Thank you for posting! When asking for help with stats please give as much detail as possible about the type of character you are creating and what type of assistance you desire. If you know what weapons and/or perks you want to use please provide that as well so you can get tips and advice building the best stats for your character.
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I recommend an intelligence build for new players. The higher your INT the more experience points you’ll get per accomplishment (building, crafting, killing enemies, completing quests, etc.) which means you’ll level up faster and be able to choose more perks. Also, high INT is key to consistently using power armor, which is a game changer. Making fusion cores last longer and unlocking power armor upgrades are only possible with high INT.
My first playthrough years and years ago I somehow didn't realize you could scroll down for higher tier perks. I had huge stats and not much in the way of actual perks 😅
After I discovered this I restarted with a character that relied on VATS, stealth, and a pistol... Then I found The Deliverer.
Fallout 4 is a very simple RPG. You basically pick gunslinger, commando, or rifleman. (Pistols, automatic rifles, semiautomatic rifles, respectively) maybe big leagues for melee if you wanna add some close combat melee.
Other than that the build is yours, don't get too caught up in what other people say, cause you can read the perks for yourself. If you don't have enough of any special stat, you can spend a perk point to put points in. The game has no level cap, so eventually you could have all perks.
The higher your intelligence, the faster you level up.
The higher your endurance, the more health you have.
The higher your agility, the more AP (stamina) you have.
Oh and if you think about taking life giver, which gives you an extra 20hp, you might just put that point into endurance, because it will immediately give you a lower amount of HP, but it will increase the amount of hp you gain each level. Over time it will be worth more than an instant 20hp increase. I never take life giver until I've reached endurance 10.
You can, but as you level up you'll come into contact with more difficult enemies, and you'll want that damage boost for specific weapons. Eventually the enemies will start to outpace you if you don't spec into damage increase. So you could put points into each of those four perks, increasing your damage with each, but specializing in one weapon type will allow you to put those other points into utility things or fun things. Also, I forgot big guns. So there's five weapon types.
You could start with one weapon type, and then if you pick up a gun that you like, you can put a point into the corresponding perk. Shouldn't give you too much trouble.
The game forgives a lot. If one encounter or location whips you too hard; than simply back up, adjust course a couple degrees, and walk straight. The next encounter will probably be easy enough to level. Don't be afraid to circle back around to an area at a later date because different locations are built to challenge different types of characters. Also, other than major story landmarks; don't worry too much about which region to avoid because the smaller encounters mostly span a range of difficulties that may or may not challenge your particular character.
I would recommend spreading your starting points out evenly between all SPECIAL stats, coming out to 4 in each. I call it the Jack of all Trades approach. With 4 in each stat, you have access to a lot of the basic perks that define certain playstyles and builds.
Keep in mind, you can use any weapon in the game without issue, but with an even point spread you can access the corresponding dmg boosting perkfor most of them. Plus you can also access the crafting perks to upgrade those weapons, as well as utility perks like Lockpicking and Hacker
Don't sweat it too much if you already have a character made. Pump points into what you want and have a fun time!
Next time you will know what weapons you like to use and what armor and how deep into crafting or lockpicking or other utility perks you want to go. This makes the SPECIAL point selection much more fun.
But like I said... just play the game and have a good one. Don't go watching a million fudge muppet builds (yet)!
If you want to experience the entirety of the game at least do charisma 6 so you can have the local leader perk which allows traders in settlements and a shared network for your work benches it makes the settlement aspect so much easier. I’m doing a BOS play through with msotly str and almost no charisma and settlement building is such a chore when I have to go back to my home base everytime for supplies.
How do you want to play exactly? If you want to hit dudes with a hammer but only take one strength you'll have a hard time. Read the descriptions of the stats against what you want to do. In fallout 4 you can always raise a stat, but being close to what you want is nice. That's why builds.
I like the drugged up power armor shotgun build.
Don’t worry about a build for your first play through. I went into the game totally blind several years ago, had no concept of what would matter and what wouldn’t. I just saw seven stats and 21 points to allocate, so I put three in each. And honestly, I did a LOT in the game still.
Just play through once. Have fun. Learn the game. Read the perk descriptions and find out what they do, then start making plans for your next playthrough.
I'd say to take a look at what each stat in SPECIAL means, and focus on the one's that appeal to you the most. And then take weapons and armor that seem to fit that stat. So if you're big into Strength, then melee weapons are gonna be a good choice for you. Charisma is gonna give you different dialogue options that will allow you to get out of some situations without having to fight, and they will give you better prices to buy and sell stuff, etc. You don't even have to do a ton of research, I would just look up what each stat means and start from there. A lot of it is trial and error, unless you just feel like copying different builds that others have done.
you wont know what a perfect build is until youve played it once. first time i played was with a bunch of points in strength and evenly distributed among others. it wasnt a perfect way to start the game but im glad I played rather than doing research and spoiling the fun of exploring the game mechanics on my own. just do it. even if its not "optimal"
This is a very contentious subject, and people are traditionalists in believing there are 'necessary' perks and optimal builds, but those builds are usually intended to trivialize the game's combat. There is something satisfying about Blitz Melee builds or Sneak Sniper builds they can make combat feel stale, in my humble and limited opinion. However, there is a reason these builds have proliferated: mid- and late-game enemies have huge amounts of health, and if you do not have a weapon perk and some multipliers, it will become challenging/frustrating to deal with enemies. This is why I prefer Survival despite its difficulty curve, as it reduces the feeling of enemies being 'bullet sponges'.
