Best Build - New Vegas

Strength at 8 total is enough to comfortably carry heavy gear, meet the requirements of most heavy weapons, and remain effective in melee combat. It provides solid carry weight, increases melee damage, and prevents accuracy penalties when using high-strength firearms like the Anti-Materiel Rifle or Minigun, without wasting points that can be covered by perks or temporary buffs. Perception is not essential for this build beyond meeting perk requirements. Raising it to 6 with the implant is important mainly to unlock perks such as Better Criticals, while also slightly improving enemy detection and VATS accuracy. Any value higher than this provides diminishing returns and is unnecessary for a non-VATS-focused build. Endurance is extremely important because it determines how many implants you can buy at the New Vegas Medical Clinic. With Endurance 10 after the implant, you can obtain all useful implants (skipping Charisma), including Sub-Dermal Armor and health regeneration, while also gaining more health per level, making this the backbone of the build’s survivability. Charisma is intentionally kept at 1 because it offers very little mechanical benefit in combat-focused builds. Speech and Barter can easily be raised to 100 through skill points, magazines, and perks, while companion effectiveness remains strong regardless of Charisma, making this stat a safe dump with no real drawbacks. With Intelligence at 7 total, the build gains enough skill points per level to comfortably reach 100 in all important skills, especially when combined with the Skilled trait and skill magazines. Higher Intelligence provides minimal additional value and is not worth sacrificing more impactful SPECIAL stats. Agility directly improves Action Points, reload speed, weapon draw speed, and Sneak effectiveness. At 7 total, it provides a strong balance between VATS efficiency and real-time combat performance, while also meeting the requirements for several key perks without committing to a full VATS playstyle. Luck at 7 offers a solid critical hit chance, reliable gambling success, and strong synergy with critical focused perks. This value is more than sufficient for consistent damage output, and it can later be increased to 8 at the end of Lonesome Road by disabling the missiles, making it the optimal late-game stat upgrade.

Skilled grants a permanent +5 bonus to all skills at the cost of slightly reduced experience gain, which has very little impact on overall progression. The skill boost is extremely valuable early on and makes it easy to reach 100 in all important skills, even with moderate Intelligence, especially when combined with DLC exploits.

Wild Wasteland adds unique encounters and items without affecting gameplay balance, making it a fun and risk-free choice. Built to Destroy increases critical hit chance at the cost of faster weapon degradation, which is easily offset with Repair and Jury Rigging. Small Frame provides +1 Agility for better AP and combat flow, while its limb damage penalty is minor and easy to manage.

This build aims to be an all-around setup, focusing on firearms, melee combat, energy weapons, explosives, and health. Feel free to take the perks at any level you prefer; this list is only a recommended order. (You can also change any perk you don't like)

Level 2 Light Touch
Increases critical hit chance while wearing light armor, promoting mobility and early crit scaling.

Level 4 Rad Child
Grants passive health regeneration while irradiated, providing strong early-game survivability.

Level 6 Toughness (1)
Adds Damage Threshold, improving defense as combat difficulty increases.

Level 8 Toughness (2)
Further increases Damage Threshold, making the build noticeably tankier.

Level 10 Grunt
Boosts damage with many military firearms and some melee weapons.

Level 12 Cowboy
Increases damage with revolvers, lever-action rifles, and certain melee weapons.

Level 14 Finesse
Raises critical hit chance, synergizing well with Luck and light armor.

Level 16 Better Criticals
Critical hits deal significantly more damage, greatly increasing overall DPS.

Level 18 Super Slam!
Melee attacks can knock enemies down, enabling control and stunlock.

Level 20 Them’s Good Eatin’
Enemies may drop healing items on death, providing sustain and extra caps.

Level 22 And Stay Back!
Shotgun attacks have a chance to knock enemies down, offering excellent crowd control.

Level 24 Shotgun Surgeon
Shotguns ignore a large portion of enemy armor, making them effective against tough targets.

Level 26 Demolition Expert (1)
Increases explosive damage.

Level 28 Demolition Expert (2)
Further increases explosive damage.

Level 30 Demolition Expert (3)
Maximizes explosive damage output.

Level 32 Laser Commander
Boosts damage and critical chance with laser weapons.

Level 34 Meltdown
Energy weapon kills may cause enemies to explode, damaging nearby foes.

Level 36 Chemist
Doubles the duration of chems, enhancing combat buffs.

Level 38 Implant GRX (1)
Provides a short bullet-time effect for tactical control.

Level 40 Implant GRX (2)
Adds an additional bullet-time charge.

Level 42 Hit the Deck
Reduces damage taken from explosions.

Level 44 Piercing Strike
Melee attacks ignore most enemy armor.

Level 46 Jury Rigging
Allows repairing equipment with similar items, massively improving economy and gear upkeep.

Level 48 Slayer
Greatly increases melee attack speed, massively boosting DPS.

Level 50 Karma End Game Perks
Feel free to choose.