Guides

Fallout 3 Console Commands: Caps, Level Up, Item IDs, God Mode

A vault dweller in a blue jumpsuit with a glowing wrist computer looks over the ruined skyline of a wasteland city at sunset, beside a rusty terminal
Written by Vera

Press ` on PC and type player.additem 0000000F 1000 for caps. Fallout 3 commands for god mode, level up, carry weight and quests, plus a table of item IDs.

To use Fallout 3 console commands on PC, load a save, press the grave accent key (`, which is ~ on a US keyboard, the key under Esc), type a command and press Enter. tgm toggles god mode, tcl toggles no-clip, player.additem 0000000F 1000 adds 1,000 bottle caps and player.advlevel raises your level by one.

Fallout 3’s console is a debugging tool the developers left in the PC version, and it shares almost all its commands with Fallout: New Vegas because both games run on the Gamebryo engine. This page keeps to the commands the Fallout Wiki and a second guide agree work in Fallout 3, and it flags anything that is New Vegas-only or needs a mod.

Quick answer: the Fallout 3 console commands people use most

  • Open the console: press ` (the key under Esc) while playing. The game pauses and a prompt appears at the lower left.
  • God mode: tgm. The wiki says it gives invincibility to damage and radiation, unlimited ammo, carrying capacity and action points, and stops item wear.
  • No-clip: tcl lets you move through walls and get unstuck.
  • Caps: player.additem 0000000F 1000. Any item: player.additem [ID] [amount].
  • Level up: player.advlevel for one level, player.setlevel [level] for a set level, player.rewardxp [amount] for XP.
  • Carry weight: player.setav carryweight 5000.
  • Map: tmm 1 reveals every map marker and makes it a fast-travel point.
  • PC only: the wiki describes the console as part of the PC version, so there is no equivalent in these tables for Xbox 360 or PS3.

How to open the console in Fallout 3 (PC)

The Fallout Wiki’s Gamebryo console page (read 10:26 UTC on November 8, 2026) gives the steps:

  1. Load a save and unpause. The console only opens while you are playing, not from a menu.
  2. Press the key left of 1. That is the grave accent `, shown as ~ on US layouts and ¬ on UK ones. On other layouts it is the key just under Esc: the wiki lists §, ½, ^, ², and ' among the symbols on it.
  3. Type a command and press Enter. The HUD disappears and the mouse becomes a cursor. Left-click an object, character or terminal to select it for commands that need a target.

If you can’t see what you type: on non-widescreen displays the left side of the console can be off screen. The wiki’s fix is to press Tab several times before typing, which pushes the text into view without changing the command. Typing help is a quick test that the console works. Press Page Up and Page Down to scroll its history.

If the console won’t open at all: the wiki notes that on Windows Vista and 7 some players had to disable an “Infrared” device in Device Manager before the key registered. Otherwise check that your layout’s key is the one in step 2.

Do Fallout 3 console commands disable achievements?

The Fallout Wiki warns that using the console on the Steam version of the Gamebryo games disables Steam Achievements until you restart, but that note sits on a page shared with New Vegas. Steam’s store data for Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition and Fallout 3 (checked 10:27 UTC) shows no Steam Achievements category for either edition, so there is nothing on Steam for the console to switch off. We found no Fallout 3 page that confirms an achievement lock either way. Make a manual save with savegame or the normal menu before you start, because several commands below cannot be undone.

Fallout 3 Pip-Boy screen on the SPECIAL tab showing Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck values

The Pip-Boy SPECIAL tab. player.modav raises these up to 10; player.forceav can go past it. Image: Bethesda Game Studios

Fallout 3 gameplay console commands

Commands marked “target” need an object or character selected first: click it with the console open, or use prid [ref ID].

Command What it does
tgm God mode: no damage or radiation, unlimited ammo, carry weight and AP, no item wear.
tcl Toggle clipping (no-clip). Fly through walls or get unstuck.
tmm 1 Show all Pip-Boy map markers and allow fast travel to them. tmm 0 hides them again. It does not update the “locations discovered” stat.
tfow Toggle fog of war on the Pip-Boy local map.
tai / tcai Toggle all AI / toggle combat AI. Enemies stand still.
kill (target) Kills the selected character or creature.
killall Kills every NPC and creature in the area.
resurrect (target) Brings an NPC back to life and rerolls their inventory. resurrect 1 revives them as if unconscious.
unlock (target) Opens a locked door, safe, container or terminal (not doors locked from the other side).
setessential [base ID] 1 Makes an NPC unkillable. setessential [base ID] 0 makes them mortal again.
player.moveto [ref ID] / moveto player (target) Move yourself to an NPC, or an NPC to you.
coc [cell name] Teleport to a named cell, for example coc megatoncommonhouse.
tfc Free camera for screenshots; tfc 1 pauses the game while you move it.
tm Hide the HUD and menus for screenshots.
save [name] / load [name] Save or load by name from the console.

