Neither.

I survive with my gun

I barter with my gun.

45 survival is not bad, for that 10% run speed perk.

You show me a guy who plays hardcoe and says he's never been encumbered, and I'll show you a liar.


:P

I'm pretty far into the game now and I'm developing some pretty strong opinions on these two skills.


Initially, I was like "Psh, I played Fallout 3 and I was in nooo short supply of caps, I don't think I'm going to need Barter again."

It also helped that there was a brand spanking new skill in New Vegas, Survival, which let you live off the fat of the land.

Or so I thought.

After funneling a lot of my skill points and scavenging efforts into Survival and totally neglecting Barter, I feel like I have come to a conclusion.


I have made a massive mistake.


Allow me to elaborate on the situation with some basic Pros and Cons.


On the Survival side of the fence, the basic mechanics are using campfires to cook your own food, tan hides, make poisons, and be self-reliant. The reality is that the campfires are very inconveniently located (particularly bothersome is that none of them are near official Player Housing assets), the recipes require a lot of skill points put into the Survival skill to make even the most apparently simple things, scrounging up ingredients for these recipes is tedious as a whole plant will usually yield only one or two ingredient items, and the recipes then demand a lot of the ingredients (and even some insane ingredients - a tin can to make an omelet?) to make an item that is essentially kinda like a StimPak that, if you're in hardcoe mode, also mitigates your hunger.

The Pros? I'm struggling to find them. This skill is laden with Cons. Making poisons seems pretty cool until you find out it's a single dose, single strike sort of mechanic, and they're only applicable to melee weapons and spears (no duh, right?). I thought tanning hides was going to be a step into all sorts of cool armor modifications or other crafting, but it's essentially throwing a lot of these hard to obtain ingredients into a gecko hide that's worth a hundred or so caps. Nevermind, there's no profit to be found in Survival crafting in the first place - the ingredients are often worth more than the resulting product.


Barter. Let me tell you a little bit about Barter and why it's the better choice, and the choice I wish I had made. Number 1, Caps. Pure, simple caps. You save money and make a little more, and all this money you would see with Barter can supplement your diet and hydration with caps to spare on other actually useful things like guns, ammunition, and other supplies. Number 2, the Barter skill unlocks a highly desirable perk that halves the weight of anything in your inventory that weighs two pounds or less - take a look at your inventory some time and get a good feel for how many items would benefit from that. If you're in hardcoe mode, that means all the food and water and ammo you're lugging around weighs half as less. Further, unlike in Fallout 3, there are plenty of things to command the attention of your bottle cap collection - things like high-end medical procedures (you know the ones), gambling, item repairs, and weapon modifications.

The Cons? The only real Con is that you don't get to play with the shiny new Survival skill. I promise you you're not missing out on it, though. The bulk of its utility is in cooking dog, coyote, and gecko meat into steaks. That's just about it. It's the only reasonable recipe with a positive return - throwing meat on a fire and cooking it.

My bottom line is that Survival needs a lot of work, from recipe tweaks to ingredient yields and weights, more recipes that yield actual equipment and items (like non-addictive chem anologues!), to better campfire placement, and even making ovens/stovetops useable like a campfire (at least the ones in Player Housing and some popular shacks).

If you are playing hardcoe, I think Barter is the way you should go. It's the hardcoe golden skill. Drop 70 points in it and never look back.

You show me a guy who plays hardcoe and says he's never been encumbered, and I'll show you a liar.


:P

I've only played on hardcoe and Survival left me wanting.

I hunted down a crap load of skill books to barely squeeze into the 70 Barter I needed for Pack Rat for when I hit level 30.

That's "pretty much done with the game and Barter is still that much more attractive" Level 30.


Also, Strong Back + Pack Rat = a warm sweater that hugs you on a brisk autumn evening.

Ditto.
I think speech, barter and science are your best friends in NV they seem to come into play more than others, apart from maybe repair?