Knuckle Sandwich, or the ultimate guide to Unarmed build

This guide will teach you how to man up and effectively rid the wasteland of the mutant scum using nothing more than your fists. Unarmed is the most noble of means of dispatching your enemies, and the ultimate hit of adrenalin for every weary wanderer. Mind you, this guide may spoil a lot about the game, including vital plot twists and locations. Although, if after all these years you still haven't finished the game, you should really stop reading random guides and just bloody play it for yourself. The pleasantries are now concluded. Let's get up close and personal with some mutants!

I realise this is a massive wall of text, so I underlined the most important bits. Just look for underlined text and you should be able to quickly find whatever info you're looking for. Enjoy!

Philosophy

As with any focused build, to make the most out of the Unarmed skill we are going to have to utilise the right set of Perks in order to optimise the combat effectiveness of our character. To do that, we need specific Character sheet values, Traits, Perks and leveling progression. Virtually everything we do to our character, right from the very start until the final stretch of the game, is going to matter.

The aim is to work towards a character that can kill ANY enemy in the game (with a bit of luck that includes the Master) in just one turn using nothing more than Unarmed weapons. Of course, there is a bit of wiggle room here and there, but for the most part you need to follow this guide to the letter in order to make sure you pack as much punch as you can.

However, remember, this is all just for fun. It's a fun build for me and I find punching mutants in the face to be fun. So please take it with a pinch of salt and see if you can do something differently, or put a twist on it so that we can get even more fun out of it. As for now, thank you for stopping by and enjoy the lecture.

Before we start the game

This guide has been written with Fallout Fixt in mind (0.81a). If you don't know what Fallout Fixt is, it's the most comprehensive set of community fixes, custom content and cut content restorations available for Fallout. It solves MANY crashes, game-breaking bugs and other issues, so you should really play Fallout Fixt instead of the vanilla version. In any case, I'm playing the purist-friendly version of the mod which does not include any custom content so if you're playing vanilla Fallout this guide should still apply for the most part.

IMPORTANT! Apparently skipping perks DOESN'T WORK in vanilla, so you'll have to adjust your perk selection slightly for this guide to still give you decent results. Or, you know, save yourself the trouble and just install the Fixt version. Seriously, you're not doing yourself any favours by playing that broken game in the state it was released in.

Otherwise we're good to go. Crack your knuckles, get your game-face on and let's do this!

Character: Traits

Lets start with the Traits, since the ones we take are going to affect out SPECIAL stats.

You are probably thinking: "B3RyL, this in an Unarmed-focused build. CLEARLY, we should take the Bruiser and Heavy-Handed, right?"

Wrong!

Bruiser takes away 2 Action Points which are VITAL to your success with this build (you want to cover as much ground as you possibly can and hit as many times as you can in one round).

Heavy-Handed is a no-go too, because it negatively affects your Critical Hit Table which will have a MASSIVE impact on your ability to quickly kill powerful enemies later in the game. More on that later.

So, which Traits are the best ones to take for this build?

Take Gifted and One-Hander

Gifted is a no-brainer for any seasoned Fallout player. The initial boost to your SPECIAL stats outweighs any disadvantage from having 5 less Skillpoints. I mean, there's books and opportunities to learn Skills everywhere in Fallout, but only a couple of places where you can improve your SPECIAL stats. And SPECIAL values have a huge impact on your character, so you should definitely take every opportunity to improve them.

One-Hander purely because there's literally no disadvantage for the Unarmed build. Since all the Unarmed attacks are one-handed, you're literally getting a free +20% boost to your Chance to Hit.

SPECIAL NOTE ON THE FAST SHOT TRAIT:
As pointed out by Johnny Casey, another way to build an Unarmed character is to take the Fast Shot trait instead of One-Hander. This of course means that together with the Bonus HtH Attacks perk you'll be spending just 1AP per punch, but with no ability to Aim your shots. Effectively you have a bit more flexibility in combat and are not reliant as much on Crits early on, but it also decreases your overall damage output and negates your ability to crowd-control enemies with status effects from Critical Hits to the eyes. Presonally, the Fast Shot builds are part of the reason why I made this guide in the first place - although completely valid if done right, I never found them to be as effective or satisfying to play around with until the very final part of the game when you get the Slayer perk. In closing, the Fast Shot trait requires a different philosphy and approach to creating your character, and so I won't be covering it at this time (maybe in the future if I have more time to experiment and write guides). Once again, thanks to Johnny Casey for reminding me of the Fast Shot approach.

