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.
Scene
There are a total of 53 different Scene encounter types and 83 Scene spawn locations.
Map of all Scene spawn locations
If you are using these locations to find a tamable pet, I recommend using the routes and maps in this guide instead.
Scene spawns can be slow to trigger so wait a few minutes before moving to the next location.
Useful or Interesting encounters
For a full list of encounters, please refer to the list here.
Dehydration (Give water for Settler rep)
Observant Radstag
There is a very very small chance for region-based rare apparel to spawn in the tree stump that the Radstag leads you to.
Insult Bot
Mama's Rage
For those needing Mega Sloth or Yao Guai meat.
Sheepsquatch vs Albino Radstags
For those hunting Sheepsquatch or Radstag meat.
Only spawns in the Ash Heap, Savage Divide, Mire and Cranberry Bog.
Tamable creatures (Pets)
Full guide here
Brahmin Wrangler
Savage Divide, The Mire, and Cranberry Bog regions only.
If you interact with the Mr Handy, he will ask you to follow him and protect his Brahmin. You will be ambushed by a Sheepsquatch a few moments later.
Smiling Man
Lore-based Easter Egg revealing hints about Patch 44 "Once in a Blue Moon".
Limited encounter during Season 12.
Supermutant Defectors
You will need to sneak up to really appreciate this encounter because they will attack you as soon as they see you. Also, suggest turning your sound up or turning subtitles on.
Treasure Hunter
Spawns with a treasure map and boiled water in their inventory.
Random Air Drop
Government supply box. Small chance to have a rare coloured baseball bat inside.
Super Annoying Prize Bot
There are three different types of Scorchbeast scenes:
Scorchbeast Attack - Cranberry Bog only
Scorchbeast Fly Over - Ash Heap, Savage Divide, The Mire and Cranberry Bog only
Unaggressive Scorchbeast - Forest only
Easiest locations to server hop
Toxic Valley
Crater Watchstation
From the fast travel point, turn South and run down the hill. The spawn location is in front of the pool of water on your right.
Philippi Battlefield Cemetery
From the spawn in location, turn South and follow the road. Turn left at the curve and keep following the road around. The spawn location is on the corner, at the end of the Green Trailer.
Forest
Deathclaw Island
From the fast travel point, face East and walk up to the road. Once on the road, follow it South until you get to the curve in the road. If you get to the large crack in the road, you have gone too far.
Sutton Train Station
From the spawn in location, turn West and run forward, through the carpark, until you get to the road. Once you are on the road, follow it South until you see a burnt-out truck on your right. The spawn location is in front of the truck.
Ash Heap
Hornwright Air Purifer Site #1
From the fast travel point, run forward and jump on the roof of the Air Purifier Site building. Face South and you will see two burnt truck trailers in the distance. The spawn location is on the road at the end of the truck trailers.
Hornwright Air Purifer Site #3
From the spawn-in location, turn West and follow the road until you get to the white 83 sign on your right. The spawn location is just behind the sign.
Savage Divide
Dent & Sons Construction
From the fast travel point, run straight and stand on the top of the yellow dump truck (past the red dump truck). Face SW and jump on top of the yellow digger in front of you. Look West and you will see another yellow digger to your left in the distance. Go and stand on top of the digger and face North. There will be a green pine tree on your left, the spawn point is just past the tree.
South Mountain Lookout
From the spawn in location, run straight towards the tower and jump on the roof of the small red building. Face East and run straight forward until you get to three trees laying on the ground. Turn around and the spawn location is in front of you.
Fort Atlas
From the fast travel point, run around the right side of the main building so you are standing at the back of it, behind the sandbags and defense barrier. Face NW and run down the rocks until you are standing on the train track. Follow the train track North until you see a broken tree trunk on your left. The spawn location will be in front of you and to the left.
Sacrament
From the spawn in location, turn West and walk forward. The spawn location is just before the blue and yellow plane crash.
The Mire
East Ridge Lookout
At the base of the lookout tower.
Berkeley Springs Train Station
From the spawn in location, turn around and run forward until you get to the road. Follow the road NE until you see some road works orange and white signs and witches hats.
Cranberry Bog
Sacramental Glade (Formally Cranberry Glade)
The spawn location in the carpark will be removed when the Once in a Blue Moon patch goes live in June 2023.
From the fast travel point, enter the carpark and walk over to the notice board on your left. To the right of the board is a wooden path. Go to the wooden path and follow it North. Take the first wood path on your right and follow it to the end. Stand on the bench on your right and jump off the lookout. Walk straight and you will see a small stream of water in front of you. Follow the stream until it widens into a small lake (refer to photo). The spawn location will be on your left.
The Thorn
From the spawn in location, turn North and walk forward. The spawn location is just before the grove of trees in front of you. (refer to photo).
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