Hello, I'm Akfiz and I completed New Vegas' all endings while doing most of the side quests. And in this guide, I'm going to tell you some essential things about New Vegas I assume most new players but also experienced players want to know.

What's important to note about New Vegas, is that unlike it's Bethesda successor, Skyrim, New Vegas is very open-ended in the story. In Skyrim, you only have one ending and the quests are pretty straightforward. In New Vegas, you can take multiple quests from multiple factions that contradict each other, so you can't please everyone, you'll have to get to know the factions and decide which faction you want to side with before going to deep into the story, because at some point, the enemy faction will hate you for helping the others.

This faction system allows for more replyability, since you can play one game supporting a faction and another supporting the other, making vastly different decisions. In a way, this makes the world of New Vegas feel more organic and alive, what you do has consequences even beyond your reach. Or you can create a good playthrough character and after you finish it a bad playthrough character list most of us do.

The first thing you do after you wake up is set your S.P.E.C.I.A.L points. That stands for: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck. It's basically your basic stats. They all start with 5/10 and you have 5 free points to invest in whatever you like. But you can also substrat from another for more points.

Strength -> Important for strength threshold for some weapons, otherwise it lowers accuracy, and you can carry 10 extra loot for every strength point.
Perception -> Increases the distance at which you can detect other creatures.
Endurance -> Increases your health, healing rate and resistance to poison.
Charisma -> Makes your companions a bit stronger.
Intelligence -> You gain more skill points when leveling up.
Agility -> More V.A.T.S points and faster weapon holster and reload.
Luck -> Raises the value of every skill and improves critical chance.

There is more to these, for example in different dialogues with NPCs you will need certain points in a stat to be albe to say various things, and a higher luck stats makes you more likely to win at the casinos, but that is the bulk of it.

Through the game, you will find various S.P.E.C.I.A.L permanents modifiers:
- At the New Vegas Clinic, a doctor can give you 9 possible implants, 7 will increase each stat by 1. But you can only takes as many implants as you have Endurance points, so starting with 9 Endurance is ideal, you can take them all and it leaves room for that +1 endurance implant.
- The "Intense Training" perk can increase a S.P.E.C.I.A.L point by +1. You can take it 10 times but I usually take it once or not at all.
- At the end of DLC Old World Blues, you can gain Spineless perk that gives you +1 Strength or Reinforced Spine that gives you +2 Strength. But this is late in the game.
- At the end of the DLC Lonesome Road, you can add one additional S.P.E.C.I.A.L point, but this is again late in the game.
So keep that in mind when creating your character.

There are probably many opinions on this, but I think an ideal S.P.E.C.I.A.L build is:
* Strength 5 -> Unless you're planning to make a melee character, 5 is not great not terrible.
* Perception 5 -> It's useful to be able to see more in the distance but there are more useful traits.
* Endurnace 9 -> This will increase your health a lot as well as allow you to get all 9 implants from the New Vegas Clinic after you make tons of money. Don't raise it to 10, the Endurance implant will do that for you.
* Charisma 1 -> It's basically useless, only improves your companions. And you can upgrade Speech and Barter independent of Charisma.
* Intelligence 9 -> Always useful to have, you get more points to invest when you level up, which allows you to eventually make a fully 100 skills character at level 50.
* Agility 5 -> A good trait that gives you a faster reload, faster holster and more V.A.T.S points.
* Luck 6 -> Luck is OP, at luck 10 you get criticals like hell. I suggest investing all other S.P.E.C.I.A.L points you get from various events into luck.

Once you get tons of money, you can do the implants and have: STR 6, PER 6, END 10, CHA 2, INT 10, AGI 6, LUK 7. And with the DLC and Intense Training perk you can eventually have a character of: STR 8, PER 6, END 10, CHA 2, INT 10, AGI 6, LUK 9. With this, your character should be based. There are also various items that temporary increase your S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats.

You can pick 2 traits when you start the game and afterwards you unlock 1 perk every 2 levels, so you unlock a perk at level 2, level 4, level 6, etc; new perks are unlocked every new level and some perk require different S.P.E.C.I.A.L points to be unlocked.

The difference between traits and perks is that traits come when you create your character and have bonuses and drawbacks. While perks come when you level up and have only bonuses.

For traits I recommend Wild Wasteland anytime, it fills the game with Easter Eggs, some of which imply good unique weapons or weird references. And then Good Natured since you get +5 in 5 skills that will be useful early game but lose -5 in 5 skills shooting-related, so in the end it's a sum 0, you don't lose anything. These are the only 2 traits where you don't actually lose anything significant.

Optionally, you can take Build to Destroy since that 3% crit chance is good and weapon condition decays 15% faster not much of a deal. And maybe Small Frame for that +1 Agility even at the cost of 25% more fragile limbs, with 9 Endurance it shouldn't be much of an issue, you don't lose limbs that often, but when it happens is very annoying. Other traits than these 4 seem much more of a drawback than a bonus.

With the Old World Blues DLC you can get the Skilled trait, where you gain +5 to all skills, but you gain 10% less Experience Points. This is also a great trait, having +5 to all skills is hugely useful but it comes at the cost of slower level up.

And now for the perks.

There are tons but you can only pick 1 every 2 levels, so you will only pick 25 until level 50.

Unless you rush the main quest, you will reach level 50 before the game ends, so there's no points investing in perks and traits that give you more XP.

Level 2 -> You could get Swift Learner if you want to level up faster, but if you want to build a long-term powerful character, you should invest that point in something else. Because you won't get all perks at level 50, so you have to pick what you leave out. Not useful at all.

Rapid Reload is very useful with 25% better reload, you need AGI 5 and at least 30 Guns skills for it to be unlocked. So it's possible you won't have that much skill at level 2. Useful to take later.

For great roleplay value, you can pick Black Widow, Lady Killer, Cherchez La Femme or Confirmed Bachelor right off the bat. Start with the ones oriented towards man as there are more male NPCs in the game. And take the one towards women later, it unlocks new useful and fun dialogue. Useful to take later, starting with the one towards men.