Character: SPECIAL

Let's talk about how to approach assigning SPECIAL values in the first place.

You may be thinking that looking at your character sheet and maximising the derived stats you want is the way to go, but you'd be dead wrong. For this build to succeed what we really should be paying attention to are the Perks, and you'll have to meet some conditions in order for them to even appear in your Perk selection window. Most of the conditions center around your SPECIAL stats and so we need to adjust the SPECIAL to meet those conditions. I'm going to list the SPECIAL values I'm using for my build and give you an explanation as to why I chose this value to be optimal for this build.

Here's what my SPECIAL section looks like:

S:8
P:6
E:6 (8 for vanilla players)
C:5
I:6
A:10
L:6

And here's why:

Strength: 8 - you need 8 for Slayer perk, which will turn your every attack into a Critical Hit, plus high S gives you a bonus to melee damage. Why not 10 then? Because firstly, we need those 2 points elsewhere, and secondly, Power Armor gives you +3 S when wearing it, and 8 should be enough for starters, so no point maxing it out.

Perception: 6 - You might be thinking: "I'm going to be standing right next to them, so I don't need high P to hit anyone". And you'll be right. Only we need the 6 points here to get the Better Criticals perk, which will push our Critical Hit Table literally off the charts. A roll of 101+ on the Critical Hit Table instantly kills ANY enemy regardless of the damage dealt, and we can only get there with the Better Crits perk. Combine this with the Slayer perk and you'll see where we're going with this build.

Endurance: 6 - Above average is good enough in my book especially with the abundance of stimpacks in the game. But if you feel like you need more at the cost of Charisma or Intelligence than feel free to shuffle them around. You can also take 5 or 4 if you're feeling brave but don't go below 4 as this is a condition for the Lifegiver perk which will make you all the lost HP gain back tenfold. Well, not tenfold, but it gives +4 HP per level (including the level you take the Perk at) so the HP gain from this Perk is pretty substantial. NOTE: In vanilla Fallout you can't skip perks, so you won't be able to take Life Giver (Action Boy is way more important). To mitigate for that, add a couple more points to Endurance if you're playing vanilla. Bringing it up to 8 at the cost of Charisma and/or Intelligence should be enough. But again, and I can't stress this enough, you should be playing the Fixt version.

Charisma: 5 - Some people treat C like a dump-stat and just bring it down to 1 or 2 not caring about NPC reactions, but I like to keep this stat roughly balanced so that I don't have to worry about some dirtbag refusing to talk to me because he doesn't like my ugly mug. Again, it has no impact on out Perk selection.

Intelligence: 6 - It might be worth investing more here to counterbalance that Gifted trait, but I'm always perfectly fine with 6. Unarmed as a Tag Skill usually starts higher than any other combat Tag Skill, so maxing it out doesn't require as many Skill points anyway. No impact on the Perks here.

Agility: 10 - Max out those Action Points. Also you need at least 8 for Slayer, but in any case, you'll be using a lot of APs so get as many as you can.

Luck: 6 - You need 6 for Better Criticals, and also having extra Critical Hit Chance is a nice touch, even though most of the Critical Hit Chance will be coming from Aimed Shots penalty.

EDIT: [As per Friendly Fire suggestion] You can dump your excess points into luck. This will net you better odds at the slot machines and generally more... luck. In Friendly's words: "managed to net 20k caps just 30 days in, you can get an extra luck point in the boneyard, and then there's the operations to increase the overall SPECIAL stats with caps". Means better weapons, better loot and all. So consider this one as a stat you take once you got your desired SPECIAL and still have some points left. Thanks, Friendly Fire!

Character: Tag Skills

The best set I could find is Unarmed, Lockpick, and Barter/Doctor.

Obviously the first Tag Skill you should consider is going to be Unarmed. I hope I don't have to explain why. Let's move on.

Take Lockpick too. The amount of locks to pick in the post-apocalyptic world is astonishing and they always get progressively harder too. You can enlist the help of Katja later in the game, but even she will have trouble with some of the harder locks in the final stretch of the game. So pick this as your Tag Skill and make sure to put a couple of points into it every now and again.

