Basic Stealth Sniper Build: Massive Damage!

[Ulysses]

*SPOILERS*

This build is designed to assist players of every level and exposure to fallout and fallout 4, so read it compassionately. Constructive feedback is definitely acceptable, but please be informed on what you are discussing, both about the specific details and common sense.

A basic, but useful guide on SPECIAL and PERK allocations for someone creating a stealth Sniper build. These skills and perks will help in increasing the damage of weapons like the two-shot Guass rifle, causing even more devastation to the Commonwealth.

Some of these SPECIAL stats you may need to allocate from levelling from within game itself, or mod through console if you so choose. In addition to the stats and perks below, chems like psycho will increase your damage and their effects can be prolonged with in-game armour effects and perks, as well as other perks from the SPECIAL pathways. It's worth mentioning, that this build was made with Survival difficulty in mind.

Additionally, weapons like the Guass Rifle can be more effective if used with VATS. One of the reasons for this is the ability to use critical hits, which boosts the damage of that particular shot. This is extremely useful in certain situations, for example when an Albino Deathclaw (increased HP) ambushes you. Using VATS is a both a tactical and play-style choice, large and fully modified weapons will demand more AP to use. However, you can off-set this by using specific armour with VATS related effects, in-game drugs, perks or even by not fully modifying weapons; for instance, opting to use a hunting rifle over the larger, sniper rifle.

It's important to recognise the role armour plays inside the game, which can enhance your effectiveness as well. As mentioned, armour with legendary effects can boost your AP or decrease VATS AP costs, and even workbench modified armour parts can improve your stealth and stability while aiming with large rifles.

This is a basic build, covering some of the perks I'd consider essential. Although it goes without saying, this build can be utilised effectively for long-distance sharp shooting and close-quaters VATS. Because of the perks selected, there is a large amount of adaptability afforded to the build, allowing you to use silenced pistols and even melee weapons with deadly efficiency and cost effectiveness. The perks I have selected, include all sniper and sharp-shooter related perks, and aims to provide a healthy balance between VATS use and non-VATS use. I have left out some Luck related perks, but they are worth investigating, if you enjoy using VATS over standard 'down the line' sharp-shooting.

SPECIAL stat investments:

Strength: 3 (armorer), Perception: 10, Agility at 7, Luck at 6; and the optional pathways for even further increasing damage and meeting requirements for weapon modifications, Intelligence at 10 and Charisma at either 3 (for Lone Wanderer perk), or 8 (for Inspirational perk). I view the other SPECIAL stats as unessential for this build.

Perks (not in any advised order):

Strength Perks: Armorer. Working with the Railroad and upon completing a DIA Cache quest with PAM, Tinker Tom will reward you with the ability to mod certain clothing with ballistic weave. Ballistic weave turns regular clothing like suits or military fatigues from none or low DR, to over 110 in both ballistic and energy resistance when Armorer is maxed; ensuring a lighter inventory build with exceptional DR. Also worth noting that you can wear combat armour over military fatigues, and the trilby hat can also be armoured with ballistic weave, generating over 300 DR depending on your modifications and still remaining relatively light by comparison to heavier armours available in-game.

Perception Perks: Rifleman, Night Person, Sniper, Penetrator, Concentrated Fire and the optional Demolitions Expert. Boosting perception to 10 is essential for a Sniper who would prefer the use of VATS, as perception directly influences your accuracy in VATS.

Agility Perks: Sneak, Mister Sandman, Ninja, and the optional, if you have made Agility 10, Gun Fu. Agility is essential for all stealth builds, as the higher it is, the higher your stealth capabilities.

Luck Perks: Bloody Mess, Better Criticals. Depending on your play-style, it's worth investigating optional investments into Mysterious Stranger, Critical Banker, Grim Reaper and Four-leaf clover. Additionally, it's worth mentioning that one rank in Idiot Savant will increase your leveling speed; this is best utilised early (unlock asap).

Intelligence Perks: Gun Nut, Science and Nerd Rage. Gun Nut and Science both afford the ability to create effective weapon and armour mods. Maximised Nerd Rage, depending on which rank you stop at, will provide an additional 30% to 40% damage increase when your health is below 20%. As a maxed out sniper, you should rarely be engaging in fire fights, therefore meaning you can remain in relative safety being at 20% or under in health. This also improves in-game immersion, as you can be easily one-shot at Legendary difficulty, but visa-versa. This next part involving nerd rage I haven't actually done, so it is theoretical. With the last rank in nerd rage you get 40% extra damage, but heal upon killing an enemy. A potential way to counter-act the healing bonus, and therefore keep the damage bonus, would be to expose yourself to an almost lethal amount of radiation.

