Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. The social structure inside the vault has gone haywire, your father has pulled a surprise, and the leadership is not pleased. There also seems to be an insect infestation...

This is going to be your first real taste of Fallout 3. Making decisions about how to approach situations, moral choices, gear choices, weapon choices, and learning that ammo is not an infinite resource. You'll need to learn ways to heal yourself, how to make use of the compass, and you'll get more experience with the VATS system.

Amata - Wake Up!

Amata's got some bad news for us. Your father has left the vault somehow, incurring the wrath of the Overseer. Worse, they've killed Jonas and are now hunting for you. Let's just say that they're not going to invite you to sit down with the Overseer and have tea and cookies. Go ahead and listen to Amata's side of the story, ask her questions and accept any gifts that she sees fit to bestow on you.

I've only played as a neutral/good character so far, so it's possible that Amata may not give you a gift if you were mean to her at age 16. Or, depending on the conversational options you pick, Amata may choose to leave without giving you anything. If this happens, quicksave and then pick her pockets.

After Amata leaves, search the entire room for weapons, gear, goodies, or anything else you might want to use for barter later. At a minimum, you should grab the Baseball Bat (melee weapon), the BB gun and ammo, the medical supplies, and search the dresser for items from your childhood.

Tip: If you have both the BB gun and the 10mm pistol, I recommend using the BB gun on the roaches and save the harder hitting 10mm for use against bigger targets.

Tip #2: If you wear gear with "PER +1" on it, that item will boost your Perception attribute by one point; making it easier to spot enemies before they see you.



Whats all this about, anyway?

Now that we're armed and (somewhat) dangerous, it's time to go out into the corridors and find out what all the fuss is about. As soon as you poke your head outside your living quarters, you're going to have a run-in with a few roaches and Officer Kendall. He's not going to be happy when he sees you, but unless you attack him he'll quickly be distracted and usually dispatched by some radroaches.

Note: It's possible to escape the vault without killing anyone and requires a bit of sneaking or fleeing. On the other hand, you'll get lots of basically free XP and low-risk practice at combat. As you approach each new situation during your escape, keep in mind that there are multiple ways to handle most things.

Sneaking around

For the sneaky types, you'll want to walk instead of running (hold down the [Shift] key) and you're going to spend all your time crouched ([Left-Ctrl] toggles this). When sneaking, you're going to see either "[HIDDEN]", "[DETECTED]", "[CAUTION]" in red, or "[DANGER]" in red at the top of the screen. In the case of multiple NPCs who can/can't see you, the HUD (Heads Up Display) will indicate the worst of the four possible states. So if all the NPCs can't see you, but one can then you'll see either [DETECTED] or [DANGER]; depending on the disposition of the NPC that can see you.

[HIDDEN] - This is a good state to be in. Nobody can see you and nobody knows where you are. This means that you when you initiate combat (by shooting, or with VATS) you'll be granted a "sneak attack" which always do critical damage. Only the first attack in VATS queue is considered a sneak attack, so make that first shot count! Being hidden from a target also allows you to attempt to pickpocket the target.

[DETECTED] - You've been spotted by one or more friendly NPCs. Any attempts at pickpocketing NPCs that can see you will always fail (although you can peek for free).

[CAUTION] - The enemy knows you're around, but not where. After a while, they may lose interest and go about their original business (your HUD will go back to [HIDDEN]). Some enemies are overly suspicious and will search a very long time for you. You will not score sneak attack criticals against alerted and searching enemies (wait for them to stop searching). You can't pickpocket an alerted enemy, but you can pickpocket others who haven't seen you yet.

[DANGER] - This indicator will flash when you've been spotted by an enemy and will remain lit for as long as enemies know where you are. For the not so observant among us, the incoming fire, exclamations of hostile intent and rapidly approaching enemies will also serve as notice that is now "fight or flight" time.

(One odd thing about Officer Kendall is that he starts off as neutral towards you, but turns hostile after he spots and identifies you.)

The Compass

If you look closely at the HUD in the above picture, you will see the HUD compass in the lower left corner of the screen.

The area above the double horizontal line is labeled "HP" (hit points) and indicates how healthy you are as a percentage of your maximum health. For new players, I recommend patching yourself up anytime you drop below 80% or so. Just in case you run into some big ugly that takes away half your health with its first attack.

