Scavenger (Fallout 3)

“Take a look. Welcome to ... Godforsaken Hellhole! Not much to look at, but it's all mine. Ha ha ha!”

Scavengers are wastelanders operating as independent traders in the Capital Wasteland in 2277.

Background[]

Scavengers may appear at pre-determined scavenger locations or as random encounters. Some scavengers will be accompanied by a pack brahmin, non-hostile guard dogs, non-hostile yao guai, or even robots. If asked about their merchandise (after Megaton is blown up), they will say people in Megaton no longer need things. Their comments can also reflect other player character actions, such as helping Big Town's residents.

Scavengers that appear from random encounters may be programmed to guard an object or travel the wasteland. The object may be a vehicle, a dead robot or a burning barrel. Their movement may simply be set to patrol the local vicinity or travel across the map. In the cases of guarding vehicles and robots, they may react with hostility when approached, though they may still barter if engaged in dialogue. Once traveling scavengers reach the location around their target, they remain there indefinitely.

Scavengers always wear a roving trader outfit with some type of wasteland headwear. If worn, eyewear is typically in the form of either biker goggles or sunglasses. They are equipped with random low to mid-level weapons.

Additionally, scavengers have noticeably higher than average health and combat skills than other human combatants, being marginally superior to Brotherhood of Steel paladins in terms of health and skill. Additionally, as mentioned before, their combat skill is supplemented somewhat by using whatever weapon they have in their inventory that is the most powerful. However, their lack of proper armor leaves them vulnerable to most hostile wasteland inhabitants.

Broken Steel[]

In Broken Steel, scavengers can be seen leading the Aqua Pura caravans, carrying water throughout the Capital Wasteland. Each Aqua Pura caravan is led by a generic scavenger merchant, along with an Aqua Pura brahmin and two bodyguards (consisting of either the Rivet City Security Force or Brotherhood of Steel).

Interactions with the player character[]

Interactions overview[]

Interactions
	This character is a merchant.	100-300 Sells: weapons, ammunition, aid, armor/clothing, junk items
	This character can repair items.	Max Repair condition: 20-51
	This character can be enslaved with the Mesmetron.

Inventory[]

Apparel	Weapon	Other items	On death
Roving trader outfit and a type of random headwear	.32 pistol or 10mm pistol or Chinese pistol or Hunting rifle or Sawed-off shotgun or Chinese assault rifle or Sledgehammer		Shop's inventory

Locations[]

Scavengers can be found throughout the Capital Wasteland in various fixed locations where they have set up shop. These do not include random encounter locations where scavengers may appear.

In the barn east of Reclining Groves Resort Homes.
In Lucky's, a red building southwest of Warrington station, near Tenpenny Tower.
East of Jocko's Pop & Gas stop and north of Signal Sierra Victor.
On the scavenger's bridge, west of Falls Church Metro and north of the Red Racer factory
Just west and up the hill from SatCom Array NW-07c, in the shelter of a fallen satellite dish.
The scavenger shack west of Hamilton's hideaway.
The scavenger's jetty to the west bank of the Potomac River, southeast of Wilhelm's Wharf pointing towards the Anchorage Memorial.
Pennsylvania Avenue, southeast of the Freedom Street station exit, with two guard dogs.
At the Freedom Street station close to the exit to Metro Central.
In the scavenger ruins west of Fort Bannister, north of the charnel house.
In the concrete treehouse south of the Fairfax ruins.
Radiation King in Georgetown.
In a destroyed house northwest of Fort Independence, accompanied by a dog.
In a shelter underneath the Francis Scott Key Bridge between the Citadel and the D.C. ruins.
In a ruined building southwest of the sewer waystation, next to the Talon Company camp.

Notes[]

Several random encounters include scavengers. These encounters may be stationary or mobile, and the scavenger involved may not always provide merchants services. See the random encounter subsection: scavengers and wastelanders for details.
Scavengers found at fixed locations that are not part of random encounters do not respawn if killed.
The number of caps that are in a scavenger's inventory during bartering will be on their person after being killed. This means that no matter how many caps are spent for the wares, one can get 100% of their caps back.
After the 1.2 patch, it seems scavengers have access to the weapons in their store inventory, causing them to often end up wielding high-powered weaponry, such as missile launchers or flamers.