In the Fallout games, through most of my playthoughs I find myself shying away from certain game elements such as energy weapons and chems (with the exception of Med-X) or certain paths being repeated for preferred rewards. I was wondering what you guys instinctively head towards or shy away from. I'll use an example of 3 of my most played Fallout games being; Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4.

Fallout 3:
-Using a Chinese spy like melee sneak build.
-Anchorage Chinese Stealth suit with the Jingwei Shock sword.
(I never predetermined the build to be a Chinese Spy, just works best for me)
-Siding with Tenpenny for the suite, ghoul mask isn't worth it I'll explain why and Moira stays alive.
-Typically good karma, and a benefit of that being the ghoulified heart perk with the mod "More Perks".

Fallout NV:
These are probably true to most players but,
-It's hard not to following the Independent Vegas/ Yes Man route.
-Usually idolized by the NCR on all playthroughs and shunned by the legion if not vilified for killing Vulpes Inculta in Nipton.
-I use ballistic firearms, energy weapons are difficult to use in my opinion.
-Meds I take are med-x, occasionally in a tight situation a steady or two and stimpaks, not super stimpaks due to the debuff.
-Light armor and more recently power armor if I take the light step perk and 3 levels from Run Like The Winds thanks again to the mod "More Perks".

Fallout 4:
-In my opinion Fallout 4 is not very challenging, so I use whatever.
-Side with the minutemen.

And for the other four Fallout games I'm still trying to get into them, but anyways I'd like to know what your preferred method of playing is. Sorry if I can't reply I'm gonna be busy for the next upcoming days.

Well...

In Fallout, I generally play with TTW beginning my character in Vault 101. From there I usually become a doctor or a vault guard while in the character creation portion.

When I leave the vault and get going into the main quest, I start playing as a soldier, picking up tricks from the BOS. After Project Purity, my character makes his way to Vegas and is a straight up mercenary. I usually play up both sides in the quest until I can start the Yes Man questline.

Pretty much rinse and repeat

Honestly, in every game where it's possible I will go guns blazing. That means in Fallout using the weapons that pack the most punch to get up in enemies faces.

If I need to get to an area that has enemies in the way I will have no problem taking them on. Character build will also be tailored to suit my play-style.

@Tribal Raven That's a interesting character perspective, I had a character in New Vegas who was a retired old merc settling down with a calm courier job. Then he's thrown back into his old ways of being a reckless gunslinger. I think with TTW it allows you to flesh out your character to a much greater length, only if troubleshooting a modded TTW wasn't a pain in the ass.

@Nukacide So you're an all around kinda guy, using a mix of everything?

@gumgumsauce Yeah basically, I use a mix of strategies and tactics and play mostly on the offensive but will occasionally sneak my way past enemies I know I can't win against.

Fallout 3 I can never really stray away from Merc armors and quest lines (Reilly's Rangers being my favorite) I generally find and kill some Talon Mercs straight away and wear their armor until I complete Reilly's quest (Kind of sad she never reacted to me always wearing their armor) when it comes to Power Armor I never wear any until I finish the Pitt and get Ashur's power armor and just wear sunglasses with it and no helmet.

Aside from a lack of dialogue checks from me wearing Talon armor or Reilly's armor I was pretty pleased with how much you can play a mercenary character in Fallout 3.

When it came to Fallout New Vegas only on my first playthrough did I stick to my old tendencies. But handicapping myself with cowboy weapons and playing through NVB I, II, and III made me constantly play a Cowboy character. Even before NVB came out I use to always go after the bounty hunter at the Wrangler so I could wear his duster. The cowboy style carried over to Fallout 4 even though I don't really like Fallout 4.

What in tarnation:

I never could stick with a melee build though. The furthest I got was on Fallout New Vegas where I was armored up and carrying a katana around.

I actually prefer being a sniper in FNV as its really easy to cash in some crit hits. Right now, I'm gonna try something new with it; play with 1 LCK and see how it goes. They said its a scavenging playthrough...good. I love a challenge.

I am also a sniper, but I have project horizon. It adds crits that can be done outside of vats I believe, just like borderlands. My gear is usually a Semi/bolt action sniper rifle and a automatic weapon like a Smg or handgun. I'm rocking the P90 right now and waiting for the Dravonov SVU.

High tech bounty hunting merc in all games. Unless I'm roleplaying a new build, I'll always be found in power armor wielding energy weapons, killing from afar with sniper rifles. Though I like to be sneaky, too. So I always level my sneak skill and try to always have stealth boys in case things go wrong.

Neutral karma leaning towards good in all games.
In NV, I side with Yes Man. In 3, I side with Dad and Project Purity.

Fallout 3
- Scientist Build (makes sense being raised by your Scientist Dad)
- Good Karma (also makes sense because of your Dad)
- Winterized T51b PA, Vault-Tec Lab Coat and Plasma Rifle w/ Alien Blaster
- Becomes strong, worthy of honour, respected and experienced by the end of the game (being trained by the Brotherhood)
- Defusing the atom bomb in Megaton (Good Karma and canon)
- Siding with Tenpenny (He has the RIGHT to discriminate against ghouls no matter how terrible it is. It's his tower)
- Ending Broken Steel having destroyed The Enclave (makes sense and is canon)
- Siding with Desmond at the end of Point Lookout (Calbert is evil anyways)
- Siding with the Slaves in the Pitt (Slaves being set free)
- Faking Harkness' death to Zimmer, siding with Railroad during The Replicated Man (Good Karma)
- Clean of all drugs not including Stimpaks.

