Fallout New Vegas Max Special

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The best place to get cheats, codes, cheat codes, unique weapon locations, walkthrough, guide, FAQ, unlockables, tricks, and secrets for Fallout: New Vegas for PC. Forums: Index Fallout: New Vegas general discussion Max out skills and SPECIAL? So in FO3 GOTY you can max all skills to 100 and have all SPECIAL @ 10. Is that going to be a possability in NV? I did some calculation in my head and it looks like you won't be able to max out all SPECIAL, but what.

Starting SPECIAL

STR 5, PER 5, END 5, CHA 1, INT 10, AGL 5, LUK 9 (Same as 10 when it comes to skill points)

Now you can improve your SPECIAL stats in the following ways;

STR: +1 Implant
PER: +1 Trait (Four Eyes) +1 Implant
END: +1 Perk (Intense Training) +1 Implant
CHA: +0
INT: +0
AGL: +1 Trait (Small Frame) +1 Implant
LUK: +0

Now with these base stats you get the following skill points;

60 Skill points for the first 4 levels until you get the Educated Perk.
15 Skill points for the Tag Skill perk if you choose to take it.
442 Skill points for the next 26 levels.
A total of 517 skill points.

With the following stats all skills will start at 17 with the exception of Barter and Speech which will be at 9 and Medicine which will me at 27.

You will gain additional 16 skill points to each skill with the exception of Explosives from skill books.

Fallout New Vegas Max Special

With all that you still need 861 skill points to max out your character. Since we know we can only get 517 skill points in the game that makes us short of 344 skill points.

Now to my question, are my analysis correct and you cannot max out your character Abilities and Skills or am I missing something?

NOTE: This character configuration makes the game extra hard when playing on Hardcore mode especially at the beginning of the game!

Thank You.

Lukasz
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7 Answers

I think you chose to lower the wrong stat.

Initial

SPECIAL TOTAL: +208

Also, all skills initially start at 2, so don't forget the extra (13*2)=+26 points]

Reasoning

Strength only controls Melee whereas Charisma controls Speech and Barter, resulting in a difference of 22(i.e. 2+10+10) - 14(i.e. 10+2+2) = 8. Luck at 9 will give the max of +5 to all skills, but that can be taken care of with an Implant later on, leaving more room to play with other skills via SPECIAL or Intense Training.

Traits

Add the two traits (Although you need to constantly find and wear glasses to keep you perception at 6 instead of 4 before any Intense Training or Implant).

This will add +10 skill points [PER(6) = 2 Ener + 2 Lock + 2 Expl) + (AGL(4) = 2 Guns + 2 Sneak)

Tags

Tag three skills (does not matter which I don't think) for another +45

Skill BooksAssuming 4 skill books per skill (4*3*13= +156)

Perks

Taking Educated at level 4 will net you a total of +32 skill points until level 20.

Taking Comprehension before you read ANY skill books will net you an extra +52 (1*13*4) skill points (assuming 4 skill books per skill).

Taking Tag! will net you another +15

Intense Training

This is the only other perk that will grant you more skill points; via SPECIAL.

I recommend 3 for P erception (with an Implant and Four Eyes will max to ten) since that controls three skills (3*2*3 = +18).

Mix 4 more among E ndurance, C harisma, or A gility; since P and I are maxed, S only controls 1 skill, and Luck will be maxed out skill wise via implant. (4*2*2= +16).

Remember: Distribute elsewhere if a skill is already at 9, implants will take each to 10 later on.

Note: This covers ALL of the perks you will get through level 20.

Implants

Only the implants that affect SPECIAL will raise skill points.

Remember: You will need 6 Endurance for 6 implants.

Total: +33

Level Ups

After already accounting for Educated and with INT at 10 you are left with 15 points per level for 19 more levels with (19 * 15) = +285.

Remember: Only distribute a maximum of 57 (including any additional tag value) to a single skill (Dead Money: 53), because of points gained via skill books (16[DM: 20]) and the on the corresponding maxed SPECIAL and 9 Luck (27) value.

Which is 404 below the maximum of 1300 (100*13).

Dead Money

Adds 5 more levels and 13 more skill books.

