Was just looking for some advice on starting stats for when i get the game in a couple of day (the joy of christmas).

I plan to play my first time through as a bit of a stealth sniper. Also any tips without being to spoilery.

Thanks in advance

I will say this. Make sure you start with 7 Agility (6 if you want to explore sanctuary and pick up everything) for Ninja. The boost to sneak attack damage is awesome. Put intelligence and Strength at three for Gun nut and Armorer (or maybe 6 Intelligence if using Energy weapons). Other than that, just determine if you plan to play with VATS a lot or not.

4 agility is fine for the sneak perks.

6 or 7 charisma

6 or 7 intelligence

4 perception

4 luck

don't need strength of endurance

that's my sneaky build. I usually do 3 in perception since I can get an extra from the book or I level up quick and that gives me a point somewhere else.

Straight 4s if you plan on bulking them up later. Otherwise pick 2-4 attributes essential to a character concept like super spy or wasteland doctor.


If you're going sniper perpection, agility, and luck are your bread and butter with an emphasis on perception.

thanks for the responses so far.

Are there any specials which are not worth taking like in new vegas i usually went with charisma 1?

Ive heard unarmed/melee is pretty poor is that true? I used to like sniping than grabbing some brass knuckles and going all vats on people up close.

Any must have perks?

I tend to just go flat across the board. I like to have a well rounded character. I'm still on my first play through, and that's what I did. I just made them all even initially. I spent some of my first perk points increasing my charisma and intelligence though.

depends on your play style to what is dump and whats not, with no skills and stats not really doing anything like last modern fallouts its very very easy to assign dump stats purely dependant on what perks you want

endurance has always been a dump stat for me and im doing that in this aswell

normally luck is something i like to have a lot of in fallout games (and on my first char i have it at 6) but i dont like the new crit mechanic (and forget it anyways) and dont really like the legendaries (just personal opinion, dont think mgic weapons belong in fallout) so next characters i will prob dump luck

next character im gonna go 3,4,1,5,6,8,1 and use the special book to increase cha to 6

i cant help myself no matter what i decide to play ill end up being a sneaky sneaky most likely anyways

so im going 3str for armourer

6 int for science

4 per for lock pick (dont use vats so with no skills/enemy detection/detect mines etc etc perception is uneeded)

6 cha for local leader and i like to do speech checks

8 agi i need 7 for the highest cost sneak perks (ninja) but agility is also aps which for me means i can sprint longer, which is just a time saver

end and luck dumped.

if i planed for bobbles can start with 1 less perception and strength too

I run an unarmed/ heavy weapons build.

As for unarmed being weak. It isn't so much weak as being harder than the reward ratio compared to melee, both require a high strength (>5) to be at their best, but top melee weapons are far more easy to use and have high variability. Also, unarmed weapons are not usable in power armor.

The biggest boon for unarmed is that you can get a furious puncturing power fist which is the best unarmed weapon as far as raw damage in the game right away by killing a specific supermutant behemoth who in in a very cheesable area. (Swan, who hides at Swan's pond)

The biggest hassle is that unarmed has a shorter range than most melee weapons, and so most enemies will block a large proportion of your attacks, while some of the longer melee weapons like the sledge hammer can hit the enemy from beyond their blocking range. Mire lurks and deathclaws are a huge pain, Mirelurks block everything for days, and if you are too tough for a deathclaw to kill they will happily pick you up and toss you around keeping you locked up and making retaliation slow, if there are multiple deathclaws then you simply will not be able to stand up to punch back without being in power armor with a jetpack.

Using unarmed attacks in power armor is doable, thanks to the arm mods being solely devoted to unarmed combat in place of weapons, but is not nearly as potent, trading damage for durability. It also is a pain because you have to manually unselect your weapon to use the unarmed melee because the game has no quick switch to no weapon, which is a pain.

Edit. I should mention that power armor gives you 11 strength while you wear it, which provides a 60% damage bonus to melee and unarmed, so you can get away with having minimal strength and still use melee well by wearing power armor.

