User:Dreamcat4/Maxing out stats

FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS
Dreamcat4s SPECIAL stats building guide for maxing out SPECIAL, Skills, Traits, Implants, Perks Books and Magazines in Fallout: New Vegas. This guide is compiled and distilled from the reading of many other popular New Vegas walkthoughs / guides. This is the ultimate - the optimum - the Uber Guide for Levelling up and maxing out your Fallout stats!

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY: Our max stats all assume these following initial conditions before playing the game.

1) That we are NOT playing in Hardcore mode. This is important because hardcore mode requires a very different and very incompatible set of character optimizations.

2) That we arent going to use Melee Weapons as our primary weapons. Because its nearly always better to take targets out at range with some kind gun or other weapons. So we choose a slightly lower initial Strength. But dont worry - we also heavily boost our Strength during the game!

3) Charisma offers comparatively very few benefits thoughout the game. So we will initially set Charisma all the way down to 1. Because there really are no useful Charisma Perks. Charisma perks are both fewer in number and far less valuable than the many other more practical perks. We also dont need ANY Charisma to unlock conversation choices. Because character dialogues require only the Speech Skill which can all be built entirely without Charisma. Other dialogue choices are also available in New Vegas. However those choices (eg require Barter, Explosives, etc) and DONT require any Charisma whatsoever either.

5) That we MUST initially maximize our Intelligence and Luck SPECIAL points. Doing this leads to the biggest additive Skills bonus throughout the game. In other words, higher Intelligence and Luck increases the number of skill points assigned to us throughout the game. Without it, we would have no other alternative way to obtain those said skill points. So we start with a SPECIAL Score of 9 for each and will also be increasing them by 1 SPECIAL point early on with Implants to get the maximum 10.

Choosing SPECIAL

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So these are the optimum starting values to set for your SPECIAL attributes:

S. P. E. C. I. A. L. 4 5  7  1  9  5  9 (40 SPECIAL POINTS)

REASON:

Strength. For some people, 4 might sound like a very low value to start strength at. HOWEVER this value is for all practical purposes increased later on by the various implants, perks, armous and other bonuses.

Perception is 5 because we are going to get the EDE Companion which will offset our lower initial perception score.

Endurance. If you want more implants than 7 total, (up to 9) then you will need a higher endurance rating. But practically, there is a later option of unlocking those by repeating the Intense Training Perk at or above Level 18. So starting off with 7 Endurance seems reasonable, and will allow us to fully max out our more important SPECIALs (which are Intelligence and Luck).

Similarly, the Strength of 4 can also still be optionally increased at / above Level 18 with further applications of the intense training. You would do that later to unlock certain Mellee Weapons Perks. But that would bring the only benefit of adding Strength in that manner. Generally we use other perks to supplement Strength which do not involve or benefit Mellee Weapons (as this game by far favours ranged Weapons over Mellee / close combat).

Charisma. Already determined by point 4) of our initial conditions. So its set to the minumum value (which is 1). However if we were allowed by the game to set Charisma to zero, then we would be setting it to zero. However dont be fooled! - Charisma is really the only attribute of no consequence in this game.

Intelligence. Already determined by point 5) of our initial conditions. Should be maxed out here at 9 and NOT 10.

Agility is 5 because we are going to get the Small Frame trait AND the Implant (so +2 bringing Agility eventually to 7)... And again - Agility is not as important as either Endurance (gives implants), or our most valuable SPECIALs which are Intelligence and Luck.

Luck. Already determined by point 5) of our initial conditions. Should be maxed out here at 9 and NOT 10.

Choosing Traits

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== 1) Kamikaze

Pros: +10 Action Points. APs are now more important to get because the "Nerves of Steel" Action Points recovery Perk at the end of the game no longer replenishes all of your Action Points - only come of them. So combat remains Action - Points limited throughout the game.

Cons: -2 Damage Threshold. HOWEVER the -2DT is really neglible compared to the 10 extra Action Points.

2) Small Frame

Pros: +1 Agility added to your initial SPECIAL values. Therefore that extra special point can be assigned elsewhere, and is used to raise your overall starting SPECIAL by 1.

