Fallout 3

- The game has a sort of lantern 'oblivion light spell' that emits from your PIPBOY. I didn't realize how to activate it until level 10 after some other goon mentioned there is a 'flashlight'. You hold down your PIPBOY button.

- The Lady Killer perk appears damn near useless. I've had one extra dialogue option (which didn't do anything), Super Mutants don't have gender, and I'm over halfway through the game, by my estimates.(Conversely: The Black Widow perk is AWESOME. Definitely pick that.)

- Don't fret too much over what skills you tag. All that does is add 15 to them, so it affects the beginning of the game.

- The perks that give you extra skills points from leveling up and from books are both quite useful and should be taken as early as possible.

- Stay the fuck away from Yao Guais.(Conversely: get animal friend. I love walking up to Yao Guais just to be able to pet them.)

- Repair is probably the most invaluable skill in the game. It will be useful no matter what other paths you take.

- Honestly, the best way to play this is to make it up as you go along.

- However I will tell you tagging a skill at the start of the game doesn't make a huge amount of difference, just adds fifteen skill points straight off the bat. After a few levels pumping skill points you can make any skill effective. Just not every. Figure out what skills you're relying on and get them up as early as you can.

- Bear in mind that most puzzles that can be solved with Science and Lockpicking can be solved by both (i.e. many of the safes can be remotely opened by computer). Since these skills let you do more complex hacking/lockpicking at the 25, 50, 75, and 100 points, it's probably best to level one up and then the other.

- Pick up as much as you can possibly carry from Vault 101. All the security armor, all the police batons, all the helmets, all the beer and bonesaws and random shit, everything. What you don't use to repair stuff with later you can sell for a tidy sum to help make the beginning of the game easier.

- If you are planning on being good/neutral, do the "disarm the bomb" quest in Megaton as soon as you have high enough Explosive skill (I think its something fairly low like 25). It gets you a house where you can stash gear you aren't using, but don't want to sell, in the cupboards, and a bed where you can rest.

- There are characters in various places that buy specific items for more than their value. So stash any Sugar Bombs, Pre-war books (NOT "Burned book" or anything like that, books that have the title "Pre-war book"), brotherhood of steel holotags, Nuka-cola quantum and scrap metal in your house, then when you find the related characters you can fast travel back and forth making a decent amount of money. I messed up a little by drinking a ton of nuka-cola quantum before finding the woman who buys it, and now I'm scraping around looking for another 7 bottles...

- There is a level cap at 20 which I hit at about halfway through the story quest because I was wandering about looking a stuff and doing sidequests. I would prioritize lock-picking and hacking because if they aren't high enough when you hit level 20, there will be some doors and computers you will never be able to access.

- I don't normally use guides for games, but you might consider looking up the locations of the bobbleheads, each one either gives you +10 points in a skill or +1 point to an attribute.

- There is a perk that gives you +10% experience that you can take twice. I wouldn't bother unless you are going for a second playthrough just to get the "Hit level 6/12/20 as good/neutral/evil" type achievements. There is plenty in the game to level you up reasonably fast without this perk.

- It is definitely a good idea to take the "animal friend" (animals don't attack you unprovoked) perk BEFORE exploring the Yao Guai caves. The second level of the perk is largely pointless. It means wild animals attack your enemies, but personally by the time I took it I was one-hitting raiders anyway, and the supermutants had scaled so that molerats and dogs weren't exactly a problem for them. It is still quite funny, but not useful.

- Explosives is the only combat skill you need in the entire game. You can one shot anything big with bottle cap mines/nuka grenades. With a maxed skill + demo perks you can kill groups of anything with 1-3 frags even at close range. If you're overwhelmed with anything then you can lay down mines and lure it. Grenades and mines are also plentiful and you'll be able to harvest plenty more from booby traps.

- If you plan on making an intelligence or speech heavy build with limited combat skills then take explosives.

- Lockpick or hacking choose one. Lockpicking is more rewarding in the long run loot wise but there is some fun stuff you can do with hacking at times.

- Don't even bother pursuing the main quest until you're maxed out and you've explored every inch of the wasteland. There's a ton of stuff to do and see. At level 20 I got the explorer perk and there were still at least 1/3rd locations left.

- I don't recommend getting the level 20+ mod. The game is already pretty easy on the hardest mode at that point. If you go beyond 20 then it probably just becomes boring.

- I suggest doing Reilly's Raider when you get a chance so you can get the device from Reilly at the end (ask her for it upon Quest Completion) to earn money for every marked location. With the amount of land you bound to find, you can earn a large amount of caps.

