So I've received Fallout 4 for Christmas (spending Christmas away from family and so opened it early and front of them) and it'll be a week or so before I'm back home to play the game. So before that point, I have a whole bunch of questions, which I'll try and break down into relevant categories:

1) So I'm clear on the leveling mechanics, the idea is you get perks every level and they can either go on your SPECIAL or on perks themselves? From a character building standpoint, it's therefore better to factor in bobbleheads and the boost from You're SPECIAL! (or whatever the book's called) if you're the kind of person who likes to rigorously build a decent character (which I am)?

2) Is stealth now governed mainly by the Ninja/Mister Sandman perks in terms of increased damage? As in there's no such thing as a sneak attack critical? Is it worth getting the perks that let you bank critical hits so you can coincide them with your sneak attacks? Are energy weapons still not that compatible with stealth (from what I can tell, they can now be fitted with compressors, so I wasn't sure if they now were suitable for use in stealth)? Also Ninja applies to unarmed attacks right? It says only melee, so I thought it didn't hurt to make sure.

3) How many of the Gun Nut and/or Science! perks are needed to get a fully tricked out ranged weapon (or does it vary by the weapon, some classes need less perks)? Same for Blacksmith and melee/unarmed? From what I've gathered you need certain levels to upgrade weapons decently, however I'm really not so clear on what certain levels allow you to do, is there a guide somewhere for what each level of each perk grants you?

4) Is there a faction that fits well with mercenaries (wealth obsessed assassin-for-hire for instance)? I'm aware of the BoS, Minute Men, Railroad and Institute as the major players, but from what I can tell they're all really heavy on the ideology. What I liked about FO:NV is that in some ways Mr. House, NCR and Legion didn't really care much for whether you subscribed to their way of thinking - they all offered reward enough that a merc could conceivably side with any of them and have any moral leaning and it be okay (or you could really believe in their goals and side with them for that reason also, giving you both ends of the spectrum). Do factions similarly try and recruit you by promise of reward in FO4 or do we now have to wholeheartedly believe in their viewpoint to want to side with them? Because that would svck. Obviously no heavy spoilers on this subforum, but I don't class answers as "Yes, one or more of the factions appeal to your practical side as opposed to wanting you to think their great ideologically" is a spoiler.

5) Likewise, is there a faction that supports more evil characters (stealth melee cannibal killer for example)? While I don't feel like FO:NV had a faction that would encourage this kind of behavior, I feel like they were all ambivalent enough to your actions to not really care about what you were doing so long as the job got done. Is this the same in FO4, or is there the sense the factions would be morally outraged if they found out what you were really like - even if it's not backed up with repercussions of any sort?

6) Anything perkwise that affects dialogue in anyway? I'm guessing seeing as everyone bemoans the dialogue system more or less this will be a no. Any effects of having low/high SPECIAL in the sense of scripted actions?

7) Anything else that you think is particularly pertinent to know going in? I plan to play on the hardest possible difficulty as I always do, so if there's anything relevant to that it would also be interesting.

Thanks if you bothered to read through all that and give me decent answers. I feel like the landscape of Fallout has changed quite significantly from New Vegas so this stuff can be a bit difficult to get a grasp on.

1. From strictly min/maxing perspecitve most efficent way of using bobbleheads wud be to use em after you got your SPECIAL to 10, thus increasing it to 11 however in practice thats prety pointless cuz by than youll already be a god walking the wasteland so it wont make any real diference. In my opinion good balance is to take 1 Special point every 4th or 5th lvl(playing on survival, this way you have enough perks to alow for diveristy while still getting your desired stats up relativly soon, i wud also suggest picking up bobbleheads whenver you can.

2. Basic sneak atack dmg modifier is x2, you can increase it via perks, do not confuze that with criticals though(criticals build up as u use VATS and can be used anytime when your critical bar is full in VATS only-perks again can boost that a lot)

3. Eventualy you will want them all maxed out, while certain weapons dont actualy need max lvl of those perks to get impoved to their max potential, most of the rly good ones do

4. You can play as a gun for hire but no faction rly has much ties to that style of play, you can be a member of all of them until you reach certain points in the story where youll need to chose betwen them, you dont rly have to agree with their ideologies though.

