Fallout 3 random encounters

Throughout your adventures in the world of Fallout 3, you'll encounter random happenings in the Wastelands. There are certain places where random encounters can happen, but once you "activate" a random encounter in a particular area the spawn won't change unless you kill whatever spawned and come back days later.

What you can do is save outside the area before the event spawns, and that way if you don't get the spawn you're looking for you can revert. What is so significant about these random events? For one, rare weapons such as the Firelance has a chance of appearing.

I've spent a couple hours at two different locations getting different encounters and it seems there are special encounters that can only appear in certain areas (i.e. the Wastelander scared for his life after the Fire Ants burned Grayditch). Another one of these special encounters is the UFO. I tried for two hours at the spot on the road Northwest of the Super-Duper Mart and never got the UFO. I spent that same amount of time at the Super-Duper Mart's spawning area and got it to appear three times.

Random encounter locations
These are the known locations so far:


 * Just outside of the entrance to Rockopolis. Fast-travel to Smith Casey's Garage and from the entrance turn to the West and a tiny-bit North.  It'll take you around 30 seconds to get there.


 * Fast-travel to Jury Street Metro Station and head Southwest down the road towards the radio tower. From there travel Southwest and you'll run into a small canyon.  In the canyon is where the event spawns.
 * The events are also known to spawn around the backside of the remaining house.


 * In the parking lot of the Super-Duper Mart.


 * Barn behind Vault 101 entrance/exit.


 * North-west of the Clifftop Shacks (approximately half-way between the Clifftop Shacks and Oasis on the world map), near an irradiated pool.


 * Meresti Trainyard.


 * In front of MDPL-05 Power Station.


 * On the second road Northwest of the Super-Duper Mart


 * In front of the Robot Repair Center, south of Canterbury Commons.


 * Behind the ruined house on the road to Germantown, near Paradise Falls.

Different Types of Random Encounters
The following random encounters can occur at the above locations:


 * Three Giant Worker Ants fighting a Giant Radscorpion.
 * Two Wasteland Settlers and two Escaped Slaves fighting over a refridgerator of 10 purified water.
 * Two Wastelanders and an Enclave Eyebot.
 * Four Mole Rats fighting a Wastelander.
 * Two Giant Worker Ants (one bigger than the other) and a toxic barrel.
 * Laszlo Radford (He's hostile and will open fire on you with his Railway Rifle).
 * A Scavenger with his Brahmin and his dog. He'll offer you a Nuka-Cola Quantum for 100 caps.  You can talk him into reducing the price.
 * A Wasteland Doctor.
 * Three Giant Soldier Ants and a Giant Worker Ant fighting a Giant Radscorpion.
 * Two Giant Worker Ants fighting a Giant Radscorpion.
 * Two Mole Rats attacking a Wastelander (if you save her she'll give you a small amount of caps).
 * Two Hunters attacking a Giant Worker Ant.
 * Another Scavenger with just his dog who will also sell you a Nuka-Cola Quantum and you can talk him into reducing the price.
 * A Deathclaw with very low health and a dead Wasteland Settler with the schematics for the Deathclaw Gauntlet.
 * A man named Mel who is basically like a Highway Man from Oblivion. You have the choice to do what he says, attempt some speech challenges depending on your Speech skill and S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, or kill him.
 * Another Scavenger with his Brahmin and a trained Yao Guai who you can also barter for his Nuka-Cola Quantum.
 * A dead Scavenger
 * A Scavenger and his dog fighting a Protectron. If you go near the Protectron after you kill it and the Scavenger is still alive, he'll attack you.
 * Another Scavenger and his dog fighting a Robotbrain. If you go near the Robotbrain after you kill it and the Scavenger is still alive, he'll attack you.
 * Three Radscorpions attacking a Wastelander.
 * A UFO exploding overhead and spilling a bunch of Alien Power Cells and a Firelance all over the area.
 * You'll receive a Chinese Radio Beacon over your Pipboy and you'll find a Dead Chinese Commando.
 * Two Wastelanders fighting a Giant Radscorpion over a fridge of 8 purified water.
 * Five Mole Rats attacking a Wastelander.
 * Three Mole Rats attacking a Wastelander.
 * Two Hunters fighting a Yao Guai.
 * A Giant Worker Ant and three Giant Soldier Ants (one being bigger than the rest) around a toxic barrel.
 * Four Vicious Dogs attacking a Raider.
 * Two Frag Mines (looked around and didn't find anything else).
 * A Scavenger and her Brahmin and trained Yao Guai around a flaming barrel.
 * Three Hunters attacking a Vicious Dog.
 * A Giant Soldier Ant fighting a Giant Radscorpion.
 * A Hunter fighting a Yao Guai.
 * Four Vicious Dogs attacking a Wastelander.
 * 3 Hunters attacking a Giant Soldier Ant.
 * An encounter with Uncle Leo. He's a friendly Super Mutant and if you tell him you're going to rob him, he'll give you a Dirty Pre-War Businesswear as a present.  If you attack him he'll run away instead of fighting.
 * If you have not recruited Dogmeat, it is possible he will appear during random encounters to come to your aid.
 * Two wastelanders discussing the whereabouts of Oasis.
 * A Scavenger and his dog fighting a Super Mutant. If you go near the Super Mutant after you kill it and the Scavenger is still alive, he'll attack you.
 * A vertibird getting hit by a missile and crashing near you.
 * A small squad of Brotherhood Outcasts being chased by two Deathclaws.
 * Three Wastelanders fighting with a Deathclaw. If you save them they'll give you the location of Rock Creek Caverns.
 * A Scavenger with his malfunctioned Mister Handy. If you repair it, the Scavenger will give you two energy cells.
 * A Wastelander runs up to you and tells you that a bunch of Fire Ants burned down Grayditch, basically.
 * Two Mad Brahmin.
 * Three Mad Brahmin.
 * Four Mad Brahmin.
 * Four friendly Brahmin.
 * Two friendly Brahmin.
 * Three friendly Brahmin.
 * Three Ghoul Wastelanders around a burning barrel.
 * Five Raiders (one with no clothes on).
 * Three Hunters.
 * Three Talon Company Mercs who won't shoot until being asked if you disarmed the bomb in Megaton.
 * Four Talon Company Mercs who will shoot first, no questions if you disarmed the bomb in Megaton.
 * Two Talon Company Mercs who will shoot first, no questions if you disarmed the bomb in Megaton.
 * Two Slavers who will shoot you if you fail the speech challenge.
 * Sam Warrick shooting at a Wastelander (if he kills the Wastelander, he'll turn on you).
 * Four Vicious Dogs.
 * Three Vicious Dogs.
 * Two Brotherhood Outcasts and a Protectron.
 * A Mole Rat.
 * Three Raiders and a Wastelander with a time-bomb on him. You can disarm the time-bomb if you have a high enough explosives skill.
 * Five Vicious Dogs.
 * A Yao Guai.
 * Three Slavers with three Slaves.
 * Three Frag Mines that will quickly explode.
 * A man named Ben Canning. He asks for purified water.
 * A Giant Radscorpion.
 * Three Wastelanders with info about Oasis. If you ask them about it they'll turn hostile.
 * A Wasteland Merchant. After having a talk with him about the Great One, he'll collapse and die.  You'll find a note on his body about him going to Oasis the next day.
 * A Wasteland Junkie
 * A Vicious Dog, two dead Vicious Dogs, and a dead Wastelander. On the Wastelander's body is a key and a note telling you he apologized to his brother and where his treasure is in Scrapyard.  In the box are three skill books.
 * Four Radroaches