Hey all,

Due to the hype and storm surrounding Fallout 4 - I've decided to give the root games a try

I've never played any Fallout games before, and it is kind of sad to read that Fallout 4 took away from the RPG elements and went more towards the streamline FPS genre instead.

Back to the topic of this post however - I have just started Fallout 1 and I am at a loss

I have basic/moderate understanding of RPG but never have I seen a skill/stat system so restricting but at the same time having a lot of effect with each point.

So far I am having real fun with the game and exploring the various aspects of it, however I can't help it with some questions

1) Is there a way to increase the base stats in the future? (INT/STR/END etc...)
2) I love to play agile heavy hitters (Due to crit), and because of it have had to reduce my INT and STR to 4 and 3 accordingly... Was it a mistake?
3) Pistols are 5 AP points to use and 6 while aiming for a specific part. Is there a way to reduce AP cost? Or increase available AP for combat later on? (I do know that you can increase movement AP with perks)
4) Why do i miss so much?! And why is my damage is so insignificant? 4-6 points of damage with guns and 1-4 with melee weapons. I know I should have not tackled the raiders the moment i've seen them.... However I did and I did manage to kill them all with the only big challange being Garl (Or something) which caused me to use 3 or 4 steam packs. But most of the damage was done by my mercenary assistance Ian -.- My damage was insignificant at best and the best i could do is face people straight in the face and hit their legs with a knife so they will fall down and Ian has a better shot at them

I understand that via character creation i might have gimped my character and will be re-doing it if necessary because i barely made it to Junk town (Only annoying to steal loot from everyone again) but I would like to get some tips to make my life easier in the long run as well as the beginning.

Now I do understand that the raiders were a bit of a challange which i might have left for later, but it was still fun and I would definitely would want to do it again but this time by being a bigger role in the encounter...

Also after annihilating the entire camp, there were 2 closed doors and pretty much no loot except for the dynamite in the fridge - Did i miss anything?

Thanks in advance for anyone that will comment. I know that I have no idea! But that's exactly why I am here and asking questions

1) most of them can be raised one point permanently later in the game. Drugs/chems can temporarily boost them.
2) Your Int is what most would call low. Your choices in conversations will be limited and your character will develop a little slower. Strength 3 also means some weapons will have a to-hit penalty as your character can't wield them with ease. You can still beat the game though.
3) It is weapon dependent, as in individual weapons have different AP costs.
4) your to-hit score is a result of your skill point investment minus environmental factors. Darkness is quite inhibiting for example, and distance is obviously a factor. Things improve with skill levels and new weapons later on.

As for the raiders, you're supposed to go there for a quest to free someone who is captured by them. It is a tough early game fight but there are several non-combat solutions that may be more appropriate. It is one of the earliest potential showcases of how open the game is.

As for Fallout 4, the series was already screwed with the third main game. Some would even say the chronologically third title ('tactics') screwed things up but at least it didn't have the audacity to hit the shelves named Fallout 3.

Each SPECIAL stat can be permanently raised by 1 point each, the trick is in finding those methods. The one for Luck took me several play throughs before I stumbled on it by accident.

The great thing about Fallout is that any character setup can beat the game. Even if you were to purposely nerf your stats and only level up the so called "useless" skills it would make the game harder, but not impossible. That said there are definitely some character archetypes that are easier to play and are good for new players.

There is a perk to add AP and another that makes weapons faster. There is also the Fast Shot trait which makes all attacks cost 1 less AP but it disables targeted shots.

If you read the descriptions of each weapon you will see the minimum strength value, for the 10MM Pistol that number is 3 so your odds of hitting your target is equal to your Small Guns skill minus the targets Armor Class and any other environmental factors such as light, distance and concealment. If you were to use the Hunting Rifle it has a minimum strength of 5. Each point of strength below the weapons requirement gives a -20% modifier to your weapon skill. With your strength of 3 the Hunting Rifle has a 40% lower chance of hitting than the 10MM Pistol. I don't know what weapons you are using but strength plays a big part in it.

One suggestion I always make to new players is to put some thought into who your character is going to be. A loner, a charmer, a gunslinger, a ninja? Once you have a basic idea of the direction you want to go, open up the manual and read about the Perks. With the level cap you will only get to pick 7 at the most, so think about which might fit your character and plan your SPECIAL stats and skill choices to coincide. This is not cheating or spoilery in any way. Fallout has a fantastic manual and the developers intended for you to read it first before playing the game. Some of the rules about armor and combat can be a bit confusing to figure out on your own.

For example Armor has 3 stats, AC (Armor Class), DT (Damage Threshold) and DR Damage Resistance). It's important to know what these mean. Lets look at the 10MM Pistol vs Leather Armor. The Pistol does random damage between 5-12 and Leather Armor has an AC of 15, Normal DT of 2 and a Normal DR of 25. The AC is the chance for the armor to completely deflect damage so it adds a negative modifier to your weapon skill. Basically, if your Small Guns skill is 85% normally you have a 70% chance of hitting someone in Leather Armor. Let's say your bullet hits and the random number generator determines that the damage done is 10. The DT is a direct modifier of damage, in this case the value of 2 reduces the damage of your bullet from 10 to 8. The DR also modifies damage but this number is a percentage, so Leather Armors' DR of 25 means a 25% reduction in post DT damage. This further reduces your bullets damage from 8 to 6. Of course this doesn't account for the use of Armor Piercing or Jacketed Hollow Point bullets.