5. Well i some wud defenatly be moraly outraged though primarly they just want to get things done and dont rly ask how you do it, they will even point that out on multiple ocassions.(for example one the factions asks you to secure food for them, your options being to kill the farmers and take it, buy it, threathen them to give it away, or persuade them in that quest for exmaple the quest giver will spacifcly say he doesnt care how you do it as long as it gets done)

6. Yes but much less of it than in previus games(and most are charsima based checks, there is some others but not many)

7. I wud like to point out that since there is no universal karma sytem anymore(which didnt rly make much sence in the first place anyway) your decisons on the field will only affect your companions since even the factions you work for wont know what exactly you did and how you did it(no global reputation sytem they need to see you do something bad and report it in to have an impact on their realation to you), for example i can be BOS member and murder/loot one of their patrols in the wilds without any side effects, since the rest of BOS will never find out what happned there).

1) yes, you can either put points in SPECIAL or perks.

2) in terms of damage and crits, yes you need the stealth perk

3) this isn't neccesarily true, if you want the best weapons sooner, yes. Otherwise you can remove mods off weapons and put them on the one you want.

4) not really, BoS makes you join them and become a BoS... minutemen makes you become their general... not sure about the other two.

5) Institute or BoS.... Institute wants to take over the world with Synth... BoS are a bunch of fascists who want all the tech and no abominations in the wasteland.

6) Some do... but I haven't really noticed it. charisma and the perks to intimidate done really seem to work very well.

7) Find the workshop at Sanctuary or Red Rocket truck stop.... Build some storage ASAP... that way you are not lugging around your stuff until you "get" a house. Settlements are your friend. Something simple with some storage (which anything you spawn with the workshop system is safe).

Cool, thanks for both of the replies. Very informative.

If the SPECIAL bobbleheads are saved until that SPECIAL stat is already maxed out, you'll be able to get 11 in it. As mentioned above though, this really isn't necessary or even beneficial in any practical sense. I have SPECIAL maxed out and I found the strength and luck bobbleheads after maxing it out, so I have 11 in those stats. However, at that point the difference is so minimal that it doesn't even really matter. Unless you're completely OCD about building the absolute strongest possible character, there's not much point. For my second play through I may hold off on picking up those bobbleheads just for the sake of absolute completion, but I'll just decide that when the time comes.

My character build is first and foremost a sniper, so I might be able to offer some valuable advice. The main perks you'll want are sneak, gun nut, science, rifleman, sniper, ninja, and mister sandman. These aren't all perks that you'll be able to get right off the bat though. The perks are arranged in 10 levels within the SPECIAL stats. For example, if you have 6 in your Endurance stat, you'll be able to get up to level 6 perks in the column below endurance. The sniper perk is (I think) a level 8 stat, so it's not too accessible right off the bat. The crucial ones to get immediately are gun nut and rifleman. Gun nut unlocks all of the gun mods, and rifleman makes attacks with rifles (including shotguns) more powerful...eventually up to 2x damage when rifleman is maxed out. Note that the levels within each perk are level based as well. For a given level within a perk, it may mandate something like being at level 30 and having 6 in a given SPECIAL stat.

If you want fully tricked out guns with ALL of the mods, you'll need to have Gun Nut and Science maxed out. This takes some time though because you have to reach a certain level before unlocking all of the perks.

Obviously some of the first perks you'll want to invest in though are lockpick and hacker.

Banking criticals is a higher level perk that you likely won't get right off the bat. I wouldn't consider it to be too crucial early in the game. I'm at level 84 and I still haven't invested any perk points in it. It's one of the next ones I'll be going for though.

Honestly though, you're probably putting too much thought into this. Just play the game and in time you'll figure out what you need. Early on you're better off distributing perk points across several different categories rather than focusing on totally maxing out one stat before moving on to the next. The way the perk system works doesn't even really allow this because of the level limitations on progressing to the next level of a given perk.

I like to try and play characters who are the best at something rather than an all rounder, so if I go melee or a build that appreciates luck (all of them now it seems, as far as I can tell the old being able to have a middling luck and still get max damage on a sneak attack is now gone) I'll hold off on getting the last bobbleheads. The benefits of some of the others don't seem as important.

