Forum:The Perfect Couier

Hey I started playing Fallout New Vegas about two weeks ago, and have yet to finish the game. I have made 3 files which are not all the same and have not found one that I like. So I need some additional input on whats the best combat skill, side skills (Repair, Speech, anything not involved with combat). Also some advice on the perks. I am kinda aiming for a destructive character, just a monster in combat. Thinking of using the perk Meltdown and Splash Damage? This file is my going to be my main file for the DLC so I want one that I can play all the way through to the end and stay with! Razor3664 20:36, November 16, 2010 (UTC)

Here's a good standard ranged fighter build.

S 5 (6 after implant. This allows you to meet any weapons strength requirment if you take Weapon Handling and T-45 power armor)

P 5 (6 after implant. allows you to qualify for Better Criticals)

E 5 (this allows you to get the implants for strength, perception, agility, luck and sub-dermal armor)

C 1

I 4 (this allows you to take Educated)

A 9 (10 after implant)

L 9 (10 after implant)

That leaves a couple of points to distribute as you like. Intelligence or endurance are recommended as they will give you either more skill points or additional implants. Tag either Guns or Energy Weapons for your primary combat skill. Sneak is always a good second choice. Also worth consideration are speech, repair, lockpick and science. Good all around perks in addition to those mentioned in the SPECIAL section are Finesse, Bloody Mess and Toughness. Beyond that, tailor your choices to your play style.

I'd like to note that I did not create this build myself. I found it on a talk page somewhere in this wiki and transcribed it to the best of my memory as I can no longer find the original. My thanks and apologies to the original creator of this excellent build. 67.149.196.9 20:51, November 17, 2010 (UTC)

Well, I just finished the game with everything at hardest levels. I would say this: Don't worry so much about combat ability. Take guns, energy, melee or unarmed to the max. You will become death: destroyer of worlds by the end. Also, if you enjoy companions at all, jack your charisma, as high charisma makes them really strong. Dumping it makes them really weak. Agility and Luck are a lot weaker than you would imagine.

Basically, you should be able to hold a str 6 or 8 weapon, repair your stuff on the fly, reload your ammo (this is more important than it sounds), and talk people into doing what you want (not to avoid fights, just to get things done). You want enough agility to pop three shots in vats when something gets close. At the end, the only things that can stand against you are swarms of cazadors, three or more deathclaws, and the guys in Caesar's tent if you decide to just go postal on him mid-game. Only in those circumstances do you even have to really pay attention to the combat. I blew through the final battle with just a revolver.

I have to disagree with the post above. He said he wanted a combat character, which I assume means he doesn't want to rely on his companions to do his fighting for him. With the exception of boosting companion stats, high charisma doesn't do much. Talking to people is based on your speech skill, which is easier to increase with the skill points gained from a high intelligence and the educated perk. Your charisma only effects your starting speech skill. Agility on the other hand affects not only your starting guns and sneak skill, but also your AP and the speed with which you move, draw weapons and reload. It is easily the most important stat for any ranged combat character. Luck gives a small bonus to all skills, makes gambling easier and most importantly increases critical chance, a derived stat that is difficult to increase by other means. With a 10 luck, Boone's hat, the Built to destroy trait and the finesse perk it is possible to make every shot fired from a sniper rifle a crit. With the better criticals perk and a little practice aiming from the hip, you will rarely need any other weapon to be a killing machine. 67.149.196.9 05:58, November 20, 2010 (UTC)

For second poster, if you're guilty of metagaming like I am, you could bump Int down one add 1 End, then run straight to the medical center and get the intelligence implant and have a bonus 20 hp. BTW I think you shorted yourself a few points there. Should have 40 total before traits, you've 38. To the user above, if you're using a sniper rifle, finesse and a first recon beret, then Built to destroy is just wearing your gun out faster. To the OP, if you're interested in what I think the mathematically strongest gun build is, check my blog. For an explanation as to why there is also a post I've made on the talk page of Fast ShotRhomb 09:39, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

Having a low Intelligence score really handicaps you in the game and I would not recommend it at all. Your initial Intelligence should be at least 7 IMO as you simply miss out on so many skill points with a score of only 4 Int. Having a higher Int. score allows you to plough more points into comabt related skills such as Explosives, Energy Weapons, Guns, Melee & Unarmed combat plus having a high sneak score means great chance of criticals or one shot/one slash hits. Captain Taipan 02:47, December 19, 2010 (UTC)

