Fallout 3 exploits Exploits are " holes " in the game programming which allow a player to do something which the developers did not intend and which alter the balance of the game in a way that benefits the player . Item - Related Exploits . Weapons & Ammunition . " Duplicate Mines and Throw Unlimited Grenades " . Breaking a weapon that fires only one projectile per " reload " ( e . g . Dart gun , missile launcher ) while having it equipped and switching to a grenade or mine will allow you to throw an infinite amount of grenades / mines . This effect lasts until the player changes to another weapon . The Cryo mine and cryo grenade in the " Mothership Zeta " expansion are also affected , but not the Bio - gas canister added in " Point Lookout " . This glitch is also present in " Fallout : New Vegas " . Note that in " New Vegas " , the amount of grenades / mines thrown reflect the remaining ammunition for the weapon you were using when it broke ( e . g . having fifteen 40mm grenades remaining when your grenade rifle breaks will allow you to duplicate a mine / grenade fifteen times ) , and will " eat " that remaining ammunition until it runs out . The best weapon to use in " New Vegas " when executing this glitch is the Single shotgun , since each mine thrown after the Single shotgun is broken will be multiplied in stacks of four upon hitting the ground , yet only one 20 - gauge round will be removed , allowing one to make 800 mines from 200 20 - gauge shotgun shells . " Duplicating Weapon Ammunition " . NOTE : Certain weapons such as the alien blaster and Mesmetron have limited ammunition , this can be highly useful . " AntAgonizer ' s and Mechanist ' s Weapons and Armor " . It is possible to obtain both unique weapons , both sets of costume armor , and two of each costume helmet . To do this , reverse - pickpocket better armor onto the Mechanist ( or AntAgonizer , although starting with The Mechanist is easier ) . Their costumes have 20 DR maximum , so anything with higher DR works . Leave the room , load an autosave , then return . Pickpocket the costume and helmet from The Mechanist . Now , head to the AntAgonizer ' s lair , and save before approaching her throne . Drop The Mechanist ' s helmet , then talk to AntAgonizer and give her The Mechanist ' s costume . She will give the Ant ' s Sting knife . The original helmet will still be on the floor , so pick it up and you should now have two . Afterwards , kill the AntAgonizer , and loot her costume armor and helmet , as well as The Mechanist ' s costume . Return to the Mechanist , and drop AntAgonizer ' s helmet . Talk to him and give him AntAgonizer ' s costume , getting the Protectron ' s Gaze in return . Now , you can kill him and loot the AntAgonizer ' s armor back from him . This should result in having the Ant ' s Sting , Protectron ' s Gaze , one of the Mechanist ' s and AntAgonizer ' s Costume , and two of the Mechanist ' s and AntAgonizer ' s helmets . If you use the method of getting BOTH armors and getting BOTH weapons ( reverse - pickpocketing both their armors and stealing them back when you hand the armors to their enemy ) , both characters will head out into the Wasteland and hunt each other down . This is easily observed if you do NOT complete the quest by talking to Uncle Roe which makes their locations shown by the quest markers . If you kill the Protectron in the Forge and then choose the fight dialogue with the Mechanist , it will revive itself and defend the Mechanist as usual . You can loot the Protectron twice this way . " Faster easier method of obtaining Cryo Weapons " . There is a bug that allows you to get cryo weaponry - mines and grenades - from Elliott in the engineering core of Mothership " Zeta " . The exact cause of the glitch is unclear and requires further experimentation , so save often and on different slots while attempting , but it seems that after obtaining the first three cryo grenade s and three cryo mine s , then waiting for three hours and obtaining two more of each , if you throw a cryo grenade at Elliott , but do not pickpocket him , then wait the three hours for him to make some more cryo weapons , the glitch will take effect . In order to use the glitch , you must talk to him , and ask for the cryo weapons . He will state that he has some and give them to you . The conversation with him will then end and two messages will appear in the top left corner of your screen , one about the grenades and the other about the mines . Wait until both have appeared and then disappeared , then speak to him again and ask him for more cryo weapons : If the glitch was successful , he should hand them over and you can repeat as desired , if not , exit the conversation , wait a few seconds and try again . If still unsucessful , try re - loading an earlier save and trying again . Once the glitch is working , save . This glitch allows you to get more cryo weapons , faster and easier , so that you can take a large supply down to the wasteland . " Get two mini nukes from Donovan " . First , talk to Donovan before killing the super mutants and he will give you a mini nuke . Then , kill the super mutants and talk to him again and he will give you another mini nuke . Armor & Clothing . If you have two fully repaired armors , take damage with one , then switch . After this , the original armor will take the damage . You have to hotkey both armors for it to work . Once you take off the armor , the glitch stops working . However , if you hotkey the original armor after that , the second armor won ' t work with the glitch , so you ' ll have to start all over again . It is best to start with