For all you experienced Fallout 2 players:

Wow, Fallout 2 is hard. I lost count at how many times I died. I'm at the point in the game where I am trying to kill those creeps with that girl over at Vault 15. I can't kill them, they are too tough, so I've been going around killing plants and animals so I can level up, I've also been trying to wait for groups of people to fight each other so I can pick up their loot so I have something to fight with. I've been running away from a lot of foes cause they kill me in like 2 seconds.

Pretty much right now I am very weak, got nothing but some crappy combat armor, I sold half my stuff just so I can get some more ammo right now, everything is really expensive, on top of that I feel terrible because I was so broke and weak before that I had to work with the slavers to get some money or at least I think I had to work with them, their money helped me out a lot, I probably wouldn't gotten as far as I did without them, but the karma loss, reputation, and tattoo makes me regret it a lot, not to mention selling innocent people to those creeps.

I need some power armor training and some energy weapons, cause I can't even kill a raider. I also want to improve my karma and get rid of that slaver tattoo on my forehead and probably go back to those slavers and kill them all if I ever get strong enough.

Also, I have no idea what bullets go for what, so I am buying any ammo and seeing if it fits. I also have no idea how to repair my weapons and armor (can you?)

There is no Power Armour training in FO1/2; its just plug and play.

The Slaver Tatoo is forever. Choices have consequences and the game/Metzger did warn you it was forever.

You cant repair guns or armour, nor is there any need to as it doesnt degrade.

Best gun and armour shop isn't too far away. Go west young man, go west.

You can determine what ammo a weapon uses by right clicking on it when it is in your inventory and selecting the binoculars.

What's this shop called and what settlement is it in?

Thanks about the binoculars tip. It's good to know weapons don't degrade, I was afraid my weapons were falling apart the whole time...

That's unfortunate about the slaver tattooo, I'll have to give metzger a lead visit for that little permanent gift.

Where's the brotherhood of steel? Maybe if I join them I can get me some energy weapons.

Combat Armor isn't crappy. It's excellent. It's really only beaten by Power Armor, and Brotherhood Combat Armor. What are your combat skills/tag skills? What weapons do you currently have? Do you have any companions with you?

I normally take those guys out in Leather or Metal armor, using a hunting rifle. If your Small Guns is good enough, you can use called shots and put the bullet through their eyes, ending the fight very quickly. This is, of course, assuming you didn't take Fast Shot (which prevents you from doing called shots).

Edit to add

If you're focused on Energy Weapons, the first available source of them is New Reno, but it's a bit of a pain to get them there. (Laser Pistols) Much more available from Super Mutants, Enclave Patrols, and Hubologists. You can buy them in San Fransisco as well, which is also where you can hook up with the BoS, though the quest they send you on isn't really a cakewalk if you're already having trouble. Oh, and if you didn't know, your Charisma score dictates how many companions you can have.

And a general warning...don't let Marcus have an automatic weapon. He's bad about collateral damage with one. Give him a laser or plasma rifle, and a power fist, he'll still get lots of kills, and you'll explode from stray minigun rounds far less often.

In fact, in general, don't let your companions have weapons capable of burst fire. Especially if you decide to work for the caravans for money and travel.

My tag skills are skills I have never used yet...energy weapons/science/outdoorsman. I don't even know how to use the outdoorsman skill, I figured it was like survival, maybe it is?

No companions, that idiot I saved from the slavers says I don't seem like a leader type.

I've been putting all my points in small guns because thats practically the only weapons I run into except maybe the occassional knife. It's seems like a huge waste putting all my points into small guns because by the late game I'm probably only gonna use energy weapons and those cool miniguns (I love the sound of them) and other "Big guns".

And where is this magic arms dealer to the west I keep hearing of and whats the dealer's name?

Don't seem like a leader type? So you set your Charisma to 1? That'll keep you from having companions. Science is valuable for multiple quests, and the way outdoorsman works is when you're travelling on the worldmap, if Outdoorsman is high enough you'll get a popup telling you what the random encounter is, and letting you choose to do the encounter, or avoid it. It's a great way to get free loot, especially if you can find things like Deathclaws vs Remnants of the Master's Armies, and pick off the survivors.

Oh, and the PPK12 Gauss Pistol and the M72 Gauss Rifle are Small Guns, and use 2mmEC ammo (which is rare). They are two of the most powerful weapons in the game, reliably blowing clean through Advanced Power Armor, and Advanced Power Armor Mk II.

And yes, if you haven't already played it to death, F2 is a hard game, but I love it. You're making me want to start up a new game right now, in fact.

Oh, and the skill cap is 300, not 100 like F3/NV. But you really don't need to raise anything at all over 130.

@Silent, yeah it's ok I don't like have followers cause they steal my kills. Although right now a follower would be useful because I can't kill anything that has a gun.

Will someone tell me please where is this magic arms dealer to the west is??? where is he? what's thee shops name? what's the dealer's name?

Double post.

There are more than enough kills to go around. Oh, and if you get the combat implants, remember that level 2 of each of them (sub-dermal armor and phoenix implants) has negative side effects, but you can get both at level 1 without penalties.

And I don't know if it will help you, but my favorite SPECIAL + Traits + Tags follows.

S - 4
P - 6
E - 4
C - 5
I - 8
A - 6
L - 7

Traits - Finesse + Gifted (making SPECIAL be 5/7/5/6/9/7/8)

Tags - Small Guns, Science, either Speech, Outdoorsman, Gambling, Doctor, or Repair, depending on how I'm planning to play the game. Maybe I'll do stealth someday.

When I get high enough level to take the perk TAG!, I usually tag either Energy Weapons, or one of the ones I listed above.

With that setup, I find that there's very, very little in the game that I can't reliably handle, and it allows me to have 3 companions (Usually Marcus, Lenny, and Sulik or K-9/Dogmeat/Cyberdog. Sometimes I take all 3 dogs though.

San Fransisco, in the SW of the map. Random Encounters on the way there can be brutal, and the good stuff is very, very expensive. There's two buildings on either side of the street where you enter, one is a general good store, and armorer, and one is an arms dealer.

They don't trade, they only give you a quest but that quest does give you some good rewards in Arms and Armour... Same location as the better weapon shops


Outdoorsman is used to avoid random encounters

You can't go wrong with Small guns. There are some very good end game weapons in this class (Gauss Rifle, Bozar).