Charisma Perks: Either Lone Wanderer or Inspirational. I would advise the latter, as you can loot horde more items and even equip maxed out legendary weapons with stealth/sniper based characters like Macready and Deacon.

Before posting comments, please read and inform yourselves about the particular problem you are about to address. Additionally, read the comments as some of your questions may have been answered. Some of the comments posted are fairly simplistic to answer, but still require time on my behalf to respond to.

I hope this helps!

[ZirzoR]

Why on earth would you play a sniper focused on V.A.T.S? gawsh what a waste.

[Ulysses]

Originally posted by ZirzoR:

Why on earth would you play a sniper focused on V.A.T.S? gawsh what a waste.

Hi ZirzoR, the idea here is that the build lends itself to being adaptable for both play styles (which goes without saying, or so I thought!), whether you prefer VATS or go for the long-distance sharp shooting. Building a stealth sniper character, will by common sense, allow you to be accurate and lethal in whichever style you choose. I've referred to VATS in my build by providing an example with the two-shot guass rifle, demonstrating how VATS can enhance this weapon with better accuracy and the option to manually utilise critical hits is also something not to be dismissed lightly. As for the build itself, it also works rather well for silenced pistols and knives, because of the perks selected, so you can therefore be highly adaptable; and this aspect of the build lends itself to stealth, as there are unavoidable close-quaters areas in-game. My inventory usually consists of a .308 hunting rifle, .50 sniper rifle, the Deliverer, and a combat knife. Thanks for your positive comment though, I'll edit my build to include both examples!

[Bored Peon]

Some of those perks make no sense.

Concentrated Fire and Gun Fu, since you get maybe 3 shots at most with a sniper rifle high ap cost in VATS this perk is kinda a big waste.

Mister Sandman, you build a sniper but then sneak into melee range for the off chance someone is sleeping? DUH

[Ulysses]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Some of those perks make no sense.

Concentrated Fire and Gun Fu, since you get maybe 3 shots at most with a sniper rifle high ap cost in VATS this perk is kinda a big waste.

Mister Sandman, you build a sniple but then sneak into melee range for the off chance someone is sleeping?

Hi Bored Peon, I'd like to remind you that Gun Fu is an optional perk and I have not explicitly suggested boosting Agility to 10 in the build. If you decide on investing into Agility to 10, Gun Fu is extremely handy if you are using a Hunting Rifle, or even pistols like the Deliverer (assuming they have silencers attached to stack with other perks). As for concentrated fire, if you're a VATS build, it's a very handy perk; at level 50 you can unlock the final rank of Concentrated Fire which, "In V.A.T.S every attack on the same body part gains +20% accuracy and does 20% more damage." Moreover, Hunting Rifles use less AP than large Sniper Rifles, and this is part of being an adaptable sniper in Fallout 4; being able to dish out damage with whichever rifle you have in possession.

With the last rank in the Mister Sandman perk you gain this, "Your silenced weapons now do 50% more sneak attack damage." This means that any weapon you use with a silencer, including rifles, gains this ability. Mister Sandman is not only about killing people with a knife, but once again, if you decide on close-quaters with a knife or pistol, you will still be deadly. I also have not emphasised melee, as I have only addressed it as a potential play-style. If I had endorsed melee, I would have addressed the melee damage perks in the STRENGTH stat. It's also worth mentioning that the build is both stealth and sniper orientated, both can be different or can compliment one another depending on how you play and the situations you may experience. Thanks for your comment though!

[ZirzoR]

I myself try and never use vats (Unless its fast moving bugs, cuz i cant hit them for crap when they swarm me and keep waving back and forth)

There is alot of perk points wasted in this regard since i would never even try and get VATS based perks in the first place, its brakes immersion for me and alot of "roleplaying" aspects.

It just feels weird to go slowmo like i'm high on jet all of a sudden and shoot guys flawlessly while they flail around like they dont know what's going on with my super man skillz.

I have no problem shooting Standing still/Walking slowly people (Which they will be doing if i stay hidden they wont randomly start running) so in that regard i guess i dont get your point.

I'm a very patient man, i can watch a raider camp for several minutes, tag them with a recon scope, switch to my other rifle, watch patrol patterns, see which guy i wanna shoot first.

Do i want to take the towers out first? or are they just easy targets? Do i go abit closer for a nicer finish or do i stay far far away ontop of this bridge instead?

