Fallout 4 Best Starting Stats (Stealth, Melee, Guns, Beginner)

Fallout 4 is still a very playable game, and players using mods are exploring ways how to beat it. Of course, that comes with new creative builds that they have not tested yet. New players are always coming in, so they also need the best guidance when they venture into the world of post-apocalyptic Fallout Wasteland. In this article, we will bring you guides for the best Fallout 4 starting stats for Stealth, Melee, Guns, beginners, and more.

First, we will present which S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stats you need to fill out at the beginning of the game, and which perks are available for each build path. Second, we will start by recommending which stats you need to feel out for each of the builds, and where do you need to accolade points throughout the game to get a build you want. After the introduction, we can start listing the best stats for Fallout 4. Let’s begin!

What Is S.P.E.C.I.A.L In Fallout 4?

S.P.E.C.I.A.L is the ruleset that powers all Fallout games. More specifically, the acronym stands for primary statistics in the system – Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. This system has been in Fallout games from the beginning and while customizing the character you need to pick your primary stats to determine your character’s personality.

• Strength – gives your character melee damage and the ability to carry more weight.
• Perception – this stat gives you V.A.T.S. accuracy (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System); a combat system with which you can stop the time and pick enemies’ most vulnerable spots to damage them.
• Endurance – this stat increases Hit Points (HP), and prolongs Action Points (AP) you use for sprinting.
• Charisma – gives you the ability to charm and convince others; it can help you decrease item prices, and more.
• Intelligence – overall mental acuity; Experience points gained for better leveling up.
• Agility – Action Points (AP) going to the maximum.
• Luck – Critical Hit recharge; ability to go out of sticky situations.

What Perks Do You Get With Each Primary Stat?

Perks are an integral part of every Fallout game; it grants special effects and improves your character’s abilities. What Fallout 4 did differently in comparison to the previous games is that it allowed a player to improve SPECIAL stat with every leveling up. That was not the case in the previous games, and it made a player work harder to acquire an option of improving their SPECIAL stats.

Remember, with every stat point, you get more available perks, we will list them from point 1 to point 10 accumulated in each stat.

In Fallout 4, players have these available perks for each stat:

Strength

• Iron Fist – grants you higher damage while punching; the higher the levels and rank of the perk, the higher possibility of crippling your opponents or disarming them,
• Big Leagues – Melee damage increases; higher rank and level provide higher damage and the possibility of crippling your opponents,
• Armorer – gives you the ability to more advanced armor modifications,
• Blacksmith – gives you access to better weapon modification,
• Heavy Gunner – increased damage with heavy guns,
• Strong Back – ability to carry more weight,
• Steady Aim – improves hip-fire accuracy except for shotguns,
• Basher – gun bashing damage improved,
• Rooted – while standing, the character gains damage resistance,
• Pain Train – increases damage and possibility of Stagger enemies if run into while wearing Power Armor.

Perception

• Pickpocket – a chance to pickpocket other individuals without getting caught; higher rank provides the character to pickpocket equipped items,
• Rifleman – non-automatic weapons deal higher damage,
• Awareness – knowledge of opponents’ weaknesses, closely connected to V.A.T.S.
• Locksmith – you can master harder locks.
• Demolition Expert – damage increase of explosives
• Night Person – better Intelligence and Perception during the night,
• Refractor – high energy resistance; Energy weapons resistance,
• Sniper – rifles gain better shot accuracy,
• Penetrator – during V.A.T.S., enemies’ body parts are penetrable even with armor,
• Concentrated Fire – better accuracy and damage during V.A.T.S.

Endurance

• Toughness – increased damage resistance,
• Lead Belly – less radiation when eating or drinking,
• Lifegiver – an increase in maximum health and health regeneration,
• Chem Resistant – a decrease in the possibility of addiction,
• Aquaboy/Aquagirl – less radiation while swimming and breathing underwater,
• Rad Resistant – an increase in radiation resistance,
• Adamantium Skeleton – a decrease in limb damage,
• Cannibal – eating Ghouls, Super Mutants, and more restore your health,
• Ghoulish – radiation regenerates your health; friendlier Feral Ghouls,
• Solar Powered – better stats during the day.

Charisma

• Cap Collector – better buying and seller prices,
• Lady Killer/Black Widow – better damage against the opposite sex; easier to persuade during dialogues,
• Lone Wanderer – better stats when not having a companion,
• Attack Dog – when your dog companion holds the enemy, you can damage them more; better stats while with a dog companion,
• Animal Friend – the ability to pacify the animal and later give it commands,
• Local Leader – ability to establish supply lines between your settlements; you can build stores and workstations at your workshop settlements,
• Party Girl/Party Boy – can’t get addicted to alcohol,
• Inspirational – your companions can carry more and increase their resistance,
• Wasteland Whisperer – you can pacify and Wasteland creature,
• Intimidation – you can pacify any human.

Intelligence

• V.A.N.S. – better Perception,
• Medic – medical supplies restore more health and remove bad effects more effectively,
• Gun Nut – better guns modifications,
• Hacker – increased hacking ability of harder Terminals,
• Scrapper – salvage better scraping components,
• Science! – better ranks of high-tech modifications,
• Chemist – increased durability of Chem effects,
• Robotics Expert – when you hack the robot, you can control it,
• Nuclear Physicist – an increase in Radiation weapons damage,
• Nerd Rage! – when below 20 percent of the health, time slows, and stats increase.

