I started leaving mines (as opposed to dropping them from my inventory) to lose weight. I didn't really expect too much to happen, then after many days in wasteland time I got a pop-up message similar to "sneak attack on Talon Merc successful". (I am assuming that one was due to all the mines I laid at Fort Bannister, but I was nowhere near anything when it popped-up) So I started leaving more mines in areas where enemies always reappear with only mixed results to point out the best way to maximize this sort of remote mischief.... For example I got fast result from mining the water tower above Fort Constantine and I also got a few ants at the Enclave roadblock between Canterbury Commons and Wheaton Armory (I quickly picked up the rest of these as a trading caravan route goes through there), but with the only other exception being the hapless wastelanders taking the overpass from the SatCom Array south of Raven Rock (insert heartfelt apologies) I haven't seen much results. Since I have been making a point to lay mines where enemies are stationed before they realize I am approaching, I am not sure what else I can do achieve more results.

Any ideas?

Those places where Talon mercs and Regulators like to ambush you. I have an ugly habbit of leaveing bottlecap mines there. One normaly kills 2 out of three, sometimes I get all three in one *BANG!*.

Thank you for this idea. I have hundreds of frag mines and such that I never use, I could get a kick out of this.

any mines are fun really. try this. have you ever killed off an entire enclave camp, only to find an unopened deathclaw cage? well, you could leave it, but that would be no fun, but if you open it, the Deathclaw eventually becomes hostile, and you dont want to waste a bunch of ammo on it, so what do you do? simple. lay 5+ mines in a pile right in front of the cage (depends on your explosive skill). open the cage, and run back to a safe distance. while the DC is looking around, either shoot the mines, or lob a well placed grenade. If plasma mines are used, the result is quite spectacular. :nuke:

I always think;

"Whats the point in putting them down here, No-ones ever gunna run over them"

I stand corrected.

here's another one that stealth characters will find fun. Drop a few mines somplace where an NPC won't have much trouble getting to. before moveing away love tap an NPC with a weak weapon and bugger off. The NPC will go to exactly where the shot came from only to find live mines. This gets pretty funny in Vault 87 with all the places one can hide with ease.

Setting up kill zones will work, but placing them everywhere will get you in trouble with friendlies too. Be responsible when you set them down and if setting them down, place the frag mines and bottle cap mines a few feet away. This allows the generating game engine to reset and the NPC's will walk on them. If too close, the mines do almost no damage. Another tactic is the shady sands shuffle if you character has enough stealth. Don't waste ammo shooting them, place a mine in their pocket and back away. High enough stealth and you location is not compromised. This tactic of mine placement works well at the Lincoln memorial. One bottle cap mine per slaver and two for Leroy Walker. Go into the memorial and cap the slaver there. Instantly the whole group will go hostile and you have 300 plus points instantly.

i did this at night, w/ a stealthboy, and 100 sneak, and still got caught after the first pocket potato...

it's a good rule of thumb to save every time you plan to pickpocket unless you're ready to blow the target's head off or skeedadle if you're detected. even with 100 sneak, you can still get caught especially against really high level targets like super mutant overlords.

To the OP. You, my friend, are a genius. Mines, the best way to get laid.

eh, i dont like to use saving as a crutch, other than for speech challenges, as sometimes its required to pass one in order to do a certain quest.

I quickly removed some at an enclave roadblock after watching a trader caravan wander towards them (not that he had anything, just trying to keep with the good-guy role), but had not really considered the repercussions of mining a wandering Outcast patrol...



That's a good tip. I have been placing frag mines in tight clusters to make sure I covered a doorway/entrance point; so maybe they're all going off together before the target in within the blast radius, and my only observed results are from a single bottlecap/plasma mine in the doorway of the Grisly Diner or the Enclave turret roadblock outside of Canterbury Commons. Maybe with this tip, I'll start seeing more consistent results.

Yes! It took me a little bit to get the hang of this, but now I am a total fragmine collector and won't build a bottlecap mine until I have V.3 just so I can run through everywhere with mines and a silenced pistol. I usually hold off until I have the silent running perk (I even let the Superduper Mart crew live until I am sufficiently stealthly), but after that it is time to make the rounds of every indoor Raider, Supermutant, and Talon Co. site. The ceiling ricochet is laughable, but the over the railing, arching flight to the floor a few stories down gets a satisfying "high-five", too.

That's one of my favourite tactics as well. You don't really need to be stealthy in order to pull that off though. Just place a bunch of mines, fire a single shot and let them come at you. I do that all the time in Hamilton's Hideaway for instance with all those Rad Scorpions. A Bottlecap Mine will take one out in a single blast.

Just today I tried something so simple that I didn't expect it to work. The first time I did "Reilly's Rangers" only Butcher survived the firefight in the lobby...which was annoying since I had deliberately cleared the lobby in advance. Then it occurred to me to clear the lobby, and then seed the lobby with frag mines so that when the new batch of mutants was hatched, the mines would be waiting for them. The net result was that the wild firefight was punctuated by mine detonations and even a flying super mutant. All three Rangers survived. "I love it when a plan comes together!"

Awesome! I am SO going to try that next time I play! Maybe I'll leave a MiniNuke by one of the mines. What's worth doing is worth doing right, after all.

mine set off mini nukes?

Great post on mines – they’re a blast!

NICE! Very nice, i will definatly have to try this out in a few places where raiders like to respawn. I too like alot of posters here have an overabundance of mines and since my repair skill is 85 now when i repair an item it usually will sell for over 100 caps, which will quickly deplete the poor merchant's cap supply. So i have close to 100 frag mines in my weapons closet in my Megaton house and nothing to do with them until now. Thanks for the tip and yes knowing what you have shared OP, mines are the best way to get laid.

Asai