From The Vault

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Fallout 3 settlement Rivet City map marker: Rivet City other exits: Bridge Tower Capitol Preservation Society Rivet City Science Lab Saint Monica's Church Weatherly Hotel Rivet City Bow leaders: Rivet City Council doctors: Rivet City Clinic merchants: A Quick Fix (chems) Flak 'N Shrapnel's (weapons) Gary's Galley (food) Potomac Attire (clothing) Rivet City Supply (junk) The Muddy Rudder (drinks) quests: Scientific Pursuits The Waters of Life The Replicated Man Stealing Independence The Wasteland Survival Guide Those! Strictly Business You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head A Nice Day for a Right Wedding Church Donations Council Seat Light-Fingers Hargrave Overdose Slave Hunt Suicide Watch The Runaways cell name: RCHangarDeckMid (Midship Deck) RCStairwell (Stairwell) RCUpperDeckMid (Upper Deck) ref id: 0001D6AA (Midship Deck) 00051245 (Stairwell) 00019FBB (Upper Deck) Rivet City Upper Deck Midship Deck Map

Rivet City is the largest human settlement in the Capital Wasteland or Washington, DC area. Its inhabitants live in individual rooms inside an aircraft carrier, and a number of guards rotate 24 hours a day to protect the ship from Raiders, super mutants, and any other threats to security. Rivet City includes a shopping area called "The Rivet City Marketplace" as well as an American History Museum, Science Lab, bar and hotel, all of which have related quests to be completed.

Location

Rivet City lies in the most southeastern part of the map, near Anacostia. It is easiest to reach by following the eastern side of the River Potomac, crossing near the Tepid Sewer or at the Citadel, or by swimming across from Arlington Library. You can also walk from the Jefferson Memorial.

If you are coming from the back door of the GNR Building, you can come all the way underground from Collapsed Car Tunnel, past the Museum Station, continuing South to the Anacostia station. (Click the Discussion tab for this page regarding a Pip Boy World Map glitch here.)

There is also an intercom button on the structure where Carlos the beggar asks for water. Use the intercom button to extend the bridge to Rivet City. You may then cross and enter a brief conversation with Harkness.

History

Rivet City is located inside of an aircraft carrier that was docked at the Washington Navy Yard during the Great War, and left stranded when the water level in the Anacostia and Potomac rivers dropped. The community was founded by members of the pre-War Naval Research Center, who moved to the vessel to make use of its on board facilities and comparatively defensible position.

By 2277, Rivet City was the sole supplier of edible, non-irradiated food in the Capital Wasteland, trading it for essential raw materials with other communities.

Notable Areas

Rivet City contains a large and thriving marketplace, as well as other institutions, such as:

• A well-stocked and well-guarded armory.
• The Capitol Preservation Society with a museum of pre-War historical artifacts and knowledge.
• The Muddy Rudder bar.
• The Rivet City Science Lab.
• Saint Monica's Church.
• The Weatherly Hotel.

Fortunately, Rivet City is quite well signposted, unlike the Citadel.

The broken bow of the ship was separated from the main carrier substructure and half-flooded. The lower levels are inhabited by Mirelurks while the upper levels contain Pinkerton's laboratory and home.

For the player exploring the vessel, when checking out the bridge tower, it is worth going through all the exterior doors. These lead to catwalks on the outside of the tower, most of which have an ammunition box or something similar worth looting.

To access Rivet City, climb to the 3rd-story of the tower near the Rivet City map marker. There is an intercom near Carlos. When activated a bridge will extend from the ship.

Northwest of Rivet City is a Super Mutant camp with a Lying, Congressional Style, and a captive.

South of Rivet City there is a shipwrecked boat surrounded by radioactive waste. The boat contains ammo crates and a locked First Aid kit. Be cautious because you will have to swim to the boat.

People

*After successfully opening Vault 101
**After successful completion of Those!
***After successfully completing the unmarked quest Cherry's Freedom.

