Fallout 3 Official Game Guide

The Fallout 3 Official Game Guide is the official companion guide for Fallout 3, published by Prima Games and written by David S.J. Hodgson with additional content provided by Bethesda Softworks developers Joel Burgess, Erik Caponi, Brian Chapin, John Paul Duvall, Kurt Kuhlmann, Alan Nanes, Bruce Nesmith, Emil Pagliarulo, Fred Zeleny and Nathan Purkeypile. Editing was done by Jeff Gardiner and Pete Hines. Localized editions were published in Europe and Australia by Future press.

Overview
The guide contains a complete walkthrough for every marked and unmarked quest in the game, as well as detailed maps and breakdowns of locations in Fallout 3, biographies of all the characters in the game, item profiles, and much, much more. Notably, it contains a lot of information and background lore that was not include with the game, making it an essential guide to Fallout 3 lore and setting. Faction excerpts have been archived in this article, the location excerpts these articles, (Tour of The Capital Wasteland, Tour of Operation: Anchorage, Tour of The Pitt, Tour of Broken Steel, Tour of Point Lookout, and Tour of Mothership Zeta) and the "Wasteland Census" section in this article.

Prior to the Game of the Year Edition all "Wasteland Census" materiel was within the "Tour of the Capital Wasteland" section, at the beginning of each location's section.

With the release of downloadable content for the game, two supplementary guides were released. The first one covered Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, while the second focused on Broken Steel and Point Lookout. A Game of the Year edition was released in October 2009, which contained an updated core guide and walkthroughs for all the downloadable content released after the game's premiere.

Mistakes in this edition
A number of errors are present in the guide, which can be chalked up to it being based on an older build of the game.
 * Many of the edibles have incorrect information, such as incorrect rad effects, and other things like ant nectar giving you +2 IN and +2 CH when in fact they deduct the amount.
 * It mistakenly claims raiders may or may not attack you based on your Karma level. It is Slavers who are affected by your Karma level; raiders will attack everybody.
 * It states there are two makeshift gas masks that can be found in Vault 106 when in fact there are not, these were going to be placed in the Vault to null the hallucinations but were removed due to bugs.
 * It states there is a Freeform Quest called 'Looking Out for Lucas' saying when you get the Lawbringer perk new speech options become available with Lucas Simms, this is not true.
 * It states that when you recruit a second follower when you already have one (that isn't Dogmeat) it forces the first to leave, when in fact a message will pop up saying you already have a follower and cannot have anymore.
 * On page 6 of the Guide it states under the Perception section that you need a minimum of 6 Perception to acquire the perks Lawbringer and Contract Killer when you can get these perks with any Perception level.
 * Under the Perks section it states that when you acquire the Explorer perk it shows all the locations and you can fast travel to them, when in fact you cannot fast travel to them unless you have already discovered them.
 * Under the Unarmed section it lists Ninja as a perk requiring you to have a certain level of Unarmed to choose it when you level up, in fact you don't need any level of Unarmed, only a Melee Weapons level of 80.
 * In the Perks section it falsely states in both Lawbringer and Contract Killer that you receive only 5 Caps for turning in both Ear and Finger when the actual amount is 10 Caps for Ears (15 with Very Bad karma) and 5 Caps for Fingers (10 with Very Good karma).
 * Under the Lawbringer section, it states that super mutants will drop fingers when killed. This was scrapped from the game entirely.
 * It says under the Barkskin perk it gives the benefits of +10 Damage Resistance and +1 Endurance, when in-game you only receive +5 Damage Resistance.
 * Throughout the Guide it holds the assumption that you need a repair skill to make weapons at a Work Bench and that you can also repair armor (untrue) at a Work Bench, though having a certain number of Schematics creates the weapon in a determined condition depending on your repair skill you do not have to have a certain level of repair to make a weapon as it is said in the Guide.
 * It states that at Moriarty's Saloon there is an Andale Basement Key and an Andale Shed Key in his cooler, there are no such keys in the cooler.
 * Under the Schematics section of the guide it says when you make a Custom Weapon with just one Schematic the condition of the weapon will be half your repair skill when in fact it will be 75% of your repair skill.
 * Journal of Carrie Delaney is not mentioned.
 * It mentions that with an "impressive Science skill" you can "boost" the GNR signal when you replace the dish on top of the Washington Monument. Actually there is no "boost the signal" option in the game, no matter how high your Science is.
 * The guide incorrectly states in its discussion of Rock-It Launcher ammunition that Small Office Fans can be found as collectible items in some containers. Like roller skates, Small Office Fans appear in many (mainly office) settings but cannot be picked up or interacted with.
 * It states that you only have to give Murphy at Northwest Seneca Station 5 boxes of Sugar Bombs to make ultrajet when in-game you have to give him 8 boxes.
 * The book claims that the Demolition Expert perk will increase the damage of missile launchers, when the perk has no effect on Big Guns.
 * [p.423-05] The Antique Lincoln Coin Collection's location is listed incorrectly. It's on the east side of the Museum of History, but is listed as the west.

