Sergeant RL-3

 is a robotic soldier created before the Great War that can become one of your party members in Fallout 3.

Sergeant RL-3 has an experimental soldier personality making him "unstable," meaning that he only likes particular characters (thus the neutral karma requirement). During combat RL-3 will say things like "Another glorious day in this man's army! Hooah!" making RL-3 quite a comical follower.

Location
This metal patriot can be purchased from Tinker Joe outside the RobCo Factory for 1000 bottlecaps. The player character can only buy Sergeant RL-3 if their karma is neutral. Otherwise Tinker Joe will just say Sergeant RL-3 "...doesn't like the look of you." (will not follow you if you already have a follower.)

RL-3 can be purchased for 500 caps with a minimum of 70 in Barter skill.

Sergeant RL-3 won't leave if the player's karma later moves away from neutral, but if separated from the player either through firing or through story events, he cannot be re-hired until karma is again neutral. In these circumstances, Sergeant RL-3 will be waiting in Canterbury Commons after a day or two, where he can be re-hired for free.

Upon recruiting him he seems to treat you as his superior, though he shows no signs of decreased independence. RL-3 is a good tactical fighter, well adapted for complex fighting environments. Being a perfect support unit and a portable weapons cache, RL-3 is one of the best companions in the game, filling the "Mechanized Support Unit" role.

Tactical Implementation
Whilst RL-3 on his own does not provide the direct fire power as Fawkes or the multiple weapons capability of Star Paladin Cross and Charon, he does play an excellent support unit role, possessing an inexhaustible supply of flamethrower and plasma rifle ammunition, and the second largest carrying capacity. RL-3 is arguably the best support unit available. RL-3 also offers a good defensive role, while still allowing the player to cause a generous amount of damage and gain XP. Caution should be taken when facing long-range foes due to RL-3's lower accuracy and damage with the plasma rifle, which is notorious for firing sub-sonic projectiles that can be dodged. RL-3 will, however, provide suppressive fire by spraying plasma bolts. In such a case RL-3's fire support may be used as an opportunity to advance on the enemy's position, or line up a shot if need be. In the case of indoor fights RL-3 will usually stay near the character until they are within medium range of the enemy. At this point the player should move to support RL-3 from either a doorway or a short range if possible. Despite being mechanized, RL-3 will apply stimpaks to recover lost health: this is quite useful in heavily populated buildings where RL-3 is prone to rushing into attack. However, outdoor combat is far different, as RL-3 will lay down suppressive fire far before charging the enemy, which usually keeps him out of the way of Yao Guai and Deathclaws. If possible, the player should attempt to cripple or kill the attacker before they reach RL-3, as he is quite often indecisive about which of his weapons to use and may waste a lot of time (and health) settling for one. Rapidly moving, melee based enemies are especially dangerous to RL-3 as they will often dodge most of his plasma bolts and engage from a short range, initiating the aforementioned problem.

As a "Heavy Weapons Support Unit"
RL-3 is a superb choice for a heavy weapons strike team. While offering decent fire support, especially at closer ranges, RL-3 is also capable of carrying an astonishing 197.5 pounds, second only to Fawkes. These two traits offer an excellent tactical advantage, while allowing players to carry their own weaponry and repair parts for any situation, be they close range Flamer and Minigun CQB or longer range Missile and Nuclear strikes. As RL-3 will not attempt to find more ammo or use weapons in his inventory, this allows a player to keep all their weapons in excellent condition, and not lose rare ammo like Alien Power Cells. Although RL-3 will not sneak, he is capable of drawing fire away from the player while they prepare a missile strike, get in position for a flamer sneak attack, or give time for their Minigun to spin up.

As a "Sniper Support Unit"
Although RL-3 doesn't sneak, if the player is a true long range fighter this shouldn't be considered a problem. RL-3's large carrying capacity is a huge plus, allowing him to carry spare parts for repair as well as countermeasures such as mines or any other defensive weapon the player may prefer. When at longer ranges RL-3 will not engage an enemy before the player, although RL-3 should be stationed behind the player by telling RL-3 to wait. The better tactic for this situation would be to position RL-3 behind the player out of the direct line of fire. RL-3 will move if an enemy becomes close enough to the area he's told to wait in. This eliminates or at least narrows the chance of an enemy attack from behind.