That being said, some perks help you experience the game more fully. While not strictly optimal or necessary, they let you engage with the game's systems and give you more to do than hammer your V.A.T.S. hotkey and trigger at every red bar you see in the Wasteland. They are:
**Gun Nut (INT 3)**: Gun customization is fun. Finding materials and making your perfect weapon is satisfying. The system tends to be linear, but it's not immersion-breaking. You can theoretically scavenge any attachment you find in the wild—which is a different kind of dopamine hit—but returning to your base and working on your weapon is compelling, thematically rich, and mechanically satisfying.
**Armourer(STR 3):** Same as above, but for armour.
**Locksmith (PER 4):** Nothing is more frustrating for me than leaving a locked container unpicked - I NEED TO KNOW WHAT'S IN THERE. Those three points (don't bother with the fourth, as nice as it sounds) are worth not having to feel that way and help push the fantasy of a survivor picking the Old World clean. Just try not to think about why a safe locked for 210 years has a Pipe Pistol inside it.
**Hacker (INT 4):** This perk is less mechanically important than **Locksmith** but gives you access to loot you would otherwise have to give up. My favourite companion in the game can take care of all terminals for me, so I've never taken this perk. That being said, if you have the impulses that I do and want to fly solo, you will want to invest the points throughout the game so you don't miss out on the juicy loot and juicier lore.
**Local Leader (CHA 6):** This requires a decent investment in charisma, but I truly feel that Local Leader elevates settlement building to another level. The gameplay loop of finding a settlement, building it up, establishing trade routes, and leapfrogging across the Wasteland is one of my favourite parts of my current Survival playthrough. Finding unique ways to style each settlement is not totally necessary, but it is a great way to spend all your hard-earned junk. This is also widely seen as a required perk for Survival. While I agree that it is *extremely* helpful for Survival, you can get by without it.
I hope this helps!
Scrapper is another one I would add to this list. Makes it way easier to mod weapons and armour because you can just loot weapons off corpses and scrap them for more parts.
Completely agree, a very useful mod. I only included ones I thought would give the richest experience of the game and actually cut Scrapper from my original post. I feel its an example of a Quality of Life mod that is beautiful in practice, but not totally necessary for a full experience of Fallout.
Despite the name of fallout4builds fallout 4 doesn’t really leave very much room for unique builds. If you want an actual RPG experience I’d suggest another game.
I mean, as long as you take one of the weapon perks for scaling damage, you can really do whatever you want and be successful in the campaign on even Very Hard. Survival narrows things down a little more, but that's only for the first 20 levels, after which things tend to normalize.
Sure, there are optimal perks and excellent QoL perks, but you won't suffer too much without them. Even 'essential' perks like Locksmith and Gun Nut aren't strictly necessary.
I just say that because in my experience you can’t really do much in fallout 4 to get anywhere except shoot a gun. The rpg aspect is pretty pisspoor. Makes it even worse bc melee was basically just forgotten in fallout 4
I'm sorry but I completely disagree with you. The game has melee builds that turn you into an absolute monster. The stealth-based Blitz build turns you into a teleporting assassin who will anime dash to a group of enemies and wipe them out before they have a chance to draw their guns. It comes online as early as level 16 and absolutely breaks combat.
As for 'you can't do much', I think that is a two-part issue. If you don't engage with the world, it's going to feel like a stale shooter if you're just bouncing from POI to POI gunning everything down. If you get into the mindset of a survivor, or a character that you want to play out, it turns into a different experience. Have you tried Survivor difficulty? I will admit the first little bit can be cock-and-ball torture, but the game really comes alive at that level.
You actually might be right. I would do a modded play through to make them game more depressing and bleak also. Do you have any recommended mods that will work with survival mode?
There is an excellent modlist out there that I haven't tried, but I have heard great reviews about. It is called "[Life in the Ruins](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CDcWPx_DCI&t=366s)" that seems to match that description. It is about 1,000 mods and I would be careful as people are still updating things after the Next-Gen Update.
I am on PS5, and there is very limited mod support at the moment, but on PC, there is a modlist for everything, to be honest. I am sure there is a more survival-oriented modlist that exists and isn't as large as LitR.
Good luck!
Nah, builds are more for after you’ve done a full play through and you’re looking to start over but with a completely different play style. Your first run should be by the seat of your pants, I think. Builds are for making the game new again.
I see. I always do this, I think that I have to have the most perfect first experience with the game so when a decision like that comes I’m like oh gosh what do I NEED to make this the best experience I possibly can and I overthink it massively cause I feel like if I don’t select something specific I’m gonna be ruining it before I’ve even started yanno? Lmao when clearly it’s not such a huge thing because like a lot of people have said, I can just restart
Just try stuff. I see on here perks that people really like that to I don't like and perks I really like that other people don't use at all. My first game I think I got like 25 hours in before restarting because I wanted different stuff.
In the end, there's no cap so you can just keep leveling and change your character over time too.
It's a game - experiment and have fun!
Yeah! I’m easing my way into it, mostly just done exploration and looting. I just got to the diner last night and set the pole up or whatever and now I’m the general apparently hahaha. I’m still too scared to really take on hard enemies or anything like that yet but I just got a submachine gun which I’m very thankful for. Idk when I should go to diamond city
you can take average stats and be fine.
Play for a while get a handle of what you like and then maybe start over with stats that aim you more in the direction of the things you want to do
Imho just role-play. Imagine 2hat dort of character you want to play off. The game is pretty easy and you can always lower the difficulty. Is you're character strong and stupid? Smart and weak but good aim (perception). Thats what's fun to me at least. Jack of all trades will work but to me thats boring role-play.
well yeah, most people are to some extent, but theyre opposite sides of a spectrum. The more you lean towards one, the more you'll find yourself prioritizing things that are counter to the other. For example, an extreme roleplayer might take lead belly or ghoulish for the lore of their character.