But I think the best for level 2 is Intense Training and putting your point in Luck. With a luck of 7 or above, you will eventually be able to make lots of money from the casinos. But even before that, +1 Luck means better critical hit chance.

Level 4 -> Educated is hands down the best perk for level 4. Take it as early as possible to maximize its usefulness, those 2 more skill points at each level up add up. Cannibal is fun if you want to play evil.

Level 6 -> Bloody Mess and Toughness are great all-rounders. One for more defense and another for more offense. Eventually take both, but for now pick one of them.

Level 8 -> Strong Back is very useful for looting, if you have STR 5 it raises your carrying capacity from 250 to 300.

Living Anatomy and Terrifying Presence are great, but you need high Medicine and Speech skills, useful to take later. Stonewall is also great when fighting melee enemies, but you need STR 6, useful to take later.

Level 10 -> Now we're getting to the really good ones. Finesse gives a great +5% crit.

Mysterious Stranger is very fun to have him aid you, and he has a chance of 10% of spawning of using V.A.T.S. Miss Fortune is the same but only incapacitates the target. Nerd Rage! is very useful when you're low HP. All 3 are great to pick up later. Night Person is meh, somewhat useful, but there are better options. I wouldn't recommend it, but if you want it, pick it. As you already have INT 9 and its bonus doesn't apply to leveling up.

Level 12 -> Fast Metabolism because of the +20% Hit Points restored with stimpaks.

But this is where you have multiple good options depending on what kind of character you're playing. Life Giver is useful for later as you get +30 HP. Long Haul sounds nice but you could pick a perk that makes you stronger in fights instead.

Hit the Deck makes you stronger against explosives, which are the most annoying weapons to fight against. Definetly useful for later.

Pyromaniac if you use lots of fire weapons. Robotics Expert is not so useful right now, but when you're high level and start Old World Blues, you're going to need this, there are a lot of robots there, not so many in the base game. Silent Running is definetly useful for later, even if you don't have a sneak-based character, as you are going to have to sneak sometimes. Splash Damage if you use a lot of explosive weapons.

Level 14 -> Adamantium Skeleton for it makes your limbs twice as hard to break.

Light Step is very useful when deaing with mines. But it needs PER 6, AGI 6, definetly get later after you increase Perception and Agility to 6 with implants.

Level 16 -> Something unlocked at a previous level. Bloody Mess or Toughness, the one you didn't pick at level 6.

Better Criticals is amazing, but it needs PER 6, LUK 6, so get it after you increase Perception to 6 with implants. Tag! is not that useful, better invest in something that would actually make you stronger. Action Boy/Action Girl is again not so useful.

In this TL;DR example, I tried to be as all-rounder as possible, so for example perks that gave you great bonuses with explosive weapons I didn't use, only perks that give you bonuses with all weapons in general, so you can be a powerful all-rounder. Also, from the roast of good leftovers I didn't use: Lady Fortune, Terifying Presence, Fight the Power!, Walker Instinct and Burden to Bear. But you can do so if you want any of those instead of something else.

This is of course just a suggestion, you can do minor things like replacing Light Step with Fight the Power depending on your playstyle. But either way, it should give you an idea about what are the good perks in this game.

Level 18 -> Something unlocked at a previous level. Living Anatomy from level 8 is great, but only if you have Medicine 70. Better Criticals and then Light Step are great if you made the implant for PER 6. Otherwise Rapid Reload, Confirmed Bachelor, Mysterious Stranger, Nerd Rage, Hit the Deck, Life Giver or Silent Running.

Computer Whiz -> Very useful for hacking, but doesn't actually make you strong, so make your own choice if you want it. Paralyzing Palm is useful if you went for a melee build. Anything V.A.T.S related like Concentrated Fire is not worth it, V.A.T.S is useful but it's not going to win a big fight for you.

Level 20 -> Solar Powered, finally you regenerate HP while outside.

Explorer doesn't make you any stronger, but it reveals the whole map so definetly worth it for later. Ninja is good for a melee build.

Level 22, 24, 26 -> Something unlocked at a previous level. Look for the list at level 18 and make your pick. If Confirmed Bachelor is done move to Lady Killer. If Lady Killer is done, move to Terrifying Presence. If Mysterious Stranger is done, move to Miss Fortune.

Laser Commander at level 22 is good if you're into laser weapons.Spray and Pray is not that useful as you won't hit them that often and they have plenty of health. Slayer at level 24 is useful if you have a melee build.

Level 28 -> Rad Absorption because its useful to not have to worry about radiation anymore.

Level 30 - 50 -> Continue with the ones from above.

Light Touch is useful if you have a light armor character for the crit change. Fight the Power! is generally useful since you'll be dealing with a lot of NCR and Legion, definetly good for later. Walker Instinct's +1 PER and +1 AGI while outside is also very useful for that for when you get to this point in the game. Burden to Bear is good if you want extra looting space, more inventory space.

Level 36 -> Broad Daylight for better sneaking.

Level 40 -> Certified Tech for significantly better crit against robots.

Level 50 -> Thought You Died +10 permanent HP for every 100 Karma points you have, +10% damage and immunity to critical hits.

With this choice of great all-rounder perks, you should be a badass at level 50 regardless of what style of gameplay you have.

There are 13 skills in New Vegas:
Barter -> Better buy & sell prices. And alternative dialogue options to negociate better rewards.
Energy Weapons -> Better laser weapons damage.
Explosives -> Better explosive weapons damage.
Guns -> Better regular shooting weapons damage.
Lockpick -> Allows you to lockpick at thresholds 25, 50, 75, 100. Lockpicking is easier.
Medicine -> More healing from Stimpacks, drugs and Doctor's Bag.
Melee Weapons -> Better melee weapons damage.
Repair -> Repairs weapons more and to a greater limit.
Science -> Allows you to hack terminals at thresholds 25, 50, 75, 100. Unlocks crafting recipies.
Sneak -> Makes it easier to stay undetected and to pickpocket.
Speech -> Allows you to pass certain dialogue options when talking to NPCs.
Survival -> Gets better benefits from food. Unlocks crafting recipies.
Unarmed -> Better bare fists or fists-like weapons damage.

