Bethesda Ruins

The Bethesda Ruins are the ruins of a Maryland city located north-west of Washington, D.C.. The closest settlement to the town is Megaton.

History
Prior to the Great War of 2077, Bethesda is a major city with its own suburbs. A major corporation, the Chryslus, is headquartered here. Metro and City Liner service this city. North of the city, there is a monorail train. As the west-east highway ends in the city, another highway traveling north passes through the city. The city has a local park, named after the largest employer in this city, where baseball is played.

In the years since the war, a gang of Raiders has occupied the streets and buildings of the city, while a small gathering of Ghouls has taken root in the Metro Station.

Inhabitants
The entire area is occupied by well-equipped Raiders. Several use Flamers, while the bulk of the remainder use assault rifles or Chinese Assault Rifles depending upon player level. Additionally, a sniper armed with a .308 sniper rifle roosts in a building shell nearby and another on the bridge linking both east and west offices. The Raiders have barricaded most of the streets leading to the ruins with haste-make structures and derelict vehicles. While this may force a player bent on attacking the Ruins into unfavorable positions at times, methodical attackers can turn the barricades to their own advantage, drawing the Raiders out to attack in ones and twos, rather than attempting to attack a fortified position. These "fighting positions" also house a few ammunition and supply boxes.

Note: If you have the Ghoul Mask, Stealth Boys or the Chinese Stealth Suit, you can "enlist" the support of Feral Ghouls to help clear out the street level. Simply enter the Underworks while sneaking or wearing the mask, and several Ghouls will run through the gate. The Feral Ghouls will exit the Underworks and begin attacking the Raiders outside. Make sure you keep any traveling companions away from the area or they might attack the Ghouls, who will then turn on you. This is confirmed on Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

The western entrance road into Bethesda Ruins is the trigger point for a random encounter. The encounter location is near the Red Rocket gas station. The encounter triggers when approaching this area from the east.

Locations
These places are located in the Bethesda Ruins:
 * Bethesda Coach Station
 * Bethesda Offices West
 * Bethesda Offices East
 * Bethesda Underworks
 * Chryslus ball Field
 * Chryslus Building
 * Raid Shack (in the suburbs)
 * Red Rocket gas stations
 * west of the Offices
 * east of the north-south highway in a roundabout

Bethesda Offices West
Mostly reception and office space, Bethesda Offices West is nevertheless home to a considerable number of Raiders. The cramped confines of the building render most hard-hitting long-range weapons ineffective as they become unwieldy when turning corners and investigating small rooms. Raiders are generally well-armed and -armored, making the Chinese Assault Rifle, 10mm SMG, or Scoped .44 Magnum ideal choices for assault weapons. Players with a high Small Guns skill and criticals-enhancing perks may choose to use either a silenced or standard 10mm Pistol.

Players should also keep a keen eye for traps. At least three shotgun traps as well as two grenade cluster traps are located in this building. Players with sufficient Repair skill can disarm and take the weapons (though the two clusters are in a difficult to reach space between floors). All of these traps can be seen in the same room upstairs. Also as an IMPORTANT note, the three shotgun traps are also on the same trap, and are activated by the same pressure plate. The room has a hole in the floor, so before dashing right in, look to the left and see what might have happened, should you fail to see the trap. You can also listen for the radio, as a radio plays in here. The channel is GNR.

Note: An entertaining way of dealing with the grenade clusters is to throw a raider's body down through the hole in the floor. This will set off the grenade traps, damaging or possibly killing the raiders below, although chances are they'll set the trap off by themselves if you enter from Bethesda East.

Note: You can also take the wooden crates and pile them on top of each other underneath the two Frag Grenade clusters that are in the hole in the ceiling. If you do it high enough and jump on top you can disarm the two traps, get the experience, and take the six grenades. Alternatively, you may be able to jump directly onto the grenade clusters, which act as solid footing. For some reason the clusters are not set off using this technique.

