By Chris Taylor and Tim Cain
These hints and tips should make post-nuclear life a little easier. Some of this information could spoil your enjoyment of the game by giving away too much. These spoilers are marked with three asterisks "(***)" and should be used with caution.
Character Creation
The best place to start is by creating your own character. The three pre-made characters can finish the game, but they are not the best choices. By fine-tuning your own character to match your playing style, you stand a much better chance of success.
Start with the statistics. No stat should be lowered to four or less. All of the statistics have a reason to be increased, but some are more deserving of those extra character points than others.
Strength: The major use of Strength in the game is your inventory carry weight. Unless you are playing an unarmed or melee based character, a Strength of 5 or 6 will do you for all weapons except one. If you lower your Strength, and take the Small Frame trait, you will have a lot of difficultly carrying the necessary equipment.
Perception: The ability to use weapons effectively at long distances is critical to any ranged weapon-using character. A high Perception will drastically increase your chance to hit with guns at a distance. You should spend at least a point or two in Perception if you plan on using guns.
Endurance: This stat mostly affects your hit points. If you do want to increase Endurance, you get the best results if you raise it to 6, 8 or 10.
Charisma: Unless you plan on playing a Speech based or Bartering character, you should not spend any points in Charisma. It is acceptable to lower this stat by a point or two, but dropping below 4 can hurt some of your dialogue choices.
Intelligence: This is probably the most critical stat if you want to talk to people in Fallout. Your intelligence number will determine what choices you can say when talking. If you lower it below 4, you will only be able to baby-talk. Raising it a point or two will help dialogue, and increase the number of skill points you get every level.
Agility: Agility is the determining factor in the number of action points you get every turn in combat. Beginning characters will want a good Agility.
Luck: You should not plan on increasing it unless you want to go big. Stay with a 5 or 4, or increase it up to 9 or 10. It is possible to drop your Luck all the way to 1 or 2, but you will miss out on some special encounters. Besides increasing your chance of causing critical hits, Luck will determine how often you get a special random encounter. (***) These special random encounters often contain special items that will give you a major advantage at the beginning of the game.
Traits
Gifted is a good all-around trait to take. You really cannot go wrong, especially if you also take a high Intelligence to make up for the lowered skill points every level.
If you are taking a character that is planning on causing a lot of critical hits, then take Finesse. Starting out will be rough, but as soon as you make a level and can increase your weapon skills, you'll be on a happy road.
To maximize the number of character points that you start the game with, you can also take Small Frame or Bruiser and move those free points to another statistic. Both of these traits have very restrictive downsides, and should be chosen with care.
Fast Shot sounds wonderful, but you lose the ability to make targeted shots. At higher levels, this will restrict the number of critical hits you can make. (***) One tactic is to take Fast Shot, and then take it away later with the Mutate Perk.
Skills
Choosing the proper tag skill is probably the most important character design decision that you can make. High skills are essential to successfully complete the game, and the skills that you choose to tag will increase the fastest.
Small Guns is always a good choice. It covers the widest variety of firearms, and all the early guns that you will find. Tag this skill, and it will pay off big for the first part of the game.
Energy Weapons is a good tag skill, but it will only really help later in the game.
For most characters, using two of your three tag skills on these two combat skills is a good idea. Hand-to-hand characters will want Unarmed or Melee Weapons. Thief characters will want Sneak and Lockpick or Steal. Diplomacy characters will definitely want Speech, with perhaps Barter or Science.
(***) Probably the easiest character to take is a Lucky, Perceptive Sniper. Good stats: ST 6, PE 9, EN 5, CH 4, IN 7, AG 8, LK 8. Take Finesse and Gifted. Tag Small Guns, Energy Guns and either Speech, Barter or Lockpick.
Combat
No matter what you do, at some point it will require a good gun or a sharp knife to solve a problem. Combat is also a good source for experience, but not the only way to gain levels. The best method is to try and solve every problem without resorting to violence, but to always keep your gun ready.
Some guards will get upset if you have a drawn weapon. The best thing to do is keep your primary weapon in your hand, but switch the active item away to hide it. It costs nothing to switch active items in combat, but it takes a lot of time to reach into your inventory and grab your gun.