Is that also true of melee/unarmed weapons (having Science! and Blacksmith)? I'm starting to think I'll go stealth melee/unarmed as it seems like more of a challenge than ranged stealth (and more of a risk/reward approach as the benefits from Ninja seem much higher). I'm really surprised the guides on what Blacksmith/Science!/Gun Nut have to offer per level are practically non-existent.

There still are sneak attack crits, just sneak attack with V.A.T.S. and press your crit button (for me space on PC)

For unarmed weapons it depends how you play. If you get the best weapon (deatclaw gauntlet) early which kind of ruins immersion, but helps you a lot, then you don't need blacksmith at all. For a simple unarmed weapon you find early (knuckles) you only need rank 1.

I think the perk is more important for actual melee weapons.

I'm playing unarmed stealth on survival and having a blast but for the first 15 levels I ignored immersion and went for best weapon, armour and a special mod you only get thru a quest.

I played the rest of the game blind, but stumbled on a major helpful questitem right afterwards.

Now the game is easymode on survival.

Melee is still way harder than guns, you need to know what you're doing, which can be frustrating first, but becomes huge fun after.

That's what I mean though, you can only execute a critical hit if you're critical hit meter is full right? Or are the rules different for stealth (something like your meter is always classed as full so long as they're unaware)?

There still seems to be very few details ironed out on the wiki for questions like this yet.

Basicly you have stealth dmg bonus and crit dmg(VATS only) bonus 2 different things, you are right about ciritcal hit meter but you get sneak attack bonus 2x dmg anytime you attack from stealth(can be brought up to 5,9x via perks for ranged and even more for melle), you can ofcourse do a sneak atack+crit via VATS for stacking dmg from both modifiers.

Hope you don't mind, but I'm not going to answer your questions individually, and there's a reason for it.

While I get today's gamers "want it all" the second the opening is done, this shouldn't be your objective. Bobbleheads? Sure, count the SPECIALS in if you want, but the reality is you're not going to find most of them early enough to make a difference. Two of them, especially, you're not getting before level 20. Maybe on a replay, but not for your first play.

My advice is this: build a character you want to play, and focus on developing that character. Trust me, this game offers so much, that no matter what advice is given in this thread, you're going to do what you want. There's so much to do!

For example: get gun perks early, right? Atypical Fallout method. Except in this game, you may want to stave off this typical run and devote a skill or two in other perks because you find settlement building absolutely awesome (because it is). This can literally svck hours of your game play and I've leveled up 5x+ just by building stuff, which then goes into other perks.

Simply put: it's probably one of the best well-rounded ways to develop a character, but that's just my opinion. I don't miss skill points at all and I've had zero problems with this game as it's designed and I am by no means a "hardcoe, survival difficulty" player.

Your choice of weapon will dictate how you want to spend perks. Do you want big guns? Small guns? Rifles? Energy weapons? All of these are available at level 1, though modding them (to get them stronger) occurs over time. It's a great system and allows you to make choices to fit your needs.

I didn't invest a single point in extra damage from my 10mm or combat shotgun until well into my 50s. Didn't need to. While some fights were "skin of my chin" difficult (damn Mirelurk Queens), and I did reload often, this game isn't that difficult that a change of strategy won't fix.

The only downside is certain enemies have one-shot death abilities, such as rocket launchers and the mutant you're going to hate called the "Suicider".

Other than that, patience and good headshots will make you a victor.

If you're still unconvinced, by all means, check out a few YouTube videos. Not only will this give you a few in-depth commentary of the game but it'll make you salivate, wishing you can play it right now.

You misunderstand me entirely, I'm the kind of player who can hold off until very late game and severely disadvantage my character in the earlier portions so long as the final result is a polished build. Here, that would mean I quite happy waiting on bobbleheads at the expense of not being able to access all the perks that I want (because my SPECIAL isn't high enough) so long as I can use my perk points much more efficiently. I'm about as far from one of "today's gamers" as you could get.

It seems like FO4 is quite forgiving in terms of building a character wrong (in that, you really can't mess it up lacking a level cap and being able to invest in SPECIAL freely), however that doesn't mean there aren't efficient ways to minimally invest in SPECIAL and still get all the perks you want.

As long as you either max IN or go with idiot savant from the start you're fine, since you will max out all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points some day.

I had random crits too, but the meter is a very reliable way to get a guaranteed crit.