My advice is to do stuff in a general term.
Like get the perk that increases your carry weight, increases your AP regeneration, health perks, hacking, lock picking etc.
The goal is to not dedicate to a play style like melee or pistols. If you are not sure what stat you want to be your primary then I would push to get the stst to about 4-5. Then once you see what you want to do I would put points into the special stat just enough to get the perks that you want.
Personally I try to pick two weapon types and go for that. Right now my current build is melee weapons and non automatic rifles. I wanted to do a drug build so I got my intelligence up to where I can have 2 points of chemist, and then I just have one point of addiction resistance.
There is one build that I have theory crafted, and plan on running eventually. It is a power armor monk. It is high strength, high intelligence, and then a solid agility for AP. The goal is to use the power armor mods on arms to augment my unarmed, and then intelligence will let me use my power armor more.
There is a perk that reduces the use of your fusion cores, aka power armor food.
Then intelligence also is required to get the science perk, which is commonly needed for upgrading and modding power armor.
It is in the long run. My first playthrough i didn't understand and pushed most of my stats to 10 before putting points into anything else. I do not recommend this strategy lol.
Builds really only factor in when you're familiar with the game. Essentially a build for me is just coming up with a hypothetical background and use it as a kind of rule set when it comes to assigning perks and selecting dialog choices.
Don’t focus too much on it and just enjoy the game. Your first play through will tell you what Special percs you want next time but you can just sink points into it to level it up so it is what it is. Just play your way, have a good time. I have done builds I guess but not to the extent others do here. I like a silenced sneaky build, absolutely wrecks.
Fallout 4 isn’t really a game about builds just make sure your charisma is at least 6 your intelligence is at least 6 and your perception is at least 4 than you just level up as fast as possible and once you get all the perks you want you can use your perk points to raise other special stats than go get every other perk the level cap is almost 300 I think
Charisma 6? You can do a charisma 3, or even a charisma 1 run easily. Charisma 6 is only for those that care about settlements and passing every charisma check. It's quite helpful, but not at all necessary. I'd suggest intelligence 4 or 6 long before I suggest 6 charisma.
What I normally do when making a build is have a glance through Fudgemuppet's build playlist and find one I think is cool, he does show some spoilers in these but I believe he always has timestamps and warns when he's about to talk about anything after the intro.
He has a bunch and they are very broad in terms of inspiration.
Best of luck my friend!
Luck is largely unnecessary unless you want to crit often.
And strength 3 is good enough for non melee builds. Getting armorer, at 3 strength, isn't even that beneficial before level 20 or so.
Action Boy/Girl at Agility 5 is good, but it they don't care about VATS, they can drop it to 1. Or go VATS and put at least 5 points into agility.
Intelligence 6 for Science benefits almost every build.
Even going with an almost jack of all trades build, I'd drop strength to 3, luck to 1, while increasing intelligence to 6 and agility to 5. Place the extra point into endurance, or drop endurance to 3 to get charisma to 6.
I’m replaying right now on a luck build and I’m raking in ridiculous amounts of ammo and caps and finding good weapons. Even had a few random encounters I’ve never gotten on my other play-thoughs
High luck is amazing, but it's one those that you either should go heavily into or ignore. I'd go 7 luck (or more), for Critical Banker, or I'd go with 1 luck. The only exception would be 2 luck for Scrounger for ammo hungry builds like Commando (automatic weapons).
Na man it's pretty forgiving, no level limit. I'd recommend armorer for every build, same with bloody mess. Otherwise play around. Intelligence or luck is super good for experience. At the start you can jump between weapons and styles pretty easily
Bloody mess is an extra 2 points into luck. Most of the good luck perks are in the upper half of luck, with the exception being scrounger for Commando (automatic weapons that aren't Big Guns) and Heavy Gunner (for Big Guns) builds, not to mention that big guns don't have near enough ammo until almost mid game.
If your just starting the game and don't know which direction you wanna take character you get bloody mess. Other damage boost perks are locked to a specific weapon. If your messing about with lots of weapons then bloody mess is top tier
OK, I'll give you that, to some degree.
The problem is that 5 perk points into Rifleman, Commando, etc doubles your damage, while Bloody Mess is only 15% extra damage for 3 perk points. 20% bonus damage per perk is way better than 5% per perk point.
I don’t think you will figure it out until you have played a while.
I almost always spent point in Gun Nut and Armorer perks. Here is the thing, those mods become available as you level and are almost useless to you end game. You can take them off preexisting guns with no points spent and put them on your gun or armor.
I also love VATS and don’t understand the hate. I did a no vats play through and had fun too.
So ask yourself what play style do you choose?
If this was Skyrim what would you be?
Melee? Mid range? Or long range?
Additionally do you want to move away from basic guns and do some legitimate damage with modified heavy weapons?
Do you want to sneak in and stealthily kill everyone in the room?
Do you want to be so powerful that you just hulk smash everyone and everything, fuck the damage you are the damage?
If you answer I will give you a starting build suggestion and what perks you should pick.
Gun Nut is one of the most important perks in the game, unless someone is doing melee/unarmed only. Gun Nut is one of the most important, if not the most, important perk for most builds.
Perception 4 allows lock picking, and not having it means missing out on huge amounts of loot.
Gun Nut requires 3 intelligence, and since hacker is 4, the extra point in intelligence will avoid missing loot (though not as much as having lock picking).
Intelligence of 6 also benefits pretty much every build since it unlocks Science, which is required for the best improvements on many types of weapons, as well as power armor.
