How Many SPECIAL Stats Do You Start With in Fallout: New Vegas? An In-Depth Character Creation Guide

As an experienced Fallout: New Vegas player with hundreds of hours under my belt, I‘m often asked by newcomers for tips on allocating those precious starting SPECIAL points and crafting an optimal build.

With only 28 points to work with at the beginning (compared to 40 in other Fallout games), planning your attributes, skills and perks is crucial before stepping out of Doc Mitchell‘s house. Get it right, and you‘ll be a post-apocalyptic warrior. Get it wrong, and you may end up with a near-unplayable mess on your hands!

Don‘t worry though, friend. Follow my detailed character creation advice below, and you‘ll be prepared to conquer the Mojave Wasteland.

An Overview of S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes

Let‘s quickly go over what each of the 7 core stats governs:

Strength (ST): Directly impacts melee and unarmed damage. A high Strength also allows you to push the limits on equipment load. For example, a 10 Strength raises carry weight from 200 to 300 lbs. Essential for any melee build.

Perception (PE): Boosts ranged weapon accuracy in VATS along with compass and radar detection range. High Perception is a must for precise gunners. It also ups your Explosives skill.

Endurance (EN): Increases your base health and resistance to poison & radiation damage. A high Endurance is critical as it also dictates how many implants you can utilize – up to one per Endurance point.

Charisma (CH): Affects your persuasiveness in dialogue and barter prices. Also keys companion nerve which controls their damage and DT. Usually a dump stat unless you want a companion-focused build.

Intelligence (IN): Dictates the number of skill points earned per level-up. Starts you off with more as well. One of the most critical stats as it allows you to diversify your skillset.

Agility (AG): Increases reload speed with guns along with AP for VATS actions. Solid for gunslingers, but does not directly affect weapon damage output.

Luck (LU): Impacts critical hit chance and improves gambling winnings. Useful but not essential, and caps out at 10 Luck anyway. Mainly boosts non-combat gameplay.

So in summary, Strength, Perception, Endurance and Intelligence are generally seen as the most crucial starting attributes. Now let‘s look at some effective stat spreads for different builds.

Suggested SPECIAL Spreads for Common Builds

Here are some pre-planning tips tailored to popular playstyles:

Melee/Unarmed Brawler

For a character focused on brute-force close combat, you‘ll want to maximize Strength first and foremost. Endurance is also nice for boosting your health pool and implants.

• Strength: 9
• Perception: 5
• Endurance: 6
• Charisma: 1
• Intelligence: 5
• Agility: 3
• Luck: 3

You won‘t need much Perception, Agility or Luck as you won‘t be utilizing VATS or ranged weapons much. Intelligence at 5 is enough for essential skills.

Key perks to target first are Stonewall, Super Slam, Piercing Strike and others improving your melee prowess. The Heavy Handed trait is also great for +25% limb damage.

Long-Range Sniper

For a sneaky sniper who engages at long distance, Perception and Agility are king for enhanced VATS accuracy and gun handling.

• Strength: 5
• Perception: 7
• Endurance: 5
• Charisma: 1
• Intelligence: 6
• Agility: 7
• Luck: 3

High Intelligence will let you invest heavily into support skills like Repair and Science for modding your anti-materiel rifles. Finesse and Rapid Reload are ideal early perks. Consider traits like Fast Shot too.

Smooth Talker/Diplomat

If you favor social skills over combat, Luck and Charisma become more useful for greater speech check success and higher companion nerve.

• Strength: 5
• Perception: 5
• Endurance: 5
• Charisma: 6
• Intelligence: 5
• Agility: 3
• Luck: 6

Again, Intelligence at 5 is sufficient with skill points boosted by Comprehension. Grab dialog-boosting perks like Lady Killer and Travel Light for enhanced exploration.

Balanced Generalist

If you want an all-rounder decent at both combat and social abilities, try an even distribution with focus on Intelligence:

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

Here Intelligence starts higher to give you flexibility in skills. Make sure to balance weapons and critical conversation skills like Speech, Repair and Medicine. The Skilled trait works nicely for a generalist too.