Essential Characters (Unkillable)

• James Hargrave
• Harkness
• Janice Kaplinski
• Dr. Madison Li
• Dr. Preston
• Shrapnel
• Abraham Washington
• C.J. Young

Killing and Enslaving Characters in Rivet City

For the Strictly Business quest, one of your objectives is to enslave Flak who resides in Rivet City and is co-owner of Flak 'N Shrapnel's. It is advised that you do not enslave him until you completed most of the game and have a significant amount of ammo, as enslaving him will cause Shrapnel to randomly wander off into the Capital Wasteland (although not die because he is invincible) and then you will have no one to barter with for weapons and ammunition.

Flak, along with the character Brock (who can be found in the Muddy Rudder), are two characters in particular who can be enslaved in Rivet City. If you attempt to enslave them and are caught, you can bail Rivet City by running out of the town far enough until you are no longer being chased/shot at and then fast travel to another city. Fast travel back 24 hours later in game time and the town will forget your sins. This goes along with murdering any of the residents in Rivet City as well.

If you do kill or enslave anyone from Rivet City and are caught, upon re-entering the city, certain characters (mainly the Rivet City guards) will have a unique dialog open. When walking next to them, they will say things like "you're lucky I don't kill you for what you pulled.", "I'm going to give you a second chance.", "You're a low-life, but if you keep your nose clean we'll let you stay." or "We were told to forgive and forget what you did." Certain store owners may say strange things as well after committing a crime in Rivet City.

Related Quests

On the Upper Deck you can rent a hotel room for 120 caps from Vera Weatherly, or her robot. After purchasing the hotel room, you can access it for free thereafter. With this room comes a bed, which grants you the Well Rested bonus effect of +10% experience. Sometimes the room will have an average lock on it, but you do not lose Karma for picking it.

The Bobblehead - Intelligence is standing on the table in the Science Lab.

• Scientific Pursuits
• The Replicated Man
• Stealing Independence
• The Wasteland Survival Guide
• Those!
• A Nice Day for a Right Wedding
• Church Donations
• Council Seat
• Light-Fingers Hargrave
• Overdose
• Slave Hunt
• Suicide Watch
• The Runaways

Notes

• Following people into their homes may result in you becoming trapped there with a trespassing offense.
• If you are in the Rivet City Marketplace just before closing time people will warn you; if you do not leave, the entire city will go hostile towards you.
• If you rent a room at the Inn (120 caps), it becomes yours for the duration of the game. While in this room, you can sometimes hear amorous neighbors through the wall.
• If some guard opens the Rivet City Armory door (the Very Hard door near Private Jones), and the hostile robot inside the armory spots you, most, if not the entire city will go hostile towards you.
• If you steal from guards while they are asleep, some of the inhabitants will flee from you, but no one will be hostile.
• If you have a high enough speech skill (Child at Heart perk will help) you can get James Hargrave to run away from home, and you will find him right towards the back of Rivet City next to Anacostia Crossing. If you talk to him there he will ask you to take him home (NOTE: you can only get this speech option ONCE). If you say you will, he will follow you around where ever you go, as long as you walk. As soon as you fast travel, he will automatically go right home. He also does a fair amount of damage, and since he's a child he cannot die.
• If Raven Rock is destroyed as a part of the The American Dream quest, the people in Rivet City will talk about the disappearance of the Enclave Radio, saying that maybe it was caused by an "Explosion from the Horizon".
• The front of the ship is snapped off from the back.
• The marketplace is actually the hangar.
• You can get a key to the marketplace by killing a Rivet City guard and looting their corpse. The key is entitled "Hanger Key". Alternately, you may pick the Average lock.
• If you enter the marketplace either by using a key or by picking the lock when the marketplace is closed, the people will say things along the line of "You shouldn't be in here". If you refuse to leave, then all the people in the marketplace will become hostile.
• If you come to the marketplace in the morning (around 8:00 or 9:00 AM), some of the merchants will be eating breakfast at Gary's Galley. The guards will say things along the lines of "*merchant* is eating breakfast right now at the Gary's Galley, but you still buy stuff". Confirmed on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
• Unlike most NPCs, if you are caught trespassing in Dr. Preston's room he will equip a knife and stab you to death instead of calling security.
• For those wanting a quick getaway from the city security, there's a gap in the railing at the very top of the tower. If you jump right, you can land in the water no harm done, but you have to get past the guards on the third floor first.
• There is a baseball diamond set up on the flight deck.

