Fallout: New Vegas

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Release Date: October 21. 2010

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The Usefulness of Perks

Something that may confuse a lot of gamers playing Fallout: New Vegas, whether they are seasoned veterans, green novices, or anyone in between, is the "Perk" system. Perks are additional... well... perks to leveling-up beyond the statistical advantages you earn from each level (via distributing skill points). At the beginning of the game, you'll be able to choose a few perks to take with you as you begin your journey, and every so often, as you level up (every two levels), you'll get to select another one. Perks are basically meant to compliment your character, usually allowing you to do things you already want to do better. But perks can also be used to round-out your character, helping you to buff-out an area or skill that your character might be severely lacking in.

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The beauty of perks is in how you utilize what's offered to you to compliment your character and make him or her better as a result. Let's not beat around the bush; there are some awful perks that you shouldn't touch with a ten foot poll. But with that said, there are also perks that you should consider getting no matter what, and plenty of perks somewhere in the murky middle that may benefit you (or not) depending on the type of character you're playing as. Hell, many perks don't only become available to you when you reach a certain level (which is one of the common prerequisites across all perks), but can be contingent on your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, other perks you've already taken, and even your character's gender.

So in which direction should you go in when acquiring a new perk? Like we said earlier, it really depends on what you need. There are a few perks that are worth looking into, though. While these perks will occupy slots (permanently) that might be useful for perks that deliver to your character a more subtle edge, the following perks will assist you in making your character better in a more general way. The better news is that each of these perks can be upgraded to make them better and better. The three perks in question are Intense Training (which lets you add a single point to any S.P.E.C.I.A.L. statistic), Educated (which gives you two more skill points to distribute for each level you advance), and Swift Learner (which gives you a +10% experience bonus for each time you activate it). Don't underestimate the usefulness of some one-off perks either, though, such as Tag! (which gives you a +15 to a single non-S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skill), Strong Back (which lets you carry an additional fifty pounds in your inventory), Here and Now (which automatically levels you up another level), and Explorer (which reveals each and every location for you in the Mojave Wasteland).

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As you can see, you'll have a lot of choices (there are dozens of dozens of perks in the game). So what are you going to do!?

Managing Your Inventory

Like with just about any RPG in existence, Fallout: New Vegas contains an equipment, gear, weapon, armor and item inventory that requires you to manage it. But this is no run-of-the-mill RPG (in the old-school console sense, anyway), where you can carry 99 of anything you want with no penalty. Fallout: New Vegas associates a specific weight to just about everything in the game (except ammunition and some curative items, unless you're playing via Hardcore Mode), and you can only carry so much before you reach your encumbrance ceiling. If you go over that ceiling, your character will move at a crawl, can't fast-travel, and essentially becomes totally useless. Thus, what you really need to figure out early in the game is how you will manage your inventory.

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The good news is that the amount of weight your character can hold is directly associated with a specific statistic (Strength), which means that you should be able to predict how much you'll be able to carry. The maximum weight you can carry is easy to find in your Pip-Boy, as is the relative weight of everything in your inventory. So management here really only requires that you don't carry too much with you at any given time. This sounds easy in premise, doesn't it? Well it certainly is... but the problems you'll encounter are always of the unexpected variety.

So here are some basic rules to keep in mind to ensure that your inventory is good to go under most circumstances. We won't use specific numbers, since that will vary depending on your character's Strength, as well as any perks you have, and more. What we will use are percentages (keeping in mind that these percentages will wildly change if you're playing on Hardcore Mode). Relegate about 20% of your inventory to various pieces of armor. Perhaps 10% or so can be relegated to curative items that actually have weight, drugs, items like Stealth Boys, and any food you're carrying with you. A full 50% should be given to weapons, of which you should be carrying a lot of, so that you're ready for all sorts of different situations, and have other options to fall back on if a weapon you're currently using is about to break, or if you run out of ammunition, or whatever else.

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This will leave 20% of your inventory's maximum weight allowance. The idea should be to fill in this extra 20% as you explore various areas, purchase new items and gear, and most importantly, perhaps, find things that you'll want to gather now in order to sell later. The latter is really the key. Earning Bottle Caps is an important thing in Fallout: New Vegas. While you're sure to organically find plenty of Bottle Caps as you explore, you'll earn a vast majority of your cash by selling things you've found out there in the wild. So when you go to a new location, feel free to grab the things that are most valuable without over-encumbering yourself. You can then unload it later. Just be sure not to over-do it, though! Regularly get rid of old weapons or armor you don't need (especially if weapons and weapon types start to become redundant), use like weapons and armor to repair each other so that you can lower your carried weight, and only carry things that have a maximum value with as little weight as possible. If you can follow all of those instructions, you should never, ever find yourself carrying too much weight.

Caring For Your Character

While it's true that your character is really just a 3D image on your screen, a complicated permutation of binary with no actual substance outside of the digital world, you still need to learn to care for him or her, or you won't get very far in the game. Now, this brief section of Basics doesn't include information on the seldom-played Hardcore Mode (which, amongst other things, forces your character to sleep, eat and drink regularly to stay alive and functioning). Rather, we'll focus on what we assume is the most-played version of the game, which is the still-difficult and still-robust standard mode. If you're playing on Hardcore Mode, you should already know what to do, so this entire Basics section will otherwise be useless to you. If not, then you should keep on reading, and learn a little bit about caring for your character in Fallout: New Vegas.

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Your health is perhaps your character's most telling sign of vitality. Without a character's health, he (or she) will slowly whittle down to nothingness and eventually perish. Your character's health will decrease in a few ways, but "taking damage" is the way he will lose health the most. Damage of varying amounts will be dealt by all sorts of hostile enemies, from fellow characters to dangerous creatures. The amount of damage dealt to you depends entirely on the strength of the attack and the attacker, and your own ability to withstand said attack coupled with your armor's ability to help you withstand that attack as well. However, you'll take some random damage from high falls, radiation poisoning, and other random (and rare) hazards.

To heal yourself, you have some options. You can go to any medically-inclined character in the game to pay for healing (or to fix broken bones, which happen fairly often if a limb or other part of your body takes too much damage). You could also sleep in a bed for eight (or more) in-game hours in order to heal yourself and fix any broken bones. But Stimpaks and Super Stimpaks, fairly common items in the Mojave Wasteland, will likely be your quickest route towards health, especially when you're in the middle of questing or exploring. It's important to keep in mind that radiation poisoning is an entirely different statistic that has nothing to do with your health meter, but everything to do with your character's overall health. Radiation occurs often in the irradiated post-apocalyptic United States, so keep an eye on your radiation level, and use RadAway to get rid of some radiation if your levels are getting too high.

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