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Character Build: The Inquisitor (FO4)

Tags: #Fallout 4 Build  #Character Build Sharpshooter  #Character Build Infiltrator  #Character Build VATS  #Character Build Survival 
  • June 22, 2017

    Enola always was a people pleaser. It was a fault she always bore under her smile. So it’s no surprise that, despite her desire to find her son, she joined up with the Minutemen when Preston asked her to. It’s no surprise that she accepted the position and responsibility of General. It’s no surprise that, even when nearing her goal of finding her husband’s killer, she acquiesced to Ellie’s request to follow up with Kenji Nakano, and travel to Far harbor to find his daughter. Hell, it’s even not surprising that she agreed to join the Children of Atom.

    But was it surprising was the vision she saw when she drank from the spring. The Mother of the fog herself guided Enola to the Statue, and delivered her to the Children of Atom as her chosen. From that time forth, she no longer sought to please people. She only had one to please. The Mighty Atom.

     

    The following build is a Survival Mode build, with a bit of a twist. Unlike most Survival Mode builds, I decided that I wasn’t going to worry about diseases or infections. The last few times I had played, I rarely needed antibiotics. In addition, I didn’t want to do a lot of settlement building, and I didn’t really need to build clinics, so I stayed away from the standard Local Leader perk.

    Keeping my weapons limited to basic models meant I didn’t have to worry that much about ammo. 10mm, .45cal, and .308cal are pretty common early on, so I didn’t spend any points on the Scrounger perk.

     

    What remains as standard fare is the use of stealth. Survival Mode bullets hit much harder than any other mode, and the best defense is to not get hit. In addition, the build is designed around a unique piece of clothing that does not allow for armor, the Robes of Atom’s Devoted. So, knowing I was only going to be relying on Ballistic Weave, I had to rely on stealth as my main defense.

    Perception bobble head, Intelligence Bobble head, You’re Special Luck, +3 Luck

    Mods: None.

     

     

    Offensive Perks: Rifleman, Gunslinger, Sniper, Sneak, Ninja, Better Criticals, Critical Banker,

    The build is a stealth oriented VATS sniper, with handgun backup for short range. Single fire weapons means less ammo to carry, which is important in survival mode. Sneak, of course, for getting the stealth multiplier of Ninja.

    Defensive Perks: Sneak, Lone Wanderer, Life Giver

    Sneak is just as important for defense as it is for offence. If you don’t get shot, you don’t have to heal. In the Toughness vs Life Giver argument, in this build it is essential to go with Life Giver. More on that later.

    Utility Perks: Armorer, Gun Nut, Locksmith

    Armorer is helpful right of the start for installing pockets in your Armor, but becomes essential later in the game for the Ballistic Weave. Many people argue against Gun Nut, but I found in survival mode you are just not able to visit vendors as often in hopes of finding the weapon mods you want. And of course, Locksmith. As Atom’s Inquisitor, you need access to that which would be hidden from Atom’s gaze.

     

     

    Combat:

    Fairly simple:

    Step 1 – Don’t be seen.

    Step 2 – Shoot enemies from as far away as possible.

    Step 3 – Shoot everyone else in the back.

    Step 4 – Run away!

    The combat style is based on what I believe to be the definitive build for a Stealth VATS Sniper, Mason’s Domino.

    The biggest difference between this build, and Domino, it that the evential hitting power of The Inquisitor renders Concentrated Fire useless.

     

     

    Early Game Weapons:

    10mm Pistol, switching to the Deliverer (the God-Pistol of stealth VATS) when you can reach it.

    The Overseer’s Guardian (the most versatile rifle in the game IMO) converted to single fire, and equipped with a medium scope.

    Armor: Whatever you can find, equipped with pockets to help with your carrying needs. A couple of pieces of Cunning, VATS enhanced, or Powered armor pieces will go a long way.

     

    Early game play.

    Enola is torn between her desire to find her son, and her desire to serve the minutemen. As a people pleaser, she has a tendency to accept any mission offered her. She accepts missions from the Brotherhood of Steel, and even agrees to join them, despite her misgivings. She works with the minutemen to expand their sphere of influence and set up settlements, but with a halfhearted effort, as she is still driven by her primary goal to find her son. She even joins up with the Railroad, and runs a few missions for them, at least, until she is able to get the Ballistic Weave. Eventually her inability to say no to requests leads her to Far Harbor.

