Raven Rock

 is the Enclave's main base of operation in 2277. It can be found in the northwestern part of the Capital Wasteland. The base itself is not accessible during freeform play; you arrive here after Finding the Garden of Eden and escape during The American Dream, and the entrance seals behind you. Depending on the player's choices throughout the game, a few named NPCs might be found while moving about Raven Rock. Nathan Vargas from Megaton can be found warning the player character that the Enclave "aren't who they say they are." Anna Holt can also be found in a room near John Henry Eden's office.

The player character may destroy Raven Rock through a speech check with President Eden. This seems to hold little relevance in gameplay as the Enclave presence at Project Purity is just as strong and organized as it would be had the player character not destroyed Raven Rock, but a plausible explanation is that the highly militaristic Enclave has prepared evacuation drills for abandoning the base with minimal loss of men and material - Autumn may also have been preparing to leave for some time, since he seems to require very little to finally push him into rebellion against Eden at the time of the Vault 101 Dweller's arrival. The player may inform Elder Lyons of Raven Rock's destruction, but again this only results in dialogue and no visible difference in the Enclave's performance. Also near the exit there is a caged deathclaw.

In the DLC pack Broken Steel Raven Rock will be destroyed by Liberty Prime and there is no way to get back into the base.

Notable Loot
There is an immense amount of loot available at Raven Rock including the rare Tesla Power Armor, Plasma Rifles, Enclave Power Armor, Enclave Hellfire Armor, AER9 Laser Rifles and Gatling Lasers.

The question is whether this is worth all the hassle, as Enclave Troops respawn over time at various locations (see Fallout 3 Enclave Appearances). Rockbreaker's Last Gas or the heavily trapped building next to Alexandria Arms are good locations. With a sufficient Sneak skill and the Chinese Stealth Suit, you can fast travel to Rockbreaker's in hidden mode and use a strong melee/stealth weapon (Deathclaw Gauntlet for instance, or perhaps the Dart Gun) to kill them all without any trouble whatsoever. Earlier in the game you can do this with Raiders at e.g. Bethesda Ruins.

The Energy Weapons Bobblehead is located in Sector 2C in a room to the northwest. If you miss it, during your visit to Raven Rock you will be unable to retrieve it later. However, on the PC version you may regain access to Raven Rock with the console.

The Bobblehead is located on the second floor (Raven Rock - Level 2) in Colonel Autumn's room to the northwest. After opening one of the large metal doors, the player will be confronted with two doors, one with two enemies behind it. The Bobblehead is behind the western door. The player should not enter the Control Room before retrieving the Bobblehead, as the doors will lock permanently.

You will also find a few electric barriers guarding various ammo and first aid boxes. These barriers can only be by-passed by hacking terminals- usually average- but it is possible to obtain their loot with out hacking, simply use the same tactics used to retrieve Colonel Autumn's 10mm Pistol. That is to say, go third person, then stand close to the barrier and hold down the button, or key, that allows you to change perspective, to rotate the camera. Do so until you see the option to loot the crates, while still holding down the button or key.

Bugs

 * The outer hatch can be blown off from the outside by small arms fire (but not grenades). If you enter the complex (before The Waters of Life quest), you will be blocked from further entry by an invisible wall. When you leave, you will trigger the event where Colonel Autumn's Vertibirds flee the compound. If you go back and exit one more time, the Vertibirds will be stuck to the ground on top of Raven Rock. Just climb up there and you can study them closely. But you can not do anything to them. (You can blow them up! I did this trick and fired at them and they eventually blow up and have the same HP as normal Vertibirds) thumb|300px|right


 * Upon returning to Raven Rock after completing the associated quest, one finds Enclave soldiers in fleeing mode. Killing them and looting their bodies is a trivial matter, with various types of Power Armor and Energy Weapons to be found on their corpses. Allowing a few days to pass and returning finds the same soldiers fleeing, along with their power armor free for the taking yet again. If you choose to leave Raven Rock intact, there will be additional guards outside. With this option, there will be at least half a dozen fully-armed Enclave soldiers waiting for you (though the three fleeing ones will not fight back). The loot from this many Enclave troops can be traded to Henry Casdin for hundreds of stimpacks or other various items.


 * In addition to the three fleeing Enclave Soldiers [non-fleeing?] a fourth soldier may be found who carries no weapons and has no helmet, he appears to wear standard Enclave Power Armor but his inventory is empty. He will walk around the Raven Rock entrance and sometimes follow the fleeing soldiers. Having no real armor or weapons, he is amusingly pathetic but quite hostile.[trigger for event?] [360]


 * It is possible to go back inside Raven Rock! (You will only be able to go as far as the room with Eden in it.)  Right after you exit Raven Rock Level 1, don't go further and activate the outer hatch.  Instead, fast travel to a location and later fast travel back.  The door will be wide open and you can shoot it as mentioned above and jump through the doorway and get back inside.  (Make sure you save before doing this as I am not sure if it works every time, and also I don't know if Fawkes will be in the Underworld and if it effects your chance to have him as an ally or not.)


