I want to make an explosives based courier that is sort of an outlaw/outcast. He would raid NCR outposts, and ally with the Boomers, possibly Legion, great Khans and powder gangers. Im thinking i might set up a safe house in an abandoned BoS bunker in hidden valley.

Oh and also at what level should i start the main quest..

If you ally with the legion you can turn your dog tags in for Frags.

Also remember I'd put secondary points into either energy weapons or Guns. Especially get shotguns.. Rockets, 25mm Grenades, 40mm Grenades, and even frags with splash damage are for Distance, when enemies swarm you Explosives *WILL* kill you. Shotguns are really nice cause they can do HIGH amounts damage up close even with a low gun skill, add Shotgun surgeon and anything "Soft" that dares run up to will get a face full of pellets or coins.

With Energy weapons though you can actually make "pyromaniac perk" worth it... with very few explosives weapons being "Fire" and the fact that the Flamer is an "up close" weapon will help you cut down foes that survived your first few "Blasts"

-Nuka Panda

Thanks, i'll remember to get my gun skill to... 25 or so and get a sawed- off shotgun.

and if your using a sawed off, think about sneak of 50, so you can sneak them into the casinos..

And with a sneak of 50, you'll most likely be easier to sneak up on Multiple enemy positions, and then "let loose" with some dynamite and make short work of any NCR/Fiends that you come across.

Good idea on the sneak part. Im thinking my tag skills should be sneak, expl. and... and..... im thinking medicine. Not guns because i wont get it very high.

Negative sir.

What i do when i Start a "New Character" is jack my luck and Charisma to 10, then Tag Explosives, Barter, and Sneak.

1st TAKE EVERYTHING from Docs house, burned books, plungers EVERYTHING you can get your paws on.
2nd Sell them to the Chet to make some EASY Quick caps. Small items add up fast. You can sometimes walk away with 400 Caps. BUT! Since your explosives build, I would not sell the dynamite Doc gives you.
3rd. Activate "Run good springs run!" or "Ghost town gun fight"

but with explosives. Side with the powder gaangers cause you can get free dynamite if your Rep is high enough. or complete the NCRCF quests... and every 24-48hrs you'll get a few free sticks. :toughninja:


Edit: forgot to mention. YOU WILL get the chance to "Rebuild" your character as fit. It's just something i do to help me out in the "newb stage"

Charisma?

Yeah. it will add to your barter so you can sell things for a higher price. As well as get "good nature" to add another +5 to barter, remember you can rebuild your charecter when you "walk away" from goodsprings.

Oh yeah, i forgot about that. Eplosives, Barter, Sneak

S:8
P:4 (Four eyes Perk) so that makes it 5
E:7
I:3
C:7
A:4
L:6

Thats what im starting with.. im going to make improvements and edits on it later

Four eyes for me is... ehhh... I don't know, you take a huge hit if your not wearing glasses -2per, you could really never wear power armor helmets or other Full Face Helmets, BUT! if you get the Key to the Legion Safe house you can get a pair of "Lucky Shades" which will ad +3. Then add a perception implant and you'd be up to a +4 Perception, then add Boones beret and you'd have a +5 Perception.

and "explosives" build for me. would look like this.



S: 6 (Take Weapons Handling to drop "heavy weapons" to 6)
P: 6 (Need it for Better Critical)
E: 6 (possibly 7)
C: 1 (I don't much care for being "Chatty")
I: 8+ (more skill points, and if you had Arcade with you to add +20% to healing)
A: 6 (anything more is pointless unless your going for AP)
L: 7 (Naughty nightware, and lucky shades WILL help, then add a luck implant... there's your 10 luck to [censored] the casinos)

