Fallout 2 - Melee Fighter Guide
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| The Ultimate Melee Fighter Guide v0.1 |
| Made by: Behnam Saberi aka Chutchik |
| Email: chutchik@hotmail.com |
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| Section I - Table Of Contents |
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Section I - Table Of Contents
Section II - Rules Of Conduct
Section III - Version History & Thanks
Section IV - Introduction & Basics
Section V - Character Creation
Section VI - Character Development
Section VII - Character Equipment
Section VIII - Conclusion
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| Section II - Rules Of Conduct |
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This guides most recent version can always be found at www.gamefaqs.com
The use of this guide is open to all and is absolutely free. It may not
be sold to or by anyone.
If you wish to publish this guide on any other website you may do so
provided you do not change the contents of this guide in any way at all.
I dont any information about this, as long as I receive the recognition
for it.
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| Section III - Version History & Thanks |
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Version 0.1
This is the fist version of this guide. I would appreciate as much
feedback and suggestions as possible concerning this guide since this is
sort of a beta release for me, considering its the first FAQ / Guide I
have ever made.
All propositions may be sent to: chutchik@hotmail.com and please set the
subject as "Fallout 2 Melee Fighter Guide".
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First of all I want to thank Black Isle for a totally outstanding game.
The people who made this game are truly gifted indeed and your hard work
will always be remembered and appreciated by those of us who hold Fallout
close to our hearts. Thank you very much!
Also lots of thanks go out to GroZZleR who made the Fallout 2 "Melee
Master Character Guide". Although his guide truly is an excellent guide,
I dont exactly agree with all of his recommendations and choices, so I
simply decided to make my own guide. Since I have been playing fallout
for a very long time and practically never used a ranged fighter Id say
Im pretty well suited to make this guide but of course that does not mean
Im 100% right and that if you follow my steps you will have the perfect
melee fighter.
This Guide is based on my personal playing style and preferences and
although it suits my playing style perfectly it may not suite yours as
well, so please feel free to make whatever changes you desire when
creating your own personal character because in the end it all comes down
to making whatever choices suit your playing style and makes the game
specifically fun for YOU!!!
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| Section IV - Introduction & Basics |
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First of all lets ask ourselves the main question that pops up when
reading this guide, why oh why would I make a melee character when I can
blast people sky high with my minigun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher etc.?
By people I mean deformed ghouls and mutants ;)
And the answer... Because a melee character can be as deadly if not perhaps
more so than a ranged fighter. And also because there is nothing more
satisfying than running up to your opponents through a rain of fire and
bullets to smack them around with your bare fists =D
Notice I wrote bare fists... this is mainly because the Mega Power First is
more powerful and can be sooner acquired than the Super Sledgehammer. Also
unarmed fighting is required in some sub quests in the game unlike melee
fighting. And besides, you can take advantage of the HtH Evade perk when
using Knuckles and Power Fists but not when you use melee weapons. So
considering all of these important factors I think you will soon understand
why I choose an unarmed fighter rather than a melee fighter and why this
guide is also for an unarmed fighter ONLY.
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| Section V - Character Creation |
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Lets start with the unimportant choices. Name, Gender and Age. You may fill
in these in any way you like, although *SPOILER* if you choose your gender as
female and your name is Buffy you will get some equipment in The Den if you
talk to Rebecca. Personally Id say our unarmed fighter will be quite strong
enough even without some extra equipment but the choice is yours to make. Its
all about playing whatever character you find interesting or amusing. Although
a female unarmed fighter known as Buffy gives an interesting twist to the game
if you imagine all of your enemies to be vampires ;)
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Now for something that really matters. Traits!
Im going to agree with GroZZleR about the trait Gifted. Its probably one of
the best traits available. Unless you plan to increase all of your skills to
max Id say its one hell of a trade to gain 7 extra attribute points for a
measly 5 skill point loss for every level.
Now for your second trait, since you will be using unarmed and not melee
weapons that means all of your possible weaponry will be one handed. As you
might have figured out already that means your going to pick the One Hander
trait. If you are playing a female you might consider choosing Sex Appeal
since you will have an extremely low charisma (as if that truly matters in a
game like Fallout). Id go with One Hander either way, but as usual the
choice is yours to make.
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Now for the statistics. This assumes you have chosen the Gifted trait. If
you havent done that Id recommend you get your brain examined ;)
Id start by lowering my strength by one so it ends up at 5. Yes, you read it
correct, I said LOWER your strength. This is simply because you will get an
enhancer that will increase your strength by 1, and the Advanced Power Armour
will give you an additional increase of 4, finishing if off with a maximum
strength of 10 so any other points will simply go to waste.