All 13 skills as well as all 7 S.P.E.C.I.A.L traits are required sometimes to pass certain dialgoue options when talking to NPCs. But by far the most popular threshold is Speech, followed by Barter and on the third place INT. The others are occasional, but the requirement of Speech for better options or persuading others is very common and improves your gameplay a lot.

There are 3 extra points you can put in skills at the start of your game. That doesn't make them your "primary" or "secondary" skills, it just gives you +15 points at the start of the game for those specific skills. So it's no big deal if you choose to focus completely on something else afterwards.

What skills you pick depend on your playstyle, but to give you a general idea:
- Speech is god. By far the first skill you should max out, trust me. Or if you don't want to max it out, at least make it 30.
- You should pick only one combat skills, based on the weapons you want to use so far, if you aren't planning to use energy weapons, explosives, melee or unarmed, I recommend Guns.
- Medicine is great for survival, more health from stimpacks better chance of survival. But not so great to invest in it afterwards. Pick it to get one of the 3 extra points then forget about it.
- Science & Lockpick are just great for looting. Make sure you make them at least 25.
- Barter gives you better prices, really helps with the economy.
- Repair is good if you want to keep your weapon useful but don't want to pay someone to repair it.

That's pretty much it: Sneak, Survival and the other 4 combat skills are very playstyle dependent.

So for start: pick Speech, Medicine, Guns. When you level up invest in Speech until you reach 30, then invest in Science & Lockpick until you reach 25. Then invest in Speech until you reach 100, then further invest in Science & Lockpick until you reach 100. Then invest in Barter until you reach 100.

In the meantime, if you find yourself too weak to kill your enemies, you can invest in Guns or your main combat skill instead. As well as look for better guns. If you find yourself too easy to get killed, first of all, why? you have END 9, and second invest in Medicine. And if you have certain useful quests that require a repair or medicine pass, you can invest in those instead.

Yes. Although, unlike previous Fallout games, in New Vegas you won't always skill cap by the time you reach max level, it is possible to skill cap using 2 things: high intelligence & books. Huh, almost like real life. Yeah, sorry, you're going to have to read books, no way around it.

The fact that you don't necessarily skill cap by the time you reach level 50 may be interesting for some players. It allows you to specialize your character, focus only on what you want to be good at. On the other hand, other players like me, want a fully-fledged character that is good at everything by level 50.

So how do you skill cap in New Vegas? You have 13 skills so that's 1300 you have to fill by level 50 (so 49 level ups) to skill cap. You have an about 255 starting points. So you only need to get 1045 (1300 - 255) skill points in 49 level ups to be maxed out by level 50.

When you level up you get 10 + INT/2 skill points.

With an average 5 INT and educated perk you get: (12.5 * 3) + (14.5 * 46) = 37.5 + 667 = 704.5. Adding the original 255, that's 959.5 skill points. So you will still be lacking 1300 - 959.5 = 340.5.

With a 9 INT and let's assume you take the implant for 10 INT at level 20, you get: (14.5 * 3) + (16.5 * 16) + (17 * 3) = 43.5 + 264 + 510 = 817.5. With 255 that's 1072.5. So you still need 1300 - 1072.5 = 227.5 skill points for level cap.

And this is where books come in!

Reading a book permanently increases a skill by 3. Or 4 if you have the "Comprehension" perk. It's useful, but I find that you can do it without the "Comprehension" perk so you're better of using that perk for something that improves your combat.

There are, on average, four copies of every skill book, for a total of 52 books in the base game. Dead Money has one copy of each except one, so 12 books, plus 2 copies of Dean's Electronics, so 14 books. Honest Hearts has a a container with random loot that has a chance of containing various skill books. Old World Blues adds Chinese Army: Spec Ops Training Manual and a copy of Big Book of Science, beside a game mechanic that allows you to craft 13 books of each, so 15 books. While Lonesome Road also adds a series of 13 books.

In total, base game + DLCs has 94 books plus the random chance from Honest Hearts. If you remove Dead Money that you can never go back to that's 80 books. So in theory, you could make 240 extra skill points. Or 320 extra skill points with Comprehension perk.

If you manage to get all the books in the game, with Comprehension perk, that's a maximum total of 94 * 4 = 376 skill points. Allowing you to max up your character even with average 5 INT, but admitedly, that's very had.

Make it a rule of thumb to never max out a skill past 70. So that you can only get to 100 using skill books. So that those points won't be wasted.

When the game starts, you already have 7 guns and 4 armors due to the DLCs. Which makes you more than ready for combat. This wasn't the case in the non-DLC version of the game where you would literally start with a 9mm pistol and that's it, which is why I hate content that gives you extra guns when you start the game, ruins the atmosphere. When it comes to the guns, put all 7 guns in a weapon slot from 1 to 7. When it comes to the armor, use the "Lightweight Leather Armor".

The starting weapons & armor are pretty good. But if you still want an improvement follow this guide and this map below. The red arrows represent the route the main quest will take you. OP means that those guns from there are really powerful and you can use them in more than early game.

First, you're going to need a shovel so you can dig Chance's Grave for the OP knife.
Follow the main quest, go to the bar, play the tutorial with Sunni Smiles, during the tutorial when you're at the 2nd water pump, there is a shovel, pick it up. The shovel is very useful, not only to dig Chance's Grave but to dig all graves in the game for loot, and there are plenty of graves in New Vegas.

1. Chance's Knife (Unique Knife OP) -> After you got the sovel, go back to Doctor Mitchel's house, turn left towards the Petrol Station or Gas Station if you're American, but don't follow the road, climb up the mountains on the left and walk with the road. That's because there are Casadors on the road, high level enemies that will kill you. Eventually you will reach Chance's Grave, dig it up and get Chance's Knife. This is literally one of the most powerful melee weapons in the game, that you can get right when the game starts. You won't need a replacement except very later in the game.

Chance's Lore: This is not game spoilers but New Vegas Comic Book spoilers. When the released the game, Bethesda released a Comic Book called "Chance's Demons" that explain a bit of the story before you wake up. The guy who killed you in the cemetery when the game starts, hired those other guys with tribal uniforms, one of them was Chance, he died on the road to get to kill you.