Fallout NV
- Gunslinger build (makes sense being a Courier in the apocalypse)
- Neutral/Good Karma
- Elite Riot Gear and Cowboy Repeater
- Siding with NCR, Mr House or Independence (doesn't really matter)
- Locking Elijah in the vault in Dead Money
- Siding with Josh Graham in Honest Hearts
- Killing all the gang except Dog/God
- Killing pretty much everything in Old World Blues
- Killing Ulysses
- Launching Missiles at Legion pretty much all the chances you have.

Fallout 4
- Scientist Build (Makes sense as your son has your traits)
- X01 Power Armour, Marine armour, Gatling Laser and Plasma Rifle.
- Side with the Institute.
- Never meet the Minutemen (such a boring faction that doesn't make sense with character)
- Institute ending to Far Harbor
- Become Overboss in Nuka World
- Take drugs a lot. Mostly Psycho, Jet and Buffout.
- Live like a king.

Usually I'd go with high speech and gun skills and try to talk my way out of situations. If not, then I can blast them away at ease.

@Dewderson, I can't imagine playing through the NVB series with a cowboy build, someguy2000 quests aren't a walk in the park. The first time I've beaten NVB I played it on a non chem character, level 25, on hard or very hard I don't remember, I'm sure you can imagine how the final fight went down. Reilly's combat armor is like the best armor in the game, but I'm glad the cowboy esque build works for you.

@Njmanga097 and Crash 244, I've never done a sniper build but when it comes to the day I do, I'll do a vats based one, any tips on critical improving gear? Also Crash I believe you're talking about the newly released P90 mod on Fallout 4, how is it?

@frootcakes That's an interesting build, I should try that.

@Corvo, I've done a build like that recently for Fallout 3, damn your Fallout character seems like a Tyrant.

@Constable Canada yeah, high speech is the most prioritized skill to level up in. By the way, that Johnny Sins/Pulse picture had me dying.

@gumgumsauce At this moment I am playing without VATS, although I have high luck. Only time I use VATS is to spot enemies who are hidden or when I know I am about to die so my hp can be buffed. I don't worry about gear since I am using the Chinese Stealth suit and with its upgrades I can sprint faster/jump higher. A very useful mod that can be useful for a sniper. It kind of reminds me of Destiny somewhat.

The P90 is a very great mod and I highly recommend it. The mod has just been updated so I would download it now, but it is a pretty big file. You have a handgun? Replace it with the P90! You can change the calibers from .45 acp to 10mm or .38. Which makes your handgun kind of useless.

Eating every single NPC I can find while hacking them into as many pieces I can.

@Crash244 I have the Chinese suit mod in Fallout 4 aswell but I never used it, I know it's in the sub but I never usually head in that direction anyways. When I get back into Fallout 4 after I exhaust NV for the time being, I'll try the Chinese stealth suit. Also, I just saw that update for the P90 it looks really great especially the Institute Variant, I usually use the USP for my sidearm just because it looks badass but I'll give it a try. Thanks for the heads-up, I didn't know the file would be packing but I'll install it regardless.

@Wertologist Damn, that's a unique playstyle I'm not sure I'd use but good on ya my man.

heh i had a playthrough that i was the son of a enclave remnent, i so tarveled the waste ended up in DC with this crazy scientist guy who mistook me for his own son, i played along till i met the enclave then joined them and took over all the major cities of the DC wasteland. ah good times

Most of my characters have some sort of combat/military experience so I often try to use tactics to get the upper hand on the enemy, It's a nice challenge and pretty bad ass when it works out.

@gumgumsauce My biggest tip if you're going for a sniper is have the traits Built to Destroy and Fast Shot because if you choose Trigger Discipline, the fire rate reduction that it has is much more noticeable than the accuracy reduction with Fast Shot. Also regarding about Built to Destroy, this is essential if you want majority of your shots to be critical ones. To counter the effect of Built To Destroy, you might want to tag repair early on and upgrade it as soon as possible so you can get Jury Rigging fast and then if you want your guns to be a lot more durable, get Raul from Black Mountain.

For the gear, its best you go for light armors because those usually have the perks for critical hits and chances like the perk called Light Touch from Dead Money. You could also add Finesse, Better Criticals, and some others to amplify your crit hits and chances further.

My chosen gear is usually a combination of Ulysses' Duster, First Recon Beret, and Ulysses' Breathing Mask. My main rifle would be the Gobi Campaign Sniper Rifle; its just too good really. For the other weapons? Just go with what you feel I usually take Chance's Knife very early on as its so strong in the first tidbits of the game.

EDIT: You're not gonna need that much perks for a sniper build really. So taking up the perks for increasing accuracy in VATS is pretty alright Also, don't forget about the perks Silent Running, Grim Reaper's Sprint, Center of Mass, Sneering Imperialist, and Fight the Power. BTW, if you're gonna go for a crit build, best to use Energy Weapons too. I know it might seem wacky, but the amount of power those things bring...good lord.

@gumgumsauce I don't ever use the game difficulty setting as it just makes enemies have more health and do more damage while you do the same as before. I installed a lot of mods to make it more difficult, like project nevada and realistic headshots.

To put things in perspective though, I've lost count of how many times I've been shot in the face while frantically trying to reload my single action revolver.

I've always like playing on really difficult settings, I can fight at most ranges as long as I have others to fill in the empty slots, either that or if alone I sneak and snipe and deploy traps