This guide works just as well with Fallout 2! The only major change is with CHARISMA. In the second game every 2 points is a companion slot, but can be modified by chems too! What build do you like to run the classics with? If you don't have one yet, check the description for the ones mentioned in the guide if you're looking for a starting point!

My son gave me something for Fathers' Day a truly exceptional gift. I'm 51 yr old and totally loving Fallout and Fallout 2

Hey, I wish I had seen this video 22 years ago.

Don't forget that in Fallout 2 charisma affects how many companions you can have, from only 1 companion at 2 charisma, to 5 companions at 10 charisma.

War... war never changes. And neither do my SPECIAL stats for any Fallout character creation.

Retro guides are genius bro! These games are so daunting especially for anyone who didn't grow up with them looking to go back and experience some good old fashion RPG goodness!

Sequence doesn't give you extra turns. It defines the order in which each character moves within the turn. Basically the higher your sequence the better the chance you can shoot first.

A new player should also remember that your Action Points are equal to half of your Agility, plus 5. It takes 5 action points to fire a single shot from most weapons, 6 action points for a burst or aimed shot, 2 points to reload (or to use any secondary item in your other quick item slot), and 4 points to access your inventory. So with average Agility (5), you could only manage one specialized attack per turn, and if you had to open your knapsack for any reason, you probably wouldn't be able to attack (unless you were close enough to throw a punch). With an Agility of 10 on the other hand, you could make two shots per turn, or fire a burst and open your inventory, fire a burst, reload, and heal yourself with a stimpack, etc. So yeah, Agility is absolutely vital if you want to be at all useful in combat. An even number is best (remember your action points!), and I would recommend an Agility of around 8 for most builds. You won't be able to excel at everything, so you have to plan your build carefully. It's totally possible to make useless characters in Fallout 1 (don't take the Bruiser trait EVER; it's basically the equivalent of losing four points of AG, which is just ridiculous). It's also possible to make characters so insanely powerful they more or less break the game. For instance . . . For a true combat monster, you could start with an AG of 10 AND take the Fast Shot trait (your other trait should probably be Gifted). Then, once you reach level 9 you can select the Bonus Rate of Fire perk (if you have Perception 6, Intelligence 6, and Agility 7) your attacks with small guns, big guns, or energy weapons will cost 1 AP less. At level 12 or higher, you will have access to the Action Boy perk as well, which grants you an additional action point. You can take up to three ranks of this perk in Fallout 1. What this eventually means is that if you have a level 12+ character with these traits, attributes, and perks, you can easily make multiple attacks per turns with some of the deadliest weapons in the game. If you have access to a Turbo Plasma rifle, for instance, you will only need to spend two AP per turn to fire a single shot! With Two ranks of Action Boy, this means you can get off SIX attacks per turn! Just so you know, the Turbo plasma rifle is the deadliest weapon in the game. Hell, getting off three attacks per turn from a normal plasma rifle is pretty beastly, too. You'll be able to clear out entire rooms of super mutants without too much difficulty, though you'll go through ammo quickly.

Ive been playing fallout 1,2 and tactics for years on Steam, never felt like the game had a quality tutorial this one is one of the best ive ever watched.

Just started a new game of fallout1 the first random encounter gave me like 8k caps!

If you're worried about the water chip timer because of hit points healed in 30 minutes, then you have much bigger problems. You can get the water chip and have 30 to 50 days to spare while taking your time and doing side quests.

Fallout 1: We don't want our players to get frustrated or discouraged right at the beginning, we'll give them the necessary items according to their skills at the beginning of the game :) Fallout 2: Here, have this weak-ass spear bitch

Ahh the ancient times when RPGs required thinking...

My build suggestion: St 6 Pe 6 En 4 Ch 8 In 7 Ag 9 Lk 8 Trait: Small Frame, Gifted Tag skills: Unarmed, Lockpick, Speech

I always play high luck and intelligence characters in the classics, especially in 2. In fact, Fallout 2 is really easy to break with the right character build. Seriously, the M72 Gauss Rifle, plus a very high small guns, plus 8-10 luck, plus sniper perk equals "I WIN".

