constantly spawn raiders about once in every two days game time, the other will constantly spawn the talon faction guys along with one Mr Gutsy. Later on in the game, some of these places will sometimes even spawn a few enclave soldiers, and the raiders and talons will wield better more expencive armors and weapons.
By "farming" all these enemies over and over again, I easily got an endless supply of talon armors, weapons and ammo which I sold to various merchants all over the game. I stockpiled enormous amounts of loot in a locker in my house, then sold all this junk for big money. Eventually I was able to afford anything and everything in the game, and still had about 70k+hundreds of items and thousands of ammo. When merchants ran out of their money and couldn't pay me anymore because they were out of money, I exchanged my junk for their ammo or drugs.
What was really cool about this exploit to me, is that it was never "boring" to keep doing this over and over again. Every new fight was different and unique. I moved through the opposition with insane speeds because I was somehow able to recruit "Charon", "Star Paladin Cross" and Dogmeat all at the same time... I equipped them with power armor and some of the most damaging weapons I could find. Later on it was Fawkes+Star Paladin Cross, which was an even more devastating combo. Again, all this was done without any mods, cheats or hacks.

Also, because I chose the lawbringer perk, I got a constant supply of fingers from all these dead evil guys and sold them off for 100 caps each. Off course if I was evil this wouldn't be possible because good guys don't respawn as far as I know, and I'm not sure if the talons could be hostile to me have I been evil.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: AntiFreze
Also... I'm broke a lot. I spend most my money on small guns to repair my current one and on ammo. I'm popping off 6-10 shots per enemy. (shotgun for scorpions, 10mm for people). Should i melee ones that try to melee me to save on ammo? Any general advice?

Easiest way to make money imo is to get your repair skill up. Then just repair weapons you find as much as you can. Not only does this significantly increase the amount of money you get due to better condition weapons selling for more, but it also allows you to carry more weapons that are in better condition. For example, instead of lugging around 5 pistols that sell for 3 caps each and not being able to pick up more stuff, you can carry 5 pistols that sell for 120 caps each. And of course this will reduce the amount of caps you spend on repairs, which can be extremely high for the better weapons. After awhile you can buy all the ammo you like, or get the perk that allows you to find more ammo (again, much better than the cap finding perk).

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: katank
Easiest way is to make Dogmeat invincible w/ the console. This avoids reloading or resurrecting him via console if he dies. His options for fetching weapons and ammo is frankly only good for two things. One is finding the alien power cells that fall from the sky (can be hard to hunt all of it down otherwise). Another is having him get weapons in containers that are locked which you don't have sufficiently high skill for opening.

Use VATS more and you shouldn't take that many shots. w/ a lincoln repeater at full condition (easy to do given high repair skill) and max small arms, even on very hard the toughest enemies take 3-5 shots to drop. 6-10 is far too much. Get better weapons.

Also, Rock-it launcher is indeed nice for ammo saving. Note however that damage depends on weight. Similarly, ballistics depends on weight and shape. Thus, potentially try for similar loads or just use it as shotty replacement. Overall, if you do a good job of exploring, even without scrounger perk, you should be able to find enough ammo to feed all your guns w/ the exception of .44 magnum ammo and .308 ammo if you are using those as primary.

What weapons can be used to repair the Lincoln Repeater? I ended up donating it to the museum to fill out the Lincoln collection as I figured I wouldn't find any weapons to repair it with. Still, it is an awesome rifle.

 

[Painman]

Lincoln's Repeater is repaired with Hunting Rifles -- those ought to be easy enough to find; Super Mutants use them a lot.

I went the Repair skill route for making $. It's good for a lot of reasons -- your weapons become more powerful @ high repair, you don't spend your money to repair (unless it's for spare .44s, sniper rifles etc), and you can take 2 raider armors worth, say, 50 caps apiece and turn them into one suit of armor worth more than both of them combined. Helps when using blueprints too. The weapons you craft start out at a higher repair level, and are usually worth more than the parts you used to create them.

Heck... I have about 12,000 caps right now, and the fridge in my Megaton house (I throw all my sellable junk in there) is pretty packed. I need to go to Canterbury Commons and invest in the caravan traders, because I have so much junk waiting to be sold and the vendors are broke because of all my selling.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: Painman
Lincoln's Repeater is repaired with Hunting Rifles -- those ought to be easy enough to find; Super Mutants use them a lot.

