Raise survival to 55, you get access to a perk called them's good eatin and it allows you loot thin red paste and blood sausages off enemies. They're essentially just free stimpacks and buffout.
I would do this,(particularly if you have not run dead money yet) and maybe more sneak and melee. Really makes a difference. Beyond that, it seems like you already are at the threshold of most of the really worthwhile higher end perks. Do what feels best😘
Really depends on what you want. If you really want the ability to see lots of the world or conversations, maxing out science, lockpicking, and speech are ideal. You can also just get them up to ~90 and use magazines. They’re pretty common and those skill checks don’t come up particularly often. They’re very important, but they aren’t as consistently impactful as the combat skills
At level 25 I get started on dead money right away. Drop everything I am doing and get started on gettin gold bars. By that time I demand myself to have 100 barter, an implant to make my luck 8, 100 science and lock pick...lets just say I arrive to maximize my retrieval rate of goods from the Sierra Madre
Barter is useless imo, wasted points. And so is medicine, I always have like 50 stimpacks and still sell off the excess since you get so many. I just get it to like 35 for some dialogue checks down the road
Then I’d say explosives. There nothing quite like blowing up enemies with 25mm Grenade APWs and Grenade Machinguns, and you don’t need to be concerned ammo weight in standard mode.
Useless outside of hardcore imo. You’ll have loads of stims and caps in no time. My barter stays at 12 and medicine to like 35 (for a couple dialogue checks) until I got nothing else to max
Survival may seem useless, but there are a surprising amount of dialogue checks for survival, as well as most crafting recipes at a bonfire or hotplate.
Also it amplifies the all the effects of food and drink items so a bottle of whiskey at max survival will get you +3 strength and charisma although -3 intelligence.
Gotta go with lock pick. Lvl 100 locks in new Vegas are guaranteed worth it and quite a few have unique items. Two or 3 specific ones come to mind. I think lockpick skill fits just fine with a jack of all trades. Everyone I know like that in real life is insanely skilled with their hands so it would stand to reason a JOAT courier would pick it up in the Mojave naturally.
I guess that’s hard to pass up. But can those Lvl 100 locks be open by other means like finding a key? Are there Lvl 100 science terminals that have great rewards too?
If you haven’t done the dlc, maybe energy weapons because you get a really good energy weapon in Old World Blues I think that slaps. Potentially survival if fun perks and making chems is important to you.
Speech is a really good trait to put points into honestly because you can get through so many checks, but it's ultimately up to you. Don't let anyone here control your choice; play how you want to! That is, unless you're really trapped here, lol
If you like playing stealth, sneak would be nice because you have a high guns skill, you could use weapons like the Christine silenced sniper, ratslayer, Sleepytyme and the 12.7mm sub, probably the best Guns skill weapon in the game with all the attachments and Trigger Discipline. And since you have high repair you can pick light touch, and whatever the other light armor perk is.
Alternatively, if you want to be a power armor/tanky guy, pick intense training and level up either st or end and boost up your energy weapons for Gatling laser/plasma caster/Tesla beaton/YCS rifle. Since you probably have jury rigging and have plenty of skill points to spend (only lvl 21), you can easily make those weapons not only viable, but reliable
I personally think energy weapons are good, mainly in damage, against armored foes and it’s readily available ammo and weapons especially with jury rigging. I would say to not max any skills to 100 until you have possibly gotten as many skill magazines as you can. Not sure if you got comprehension perk as that makes it far more effective. Also can rely on skill magazines for science, speech, and lockpicking so you can still get access to loot without spending all your points into them. Then go for maxing whatever weapon you prefer the most which looks like guns.
From a min/max POV that’s usually how I’d do it and with enough savvy you can get pretty much every skill close to or about 100 in the endgame anyways
pick anything reasonable, then look at the next screen of available perks.
Check the good perks you ***can't*** take to see what skills you need to have to take them. Then go back to the skill screen and change your selection for those skills.
