Fallout New Vegas: Best Build

Guide showcasing the perks and base S.P.E.C.I.A.L. statistics to start a great game in Fallout: New Vegas.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L

When starting a new game, we will be greeted by Doctor Mitchell, who allows us to customize our character. Afterward, he will let us access a machine to distribute the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points of our character. It's important to note that this guide is designed for the base game of Fallout: New Vegas, and DLC modifications will not be taken into account.

We should distribute the points initially as follows, considering that they can be increased later with implants:

Strength

S - 5

Strength is a measure of your raw physical power. It affects your carrying capacity and determines the effectiveness of melee attacks.
Primarily, we will utilize strength to carry weight; melee combat is not recommended.

Later in the game, we can increase it with perks like "Reinforced Spine."

*As a tip, to carry less weight, activate the mailboxes of the Mojave Express. Once you reach Primm, send items from there to the Goodsprings mailbox.
This way, when an NPC asks for an item like a pressure cooker, you can have it ready there instead of selling it for very few caps or occupying important inventory space. The same goes for unused weapons, excessive consumables, or clothing.

Perception

P - 5

High Perception provides a bonus to Explosives, Lockpick, and Energy Weapons skills, and determines when a red compass marker appears (indicating enemies).

With implants, you can raise it to 6, but it's not necessary. Never raise it above 6.

Endurance

E - 7

Endurance is a measure of your overall physical fitness. High endurance grants bonuses to health, environmental resistance, and Big Guns and Unarmed skills.

It should be high, especially if it's one of our first playthroughs in Fallout: New Vegas.
With implants, it can be raised to 8 if desired.

Charisma

C - 1

Having high charisma puts you in good favor with people and provides bonuses to Barter and Speech skills.

Charisma is not important when playing because by increasing the Speech or Barter skill, you can establish better relationships with the game's NPCs.
DO NOT INCREASE CHARISMA, NO MATTER WHAT BUILD YOU CHOOSE.

Intelligence

I - 6

Intelligence affects Science, Repair, and Medicine skills. The higher your intelligence, the more skill points you can distribute when leveling up.
The higher, the better. Increase it with perks up to 8.

It's not recommended to leave it low.

Agility

A - 8

Agility affects your Small Guns and Sneak skills, as well as the number of Action Points available for V.A.T.S.

V.A.T.S. will be your new best friend. Combat with weapons in Fallout is not great until you have powerful weapons (They start to get better from Fallout 4, but not until that title).
If you don't use V.A.T.S., you can lower Agility to 6 and allocate those 2 extra points wherever you want. EXCEPT Charisma.

Luck

L - 8

Increasing your Luck slightly improves all your skills. High Luck also improves your chance of critical hits with all weapons.

Luck ensures critical hits and, most importantly, increases your chances of winning in casinos even if you're not skilled at the mini-games.
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HABILITIES

In Fallout: New Vegas, there are 13 different skills that can be improved as your character levels up, and they can also be increased through specific abilities gained during missions or with certain perks. Here are the skills and their descriptions. At the bottom, you'll find "what you should prioritize."

The skills are:

Guns

The Guns skill determines your effectiveness with conventional ammunition weapons (e.g., .22 LR, .357 Magnum, 5mm, 10mm, 5.56mm, .308, .45-70 Government).

Energy Weapons

The Energy Weapons skill determines your effectiveness with any weapon that uses small energy cells, microfusion cells, electron charge packs, or flamer fuel as ammunition.

Science

The Science skill represents your scientific knowledge and is primarily used to access restricted computer terminals.

Speech

The Speech skill governs your influence over people through dialogue and the information you can gather that they wouldn't otherwise reveal.

Melee Weapons

The Melee Weapons skill determines your effectiveness with melee weapons, ranging from simple lead pipes to high-tech super sledges.

Unarmed

The Unarmed skill is used for fighting without weapons or with weapons designed for unarmed combat, such as brass knuckles, power fists, and ballistic fist.

Explosives

The Explosives skill determines the complexity of disarming hostile mines and the effectiveness of explosive weapons (all mines, all grenades, missile launchers, Fat Man, etc.).

Lockpick

The Lockpick skill is used to open locked doors and containers.

Medicine

The Medicine skill determines the amount of health you will recover when using a stimpack and the effectiveness of Rad-X and RadAway.

Repair

The Repair skill allows you to maintain weapons and equipment. Additionally, the higher your Repair skill, the better the starting condition of customized weapons.

Sneak

The Sneak skill makes it easier to move undetected, steal objects, and pickpocket. If you attack without being detected, you are guaranteed a critical hit.

Survival

The Survival skill increases the amount of health you gain from food and drink. It also helps you create fuel items for campfires.

Barter

The Barter skill affects the prices of items you buy and sell. Generally, the higher your Barter skill, the less you will pay for items.

Source of skill descriptions: Eliteguias

What You Should Prioritize

• Focus on raising the Guns and Speech skills as quickly as possible to 100. You don't need to dedicate all your points to these two skills, but they should be your priority.
  
• Maximize your Medicine skill.
  
• After you have significantly raised the previous skills, you can start focusing on the Repair, Lockpick, and Science skills.

*For Repair, you only need to reach 65; it is not necessary to max it out at 100.
*The remaining skills are either completely useless or of little use. Moreover, some skills can be "dispensed with" thanks to items that provide significant temporary increases (sufficient for completing the situations that require them), such as the "Stealth" skill.

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PERKS

There are a great number of Perks. Undoubtedly, some are much more valuable than others. Instead of discussing each perk individually, I will use a tierlist, taking advantage of the fact that each perk is associated with an image.

[Uncle_J]

Charisma at 6 if you want Animal Friend. No more being killed by Nightstalkers in OWB.

[igotwolves]

nah f that 10 rizz all the way baybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[sambra77]

naw, Russian badger build
10 strength
1 perception
7 endurance
1 charisma
1 intelligence
10 agility
10 luck

you sneeze and hit harder than the nukes

[chip55661]

Charisma is useful more than you know.

[Richard Pubes Jr]

This is very interesting! Thank you for sharing! I will use this some time. :)

[tifa]

imagine clicking on a game guide (one of the least wordy ones ive personally seen) and then commenting "not reading all that"

[76561199436854581]

>words words words

[mr washee washee]

I would say that 4 int is all you need. So you can get the educated perk. It gives you all the skill points you need at late game.

[mason]

not reading all that 10 luck every time