Extended use with DLC
Without Broken Steel, RL-3 suffered from drastically lower health and the fixed level of 9, which limited RL-3's usefulness and his eventual outmoding to the hands of Fawkes or Cross. Care and constant micro-managing would always have to be taken to keep him from coming to too much harm. However, with the addition of Broken Steel, RL-3 will level with the player, allowing his weapons to become far more powerful and accurate and intensifying his durability from 350 HP to around 5500 HP. RL-3 still offers the same tactical support, but with the added durability he is far greater suited to harsher conditions. RL-3 is not nearly as vulnerable to the Talon Company or Enclave, and is capable of defeating super mutant masters by himself. With Broken Steel, RL-3's suitability does not fade at higher levels, and it isn't necessary to trade up to Star Paladin Cross or Fawkes, which is especially handy given the different Karma requirements for these followers. It is interesting to note the enhanced abilities that RL-3 gains from the DLC do not change his normal patterns of attack or behaviour, indicating that he may have initially been able to level with the player. He was probably deemed too powerful (at level 20, RL-3 is a fearsome fighter) and set to a fixed level of 9: with the introduction of more powerful enemies like Super Mutant Overlords, designers probably realised he would quickly become inadequate and re-enabled this feature.

Stats
* Robots are considered creatures rather than NPCs and thus has an additional list of stats present for creatures.

Equipment
Sergeant RL-3's default equipment consists of special versions of a Plasma Rifle and a Flamer.

RL-3's "storage compartment" provides the second largest storage capacity out of all available followers. Only Fawkes can hold more equipment. RL-3's carrying capacity is 197.5 pounds.

Notable quotes
Sergeant RL-3 is quite the comical fellow, yelling out patriotic and Red Scare slogans to everyone who is close enough to hear them (including the player character, who he usually addresses as "Commander", or "Sir"). The lines he says, however, do not differ much from the ones you can hear from ordinary Mister Gutsy robots.


 * "Eat hot lead, you commie bastard!"
 * "You're making me angry, you won't like me when I'm angry!"
 * "Salutations, Commander! Sergeant RL-3, Gutsy-class robotic soldier, reporting for duty!"
 * "Do that again and I'll put my boot so far up your ass you'll cough up boot polish!"
 * "Old war-bots never die; they just rust away"

Appearances
Sergeant RL-3 only appears in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * Unlike most Mr. Gutsy robots, RL-3 has an alpha-numeric designation. This is most likely a subtle reference to actor and former Marine R. Lee Ermey, best known as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from the movie Full Metal Jacket.. Ermey retired from the USMC a staff sergeant, and was later given an honorary promotion to gunnery sergeant. Reading the 3 as an 'E', the robot's name would be 'Sergeant R L-E'. R. Lee Ermey also was the voice of General Simon Barnaky in Fallout: Tactics, which may be a reference to both his past experiences in the Fallout universe and to his career as a whole.

Bugs

 * If the quest You gotta shoot 'em in the head is active, then he will shoot Dave and Rosie of the Republic of Dave, even though the "Republic" doesn't turn hostile to you.
 * After the Tranquility lane quest, if not found waiting outside the Lone Wanderer's Tranquility Lounger, he can be found waiting for you with Tinker Joe outside of the RobCo Facility. He may also be found in the Taft Tunnels where Garza is having a heart attack.
 * Sometimes after acquiring RL-3, occasionally boxes or creatures will display that they are "Empty".
 * If RL-3 is fired after you enter the Ninth Circle and acquire Charon, when he kills Ahzrukhal, RL-3 will become hostile to everyone in the bar and attack them.
 * RL-3 may be hostile after being captured by the Enclave, and retains stored items as well.