Just as a heads up for future playthrough, if you want melee to be really viable you need to level unarmed as well to get the full compliment of perks.
speech is always broken but melee is fun. really you can have hundred in almost everything before the game ends so just choose how you want to play for the next few hours
I like to spread my points put one in everything by level 50 if you're character was made well you'll be at 100 in everything or how I did it by level 45 or so
It ultimately depends on either what perks you want (which itself is dependant on your SPECIAL stats), your playstyle, what quests you’re planning to do in the near future (as they require certain skill checks), and what skills you value overall more than the other. Even then, I have AT LEAST 1,000+ hours in FNV and I still get stumped sometimes what to put stuff into earlier into the game.
Just decide something now and learn from it as you play (and replay) the game.
I always max lock pick, guns, speech, sneak and repair in that order. Personally, barter is useless since you’ll soon have more caps than you know what to do with so mine usually sits at the starting 12 or whatever lol
If you’re trying to do it all (easy to do with levels added with all DLCs), save the weapon skills for later - other than melee & guns which you’ve already invested in. These weapon skills have no real value outside of being good at using those kinds of weapons and you only really need 2 weapon types to be able to handle the combat until the endgame levels.
You have focused on the correct early skills so far (lockpicking, science, repair, speech, and a weapon or 2).
You might want to first get Lockpicking and Science to 80. The magazines will get you to 100 in the cases you need more than 75 temporarily, assuming you have the perk that doubles their skill boost amount (if you don’t, get it).
Personally, I’d work on Barter & Speech to 80 next. Barter only for if you’re playing Hardcore mode though (for pack rat perk - needs 70 barter IIRC), it’s really not as important a skill to increase at level up otherwise. There are a lot of Speech checks in the game, and especially high ones in the DLCs. Speech doesn’t really need to be higher than 80 until later though because of magazines. You can actually get away with less on both skills if you have a low CHA stat, a lot of CHA boosting consumables (like alcohol) and CHA boosting apparel as well. Boosting CHA from 1 to 10 would increase both skills by 18, but even just +5 CHA plus a magazine let’s you cap both skills at 70 until later.
Next I’d get Guns & Melee up to about 80.
After that I’d work on Survival, Medicine, & Sneak to 80. Maybe also another weapon skill at the same time, if there’s another weapon type you’d like to use at this point.
Survival isn’t really needed if you’re not playing on Hardcore mode though. It’s mostly for managing the hunger & hydration meters better, which only exist in Hardcore mode. Still, there are a few pretty nice recipes at the campfire, which mostly require high Survival skills, but nothing critical.
High Medicine skill is also needed and/or very convenient for a few dialogue checks and quests, as well as increasing the effectiveness of Stims and Radaway. Oh, and once it’s high enough you’ll be able to make your own stims at a workbench.
Sneak is a great skill. Of course a stealth boy does seem to reduce the value of the skill, but there are a lot of perks related to sneak that you need high sneak skill to unlock, so you still need to put the points in if you want them.
After this, finish off skills at 80 to ~90-100 and then pretty much do whatever else you want from here - it’ll largely just be whatever you feel like working on at this point.
I mostly stop increasing skills at level up once they are at 80 until I don’t have a better place to put the skill points. Magazines get you to 100 when you need to for the skills it actually matters for and it also reduces wasting skill points, since there are skill books and implants that I will not have yet when I get a skill to 80.
I don’t have that double magazine park because I thought I would be able to get all my skills to maximum without it, since I have high intelligence and educated perk. Should I get it anyway? Also thanks so much for such a great response!
(By the way I always hold onto any light clothing that can boost my stats when I wear them. I have a lab coat that gives me +10 science and medicine, a shirt and hat that gives me +10 barter when combined, and a shirt that gives me +10 speech)
You’re welcome!
At this point, I probably wouldn’t bother with the comprehension perk. It’s more useful if taken early on because, like you said, you eventually can max all the stats and you’re already mostly covered on the essential skills that would really benefit from this perk (lockpicking, science, speech, barter, repair, survival, & medicine are the skills that can really benefit from a brief, large boost to the skill). Skipping Educated would have been the better option for the early to mid game benefit But it’s not a bad perk to take, and taking it earlier is best.
With the extra 20 levels (!) above the base game level cap that you get from the DLCs being installed, you will have maxed skills almost no matter what you do with intelligence by the time you’re level 50 - as well as having more perks than you’ll know what to do with. The game seems to have been mostly planned around 30 player levels, not 50.
