Fast travel

"" is a feature in Fallout 3 which allows the player to travel from one location to another instantaneously.

Generally, fast travel is only available when in an outside environment (generally the Wasteland, though it is also available in certain enclosed areas, such as Megaton), and though it is instantaneous, time still passes within the game. It only allows travel to previously discovered locations, which the player has to have visited at least once.

It significantly speeds up the process of getting from one place to another, and is not considered "cheating" because time passes and the player already had to go through the effort of getting to the location in the first place. In addition, fast travel is neither possible when in the presence of enemies, whilst being irradiated nor while in mid-air, and so is not a free escape from danger either.

While it significantly relieves the boring periods of "level-grinding" and travel present in most RPGs, fast travelling can cause the player to miss many special random encounters as well as locations, and so it is advisable not to use it unless absolutely required (such as upon completion of a quest, when critically injured or low on supplies, or when approaching maximum carriage capacity).