Fallout 3 exploits

Exploits are "holes" in the game programming which allow a player to do something which the developers did not intend and alter the play balance in a way which cannot be rectified.

Infinite ears and fingers

 * With the Lawbringer or Contract Killer perk, you can knock an essential NPC (e.g. Shrapnel and children) unconscious as many times as you like. They will spawn an ear or finger each time they are knocked unconscious.

Skipping Levels

 * Keep in mind that this skips a level. You do not level up twice (meaning you will only be able to set points for 1 level up). With that being said, this glitch is only useful if you want a faster way to get the Achievements for reaching level 8, 14, 20, and 30.
 * Skipping levels still rewards you with the boost in Health for both levels. Maximum HP increase per level is (EN / 2) + 3.
 * You can also level up past level 30. You will get the health boost for each level past 30.
 * 1) You must gain enough XP to level up. You need to go through a door (to load a new area) before the Perk screen appears. Once through the door the Perk screen will automatically pop up, and you will have skipped the next level.
 * You can skip multiple levels. Once you have successfully skipped a level, just load your autosave, turn around and go through the door again before the Perk screen, and repeat.

Infinite XP

 * With the Mister Sandman perk, you can knock any sleeping essential NPC unconscious as many times as you like. You get experience for the "kill" each time. Unavailable in patched game and GOTY version.
 * Listen to Bittercup rant about how she has been with all of the men in Big Town. In this rant you find out specifically about what happened with her and Pappy. End the conversation with her and talk to Pappy. A couple lines in you'll have a speech option that will never go away and can continue to gain 5 XP experience each success. Unavailable in patched game and GOTY version.
 * Go to Protector Casdin at Fort Independence, give him X Scrap Metal and pick pocket the Scrap Metal back. Now give him 2 (Value Y) less than what you gave him, pick pocket him again for the Scrap Metal. Now save the game, and try to get caught pick pocketing, it will say "16 scrap metal(s) removed" then "14 Scrap Metal(s) removed." This gives a negative (-) Z value, which can net you infinite scrap metal . However, only Walter, Casdin, and Winthrop can accept scrap metal in return for items. Note: Do not take any scrap metal, this will break the glitch. So therefore, you have infinite ammo (assuming you beat The Pitt), Stimpaks, Rad-x, RadAway, Caps, and XP.
 * At Rivet City: Every night, the doors to the market lock (normal). They can be picked with relative ease for a decent amount of experience. After unlocking all the doors, go back outside and wait until midnight. This WILL cause you to lose karma. Unavailable in patched game and GOTY version.
 * At Museum of History: The second section of the feral ghoul infested section, where all the Abraham Lincoln artifacts are found, there are 2 gates that are locked (Very Easy). There is a nearby terminal that allows you to lock the archives section (aka lock the gates) even if they were picked. This can be done indefinately for 20XP per door, with no chance of failure. Unavailable in patched game and GOTY version.

Unarmed
Requires Operation Anchorage

Example — Unarmed Skill: To use the glitch you need the Chinese Stealth Armor and 2 Hockey Masks. Equip the armor, equip one of the hockey masks, then repeatedly equip the other mask. If you check your unarmed stats, it will have been raised by 10 instead of 5. Keep on tapping to raise it to 15, 20, 25, etc. Skill value will stop rising eventually, but by the time the damage of the unarmed weapons will rise so high that the power fist will do up to 2000 damage.

The exploit works with any SKILL or S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat that it raised by headgear, providing that you have two copies of that headgear. However, the Unarmed skill is the only skill that continues to raise weapon damage after you reach 100 skill points.

It is extremely important to note that the unarmed bonus is NOT entirely permanent. The Chinese Stealth Armor can be unequipped without compromising your unarmed stats, but if the equipped Hockey Mask is unequipped then your unarmed stats will revert back to whatever they were prior to the exploit.

Big Guns
At the Bethesda Ruins, there is a raider that spawns every 73 hours that has a copy of U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes on him\her. The raider in possession of the Skill Book will be holding a flamer.