Finally, take either Barter or Doctor as your less-than-necessary-but-nice-to-have Tag Skill. (See the NOTE at the bottom for alternative suggestion)

You'll need lotsa cash for the operations at the BoS bunker as well as occasional bribery and/or water delivery for your Vault. And there's no better way to make lotsa cash than to collect all the junk you can find and then peddle it to the local merchants. Don't put too many points into Barter though. With 60% I was able to amass 40k caps, and that's AFTER the operations at the BoS bunker. I'm a hoarder though, so there's that too.

If you take Doctor instead, you'll be able to fix your broken limbs whilst out in the desert, or deep within Mariposa complex. This is a good thing if you don't feel like running to the nearest town every time you twist an ankle. Then again it's not like you cripple your leg every time you enter combat. In my most recent playthrough, I haven't been crippled once.

Any other Skills are no good for the build. Stealing ruins your reputation and you want your rep to stay in balance, Science, Repair, Outdoorsman, and First Aid can all be boosted using books (If you're not a purist in Fallout Fixt you can set Ms. Stapleton to generate new set of 5 books every week. This way you can bump those skills to 100% in no time and with little effort. If anyone asks, you haven't heard that from me). Any other Skill is redundant - traps don't hurt you that much, there aren't many speech checks worth worrying about (update: see below), sneaking and gambling are just useless, and the rest are combat skills, which we ignore, because this is an Unarmed build. That about covers it I hope.

NOTE: A good alternative suggestion from BigPopPauly is to invest in Speech instead of Barter or Doctor. Fallout doesn't really punish you too much for failing speech checks (worst case scenario - just punch them), but it does reward you for succeeding every now and again. There's a value in having a sharp tongue coupled with tough fists. Thanks, BigPopPauly!

Character: Summary

Here's what my completed Character sheet looks like:


For reference:

S: 8
P: 6
E: 6
C: 5
I: 6
A: 10
L: 6

Traits:
[-] One-Hander
[-] Gifted

Tag Skills:
[-] Unarmed
[-] Lockpick
[-] Doctor/Barter

Extra street cred for naming your character "John Cena" or "Chuck Norris".

Perks

Now this is where it gets serious.

As you may already know, your character has the ability to pick a Perk that affects his/her stats every three levels. Those Perks will determine the success or faliure of your focused build. So make sure you pay attention and follow these instructions to the letter (well, if you see something that could be done better, or you've tried something and it turned out to be super-effective then please share the wealth). I'm going to give you the names of each perk to take at each level where you can choose one. After that I'll detail the strategy behind this build. Here we go:

NOTE: To SKIP a perk, click Cancel on the Perk selection menu. It'll bring up the menu every time you enter the Character sheet from now on, and you can safely click Cancel to dismiss it again. When you reach the next Perk just select the one you want, press Done, and then press Cancel to skip again until you reach level 12 where you'll pick 2 perks in one go.

IMPORTANT! Skipping perks DOESN'T WORK in vanilla Fallout! You'll lose your perk permanently if you cancel it! Because of that the selection below ONLY APPLIES TO FIXT VERSION of the game. If you still intend to play the broken game that is vanilla Fallout regardless, I included a small modification to perk selection at the bottom of this section.

Lvl 3: SKIP

Lvl 6: Bonus HtH Attacks + SKIP

Lvl 9: Better Criticals + SKIP

Lvl 12: Lifegiver + Action Boy

Lvl 15: Action Boy

Lvl 18: Slayer

There are no good Perks on level 3 - You might be tempted to get the Bonus HtH Damage, but the increase in damage simply changing the Unarmed weapon nets you far outweighs the meagre +2 you get from this Perk. On the other hand, if you skip it, you can pick it at later levels, when Perks get really interesting.

Bonus HtH Attacks is a must. It'll bring down the cost of Aimed Shots down to 3 AP. That's 3 aimed attacks + one 1 AP for movement every round at 10 APs available.

