Overview
This is the guide for the players who never played Fallout 1 or any turn-based games for that mater, have difficult time to progress in the beginning stages and keep recreating new characters with the hope for better results and do not mind use this specs.
Disclaimer
I don’t consider myself as the authority for Fallout 2, BUT I do play this game quite frequently since 1998, I have 2 hard copies (original for Win 98 and super-pack for XP) and steam version. I regard this game as one of the best ever released (Fallout 1 had better story and ending, but lacking in user friendly features). I recreated all the quests, endings and tricks from fallout-wiki to this game, I even found some of mine own, so I think I can give few tips. The starting character I will suggest is by no means ultimate fighting machine but you will be able to finish the game as solo fighter or with some followers and (s)he will pursue the path of a shooter (eventually). I won’t be writing the walkthrough since there are multiple already written and are ready to be googled, but I will point out the best quests sequence in the first two locations.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
Strength – 5! go down to 5 (ideally I’d love to put to 4, but there are some weapon restrictions) there is a module that will increase your ST by 1, and Advanced Power Armor by +4 so you get your 10.
Perception – 7/9, comes also with the module so you definitely want to start with odd number 7 or 9, I like to go with 9 because when you get rifle you can do aimed shots from pretty far away, on top of that high PE gives you almost every time first one to act, and you get longer distance from opposition in random encounters.
Endurance – 4 this is the stat you milk all the way down. If you go solo keep it at 4 (going down to 2 is also doable), maybe rough at the beginning but later when you get followers and better armor you won’t see the difference. In the few instances that you would need high EN say yes to drugs 🙂 (Buffout)
Charisma – is a little more important here than F1, basically is responsible for number of followers you can have (CH divided by 2 rounding down). Also having higher CH let you bed more NPC’s, it comes with module +1 and *shades* +1, but these sunglasses are difficult to find without somebody telling you where they are. My recommendation for the start is 6.
Intelligence – 9 as you know that stat is for your skill points, so the more the merrier. Again it comes with the module +1 so 7 is good, 9 is better.
Agility – is probably the most important stats since directly affects you action points and armor class. It does not come with any additional modules (well you can have +1 AFTER you finish the game, but this defies the purpose) so starting with even number is recommended (8 or 10). You can start with 9 if you plan on taking perk Gain Agility later, but there are a lot of perks out there to take, than to spend on gain perks. Without a doubt this is the only stat that starting with 10 is a O.K. the reason for that is: very early you will get a gun and the shot will cost you 5AP, in this case you can shoot twice per round, anything less… well, no dice.
Luck – 4 – 8, is very interesting stat, I played with 2 and 10,I would say it’s better to have a little higher than lower, also there are some perks that require LK 6 (Better Criticals for one). Anything between 4 and 8 is fine. Now a little spoiler here, later on in the game you will have option of taking a zeta scan which can increase your LK by +2 BUT it’s random so you better save before you take that, because that scan gives random LK stat change, ranging from -2 to +2.
Note* All the stats can be increased by 1 taking corresponding perk
Summary: ST5, PE9(7), EN4(3-2), CH6(5), IN9, AG10, LK5(4-8)
Traits:
Gifted hands down the best trait out there, for the second contender you have 3 choices:
Finesse – +10% to critical, now picture this: luck 10 and 3*better criticals = 10+10+15=35% of critical chance, theoretically every 3rd shot is crit.
Fast Shot – No targeting but all shooting is reduced by 1 AP (action point), when you later get alien blaster and bonus rate of fire perk you can shot 5 times per round.
Small Frame – Less carry weight for 1 stat point.
Summary: Gifted, Small Frame
Skills:
Rule of thump: don’t go nuts with your skills, 130% is more than enough. Exception is unarmed, you need 161 for the ear.
You need to take some fighting skill, safe bet is small guns (if you patient and read the tricks section, take energy weapons), then tag lock-pick and speech. Now let me quickly tell you why anything else is just waste of a tag.
Science, repair, outdoorsman and first aid you can easy raise to 120 with books alone (*small guns too), then why bother to tag it.
Barter: in the first town you might be short on cash and that skill would help you a bit, but just it only a bit. Soon you will be having loot coming out of your wazoo. Plus it only lower store prices not your merchandise, so that gun for $250 at 10% barter is still $250 at 100%
Steal: very useful until you reach level 8 or so, after that, the amount of experience you get from stealing vs aggravation when you fail the steal check is just not worth it. What worse I didn’t notice any difference in steal checks when I had 60% and 25%. The more items you steal the more exp you get 1-10exp, 2-30exp, 3-50exp, 4-100exp, 5-150exp and so on.
