Fallout: New Vegas: Difference between revisions

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== TL;DR ==


* Lockpick, science, and medical are excellent all-purpose skills. Survival and barter are a waste of skill points (Although note that if you want to play a diplomatic character, Barter and Speech are used a lot in dialogue).
* Default difficulty is fine for casual players. Hardcore is bad if you're using companions and not modding the game.


* Take the educated perk at level 4 for lots more skill points (52 by the time you hit level 30).
* INT is good. All weapon types are viable mains. Lockpick, Medical, Repair, and Science are good. Logan's Loophole is bad.  


* Your Strength, Endurance, and Intelligence should not be too low, and your Charisma should not be too high. Don't put points in Survival. Beyond that, there is literally no way to fuck up your character. Do whatever feels right. I should mention, though, some perks are not very good. Anything that deals with experience, radiation, or dialogue options isn't worth it.
* Play the DLC in release order (Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and then Lonesome Road) starting at about level 20, then gain 5-10 more levels before moving onto the next.


* Speech is amazing in Vegas and has the most conversation options associated with it. Repair is also a pretty solid choice, and I would advise at least getting it to 50 for weapon repair kits.
* If you're modding, get a UI fixer (MTUI), New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE), an unofficial bugfix patch (YUP or UPP+), and the Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM). Don't add anything else unless you want something specific, and add them one at a time.


* All of the weapon skills are viable from my experience, though unarmed might be the easiest.
== Character Building: SPECIAL and Traits ==


* Pick a combat style and go all in. Whether it's Melee, Unarmed, Guns, Energy Weapons, or Explosives, pick one, and pick out perks that support it and work well with it. It doesn't hurt to be putting points into a secondary weapon type, but focus your combat perks on whatever you intend to be best at.
* Don't neglect Strength (carry load), Endurance (max HP), and Intelligence (skill points per level.) Charisma is a safe dumpstat. High Luck can make for easy money grinding at casinos, but if that doesn't interest you then it is also a safe dumpstat.


* If you go Unarmed, don't neglect Melee as a skill, it's required for some key perks (and vice versa).
* If you have an Intelligence of 2 or 1, almost every dialogue option in the game changes, but this is better suited for a second run than a first.


* Oh, and if you start with 7 Luck you'll be able to basically ignore money from about 1/3rd of the way into the game onwards. Just play Blackjack. Lots and lots of Blackjack.
* A high Charisma/nonviolent character is also viable, but also better saved for when you know what you're getting into.


* I recommend taking the "Wild Wasteland" perk... It's needed for the Alien Blaster. If not taken, in place of the Alien Blaster will be a unique Gauss Rile. While its a nice weapon in of itself, I preferred the Alien Blaster.
* '''''Do not take Logan's Loophole.''''' It is the one and only way to legitimately fuck up your character. Wild Wasteland is serious about making the game sillier, including most of the shout-outs and goofy events/locations. Everything else depends on your build, but if you can't decide, Hoarder (from the DLC) is excellent and the downside is extremely easy to avoid.


* You'll only get 100-150 rounds of Alien Blaster ammo all at once, and never again. Despite that don't be afraid to use it...that's more than enough to take out most of the really tough enemies like Deathclaws and bosses.  
* Don't play on Hardcore if you plan on using companions and not modding the game. Their AI is questionable and there are several bugs that can kill them dead with very little recourse, especially melee companions, and ''especially'' especially the good, good robot dog.


* The Plasma Caster is probably the best all-round energy weapon in terms of damage, fire rate and ammo usage. Get to New Vegas ASAP and head to the Silver Rush to find it. However it can't be purchased so you'll need to steal it or just kill everyone in the Silver Rush. (They're assholes anyway)
* The hard part's over now, you can skip the next section if you want.


