Fallout 3 bugs

Add-on-specific bugs
For add-on specific bugs, please see the following pages:


 * Operation: Anchorage bugs
 * The Pitt bugs
 * Broken Steel bugs
 * Point Lookout bugs
 * Mothership Zeta bugs

Bugs applying to all Add-On's
Perhaps the most dangerous of all Fallout 3 bugs, the Add-On Deletion Bug can destroy a whopping $50 worth of content in a matter of seconds. When the player chooses to load any game file, but has not connected to XBox Live prior to loading the file, he/she will find that all items, achievements, quests, and any other trace of the Add-On(')s(') existence has/have been completely removed from not only that file, but any other file that was not saved while in an Add-On area, such as The Pitt, the Mothership: Zeta spaceship, Point Lookout, etc. The only available solution to this problem other than re-purchasing all the bonus content again is to find a game file that was saved within an Add-On specific area, and reload it (files saved within an area that was introduced by the Add-On are immune to the glitch). From here, you must recover your progress manually.

NPC-specific bugs

 * For NPC-specific bugs, please see the respective NPC article page.
 * For bugs that apply to NPCs in general or to followers in general, please see the NPC bugs section below.

Quest-specific bugs
For quest-specific bugs, please see the respective quest article page.

Location-specific bugs
For location-specific bugs, please see the respective location article page.

General advice and notes

 * Make sure your game is patched to the latest official patch (1.7.0.3). If your game is not up-to-date, do not report any bugs you may experience.
 * Save often and in different slots. Do not rely too much on autosave. A frequently overwritten autosave slot can become corrupted.
 * If you are playing on the PC, make sure your computer meets or exceeds the Minimum System Requirements. If any component of your computer falls below the minimum system requirements, do not report any bugs you may experience.

Mods

 * The Vault does not cover information concerning third-party mods for Fallout 3.
 * If you have any mods installed, do not report any bugs you may experience, even if it seems to you that your issue is not mod-related. Please visit the Bethesda mod forums for information.

Using the console
On the PC, many NPC, quest, and player-getting-stuck issues can be resolved through the use of console commands.

Crashing, freezing and other hardware- or software-related issues
Stuttering, crashing, freezing, and slow-down issues are often hardware- and/or software-related. Please visit the Bethesda Fallout 3 hardware forums for information regarding these issues. In particular, read through the stickied threads at the top of the forum pages.

General solutions

 * Leave and re-enter the area.
 * Load a save from before the glitch occurred.
 * Exit the game, restart the game, and load a save from before the glitch occurred.
 * PC users may be able to fix some issues by using console commands.

Flying creatures and items

 * Deathclaws and Protectrons frequently experience a physics engine glitch which sends them hurtling through the air. They can go quite far.
 * The disabled Protectrons in Big Town, in particular, are often subject to this glitch. This can cause a portion of the quest "Big Trouble In Big Town" to become impossible to complete.
 * Jumping onto the Rivet City bridge when it is not in final position can cause the player character to be thrown into the air.

NPC and Creature body parts stretching

 * NPCs and Creatures can become stretched out like chewing gum. Targeting limbs appears to target pieces of them that are smeared. Can be associated with incorrect one-hit-kills but the bodies remain alive and shooting, even to the point of the game thinking they are still moving around. VATS registers on the "dead" body, but the HUD indicator moves around (backed up by the crosshairs registering red and the voice of the actor also emanating from the indicator.) Occasionally it happens to live NPCs and Creatures which can begin jittering and shooting off into the sky, however they are like a surreal 3-D kaleidoscope, rapidly changing shapes.

The player character is stuck
There are places in the game world where the player character can become stuck - in the landscape, behind furniture, etc. The following are commonly known places where the player character can become stuck.
 * My Megaton House - between the bed and the wall.
 * Various crevices in rock formations
 * Between alternating flights of stairs and other objects in the stairwell.
 * Underneath a ledge formed by the top car in a stack of cars. (esp. while sneaking)

In places where fast-travel is not an option, it is possible to become unstuck by utilizing frag grenades or mines to dislodge the player with force.

