Fallout: Hardcore Builds
Keep in mind, the goal is not to kill the enemies faster, or in the most spectacular way, or otherwise dominate in combat. The goal is to survive, even it it means running away.
The provided builds are more of a reference or a source of ideas, rather than a set of rules to follow. You can shift things around, Fallout is not unforgiving. Nevertheless, it's rather preferable to have the following, no matter your specific build:
- Endurance 10. Do not skimp on this, you'll need every HP. Also, this prevents the worst effects from enemy criticals.
- Agility 10. There can't be too many action points. (One exception is that if you're playing Restoration Project and willing to drag with 9 AP until EPA).
- Take both levels of Livegiver perk ASAP. Again, large HP pool is critical for survival.
- Gifted trait. The only reason not to take it is if you're tired of running the same character over and over again and want to try something different.
- Intelligence of at least 8 with Gifted, or 6 if without. Lower than that and you'll find yourself struggling - in the first half of the game, at least.
- Speech tag. In fact, in F2 Speech can be raised to 100% conventionally and then to over 120% via quests. For most other skills, that would suggest that it's not worth a tag. But Speech, you want high early.
- One combat skill is usually enough. For the third tag, Science is good in F2. In F1, not so much, but not bad as well.
Generic gunman
| Stats | Traits | Tag skills | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST | PE | EN | CH | IN | AG | LK |
|
|
| 5 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 2 | ||
Most obvious build. In both Fallouts, you get firearms early. Score of 120 is good enough for early/midgame, by the end you can pump it to ~150. Get the guns skills high quickly and... go for the eyes, Boo. +60% critical chance, why would you need the measly extra few % from Luck. Even, good performance throughout the game.
In Fallout 2, bonus is that you can go for the Zeta scan in NCR without fear, and with 50% chance increase Luck to 4. With Sniper perk, even unaimed shots will crit half the time. Although if the scan doesn't work... well, that's why it's called Hardcore.
Critical focused
| Stats | Traits | Tag skills | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST | PE | EN | CH | IN | AG | LK |
|
|
| 5 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 6 | ||
More or less the same gunman, but trading early convenience for more late game power. Skimp on PE and IN to get Luck 6 for Better Criticals.
- Sniper requires 8 Perception, so make sure to do the operation to increase it before choosing level 24 perk.
- However, Luck 6 can get you into the Toxic Waste of Doom encounter fairly early - starting at level 6, to be precise. Fire Geckos breath is devastating, and to get out of there (take 2 breaths and not die), you'll have to be around level 15. So that's 9 levels wandering the Wastes relying on pure... luck. Take that into consideration.
Back to Fallout.
Back to Fallout 2.