A few new player hints for 3rd season.

[Sideer]

I've decided to help players like me who are new in game and are actually doing something to learn basics on their own.

From zero to hero, how to level up in short.

1. Progenitor (1st) character design (no books at start, no support of any kind from other characters)
Stats: STR 7, PE 4, END 10, CHA 1, INT 6, AGI 10, LK 2
Traits: Fast Shoot, Looner
Tagged skils: Small Guns, First Aid, Outdoorsman

Skill development: 200 Small Guns->125 First Aid->125 Doctor ->170 First Aid ->125 Repair ->200 First Aid ->150 Outdoorsman
Perks: Adrenaline Rush[4]-> Even More Criticals[6]-> Bonus Ranged Damage[9] ->Action Boy[12] -> Action Boy[15] ->Bonus Rate of Fire[18] ->More Ranged Damage[21] ->Medic[24]

[Hint]If for some reason You can't pick desired perk You can delay it for 2 more levels to get sufficient skill points to unlock it.

2. Preparations
1st of all it is imperative to get Multitool and Hatchet. If You didn't get those from starting area You can find Caravan Packer in Hub, take a job from it and earn 250caps by moving 10 crates inside shack near kid named Shren. Do it 2-3 times, move along road (SE) and check NPCs in Shops at the road end for Multitool and Hatchet. Once You get those equip them in both slots. When Multitool is equipped in slot 1 You can scavenge items, with Hatchet in Slot 1 You can chop wood. For now move to Old Town with Multitool active (If You see a Apple Tree on the way pick up all apples from it, do it every time You see apple tree near You). Do some scavenging. Try to get some electronic parts from Broken computer (use science skill on it). Press fix button and turn all junk parts into Brass Knuckles. Turn all electronic parts, alloys and metal parts to NPC named Ferrarius (exp and caps, You have to have specified bulk quantity to turn them in). Exit Old Town and for next 10mins or so try to find all Apple Trees (3 total), and 2 Stills (one in Tent, E part and one in Broken building in W part). Try out to chop some wood (half of the amount of apples You have in inventory). Go to one of the Stills, put all apples and wood inside, use Science skill on it and wait until it stops to do "puff" etc. Pick up Rotgut. Now find Beth in Guns shop, she pays quite nice caps for one bottle. Do not limit Yourself to scavenging only in Old Town, do it in entire Hub and don't forget about making Rotgut from apples and wood. Stay in Hub until You get around 20k caps.

3. Check if You can make a tent. If not You will have to complete a quest for it (look for more info at wiki). Once You can make tents head back to Hub. Buy or make a gun (I recommend combat shotgun, it will be usefull later) along with ammo (50 rounds will be enough). Make 4 tents (brahmin hides can be bought from Claire NPC in Old Town). Exit Hub, place 1 tent as close as possible to Hub. Once done head SW to Boneyard until You see Boneyard Train Station. Buy a ticket and use train to get to San Francisco. Place another tent as close as possible to San Francisco (preferably between train station and city). Use train to get back to Boneyard Train station and NCR Train Station. Head NW from NCR (target grid 27:17, You can see coordinates on word map when You move cursor around it) until You find Broken Hills. Place Your 3rd tent as close as possible to it too. Once done head west until You find New Reno (it will be tricky part, read hint below). Enter it, head NW along the road, take right turn at Shark Club crossroads, at the end there are 2 exit grids, take northern one, look for T-Ray NPC. Talk to him and buy Buggy (15k caps, plus like 1k more for Rotgut engine upgrade). Congratulations for buying Your 1st vehicle...now enter it and move NW again (do not place tent near New Reno yet). Find Den at coords 10:5. Place last tent here- You don't have to leave vehicle in city or random location near it. It will be moved to Your tent after it is created. Enter vehicle and get back to Your tent near Hub, leave vehicle there and move character to Hub square (do not enter it yet). Press little red button to the left from Town/World words. You can choose now Your arrival point in Hub, select Water Merchant District.

Hint: Do not fight at random encounters. Just move ASAP to closest exit grid (just make sure You are moving away from hostile NPCs at the same time too).

