As in the topic. I'm playing Fallout 2 (before 3 arrives ) and I'm at Broken Hills trying to beat Francis at arm wrestling, but somehow I can't :confused: . I know I need 10 str to beat him, and I got it (taken 2 Buffouts or Buffout + Jet, neither combination worx :mellow: ). I tried like 5 times? He wins EVERY time. Is there a bug with this quest? I'm running the most recent available patch btw. . Anyone else had this problem?

Sounds odd. It always worked for me. Power Fist maybe?

You mean I shoud use power fist when arm-wrestling? It shoudn't make any difference AFAIK. I have a char with Luck of 1 , might that be a problem? It also shouldn't be from what I've heard - that it only bases on your str (and I have 10 with drugs). Very strange.

You need high endurance as well as strength. With 9+ strength and 8+ endurance you should be able to beat him, although you can still fail if your luck is low.

Edit: ah yes, the luck is hindering your performance. You should still get it if you try it enough times as long as you have the strength and endurance.

Just a guess. Francis' skill at arm wrestling is due to his power fist IIRC (lore wise)



I dont think endurance has anything to do with it. Most likely the poor luck. Keep trying, itll work.

Thx for the info . I thought it only based on str... Well, since I got pitiful end and luck it will be hard to win . I'll try a few times though, maybe I'll win, thx again.

It does. You need to have more than 8 endurance as well as high strength to beat him. See http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Beat_Francis_at_armwrestling on the Wiki.

I'd swear ive beaten him without 8 endurance. How odd. Ah well, my bad. Im probably wrong about Francis' power fist too. According to Pers guide you have to be over level 6 as well.

Also:
You can use 2 Buffout on Francis and wait 6 hours for his stats to drop, allowing you to beat him a little more easily (8/5 should be enough). The effect is smaller than if you use them on yourself, though, so this is for when you just can't get your own stats into range, or you live in fear of chem addiction. There's no point in saving after using the chems on him, since the game doesn't save such changes to critters and he'll be back to normal once you reload.

I just checked my stats (AND tried like 5 or so more times to beat him, no luck ) i have 10 str and 9 end (with drugs), so it should be ok here. Either some sort of a bug is bitting me or it's Luck... Veeeery strange anyway.

EDIT: Ok, I got him finally :celebration:, thought it was some sort of a bug or sth, but seems like it's just VERY much based on luck (as I said I had 10 str and 9 end). Oh well, time to move on . Thx again for the answers. Now what is left is to wait out the side effects of drugs :rolleyes:.

I think it does a die-roll based on your ST and EN. Nothing to do with luck. Well, the SPECIAL stat Luck. You know what I mean.

Yes, but all rolls in the game are affected by the luck stat to some extent. So even if both the EN and ST checks are successful, bad luck can still mess it up. Of course you can beat him even with low luck, but you'll need to attempt it quite a few times.

Well, it is supposed to affect everything, isn't it?

Yea, seems like I REALLY got a GREAT idea how much luck affects this game . Never thought it would take more than 10 tries to beat him just because I had a luck of 1. Hope that won't 'mess up' other things in game .

And btw. interesting thing is, that I also (having luck of 1 and outdoorsman of somewhere around 60-70%) managed to 'stumble upon' quite a lot of 'special encaunters', that is: toxic wastes, bridge of death (the greatest one for sure ), the unlucky dog (twice! But I loaded the first time... The second too ), and the exploding brahmin (loaded that one too, as they killed me instantly where I stood ). I'm unhappy though, because being a great fun of Star Trek, I didn't 'meet' the shuttle . Oh well . So it's quite interesting - from what I know the random encounters BASE on luck and outdoorsman, and I (having both of them on a VERY low lvl) managed to get all those encounters. But it's luck I guess, you can have a chance of 0.01% something happening and it will happen, or you can have an arm's reach civilian with 95% chance of hitting him and still killing yourself with a critical failure . Can't explain all of the above any other way .

I'm sorry. I didn't read all of the thread but just know that it's entirely possible to lose the match even if you have 10 Strength. Luck may help, I'm not sure. But just save and keep trying till you get it.

Yea it is ENTIRELY possible to lose without 10 str . I just got a PRETTY good idea about that . With 10 str, 9 end and 1 luck I took me 10+ tries to finally beat him.

Just checked my most recent character. I did it with 10 Strength, 6 Endurance and 10 Luck. :S
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5903/scr00001mq8.png
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/1854/scr00008js0.png

Have you managed to do it the first time? Or did it require a few tries?

harr harr you get bummed by him

I think you need high luck too.

Francis = Big Mutant
You= Ouch

god i remember that part, if you didn't laugh after u lost then i dunno, the choker : P

For random encounters any one ever caught the whale that fell from the sky, i dont know why i remember that but i do.