- If you want Dogmeat, I suggest you do the Moira quest to the mine field, and head south upon reaching your destination, which you will soon come upon a gated junkyard.

- It is possible to skip large parts of the main quest if you're too enthusiastic in your exploring. Don't worry, you can still finish the game normally, you're just jumping the gun a bit.( To avoid this I would suggest doing the story quest until you reach the Brotherhood of Steel Citadel. That's far enough into it that you won't have to worry about accidentally tripping over a quest location, going into it and finding stuff out of order.)

- If you want to play the game on easy mode tag Energy Weapons and complete the "Replicated Man" quest in Rivet City and get the Android's Plasma Rifle. Turns the game into a complete joke. If you have the right perks, you basically 1 or 2 shot everything.

- Intense training is actually pretty useful. There ARE ways to increase your SPECIAL stats, but any extra bonus is helpful. The perks to generally avoid are the skill-boosting perks. With Comprehension and the ungodly amount of books around the wasteland, you'll be able to boost your skills to 50 or above without even trying. I have a level 20 character with 3 skills at 100, 4 in the 90's, a couple more in the 70's/80's, and the rest around 50 or 60. Stat increases are MUCH harder to come by than skill increases.

- As far as useless perks go, the experience bonus from Swift Learner isn't that great since XP is pretty plentiful. Child at Heart is used about a half-dozen times in the game in special dialogue options, so there are certainly more useful perks to choose. The Lawbringer/Contract Killer perk is handy for making cash, but not much beyond that. Infiltrator lets you pick broken locks, but if you're breaking locks, you're doing something wrong. Same with the Computer Whiz perk, which lets you hack locked-out terminals--if you're locking yourself out of terminals you're doing something wrong.

- "Strictly Business" is probably the only quest to look out for on your evil playthrough. In doing other quests you can kill people essential to that one. Also, if you go exploring and fool around in the Jefferson Memorial you can prevent yourself from getting the achievement for the "Scientific Pursuits" quest like I did. So maybe you could read up on both these quests on fallout.wikia.com so you don't lose your chance to get them.

- Also hoard all the nuka cola quantum you come across if you want to get all the quest achievements.

- Get either all three good or all three neutral karma achievements on your first playthrough. Then, on the second, keep your karma at the level you didn't pick the first time round, and don't resolve the 'Power of the Atom' sidequest. When you're nearly at level 8 (and 14, and 20) make a save that will allow you to get back to Megaton without levelling up. Go back and detonate the bomb, setting your karma to the lowest possible level, then level up to 8 (14, 20) to get the bad karma achievement. Once done, reload the previous save and continue on to get the other missing achievements. Obviously you can mix and match good and neutral between playthroughs, but it's probably easiest to keep them separate.

- Pay thorough attention to the entire tutorial. (You'll know when you're done with the tutorial.) Also, remember to use VATS whenever possible.

- Repair skill is very useful, because weapons degrade faster under VATS, and you'll find loads of extra weapons. Ammo weighs nothing, so pick up all you find.

- The best way to do Fallout 3 so you don't screw up the story missions is to just go ahead and do the story up to meeting the Brotherhood of Steel. Otherwise there are a couple of areas where you can accidentally skip story by just exploring while after that it becomes harder to mess it up. After that just spend the rest of your time exploring which is the meat and potatoes of Fallout 3.

- I've been told this mod for turning off auto-aim is a good one to have. I haven't used it yet but I do know that rifle shots not going where I aim is pretty annoying: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=788.

- Basically, if you're going to wander and don't want to mess the story up, avoid these three places on the map: Jefferson Memorial, Rivet City, and "Smith Casey's Garage", out west. Those are the only three that I think can really mess up the order of things.

- On your way out of the vault, take pretty much everything. If it isn't nailed down take it and sell it later.

- Just before you leave the fault you have the chance to change all your skills and attributes, so don't worry too much the first time you set them.

- You are usually better only focusing on one or two combat skills rather than trying to be a jack of all trades. Small guns are the most common weapon type that doesn't require you to be standing on someones toes to hit them.

- Most areas scale to your level reasonably well, so dont be afraid to explore. Save often though.

- There is a perk that increases the number of skill points you get per level. There is also a perk that increases the number of skill points you get from reading a book. Both these perks should be taken as soon as you can!

- You also automatically gain the ability to use power armor once you finish the Operation: Anchorage DLC.

- Be conservative with display options.

- The default difficulty level is pretty easy. Once you get the hang of the game, crank it up to the max.