NPCs are stuck

 * NPCs occasionally experience pathing issues.
 * NPCs may continue to run up against an obstacle rather than finding a way around.
 * NPCs may get hung up on rocks or other low obstacles. NPCs cannot jump, so sometimes this is problematic.
 * Upon fast-traveling, NPCs may spawn inside rocks, behind walls, or in other inaccessible areas.

Commonly stuck NPCs include:
 * Mr. Crowley
 * Scribe Rothchild
 * Liberty Prime
 * Fawkes
 * Bryan Wilks

Floating in the air
Due to clipping and pathing issues, NPCs, creatures and items will sometimes appear to float in the air. Following are some common instances:
 * Dogmeat exhibits this behavior often when using stairs.
 * Super Mutant Behemoths, due to their large size, often exhibit floating behavior.

Falling out of the map
NPCs and the player character may occasionally fall through the map or into a wall or other object. Following are some commonly known places where this is likely to happen.
 * Vault 92 - Overseer's Office. Walk along the wall behind and to the right of his desk, you will clip through it and fall into the hallway below his desk. From there, you can go through the door into a locked room in the Sound Testing chamber. There are some useful items in this room, but there is unfortunately no way to get back, since the door ahead of you is jammed, and the hallway behind you is still covered by the Overseer's desk.
 * If you revisit Vault 87 following completion of the main quest mission (accessing it via the Reactor Chamber), then open the vault door from the inside, there is no rendered exterior and you are confronted with a void (Patched: The door is now "Inaccessible").
 * Grayditch.
 * Bridges.
 * Craterside Supply.
 * In Seward Square, walk northeast behind the Capitol Building, past a spot where Talon Mercs and Super Mutants are in a firefight. You will come upon a set of buildings that are low-poly distant-land models with low-res textures. You can continue walking presumably indefinitely on completely flat land once you pass these buildings.

Clipping
"Clipping" is the term for objects passing through one another. Clipping can lead to the flying creatures and items, the falling out of the map and the stuck glitches. Items with clipping issues may not be visible.

Armor and clothing
Some pieces of armor and clothing exhibit clipping when worn in conjunction with each other.

Weapons

 * Sometimes when the player gives a large weapon to a follower, then the follower walks into a mine it can cause the weapon to be stuck through their bodies but still shoot as if they are still holding it in their hands.
 * Sometimes NPCs get stuck on path while advancing toward deployed Frag Mines then instantly appear as though they teleported through its triggering area. Additionally, Frag Mines have also been observed warping nearby enemies onto the Mine.

Creatures and items
Creatures, items and NPCs sometimes spawn partially inside a surface. This can cause them to jitter, vibrate, or make noise. As a result, items sometimes cannot be picked up or moved. Common instances of this glitch follow.
 * Disabled Protectrons in the RobCo Facility.
 * Certain weighted chain traps start spontaneously shaking, probably caused by the level not loading correctly. The heavy weight connected to the chain seems to float in mid-air while the chain violently shakes.
 * Protectron bot corpses outside the National Guard Depot do some bad jittering and falling if fast traveling to the location later, or exiting the Depot and returning back outside.

Heads spinning around
Sometimes NPCs' heads spin around and upside-down.

Multiple skin tones on NPCs
Sometimes NPCs' various body parts are of different ethnicities.

Upside-down gun
NPCs sometimes wield, fire and/or holster their gun upside-down.
 * In the case of followers, sometimes manipulating their inventory (e.g. giving them a Stimpak) will fix it.

Unidentified Shape Generation
Randomly, the player may notice an odd and undescribable shape that may be walked through, which appears on the screen and blocks his/her view. The Shape usually consists of specified, dark colors, and is extremely troublesome, as it makes exploration near impossible when at its largest. The shapes tend to extend to a horizon point usually located at the center of the Player's HUD, and if not, will be a certain point within the landscape, sometimes a dead NPC. During interior exploration, this is a nuisance, as it blocks your view of the exit and anything within your area. This glitch is predominant in damaged systems and broken Fallout 3 Game Disks. To fix it, reload the file from your last save, or restart your system.