Science
Within the Shalebridge Tunnels (the Mutated Forager Ant tunnels, as opposed to the neighboring "invader ant" tunnels) is an evil NPC called the "Ant Researcher", who contains a Big Book of Science skill book on his corpse. Every 72 hours, another Ant Researcher respawns witihn the Forager Ant tunnels. Kill him, leave the tunnel, wait 72 hours, then re-enter and kill him again for the book. Repeat as many times as necessary. ( Note: This area is very glitchy and may cause your game to crash when you try to enter the tunnels. To avoid this do not kill the invader ants. Do not search the ants or the eggs. Get in, get out.)

Killing without karma change
The player and all NPCs take damage from being hit by an object at a high speed, including items that may be placed in your inventory (weapons, aid, apparel, etc.), and objects that can merely be moved around but not taken (oil drums, tires, etc.). This allows killing of any NPC without Karma loss/gain or a change in social status (aggressive/friendly) between you and other NPCs associated with the victim. To do so, simply hold up the object in front of you so that it is between you and the target, then run into it as fast as possible. Larger objects, like shopping carts or oil drums, do more damage when used this way, as opposed to smaller items like bottles of whiskey. For said smaller objects, shoot them for maximum damage. On a separate note, be careful when walking through areas littered with non-prerendered objects all over the floors, especially cramped corridors; it can cause followers to take heffty damage and even die due solely to collision damage.

Companion exploits
Be aware that having more companions will increase the processing load on your system. You may experience low frame-rates, stuttering, freezing, graphic glitches, game glitches, corrupt save games and system instability.

Multiple permanent companions
The following is possible in every version and patch level of the game.

1) Dogmeat will follow you at any circumstance and karma. While other companions can be fired to free up a companion slot, Dogmeat can only be dismissed to wait outside Vault 101. Although Dogmeat has a reserved companion slot from the beginning, it is not a unique slot — the coinciding death or firing of an ordinary companion and the death of Dogmeat will not free up two companion slots, but one. A practical way to view this is that Dogmeat was your companion from before you even met him.

2) Clover (evil karma) can be acquired initially, regardless of having other followers, by abusing the "fire/rehire" glitch. This consists of firing your current companion, hiring Clover and rehiring your previous companion before the recently bought one starts conversation with you.

3) Sergeant RL-3 (neutral karma) can also be acquired initially, regardless of having other followers, by the "fire/rehire" glitch above.

4) Star Paladin Cross (good karma) may join you initially, regardless of other companions. In your first conversation, you must choose the latter of these options:
 * "I want you to come with me."
 * "I don't suppose I could stop you."

5) Butch DeLoria (neutral karma) will follow you regardless of having other companions. (If you had him as a companion prior to the Raven Rock quests, he will wait at The Muddy Rudder in Rivet City and join you without karma requirements.)

6) Fawkes (good karma) will join you regardless of having other companions, when you first meet him after exiting Raven Rock. However, during the quest at Raven Rock all your previous followers will disappear. Wait for Fawkes to kill the Enclave soldiers and walk towards you, then fast travel away from the location. Rehire your other followers through whatever method, then fast travel back — Fawkes should still be approaching you.


 * This leaves only Charon (any karma) and Jericho (evil karma), which can only be acquired through having an open companion slot. If you did not have them as a companion prior to #1–6, and you don't want to fire or cause death upon one of your current companions, you can aquire them using one of the two methods below, the Sergeant RL-3 glitch or the Puppies exploit.

Sergeant RL-3 glitch
With this glitch, you can get as many companions as you want, how many times you want. This means you can do this glitch prior to Raven Rock, then after it, without a problem. It works rather slow, so patience is necessary.

1) Hire Sergeant RL-3.

2) Go to the companion you want to hire, and tell Sergeant RL-3 to wait. Then talk to him again, and choose the second option ("not just yet, I want to talk about something"). Then, fire him, wait for him to leave the room, and hire the other companion.

3) Wait (or sleep) 7–8 days, on an inside location (being outside voids this, for some reason). You will receive a "Sergeant RL-3 has returned to Canterbury Commons" message in the middle of your screen. This opens a companion slot!

4) Go hire him again.

5) Repeat steps 2–4 until you have all companions.


