I thought I read somewhere that if you clear out an area from all the critters currently living there that they are gone forever. The area will stay clear. But if you leave one creature there then they will respawn. For example, if you kill every deathclaw at Quarry Junction then they will stay gone, but if you leave one alive then they all come back/respawn.

Is this true/


???

It shouldn't be, respawning abilities are that of the user not the group

respawn means they are reborn after 3 or 7 or 30 game days




B)

A few places yes but, not all.

They do for me, but not always the original creature: I cleared Gypsum Trainyard of all the Giant Ants that were there and when I next came back it had Blind Deathclaws

It depends. In most regular areas creatures respawn on the places they were killed and move slowly to their initial patrol routs. In case of Quarry Junction (and some other quest related locations) they will not respawn after being killed, otherwise it would be strange since Courier had been asked to clear it so people from Sloan could work there. If you leave several DCs in Quarry Junction they perhaps will be there when you back, but only that few of them that you spared.

"Outdoor" areas respawn every so often, but I don't know how often. ALL "indoor" areas are no-respawn. "Outdoor" areas can be fast traveled to AND from while "indoor" area can at most be fast traveled from.

If the Critters are related to a Quest, such as the Deathclaws in Quarry Junction, they will not respawn. However there are other Deathclaws in the area that might wander in there.

As for other critters, some areas Respawn, some do not. I don't think the 72 hours that everything else uses is the time frame for this. Also, you can go into an area that was previously cleared out, save, exit the game, then start back up again, the creatures may very well respawn again as the game loads.

Here's an answer -

After being empty for a "long" time ... there are now a lot of Deathclaws in and around Dead Wind Cavern. I did not go all the way to the back to see if the Legendary Deathclaw had respawned.


B)