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« on: August 25, 2024, 01:14:21 am »
If you're very new here and about to join us in beginning a brand new season (August 31st), welcome. Before you jump in with no direction, grab your first gun and try to kill stuff at level 1, consider the following: at low levels your gun skill is so bad, you will often miss your targets, suffer critical fails and even lose weapons (guns explode!), so you might want to level up a few times first, boost your gun skill, and then go out shooting stuff. Gathering renewable resources in Hub is popular, like fibers, cow poo, wood, eparts, and items in desks and bookshelves. But that does not work so well when a new season first starts, because everyone is trying to do that at the same time, so the usual resource nodes are depleted. Even Junktown mine might be too popular.
Some Startup Guides won't work 100% either, because they were written for mid-season new players, not for starting in a new season.
Most veteran players have their own ways to get started quickly, but new guys will usually lag way behind. So here are some sources of easy XP that new players can use to get a decent start, listed in route format:
Exit the cave by choosing to "head out into the wasteland", and talk with the Startled Caravan Driver. Via all dialogue option 1, get the two quests from him and press P twice to verify you have these in your Pip-Boy: Into the Great Wide Open, and Far Go Scout. It is recommended to switch to Real-Time mode for now, so you can quickly exit forced encounters, to stay alive more easily until you get more Hit Points. So use your Enter key to open the chat bar and type: ~combatmode rt to get into Real-Time mode.
Then go to Hub and enter the main entrance. Talk to Joe Kelly, policeman in the street nearby, and ask him about Custos. You just got 150 XP just for entering Hub, and 200 more XP for talking to Joe. Too easy. Do the job near the entrance to move caravan boxes for 250 Caps and 300 more XP. You might have 650 XP so far and you hardly did anything.
Done with that, exit Hub and re-enter (use Town/World button on map) via Old Town. Ask Jacob about Gun Runners, and choose dialogue option, "Sure, wanted to visit Gun Runners anyway". Ask him where to find Gun Runners, and he will highlight the location on your world map so you know exactly where you're going. Then, run down near an NCR poster, and find the "Sad Wife" inside. Get a job to find her missing husband (Find Joseph). Just outside the Tannery entrance, speak with the "Sad Little Girl" about her missing papa. Exit Old Town and stop in the Far Go Traders to deliver that message from the Startled Caravan Driver (you met when you started) to Mitch (complete Far Go Scout, +400 XP +120 Caps).
Congrats, you just hit Level 2, but DO NOT boost any combat skill yet. If you wait, you will get a free boost to gun skill, then invest your Skill Points. Save 'em for now.
Ask Mitch about work too, to get the Hello City quest. Then run into the Maltese Falcon bar and talk with the "Drunk" at the end of bar, and choose Gamma Gulp Beer, an item you'll need a little later, +100 XP. Order some bar food from the bartender, +1200 XP! Now go back to Old Town and tell that little girl the good news that you found her papa, +700 XP.
Congrats, @3050XP you just hit Level 3. Keep saving your Skill Points - we'll get that free boost soon. Choose your 1st perk: Adrenaline Rush is a good one for anyone who just wants to be tougher. If you must invest Skill Points (because your INtelligence is so high) to avoid risk of losing some (anything over 100 is lost), then choose a non-combat skill like Outdoorsman or Doctor or First Aid for now. We still want that free combat boost, soon.
Go introduce yourself to Beth in the Gun Store (+100 XP) and Mitch in the General Store (+125 XP), and run out west to the clinic and talk with Doctor Burhnefletch to advance the Into the Great Wide Open quest (+75 XP). Speak with the doctor a 2nd time to get the The Anguished Man quest: dialogue options 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 etc, +1000 XP.
Run north from the clinic and enter the Post Office, talk with a Hubber, +1000 XP +7 Hub Reputation. Enter Hub Heights, mention Doctor Burhnefletch to the "Hubber" in black leather standing in a pool of blood in the street, +1000 XP +7 Hub Rep.
Congrats, you just hit Level 4. If you must invest Skill Points (because your INtelligence is so high) to avoid risk of losing some (anything over 100 is lost), then choose a non-combat skill like Outdoorsman or First Aid or Doctor for now. We still want that free boost, soon.
Find the other two Hubbers, one in Old Town in the L-shaped bldg (+1000 XP), and one in the Water Merchants area in the church (+1000 XP). Return to Doctor Burhnefletch to complete The Anguished Man, +1000 XP. Now run up the main street in Hub to a building on the right just north of the fiber fields. Talk to the Sad Dog Owner inside to tell you about Hub. Then speak with him again to give him some RadAway for his dog, +500 XP. Now run up into the church and talk to the priest to complete Into the Great Wide Open, +500 XP.
