So far as Fallout 3 is a classic RPG with the main story and various side missions. There are 59 quests in all including main, side, unmarked, and repeatable tasks. DLCs bring another 35 quests but they are basically easier, so we will not focus on them in detail. Moreover, the main story with all tasks is described minutely in another our guide with the title «Fallout 3: Walkthrough». Thus, we will not deal with main quests here.
Following sections cover only side, unmarked, and repeatable missions from the original game. DLCs are highlighted at the end of the article. Each quest has a short description, starting conditions including locations and NPCs related to the quest, possible rewards. Note that each quest rewards you with XP in addition to other rewards. Note also that we will not repeat guides for each location if they were described above.
Major side quests
Here is the full list of all marked in your Pip-Boy quests:
- Agatha’s Song.
Task: return the Soil Stradivarius for the elderly woman who loves music and even services her own radio station. You can visit the G.H.Q. of Vault-Tec but it’s not necessary. For sure, you will explore Vault 92 full of bloatflies and other mutants. The quest is designed for the middle game, so it’s better to avoid it at early levels.
Start location: Agatha’s house with the radio tower west of the Scrapyard.
Start NPC: Agatha.
Rewards: Agatha’s station signal + the unique gun called Blackhawk OR 200/300 caps depending on your Speech level.
- Big Trouble in Big Town.
Task: help citizens who suffer from powerful mutants and slavers. Free Shorty and Red caged in the H.Q. of Germantown’s police. This mission has an optional 2nd part where your task is to help new friends in the battle with mutants. High level of Science, Sneak, Explosives or several weapon skills may help here. The mission is for middle-level players.
Start location: Big Town with notable handicraft wall north of Vault 101 OR Germantown, the ruined city west of Minefield OR Little Lamplight south of Vault 87.
Start NPC: anyone in Big Town OR Red in Germantown OR Sticky in Little Lamplight.
Rewards: healing offer + repair offer + stimpaks OR 300/500 caps OR 200 caps.
- Blood Ties.
Task: find the brother of Lucy West and reveal which of Arefu’s citizens may be vampires. The mission features a confrontation between plain folks from another settlement and cannibals’ gang called The Family. Here you can show skills of diplomacy to gain the maximum benefit or simply kill vampires. However, even The Family isn’t as bad as you may predict.
Start location: Megaton OR Arefu located on the bridge northwest of Vault 106.
Start NPC: Lucy West in Megaton OR Evan King in Arefu OR documents on the terminal of Meresti Metro Station located near Arefu.
Rewards: schematics of Shishkebab + repair offer + new markers on the map + supplies OR all previous + Hematophage perk.
- Head of State.
Task: help either escaped slaves or their opponents from Paradise Falls. Abolitionists want to create another base near the Lincoln Memorial. Slavers are about to eliminate these runaways, although. It’s only your option which side to choose as both endings provide valuable rewards. This mission shouldn’t be too difficult for any player.
Start location: the Temple of The Union northwest of Canterbury Commons OR Paradise Falls north of Arefu.
Start NPC: Hannibal Hamlin in the 1st mentioned place OR Leroy Walker in the 2nd one.
Rewards: Lincoln artifacts + Nuka-Cola Quantum + Dart gun OR Lincoln artifacts + 150/200 caps.
- Oasis.
Task: help strange guys in robes who live in Oasis. Actually, your main goal is to help his leader named Harold, the iconic character from original Fallout series. Harold is a large man-tree and he desires to die. As well, some followers of Harold want to slow down Harold’s growth and other folks ask for speed up it. Acceleration means the best rewards but that’s your decision.
Start location: Oasis that is the settlement right in the center of the northernmost side.
Start NPC: Harold.
Rewards: nothing but bad karma OR the missile launcher + Maple’s garb OR power armor + Poplar’s hood OR Barkskin perk.
- Reilly’s Rangers.
Task: save rangers surrounded by super mutants somewhere in D.C. There are several tasks but you will be guided by Reilly. Rangers are suffering on the top of the Statesman Hotel. Similar to other missions, you can simply gain items from the location without helping rangers. So far as D.C. is a really dangerous area, don’t try to beat this mission on early levels.