* Having trouble with them goddman killer robots? The Pulse Pistol is a unique weapon that'll make every single robot fight laughably easy. Find it in Vault 34.
== Skills and Perks ==


* The Meltdown Perk causes enemies killed an energy weapon to explode in a green corona and inflict damage to nearby enemies...who in turn will also explode should they be killed, causing a chain reaction of explodiness. Seems gimmicky at first but its actually pretty devastating if you use high-damage weapons...particularly the Alien Blaster. In some indoor areas you'll be able to kill five or six tough enemies in one shot. (which has the nice side effect of conserving ammo)
* For combat skills, pick one and go all-in. Whether it's Melee, Unarmed, Guns, Energy Weapons, or Explosives, pick one, and pick out perks that support it and work well with it. It doesn't hurt to be putting points into a secondary weapon type, but focus your combat perks on whatever you intend to be best at. (Do note that some of the best Melee perks require Unarmed skill, and vice-versa.) Explosives are a bit expensive to be a main if you don't know what you're doing, but exploring the right areas can take some of the edge off.
The downside is that Meltdown is also really good at killing melee-oriented companions since they always get caught in the corona...you'll need to stick with range-oriented companions like Boon.  


* It's a good idea to invest in the Science skill as it will allow you to make the Overcharged and Maximum charged energy cells. You'll inflict greater damage at the cost of faster weapons degrading, but you can offset that a bit by investing in Repair so you can make repair kits and taking the Jury Rigged perk.  
* Survival is a garbage skill that does nothing of value, even in Hardcore mode. Most of what you'd want it to do is actually behind Medical, Science, or Repair.  


* In contrast to every earlier Fallout game, flamethrowers are now considered Energy Weapons.
* Speech and Barter can be worth putting a few points into even if you don't lean into them. If you're just shy of making a check, fancy clothes, a magazine and chems/alcohol can close the gap.


* Choose one weapon skill to specialize in to start. Explosives, unarmed, and energy weapons are all tougher but doable to start with, guns or melee weapons is probably better for a first time.  
* Make sure to level at least one of Lockpick and Science, most good loot is locked behind one or both of them.  


* Don't take the perk that increases your XP gain, you'll hit the level cap even without it.  
* Perks that increase skill point gain are not retroactive, so take them early. Avoid XP-boosting perks, there is more than enough to comfortably hit the level cap with even a modicum of exploration.


* If you piss off the NCR early, the game will be a lot tougher, but maybe you'll want to piss them off for roleplaying reasons. There will be a point in the story where if you have negative reputation with either the NCR or the Legion, it will go away, so if you regret pissing either side off, stick with it and you'll get it reset.
== Gameplay / Exploration ==


* Run from Cazadores until you get lots of poison antidotes or have done the Old World Blues DLC.  
* There are no missables, although you can't do everything in one playthrough. There is no way to totally fail most quests (except contradictory ones from different people - kill this guy vs rescue this guy) so pick a character archetype to roleplay and just do it. You might "fail" some quests but you really won't.  


* There is no way to totally fail most quests (except contradictory ones from different people - kill this guy vs rescue this guy) so pick a character archetype to roleplay and just do it. You might "fail" some quests but you really won't.  
* Much like Fallout 3, if a container isn't "secure" then the game may or may not remember what you stored in it. Containers in your personal houses and rooms are secure, containers elsewhere generally aren't. The first accessible ones are the blue Mohave Express drop boxes, which will freely hold and transfer an infinite amount of stuff between them once you find two or more. (There are five, one each in Goodsprings, Primm, Novac, Freeside, and the Strip.)


* Play through the DLC in release order, so Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and then Lonesome Road. They're individual side stories but each one also contains buildup for the last one and they're all pretty awesome in their own ways. Dead Money recommends level 20 or higher but I've done it at level 10 and didn't find it hard, other people absolutely hated it though so your mileage may vary. It does have some quite high speech checks and lockpicking doors so maybe get those skills up before going in if that stuff is important to you.
* Karma is basically a nonissue, it's faction reputation that's important. The only companion (and really the only NPC) who gives a shit about Karma is Cass, who'll leave if it's too low for too long, but several care about faction reputation.


* As with any Bethesda "Big RPG", if you're the casual sort, leave the difficulty at the default level, and build your character however strikes your fancy. If you're a more serious gamer, crank the difficulty to max, start with 9 INT, 7-8 END, and 1 CHA, and tag Repair, Speech and one combat skill.
* If you are wearing a faction's armor, people will think you are a member of that faction. For example, you will be attacked if you return to Goodsprings wearing Powder Ganger armor.  