4. Leveling up to ~lvl 28
In Water Merchant District look for a short guy named Mere, talk to him and agree to his proposal. Take 3 barrels at once. If You can't move drop some junk on the ground. Exit Water Merchants District, to he left there will be red exit grid, use it. Move to Your Hub tent, drop all unnecessary items inside tents Shelf or Chest. Enter Vehicle go to San Francisco tent, leave vehicle there and deliver one water crate to Lao Chou (follow road, 1st building to the left. Get back to Vehicle and move to Den tent. Deliver 2nd crate to Frankie (owner of the pub The Hole, it has heart sign on it). 3rd delivery goes to Marcus in Broken Hills. Once done get back to Hub for Your reward...and another run. Repeat this process until You get First Aid skill around 180 and repair skill at 125. Use part of the reward money to buy some books of science until You get science at 50. Talk to Mrs. Stapleton in Hub library to get Swift Learner perk. Then slowly buy 10 books "Dean's Electronics" to boost repair skill.

Hint nr 1: Never ever park vehicle in random location or city. It might get stolen. You can get out of forced random encounter easily if You click vehicle ASAP once map loads.
Hint nr 2: At lvl 6 You can get Strong Back (Francis in Broken Hills) and Pack Rat (Dangerous Dan McGrew in Redding) to boost Your carrying capacity permanently.

5. Leveling up to 50 (or more if You are patient).
Preparations: Visit Barter Grounds (grid 19:10), look for NPC named Lonestar Collection Agency, join it (it might require donation of 10k caps, pay it if necessary). Return to Hub, make another tent, buy combat armor and combat helmet. Make sure You have Mr. Fixit Perk (NPC Smitty, Den west side). Buy some shotgun shells too (around 200 for a start). Head to Junktown, place tent near it and enter town. Look for Boyce NPC, learn Gunsmith profession from Boyce. Talk to Junktown Scout Leader NPC- You will find out that he pays for leather armor, leather caps in bulk of 6 each (that gives exp too) and more. On the western side tent there is NPC Scout Captain Lex, talk to him and agree to do bounty quest for killing Vipers gang. Exit town, go to Vipers location and be prepared to see Your hp coming down from 200 to ~120 right on the start. Do not worry about it, use First Aid Skill to heal Yourself (do not move yet), target Vipers with shotgun 1st (those close to each other are priority, You should have APs for 1 burst left for combat shotgun), w8 until timer goes down to 0 and allow melee Vipers to come at You, they will work as a shield vs ranged ones. At the beginning of next round use 2 free movement point to move away from melee Vipers a bit just to have clear line of fire at ranged Vipers. Burst them when there is around 4 secs of the round left. This way at the end of 2nd turn or at the beginning of 3rd one You will be able to use First Aid skill again (usually full hp). When ranged Vipers are down proceed with finishing melee ones (take 1 step away and burst, burst...). When all Vipers are down loot everything except shotguns (I have not found bulk order jobs for those...). Return to Junktown. Repeat. When You are almost overloaded with loot, talk to scout leader, turn in all leather caps and armor for caps and exp. In case You get more ammo than You need just drop it in tents Shelf or Chest.

Some things to remember about:
1. Fix armor/weapon when it is around 70% condition (equip Super Toolkit in Slot 1, then use repair skill on armor and weapon). Super tool kit costs 2k and can be bought from Rondo in NCR.
2. Every 20 bounty hunter missions done= 1 random blueprint (You can get combat armor blueprint that way too).
3. Sometimes You will receive heavy critical, will be knocked down and miss 2 turns, this can be deadly but also can be avoided by taking Stonewall and Quick Recovery perks. Personally I believe it doesn't happen often enough to sacrifice Action Boy Perks (or other ones) to get them.
4. Explorer and Pathfinder perks make You travel faster (so less time is wasted on travel) and in the end lvl up faster too.
5. You can use vehicle as a shield too (this might reduce chances of getting killed in 1st turn drastically), especially at start when Outdoorsman skill is low.
6. If location name has "City" in it there is a chance  to get Fuel Cell controller from it (look for a car without roof and engine cover with visible engine parts).
7. If location name has "Desert Tree" there is VERY high chance of getting Apple Tree in it too (Rotgut is nice shopfood or fuel for Your car with Rotgut engine upgrade).
8. Combat Knife in bulk of 8 can be exchanged for caps and exp at Eirnhart NPC in New Audytum.

P.S. If You know bulk order job for shotguns please post it here too.