But the area below the double line is more interesting to us for now. You will see an upside down triangle hanging over top of the compass rose markings. This indicates your current heading (North / South / East / West / etc) and is easy enough to figure out if you look in different directions.

Above the markings, you will often see green or red vertical lines of varying intensity. Green marks are (usually) friendly NPCs that you have sensed with your Perception attribute, while red marks are (always) hostile NPCs. Brighter marks indicate nearer NPCs while fainter marks denote NPCs that are more distant.

Below the compass markings, you will see things like the waypoint indicator for the current quest, or small triangles that indicate locations that you have or have not visited which are nearby. These marks do not appear in the Officer Kendall screenshot.

If you look closely at the screenshot, you will see (1) red (1) green and then (2) red lines above the compass rose. The green mark is Officer Kendall who has just detected us. The red marks are radroaches which are to the left (one roach) and right (two roaches) of Officer Kendall.

Looting

Here's your first chance to loot corpses (oh joy). Don't be squeamish, because this is an important way of getting better gear for yourself or useful items!

Officer Kendall always drops Vault 101 Security Armor and Helmet. Unless you're roleplaying in a contrary style, I recommend always equipping the body armor as it lessens the amount of damage you'll take during your escape. You'll want to loot other corpses and take as much as possible for living expenses after you escape.



Here's what one of my characters looked like after putting on the security armor and helmet. Others have chosen to use other outfits, to wear a baseball cap, or not wear anything on their head at all.

Oh look, it's Butch

Remember that attitude that Butch gave you while growing up? Here's your chance to get a little payback (choices range from angelic to neutral to downright evil).

Shortly after your first combat, Butch is going to come running up to you outside of the mens/ladies restrooms. He's going to ask you to help save his mother from some radroaches. I suggest making a save point and trying out different options. Naturally, for an evil character, now is the time to give in to your evil side and take everything that they own, including their lives. On the other hand, killing him now will prevent him from appearing later on in the main quest chain, but this does not keep you from fulfilling the main quest.

(No matter what, I recommend taking all of Ellen DeLoria's booze that you find laying around in her bedroom. It'll provide you with a few more caps once you get to town after your escape.)

Officer Gomez, Andy and Stanley

Eventually, you'll come to a set of stairs leading up to the Atrium level (look at the signs above doorways). It's a good idea to create a save point prior to going up those stairs. Here you're going to run into your first friendly guard, Officer Gomez, who is going to give you the redundant advice that you need to get out of the vault before the Overseer and his goons find you. Andy (the robot) and Stanley are also hiding around here and can be fun to watch.

Nearby you will find your father's clinic as well as the classroom where you took the G.O.A.T.. Both are good places to search for loot, hidden items and your first Bobblehead doll (if you didn't take it back at age 16). Some of the loot is not so easy to find as it is mixed in with other clutter, so peek around carefully.

This is also a good time to learn how to use the light feature of your Pip-Boy 3000A. If you press and hold the [Tab] key, your Pip-Boy will light up a small area around you, making it easier to search for stuff. Pressing and holding [Tab] again will turn the light back off. Keep in mind that you are much less stealthy with the light on, so only use it when you are in a safe or cleared out location.

Tip: If you find "Scrap Metal", take it with you as there are folks out there who value it. Some other bits and pieces are used in creating items at a workshop table.

Vault 101 Atrium (Lower Level)

Upon using the door into the Atrium, you'll see the black loading screen as you enter a new level. This is an excellent time to create a save as things can get hairy up ahead.

Around the corner you are going to hear Tom and Mary Holden talking about making their escape. This is not the brightest idea as the two guards in the left-corridor are not keen on allowing it. For the evil players, you can quickly slide around the corner and use VATS to kill Tom & Mary before they rush off to their doom. But for the most part, their fate is sealed and they'll die at the hands of the two guards. (You can save them by engaging the guards first, but it has no effect on the game world or future quests.)

Either way, you're going to need to deal or sneak past those two guards. While the entrance that they're guarding in that corridor leads directly to the vault entrance area, it's impossible to open at this point. So you're going to need to go across the lower level of the Atrium to the stairs in the southeast corner. The entrance to these stairs is labeled "Upper Level".