2. Love and Hate (Unique Brass Knuckles) -> The unique weapons are usually more powerful than their normal counterparts. This one can be found at the leader of the camp. just a bit north from Chance's Grave. Just make sure you avoid the Casadors.

3. 3.57 Revolver -> In Goodsprings, when you enter the bar, look next to the radio. There is a revolver, it doesn't belong to you, but you can still it when nobody is looking.

Then you get to Primm.

4. Cowboy Repeater -> Inf the Sheriff's home in Primm. Go inside the Sheriff's home, the gun is right under his bed.

5. Flamer -> A bandit will have the flamer and it's part of the main story, you can't miss it. It is right in the same room where you free the Deputy.

6. Service Rifle -> The standard NCR weapon. Go west of Primm until you see a gate "Welcome home Courier Six", don't enter it, that gets you to the Lonesome Road DLC. Also there are 2 graves there if you still have the shovel. Instead go south, eventually you'll reach a small Coyote nest, in that next is a dead NCR soldier with his weapon.

Then you get to the other side of the map.

7. Chopper (Unique Cleaver) -> After you are at the top of that hill, you walk pass an encampment with bandits, after you beat the bandits go inside their home, on the gas cooker is the Chooper. It's not nearly as powerful as Chance's Knife but since the main story takes you there you can't miss it.

8. Ratslayer (Unique Sniper OP) -> You deviate a bit from your main story road but it's worth it. Go to the cave from the map, if you can't find it look bottom-left for the little arrow that shows you are nearby a marked location. The cave is full of weak rats and at the end is this powerful sniper.

9. That Gun (Unique Pistol OP)-> When you reach Novac, go to the by Dinosaur. There is a guy called Cliff Briscoe and he has a door behind you. The door is very easy to pick, only requires 25 lockpick. After you lockpick it, That Gun is there, make sure Cliff Briscoe doesn't see you when you steal it.

10. Hunting Rifle -> One of my favourite weapons in the game. Since you haven't ruined Cliff Briscoe's life enough. The first house next to the Dinosaur is his house. Enter his house and steal his Hunting Rifle. It's not an unique weapon, but it's a very powerful weapon that I have used for a long time.


The last 2 require you to steal or kill people, so I completely understand if you don't want to do it, anyway.

11. Big Boomer (Unique Sawed-Off Shotgun OP) -> Going just a little bit north of Novac, you will find Old Lady Gibson in the scrapyard. She carries the Big Boomer and you can take it by killing her or pickpocketing her.

12. Mysterious Magnum (Unique Revolver OP) -> Keep going north of Novac on the main road, don't worry the main storyline will take you there. You will find a stranger with a guitar next to a billboard. You can either kill him or pickpocket the Mysterious Magnum from him. When compared to That Gun, the Mysterious Magnum is silighty more effective but ammo for it is harder to find, but man this weapon has style, when you unholster it it makes a sound, some people would kill for it, just saying.

That's pretty much it, you got 5 OP weapons: A knife, a pistol, a revolver, a shotgun and a sniper. Other than that you have the powerful Hunting Rifle and a Service Rifle to fill the 7 slots. You can pick one between the pistol That Gun and revolver Mysterious Magnum and use the Flamer for the 7th slot.

That doesn't mean these are the only good early game good weapons. By all means, explore and if you find something good go for it. But it should give you a solid idea of some good weapons you can find early game.

As for the armor.

13. Combat Reinforced Armor -> Near the location where you find the Chopper & Ratslayer. The Ratslayer is on the right side of the road, the Combat Reinforced Armor is on the left side of the road in a small cave. You can find it in a bag in that cave. It's a medium armor that gives you 17 protection with no negative effects. The helmet is there too.

Important Note here: There are other great late game guns that are not mentioned here, for example, Anti-materiel Rifle (GRA), but I didn't mention them because they have no fixed location on the map, you can either find them from random dead enemies or they randomly appear in shops. You can also find them depending on the level.

So in order to make this guide available at any level and for everyone (no luck involved) I decided only to include the weapons that you can find consistently. This doesn't mean there are no other great weapons that you can't find consistently or weapons that I missed.

I hope the picture can present it all as simple as possible. It makes a summary of all high level/best gear in New Vegas, if you want save it so you can look at it later.

Most of these are not so easy to get. Some can be simply laying around. Some can be found laying around next to an insane amount of Deathclaws like the Remnants armor. Some require to to finish quests to get them. I didn't get into the specifics because it will take an insane amount of time to explain.

If I were you wanting to get high level gear, I would start with Vault 34. There are 4 very powerful weapons there: the Minigun, the All-American the Riot Shotgun and the Pulse Gun. The Minigun has an advanced version, the CZ57 but it takes a lot to get there. Although even the default Minigun is powerful enough.

Again, these may not be all high level weapons out there, for example I didn't mention the Industrial Hand from Lonesome Road DLC that ignores all armor. So whether you attack a scavenger or a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin, it's all the same to the Industrial Hand. But I think I gave you a list big enough to make your own choices. And I put my own choices there.

When it comes to armor. I said in the early game part of the guide to get Reinforced Combat Armor. After that, try to get either Reinforced Combat Armor Mark 2 or T-51b depending whether you want to play medium or heavy armor. And if you want to play light armor, get the Sierra Madre Reinforced armor from the Sierra Madre DLC.

When you're feeling strong enough, try to get the Remnants armor from the Deathclaws and the helmet from the cave up north if you go heavy armor. If you go Medium armor, you can only get the Gannon Tesla Family armor late game in a quest. These combined with the Sierra Madre Reinforced are the best armors for their respective tiers: Heavy, Medium and Light.