[Sideer]

A few words about stats and skills of 1st character:
*Strength 7
It allows to have decent carrying weight when combined with Strong Back and Pack Rat. You can actually run with 3 water barrels and reward You get for previous run. It also adds some point to Your HP pool but it is one time bonus.
*Perception 4
It can be as well set to 1 but when You deal with Vipers You might have trouble finding where are those ranged ones firing from. More than 4 is not necessary since it affects how far Your starting position is from the enemy (more=larger distance, melee Vipers won't reach You in one turn).
*Endurance 10
This is where Your HP poll comes from. It also reduces chances of getting hit by really heavy critical. If You think (like me before I have tried it) that setting endurance at 8 and then raising it with Gain Endurance perk later will allow You to get maxed HP form it You are wrong. HP from endurance are granted once (base Endurance only). You will get bonus to HP from Gain Endurance Perk only for each new level below 25 and after acquiring this perk.
*Charisma 1
Combat character do not really needs it. Loner perk forbids You from having followers too so it is ok to use those points elsewhere.
*Agility 10
It directly affects how many AP You will have at Your disposal. 10 AGI means 10 APs, with 2 extra from Action Boy will allow You to use burst 2 times or 1 time after using First Aid skill.
*Luck 2
It can be 1 too but Bad Luck is still not VERY bad Luck. Which is why I set it on 2 not 1. Higher luck makes You cirt more often and also gives more protection from crits according to Wikipedia but for the purpose of doing many water merchants quest runs and later leveling on Vipers it is not so important.

Small Guns: You can loot shotgun shells from Vipers (they are using regular shotguns), You can also use other weapons but that means buying ammo from shops or making it on Your own. With pyromaniac perk it quite efficient to use Molotov Coctails on Vipers too.
First Aid: it is VERY useful skill especially when at 200 and combined with medic perk (heal bonus, 50% cool down reduction).
Outdoorsman: at lvl 150 You can get Explorer, Scout and Pathfinder perk. It helps to avoid unwanted encounters and get You to Vipers bounty location faster too.

[Sideer]

What to do after leveling is done and before re rolling character.
1. A network of safe houses.
3rd Season removed limit of 10 tents/safe houses per character. Get ranger perk and build safe house near every city or location that looks interesting for You. Use 3 wood on fire in each to give it a name and create map to it's location.

2. Make low lvl character (STR 7, CHA 10, INT 8, END 7, good nature trait, optionally bruiser if You want to max out carrying weight) with tagged barter, outdoorsman and speech skill. Just max out barter, get 150 outdoorsman, 200 speech. You can use him/her/it to sell/buy stuff from NPCs at more favorable prices. Find out how to make faction and build DIY base near HUB, close to location where new characters start. High charisma combined with speech skill will also allow You to store companions on this alt too. Do not allow anyone than You and Your alts to enter this base (read more about it in Wikipedia). It will serve as personal storage house for maps to tent network, and also parking spot for unused vehicles.
Do not forget to put all maps to tent network into chest or on the shelf in this base.

3. Now everything is ready for main character to reroll and shape it to image You want (remember to have 10k caps in inventory after moving all items to temporary storage). I recommend re rolling in DIY base.

Hint: Fallout Reloaded runs in Snadboxie. This way You can have 2 characters logged at the same time and invite newly created character to Your DIY base without the need to look for help of other player.

[Goldfish]

Very nice to see a season 3 newbie tutorial, but unfortunately I think your efforts are wasted here. No one on this dead server to see your helpful info. Maybe it will see use in season 4 (if there is a season 4).

[Abra kadabra]

Very nice to see a season 3 newbie tutorial, but unfortunately I think your efforts are wasted here. No one on this dead server to see your helpful info. Maybe it will see use in season 4 (if there is a season 4).

Noone cares your opinion gimper. 

[Wichura]

1. Progenitor (1st) character design (no books at start, no support of any kind from other characters)
Stats: STR 7, PE 4, END 10, CHA 1, INT 6, AGI 10, LK 2
Traits: Fast Shoot, Looner
Tagged skils: Small Guns, First Aid, Outdoorsman

Skill development: 200 Small Guns->125 First Aid->125 Doctor ->170 First Aid ->125 Repair ->200 First Aid ->150 Outdoorsman
Perks: Adrenaline Rush[4]-> Even More Criticals[6]-> Bonus Ranged Damage[9] ->Action Boy[12] -> Action Boy[15] ->Bonus Rate of Fire[18] ->More Ranged Damage[21] ->Medic[24]

SPECIAL is not a tragedy, but perks are real mess, my friend. Hybrid characters are cool and viable, messy characters are just messy.

I'd go for plain Small Guns burster, no books, no drugs, no implants:

ST 5, PE 6, EN 10, CH 1, IN 5, AG 10, LK 3
Traits: Fast Shot, optional One Hander for P90c/.223 Pistol or Loner for 10% more XP (beware, this means no followers!) or Bonehead for anticritical protection
Tags: Small Guns, First Aid, Outdoorsman
Perks: Adrenaline Rush, Toughness, Even Tougher, Lifegiver, More Ranged Damage (+4 per bullet instead of +3 like with Bonus Ranged Damage), Bonus Rate of Attack, Lifegiver, to choose freely Bonus Ranged Damage or Sharpshooter or Lifegiver

ST 5 is required for Adrenaline Rush perk. CH 1 is mandatory. Seriously, no point of CH at all apart from hauling companions, other than that it's a dump stat.