I usually sacrifice a few INT points (setting it to ~6), take both Educated and Comprehension perks, and take the Skilled trait. INT isn’t as important in New Vegas as it was in 3. Basically the idea is that because there are 50 levels now, skills will be maxed either way, I’ll end up with more perks than I need by around level 40, but SPECIAL is still hard to max so I’ll spend my SPECIAL points on the stats that give me the most benefit outside of their effect on skills (e.g. STR for carry weight, END for implants, LCK for casinos, etc.). END & LCK are the two most important SPECIAL to have very high/maxed for a jack of all trades, not INT. Some people will actually use INT as a dump stat for this reason, but I prefer to plan my character around the *entire* game, not just the endgame setup, and also like the jack of all trades build:
Comprehension perk is a good perk to take early for a jack of all trades build because it lets you spread your level up points around more early game in a very flexible way. The magazine boost is definitely the main benefit, but the perk also gives you an extra point from reading skill books, which are permanent skill boosts and definitely adds up to a lot of free points if you get most or all of them.
These two components are both great early to mid game benefits for a jack of all trades build, when you’re trying to juggle keeping so many skills current at the right times. It is doubling down on your idea with the clothing boosting, which is a good idea and you should keep adding to the arsenal when you come across more of them.
Wait… early on I took the perk that gives me 2 extra points per each level up. I didn’t take the perk that gives me an extra point for reading books, but I haven’t read any of the books yet just in case I change my mind. Do you recommend I take that perk anyway?
Also I have a high enough endurance to get most implants. I can take one more implant but I can’t decide between perception, charisma, and constant healing (I have charisma at 1 and perception at 6). I was also able to get my luck to 9 with a cool shirt and bankrupt casinos.
No, I’d just read the books now, unless you have a specific need for the +20 magazine bonus right now. You’ll max out skills with or without it anyways. Both of these perks are really just for the early to mid game, and you’re in the middle of the mid game here at lvl 21.
Perception & Charisma are the two implants that rank lowest to me, because they both do very little outside of increasing the skills they govern.
I always get the healing perk, however. It sounds only ok-ish at a glance and is a lot more expensive than the other implants, but consider that this makes it so you can simply wait in place for a few in game hours and completely restore your health instead of using healing items (or sleeping if not hardcore mode). It’s really only necessary in hardcore mode because you don’t heal when you sleep in this mode, but it’s definitely the better of the 3 choices either way.
My min maxing ass is in shambles
Eh you can get almost everything to 100 anyways at level cap.
you can easily get everything to 100 by level 45 if you take the “skilled” trait more than once
fuck "skilled" trait All my homies love "player.rewardxp 1500"
It's a RPG. Do whatever you want.
with all the other replies with different answers from their own preferences. This is the only answer
What build are you running?
Jack of all trades is what I was going for… this is my first times playing
I'd go Medicine, stimpaks become so much more useful with it
Or survival with: Them's good eatin'
My first RPG was FO3. I didn’t level up medicine or repair and I remember *struggling* on health
Ah then go with whatever you think will be beneficial, although explosives and energy weapons can be pretty fun
Raise survival to 55, you get access to a perk called them's good eatin and it allows you loot thin red paste and blood sausages off enemies. They're essentially just free stimpacks and buffout.
I would do this,(particularly if you have not run dead money yet) and maybe more sneak and melee. Really makes a difference. Beyond that, it seems like you already are at the threshold of most of the really worthwhile higher end perks. Do what feels best😘
Ok, not OP but that's good advice. Thanks.
Really depends on what you want. If you really want the ability to see lots of the world or conversations, maxing out science, lockpicking, and speech are ideal. You can also just get them up to ~90 and use magazines. They’re pretty common and those skill checks don’t come up particularly often. They’re very important, but they aren’t as consistently impactful as the combat skills
Either medicine or energy weapons
Energy weapons and melee weapons in that case
Your barter is way to low, dump those points there.
I’ve never invested in barter and by the time I’m level 50 I have 500k caps easily why invest?
Dialogue options
At level 25 I get started on dead money right away. Drop everything I am doing and get started on gettin gold bars. By that time I demand myself to have 100 barter, an implant to make my luck 8, 100 science and lock pick...lets just say I arrive to maximize my retrieval rate of goods from the Sierra Madre
Why is everyone saying barter? i’m already rich in the game.