Better Criticals is what will give you a true edge when it comes to damage. All of your Crits are now shifted +20% on the Critical Hits Table, meaning you deal significantly more damage due to higher damage multipliers, and the effects are more devastating (more knock-outs, knock downs, blining, crippling, you name it). Not only that, now 20% of your Aimed Critical Hits to the eyes, head or torso, and 10% of your regular Critical Hits will end in instant death. Like dead-dead, doesn't matter if you've dealt 100 or 1 point of damage, the guy's gone for good.

Lifegiver gives you +4 to HP gain every level, plus the level you took the Perk at. This means at lvl 18 you'll have 28 more HP than you would without this Perk. That's a lot. And considering you'll be getting fired at while you're trying to close the distance to your target, those extra points will save your life.

Action Boy gives you additional AP for every rank of this perk. So at level 15, if you take one at level 12 too, you'll have 12 APs to spend however you want. Considering Aimed Shots should now cost you 3 APs, with 12 APs to spare you can perform 4 Aimed Shots per round. With a Power Fist in your hand and a little bit of luck hitting people in the eyes will turn most enemies into a bloody mess within the first round. With no luck, two rounds will suffice. I had test rounds where I killed 3 BoS Paladins in full Power Armor within one round just by hitting them in the eyes. Works even better on muties.

Slayer is that Perk that just tips the scales. With that Perk and 12 APs to spare and +20% bonus to Critical Hit Table you will now perform 6 guaranteed Critical Hits per round in regular combat, or 4 guaranteed Aimed Crits per round that deal so much damage my head hurts just thinking about it. Suffice to say, you are now The One.

ALTERNATIVE FOR VANILLA FALLOUT: Because skipping perks doesn't work in vanilla Fallout, if you intend to play the game in its broken state you should instead do this:

First of all, pump more points into Endurance. This will mitigate some of the loss in HP from not taking the Life Giver perk. Then proceed with your perks as follows:

Lvl 3: Bonus HtH Damage
Lvl 6: Bonus HtH Attacks
Lvl 9: Better Criticals
Lvl 12: Action Boy
Lvl 15: Action Boy
Lvl 18: Slayer

It's not as optimized as the selection for the Fixt version, but it'll still work fine.

Assigning skill points

You should always stay on top with your Unarmed. As a rule of thumb, add 10% to your Unarmed every level, and spend the rest of the points on other skills. There's a good chance you'll reach 200% some time before you get to level 18 and that's ok, but if you prefer to have more points for other skills (not that you'll be lacking) adjust the rate at which you raise Unarmed to your liking. Just one thing to remember is to stay on top of it. BTW: You'll need at least 80% Unarmed for the Slayer perk but you'll be way past that by the time it comes up.

Lockpick is a tricky one because there is no easy way to determine how difficult the locks are getting at which stage in the game. I usually just stadily work my way up to somewhere around 100-120% and with that I'm able to open all of the locks in the game that I don't already have the key for.

As I mentioned before, don't raise your Barter too high unless you want to build a pool full of bottlecaps and swim in it. You'll get a lot of money by selling junk to street peddlers, and it's clean money, and it's good money. I suggest first selling to Beth in the Hub once you take the Find the Missing Caravans quest, as she'll give you a 15% discount, and then to Gun Runners in the Boneyard, as they also give you a considerable discount for completing the Exterminate the Deathclaws quest (thanks to Daedric Brick for reminding me). I promise, if you're smart about your scavenging you'll make lots of money in no time. I usually end up with Barter around 50% and this lets me live comfortably for the rest of my days out there in the wastes.

SIDENOTE ABOUT GUN RUNNERS:
In vanilla, the whole Boneyard is riddled with bugs. Some of them game-breaking, others... also game-breaking, but in a different way. The discount at Gun Runners, for example, can be a source of infinite cash as with high enough barter you can sell those weapons back to them at a higher price than what you paid for them. Suckers. Now, to be perfectly clear, I'm not encouraging exploiting the game like this. All I'm saying is you better grab a big purse when you leave the vault, if you know what I mean. In Fallout Fixt version this exploit was patched though. At least I think it was, I've not tried it so I'm not 100% sure. Again, thanks to Daedric Brick for bringing up the Gun Runners discount!

Doctor, again, is tricky, because you just never know when you're going to need it. However, if you find yourself reloading the saves because your doctor skill is making you dead instead of better, consider trekking back to town instead and putting your points somewhere less hazardous to your wellbeing.