There is also the criical banker perk that let's you store up to 3 bonus crits.

I can't comment much on melee builds. I essentially never use melee. I have a spiked aluminum baseball bat that I like to go ghoul hunting with sometimes, but that's about it.

As far as what the Crafting perks unlock, it varies. Each weapon needs a different tier of it's appropriate crafting perk to max out the weapon, and what tier each one needs varies by weapon. For example, the Pipe Weapons mostly need Rank 2 of Gun Nut, with one or two that require Tier 3. The Combat Rifle, on the other hand, needs Tier 3 for a lot of it's upgrades, with at least a couple that require Tier 4. So what rank you need to max out your weapon is going to depend on your weapon.


As for Sneak Attacks, they do exist without the Ninja perk. Ranged weapons get 2.0x damage on a Sneak Attack without any investment in the Ninja perk. I haven't used a Melee weapon, so I can't give the default value for that. However, in general a Melee build is more challenging because you have to get close to an enemy, but more rewarding because you get more damage. Blitz kind of ruins this, though, as it drastically extends the range you can use a Melee weapon at. I'm not talking about a couple of extra feet per rank; I've seen videos where the person playing triggered a Melee attack from across a pretty good-sized room. With Blitz, you do get more damage, but you also eliminate a lot of the risk associated with a Melee Sneak build.

- Start by pressing [ESC] and selecting HELP topics, read them all especially about settlement happiness and power grid.

- If you get any problem in settlements with the size limit, that is purely a graphics restriction, there is a work-around: Drop guns on ground and then open workbench and [TAB] them into workbench to lower the size limit.

- *** To roleplay your character the game kind of expects you to as quickly as possible try to find the lost son and not build huge settlements or doing other quests before that. For example when doing the search for the killer .. the game suggest using a certain companion to sniff for clues and that kind of expect you to have that companion still ... So even if it is a open gameplay the roleplay expects you to head straight to the center of the map as quickly as possible ...

- "Very hard" difficulty seems okay ...

Take no offense by my words, but the idea behind them was more to do exactly what you want to do: polish your character.

Given this is a Fallout game, you're eventually going to be able to craft a character who specializes in everything, especially since there is no level cap in the game.

When I hit level 50, I had 27 unspent perk points. I found 16/20 Bobbleheads, though they didn't really do much for me.

Sorry. The point is, this game isn't like previous Fallout games, at least to me, anyway. Prior to this game, we were pretty much required to spend skill/perks, so it was a blast to be able to hold off and spend them as we saw fit.

That's what I wanted to emphasize regarding your questions: despite the answers you're given, you're still going to do things differently. That's because most people do things differently.

I don't know if I'm alone in having 27 unspent perk points at level 50, but that's why I couldn't really answer your questions. I'm not a "have it all now" gamer either.

Interesting discussion on Blitz, I was going to take it. I think I still will and take the difficulty hit as I like damage output to be as high as possible, however I never would have even realised it could affect the difficulty in such a way.

Thanks for the tips all. I think I'm pretty much settled on the loner melee cannibal, so I'll probably try to eschew settlement building as much as possible and try to play FO4 as evil as possible, which seems like it would be tricky to do.

EDIT: One last question, at least for the time being. How useful are Hacker and Locksmith? I plan to pick up levels 1-3 sooner or later (I want to play solo so no Nick Valentine for me), but I wondering how soon to pick them up seeing as they're not going to be catered for in the initial SPECIAL I've set myself and so they'd take quite a lot of investment.

Personally I get level 3 in both of them. Level 4 is worthless, I have never gotten locked out of a terminal and I have mountains of bobbypins. Locksmith is more valuable than Hacker in most cases. There is a level requirement on the different levels of perks, you have to be 18 for locksmith and 21 for hacker so you should be able to afford it. But the game is definitely doable without them since any MQ missions that need you to unlock a terminal or door will have someone with you who can do it if you can't.

Honestly, they're not great. Most important doors or terminals have keys or passwords, often nearby, and the loot in the opened areas isn't really anything to write home about. Even so, I make it a point to get the first 3 levels of both perks, not for the loot or extra paths, but because the sheer number of Locks and Terminals in the game results in a pretty sizable chunk of extra XP. And since any source of XP triggers Idiot Savant, you can make that chunk get even bigger.