Frag mine (Fallout 3)

The frag mine is a weapon in Fallout 3.

Characteristics
The frag mine looks like a tan shaped disk with a black gear and red button on top. The tan paint is most likely used to camouflage the mine out in the desert covered Capital Wasteland. The frag mine will begin beeping when a target comes within a short distance to it until it is disarmed or it detonates. The time until detonation depends on the Explosives skill of the person setting it off.

Frag mines can be disarmed with an Explosives skill of 1, meaning any player regardless of their statistics will be capable of doing so. If the player has the Light Step perk, the mine will not be triggered at all.

To use a frag mine, you must first equip it like any other weapon. Pressing the fire button arms and drops the mine a short distance ahead of the player. The mine will be triggered when any non-follower non-player character comes within a certain distance. Neither the player nor their companions will trigger it.

To collect a hostile land mine, or one of your own, you have to approach it then use the "activate" button to disarm it. Once disarmed, it can then be collected. In the case of hostile mines, the mine's proximity fuse will trigger as you approach, and your Explosives skill will determine the length of the fuse. Players with a low Explosives skill will find doing this difficult. There appears to be a quirk in the programming so that the mine will detonate based on how close you are to its center regardless of the Z axis (i.e. up and down) while the distance you have to be to interact with it does take the Z axis into account. This means that going downhill or down a set of stairs the landmine will often explode before you're able to get close enough disarm it. Your best bet is to crouch and, if you can, approach from the down hill side so that you're closer to the mine's level on the Z axis. Aiming your crosshair at the mine, glide towards it clicking the activate button as quickly as you can. By switching to a walk instead of running you're also less likely to overshoot the mine and fail to disarm it.

Like a frag grenade, frag mines have a relatively small blast radius and will do damage (from a maximum at point blank range of about 65 at skill level 25 up to 100 at a skill of 100) to any friendly or enemy target (including yourself) within that radius. The further away from the center of the blast the less damage that is done. Mines can also detonate each other if they're set too close together. This can work for you when you're trying to take down a particularly tough opponent by hitting it with several blasts at once. However if you aren't careful in how you lay the mines the first might set off the others before the intended victim is within range of them all (i.e. if you get lazy or rushed and just drop a straight string of them as you're backing away from an oncoming opponent). Disarmed mines will still be detonated by nearby explosions. if you lay a mine, disarm it, and lay another, you can detonate an entire hallway at once with enough mines and time. This is a great way to take out a group of enemies at once, as they often travel in a line.

You should be aware that some creatures that fly/hover like the Mister Handy and Mister Gutsy robots won't detonate land mines themselves (technically, they aren't stepping on them) but will be damaged by the blast from one. If you can manage it, lure them over the landmines then shoot the landmines to detonate them (this can be a little tricky at first) or simply use a grenade in V.A.T.S. to attack the victim and detonate the landmines at the same time.

Like hand grenades, mines can be "reverse pickpocketed" onto a victim, causing them to arm and detonate on their own (this is handy since enemies are more likely to carry grenades than mines—and you cannot perform the trick with an explosive they already possess). You have to be able to stealth in close enough behind the victim to "activate" them, then simply move a bomb from your own inventory to theirs. Unless you have a particularly tough opponent this is usually a guaranteed kill. Note that "vital" non-player characters can't be killed in this manner. The explosive simply will not activate when placed in their inventory.

Variants

 * Sim version - A version used exclusively in the Anchorage Reclamation simulation, it differs from the standard Fallout 3 variant only in that it cannot be dropped, although it still can be transferred between containers or given to your companions.

Locations

 * True to its name, Minefield has over a dozen frag mines strewn about the town.
 * Frag mines are the most common type of mine found in mine boxes. Mine boxes can often be found at military outposts, wasteland encampments and super mutant strongholds.
 * Frag mines are often used as traps in raider encampments, so look on the ground whenever raiders are near.

Bugs

 * If you equip frag mines, drop about 10 of them, and pick them back up, your inventory will show two sets of frag mines, both equipped. If you then take out a melee weapon, it will show up as a frag mine, and you can hit enemies with it. This is a very humorous glitch, as using a Shishkebab will look as if you are lighting them on fire with a frag mine.
 * Sometimes, the frag mines on The Pitt Bridge don't work. They simply don't go off when you walk near them. This is good for XP as you can gain XP by disarming mines without worry of setting them off.
 * If you equip frag mines, then drop about ten without leaving the Pip-Boy, when you exit you will not be holding anything, just an invisible frag mine.