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Character Build: The Torturer (FO4)

Tags: #Character Build Unarmed  #Motty Build  #Fallout 4 Build  #Character Build Craftsman  #Character Build Big Guns 
  • Member
    October 8, 2016

    And now for something truly sick. My idea was to go to a really dark place. The quintessential anti-hero. Which, to be honest is not easy in FO4. Even the “rude” dialogue options are fairly mild-mannered. So to role-play a real psychopath, actions must speak louder than words. Burn, hack, rip, repeat.

    Welcome to the Torturer! 

    Special Notes
    With a narrow focus on three stats, Strength, Agility and Luck, we’re looking to maximize unarmed damage and accelerate AP/Critical bar regeneration. Put the Special book in AGI to open up Blitz and invest in STR right off the bat to open up Rooted. One more investment in Luck gives way to Four Leaf Clover.

    Perks
    Iron Fist - Unarmed Damage gets a max boost.

    Heavy Gunner - The Flamer damage is kicked up a few notches.

    Armorer - Upgrades to armor and ballistic weave in order to soak up a lot of damage.

    Rooted - A crazy strong perk to boost unarmed stats and minimize incoming damage.

    Sneak - Sneak multipliers combined with VATs / Blitz Unarmed attacks.

    Ninja - More Sneak multipliers.

    Blitz - Close the gap for those brutal meat hook attacks. 

    Bloody Mess - A nice thematic choice.

    Critical Banker - Use the Flamer to fill and bank your Criticals.

    Better Criticals - Improve Critical Attack Strength.

    Four Leaf Clover - Refill your Critical bar even more!

    Action Boy - Another fitting perk for the focus on AP regeneration.

    Idiot Savant (if you want to level faster).

    Character Notes
    The Look: Scarred, burnt, bald, big

    Gear:
    Early - Harness, Raider, Leather or Metal Armor, bandana, Welding Goggles
    Late – Armored Dirty Army Fatigues, Gray knit cap (+1 luck), bandana, Lucky Raider Chest Piece, Brawling Arms, Sprinting or Sentinel Legs of choice.

    Weapons: Flamer (Seargent Ash – knee capping), Butcher’s Meat Hook (refill AP on Critical), Kellogg’s Pistol (Refill AP of Critical), Ripper (Harvester). With a huge Strength pool, haul around all of your favorite torture tools for every conceivable maleficence. 

    Faction: None (see notes)

    Followers: Cait – Trigger rush fits well with the AP regeneration theme, and she’s kind of crazy. Plus, I put her in Grognak’s outfit with a Hunter’s Hood, SturdyRaider Arm Guards and let her chop people up with the Krevmah’s Tooth. All in all, a pretty good sidekick.

    Settlement: The Castle – perfect dungeonous feel with all crafting stations at hand and plenty of space to setup your prisons, torture rooms, etc. This will require “joining” the Minutemen in order to get access to the armory. RP’d this as duping the idiots into becoming your guards/victims.

    Bobbleheads: Big Guns, Unarmed, Sneak, STR, AGI, LUCK

    Getting Started:
    Start off as usual and pick up some knuckles in Concord – upgrade them to sharp for some bleeding damage. Outfit him in a harness and looted armor of your choice. A bandana is a nice touch. If you get really lucky and one of the Diamond City guards is killed in the skirmish with the Supermutants, a mix and match of their armor has a certain Hannibal Lectur-ish quality to it. I was also fortunate to have a “Lucky” Raider Chest piece fall to me early on.

    When you’ve leveled up a few spots and are feeling ready to take out a few ghouls– head to Fen St. Sewer to grab the Flamer tucked away in there. You have to proceed through the main quest until completing “Getting a Clue” to open up access to Far Harbor. This unfortunately requires “helping” a few people. Just make sure to be as rude and sadistic as possible. Feel free to light Nick on fire occasionally.

    In FH, make your way to Acadia and talk to Dejen to buy Seargent Ash. Then head a little north and trade with Erickson at Horizon Flight 1207 for the Butcher’s Meat Hook. The last stop in FH is Echo Lake Lumber to snag the Harvester. (You can take Cait to pick the lock for you, or jump through the wall if you know how to access the trunk upstairs.) 

    Notes on flamer fuel: So, it’s rare early on. I was happy to run into Cricket outside of Diamond City on my first trip and she had over 200 on her, which is the most I’ve found, pre-level 10. Percy in DC and Rufus in Goodneighbor are other known fuel vendors. Once you hit level 10, most vendors sell plenty (100-200). Hitting up Saugus Iron Works is a must, as is the Castle. I left Saugus with over 1700 at level 14 (normal difficulty). 

    As most unarmed/melee players know, strength rules. So make sure to always have some Buffout variants or a Dirty Wastelander handy for tougher foes. Stacking these make things quite exhilarating.

    Lastly, you have to be able to soak up a lot of damage with this approach. While you’ll dish out massive damage, the flamer and unarmed approach will require you to take some serious heat. For this reason, I did end up joining the RR up to the point of getting ballistic weave. Armoring the Dirty Army Fatigues made playing a lot more fun than having to stimpak in the middle of every battle. 

