I've only played fallout 3 so I was wondering what special stats I should really buy into at the start of fallout 4 that veteran fallout players see as a must have starting set up. I would also appreciate an incite into what the benefits of these stats will do and if you think there are certain stats that don't really add much to your game in the long run. Thanks.

Just put it all on luck and let it ride.....
What type of character are you thinking of?

well Intelligence is always a good choice. Unless you want to roleplay "dumb" character. Luck is nice, Perception & agility is good for stealthy sniper i would assume. Str for hoarders/melee players. Endurance is good too. Basicly choose stuff that interest you.

You can always make a second avatar if you find some char set boring or "wrong" for your playstyle. There is so much good stuff to pick.

I'm a bit of a hoarder and not very good at shooting multiple enemies in groups.so I'm thinking maybe some stealth and a good armour defence type of character.

Once the full perk chart is revealed, you'll be able to see what perks you want access to early in the game. Knowing that, you can choose your SPECIAL stats accordingly. Don't worry too much though, apparently you can use perk points at level-up to raise your SPECIAL stats, so you won't be too locked into what you start with.

What type of character will you be playing as and so what stats will you be buying into for that certain playing style. Just so I get an understanding of what you feel is important stats at the start of the game.

All of them.... you know, eventually.

Is charisma really worth the effort. I sometimes feel that it doesn't have a lot of gains in the game. Does it?

Int: 1

Luck: 8-10

Charisma: 8-10

rest i just dumb Willy nilly.

Basicly i make a axe murderer female. If i can be cannibal. Then she is cannibal axe murderer. This is my main char.

It (Charisma, that is) USED to be a "dump stat" that served no purpose --- allegedly it made some NPCs like you more, or something, but you could always just boost your Speechcraft skill independently and get most things done that way.

In Fallout-4, though, at least one very important perk is tied to CHA: Local Leader. If you intend to play with settlements at all, then you might consider at least getting a CHA one less than the requirement for Local Leader (you can get +1 through Bobbleheads, likely, or if not 'waste' a perk point to raise CHA and then get Local Leader later).

That's not to say you can't build a settlement without CHA.... you just won't be able to build ~as advanced~ a settlement. If you don't care about settlements, then the only other concern (I see) is whether you want to get boosts to y our Companions or not. There are (some think) also some perks that would give you, I guess, better / different dialog options. Still not 100% sure on what perks are, or what they do, exactly.

More generally, if you are not using melee weapons, then you only need as much STR as you need to haul around junk (and with Companions, they can haul some, and you can stash / sell some ---- I usually bottom STR out). If you are like me, and try to avoid damage in the first place, you can get by with a low END stat. While the perks mitigate damage from various sources (radiation, drowning, raw damage, etc) I'd rather be able to do something NEW than do something I already do, better.

PER and AGI are tied to VATS so if you don't use VATS then you just need to look at what perks they unlock (Sneaking for AGI, sniping for PER, eg)....

Luck and INT are pretty ill-defined (to me) so I'm just going to get a high enough stat to get the perks I want (SCIENCE! from INT, eg).

Considering the low (relative to previous games) starting SPECIAL points, I'm sorely tempted to make some 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 9, 9 characters just to see what high-value stats DO in the game. Of course, the perk chart may make my decisions for me ---- I know I want PER 4 to unlock the "Intel" perk (as some call it) that (some think) deals with unlocking stuff more easily.

I'm kind of annoyed that they haven't given us a better look at the perk chart. There shouldn't be any "spoilers" related to it, at least not in terms of story, so I don't buy that as an excuse. You'd think at the very least they could show the bottom half of the perks, so that people could at least somewhat start mapping their first builds.

All I know is that I'm starting with at least a 4 in Charisma. Gotta get that Animal Friend.

I think it′s a mix of better safe then sorry paranoia over giving info, mixed with a desire to leave something for us to find out things by, well playing the game.

Yeah, because it's not like you'll be able to see all the perks as soon as the tutorial is finished and you level up. Oh, wait. That's exactly how it'll be. So why not just let people see what the perks are now so that they don't have to respec at the end of the tutorial or worse, having to go through character creation and the prologue/tutorial all over again.

It really depends on what type of character you want to play. If theories are correct and it will take you reaching around level 300 to max a character, then there's not going to be a perfect starting build to create the ultimate character like in F3 and NV.

Basically, starting stats are just going to be building blocks towards your own specific perfect character build. If you want to build the ultimate sniper you'll probably be able to. The neat thing about this new system is that, if you really have no idea what your going to want to play, you can start off as a completely average joe by putting 5's in every stat. No major advantage but no major disadvantage either. As you progress a bit you can start considering what type of character you want to build and go from there. ~Letting your play style or the game world shape the character build.

I totally plan to try out an average joe build at some point.

