Fallout New Vegas Gunslinger/Pistol build

For starting special stats, i build based around how many implants I want by the end of the game and which specific perks I want.
S: 3
P: 5
E: 7
C: 1
I:9
A:6
L:9

Strength: you dont need much strength to meet strength requirements for pistols. Once you get the strength implant and reinforced spine from old world blues, youll be up to 6 strength which is all youll need for guns like ranger sequoia

Perception: I keep perception as 5 because once you get perception implant, youll be up to 6 which is all you need for better criticals. The other perceptions perks that need perception over 6 are pretty useless so i keep perception at max 6 before including headgear

Endurance: I keep this at 7 because i think this character only needs 7 implants (strength, perception, endurance, intelligence, agility, luck and sub dermal armor). If you want the other implants you can always put more points into endurance, but i feel like the charisma implant is pretty useless since we have charisma at 1 and speech/barter isn't too important for the gunslinger build

Charisma: not much needs to be said here, charisma will always be a dump stat and not essential for 99% of builds unless you wanna do a weird companion build and make your companions strong with high charisma.

Intelligence: this is very personal preference to me but I like having most amount of skill points for each levelling and always like having a high intelligence character, you can always reduce number of intelligence points and put it into agility if you want, either is a good decision.

Agility: Keep it at 6 for now, but later on it will go up to 8 thanks to agility implant and the perk you get after completing lonesome road. I focus this build on being very vats heavy so i think having it at max 8 still make this a strong vats build with pistols.

Luck: i would say the most important stat to max right away to 10. Luck is important for crits, getting more skill points and getting banned from all the casinos to be rich early on and never have money issues. Getting the max crit in this game is very important for this pistol vats build as vats increases critical chance by 5%. So abusing vats and maxing out crits is important for killing any enemy in the game before they can do anything.

starting traits:

Built to destroy: this trait is essential for any crit build as it adds an additional 3% to critical chance. The 15% weapon degrade can easily be bypassed by having raul as a companion, which i recommend as having as a companion from early to mid game or by having weapon repair kits handy.

Skilled: I would say this Trait is essential for any build youre doing, its going to be good no matter what character youre trying to build. Having another +5 to all your skills at the beginning of the game is huge no matter what. Plus there is the glitch where you can take skilled at doc mitchells house and then rebuild your character when you leave the goodsprings area and take skilled again, which essentially gives you +10 to all your skills while only having -10% experience gain. The negative to experience gain can be bypassed by being well rested which gives +10% experience gain.

Tagged skills

1.Guns
2.Sneak
3.Lockpick

Side note: I take lockpick to get ahold of the unique .357 magnum pistol "lucky", which requires a lockpick skill of 75 to get inside the Steve bison hotel in Primm. I also choose Sneak so I can rush the professional perk at level 6

I will go over every perk i ended up going that i think are important to have or nice to have for the build that maximizes the characters potential in things like crits, vats and damage.

Level 2 - light touch ( AG 6, repair 45)

Level 4 - Educated (IN 4)

Level 6 - The professional (Sneak 70)

Level 8 - Cowboy (guns 45, Melee 45)

Level 10 - Finesse

level 12 - gunslinger

Level 14 - light step (Note : this is just personal preference because taking this perk makes dead moeny so much easier, you can always switch this perk with another perk listed at higher levels if you wanna prioritize other perks)

Level 16 - Better criticals (PE 6, LK 6)

Level 18 - Sniper (PE 6, AG 6)

Level 20 - Grim reapers sprint

Level 22 - Laser commander (Energy weapons 90) (I take this perk specfically for Pew Pew, which also gets affected by The professional perk)

Level 24 - Jury rigging (Repair 90)

Level 26 - Rapid reload (Guns 30, Agility 5)

Level 28 - Grunt (Guns 45, Explosives 20)

Level 30 - Implant grx (EN 8)

Level 32 - Implant grx (2) (EN 8)

Level 34 - Concentrated fire (energy weapons 60, Guns 60)

Level 36 - Toughness (1) (EN 5)

Level 38 - Toughness (2) (EN 5)

Level 40 - Action boy (AG 6)

Level 42 - Action boy (2) (AG 6)

Level 44 - Chemist (Medicine 60)

Level 46 - Chem resistant (Medicine 60)

Level 48 - Comprehension (IN 4)

Level 50 - Just Lucky Im alive (You cant really go wrong with any of the level 50 perks, but i personally go for the crit perk since my character is focused around crits)

Early game/Mid game:

Weapons -

Weathered 10mm pistol: Comes with the courier stash add on

lucky: At the steve bison hotel in primm in a hard lock safe that requires 75 lockpick to open,
that gun: Located in novac at the dino bite shop behind a locked door that requires 50 lockpick skill to open, sitting on one of the shelfs among the rocket souvenirs ,


Mysterious magnum : Can be pickpocketed from the lonesome drifter if you pickpocket the ammo, wait then pickpocket the weapon later when it goes into his inventory. Alternatively, you can kill him and get that weapon that way also.


Armor -
Lightweight leather armor: Included in the couriers stash

Reinforced leather armor: can be picked up from jackals on the way to the strip

Assassins armor: You can find this armor in the dead money DLC where The armor can be found in the medical district of the Sierra Madre, in the main clinic. From the front door, one must go through the right-side door near the front desk, then into the first room on the right; a couple of headless corpses can be seen there. The suit is on the far end of a green stretcher to the left end of the room)

Joshua grahams armor: This armor can be obtained after you complete the Honest hearts dlc where it can be found in a container near the exit out of zion canyon and back to the mojave

Headgear -
1st recon beret: Can be acquired from completing the quest One for my baby by helping out Boone in Novac


Late game

Weapons -

Ranger sequoia: can easily be required by completing the quest return to sender and letting chief hanlon kill himself and acquring his pistol afterwards

Light shining in darkness - Can be acquired after completing the honest hearts dlc where it can be found in the same container near the exit of out zion canyon


Armor -

Ulysses duster: can be acquired near the end of the lonesome road dlc where you can kill ulysses to get it or you can get it from a container outside the canyon wreckage location after completing the dlc

Headgear -

1st recon beret:

Atomic-valence tri-radii-oscillator: is acquired by starting the old world blues dlc and can be found in a couple different locations. Either by getting it off the body of Specimen 73, in the last room of Z-14 Pepsinae DNA splicing lab or In a footlocker located in a crater at X-7b "Boom Town" target zone after firing the X-7a "Left Field" artillery launch cannon.