Bethesda Ruins

The Bethesda Ruins are located northwest of Washington, D.C. It is inhabited by raiders and ghouls, and is divided into three sections: Bethesda offices west, Bethesda offices east and Bethesda Underworks.

Background
Prior to the Great War of 2077, Bethesda was a major city with its own suburbs. A large American automobile corporation, Chryslus Motors, was headquartered there. There was Metro and City Liner service to this city. North of Bethesda is an old monorail train. As the west-east highway ends in the city, another highway traveling north, passes through the area. The city has a local park, named after the largest employer in this city, where baseball was played.

Exterior
The raiders have barricaded most of the streets leading to the ruins with crudely constructed structures and derelict vehicles. There are also some mines in a small, grassy area to the south, next to Bethesda Offices East.

In between the two office buildings is a walkway connecting them with a raider carrying a sniper rifle near two ammunition boxes containing a random amount of .308 caliber rounds. Further east (roughly east by southeast) is the metro entrance to Bethesda Underworks.

West of the entrance to the Bethesda offices west, at the Red Rocket gas station in the outskirts, there is a random encounter location.

Bethesda offices west
Mostly reception and office space, Bethesda offices west is home to a considerable number of raiders. The cramped confines of the building render most hard-hitting long-range weapons ineffective as they become unwieldy when turning corners and investigating small rooms. Raiders are generally well armed and armored, making the Chinese assault rifle, 10mm SMG, or scoped .44 magnum ideal choices for assault weapons.

At least three shotgun traps, activated by the same pressure plate, and aimed at the same place, as well as two grenade bouquets, are located in this building. Players with sufficient Repair skill can disarm and take these weapons (though the two clusters are in a rather difficult to reach space between floors). All of these traps can be seen in the same room upstairs. You may encounter a raider with a flamer sleeping in the bed in this room.

Bethesda offices east
Much of the east building is offices, with more cramped fighting conditions. Extensive damage to the building also includes large gaps and holes in the floor, making fighting on the upper floor treacherous in places. In the small room with two cubicles, you will find Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual laying on top of the desk in the left cubicle. There is a raider here, armed with a flamer and carrying a U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes skill book in their inventory, as well as the Bobblehead - Lockpick behind them. The raider respawns after 73 game-hours.

Bethesda Underworks
Please refer to Bethesda Underworks for the metro area underneath the area.

Bethesda offices west

 * Big Book of Science on the first floor on the reception desk, near the turret control console.
 * A Stealth Boy on the same floor to the east, in a crate near the drinking fountain.
 * Two pre-War books on top of a filing cabinet on the second floor.
 * Dean's Electronics on the top floor, in the room with the rigged shotguns, in a crate sitting on a desk, hidden under a steam gauge assembly and other miscellaneous items.
 * A Stealth Boy in the same room, on the shelf next to the door by the fridge.
 * A mini nuke in that same top-floor room, under some crates next to an open freezer with body parts in it.

Bethesda offices east

 * Bobblehead - Lockpick is located on a desk next to the turret control terminal (second level, southwest corner of the room with the turret) next to a wall safe (easy).
 * Chinese Army: Special Op Training Manual in the first cubicle to the left on the second floor, on a desk next to two missiles and a typewriter.
 * Mini nuke near the exit to the connecting bridge, on a filing cabinet in a pile of rubble from a collapsed ceiling.
 * U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes held by a raider wielding a flamer.

Appearances
Bethesda ruins appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes
Bethesda Softworks was founded in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1986. The offices were moved to Rockville, Maryland in 1990.

Bugs

 * You may encounter two raiders armed with lead pipes that can't be killed. The only way to escape is let your companion fight them so you can run away and fast travel, or go to a previous save.
 * All the ghouls in the Underworks may spawn right outside of the tunnel entrance, remaining inactive unless the player engages them.
 * If you put your marker on the Bethesda Ruins, it will lead you southeast of the Bethesda Ruins, instead of going there directly.
 * If you go into the ruins from the south, and then directly east to the pile of rubble there is a chance that if you get too close to it you will get stuck in the wall. Raiders can still hit you, but you can only hit them with grenades and mines. The only way out is to reload a previous save or through the no clipping console command.
 * Goo piles created from plasma shots may regenerate all items after a few in-game weeks. If the respawning raiders are repeatedly killed with plasma weapons, this leads to a significant amount of loot. Ash Piles, however, become inaccessible. Looting the indoor piles also removes the items from the corresponding body, and vice-versa, could happen in other locations.
 * When encountering the non-player character's that cannot be harmed by gunfire and remain motionless, you can use a melee weapon to kill them. However this sometimes causes a glitch that freezes the game.