the other armor and then work backwards . " Chinese stealth armor " . Requires " " See or Free Repairs . " Protector Casdin " . Note : He may not permanently keep all the items you give to him , so be certain to do these repair runs in common , short bursts with a small number of items , and be certain to retrieve your items immediately . " One Instant , 100 % Repair " . Only applicable to weapons and armor stocked by merchants . " Haley ' s 100 % Repair Glitch Exploit " . " Requires " Point Lookout " " Somah ' s free repair glitch " . " Requires " Mothership Zeta " Miscellaneous Items & Bottle caps . " Free Megaton house items " . Confirmed on Xbox 360 , PS3 , and PC In Craterside Supply there is a hidden locker behind a wall that contains items like My First Infirmary . In the room with a staircase to the second floor , next to the main room where Moira Brown can be found , crouch near the left - side wall when facing in from the entrance , at the bottom of the stairs leading up , near a rusted pipe . You can see the locker if you look through one of the holes on the wall . Go into third person view , hold the third person button down , and turn the camera until the option to open a locker comes up . Taking the items is considered stealing , and you will lose karma . For the PC , you must " noclip " to be able to see the lockers . " Bartering for Bottle cap Profit & Free 100 % Repairs " . This exploit has several variations based on the same basic premise ; the buying and selling of like types of weapons or apparel . Factors that may alter the consistency of the results include the merchant ' s repair skill , the condition and origin of the item , and whether the item has been previously repaired . Issues of note : " Ghost Item Duplication for Bottle caps " . PC : This trick will essentially let you " duplicate " items when interacting with a vendor for the sole purpose of making it seem like you have a lot of a valuable item , thus cleaning the vendor out for all their caps / ammunition / whatever item they are selling that you want . It might take some patience , but quite lucrative , especially at lower levels . This exploit makes use of the pause between high stacked item ( 6 + of any particular item , enough to bring up the " how many do you want to move " dialogue box ) to trick the game into thinking you ' re moving a large amount of another item . It does not , however , actually duplicate that item . HERE ' S HOW : EXAMPLE : You have a assault rifle in fairly good condition , worth 50 caps . You also have 300 10mm rounds . Your inventory needs to look like this for this exploit to work : NOTE : Even though you supposedly traded the vendor 300 assault rifles , when you look at their side of the barter screen after you ' ve traded , you will notice the phantom assault rifles are gone , and the vendor only has however many assault rifles you actually had . . . which was 1 . So you can ' t duplicate hard to find or rare items for repair purposes this way . Leveling & Experience . Quick Leveling . " Quick Spawning Experience " . Requires " " See Skills & S . P . E . C . I . A . L . . Temporary Boosts . " Multiple Headgear : Tower of Hats " . Requires " " You ' ll need the Chinese stealth armor for this exploit . While wearing this suit , it appears that you may wear any number of hats , head - wraps and helmets and the effects will stack . It should be noted , however , that if a helmet or mask is equipped which covers the face - slot , such as those of the various power armors or hockey masks , any glasses which you are wearing will be unequipped . You will continue to wear all equipped headgear even if you change clothing . While wearing different clothing , however , if you equip another piece of headgear , all headgear which you had previously had equipped may be unequipped . Which equipment will and won ' t cause this to happen requires further testing . While the skill and stat bonuses from headgear stack as normal , the math for how the DR adds up requires further testing . However , it is possible to attain at least a DR of 41 , which - even accounting for the added carrying weight of the various headgear - makes this armor arguably the best in the game in terms of the weight : DR ratio . " Multiple Headgear : Nth Degree Skill Exploit " . Requires " " You need the Chinese stealth armor and two hockey mask s . Equip the armor , equip one of the hockey masks , then repeatedly equip the other mask . If you check your unarmed stats , it will have been raised by 10 instead of 5 . Keep on tapping to raise it by 15 , 20 , 25 , etc . Skill value will stop rising eventually , but this exploit can still increase the damage of unarmed weapons high enough to deal up to 2000 damage with a power fist . The exploit works with any skill or S . P . E . C . I . A . L . stat that is raised by headgear , providing that you have two copies of that headgear , or a different headgear to equip first . However , the Unarmed skill is the only skill that continues to raise weapon damage after you reach 100 skill points . However , the bonus is not permanent , if the original equipped headgear is unequipped , your stats will revert back to their current value ( s ) without the exploit ( e . g . the base values based on allocated Skill points and the related S . P . E . C . I . A . L . stat ' s current base value ) . Due to the temporary nature of this exploit , it will not help you to qualify for perks which have a S . P . E . C . I . A . L . stat requirement , but it can help you qualify you for those with a skill requirement . Permanent Boosts . " Big Guns " . At the Bethesda