Fallout 3 Message Board  

Regarding the Cheats & Hints.

It is possible to freeze your current amount of scrap metal through Protector Casdin (confirmed on 360). This method can be done directly after leaving Vault 101. Moderate sneak skill is required, around 30-40, which can of course be supplemented by Stealth Boys.

* 1: First, an even number of scrap metal is needed. The RobCo Facility and the Meresti Station are two places with a lot of scrap metal.
* 2: (Skip if friendly with Outcasts) Collect various items for Casdin, enough to achieve allied status with the Outcasts. The best place for this is the UFO crash site to the north, not only since the loot yield far more points than required to become friendly with the Outcasts, but also because one can simply stop by Meresti Station on the way and loot the scrap metal there.
* 3: (Skip if friendly with Outcasts) Speak with Defender Morgan to start The Outcast Collection Agent quest.
* 4: (Skip if friendly with Outcasts) Give Casdin enough items to become friendly with the Outcasts, around 50 points worth of items.
* 5: Give Casdin all scrap metal in your inventory. This batch is the X Value. Note! This value MUST be an even number (10, 12, 14 etc).
* 6: Steal back the X Value scrap metal you gave Casdin.
* 7: Give back all scrap metal EXCEPT 2 for the best possible profit. This batch is the Y Value.
* 8: Steal back the Y Value scrap metal from Casdin.
* 9: Now, attempt to steal one of Casdins basic items, such as his Laser Rifle (or if you've given them to him, the Alien Power Cells). You should get caught (if not, try again). Casdin will then proceed to take back his scrap metal, but will steal back both the X Value and the Y Value. For example, if you gave him an 16 scrap metal, stole them back and then gave him 14 scrap metal, it will say that he removes 14 scrap metal and then 16 scrap metal.

This will glitch your scrap metal value so that you have a Z Value which is negative. It will appear as if you have no scrap metal at all in the inventory, but when you speak with Casdin, Winthrop or Walter you will still have the option of giving them scrap metal.

Following the example above, if you first gave him 16 scrap metal, stole them back and then gave him 14, you will have 14 invisible scrap metal in your inventory that can be given away to Walter, Casdin and Winthrop. Most importantly, this amount of invisible scrap metal is permanent, meaning it can be given away infinite times, as long as you do not pick up any additional scrap metal (which will reset the negative value back to normal).

Used early in the game with Walter, this gamebreaking glitch can launch a level 2 or 3 character to level 20 in less than 20 minutes, netting around 45,000-60,000 caps in the process.

Taken from fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Scrap_Metal#Glitches_and_bugs I take no credit for finding this glitch. I will be testing it out on a new character sometime soon. This seems like it will be great for trying out a new build for your character and starting fresh on all the quests.

[Edited by Zackman, 5/5/2009 8:59:58 PM]

Sounds like an easy way to get the extra karma achievements rather than doing subsequent playthroughs (or the stay neutral with reloads for positive and negative method).

EDIT: I can confirm that this still works on the 360 with patch 1.5 (Link). They've patched out the other XP exploits, so I'm not sure how long this one will last.

I had already previously completed a full playthrough with negative karma, netting all the achievements except the neutral and positive karma ones, so those were all I needed (no DLC). I started a new game and exited the Vault, heading off towards Fort Independence. I spoke to Casdin and started the Outcast Collection Agent quest, then headed up north to the Alien Crash Site (Link) to grab the Alien Blaster and Alien Power Cells. Went back to Fort Independence and traded these to Casdin (there seemed to be an extremely beneficial glitch with the Power Cells - he seemed to register each one as 12) which granted me friendly status. Then I did the scrap metal pickpocket trick. I had 12, so ended up with -10. Once that was done I tested it with Casdin and got a heap of ammo and stimpaks. Then I went to Megaton and sold them to Walter for 10 caps and 5 XP per piece.

For anyone doing this purely for the karma achievements like me, I would advise taking the Swift Learner perk 3 times to boost XP gains by 30%. This will boost you to 6.5 XP per piece of scrap metal from Walter, which can help speed things up. You could also take the Here and Now perk to instantly gain a level, although I didn't do that. Stay neutral and save just before hitting levels 8, 14, and 20. Then load each of those saves and get the necessary karma adjustment before levelling (for positive karma I just disarmed the Megaton bomb - you could get negative karma by stealing, pickpocketing, hacking, lockpicking, killing).

[Edited by DarthParametric, 5/8/2009 4:39:49 AM]

I'm using this now to build the ultimate Fallout character. I will be level 30 with all SPECIAL stats and skills maxxed out with the best perks.

First I created my character, ran to the alien crash site and got the alien blaster with ammo. Went to meresti train station where the family is and looted 24 scrap metal. Then I ran to fort independence and did the glitch. Easy level 3-30 in under an hour.

Im currentley n the progress of writing a Fallout 3 guide, this would be quite a good thing to include.

All i have to say to this guys , about the if they have patched it is that , if you go into system settings then memory and delete the memory of the game then all the patches+your person is deleted , then when u put the game back in to play it just say Cancel to the update then when you have everything/lvls you desire then you can update and your character should be there , worked for me ! (also works on other games)