Start location: Underworld in the Museum of History OR the National Archives south of White House OR the Statesman Hotel north of White House.
Start NPC: Reilly in Underworld OR Butcher on the top of the Statesman Hotel OR emergency call from rangers in D.C.
Rewards: battle armor of rangers OR powerful minigun Eugene.
- Stealing Independence.
Task: find the Declaration of Independence and bring it in Rivet City. There will be another adventurer called Sydney in the National Archives. Cooperate, kill or simply ignore her, it doesn’t matter. To collect the artifact you should find the robot and convince him. Good Speech or Robotics Expert perks can help. The quest isn’t too complicated even for newcomers.
Start location: Rivet City in the far southeast OR the National Archives.
Start NPC: Abraham Washington OR automatically in the archives.
Rewards: schematics of the railway rifle + 400 caps.
- Strictly Business.
Task: Play ball with slavers from their base. Outlaws ask you for capturing four VIP characters using Mesmetron. Rewards for each NPC are equal. Obviously, you will get more money and XP for more targets. Your karma will decrease for each slave, as well. This mission offers a fair way to enter Paradise Falls without fights but you always can get there secretly.
Start location: Paradise Falls.
Start NPC: Grouse.
Rewards: Mesmetron with ammo and instructions + free entry to Paradise Falls + 250/500/750/1000 caps.
- Tenpenny Tower.
Task: help either rich citizens of Tenpenny Tower or homeless ghouls who occupy Warrington tunnels. Post-humans just desire to move to a safe place. Sure, people from fortified tower don’t want to let newcomers in. Your task is either to kill mutants or find the way they can infiltrate tower. Both peaceful and invasive solutions are available.
Start location: Tenpenny Tower which is far west of D.C. and south of Evergreen Mills OR the Warrington tunnels southwest of Tenpenny Tower.
Start NPC: Gustavo in Tenpenny Tower OR Roy Phillips in Warrington tunnels.
Rewards: 500-700 caps + some kind of assault rifle OR the ghoul mask.
- The Nuka-Cola Challenge.
Task: find 30 bottles of the rare drink called Nuka-Cola Quantum. We suggest starting from the Nuka-Cola plant in the center of the southernmost side near D.C. ruins. There are a lot of rare drinks as well as the list of other locations where Nuka-Cola Quantum bottles are. As usual, there are various solutions, e.g. you can sell bottles for more caps but waste karma withal.
Start location: Girdershade southwest from Evergreen Mills.
Start NPC: Sierra Petrovita.
Rewards: schematics of Nuka grenade + 1200 caps OR 2400 caps.
- The Power of the Atom.
Task: defuse the bomb or detonate it. Probably, this will be the first major side quest. Without fail, you will get the individual house as a reward. That fact is really cool! The task is quite simple, so you won’t have problems here. It’s interesting that you may seduce an evil NPC to spare Megaton. To do it, you must play a female and have Black Widow perk.
Start location: Megaton.
Start NPC: Lucas Simms OR Mister Burke both in Megaton OR by activating the bomb.
Rewards: house in Megaton + 100/500 caps OR apartments in Tenpenny Tower + 500/100 caps.
- The Replicated Man.
Task: find the android escaped from scientists. That’s our favorite side mission as developers designed it as the wonderful detective story. To reveal the target’s location you should find holotapes and interact with various NPCs. Fights are minimized but be ready for traveling through dangerous parts of Rivet City. The story is really interesting!
Start location: Rivet City.
Start NPC: Zimmer OR Victoria OR any of holotapes related to the task.
Rewards: 50 caps OR the plasma rifle + Wired Reflexes perk.
- The Superhuman Gambit.
Task: deal with strange superheroes that fight each other and don’t mind common citizens. It sounds pretty tricky, yes? Battle with superheroes is the straightforward solution as you can convince them to end their careers, team up with one of them, reveal their real natures and so on. Here we have another quite easy mission without tough fights.
Start location: Canterbury Commons on the Far East side north to Vault 108.
Start NPC: Uncle Roe.