As for weapons.
- A good melee weapon would be: Chance's Knife, Oh Baby, Ripper (GRA), She's Embrace, Balistic Fist, Industrial Fist, (Two-Step Goodbye is good but slightly worse than the Balistic Fist).
- For pistol I think Pew Pew or Ranger Sequoia.
- For shotgun clearly Riot Shotgun.
- For bolt rifle go for Medicine Stick, Brush Gun or Paciencia.
- For automatic rifle clearly All American.
- For Energy Rifles, Elijah's LAER is boss, then Q-35, Multiplas Rifle and on a lower level AER 14.
- For big energy guns YCS186 and Tesla-Beaton are your friends. (Tesla-Beaton is slightly better than Elijah's Tesla cannon)
- For snipers the best is Gobi followed shortly by Anti-materiel Rifle (GRA)
- For big guns CZ57 or Minigun, Bozar or LMG, Sprtel or Gatling Laser.
- For big guns explosives Esther or Fat Man, Annabelle or Mercy.
- Euclid C-Finder is a nice wildcard, while Arc Welder and Pulse Gun are devastating to robots.

In my personal playthrough, I went for the medium armor: Reinforced Combat Armor Mark 2, upgraded it to Elite Riot Gear when I finished Lonesome Road DLC and then Gannon Tesla Family close to the game's ending. As for weapons, I used Rippler (GRA) until I got She's Embrace. Only Ranger Sequoia after I got it. Didn't use a shotgun. Instead I used both All American and Elijah's LAER. Gobi sniper rifle. Arc Welder specifically for robots and a Minigun for the final slot. With Euclid always in my inventory.

There are plenty of shops in New Vegas. Some of which barely sell anything and barely have enough caps to spare. Others which are plenty of caps and with many things to sell. Others which are very specialized and you will find great equipment of a specific type there.

This is my list for the most important New Vegas shops:
- Goodsprings General Goods Store & Doc Mitchel, where you start the game, a good all-rounder.
- Great Khans Armory, if you can get them to like you, that place is huge, full of different types of good weapons and good armor and good ammo and stuff. But it shouldn't be the case. That armory has items not even the Great Khans have. I guess a programmer at Bethesda forgot to edit the shop.
- Knight & Lacey in Mojave Outpost are lacking, but it's good when you're around there.
- The BoS armory is full of energy weapons, so if you're specialized in that, that's your stop.
- Novac has a decent doctor that can give you supplies and Chet is a decent shopper.
- Alexander and the Arms Merchant are great, above average shop quality.
- Mick&Ralph are meh until they trust you to reveal the real stock, Silver Rush is energy weapons.
- Gun Runners are amazing, they are the best normal gun vendors in the Mojave.
- Crimson Caravan is a good all-rounder and the New Vegas clinic is the best clinic in the game.

But where do you gain the caps to buy in such places? By farming some enemies for quick and easy caps. Or by breaking some banks with your luck.

The best place to farm is around Vault 3 in Fiends territory. This is because those fiends outside the Vault respawn regulary and have pretty expensive equipment. I wasn't able to loot all of their equipment in one run with 350 inventory space. I didn't count but you can easily make over 1.000 caps, maybe even over 2.000 with a 5 minutes run in over Fiends territory. Sell it to Gun Runners or Alexander and repeat.

The 2nd way to make tuns of money is the casino and a little bit of luck. I mean literally Luck. Have your luck at least 7. Ideally 9 or 10.

Go to Mick&Ralph and purchase the Naught Nightwear, it's a clothing that gives you LCK +1. If you followed my S.P.E.C.I.A.L suggestion you start with LCK 6, from intensive training get LCK 7, with the implant get LCK 8 with Naught Nightwear get LCK 9 and with Lonesome Road DLC completed or another item like Lucky Shades, you get LCK 10. You are going to kill the casino with that.

But be careful, at one point, every casino is going to kick you out, so you need to play it smart. Atomic Wrangler at 5.000 wins, Gomorrah at 9.000 wins, Tops at 10.000 wins and Ultra-Luxe at 15.000 wins. Play blackjack, you don't need to be a great player, with LCK 10 you will just win. And when you are close to the kicked out threshold, say 1.500 difference, play slots. Eventually, you may hit the big jackpot. Which if I remember correctly at max bet gives you 7.500 caps, which is winning on 75 caps with 3 oranges. All except Ultra Luxe has slots. That's 7.500 caps per casino, plus the blackjack wins of 3.500, 7.500, 8.500 and the 15.000 from Ultra Luxe. Winning at slots takes a lot more time than winning at blackjack, so its up to each player if its worth it.

So, in theory you can get:
Atomic: 3.500 (5.000) + 7.500 = 11.000 (12.500)
Gomorrah: 7.500 (9.000) + 7.500 = 15.000 (16.500)
Tops: 8.500 (10.000) + 7.500 = 16.000 (17.500)
Ultra Luxe: 15.000
A total between: 57.000 and 61.500 caps, depending how lucky you are with the slots.

This is a short summary for Fallout 3. Obviously the New Vegas version is more in-depth.

1. S.P.E.C.I.A.L

Identical to Fallout New Vegas:
- Strength 5
- Perception 5
- Endurance 9
- Charisma 1
- Intelligence 9
- Agility 5
- Luck 6

Like in New Vegas, Charisma is pretty much useless. It affects your Speech and Barter skills, but you can increase said skills by increasing Speech and Banter themselves. The only downside is that you would have low Speech and Barter in the early game. But you are not lacking anything by not taking Charisma.

All other S.P.E.C.I.A.L, in addition to increasing your skills, also give you unique things:
- STR +10 carry capacity & +0.5 melee damage.
- PER enemy detection.
- END +20% extra HP, +poision resistance, +radiation resistance, +underwater breathing.
- INT +1 skill point when level up
- AGI +2 V.A.T.S AP points
- LUK +1 Critical Chance

Where as Charisma is the only one that has nothing unique, evey CHA point only increases your Speech and Barter skills by 2, which is useless as you can reach 100 Speech and 100 Barter with 1 Charisma and completely negate it.

There are a total of 20 bubble heads in Fallout 3, 7 of which are dedicated to increasing 1 of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L points. So in the end you will end up with: STR 6, PER 6, END 10, CHA 2, INT 10, AGI 6, LUK 7.

But if you want you can save scum because here you always have a percent change to succeed. By late game when you have increased your Speech and Banter low charisma will mean nothing.

