Megaton

 is a sprawling settlement, set in a crater and surrounded by impenetrable walls. It features a sliding front gate - guarded by a sniper named Stockholm and a Protectron named Deputy Weld - and is one of the two largest civilian settlements in the Capital Wasteland.

Megaton should be the first populated town the player encounters after leaving Vault 101. Its proximity to Vault 101, its distinctive silhouette, and the relatively straight route make it extremely difficult to miss, and it will very likely be the first trace of civilization the Lone Wanderer encounters.

Location
Megaton is south of Springvale and west of Grayditch, on the border of the wasteland northwest of the urban DC areas.
 * The easiest way to get here is straight southeast from Vault 101, from which it is easily visible. You can also go east to Springvale, and straight south from there.

Origin and History
Megaton was built by a large group of people who originally planned to seek shelter in Vault 101 but were denied access. So without shelter, they sought refuge in a large crater made by a large megaton bomb (though not due to an explosion of the bomb) and a large commercial aircraft. They then constructed a place to call home out of pieces of metal/aircraft found nearby at a decimated air station, which was either Dulles International or Reagan National Airport. They were aided by the Children of the Atom, who worshipped the undetonated bomb in the crater they were building around.

The Plane
The large plane still can be seen in pieces throughout the town. The cockpit and nose cone are built into Craterside Supply apparently housing inaccessible living space to Moira. The main section of the fuselage is used as the armory, and the rear end of the plane is on the roof of Lucas Simms' house providing an extra sniper nest and speculated residence to Stockholm. You can get there via a trap-door in the ceiling of the Sheriff's house. The wings make up the two large "fins" that are symmetrically aligned next to Megaton's main gate, and the two engines are separated. One is used to work the pulley mechanism for the main gates, and the other one is above the path to the common house providing breeze. Another way to get up there is to jump on the roof from the fence near the water station. Although it takes longer, you can talk to Stockholm this way.

Destroyed Megaton
If you choose to destroy the town in The Power of the Atom, Megaton will be nothing but rubble.

You can find Moira Brown here; she apparently survives the explosion, as she was out in Springvale, but the massive radiation from the explosion turned her into a ghoul. You can later find Moira in Underworld. Strangely, the Deputy Weld also partially survived, but only his head remains. He can speak to some extent, and claims that the bomb in Megaton is "perfectly safe".

The explosion also has an effect on the surrounding area in another way - while it is strangely not very radioactive, the massive amount of dust in the zone kicked up by the nuclear blast more or less permanently fogs the area with a green hue. The closer to the center of Megaton you walk, the more radiation is encountered.

The shattered remnants of Megaton itself is normally inaccessible. On the PC, it is possible to use console to again access to the old Megaton. Fast travel to Megaton, then enter the console command, then go into the ground, you should see a drainage grate that says it goes to Megaton. Enter this and you will be taken to the version of Megaton as it was before the detonation of the nuke. An alternative method to do the same thing is to type and that brings you to Megaton also.

Related quests

 * Following in His Footsteps The central storyline of Fallout 3.
 * The Power of the Atom - A side-quest in Megaton that revolves around disarming or detonating the bomb landing you your first wasteland house.
 * The Wasteland Survival Guide - Moira Brown, the owner of the local general shop Craterside Supply gives this mission.
 * Treatment - Talk to Walter to start this mini quest.
 * Walter's Scrap Metal
 * Church Donations
 * Leo's Drug Habit
 * Blood Ties - Lucy West will ask you to deliver a letter to her family in Arefu.
 * You can start The Replicated Man quest, if you go up to Craterside Supply on a table behind the desk by the door there is a holotape along with a pistol and Radaway. If you sneak into the Megaton Clinic's backroom there is a holotape by a computer there starting the quest as well. The holotape can be also found in Nathan and Manya's House. Sometimes Victoria Watts appears outside Megaton, next to Micky. So you can also start the quest by talking to her.



Notable loot

 * Bobblehead - Strength - inside Lucas Simms' House, on a desk in a bedroom on the second floor.
 * Pre-War Book - Four in Billy Creel's house: 3 downstairs on a table in a box, and one more upstairs.
 * Grognak the Barbarian - in Jericho's house.
 * Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual - on a shelf in a ruined house (at the top of the hill between Megaton and the Super-Duper Mart, next to a rusty, domed silo).
 * Sniper Rifle - the Hollowed-Out Rock outside the southwest edge of Megaton (also contains a Sniper Rifle, ammo, Stealth Boy, Stimpacks and a note from "E" to "S" entitled: "As Requested").

Bugs

 * If you and the Megaton people engage in battle, you can simply use a stealth boy or Chinese Stealth Armor to vanish, which will make the people of Megaton just completely stop fighting or looking for you as if nothing even happened, you can even attack someone, then use a stealth boy and in the same moment talk to them and they will be as friendly as ever. This is because the stealth boy works as a "Peace Maker". This can be done with any friendly NPC.


 * When entering Megaton, the game occasionally places characters in a starting position that is adjacent to (rather than on) the walkways or balconies, causing those characters to fall to their deaths. Walter is particularly prone to this problem, as his starting position is often supposed to be leaning against the railing outside of his workplace. (The bugs noted below may also be a result of this glitch.) Characters who die this way can be resurrected using the console (click on the character's body and type 'resurrect').
 * This problem is more likely to occur for players who visit Megaton regularly and thus frequently cause the map to reload. NPC die-off is less likely if you simply visit Megaton less; i.e. if you use Super Duper Mart as your home base instead, and simply visit Megaton for shopping and quests (i.e. The Wasteland Survival Guide).


