Ways to acquire XP in early survival mode game?

[Dron]

I started a new Survival game because I realised that I did a lot things wrong, like trying to do Minutemen quests as soon as I got them instead of taking time to build up my character and upgrade weapons and armour. Last time, the Corvega factory quest took me many hours and a couple of dozen reloads because I went to do it right after Concord.

So should I simply roam around and fight enemies I come across if they are not too strong? Also any suggestions what to do against groups of ghouls in early level? They tend to kill you in one hit and there is never enough AP to shoot all of them. I have been avoiding ghouls for now.

[Stardustfire]

No Problem with ghouls on my end, but than i dont use Vats so no need for ap for me.
To get a few levels fast at the start best way for me is to build as much in sanctuary as you can and want, because building gives you exp too. it delievers a few lvl ups at start for me.

[torqueblue]

Three Easy settlements to build, well two, Red Rocket and Sanctuary. Get to scrapping and building. Few levels to be gained there. Star Light Drive is A Bit of ways, but it's easy to purge the monsters there too.

[Relic62]

Build up Sanctuary, put in purifers, its good for at least 6 levels or more. Sleep etc when you have to. Then start to roam a bit, avoid battles you know are going to be difficult till you have at least some perks. This is general without mentioning specific builds as everyone has their fav perks that they spec into. If you dont like building and scrapping then yeah its going to be tough :) I favour strength, idoit savant and charisma but others will prob disagree, weapon ones are a no brainer too, pistol and rifle early others later. Find trashcan Carla avoiding any fights, as once you trade with her she turns up at Sanctuary after that. Trade purified water, if nothing else early on, plus you will need it too. Put a point into cap collector for discounts, locks is another, ignore gun nut early on, you can swap bits on your weapons at a workbench. Prob could say more,but hope it helps.

[bunny de fluff]

Originally posted by Relic62:

Put a point into cap collector for discounts,

no. Just, no.

[Relic62]

Everyone is on the same theme here, build, build, build :) Also get dogmeat at redrocket once you build up sanctuary and the lone wander perk I dont think that has been fixed, so dogmeat does not count.

[Identimate]

A cheesy way is to go to Concord after getting Sanctuary,but don't go into the building with Preston.
Loot all the stuff/ammo and locked safes in Concord in the open world.Bring your stuff back to Sanctuary and ...scrap it!
Rinse and repeat untill you get a comfortable level,because everything seems to respawn in Concord if you don't go into the building (..with Preston).
You can probably build some power and purifiers for your water needs from the stuff you find.
The gourds in a patch behind the closest house to Red Rocket also respawn so it is almost impossible to grow hungry.
Also you might get lucky and find some nice mods or nice weaponry in the safes once you get some lvls going.
Lockpicking won't kill you and doesn't shoot back and the same goes for building some stuff early on.
And I think Carla starts to sometimes sell combat rifles/shotguns around lvl 10 ,so you can get decent damage weapons pretty early on that way.
Like i said at the beginning,it is a bit cheesy.
But hey,as long as you are having fun,who gives a darn.

Cheerio

[Relic62]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

Originally posted by Relic62:

Put a point into cap collector for discounts,

no. Just, no.

Each to their own I suppose.

[bunny de fluff]

Money in this game is a non issue. Do absolutely nothing about money, maybe wear a charisma glasses or pop some grape mentats when buying and selling but thats it. The emporiums are overrated.

[TVMAN]

Scrap and rebuild shelves forever for easy early game levels.

[danconnors]

My main problem with early level adventuring in survival is getting killed because of lousy armor class. The quick work around for that (in case you don't want to just build, build, build), is put yourself together a complete set of power armor. There's a set of power armor sitting at the bottom of the lake with the crashed vertibird in it. The one with the town with the entrance exam. There's another set near the radio station Olivia. Between the two sets you should be able to make one complete set of T-45 power armor. If the game gets finicky about handing out a complete set out of 2 sets, get creative. save before you leave to seek out the sets and reload till the computer sees reason.

Once you have a working set of PA a lot of your difficulties vanish. It's hard for the average low grade raider to kill you when you're in power armor. So, you can wander around killing them, and grabbing up the numerous power armor fusion cores in the vicinity. There are quite a few. I've never had a shortage of cores for PA, so don't be afraid to use them. Later, when you can build yourself some halfway decent normal armor, you can try adventuring in it, but be aware, if your normal armor is below 100 ballistic you can be killed with amazing swiftness.

So, cheer up, and let the slaughter begin.

[=EGC= kansasterry]

If you loot/scrap everything you can and build up sanctuary you should be at least level 5 if not more before you even travel to the nearby Red Rocket. If loot/scrap everything there and drag it back to sanctuary (carful not to overburden) and build more you can get a few more levels.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by Dron:

Ways to acquire XP in early survival mode game?

Building up your settlements early on is a great way to level. Especially if you slept first and are having the xp bonus from good sleep.

Another great way to level is to simply roam around Sanctuary. The top left part of the map. The way difficulty is rigged in this game is that anything close to Sanctuary is the easiest and weighted down in difficulty while everything else get harder and harder the more down and right you go on the map. There is a staggering amount of unmarked locations around Sanctuary that I suspect many players never got even aware it existed.

[Dron]

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I will do some building and then go hunting around Sanctuary for a while. How do I get more settlers though?

[Out Of Bubblegum]

One trick with the power armor. So you can explore further early. As long as you walk you do not drain the core. If you do have a core in the PA then you can sprint away from danger if you need to.

[CMDR Shven]

Originally posted by Relic62:

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

no. Just, no.

Each to their own I suppose.

With all the different combat or survival perks you can pick from, Cap Collector is all but a waste of a level early on. Especially on high difficulty. And late game when you've already filled out your essential perks and you can afford to waste one, you probably already have more money than god so you don't even need it any more. It's really just a bad perk.

On topic: If you really want to get some easy levels and you don't care if it feels like you're cheesing the game (especially since Survival is kind of a BS difficulty that the game was not designed around) just spam the crap out of wooden and metal shelves at the first two settlements. Optionally grab Idiot Savant if you can. Easily get up to level 10 or beyond.