Crashing and freezing
Crashes and freezes may happen occasionally to anyone. Crashes and freezes are only notable when they are repeatable (e.g. they happen under the same set of circumstances often). If the crash only occurs on one particular save, then the save itself is most likely the source of the problem. Please verify that crashes and freezes are repeatable on more than one save game before reporting. Bear in mind that a freeze lasting only a couple of seconds, followed by the sound of your system's fan abruptly stopping/speeding up, are indicators that something has just occurred, whether it is the triggering of a random event, the loading of an area, the death of an "important" NPC, etc.

Following are some reported circumstances under which crashing and freezing occurred.
 * After blowing up Megaton, attempting to reenter Tenpenny Tower results in a crash with exception 0xC0000005; a memory access violation.
 * Birth scene: Right after Doctor Li leaves and your Mother says "We did it", the game becomes idle; only the E button works making the baby cry.
 * Approaching the Jefferson Memorial.
 * When you get the reward from Burke on Tenpenny Tower.
 * When using V.A.T.S.
 * 1) Sometimes, when in VATS, after firing all your shots, you may not exit VATS, and you will be stuck in it until you die. Sometimes, you may be stuck in it but not die, primarily when the Mysterious Stranger appears and he is attempting to get a clear shot at your foes.
 * In Shalebridge Hill when you attempt to pick up any of the 5.56mm ammo magazines in the Ant Queen's chamber.
 * When receiving your first Pipboy.
 * When skipping NPC dialogue by clicking through.
 * When bringing up the PipBoy.

Megaton residents missing or dead
Any NPC in Megaton may fall off the various high places in town and die or disappear from the town. Please see Recovering missing NPC in Fallout 3 for more details.
 * They may fall somewhere where you cannot find their bodies.
 * They may be lost in the "void", the normally not playable area that exists if you climb over the Megaton walls.
 * They may have teleported to Springvale.

Lip-sync not working

 * NPC's mouth moves during dialogue but nothing is said. Subtitles at the bottom of the screen "fast forward".

NPCs referring to the player character or other NPCs by the wrong gender
There are many instances of spoken dialogue not taking into account the proper gender of a character. Common occurrences follow:
 * The dialogue for the first Enclave soldier who greets you in Raven Rock was not recorded twice; he refers to you as a "he" if you are playing a female character.

NPCs still talking after death
After an NPC dies, their voice may still play, especially giving the warnings about not stealing things.

Common issues with all followers

 * Duplicate weapons may appear in followers' inventories. Removing one weapon makes the duplicates disappear.
 * With multiple followers, sometimes they may not all follow you into a new area. If you save while this is the case, the save may be corrupted.
 * Followers may become inexplicably hostile toward other NPCs.
 * Followers may fail to arrive with the PC when traveling to new areas.
 * Followers may drop dead upon entering a new area.
 * Followers may exhibit glitchy behavior when told to wait - not waiting where they are supposed to, subsequent dialogue options being incorrect, etc.

Quest items remain in inventory permanently
Any quest item may get stuck permanently in your inventory. However, even though the item displays a weight on the PipBoy screen, that weight does not count toward your total carry weight.

Level up error

 * A rare level-up bug leaves the player with a negative number of skill points to allot, jamming the game in place at the skill point distribution page.
 * The game may freeze at the level-up screen, particularly when choosing perks.

PipBoy glitches

 * The PipBoy moves up a little in the screen each time you view it. Repeatedly viewing and hiding PipBoy will eventually render the whole PipBoy screen invisible. Keep opening and closing eventually will reset to normal.
 * Using your PipBoy to repair many items at once may cause the PipBoy screen to become distorted and the text to disappear. Upon going to the start menu the text will not appear or be distorted as well.

Common user errors

 * Pushing buttons too fast when in menus or in dialogue may cause the game to freeze.

Radio bugs

 * When you enter new areas, radio may be glitched because of loading. It repeats a part of the song/speak until the radio returns to normal.
 * Radio songs and news skip occasionally skipping to another song or another piece of news.
 * Freezing for 10 seconds or so whenever the radio tracks loop.

Loading and saving bugs

 * A game may load with the player stuck in firing mode.

Time and date

 * When waiting, it is possible for the day to come out of sync with the time and date, leading to the day advancing at times such as 6pm rather than 12am.

