I was like you when I did my first run, cause I didn't knew what attributes and perks to put my points into. I found even normal difficulty to be very hard and died often like you. But after reading about s.p.e.c.i.a.l, perks and weapons I now find even survival to be very easy. And I play a sneak character, witch is OP if you look at the sneak damage multipliers (up to 6.3X), I mostly just one shot kill almost everyone (for legendary I use criticals).

So, here is what I did to make the game easy. First of all, stay in those areas of the map where low level enemies span, you have the map above. At survival, enemies will be bullet sponges (until you get a good weapon) so for damage take either Gunslinger or Rifleman perks, depending on if you are gonna use snipers or pistols, investing in both is just wasting precious points. Then, take one level of Scrounger to have more bullets available and Gun Nut (or Science if you're into energy weapons mid to late game) to mod your weapons to have more damage, range and accuracy. Imagine getting across a rifle with a suppressor, ideal for stealth, but finding out that it does crappy damage - gun nut will make you get the most out of it.

Still you will want to find a weapon with good damage early on, getting the Overseer's Guardian till level 10 was a game changer for me. All that pick pocketing, stealing from buildings and scavenging to raise money for it was worth it, ot you can go raising money from settlements - mutfruits and purified water, or brewing and selling chems. If you want a suppressed rifle early on you will want to join the Railroad, do a few missions for them and then buy 'Tinker Tom Special'. Or if you are a pistol guy from the Railroad you can get the suppressed pistol 'The Deliverer'.

For defense: you don't need to put points in endurance or or get endurance perks to get more hp or to get tanky as the point of sneak is to almost never get caught and to clear entire areas from the shadows. Sneak perk helps a lot with this, get like 2 levels of it early on, at level 2 you will render all mines and traps useless. Light levels matters greatly, I noticed it is way harder to stay [hidden] during daylight, even in the shadows, in direct sunlight is almost impossible, so I recommend you do the killing at night time, if it's day time find a bed or a chair and wait. Even at night time avoid the lighted areas. You already have high agility so sneaking will be easier.

For sneaking damage: the Ninja perk as soon as possible to get the damage multiplier from sneak, and upgrade whenever possible. Also, the Sandman, if you have a suppressed weapon. With these 2 you will do like X5 damage when sneaking. Also, Deacon will give you some bonuses too if you max your affinity with him. You will want the [hidden] or [caution] at all times to benefit from these multipliers. If you find that in [cation] mode enemies start firing towards you, step aside left or right and back off a little. They are firing at where they think you are anyway. If you get the [danger] mode, only then they discovered you, so run back and take cover till they lose you again, tanking them is not a good idea as you don't have nor the hp or the perks to do that. The last level of sneak is just child's play...you will be able to sneak to just 2 meters from them, or just near touching distance if they are not looking in your direction. Even in power armor I do that. And also, the higher the sneak skill, the quicker you will go from [danger] to [caution] to [hidden] mode. Most of the time, I don't even get the [danger] status when clearing out a location. If you get into trouble though and get surrounded, get a shotgun and enter vats, then pop some Jet, this can happen with flying insects, mole rats, Supermutant hounds or radscorpions.

If you use vats often here is what you can do to have a easy game: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1575192-dont-see-the-point-of-vats/page-4#entry24750592

Good luck.

Here are a few mistakes:

- expect a game to literally be the same than another game even when it's set in another universe. assume nothing before you played it & read the special perks.

- 3pts in endurance

- sneaking difficulty is finally not as rediculously easy than before & concepts like light, encumberance & armor weight have more impact.

- sneaking around with 10pts agility? are you not sniping enemies from a long distance? you have no STR so it's long ranged silenced, scoped sniping for you. and since you rely on a powerful long ranged gun you should obviously use your INT to upgrade your weaponry

Awesome, thank you (and thanks to maker of map, best yet).

Well your build is kinda bad. Charisma is a total trash attribute. Only worthwhile perk it has is lone wanderer. Perception and endurance are pretty bad too.

Luck is one o the better attributes but you need at least luck 9 to make it worth it. lvl 3 luck is total waste of time (even more than charisma 6) Luck 5 (for idiot savant) works too but you miss out of the good dmg perks. Intelligence is a bit situational. If you want to only use few select weapons (10mm, .50cal, melee weapons) then there is no point to get any int. Even less if you go idiot.

Sneak becomes significantly better when you have sneak lvl 4.

Ok, so here are my stats now: With this I am making my way through with greater ease. Already lvl 9 in 1 day.