    Combat
    This build’s combat style places a focus on AP Regeneration  & Critical Stacking and introduces a new mechanic. Please note this little overlooked gem from Fallout Wikia: 

     “The first shot of the Flamer using VATS generates only a single tick on the critical meter, but the second shot generates several ticks at once, potentially filling the critical meter in an instant.

    Before playtesting, I thought this was hyperbole. But it’s not. With this high luck setup, Sargent Ash will fill your critical bar on EVERY ATTACK! Just click VATs twice consecutively and poof! In fact, by adding in Critical Banker you’ll actually fill (at least) TWO criticals in just two VATs attacks with the Flamer. Then switch over to the Butcher’s Meat Hook for epic kill cams. (Don’t believe me – See me use this technique on the Supermutants in the video below). 

    The combo of these two weapons, and their brutal nature form the basis of the Torturer’s assault. Light your targets on fire, fill up your Critical bar and stick a meat hook in their head with a critical. Rinse and repeat for awesome kill cams. Plus, Sargent Ash’s knee capping legendary prefix with leave many of your victims burning and unable to move…so there’s that bit of sadism!

    Adding in a ranged scoped weapon (I went with Kellogg’s Pistol to stick with the AP refill theme) to help with pesky targets like turrets round out the Torturer’s toolkit.

    Roleplay
    Notable RP options include building stockades and/or cages, prisons, and deathclaw arenas for your victims. Have fun being friendly with no one, or befriend and imprison unsuspecting settlers and put them through your chamber of horrors. The Contraptions DLC added stockades, which should be used liberally. 

    Dark Quest List
    I started a discussion early on about the Creepiest Things You’ve Found in FO4. Here’s a list of some quests/places that suit this dark build:

    1. Waystation – visit one of your killing sanctuaries…
    2. Dunwich Borers – enjoy this creep-fest haven and pick up a new toy for your companion.
    3. Pickman’s Gallery – ah, a fellow psychopath to make friends with
    4. Devil’s Due – Visit the Museum of Witchcraft for some more macabre
    5. Fens Sewer - Admire a predecessor's handywork and snag your first Flamer. 
    6. Hull Breach – Retrieve the power tools, betray the Mariner by taking the initial payment from Machete Mike, kill him and take the rest of your payment.
    7. Nuka World - Feel free to join the sicko Disciples, you'll fit right in!

    Closing Notes
    I have one more build I'm ready to present prior to MOD access (in PS4). There’s still a lot to be explored in the Wasteland - I hope to see you all pushing the envelope!

  • Member
    October 8, 2016

    Reposting since this didn't make the port across from ning. Added a note about Nuka World in the Dark Quest list. 

  • Member
    October 8, 2016

    Sick man! :D The flamer-critical meter is a brilliant move! This is truly amazing. Well done! :D

  • Member
    October 8, 2016

    Thanks Noodles! Yeah I saw that written up in Wiki and like I said, I figured it wasn't too useful but with the addition of the knee-capping legendary Flamer, I figured it was worth looking into. I was right. Super fun and nasty. 

  • Member
    October 9, 2016

    Motty Skills said:

    Thanks Noodles! Yeah I saw that written up in Wiki and like I said, I figured it wasn't too useful but with the addition of the knee-capping legendary Flamer, I figured it was worth looking into. I was right. Super fun and nasty. 

    Quite right! :D

  • Member
    October 9, 2016

    I'm currently level 7 on this guy, lots of fun, only problem is he levels so slowly. Any tips for leveling? I might do the diamond city bluesquest to get all the drugs and then combine them, that gives a huge chunk of xp. And then I can sell them to make caps for the meat hook and seargent ash. 

     

     

  • Member
    October 9, 2016

    Ajani said:

    I'm currently level 7 on this guy, lots of fun, only problem is he levels so slowly. Any tips for leveling? I might do the diamond city bluesquest to get all the drugs and then combine them, that gives a huge chunk of xp. And then I can sell them to make caps for the meat hook and seargent ash. 

     

     

    Ajani - I don't remember leveling be an issue- just take Idiot savant - which I realize I forgot to add into the perks!. With low INT it should proc quite a bit. Other than that, running the main quest, as annoying as it is, returns a lot of xp. Especially visiting the Institute. Sometimes I'll even run the first few Institute missions just for the XP then slaughter everyone and head out. 

  • Member
    October 9, 2016

    Ah! I was wondering if you took idiot savant-because I didnt see it. Thats my next perk!

  • Member
    October 11, 2016

    Idiot Savant! Leveling quickly now, level 16. Did like 12 railroad side quests, and jumped up a bunch of levels. Going to head to Far Harbor for the weapons now. Love the build!

  • Member
    October 11, 2016

    Ajani said:

    Idiot Savant! Leveling quickly now, level 16. Did like 12 railroad side quests, and jumped up a bunch of levels. Going to head to Far Harbor for the weapons now. Love the build!

    sweet! just wait till you cripple dudes with a flamethrower and gut them with a meathook :)