2. BUBBLEHEADS AS SOON AS YOU ARE OUT OF THE VAULT

Hunt the 7 S.P.E.C.I.A.L bobbleheads. Start with the INT one in Rivet City for maximum efficiency. So rush to Rivet City literally in the bottom-right corner of the map.

Alternatively: You can choose NOT to do this and save all bubleheads for level 30 (max level) when you get the Almost Perfect perk, then when you get all bubbleheads you get perfect 10 stats. It's your choice short term vs. long term. Whether you want the bubbleheads now or want perfect 10 stats at level 30.

Locations:
INT -> Inside Rivet City in the center of the science lab on one of the tables. (Bottom right map corner)
LUK -> Inside Flooded Metro that will lead you Arlington Cemetery North and there in the Arlington House in the center for the cemetery on a shelf in the basement. (Northern point of DC on the left bank of the river. West of the river and east of where the fire ends)
STR -> Inside Megaton in Sheriff Lucas Simms' house, in his bedroom on a desk. (in Megaton, easy to get)
CHA -> Inside Vault 108 in the middle of the vault, inside the cloning lab, in a room with four beds on top of a table. (Middle Right side of the map, north of DC)
PER -> Inside the The Republic of Dave on a bookshelf inside the Museum of Dave. (TOP right map corner)
AGI -> Inside Greener Pastures Disposal Site in an office on a desk next to a terminal. (Go left from PER one on the Horisontal portion of the large road)
END -> Inside the Deathclaw Sanctuary down the ramp from the entrance on a platform next to a brahmin corpse, right at the entrance, sneak with stealthboy. (Keep Going left on the same vertical line until you are close to reaching the river)

If you disable the bomb in Megaton Lucas will give you the keys to the house where the STR bubblehead is, you need 25 explosive skills for that. Or you can just steal the key or lock the pick.

You can just speedrun all of this as no combat is required.


And if you don't feel like speedruning, at least speedrun the intelligence one so you can get more skill points at every level up, the earlier in level you get that bubblehead the better. So go to Rivet City at the start and pick up the bobblehead for a total of 10 from level 2 onward.

You skill cap at level 20 without DLC and level 30 with DLC.

3. YOUR OWN HOUSE

Unlike New Vegas, in Fallout 3 you can get a house really really easy. All you need is to have an expolsive skill of at least 25. Do the quest The Power of the Atom for Megaton that is presented by Lucas Simms as soon as you enter the city, and you get a free house. You can store items there.

You can also detonate the bomb and get the Tenpenny Tower suite instead.

Houses provide permanent safe storage.

4. SPECIAL MISSION PERKS:

These are perks, permanent passive upgrades, you can get:
Wasteland Survival Guide -> Talk Moira Brown out of writing the Wasteland Survival Guide in Megaton, it reduces an enemy's chance to critically hit you by 50%, 30% discount at Craterside Supply, and +30 points to Moira's Repair skill (54, 72% condition). You also get Rad Regeneration, any crippled limbs will regenerate themselves when you have Advanced Rad Poisoning, and Survival Expert you gain a +6% bonus to poison resistance and radiation resistance and either additional critical chance, additional damage resistance, additional health points.
Blood Ties - Talk to Vampire Vance about learning the ways of a vampire, blood packs will now heal 20 hit points instead of 1 point.
Ant Might/Sight - Complete "Those!" without eliminating the fire ant queen OR eliminating the queen and convincing Doctor Lesko it was better for mankind (speech check) - +1 ST/+1 PE and +25% Fire Resistance.
Barkskin - In "Oasis" destroy Harold's heart - +5% damage reduction permanently

Power Armor Training - Learned from Paladin Gunny in the Citadel or by completing Operation: Anchorage, you can now wear any form of power armor.
Wired Reflexes - In the quest "The Replicated Man" side with Dr. Zimmer - +10% accuracy in V.A.T.S.

5. BEST COMPANIONS

Fawkes - Exiled super mutant from Vault 87. He is very powerful, not only can tank a lot but can deal a lot of damage. You only have access to him late game, this is his only downside that you get him late. You need good karma to recruit.
Charon - Second best companion in the game. Can be found at the Ninth Circle in Underworld. The player can obtain Charon's contract by paying Ahzrukhal 2,000 caps or by agreeing to kill Greta. Even though hiring him has no Karma requirements, stealing from the Underworld and killing good character in his presence turns him hostile, so he is good.
Butch from Vault 101 -> He's a very good companion, you can get him as a companion by completing Trouble on the Homefront with either opening or destroying Vault 101, and Butch left alive, he can be found residing in the Muddy Rudder in Rivet City. You need netural karma to recruit.
Seargent LR-3 -> He is super aggressive, won't quit until the enemy is dead. Tinker Joe, located between the RobCo facility and Tenpenny Tower, can give him to you for a sum of 1,000 caps. You need neutral karma to recruit.
Jericho -> A washed up evil old raider. You can find him in Megaton. He's a reliable guy. Good for early game if you decide to be evil. You need to be evil to recruit. He is the best for an evil run.
Dogmeat -> He's okay. Better in melee damage then the other two, and he's a dog. No karma requirement.
Clover -> You have to pay 1000 caps from Paradise Falls slavers, she uses a melee weapon and she dies easly. At least she has melee weapons bonus damage unlike Cross. She is only good for early game but even there you have better options. You need evil karma to buy but afterwards she's all yours.
Star Paladin Cross -> She's decent, not great not terrible. She is a melee weapon character with no melee damage bonus. You also get her late in the game. So if you have no companions get her, otherwise, get something better. You need good karma to recruit.

6. GOOD GUNS AND ARMORS EARLY GAME

We established that you should rush: INT -> LUK -> STR -> CHA -> PER -> AGI -> END bubbleheads at the start of the game. Here is what you should add on your path.

1st INT, Shotgun: After getting the INT bubblehead. Combat Shotgun is not unique but is the second best shotgun in the game. The Double Barrel Shotgun is good too. You can find it early in Rivet City in poor condition on display at Flak 'N Shrapnel's and can be stolen. This weapon is so good it's good for late game. This is a late game weapon early game.