6 Strength

4 Perception

2 Endurance

3 Charisma

10 Intelligence

3 Agility

1 Luck

I chose One Lck and Ten Int because it was repeatedly stated that they work against each other when leveling. And since high Int mean more exp, and from what I see I am getting more exp, then it is well worth it. V.A.N.S. was my first perk followed by I think Gunslinger, then Gun Nut....... From there I am playing around.

This is just for recording, maybe later there will be more added to it. Thanks all.

Since there are a lot of posts I don't know whether these points already got adressed:

Sneaking is not Agility alone but also your armor.

Shadowed, Lightweigt/super light/Cunning Armor is your friend.

Military Fatigues are nice for +2 AGI, especially if you have Ballistic Weave.

Doing harder fights at night helps greatly, if a fight is inside and you can switch off lights, go for it.

Well, you do get more exp points the more INT you have, so you will level a bit faster- but leveling as fast as possible is NOT the most important thing in the game, I'm afraid. You still need other SPECIAL stats for combat and survival- putting zilch into endurance, agility and luck will really hurt you in that department. 5 or 6 points in INT is plenty, 10 is bizarre. I'd have put only 1 point in Charisma and much fewer in INT, and you only need 3-4 in STR to start out, unless you're into a melee/unarmed build.

If you want to level as fast as possible, you're better off putting points into Luck and grabbing the Idiot Savant perk early on. At least then you'd have some well-spent points in Luck. Not sure what you're referring to about Luck and INT not being compatible for leveling, haven't heard that yet. If that's true, I'd avoid the INT and go with Luck. INT won't do anything for your combat ability, whereas Luck and Agility and Perception are pretty key there, particularly if you use VATS much.

Why Agility so low?
I would have thought Sandman (Ag 4) and Ninja (Ag 7) essential perks for a stealth build!?
Okay I know you can raise SPECIAL pretty easy but they should be a priority for stealth kills.

One of the biggest issues I had coming into FO4 from previous Bethesda games is that I actually have to change tactics depending on the enemy I am going up against.
Some enemies are far more perceptive than others and/or have hounds that can make the stealthy approach a lot harder.
That said, stealth/sniper (.308 combat rifle) doesn't need to vary the tactics too much

As others have said light armour is the way to go along with armour mods (Shadowed and muffled or sleek on legs).
I had a legendary piece with the chameleon mod on it (turns you into the predator if motionless) but ditched it in the end because it doesn't play nicely with Pipboy use (arm and pipboy remain seethrough).
With the ballistic weave mods in Military Fatigues and Green Headwrap I have more defense in light armour than I had in Power Armour (the only thing lacking being radiation resistance)

Don't get to hung up on SPECIAL attributes. If new to the series, discovering a playstyle you like, is part of the game, and trying new ones each playthrough (at least for me) This time around in FO4 you really only need the points in SPECIAL to get the perks you want, altho, a few offers some good things worthwhile considering beyond perk requirement. Playing quirky characters have their merit, and roleplaying can be a part of it or not. As for XP, don't worry too much about them. You are not under time pressure.

Most importantly tho, is, play how you like. The game is a sandbox, treat it like that. No competition, just you and what you fancy or wanna try out

I just built a straight up close assault specialist,

High Strength,

END 4

All other Specail pretty much whatever...

Invested in BASH, Riffleman

Carry a Combat Riffle with a blade mod attachment.

Use Grenades a lot, why?

Well I toss the Nade the enemies usually try to either get away from it, like say moving out of cover or taking to cover...Thing is usually when done right they are not shooting... Close the distance while firing away and finish them off with a stab to the chest...

No Vats required...

Psycho pumped into my arm vein like it was born there, its really easy to make too, and Molotov's those are very easy to make too and cheap to purchase.

Fairly early on you'll get the following

"Potions"

Psycho,

+25 points of Damage Resist

+25% increase in Damage, this effects all damage you do not just CC.

Buffout

+STR END and +60ish health

MedX

+25 Points Damage Resist

Jet

Slow Time for 8 seconds...

-->You can clear an entire room in that amount of time without VATs.

So basically those are your Combat Pots. Use them, don't save them for later you can build more at Sanctuary or Red Rocket starter zones.

TIP

HotKey this pot and leave it there

JET

>>Use it like this, "OH shhhhooottt ima going to die" hit this button!

Or........enter room and hit "I win Button"

or just don't use it cause its kinda cheaty.

I like to keep Pyscho hotkeyed but you don't have to cause it lasts forever like 8 minutes....With 1 rank of chemist it'll last 12 minutes so that's long enough to clear a building if your not busy looting every container before clearing out all the mobs.

You'd get even more exp with idiot savant:

https://i.imgur.com/JVIkUEU.png

You are just flat out wrong.