    Not everyone has a life changing event; a moment where the whole trajectory of your existence is violently altered. For our heroine, it happened at a highly irradiated spring, where Atom himself communed with her through his avatar, the Mother of the Fog

     

     

    Weapons

    Atom’s Love - The Deliverer

    Atom’s Mercy - The Overseer’s Guardian, converted to .308 once I found Atom’s Grace to save on ammo carrying needs, equipped with an optical sight to reduce VATS cost, and silenced.

    Atom’s Grace – An Instigating hunting rifle I was lucky enough to find. Loaded out with a Long Scope, eventually with a Long Recon Scope, and of course, a suppressor.

    Atom’s Peace – Old Reliable – A lever action rifle with the Two Shot prefix, fully loaded out with a suppressor and long scope. This was a part time gun, as rounds are only available in Far Harbor. And once the Far Harbor story line is finished, only at the Nucleus.

    Armor

    Robe of Atom’s Devoted (armored with ballistic weave)

    Inquisitor’s Cowl.

    The Robe of Atom’s Devoted has a listed perk, you gain resistance to radiation the more irradiated you are, and an unlisted perk.

    The unlisted perk is that, once you have reached a point where you have become so irradiated that your resistance is at 100%, you can irradiate yourself further, either by eating uncooked food, or drinking dirty water (keep some antibiotics handy for this part). Once you turn your heath bar almost completely red, you will start gaining health. You can heal, or sleep to get up to full health, while remaining fatally irradiated.

    The biggest down side to this is that your health does not show up on your HUD. You have to check your health on your Pip-Boy. This is the main reason I went with Life Giver as a perk. At Level 3, you regenerate health. So if you forget to check your health, and don’t heal, by the time you get to your next encounter, Live Giver will have already filled up your HP.

    The other big drawback is that entering a suit of power armor will kill you. The effects of the clothing go away as you enter the suit, and all you are left with is a fatal dose or radiation.

    The upside? Well, never having to take Rad-X or Rad-Away again. You can swim, cruise through the fog of Far Harbor, or dance through the Glowing Sea, without ever hearing another click. Your Geiger counter truly is in the shop. This can be useful in any other type of play. In Survival Mode, the advantage is massive, as you never again have to deal with the thirst or immunity penalties related to Radaway.

    In addition, any perk that benefits form high radiation is now maxed out. The Inquisitor’s Cowl grants +4 intelligence. But the real beast of this build is earning the title, Inquisitor, which comes with the Crusader of Atom Perk. With your Radiation maxed out, you are now dealing +100% Damage! Combined with the Ninja multiplier, single stealth shots kill almost everything.

      

    Gameplay:

    Now, as one of Atom’s devoted followers, Enola’s path becomes clear. Siding with the Children of Atom, destroying both Arcadia and Far Harbor, and returning to the main land with a mission; to spread the word of Atom, and grow his Church.

    Back on the mainland, The Inquisitor gets busy establishing settlements; enclaves of those loyal to Atom. She builds alters to Atom in each settlement, and assigns a Priest of Atom to lead in worship. She uses her position as General of the Minutemen to convert them into Atom’s army. She keeps on semi friendly terms with the BOS to keep using their vertibirds for travel, but she is mindful that both them and the Railroad will not be friends to the Children of Atom, and at some point, she must cleanse them as well.

    An altar to Atom consists of a scrapping station inside a shack piece, some hanging lights, and a shelf with some nuclear material on it, and a Mini Nuke if one is available. You can dress and equip the priests with the robes and gamma guns claimed from the “apostates” found at the Kingsport Lighthouse and from random encounters.

    It is only upon reaching Virgil’s cave that Enola remembers her quest to find her son. She sets out with new resolve to reach the Institute. She reunites with Shaun, in the hopes of converting the Institute to Atom’s worship. But, after betraying the Railroad at Bunker Hill, she has a rooftop conversation with Shaun. She realizes in that conversation that Shaun stands against everything she holds dear. And while she still loves her son, she can not allow him, and his institute, to succeed. She resolves to grant him the only absolution that she can; she will grant him division.