Trait:
Four eyes(Varies the build)
Loose Cannon

lvl 2: Heave, HO!
lvl 4: Comprehension
lvl 6: Shotgun Surgeon
lvl 8: Demolition Expert(you can switch Shotgun Surgeon and this one if you wanted too)
lvl 10: Mister Sandman or Demolition Expert, Bloody Mess
lvl 12: Hit the Deck!
lvl 14: Jury Rigging
lvl 16: Better Criticals, Tag!, Weapons Handling, Demolition Expert, Adamantium Skeleton, Bloody Mess
lvl 18: Better Criticals, Tag!, Weapons Handling, Demolition Expert, Adamantium Skeleton, Bloody Mess
lvl 20: Grim Reaper Spirit(if you use VATS)
lvl 22: Spray and pray(This in combination with Hit the Deck makes your Frags and missiles nearly ineffective with your companions)
lvl 24: Better Criticals, Tag!, Weapons Handling, Demolition Expert, Toughness, Adamantium Skeleton, Bloody Mess
lvl 26: Better Criticals, Tag!, Weapons Handling, Demolition Expert, Toughness, Adamantium Skeleton, Bloody Mess
lvl 28: Better Criticals, Tag!, Weapons Handling, Demolition Expert, Toughness, Adamantium Skeleton, Bloody Mess
lvl 30: Better Criticals, Tag!, Weapons Handling, Demolition Expert, Toughness, Adamantium Skeleton, Bloody Mess

Thats pretty much the norm.

Tag! x3
·Explosives
·Barter
·Repair

Even Tagging Explosives at the Start for me is iffy. They do so much damage that, even at 25-50 will keep it "good" for along time, Thump Thump only Requires a 25, Annabelle is 75, and Mercy is 100, so unless your going to Race off and clear out all of Deathclaws at Dead wind Caverns, Explosives can wait till your in your upper level teens if not 20's I'd Concentrate on "passive" skills like lock pick, Science, Repair, Speech, Barter, Medicine.

Also take into consideration, that "Explosives" is an EXTREMELY Expensive build, and quite Heavy in hardcoe mode(all my HC explosive guy carries is Hunting shotgun, and Thump thump) *****Barter is going to be VERY VERY important***** Until much later in the Game... or when you "[censored]" the casinos with your 10 luck. heh...

I've never done an explosive (as a primary skill) build, but I would imagine grabbing all the explosive perks, collecting and buying every explosive ordinance possible, and using a close-range weapon like melee, shotgun, or flamer to deal with those enemies who missed your blast and getting too close.

My favorite explosive has always been the Grenade Machinegun.....it makes a big mess and pretty accurate job of it as well.

Oh, by the way Loose Cannon (trait) + Heave Ho! (perk) is an amazing combination. Probably a must have for a explosive build if you really want to get those grenades in there fast.

I created my Courier, and its pretty fun using explosives. :flamethrower: I have the setup all figured out but is there a place to quest for the legion? they dont really have anywhere besides cottonwood cove and the fort, do they?

They also have Nelson(We are Legion!)

Nipton(Cold, Cold Heart)

Alexus at Tecchatticup Mine.

but for the most part, they're all hanging around cotton wood cove.

You also have the Missions at Camp McCarran. I put a Spell on you, and Silus Treatment.

Uhm just choose the 3 (or was it 4) explosive perks + Heave Ho! and make that luck and charisma is 10.

Doing an explosives build with guns is very, very awkward in my opinion. Why simply not use guns and pick the Grunt perk?
Luck at 10 and Better Criticals? Explosives do 0 critical damage.

If going with a focused explosive build, the best secondary skill to be used is melee, since a lot of perks can be shared betweeen them, like Heavy Ho!, Heavyweigh or Pyromaniac, and the two skills have 0 or very low critical damage, so you rely in pure DAM.
With the Heavy Handed trait melee weapons become beasts to be used.

If it's simply shotguns then it isn't as awkward as if he was using the Gobi..

But, if he was using Unarmed/Explosives I would say drop the luck to 1. and Max out Str, per, End.

My "Demolition Raider" Uses the Flamer, and I have had nothing but good things to say about using pyromaniac and the Flamer.. Hell once you get good at using the Incinerator you can snipe enemies with low Perception.

As for siding with powder gangers you will get more dynamite raiding the small camps around ncrcf than what they would give you

No crits for explosives, treat luck as a dump stat. Match w/ the heavy handed trait.

Also, thump thump has a very large AOE, match it with splash dam perk it will be hard to miss. It was my weapon of choice for my explosives character.

^^This. After pacth 1.3 explosives became better than they already were, so you don't need guns.

With Heavy Ho! Thump-Thump fire as long as a sniper rfifle and given the high damage of explosive weapons, you usually don't need to mix it with guns, it's one shot one kill most of the time.