Later in game: The only shotgun better than this is a variant of the Combat Shotgun called The Terrible Shotgun carried by the raider merchant Smiling Jack in Evergreen Mills.

2nd Energy Weapon, LUK, Sniper, STR, Armor: Still in Rivet City. The A3-21 Plasma Rifle is given from the "The Repicated Man" quest in Rivet City and is the second best Energy Weapon in the game. Talk to Dr. Zimmer there. He tasks you to track down an android that has escaped. You will then need to find 3 tapes: 1 from Dr. Preston in Rivert City, 1 from Dr. Church in Megaton, 1 from Nathan's House in Megaon. On the way to Megaton get the LUK bubblehead, the Sniper outside Megaton and in Megaton get the STR bubblehead too and repair the Combat Shotgun at Moira Brown. Then head back to Rivet City, from the plane outside jump in water and on the vis-a-vis part of the boat should be a hallway, fight or speed over some Murlocs and find Pinkerton. Tell him that -> It's in his best interest to just tell you. He will tell you that Harkness is the android. And ask him for the proof and the code that can be used on Harkness.

When you get back to proper Rivet City find Harkness. Tell him that Dr. Zimmer is the one that has been running away. He will give you the A3-21 and permission to kill Dr. Zimmer and his bodyguard. Go to Dr. Zimmer and rat Harkness to him, giving you the VATS increase. Effectively giving you both rewards. As soon as Dr. Zimmer walks away, you can kill him and the bodyguard or not, depending on what ending you want. Both A3-21 and the Sniper are late game.

Later in game: The only Energy Weapon better than this is Metal Blaster by dropping ingots at The Pit. Arguably the best weapon in Fallout 3.

* While outside Megaton, rotate around the walls, you will find a "hallowed out rock" with 3 trees around it, it's a good Sniper Rifle but you will change it quickly for something better. There's also an Assault rifle in Springvale School a bit north of Megaton, it's an okay gun.

* In Megaton, speaking to Moira Brown for the A3-21 will give you the Armored Vault 101 Jumpsuit with 12 protection, is the best one so far until you get the Combat Armor with 32 protection a bit later in this into our tour.

* The best assault rifle in the game is Xuanlong Assault Rifle where you need to go to Museum of Technology and complete a small easter egg: Terminal #001 - 19, Terminal #002 - 53, Terminal #003 - 113. Then go to Jury Street Metro station a little West of Vault 101. It's a bit of detour and if you're there might as well get Lincoln's Repeater from vis-a-vis, but had to be mentioned.

3rd CHA, Energy Pistol: After the CHA bubblehead just a bit up north is at Canterbury Commons, you will find a fight between 2 "superheroes" and Uncle Roe will give you a quest starting "the Superhuman Gambit", here you can get Protectron's Gaze that uses different ammo from A3-21.

In the quest, go to AntAgoniser, either kill her or convince her to give up her ways, and bring her costume back to the Machinist, he will make you the Protectron's Gaze. This is another late game weapon early game. Arguably the best in its category.

4th PER, Rifle: When you reach PER bubblehead at the Republic of Dave you can find Ol' Painless, a primary choice for beginners. Pickpocket Dave's key or get one of the citizens who is not Dave to win an election. This is the strongest .32 weapon in the game. It's very good for a starting early rifle.

Later in game: Ol' Painless is one of the best but not the best. The Backwater Rifle is the second best rifle in the game. But the best is Lincoln's Repeater, you can find it in the Museum of History vis-a-vis of the Museum of Technology.

5th AGI, Melee: After AGI bubblehead drop by the bridge in the middle of the map at Meresti Trainyard. Early game you can find Vampire Edge at the Vampire Cannibals. The Vampire's Edge belongs to Vance, and can be found in a 'sword cabinet' in his room at Meresti Metro station, you can kill him and loot it from him or pickpocket him or pickpocket the cabinet. It's a really good early game weapon.

Later in game: Samurai's Sword and Jingwei's Sword are better but can only be found in the DLCs late game. The Ripper is also very good for melee which you can find in Andale or Fort Independence, as well as the even better unique variant called Jack. But the best melee weapons are the unique auto-axe variants Can Opener and Mauler in that order.

6th Better Sniper & Armor: Going left from the Vampires, on your way to END bubblehead, the Reservist Rifle and standard green Combat Armor is used by the Drifter in Dickerson Tabernacle Chapel, kill him and get it. Once again you have a late game weapon early game.

Reservist Rifle and Victory Rifle are both the best in game but not far away from the regular Sniper Rifle. Victory rifle is inside a very hard locker in the sniper shack overlooking Rockbreaker's Last Gas. You can either have 100 lockpick or Dogmeat can be told to find a weapon in the house and retrieves it from the locker.

And for armor: The standard green Combat Armor is one of the best non-power armors with 32 protection. There is also the Metal Armor with 36 protection but higher weight and -1 AGI. The best non-power armor in the game is Ranger Battle Armor with 39 protection and bonuses but you can only get it late game with Riley's Rangers along with mini-gun Eugene in the Underworld. Close behind but very difficult to break is the Winterized Medic Armor from the Anchorage DLC. And the best power armors are: Winterized T-51B Power Armor that is almost the best in stats but is unbreakable, you can get it at the start of the game by rushing the Anchorage DLC, while the most powerful are regular T-51B Power Armor and Enclave Hellfire Armor but these are very late game. And only for a melee build the Samurai Armor from Mothership Zeta DLC. A lot of things you get from Operation Anchorage are pretty OP and pretty easy to obtain as you can just rush the DLC as soon as you start the game.

7th END, Big Guns: After you took the END bubblehead, advance into the cave by sneaking in the same location, Deathclaw Sanctuary, in a puddle of blood inside the cave. Vengence is the best big gun in the game. Top big weapons are: The Fat Man > The Burnmaster > Eugene > Regular Gatlins Laser > Regular Missle Launcher > Heavy Flamer > Vengence. The Fat Man is objectively the best but you can only use it in open field. There you can also find Jack, one of the best melee guns in the game.

