What’s the best build for Fallout 4?

In New Vegas, intelligence and luck were extremely valuable. I’m going to play Fallout 4 for the first time and I’m wondering what should I prioritize?

Best Builds

The best is probably a stealth sniper, though it’s not as OP as it was in 3 or NV so you won’t breeze through the game.

The actual SPECIAL stats aren’t as important as the perks they let you unlock, and you can increase them with perk points so your initial SPECIAL build is more about what you want to have early game rather than what you want to build later. The only build restrictions I’d say are that if you want to go melee, you either go stealthy VATS melee or tanky non-VATS melee, it’s a real pain in the ass if you try something else.

IMO, the important thresholds for each stat are:

STR – 3 for Armorer (any build), or 4 for Blacksmith (melee builds). Melee builds will want to max this at some point anyway, for the damage bonus. More important in survival mode for the carry weight.

PER – 2 for Rifleman (rifle builds), 5 for Demolition Expert (explosive builds). Ranged VATS builds will want this higher since it increases hit chance (melee VATS always has 95% chance to hit).

END – Nothing too important, but Lifegiver (4) is always nice if you have nothing else you want to spend a point on. Tanky builds (including any non-Stealth melee build) are obviously going to want to have high END.

CHA – 6 for Local Leader (if you want to use settlements). Lone Wanderer at 3 is nice if you don’t like companions. Speech checks are few and far between and not many of them do anything beyond getting you a bigger reward for a quest, so there’s little reason to get it over 6.

INT – 3 for Gun Nut (any ranged build), 6 for Science (any build), 7 for Chemist (any build that uses a lot of chems). Exp gain scales with INT so it’s never bad to increase this, but there’s also no level cap so it’s not nearly as important as it was in 3 and NV.

AGL – 1 for Gunslinjger (pistols), 2 for Commando (full-auto), 3 for Sneak (stealth), 7 for Ninja (stealth), 9 for Blitz (VATS melee). Definitely want to max this for any VATS build, since it’s more AP. Melee builds also almost always want this high, since Ninja and Blitz are ridiculous when combined.

LCK – 2 for Scrounger (full-auto), everything 6 and above for VATS builds. Idiot Savant is always nice to have but not vital.

And some general advice, chems in 4 have basically no drawback when compared to the chems in earlier games, so you can pop that shit whenever you want.

Original Link – Continuation of discussion