Minefield

Minefield, as the name suggests, is an abandoned settlement surrounded by frag mines. As if navigating through the mine-infested town wasn't dangerous enough, travelers must do so under fire from a sniper named Arkansas, who will not only fire on any intruders but will also attempt to detonate any cars they approach with a well-placed shot to the engine (detonating cars are scripted and occur even if the player is hidden).

Common belief in the wasteland is that this settlement is haunted, presumably because of the sniper firing on anyone who tries to enter the village.

The center of the merry-go-round in the Minefield playground is a quest target for one of the tasks involved in The Wasteland Survival Guide quest available from Moira Brown in Megaton.

There are at least 67 mines planted about the town and strewn over the various approaches to it. Disarming the mines offers between 5 to 8 XP at low levels, and the mines can be sold for a decent amount of caps, making a good case for finding and disarming them all.

Layout
Minefield consists of half a dozen houses built around a curving road, with a playground in the middle between the road. Mines are situated on the road, so be careful. Also, the sniper Arkansas is situated in a destroyed house roof overlooking the road.

Background
Minefield was a settlement full of military survivors who found the hill nestled settlement about 100 years after the bombs fell. One day the slavers of Paradise Falls came to the town hidden in the hills and gunned down anyone who stood in their way and enslaved the rest of the inhabitants. Arkansas was a boy when they came and was able to evade the slavers. When Arkansas grew up he spread rumors that the town had inhabitants in it once more. So the slavers arrived once again and were killed by Arkansas' traps for revenge. Since then, Arkansas has remained the town's protector, shooting or blowing up any intruders.

Minefield homes
In the settlement are four explorable houses: Benson house, Gibson house, Gillian house and Zane house, all of which contain valuable loot, including Pre-War books (one or two per house), medical supplies, and an assault rifle.

Inside the Gibson house, there is a locked model of a house. Picking the lock is Very Hard and nets you 3 Buffout, Pre-war money and junk food. There is also a key on Gibson's corpse in the Capitol Post office building in L'Enfant Plaza. Dogmeat can get the Buffout and junk food without lockpicking or using the key.

Consistencies
All four houses have an "Easy: Locked" safe. In both the Benson House and Gibson house the safe is behind a dresser upstairs and contains Pre-War money and ammunition; although it sometimes contains a Stealth Boy. In the Gillian house the safe is upstairs under the double bed. The Zane house's safe is behind the dresser in the office on the ground floor. Also, all houses contain at least one pre-war book and a skill book.

Dealing with Arkansas
You may not wish to kill Arkansas as he can be enslaved and sold to the slavers later in the game. However, if you do wish to kill him, the easiest way is to approach Minefield from the north. He should be on the 3rd floor of a partially destroyed building and is much easier to pick off from the hills behind him than from down in the street with cars blowing up around you. When going into Minefield from the north watch out for the mines on the floor as you go in, there are at least 4 on the road.

He also has quite a bit of loot around, though it is odd that he only has 4 to 8 rounds of .308 sniper rounds on him. There are some ammunition boxes on the ground near his sniping position that contain randomly generated ammunition (but you are most likely to find .308 rounds). Still, if you are hitting Minefield early on and don't have a sniper rifle yet, this is an easy way to get one. If you got the sniper rifle from Hollowed-Out Rock on your first trip to Megaton, then this one can be used to repair the one you already have. When you loot Arkansas, you also get a key to all the houses in Minefield.

Even if Arkansas is enslaved he will return to Minefield later if the player eliminates all the slavers in Paradise Falls. Arkansas will take up his original sniper perch, but will no longer be hostile towards the player.

Notable loot
There are four skill books and nine Pre-War books to be had in Minefield:
 * Zane house: Pugilism Illustrated can be found in the children's room on a teddy bear's lap. There is also a Pre-War book in the front room, and an easy safe in the back room behind the cabinet on the ground floor.
 * Gillian house: This house is infested with radroaches. There are two Pre-War books in the front room, one on the bookshelf and the other on a table. A Grognak the Barbarian can be found on the child's bed upstairs. There is also a safe under the queen bed in the Master Bedroom (easy).
 * Gibson house: Tumblers Today can be found on a desk. There are four Pre-War books -- one in the front room, one on the bookcase in the children's room, one in the bathtub off the master bedroom, and one on the bedside table in the master bedroom next to two Med-X. There is a safe in the master bedroom [Easy] and the locked model of home [Very Hard] in the living room. The key for the model of home can be found on Gibson's corpse inside the Capitol Post building.
 * Benson house: There is a Pre-War book on the ground floor on top of the bookcase. D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine can be found in the upstairs master bedroom along with a Pre-War book. First aid box on the wall in the kitchen. There is also a safe [Easy] behind the dresser in this room. In the safe there is a Stealth Boy among some other loot.

Related quests

 * Wasteland Survival Guide
 * Strictly Business - Arkansas is one of the four targets.

Appearances
Minefield appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * The names of the houses in Minefield are references to the Hideo Kojima game "Snatcher". In the Capitol Post building in L'Enfant Plaza, a decapitated body sitting with its head between its legs can be found, with a note on it that says "SEARCH THE HOUSE". This is identical to a scene in "Snatcher". The house in the game also had a miniature house model. "Gibson" refers to Jean Jack Gibson, the character from Snatcher. The "Gillian's House" refers to "Gillian Seed", the protagonist of Snatcher. "Benson" is the name of two characters from the game as well (either Benson Cunningham- the chief or Harry Benson- the engineer). The name of the last house, Zane, is however not used in "Snatcher".

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