* If you are wearing a faction's armor, people will think you are a member of that faction. For example, you will be attacked if you return to Goodsprings wearing Powder Ganger armor. There are no missables, although you can't do everything in one playthrough.
* At a certain point in the main plot, there's a one-time event where negative reputation with the NCR and the Legion will be cleared. Outside of this, there isn't really an easy way to repair your reputation with a faction once they start getting violent.


* The biggest difference is that skill checks work differently: instead of your skill level translating into a percentage chance for success, you have to beat a skill threshold in order to succeed. Also, a lot of other skills have checks, and it's not all Speech all the time (though, to be honest, Speech, Barter, and Science are still by far the most common checks).
* Run from Cazadores until you get lots of poison antidotes or have done the Old World Blues DLC. The poison is bugged and can infinitely stack every time they hit you. This is also one of the fore-mentioned enemies that can kill companions dead extremely quickly.


* Repair works differently, as well; you no longer need 100 Repair to repair something to perfect condition, so it's no longer a race to the maximum.
* Armor uses Damage Threshold (which subtracts points of damage off the top) now instead of Damage Resistance (which reduced all damage by a percentage). This makes Deathclaws even deadlier than before, if you can believe it. Use AP ammo on them, preferably from an extreme distance. There's no Dart Gun equivalent to neuter them anymore, either.


* Armor uses Damage Threshold (which subtracts points of damage off the top) now instead of Damage Resistance (which reduced all damage by a percentage). This makes Deathclaws even deadlier than before, if you can believe it. I recommend using AP ammo on them, preferably from an extreme distance. There's no Dart Gun equivalent to neuter them anymore, either.
== Building a Combat God ==


== Repair ==
* Wanna just play the game for the story and absolutely roll over everything even remotely challenging? Or, alternatively, wanna stand a fighting chance at max difficulty? This is how. Mechanical and location spoilers follow.


On the note of repair. It may be, depending on your play style, worth it to boost it to 85 to take the perk which lets you repair weapons and armor with anything considered "similar" to it. This means repairing vault armor with vault suits of cloth or power armor with anything vaguely metallic.
* 5 STR, 8 PER, 7 END, 1 CHA, 9 INT, 5 AGI, 7 LUC. Tag Energy Weapons, Repair, and Science. Take Hoarder and Wild Wasteland.


Works on weapons too obviously, letting you repair rare weapon types with much more common and often purchasable weapons. And since you'll have a minimum of 85 repair you'll be getting damage bonuses and everything lasts longer.
* Key perks early/mid perks are Educated, Comprehension, Toughness, Meltdown, Vigilant Recycler, and Jury Rigging.


Granted if you're going to jack up endurance and strength, this doesn't apply so much.
* Make Overcharged and Maximum energy cells at repair benches once you have Jury Rigging to easily repair the damage to your weapons.


== Containers for storing your loot ==
* The Plasma Caster is the best all-round energy weapon in terms of damage, fire rate and ammo usage. You'll find it in the Silver Rush in New Vegas. Steal it or kill everyone inside.


The earliest "secure" container in the game isnt actually part of a house. (Much like Fallout 3, if a container isnt "secure" then the game may or may not remember what you stored in it. Containers in your house are secure, containers elsewhere generally arent).
* The Pulse Pistol in Vault 34 (where the Boomers live) eviscerates robots.


In the starting town (Goodsprings), stand facing the general store. To the left of it is a blue container that you wouldnt normally bother opening because its marked as "empty" (in the fallout games empty stuff is marked as empty so you dont have to waste time opening every wastebin in the game, just those which turn out to contain a nuka-cola bottle or an ashtray). Open it. As you are playing a courier, this is a drop box for the courier company. It does nothing.  
* Northwest of the strip is a little town called the Horowitz farmstead. Just north of that is an ''extremely'' deadly Wild Wasteland-specific unique energy weapon, wielded by a unique enemy. Use the ammo carefully, you're not getting any more of it.  


The next town you come across to the south is Primm. In primm there is a courier office. It has another, identical, empty drop box. Open it.
* Don't use a melee companion, Meltdown will kill them dead fast.


