Fallout Character Building » Discussions


Discussion: Building for Survival

Tags: #Discussion  #Survival  #Tips  #Advice  #Guidance 
  • April 2, 2017

    Hello Everyone!

    I thought it would be appropriate to start a discussion about building characters for survival mode. The Vault has a small handfull of survival builds such as The Survivor, The Replacement and Atom's Ranger. I believe there is more to come and so much potential and unexplored playstyles. Heck, I may even attempt to build something myself. I have personally dipped into survival in a few attempts, I have played the Survivor and I have also played a melee build (using power armor) briefly.

    What perks do you think can massively help with survival mode while also contributing well to your individual characters? 

    I would also like to dispel your personal worries about the mode such as sleep saving, which I believe adds a lot to the mode, however crashing is a concern that I totally understand, it is totally acceptable to add mods to allow for saving, I personally would settle for just autosaving rather than specific manual saving for my preference. No fast travel allows for all these encounters Bethesda implimented to be truly appreciated, there a huge amount of these.

    Also I think these builds should have their own specific tag, 'Survivalist' anyone?

  • Member
    April 2, 2017

    Hmm... I think Scrounger is invaluable for shooting characters. :-? You could always roll a VATS melee stealthy assassin though. :)

  • April 2, 2017

    Noodles said:

    Hmm... I think Scrounger is invaluable for shooting characters. :-? You could always roll a VATS melee stealthy assassin though. :)

    Yes I agree, it may also be useful for power armor users, I get quite paranoid thinking it is possible to use every fusion core in the game so power armor is eventually to become unusable, this is obviously not true. Now stealth melee would be interesting, very tense, I had an idea to utilise unarmed with stealth on survival to max carry weight (unarmed as in no weapons) the damage boost in survival mode would make it more viable than most think.

    One problem with melee characters is that some enemies are out of reach like turrets, so you may need to resort to a grenade or something. Maybe even temporarily use a big weapon like a power up, heh.

  • Member
    April 2, 2017
    Yeah, even Blitz has its limits. It all depends on where the enemy is. Regarding power armor, yes, it's a good idea. It soaks up so much damage but repairing pieces gets demanding later on. But Scrapper and Hard Back always save the day! :D
  • Member
    April 2, 2017

    Most of my thoughts on Building for Survival Mode are in this post.

    And if you haven't seen it, Ponty organized a list of tips & tricks for SMODE.

    I like the idea of a tag...if we get a few more I'll add it to the archives :)

  • Member
    April 6, 2017

    I've planned a survival build for a long time. I call it the Wastelander. A heavy roleplay build focused on it's own survival. I plan to post it this week.

  • Member
    April 6, 2017

    D3LTAFOX said:

    I've planned a survival build for a long time. I call it the Wastelander. A heavy roleplay build focused on it's own survival. I plan to post it this week.

    Sounds good - looking forward to it!

  • Member
    April 6, 2017

    Noodles said:

    Hmm... I think Scrounger is invaluable for shooting characters. :-? You could always roll a VATS melee stealthy assassin though. :)

    I actually disagree with scrounger. I know that a lot of people suggest it but.....I find that rare amunition like .50 rounds are super heavy compared to other options and not a good option for survival mode. Something like the .45 round is much much better because you can get almost as much damage but at a vastly better weight ration which actually means you get a better damage per weight ratio. Thats why I think the radium rifle is so good for survival. Handmade rifle is also good which needs pretty much all bought amunition because you don't find a lot in the wild. That leads me to my other point in that I think caps are mostly useless on survival because there is very little to spend caps on (maybe shipments if you do a lot of settlement building but I think if you are running a craftsman style build you are not playing survival) and therefore you can spend your caps on rare ammunition saving you points for other perks.

    One I will HIGHLY suggest is Lone Wanderer which increases carry weight, damage, and damange taken all at only three points. Amazing upgrade for your play and I found few companions could hold enough to make any of those bonuses worth it.

    Lead Belly is also quite useful early on but I found lost more and more value over time similar to something like Lifegiver.

    My last suggestion is Aquaboy/girl which if you have enough endurance points (which you probubly don't want if you run a power armor build which is likely the easiest way to run survival with a high sneak sniper style being second best, and a blitz melee in third) because rads suck on survival and swimming is a must in a lot of spots like Far Harbor and swampy/coastal Commonwealth locations.

    :)

  • Member
    April 10, 2017

    I only did one half-assed attempt at a survival playthrough around when it first came out. I had fun at some points, and rage quits at others. However I think I found a pretty decent playstyle for it that decently avoided stealth AND Power Armor which seem in general pretty essential. I hunted early on and got lots of food stuffs and then at later levels I got my playstyle to be that of a mobile marksman by using chems and DMR type guns (scoped combat rifle for example). Staying at a distance and moving quickly were essential, and the chemist and chem resistance perks were near essential for this. 

  • Member
    April 10, 2017

    I posted a survival build in The Workshop recently. The Dustlander Outcast. It's an import of a Morrowind and Skyrim build the Ashlander Outcast.