This one is difficult so you may want to skip it.

This is the you get:

INT bubblehead > Combat Shotgun (second best shotgun) > LUK bubblehead > Sniper Rifle (great weapon) > STR bubblehead > A3-21 (second best energy weapon) > CHA bubblehead > Protectron's Gaze (best energy pistol) > PER bubblehead > Ol' Painless (one of the best rifles) > AGI bubblehead > Vampire Edge (one of the best melee weapons) > Reservist Rifle & Combat Armor (best sniper rifle, can sell the regular one now & one of the best armors) > END bubblehead. 6 top guns early game.

Only fights are the Murlocks for A3-21 and Ants for Protectron's Gaze but is 100% worth it. Otherwise all you have to do is move around.

Level 2: Black Widow / Lady Killer -> +10% damage to opposite sex & unlocks unique dialogue with them. Don't get Swift Learner, it sucks. Rest don't give you anything special, I guess Intense Training would be okay as the rest are really meh.
Level 4: Educated; INT 4 -> By far the best at this level, allows you max out your skill even faster, take it as early as possible. Child at Heart is also an interesting second option for roleplay, but it requires CHA 4. Iron Fist is also an alternative, makes unarmed really powerful.
Level 6: Toughness; END 5 -> Gives you 10% damage reduction to everything. A second best would be Bloody Mess with +5% overall damage and no S.P.E.C.I.A.L requirements.
Level 8: Strong Back; STR 5 END 5 -> Gives you +50 extra carry capacity.
Level 10: Finesse -> +5% Critical Hit Chance. Definetly the best, but there are tons of interesting ones here: Animal Friend, Mister Sandman, Mysterious Stranger and Nerd Rage all are good and interesting in their own right.

Level 12: Life Giver ; END 6 -> Extra HP. Cannibal is really interesting for an evil playthrough. Silent Running is a must for sneaky characters. Fast Metabolism is good too.
Level 14: Cyborg ; Medicine 60, Science 60 -> 10% damage resistance and other resistances, one of the best Fallout 3 perks. Adamantium Skeleton is also a good alternative if you don't have the prerequisites.
Level 16: Better Criticals ; PER 6, LUK 6 -> You get +50% critical hit damage in a game where critical hits are very good already. With the initial 5591956 S.P.E.C.I.A.L I recommended you should get PER 6 after the bubbleheads speedrun at the start of the game. One of the best perks in the game. Worst one is Tag!
Level 18: Paralyzing Palm ; Unarmed 70 -> All other are bad at level 18, this one is the one who sucks the least even if you aren't an unarmed character. The broken locks and terminals you can totally avoid by not using all your chances, and 5% VATS accuracy really isn't that much.
Level 20: Explorer or Grim Reaper Sprint -> Explorer is obviously for exploration, helps you a lot to see everything that's out there. But if you insist on combat Grim Reaper Sprint is insane really. You kill someone with VATS then you can spam VATS again.

Level 22: Puppies! -> You can get Dogmeat as a companion and never worry about him dying.
Level 24: All are bad, use one from previous level or if you have S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats under 5 then No Weaknesses is the only good one, but if only CHA is level 1 or 2 then it's not worth it. Plus you already have a Level 30 perk that raises them all to 9.
Level 26: Pretty bad. Nerves of Steel ; AGI 7 or Warmonger ; INT 7-> One makes you slightly stronger, not by much, the other gives you all schematics so you don't have to look for them all.
Level 28: Pretty bad again. [Party Boy/Party Girl[/b] is the better of the two. May as well take some from lower levels at these ones with pretty bad in front of them.
Level 30: Almost Perfect -> Only if you don't want to collect the S.P.E.C.I.A.L bubbleheads at the start of the game, only the guns. Because then with this one + bubbleheads you will get every stat to 10. Otherwise, one from previous levels as Nuclear Anomaly is really situational.

Here are the best guns in Fallout 3:

1. The Metal Blaster -> You can get it from the Pit. A long-range shotgun and that says it all.
2. Terrible Shotgun -> An even stronger variant with more damage to an already top weapon.
3. The Combat Shotgun -> It's a regular weapon but one of the best.
4. Deathclaw Gauntlet -> The best unarmed weapon in the game, better than Power Fists.
6. Vengence -> Can be taken early game with a Stealth Boy to sneak in the Deathclaw Sanctuary.
7. Mauler -> Best melee weapon in the game. Can be found in the Pit.
8. A3-21 Plasma Rifle -> You can rush it early game. Has above-average stats in everything.
9. Lincoln's Repeater -> Best rifle in the game. Deals high damage.
10. Paulson's revolver -> Best pistol in the game.
11. Xuanlong Assault rifle -> Best Assault Rifle in the game.
12. Reservist's rifle -> You can rush it early game. Best sniper with the Victory Rifle.
13. Sydney's 10mm "Ultra" SMG -> Best SMG in the game but also good weapon in its own right.
14. Alien blaster -> Best Alien weapon in the game.
15. Protectron's Gaze -> Best Plasma Pistol in the game.
16. Heavy Incinerator -> From the Broken Steel DLC, best Flamer in the game.
17. Missile Launcher -> Moderate Fat Man and Miss Launcher version, less damage but practical.

That's all folks, enjoy your game with the perfect S.P.E.C.I.A.L, traits, stats, perks character who knows where to find the best weapons & armor, has in mind the best shops and places to loot and knows how to break all the casinos. This was a complete handbook to New Vegas. I imagine the game will be difficult.

Oh, and for the 1% of you that didn't know. You have radio in game just like GTA, with 50s and 60s songs. And 2 radio stations: Mojave Music Radio, and that lesser place called New Vegas Radio. The other frequencies are just quest-related.


Mo...jave? Mo....problems, am I right?

Here's a song by Miracle of Sound:

And a Dan Bull Rap about your S.P.E.C.I.A.L points:

And if you happen to die, truth is, the game was rigged from the start:

Vegas may fall, but there was never a man like Johnny Guitar:

Don't be so blue that the handbook is over, go there and kill some mutants.