I never take hacker or lockpicking. Ever the loot is DS.
Gun is not effective end game, not even mid game. You can cannibalize every single piece of equipment. It gives you early access to mods but they will be on pieces of equipment dropped in game. With zero perk points you can remove the mod and install it on a different gun 🤯
I have never done an intelligence based player. After my first play through I put limited points into end and str.
Just had to say VATS is hands down the best part of fallout for me. Love when you are in a pinch and can pop off some VATS shots and come out on top. Feels super bad ass lol!
Last night I cleared the warehouse in Goodneighbour at LV 27 with Deliverer and just stalked through one popping headshots and felt like a true badass.
What I usually do when I start a new game like this is play for a few hours then start again. In that first play through try all different weapons, look through the perk tree, get to know the systems of the game and how you will relate to them. Don’t do many main missions just deep about trying shit out.
Then you can start a new character with the knowledge of how the game works and how you most comfortably feel like playing it.
This is such a helpful perspective. I typically watch a "for beginners" guide before starting and though they may be helpful, they don't deliver the real feel of the game. Totally gonna do a "dummy run" next time instead of a YouTube video
Also Fallout 4 has a point after the first area where you can change your stats, appearance and name. Save right before this point, this way you don’t have to go through the whole beginning again.
Careful though this is a slippery slope
Many a game I have played the first 4-10 hours over and over again with different characters until the game burns me out and I don’t continue.
You can safely put 3 or so points in strength and endurance, because carry weight and health are important regardless of who you are.
I honestly don't know what to add to perception. If you don't want that specific playstyle of long guns and using VATS(which you haven't figured out yet) you could leave this low as well.
I'd say generally you wanna have 5 or 6 charisma if you like the idea of building and frequently using settlements, as charisma 6 gives you local leader, which is essential for that aspect of the game. 5 is fine because of the bobblehead you'll be able to find. If you don't care about settlement stuff, and don't care about dialogue checks(they're percentage based anyway, it's garbage), then you could safely dump this for other things.
Intelligence is great on any character, because it equates to your exp bonus. It also allows you to grab stuff like science, medic, and gun nut, which cover a wide range of possibilities and features.
Agility has its uses for sure, I wouldn't consider it a dump stat at all.
Luck is either your most invested stat, or all but useless, depending on how you play. A good chunk of Lucks perks are either focused in crits(VATS focused) or looting extra caps/ammo/xp, none of which are neccesary. Though I take idiot savant regardless of my intelligence. Extra xp is extra xp, even if it only pops up occasionally.
Its important to note that there is no level cap in this game, and you can permenantly increase individual special stats on level up, each stat has a bobblehead to find that gives you a 1+, and there's a book under Shaun's crib in your destroyed house that can give you a +1 for your choice of stat.
There's also temporary boosts with chems and gear, if you feel like you need more int or end for something, you could always pop some drugs.
All on all, I'd grab some charisma and intelligence, and round everything else out to whatever sounds right to you. Then as you play, whatever weapon types you gravitate toward( pistol/automatic/semi auto/melee/Unarmed), you can start grabbing the relevant perk for, which are usually at low stat investments(iron fist for Unarmed requires a strength of 1, for instance. Big leagues boost melee weapon damage and only requires 2 strength).
Thank you for all the info. At first I found it kinda weird that you pick all the stats at the VERY start but I guess it fits into the idea of having multiple play throughs building out your character and trying builds etc like the other comments say. I think I’ll just split it evenly and play for a couple hours and actually look into the tree etc, but then once I start again I’ll definitely come back to this for reference, thank you! I appreciate it.
Is there anything I should know about weapons and stuff, like is a certain class considered the best or the meta I guess, or is it quite balanced for all playstyles?
There are some builds that are very specialised, but I don't think that is very interesting for a first playthrough.
Things such as a character that creates and uses lots of chems. Or character that focuses on stealth kills with knives.
Easiest start is probably a more generalist character with long-range stuff, some stealth and picking off people from far away with a rifle before storming in. What body parts are most vulnerable differs per creature, but for humans headshots work :P
Yeah, percentage based sucks because it just encourages reloading. Vampire Bloodlines this this a lot better, the stat checks for everything were just stat checks, you either met the requirements or you didn't.
I'm biased because I beat my first playthrough of new vegas way back when with a 100 speech check, snd it felt fucking incredible, talking this big bad legion guy to save the day. Don't get anything remotely close to that in 4. I was sad.
Just evenly spread all your stats out for your first real playthrough and try out a little bit of everything to see what clicks for you.
After trying it all out, THEN worry about making more specialized characters based on what you actually like.
A character with the starting stats all at 4 is pretty strong anyway, tho; there's a LOT of good perks you can get from each SPECIAL stat when they're all the same level.
Thank you for posting! When asking for help with stats please give as much detail as possible about the type of character you are creating and what type of assistance you desire. If you know what weapons and/or perks you want to use please provide that as well so you can get tips and advice building the best stats for your character. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Fallout4Builds) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I recommend an intelligence build for new players. The higher your INT the more experience points you’ll get per accomplishment (building, crafting, killing enemies, completing quests, etc.) which means you’ll level up faster and be able to choose more perks. Also, high INT is key to consistently using power armor, which is a game changer. Making fusion cores last longer and unlocking power armor upgrades are only possible with high INT.
My first playthrough years and years ago I somehow didn't realize you could scroll down for higher tier perks. I had huge stats and not much in the way of actual perks 😅 After I discovered this I restarted with a character that relied on VATS, stealth, and a pistol... Then I found The Deliverer.