Your chance to hit is modified by the distance between you and the target. If you want to get the best possible chance to hit, use the reserve action points key (hold down Control when you click the mouse button to move) and move as close to your opponent as possible.
If you can, find some cover. Then at the start of your turn, pop around the corner, attack and move back. Anytime you have some extra action points, reload your weapon.
Use Stimpaks from Inventory to save action points. Armor is important — always wear the best possible armor. Note that some armors have better defensive values against different types of attacks.
Perks
When you start advancing in levels, you will be given the opportunity to select Perks. When creating your character, read the Perk list in the back of the manual. Make sure that you have high enough statistics to select the Perks you want.
A list of good Perks: Awareness, Bonus Move, Bonus Rate of Fire, Action Boy. These will make combat much easier.
Awareness requires a Perception of 5 or better and is available at Level 3. It tells you how many hit points critters have left and what weapon they are carrying, down to the ammo they have loaded and the number of shots left.
NPC Team Members
There are five non-player characters that can join your team. Talk to your team members to find out what weapons they can use. Use Barter or Steal to give them improved weapons, ammo and Stimpaks. NPCs cannot use armor.
Tandi is the daughter of Aradesh in Shady Sands. (***) After she is kidnapped, she can be rescued from the Raiders. If you don't bring her immediately back to Shady Sands, she will stay with you during your adventures.
Ian can be found in Shady Sands. Offer him $100 or, if your Speech skill is good enough, a piece of the action. Ian works well with big pistols. He sometimes goes crazy with a burst weapon, so be careful about giving him the SMG.
Tycho is found in Junktown, in the Skum Pitt. Meet him in the evening, and talk to him twice.
Dogmeat is also found in Junktown. He can be bribed into joining your group. (***) Give him an Iguana-on-a-stick or be wearing the Leather Jacket.
Katja is located in the Boneyard, at the entrance to the Followers. She will easily join your group.
The Water-Chip
Finding the replacement water-chip for your Vault is your first pressing quest. You have 150 days to find the chip and return it to the Vault before everyone there dies from thirst.
The location of the water-chip is in another Vault. You should search for as many cities as possible and talk to people about their water supply. Eventually, you will hear of a city that does not get their water from any outside source.
(***) There are some water merchants in the Hub. For $2000, they will send water caravans to your Vault, extending the time limit by 100 days. This makes it more likely your Vault will be noticed and invaded before you finish your final quests.
Vault-13
Strip the bones next to your starting location. There are a couple of adventure seeds that you can solve if you return to Vault-13 before finding the water-chip.
(***) One of your fellow vault-dwellers is stealing water from the storeroom on Level 3 at midnight. Stop him for some easy experience.
When you do return the water-chip, give it to the Overseer. Then talk to him again after you fill out your report. He will give you another task.
Shady Sands
Stop at Shady Sands before going to Vault-13. Talk to Katrina, Seth, Aradesh and others for some information and experience.
(***) Seth has a rope that you can Steal or Barter for. You will need this rope later.
(***) If you have a good Science skill (40% or more), talk to Curtis in the gardens in East Shady Sands. He could use some advice, and you can use the XP.
(***) Once you talk to Aradesh, have Seth take you and Ian to the radscorpion caves. Kill all the scorpions for practice. Alternatively, you can use some explosives by the weak cave walls near the entrance. This will block the cavern and trap the radscorpions.
(***) Tandi will get kidnapped if you return to Shady Sands two days or more after taking care of the radscorpion problem.
Vault-15
(***) You will need a rope to get past the first level of this vault. The darkness makes it difficult to attack the mutated creatures here unless you are very close to them. Let the critters walk up to you before you shoot.
Search all the walls and floors for some valuable goodies. The goal of this area is to find the command center. (***) Once you get to the third level, go to the south-east corner. You will see a message stating that the water-chip cannot be recovered from here. You will get an exploration bonus when you discover this.
Raiders
The Raiders aren't too much of a problem, unless you go charging in through the front door. If Tandi has been kidnapped, she will be found here — behind a locked door in the back room.