Bugs

• At the Rivet City Midship there is a high chance that your game will freeze, even if you leave the area afterwards. The chance of this happening increases if you Plan C (slaughter) the town and can also occur in the marketplace. It is unknown what causes this and no fix has been found. (Confirmed Xbox 360, PC)
• If you steal from several people (perhaps even just one person), Harkness will refer to you in floating dialogue as a 'petty thief', even if nobody saw you do it. This has no effect on his 'proper' dialogue though. (Confirmed Xbox360)
• While utilizing the Chinese Stealth Armor and a silenced weapon, if you kill a NPC in Rivet City the inhabitants will only be hostile for anywhere from ten seconds to two minutes. After the time has passed and the NPCs become green (friendly) in the compass, you can resume normal dialogue. (Confirmed Xbox360 and PC)
• If either Diego or Angela miss their wedding time, the ceremony still proceeds unchanged. (Confirmed PS3 and Xbox 360)
• If the Wedding's guests miss their cue a glitch occurs where the entire Rivet City group does procession from the market to the church. They will wait here for hours doing nothing until their artificial intelligence is reset by an in-game timer. The player can also reload a previous save in which case the quest must be redone.
• If you break a law in Rivet City, [Steal, Murder, etc.] and flee out of the city, the guard at the main entrance will chase you but won't attack. She/he will eventually run right past you. (Confirmed Xbox 360)
• Entering the Marketplace at night with Dogmeat and Butch with an ashpile inside, you can talk to the ashpile. It will act like a Rivet City Security Guard. However, it does not speak and the subtitles go too fast to read. (Confirmed Xbox 360)
• Sometimes when you enter midship deck, Flak and Shrapnel's door will be opened and it closes a little bit afterwards, but if you enter you can only by picking an average lock, which could cause you to reload a save if your lockpick is below 50. (Xbox 360)
• If, straight after escaping vault 101, you go to Smith Casey's garage and complete Tranquility Lane, then go to Rivet City with James (do not speak into the intercom near the bridge) and talk to him after his conversation with Doctor Li, when you leave and talk into the intercom by the bridge it will activate and make the bridge disappear. If you have NPCs on it, the will drop to their deaths, apart from James, Doctor Li and some scientist woman who are all central to the later story. However if Garza falls he will die.
• with DLC installed, your game will often freeze in this area

Appearances

Rivet City appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

Rivet City in concept art.

The Craig Mullins concept art published on May 15, 2007 shows a city with ruined skyscrapers and an aircraft carrier which has run ashore and is connected to one of them by a rudimentary bridge.[1] The aircraft carrier appears to be the USS Oriskany although the image is mirrored thus placing the island on the wrong side of the ship.[2] The picture that was used for reference is located on a website devoted to naval vessels.[3]

Given the vessel's location (at the Washington Navy Yard), it is tempting to assume the carrier must have been a museum piece. This would appear to be supported by the large number of antique aircraft left on the flight deck. The aircraft appear to be a combination of P-80 Shooting Star, Grumman Panthers and the Lockheed SeaStars. However, given the game's setting in a retro-futuristic world, the carrier may have been working and simply docked in such a location (This theory is also backed up by the fact that you can find a crashed jet in Point Lookout that is of the same type as those on the deck). Such modern-day aircraft carrier museums as the USS Lexington and USS Midway display aircraft on board the flight deck and/or hangar deck.

The USS Oriskany was an Essex-class aircraft carrier, of which only four others remain and are open as museums: the USS Hornet in Alameda, California; the USS Lexington, in Corpus Christi, Texas; the USS Yorktown, in Charleston, South Carolina; and the USS Intrepid, in New York City. (The Oriskany is now an artificial reef off the coast of Florida.)

Sources

• July 2007 issue of the Game Informer magazine
• Concept art by Craig Mullins
• USS Hornet Museum
• USS Intrepid Museum
• USS Lexington Museum
• USS Yorktown Museum

Gallery

In-game panorama of Rivet City.

The Muddy Rudder

Saint Monica's Church

Caravan Stop with the Broken Steel add-on.