Doctor: raise that skill to 60%, then with proper perk (living anatomy) and conversations in Vault City and New Reno you get up to 80, you can fix that eye injury now.
Gambling: really? you play Fallout for that?
Traps and Sneak they come handy maybe it 2 situations so waste again.
Big Guns: not on first run.
Later on you might want to tag with a perk, melee or unarmed to check different style of play, and I already saw here somebody wrote guide how to get high unarmed without too much skill points spending.
*Note: when your skill reaches 91% you won’t be able to increase further with the reading material, you have to lower you primary stats to take advantage of books.
Summary: Small Guns (Energy Weapons), Lockpick and Speech.
Walkthrough and tactics for maximum experience.
Save often, before any and every conversation because a lot of times you will have ONLY one attempt at the dialog, also before fights(sometimes during).
There are multiple containers and other lootable objects (such as pile of bones and dirt on the ground) that are often obscured by wall so explore with care. Almost everything has a weight so plan accordingly.
ToT (Temple of Trials)
For the purpose of this exercise I’m running the same toon what I just recommended, I even reduced my endurance to 2
If you think you can go blow to blow with ants or scorpions here think again.
First area 5 ants and 5 scorpions kill them all for 25 and 60exp respectively. Now this is important: wait for an ant/scorpion to initiate combat, if it is close to you kick it twice, if not get closer and start kicking, end turn and kick only once. If you have AG 10 then you have 10AP, move away from ant 4 steps (they have 5AP and need 3 to execute attack). Kicking is better since it does more damage, usually 1 kick kills the ant while the punch doesn’t, unless is critical. This will be your strategy for molerats, ants, scorpions and geckos KICK and RUN. Don’t be discouraged if you miss a lot, my record for consecutive misses stands at 17!.
Use the lockpicking skill on the door to the next area (you don’t have to have a lock-pick to open locked containers).
Second area starts with 17 traps + 1 by the door you need to blow up, if you are patient you can disarm them for 25exp. each that’s 450exp right there. More ants and scorpions, Kick and Run again. In the vase there is a bomb, place it close to the door to blow it up.
You keep saving, right? Third and last area, more insects and Cameron is guarding the door. If you picked speech you can talk him out of fighting otherwise steal his key and open the door. Fighting him gives you only 300exp while talking him out of it or stealing his key gives 600exp. If by any chance you managed to kill Cameron, game is over, so I hope you saved before fight.
After exiting the ToT – 1875exp.
Arroyo
You can start stealing from your fellow villagers, most of them don’t have anything, pay attention to your karma, this is only place in the game that you might get punish (-3 karma) just for looking into their pockets.
Fix the well 100exp. Train with Lukas (by head statue) & Jordan(in the tent east of that statue) . Kill plants for Hakunin 100exp plus 170exp for killing them, if you’re getting low on health he can heal you for free.
In the southern area the guard Mynoc by the bridge has sharpened spear (you notice this with higher perception). He send you to your aunt Morlis for flint (she has $100 in container in her tent) if you have 51% speech you can successfully persuade her for giving flint to you for free – 50exp. of course you need to make speech check, if you failed reload and try again…or not. When you go back to Mynoc to sharpen the spear leave all the spears in some container, he will give you one.
Help your cousin with missing dog. Again tactics here are Kick and Run, use all remaining AP’s running away from gecko. You can leave this for later when you have gecko skinning perk, usually there are 5 to 8 geckos here so you would get 125 to 200 bucks for the pelts. You can also pick up the broc flower and xander root so Hakunin will make you healing powder.
Leaving Arroyo – 2725exp
Walkthrough cont.
Klamath:
Steal everything that’s not nailed down to the floor and sell it.
Talk to Sullivan to increase your unarmed and melee skills and 150exp. Ask Dunton’s for work, scare Thor 150exp. and kill the scorpions (hit and run), if you killed scorpions first you cannot scare Thor nor talk to Duntons so order is important. If you don’t have restoration patch only resolution then if you enter combat and end right away the knuckles will appear in Dunton’s inventory, you can do that as many times as you like, they are worth $250 a piece.
Talk to Ardin Buckner for missing Thor, to kill the robot (60HP)– two kicks, move away at least 2 steps (only if you have 10AP!) when you finish the quest ask for Sulik’s freedom. Talk to Sulik to pay out his debt, for $350 you get 500exp. you cannot do that if you talk to Maida.