There are multiple ways of freeing her. (***) You can: kill all the raiders, challenge Garl to a one-on-one fight, sneak in to lockpick her door, barter with Garl for her release, or intimidate Garl into letting her go. Not all options are available to all characters.
If you want to fight them, stick to the outside area and use a ranged attack to lure them out one at a time. (***) Unarmed and melee characters should stick to challenging Garl.
Junktown
Walking around Junktown with a gun is a bad idea until you gain the trust of the guards. Getting caught Sneaking is bad. You may not be able to enter the town at night unless you are very convincing. Killing peasants or guards will also set off the guards.
Killian and Gizmo are fighting for control of the town. You can help either of them for financial and experience rewards. To help Killian, you must attack and hit the assassin that attempts to kill him. After Killian accepts your offer to help, go talk to Gizmo with the Tape Recorder and get him to tell you why he wants to kill Killian.
Neal in the Skum Pitt could use your help. If he is attacked by the gangers who party there, he could use your assistance in battle. You can also get Tycho to join your party if you are there in the early evening.
You can bust the Skulz gang in a couple of different ways. Join them and then rat them out to Lars, or convince one of their female members to leave the gang and then talk to Lars.
The Hub
You can get a job with the three caravans if you need some money. Butch of the Far Go Traders has a special job for you. The Hub is a commerce center — visit all of the merchants and barter for better equipment. Mitch's shop is the best way to get money.
Talking to Butch can send you on a mission to find the missing caravans. Go talk to Beth, who will send you to Old Harold and Slappy in Old Town. Old Harold lives in the southwest corner of Old Town. Once you talk to him, Slappy will lead you to your final destination. (***) Proof of the mutant attack can be found on the dead body of a mutant.
The deathclaw is a powerful foe. Attack him from a distance. (***) If you can, make targeted shots for the eyes. Attack and fall back. Once you deal with the deathclaw, be sure to talk to the dying mutant in the south of the cave.
To get to see Decker, you must have the Berserker reputation or have killed Killian or Gizmo. You can also talk to Lorenzo, across from the Falcon, to get permission to see Decker.
The thieves circle is located in Old Town, under a large building to the east. Talk to Loxley who will direct you to Jasmine. Jasmine will send you to steal a necklace from the Hightowers in the Heights. (***) The necklace is located in a trapped footlocker. Sneak in at night and circle around the south side.
(***) The missing Brotherhood initiate is being held captive by armed guards in Old Town, in the building just below the entrance. It is okay to attack these mercenaries — the police will understand. Once the mercenaries are dead and his prison cell door unlocked, the captive will leave on his own. Doing this will increase your reputation with the Brotherhood.
Jacob the arms-dealer is located in one of the northern buildings of Old Town. Vance the drug-dealer is in the north-east corner. Talk to Lemmy by the Maltese Falcon to get in to see Vance.
Necropolis
Most of Necropolis is in ruins. Use the sewer system to move from map to map. You can get into the sewers by using one of the sewer holes and then climbing down the ladder. Refer to your automap to keep track of your location.
Set is the leader of most of the ghouls in Necropolis. He wants you to kill the super-mutants at the water-shed, and he will reward you if you do so.
If you barge into combat with the super mutants at the water-shed, it can be difficult. Try to take them on one at a time. There is a small L-shaped ruin to the north of the water-shed — if you lead the mutants up there, you can use it for cover. You can also talk Harry, the leader of the mutants, into taking you to the "Lou". (***) If your character has a low intelligence, you can also out-wit Harry into letting you by. You can Sneak past Harry and his guards if you have a good skill.
The entrance to the Necropolis Vault is in the water-shed. In the southeast corner of the building are three small rooms — one has a ladder leading down to the Vault. The Glowing Ghouls are dangerous enemies that can cause radiation damage as well as physical damage. Sneak past them if you can.
(***) The water-chip is located on the third level of the Necropolis vault, in the command center, in the only functioning computer on this level.
(***) If you take the water-chip and leave Necropolis, the ghouls there will die from thirst. You can help them by repairing the water pump. You will need some spare parts — find some junk in the northern water-shed sewers that will do the trick. You will also need a good Repair skill.