And two more chances at Intense Training for E, C, or A = (2*2*2) = 8

Adding another +145 skill points.

Edit

I thought about it again and made some changes regarding luck, and some other things that were wrong.

Edit 2

This is going to end up being stupid long, but yes you can reach Max Skill Stats using clothing (which I kind of did already by relying on the 4 eyes perk) and skill magazines (utilizing the already added Comprehension perk) and you have the Dead Money DLC.

From the top:

You these two Traits:

You need these three pieces of Clothing:

You need these Perks:

  1. Intense Training * 10
    • You can get it 2 additional times during DM
    • Use only on P, E, C, and A
    • Only use it on P once

This leaves 4 available perks.

Total = Floor(35/2) = 17

17 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 10 = 4

This also assumes ALL of the skill books from New Vegas AND Dead Money. There are conflicting reports of one more Big Book of Science and one less Wasteland Survival guide. I will take that into consideration, but in the end it doesn't matter too much.

Initial ->Trait ->Clothing ->Implant ->Training

I'll show the progression from least distributable points (skill dependent items or SPECIAL) to most distributable points (Tags and Level Ups). Note that this is out of any kind of in game chronological order, and I'm leaving out most of the step by step how to do it in a game (I'm not really up to writing a walk-through just yet).

Fallout New Vegas Max Special Stats

This will establish a base on how to distribute the tags and leveling up points in game.

Initial ->Trait ->Implant ->Lucky Shades ->Moto's Helm ->Lab Coat ->Training : Skill Book

I'm doing it in this order so that I can do the Luck +1 ALL when adding on the Lucky Shades. Luck going from 7->8 doesn't effect any of the skills but I'm still counting that it happened during the add implants phase.

My order of intense training is pretty arbitrary, but I need something solid here to base everything else off of. So I'm just doing top-down P, E, C, A. Everything will end up at 80 in the end (with some left over). But there is definitely room for variation in getting there within those 4 categories.

To get all of the skills up to 80 (the effective maximum with skill magazines) you need (80*13)=1040 points.

The current base after all of the non-distributable points have been established is shown to be 618.

1040 - 618 = 422

Subtract the following:

Points you get from level ups through 25 (includes DM and Educated Perk): -402

Points you get from 4 tags (includes the Tag! Perk): -60

And you end up with 42 points to distribute as you see fit after each skill is at 80.

Again this is an effective maximum at 80, because you can get to 100 if you need to via a skill magazine. This is all theoretical, and probably a hard build, because you need to get into Caesar's safe house to get the lucky shades AND for the most part you're walking around with a Strength of 1 or 2. There is some fine tuning that could be made, but that is neither here nor there, in the end it is possible using this definition of a 'Max Stats'.

capncapn

Correct, at least without using mods or console commands. Making the game more challenging than Fallout 3, throughout all 30 levels of your character, was one of Obsidian's goals when designing New Vegas. In Fallout 3, while maxing out everything was fairly difficult, it was not uncommon to (by level 30, with the right build) have almost all skills at 100. At that point, you were pretty much an unstoppable murder machine who ate super mutant behemoth heads for breakfast. (In Fallout 3, some of the new monsters with the Brotherhood add-on were designed entirely for the purpose of providing some challenge at high levels -- albino radscorpions, feral ghoul reavers, etc. I can vouch for reavers having made it to New Vegas.)

That's part of why perks were returned to being every two levels instead of every level, some of them were adjusted (EG, Grim Reaper's Sprint now only restores a certain number of AP, instead of all of them), skills were adjusted, the skill point allocation was adjusted and a variety of other tweaks were made.

John RudyJohn Rudy
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This is calculated with the Dead Money DLC, which raises the level cap to 35:

Starting Stats

  • Strength: 1
  • Perception: 5
  • Endurance: 6
  • Charisma: 5
  • Intelligence: 10
  • Agility: 5
  • Luck: 8

Skill Books add +3 to a given skill. There are currently 5 skill books for each skill. You need the Comprehension perk (accessible with 4 Intelligence) to add an additional +1 to the +3 you get from the Skill Books. You also need the Educated perk (which you get at level 4), which adds +2 skill points to your total. Also, if selected, the additional Tag! perk adds 15 to any selected skill.

