With thanks to Garust, Lady Emma, Eli - The Thing, Cassi, Mette, Sanne, Jamie MachinegunGOGO, and Thaang.
There are 6 types of random encounters in-game and each encounter type has its own set of spawn locations.
Enemy, NPC, Settler or, Raider vs Enemy, NPC, Settler or, Raider. Can be useful for farming meat for Carnivore food buffs.
Traveling Merchants.
Corpses containing plans and Mr. Squeeze who sells the Lemonade and Hard Lemonade plans.
Tamable pets, set scenes with an NPC and the Insult Bot.
Travel
An NPC that moves back and forth along a small route, generally vendors of some kind.
Whitesprings Assault
Enemy vs Whitespring Robots.
Special Mention Encounters
Skyline Valley
It takes 18 minutes for a random encounter location to refresh once all players have left the cell.
There is a condition set on all encounter spawn locations “Do all before repeating”. This means that as long as you stay on the same server and do not refresh or rebuild it, each location will go through the entire spawn list before starting at the top again.
Some encounters have region checks and won't spawn in certain areas.
Some encounters will only spawn in cells that have been nuked. If you want a better chance at finding these encounters, go to a private custom server and turn ON "Nuked Flora & Creatures". This will make the server think that you just dropped a nuke and will activate the additional encounters.
Some encounters have a space check. For example, if there is not enough room for a mega sloth vs super mutants to run through their animations, they will not spawn in certain locations.
These encounters include:
Sheepsquatch vs Super Mutants
Sheepsquatch vs Scorched
Sheepsquatch vs Mole Miners
Gulpers vs Scorched
Fog Crawlers vs Scorched
Anglers vs Super Mutants
Gulpers vs Super Mutants
Scorched Megasloth vs Super Mutants
Sentry Bot vs Super Mutants
RadScorpions vs Super Mutants
Yao Guai vs Honey Beasts
Scorched Baseball vs Yao Guai
Deathclaw vs Super Mutants
Deathclaw vs Ants
Super Mutants vs Deathclaw
Yao Guai vs Super Mutants
Wolves vs Megasloth
Ogua vs Blood Eagles
Ogua vs Settlers
Ogua vs Cultists
Ogua vs Super Mutants
Ogua vs Scorched
Blue Devil vs Blood Eagles
Blue Devil vs Settlers
Blue Devil vs Cultists
Blue Devil vs Super Mutants
Blue Devil vs Scorched
Crashed vertibird with feral ghoul crew
Deathclaw vs Merchant Caravan
Deathclaw nest vs Scorched
Deathclaw nest vs Super Mutants
Mama's Rage
Supermutant Defectors
Glowing Deathclaw vs Sentry Bot
Random Ogua
Random Blue Devil
Ogua vs Blue Devil
Wendigo Colossus Assault
Deathclaw vs Raiders
Radscorpion vs Raiders
Cryptid Storyteller
All encounters have a 100% chance to spawn, however, there may be a delay of up to 1 min before something will spawn. If you are checking encounters on public servers and nothing spawns then it's possible that another player has walked through the cell and activated the spawn so that location will be on cool down.
Object
There are a total of 38 different Object encounter types and 69 Object spawn locations.
Map of all Object spawn locations
Useful or Interesting encounters
For a full list of encounters, please refer to the list here.
Pipe is Life
Spawns in All Regions
Lemonade Stand
Spawns in All Regions
Sells pre-made lemonade and the recipe to make lemonade and hard lemonade.
Deathclaw nests and eggs
For those needing Deathclaw eggs and meat.
Deathclaw vs Super Mutants
Only spawns in the Ash Heap, Savage Divide, Mire, and Cranberry Bog.
Deathclaw vs Merchant Caravan
Spawns in All Regions.
Trick or Treaters - Skeleton
Plan: Halloween Skeleton Outfit
Plan: Halloween Skull
Savage Divide only
Trick or Treaters - Witch
Plan: Halloween Witch Hat
Plan: Halloween Witch Outfit
Savage Divide only
Civil War Reenactor
Toxic Valley Only
Plan: Civil War era dress
Plan: Civil War era suit
Plan: Civil War era top hat
Plan: Confederate hat
Plan: Confederate uniform
Plan: Union Hat
Plan: Union uniform
Fujiniya Intelligence Base Scientist Corpse
Spawns in all regions.
Keycard for the other door under Mama Dolce's
Mistress of Mystery Corpse (only if the player hasn't started the questline yet).
