Wheaton Armory | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 An overview of the Armory | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wheaton Armory is a pre-War U.S. Army armory in Fallout 3. It acts as a major staging area for Capital Wasteland raiders.[1]
Layout[]
The Armory is enclosed by a chain link fence and surrounded by reinforced earthworks that contain the bunker and foundations for the buildings. There are two main entrances along the north-south axis, with prefabricated guard posts and sandbag emplacements covering both, typically staffed by a raider or two.
Inside the base perimeter, there are the aforementioned earthworks. The eastern half encloses the derelict office building that once served the garrison of the Armory, providing the raiders with excellent fields of view in all directions and additional cover. Access to them is through the staircase behind the office building. The building itself is partially collapsed, with rubble spilling into the Armory grounds. There is a throng of raiders here, some of whom use heavy weapons. There are four floors to clear, with access to the second floor possible through the collapsed concrete slab. At the fourth floor, obscured by a rag, is a stash of three ammunition boxes and two first aid boxes.
Opposite the gutted building is the entrance to the Wheaton Armory bunker, flanked by prefabricated buildings and storage crates. The raiders use leftover infrastructure as makeshift gallows, though the bunker itself is surprisingly well maintained.
After The Waters of Life, an Enclave patrol with two soldiers will appear near the north gate and likely engage the raiders. It's also possible to encounter a long range patrol of Brotherhood Outcasts, who can provide assistance against the raiders.
Bunker[]
Much of the bunker is destroyed and caved in. What remains accessible is the primary shaft, bereft of an ICBM but with lingering radioactive contamination, and a portion of the lower level store rooms. The entrance is free of radiation, but as soon as the player enters the outer silo corridors, it starts to increase, capping at around 15 rads per second within the launch chamber. Rad-X and RadAway are recommended.
The bottom of the silo is accessible down catwalks passing through ruined control stations. At the bottom is a tunnel that leads into a cave in and an old armory locked with a Very Hard lock and terminal (100 in Lockpick or Science are necessary to open the door). There's a dead raider who tried to open the door with a package of Mentats nearby, but all they did was trip the sole remaining turret and die under the attack.
Notable loot[]
- Beyond the locked door at the bottom of the silo is a stockpile of weapons and ammunition. An alarm sounds when the player opens the door, but nobody can come, of course.
- 1 minigun and ammunition
- 4 assault rifles
- 2 missile launchers and ammunition
- 2 sniper rifles and ammunition
- 2 radiation suits
- frag grenades, frag mines
- U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes
Appearances[]
The Wheaton Armory only appears in Fallout 3.
References
- ↑ Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition p. 362: "An old military base is now one of the major locations of power for the Raiders as they fan out from the nearby Bethesda Ruins. Once the Enclave arrive, expect the two factions to fight each other in this locale. There are the well-defined northern and southern gates and a gap in the fence to the west and southeast (the best way if you're Sneaking in here)."
