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Fallout 3 Hints
Combat Tips
1 of 13: You mainly encounter hostiles while exploring new areas. As the Exploration Tips will tell you, you should always go exploring with lots of ammo for your favorite weapon(s) and lots of restorative items like stimpaks. Most of the money you make early in the game should be spent on such things to make sure you're always well-stocked in them.
2 of 13: Hotkey your most commonly used weapons and aid items so you can quickly switch weapons and pop aid items in the middle of battle. Doing so can be more convenient than bringing up the Pip-Boy all the time. Also, using a weapon's hotkey to unequip and re-equip it is the fastest way to reload it.
3 of 13: The most effective way to fight enemies that charge you is to hide around a corner and wait for them to appear in front of you, then immediately hit the key to go into V.A.T.S. mode. Use all your action points to target their most vulnerable spot (usually the head), and you'll probably be able to take them down very quickly, especially since there's an added 15% chance of getting critical hits when using V.A.T.S. This is an especially useful tactic when you're running low on ammo, and have to switch to a melee weapon. (Also note that you only take 10% of normal damage while in V.A.T.S. mode, which will help you survive the attack.)
4 of 13: When you're forced to trade shots with a distant gunman, you should equip the gun you're most accurate with, then crouch and use zoom mode to help you shoot him. (Using V.A.T.S. may also help a bit, but accuracy will be low.)
5 of 13: The head isn't always the best thing to aim for when using V.A.T.S. to take down enemies. If an enemy has a heavy two-handed weapon (like a minigun), crippling one of his hands will make it nearly impossible for him to use the weapon, as will targeting and damaging the weapon itself. Also, with fast enemies, it can be useful to use V.A.T.S. to cripple one of their legs and slow them down.
6 of 13: V.A.T.S. can be useful even when you're out of action points, since it can pause combat and give you time to decide what to do next. Also, you can aim at a specific part of an enemy's body, and then fire right after leaving V.A.T.S. to almost certainly hit it.
7 of 13: When fighting tough enemies (like super mutants) in an indoor area, it can be useful to set a couple of frag mines before starting combat, and then lead your enemies across them. Frag mines you set won't blow up even if you run right over them, so you don't have to worry about that. (If you encounter frag mines or other traps that enemies have set, see the Trap Tips to learn how to deal with them.)
8 of 13: Another good combat tactic is to try to sneak up on your opponents so you can score a sneak-attack critical strike on them right off. How successful you are at this depends on your Sneak skill, and whether or not you have certain useful sneak-related things like the Silent Running perk and stealth boys.
9 of 13: V.A.T.S. can see in the dark, which is very useful when you're sneaking around a dark area with your Pip-Boy light off to avoid detection. To see if there are any enemies ahead, look around and press the V.A.T.S. key several times. If there's anything nearby that you can get line-of-sight with, you'll enter V.A.T.S. mode, and can take the first shot. (This is especially useful if you're using the above-mentioned dart gun to cripple enemies.)
10 of 13: V.A.T.S. also greatly extends your reach if you're using melee weapons. Without V.A.T.S., you have to be very close to an enemy to hit him with a melee weapon. With V.A.T.S., you can be considerably farther back. Also, there can be an obstruction between you and your target as long as it doesn't completely block your line-of-sight with the target. (This is especially useful for stealth characters who use melee weapons to score powerful sneak attacks.)
11 of 13: Enemies often won't follow you through area-transition doors, so if you're overwhelmed and are near such a door, go through it to escape combat so you can heal up before returning to battle (or get away if you'd rather do that). If the enemies you're trying to escape do follow you through the door, try restoring the autosave that was made when you went through it -- they may not follow you then.
12 of 13: Keep chems such as psycho and jet on hand for particularly tough battles, since they can increase the damage you deal and how many action points you have. Just be careful not to get addicted to any chems unless you're able to see a doctor about a cure sometime soon, or have the "my first laboratory" item for your house.
13 of 13: Another thing to note about chems is that their effects won't stack, meaning that if you take two psychos at once, you won't get Damage +50% -- just Damage +25%, the same as if you'd only taken one. However, you can take one psycho (Damage +25%) and then eat one portion of yao guai meat (Damage +10%) and end up with Damage +35% (for two minutes, anyway).