If you decide to take on the guards, be aware that they are not pushovers and the 10mm pistol is a good weapon choice. Aim carefully as you probably only have a clip or two of 10mm ammo at this point. On the upside, they're going to drop armor and weapons that can be used/sold later. And if you're lucky, a few radroaches from the upper level stairs will come over to join in the fun.

Note: At the western end of the Atrium, you can see the round Overseer's Office window up on the second level.

Vault 101 Atrium (Upper Level)



As you head up the stairs, you're going to encounter a few radroaches and possibly even Security Chief Hannon. Where you encounter the security chief depends on how fast you move through the area and how much noise you make. I've seen him as early as the hallway at the top of the stairs (often dead) or not until I get over near the dead maintenance worker, Floyd Lewis past the Mack's apartment window.

Keep moving forward until you get past the Security Chief, the not so happy Mack couple, and poor Floyd Lewis.

VATS Combat System



Here's a good example of the VATS combat system. Pressing the [V] key takes you into VATS mode where you can queue up attacks. The arrows on the left/right of the screen would allow you to switch targets and queue up attacks on those targets as well.

Tip: If you have two enemies, one behind the other, shoot at the enemy in the rear. Your shots will often pass through the front enemy, inflicting damage, before hitting the rear enemy.

As you can see, the different body parts on Security Chief Hannon have different percentages. These are your "chance to hit" that portion of the body. The amount of damage done can be determined by looking closely at the flashing health indicator at the bottom of the screen. In this screenshot, if we were to shoot his head, we have a 94% chance to hit and it will take away about 25% of his health. So if we queue up four shots and all of them hit, there's a good chance that we can kill him.

Time is stopped in VATS mode, so take your time to play around with queuing up different shots and observing the projected effect on the enemy's health bar.

Different weapons require more or less action points for each shot. Sometimes you'll only get off 2 or 3 shots with one weapon while you could have gotten off 3 or 4 with another. Action points take a while to regenerate and you don't have to queue up a full set of shots and burn all your action points in a single VATS attack.

If you're sneaking and [HIDDEN], keep in mind that only your first VATS attack counts as a sneak attack. Additional queued shots will do regular damage with the normal chance of critical damage and may alert other enemies to your presence. However, if you can kill the enemy with the first shot, often the others won't be notice you or see you. So a sneak attack should be chosen with regards to chance of success, weapon damage, weapon noise, and the amount of damage inflicted if you hit that body part.

Plus you'll often be treated to seeing the shot in slow-mo from different points of view, or seeing the camera follow the projectile.

If you don't manage to kill your opponent before running out of action points with which to use VATS, then you'll have to resort to taking shots without VATS. Just aim and shoot, using the [Right-Mouse] button if you need better accuracy and can afford to stand still. The 10mm pistol can be fired nearly as fast as you can click the [Left-Mouse] button. Just remember that you only have 12 bullets in the clip and that it takes time to reload.

Overall, I'm fairly happy with the VATS system. Especially for sneaky types that need to rely heavily on sneak attack critical damage to soften up or one-shot kill enemies. It be used as a poor-man's scope for checking out distant enemies (including seeing what weapon they have equipped). Or you can attack enemies in multiple directions where your character shoots and then turns directly to the enemy in another direction before shooting again.

Rescuing Amata?

After you find the body of Floyd Lewis, you'll exit to the northwest through a door labeled "Admin". (This is a good point to save at.) As you get near the corner, you're going to hear Amata being interrogated by the Overseer and Officer Mack.



As usual, there are half a dozen ways to deal with this situation. Sneak past and escape, enter and kill Mack and/or the Overseer, let Amata deal with it (if you let her keep the 10mm pistol back at the start), threaten the Overseer, or surrender to the Overseer.

My first time through, I queued up head shots in VATS and killed both the Overseer and Officer Mack before they could react. Turns out that Amata was less then pleased with my decision to kill her father in front of her. Oops...

Tip: While you can skip this confrontation, there's a fair amount of ammo stored inside the interrogation area.