1- 28 skills which needs 72 points to reach 100

6- 36 skills which needs 64 points to reach 100

2- 38 skills which needs 62 points to reach 100

2- 61 skills which needs 39 points to reach 100

So with that you need 658 skill points to max out. For the first 4 levels you will receive 15 skill points per level (60 skill points) until you get the Educated perk, after which you will receive 17 skill points per level (527 skill points), totaling 587 skill points at the level cap of 35. This means you will currently be off 71 skill points to max out.

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CJ HillCJ Hill

Yes you can TOTALLY MAX OUT your skill & SPECIAL stats simultaneously but only temporarily (see below).

No, as it stands there is no obvious way to max your skill & SPECIAL stats permanently (i.e. Without specific clothing or aids), unless you cheat. Pretty much the closest you can come is:

  • Strength 6
  • Perception 10
  • Endurance 9
  • Charisma 4
  • Intelligence 10
  • Agility 9
  • Luck 9

Skills: Total 1124 points; skill points average per skill: 86.46, or in theoretical terms you can permanently max 11 skills (Figures are 1261 total / 97.00 average / 12 theoretically maxed with dlc - see below for breakdown).

Traits: small frame (agility +1) & good natured (though you could use Four eyes but see comments below post first).

Perks: the above figures include using all 10 intense training perk ranks (as shown below), taking educated as your perk at level 4 (adding +2 skill pts for each of the next 26 levels = 52), taking comprehension before you read any skill books (51 books (Remember there's only 3 for explosives) x 4 pts each = 204) and taking tag! To boost another skill by 15. That leaves you with two free perks!

Implants: You will need to buy all available S.P.E.C.I.A.L implants except for the intelligence one at a cost of 24,000 caps. To get your implants early, grab the snow globe in Goodsprings cemetery and head to vegas med centre via Lucky 38 from the monorail after using a stealth boy to sneak past the deathclaws outside the city (see youtube 'implants at level 1')...Or, if you want them all now...Cheat with the Rebuild glitch which will net you; pretty much infinite ammo, 30-35 levels, 28-32 perks, 979 skill points, 51 SPECIAL points and well over 80,000 caps enabling you to buy all implants in one go at the start of the game.

How to allocate your SPECIAL points:

Your intelligence must be level 10 from the off as this gives you 15 skill points per level as opposed to 10 (at int 5).

You only need 9 luck to get the maximum + 5 increase to every skill stat but crucially, it doesn't matter too much if you get it early because unlike intelligence it's not level dependent. Having a high endurance is important because it enables you to have more implants and sooner. In this build an END of at least 8 allows you to have 8 Implants which means you can get the sub dermal armour and monocyte breeder implants as well as your six SPECIAL boosting ones. Increasing Endurance also gives you a higher health stat and more poison and radiation resistance

The builds in the other posts here that use a starting stat for Strength of 1 don't account for the fact that this makes the game frustratingly hard to play in that you won't meet the strength requirements for most of the weapons, your unarmed damage will be minimal and you won't be able to carry much stuff, you'll be over encumbered at every turn. Though it influences 2 skills as opposed to one use Charisma as your low stat (You're only sacrificing about 8 skill points and the game is MUCH more playable). Obviously my build is a compromise in certain areas (lack of perks unless you cheat!). One for the stat seekers... Or those who have used the rebuild glitch in Goodsprings.

Though there is some good work there is also a lot of confusion in the other posts here and consequently some poor advice and misinformation. Understandably so as it is a complicated equation.

Below is a points breakdown of the figures in my build.

At SPECIAL stat 1 you do not start on 2 skill points for each associated skill.The starting skill stat at SPECIAL stat 1 is 7 skill points.

Fallout New Vegas Max Out Special

7 is the base stat for all skills at SPECIAL level 1. So 7x13 = 91.

Allocated points at the start (see table above) give you (From SPECIAL base stat - Level 1):

S +4 gives you another 8 pts.

P +5 gives you another 30 pts.

E +6 gives you another 24 pts.

C +0 gives you nuttin.

I +9 gives you another 54 pts.