Exit town and head straight north 4 Zones to Junktown. Just outside their south main gate, go into the west tent to speak with Scout Captain Lex about his report for Far Go Traders. Exit town and head south of Hub to Gunrunners in the Boneyard. Let's get that free boost you been waitin' for! Exit quickly from all forced encounters. +135 XP for entering Gunrunners. Talk with Marshal inside and tell him you want training with Small Guns (or choose your favorite combat skill), +10 to combat skill of your choice.
Now invest some Skill Points in your favorite combat skill. At 150 or so, your combat skill should be reasonable for hunting wild critters in the desert, but it is advised to get Level 6 first so you can get both Carry Weight perks.
Speak with Marshal again to progress on The Gun Runner Delivery deal with Jacob, "I'm coming from Jacob...". Choose dialogue options, "Jacob needs more ammo..." and "It's doubtful that it would hurt..." and "With Jacob as connection in the Hub...". If you do not see this last option, cancel dialogue (use ESC key) and try again - it might take over a dozen tries - results are apparently random.
Head farther south from Gun Runners to New Adytum and speak with the guard in combat armor, Dyer Greenberg twice: once about his report for Far Go Traders, and again to get the Salvagers' location. Exit New Adytum and go to Salvagers which is now marked nearby on your map. Speak with the bald guard about finding Joseph (+500 XP), and get do another job moving boxes (+300 XP and some Caps).
Congrats, you just hit Level 5.
Exit Salvagers, and go to the Library just north to speak with Nicole about her report for Far Go Traders. Return to Hub, enter Old Town, and talk with Jacob to complete his quest (+500 XP + a blueprint), and talk with the Sad Wife to give her closure about her husband (+750 XP). Exit Old Town and return to Far Go Traders, talk with Mitch there to give him the reports (+1000 XP +1000 Caps). You might have 13,035 XP by now.
Talk with the traveling merchant in Hub Market south near the iguana vendor, and get the Gecko Skinning perk. Pay him for access to the gecko hunting grounds. Take whatever weapon/ammo you managed to acquire that works for you, and go there (east of Hub). Let's get a Combat Shotgun! Drink a Beer if you have any. You can use molotovs if you have any, to kill the geckos, get their pelts, but avoid the fire gecko - fire does not hurt him. From a distance, find the Star Trek "red shirt" guy near a fire gecko in the south, and get ready for a quick approach and stop in the correct hex where a Combat Shotgun lies hidden on the ground. There on the ground near the red shirt guy, obscured by a tree so you can't see it, is a Combat Shotgun - find that for sure! You might have to zoom in to find the red-shirt. Use your Z key and mouse wheel for this - grab that gun, reload, and kill that fire gecko asap (assuming you have any 12g ammo). Leave the Meat behind - it is too heavy. Circling that green pond in the middle, there are 6 piles of various ammo, and make sure you find the gun - it's a 10mm SMG. Get all loot and kill all geckos, + maybe 1800 more XP!
On the way back to Hub, stop at that little dot on the map, marked as "Lonely tent in the wasteland" - it's a tent with a farming family. At their camp, avoid Hasso outside, but inside the tent offer to help Evelyn, then exit to map again. Now find their farm and kill all the rats there. Report back to Evelyn and let her know the good news: the rats are dead and they can go back to their farm. As Evelyn and her family disappear, they leave some items behind for you to keep, including their Folded Tent! Then you meet Cira and you talk with her to start the "main quest", Blood-Soaked Heroes, but something traumatic happens, +1000 XP. Set up that tent near Hub if you don't have one yet.
Congrats when you hit Level 6. Now you can visit Broken Hills and Redding to get the two Carry Weight perks.
At this point, you should have sufficient combat skill to go hunting some weaker wild creatures randomly in the desert. But if you want more levels, more combat skill, and more Hit Points first, a popular option is to run water for Mere in the Water Merchants district. It's much easier to use a car for that, and your first car might be a Buggy, which will cost 15,000 Caps. You likely don't have that much yet, but it's not hard to get.
Some easier hunting can be found in "Rat Valley", which is that dark area on the map northwest between Junktown and New Reno. Joe Kelly's rat exterminator jobs are also good sources of decent early XP, and the timer is short.
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