There is alot going on in my mind in stealth builds really.
But wasting up to 15 points into V.A.T.S stuff just seems like a huge waste when i can get other things to help me out without vats.

My inventory looks like thusly.

1. My .308 hunting rifle fully maxed out and kitted with silencer and whatnot, long range scope.

2. My trusty combat shotgun for taking out faster enemies on close range or bugs/ghouls.

3. My recon scope weapon that i use to "tag" my targets before every fight and then switching.

4. My combat rifle that i modified to have automatic fire and such for a spammy weapon when i feel like using it, but mostly i just use the recon tag/sniper combo to tag and shoot.

I also have like over 50 purified water for healing whenever i need it from the water factories in my settlement, those things are a gold mine.

[Dustpuppy]

People tend to make the mistake of tricking out sniper rifles with all the highest level mods. That's counter productive with concentrated fire.

1. Reflex Sight
2. Standard Stock
3. Long Light Barrel

and you're golden. I can pop out 16x shots in VATS with a combat rifle like that, and another 4 if I was too lazy to crit to refill my AP. With concentrated fire, using a scope actually makes you less accurate due to the massive AP cost. A scopped weapon, preferably initiating, should really only be used to one shot lone or paired targets.

Vats sniper + relentless + gun fu + concentrated fire + More spawns mod + Adjusted encounter zones mod = funtimes. Nothing like running into 20 or 30 rotting ferals and watching half of them drop in slow motion.

[Ulysses]

Originally posted by ZirzoR:

I myself try and never use vats (Unless its fast moving bugs, cuz i cant hit them for crap when they swarm me and keep waving back and forth)... 'and so on'

I don't understand the relevance of what you are saying. If you don't use VATS and think investing in VATS related perks is redundant, then that's fine and suitable for you but does not speak for all of the community. This build was intended to be basic, but comprehensive, and I don't see any point in continuing with what you are saying. Point taken, you don't like VATS.

Originally posted by Dustpuppy:

People tend to make the mistake of tricking out sniper rifles with all the highest level mods. That's counter productive with concentrated fire.

1. Reflex Sight
2. Standard Stock
3. Long Light Barrel

and you're golden. I can pop out 16x shots in VATS with a combat rifle like that, and another 4 if I was too lazy to crit to refill my AP. With concentrated fire, using a scope actually makes you less accurate due to the massive AP cost. A scopped weapon, preferably initiating, should really only be used to one shot lone or paired targets.

Vats sniper + relentless + gun fu + concentrated fire + More spawns mod + Adjusted encounter zones mod = funtimes. Nothing like running into 20 or 30 rotting ferals and watching half of them drop in slow motion.

Hi Dustpuppy,

This was a guide intended as a basic build, not so much as a combat strategy guide, although I know they are intertwined. I have covered VATS already, use a weapon like a hunting rifle or the one you've said and you'll get a lot of shots off through VATS. Have you thought about adding Grim Reaper to that perk list?

This build wasn't intended to be so heavily reliant on VATS, only to be able to use it efficiently to get out of tricky situations or in close-quaters, if need be. If this build were more reliant on VATS, I would have included more Luck and point investments in Grim Reaper, Critical Banker, Four Leaf Clover, etc.

Personally, I think Sniper builds should work with a relatively small amount of weaponry; say 2x Rifles (Sniper Rifle & Hunting Rifle/Combat Rifle), 1x pistol (Deliverer), 1x combat knife, 2x grenade, 2x mines. This is just how I find it immersive, and of course everyone is different. I also think that the FNV survival mode should be implemented in F4, weighted ammunition, the need to sleep, drink, eat and an increase in ballistic/energy damage agaisnt you. Like, if your head isn't protected, and you're shot there, it should be an increased amount of damage against you then say your chest. I'd even go as far as to suggest that a headshot against you be a kill shot. This would place more emphasis on protecting yourself both equipment wise and play-style. Anyway, thanks for your comment!

[ZirzoR]

What my entire point is, is that using 15+ perks on vats is redudant, when you could've just used the same spent 15 points in something actually doing something useful.

Sure, if VATS is your thang and you dont like FPS games, then go for it.

But i'm just saying, 15 points worth of perks is alot.
When you could've just aimed down the sight and shoot someone manually, instead of using a computer program to aim for you.

But hey if you dont get my point, that's fine, i've tried getting my point across.

[Ulysses]

Originally posted by ZirzoR:

What my entire point is, is that using 15+ perks on vats is redudant, when you could've just used the same spent 15 points in something actually doing something useful.