Ruins , there is a raider that spawns every 72 hours that has a copy of on them . The raider in possession of the skill book will be holding a flamer . " Science " . Within the Shalebridge Tunnels ( the mutated forager ant tunnels , as opposed to the neighboring " invader ant " tunnels ) is an evil non - player character called the " Ant Researcher " , who contains a Big Book of Science skill book on his corpse . Every 72 hours , another Ant Researcher respawns within the Forager Ant tunnels . Kill him , leave the tunnel , wait 72 hours , then re - enter and kill him again for the book . Repeat as many times as necessary . Perk Requirements . " Temporary Boost then Skill Point Reallocation " . If a perk has a required skill level ( e . g . Entomologist has a science requirement of 40 ) , allocate your skill points to the number required , select the desired perk and return to the Skill point allocation screen . You can now reset your points and put them to whatever you want - the perk is still selected even though you no longer meet the requirement . This glitch was originally discovered for New Vegas but also works in " Fallout 3 " . " see also : " Karma . Obtaining Infinite Karma . " Infinite Fingers & Ears for Karma " . See Infinite Fingers & Ears above . Killing without Karmic Change . See Killing NPCs Without Penalties . Companions . Karma . " Karmic Loss - Less Kills " . See Killing NPCs Without Penalties . Over - Encumbered Status Bypass . " Dogmeat and Knock - Down " . See Access Dogmeat ' s Inventory with Knock - Down Below . Obtaining All Companions at Once . NOTE : Be aware that having more companions will increase the processing load on your system . You may experience low frame - rates , stuttering , freezing , graphic glitches , game glitches , corrupt save games and system instability . " Sergeant RL - 3 Approach " . With this glitch , you can get as many companions as you want , how many times you want . This means you can do this glitch prior to Raven Rock , then after it , without a problem . It works rather slowly , so patience is necessary . " Puppies ! Approach " . Requires " Broken Steel " " NOTE : This approach does not require waiting days for RL - 3 to return , so this may be a more favorable approach for those with " Broken Steel " added on . " Traveling . Increased Movement Speed Exploit . ( N / A on ) . This also works on " " , however , some two - handed melee weapons will not work in New Vegas such as the baseball bat ; so keep that in mind . This can dramatically increase the speed in which you move by using any unarmed or one / two - handed weapons to your advantage . ( This includes completely unarmed ) If you have any weapon capable of blocking equipped and un - holstered you need to : You can achieve the same effect from a complete standstill by : Both of these methods are difficult and require precise timing , but makes the player capable of traveling large distances in considerably less time ; this can also allow players access to places normally unreachable . Over - Encumbered Bypasses . " Access Dogmeat ' s Inventory with Knock - Down " . With this , you can get back under an encumbered state and quick - travel again to , say , your Megaton / Tenpenny Tower House , and then once in your room , ask for everything back and allocate it where you want or need it . " Body Containers and Speed Walking " . Simply find a near - by enemy ( raiders and Talon Company or Regulators are plentiful among the wasteland ; bugs , mainly the radroach , are extra light and tend to be the best possible container if one is near - by ) , walk up to the enemy and activate the body for its storage , and now proceed to dump any and all excess loot you know you don ' t directly need but want to keep for other reasons ( selling , collecting , etc . ) . When you ' re done , use the grab function ( Click the right thumbstick for the 360 and PS3 , and the Z key on the PC ) to pick up the container / body , and now proceed to carry it across the place you ' re in . Notes : Note : With the walking method , you must spend time walking through each cell between where you went and your destination / central - drop point , this leaves certain non - player character ' s open to being spawned , attacked and killed while you walk at a fast pace in the same cell ( s ) . Impossible vertical climbing . Drop an item ( the more rigid the better , eg . 5mm . 308 ammo can , Combat armor ) then place the item on the ground . Also to make this possible remap your controls . On ps3 change the inventory button to r3 , and the move object button to circle . Look down at the item and press jump key slightly after press the move item key , repeat and you lift into the air . Timing is key for this exploit . If the timing is slightly off the item will drop , if you hold both buttons you can stop midair . This can be used to slow your descent , also to stabilize your platform . This can be used to reach previously inaccessible areas . Remapping the controls makes this a lot easier to accomplish , especially on console . " Simulated Grim Reapers Sprint " . Enable auto - save , and set it to trigger every time you go through a door . ( Or save right after exiting the room in the next step . I haven ' t tested it that way , but it should theoretically work the same way . Much simpler to auto - save though , if you have that function in your version . ) Now find some enemies you want dead , and rush into the room , V . A . T . S . attacking the closest one . If two or more are close , use V . A . T . S . to judge which is most harmed by your hits . Now , spin around as fast as