RANDOM ENCOUNTERS

Discover Fallout's random encounters, from helpful NPCs to dangerous foes. Find the Red Ryder BB gun and more.

Good Encounters (most in Desert):

• Talking Cows: An enigmatic encounter; ignore any messages about things going wrong.
• UK Police Box: Found in the desert, interacting with it makes the box disappear and a motion sensor appear.
• Bob's Used Cars: Inside the shack, you can find two guns. A crate to the left contains the Red Ryder LE BB gun, and a footlocker holds a standard Red Ryder BB gun and 100 BB pellets. Picking the locked door also yields both Red Ryder BB and LE BB guns.
• Footprint: In the desert, a corpse on a footprint has a Stealth Boy.
• Overturned truck: Contains a box with a large amount of money.
• Aliens: In the ship, you can find the alien blaster and a portrait of Elvis.
• Patrick the Celt: Found in the mountains and identified with a lightning icon. He provides directions and can increase your Charisma by one if you ask him to sing a song in Gaelic. High luck is not required for this encounter.

Bad Encounters (can occur anywhere):

• Random critters, from rats to deathclaws.
• Raiders and Thugs attacking you.
• Raiders and Thugs attacking peasants or each other.
• Dehydration (you may lose health points, but there isn't a health point statistic in the game).
• Rough terrain (only in mountains).
• Nausea (occurs when radiation is in your system).
• Town guards (if traveling close to a city).
• Caravans.
• Dead traveller (sometimes with critters; the corpse may contain items).
• Caravan guard (deathclaw ate his caravan; he gives you his equipment).
• Fisherman and his son (only at coastal areas).