A +5 gives you another 20 pts. (Inc. Small Frame Perk)

L +5 gives you another 39 pts. (That's the +3 increase x 13 skills)

Intense Training as shown in the table above nets you:

P +3 gives you another 18 pts.

E +1 gives you another 4 pts.

C +2 gives you another 8 pts.

A +2 gives you another 8 pts.

L +2 gives you another 26 pts.

(At Int 10) 30 levels x 15 skill points = 450.

Taking Educated at level 4 gives you 26 levels x 2 extra points = 56.

Special

Tagging FOUR skills gives you 4x15 = 60.

51 Skill books at 4 points (Comprehension) each is 4x51 = 204.

Implants as shown above will net you another 24 pts total.

Total = 1124

The figures above do not include the other 5 levels worth of points from dlc level cap increase. (basically (17pts × 5 levels = 85 skill points) + (13 books x 4pts each = 52 skill points) = 137 skill points total plus 2 more perks, I think).

So including DLC at 137 total pts means:

Grand Total = 1261.

That's 39 skill points short of max. (13 SPECIAL points short of max).

So, you can get your permanent skill and S.P.E.C.I.A.L point totals slightly higher than I've shown above (by 2 or 10-20 pts in total respectively) but not quite to the perfect 70 or 1300 pt ceilings... BUT... you could use a few skill magazines to temporarily boost your skill stats to max. At the same time if you eat Big Horner Steak, take Buffout, chew cayote tobacco, drink Absinthe and Beer and wear some naughty nightwear all your special stats would be 10 and after one hell of a party you'd be TOTALLY MAXED!...at least until the morning after ;)

Simples!...Or maybe not. Now you have to ensure you allocate all your points in the right order so you don't end up wasting the skill specific ones... but that's another story.


Not sure exactly but if you take skill books into account with the comprehension perk it's possible to obtain a total of 208 skill points which is 16 skill points for each skill so if it's possible to get all skills at least up to 84 each it would be possible to raise the rest using the skill books. According to the vault, fallout wiki the total skill points you can get is 1075 I don't know if that includes skill books though.

Kiktamo

The 'Four Eyes' perk has a major downside -- it's actually that glasses do +2, and you're always at -1; this can be significant, as any perks that have a requirement on perception will use one less than whatever you select in your initial build.

You can also keep spending your perks on Intense Training (Intelligence) at lower levels, so you're getting more skill points per level ... you didn't say what your initial Int was, but I'm thinking it's about 6, based on the other numbers. I haven't done the math, but even with that, I don't think it's enough to max out, but you'd be able to get closer to maxed out skills.

You'd be at more of a disadvantage early on, but I'd redo the math with a higher initial INT, and taking Intense Training (Luck) to get your skills up later, or Tag! to get the extra 15 skill points.

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At Level 45, I have every stat except unarmed at 100. Lonesome Road adds 5 levels and that will be more than enough to max me out. This is counting me NOT getting all of the Dead Money Skill Books, Honest Hearts Skill Books, or Old World Blues Skill Books (recipes pending). I could have been easily maxed out by 45 if I had accounted for these, but I only made the character to replace my main (corrupt character/game-breaking glitch), only to play HH.

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protected by Kevin YapJul 21 '11 at 20:52

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Infobox incomplete
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For other characters in the Fallout universe named Max, see Max.
Biography and appearance
RaceHuman, African American
GenderMale
AffiliationFreeside Resident
Stacey
RolePlaying kid
LocationFreeside
Dialogue FileMax's dialogue (Fallout: New Vegas)
Gameplay
QuestsReach for the Sky, Mister!
Statistics
AlignmentNeutral
SPECIALStrength: 3
Perception: 4
Endurance: 3
Charisma: 3
Intelligence: 3
Agility: 7
Luck: 7
Derived StatsHit Points: 20
Level1 → 8
Technical
Base ID0014eb35Ref ID0014eb3a
ActorAnthony Crehan

Max is an orphaned child residing in Freeside in Fallout: New Vegas.

  • 2Interactions with the player character
  • 4Notes

Background[editedit source]

Max can be seen in Freeside chasing a girl named Stacey with Euclid's C-Finder.