Meh, You're better off building a specialist than a jack of all trades in this game. One point in intelligence only nets half a skill point per level. In most cases you're better off specializing in a particular skill and spending the points you might spend on int on something like endurance. With 4 int it is possible to max quite a few skills, on a 4 int build I maxed Science, Guns, Energy Weapons, Sneak, Repair and 99 in Lockpick. Not much for conversation, but this Character can go everywhere and kill everything.Rhomb 08:31, December 19, 2010 (UTC)

My "Perfect Courier" - by Mae Hemme (Built to Destroy, Good-Natured)

S 7 (8 after implant)

P 6 (7 after implant) (8 with a +1 PER hat)

E 6 (7 after Intense Training taken as my Level 2 Perk) (8 after implant)

C 1 (2 after Implant)

I 6  ---

A 8 (9 after implant)

L 6 (7 after implant)

You can tweak it a little by dropping starting Agility down to 7 and Perception & Endurance down to 5 then putting those 3 points where you want them.

The build above, from Mae Hemme, seems to be the most "all around general courrier", from the start using guns efficiently and later with perks being able to use melee very nice. Keep in mind Razor3664 that contrary to what people say is not worth to put much points on inteligence: the difference of a 1 intelligence build to a 10 inteligence one is only 5 points more for you to distribute (that's why I think that inteligence is good at 4 or most at 5). Also, with one or two points in charisma don't bother to bring companions with you, just make their personal missions and ditch them, specially if you are playing on hardcore (or use the ones that don't relly on it, like Boone and Lily). Brfritos 15:06, December 23, 2010 (UTC)

Good points. Even if there is a really tough fight and companions are needed, it is also possible to dial up Charisma from 1 to 10 by stacking consumables. Rhomb 09:50, December 24, 2010 (UTC)

--

I made my character like this: I haven't taken all implants yet. I have some more later. I'm lv 29

S:7 8 with implant Take the weapon handling to be able to use all guns well. The minigun, which requires S:10 will not spread bullets at all and tearing through foes become so easy.

P:5 6 with implant For combat (imo) perception is not that important. If you want to snipe, just hire Boone and tell him to stay somewhere safe and far from you so he don't blow you cover. His spotter perk will stay active. Better critical require P:6 too.

E:7 (So that you can take most implants)

C:3 Not really necessary if you don't want to use you companions too much. (They still get a little bonus)

I:8 So that you can get +16 skill points (with educated) every level. (The max is 17 per lv with I:10)

A:4 5 with Intense training at lv 2, will get implant later)

L:5 7 with implant+intense training +2 (I'm not so sure about this)

I don't use VATS too much since I play on PC and it very easy to aim (Well, it's still difficult to aim Cazadors)

With this I maxed out Guns, Explosives, Energy Weapons and Melee. I have Barter: 70, Speech: 80, Science around 70, Lockpick: 80 ...

Also get all skill books for 16 free points in every skills.

You must get the Comprehension to get the best out of books. You get +4 instead of +3 with skill books and temporary +20 with other books (That's why speech and lockpick is 80)

EDIT: I play in normal mode but IMO hardcore mode should have more Charisma for the companion bonus.

Hope I helped.

Vikesh360 17:23, January 2, 2011 (UTC)

-- I usualy end up with this after implants and 1 training perks.

S - 6 P - 1 E - 8 C - 1 I - 10 A - 10 L - 10 Critical chance is way too low to justify using so many points in Per. for one perk. The way they have made the attribute it is a dump stat. Any enemy close enough to shoot at you can see. Instead of sniper just get Commando. Sneak attack crits I believe are already double damg so even death claws take at most 1-3 shots depending on weapon, and with the extra skill points from Int at 10 put it in sneak for 100% critical chance and double dmg. A 10 Int only gives you 1-5 extra points but after 30 lvls, heck that brings a 0% skill to 100% a much better choice than 50% extra crits. The difference between 8-9 Int and 10 is 1 point, but that is 35 skill points at the end. Endurance at 8 (7+implant) gives you all the all implants except Per and Chr. Agility makes you move faster and Luck increases everything which are important in and out of battle. I try to make characters that can easily survive battle and the wasteland. 99.17.87.64 15:03, December 30, 2010 (UTC) Mr.X

Everyone is knocking the High Intelligence build, so I though I'd defend it. On a per-level basis, the difference between 5 Intelligence and 10 Intelligence is negligible. However, take a look at the math. Over 29 levels, you will lose 2.5 points per level, for a grand total of 72.5 points lost. Given that every skill has to start at 5 at the lowest (and will often be higher), and you've lost nearly an entire skill worth of Skill Points. Sure, it's possible to complete the game with a low Intelligence character, but you won't be able to do as much. In contrast, a High Intelligence Character will have more room to wiggle, allowing him or her to dabble in other types of weapons effectively.