Cons: Limbs are more easily crippled. Which can always nullified later on in the game by aquiring either the Level 14 Light Step or Adamantium Skeleton perk. Or just carrying some spare Doctors Bags for healing crippled limbs.

Other traits - for example Wild Wasteland are all a waste of time. They may sound good but add nothing or very few practical and useable benefits to the game. Wild Wasteland expecially changes far fewer things than you are lead to believe and you wont even be able to distinguish / see the (only 14) differences.

Improving SPECIAL

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Here is a rundown of how we our SPECIAL attributes should develop and improve during the game. This assumes that you will be following the rest of this guide TO THE LETTER. We will eventually max out our SPECIAL attributes once we have earned 24,000 caps and had our 6TH Implant.

S. P. E. C. I. A. L. - AFTER TRAITS 4 5  7  1  9  6  9 (41 SPECIAL POINTS)

S. P. E. C. I. A. L. - AFTER TAKING THE INTENSE TRAINING PERK AT LEVEL 2 5 5  7  1  9  6  9 (42 SPECIAL POINTS)

S. P. E. C. I. A. L. - AFTER ALL IMPLANTS 6 6  8  1  10 7  10 48 SPECIAL POINTS


 * When getting the later implants you will obtain 1 extra SPECIAL point of Endurance. However that implanted SPECIAL point of Endurance DOES NOT count towards being able to get further implants.


 * Also we choose to forfeit the 1 extra SPECIAL Implant for Charisma (which is useless). Instead we swap that out for a bonus Implant which slowly and constantly regenerates your health. MUCH more practical.

From then on you have to wait until later Level 18 and to increase your base SPECIAL through repeating the Intense Training Perk. Given certain openings in later levels to go back and select missed lower level perks. You can choose to take Intense Training a further 4 times Max. Otherwise take the other valuable missed perks.

SPECIAL points also form part of the requirements for obtaining Perks. Generally speaking, the maximum Perks requirements are as follows:

S. P. E. C. I. A. L. - REQUIRED MINIMUM SPECIAL POINTS FOR ALL THE VARIOUS "MUST HAVE" PERKS 5 6  6  X  5  7  6

These minimum SPECIAL requirements are all satisfied by our "SPECIAL - AFTER ALL IMPLANTS" scores. Above we have chosen to omit all the few (relatively useless) Charisma perks. And also 2 top-tier Melee perks. You can optionally unlock those remaining Melee perks by repeating Intense training at Level 18 or above to add the necessary +1 Strength to get those Perks which require minimum 6 Strength.

3 Skills

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There are 3 possible choices. However 1st choice MUST be: Speech - Because speech starts at only 9 point. And Speech is needed to uncover many significant character dialogue choices.

For the 2nd and 3rd choices: Barter, Explosives. As those ones will also start with relatively low values. Barter and Explosives Skills are necessary to open up certain dialog choices (but far fewer than Speech is going to unlock for you). Given the dual-purpose benefits to also selling things and grenades, big guns, you should want to increase them also even this early on in the game.

Alternatively, if you are prepared to risk those (fewer) dialogue choices given by Barter and Explosives, then choose: Guns, Energy Weapons instead. Guns and Energy Weapons are also particularly valuable early on in the game. But then be prepared to be even weaker in the other 2 areas you didnt choose.

My choices: Speech, Barter, Explosives.

1st Impant - Intelligence

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We are starting with an odd number (9) for Intelligence. Skill points are always rounded up on the even levels so one more point of intelligence will never make a difference at level 2.

The Intelligence implant will be our 1st implant. We must get it before reaching level 3. As with all of the SPECIAL Implants, this simply requires 4000 caps and a trip to the Medical Center.

Getting 4000 coins by level 3 sound hard but its not really that tough. Loot everything. 4000 worth of equiptment should take about 1 hour. Here is how:


 * At the very beginning of the game, Loot the Doctors house of all items.