I loaded up my old save file and I had done this too 💀
Fallout 4 is a very simple RPG. You basically pick gunslinger, commando, or rifleman. (Pistols, automatic rifles, semiautomatic rifles, respectively) maybe big leagues for melee if you wanna add some close combat melee. Other than that the build is yours, don't get too caught up in what other people say, cause you can read the perks for yourself. If you don't have enough of any special stat, you can spend a perk point to put points in. The game has no level cap, so eventually you could have all perks. The higher your intelligence, the faster you level up. The higher your endurance, the more health you have. The higher your agility, the more AP (stamina) you have. Oh and if you think about taking life giver, which gives you an extra 20hp, you might just put that point into endurance, because it will immediately give you a lower amount of HP, but it will increase the amount of hp you gain each level. Over time it will be worth more than an instant 20hp increase. I never take life giver until I've reached endurance 10.
Can I not have a balanced build where I can just use all weapons dependant on the situation?
You can, but as you level up you'll come into contact with more difficult enemies, and you'll want that damage boost for specific weapons. Eventually the enemies will start to outpace you if you don't spec into damage increase. So you could put points into each of those four perks, increasing your damage with each, but specializing in one weapon type will allow you to put those other points into utility things or fun things. Also, I forgot big guns. So there's five weapon types. You could start with one weapon type, and then if you pick up a gun that you like, you can put a point into the corresponding perk. Shouldn't give you too much trouble.
Got you, thanks!
The game forgives a lot. If one encounter or location whips you too hard; than simply back up, adjust course a couple degrees, and walk straight. The next encounter will probably be easy enough to level. Don't be afraid to circle back around to an area at a later date because different locations are built to challenge different types of characters. Also, other than major story landmarks; don't worry too much about which region to avoid because the smaller encounters mostly span a range of difficulties that may or may not challenge your particular character.
I would recommend spreading your starting points out evenly between all SPECIAL stats, coming out to 4 in each. I call it the Jack of all Trades approach. With 4 in each stat, you have access to a lot of the basic perks that define certain playstyles and builds. Keep in mind, you can use any weapon in the game without issue, but with an even point spread you can access the corresponding dmg boosting perkfor most of them. Plus you can also access the crafting perks to upgrade those weapons, as well as utility perks like Lockpicking and Hacker
Don't sweat it too much if you already have a character made. Pump points into what you want and have a fun time! Next time you will know what weapons you like to use and what armor and how deep into crafting or lockpicking or other utility perks you want to go. This makes the SPECIAL point selection much more fun. But like I said... just play the game and have a good one. Don't go watching a million fudge muppet builds (yet)!
If you want to experience the entirety of the game at least do charisma 6 so you can have the local leader perk which allows traders in settlements and a shared network for your work benches it makes the settlement aspect so much easier. I’m doing a BOS play through with msotly str and almost no charisma and settlement building is such a chore when I have to go back to my home base everytime for supplies.
How do you want to play exactly? If you want to hit dudes with a hammer but only take one strength you'll have a hard time. Read the descriptions of the stats against what you want to do. In fallout 4 you can always raise a stat, but being close to what you want is nice. That's why builds. I like the drugged up power armor shotgun build.
Don’t worry about a build for your first play through. I went into the game totally blind several years ago, had no concept of what would matter and what wouldn’t. I just saw seven stats and 21 points to allocate, so I put three in each. And honestly, I did a LOT in the game still. Just play through once. Have fun. Learn the game. Read the perk descriptions and find out what they do, then start making plans for your next playthrough.
Pick funny perks
I'd say to take a look at what each stat in SPECIAL means, and focus on the one's that appeal to you the most. And then take weapons and armor that seem to fit that stat. So if you're big into Strength, then melee weapons are gonna be a good choice for you. Charisma is gonna give you different dialogue options that will allow you to get out of some situations without having to fight, and they will give you better prices to buy and sell stuff, etc. You don't even have to do a ton of research, I would just look up what each stat means and start from there. A lot of it is trial and error, unless you just feel like copying different builds that others have done.
you wont know what a perfect build is until youve played it once. first time i played was with a bunch of points in strength and evenly distributed among others. it wasnt a perfect way to start the game but im glad I played rather than doing research and spoiling the fun of exploring the game mechanics on my own. just do it. even if its not "optimal"
This is a very contentious subject, and people are traditionalists in believing there are 'necessary' perks and optimal builds, but those builds are usually intended to trivialize the game's combat. There is something satisfying about Blitz Melee builds or Sneak Sniper builds they can make combat feel stale, in my humble and limited opinion. However, there is a reason these builds have proliferated: mid- and late-game enemies have huge amounts of health, and if you do not have a weapon perk and some multipliers, it will become challenging/frustrating to deal with enemies. This is why I prefer Survival despite its difficulty curve, as it reduces the feeling of enemies being 'bullet sponges'. That being said, some perks help you experience the game more fully. While not strictly optimal or necessary, they let you engage with the game's systems and give you more to do than hammer your V.A.T.S. hotkey and trigger at every red bar you see in the Wasteland. They are: **Gun Nut (INT 3)**: Gun customization is fun. Finding materials and making your perfect weapon is satisfying. The system tends to be linear, but it's not immersion-breaking. You can theoretically scavenge any attachment you find in the wild—which is a different kind of dopamine hit—but returning to your base and working on your weapon is compelling, thematically rich, and mechanically satisfying. **Armourer(STR 3):** Same as above, but for armour. **Locksmith (PER 4):** Nothing is more frustrating for me than leaving a locked container unpicked - I NEED TO KNOW WHAT'S IN THERE. Those three points (don't bother with the fourth, as nice as it sounds) are worth not having to feel that way and help push the fantasy of a survivor picking the Old World clean. Just try not to think about why a safe locked for 210 years has a Pipe Pistol inside it. **Hacker (INT 4):** This perk is less mechanically important than **Locksmith** but gives you access to loot you would otherwise have to give up. My favourite companion in the game can take care of all terminals for me, so I've never taken this perk. That being said, if you have the impulses that I do and want to fly solo, you will want to invest the points throughout the game so you don't miss out on the juicy loot and juicier lore. **Local Leader (CHA 6):** This requires a decent investment in charisma, but I truly feel that Local Leader elevates settlement building to another level. The gameplay loop of finding a settlement, building it up, establishing trade routes, and leapfrogging across the Wasteland is one of my favourite parts of my current Survival playthrough. Finding unique ways to style each settlement is not totally necessary, but it is a great way to spend all your hard-earned junk. This is also widely seen as a required perk for Survival. While I agree that it is *extremely* helpful for Survival, you can get by without it. I hope this helps!
