Hi guys, finally back on the bethesda forums. Anyway I finally got back NV from my friend after about a year, and fancy making a nice new character focusing on melee and or explosives. Usually i just go into the game head on, but I am not sure where to start with this build? I looked online and the feedback is VERY mixed.

I was looking for advice on SPECIAL point allocation, and help on perks? I am quite out of touch with the game and am hoping to make a bad ass killing machiene.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Goob x

I am not sure whether a pure melee is the best route, as it would need a bit more strategy, im not pbig on stealth. Is it possible or neccessary to use explosives with this build?

I wouldn't focus on melee and explosives only. for one explosives are expensive in large groups unless you find or make them. Two in a full on fight you going to get shot down because you wont be able to throw explosives fast enough. Stick to guns and explosives. Or if you have time to build. Sneak. Throw explosives. Switch to your gun till they get close. Then go to melee when there weak. Explosives and melee are both secondary combat skills. Ive tried a build like this and it's a pain in the ass against enemies with firearms. Especially early in the game when your stuck with week weapons against enemies who shoot. Be ready to go through a TON of stem packs and be repairing armor allot if your going to do this.

This is exactly the build I've just started, uses light armor, explosives and melee/unarmed on very hard. Do you have all the add-ons?

My special stat allocation is as follows:
Strength - 7, this will increase to 10 with the implant and spineless perk (+2).
Perception - 5, this will increase to 6 with the implant and likely further with the gear I wear.
Endurance - 8, this will increase to 10 with the implant and the lonesome road extra stat point.
Charisma - 1, Increased to 2 with the implant, there's also a lot of chems that increase charisma if I need to.
Intelligence - 7, increased to 8 with the implant, I don't really need max skill points.
Agility - 6, increased to 8 with the small frame trait and the implant.
Luck - 6, increased to 7 with the implant. Going to be hitting some big damage numbers with melee criticals later on, I'd like to have 9 base but I can't remove any others and still meet perk requirements.

I'll take all the +speed perks, all the explosive damage/blast radius perks and most of the melee/unarmed perks. I'll go for 2x toughness which combined with the implant adds 10 DT, big help considering I'll be up in their face.

Took the small frame trait and the built to destroy trait, I'll possibly change these two later on once I've met the agility requirement for a perk, the OWB add-on allows you to change traits once.

That's pretty much it, hope it helps.

I'd probably put luck to just 1, since I'm pretty sure you can never crit with explosives, so take the heavy handed trait. I had a melee/explosive character once and it worked out quite well, although to be honest by end game he was just using explosives far more than melee.

You can triple melee critical damage through perks, weapons like old glory give 80 base critical damage. Explosives aren't boosted by critical damage, but once you get the right perks melee and unarmed deal far more damage than if using heavy handed.

It's a damn effective build, but I wouldn't focus on crits.

All that's important is Strength 10 & Endurance 10. Not immediately, start lower and increase with implants/OWB perks. Melee has pretty bad crits and really it's your secondary attack, plus you're gonna want to slap on as much armour as possible.

At the start of the game, dynamite will do all of the work. I wiped out all of the powder gangers in ghost town gunfight with just 2 sticks, and you end up with an unholy amount of the stuff by the time you reach Nipton. Use a baseball bat/lead pipe against critters and indoors. Wiped out Vulpes and co with two frag grenades. First Legion assassin squad with just one.

Explosives really is relentlessly powerful. By the time you reach Vegas, you're spoilt for choice. The GRA 25mm APW is brilliant, and ammo can be bought in huge amounts. For 40mm, the grenade rifle is ok start game, but I'd upgrade to the grenade launcher ASAP. You can get one right at the start of Honest Hearts. For heavy weaponry I'd go with a good old missile launcher. Missiles are pretty common at the gun runners, especially with GRA installed.

They're the three basics, outside of that just use whatever sounds fun. Mini nukes are always a blast (), grande machinegun was spawned from hell itself, but compared to other grenade launcher isn't very economical when it comes to ammo. Red Glare is a beast, but late game, late game.

Really I didn't focus on melee at all, it was just there when I needed it. Think I was still carrying a baseball bat by the time I got to Vegas.

Really a fun build to play. Most of the fun you have are with the explosives though, melee is kind of secondary.

Crits are brilliant for melee when perked, like I said you can triple the critical damage of melee weapons through perks, far outclassing heavy handed with a decent critical chance.

For a melee weapon at the beginning, get chances knife near goodsprings, it's the strongest melee weapon you will find for a while. Capable of killing pretty much everyone through sneak in the early levels , even on very hard.

Dynamite is the way to go for lower levels, until you can get the Mad Bomber GRA perk which allows you to make MFC grenades, these only cost 3 microfusion cells to make. The clusters act as mines, but you can throw them short distances.

Why sneak though? I've always found the point of an explosives build to be a walking volcano.

MFC grenades are very nice, mod bomber in general is just great. Get a mod that allows you to repair bent tin cans, make tin grenades, rain hell.

1 tin grenade might not do diddly, but 200 tin grenades? That's a [censored]load of diddly.