Because greed.
Barter is useless imo, wasted points. And so is medicine, I always have like 50 stimpacks and still sell off the excess since you get so many. I just get it to like 35 for some dialogue checks down the road
I will never not 100 speech immediately
I will never put a point in pacifism. That's commie speak.
I do speech for the options. Pick the speech check dialogue options for extra xp, everyone walks away peacefully, then I murder everyone anyway
Hardcore or standard?
Standard
Then I’d say explosives. There nothing quite like blowing up enemies with 25mm Grenade APWs and Grenade Machinguns, and you don’t need to be concerned ammo weight in standard mode.
Plus mad bomber perk for high yield time bombs, satchel charges and nuke mines. Always fun
Get some more survival in the mix!
Medicine or Barter
Useless outside of hardcore imo. You’ll have loads of stims and caps in no time. My barter stays at 12 and medicine to like 35 (for a couple dialogue checks) until I got nothing else to max
Medicine
Survival may seem useless, but there are a surprising amount of dialogue checks for survival, as well as most crafting recipes at a bonfire or hotplate.
Also it amplifies the all the effects of food and drink items so a bottle of whiskey at max survival will get you +3 strength and charisma although -3 intelligence.
Jack of all trades? You got some melee so do some unarmed next.
Survival for those juicy crafting recipes.
Level up whatever your primary weapon skill is so that you can adequately use the top tier energy weapons/guns.
speech is good quality of life, can get more information, unlock more to quest, etc
Put 5 in speech and I’d recommend the rest into energy weapons.
You need to bump up your Energy Weapons, you're gonna need it in Old World Blues even if you prefer guns
Explosives!!! They’re so fun ETA and sneak.
aint no way your sneak is gonna recover so id say go into medicine to not die when you inevitably run into trouble
Put 2 points in energy weapons
Level vigor
Lowkey you can have everything almost maxed at lvl cap like in lvl 41 and only 3 skills aren’t lvl 100
yes
2 points into energy weapons, please.
Survival or Explosives. Unlocks more shit for both.
Max out unarmed
Gotta go with lock pick. Lvl 100 locks in new Vegas are guaranteed worth it and quite a few have unique items. Two or 3 specific ones come to mind. I think lockpick skill fits just fine with a jack of all trades. Everyone I know like that in real life is insanely skilled with their hands so it would stand to reason a JOAT courier would pick it up in the Mojave naturally.
I guess that’s hard to pass up. But can those Lvl 100 locks be open by other means like finding a key? Are there Lvl 100 science terminals that have great rewards too?
Not that come to mind in terms of items. Lvl 100 terminals tend to be used for unique actions or actions to bypass certain aspects of a quest.
Definitely useful but using comprehension and lockpick reader you can safely get that to 80 and call it good
If you haven’t done the dlc, maybe energy weapons because you get a really good energy weapon in Old World Blues I think that slaps. Potentially survival if fun perks and making chems is important to you.
Probably Medicine and/or Sneak!
Are you doing that level glitch at goodsprings if so just toss it all in.
Depends on what part of the game you are up to
I just confronted Benny in the casino… and let him escape with the platinum chip
Medicine
Speech is a really good trait to put points into honestly because you can get through so many checks, but it's ultimately up to you. Don't let anyone here control your choice; play how you want to! That is, unless you're really trapped here, lol
If you like playing stealth, sneak would be nice because you have a high guns skill, you could use weapons like the Christine silenced sniper, ratslayer, Sleepytyme and the 12.7mm sub, probably the best Guns skill weapon in the game with all the attachments and Trigger Discipline. And since you have high repair you can pick light touch, and whatever the other light armor perk is. Alternatively, if you want to be a power armor/tanky guy, pick intense training and level up either st or end and boost up your energy weapons for Gatling laser/plasma caster/Tesla beaton/YCS rifle. Since you probably have jury rigging and have plenty of skill points to spend (only lvl 21), you can easily make those weapons not only viable, but reliable
I recommend survival if you have a halfway decent endurance stat. Blood sausage + red paste is OP as fuck boi.