---

Do I have regrets, maybe. I do love it now that I have top tier armor, a jetpack, and maxed out pain train. There is just something about trampling a deathclaw, and beating it to death with your bare (robotic) hands that just can't be matched.

Here is kind of my "stealth" build SPECIAL:

• S-3


• P-4


• E-3


• C-4


• I-5


• A-6


• L-3

I found a SPECIAL book to get Agility to 7, and plan to get Intelligence to 6 for the SCIENCE! perk. But for now, the plan is to make that first hit as damaging as possible, efficient kills.

I run a stealthy build as well, but like to make a well rounded character as I level up and so I almost never reduce any one Stat too low, so here's my feedback for SPECIAL scores.

Strength to 3, as Armorer is good to have, and fun to have as well, and Strength helps with your carry weight.

Perception is the Stat that has lock picking, and I always rank that up, so if you don't want to pass up every locked suitcase and safe in the commonwealth you'll need at least 4 in that Stat. Perception also affects how accurate you are in VATS, so if you like to use VATS at all, a decent Perception is almost required unless you like to watch a slow motion video of you wasting ammo when shooting things that are more than 20 feet away and closing. Also, the only way to build the critical hits to activate later is to actually hit your target in VATS, so the more accurate you are in VATS, the more you'll hit with the Action Point allotment you do have, and the more criticals you'll have available to use.

Endurance isn't that important, as you get access to Toughness at 1 point, and you have to have 1 point, and the Life Giver Perk is at 3 points, so if you want the most basic ways to increase survivability it can be done with points to Perks when you level instead of points to SPECIAL stats you would have raised. Having said that, if you are playing on survival and plan to use sprinting away or around as part of your bag of tricks, than knowing that Endurance affects how fast your burn through action points while sprinting should be taken into account.

Charisma was important to me to be at 3 when starting. If you don't usually roam around with companions and you want a great utility Perk, then the Lone Wanderer Perk gives you +15 percent damage reduction And +50 carry weight, which is just about like taking Strong Back and Toughness in Fallout 3, and you can take it right away so you'll be able to pack all that junk you aren't yet sure you'll need. It should also be noted that one companion doesn't remove the bonuses of Lone Wanderer and that is the Dog companion, so if you only ever tend to take the dog as your companion then it's a great utility Perk. If you are the type that brings companions with you everywhere you go, other than the usual bonuses you expect from Charisma, like better prices and greater ability to persuade people, as well as building trading stations and crafting tables at Settlements, there's certainly no reason to start with a high Charisma.

Intelligence increases the amount of experience you'll receive, and as someone mentioned, if you want to play an energy weapon user, the ability to really improve those weapons or Power Armor requires 6 intelligence. Gun Nut is the weapon modification Perk and requires Intelligence 3, and Hacking is the Perk to access computer terminals which are sometimes the only way to open doors and requires an Intelligence of 4, so you'll probably want at least 4 in Intelligence.

Agility is the stat that affects your stealth and even without taking the sneak skill a high agility will make you a better sneaker than a character with a low agility. The sneak skill requires 3 Agility so you could have a lower agility and raise sneak to help with that. However, be forewarned that that all Perk Ranks except the first rank are level locked, so at rank 1 Sneak you'll only be 10 percent better at sneaking till like level 7 and each step up the sneak skill Perk will require leveling up. Keep in mind that Agility directly adds 1 percent to pickpocketing for each point you have in it, and the number of action points you get to use in VATS and for Sprinting. I personally have always had my Agility high because I love sneak and also like VATS.

Luck affects how quickly you'll come across a legendary enemy, and assuming you defeat them, a legendary item. Beyond that the only Luck Perk I think is useful is Critical Banker; That Perk let's you Bank Criticals to use them later, so you can have 2 criticals to pull out of your back pocket when you think you need it. That skill requires a Luck of 7, and personally I didn't start anywhere near that, I started at 3, but it can be useful and something to look forward to and thus, not totally ignore the skill when you start the game.