Ahhh man, I can't believe I missed that. I ended up using Ole Painless, the unique hunting rifle, as my mainstay. Getting Ole Painless was a bit of a hoot. The next playthrough I am going to get the laser gatling early and give that beast a whirl (but I'll need to see what parts can be used to repair it).

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Adam8281
I never have to buy weapons or ammo - are you searching all crates, boxes, etc., that you find?

Yes, and I always end up buying ammo whenever I'm in a town that has some for sale.

 

[Martimus]

open console, type "setessential 6a772 1", now Dogmeat is invulnerable. When he "dies", he will just be knocked unconscious, and come back after all enemies in the area are taken out.

 

[AntiFreze]

Thanks for all the advice. I kept playing and now I'm at lvl 6 and have an abundance of ammo and guns. Also, I have a lot of stimpacks, I didnt realize that sleeping healed you which is a huge help.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: AntiFreze
Thanks for all the advice. I kept playing and now I'm at lvl 6 and have an abundance of ammo and guns. Also, I have a lot of stimpacks, I didnt realize that sleeping healed you which is a huge help.

Boy, was I mad when I found out you only had to sleep an hour to get full health.

 

[Sureshot324]

Originally posted by: ibex333
I used dogmeat through about 80% of the game, but at some point I stopped using him because he dies to easily to tougher enemies. As for money, the only way someone can have a problem with money in fallout is due to lack of time.

Anyway, I made tons of money by exploiting the hell out of game mechanics. It involves absolutely no cheating or hacking. This is within game rules:

**spoilers to follow**

Basically this "exploit" revolves around respawning enemies at certain places in the game which are found by trial and error. An example would be "wheaton armory" and "fort bannister". One will constantly spawn raiders about once in every two days game time, the other will constantly spawn the talon faction guys along with one Mr Gutsy. Later on in the game, some of these places will sometimes even spawn a few enclave soldiers, and the raiders and talons will wield better more expencive armors and weapons.
By "farming" all these enemies over and over again, I easily got an endless supply of talon armors, weapons and ammo which I sold to various merchants all over the game. I stockpiled enormous amounts of loot in a locker in my house, then sold all this junk for big money. Eventually I was able to afford anything and everything in the game, and still had about 70k+hundreds of items and thousands of ammo. When merchants ran out of their money and couldn't pay me anymore because they were out of money, I exchanged my junk for their ammo or drugs.
What was really cool about this exploit to me, is that it was never "boring" to keep doing this over and over again. Every new fight was different and unique. I moved through the opposition with insane speeds because I was somehow able to recruit "Charon", "Star Paladin Cross" and Dogmeat all at the same time... I equipped them with power armor and some of the most damaging weapons I could find. Later on it was Fawkes+Star Paladin Cross, which was an even more devastating combo. Again, all this was done without any mods, cheats or hacks.

Also, because I chose the lawbringer perk, I got a constant supply of fingers from all these dead evil guys and sold them off for 100 caps each. Off course if I was evil this wouldn't be possible because good guys don't respawn as far as I know, and I'm not sure if the talons could be hostile to me have I been evil.

How did you get 2 followers plus dogmeat? According to the wiki, you can only have 1 follower + dogmeat, and if dogmeat dies, then you can get a second follower.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire
What weapons can be used to repair the Lincoln Repeater? I ended up donating it to the museum to fill out the Lincoln collection as I figured I wouldn't find any weapons to repair it with. Still, it is an awesome rifle.

Any hunting rifle will work to repair it.

 

[ibex333]

Originally posted by: Sureshot324

Originally posted by: ibex333
I used dogmeat through about 80% of the game, but at some point I stopped using him because he dies to easily to tougher enemies. As for money, the only way someone can have a problem with money in fallout is due to lack of time.