Custom Builds

Of course you aren‘t limited to the above archetypes either. Feel free to mix and match your SPECIAL to create unique hybrid characters. A high-Charisma melee bruiser with Terrifying Presence can be lots of fun!

The key is identifying the 2-3 stats most essential to your gameplay style and investing heavily into them first. You can always shore up weaknesses later with perks and equipment.

Fine Tuning Your Build With Traits

An often overlooked aspect of character creation is Traits. These provide unique bonuses and drawbacks to further customize your build.

Some of the most powerful traits include:

• Built to Destroy (+2 Strength, -2 Intelligence): Essential for melee damage, at the cost of some skill points.
• Fast Shot (+25% fire rate, -25% VATS accuracy): Excellent for spray-and-pray gunners.
• Kamikaze (+25% damage output at <50% HP ): Great for high-risk glass cannon builds.
• Four Eyes (+2 Perception with glasses, -1 without): A solid boost for ranged combatants.
• Good Natured (+5 to social skills, -5 to combat skills): Allows you to specialize in diplomat builds.
• Heavy Handed (+25% limb damage, -25% critical damage): Improves crippling capability for melee.

Choosing a relevant trait can help push your character further in a particular direction. Just be mindful of the drawbacks – Wild Wasteland may be entertaining but has little combat benefit, for example.

Prioritizing Your Skills

With only 21 skill points to spread across 13 skills at the start, you‘ll need to choose wisely to cover the essentials for your playstyle.

In general, I almost always recommend maxing out Speech first and foremost. The ability to unlock unique dialogue solutions provides huge rewards across many quests and encounters. It remains useful all game long.

Beyond that, some universally handy skills include:

• Repair: Essential for keeping your weapons and armor in top condition. Take it to at least 50 early.
• Medicine: Improves Stimpak healing and allows you to heal limbs. Crucial survival skill.
• Science: Allows you to hack terminals and mod energy weapons/armor. Also boosts medical supplies.
• Lockpick: Opens up many locked containers found throughout the game. Worth investing in.
• Guns or Energy Weapons: Your core combat skill depending on preference. Max it first.
• Sneak: Never hurts to make a stealthy character, especially at night. 50+ recommended.

Skills like Barter and Survival are less useful initially unless you want a distinct merchant or tribal build. You can boost them later through skill magazines and perks.

Growth Potential With Intense Training

One common new player concern is worry about gimping yourself with subpar starting SPECIAL stats. Rest assured your initial 28 points are not a permanent limitation!

As you level up, the Intense Training perk allows you to raise any of your primary attributes by 1 point. With all DLC installed, it‘s possible to take this perk up to 12 times and eventually reach 10 in every attribute.

You can also seek out unique gear and clothing that provides skill boosts to shore up any deficiencies. Companions like ED-E and Lily act as skill supplements too. The key is identifying your core playstyle and focusing on enhancing those abilities first. Leveling provides exponential growth down the line.

Where to Go From Here

I know that‘s a ton of info to process! Don‘t feel overwhelmed. Getting your character build right just takes a bit of planning and practice. Here are a few final tips:

• Make sure to save your game before leaving Doc Mitchell‘s house. This allows you to re-spec if you don‘t like your initial choices.
• Don‘t be afraid to lower some combat skills at first to boost vital skills like Speech and Repair. You can increase combat effectiveness via perks.
• Focus on damage multipliers like bonuses to sneak attacks or crits based on your weapons. These outweigh pure gun skill.
• Pick gear and armor that aligns with your combat style, not just the best items. The right tools for the job make a big difference.
• Take notes! Record your base SPECIAL, traits, tagged skills and build goals for reference as you level up. It helps stay focused.

Feel free to reach out with any other Fallout: New Vegas character creation questions. I‘m always happy to help a fellow vault dweller get started on the right foot in this brilliant game. Just stay hydrated, keep your weapon in good repair, and watch out for Deathclaws!

Now get out there and make the Mojave your playground.