Not only that, but a High Intelligence character also has an edge on a Low Intelligence character, simply because he has that many more skill points to distribute. Sure, the edge is pretty small in the beginning (one or two points), but the more levels they get, the larger the edge that the High Intelligence character has. And it gets worse if you drop Intelligence down to 3 (which means you'd need the implant to get Educated and Comprehension), as the total lost points jumps to 101.5 total. This can have a major effect on what perks you choose to take, and when you take them.

From a per-level viewpoint, there's no marked difference between High and Low Intelligence. However, doing the math on those tiny differences suddenly makes the gap rather large. Swk3000 20:36, December 31, 2010 (UTC)

Also another thing to note is that everyone rely too much on critical hits. I have luck of 7 and don't rely too much on critical because of lots of powerful weapons out there. Sure its good to have critical hits against tough opponent, but when you use a Plasma Caster with the HS Electrode and Max Charge ammo, it won't really matter. Sneak criticals is another thing if you can snipe from very far and not get detected. Vikesh360 09:51, January 1, 2011 (UTC) (I edited my special up there with what I started and after intense training and implants, so everyone can get a good idea of what might be a good all-around)

The trick to the 10 luck builds or the 7 luck and Built to destroy builds, is that when coupled with finesse and the 1st recon beret, a sniper rifle will land guaranteed criticals both in and out of vats. Add in perks like hand loader and better criticals and the sniper rifle is easily one of the most powerful weapons in the game. The thing with the high intelligence, yes it does make a difference in overall skill points available. But the trick is, where are those skill points going to be spent that will make a more meaningful difference than spending the intelligence points on a different SPECIAL stat? Rhomb 06:58, January 5, 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, but I can't agree that having a level 10 intelligence build is vastly superior to a 6 one. How many points we are talking about if my courier has a inteligence of 6 an the other 10? 75 is the difference, correct? This kind of thing is only needed if the player is skill whore. There is no point having Lockpick at 100% for example, if the player didn't picked the Comprehension perk the maximum needed is 85% (you can count the number of doors very-hard locked on the fingers of your hands). The same goes for Medicine, it makes no sense having this skill above 50% or 60% (the only time you need a higher medicine is at Nellis AFB and if you have the Followers Lab-Coat and a mag the problem is solved). I usually pick the Comprehension perk for this motive, +20 skill points instantly from mags and medicine, lockpick, repair and science ones are available by the dozens. Also, if I'm focusing in rifles/shotguns/miniguns or melee weapons, what sense does it make having 10 intelligence? I need Strentgh, Endurance, Agility or Luck depending the type of weapon. And agility is not only for VATS, BTW, compare a 8 or 9 agility courier using a melee weapon with a 5 one, try it if you people don't believe me. I really hope this 10 inteligence couriers are using energy weapons, because if not, it's a waste. Brfritos 08:09, January 5, 2011 (UTC)

Just thought I'd point out, as the pro vs. anti intelligence build discussion is heavy here, that there is absolutely no difference between 9 INT and 10 INT. If you have 9 INT and the educated perk, you still make 17 skill points per level the same as if you had 10 because it gets rounded up. Also, as far as I know, there are dialogue options for 8 and 9 INT, but I haven't found one requiring 10. I started the game with 8 and got the INT implant before I hit level 2 so my INT has been "maxxed" the whole game.

Also, a note to Fallout 3 players... in New Vegas you have to choose your skill points FIRST when you level up, before you can pick perks. Unlike Fallout 3 where you level to level 2 with a starting 9 (twice as many skillpoints per INT and rounds down in FO3) INT, pick your level 2 perk as an INT Intense Training and then you'd get to pick your skillpoints with a maxxed INT. If that's your plan, start with 8 and read up on how to get your implant without leveling.

Again, I'm not opining about the virtue or vice of an INT build, just throwing so helpful advice out there if that's the route you prefer.