Agility

• Gunslinger – non-automatic pistols deal more damage,
• Commando – increased damage of automatic weaponry,
• Sneak – you are harder to detect,
• Mister Sandman – increased damage of silent weapons; can kill sleeping person faster,
• Action Boy/Action Girl – better regeneration of Action Points (AP),
• Moving Target – increased resistance while running,
• Ninja – your damage attacks (melee, ranged) are increased,
• Quick Hands – better AP and faster reloading of the weapons,
• Blitz – V.A.T.S. melee distance is increased and your damage is higher,
• Gun Fu – V.A.T.S. increased damage of the third hit.

Luck

• Fortune Finder – better loot all-around,
• Scrounger – increased ammo loot,
• Bloody Mess – enemies explode and deal AOE damage to the rest of them,
• Mysterious Stranger – this perk activates when in V.A.T.S.; increased critical strike,
• Idiot Savant – random experience increase,
• Better Criticals – better criticals and higher dealt damage,
• Critical Banker – saving Critical Hits in V.A.T.S.
• Grim Reaper’s Sprint – any V.A.T.S. kill restores your Critical Hits meter and AP,
• Four Leaf Clover – each hit in V.A.T.S. restores your Critical Hits meter,
• Ricochet – the increased possibility of enemy shot ricocheting back and killing them.

Fallout 4 Best Starting Stats For Stealth

Stealth build is usually used by players who know how Fallout enemies work. This is not us telling you that you should not start with the stealth build if you are a new player, however, that is the reality of the build. Regardless, if leveled up properly, this build can be absolutely broken. Walking by enemies without them noticing you is an amazing feeling, especially if you don’t want to waste your loot on unnecessary fights with Wasteland Riders and others.

This is how you should allocate your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points if going as a stealthy assassin, gunslinger, and more:

• Strength: 2
• Perception: 3
• Endurance: 1
• Charisma: 1
• Intelligence: 10
• Agility: 10
• Luck: 1

As a stealth character, you won’t need that much endurance at all, since your goal is to avoid enemies 1 versus 1. Perception doesn’t need to be over three because you will get an enhancer for the Perception perk (Bobblehead) which will provide you with an increase of Perception to four. The same goes for Strenght – you can pick up a special book that you can choose for increasing strength.

Charisma is unnecessary for this build but Intelligence needs to be top-notch – you’ll need to level up quickly to get more unique perks. High agility provides a stealthy character to constantly use V.A.T.S. for filling up a Critical meter pretty fast. Luck has one point because it is unnecessary for the build and you will have to scavenge more efficiently to get loot.

All in all, this build is not for group fighting, carrying a lot of weight and armor is not a goal here, and proficiency in stealthy attacking and intelligence that provides extra experience is a great starting spot for any stealthy player.

Fallout 4 Best Starting Stats For Melee Builds

There are few Melee builds available like stealthy assassins, brutes, and more. For this build, we will go for a straightforward, tanky character that will go through the opponents pretty easily.

• Strength: 9
• Perception: 3
• Endurance: 5
• Charisma: 2
• Intelligence: 5
• Agility: 5
• Luck: 4

For this brawler-like build, it is important for you to go, mostly, “reckless” with points in the Strength category. Carrying items and heavy power armors is pretty important if you want to go with this build. Perception is the same as stealth because you’ll need to see enemies at some distance. Endurance is basically for your character to develop resistance to any outside dangers and have a tanky stature that will be hard to break. Charisma is not necessary for a brawler – fists do the talking, and Intelligence is important for characters to get a better level of experience. Agility doesn’t have to be high that high for brawlers as we need for stealth build, because melee brawlers need some movement in combat and not for avoiding fights.

Luck is good for sticky situations in dialogues, because of lower intelligence and good loot score. If you are interested in this build, you can choose to go with these starting stats.

Fallout 4 Best Starting Stats For Guns

Build path for guns can vary from a sneaky gunslinger, smart gunslinger, or something more straightforward. Well, this build will be like that – it is for players who are good shooters and love a good gunfight.

• Strength: 3
• Perception: 4
• Endurance: 5
• Charisma: 3
• Intelligence: 5
• Agility: 7
• Luck: 1

You need to have some kind of strength to carry items and good armors. Perception is a bit higher because of the shooting perks you can get with this S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, especially in V.A.T.S. mode. Endurance is good for resistance if you’re going straight onto your enemies, and charisma is good for sometimes charming your opponents, but it is an optional choice for you, and you can allocate one point to Intelligence, and better-level experience gains. Agility is good for movement and perks that go with moving and shooting are pretty valuable. Luck can be gained through the game, so a start with one point is not a tragedy.

Fallout 4 Best Starting Stats For Beginners

Probably the most important build in this article is the beginner build. It is always hard to start a game without knowing what to do and potentially making your experience in the game much harder just because of the “wonky” build. We will try to help you in the next steps.

• Strength: 3
• Perception: 3
• Endurance: 5
• Charisma: 5
• Intelligence: 8
• Agility: 3
• Luck: 1

As you can see, the Intelligence stat has the most allocated points, which is no surprise because you need as much experience as you can get. Strength is standardly at three points and Perception can be upgraded by Bobblehead so always keep that in mind. Endurance is good if you are experienced and need better defense stats to survive through waves of enemies. Charisma is good for you to easier avoid combat and actually persuade the opponents with witty words and dialogue. Agility does not have to be insanely high but if you don’t like your starting AP meter just go with maxing this stat. Luck is not necessary for beginners as well – it is just an optional perk at this point.

Remember, this is a general build that is balanced all over the charts – if you got over beginner jitters and learned about the game a bit, definitely try maxing more specialized stats to get specialized perks and options.

This is the end of our article. Hopefully, we helped you in your journey through the dangerous Wasteland of Fallout 4. Enjoy!