Not only leveling as fast as possible is the most important thing but also the only thing that matters.

Due to there being no lvl cap the only build you are ever going to make is the "god at everything" -build and leveling strategy that gets you there fastest is the best.

There is also the point of "I've done everything" where the player runs out of meaningful content so if you can hit "practical" level cap (aka lvl 50-55) asap you get to experience meaningful content with an optimal character.

I couldn't tell you how often I died at the start. If you were to dominate a game from start would it be fun? When it's time to level up read each perk and decide which one will help you the most to stay alive.

I pretty much sneak around in most FPS games that I play. Fallout 4 is no different.

When I first created my character I used a more balanced approach when it comes to SPECIAL because your abilities can be increased as you level up. I can't remember what my abilities started out at since I created my character on Nov 10th. However, I think the lowest ability was strength at 2 and agility was 6.

It took a bit of time to figure how to sneak effectively at the start of the game basically because you do not have many perks and your abilities can only get you so far. What I primarily focused on was engaging enemies at a distance; I primarily used rifles and automatic pistols. I do not recall how long it took me before I considered my character to be "stealthy enough" to sneak around effectively since I more or less have been taking a bit of a balanced leveling up approach, but with an emphasis on agility and it's perks.

It's important to choose the correct gear when sneaking which means you need to focus on wearing light armor. I am around level 60 and I simply wear light combat armor. I need to get back to actually playing the quests rather than scavenging for materials to build up my settlements. When I decide to do so, I play the Railroad quests so that I can eventually get ballistic weave.

You should also develop some tactics that fits into your play style. Personally, I do not engage in melee combat (maybe I'll give it a try...) and I do not steal so getting in close so there is no need for me to bother sneaking right up to my target. As long as I stay hidden I can 3x damage with my long range weapons.

I was the same, but I recently tried a stealth melee weapons build, and it works really well too. Can take out most anything with just my Pickman's Blade combat knife (x11.3 sneak attack crit modifier with all perks). Primarily STR/AGIL/LCK, with more added to END as I leveled up. Used the Idiot Savant perk for the first time, and it rocks. Key perks for this build are Ninja/Blitz. With 2 points in Blitz, you are basically a ranged knife character, but my char is getting so stealthy that she just sneaks up on most enemies and gives 'em a quick poke in the kidneys and it's lights out. Sleek mod on both legs and Sneak 4 makes you glide around like a wraith.

I just started out with 4 in every special. If you look at the perk chart you really don't need anything higher than 4 for awhile and you can always add points to a stat down the road.

Most things have been covered by others already, but since I have a similar playstyle I thought I'd just chip in:

Put Perks in:

Sneaking

Ninja

Rifleman, Gunslinger, Commando, Sniper, Melee depending on your weapon of choice.

Secondary in your Crafting skills, Pickpocket, Hacker, Lockpicking so you can make yourself some decent weapons and armor and get through all those locked doors.

Then it's also important that you are in Walk mode while in Sneak mode. Sneak-running will get you detected fast. Also use covers and stay away from light sources. You almost have to retreat a bit for every kill as the victims buddies will be looking for you, so sneak in, kill, sneak out and circle to a different vantage point. Use Stealthboys if you have them.

It gets easier, just make sure you pick the proper perks first.

I've been wondering is melee sneaker would be a viable built, so I think I'm giving it a try next time round.

I'm sure these things have been mentioned but they are worth repeating:

Mod your weapons.

Mod your armor. Related to armor: choose proper accessories!

Choose perks wisely.

If all of that is still not working: chems.

Charisma- The first rank of the Local Leader perk is actually really useful. It's not directly useful to the combat aspect of a Sneak build, but it is a great Quality of Life perk. Especially when it comes to stocking up on Adhesive: there are several farms in the starting area that produce Tatos, and one that produces Mutfruit. Plant some Corn somewhere and set up a few Water Purifiers, and you can set up an Adhesive Farm without having to stack Defense on a single settlement. Doing it that way pretty much requires the Local Leader perk to set up Supply Lines, but when done this way, you just go to a Cooking Station in a linked settlement and make your Adhesive; no need to actually show up in person to gather the materials.


Intelligence vs. Luck - The "incompatibility" of these two perks is due to the Idiot Savant perk, which has higher chances of triggering when your Intelligence is low. And from a certain point of view, this is true. Each point in Intelligence gives roughly 3% more XP; on the other hand, a single instance of Idiot Savant gives 3 times the XP. The more often this triggers, the faster you level, so people who use Idiot Savant tend to dump Intelligence to get maximum leveling speed. However, it's also worth noting that Idiot Savant doesn't require low Intelligence; it just rewards you for it. A character with 10 Intelligence can still use and benefit from the Idiot Savant perk. Sure, it wouldn't trigger as often, but anytime it did, it would be free extra XP that the character wouldn't have had.


