Ultimate Fallout 2 Ironman Munchkin

Tags: personal, Date: 2009-11-21

I'm cleaning up the accumulated junk and found this guide that was written eons ago.

This build is focused on survival. No save/loading, killap's final patch, hard combat and game difficulty. As it is not only ironman but a munchkin too, it must be a Sniper since HtH is a bit underpowered.

See this for good insights into ironman survival. The two most important pieces of advice it has is: Sneak and Outdoorsman. Sneak does not work as well for me as advertised, that is, I cannot end combat in all cases if the critter I shot did not die. Still, Sneak is still incredibly useful so it's tagged and raised to 150% in a hurry. Small Guns and Speech get tagged as well.

A true munchkin takes Gifted and Small frame. We rely on Sneak to keep us from being shot at, so Fast Shot would not help too much. The main emphasis is on survival so Endurance and Agility must be 10. NPCs cannot be kept alive and are not needed for most of the game, plus conversation is ruled by Speech thus Charisma is 2. Good minmaxing so far. Luck is 8 and will be 10 after the Zeta scan. This is important for Sniper.

This leaves us with 18 points for Strength, Perception and Intelligence. Each point in Perception adds 8% to shooting accuracy. However putting the same point into Intelligence gives 66 skill points to spend by level 34. Small Guns shall go beyond 200% where the cost of 1% is 3 skill points (it's tagged). 66 points is worth 22% to shooting accuracy. Clearly, Intelligence seems the better place.

However, Perception also determines sequence. Contrary to what the link above says, I find it important that enemies don't get a double turn. If combat could be ended dependably, it would be less of an issue, alas, it cannot. This makes Perception pretty important. With the +1 obtainable by surgery, 9 is a good number.

Strength allows you to carry more, which is a small convenience at the beginning. Even with Small Frame, one can get away with a strength as low as 2, especially with Sulik in the beginning and later the car. The other, main use of Strength is to avoid the 20% shooting accuracy penalty per point under the weapon's minimum strength. At high levels, you'll have 6-7 in Strength with armor and surgery. At lower levels, the penalty can be (over)compensated for by pouring skill points into Small Guns (after reading the books of course).

What about Strength vs Perception? Strength is useful in the early game before Small Guns is high enough. Perception remains useful at the end due to its accuracy bonus. Intelligence below 6 is out of question unless you aim for maximum efficiency at level 50.

So what is it that we optimize for? Munchkin combat power, of course. When? Mostly at the end, say at level 34. That's 33 levels gained and 11 perks. So without further ado, pure munchkin starting stats:

S: 2, P: 9, E: 10, C: 2, I: 7, A: 10, L: 8

Developed stats with armor, surgeries, shades, zeta scan, combat implants:

S: 7, P: 10, E: 10, C: 2, I: 8, A: 10, L: 10

Skill point needs:

93=28+26+39 Sneak (tagged): 45% -> 151%

265=23+26+39+52+65+60 Small Guns (tagged): 55% -> 221%

21 Speech (tagged): 19% -> 76% (+5% expert excrement expeditor, +10% enhancer)

32 Doctor: ~1% -> 55% (+5% VC training, +20% doctor's bag, +10% enhancer)

0 Outdoorsman: ~23% -> 110% (books, +20% motion sensor)

That's 411 skill points. Required points in Intelligence: 499/33levels/2 = 6.22. A few more points can be saved by reading Guns and Bullets magazines (max 18). Still, there is a point in improving Small Guns over 220%, take the Gauss Rifle or Pistol for example, which has a 20% bonus on accuracy and try to shoot someone in the eye in Advanced Power Armor II from 30 hexes:

(SmallGuns = 220) + (8 * (Perception = 10)) + (Weapon bonus = 20)
+ (Ammo AC modifier = 30)
- 30 - (AC = 45) - (4 * (N-Hex = 30)) - (Eyes = 60) = 95%

Perks:

Toughness(3)
Lifegiver(2)
Bonus rate of fire
Better Criticals
Sniper
Bonus Move(2)
Action Boy(2)
Living Anatomy

This character is hard to play in the early game. Small Guns takes some time to develop, and the -40% penalty for most guns due to the low strength is a killer until Power Armor and/or the Red Ryder.

To make the early game less of a struggle, Small Guns shall be raised pretty early, after Sneak reaches 100% and you have read a few Guns and Bullets from Klamath, the Den, Redding and Modoc. Grab as many Scout Handbooks as you can.

Useful links:

http://faqs.ign.com/articles/777/777224p1.html

http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout2.html#combat

http://www.fanmadefallout.com/fo2-items/

http://www.fanmadefallout.com/procrit/

http://www.playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Fallout_2