Don't tag Repair or Science, their limit is 125% and this is easy to get at any given time after reaching decent combat skills.

Don't go for Action Boys, it's a waste of perks. Don't go for criticals perks mixed together with damage perks, it's either one way or another, not both at the same time.

Don't bother with Medic perk and boosting FA with Doc up to 125%. Super stimpaks are affordable and common. Doc 100% is fine enough anyway.

Bonus Rate of Attack requires 180% combat skill (any), More Ranged Damage requires 200%.
Remember right after you start to go to Gun Runners in Boneyard and speak to this guy:

You'll get +10% bonus of selected combat skill (Small Guns in this case obviously).

Support perks the most useful for newcomers:
Pack Rat (from Dangerous Dan in Redding, Strong Back (from Francis in Broken Hills), Ranger (from Tamira in Gordon's Gas Station - requires 100% Outdoorsman), Gecko Skinning (from trappers in Klamath or Hub).

Such type of character is viable for caravan runs, solo some dungeons, craft stuff, trade, do quests and so on.

[THETRUEFORM]

What a huge spam.

Attention whores.

[Sideer]

When I have starting playing it I had to unlearn some habits from Fallout 2. Once it was done I had troubles to find how to make caps and where/how to lvl up (quests, typical mob farms). I agree that STR 7 in not required but it will help with Water Merchant runs. As it goes for crits, 17% extra crit rate when You can hit target 6x in one turn (Fast Shot= random body parts) is quite fun to watch (eye critical, leg critical etc). I kind of enjoyed it:)

12 AP equals to (when applied to combat shotgun or typical pistol with aimed shot, which are easy to get):
1. 1 First Aid + 1 burst per turn**
2. 2 Bursts** per turn
3. usually 6 shoots* from pistol if magazine allows it (good finisher for those Vipers who fall on the ground with -6 hp or so)

**With one handed weapon like 10mm SMG or H&K P90c 2 bursts with FA or 3 bursts.

If You have taken More Criticals and Even More Criticals perks each of those shots above might crit. Unaimed critical has 1.5x to 2.0x dmg bonus. In case of burst 15% extra critical is like 10% extra damage in long term (statisticaly). I have not noticed any effect related to aimed criticals (blindness etc) while bursting so I'm assuming each bullet from Burst counts as unaimed shot even with Fast Shot trait. Now if You use single shots 80% of those are going to be aimed shots with that 15% critical chance extra from Fast Shot trait.

200 First Aid with medic perk= Full HP every 45 secs, no need to use stimpaks.

Build was meant to be as effective as possible for 2 purposes:
*Water Merchant Quest (3 barrels are like 165kg)
*Wiping out Vipers bounty in Junktown ASAP
Once target level is reached build was meant for reroll.

My favorite is using M60 for Vipers combined with .223Pistol (as a finisher for unconscious Vipers). I was actually able to clear bounty with looting in about 1min (1st healing done at 1st turn). Entire cycle of taking bounty, arriving at target (it never happened to me to have it further than 3 squares from Junktown, most of the time it was like 1 square away), clearing Vipers, looting, turning in leather caps/armors took me about 3-4 mins on average while I had about 3-4k exp per run and the only resource I had to replenish were bullets for M60. With shotgun You can actually loot ammo from Vipers, probably more than You need to kill them on average.

P.S. I have no experience on endgame stuff yet... since it is real time and I'm really bad in this mode but I have already thought about a solution (preparations are underway, when they are done I'll proceed to testing phase).

[Wichura]

When I have starting playing it I had to unlearn some habits from Fallout 2. Once it was done I had troubles to find how to make caps and where/how to lvl up (quests, typical mob farms).

Oh yeah, that's common problem with people playing F1/F2 before. Almost no game mechanics here is alike the singleplayer Fallouts, towns are inspired more than copied/pasted and so on. An average player is just another piece of turd rolling across the desert, not Vault Dweller, Saviour of Damned or Last Hope of Humankind. Move along, maggot.

I agree that STR 7 in not required but it will help with Water Merchant runs.

This is just one activity ingame (never heard about it before to be honest) and you sacrifice 2 SPECIAL points?