2023 and I’m playing this for the first time! Thank you for the video, Caedo

Hey man, just getting into classic Fallout and this was a huge help, a proper tutorial. Thanks!

Grand child of Soviet diplomat. Had issues with private property laws. Lmao

The idiot build is both hilarious and challenging. An Intelligence of 1 or 2 gives you some fun conversation options, though you'll probably want to invest in some Mentats to articulate anything other than grunts. Most skill checks run independently of low Intelligence checks, so Speech and Science are still viable options. However, there should be a bit of focus on your favorite weapon skills, as your only real option for avoiding combat is Stealth, which isn't a guarantee.

Thank you for this guide! I wanted to give Fallout 1 and 2 a try ever since i fell in love with New Vegas, and this video helped me tremendously.

i spent so much time trying to figure out how to build my character, but after watching this video everything made sense. Thanks a bunch caedo your awesome

3 Strength, 3 Perception, 1 Endurance, 10 Charisma, 10 Intelligence, 2 Agility and 10 Luck, Favourite build special stats

Gosh, l needed this video 3 years ago, my first time playing this l didn't increase agility at all so my combat resulted in my character getting shot often. My build is Strength- 5, Perception- 7, Endurance - 5, Intelligence- 7 Charisma- 7, Agility- 9, Luck-7 AFTER taking the gifted perk. leaving anything below 4 in special is bad, as the character can suffer, such as poor combat or little health. For skills, Repair, Enegery weapons, and Science, I noticed those skills are used often throughout the game. Look out for the alien blaster, its damage is tied with energy weapons.

Nice intro Retro guide for newbies and refresher for those who have not played this game in years. Great stuff. Nothing like a great old school top down RPG like this awesome one! I played alot of them as a teen back in the 90s and though I took a break from them when 3D First and Third person RPGs became big I have recently gotten back into playing them again.

Slayer makes every melee hit critical regardless of luck. That said it might be a good idea to get your luck to 6 for better criticals. Also, an eyeshot is around +60% critical hit chance and everyone shoots in the eyes +4.26% avg if the chance to hit is 95%, so even for snipers(with sniper perk) it might be ok to go with 6 as the critical hit chance for eye shots will be ~88%(70.26% to crit then another 60% roll if not crit). Furthermore, if you take 3 levels of more criticals and finesse trait(-30% dmg part in reality is +30% normal resistance(DR) which is ignored on armour bybasses and probably is ignored for energy weapons/fire damage entirely(edit:it's probably not, but noncriticals suck anyway)) your chance to crit in the eyes will be ~99% with 10LK or 4% lower with 6LK so you won't even need the sniper perk and you'll be as good as characters with it but much earlier. If you're going for the fastshot sniper build go ahead and take 10lk(minus increases you're planning to get throughout the game of fo1/fo2). Another thing I'd like to mention is that gifted is probably overrated, IMO. If you want to be a pure sniper or a pure pacifist you don't need those extra 7 stat points to have high relevant stats and you'll be slowing down your skill training on top of having a worse start. Do train/tag speech regardless of CH you get, if you still care to roleplay a decent person and sneak, if a non-combat char and hit 1 on random encounter loads for a high chance to avoid combat with low outdoorsman. If you want to be everything and have everything(like extra few options from that high CH, maybe) and you are going to fight a lot and get all that exp from high level critter encounters then you can go ahead and take it, though. Also you might want to try to have fun and take advantage of jinxed since you are probably going to miss your hits much less than opponents, which is what I'm trying this time and it's funny so far, but might get old. If you're a solo pacifist you only benefit :) I have replayed fo2 countless times ever since it came out(when I was 8. Oh that scratched disk and playing minimal installation on a damaged HDD experience...) so at some point I started questioning stuff like taking gifted every time and noticing stuff like JHP having a 2/1 dmg mod, which makes 10mm pistol damage actually 10-24(so critical damage in the eyes is like 25-96, off the top of my head) which often makes my ways differ from what others do, for example I killed most early rats(a lot of side quests for that) with a plant spike throw in the eyes/head because they have like 80%/60% chance to instantly die from a crit in the eyes(look at critical tables on fo wiki, etc, it's some fun info if you want to know what's really going on in combat), that's all rat types, including mutated/tough/pig/mole rats. You can even upgrade that playstyle by using flares - with better criticals you can take out an enclave soldier with some flare throws in the eyes, same goes for 10LK+Sniper hits in the body/non-aimed, so might want to try to take out some enclave dudes with a bb gun for fun. :) Whatever you do - take 10AG in FO2, if you want to own in combat(or run away faster). Example: you hit an unarmed dude with an unaimed punch(3ap -1 for bonus attacks perk) and go 7 hexes away, almost no critter (apart from mean centaurs and most deathclaws) has 10AP so they walk up to you and have 2AP left and can't even do anything. Doing 2 aimed shots with a revolver without any perks is also nice. edit: I haven't played through the FO2 RP mod, yet, but apparently you can get +1AG in the implemented originally cut location, but I say if you want to enjoy the game just take viable stats from the beginning, just think of the potential to increase stats as not existing, since most of it is at the end of the game, when you're op anyway, sadly this is also true for advanced weaponry, so focus on small guns, by the time you can get good energy/heavy weapons the best small gun(gauss rifle/pistol) is not far away, once again notice the 3/2 dmg mod of 2mm ammo and say no to pulse rifles other than as a novelty(it's highly inaccurate and actually doesn't even deal more damage most of the time(fallout.gamepedia.com/YK42B_pulse_rifle_(Fallout_2) / fallout.gamepedia.com/M72_Gauss_rifle_(Fallout_2). PS: sorry for a lengthy comment, but I'm too lazy and self-concious to make a video of my own guide :P