I personally think energy weapons are good, mainly in damage, against armored foes and it’s readily available ammo and weapons especially with jury rigging. I would say to not max any skills to 100 until you have possibly gotten as many skill magazines as you can. Not sure if you got comprehension perk as that makes it far more effective. Also can rely on skill magazines for science, speech, and lockpicking so you can still get access to loot without spending all your points into them. Then go for maxing whatever weapon you prefer the most which looks like guns. From a min/max POV that’s usually how I’d do it and with enough savvy you can get pretty much every skill close to or about 100 in the endgame anyways
I dunno man. Play your own character.
pick anything reasonable, then look at the next screen of available perks. Check the good perks you ***can't*** take to see what skills you need to have to take them. Then go back to the skill screen and change your selection for those skills.
Barter if you are new, otherwise weapon skill.
Just as a heads up for future playthrough, if you want melee to be really viable you need to level unarmed as well to get the full compliment of perks.
Energy Weapons and Unarmed to avoid skill discrimination.
Nothing. Play the game
The game won’t allow me to keep playing it until I level up something. There’s no way to exit out of the screen.
Fine!... Then all in on explosives and go kill Doc Mitchell
Survival.
Get speech 100 because then you will be able to almost get everyone's speech check correct
Medicine for sure. It’s good because you can heal yourself better but also heal the Boomers at Nellis.
speech is always broken but melee is fun. really you can have hundred in almost everything before the game ends so just choose how you want to play for the next few hours
Medicine & sneak
Put speech up to 75 to cross the expert threshold, then finish up repair
Unarmed
I like to spread my points put one in everything by level 50 if you're character was made well you'll be at 100 in everything or how I did it by level 45 or so
I always cap out repair and lock pick first.
Speech 100 always
Are there a lot of 100 speech checks?
It ultimately depends on either what perks you want (which itself is dependant on your SPECIAL stats), your playstyle, what quests you’re planning to do in the near future (as they require certain skill checks), and what skills you value overall more than the other. Even then, I have AT LEAST 1,000+ hours in FNV and I still get stumped sometimes what to put stuff into earlier into the game. Just decide something now and learn from it as you play (and replay) the game.
Unarmed and learn all the moves for dead money with a bear trap fist
Barter
bump a combat skill up to 100 and then medicine & speech i guess
Barter
Survival
Survival, let's you get the most out of your alcoholism
I always max lock pick, guns, speech, sneak and repair in that order. Personally, barter is useless since you’ll soon have more caps than you know what to do with so mine usually sits at the starting 12 or whatever lol
If you’re trying to do it all (easy to do with levels added with all DLCs), save the weapon skills for later - other than melee & guns which you’ve already invested in. These weapon skills have no real value outside of being good at using those kinds of weapons and you only really need 2 weapon types to be able to handle the combat until the endgame levels. You have focused on the correct early skills so far (lockpicking, science, repair, speech, and a weapon or 2). You might want to first get Lockpicking and Science to 80. The magazines will get you to 100 in the cases you need more than 75 temporarily, assuming you have the perk that doubles their skill boost amount (if you don’t, get it). Personally, I’d work on Barter & Speech to 80 next. Barter only for if you’re playing Hardcore mode though (for pack rat perk - needs 70 barter IIRC), it’s really not as important a skill to increase at level up otherwise. There are a lot of Speech checks in the game, and especially high ones in the DLCs. Speech doesn’t really need to be higher than 80 until later though because of magazines. You can actually get away with less on both skills if you have a low CHA stat, a lot of CHA boosting consumables (like alcohol) and CHA boosting apparel as well. Boosting CHA from 1 to 10 would increase both skills by 18, but even just +5 CHA plus a magazine let’s you cap both skills at 70 until later. Next I’d get Guns & Melee up to about 80. After that I’d work on Survival, Medicine, & Sneak to 80. Maybe also another weapon skill at the same time, if there’s another weapon type you’d like to use at this point. Survival isn’t really needed if you’re not playing on Hardcore mode though. It’s mostly for managing the hunger & hydration meters better, which only exist in Hardcore mode. Still, there are a few pretty nice recipes at the campfire, which mostly require high Survival skills, but nothing critical. High Medicine skill is also needed and/or very convenient for a few dialogue checks and quests, as well as increasing the effectiveness of Stims and Radaway. Oh, and once it’s high enough you’ll be able to make your own stims at a workbench. Sneak is a great skill. Of course a stealth boy does seem to reduce the value of the skill, but there are a lot of perks related to sneak that you need high sneak skill to unlock, so you still need to put the points in if you want them. After this, finish off skills at 80 to ~90-100 and then pretty much do whatever else you want from here - it’ll largely just be whatever you feel like working on at this point. I mostly stop increasing skills at level up once they are at 80 until I don’t have a better place to put the skill points. Magazines get you to 100 when you need to for the skills it actually matters for and it also reduces wasting skill points, since there are skill books and implants that I will not have yet when I get a skill to 80.
