Reading the Compass

Reading the Compass

|HP                             
||||||||||||||||||||            
|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯v¯¯¯¯¯l¯¯¯l¯¯¯      
|-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-      
| /\            /\              
|NE         E           SE     

The compass (left hand corner) is extremely important for exploration.  It's not difficult to use, but a thorough explanation might give you a few insights you would've otherwise missed out on.  Let's go over all the features one by one, going from top to bottom.

1. Your health is displayed on top and an indication of your remaining health is given by the amount of lines: ||||||||||.  In the example above, health is not at it's maximum, but lies around 4/5th of the max.

2. The 'v' in the example is always at the same place.  This denotes your current direction.  As you'll see below, directions such as NE, E, SE will circle (i.e. move from left to right) as you move around.  In the example above, your character is facing E, meaning you're facing east.

3. Various markers can be spotted above or below the line (-.-.-.-.-.-). Markers seen above this line can appear in [GREEN] or in [RED], and are displayed in this example as (l).  These markers notify you of any NPC's in the area.  Green means the NPC is neutral/good, red means hostile.  The higher your Perception SPECIAL stat, the faster these blips appear on your compass.

4. Lastly, notice the markers below the line (-.-.-.-.-.-), as indicated by /\ in the example above.  These show the location of your destination(s), such as an active quest.  There is a second marker that you'll sometimes notice on your compass, which looks like a small hollow triangle (not covered in the ASCII example).  These small triangles denote a primary or secondary location you haven't found yet.  A filled small triangle denotes a location which you have explored at least once.

- Considering its simplicity, a short description of the HUD on the right will suffice:  It notifies you of your currently remaining AP (Action Points, as used in VATS), denoted by lines ||||||||||.  The condition (CND) of your equipped weapon is denoted by the small bar, and this interface also shows the ammunition in your equipped weapon: (Clip/Total).

The best preserved vault in the west!