 * Skip all quests and (wherever possible) avoid discovering new locations. We DONT want to incur any XP yet - which is exactly what will happen if we attempt quests or discover new locations. we can come back to all of these missed things right after we get our 1st Intelligence implant.


 * Loot the nearby area, then go straight to the Atomic Wrangler Casino in Freeside. This is the first Casino that you will encounter in the game.

http://www.gamingreality.com/2010/11/fallout-new-vegas-character-creation.html#IMP001


 * On the way to the Atomic Wrangler, trade any looted items. Repair any items before selling them to get more caps total as there is a premium for those items.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/959557-fallout-new-vegas/answers?qid=234457


 * At the Atomic Wrangler, Play blackjack and other games until you hit 2500 chips. Be sure to collect the reward (a hat) at that point. Then continue until you hit a total of 4000 caps. You will recieve further items and also get banned from the casino at 5000 caps.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Atomic_Wrangler_Casino

Level 2

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Balance your Speech, Barter and Explosives Skill points to reach the nect minimum thresholds for extra dialogue choices. They should already be very near to the next available threshold value. See:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Speech http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Barter http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Explosives

Assign all remaining Skill points to: Guns. Reason: Because Guns are the most important weapon to begin with.

Perk: Intense Training (choose +1 STR)

Reason: To increase the too-low initial score (4) for Strength and without sacrificing other possible SPECIAL points elsewhere. If you want to forgoe your total maximum basic Strength (not recommended) then you can optionally choose to add +1 Endurance instead to enable a total of 8 Implants instead of 7. However the relative utility of any 8th implant (compared to the first 7) is diminished.

Skills for Levels 3,4,5 and 6 Inclusive

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Assign Skill points to: Guns or Energy Weapons.

Reason: Because Guns then Energy Weapons are most important to begin with.

Assign Skill points to: Speech

Reason: We need to reach the Speech thresholds to unlock certain character Dialogue choices.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Speech

Assign Skill points to: Barter

Reason: To earn more caps for our 36,000 caps Implants early on in the game. Also to unlock certain unique Barter Dialogue choices.

You can of course assign points to other Skills, such as Lockpick which is a popular one. However BY FAR the above 3-4 Skills should be given a priority at the beginning stages of the game.

Upon Reaching Level 3

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Upto now you should have:


 * Completed 0 Quests
 * Obtained at least 1 Implant (for Intelligence)
 * Avoided combat altogether
 * Avoided discovering new places

Once you have gained Level 3 however, the above restrictions no longer apply. Indeed the point of Fallout: New Vegas is that it is a free-roaming game right? Yes - BUT we are still going to concentrate on prioritizing a few more tasks as early as possible in the game. These are...

Collect All of the Books (but dont use them yet!)

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Its essential to collect books early on in the game. This should be easy as all Books exist in known Locations and in themselves should require no fighting, quest completion etc to obtain. However we must not use ANY collected books until we have obtained the Comprehension Perk at Level 6.

Books boost our Skill points each by a fixed amount. There are many books to collect in the game, so cumulatively the bonuses gained through collecting all of the books are quite substantial. More importantly, by collecting all books early on this frees up many more Skill points for us to assign to our prioritized core Skills. Which for example include: Speech, Guns, and Energy Weapons at the start.

The great thing about books is that they broadly increase all of our Skills across the board, with a very even distribution of 4 Skills books available for each skill (except Science which has 5).

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_books_and_magazines

Collect All Remaining Implants 2 Through 7

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Collect money for all of the remaining implants. Each SPECIAL impant will cost 4000 caps. So thats 6x 4,000 = 24,000 caps plus 12,000 (for the bonus implant which regenerates your health) = 36,000 caps total. The optimum sequence is:

Implant  SPECIAL

1st      Intelligence (as per earlier explanatory section)

2nd      Luck 3rd      Strength 4th      Perception 5th      Agility 6th      Endurance 7th      Regenerate Health