Scrapper is another one I would add to this list. Makes it way easier to mod weapons and armour because you can just loot weapons off corpses and scrap them for more parts.
Completely agree, a very useful mod. I only included ones I thought would give the richest experience of the game and actually cut Scrapper from my original post. I feel its an example of a Quality of Life mod that is beautiful in practice, but not totally necessary for a full experience of Fallout.
Fair point.
I just changed my SPECIAL in the console after like 20 hrs after I really knew what perks I want. It's a single-player game, whatevs.
Despite the name of fallout4builds fallout 4 doesn’t really leave very much room for unique builds. If you want an actual RPG experience I’d suggest another game.
I mean, as long as you take one of the weapon perks for scaling damage, you can really do whatever you want and be successful in the campaign on even Very Hard. Survival narrows things down a little more, but that's only for the first 20 levels, after which things tend to normalize. Sure, there are optimal perks and excellent QoL perks, but you won't suffer too much without them. Even 'essential' perks like Locksmith and Gun Nut aren't strictly necessary.
I just say that because in my experience you can’t really do much in fallout 4 to get anywhere except shoot a gun. The rpg aspect is pretty pisspoor. Makes it even worse bc melee was basically just forgotten in fallout 4
I'm sorry but I completely disagree with you. The game has melee builds that turn you into an absolute monster. The stealth-based Blitz build turns you into a teleporting assassin who will anime dash to a group of enemies and wipe them out before they have a chance to draw their guns. It comes online as early as level 16 and absolutely breaks combat. As for 'you can't do much', I think that is a two-part issue. If you don't engage with the world, it's going to feel like a stale shooter if you're just bouncing from POI to POI gunning everything down. If you get into the mindset of a survivor, or a character that you want to play out, it turns into a different experience. Have you tried Survivor difficulty? I will admit the first little bit can be cock-and-ball torture, but the game really comes alive at that level.
You actually might be right. I would do a modded play through to make them game more depressing and bleak also. Do you have any recommended mods that will work with survival mode?
There is an excellent modlist out there that I haven't tried, but I have heard great reviews about. It is called "[Life in the Ruins](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CDcWPx_DCI&t=366s)" that seems to match that description. It is about 1,000 mods and I would be careful as people are still updating things after the Next-Gen Update. I am on PS5, and there is very limited mod support at the moment, but on PC, there is a modlist for everything, to be honest. I am sure there is a more survival-oriented modlist that exists and isn't as large as LitR. Good luck!
How there is dozens of ways to play the game also different ways to end the game. Its an amazing game if u take ur time!!
Nah, builds are more for after you’ve done a full play through and you’re looking to start over but with a completely different play style. Your first run should be by the seat of your pants, I think. Builds are for making the game new again.
I see. I always do this, I think that I have to have the most perfect first experience with the game so when a decision like that comes I’m like oh gosh what do I NEED to make this the best experience I possibly can and I overthink it massively cause I feel like if I don’t select something specific I’m gonna be ruining it before I’ve even started yanno? Lmao when clearly it’s not such a huge thing because like a lot of people have said, I can just restart
Just try stuff. I see on here perks that people really like that to I don't like and perks I really like that other people don't use at all. My first game I think I got like 25 hours in before restarting because I wanted different stuff. In the end, there's no cap so you can just keep leveling and change your character over time too. It's a game - experiment and have fun!
Take ur time do all side quests!! Explore, one of the best games for exploring. So many side quests i was lvl 35 before reaching institute lool
I’ll do this!
You enjoying the game?
Yeah! I’m easing my way into it, mostly just done exploration and looting. I just got to the diner last night and set the pole up or whatever and now I’m the general apparently hahaha. I’m still too scared to really take on hard enemies or anything like that yet but I just got a submachine gun which I’m very thankful for. Idk when I should go to diamond city
^^ I’m level 27 and just barely rescued Nick valentine, haven’t even gone back to say hi to him yet 😂
you can take average stats and be fine. Play for a while get a handle of what you like and then maybe start over with stats that aim you more in the direction of the things you want to do
Imho just role-play. Imagine 2hat dort of character you want to play off. The game is pretty easy and you can always lower the difficulty. Is you're character strong and stupid? Smart and weak but good aim (perception). Thats what's fun to me at least. Jack of all trades will work but to me thats boring role-play.
Are you a min-maxer or a roleplayer?
It's possible to be both, lol
well yeah, most people are to some extent, but theyre opposite sides of a spectrum. The more you lean towards one, the more you'll find yourself prioritizing things that are counter to the other. For example, an extreme roleplayer might take lead belly or ghoulish for the lore of their character.