Brotherhood of Steel
If you want to join the Brotherhood of Steel, you need to talk to Cabbot, one of the guards at the entrance. Visit the Glow, and retrieve an important item — you will know it when you find it.
Once you get in, spend some time learning the skills of the Brotherhood. If you ask nicely, you can pick up some equipment by talking to elders and then reporting to Michael on the first level.
(***) The Doctor can increase all statistics except Luck and Charisma by 1 point, for a fee.
(***) It is possible to get power armor from the Brotherhood. If you have a reputation greater than 15 and you have rescued the kidnapped Initiate in the Hub, then the first time you talk to Talus, he will offer the power armor. The other option is to repair some broken armor on level three.
The Glow
The entrance to the Glow is through the large crater. (***) You will need to use a rope on the large metal beam to climb down safely.
The Glow is highly radioactive. You must monitor your radiation count carefully. Use a Geiger Counter to get an exact reading. The drugs Rad-X and RadAway are almost essential. Do not read books, rest or use the Doctor skill while in the Glow. (***) Use 2 Rad-Xs before entering the Glow map.
The elevators will require security cards to operate safely. (***) The first card is yellow — on a power armor dead body on the first floor in the center north room. (***) The second card is red — on a dead body on the second floor in the northeastern room. (***) The third card is blue — on level four in the south-west corner.
(***) The Brotherhood disk is on the dead body of a power armor soldier in the center-north room on the first level.
If you turn on the power, the robots will activate and be hostile. You can disable activated robots by hacking the super computer on level four with a high Science skill. You need to repair or use the multi-tool on the generator on level six in the southeast room to use the blue elevators.
Boneyard
The Regulators are controlling Adytum. Jon Zimmerman is a puppet. You can free the town by taking out the Regulators — the best way to do this is to get the Blades to help you.
The Blades need weapons and armor before they can attack the Regulators. The Gunrunners can supply them with the necessary equipment. Talk to Zack and Gabriel — Gabriel will give you the quest to deal with the Deathclaw problem.
The deathclaws have taken over an area of the Boneyard. You must kill all of the Deathclaws, including the mother deathclaw, and destroy all of the eggs to clear them out. The mother deathclaw is very tough — have plenty of armor and powerful weapons. (***) Make targeted shots to her eyes for the best chance of defeating her.
(***) Once you free Adytum, talk to Miles about upgrading your power armor. You will need the junk from the dead body in the deathclaw area. Miles will send you to Mrs. Stapleton in the Hub bookstore. Return with the journals and he will upgrade your power armor. If you have a plasma rifle, talk to Smitty — he will turbo enhance it.
Talk to Nichole to get the password for Laura in the Cathedral. The Followers will help you invade the Cathedral if you have scouted it out.
(***) Katja of the Followers will join your party if you ask nicely.
Cathedral
Two words: purple robes. There are several locked doors requiring either the red or black badges to open, or you can use the Lockpick skill. (***) Lasher can give you a red badge if you ask nicely.
The guards in the tower will let you be if you are alone and have either the badges or purple robes.
Morpheus is on the third level of the tower. If you attack him, the Nightkin guards will be angry. (***) Morpheus can be talked into taking you directly to the Master.
You need to get below the Cathedral. There is a basement that conceals a secret door. (***) Use some rogue-like skills on the last bookcase to find the secret door. A purple robe will be very helpful from this point on.
Military Base
If you have a radio, you can use it at the entrance to trick the mutant guards. The Super Mutant guarding the security door has the door code. You can also lockpick the door, but it is very difficult.
It is possible to Sneak in without alerting the base. Also, if you kill the guards in less than three turns, they will not have enough time to alert the base.
The force fields can be difficult. (***) The force field computer on the first level can be remotely toggled — use a radio on the computer to start the process, and then use a radio to toggle the fields. Also, you can use your Repair skill to "fix" a force field emitter. Explosives can also do the job.
A Note on Cheat Codes
There are no cheat codes in Fallout. The closest thing is to take a Luck of 10 and find equipment on special random encounters. If things are getting hairy, remember your difficulty level settings on the Preferences screen — you can change these at any time during your adventures.