- Intelligence is vital, Strength is important, Charisma is shit. Don't increase a stat to 10, go to 9 and have the bobblehead take it to 10.

- You NEED at least one strong weapon skill. If you're not sure, choose Small Guns. Repair is vital, Speech and Barter are shit.

- Mandatory perks: Educated, Comprehension, Strong Back.

- Shit perks: Child at Heart, Swift Learner, Here and Now, Lead Belly, Night Person, Chem Resistant, Infiltrator, Computer Whiz.

- If you find yourself in Rivet City before the main quest sends you there: DON'T talk to Dr Madison Li. Doing so will semi-break the Galaxy News Radio quest.

- Having your light on makes you less stealthy. Having your radio on doesn't make any difference.

- To contradict what a previous poster said, I would suggest going to Rivet City's Science Lab before Galaxy News Radio . The jump in the main quest is incredibly small, and Three Dog will offer you a different reward for doing his quest: instead of info on your dad's whereabouts, he'll give you a key to a weapons cache you can't otherwise get .

- If you find a weapon with a funny name, it's unique and likely does more damage and/or is more likely to inflict a critical hit. Be careful not to use it to repair a normal version of that weapon!

- The game doesn't tell you this outright, but you take much less damage while attacking in VATS mode, and are a lot more likely to inflict critical hits. However, it causes your weapon to degrade three times as fast.

- The perk Bloody Mess isn't really worth it, and you'll get tired of the bodies exploding.

- The perk Swift Learner really isn't worth it. There's plenty of XP to earn, and no rush to make it to the level cap.

- Generally speaking, perks that only add skill points aren't much good.

- In the vast majority of cases, you have nothing to lose by attempting a Speech check, and stand to gain a small amount of XP along with whatever you're trying to persuade someone into doing. So I'd say go for any line of dialogue that starts with [Speech, X%], no matter how small the percentage chance of success.

- Each of the weapon skills has its drawbacks and advantages. You can't go wrong with boosting Small Guns for the early game, then putting points into Big Guns or Energy Weapons for the later levels when you're swimming in money.

- Make sure your Luck is at least 5 so you can get the Scrounger perk, as it rapidly eliminates any problems you may be having with ammo scarcity.

- Ammo has no carry weight so it essentially doubles as currency. No matter what weapons you're using, take all the ammo you can from anything. If you have to sell fifty sets of armor and the vendor is out of cash, buy ammo. You'll likely lose some money in the conversion but it's better than nothing. Alternatively: stimpacks are always useful.

- Try to get the Dart Gun schematics early, as once you start encountering Death Claws, it will save your fucking life. Keep any and all Pre-War Books that you find, they're good for easy money.

- The farther you go out into the wasteland, the more likely you are to come across bigger, more deadly creatures. The higher your luck, the more likely you are to have random encounters, which is how you can get some of the best weapons early.

Limbs

Each limb has its own health gauge (as do yours, if you check your pipboy) and when you deplete the health gauge you "cripple" the limb. You'll be able to see how healthy an enemy's limbs are while you're in VATS, so it's really not hard to cripple limbs with a gun vs. grenades. Stronger enemies will have much stronger limbs (like Super Mutant Masters, Deathclaws, Yao Guai, etc.) so it's best to focus on the head (for damage) or the torso (for accuracy) to bring them down quickly instead of on the other limbs. There are different benefits to taking out each limb, but as you've noticed these will rarely help you kill the enemy quicker:

- Arms: If you take out the arm an enemy is using to hold his weapon, he'll drop the weapon. If he still has another good arm, he'll usually pick up the weapon with his other arm and start firing again, but you can run and grab it if you're quick enough.

- Legs: Some enemies, most notably deathclaws, will rush you and start dealing massive amounts of damage. If you can take out one or more of their legs from a distance, they'll take much longer while running at you.

- Weapons: Most melee weapons and guns carried by enemies can be shot by you and their conditions depleted to the point of unusability. They'll be dropped and picked up again by the enemies, but since their condition is at 0 they'll be unusuable. Much better than crippling arms if your intent is to disarm an enemy.

- Tongues, Stingers, Antennae etc.: Some enemies like radscorpions, ants and centaurs will have damage-dealing appendages you can shoot. This will either frenzy the monster (like with ants) or prevent them from using that appendage to hurt you (like with centaurs).

- Torso: No real benefit to crippling this, but in most encounters this'll be the easiest to shoot.

- Head: Crippling the head usually outright kills the creature, but when it doesn't it makes it harder for the enemy to hit you accurately. Pointless with helmeted creatures unless you have a good weapon, lots of ammo and you can take a few bullets.