Now you have opened 2 drop boxes, you can use them to ship stuff from one to the other. So take all your loot that you dont want to sell or carry, dump it in the drop box in Primm and it will be waiting for you whenever you want to pick it up at the drop box in Goodsprings and vice versa. There are other dropboxes in the game but you only need 2 to have been opened to use them for storage like that.
== DLC / Modding ==
 
* Play through the DLC in release order, so Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and then Lonesome Road. They're individual side stories but each one also contains buildup for the last one and they're all pretty awesome in their own ways. Dead Money recommends level 20 or higher, but it can be done at as low as 10-15 if you're a combat monster. It does have some high Speech and Lockpick checks, so pump those skills first if you plan to go in early.
 
* Before even starting the game, if you're on PC, you're going to want a UI fixer (MTUI), the New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE), New Vegas Anti-Crash (NVAC), an unofficial bugfix patch (YUP or UPP+), and the Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM). These can be added quickly and painlessly even if you don't want to fuck around with modding.
 
* If you want to mod more, add one at a time, make sure it works, and unless all of the mods you're using are explicitly compatible, be prepared for some odd crashes and fiddling with load order. Good places to start are Project Nevada, Weapon Mods Expanded, and The Someguyseries (New Vegas Bounties, et al.) for gameplay, and Fellout, Interior Lighting Overhaul, Fallout Character Overhaul, and one of the ''several'' texture replacement mods for visuals.


[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Games]]

Revision as of 20:08, 6 February 2020

TL;DR

  • Default difficulty is fine for casual players. Hardcore is bad if you're using companions and not modding the game.
  • INT is good. All weapon types are viable mains. Lockpick, Medical, Repair, and Science are good. Logan's Loophole is bad.
  • Play the DLC in release order (Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and then Lonesome Road) starting at about level 20, then gain 5-10 more levels before moving onto the next.
  • If you're modding, get a UI fixer (MTUI), New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE), an unofficial bugfix patch (YUP or UPP+), and the Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM). Don't add anything else unless you want something specific, and add them one at a time.

Character Building: SPECIAL and Traits

  • Don't neglect Strength (carry load), Endurance (max HP), and Intelligence (skill points per level.) Charisma is a safe dumpstat. High Luck can make for easy money grinding at casinos, but if that doesn't interest you then it is also a safe dumpstat.
  • If you have an Intelligence of 2 or 1, almost every dialogue option in the game changes, but this is better suited for a second run than a first.
  • A high Charisma/nonviolent character is also viable, but also better saved for when you know what you're getting into.
  • Do not take Logan's Loophole. It is the one and only way to legitimately fuck up your character. Wild Wasteland is serious about making the game sillier, including most of the shout-outs and goofy events/locations. Everything else depends on your build, but if you can't decide, Hoarder (from the DLC) is excellent and the downside is extremely easy to avoid.
  • Don't play on Hardcore if you plan on using companions and not modding the game. Their AI is questionable and there are several bugs that can kill them dead with very little recourse, especially melee companions, and especially especially the good, good robot dog.
  • The hard part's over now, you can skip the next section if you want.

Skills and Perks

  • For combat skills, pick one and go all-in. Whether it's Melee, Unarmed, Guns, Energy Weapons, or Explosives, pick one, and pick out perks that support it and work well with it. It doesn't hurt to be putting points into a secondary weapon type, but focus your combat perks on whatever you intend to be best at. (Do note that some of the best Melee perks require Unarmed skill, and vice-versa.) Explosives are a bit expensive to be a main if you don't know what you're doing, but exploring the right areas can take some of the edge off.
  • Survival is a garbage skill that does nothing of value, even in Hardcore mode. Most of what you'd want it to do is actually behind Medical, Science, or Repair.
  • Speech and Barter can be worth putting a few points into even if you don't lean into them. If you're just shy of making a check, fancy clothes, a magazine and chems/alcohol can close the gap.
  • Make sure to level at least one of Lockpick and Science, most good loot is locked behind one or both of them.
  • Perks that increase skill point gain are not retroactive, so take them early. Avoid XP-boosting perks, there is more than enough to comfortably hit the level cap with even a modicum of exploration.

