

I expect the Melee build will be equally capable of smacking around deathclaws later – especially after popping some Med-X, Psycho, and Jet – but I can't stress how useful Rad Child is for a close-quarters build. Those extra skill points went directly into Explosives early on, which can be pretty powerful if you buy the perks for it. This means she doesn't focus on critical hits, and skips the Ninja perk, but instead, she has the Heavy Handed trait. The extra SPECIAL points come from dropping PE and LK to 1. On the other end of the spectrum, my Melee build (which still has high Unarmed by necessity for perks) has 8 Intelligence, with ST and EN at 9 to start. He kills most things with one punch on Normal deathclaws take up to 2 or 3. This means he misses out on Science, but the most essential terminals to hack don't really go above Average, so he gets by with Science at about 28 (which can be as high as 52 with a magazine, some stat-boosting clothing, and Mentats). My Unarmed build gets by just fine on 4 IN, with enough points to also have Guns around 90, Survival at 70 (for Rad Child, an excellent perk), Repair around 90, and Lockpick around 75. I'd suggest getting Cass for the perk if you can meet the barter check, and ED-E that team should complement a brawler pretty well I think, though I haven't tried it myself yet. This is definitely not recommended unless you like punching your companions to death repeatedly. Also, chems are your friend, use them a lot.Ĭompanions: I'm currently rolling with an all melee team of Veronica and Rex. General tips: you want as much DT as possible, good combat armour or power armour will help a lot, as will sub-dermal implant and perks. You're going to want to get sneak to 80 for the Ninja perk, and beyond that, any remaining skill points are probably best spent in survival or medicine. Skills-wise, you're basically forced to do up both melee and unarmed for the best perks, so may as well raise both to max.

Important perks: Super Slam Stonewall Toughness Piercing Strike Unstoppable Force Purifier Paralyzing Palm (if unarmed, skip if melee only) Ninja Slayer. Rest of the SPECIAL doesn't really matter for this build I don't think. AGI at 6, plus the implant to make the 7 needed for the Slayer perk. What I do: have STR and END at 9 from the off, to be boosted to 10 via implants.