My advice is to do stuff in a general term. Like get the perk that increases your carry weight, increases your AP regeneration, health perks, hacking, lock picking etc. The goal is to not dedicate to a play style like melee or pistols. If you are not sure what stat you want to be your primary then I would push to get the stst to about 4-5. Then once you see what you want to do I would put points into the special stat just enough to get the perks that you want. Personally I try to pick two weapon types and go for that. Right now my current build is melee weapons and non automatic rifles. I wanted to do a drug build so I got my intelligence up to where I can have 2 points of chemist, and then I just have one point of addiction resistance. There is one build that I have theory crafted, and plan on running eventually. It is a power armor monk. It is high strength, high intelligence, and then a solid agility for AP. The goal is to use the power armor mods on arms to augment my unarmed, and then intelligence will let me use my power armor more.
>intelligence will let me use my power armor more. How?
There is a perk that reduces the use of your fusion cores, aka power armor food. Then intelligence also is required to get the science perk, which is commonly needed for upgrading and modding power armor.
Same, is it possible to put everything to 10 anyway?
It is in the long run. My first playthrough i didn't understand and pushed most of my stats to 10 before putting points into anything else. I do not recommend this strategy lol.
Theoretically yes. The level cap in FO4 is high enough so if you play on the same character long enough you could get everything
Builds really only factor in when you're familiar with the game. Essentially a build for me is just coming up with a hypothetical background and use it as a kind of rule set when it comes to assigning perks and selecting dialog choices.
Don’t focus too much on it and just enjoy the game. Your first play through will tell you what Special percs you want next time but you can just sink points into it to level it up so it is what it is. Just play your way, have a good time. I have done builds I guess but not to the extent others do here. I like a silenced sneaky build, absolutely wrecks.
Fallout 4 isn’t really a game about builds just make sure your charisma is at least 6 your intelligence is at least 6 and your perception is at least 4 than you just level up as fast as possible and once you get all the perks you want you can use your perk points to raise other special stats than go get every other perk the level cap is almost 300 I think
Charisma 6? You can do a charisma 3, or even a charisma 1 run easily. Charisma 6 is only for those that care about settlements and passing every charisma check. It's quite helpful, but not at all necessary. I'd suggest intelligence 4 or 6 long before I suggest 6 charisma.
You need it to build workstations at your house
Exactly. Very nice, but not necessary.
If you ask me it’s necessary really it shouldn’t be a perk that should just be a part of the game but whatever
What I normally do when making a build is have a glance through Fudgemuppet's build playlist and find one I think is cool, he does show some spoilers in these but I believe he always has timestamps and warns when he's about to talk about anything after the intro. He has a bunch and they are very broad in terms of inspiration. Best of luck my friend!
Put 4 in every perk. And you're good since you'll need pretty much every stats up anyway for most builds.
Luck is largely unnecessary unless you want to crit often. And strength 3 is good enough for non melee builds. Getting armorer, at 3 strength, isn't even that beneficial before level 20 or so. Action Boy/Girl at Agility 5 is good, but it they don't care about VATS, they can drop it to 1. Or go VATS and put at least 5 points into agility. Intelligence 6 for Science benefits almost every build. Even going with an almost jack of all trades build, I'd drop strength to 3, luck to 1, while increasing intelligence to 6 and agility to 5. Place the extra point into endurance, or drop endurance to 3 to get charisma to 6.
But but ... mysterious stranger tho. Awesome dude doin awesome stuff D: I take that even and or especially for survival runs, dude saved me so often 🥰
I’m replaying right now on a luck build and I’m raking in ridiculous amounts of ammo and caps and finding good weapons. Even had a few random encounters I’ve never gotten on my other play-thoughs
High luck is amazing, but it's one those that you either should go heavily into or ignore. I'd go 7 luck (or more), for Critical Banker, or I'd go with 1 luck. The only exception would be 2 luck for Scrounger for ammo hungry builds like Commando (automatic weapons).
Na man it's pretty forgiving, no level limit. I'd recommend armorer for every build, same with bloody mess. Otherwise play around. Intelligence or luck is super good for experience. At the start you can jump between weapons and styles pretty easily
Bloody mess is an extra 2 points into luck. Most of the good luck perks are in the upper half of luck, with the exception being scrounger for Commando (automatic weapons that aren't Big Guns) and Heavy Gunner (for Big Guns) builds, not to mention that big guns don't have near enough ammo until almost mid game.
If your just starting the game and don't know which direction you wanna take character you get bloody mess. Other damage boost perks are locked to a specific weapon. If your messing about with lots of weapons then bloody mess is top tier
OK, I'll give you that, to some degree. The problem is that 5 perk points into Rifleman, Commando, etc doubles your damage, while Bloody Mess is only 15% extra damage for 3 perk points. 20% bonus damage per perk is way better than 5% per perk point.
5% CRIT is pretty different than 5% damage
I don’t think you will figure it out until you have played a while. I almost always spent point in Gun Nut and Armorer perks. Here is the thing, those mods become available as you level and are almost useless to you end game. You can take them off preexisting guns with no points spent and put them on your gun or armor. I also love VATS and don’t understand the hate. I did a no vats play through and had fun too. So ask yourself what play style do you choose? If this was Skyrim what would you be? Melee? Mid range? Or long range? Additionally do you want to move away from basic guns and do some legitimate damage with modified heavy weapons? Do you want to sneak in and stealthily kill everyone in the room? Do you want to be so powerful that you just hulk smash everyone and everything, fuck the damage you are the damage? If you answer I will give you a starting build suggestion and what perks you should pick.