Interactions with the player character[editedit source]

Interactions overview[editedit source]

This character is a merchant.Sells: * Euclid's C-Finder

Other interactions[editedit source]

Max will sell Euclid's C-Finder upon request for 1000 caps, but by passing a Barter check of 45, will sell it for only 20 caps.

Inventory[editedit source]

ApparelAthlete of the Wastes outfit
WeaponEuclid's C-Finder
Carried items-
Drops on deathempty

Notes[editedit source]

  • Max will say 'Reach for the sky, lady,' if the player character is female, and 'Reach for the sky, mister,' if the player character is male.
  • When bending down to pickpocket Max it does not say Pickpocket, it says Talk yet when pressed you pickpocket him.
  • Sometimes, he will run out of Freeside's east gate, following Stacey.
  • Sometimes, he may disappear entirely, Stacey will be 'fleeing' on top of the building next to Mick & Ralph's. The cause is unknown; however, this happens more often if the player has bad karma.
  • If prompted into dialogue mode after you've taken Euclid's C-Finder, he will say 'I wish I had a gun'.
  • Sometimes he will not have the Euclid's C-Finder equipped when chasing Stacey, the gun can be found in his inventory and can be stolen.
  • Strangely enough, Max can hold a 15 lb heavy energy weapon with one hand, even though he is a small child.
  • Acquiring the weapon from Max while having Veronica as a companion will cause her to remark 'Wow... Good thing the safety was on.'
  • Max is found sleeping on the roof of the building next to Mick & Ralph's after it gets dark.
  • When having the Child at Heart perk, you could have the gun for free. Unfortunately, the perk was cut because there aren't many children in Mojave Wasteland.

Notable Quotes[editedit source]

  • 'Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!'
  • 'I wish I had a gun...'
  • 'Reach for the sky, mister!'
  • 'Reach for the sky, lady.'
  • 'Aw man! It's all Stacey's fault!'

Bugs[editedit source]

  • If you pickpocket him and then talk to him he will still offer the Euclid's C-Finder for sale, thus allowing you to obtain another.
  • Xbox 360PCPlayStation 3 Max may disappear from Freeside entirely, being moved to the far north of the map, beyond the Northern Passage, on the canyons.
  • Xbox 360 Max can be seen running to the north from Freeside past gun runners.
  • PlayStation 3 Max may run into the gun runner compound, then into the building, you can talk to him and get the Euclid's C-Finder again even if you used the barter check before

Appearances[editedit source]

Max appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

CharactersApril Martimer ·Arcade Gannon ·Atomic Wrangler crier ·Beatrix Russell ·Big Beard ·Bill Ronte ·Caleb McCaffery ·Dixon ·Elizabeth Kieran ·Farris ·Fisto ·Francine Garret ·Followers doctor ·Genaro ·Gloria Van Graff ·Grecks ·Hadrian ·Henry Jamison ·Irate Ida ·Jacob Hoff ·James Garret ·Jane ·Jean-Baptiste Cutting ·Julie Farkas ·The King ·Lady Jane ·Little Beard ·Little Buster ·Malefic Maud ·Max ·Mick ·Mick & Ralph's crier ·Mr. Soren ·Old Ben ·Orris ·Pacer ·Ralph ·Rancorous Ruth ·Rex ·Rotface ·Roy ·Santiago ·Sergio ·Silver Rush crier ·Simon ·Stacey ·Tapper ·Vagrant ·Wayne
LocationsAtomic Wrangler Casino ·Cerulean Robotics ·Freeside's East Gate ·Freeside's North Gate ·King's School of Impersonation ·Mick & Ralph's ·Old Mormon Fort ·Ruined store ·Silver Rush
QuestsSideBirds of a Feather ·Bye Bye Love ·ED-E My Love ·Debt Collector ·G.I. Blues ·Heartache by the Number ·High Times ·I Could Make You Care ·King's Gambit ·Nothin' But a Hound Dog ·Talent Pool ·Tend to Your Business ·Wang Dang Atomic Tango ·You Can Depend on Me ·
UnmarkedBig Winner, Atomic Wrangler ·Friend of the Followers ·Reach for the Sky, Mister! ·Supplies for the Followers ·Flogging a Dead Corpse
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