    Additional notes:

    I have the perks listed to level 50 as per usual builds, but honestly you are going to pick up a whole lot more perks if you try this build. By the time I finished “cleansing” Nuka World, I was level 104, and had 12 perks unspent just because I didn’t know what to do with them without messing with the whole vibe of the character.

    What I would do differently:

    When I start a new character, I often try to look at the perks I always rely on, and try to avoid them. My goal is that, by avoiding the perks I always rely on, I find new and interesting ways to play the game. In this case, I couldn’t avoid the Lone Wanderer perk. It is just too essential in Survival Mode. My other big addiction is the Explosives Expert perk. So in this build, I didn’t put any points in it. And I think consistency in role playing suffered for that. Had I had the use of explosives, the Kiloton Radium Rifle would have been a much better fit for the character I was playing, although explosive rifles can be quite risky in Survival Mode.

     

    A few tips for settlement building in Survival Mode, when you don’t have the Local Leader perk:

    1)      Break down (almost) everything to store in your workshops. For the most part, components weigh far less than the scrap you collect. Tin cans, fuses, cigarette packs, and some other items weight less than the components do.

    2)      Plan ahead for the materials you will need to expand a settlement. Keep a list handy of the components for power, water, beds, and settlement beacons, and load up before you head out to establish a new settlement.

    3)      Chose location central to other potential settlements as “component break down stations” You don’t want to be traipsing back to Sanctuary Hills every time you need some crystal. Having a stash of materials at the Egret Tours Marina, Hangman’s Alley, Taffington Boathouse, etc., will cut down the travel time you need to go pick up supplies.

    4)      Use settlers as Mules. Carry capacity in Survival Mode does not seem to be changed for settlers. You can load all of your scrap components onto one or more settlers, and move them to one of your break down stations. Once you have unloaded them, they can be sent back to their original settlement. (if you relocate settlers, sometimes it can screw with Minuteman notifications) I found it helpful to keep track of my pack mules by giving them a pipe pistol or piece of armor that had been named after their settlement of origin.

  • Member
    June 22, 2017
    Ooooo this build is awesome! Everyone knows I love me my Children of Atom! Super cool build and glad someone got around to using those robes. Really nice synergies throughout and I like the weapon choices and names too. Glory unto Atom!
  • June 22, 2017

    Amornar said: ...and glad someone got around to using those robes.

    I know, Right?

    As beast as the robes can be, in Survival, they are absolutely game changing. 

  • Member
    June 22, 2017

    Dang, I love that Inquisitor Cowl (was that how it was called?). Splendind work and I like the pleasing Atom twist. Here's to more builds from you Daryl! :D

  • Member
    June 23, 2017

    oooh great vibe! I love a good COA build. Awesome Daryl!

  • Member
    June 23, 2017

    Damn I love CoA builds. This is really cool that you built it for survival as we don't have many of those, and it's nice that you used the Robes of Atom's Devoted to make the gameplay survivable in a way that is unique. Although I'm not one for VATS, I still think this is a sick build, excellent work Daryl ;P

  • Member
    June 23, 2017

    I ffound some great PS4 Mods for this build. One adds a player room in The Nucleus, the other changes the outfit of the Discioles to COA ones

  • June 24, 2017

    Great to see another survival build!

  • August 19, 2017

    Chris said:

    I ffound some great PS4 Mods for this build. One adds a player room in The Nucleus, the other changes the outfit of the Discioles to COA ones

    A couple of months late to replying to the comment, but I just now realised the role playing potential of the mod that would swap the Disciples for the COA. Rather than spreading the word like a missionary as I did, you could lead Atom's army into the commonwealth as a Holy Crusade. Dammit, now I want to go back and relpay it.

  • Member
    August 19, 2017

    Daryl Sawatzky said:

    Chris said:

    I ffound some great PS4 Mods for this build. One adds a player room in The Nucleus, the other changes the outfit of the Discioles to COA ones

    A couple of months late to replying to the comment, but I just now realised the role playing potential of the mod that would swap the Disciples for the COA. Rather than spreading the word like a missionary as I did, you could lead Atom's army into the commonwealth as a Holy Crusade. Dammit, now I want to go back and relpay it.

    Go for it