Scavenger (Fallout 3)

Scavengers are generic traders in the Capital Wasteland in 2277.

Background
Scavengers may appear at pre-set scavenger locations or as random encounters. Some scavengers will be accompanied by a pack brahmin, non-hostile guard dogs, non-hostile yao guai, or even robots. If asked about their merchandise (after Megaton is blown up) they will say people in Megaton no longer need things. Their comments can also reflect other PC actions such as helping Big Town residents.

Scavengers that appear from random encounters may be programmed to guard an object or travel the wasteland. The object may be a vehicle, dead robot or a burning barrel. Their movement may simply be set to patrol the local vicinity, or travel across the map. In the cases of guarding vehicles and robots, they may react with hostility when approached, though they may still barter if dialogue is able to be started. Once traveling scavengers reach the location around their target, they remain there indefinitely.

Scavengers always wear a roving trader outfit with some type of wasteland headwear. If worn, Eye-wear is typically in the form of either biker goggles or sunglasses. They are equipped with random low-to-mid level weapons. After the 1.2 patch, it seems scavengers have access to the weapons in their store inventory, causing them to often end up wielding high-powered weaponry such as missile launchers or flamers.

Additionally, scavengers have noticeably higher than average health and combat skills than other human combatants, being marginally superior to Brotherhood of Steel Paladins in terms of health and skill. Plus, as mentioned before, their combat skill is supplemented somewhat by using whatever weapon they have in their inventory that is the most powerful. However, their lack of proper armor leaves them vulnerable to most hostile Wasteland inhabitants.

Broken Steel
In Broken Steel, scavengers can be seen leading the aqua pura Caravans carrying aqua pura throughout the Capital Wasteland. Each aqua pura caravan is led by a generic scavenger merchant, along with an aqua pura brahmin and 2 bodyguards (consisting of either Rivet City Security or Brotherhood of Steel).

Locations
Scavengers can be found throughout the Capital Wasteland in various fixed locations where they have set-up shop:


 * Outside Meresti Trainyard.
 * In the barn east of Reclining Groves Resort Homes
 * Near the Flooded Metro
 * In Lucky's, a red building southwest of Warrington Station, near Tenpenny Tower.
 * East of Jocko's Pop & Gas Stop and north of Signal Sierra Victor
 * On a bridge over a sunken freeway, west of Falls Church Metro and north of Red Racer Factory
 * Just west and up the hill from SatCom Array NW-07c, in the shelter of a fallen satellite dish. There is also a numerous amount of different chairs here but the reason for this is unknown.
 * The Scavenger Shack west of Hamilton's Hideaway
 * The Scavenger's Dock to the west bank of the Potomac River, southeast of Wilhelm's Wharf pointing towards Anchorage War Memorial
 * Pennsylvania Avenue, with two guard dogs
 * At the Freedom Street Station close to the exit to Metro Central.
 * In a broken house west of Fort Bannister, north of Charnel House.
 * A little east of Vault 106
 * South of the Fairfax Ruins
 * North of Canterbury Commons near a water tower
 * Radiation King in Georgetown
 * In a destroyed house northwest of Fort Independence, accompanied by a dog.
 * In a shelter underneath the Arlington Memorial Bridge between the Citadel and the D.C. Ruins.
 * Northeast of Five Axles Rest Stop underneath the collapsed bridge and monorail. Next to a burning barrel.
 * Southeast of Oasis, in the open area with pools of water.

Appearances
Scavengers appear in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * One particular scavenger who crops up in random encounters is accompanied by a malfunctioning Mister Handy. It is possible that, for reasons unknown, the same Mister Handy may later become hostile to the player. If the Mister Handy is turned into "ash", you can still re-wire its diagnostic systems if you did not already.
 * The above problem, of the Mister Handy becoming hostile, seems to be caused by other hostile robots nearby (especially a robobrain or Mister Gutsy). If one such robot is hostile towards something with this scavenger and the Mister Handy nearby, it will turn hostile and join the other robot(s).
 * Occasionally, the sheltered scavenger with his/her guard dog near Arefu will start to attack some nearby mirelurks, and gets stuck in the river. The only way to get the scavenger out is to kill every mirelurk in the area.
 * Scavengers sometimes attack their dogs and if you go near them they will be hostile.
 * Sometimes when attacking a scavenger, the scavenger's dog will help you even without the Animal Friend perk.
 * All scavengers can be mezzed (though on the PS3 version they can still attack you after you put the collar on them).
 * Often, scavengers will be wearing unique items such as eyepatches and white pre-War baseball caps. These items are impossible to obtain as they are marked as unusable by player characters, even if you kill and search the scavenger's body.

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