Forum:How does enemy scaling work?

Hello everybody, I'm new to Fallout 3 and this community, so first of all thank you for this great wiki!

Since I'm an Oblivion veteran, I've got a question about enemy scaling in Fallout 3. In Oblivion, enemy weapons and equipment were connected to the player level. So for instance a level 3 player encounters enemies with smaller, more harmless weapons than a level 20 player. How is this done in Fallout 3?

The reason I ask is I bought the main game for my XBox and instantly downloaded the first two DLCs. I just completed Op Anchorage, obtaining a minigun, the gauss rifle and the power armor as a lvl 8 character. Right now, I'm a little concerned that using this stuff this early on might break balancing.

Am I right, or not? 81.173.156.33 08:52, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Well it's been said before in an IGN interview with Beth Devs that using higher level guns at low level will not do anything to the enemies level. To paraphrase "You see in Fallout 3, we can give you this super awesome gun, but only a few bullets, whereas in Oblivion, once you get a good sword, you can use it"

So basically, if you have the ammo and money, go ahead, you'll just have an advantage. --RockandRhyme 20:04, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

I just started Oblivion (level 12), but have played through fallout twice and spent over 300hrs on it. It does not scale enemies like Oblivion at all. The enemy scaling in Fallout is more related to running into more difficult enemies the farther along in the quest line you get, or having to fight tougher enemies when you are trying to get a unique weapon, etc. But there will always just be raiders at the Super-duper mart, trogs in the steelyard, Deathclaws at the Deathclaw sanctuary, etc... it is determined by the location you are in, not your levelPgoon 16:32, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Thats not true..... enemies do scale as you go up in level. If you go to super duper mart very early you will find weaker raiders. Some places scale and some do not. But essentially when they do scale you will see a tougher version of the same enemy. So for instance you may find a Brute replaced by a master at higher levels. > Zmonster