Game on

Having a hard time starting up Fallout 3? In the beginning you can be low on caps and be a rookie on how to fight using the V.A.T.S. system. Here are some quick hints, spoiler free of course, to help you get started.

V.A.T.S. combat system
Pretty early in the game, earlier than you might expect, you will get into combat. Instead of just “jabbing” away with the R1 button use the power of V.A.T.S. by clicking R2 and selecting where to throw those punches for better precision using the action points. It’s very simple, click R2, select body part (or whole enemy if in close combat), click R1 to target, click X to confirm and then watch the magic. Remaining action points are shown on the bottom right of the screen. (buttons are for the PS3 release, check which are needed for you if you run PC or X-box 360 versions)

First Caps
To get the first flow of caps incoming I recommend doing many “fast travels” between your first mission (wherever that might be) and your hometown. Pick up as much as you can without being over-combured and sell it all. Do notice that the vendors have a limited amount of money, so only sell as much as they can pay for. Use multiple vendors if one is out of cash. Another trick is to repair / buy from the vendor before you sell. Pick up everything you find with weight zero (mostly medical supply but also other items) since you can carry however many you want and always sell the surplus to vendors.

Survival Guide (semi-spoiler!)
Early on you will get a quest to write a survival guide, it is highly recommended that you do these early on since it will teach you quite a few tricks.

Strange items
Found lots of strange items? Nuka-Cola? Lunch box? Bubble heads? Pick it all up! Make sure to keep a few of every odd item you find, you never know when it might become useful. Pick a home somewhere (or earn one hint hint) and save all your stuff in a locker or box somewhere so you dont have to carry it around. The strangest items in the game can prove very useful later on. If you sell it to vendors you can always buy it back later… but at a higher price of course!

Choose path
Choose your path early on, are you good or evil? Do you chat or do you keep it short? Depending on decisions you will end up playing the game very differently with different oppertunities, make sure you get the oppertunities you want and dont start out by doing something that would be out of character for you.

Sneaking
Using stealth properly can really help out quite a few times. Use cover and darkness to improve stealth efficiency and make sure to suprise your enemies. In the beginning, being a lousy shot, you might want to either sneak up on enemies or lure them to you in order to get a clean headshot using V.A.T.S. in close range. Run around corners and wait for them to approach. Use the radar on the bottom left of the screen, when you see red dots it means you have detected enemies nearby, directly go into stealth so you can sneak up on them and not the other way around!

The Pipboy 3000
Study all the functions of the Pipboy 3000, there is alot of help to find in there.

The Pipboy 3000 light
The darned thing is equiped with a light source! Simply keep the O-button pressed down a second or two and it will light up. This will help you find lots of stuff in the darkness, just don’t forget to switch it off before you end up in combat or the enemies will have an easy time spotting you.

Running away
Running away from enemies can prove fatal, while you might get further away from those behind you there is no guarantee you won’t run in to even more trouble around the next corner.

Hope this helps and I sure hope I didn’t mention the slightest piece of information more than needed here! Have a great game!