Fallout 4: What are the best starting stats?

Your starting stats in Fallout 4 go a long way toward defining what your build will be like. Like all other Fallout games, this title lets you tune your own SPECIAL loadout at the start by allocating points towards preferred attributes. It's important to select the right Fallout 4 starting stat spread, as you cannot reallocate these later on.

With seven different options to pick from, it can be quite daunting to determine which way to go. This article will provide the best starting stats in Fallout 4.

Note: The 'best' starting stats may vary depending on your build plan - as such, this article has some degree of subjectivity.

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Fallout 4 SPECIAL stats explained

You start with 28 total stat points in Fallout 4 (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

All Fallout games have you start with a flat amount of points to put into seven different stats, which are simplified into the acronym "SPECIAL." To identify the best-starting stats in Fallout 4, we need to go over each individual stat first.

Here's what each SPECIAL option in this title does:

• Strength: Each point in Strength gives 10% extra Melee Damage and 10 units of Carry Weight (starting from the base 200).
• Perception: Increases accuracy in VATS, making ranged attacks more likely to hit.
• Endurance: Each point in Endurance increases base HP at level 1 by 5. Additionally, the HP you gain on each level-up is half of your Endurance value (rounded down).
• Charisma: Increases the likelihood of success in Persuasion checks and makes selling and buying things more profitable. If you like to build settlements in Fallout 4, high Charisma naturally facilitates this by increasing the maximum settlement size.
• Intelligence: Makes Hacking easier by giving you more attempts on a Terminal. Additionally, each point in the Intelligence stat increases your experience gain by 3%.
• Agility: Each point in Agility grants 10 points of extra starting AP and, by extension, also increases AP gain. It also makes you more likely to succeed in Pickpocket checks, and makes you stealthier while sneaking.
• Luck: Makes the Critical Hit Meter build up faster.

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What are the best starting stats in Fallout 4?

The You're SPECIAL book can give you one extra point in any stat of your choice (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

If we had to point out the universally "best" starting stats you cannot ignore in Fallout 4, it would be Endurance and Agility, as well as Perception if you like relying on VATS. The other attributes are not bad per se, and the disadvantages you get from treating them as dump stats are either insignificant or have workarounds that help mitigate them.

Fallout 4 allows for a great deal of build variety, meaning the best starting stats for you will vary from one playthrough to another. Moreover, your SPECIAL stats are also a big part of role-playing as a specific character — this is, after all, a role-playing game. In this Fallout 4 starting stats guide, we will overlook this subjective aspect.

If you want to purely focus on being the best at combat, SPECIAL stats can be optimized according to your preferred combat style.

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Best starting stats for melee characters in Fallout 4

High Strength unarmed builds make for fun playthroughs (Image via Nexusmods)

If you want to play as a Melee-only character, pumping Strength is a no-brainer. Here are the best starting stats for a melee playthrough in Fallout 4:

• Strength 8
• Perception 1
• Endurance 7
• Charisma 3
• Intelligence 1
• Agility 5
• Luck 4

If you want to take the Blitz perk, you should put nine points into Agility and five into Endurance instead.

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Best starting stats for easy gunplay in Fallout 4

Sometimes, the starting stat build is all about what perks you want (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

There are a lot of options you can go for here since gunplay takes many forms. You can put a lot of points into Agility to play a glass-cannon stealthy sniper build, or put points into Luck to lean into Critical Hits.

However, one of the easiest ranged builds is to make use of Power Armor as much as you can. For this, you should pump points into Intelligence to get the Nuclear Physicist perk right out of the gate, which makes Fusion Cores for Power Armors last much longer. High Intelligence has the added benefit of faster level-ups, leading to more SPECIAL stats to allocate earlier than usual.

Here are the stats you should use for gunplay:

• Strength 2
• Perception 4
• Endurance 3
• Charisma 2
• Intelligence 9
• Agility 4
• Luck 4

Overall, this build idea makes for one of the easiest builds to get into for beginners in Fallout 4.

The best starting stats shown here are fit for two common Fallout 4 build ideas, and your personal preference should ultimately take precedence over these suggestions.

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Check out our other guides on this game:

Fallout 4 vs Fallout 76 || Is Fallout 4 on Game Pass? || Should you try Fallout 4 on Steam Deck? || How to use Bobby Pins