One extra teleport: coc testqaitems takes you to a developer test room that, per the wiki’s TestQAItems page, holds containers with a copy of every item in the game, including cut ones. You can only leave it by console, for example with coc megatoncommonhouse.

Level, XP, SPECIAL and skill commands

Command What it does
player.advlevel Advance one level.
player.setlevel [level] Set your level.
player.rewardxp [amount] Give XP.
player.rewardkarma [amount] Give Karma; use a negative number to remove it, for example player.rewardkarma -1000.
player.setav [stat] [value] Set an actor value such as strength, speech or smallguns.
player.modav [stat] [amount] Change a value relative to its current level. It stops at the normal maximum: 100 for skills, 10 for SPECIAL, 85 for resistances.
player.forceav [stat] [value] Force a value past the normal cap, for example player.forceav guns 100. See the warning below.
player.getav [stat] Print a current value.
player.addperk [perk ID] / player.removeperk [perk ID] Add or remove a perk or trait. Example: player.addperk 00058fdf adds Power Armor Training.
settagskills 3 Re-pick your Tag skills.
showracemenu, showtraitmenu, shownamemenu Reopen the race and face, trait and name menus. The wiki warns that changing race disables your perks, so remove and re-add them afterwards.
setgs [setting] [value] Change a game setting, such as the level cap with iMaxCharacterLevel or the armor cap with fMaxArmorRating. The wiki says game settings reset every time the game restarts.

Fallout 3 carry weight command

player.setav carryweight 5000 sets your maximum carry weight to 5,000, and player.modav carryweight 150 adds 150 to whatever it is now. Both come from the wiki’s examples. If you only need to stop being overencumbered for a while, tgm already removes the limit.

Warnings before you change stats

  • Prefer modav to forceav. The wiki says forceav overrides the game’s automatic calculation of a value, so nothing else will change it afterwards except another forceav or modav.
  • Do it after Vault 101. Stat changes made before you leave the Vault do not change the SPECIAL points and Tag skills you leave with.
  • Intense Training can trap you. The wiki says adding it with addperk opens the SPECIAL screen with one point to spend, and if every stat is already maxed you cannot close the screen except with the cam command or by reloading.
  • Easy on the scale. player.setscale 10 makes you huge, but falls still hurt as if you were normal size and the game only loads cells for normal size, so the wiki warns it can crash.
A giant armored robot fires a bright energy beam across a barren wasteland hillside under a yellow sky in Fallout 3

Liberty Prime fires its beam in an official Fallout 3 screenshot. killall and tcai are the console's tools for clearing or freezing a fight. Image: Bethesda Game Studios

Item IDs and the Fallout 3 add item command

The command is player.additem [ID] [amount]. IDs are hexadecimal and the leading zeros are optional, so player.additem f 1000 and player.additem 0000000F 1000 do the same thing. To add a weapon at less than full condition, use player.additemhealthpercent [ID] [amount] [quality] with quality in decimals, for example .50 for 50 percent. IDs below come from each item’s page on the Fallout Wiki.

Item ID Example
Bottle caps 0000000F player.additem 0000000F 10000
Bobby pins 0000000A player.additem 0000000A 50
Stimpak 00015169 player.additem 00015169 20
RadAway 00015167 player.additem 00015167 20
Rad-X 00015168 player.additem 00015168 20
Nuka-Cola 0001519E player.additem 0001519E 10
Stealth Boy 00043E94 player.additem 00043E94 5
Fat Man 0000432C player.additem 0000432C 1
Mini nuke (Fat Man ammo) 00020799 player.additem 00020799 10
Gatling Laser 0000432E player.additem 0000432E 1
Vengeance (unique Gatling Laser) 000CB547 player.additem 000CB547 1

DLC items: the first two digits of an ID are the add-on’s position in your load order, and base-game items start with 00. The wiki says you need a tool such as FO3Edit to check your own load order, so a DLC item’s ID depends on how your game is set up. The wiki’s item pages list a DLC ID for each add-on item (the Fat Man page shows 00C169 for its “sim version”, for example), and you swap the leading digits for your own.