Come back to this vid every time I decide to replay Fallout 2, good job!

Good video man I must have made like 3 characters and given up on each one cuz I didn't know what I was doing any of those playthroughs but after watching this id say I'm pretty confident about trying again, the way you explained everything translated perfectly to my 1 INTELLIGENCE build irl xD but for real thx a million I'm pretty sure you just helped me start my journey on these old gems. Thx partner B/

nice guide. after so many years back to f1 and thats just what i needed! Superb video dude!! nicely made

So useful! I recently bought FO1, FO2 and Tactics and I couldn't get used to the mechanics after playing FO3 and FNV. But this definitively helps in the long run!

Thank you SO much for the video! I wanted to play original fallout games but was too intimidated. Your videos make me excited to try them out!

Hey you! This channel is now FULL-TIME, but your support can GREATLY HELP make it permanent. Pledging on Patreon (www.patreon.com/CaedoGenesis ) as little as a buck, brings me and the channel that much closer to being self-sustaining! Not only will this mean more videos every week, but being a supporter grants perks too, which range from being credited in videos, to verbal credits, to unlisted video access, to even seeing my face in monthly updates! Again, every little bit helps and if you're not able to support this way, you're welcome to share, comment, like, all that stuff too! I'm blessed to have all of you here no matter what, so thank you!

Intelligence 10 or 9 (only a skill benefit to having perfect 10), Charisma 8 (chip + glasses = perfect 10); Agility 6 or 8 (depending on how much Buffout you want to be using; late game 6 + Serum +1 Psycho = 10 Agility and would be a waste to have more); a strength of 3 is perfectly OK if you avoid combat and roleplay everything up to the Power Armor (in Fallout 2 you will have 8 ST eventually = 3 + chip + 4 PA); what is left is to sacrifice as much Endurance as you like for as much Perception and Luck as you want; 7 PE is a must; 2 EN is surprisingly doable, remember never to take 1 EN though (3 vs 2 HP per level); 8 Luck is perfect 10 with hubologist, the difference between 9 and 10 Luck is miniscule so you could start on 7 or even 6 Luck if you want higher Perception and/or that 4 Endurance

This is a really useful strategy guide for character builds in fallout 1 I’ll have to come back to this when I wanna try some other type of build I already did a guns and energy weapons character but I thought about trying something else sometimes and I usually get the more criticals and better critical perks

Just downloaded the game and I'm loving it. Thanks so much!

Very useful, very entertaining! Now that I better understand how the first _Fallout_ works in character creation, I'll be that much less confused when I finally get to playing it!