Spawns in All Regions.
This questline is amazing so if you haven't ran it yet, go and find some time to do it
Talking Raider Power Armour
Spawns in All Regions.
Sleeping Sheepsquatch
Only appears in Ash Heap, Savage Divide, The Mire, and the Cranberry Bog.
Hawke's refuge revealed (Plan: Skii Outfit) The Mire only
Mothman Cultist Totem Worship
Chance for the Mothman to spawn
Only appears in Ash Heap, Savage Divide, The Mire, and the Cranberry Bog.
Easiest locations to server hop
Toxic Valley
Hemlock Holes
From the spawn in location, turn around and run West up the road. At the end of the concrete barriers on your left, on the road, is the spawn location.
Graninger Farm
From the fast travel point, turn SW and run forward. The spawn location is in the carpark in front of you. There is a salt and pepper spawn in the trailer that is also in the carpark.
Forest
Poseidon Power Substation PX-02
From the spawn in location, turn East and follow the road up, past the Substation. On your left is a large white and red power pylon. Head over to the base of the pylon and the spawn location is just in front of the pylon.
Charleston Station
From the spawn in location, face SE and run forward until you get to the road. Follow the road down until you get to the first house on your right. Turn East and the spawn location will be in front of you.
The Giant Teapot
From the fast travel point, turn West and face the Giant Tea Pot. Behind the Tea Pot and to the left is a large red and white power pylon. The spawn location is at the base of the pylon.
Make sure to swing past the Tea Pot and loot the sugar, cranberries, and potential magazine.
Lewis & Sons Farming Supply
From the spawn in location, follow the road North and go past Lewis & Sons Farming Supply. Keep running until you see a white sign on your right marked "North 81". The spawn location is to the right of the sign.
Remember to loot the salt and pepper off the picnic table at Lewis & Sons.
Ash Heap
Hornwright Air Purifier Site #1
From the fast travel point, run straight over to the Hornwright Air Purifier Site map marker and jump onto the roof of the building. Line up with the Belching Betty map marker and run straight until you get to the road. You should be standing on the edge of the spawn location.
Abandoned Mine Shaft 2
From the spawn in location, turn North. The spawn location is in the clearing in front of you.
Savage Divide
Dent & Sons Construction
From the fast travel point, turn North and run straight until you hit a cliff face. Turn right and follow the cliff face up the hill. At the top, turn West and follow the cliff edge to the first clearing/spawn location (refer to the photo below).
Keep following the cliff edge along for a second Object spawn location (refer to the photo below). There are two Silt Bean plants on the edge of the spawn location.
National Radio Research Center
From the spawn in location, turn South and run forward. Follow the brick wall on your right and stop at the corner of the wire fence. Turn SW and walk forward. Climb up the top of the hill in front of you. The spawn location is at the top of the hill.
Central Mountain Lookout
From the fast travel point, turn SW. Walk slowly down the hill and jump off the small ledge. The spawn location is in the clearing in front of you.
Sylvie & Sons Logging Camp
From the spawn in location, turn right and follow the road in front of you. The spawn location is just past the large rock in the middle of the road.
The Mire
Haven Church
From the fast travel point, face South and run down the road. In the water, just before the broken road with the concrete barriers, is the spawn location.
Turn SEE and run over to the large red and white power pylon for a potential rare baseball bat spawn.
Abandoned Waste Dump
From the spawn in location, turn around and follow the road toward the green and orange shipping containers. The spawn location is next to the shipping containers.
Kmax Transmission
From the fast travel point, turn NW and walk under the bus. Keep walking NW until you get to the road. Follow the road around and up the slight hill. At the top of the hill, just before the blue animal crossing is the spawn location.
Cranberry Bog
Veiled Sundrew Grove
From the spawn in location, turn South and run over to the base of the Monorail rail in front of you. Turn East and you will see a fissure site on your right. Run over to the fissure site and the spawn location is in the clearing, on your right, just before the fissure site.
Thunder Mountain Substation TM-02
From the fast travel point, turn West and run forward. Run past the Pitcher Plant and stop at the green road sign on your left. The spawn location will be on your right.
NAR Repair Yard
From the spawn in location, turn SE and line up with the metal tank windmill tower in the distance. Run over to the tower and face South. Go straight and jump into the creek bed. Turn West and follow the creek up until you get to a clearing that splits into three paths. The spawn location will be in front of you.
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