There is small guns skill book in the bookcase, southern house of the map. Go to bathhouse for some “action” if you want, then ransack Vic’s shack for crappy gun and the radio. Now with Sulik in tow go to trapper town to solve rat-god problem, he can carry 200lb so remember to utilize him. One of the kids has outdoorsman skill book, steal it. Talk to Slim about geckos (increase outdoorsman), and highwayman car.
Give Sulik sharpened spear and make sure in his combat settings he has melee, otherwise he will throw the spear at rats. Later on when you give him a sub-machine gun you have to change settings to range, otherwise he will pocket the gun and he will grab any melee weapon he has in the inventory. Also never stand in front of him when he has a gun, he will mow you with the same extreme prejudice as your opponents.
On the level with rat-god there is your fist pistol and $106 in bone pile, nicely obscured by the wall, expect a lot of these obstructions. Don’t forget to pick up car part from highwayman when you emerge on the other side.
Back in downtown, talk to Ardin Buckner to track down Smiley. Go to Toxic Caves, here you meet upgraded geckos, if they hit you, you might get very low radiation poisoning. Remember to put the boots on and give second pair to Sulik. Keep Sulik not too far and let him attack and take most damage, but keep an eye on his health because your followers could and will die. To heal your follower you can use fist aid kit, doctors bag and/or skill or use healing items from your inventory. NPC’s are immune to poison, radiation and drug addiction so fill free to juice them up
Experiment with the custom combat settings of you fallowers so you will see the difference in Sulik’s behavior. Do not let him charge because he will chase one enemy and you end up fighting with no support. Golden geckos are tougher and have more AP so kick and run doesn’t quite cut it here. Kick or shot them then hide behind Sulik, gecko will go for you but Sulik will attack them, now gecko hits Sulik, it is safe for you to get closer and help him kill it. There is no guarantee that the gecko will attack your NPC so you might try this tactics couple more times.
Try to kill as few these geckos as possible, because you want to came back later for their pelts. Here is also an elevator, the only place in game that require electronic lockpick. If you look at the wall between elevator and generator there is a small locker, inside there are 2 Rad-Away. Take Smiley to exit grid, don’t forget to steal his 10 golden gecko hides, that’s $125×10. Go to Klamath talk to him and he will teach you gecko skinning and some outdoorsman skills.
Now you can do the work for Whiskey Bob since there are a lot of geckos there and you can get their hides. Again run and kick tactics or you can shot if you want, but most likely they will stick to Sulik. If they still attacking you then run further away and make Sulik take agro. After that you can go back to Toxic Caves to kill remaining golden geckos for additional founds.
Leaving Klamath – 15,125exp(level 6), $1,880 in cash and approximately $8K in goods.
Perks & Tricks
Perks:
Try to take perks that will be beneficial for you throughout all the game. At level 3 pick awareness, more criticals at 6.
Comprehension seems like a good perk, but you get there without that perk, it will take only few more books and after you reach the goal this perk becames obsolete. Educated is another one that looks nice on the first glance, but by the level 20 you will have more skill points that you care to use.
If you want for example perk: Rad Resistant that requires EN 6 and you have only 4, just eat Buffout to temporary increase that stat and you can have it. Of course I don’t have idea why would you want to.
Tricks:
So now you reach 91% in small guns and reading just doesn’t cut it. You need to have 3 Buffouts and if you have Monument Chunk from the special encounter then you are golden, here is what you do: eat 2 Buffouts wait 6 hours, eat 1 Buffout (the fourth one doesn’t do anything) wait another 6 hours. Your Agility is 4 now, and your small guns skills are lower, if you have that chunk eat it now and wait 1 hr, Agility =1 the lowest you can get, so now you can maximize the reading. Since the chunk is in limited supply you might want to do that if you have 6 or 7 books to take full advantage.
For science and repair use 2 Mentas wait 24hours, eat 1 more Mentas, wait another 24 hours and use Psycho, now your INT is 1!
Press F1 now you can see all the keyboard shortcuts: for example instead clicking with mouse skills then selecting steal and moving you cursor to human target, just point at human and press 3
To quickly access inventory of your NPC just use steal, he won’t mind it if he is in your posse, but will attack you if you do that while he is waiting.
By far the most irritating voyage is from Den to Vault City, there are multiple random encounters, everything is to get you but with a little luck if you run into 2 groups fighting each other you hit mother-load of loot, from this point you will never be broke. Use your followers as mules to carry all the useful junk.