Carl's Fallout 4 Guide
for PC, Xbox One, and PS4

I'm writing a Guide to Nuka World, piece by piece. Here are the newest/most popular pages:
See a full list of guides on the Nuka World page. I've written over a dozen in just a week and plan to continue. There is much more to this DLC, it will just take time to write it all. Check back for more. Comment on the appropriate page if you have a tip to share with other readers.

Fallout 4 Melee Build

Great Perks and Tips for Playing with Melee Weapons

Melee builds are viable even on upper difficulties in Fallout 4, particularly when you invest in the right perks. This guide to a melee build will highlight some of the best perks you can take to enhance your character's damage potential, durability, and make them viable. First we'll look at SPECIAL point priorities then get into the individual perks you should consider and why they're worth a few points.

SPECIAL Stat Priority Order



Most Important Perks for a Melee Build

These are not necessarily in the order you should get them, but are somewhat ranked by the power potential they provide. If you for example went all strength to get Rooted, you'd be shorting yourself on some other perks for a time. Making your build a bit balanced and gradually getting all the perks is part of the fun. Use your best judgment and do what feels right based on your character's current needs.

The Big Leagues perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Big Leagues (STR 2)
Obviously this is the most important perk here, and you should take it every time it's available for another point. It can get upgrades at 7, 15, 27 and 42. This will help you outpace your enemies in damage so that you can go toe to toe with deathclaws and smash gunners before they can harm you.


The Blitz perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Blitz (AGI 9)
Blitz lets you initiate VATS from greater distances with its first rank. With the second, it'll let you get the jump on opponents from a rather large area while also increasing the amount of damage you do based upon the distance. It's possible to teleport between enemies with this perk and quickly clear a room if you've got the AP for the job.


The Rooted perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Rooted (STR 9)
This is an amazing perk for a melee build. Every time you stop, rooted instantly kicks in and provides you with +50 damage resistance (at rank 2) and +50% Melee damage. The third rank isn't worth it, but the first 2 are incredible. This does work with VATS, even if you're moving. As soon as you stop, and you're considered stopped. Far, far better? It works with blitz even when you initiate melee from longer ranges and stacks with its damage, so you're doing well over double damage from long range.


The Blacksmith perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Blacksmith (STR 4)
Lets you upgrade your melee weapons freely, although you can always take parts off other weapons of the same type and replace them with standard variants. This synergizes with big leagues, as it gives you larger bonuses when you upgrade a piece of gear and have the melee perk.


The Armorer perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Armorer (STR 3)
You'll want to survive battles, and this helps you do so. It's a no brainer to take some ranks in this, particularly if you won't use power armor. It's especially helpful if you want to sneak around in light armor to make your ninja stealth attacks more effective. You can nearly triple the DR/ER of a piece of armor when it's fully upgraded and may even increase your AP or carry weight.


The Lone Wanderer perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Lone Wanderer (CHA 3)
This will help you get a start. There's a reason I put this on the list and not Inspirational, and that's due to the heavy CHA investment that Perk requires. Use this with Dogmeat and you'll get reduced damage taken, increased damage dealt and more carry weight. If you have Nuka World you can get +25AP from a fourth rank, which may give you an extra VATS activation. If you do prefer having a companion, someone ranged would indeed be helpful. However if you follow this build you may be so OP that it won't matter. You don't need Inspirational to go after perks. Skip Attack Dog until later if you go with Dogmeat.




The Ninja perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Ninja (AGI 7)
Deal up to 10x damage with sneak attacks. This is more important than crits for initiating, though crits are better when in a big battle. Sneaking up on enemies is hard, right? No. Not with Blitz, which will raise your initiation range. So you can sneak attack quite far away and deal huge damage to enemies, based on blitz, rooted, ninja, and big leagues all stacking. One shot the toughest enemy within range with this perk.


The Sneak perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Sneak (AGI 3)
This makes utilizing Ninja just a bit easier, though it's probably not going to be super high on your priority list for a melee character. Naturally enemies will detect your movement and sometimes you may want to get at someone who is a little further away for your big 10x damage sneak attack. This can help achieve that.


The Idiot Savant perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Idiot Savant (LCK 5)
This is just here to help you level, since you do not have need for heavy investment into INT until much later when you may want the Science! Perk or any other. Idiot Savant increases total XP gains regardless of how much INT you have, and in fact works even better when you have both.


The  perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Better Criticals (LCK 6)
Each rank increases critical damage by 50%. Since you are using Blitz, you're going to be raising the critical meter. May as well make us of it. No, sadly, you won't do some crazy 20x damage when combined with ninja - sneak attacks are added to critical hit damage, not multiplied.


The Critical Banker perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Critical Banker (LCK 7)
Storing Critical Hits for when you really need them is something that is highly useful strategically, particularly in big battles. It also lets your meter overflow so that no crit meter gains are wasted (like when you're just a fraction of a bar away from full). What is more, you may sometimes get a free critical hit when you store one with this Perk!


The Grim reaper's sprint perk for melee builds in Fallout 4Grim Reaper's Sprint (LCK 8)
Gives you a chance to refill AP any time you score a kill in VATS, so you can sometimes use blitz straight away after a ninja kill and queue up more attacks. It's an incredible addition to your arsenal. With rank 3, you will see this happen roughly every 3 kills and will additionally get a refill of your critical meter!


Other Perk Recommendations

Aside from the obvious, such as hacker, strong back, and locksmith, you may also find great use out of other perks:

More Fallout 4 Guides

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Far Harbor DLC Guides

See my Far Harbor Guide for new features in the DLC. There, you can also watch the trailer and view new weapons that can be found. The area is massive, so we can expect plenty of quests and exploration in a foggy, rugged area with new and challenging creatures to battle.

Pleae note there are different endings for this DLC, something we all wanted! It's like the actual end-game of FO4 in that you can choose the outcome.

Walkthroughs
Islander's Almanac Magazine Locations
Far From Home: Quest 1
Walk in the Park: Quest 2
Where you Belong: Quest 3
Best Left Forgotten: Quest 4
Ware's Brew Quest New
The Striker New

Automatron Guides & Walkthrough

The final quest Restoring Order (Mechanist Fight/Options) is now available. I've also released a page that describes Getting Started in Automatron to accompany the main page about the DLC. This covers how to make the Robot Workbench to begin making your own Automatrons, and walks you through the first two quests while providing some tips for fighting the Mechanist's creations. Quest 3 Walkthrough: Headhunting is also live on the site.

Robots in Automatron New
Mechanist's Lair, Eyebots, and Rogue Robots covers what happens after the Mechanist story is complete.

Perks & Bobbleheads

Now that I've written about all Perks in Fallout 4, I've put them all in a list, with how they work, what you can expect, and my own opinions on them. Hope this is handy! I've also compiled map shots of all Bobblehead Locations in the game. You can choose to explore the locations on your own or read descriptions for those I've taken notes about.

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