Exploits
A quick note for all unique/limited items that spawn on respawning NPCs: Any and all items that are present on raiders or NPCs that respawn can be earned an infinite number of times, provided that the NPC continues to spawn. This includes the Stabhappy, U.S. Army: 50 Handy Flamethrower Recipes Big Guns Skill Book, the Big Book of Science Science Skill Book, and any other item that meets the requirements listed above.

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.

Infinte XP

 * With the Mister Sandman perk, you can knock an sleeping essential NPC unconscious as many times as you like. You get experience for the "kill" each time.
 * Knock Knock of Little Lamplight has an easy Speech Challenge that does not get cleared. Can repeat for infinite experience.
 * 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.

Free repair

 * When selling and buying Leather Armor to/from merchants (tested with Crow and Moira Brown), armor's repair level isn't uniform. Further, selling and re-buying the same suit of Leather Armor will yield a fully-repaired suit! This is thus partially a bug and partially an exploit, as the player can obtain a 100% repaired suit of Leather Armor (DR 24) at level 2 for less than 100 caps.

Super Unarmed Skill
Requires Operation: Anchorage (add-on), to do this you need the Chinese Stealth Armor and 2 Hockey Masks. To do the glitch equip the CSA then 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. It eventually stops, but the damage of the unarmed weapons rise so that the power fist can do up to 2000 damage, killing almost anything instantly on very hard difficulty.

Super Big Guns Skill
At the Bethesda Ruins, there is a raider that spawns every 3 days that has a Big Guns Skill Book on him\her. The raider in possession of the Skill Book will be holding a flamer.

Super Science Skill
Within the Shalebridge Tunnels (the Mutated Forager Ant tunnels, as oppsed 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.

Killing Without Karma Loss/Gain or Changes to Social Acceptance
The player and all NPC's 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.). Be aware, however, that in order to do dmage, the item should not be able to phase through an NPC or the player (this means dead bodies do not work, among several other items). This allows for the killing of any NPC without Karma loss/gain or a change in social status (aggressive/friendly) between you and other NPC's 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 run into, as opposed to smaller items like bottles of Whiskey. For said smaller objects, set down the object, then shoot it 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.

Crashing and other hardware- or software-related issues
Stuttering, crashing, freezing, and slow-down issues are often hardware- and/or software-related. Please visit the Bethesda forums for information regarding these issues. In particular, read through the stickied threads at the top of the forum page. Common pc-only crashes and freezes occur under the following circumstances:
 * When alt-tabbing while in full-screen mode.

NPC scripting glitch and PC-only fix

 * On some save games (this might show up in the beginning of the game and will never end) NPCs will stop conversations with each other before they should, or the player might not get his/her controls back if a script does the "disableplayercontrols" command and a conversation ends. This has occurred at least in Vault 101 in a conversation with Dad and Oasis with the conversation between the two arguing inhabitants. Another problem that seems to be related (appears along with the aforementioned bug) is that NPCs may walk through a load door to a new cell and not appear on the other side.
 * Both these problems are seemingly fixed by going into the G.E.C.K., loading Fallout3.esm, and clicking the "recompile all scripts" button and saving a plug-in with this change, loading it right after Fallout3.esm.
 * The v1.7 patch still requires this fix.
 * A workaround has been found: save the game if NPCs stop talking suddenly, and then reload that save. They'll continue their conversation for at least one response. Repeat the process as many times as needed to get the conversation to finish.

Radio bugs

 * The radio can cause audio and video stuttering.

Key-binding bugs

 * Rebinding The Pip-Boy key only rebinds the key to open, the closing key is still default.
 * Wait function does not work when button is rebound to "w" key.

Common user errors

 * Player stuck unable to move, HUD also missing. Possibly due to bumping the "~", which opens the console to input cheats, directly above the TAB. If you're sure the console is not open, pressing the tilde (~) key and typing "enableplayercontrols" will fix this.
 * Sometimes you get stuck in "slow walking mode". CAPS LOCK, which locks down "run", is probably enabled (and possibly toggled when you Alt-Tab out of the program if the light is mismatched), so try hitting the key again.
 * Having a game controller plugged into the computer can cause control problems, even when the controller is disabled in the .ini file. Physically disconnect the controller from computer.