Build Advice: SPECIAL

Build Advice
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Forget the builds you used in Fallout 2. The builds in this game are different.
Status	Will add a Builds Template
Completion	90%
Authors	Henry
This Chapter	SPECIAL Points
Other Chapters	Build Advice: Title Page Build Advice: SPECIAL Build Advice: Traits Build Advice: Perks Build Advice: Skills Builds: Strong Explorer Builds: Universal Soldier Builds: Turbo Miner Builds: A Leveling Build

STRENGTH

Except to qualify for certain perks, the Strength requirement for weapons can mostly be ignored in this game. That's because the penalty is easily offset by a higher gun skill, and any character can eventually get their weapon skill to 300 since there is no level cap. A sniper might intend to use a Laser Rifle, which has a ST requirement of 6. But experienced players will usually choose ST 1, even though they will suffer a 100-point penalty to Hit Chance. They simply keep leveling, and raise their Energy Weapons skill 100 points more to get the equivalent of 4 ST points that way. Those points are needed in Luck anyway, for all snipers. Extreme snipers will get maximum gun skill, and benefit from a ST implant. Some use Buffout, and others even use Psycho.

Main Points About Strength:

• ST 5 for standard explorers to allow the Adrenaline Rush perk.
• ST 6 if you want to get the Stonewall perk.
• Low ST does have Hit Chance penalty but this is offset by higher weapon skill (no level cap).
• ST 1 for true snipers is not uncommon.
• ST 10 is considered overkill even for HtH since Drugs are easily obtainable.
• ST 7 is more standard for HtH characters, who then get ST 10 from using both Buffout and Psycho.

PERCEPTION

High Perception is mandatory on a sniper, but for most general explorers, any lower PE works fine. Even PE 1 is okay on a non-sniper PvE explorer. There are some advantages to a PE 1 character:

• Suffers no PE penalty from using Psycho and/or beer.
• Is dropped into random encounters very close to NPCs, which is convenient for leveling.
• Suffers no PE penalty from using Weak Healing Powders which he can craft on-the-fly while leveling.

ENDURANCE

Endurance is always 10. The competition between players forces a high priority on Hit Points, so any characters with lower than 10 are truly anomalous.

NOTE: If you register EN 9 thinking you will get an EN implant, you'll be disappointed to know it won't give you those missing Hit Points.

CHARISMA

Charisma is generally always 1 in this game. Exceptions include:

• A taxi character whose intention is to travel with unusually large parties on the map.
• Enough CH to meet some quest or dialogue requirement, of which there are few.
• CH 3 in order to get 4 Companion followers, which is the maximum.

Even with CH 1, most characters can get 2 companion followers, or 3 with Good Natured. If you do want to recruit and lead companion followers though, avoid the Loner trait.

INTELLIGENCE

A high Intelligence is rarely needed in this game, mainly since there is no level cap. IN 4 allows you to get most PvE quests and enables some dialogue options, but Mentats can fix that if your IN is lower. When choosing a character's Intelligence, it's best to choose all of the other SPECIALs first, and see what's left over. Exceptions include:

• IN 6 to get Swift Learner on a leveling character.
• IN 10 combined with the Dismantler perk on a leveling build, might yield back the most resources.

AGILITY

A high Agility is important for all characters. As you likely know, AG directly effects how many AP you have. Now consider this: however many AP you have, it recharges to full from zero in the exact same time (supposed to always be 4 seconds) as everyone else's AP recharges to full from zero. Let that sink in. That means if you have 6 AP and your opponent has 12 AP, and you both burst each other using 6 AP each, then the following applies:

• First, he can burst you again immediately.
• Second, while you recharged 6 AP to burst again, he recharged 12 AP and can burst you twice again!

Thus AP is effectively your character's speed. For this reason, the veteran players here rarely register AG below 8. Here are a few hints about that:

• AG 8 usually means it's planned for an AG implant and forever use of Nuka-Cola for AG 10.
• AG 9 might mean it's planned for an AG implant, and to use both Buffout and Nuka-Cola (or neither).
• AG 9 might also mean it's planned for no AG implant, but to use only Nuka-Cola only and skip Buffout.
• AG 10 means it's not planned for an AG implant at all, but maybe Nuka-Cola if Buffout will be used.

The target AG is always 10. If you're just starting out as an all-round explorer, it is advised to register AG 10. Implants are tough to get, and their extremely high value likely means you will want to only implant extreme combat characters later anyway. Your lead-in character will usually not need them.

LUCK

The effects of Luck are meant to be somewhat of a mystery. The easy part: max Luck 10 is very important for snipers. When deciding what Luck your characters will have, consider which perks he will have. Some are crit-related, so high Luck is usually important. However, some builds make use of a more "sure thing" with crits, which is effective even with low Luck. The harder part: there are sometimes situations when the engine rolls against Luck more than once related to a single action. Your leg-shot specialist sniper, for example, will only be optimal with Luck 10. Depending on his role though, your Luck 1 character might seem to function just fine for a whole season. However, be advised that the lower your Luck, the worse and more frequent will be your critical weapons malfunctions. Your guns can explode, and that's a lot more likely to happen with very low Luck (and is based also on weapon condition). Your success and failure with First Aid is also tied to your Luck; you will suffer far more critical failures with First Aid with low Luck, and see far fewer critical successes.

Go to next chapter: About Traits