Jonas

Ah poor Jonas, we barely knew thee. And yet, here we are, looting your body for the sweet outfit that you're carrying. You know, just in case we ever need to hack a computer terminal. Make sure you poke around in here as you'll find some other clues and items that can be useful.

Check the surrounding rooms for more items and you may find Amata sitting at a table with more words of wisdom for you.

Overseer's Office



At last, we reach our goal. If you have the Overseer's key, then you can waltz right in. Otherwise you'll have to pick the door lock to gain entry. (There are two places to obtain the key in this section, so you'll probably already have the key.)

Make sure you check the lockers in the office for more ammo, then tackle the computer. If you found the password, then you'll log right in, otherwise you'll have to play the computer hacking mini-game. Make sure to equip any +Science gear before attempting to crack the password to make things easier.

The computer entries are good for a chuckle and provide important clues about the situation outside the vault as well as two locations that should be visited early on.

Escape

Head down the secret tunnel, kill the last radroach, and make your way to the exit chamber to activate the door lock. At this point, Amata will come down to say her goodbyes, followed by a door opening up with two angry goons behind it.

At this point, you can run out. Or hide and watch the goons take out their aggression on Amata. Or kill the goons, and any others that come running, then go into the storage area where they came from for additional loot.

If you're feeling the need, you can even circle back through the entire Atrium level to check for more items.

When you head out towards the surface exit, make sure that you create a save. You'll be prompted whether you want to change your sex, name, appearance, attributes or skills prior to leaving. By having a save at this point, it makes rerolling easier down the line (if you want to skip the Vault 101 section).

DING! Level 2

As you enter the wasteland that was once Washington D.C., take a moment to savor the view then head forward to complete the "Escape!" quest. This rewards you with enough XP to get to level 2. You'll now be prompted to assign additional skill points (usually 12-18, depending on your INT) along with picking your first perk.

My recommendations at this point are that you get Science to at least 25 (20 if you have the lab coat), Explosives to 25, Lockpick to at least 25, and drop the rest of the points into either Repair, Sneak or Small Guns. That will give you a solid base of skills so that you can open up easy locks, have the option of doing an early quest in Megaton, and you can hack easy computer terminals.

Perks

At level 2, you'll only have access to seven perks to start. Maybe less if you don't have the minimum attributes to take a particular perk.

Black Widow / Lady Killer: 10% more damage to humanoids of the opposite sex. Also opens up additional conversation options with certain NPCs of the same sex.

Daddy's Boy / Daddy's Girl: +5 to Science and Medicine skills. Taking this means that you could put five points elsewhere on the previous screen instead of into Science.

Gun Nut: +5 to Repair and Small Guns skills.

Little Leaguer: +5 to Melee and Explosives skills. Again, this frees up five points on the previous screen if you want to get Explosives to 25.

Thief: +5 to Sneak and Lockpick. Useful for the sneaky types, allows you to free up points that you would otherwise have invested in Lockpick.

Swift Learner: +10% to all XP gains.

Intense Training: Boost a single SPECIAL attribute by one point.

Of the various perks, I almost always take Gun Nut as my first perk with either Thief or Black Widow / Lady Killer as my perk at level 3. Black Widow is a lot stronger then Lady Killer because most NPCs in the wastelands are male. So if you play a male character, Lady Killer is more useful for opening up additional conversation options.

I'm not a fan of Swift Learner or Intense Training in the early levels. Although the latter is useful if you have a SPECIAL attribute that you need to shore up due to poor choices back during the Baby Steps quest. But you could have also adjusted your attributes as you exited the vault.

Keep in mind that at level 4, you will almost always take "Educated" (for 3 more skill points at each level) followed by "Comprehension" (reading books gives you 2 skill points instead of only one) at level 5. So any perks that you don't take now (such as Thief) will probably not be taken until level 6 or later.

Of course, there will be other perks vying for your attention by that point, so you'll be highly unlikely to take any additional perks that only boost skills. Most perk choices past level 3 should be chosen based on the special enhancement rather then a skill boost. There are lots of other ways to boost individual skills once you get out and start exploring (books, quests, gear, or simply assigning points when you gain a level).

(When the even numbered levels roll around, you usually become eligible for 4-8 new perks depending on prerequisites. So it's simply impossible to take all possible perks, much less backfill with perks from prior levels.)