 * NOTE: As RL-3 requires neutral Karma, you may need more or less karma to acquire other followers. A quick way to lower karma is to hack a computer multiple times. A quick way to raise karma is by donating to Confessor Cromwell, giving away purified water to the water beggars or giving scrap metal to Walter.
 * NOTE: In Canterbury Commons, it is possible that a spawning glitch (high level enemies will spawn, like multiple giant Radscorpions or Yao Guai) may occur right where RL3 awaits for your return. It is advised to save before firing RL-3, as the spawning enemies can kill him rather quickly (not to mention any caravans) even without Broken Steel's leveling up. After firing him and waiting, have a long-ranged weapon, like a Sniper Rifle, and fast-travel to the Robot Repair Center (the Mechanist's Hideout) and run to the edge of the hill and pick off whatever enemies you can. That can save RL3.

Puppies! Exploit (Broken Steel) (Correct as of Patch Ver. 1.6)
If you have the Broken Steel DLC, you can use the Puppies! Perk (requires level 22) to get every companion without much hassle. Just keep killing the new Dogmeat puppy and hiring companions in their slot.

1) Get Dogmeat. Kill him and pick up his new puppy. (This doesn't seem to work if you have the original Dogmeat before your Broken Steel DLC was installed.)

2) Kill Dogmeat Puppy in the same area as the next companion you want to hire (you can't enter and load into a place or the new puppy will spawn). An easy way to kill Dogmeat is to tell him to go to Vault 101, and then reverse pickpocket a live grenade onto him as he walks away. If you don't have a high Sneak rating, consider using a Stealth Boy.

3) Hire the companion, he or she will fill the open slot.

4) Enter a room or an area other than Vault 101, and get the message that Dogmeat's puppy is waiting for you. Pick up the puppy; this creates a new companion slot.

5) Repeat steps 2–4 until you have every possible follower.


 * By use of this glitch it is possible to have a lot of followers both before and after the Raven Rock quests (Finding the Garden of Eden & The American Dream). This also allows you to complete the Fallout 3 add-ons without fear of breaking your follower glitches (keep in mind, however, that you will have to redo the entire setup, but this glitch never breaks, so feel free). This glitch makes the Puppies! perk one of the most useful perks in the game.
 * Dogmeat's puppy may spawn at Vault 101 and act frozen while remaining interactive via the usual talk prompts. If you order the puppy to follow you, it will be unable to do so. Tell Dogmeat's puppy to go wait at Vault 101, then "rehire" him a second time and he should be able to follow normally.
 * Killing your dog will occasionally get people around you to become hostile, so carry around Stealth Boys just in case before all hell breaks loose. Reverse-pocketing a grenade usually prevents this issue.
 * The above mentioned issue will sometimes cause some strange complications with followers. Killing your dog while having another follower with you, while being near the follower you want to hire, will cause the unhired follower to become hostile. To fix this, leave all your followers in your home or somewhere else before hiring Dogmeat puppy again, this will fix the problem of your next hireling becoming hostile after you reverse-pickpocket a grenade. Simply "collect" all your followers after finishing all hires.
 * Note that since all companions are filling in a separate hire slot, you can fire/rehire any one of them without having to re-perform the glitch. However, were you to leave the Wasteland, e.g. Going to Point Lookout, all your companions will leave and you'll have to "re-glitch" them back again.

Companion equipment effect stacking
After a companion equips armor, headwear or glasses that has some effect that increases an attribute or skill, its effect will stack in two ways:


 * Every time you enter the trade window with the follower you don't actually need to trade anything, just tell him or her you need to trade equipment then exit. Leaving the conversation entirely before entering the trade window again is unnecessary.
 * Every time you fast-travel to another location. This is a less tedious method if you are to stack effects on a group of companions.

Your companion's high-stacked effects will return to normal (singular effect) in an obscure — but consistent — dynamic:


 * If you save on an indoor location, say a house, then load that save game, your companions will lose all extra effects upon your going outside.
 * Entering or exiting many major areas (for example Megaton or The Citadel) will remove stacking effects. Some areas, like Rivet City, will not affect your companion's effects.
 * It is by walking through the gate of Megaton you lose the stacked effects. This can be circumvented by fast-traveling to and from Megaton.

Moving big objects
There is a very simple way of moving big objects like cars — all you need is a smaller object. Best choice is a Barrel.