I would love to see a play through from you on fallout 2

this was really useful, thank you man

I always build my character towards a lone wolf gunslinger/rifle specialist type of gameplay in the classic games. It usually ends like this S4 P10 E4 C1 I10 A10 L1 Also using the perks Finesse & Bloody Mess/Jinxed (for the lols) Tag skills: small guns + 2 random skills, usually lock picking and science/medicine/first aid By the time you reach lvl 2, you can rise your small guns to 101% , and the other 2 skills to a similar % in one level each. Also, despite having only 11% crit chance, if you aim at your opponent eyes/head/other weak points, chances are you'll land a crit and/or cripple them rather often

Thank you! Can’t wait download this game!!!

I usually spec all into Intelligence and Charisma, or set Intelligence to 1 then the rest in Strength. I also like to do fists only and/or no armour runs.

I played 3 through 4 growing up. But i never touched 1 & 2. Somehow, the fallout show on amazon Prime sparked my curiosity about the OG falloit experience, and I've got to say, i am not disappointed. Started a luck build with gifted perk and bled my charisma stat to fortify a few others. I am having a blast. The encounters are top tier. Of course the fixt patch made it better because now i can "take all" and the quests dont bug out

I could never get into the later Fallouts because I started with and loved the first two.

Thank you for your guide. I'm starting new Fallout adventure as i've never finished first Fallout :)

Thanks a ton for this guide!!!

How hard would it be to beat this game if you only punched enemies in the balls the entire game?

Thanks!It helped a lot!

this was very helpful

I’m glad I chose gifted. I heard the special stats were a big deal in this game and the skills can always be leveled up. Plus the tags go up double the points. (I think they should bring that back in the future). Then I chose finesse not sure if it was a great idea but it works decent.

Great video, the only thing missing from this guide are formulas for Chance to Hit, maximum useful skill point numbers and mechanics of books/progression of skill point allocation cost. CtH formula is an important bit of info since it's derived from many factors that player can affect (PE, weapon skill, weapon type and distance) and this knowledge makes build-making easier. Maximum skills is self-explanatory in that iirc there is literally no need to have any non-weapon skill above 150 (in some cases 120). But one could argue that all the above is a bit too deep and player will found it for himself on wiki if he so invested in the game

if i remember correct, Fallout 2 Charisma is very important, as it determines how large your party squad can be

Your voice is awesome. Loved this video, well done.

Just started a new playthrough with restoration project mod. I remember when me and my friend got this game as kids. Without internet back in the days, we didnt have any patches, it was pain to play at times lol. Truly a masterpiece after patches and mod i mentioned above.

I'm so happy to see other people still play fallout 1

Great guide! Thanks!

Luck within Fallout and 2 is pretty much essential for sharpshooters when going for a maximum build. This is because of the perk Sniper, which checks on the Luck stat x10 in terms of %, thus 10 Luck=100% crit chance, you do massive damage everytime + Better criticals = chance to instantly kill enemies. P.S., Slayer does NOT rely on Luck, it literally upgrades your attacks to crits, go nuts!

Simple version: Always choose gifted. Doesn’t matter what other trait you choose, just get gifted.

This helped alot, thank you

I wish this video was around back in the late 90's! I had to figure all this out on my own

My first Fallout 1 build was a 10 Agility 10 Luck character with Jinxed and Gifted. My logic at the time was "if everything is dicerolls, make the dicerolls as biased as possible" but it didn't really pan out.

beautiful vid

thanks fir the tips and guides. ive been wanting to play this game properly for awhile. i tried a couple years ago and got fairly far. i got captured by the super mutants but couldn't figure out how to get out so i kinda quit. hopefully a proper build will help. and honestly in hindsight i wish more games were like this. it has way more detail then games nowadays.

Modifying the build a little to get fast shot instead of small frame lets you use big guns which are, a lot of fun. It requires more player skill because you can easily turn anyone near your target into red paste. Means Gorris and Sulik really need to be cared for. One upside is the player is the only character that can be trusted with burst fire anyway.

Video: "It might be a little daunting at first..." 8 year old me: *Cries in 2 INT* Guuuh!