Notable Loot

 * On the Bottom Floor, on the big curved desk in the main lobby there is a Big Book of Science.
 * On the Bottom Floor, a Stealth Boy is hidden in a crate on its side next to a water fountain. In a small room on the east side, next to the stairs that lead upstairs.
 * On the Bottom Floor, a Cherry Bomb is found in the broken toilet (a reference to the gag). There are multiple bathrooms, so check both.
 * On the Bottom Floor, in the room with the turret, you can find a nice shelf of supplies away from the doors. These include, but are not limited to, Frag mines, frag grenades, railway spikes, and some other items. These are not in a container, so look for them on a wall shelf.
 * On the Bottom Floor in the bathroom to the left as you enter from the ground there is a Lunchbox along with a couple of other component pieces for the Railway Rifle.
 * On the Middle Floor, there are two Pre-War Books on top of some Filing Cabinets. Look for a burning barrel just up a set of stairs.
 * On the Top Floor at the bottom of a wooden crate on a desk under some other stuff there is a Dean's Electronics.
 * On the Top Floor next to the bed, hidden under some crates is a Mini Nuke.
 * On the Top Floor, in the Northeast Corner on some shelves is a Stealth Boy.

Bethesda Offices East
Much of the East building is offices, with more cramped fighting conditions. Extensive damage to the building also includes large gaps and holes in the floor, making fighting on the upper floor treacherous in places. The apparent leader of the Bethesda Raiders is here, armed with a flamethrower and carrying a Big Guns skill book in their inventory.

Bethesda East is also one of the possible initiation points for the John's Treasure Box miscellaneous quest. Players may find a wastelander's corpse carrying a note written to his brother. The note points the player to the scrapyard north of the Ruins. In this scrapyard is a bus that has been cut in half. Inside is a container labeled John's Treasure Box which holds skill books (this is a Random Encounter event and the dead wastelander has died from three to four Vicious Dogs).

Notable Loot

 * The Bobblehead - Lockpick is located in Bethesda Offices East on a desk next to the Turret Control System Computer on the second level right next to painting that opens up to a average lock.
 * A Chinese Army: Spec. Ops. book on the second floor - after entering from the second floor walkway from Bethesda West, a couple rooms in, on a desk with two missiles.
 * A box of Suger Bombs are on a desk to the right as you ascend to the second level.
 * You can find a Mini Nuke near the exit to the catwalk, to the north between the two filing cabinets (which can't be opened), on a rubble pile that exposes the sky.
 * On the second story you will find a workbench will many useful components, as well as a Bottlecap Mine.
 * U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes book held by the flamethrower raider. The raider who holds this book respawns every 73 hours, so you can retrieve this book an limitless number of times. Although, they will not return if enslaved with the Mezmetron, as is the case with many other respawning characters.
 * If you are having trouble getting the raider to respawn, try waiting on the walkway outside between the two buildings for 73 hours and re-entering. This is also a good way to build up some caps pretty quickly through collecting the flamers. A good condition flamer is worth about 450 caps. Also don't forget the raiders in the west building also respawn, and one of them has a flamer as well. The Raider in question has a RefID of 5C9CF.


 * Note: On this same Raider is a Safe Key which unlocks the safe just above the desk where the Bobblehead - Lockpick is located. The safe contains Pre-War Money as well as Bottle caps and a random weapon or med.

Bugs

 * You may encounter two Raiders armed with a Lead Pipe that can't be killed. The only way to escape is let your companion fight them so you can run away and fast travel, or go to a previous save. This bug has only been reported on the Xbox 360 version of the game.
 * In bethesda offices east, if the player attacks Unarmed or with a melee weapon through V.A.T.S. while above the enemy on the ramp to the second level, they may become stuck in the ground and unable to move upon exiting V.A.T.S..
 * As soon as you enter Bethesda Underworks and the Ghouls run to attack you, put on the Ghoul Mask and all of them will run past you through the entrance outside. They return shortly though.
 * All the ghouls in the Underworks may spawn right outside of the tunnel entrance, remaining unactive unless the player engages them. (Xbox 360)
 * If you put your marker on the Bethesda Ruins, it will lead you Southeast of the Bethesda Ruins, instead of going there directly. (Xbox 360, PC)
 * The Raider wielding the flamethrower, (in the East Offices), has the 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes skill book in his/her inventory. When they repop in three days, the book is in his/her inventory again. You can repeat this to get Big Guns to 100% without ever putting anything into it.(It can also be a good source of xp for those that came straight after lvl 4)