I'm trying to make my way through the third level of Vault 15 right now, but there are a multitude of rats and such. Does anyone have any hints as to where I can find some healing supplies or maybe some early weapons beside the 10mm?

Also, how do I initiate VATS combat without first being attacked? I tried to press the "combat" button in the lower right but I couldn't figure it out.

Stimpacks: Should probably be some in lockers or something in V15 but it might be emptry, could always go back to Shady Sands and buy some from a trader, I think Ian can sell you some. (not 100% sure though.)

Weapons: Go to Junktown if you have some supplies to sell then trade for a better weapon.

To initiate combat you need to press the combat button, this should activate the turn-based mode.
Otherwise you could left click on the weapon slot to start combat.

Well, there isn't much weapon variety early on. At Vault 15 you get a 10mm SMG and .223 Hunting Rifle.

Pickpocketing people is a good way to help out with early-game poorness. Just save before you do, because a failure will always turn them hostile.

I went to Junktown but was over run by about two hundred ghouls. Also, is it possible to somehow stop the raider attacks on Shady sands without killing say 50 raiders?

It seems like you went to Necropolis instead of Junktown.

What's your unarmed skill? Kicking and punching can be very effective.

I don't ever bother with unarmed. Small Gun, Energy Weapons, and Speech are good tags.

Unarmed is good when you don't have ammo but it it is more fun to have in FO2. Get to Box in New Reno and Fight Shi masters in San Francisco.

With the way Fallout 2 begins, one is almost forced to go with Unarmed.

With high speech you can just run past all the enemies and convince that guy to let you through.

I mean characters with a combat build. Also, you would miss out on the extra XP garnered by the enemies if you just ran through(And I believe you would almost get to level 2 by the end of the Temple doing everything, but I could be mistaken about that.).

Usually small guns is the way to go, but not with Fallout 2(I personally did not like the beginning after the first play-through).

In Temple Of Trials there are several ways.
Melee or Unarmed to fight everything.
Speech to convince him to let you through.
Steal to pickpocket his key and slip out.
And I dunno about this buy maybe you can use the Lockpick skill at the end to get out as well.

Anyway, if you don't tag "any" of these skills and you have a low END and STR then you'll probably have to recreate your character or be reaaaaally lucky.

I make Unarmed Characters in FO2 at the start. I like my characters being able to kick a man in the head and send they flying. I also do it because ammo is rare in the start. Why waste a bullet to kill a rat when one good kick is just as good?

I see your point, but I am not a big fan of melee/unarmed for my characters. For combat it was Small Guns all the way.

I love unarmed in both FO1 and FO2 I generally tag it for all my characters, the only time I haven't loved it was when running into raiders at an early level and all i've got is my vault suit or leather jacket at best.

To the OP like shdowhuntt said you can find a hunting rifle and 10mm smg in vault 15 they are off in the wrecked passages, get them and you'll be set for awhile

to use 'V.A.T.S' (targeted attack) press the weapon icon until a little yellow target symbol appears although you can't do this if you have fast shot selected as a trait

And you can shoot male or female characters in the groin in Fallout 1 or 2! Ouch! :blink: