Stealth Builds

[OpossumStyle]

Where how do I do my best with stealth early game?

[Premu]

You obviously should get the perks for sneaking, ninja and Mr. Sandman as they improve your ability to sneak and the damage you do with your sneak attacks.

I also recommend "Gun Nut" - silenced weapons are your friend, and the ability to upgrade your weapons yourself and not hoping for good drops is a great help in that regard.

As for the weapons you should bring - I personally recommend to have at least one sniper rifle, a non-sniper rifle for shorter ranges (e.g. a combat or an assault rifle is ideal for that role) and a silenced pistol as sidearm against weak enemies. I also have a shotgun, but that is for situatons where the sneaking has failed and I'll get swarmed. It doesn't hurt do be prepared for that.

With that equipment putting points in "Rifleman" is obviously also a great help.

Furthermore - do the Railroad quest early. You can get Deacon as companion including his really great affinity perk (additional 20% more sneak attack damage!) and a great pistol as reward - the Deliverer.

[MasterShake]

Pickman knife + blitz perk + obviously sneaking perks, conditionally luck perks. You are the one, who knocks.
You can also hit Deacon's quest as fast as you blitz to the Railroad and get guaranteed silenced pistol along with stealth bonus from the journal, good stuff. Another totally reachable early game stealth journal is in Olivia.

If you mean early-early game, you don't have builds there, you use what you are lucky to get your hands on. I would recommend to get .308 pipe in Concord and pray for a pipe silencer drop, which are common even early game.

[wtiger27]

In addition to the points above, get the sneak 10% bonus bobblehead in the Dunwich Borer's mine.

[Blinkybubs]

Lone Wanderer and Quick Hands can also be beneficial. Some companions need to be micro managed if you plan on sneaking a lot so I don't use them on stealth characters myself.

[Senor Cinco]

Early game?
Well, you want to walk out of the vault with 10 Agility.

Then, anything to boost Agility.
- Military Fatigues
- Wastelander's Chest ( sold by Myrna )
- Champion Right Arm ( sold by Becky Fallon )
- Mantis Left Leg ( sold by Lucas Miller ) - This thing is so stupidly expensive, it falls into mid-late game. Nonetheless, they are available from the start.

I hate to spend perks on Armorer but you really need shadowed gear ASAP. So, I guess that's Strength 3 at least.

The rest, actually, depends on what type of weapon you want to use.

EDIT:
The Ninja perk doesn't care if it's a silenced weapon or not.
Trudy will almost always have a silenced .38 pipe weapon.
Arturo will almost always have a silenced .308 pipe weapon (after L5, I think )

EDIT2:
Try to play on Very Hard difficulty. The increased chance of a Legendary drop lets you potentially get a Chameleon effect on a left arm or one of the legs, by L10.

Other gear of note is increased movement speed.
Adding Muffle to the legs is as important as Shadowed.

EDIT3:
The Solcum's Joe CC gives you access to a doughnut fryer in Lexington. A Sizzlin' Something Doughnut gives you +2 Sneak attack multiplier. Nasty stuff.

Chemist 1 allows you make Overdrive. +25% dmg and it stacks with Psycho Jet for another +25% dmg. The duration is compounded by the Biochem Mesh on the Wastlander's Chest.

[Playzr 🐵]

I cannot understand how people can sneak around slowly, waiting for the chance to strike and one hit the unsuspecting enemy. Meanwhile others are charging in at great speed guns/swords blazing clearing entire complexes in moments. The game doesn't even reward stealth, it just slows you down. But if you enjoy it so much I'm sure it'll make the game last much longer, I just hope you don't get bored before you've reached the end.

[ghpstage]

Remember that the sneak penalty when running is also present while sneaking until you get t a certain rank of the sneak perk (despite it hardly looking like a 'run'), so be sure to walk when you get too close.

[MasterShake]

Originally posted by Рlαγζr 🐵:

I cannot understand how people can sneak around slowly, waiting for the chance to strike and one hit the unsuspecting enemy. Meanwhile others are charging in at great speed guns/swords blazing clearing entire complexes in moments.

If you roleplay realistic approach to combat, when you are not bullet spounge, but a normal person, charging head on, unless you wear power armor, is out of options. If you additionally modified the game to support more or less realistic combat, it will get you killed.
Simplicity.
It doesn't mean sneak is the only option, but you learn to play smart and use tactical advantages. This is reward itself. Myself cannot inderstand people, who play openworld single player games and yet expect, that it is the game, that must reward them for any sneeze they perform.

Originally posted by wtiger27:

In addition to the points above, get the sneak 10% bonus bobblehead in the Dunwich Borer's mine.

I wouldn't recommend doing it early game, it's almost impossible to sneak your way in and out, and multiple ways to get ganged and ganked and have to start again. Too much effort for 10% bonus, when your overall sneak is not that good yet. After you get essential perks, sure

[Playzr 🐵]

Until you level up and get better gear and can just spam the healing items. Those first 10 levels or so can be a challenge, but the faster you do that the sooner you'd be more or less bullet proof.

[MasterShake]

Originally posted by Рlαγζr 🐵:

Until you level up and get better gear and can just spam the healing items.

Unless it's top-tier quantums you don't spam healing items in survival. During combat, especially with legendary enemies, It's useless and it may get you killed even in vanilla.
And like I said, with certain realistic combat mod setups you learn to kill before get killed, and preferably before get shot at all.

[Senor Cinco]

Originally posted by MasterShake:

And like I said, with certain realistic combat mod setups you learn to kill before get killed, and preferably before get shot at all.

Exactly
For my stealth characters, DR is irrelevant. The legendary armor effects are way more important than armor, itself. The idea is never take damage.

As far as being compared to a run and gun playstyle... I'd argue that a stealth melee build is one of the fastest way to clear an area. That stupid Blitz is crazy OP'd.

[Blinkybubs]

Action Boy makes it so you can sprint further as well, which can come in handy if you need to displace yourself in a pinch. It also can be used rather well if you've laid down some landmines somewhere close. That way you can drag your pursuers into the kill zone and be out of it yourself ready to regroup.

[Senor Cinco]

Originally posted by Blinkybubs:

Action Boy makes it so you can sprint further as well, which can come in handy if you need to displace yourself in a pinch. It also can be used rather well if you've laid down some landmines somewhere close. That way you can drag your pursuers into the kill zone and be out of it yourself ready to regroup.

Action Boy/Girl only affects the regain rate of your AP.

Sprinting distance is governed by Agility - ( creates a larger AP pool )
... and Endurance - ( reduces the amount of AP it takes to sprint )

Still... I find any means of improving AP regain a non issue. Mainly due to the large amount of AP from 10 Agility ( should be maxed on any stealth character ) and with gear and the Pommel Horse one-time use, you can walk around with 13 or 14 Agility before L5.

EDIT:
I will concede that you are correct. In that, having a faster AP regain will allow you sprint between cover for a quick breather, letting you relay ( so to speak ) across an escape route easier than normal.

[NecroMaster]

Fallout 4s level up system makes a lot of he more fun playstyles rough in he early game due to the dumb level limit on perk ranks.

Personally this game would’ve been more fun if they let you invest in what you wanted as long as you had the special to invest in it.

Imagine being able to shoot guns out of peoples hands at level 4?

[Blinkybubs]

Originally posted by Señor Cinco:

Originally posted by Blinkybubs:

Action Boy makes it so you can sprint further as well, which can come in handy if you need to displace yourself in a pinch. It also can be used rather well if you've laid down some landmines somewhere close. That way you can drag your pursuers into the kill zone and be out of it yourself ready to regroup.

Action Boy/Girl only affects the regain rate of your AP.

Sprinting distance is governed by Agility - ( creates a larger AP pool )
... and Endurance - ( reduces the amount of AP it takes to sprint )

Still... I find any means of improving AP regain a non issue. Mainly due to the large amount of AP from 10 Agility ( should be maxed on any stealth character ) and with gear and the Pommel Horse one-time use, you can walk around with 13 or 14 Agility before L5.

EDIT:
I will concede that you are correct. In that, having a faster AP regain will allow you sprint between cover for a quick breather, letting you relay ( so to speak ) across an escape route easier than normal.

What am I thinking of? It seems like I took one that slows the drain from sprinting recently.