Mistakes in this edition
Errors, omissions, or inaccuracies either newly introduced or unchanged from previous editions of the guide.
 * [p.8] The "Action Points" section incorrectly states that "Attack with any kind of weapon except a Rifle or a Big Gun and it takes 10 AP. &hellip; Firing a Rifle takes 25 AP. Firing a Big Gun with a projectile takes 75 AP." AP costs listed under for individual weapon are correct.
 * [p.8] The "Carry Weight" section incorrectly indicates that the various temporary and permanent modifiers to Carry Weight have an effect of 20 pounds per point of Strength; the correct value is 10 pounds (as the guide's tables correctly show).
 * [p.9] Under "Melee and Unarmed Damage", it is stated that Unarmed Damage is calculated as 25% of your Unarmed skill; it is actually Unarmed/20+0.5.
 * [p.15] The "Demolition Expert" perk description states that it will increase the damage of missile launchers when the perk has no effect on Big Guns.
 * [p.17] The "Pyromaniac" perk description states that the Burnmaster, Nuka-grenades, and the Zhu-Rong v418 Chinese pistol are affected by this perk. They are not.
 * [p.22] Under the "Power Armor Training" perk, a non-existent armor called "Brotherhood Recon Armor" is listed as being affected by the perk.
 * [p.24] The "Pitt Fighter" perk description states that it increases DR and Rad Resistance by a whopping 25, rather than the correct 3.
 * [p.24] The "Xenotech Expert" perk description states that it affects MPLX Novasurge and the regular plasma pistol, and doesn't affect the shock baton. This is not true.
 * [p.29] Under the heading "Ramifications of Having Evil Karma", it states that Pronto sells a set of dart gun schematics, that are only available to Evil characters. Pronto sells no schematics.
 * [p.29] It is implied by the omission of "Raiders will always attack you" (present for both Neutral and Good Karma) that Evil characters have a chance of not being attacked by raiders. This is not the case.
 * [p.32] Under the "Grenades or Mines" heading, it states that placing grenades around a mine will cause the grenades to detonate when the mine does. There is no way to "place" grenades, and the world models of grenades do not explode.
 * [p.44] Under The Pitt Factions the dates of events and ranks of charicters involved are wrong. For example, The Scourge in 2042 lead by Star Paladin Lyons.
 * [p.44] It is implied that Enclave Squad Sigma troopers would appear all over the Wasteland, as opposed to just at the Mobile base crawler.
 * [p.60] The guide incorrectly states that Confessor Cromwell was granted permission to stay from is "successor", as opposed to his predecessor.
 * [p.64] The guide incorrectly lists Butcher's age as 29. His age is actually 31 in game.
 * [p.68] Rococo Rockfowl's naming. The Encyclopedia number is wrong. In the guide it states Volume VII, but in the game is Volume VIII.
 * [p.73] The guide incorrectly spells Trouble Man's name as "TroubleMan" within Friday's biography paragraph.
 * [p.74] Mister Lopez's biography paragraph is in the G section, instead of the M or the L.
 * [p.75] The picture of Grudd Bear is, in fact, that of John.
 * [p.80] Knight Captain Durga is labeled right in the Wasteland Census section, but is named wrong in the description. (sergeant)
 * [p.84] Robert Joseph MacCready's term as mayor of Little Lamplight is incorrect; "two" as opposed to the correct amount, three.
 * [p.86] Moira Brown's ghoul face is not pictured, whereas Brother Gerard's and Mother Curie III's are.
 * [p.88] Steve Mack's biography section misspells Chief Hannon (Paul Hannon, Sr.) as "Chief Hammond."
 * [p.91] Lawrence Mears' biography section misspells his name as "Private Laurence Mears (deceased)".
 * [p.97] Sun of Atom is misspelled in the Guide, under the name "Son of Atom".
 * [p.98] Under Specialist Olin there is a spelling error; it says "He" where it should say "She". It is corrected in the another sentence.
 * [p.101] Under Tree Father Birch there is a spelling error; worshiping is spelled worshipping.
 * [p.108] The guide does not note that Colonel Autumn's laser pistol is no longer a fully-automatic weapon post-Broken Steel.
 * [p.109] The tri-beam laser rifle's description as "unique" and its lack of proper picture are still present.
 * [p.121] Under the Callahan's magnum section, it states that the weapon does damage over time.
 * [p.1213] The Perforator is listed as being repairable only with Infiltrators. In the game, you can repair the Perforator with regular assault rifles, and you cannot use an Infiltrator to repair any kind of assault rifle.