Don't put many points in First Aid, Repair, Outdoorsman or Science - there's more than enough books around to boost those skills to acceptable levels.

Forget Sneak - it's just not worth it. Apparently most enemies will still see and hear you from a mile away in that huge Power Armor.

Stealing can be a source of cash and items but its risks outweigh the potential benefits for me. First of all, if you get caught, your reputation suffers and some NPCs may stop talking to you becase of that. Or even outright attack you on sight. Secondly, if you're one of those people who just save scum every time you pick someone's pocket, than what's the point in raising the skill? You can just as well keep reloading until you get it when you have 20% Stealing, right?

Traps are useless anyway - they are very rare and do so little damage you could run through a minefield in this game and the only thing that could potentially kill you is excessive laughter at how ineffective the traps are.

Speech is useful... sometimes... I guess... for a character that doesn't fight. In most situations the speech checks are either easy or turn into a fight which you'll win anyway, so don't bother. As per BigPopPauly's suggestion, don't neglect Speech. It gives you opportunities to explore Fallout beyond punching the living shrimp out of stuff, which is a good thing. Did I just say "living shrimp"? What even is that? I think I read about it somewhere...

I've never even bothered with Gambling but from what I could gather on the Internet it only becomes profitable at around 100%, so there. Much better to raise your Barter to 50%, kill a bunch of goons and sell their stuff. Mucho dinero.

As a quick reference, for every level do this:
Unarmed + 5-10%
Lockpick + 0-5%
Barter + 0-2% until ~50%
Doctor + 0-2%
Speech + 0-2% (as per BigPopPauly's suggestion)
Other skills as needed

Now that I've shared this information with you I feel it's important to reiterate this build is for fun first and foremost. And since you'll soon find that it leaves many Skill points at your disposal (Unarmed is quick to raise and it's the only combat skill you'll need), you can have some fun with some other Skills: maybe invest in Gambling and cause havoc in the Casino after losing at the roulette table, maybe raise your Speech and talk your way out of a sticky situation only to come back later with a fist-full of pain. You'll figure it out.

General strategy

At first you'll find the concept of running up to people to punch them kinda suicidal, but that's where a good old Armor comes in. Whenever you get the chance to upgrade your Armor, do that first thing. Once you have the Power Armor things are going to be much easier, but remember to try and Harden your Power Armor with Miles at the Adytum. Hardened Power Armor is the best there is, and you'll literally be able to run full speed at mutants with gattling lasers. Also, Psycho boosts your Damage Resistance by 40% (50% in vanilla I think) so its always a good option to pop one just before a big fight.

In terms of weapons, there isn't much to choose from - you'll get the Spiked Knuckles relatively early on (Raiders near Shady Sands have them), you'll have them with you for quite a while and then the Power Fist can be obtained in the mid-to-late game (BoS or Gun Runners). The earlier you get your hands on the PF the better.

Try and use Aimed Shots to the eyes as much as possible. They are hardest to land, but since you are up close this is not really a factor once you boost your Unarmed past some point, as all Aimed Shots will show as 95%. Conversely, because they are 60% harder to land, you get a 60% boost to Critical Hit Chance, which means most of your strikes will be critical and they yeld best results accross the board - deal the most damage, have the highest chance of penetrating the armor, a good chance to knock the enemy down or knock them out, and finally blind them, so that they are forced to retreat instead of attack. Once you have the Better Criticals perk 20% of Critical Hits to the eyes will cause instant death, and the remaining 80% will yeld improved results. This is the key to this build - hit them harder, not necessarily more often.

Early on you'll have to be smart with your gameplay - wait your opponents out, calculate their APs, provoke them into fistfights, score one hit and then fall back continously, that sort of thing. Later, you'll find yourself running up to people more and more as you'll find you can take the initial hit much better and then overwhelm your opponent pretty quickly. In late game you'll just be casually running up to everyone and punching them into the ground before they have a chance to say: "Please, senpai, don't hit me!" They'll be like Pudface Morgan: "Not in the face!" and then you punch them in the face like RoboCop. It'll be glorious.

Always carry a stimpack in your other hand so that you can heal yourself quickly for 2 APs in case things get dicey. Especially useful with super stimpacks.