As it goes for crits, 17% extra crit rate when You can hit target 6x in one turn (Fast Shot= random body parts) is quite fun to watch (eye critical, leg critical etc). I kind of enjoyed it:)

You also need Better Criticals for crits to be really effective. This makes 3 perks (More Crits, Even More Crits, Better Crits) already taken. What about Lifegivers? With 10 EN and no Lifegivers you end up with I think less than 200 HP, which is way too low, especially for new player.

12 AP equals to (when applied to combat shotgun or typical pistol with aimed shot, which are easy to get):
1. 1 First Aid + 2 burst per turn*
2. 3 Bursts* per turn
3. usually 6 shoots* from pistol if magazine allows it (good finisher for those Vipers who fall on the ground with -6 hp or so)

3 bursts per turn are possible only with single-handed weapons like P90 or SMG. Two-handed require 5 AP with Fast Shot and BRoA perk.
Besides there's Jet, giving extra 2 AP for 30 minutes. It also drops the damage resistance. Drugs are bad, mmmmkay?

*If You have taken More Criticals and Even More Criticals perks each of those shots above might crit. Unaimed critical has 1.5x to 2.0x dmg bonus. In case of burst 15% extra critical is like 10% extra damage in long term (statisticaly). I have not noticed any effect related to aimed criticals (blindness etc) while bursting so I'm assuming each bullet from Burst counts as unaimed shot even with Fast Shot trait. Now if You use single shots 80% of those are going to be aimed shots with that 15% critical chance extra from Fast Shot trait.

This is overestimated I'm afraid. I've tested such character for a longer while with 22% crit chance and .223 Pistol. Even if you are lucky, it's still more effective damage-wise to go full blast with bursting them till they die.

200 First Aid with medic perk= Full HP every 45 secs, no need to use stimpaks.

Stimpaks can be applied one by one with no cooldown at all. Plus Medic perk requires First Aid AND Doctor skills to reach 125%.

Build was meant to be as effective as possible for 2 purposes:
*Water Merchant Quest (3 barrels are like 165kg)
*Wiping out Vipers bounty in Junktown ASAP
Once target level is reached build was meant for reroll.

Well yeah, as a reroll dummy it's okay-ish.
This one I've made uses Incinerator to gain XP and stuff quickly:

My favorite is using M60 for Vipers combined with .223Pistol (as a finisher for unconscious Vipers). I was actually able to clear bounty with looting in about 1min (1st healing done at 1st turn). Entire cycle of taking bounty, arriving at target (it never happened to me to have it further than 3 squares from Junktown, most of the time it was like 1 square away), clearing Vipers, looting, turning in leather caps/armors took me about 3-4 mins on average while I had about 3-4k exp per run and the only resource I had to replenish were bullets for M60. With shotgun You can actually loot ammo from Vipers, probably more than You need to kill them on average.

P.S. I have no experience on endgame stuff yet... since it is real time and I'm really bad in this mode but I have already thought about a solution (preparations are underway, when they are done I'll proceed to testing phase).

By Vipers you mean that Vipers recruit camp? Or Abandoned Gas Station with like 15+ yahoos wearing metal armors?

[Mad Matt]

2 x Action Boy is not a waste of perks. Trust me, it gives you two additional action points without any cons.

[Sideer]

"By Vipers you mean that Vipers recruit camp? Or Abandoned Gas Station with like 15+ yahoos wearing metal armors?"

No.  Scout Captain Lex in Junktown gives bounty for those. They are all wearing leather armor (so like no armor at all). Mission spawns very close to Junktown (in opposition to rats, which can be like 10 squares away). Number of Vipers varies per mission (but one yields 280 base exp plus bonus from loner and swift learner perk, which is where INT 6 is helpful) and can be between 4 to 10 (melee ones are using Combat Knife, ranged Regular shotgun). Travel time by foot is really short. Mission counts as bulk order job for bounties (so 20=random blueprint). Nearly all drops except shotguns are turnable for bulk order jobs too (combat knife, leather armor, leather cap, extra caps and xp).
With high perception You can fire 1st but also melee Vipers might not be able to close to You and work as live shield.

"Quote from: Sideer on Today at 11:45:33 am

    I agree that STR 7 in not required but it will help with Water Merchant runs.

This is just one activity ingame (never heard about it before to be honest) and you sacrifice 2 SPECIAL points? "

Yes, delivery of 3 barrels takes time. One barrel delivery grants 1200 exp. Completing mission grants 3k exp which sums up to awesome (especially for new player 1st character) 6600 exp per like 10 mins of work. Those are base values modified by bonus from Loner trait and Swift Learner perk (20% extra total).

After reading replies I have noticed some errors in my guide. Thank You.