 * [p.124] The Lever-action rifle and the Backwater rifle use the image of Lincoln's repeater, rather than their own image. It also states that the backwater rifle can be repaired with either Lever-Action or hunting rifles. The backwater rifle can only be repaired with the Lever-Action type of rifles.
 * [p.127-8] The entries for all of the various Vault jumpsuits (including the unique Vault 77 jumpsuit) indicate that they boost Melee Weapons and Small Guns by 2. In reality, they boost Melee Weapons and Speech by 2; the 77 suit increases Melee Weapons and Unarmed by 5.
 * [p.131] The winterized medic armor is listed under power armor types, and is described as needing Power Armor Training to be worn. Winterized medic armor is a form of Combat Armor, not Power Armor.
 * [p.135] A non-existent bonus of 5 to Small Guns is listed under the Enclave officer uniform.
 * [p.135] The Small Guns bonus from Eulogy Jones' suit is not mentioned.
 * [p.140] The bonuses from Tenpenny's Suit are not listed.
 * [p.142] The winterized medic helmet displays the image of the winterized T-51b power helmet. Althgough listed under Power Armor, it does not require Power Armor Training to be worn: as the guide correctly points out "This is a Combat Helmet variant."
 * [p.146] The Takoma Park Little Leaguer Cap's bonuses include a +5 bonus to Melee damage in the guide. In the game, this bonus is only applied to baseball bats.
 * [p.148] The guide says that there are only 3 wigs (one on Griffon, one on a ghoul guard and one in the wig cabinet). There are actually 6 wigs in the cabinet, bringing the total to 8.
 * [p.288-9] An item called "Father's Books" is mentioned as the reward for Trouble on the Homefront. This item does not exist.
 * [p.306 0.21] The unique combat knife Stabhappy, is listed as potentially dropping during any random encounters involving raiders. In actuality it is only found on a specific raider in the unmarked location known as the Raid Shack (as correctly noted on p. 114), where the raider and Stabhappy re-spawn an unlimited number of times.
 * [p.309] Under Secondary Locations; 1.B Brotherhood outcast shack is misspelled "Brotherhood Outcast Shaft.", 1.C, and 1.N are all labeled "Jackknifed Truck (on Freeway)" when 1.C should be labeled "Jackknifed Chinese Internment Truck", 1.N (page 318) there is nothing of note, while 1.D (the scientist explosion) is labeled "correctly" for its corresponding page 317.
 * [p.318] Under Primary Locations; "Recon Craft Theta" is labeled where "MZ1 Crashed Anomaly" and "MZ1 Alien Homing Beacon" are labeled in the Mothership Zeta section p.718.
 * [p.344 4.Q] A non-existent "second" alien blaster found at Fort Bannister Ground Zero is still included in the guide.
 * [p.426 13.03] A mini nuke is listed as being present in Takoma Motor, but might not be found in the game. Since the table on p. 734 describes the location of #56 as "on the body of the fallen Behemoth", presumably this arises from a misunderstanding that Behemoth loot may randomly spawn a mini-nuke.
 * [p.477] The Operation: Anchorage strike team apparently had a limit on how many reinforcement units could be sent: 10 Strike Team Infantrymen, 5 Strike Team Grenadiers, 2 Strike Team Missile Units, 2 Strike Team Snipers, 2 Mister Gutsies, and 1 sentry bot.
 * [p.496] In The Pitt, the guide says to select the Outcast distress signal instead of Wernher's distress signal.
 * [p.497, p.524] In The Pitt, the concealed knife obtained at the start of Into the Pitt is a switchblade, not a combat knife.
 * [p.682 PL5.24D] The key to Homestead Motel room 1G is also to be found in plain sight in the motel office.
 * [p.733-4 Appendix 4] The guide fails to list all of the guaranteed mini nuke locations.

Mistakes corrected in this edition

 * Barkskin's description now reads "+5 DR" as opposed to "+10 DR, +1 EN".
 * All food and drug effects are corrected.
 * The incorrect PE requirement for Lawbringer and Contract Killer is removed.
 * [p.19] The original guide declares that with the Explorer perk, one can fast travel with every location in the game. This has been corrected.
 * [p.438] The originally published official game guide, it mistakenly lists this item as being in a room on the western side of the same floor. It was however corrected in the Game of the Year Edition.

Mistakes in this edition

 * In the Broken Steel/Point Lookout guide's picture for the tri-beam laser rifle has a standard laser rifle and labels it as such. Furthermore, the tri-beam laser rifle is referred to as if it was an unique variant of the AER9 laser rifle.
 * In the Broken Steel/Point Lookout guide on how to get the fertilizer shovel from Croatoa, it fails to mention that the player can use the Child at Heart Perk to automatically claim it from him.