you can , and leave out the door you came in . Don ' t forget to save . ( Or auto - save . ) They will follow , and attack you so load your save if the odds are stacked too bad . When you reloaded again , you refreshed the cell . The game blanked all loaded data , and started anew using only the save data , and the save data stores only the essentials . One of the things not stored is the data string telling your pursuers to hunt down and attack you . " Falling Without Dying " . If one falls off of a high place ( such as the Tenpenny Tower ) , one can save their game before hitting the ground . When this save is loaded , one will harmlessly fall to the ground . This can also be used with V . A . T . S . If a person is near you while you ' re falling , you can enter V . A . T . S . the moment before you hit the ground , attack the person , and walk away with only 10 % of the damage you would ' ve gotten . Sometimes you can also fall great distances and remain unharmed or only slightly damaged by falling against bumps or protrusions on the side of the object from which you are falling . Before you fall down , find something such as a side of the cliff or a Highway support with notches or something sticking out of it all the way down its side . This allows you to hit the side of the object continually to break your one fatal or crippling fall into many harmless smaller ones . Most highways don ' t have these in their supports , so saving before testing is recommended . General exploits . " Buy from Moira after closing time " . First you have to own a house . Go into Craterside Supply after closing and talk to Moira . Click " I ' m looking to buy some things for my house . " Click " Tell me about your themes . " Select any . Now you can go into her inventory to buy the themes but can also buy anything else . " Moving Large / Heavy Objects " . To move a larger object , grab a smaller object . The best choice would be a barrel . " Killing NPCs Without Penalties " . The player character can use objects in the game environment to induce non - player character death . Faction hostility , XP , and Karma changes will not be applied to the PC when NPC deaths are caused this way . These techniques are useful in obtaining equipment ( ie . Rivet City security armor , roving trader outfit , etc . ) , clearing settlements ( ie . Paradise Falls ) without making the residents openly hostile , or simple eliminating undesirable NPCs that may become obstacles to the player ' s game goals . " Using World Objects To Induce NPC Deaths " . The PC and all NPCs take damage from being hit by any object at a high speed . These objects can be inventory items or world objects that can merely be moved around but not taken . ( oil drums , tires , etc . ) . Using items as weapons allows the killing of any NPC without Karma loss / gain , or a change in faction status ( hostile / friendly ) between PC and other NPCs of the same faction as the target . NOTE : This technique functions best when the PC is not over encumbered . To injure an NPC , pick up a game object ( larger objects like oil drums or shopping carts will cause more damage than smaller ones ) and with it in front of the PC , walk directly into the target NPC , pressing the object between the PC and NPC . The game physics will cause the object to have a high velocity wobble , which eventually launches the object away at high speed causing damage . This causes damage to the PC , but much more damage to the NPC . Repeat until the desired NPC is dead . Heal self as needed . Other related methods include : " Using Companions To Induce NPC Deaths " . You can also simply attack an non - player character as much as you want , dealing up to their total HP - 1 in dmg ; as long as you don ' t kill them . If you have a follower with you , they will begin to attack them , and usually can finish them off . When the non - player character dies , as long as you were not the one to deal the final blow , you should not lose any Karma . With a follower such as Fawkes , this becomes quick and easy . Careful , however , as sometimes , if you accidentally attack or hit an non - player character , it can be enough to turn them hostile in the eyes of your follower ( s ) ; even if you stash your weapon after the initial , accidental hit , and even if the non - player character goes back to friendly status with you , the initial hit may be enough to make your followers become hostile to the target independently and they may continue to be hostile to the non - player character ( and vice versa ) until the non - player character or your follower is dead . " Friendly Talon Company / Hitmen " . This makes all the mercs that spawn outside buildings and metros friendly to the player . " Freeze time " . First , open the Pip - boy , and go to the map ( local map , or world map ) close the pip - boy , now , rapidly tap the pip - boy button , and the button that sets / removes map markers on the map . this may take several tries , but if successful , you should open the pip - boy , close it immediately , then the " set / remove map marker " pop - up should come up , the game will think you are still in the pip - boy menu , and as such , it will freeze time , however , you are free to move around , crouch , and jump as you please ( any other action , like shooting your weapon , or VATS , will not work . this can be very useful for running away from enemies , sneaking up on enemies , or strategically placing the PC in a place where VATS will be more accurate , to resume time , just click the set map marker pop up ( any option will do ) and you will resume normal play .