Gameplay / Exploration

  • There are no missables, although you can't do everything in one playthrough. There is no way to totally fail most quests (except contradictory ones from different people - kill this guy vs rescue this guy) so pick a character archetype to roleplay and just do it. You might "fail" some quests but you really won't.
  • Much like Fallout 3, if a container isn't "secure" then the game may or may not remember what you stored in it. Containers in your personal houses and rooms are secure, containers elsewhere generally aren't. The first accessible ones are the blue Mohave Express drop boxes, which will freely hold and transfer an infinite amount of stuff between them once you find two or more. (There are five, one each in Goodsprings, Primm, Novac, Freeside, and the Strip.)
  • Karma is basically a nonissue, it's faction reputation that's important. The only companion (and really the only NPC) who gives a shit about Karma is Cass, who'll leave if it's too low for too long, but several care about faction reputation.
  • If you are wearing a faction's armor, people will think you are a member of that faction. For example, you will be attacked if you return to Goodsprings wearing Powder Ganger armor.
  • At a certain point in the main plot, there's a one-time event where negative reputation with the NCR and the Legion will be cleared. Outside of this, there isn't really an easy way to repair your reputation with a faction once they start getting violent.
  • Run from Cazadores until you get lots of poison antidotes or have done the Old World Blues DLC. The poison is bugged and can infinitely stack every time they hit you. This is also one of the fore-mentioned enemies that can kill companions dead extremely quickly.
  • Armor uses Damage Threshold (which subtracts points of damage off the top) now instead of Damage Resistance (which reduced all damage by a percentage). This makes Deathclaws even deadlier than before, if you can believe it. Use AP ammo on them, preferably from an extreme distance. There's no Dart Gun equivalent to neuter them anymore, either.

Building a Combat God

  • Wanna just play the game for the story and absolutely roll over everything even remotely challenging? Or, alternatively, wanna stand a fighting chance at max difficulty? This is how. Mechanical and location spoilers follow.
  • 5 STR, 8 PER, 7 END, 1 CHA, 9 INT, 5 AGI, 7 LUC. Tag Energy Weapons, Repair, and Science. Take Hoarder and Wild Wasteland.
  • Key perks early/mid perks are Educated, Comprehension, Toughness, Meltdown, Vigilant Recycler, and Jury Rigging.
  • Make Overcharged and Maximum energy cells at repair benches once you have Jury Rigging to easily repair the damage to your weapons.
  • The Plasma Caster is the best all-round energy weapon in terms of damage, fire rate and ammo usage. You'll find it in the Silver Rush in New Vegas. Steal it or kill everyone inside.
  • The Pulse Pistol in Vault 34 (where the Boomers live) eviscerates robots.
  • Northwest of the strip is a little town called the Horowitz farmstead. Just north of that is an extremely deadly Wild Wasteland-specific unique energy weapon, wielded by a unique enemy. Use the ammo carefully, you're not getting any more of it.
  • Don't use a melee companion, Meltdown will kill them dead fast.

DLC / Modding

  • Play through the DLC in release order, so Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and then Lonesome Road. They're individual side stories but each one also contains buildup for the last one and they're all pretty awesome in their own ways. Dead Money recommends level 20 or higher, but it can be done at as low as 10-15 if you're a combat monster. It does have some high Speech and Lockpick checks, so pump those skills first if you plan to go in early.
  • Before even starting the game, if you're on PC, you're going to want a UI fixer (MTUI), the New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE), New Vegas Anti-Crash (NVAC), an unofficial bugfix patch (YUP or UPP+), and the Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM). These can be added quickly and painlessly even if you don't want to fuck around with modding.
  • If you want to mod more, add one at a time, make sure it works, and unless all of the mods you're using are explicitly compatible, be prepared for some odd crashes and fiddling with load order. Good places to start are Project Nevada, Weapon Mods Expanded, and The Someguyseries (New Vegas Bounties, et al.) for gameplay, and Fellout, Interior Lighting Overhaul, Fallout Character Overhaul, and one of the several texture replacement mods for visuals.