 * It is also possible to re-enter Raven Rock after the related quest if the player uses a console command to toggle collisions (console command: tcl). This may be handy if a player wishes to loot Raven Rock (Power Armour and Laser Rifles left behind), however level 2C is inaccessible and therefore the cheat/glitch will not assist a player trying to retrieve a missed bobblehead doll. In addition the player may discover under these circumstances that President Eden still exists, though responds only with silence if the player attempts to talk to him/it. Curiously the player will find that neither the caged Deathclaw nor the Enclave Sentry bots display any hostility toward him/her in this situation.


 * 1 reason Fawkes disappears is that he is trying chase down the Enclave soldiers that he is fighting. Another reason Fawkes disappears is that he is trying to run to where you are. So if you fast traveled to the power station nearby, he will already be half way there when you go back to Raven Rock. However, if you fast travel to somewhere far, like the underworld, he won't move. Best way to do this to leave Raven Rock accessible and get Fawkes as a free follower (allowing you to get 6 regular companions):
 * After escaping from Raven Rock to the Capitol wasteland, you will be in a short tunnel. Go forward until you get the "You have found Raven Rock" message. If you have already found it previously, just move forward until the the hatch starts to open, but do not go past the hatch.
 * On your radar, you will see 1 friendly and 3-4 hostiles, the friendly will be Fawkes, here to rescue you. Wait for him to kill all the enclave soldiers. He will then move towards you if you are near, or stop moving if you are too far away. So wait for him to finish off all the enclave soldiers.
 * 1) Once the shooting stops, fast travel to Underworld to pick up Charon
 * 2) Ensure that you have good karma, then fast travel back to Raven Rock. Fawkes will run up, initiate dialog and offer to join you even if you already have a companion. Let him join. You might also want to verify that you can re-enter Raven Rock if you want.
 * 3) Get bad karma, use the fire/re-hire glitch to get Clover
 * 4) Get neutral karma, use the fire/re-hire glitch to get Sergeant_RL-3
 * 5) Get good karma, find Star Paladin Cross use the "I don't suppose I can stop you" line to make her request to join, then accept. Note: If you ask her to join, you will get the "only 1 follower allowed" message and she will not join.
 * 6) Get Dogmeat
 * You now have 6 companions. If you want to, you can kill Dogmeat and use his slot to get another companion.


 * A bug has been encountered (which may have been caused either by using the above method of recruiting multiple companions or by convincing Eden to "put an end" to the Enclave, then using his self-destruct code anyway) whereby Raven Rock never explodes. The Enclave soldiers outside still flee and the vertibirds still fly off, but there is no explosion and the metal door stays intact (meaning Raven Rock is always accessible up to Eden's console). Although Three Dog reports that Raven Rock has exploded and that the Enclave Radio station is now completely off-air (as to some NPCs, such as the residents of Rivet City when talking to each other), the Enclave Radio is still actually transmitting, although on a very short loop (mine continually said "...stand now at the precipice... stand now at the precipice... stand now at the precipice...". Upon venturing back inside Raven Rock, when attempting to engage Eden in conversation, the darkened part of the display which usually shows the text of what NPCs say will still appear, although Eden says nothing and no words will appear. (discovered on PS3) (confirmed on PC)


 * Nathan from Megaton has been seen on PC fleeing in Raven rock only to result in death (not a bug < )


 * There's two holes in the passibility that makes you fall through a wall and end up on another floor at the basement. It's located in level 2 in the room with the Science officers on the wall adjacent from the stairwell and the other wall that doesn't have a doorway or stairwell. If you ease up to the wall you can stare out and look at the various things that are probably in other rooms


 * There is a glitch where if you convinced Eden to self-destruct, and you fast travel back to Raven Rock with Fawkes as a follower at a later time, Fawkes will get stuck under the level. You can solve this by moving away until he starts following you and he will re-glitch back onto the surface.

Appearances
 only appears in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * Raven Rock Mountain Complex is a real-world government complex that became operational in 1953.
 * is the name of a settlement on the island of Solstheim in the Bloodmoon expansion of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and, oddly enough, is located near the Raven Rock in Fallout 3 (Northwest corner). It is also referred to in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by some people on the Waterfront.
 * is also the real-world name of a hiking trail found in Bluemont, Virginia and a state park in North Carolina.
 * is located in upper left-hand corner of the map in Fallout 3, roughly in the area of McLean, Virginia. This area is home to many sensitive intelligence installations, like the headquarters of the CIA and Booz Allen Hamilton.  The area is home to many diplomats, members of Congress and high-ranking government officials.