STrength is unique among S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats because it can later be permanently increased with one point and then with another 3 points by wearing a power armor. So a maximum of 4 points permanent increase (as long as you wear the power armor). All the other S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats can only be permanently increased by 1 point.

Thanks everyone for the responses :)

So as it stands, I probably have made a bad decision going with 3 STR =/

I have started the game yesterday again and noticed that my INT is 7 and PER is only 4 (Such a huge oversight >_<)

Will it prevent me from playing the way I wanted? Agile handgun shooter which specializes in critical hits

I remember now that I made my INT higher so I'll have more dialogue options because when i left it at 3 or 4 all my character could ever pronounce was "Uhhmn Unn" >_>

Also later on in the game would I actually find a weapon I can actually use with only 3 STR? (4 assuming i find a way to permanently upgrade it)

Right now i use a knife and the 10 MM pistol. I am at level 4 and have 103% in small guns and and I think 65% with melee weapons....

And I must say >_> I am doing pretty much NO damage at all.... I have no idea how i've finished the two violent quests in Junktown (Probably because Ian and the entire city guard helped me =/)

As my character is really bad at dealing damage, I will most likely rely on other NPC to help me (At least until i'll start being way more capeable at dealing with things myself)

For my outline however - Do you guys think I should re-roll my character to raise perception to at least 6? By reducing INT to 5(Or perhaps take a hit to my charisma from 6 to lower? I don't really mind not being able to make followers If i can deal with things myself) Will it greatly affect my dialogue options? (Assuming I am not intending to go out of my way to make a pacifist or paragon decision. If i need to gun everything, i will... Better for EXP any way... And my pocket)

Thanks again =)

Charisma 1 is almost no different from 10. It has very little meaningful impact on the game unless you're looking to achieve very specific outcomes on some quests. You don't know about those as a first time player however.

Mind you that combat can get very heavy later on, pistols might not be all that much fun when you're going up against twice or four times your own weight in flesh armed with equally heavy weapons... and you are outnumbered.

Remember that some perks depend on your SPECIAL stats. You should plan ahead so that you are even able to unlock them.

if you really want to get to the root of where fallout came from, try WASTELAND 1: THE ORIGINAL CLASSIC

At the moment I am planning to finish the series, so will be a while =)

But thanks for the suggestion.

Though at the moment I wonder how to get my abilities better >_<

I wonder how I can raise my crit chance other than a perk that is unlocked later

Also - Can someone tell me if there is a level cap and which level is it? I've seen perk distributes every 3 levels from the manual only up to level 21. What happens after level 21?

And how easy is it to level later on in the game? Because right now, I am not doing too good (Though I believe i've finally got to the point where I can finally get the water chip out of the way and start exploring for real)

The level cap is 21 for Fallout. When you get to Fallout 2 the cap is 99.

Leveling up later in the game does take some more work, but there are also a lot of side quests to be found if you take thetime to talk to everyone.

Rocks
Brass knuckles
Spiked knuckles
Power fist (uses Small energy cell as ammo/power supply) - this is the one that you want to get

For all "unarmed weapons" the required minumum STrength is only 1.

You can use weapons which require more strength than you have, you just have to accept that you get a -20 penalty to hit per missing strength point (can be evened out with more skill).

The best way to increase damage is aiming at body parts, the chance for a critical if you hit is increased by the same amount as the penalty to hit (which can be evened out with more skill).
Criticals on vulnerable body parts do also more damage and are more likely to bypass the damage reduction by armor.

57 lockpick skill is enough to handle the important locks if you have (electronic) lockpicks and don't mind reloading, speech is useful for dialogue but the other non-combat skills can be ignored or learned from books.
Try to get your weapon skill so high that you have 95% hit chance even when aiming at the eyes.

Avoid armor piercing ammo, it's useless.

Thanks! That's a lot of help

So missing STR will just make it harder for me to hit? It will not affect the actual damage?

Also is there a way to raise Crit hit chance? Books or anything? (I did not get the part of the bonus crit equal to same amount of penalty? :S)

I am currenly with 3 STR and 71% Unarmed skill and 90% Melee skill. Will it be wise to switch from a knife to a knuckle and keep pumping only Unarmed from now on?

Does the HtH perk affect Melee weapons? Or only Unarmed?

Thanks in advance for responses


P.S.

Also can someone PLEASE tell me how to make Ian equip the stuff i give him? -.-

Companions (such as Ian) can only equip certain weapons. You can also tell them to use their best weapon. If you want to make sure that they equip a particular weapon, take away from them (by stealing or by bartering) all the other weapons that they could equip.

Correct. Missing STR is just as if you had less skill.


Example about critical hits when aiming: Assume the Vault Dweller has 5 Luck and meets a monster he has 90% chance to hit without aiming.

If he doesn't aim 5 percent of his hits are critical hits (5 Luck).
If he aims at the head he has a 70 (90-20) percent chance to hit, 25 (5+20) percent of his hits are criticals.
If he aims at the eyes he has only a 30 (90-60) percent chance to hit, but 65 (5+60) percent of his hits are criticals.

If the Vault Dweller raises his skill by 65 or more he gets a 95% hit chance aiming at the eyes and more than half of such attacks will score critical hits, very deadly.

Increasing your number of attacks (bonus rate of fire/HtH attacks, action boy) and your chances to hit is the best way to increase your number of criticals at the moment. If you reach level 18 you can pick the slayer or sniper perk to turn every hit into a critical.

The bonus HtH attacks perk affects both unarmed and melee. I prefer unarmed (spiked knuckles) over melee weapons because they don't have a throwback effect.