You will decrease your perception by 2 point, It will end up at 4 and
eventually at 5 after using an enhancer. Seriously now, you wont be needing
very high perception considering you will be an arms length at furthest from
your enemies, but lower than that could have some serious sequence issues, at
some times even so bad that your enemies receive two full round of attack
before you get you chance to counter. So that concludes our perception to 4
in the creation stage.
Moving on to endurance. Obviously you will be taking a lot of hits since you
will often spend some rounds of running while your enemies get some free
shots at you, so this is one of your most important attributes. Id raise this
to 9 since an enhancer will get it up to 10 for you so more points here would
also be a waste. A nice score of 9 on this attribute will ensure you gain a
good amount of hit points every time you level up, and if you add the
Lifegiver perk you will soon have more hit points than your enemies have
bullets.
Ahh, charisma. Probably the most worthless attribute in Fallout 2, unless you
enjoy stupid companions who tend to burst their weapons at you while you are
running up to your enemies. I do this game solo, so I dont want, nor do I
like charisma. Besides, your supposed to be an ugly brute, now am I right, or
am I right? ;)
Who said you cant have brains AND brawns? You character will be bathing in
brain cells. Increase this attribute to 9. Yeah you guessed it, an enhancer
will raise it to 10. You need a high value in intelligence to be able to talk
your way in or out of whatever and to compensate for your loss in skill points
due to the Gifted trait, so setting this to 9 will be pretty much perfect.
At last, probably the most important attribute in this game, Agility. This
basically determines how fast you are in combat. You want to be able to throw 2
punches every turn or 5 for example? We will raise this attribute to a
maximum of 10. This may seem hasty considering there is an enhancer for this
attribute also, but I think its worth it to raise this particular one to the
maximum right away.
And last but certainly not least, the most interesting attribute, Luck. This
one affects a lot of things in and out of combat. For example your chances of
critical hits or failure in combat amongst other things. Also a high luck
lets you experience special encounters. And most importantly, luck determines
how effective the Slayer perk becomes. With a luck of 10 you will get a
critical hit 95% of the time you make a successful melee attack. I say 10
because you will be able to raise your luck by 2 further in to the game.
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Now finally for your skills.
The first choice I think is pretty obvious by now, but for the mentally
challenged Ill write it down anyway. UNARMED FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! You will
want to raise this skill to somewhere around 150. This includes the bonuses
from Mr. Sullivan and the boxing bags in the Sierra Army Depot.
Now for the second skill. Thats right you guessed it, Sneak. This skill is
very important to any melee fighter since you will have the ability to sneak
up to your enemies and shred them to a million pieces before they get a
chance to even react to your presence. And if your skill level is high
enough you will be able to deal damage without alerting your surroundings.
This could be important in some quests. Id raise this skill to the 130's.
Now for your third and final choice. Personally I went for Doctor, since this
will let you heal some damage without overusing your precious stimpacks, and
also you must have a high skill level in this skill to be able to obtain the
combat implants. But this skill isnt a must at all, this is simply the skill
I preferred, but I suppose you could take Lockpicking, Speech, Stealing or
whatever other skill suits your playing style. If you choose Doctor raise it
to the somewhere between 100 - 120, if you go for stealing, lockpicking or
speech, 100 will suffice.
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And that concludes our character creation process. Although a good foundation
is the basics of succeeding with a new character he / she wont make it far
unless you develop him / her properly. So on to the next section.
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| Section VI - Character Development |
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Since I included the development process in the skills, all thats left is
really the perks. Perks are the most important part of developing your
character properly, so I will go through levels 3 to 24 describing the best
choice of perks, and add some recommended perks in addition if you manage to
gain enough levels beyond 24. So here goes nothing!
Level 3: Awareness - Gives HP details and what weapon your opponent is using
Not much to say here, Awareness is one of the best perks available and lets
you really plan out and be tactical in combat. For example take out the
enemies with the best weapons first etc. This is the absolute best choice at
this level. However you will need perception 5 for this perk, that means
you have to take some mentats or Jet to be able to choose this perk. Make
sure you save your game before taking the drug so you dont become addicted.
Level 6: Silent Running - Lets you run and stay in sneak mode simultaneously
This is really more of a comfort perk. There are definitely better choices,
but since Im practically always in sneak mode this perk really comes in handy
for me. For better developing purposes you may want to choose, Quick Pockets
or Bonus Move.