Choosing Perks

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This is assuming you forgoe melee weapons perks in favour of sticking with ranged weapons (recommended). You can choose other perks at your discresion. However the below choices have already been very carefully optimized to give the best practical benefits and bonuses throughout the game. At a minimum you should NEVER forgoe any of the first 3 perks (up to Level 06 inclusive). Level 02 - Intense Training (choose +1 STR) Level 04 - Educated Level 06 - Comprehension Level 08 - Strong Back (+50lbs) OR Commando (VATS) Level 10 - Miss Fortune (VATS) Level 12 - Sniper (VATS) Level 14 - Jury Rigging Level 16 - Weapon Handling (weapons require -2 STR) OR Better Criticals (VATS) OR Action Boy (+15 AP VATS) OR Tag! (15 skill) Level 18 - These perks suck so go back and choose Intense Training or any earlier missed Perk Level 20 - Explorer (all locations) OR Grim Reapers Sprint (VATS +20 AP) Level 22 - These perks suck so go back and choose Intense Training or any earlier missed Perk Level 24 - These perks suck so go back and choose Intense Training or any earlier missed Perk Level 26 - Nerves of Steel Level 28 - These perks suck so go back and choose Intense Training or any earlier missed Perk Level 30+ No more perks are awarded (unless perhaps you have installed a DLC)

It makes sense to stop playing New Vegas upon reaching Level 29 and wait for future DLC content. Or at least save the game cleanly at Level 29. Then you can acheive the Level 30 gamer Trophy and go back to Level 29 before adding future DLC Content Packs.

My own Perks choices (heavily VATS-oriented)

Level 02 - Intense Training (choose +1 STR) Level 04 - Educated Level 06 - Comprehension Level 08 - Strong Back (+50lbs) Level 10 - Miss Fortune (VATS) Level 12 - Sniper (VATS) Level 14 - Jury Rigging Level 16 - Weapon Handling (weapons require -2 STR) Level 18 - Tag! (+15 Skill) Level 20 - Grim Reapers Sprint (VATS +20 AP Regeneration) Level 22 - Commando (VATS) Level 24 - Better Criticals (VATS) Level 26 - Nerves of Steel Level 28 - Action Boy (VATS +15 AP)

Maxing out your Skills

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RecCap1* RecCap2*    Books**   Mags***     Total Max

Barter           64        60          +20       +20         100 Energy Weapons   84        80          +20        00         100 Explosives       84        84          +16        00         100 Guns             84        80          +20        00         100 Lockpick         64        60          +20       +20         100 Medicine         84        80          +20        00         100 Melee Weapons    84        80          +20        00         100 Repair           84        80          +20        00         100 Science          60        56          +24       +20         100 Sneak            84        80          +20        00         100 Speech           64        60          +20       +20         100 Survival         84        84          +16        00         100 Unarmed          84        80          +20        00         100

Therefore:

Lowest maximum recommended skill value = 56 (Science) Highest maximum recommended skill value = 84 (Explosives, Survival)

That does not necessarily mean you want to max out those particular skills in favor of other skills. Its just the maximum you should ever set them to when levelling up.


 * RecCap1 - The recommended maximum cap to which you should raise the given Skill yourself when levelling up. Increasing above RecCap1 will waste Skill points which could have been achieved by collecting books or magazines. RecCap1 is the recommended cap value when NOT taking into accound future books found in optional DLC content packs.


 * RecCap2 - The recommended maximum cap when also taking into account additional books found in all of the future DLC content packs. Currently RecCap2 = just the Dead Money DLC Pack.


 * Books - The maximum bonus avalable by collecting all 4 books (or 5 if Science). This is assuming +4 points per book with the Comprehension Perk. This calculated bonus due to books INCLUDES all the known Dead Money DLC books.

As of today (13 Jan 2011), the following 2 Skill Books from the Dead Money DLC pack skill remain undiscovered: Explosives, Survival. The table above does not reflect these books.

NOTE: You cannot freely travel between Dead Money and the main game areas. So if you do use the RecCap2 values - it will be necessary to also use mentats hit 100% lockpick or 100% science (hack terminals) whilst playing the Dead Money DLC.


 * Mags - Magazines give a temporary (1 minute) bonus of +20 Skill points. Again assuming that you have selected the Comprehension Perk at Level 06.