This is near exactly how I feel. I just can not see the harm in an official perk and stat release. (maybe hiding special perks gained through game play if that makes a return) They did say they were doing stat vids I sure wish they would get to it.

And Animal friend is the best invention since uhh Nuka cola. Must have for every version of 2-caps. heh

edit -The post right below mine by Legion is pretty dead on....... And boy do I agree with with about the INT stat my problem is I dont really care to level quick, so bonus exp is kinda wasted on my gameplay style. BUT the perks tied to do look fun.

In depth post incoming:

If these were the previous Fallout games, it would be much easier to tell you what to go with. As there were always ideal attributes to go with (Agility, Intelligence) and the obvious ones to avoid (Charisma, and Perception in the newer Fallout games). However, with the removal of the traditional skill system, and (supposedly) some of the skills and perks are now directly aligned to attributes, all of the attributes can be beneficial now in their own way depending on what you want for a specific kind of character.

Strength is the same as always in governing your carry weight and melee attack damage. Perception now getting some actual use and governing your actual weapon accuracy in VATS. Endurance is the same in governing your overall hit points and resistances as well as your sprint now. Charisma finally has some usefulness as it will now govern your speech and dialogue with NPCs, along with some benefits to settlement building. Intelligence is a little different this time around as it now instead governs the amount of XP you get which is utterly stupid design and as useless as Swift Learner if you ask me, but its perks are apparently very heavy in the weapon modifying so. Agility as usual governs your Action Points in VATS and VATS in general, along with sneaking. Luck is the same in governing criticals and the chance of getting good loot.

With that information, you should be able to determine what exactly you're interested in when creating your character. But if you want my personal insight on all of it...

Strength: If you're a melee focused character this is a no brainer. Besides that, I'd say the importance of carry weight depends on whether you're that much of a hoarder or not. I personally am quite a hoarder when it comes to hauling back treasures to sell to traders. But if you're good at managing your inventory with low carry weight, you will probably do just fine without investing in this.

Perception: If you're going to focus on using VATS a lot with ranged weaponry, this will probably be important if you want to actually hit your targets. Perk wise, who knows, although you can see some fairly familiar ones like Sniper, Concentrated Fire, and some perks that seem to benefit lockpicking. Take what you will from that.

Endurance: I personally never found Endurance all that useful. It can be useful early on for having health in the early game if you're having that much trouble, but besides that, you're going to have plenty of health regardless by simply leveling up. As for the perks, you can already see some familiar ones and some new ones. I obviously can't say much on what the new ones entail, but as far as the familiar ones there is Toughness, Life Giver, Solar Powered, and some useless resistant ones that are made irrelevant because RadAway exist, and I don't know how you would manage getting addicted to chems unless you're really clumsy. Toughness and Life Giver can be obtained with very low END if you feel you want some extra health and damage resistance without investing much, you can have just 3 points in END and get just these perks. Again, I can't tell you about the unknown perks, but as for the rest, I'm just going to put this out there that this game (like every other Fallout games before it) will likely have an over abundance of Stimpaks found throughout the world. Are you really going to need regenerating health when you can just spam Stimpaks? Just my personal opinion. Who knows, some of the new perks may prove useful for creating the ultimate tough guy character you may want. Oh, and there is also that Nuclear Anomaly perk I think? I've always considered that a gimmick at best.

Charisma: With the removal of Speech, Science, less emphasis on Intelligence, Charisma has finally become a necessity for diplomatic characters and will be what determines how you interact with NPCs through dialogue, as well as granting benefits when building large settlements to house other NPCs. It is also speculated to grant benefits to using companions from some of its perks. If you're interested in any of that, probably wise to invest in this attribute. If not, don't.

Intelligence: It's basic benefit is apparently faster XP gain this time around, which in my lovely old opinion, is always an utterly stupid benefit because you're going to level up regardless. Why you feel the need to speed the process is beyond me, although since there is no level cap in Fallout 4, perhaps this benefit will prove useful for those who want to meta game the perfect character which will take a lot of leveling, which will no doubt be a grind. And whatever speeds up grinding... But anyway, I would say that is more so a secondary benefit with this attribute, the real benefit is in the perks. From what we've gathered from gameplay footage, the weapon modifying perks are found in INT, with energy weapon modifications requiring some investment into this attribute. No doubt is going to be important for possibly any character. Not to mention it seems there are perks that involve medicine and hacking found here as well. So, if you want to modify your weapons extensively, while using medicines and hacking terminals efficiently, this seems like an important attribute, as usual.

Agility: Not much has changed here. It governs your Action Points and has perks that benefit VATS and sneaking. If you're a VATS focused character or have any interest in sneaking, it's another no brainer. You can already see some familiar perks like Action Boy, Gunslinger, Commando, and Finesse as well.