As for a Sneak build in general, the most important perks are Sneak and Ninja. Sneak makes you harder to detect, keeps you from setting off traps, and let's you move at a jog without alerting enemies. This last part is nice on a Console, but is a massive help on PC; PC users have to manually toggle walking, so not having to worry about movement speed means one less button to press when entering Sneak Mode. As for Ninja, it increases the damage your Sneak Attacks do, making each shot more likely to be a kill. For ranged weapon users, Mr. Sandman is a must-have, while Melee users want to make sure they get Blitz. This does mean that Ranged Stealth Builds are a little less SPECIAL-intensive, but they also don't get the 10x Sneak Attack Multiplier that Melee weapons get.

Get yourself into shadowed leather with muffle on the legs. Then learn the cover system and the art of corner ambushes.

Edit: I'm running a sneak character and all the SPECIAL stats started at 4. Added two points into intelligence to grab Science and scrapper.

Guys thanks for the response, I don't mean to ignore some of your comments, I just don't have time right now. I am using this thread to record my progress and understanding of this. I have no intention of restarting my character, but if TES VI is really 2019 then I might replay at some point. And thanks for the shadow armor and muffled legs recommendation, it really helped.

This is what I would likely do next time, maybe....

6 strength: for add capacity, which is so helpful if you city build and work alone.

2 perception: I just don't use anything past this, I don't use cats really.

1 Endurance: I don't run, I don't care to run.

3 Charisma: For Lone Wanderer

10 Intelligence: For maximum exp from the start.

6 Agility: Really I need 7 for sneak atk Ninja so anything that gets me closer.

1 Luck: Because I use nothing from luck

Keep in mind I love sneaking around and this character is geared towards that. Now I have question on Intelligence and how much extra Exp you really get, but I have moved up to level 27 pretty fast. At some point I will probably expand this thread(or start a new one) and do a break down of how to level up the char.

You should play and try as you like, altho, I would put a few points differently.

I would drop Strength to 5, and use

to raise it to 6 if you really want that Strong back perk.

I would drop Int to 9, since you can get a Int bobblehead, unless you really fancy 11 Int. 9 or 10 Int is no big difference in the greater scheme of things

The 2 points spared I would drop in Perception, raising it to 4, so you are able to pick up lockpicking. Don't underestimate the resources you can get from early safes, especially ammo. Also, Perception lets you have a bigger radius of enemy awareness (the red dots of spotted / alerted enemies during combat) which I find useful on survival as it let me decide on tactics on the fly easier. And finally, it improves VATS accuracy, which can be useful in tight situations

I play on normal. It is very rare for my health to get down to as low as 90%. I have never died in almost 600 hours of play. The game is NOT too hard. I would up the difficulty if I was looking for any sort of challenge, but I avoid stress, so for me Fallout is just a sandbox. I never use VATS, ever, not even to find enemies.

My early stats are:

Str 3

Per 4

End 8

Char 6

Int 6

Agil 2

Luck 1

The above includes a couple of points from the SPECIAL book and bobbles. My stats will quickly arrive at those numbers and then stay there till I hit ~level 40. I play as a sniper, slow, stealthy, taking out as many as I can at range from stealth. For perks I max out Rifleman, Sneak, Lone Wanderer, Gun Nut, Armorer, Science, Local Leader. I put points into Lock Picking, Hacking and Life Giver when I have spare. After ~level 40 I will start to bump Agility to get Ninja and then perception to get Sniper.

Also, 'very' early in the game I will accumulate a bit over 3000 caps worth of barter goods and head over to ...

I haven't had any problems sneaking really in 2 play throughs. IMO the three most important things for sneaking are:

1. Stay out of the light as much as possible, even the shadow of a building in bright light will help keep you in [caution] mode.

2. Silenced/suppressed weapons are a must. Firing a non-silenced weapon will give you away immediately.

3. Be patient. Snipe...wait...snipe...wait..repeat. Even firing a silenced/suppressed weapon will cause alarm, wait for the alarm to subside before sniping again or moving, else you risk being detected.

Using those three guidelines I have successfully been sneaking for 44 levels with 1 rank in the sneak perk, wearing non-shadowed combat armor (and I always run-sneak, never walk, too tedious). I highly recommend Gun Nut, as then you will be able to build suppressors for most of your weapons, not to mention build yourself a nice sniper rifle pretty quickly.