I did this in my first play through using the dogmeat exploit. I was bored to death by level 20 and started a new character. Ruined the game for me but I understand how some would enjoy it.

Yea I should've clarified that xD Pain train is a really fun perk to have though for melee-power armor users and again jetpack + explosive vents in both legs with three star pain train is really good.

I tested Scrapper and did not get anything different when scrapping weapons or armor compared to scrapping them without the perk. Tested both ranks, too. Maybe it's broken on PC version. Doesn't make any sense right now, anyway.

I don't obsess with trying to get as high as possible with everything by trying to get them to 11. 10 seems well enough, if not the main reason to ever go that high should be for the perks primarily. Unless you want more settlers, than I suppose that's another reason to get 10 Charisma and higher. I also wouldn't worry too much about trying to get the most XP gain as possible with making INT 10 solely for more XP. I ran through a majority of the game with 6 and 7 INT and leveled at a steady rate. There is plenty of content in the game to get all of the perks you're interested in and beyond that.

Anyway, unless you also care about being efficient with melee/unarmed combat, I don't think having 10 STR is all that necessary to have a substantial amount of weight to carry. One point in STR only adds 10 carry weight, I believe. 6 STR with Strong Back rank 2 will get you, what, 335 weight to carry? On top of that you could also get the Lone Wanderer perk rank 2 (an amazing perk by the way) that can increase your carry weight by 100. That can total to 435 with only 6 STR and 3 CHR. Of course, you'll be sacrificing the use of companions, who are pack mules anyway. With only 6 STR, you can probably put those other points into INT if you really want to (or something else). Lots of carry weight and that XP gain. Have your cake and eat it.

However, if you do put those points in INT you could get the Nuclear Physicist perk which can make fusion cores last longer, which means more power armor time (if you have interest in power armor), which means more carry weight. So you could have 6 STR for the Strong Back perk, 9 INT for Nuclear Physicist perk that allows you to wear power armor extensively, and on top of that get that Lone Wanderer perk if you have no interest in companions, and at that point you could basically carry the world.

But I'll just keep saying it, that Lone Wanderer perk IS the bee's knees.

My charisma is 9 already is there any real difference between it being at 10 vs 11?

Only slightly better chance at charisma speech checks (lol) and 1 more settler in settlements if into the building stuff.

For Charisma, 11 is the minimum to have a 100% chance to pass every speech check. I think at 10 red speech checks still have a 14% failure chance.

I think 11 in everything is mostly a cosmetic decision. The difference between 10 and 11 is usually marginal, although it's more worthwhile with Charisma and Strength I think.

As for putting 10 in a stat at the very start of a game, I highly recommend it. Especially if you plan on taking the 10 perk as soon as possible. Gun Fu, Concentrated Fire, and Math Wrath are all pretty worthwhile at their lowest ranks, but I think for the rest you're okay putting them off until later on. But speaking from experience, the second and last ranks of Solar Powered are amazing.

But the good thing about speech checks is that you could always save the game during conversations and reload if you fail a check. Looks like I'll use a perk point for strength then instead.

I made my character already. I did the 9 to Intelligence, and then used that book to bring it to 10. I put my strength to 6. Will boost it up eventually but at least for now, I am thinking it should be good enough. Nice to read this post that I didn't make a mistake. Nice confirmation, thank you very much. I also took Lone Wanderer perk right away. Again nice that it's confirmed, I did good.

First play through I screwed up because I thought you had to take Level 1 first, then Level 2 perks first. Didn't know you could skip them.


Having lots of fun so far.

I use to do this in Morrowind. After a while, I quit playing since I felt like I was cheating and my progress was tainted. There went 100+ hours.

So be careful when you do this. Sometimes you might just be better at trying to make your character a bit better so you don't have to reload and have more fun.

You have to go to 10 without Bobbleheads if you want a perk that requires level 10. I disagree with this since bobbleheads are permanent but what you going to do?

Base weapons/armor tend to yield the same stuff, but scrapping modded weapons/armor can give you various different materials. Especially modded energy weapons for example.

After the first play through, I switched over to not picking-up any Bobbleheads or magazines until every perk was maxxed-out, which occurs at level 271.

At the beginning of a new play through I only put enough points in to be able to crack max difficulty locks. Carry weight doesn't bother me as I don't carry around a lot of equipment anyways.

No. If a stat is at 10. then when opening the "Special" book, that stat will not show for an increase. The "Special" book can only bring a stat closer to 10, not over 10.

Charisma is used in determining the maximum number of settlers you can have in each settlement.

Reading different things on how population works on settlements. Forget what I said.

Unless there's a perk that you want that requires 10 in that specific stat, I'd say it's a waste. You're better off putting that perk point into Strong Back if you wanna carry more. Or Lonesome Wanderer.

I think the only stat that's useful to have at 10 for non-perk reasons is C as it helps you pass persuasion checks.

After making my character I put my Intelligence stat to 9, then used the book to stat it to 10. Found my first bobble head but didn't grab it yet. Thinking of putting that stat to 10 first. Why because I don't want to start a new game and want to see if I can max my character out since I haven't done that yet in a Bethesda game yet from Arena days. So try and do something difference for once.

Glad I didn't put my other stats to 9 yet, I am getting all the perks I want now. Getting a bit frustrated now about strength, so I think once I get a few more perks, all my level ups will go to increase my strength stat.