 * There is a bug where the praying Confessor Cromwell will die unexpectedly. His death does not affect any quests. It's possible that this is intentional, as the water, like most other sources of water in the game, is highly radioactive.


 * There is another bug where Nathan might be found dead in the Radioactive Water. When this happens you will not be able to talk to Manya anymore as all she will do is talk about her missing Nathan.


 * If you bring a follower into Megaton and start jumping from level to level, there is a possibility that they will also jump and fall to their deaths (Tested on 360).


 * If the player blows up Megaton, he or she will often experience lag if they go back to the ruins.


 * If you used cheats to max out your caps, when you fast travel back to Megaton, you will have your caps reduced to 20 or so caps, and if you sleep in your Megaton house, your caps will mysteriously vanish without a trace.


 * If you have good karma and the town starts to give you presents, the settler that gives them to you may be stuck in one of the bathrooms. Just check the bathrooms if you don't ever get rewards.


 * In the Players House in Megaton, there are two main places where you can get stuck (which is very unfortunate because you cannot fast travel to get out of there). In your room if you jump behind your bed you will not be able to get back out unless you load your last saved game. Another is downstairs in your house in the chair next to your Bobblehead Collector's Stand, if you jump behind that chair you will be unable to jump out and again you will have to load your last saved game. Both of these bugs can also be gotten around by either sleeping in the bed, or by sitting in the chair. This will move your character to the other side of your obstruction.


 * There is a bug when entering the Brass Lantern, Dogmeat will attack Leo and Andy unprovoked.


 * There is also a glitch where if you kick a metal barrel at a NPC, he or she will die unexpectently and will also hurt you. This doesn't do anything to karma though if you talk to any of the megaton settlers, they will treat you as though you have bad karma.


 * Before the patch mentioned below was released, sometimes you may have found that characters were missing, and their corpses were nowhere to be found. On the Xbox 360 version, those characters can be found providing they are not dead. To find them, go into Lucas Simm's house and go into the hatch that goes to the piece of the plane on top of his house. From there, go up the stairs and toward the balcony facing toward the center of Megaton. You might want to tell any partners, including Dogmeat, to stay put here. It is also a good idea to save before attempting each jump in this sequence. Jump on the railing on the right, then turn around facing the plane. Then, jump on the left side of the plane. It does not look like there is a safe place to land, but there is. Once you get there, walk around a bit on the side of the plane and keep trying to jump to the top. You can go right through the little fence on the top of the plane. Be careful not to fall in the hole in the middle of it when you do get to the top. Next, go in front of the turbine, face it, then run toward it and jump slightly to the right of it. You should land on a higher elevation. Now walk toward the back of the plane, where the wall around Megaton is. When you get to the edge of the tail, save so you can just load back up and try again if you miss. Also, you should make sure you have full health before you attempt this jump. Now jump off the tail of the plane and over the wall and if you got it, you should be on the other side of the wall. Now you want to walk slightly north of where Springvale School would be on your world map. The best way to do this is to set a marker on Springvale School on your world map, and keep checking your map to make sure you are walking toward it. Eventually, you should see all the missing characters standing right next to each other. In my file, before the patch, I found Lucas Simms, Colin Moriarty, Billy Creel, and Walter. After the patch, only Lucas Simms was brought back within the walls of Megaton.


 * There is a glitch where people think that both Lucas Simms and Colin Moriarty are dead, but they are both alive.


 * Another glitch may occur upon exiting My Megaton House. A Brotherhood of Steel paladin will suddenly appear wearing Power Armor and carrying a 10mm Pistol and Rocket Launcher. The paladin will run out of Megaton at an unrelenting pace. He will, however, stop to attack hostile NPCs (such as some Giant Ants). In the case witnessed, he killed one ant with his pistol and contindued running in the general direction of Galaxy News Radio. However, upon encountering another ant, he attacked it with his rocket launcher and killed himself with the spash damage. If spoken to, he responds like a normal BoS Member, telling the PC he is busy, but not triggering a dialoge scene. His body is lootable. (This occurred on PC. Even after reloading the autosave from coming out of the house, he was still there.)


 * Sometimes when entering Megaton for the first time Mr. Burke will be found near the atomic bomb. He floats in the sitting position moving torward the walkway leading to the saloon. Once he passes the post holding up The Brass Lantern's canopy he reverts to the normal walking animation. You can talk to him normally and even receive the Fusion Pulse Charge from him needed for The Power of the Atom. If you immediately give this charge to Simms before Burke gets to the saloon Simms runs over to the saloon, passing Burke. He enters, leaves, and finds Burke, but as soon as he starts the conversation he simply falls down dead. (Confirmation needed)

Megaton Bug Fixes (Patch 1.1)

 * As of the December 15th, 2008 (PS3) and January 13th, 2009 (Xbox 360/PC) releases of the Fallout 3 patch, the issues regarding unexpected NPC disappearances and deaths have been fixed. Upon entering Megaton, if they haven't died previously, you should now be able to find all of your missing NPCs including the biggest offenders, Walter, Billy Creel, Colin Moriarty, and Andy Stahl.

Japanese Version of Fallout 3 Megaton Quest Removed
In the Japanese version of Fallout 3, the quest to blow up Megaton has been completely removed due to its "parallels to real historic events" quotes Official Xbox Magazine. They are referring to the atomics bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

It is unconfirmed if it is ever possible to get the suite in the Tenpenny Tower having this quest removed from the game completely. It is believed that the quest has been replaced with something else to get suite instead if you wish to live in Tenpenny Tower in the Japanese version of the game.

Gallery
Мегатонна Megaton