Best starting skills for new character?

[FatatasPritas]

Hey guys planning to start a new game and was wondering which of the two would be best:

Guns, Lockpick and Science or Guns, Lockpick and Repair

[Чёрный русский™]

I recently started a new game and went with Energy Weapons, Guns, and lockpick. Out of the two options you gave I would go with the 2nd.

[baddude1337]

Really depends on your playstyle. More often than not a lot of locked doors can be opened by having either a high lockpick or high science skill with a computer nearby, though lockpicking is easier than hacking IMO.

Still, it really depends on how you wanna play. I went with a high speech skill which is useful for a lot of quests.

[FatatasPritas]

Thanks for the inputs, my playstyle is going around and looting stuff so i think i will go with the second choice.

and yeah i found that hacking computers to be more complicated just like IRL lol

[Scraps]

If you're brand new, try using either Guns or Energy Weapons. your second skill should be either Lockpick or Science. Lockpick because most containers have ammunition in them, while science just provides more efficient Energy cell recycling.

If you know what you're doing, you can always go for an explosives run, a melee build, or a stealth run. Explosive build should prioritize on, well, explosives and Medicine (since you'll be going through a lot of self-harm) as well as Barter for cheaper ammo (an explosive run is probably the highest costing build). A stealth run will have Sneak, Speech, and Guns, since I don't recall any silenced Energy weaponry and Speech will help you get out of some direct fights (ie. final boss) as well as an easier start since a stealth run's fairly difficult during the beginning.

Edit: I'm saying this for casual mode, in Hardcore, I just don't recommend an explosive run.

[Ninjabutter]

I usually play fragile, hard-hitting characters and rely more on having high "support" stats than pure Guns. I start almost every character with Repair, Speech, and Explosives tagged, and take both the Good Natured and Skilled perks. I spend the first few levels buffing up Repair, Medicine, Explosives, Barter, and Speech, and then when I do the battle for Goodsprings I can pass every skill check (when recruiting allies for Ringo) and get all the bonus experience. Repair lets you fix Trudy's radio, Speech (or Sneak) get her to help you, Explosives gets Easy Pete's dynamite, Barter gets Chet's leather armor, and Medicine gets you a bunch of doctors' bags from Doc Mitchell. Having your Science buffed to at least 25 also gets you another skill check by talking to Victor. You can walk out of Goodsprings with a ton of bonus experience and equipment.

[IAmNotTheNSA]

Go with guns, explosives, and repair if you like to blow ♥♥♥♥ up. Otherwise go with guns, repair, and energy weapons/lock pick.

[=CrimsoN=]

As many have pointed out, it depends on your playstyle. It also isn't just about the skill points either. SPECIAL points matter just as much as skills. Figure out what type of character you want to make and then model them after the skills you think will serve best.

I decided to create a legion assassin/sniper for this playthrough (in comparison to the NCR's first recon). I pretty much maxed out my Percption and Agility while lowering the Streangth and Endurance. The tagged skills are Guns, Lockpick, Sneak. In other words, I'm really good at dealing with enemies from long range, but close range I'm pretty much done for.

[EolSunder]

Early on having combat skills isn't super important, but non-combat skills do give you extra experience when you do things.

science, lockpick, speech, repair, etc all are excellent for getting a little extra benefit and/or experience. Combat skills are great but you really won't notice a huge difference with 40 unarmed vs 50, but you will benefit much more if you have 50 lockpick vs 40, 50 science vs 40, etc allowing you to hack/unlock higher level locks/computers, repairing your equipment better with higher repair, you get the idea.

[FatatasPritas]

Thanks for all the input getnz and ladies if there are any, its really appreciated.

Btw is the Karma system in the game bugged? coz i noticed that sometimes i get a "gained karma" for killing Powder Gangers but not always. Is this intentional?

[DankDansk]

I haven't seen anyone mention survival.

IMO, survival is one of the most useful skills. Not only do you get a ton of really good healing items (super useful on survival mode as well as on normal mode), but you get tons of poisons, healing items, and kick-ass chems like rushing water, the weapon binding ritual, battle brew, and a ton of antidotes to poisons. Also great for making food and misc items.

Survival, repair, explosives and science make useless junk useful: I highly recommend them all, but I follow this order.

If you are using Energy Weapons, science is a must-have. Not only can you get the vigilant recycler perk, which increases the amount of juice you get from spent cells, but you can also turn fission batteries into Energy Cells, and combine cells into more powerful cells. Also, plasma ignores a ton of DT and while spends a ton of cells, is probably one of the hardest hitting weapons in the game.

If you are going guns, I suggest repair. I often go with the cowboy perk and shotgun surgeon along with hand loader and jury rigging (far more useful than people say.) Making weapon repair kits is super useful, because the ingredients are littered in ruins.

If you are going melee, survival is best. Like I mentioned earlier, battle brew, rushing water and the weapon binding ritual. All of them are kick-ass items, and you can get gecko-backed armor, which increases durability and DT, giving you more survivability.

Explosives are all on their own. The mad bomber perk is just cool, and it provides you with a ton of unique recipes.