Anyway, I made tons of money by exploiting the hell out of game mechanics. It involves absolutely no cheating or hacking. This is within game rules:

**spoilers to follow**

Basically this "exploit" revolves around respawning enemies at certain places in the game which are found by trial and error. An example would be "wheaton armory" and "fort bannister". One will constantly spawn raiders about once in every two days game time, the other will constantly spawn the talon faction guys along with one Mr Gutsy. Later on in the game, some of these places will sometimes even spawn a few enclave soldiers, and the raiders and talons will wield better more expencive armors and weapons.
By "farming" all these enemies over and over again, I easily got an endless supply of talon armors, weapons and ammo which I sold to various merchants all over the game. I stockpiled enormous amounts of loot in a locker in my house, then sold all this junk for big money. Eventually I was able to afford anything and everything in the game, and still had about 70k+hundreds of items and thousands of ammo. When merchants ran out of their money and couldn't pay me anymore because they were out of money, I exchanged my junk for their ammo or drugs.
What was really cool about this exploit to me, is that it was never "boring" to keep doing this over and over again. Every new fight was different and unique. I moved through the opposition with insane speeds because I was somehow able to recruit "Charon", "Star Paladin Cross" and Dogmeat all at the same time... I equipped them with power armor and some of the most damaging weapons I could find. Later on it was Fawkes+Star Paladin Cross, which was an even more devastating combo. Again, all this was done without any mods, cheats or hacks.

Also, because I chose the lawbringer perk, I got a constant supply of fingers from all these dead evil guys and sold them off for 100 caps each. Off course if I was evil this wouldn't be possible because good guys don't respawn as far as I know, and I'm not sure if the talons could be hostile to me have I been evil.

How did you get 2 followers plus dogmeat? According to the wiki, you can only have 1 follower + dogmeat, and if dogmeat dies, then you can get a second follower.

**possible spoilers below**

That's the thing... I don't know! Maybe some sort of a glitch? Basically, I first did a bunch of side quests completely ignoring the main story... Then at some point I got Dogmeat and did plenty more side quests... Then I started following the main story and got Charon. After this I kept doing side quests, and when I finally returned to the main story I got Star Paladin Cross. When I got kidnapped by enclave I lost all my followers, and when I tried getting them back they wouldn't join me saying I can only use one at a time. So I stuck with Fawkes for a while when suddenly... I get messages "Charon is waiting for you at place X", Star paladin is waiting for you at place x", "Dogmeat is waiting for you at place x"...

I went to all those places and when I spoke to my followers they happily joined back but refused to join such that I'd have a party of three + dogmeat. They didn't say that I cant use more than one at a time, they just said something like "if this guy is with you, then I will not go." So I had to use any combo of two+the dog, like fawkes+cross+dogmeat.

By the way.. did you know that you actually CAN have even more followers? It involves using "temp" followers and not completing their quests. If you get Sydney(where you get the declaration of independence) or Red(for the Big Town quest) for example... You can "reverse pickpocket" them and give them weapons, armor and ammo. They will follow you anywhere, and fight for you unless you finish their respective quests. Some "temp" followers are better than others. For example, that dude who wants to go to Big Town standing next to Little Lamplight entrance wearing a party hat. He is very trigger happy and will waste too much ammo, so you want to give him slow firing weapons. Sydney on the other hand is very good with her Ultra SMG, but it's not possible to heal her crippled limbs, only give her stimpacks, so after a while, even if you keep her alive, she'll end up a cripple.

There are ways to mitigate such things.(not on Sydney though)
There is an abandoned town called Old Olney or something like that... It's populated by Deathclaws... Anyway, there's actually underground tunnels beneath that town. (entrance was difficult to find for me). In those tunnels, there is a dead guy who has a "prototype medic armor" equipped. It's a special armor that will automatically administer stimpacks as needed as long as there are some in the inventory. It's quite useful for some "temp" followers who cant or wont use stimpacks.

 

[Provenone]

dogmeat? haha Um... I'm lvl 11 and have run into no such character... haha maybe i missed him? where is he?

 

[zerogear]

Basically, there is a mod to make your companion non-killable. When they 'die' they pass out. So when you finish the bad guys in the area, they wake up. It should be in Fallout3 nexus somewhere.

 

[Hugh H]

I told Dogmeat to wait at my Megaton house while I took care of some serious business. When I came back after a few days, he was no longer there Anyone has any ideas where I can find him again?