Fallout 4: Perks, Builds & SPECIAL Attributes

In our guide to Fallout 4 builds and perks, you will learn, among other things

  • What SPECIAL attributes and perks are
  • What a coherent Fallout 4 build looks like
  • Which legendary weapons are really good

In Bethesda's role-playing game Fallout 4, you develop your character's abilities individually according to your ideas. You'll also come across countless weapons, armor and other items in the wasteland. In addition, you can achieve each (quest) objective in different ways.

We will help you not to lose track of the many possibilities and have therefore compiled the most important perks and tips for your Fallout 4 build. We also show you three powerful weapons and where to find them.

Table of Contents:

What are SPECIAL attributes and perks?

In Fallout 4, everyone is special! That's because the SPECIAL system is the rule value for leveling up your character's primary stats. SPECIAL stands for Strength(Strengh), Perception(Perception),Endurance (Endurance), Charisma(Charisma), Intelligence (Intelligence), Agility (Agility) and Luck(Luck). Depending on which of the attributes you develop, your base values will increase.

The SPECIAL attributes determine your basic values in Fallout 4

With every attribute point you award, you unlock a perk that equips you with an additional ability. Perks, in turn, can be leveled up to further improve the learned ability. Since there are a lot of different perks, we will introduce you to the most important ones.

The most important perks for each Fallout 4 build

It's up to you how you develop your character and what tactics you use to successfully master Bethesda's game of the year 2015. However, you should not skip the following perks.

  • Lockpicker (Perception: 4)
    Many doors and safes in the Wasteland are locked. You will rarely find a key to open them. If you don't have the Lockpicker perk, you will voluntarily give up many items and interesting locations.
  • Hacker (Intelligence: 4)
    Anything in Fallout 4 that can't be cracked by lockpick is usually locked by a computer terminal. You can overcome these electronic obstacles with the "Hacker" perk.
  • Strong Back (Strength: 6)
    With the Strong Back perk, you carry more items. At a higher perk level, you can even move at normal speed when overloaded. In our guide to the best Fallout 4 tips[LINK to FALLOUT 4 tips when LIVE] we show you a way to push your carrying capacity even further.

With the perk "Strong Back" at level 4 you can still travel fast despite being overcharged

  • Weapon Freak (Intelligence: 3)
    Owners of the "Weapon Freak" perk modify their pistols and rifles at workbenches. Customizing weapons is a simple and efficient way to increase their damage.
  • Recycler(Intelligence: 5)
    The Recycler perk lets you extract rare materials, such as bolts or aluminum, from scrapped weapons and armor. At the second perk level, even rarer materials, such as circuits or fiber optics, are available when scrapped. Items with sought-after components are also marked.

Recyclers get rare materials for recycling weapons or armor

  • Rifleman (Perception: 2)
    You can't go wrong with guns. From the beginning of the game to the endgame, you'll find a wide variety of rifles. As a rule, rifles have a solid range and firepower and also enjoy modifications. In addition, the "Rifleman" perk massively increases the damage of non-automatic rifles.

Why your Fallout 4 build should be coherent

There is no such thing as the perfect Fallout 4 build. You determine how your protagonist develops through countless combinations of SPECIAL attributes and Perks. That's because Fallout 4 is designed to let you customize your character perfectly to your play style. The only thing you can do wrong is to use a pre-made build that doesn't fit your style of play at all. Nevertheless, we have a few general tips for you:

  • If you like melee combat, focus on the attributes Strength, Dexterity and Luck and their perks.
  • For snipers and ranged fighters, you should primarily level up Perception, Agility and Intelligence. Also, with the Sandman perk, you'll do five times as much damage with silenced weapons.

  • If you're more of a generalist and don't want to block any development opportunities, we recommend that you upgrade individual SPECIAL attributes first. The best perks are only available at higher levels. Afterwards, increase the value of the next attribute that you miss the most.

3 Legendary Weapons that will really help you advance

We've rounded up three legendary weapons and their locations to make your Fallout 4 build even stronger.

  • The magnum revolver Kellog's pistol looks cool, deals decent damage and requires common ammo. In addition, it fully replenishes your action points with every critical hit. In particular, if you spend a lot of time in V.A.T.S. mode, you'll enjoy Kellog's pistol. You'll find it after shooting Kellog in the main quest "Reunion is fun".

After each critical hit with Kellog's pistol your action points will fill up

  • The powerful Warden's Guardian rifle shoots a second projectile without using any ammo. In addition, you can further increase the firepower with modifications and perks, so that almost every Fallout4 opponent will go down with one shot. Find it in Vault 81: Here you can buy the unique weapon from Alexis Combes in the storage room.
  • The Big Boy looks like the Fat Man and works similarly. With one huge difference: because, just like the warden's guard, it fires two shots for the price of one. With the mini-nukes, this not only increases the damage enormously, but also provides a huge saving effect on the rare and expensive ammunition. You can buy the Big Boy from Arturo in Diamond City for a whole bunch of caps, but it should be worth it.

We have compiled a list of all other legendary weapons for you in our guide to Fallout 4 cheats and console commands.

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