If your character feels really, really underdeveloped for mid game, it's probably because you missed/failed some important side-quests. Start grinding and get those levels up. I usually aim to arrive at the final Cathedral quest at level 18. The best place to grind would be around Mariposa, where mutant patrols reside, but if you don't feel up to the task, try around the Hub.

Almost all supermutants like to throw punches when up close, so to prevent them from firing rockets into your head just try and run up to them as quickly as possible and hope they don't hit you in the process. They fight like girl scouts and you'll have an easy time with them once you close the distance, even if you don't have the Power Fist yet. This is especially useful in random encounters, where you identify the biggest mutant, and just run up to them and provoke them into a fistfight instead of a gunfight. Alternatively, just wait around the corner for them to come to you - this has added benefit of them having to waste their entire AP pool on walking, instead of fighting.

Companions are super-useful mid-game, when you don't yet have a good armor or PF and yet you want to engage bigger targets. Just make sure not to give them shotguns, projectile or burst weapons - I guarantee they'll rip you a new one by accident at some point. Later in the game they just become mules lugging the loot for you to sell. Don't take them into fights they can't survive. Unless you're using Fallout Fixt better companions mod. Then you can equip Katja with a Turbo Plasma Rifle and look at her burn muties to a crisp like it's no-body's business.

Remember to save often. Crashes are still abundant even in Fixt version, and on top of that Fallout's uncompromising nature literally turns loading the last save into a game mechanic. So yeah, whenever I receive 900 points of armor-piercing damage to my groin I just smile and reload the save. It's just the reality of things out here in the wastes.

Final thoughts

I realise this is not THE perfect build for Unarmed combat and that there are things that can be improved here and there. However, I've been using variations of this build for my last several full playthroughs and I always found it really enjoyable and really powerful, but also very versatile - you're relying heavily on brute stregth but you don't feel crippled in other situations too. You can still take and successfully finish 95% of sidequests, get laid, have a game of chess or see further than the tip of your nose. You can be a successful good guy, or an equally successful bad guy with this build and this is why I like it - It's not pushing you into a corner where all you're left with are your fists, but instead leaves you the freedom to experience Fallout however you like it, without a crippling fear of confrontation with even the toughest enemies, and without compromising your intended mission, which is to punch every single face you come across in the desert.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and that you'll enjoy this build on your next adventure. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions and if I see something that's worth mentioning, I'll add it to the guide where appropriate with your name in the credits. Once again, thank you for stopping by and have a nice day.

Oh, and while you're in Mariposa punch the Lieutenant for me, will ya? He'll know who's it coming from. Thanks!

[B3RyL]

@MidnightGuideWriter - Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

[MidnightGuideWriter]

Be like water, my friend.

[B3RyL]

@resist tyranny, do not comply - thanks :)

[boler]

best guide

[B3RyL]

@Kitty Overlord Lucy - Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :)

[B3RyL]

OK, I fixed the guide to include the note on perk skipping not working in vanilla, and included an alternative selection of perks for vanilla players. Can I have my thumbs up back, MrFancyPantsMan? ;)

[B3RyL]

So, I did some digging, and in fact you can't skip perks in vanilla. You have to play the fixt version fir this to work. I haven't played vanilla in so long I simply assumed that was the default behavior, but apparently I was wrong and I appologize. I'll make a note on that in the guide.

[Kitty Overlord Lucy]

@MrFancyPantsMan I mean, for all the great stuff this guide gave... you really felt like you had to, instead of thank them for that, call them out on their single flaw and give them a thumbs down? You're a shithead man. Truly. If you had half a brain, you would download f1se.exe and just add the lifegiver perk to your character at the intended level like I did. All I had to do was think "hey, just about any game like this has got a save editor...".

On another note - just finishing the game with the build from this guide... I can say that it was a truly badass/fun experience! Thank you so much for the guide, it really made my first full fallout 1 play through something to remember (I had started with a energy weapon, pick it as you go.. build? If it can even be called that. Then I found your guide and rerolled - I had only made it to about 30-40% mark. Just finished the glow. Best decision EVER, rerolling a new char with this guide!)

[MrFancyPantsMan]

So, saving a perk point doesn't work. It disappears upon your next perk level. So, now I missed out on a perk thanks to this guide.

[Kitty Overlord Lucy]

I got the same issue.. I can only pick one perk instead of two after skipping and hitting 6