 * First get the barrel vertical
 * Move the barrel into a bigger object and move it so that it is laying down horizontally against the bigger object.
 * Now push the barrel into the bigger object, with some good aiming. The bigger object will move without a problem.

Friendly Talon Company / Regulator Hitmen
This makes all the Mercs that spawn outside buildings and Metros friendly to the player and actually quite handy if a fight is going on because they will always stay where they are if not killed.

As far as tested this only works if the player has not been confronted by hitmen yet.


 * First get Very Evil or Very Good karma.
 * Go to a building where the Hitmen spawn often (Lucky's is a good one).
 * Save while in there and walk outside. If you're lucky you'll hear the sound of guns being drawn. You have to quickly go into your Pip-Boy 3000 menu and fast travel somewhere random in the Wasteland. It has to be somewhere far enough away so the Hitmen don't follow to talk, the nearby metro is too close.
 * Fast travel to the metro next to Lucky's and run to Lucky's.
 * The hitmen will walk towards you as you get close and will say something like "And now its time for you to die" or "surprise" but will remain unhostile.

This may have to be repeated before it works.

Haley's Hardware Glitch (Correct as of Patch ver. 1.6)
It is possible to cause Haley in Point Lookout's repair to go up to 100, allowing the repair of things like the gauss rifle, alien blaster, and other single items. A video below explains the glitch. The video is essentially wrong in one aspect. You do NOT need to load an auto-save (or any save for that matter) for the stacking effect to occur. All you need to do is exit and re-enter Haley's Hardware for the effect to happen. To get back your caps, you don't need to kill him, just use the Infinite Caps/Repairs Exploit, a good way to do this is to buy/resell expensive weapons he carries such as Double-Barreled Shotguns.

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Casdin
1) Go to Fort Independence and get the "Outcast Collection Agent" job from Casdin.

2) Follow the job until Casdin has a large amount of weapons and armor.

3) If you kill Casdin and loot his body, he will have all the items you gave him, but they all will be fully repaired and VERY valuable. A fully repaired plasma rifle nabs you around 1799 caps. All you have to do is find a vendor with that much.

Note: You can also knock him down with a gauss rifle, victory rifle, or cryo grenade (anything that knocks him down). Then, when he's on the ground, run up to him and pickpocket everything off his body. There will be no penalty, and you cannot get caught.

All the caps you'll ever need / Free repair (All platforms)
1) See if a vendor has two identical weapons or apparel type or if they have just one and you have one, sell it to them.

2) Select the one in the vendor's inventory that is in the worst state of repair; the worse the state, the more money you make.

3) Buy it, then sell it back again. Repeat until the item is in your inventory at 100% repair. It should only take 2 sell/buy cycles to do it.

4) Then sell the 100% repaired one, it will be back in the vendor's inventory at the bad state of repair value and the cost will be significantly lower than what you sold it for.

5) Buy it back, sell it again and so on, until you have all the vendor's money.

It's also good for getting weapons/apparel up to 100% repaired, especially if your repair skill is really low.

This won't work if, at the start, the vendor has no items that you wish to use and you have two. The vendor must have at least one to start with.

If you have two weapons or apparel you have, and they are of different repair condition, it is also possible to exploit the vendor. The bigger the difference in condition, the greater the profit for each time the item is sold and bought back. (A loss might be made if the player has a low barter skill.) However, the vendor must sell weapons (if you are using weapons) or apparel (if you are using apparel).

1) Have two pieces of weapons or apparel, in this example we'll use a Laser Rifle. One rifle should be in good condition, the other should be broken or in very poor condition.

2) Find a vendor that normally sells weapons (for example, Flak or Shrapnel depending on who is manageing the store at the time).

3) Sell the repaired Laser Rifle and complete the transaction.

4) Sell the broken Laser Rifle and complete the transaction.

5) Buy back the broken Laser Rifle, notice that its value increases in your inventory.

6) Sell the now repaired Laser Rifle.

7) Repeat steps 5–6 until the vendor has no more caps.

8) When you're finished and you want your items back, buy back the broken Laser Rifle and complete the transaction.

9) When the transaction is complete, the second Rifle in the vendor's inventory should now be broken; buy that one.


 * note: doing this a lot might freeze your game

thumb|500px|left|Caps & Ammo: Vendor glitch