Minefield

Minefield, as the name suggests, is an abandoned settlement surrounded by Frag Mines. As if navigating through the mine-infested town wasn't dangerous enough, travelers must do so under fire from a sniper named Arkansas, who will not only fire on any intruders but will also attempt to detonate any cars they approach with a well-placed shot to the engine (detonating cars are scripted and occur even if the player is hidden).

Common belief in the wasteland is that this settlement is haunted. There is no evidence of supernatural beings, but the sniper constantly firing on anybody in the village could be the reason for this rumor.

The center of the merry-go-round in the Minefield playground is a quest target for one of the tasks involved in The Wasteland Survival Guide quest available from Moira Brown in Megaton.

There are (at last count) at least 67 mines planted about the town and strewn over the various approaches to it. At low levels at least, you can get 5 experience each for disarming them, and the mines themselves sell for a decent amount of caps, making a good case for finding and disarming them all.

Minefield Homes
In the settlement are four explorable houses: Benson House; Gibson House; Gillian House and Zane House, all of which contain valuable loot, including books, medical supplies and an Assault Rifle. There are a decent amount of Leaf Blowers and Lawnmower Blades to be found lying around, as well as a Motorcycle Gas Tank and a Motorcycle Handbrake.


 * Inside the Gibson House, there is a locked model of a house. Picking the lock is a Very Hard task (if you have very high Luck, it is probably easier to Force it) and nets you 3 Buffout, 3 Pre-war Money, and Junk Food. There is also a key on Gibson's corpse in the Capitol Post office building in L'Enfant Plaza (only 1 Buffout on Xbox 360). If you take Dogmeat he can get the 3 Buffout and the Junk Food .(On Xbox360)

Consistencies
All four houses have an "Easy:Locked" safe. In the Benson House the safe is behind a dresser upstairs and contains Pre-War Money and ammo. In both the Gibson House and the Gillian House the safe is upstairs under the double bed; the safe in the Gibson House sometimes has a Stealth Boy. The Zane House's safe is behind the dresser in the office on the ground floor. Also, all houses contain at least two pre-war books and a skill book.

Dealing with Arkansas
You may not wish to kill Arkansas as he can be enslaved and sold to the slavers later in the game. However, if you do wish to kill him, the easiest way is to approach Minefield from the North. He should be on the 3rd floor of a partially destroyed building and is much easier to pick off from the hills behind him than from down in the street with cars blowing up around you.

He also has quite a bit of loot around, though it is odd that he only has 4 to 8 rounds of .308 sniper rounds on him. There are some ammo crates on the ground near his sniping position that contain randomly generated ammo (but you are most likely to find .308 rounds). Still, if you are hitting Minefield early on and don't have a sniper rifle yet, this is an easy way to get one. If you got the sniper rifle from Hollowed-Out Rock on your first trip to Megaton, then this one can be used to repair/upgrade the one you already have. When you loot Arkansas, you also get a key to all the houses in Minefield.

One report has Arkansas respawning for the Strictly Business quest after being killed by the player in Minefield.

When going into Minefield from the north watch out for the mines on the floor as you go in, there are at least 4 on the road.

Even if Arkansas is enslaved he will return to Minefield later if the player eliminates all the slavers in Paradise Falls. Arkansas will take up his original sniper perch, but will not be hostile towards the player.

Notable loot
There are four skill books and nine Pre-War Books to be had in Minefield:
 * Zane House: Pugilism Illustrated can be found in the children's room. There is also a Pre-War Book in the front room, and an easy safe in the back room behind the cabinet on the ground floor with a possible Stealth Boy. First Aid Kit in Kitchen and upstairs master bathroom. 3 packs of Darts. 1 in kitchen. 2 in children's room.
 * Gillian House: Infested with radroaches. Grognak the Barbarian can be found on a bed upstairs. There are also two Pre-War Books, both in the front room, as well as a safe under the bed in the Master Bedroom(Easy). First Aid Kit upstairs bathroom.
 * Gibson House: Tumblers Today can be found on a desk. There are four Pre-War Books -- one in the front room, one on the bookcase in the children's room, one in the bathroom tub off the master bedroom, and one on the bedside table in the master bedroom (next to two Med-X.  There is a safe in the master bedroom (Easy) and the locked Model of Home(Very Hard) in the living room. First Aid Kit upstairs bathroom.
 * Benson House: D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine can be found in the upstairs master bedroom. There is a Pre-War Book on the same table, and a safe (Easy) behind the dresser in this room. There is also a Pre-War Book on the ground floor on top of the bookcase. 2 Lunch Boxes in children's room. First Aid Kit in kitchen.

Appearances
Minefield appears in Fallout 3

Related Quests

 * Wasteland Survival Guide The player character can (optional objective) defuse and retrieve one of the mines in this location for an additional bonus in XP and receive a Bottlecap Mine schematic. It is worth making this the first quest out of Megaton, then bypassing Minefield to go North to the Alien Crash Site to get the Alien Blaster, then returning from the North to Minefield.
 * Strictly Business - Arkansas is one of the four targets.

Trivia

 * The names of the houses in Minefield are references to the Hideo Kojima game "Snatcher". In the Capitol Post building in L'Enfant Plaza, a decapitated body sitting with its head between its legs can be found, with a note on it that says "SEARCH THE HOUSE". This is identical to a scene in "Snatcher". The house in the game also had a miniature house model. "Gibson" refers to Jean Jack Gibson, the character from Snatcher. The "Gillian's House" refers to "Gillian Seed", the protagonist of Snatcher. "Benson" is the name of two characters from the game as well (either Benson Cunningham- the chief or Harry Benson- the engineer).
 * It is possible the reason one of the houses has a bloody hand print on the door is the raider inside was injured and crawled/walked inside. This is likely as the mine covered ground and the sniper are good ways to receive such an injury.
 * If the PC walks along the streets after the mines have been disarmed, they may clip through the ground. This is likely caused by constantly crouching and standing.

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