Rewards: AntAgonizer’s costume + Ant’s Sting + 200/400 caps OR Mechanist’s costume + Protectron’s Gaze + 200/400 caps.
- Wasteland Survival Guide.
Task: explore the world outside to help the inventor in her research. Moira will ask you for several services including suffering from radiation, traveling through the Wasteland, finding valuable documents etc. Each task also has optional objectives for additional rewards. You can complete all tasks, ignore some of them or simply convince Moira to stop research.
Start location: Megaton OR Underworld.
Start NPC: Moira Brown.
Rewards: the mini-nuke + copy of the book + Survival Expert perk OR discount at Moira’s shop + Dream Crusher perk. Also, for each minor task completed you will receive consumables, food, ammo, equipment, weapons, schematics or perks.
- Those!
Task: help a boy and his father who are surrounded by fire ants. Insects are tough but few. During the 1st part, you will deal with ants and be able to choose whether to kill their queen or spare her. Think about karma! The 2nd part requires finding a new home for the orphaned boy. You can enslave him, as well… This mission is easy, so you can beat it on early levels.
Start location: everywhere near Grayditch south of Super Duper Mart.
Start NPC: Bryan Wilks.
Rewards: Ant Might perk OR Ant Sight perk.
- Trouble on the Homefront.
Task: return to your native Vault 101 and find out what happened there. The Overseer confronts other citizens led by your old friend Amata who wants to open it and explore the outside world. You can decide whether open, isolate or completely destroy Vault 101. The simplest way is to kill one of the opponents or everyone inside. Convincing has better rewards.
Start location: anywhere near Vault 101.
Start NPC: automatically by catching Vault 101 emergency call.
Rewards: the modified utility jumpsuit OR consumables.
- You Gotta Shoot ‘Em in the Head.
Task: cooperate with the ghoul to kill his offenders. Actually, your employer wants to collect keys from targets to enter Fort Constantine and find power armor there. This mission has various solutions, for example, kill the ghoul for additional caps, find keys and enter Fort Constantine alone, travel with the ghoul but kill him upon arriving to get more rewards etc.
Start location: Underworld.
Start NPC: Mister Crowley.
Rewards: power armor OR 100-400 caps OR 300 caps OR all of the above together.
Unmarked quests
These missions will not appear in your Pip-Boy’s log but they also have rewards including karma and XP. So far as unmarked tasks are much shorter and simpler than major side missions, we will provide only hints where to find them:
- A Manhandled Manservant. Travel to Rockopolis right west of Smith Casey’s Garage and find the body of Argyle OR talk with Herbert Dashwood in Tenpenny Tower.
- A Nice Day for a Right Wedding. Find Angela Staley in Rivet City. The mission has three different solutions with two conditionally good and one evil.
- Happy Birthday to You. Talk with Sticky in Little Lamplight and agree to escort him to another large settlement.
- Council Seat. Find Bannon at his shop in Rivet City. The quest has two solutions both with pretty cool rewards.
- Economics of Violence. Find Pronto in Paradise Falls. This task requires traveling a lot and finding valuable weapons.
- Election Day. Travel to the Republic of Dave in the far northeastern part of the map. Help one of the candidates or make elections fair.
- Gallows Humor. Talk with any paladin from Lyons’ Pride in the Citadel in the center of D.C. It’s a rare example of an easy task with good rewards.
- Grady's Package. Locate Marigold station in the west part of D.C. and explore it. You can beat this quest along with Those! or The Nuka-Cola Challenge.
- Hired Help. Move to Ahzrukhal in Underworld. The task is all about solution Charon’s problem, so you can check the article «Fallout 3: Companions» for more info.
- Jiggs’ Loot. While exploring the Museum of Technology pays attention to terminals. There are several notes with directions to valuable items.
- Just for the Taste of It. Explore the Nuka-Cola plant to find info about the strange gang. Note that you can take it only with unfinished The Nuka-Cola Challenge.
- Keller Family Refuge. Find at least 4 out of 5 specific holotapes across the world. Here is something interesting for you: 6-10; 9-8; 15-4; 3-8; 14-13.