Sure, if VATS is your thang and you dont like FPS games, then go for it.

But i'm just saying, 15 points worth of perks is alot.
When you could've just aimed down the sight and shoot someone manually, instead of using a computer program to aim for you.

But hey if you dont get my point, that's fine, i've tried getting my point across.

I get your point, it's not exactly unobvious. I just don't understand why you feel the need to continue discussing an irrelevant viewpoint. That being your need to express how you play, as an apparent neccessity for others' to play. You don't use VATS, so VATS is redundant for you. However, I and others' may use VATS, and therefore it is not redundant for us, and thus why it is a contribution to my build. I would advise you to re-read that last argument, as you have seemed to have missed its significance a few times already.

All Fallout games are first and foremost, an RPG styled game. It has filtered in FPS over time, with the inclusion of third-person. Fallout 4 has been more heavily invested in FPS than the previous games before it and as a consequence, has skipped up on much of the RPG experience. Mindlessly playing as an FPS is not how Fallout was intended to be played, hence why the story includes factions and an extensive (yet unsatisfying) dialogue system, which can be manipulated by perk and stat allocation.

To bring this discussion back on point. I would advise investing in VATS related stats, even if you dislike the tageting system, because some of the perks provide bonuses to your weaponry even outside of using VATS; not too mention, the versatility of having the option to use VATS, even when used sparingly. Moreover, this is a Sniper build discussing some basic and relevant perks for the Sniper. I have not included investing stats in other areas like medicine, which is useful, but is unessential for the build. The aim was to cover all relevant Sniper perks for my build, not to tangent off with other unrelated perks and information which may prove useful to how you and others' might play the game. This guide is also explaining, as stated in the title, the "Massive Damage" element.

One metaphor I cannot stress enough to you, is that this game isn't a one sized shoe fits all. If you decide to respond again, make it relevant to my article and an actually useful insight. Thanks again.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Railroad Agent, Whisper:

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Mister Sandman, you build a sniple but then sneak into melee range for the off chance someone is sleeping?

Hi Bored Peon, I'd like to remind you ..

With the last rank in the Mister Sandman perk you gain this, "Your silenced weapons now do 50% more sneak attack damage." This means that any weapon you use with a silencer, including rifles, gains this ability.

Ya I dont know wtf I was thinking about the mister sandman perk. Guess I forgot abotut he silenced weapon part and focused more on the silent kill.

Still not a big fan of the Gun Fu or the Concentrated Fire with a sniper rifle build. However they both are really good for a pistol build.

[Ulysses]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by Railroad Agent, Whisper:

Hi Bored Peon, I'd like to remind you ..

With the last rank in the Mister Sandman perk you gain this, "Your silenced weapons now do 50% more sneak attack damage." This means that any weapon you use with a silencer, including rifles, gains this ability.

Ya I dont know wtf I was thinking about the mister sandman perk. Guess I forgot abotut he silenced weapon part and focused more on the silent kill.

Still not a big fan of the Gun Fu or the Concentrated Fire with a sniper rifle build. However they both are really good for a pistol build.

If one likes to use VATS, then Concentrated Fire is fantastic; as is the optional Gun Fu, when dealing with multiple enemies and with a low AP costing weapon such as a hunting rifle. With penetrator, Concentrated Fire proves its usefulness once again. Having said that, if you don't use VATS, then divert the points somewhere else.

[Voodoojedizin]

There are no real "builds" anymore since everything is perk related now.
You can automatically shoot any gun equally as well right out of the vault.

This game isn't like other fallouts where you had to specialize, Bethesda gutted everything so brain dead little kids can play it.

[Ulysses]

Originally posted by Voodoojedizin:

There are no real "builds" anymore since everything is perk related now.
You can automatically shoot any gun equally as well right out of the vault.

This game isn't like other fallouts where you had to specialize, Bethesda gutted everything so brain dead little kids can play it.

There are builds. You can use any weapon the same as any other right outside the vault, however you can boost perks to maximise damage in specific weaponry. But, you already knew this and are just wasting my time.

[Jollyfingers]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Some of those perks make no sense.

Concentrated Fire and Gun Fu, since you get maybe 3 shots at most with a sniper rifle high ap cost in VATS this perk is kinda a big waste.

it actually works quite well.
i did a sneak/vats/sniper build in my previous run.
if you optimize your gear for vats, you can get 10 to 11 shots out of a sniper modded overseers guardian. you won't even need a sidearm since with vats it works very well even in close combat.
with all the luck perks maxed, you can almost chaincrit on top of that.