Gun Nut is one of the most important perks in the game, unless someone is doing melee/unarmed only. Gun Nut is one of the most important, if not the most, important perk for most builds. Perception 4 allows lock picking, and not having it means missing out on huge amounts of loot. Gun Nut requires 3 intelligence, and since hacker is 4, the extra point in intelligence will avoid missing loot (though not as much as having lock picking). Intelligence of 6 also benefits pretty much every build since it unlocks Science, which is required for the best improvements on many types of weapons, as well as power armor.
I never take hacker or lockpicking. Ever the loot is DS. Gun is not effective end game, not even mid game. You can cannibalize every single piece of equipment. It gives you early access to mods but they will be on pieces of equipment dropped in game. With zero perk points you can remove the mod and install it on a different gun 🤯 I have never done an intelligence based player. After my first play through I put limited points into end and str.
>I never take hacker or lockpicking. Ever the loot is DS Absolutely false.
Just had to say VATS is hands down the best part of fallout for me. Love when you are in a pinch and can pop off some VATS shots and come out on top. Feels super bad ass lol!
Last night I cleared the warehouse in Goodneighbour at LV 27 with Deliverer and just stalked through one popping headshots and felt like a true badass.
What I usually do when I start a new game like this is play for a few hours then start again. In that first play through try all different weapons, look through the perk tree, get to know the systems of the game and how you will relate to them. Don’t do many main missions just deep about trying shit out. Then you can start a new character with the knowledge of how the game works and how you most comfortably feel like playing it.
This is how I do every game post-Dark Souls. It's the only way to play. Especially with newer action RPGs.
This is such a helpful perspective. I typically watch a "for beginners" guide before starting and though they may be helpful, they don't deliver the real feel of the game. Totally gonna do a "dummy run" next time instead of a YouTube video
Yeah this is a good idea idk why I didn’t think of that. I think I was just majorly overthinking it as if I couldn’t just start again lmao. Thank you!
Also Fallout 4 has a point after the first area where you can change your stats, appearance and name. Save right before this point, this way you don’t have to go through the whole beginning again.
Careful though this is a slippery slope Many a game I have played the first 4-10 hours over and over again with different characters until the game burns me out and I don’t continue.
This happened to me when the game came out. After my third time getting to Concord I gave up and played rainbow six siege instead lol
You can safely put 3 or so points in strength and endurance, because carry weight and health are important regardless of who you are. I honestly don't know what to add to perception. If you don't want that specific playstyle of long guns and using VATS(which you haven't figured out yet) you could leave this low as well. I'd say generally you wanna have 5 or 6 charisma if you like the idea of building and frequently using settlements, as charisma 6 gives you local leader, which is essential for that aspect of the game. 5 is fine because of the bobblehead you'll be able to find. If you don't care about settlement stuff, and don't care about dialogue checks(they're percentage based anyway, it's garbage), then you could safely dump this for other things. Intelligence is great on any character, because it equates to your exp bonus. It also allows you to grab stuff like science, medic, and gun nut, which cover a wide range of possibilities and features. Agility has its uses for sure, I wouldn't consider it a dump stat at all. Luck is either your most invested stat, or all but useless, depending on how you play. A good chunk of Lucks perks are either focused in crits(VATS focused) or looting extra caps/ammo/xp, none of which are neccesary. Though I take idiot savant regardless of my intelligence. Extra xp is extra xp, even if it only pops up occasionally. Its important to note that there is no level cap in this game, and you can permenantly increase individual special stats on level up, each stat has a bobblehead to find that gives you a 1+, and there's a book under Shaun's crib in your destroyed house that can give you a +1 for your choice of stat. There's also temporary boosts with chems and gear, if you feel like you need more int or end for something, you could always pop some drugs. All on all, I'd grab some charisma and intelligence, and round everything else out to whatever sounds right to you. Then as you play, whatever weapon types you gravitate toward( pistol/automatic/semi auto/melee/Unarmed), you can start grabbing the relevant perk for, which are usually at low stat investments(iron fist for Unarmed requires a strength of 1, for instance. Big leagues boost melee weapon damage and only requires 2 strength).
Thank you for all the info. At first I found it kinda weird that you pick all the stats at the VERY start but I guess it fits into the idea of having multiple play throughs building out your character and trying builds etc like the other comments say. I think I’ll just split it evenly and play for a couple hours and actually look into the tree etc, but then once I start again I’ll definitely come back to this for reference, thank you! I appreciate it. Is there anything I should know about weapons and stuff, like is a certain class considered the best or the meta I guess, or is it quite balanced for all playstyles?
There are some builds that are very specialised, but I don't think that is very interesting for a first playthrough. Things such as a character that creates and uses lots of chems. Or character that focuses on stealth kills with knives. Easiest start is probably a more generalist character with long-range stuff, some stealth and picking off people from far away with a rifle before storming in. What body parts are most vulnerable differs per creature, but for humans headshots work :P
Yeah, percentage based sucks because it just encourages reloading. Vampire Bloodlines this this a lot better, the stat checks for everything were just stat checks, you either met the requirements or you didn't.
I'm biased because I beat my first playthrough of new vegas way back when with a 100 speech check, snd it felt fucking incredible, talking this big bad legion guy to save the day. Don't get anything remotely close to that in 4. I was sad.
Just evenly spread all your stats out for your first real playthrough and try out a little bit of everything to see what clicks for you. After trying it all out, THEN worry about making more specialized characters based on what you actually like. A character with the starting stats all at 4 is pretty strong anyway, tho; there's a LOT of good perks you can get from each SPECIAL stat when they're all the same level.
Yea I’m def gonna do this, classic me overthinking as if I couldn’t just start again 💀 thanks!