Level 9: Better Criticals - Lets you deliver more devastating critical hits
This is an incredibly good perk. Whenever you make a critical hit, this perk
makes sure you get a 20% bonus on the critical hit table which determines
the effect of your critical hit. I actually killed all the boxers in New
Reno with instant kills thanks to this perk. This perk is a must, however it
requires a perception of 6 so bring out the drugs again for this one.
Level 12: HtH Evade - Gives you extra AC if you dont have weapons equipped
Lifegiver - Gives you an additional 4 hit points every level
HtH Evade: This of course does not include unarmed weaponry, such as knuckles
or power fists. Each unused action points gives 2 points to AC instead of 1.
You wont be wasting your action points like that, but its also gives an
additional bonus to your AC. That bonus consists of 1 / 12 of your unarmed
skill, so if you have an unarmed skill of 120 you will gain 10 extra AC every
turn.
Lifegiver: Not much more to say here. You get 11 hit points every level
instead of 7. Add another Lifegiver and you will get 15 hit points every level.
Now thats just plain scary!
Level 15: Bonus HtH Attacks - Hallelujah! Instead of 3 normal attacks, you get 5
Hurray! Its finally here. You get 3 aimed attacks instead of 2, or 5 normal
attacks instead of 3. Now thats some good shit ;)
Level 18: Silent Death - Lets you hit for double damage when sneaking behind
Lifegiver - Gives you an additional 4 hit points every level
Silent Death: This is a great perk if you use sneaking properly. If you hit
someone from behind while sneaking the victim takes double damage. Whats funny
is that you can actually do this several times in one round if you keep moving
behind your opponent.
Lifegiver: Not much more to say here. You get 11 hit points every level
instead of 7. Add another Lifegiver and you will get 15 hit points every level.
Now thats just plain scary!
Level 21: Bonus Move - 2 additional action points to use for movement only
Lifegiver - Gives you an additional 4 hit points every level
Bonus Move: Lets you use 2 action points each turn for movement only. This
can come in quite handy considering you have to waste a few action points
moving between your opponents to kill them all.
Lifegiver: Not much more to say here. You get 11 hit points every level
instead of 7. Add another Lifegiver and you will get 15 hit points every level.
Now thats just plain scary!
Level 24: Slayer - Practically every successful hit becomes a critical hit
It doesnt get any better than this. Finally the perk we have all been
waiting for. With a luck of 10, 95% of all your hits become critical, and
with the Better Critical perk you will be creating some serious havoc.
Level 27 and beyond I recommend you add either Lifegiver, or Bonus Move. If
you still have more perks to distribute theres always room for TAG! or maybe
a few Action Boy perks.
Well, thats all folks on this section. Now you know how to create and develop
one hell of an unarmed fighter.
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| Section VII - Character Equipment |
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This is all the equipment that will be available to you. And how to acquire it.
All of the following weapons require 3 action points to use by default.
Brass Knuckles - 2-5 damage
You can buy these pretty early in the game, but you wont have to!!
Spiked Knuckles - 4-10 damage
You can steal these from the Dunton brothers in Klamath, and you will be using
them for quite a while. Or you can just kill them like I did ;)
Power Fist - 12-24 damage
Now we are talking some serious weaponry. The best way of getting these is to
use a lot of buffout and arm wrestle Francis in Broken Hills. With a luck of 8
and a strength of at least 9 you will probably succeed but save your game
before the match just in case, unless you enjoy some serious buttfucking ;)
Mega Power Fist - 20-41 damage
This weapon can be acquired quite easily after beating Francis for his power
fist. Simply take your new weapon to New Reno Arms, but dont enter from the
main entrance. Instead make sure the salesman is in main entrance room, and
sneak in the back, past the guard dogs and climb the stairs hidden behind a
shelf. Down there you will encounter a man who will upgrade all of your
weapons completely free.
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| Section VIII - Conclusion |
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That brings this guide to an end. I hope this guide will convince many that an
Unarmed character in Fallout 2 can be quite powerful indeed, and that the use
of heavy weaponry isnt the only way to beat this game.
Please, if you notice anything wrong in this guide, or if you have suggestions
on how to improve it, do not hesitate even for one second to send me a mail with
your much appreciated help. Also any feedback at all would be appreciated
concerning whether you liked or disliked this guide and any reason behind it.
As I mentioned before simply send a mail to: chutchik@hotmail.com
with the subject: "Fallout 2 Melee Fighter Guide"
Thank you for reading this guide,
Behnam Saberi aka Chutchik
Amazing Games. Many Cheats. Such Wow.