Other inventory commands: player.removeitem [ID] [amount] deletes items (handy for stuck quest items), player.showinventory lists your inventory with IDs, player.equipitem [ID] equips something that does not show in the Pip-Boy, and player.srm opens the repair menu using your Repair skill. The search command that looks up item IDs needs the Fallout 3 Command Extender plugin, a mod, so it is not part of the base game.

How to spawn items, NPCs and creatures

player.placeatme [ID] [number] puts an item or character next to you. The wiki lists player.placeleveledactoratme [base ID] as the way to create or clone an NPC at your position, and warns that NPCs spawned this way can crash the game if they enter combat after you have changed the timescale.

Companions have their own tricks. The wiki says that resurrecting and killing Dogmeat (prid 6a775) frees a companion slot, so you can hire another follower. If a companion gives generic dialogue after a reset, resetquest [quest ID] resets their hire quest.

A Fallout 3 player character fires a glowing weapon at hovering robots inside a large industrial chamber

Combat against robots in an official screenshot. tgm gives unlimited ammo and stops weapon wear while it is on. Image: Bethesda Game Studios

Quest console commands

Command What it does
movetoqt Teleport to your current quest target.
sqt List current quest targets.
sqs [quest ID] List a quest’s stages. Use it before setstage.
getstage [quest ID] Show a quest’s current stage.
setstage [quest ID] [stage] Jump a quest to a stage. Useful for bugged scripts.
completeallobjectives [quest ID] Mark all current objectives of a quest complete, to bypass a broken objective.
resetquest [quest ID] Reset a quest. The wiki also uses it to repair a companion’s hire quest.
caqs Completes every stage of every quest, including ones you have not started, which the wiki says wipes out the whole quest list. Do not use it on a save you want to keep.

The Fallout Wiki’s Fallout 3 quest IDs page lists the IDs these commands need.

Time and weather commands

  • set gamehour to 8 sets the in-game hour. The change applies when you unpause.
  • set timescale to 1 makes one game second pass per real second. The wiki gives 30 as the default, and warns that changing it can crash the game if NPCs you spawned with placeleveledactoratme enter combat.
  • fw [weather ID] forces a weather type. From the wiki’s list: 00064609 is WastelandClear, 0005CF9C is gWastelandClear01, and 0005A728 is WastelandDecay.

Fallout 3 console commands not working: common fixes

  • The console won’t open: use the key under Esc for your layout and be unpaused in the world. See the section above.
  • Nothing happens: commands for you need player. in front, for example player.additem. Commands for an NPC need that NPC selected first.
  • A DLC item ID fails: your load order sets the first two digits, as explained above.
  • A New Vegas command fails: some entries on shared wiki pages, such as tdm (demi-god mode) and showrecipemenu, are New Vegas only.
  • A stat change did not stick: make it after leaving the Vault, and use modav for anything you might want to undo.

Playing a different Bethesda RPG? We have the same style of guide for Fallout 4, Skyrim, Oblivion Remastered and Starfield.

Sources: Fallout Wiki: Gamebryo console commands (opening the console, gameplay, character, quest, world and time commands, warnings), Gamebryo console commands (all) (command list), Form ID (load order), The Guide Hall: All Fallout 3 Cheats and Console Commands (February 21, 2025; cross-check of the gameplay and character commands), Fallout Wiki item pages (Bottle cap, Bobby pin, Stimpak, RadAway, Rad-X, Nuka-Cola, Stealth Boy, Fat Man, Mini nuke, Gatling laser, Vengeance, Power Armor Training, TestQAItems), Steam: Fallout 3 GOTY (store data and screenshots). Checked November 8, 2026, 10:27 UTC.

Featured image: AI-generated illustration

About the author

Vera

Vera is the AI writer for PC cheats, console commands and The Sims 4 at Gaming Route. She covers cheat codes and console commands for PC single-player games, The Sims 4 updates, packs, cheats and gameplay guides, researched from official patch notes, developer documentation and community wikis. Spotted a mistake? Get in touch through our contact page.

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