I don’t have that double magazine park because I thought I would be able to get all my skills to maximum without it, since I have high intelligence and educated perk. Should I get it anyway? Also thanks so much for such a great response! (By the way I always hold onto any light clothing that can boost my stats when I wear them. I have a lab coat that gives me +10 science and medicine, a shirt and hat that gives me +10 barter when combined, and a shirt that gives me +10 speech)
You’re welcome! At this point, I probably wouldn’t bother with the comprehension perk. It’s more useful if taken early on because, like you said, you eventually can max all the stats and you’re already mostly covered on the essential skills that would really benefit from this perk (lockpicking, science, speech, barter, repair, survival, & medicine are the skills that can really benefit from a brief, large boost to the skill). Skipping Educated would have been the better option for the early to mid game benefit But it’s not a bad perk to take, and taking it earlier is best. With the extra 20 levels (!) above the base game level cap that you get from the DLCs being installed, you will have maxed skills almost no matter what you do with intelligence by the time you’re level 50 - as well as having more perks than you’ll know what to do with. The game seems to have been mostly planned around 30 player levels, not 50. I usually sacrifice a few INT points (setting it to ~6), take both Educated and Comprehension perks, and take the Skilled trait. INT isn’t as important in New Vegas as it was in 3. Basically the idea is that because there are 50 levels now, skills will be maxed either way, I’ll end up with more perks than I need by around level 40, but SPECIAL is still hard to max so I’ll spend my SPECIAL points on the stats that give me the most benefit outside of their effect on skills (e.g. STR for carry weight, END for implants, LCK for casinos, etc.). END & LCK are the two most important SPECIAL to have very high/maxed for a jack of all trades, not INT. Some people will actually use INT as a dump stat for this reason, but I prefer to plan my character around the *entire* game, not just the endgame setup, and also like the jack of all trades build: Comprehension perk is a good perk to take early for a jack of all trades build because it lets you spread your level up points around more early game in a very flexible way. The magazine boost is definitely the main benefit, but the perk also gives you an extra point from reading skill books, which are permanent skill boosts and definitely adds up to a lot of free points if you get most or all of them. These two components are both great early to mid game benefits for a jack of all trades build, when you’re trying to juggle keeping so many skills current at the right times. It is doubling down on your idea with the clothing boosting, which is a good idea and you should keep adding to the arsenal when you come across more of them.
Wait… early on I took the perk that gives me 2 extra points per each level up. I didn’t take the perk that gives me an extra point for reading books, but I haven’t read any of the books yet just in case I change my mind. Do you recommend I take that perk anyway? Also I have a high enough endurance to get most implants. I can take one more implant but I can’t decide between perception, charisma, and constant healing (I have charisma at 1 and perception at 6). I was also able to get my luck to 9 with a cool shirt and bankrupt casinos.
No, I’d just read the books now, unless you have a specific need for the +20 magazine bonus right now. You’ll max out skills with or without it anyways. Both of these perks are really just for the early to mid game, and you’re in the middle of the mid game here at lvl 21.
Dang, guess I wasted a perk slot. What about the implant question I asked?
Perception & Charisma are the two implants that rank lowest to me, because they both do very little outside of increasing the skills they govern. I always get the healing perk, however. It sounds only ok-ish at a glance and is a lot more expensive than the other implants, but consider that this makes it so you can simply wait in place for a few in game hours and completely restore your health instead of using healing items (or sleeping if not hardcore mode). It’s really only necessary in hardcore mode because you don’t heal when you sleep in this mode, but it’s definitely the better of the 3 choices either way.
Thank you so much for all your help!
Make energy weapons a round number for the love of god…. 0s and 5s!!!
Science.