The Capital Wasteland is an unfriendly place that's full of danger and death, but the price tag on that official strategy guide isn't too pretty, either. Here are some tips we've put together on our own after spending a few dozen hours in Fallout 3 and quite a bit of time analyzing all the perks, skills, and stats and how they work in-game.
Perks: good, bad, ugly
Intense Training (multiple times if need be - see our character guide for why this is good), Black Widow (specifically for female characters, as there are so many men in Fallout 3), Scrounger, and Educated (take this one as soon as you hit level 4) are all fantastic perks to get. For those who love using guns along with V.A.T.S., Action Boy/Girl, Grim Reaper's Sprint, Sniper, Mysterious Stranger, Better Criticals, Commando, Gunslinger, and Bloody Mess are all great.
Melee characters will eventually want to work towards the Ninja perk and may want to get a few hits in Intense Training and Life Giver for higher stats and more health, but getting Pyromaniac is great if you're going to use a Shishkebab for your endgame main weapon. You will probably have enough skill points to max the Unarmed or Melee Weapons skills, so you probably won't need Little Leaguer.
Avoid perks like Paralyzing Palm, Chem Resistant, Light Step, Chemist, Adamantium Skeleton (stimpacks fix limbs well enough), Solar Powered (especially since you'd have to miss Grim Reaper's Sprint to get it), Entomologist, Lead Belly, Infiltrator or Computer Whiz (that's what save/load is for!). If you don't feel like any perks are jumping out at you after a level-up, then tossing one into Intense Training or Life Giver can't hurt.
Here's a list of all the perks in the game along with descriptions and requirements. It's worth poking around here to think about where you want to take your character. Most paths are great, but always give yourself at least one solid combat option.
Maxing Skill Points
There are a few important things you can do to max the number of skill points you get in a game. The first is to jack up your Intelligence in the game's introduction, either to 9 or 10 (depending on whether you think you'll find the Intelligence bobblehead) to max skill gains. The other is to grab the Educated perk right when you hit level 4; do these and you can be getting 20 skill points each at levels 2 and 3, and 23 skill points from level 4 and up. Depending on the overall character you want to make, you may find yourself maxing Intelligence during the intro, and filling in your "main" stat or stats later in the game with a few instances of the Intense Training perk.
Steal things!
If you are planning on going evil, then you should be walking around town ready to steal everything you can. Unlike Oblivion, Fallout 3 doesn't flag items as stolen, so you can clear out the shelves of many stores and sell the owner's goods right back to him. Find a way to hide behind the counter to pick cash registers and even their safes. Once you get a few thousand caps in your pocket you can be a little more choosy in what you bother to steal and fence, but the important part about this too is that you don't need any stealth skill to steal something - all you have to do is force the situation where anyone around has their back to you. Just keep an eye on the indicator at the top of the screen when you're doing it.
Kill people if they have stuff you want
The Capital Wasteland does not a have a criminal justice system, so you can use this to your advantage and just kill some people for their stuff. Sure, if you start a fight with Lucas Simms then the whole town will try to kill you, but if you meet one of the wandering traders and want to loot all the crap out of his Brahmin's packs, just kill him and his guard and take what you want. Be careful, though, as you can permanently break quite a few quests with careless murders. Either way, always keep in mind the question: "What if I just shot this guy in the face repeatedly until there is no face anymore?" You may find yourself killing the kind of NPCs you never even try to mess with in other RPGs, and seeing some fairly appreciable rewards for doing it.
Finish Megaton before you really finish it
That leads me to this next tip. Early in the game you'll get a quest to either save Megaton or destroy it. The latter is a very fun option, but make sure you finish all you want to do there first. And then after that, why not go postal in the town to personally take everyone out before you head to Tenpenny Towers to hit the big red button? But even if you decide not to do this and want to help Megaton, make your decision and finish the quest early so that you'll have a single place that's yours to store all your stuff, sleep in the bed for the short-term +10% "Well Rested" experience bonus, and have your own personal butler to make you Purified Water and tell some jokes.
