After distributing your stats, you need to select three primary skills to receive a one-time fifteen-point boost to each. We recommend "Speechcraft," "Barter," and "Weapons" (or "Energy Weapons") to compensate for their low starting values.
The key skills in the game are bartering and eloquence. A good gab means saving time and money, the opportunity to receive new quests, avoiding unnecessary battles, or simply maintaining a good reputation with NPCs. Furthermore, without these skills, it is impossible to complete some quests, such as "Paying the Bills" and "You Can Rely on Me." Early on, you should raise at least one of these skills to 50, and by mid-game, keep both at 75. It's not necessary to raise them to 100 if you have items in your inventory that increase the skill or journals that temporarily boost it, but it's better to do so to avoid some battles in the endgame.
The second most important combat skills are weapons, unarmed weapons, melee weapons, explosives, and energy weapons. There's no point in learning them all; it's enough to invest points in just one or two, depending on your preferences. Medicine and survival play an important role. The higher the value, the more effectively you use medications (stimulants, RadAway, etc.) and the more health you restore with food. In Hardcore mode, you'll be injured and bitten more often.
The success of some quests depends on a high level of Medicine. For example, Joanna from "Gomorrah" will only discuss her problem (and give the quest) with an experienced doctor, and healer skills can also facilitate one of the main quests for Caesar's Legion. Survival affects what dishes (and how effective they are) we can cook over campfires in camps.
Science and hacking are next in demand. The sooner we start investing in them, the fewer secrets will remain undiscovered. While they may seem unhelpful at first, by the mid-game, locked doors and password-protected terminals will become commonplace, especially when exploring secret vaults and research facilities.
Science can make some quests easier to solve, for example, by suggesting the correct recipe for an invention to a companion. These two skills should be developed intensively when reaching levels 13-15, as this is when the hero will begin encountering many moderate-difficulty castles. At the beginning, journals can be used, as there's plenty of scientific literature scattered throughout the Mojave.
A less important, but still useful, skill is Repair. It determines how long we can carry equipment and fire weapons before everything becomes useless junk. But Repair is primarily needed to solve storyline quests, such as blocking a secret door, fixing an elevator, and repairing an EDE robot without using parts. I recommend leveling Repair to at least 50 in the early stages; it's not relevant, and is only needed when we get our hands on unique weapons and powerful armor, to keep them in good condition for as long as possible.
Perhaps the most useless skill in the game is stealth. It determines how successfully we steal from neutral and friendly NPCs. Considering that the developers don't indulge us with stealth missions for collecting souvenirs, and stealing negatively impacts karma, is it worth it?
Tips for the game: (Character) (Skills) (Perks) (Achievements) (Books) (Souvenirs)
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