I always have a high CHA character. It makes the overall experience much more interesting for me.

Thank you for this

I have learned that Rapid fire+small arms is a surprisingly viable and fun combination on Fallout 2, specially after you get your hands on a grease gun and .44 pistol. Also that gambling is incredibly good at making you money and that finding a cure for jet early on makes it so you can abuse it for the remainder of the game.

great video

Maybe you could do a video like this for people that are already experienced in the game and touch on some finer points like: Energy weapons - when do they appear and when do you need to build skill for them? Small guns - the growth from great weapons to medicore weapons to great again at the end of the game (no spoilers) and big guns, how much ammo can you actually get, etc.

Fallout 1 and 2 has *breakpoints* for the Attributes. Endurance/2 determines how many HP you gain per level, so you want to be at an even value. 4, 6, 8, or maybe 2 or 10 for a more extreme character. A more sophisticated game would carry over the decimal, but that ain’t Fallout! END/3 rounded down determines your Heal Rate. So with END 6-8 you get 2, more you get 3, less you get 1. This makes END 6 attractive for a robust combat character, with 4 being the next best option. 8 isn’t worth it, 9 fails a Heal Rate breakpoint and 10 is silly expensive. Agility also affects Action Points. It’s 5 plus AGI/2 rounded down, so again you benefit much by having an even value. Preferably 10 or 8, but 6, 4 or 2 are also options. The main benefits of raising AGI to an odd value are the small gain to many skills and also +1 Armor Class which apparently gives enemies -1% to hitting you. Not worth it! You want an even AGI.

you honestly deserve way more views and in general attention with the amount of effort you put in your videos, what the hell happened to all the views from 5-ish year ago??

thank you for this! going from fallout 3/4 to this a nightmare

not gonna lie, watching your video and realizing i can click on ST, PE, EN, etc alone has been tremendously helpful. thanks! I always wanted to play this game back in the 90s, i just couldn't convince the right people (people willing to buy the game and overlook the box content lol) to buy it

Something that always bothered me was how character action was tied heavily to agility I always felt forced to put a majority of my points into agility firsr

Thank you!

Actually playing Fallout 1 and 2, Fallout 1 was easier in creating A character, Fallout 2 was pretty dang hard, and this video was real helpful.

Thank you.

It's worth noting that the Bonus Melee Damage stat is worthless because it only gives you the potential to do more maximum melee damage; it's not a flat value that is added on top of your regular melee attack. Heavy Handed builds are pretty crummy for this reason, and Unarmed/Melee builds generally are allowed to eschew Strength, bizarrely enough. Only in Fallout 2 does Strength give substantial benefits as you need a certain level of Strength to unlock the special Unarmed moves like the mighty Haymaker.

Having my fallout 1 cherry popped right now and man is this game an experience.

Well, I'm finally gunna do it. I'm finally going to try fallout 1.

3 years past still don't know what i should pick

Thank you

cheers homie

The build I favor for FO1 SPECIAL (with gifted trait) (parenthesis marks additional points in game) S: 6 (+1, +3 power armor) P: 8 (+1) E: 4 (+1) C: 2 (+1) I: 9 (+1) A: 9 (+1) L: 9 (+1) Skills to tag: Small guns, Lockpick, Speech Traits: Gifted (as mention before), Fast Shot Perks: lvl 3: Awarness lvl 6: Bonus move lvl 9: Bonus rate of fire lvl 12: Action Boy (1) lvl 15: Action Boy (2) lvl 18: Sniper lvl 21: Action Boy (3)

for fo1 i highly reccomend the crit sniper build its op and got me through hard mode in record time.

Its just amazing to me how they could make such a complicated and gory game in 1997 I thought during that time there was only console and arcade games I completely forgot about PC's

Thanks.

A fun thing i realized is that if you go melee in fallout one fast shot aplies to that too so if you then get bonus hth atacks you will have one ap cost per atack

You can get away with having a low Charisma in Fallout 1, but Charisma is NOT a dump stat in Fallout 2. It directly effects the number of companions you can bring with you; the number being half of your Charisma score rounded down. The Magnetic Personality trait helps a bit, too.