So this was how I put my starting game stats:

Strength 3

Perception 5

Endurance 3

Charisma 3

Intelligence 4

Agility 7

Luck 3

Best of Luck with your Adventure in the Commonwealth!

I went 4s across the board...charisma is only slightly better than previous FOs (unless you plan on doing heavy settlement stuff) for better bartering, and a few speech options in certain situations..(dialogue options have little to no impact this time around) there are clothing pieces everywhere to gain +4 CHA..and I only know of one way to get +5(but you'll have to find that on your own) to get 9 CHA..


Sneak- get AGL to 6(7?) for ninja perks..


Sniping- unsilenced- rifleman perk..silenced- rifleman and sandman perks


Armorer perk helps..


Melee...never used it 'solely', but there are perks that increase dmg...and it can be doable...except some enemies can and will swarm you..


Overall tho, when you get the game check out the perk chart(or go online) and read what each one has to offer, and see if it fits with how you want to play...most are self explanatory..some are a little obscure (that's when you come here for help)...some are useless by the time you are able to get them...some become useless over time played..

Just look at the perk chart after getting the pipboy right before you enter the wasteland since they give you a second chance to change your special and decide.


I would personally focus on perceptiion for rifleman and sniper perks and to have good accuracy in v.a.t.s. Pickpocket and lockpicking fall under perception too.


Also focus on agility since the higher it is the better you sneak and it also helps with how fast you sprint. There's some good sneaking perks their too.


And I would recommend going for a somewhat high luck for critical related perks.


Strenth is good for carrying loot, and melee damage if you decide to use a melee weapon. Charisma is good for persuasion and trading prices even without getting perks in it. Intelligence helps you level up faster and you could get the gun nut to mod guns.

All perks have advantages to them. It simply depends on which is more important to you when to create your character. You can always increase them as you level up. Since there is no level you can eventually max out all your abilities and have all the perks, but I think you need to b something like level 200 to get to that point.

Strength - Carry weight and melee damage. Not really necessary for a stealthy sniper. However, you will not be able to carry much loot and if you want to kill using a hand held weapon, then you will be doing minimal damage.

Perception - This affects accuracy in VATS, lock picking and stealing. Fallout 4 can be played without using VATS meaning you can simply aim at your target like in any other FPS game rather than using the VATS targeting system. However, VATS does come in handy. If you do not plan on stealing things then perception is not necessary. However, locked containers can have valuable items in them, like weapons, ammo, drugs, etc. So if loot is important to you, then you definitely want to devote some points to perception so that you can choose perks to unlock containers.

Endurance - This affects how much health you have and how quickly your Action Points decreases when you sprint. A stealthy sniper does not need much endurance as long as you can keep your enemies at bay. Endurance is important though if you increase the difficulty above normal because your weapons starts to do lower amounts of damage and enemies can inflict more damage to you.

Charisma - This primarily affects some dialog choices, vendor prices and the numbers of settlers you can have in your settlements should you decide to build optional settlements. Not absolutely necessary for a sniper, but buying / selling items for lower / higher prices is nice.

Intelligence - This basically affects how fast you level up. The higher your intelligence, the more XP you can earn.

Agility - Now this is important because it affects how many Action Points you have when using VATS (assuming you plan on using it). It also affects your ability to sneak.

Luck - This comes in handy for snipers since the higher your luck, the faster the critical hit bar will fill up so that you can do a critical hit attack to do more damage. It also increases your chances of finding rare items.

But you must also look at the various perks available to you as you level up to see which ones are important to you. For example, the Rifleman perk is good for snipers, but you need at least 2 perception to be able to select it (assuming you character's level is high enough). Then there is the Sniper perk where you need to have 8 perception.

If you want to be able to craft your own weapons, then you need 3 intelligence to unlock the Gun Nut perk. Gun Nut is an absolute must for everyone in my opinion.