Luck: Luck is a funny attribute to talk about in regards to its base effects, as its all random and not easy to determine whether you're getting better loot than usual. But if you have the slightest interest in dealing critical damage, you will have to invest heavily in this attribute to get the most out of it, with perks like Better Criticals (yummy) and Grim Reaper's Sprint requiring high Luck. I would say it's a situation of either you invest highly into this attribute, or not at all considering its perk placement. Most of the low Luck perks are just looting perks that grant "find more X in containers!" from the looks of the perk image, while the others being the ever useless Bloody Mess and Mysterious Stranger. Now, if you are that entertained by gore, by all means, put some points in Luck to get Bloody Mess if you want it that bad. I don't know why anyone would want Mysterious Stranger, and I don't know why it's still a damn perk in this series. But overall, in my opinion, either invest heavily in this attribute if you're focused on critical damage, or not at all. I never saw the use of obtaining more bottle caps or ammo from containers so long as you're just good at managing both.

All of that wall of text being based off of personal opinion from long experience with the series and pure speculation in regards to what the perks will likely entail. Honestly, I think they should just reveal the perks at some point before release for those who want to see it. If memory serves me correct, they've done it before with Fallout 3. Why not do it here as well?

I was originally going a scientific character, but now am thinking of trying to build a pre-war army ranger guy.

Hmm, are you going to have a companion with you?

Without a companion:

S=6

P=3

E=3

C=2

I=3

A=5

L=6

Strength of 6 for strong back. Because you said you are a hoarder.

Perception of 3 just so it's not a weakness

Endurance Of 3 for Life Giver and 1 for Toughness

Charisma is tough to call. Local Leader is the only one I really like because it gives you access to better merchants at your settlement, but you would have to go up to 5.

Intelligence of 3 so you can make your own ballistic weapons. If you want to use energy weapons then you have to go all the way up to 6

Agility Of 5 for Action Boy!. So you can use VATS more.

Luck at 6 for Scavenger. So that you have a chance of getting better loot.

With a Companion

S=3

P=6

E=3

C=2

I=3

A=5

L=6

I switched it up so that you can get Local Leader so you can have better merchants for selling stuff.

Don't expect to max out a character. It will take way too long to do that.

Action Boy! will pretty much be useless with a low Perception though, since Perception governs accuracy in V.A.T.S.

I think there will be a PERK within the first 3 Perception that increases your accuracy in VATS. If there isn't then maybe it makes sense to invest more into perception, but I don't like any of the actual perks at 4-6 Perception. Intel, Explosives, and Night Vision etc. etc..

Forgot that he said he wanted to play Stealth.

Stealth Build:

We have no idea what does what. (or do we? I am trying to stay away for spoilers so not sure what we do know and what we don't.)

For me, Strength will be max out or close to maxed out just so I can carry as much as I can. Perception will be low since I hated when I am sneaking and I see the red blip that an enemy is close by so kept sneaking and 10 minutes later I see the enemy. I hate that with high perception that you notice enemies further away. So now I keep it as low as I can so when I see a red blip I know the enemy is close by and not 10 minutes away.

I use to have high intelligence so I can get as many points in, but find sometimes this can become boring, so might keep it standard. Again it all comes down to how levelling is implemented this time around.

In New Vegas and Fallout 3, rolling around with 10 Luck was quite interesting.

Thanks for all the time and effort you put into making this very easy to understand. I'll also be coping and pasting this into my own personal folder to recap on. This is exactly the info I was looking for on each individual stat and there pros and cons. Once again I appreciate going to all that bother for me. Thanks my friend.

I'll be using a companion in the game to help with the weight carrying so I'll be trying out these stats. I'm also wanting to go deep into the settlement building and build on every plot of land avaliable and hopefully make my own thriving outposts. Thanks for giving me an understanding of the kind of stats I should go for. I really appreciate you helping me out. Thanks for that.

In past Fallout games lots of intelligence early was critical. More INT allowed more skill points per level. Not sure if it will be the same in Fallout 4. After that it gets build specific.

I play a stealthy, high agility sniper/shootist. For the sniper aspect agility and perception were critical. Perception allowed him to detect enemies at a distance. Agility allowed him to stay hidden. For the shooter part he focused on small guns and used Agility to maximize VATs points and accuracy.

He does not use energy weapons or armor. He does not carry much. He relies on hitting first and staying hidden instead of winning a stand up melee. That means that STR and END are not critical for him. CHR is for role play purposes. I tend to go with low luck because it makes the game more challenging. That might be a bad decision if luck is tied to critical in Fallout 4.

For Fallout 4 I would put points into INT, AGL and PER. I would wait until later to add to CHR as I will not be doing any settlement building early. STR, END and LUCK are secondary. All of this is subject to change as we find out more about Fallout 4.

Now change my character to the Axe Murderess described above and you would reverse your priorities. STR and END wold be critical while AGL and PER become secondary.