- Leo’s Drug Habit. Speak with Doc Church OR Lucas Simms OR Mister Burke OR hack the terminal of Collin Moriarty, then interact with Leo Stahl.
- Lincoln’s Profit Margins. Find artifacts during Head of State completion, then sell valuable items to one of the specific traders.
- Merchant Empire. Have a dialogue with Uncle Roe in Canterbury Commons. Be ready to spend a lot of caps to gain the coolest rewards.
- Our Little Secret. Find Andale which is located between the Nuka-Cola plant and The Overlook Drive-In. Mysteries of this settlement are scary enough!
- Searching for Cheryl. Travel to L’Enfant north of Rivet City to find their traces of the missing party. The quest takes a lot of time.
- Slave Hunt. Find Mei Wong in the Common room in Rivet City. She will tell you about her fears. Protect the woman, ignore or betray her.
- The Kid-Kidnapper. Interact with Eulogy Jones in Paradise Falls and accept his offer. Obviously, your task is to enclave one of kids from Little Lamplight.
- The Lost Initiate. Explore D.C. to find Falls Church to the north. Brave Brotherhood paladins require your help again. No fresh news.
- Treatment. Probably, the first available side mission. Speak with Walter in Megaton and complete his easy task.
Repeatable quests
There is another category of missions including ones which you can complete several times. Usually, NPCs want specific items that you can bring for rewards. We will describe start location and NPC for each quest as well as items for barter. Some tasks are related to major side quests. All repeatable quests are unmarked, as well:
- Exchange caps for good karma in the ratio 1:1 from Cromwell in Megaton and Clifford in Rivet City.
- Exchange Brotherhood holotags for 100 caps and 25 XP per each from Scribe Jameson in the Citadel.
- Exchange Buffouts or strange meat pieces for cave fungus chunks from Lucy and Éclair in Little Lamplight. The ratio is 3:1 or 2:1 with Barter over 75.
- Exchange blood packs for 15 caps per item from Vance in Meresti Metro station. This task is related to Blood Ties mission.
- Exchange packs consisting of flour, vodka and Nuka-Cola Quantum for Mississippi Quantum pies from Sierra Petrovita in Girdershade.
- Exchange boxes of Sugar Bombs for 15 caps per box and Ultrajet per 8 boxes from Murphy in Northwest Seneca station north of Arefu.
- Exchange samples of fire ant nectar for 40 caps per sample from Doc Lesko in Grayditch.
- Exchange scrap metal, heavy armor and energy guns for ammo, weapons, and consumables from Henry Casdin in Fort Independence north of Andale
- Exchange scrap metal for one consumable including stimpak, RadX or RadAway per piece from Winthrop in Underworld.
- Exchange scrap metal for 10 caps or karma bonus as well as 5 XP per piece from Walter in Megaton.
- Exchange pre-War books for 100 caps and 10 XP per item from Scribe Yearling in the Arlington Library south of the Citadel.
- Exchange Nuka-Cola bottles for random valuables including ammo, food, and consumables from Zip in Little Lamplight.
Along with regular exchanges, there are several unusual tasks:
- Reilly from the Ranger Compound north of Rivet City will give you 30 caps per each new location on your map. Locations can be undiscovered.
- Grouse from Paradise Falls will give you 250 caps per each slave captured and brought using Mesmetron.
- Using the wonder meat maker in Jury St. Station south of Vault 106 you can create cool meat from regular mole rat meat and wonderglue.
- You will receive good karma after donating purified water to Micky near Megaton, Carlos near Rivet City and Willy near Tenpenny Tower.
DLC quests
Since add-ons have quite plain stories and include various instructions, you will have no problem with quests from them. Operation: Anchorage, for example, offer only main quests and The Pitt include the main story, unmarked missions, and one repeatable quest. The last DLC called Mothership Zeta also consist of main missions and one unmarked task. Only Broken Steel and Point Lookout bring side objectives in the game, however.
It’s really hard to beat all tasks. From this article, you can choose the most interesting quests and complete them. Don’t forget to check our guide to the main story!