Crit sniper only for me. Finesse, gifted, dump End and Cha, have enough strength to use an accurate long range gun, max Agi, 7-8luck, daydream about sniper perk. Always aim at the eyes.

My favorite build is what I call the "team gunman." He's not a sniper (no aimed shots) but he does a lot of damage because he gets extra attacks every combat turn. The way to build him/her is: Attributes: S4 P7 E3 C1 (5 in Fallout 2), I7 A7 L7 (add 2 to I and 1 to P and L in Fallout 1) Traits: Fast Shot, Gifted Tag Skills: Energy Weapons (Small Guns in Fallout 2), Lockpick, Speech The thing about Fallout 1 is that there is *NO NEED* to tag Small Guns; you can crank up your Small Guns skill as high as you need or want with books, and there really aren't any truly viable Small Guns weapons in the late game anyway, unlike in Fallout 2. Therefore, you eventually *MUST HAVE* Energy Weapons ... and Lockpick and Speech are just good for any character to have. Also, relying on books to build up your Small Guns skill means that in the early game you can spend your skill points on Speech, Lockpick, and important non-tagged skills like Doctor and (possibly) Outdoorsman ... though that can also be built up with books. In Fallout 2, this build means you'll eventually be able to take *6 ATTACKS PER TURN* with a gauss pistol once you get the Bonus Rate of Fire perk, and when you get the Better Criticals and Sniper perks, it'll mean you can one-shot most enemies from the other side of the screen most of the time. In Fallout 1, it'll mean you get four shots (I believe ... it's been a while since I last played) with the Turbo Plasma Rifle and, again, be able to one-shot many or most opponents with the same two perks. In Fallout 2, BTW, you need the C6 so you can pick up Sulik, Vic and Cassidy to add to your team of gunmen. If you want to play a solo sniper, then go with C1 (which will give you a C2, allowing you to pick up companions temporarily for the XP), crank up your P and I to 9 (10 with Gifted). You can dump Fast Shot for ... well, you don't really have to take a second Trait in that case, and you won't want to take Small Frame because, first, Psycho (I love Psycho) and second, you'll be alone so you won't want to reduce your carry capacity AT ALL. Yes, I realize that this build sacrifices earlier criticals and that you never get to actually *CHOOSE* to blind your opponents, but I find that the extra attack(s) you get to make earlier on compensate for this in the early game, and more than make up for it once you've got the Sniper perk. Anyway, that's still my favorite build after about 20 years of playing the game.

I wanted to made a build of big guns because i have already a character of pistols build and im very stuck killing supermutants and deathclaws (having combat armor and 223. handgun) Any suggestions?

When you can just camp out on the character generation screen for an hour, you know you've got a special game. Classic FO, MOO2, and more recently Encased are all prime examples.

Thanks for the creation guide. What's the music you used in this video?

My build for getting the absolute maximum amount of content in a single play through is Small Guns, Speech, Lockpick. 10 agility. usually 1 or 2 Charisma and Endurance. Divide the rest between intelligence, perception and lucky, the exact distribution determined by how much I want to win via critical hit. Usually take Gifted and Finesse as my traits. Other times I drop my luck down to 1 and take the Jinxed trait, if I want a ridiculously surreal game.

Thx brah.

I can't believe Finesse isn't a favorite trait, as it gives you hefty 10% bonus to crit chance at the cost of reduced normal damage. With 10 Luck, that's 20% crit at level 1! 6, 10, 4, 6, 7, 10, 4 Gifted\Finesse, Small Guns\Melee\Speech was my original sniper build in FO1. It works just fine, and I never felt like my CHA was wasted.

I love old RPGs and their numbers. The wiki really helps when trying to min/max a character for the most over-powering and game breaking effects. 45% chance to miss, 80 or 90% damage removal, and then subtract 12 or 20 damage. Should (theoretically) make you a tank.

its okay son your just special

Correction, adv power armor gives +4str and implant 1 so you technically could go str5.

Make steal as high as possible so money doesn't become an issue. On my steal play throughs I rarely spend caps and if I do I usually just steal the caps I spend.