20 Helpful Gameplay Tips, Hints & Tricks - Fallout 1 

What kind of tricks did you learn in Fallout 1? If you haven't tried it already, come hang out on the official Discord: discord.gg/y54Wvkq.

My biggest tip for fallout 1 and 2: Actions have consequences. It is entirely possible, and sometimes extremely easy, to make people mad at you, or make them refuse to talk to you. This can lock you out of a large number of things. In Fallout 1 for example, the guard outside of the Brotherhood of Steel. Make him mad and that's it, no brotherhood of steel for you, ever. in 2, just make a brand new save file before you talk to Lynette.

Also note that Luck is very, very important in these games, unlike other titles. Do not set your Luck to less than 4 if you're new since it will cause a high amount of critical failures, and if you set it to a high level (around 9 or 10), you will be able to lockpick and repair things you normally wouldn't be able to at your level of skill with enough repeated attempts. (Also, later on, if you get to the level where you can use Sniper, 10 luck guarantees that you will always critically hit.) Never underestimate the power of luck.

here's another tip have okay luck, 50+ in the gambling skill, and, say, over 2000 caps - hit the roulette tables, just hold down 1 and 4 at the same time, and wait until you've earned 150k caps not an exploit, by the way

I remember when I first played Fallout 1 it was such a pain in the ass, but after 4 hours I finally understood it.

Fallout 1 and 2 appealed to my imagination in such an amazing way. It didn't rely on flashy graphics to tell a story, it just told a damn good story through on-screen text and let our brains do the rest. Oh, and I'm not blinded by nostalgia, I only first played it a couple of months ago.

From what im getting from all these comments is, you have to be the perfect human specimen, be lucky, be charismatic, dont be an ass, have a lot of guns, etc

You forgot to mention that the skill exploit goes in reverse when you learn from books. The less points you have in a skill, the more points a book will provide, so setting the Game Difficulty to hard when reading will get you more skill points from a book. Raise all of your skills to 91% on Hard, then switch it back to normal and they'll all be 101%.

Wow. 1997. Dot-Com companies, Daria, Frosted Tips... and the first Fallout.

Tip 21: always choose bloody mess

Man, that shopkeeper's inventory one explains a lot. I always thought people had the same shitty inventory full of the loot that I sold, but this has opened my eyes. Thanks a lot man, this will make selling my junk a lot more pleasant.

Thanks man, fallout isn't as easy as the rest of em' 👍

Gambling is so underrated. Makes money a trivial thing if you use it with a high enough luck. Caps for days!

Followed this guide and I can guarantee you that it works, I only die 5 times every minute now!

be sure to invest in energy weapons halfway so you have solid firepower in the endgame

New tip, never give companions (especially Ian) any burst weapons since they sometimes damage you by accident during their turns.

Fallout 1 to me was the creepiest of any that I've played. It made you have to visualize a lot of the game. Nowadays it's just shoot and scoot.

A Note on #9. Your Pip-Boy alarm has the option to Rest Until Healed which can take several in game days depending on how injured you are. Resting will also allow injured party members to regain health as well. As a way to save time, and get a bit of XP I suggest using the First Aid and Doctor Skills in conjunction with resting. If you are not crippled then using the Doctor skill on yourself (or an uncrippled companion) can heal for more HP than the First Aid Skill. Both First Aid and Doctor can be used successfully 3 times in a 24 hour period and each success gets you 25 XP and 50XP respectively. Basically you keep using Doctor until 3 successes, after which it tells you that you're too tired to keep using the skill, then use First Aid until three successes and then rest until the use counter resets. The reset is 24 hours after your last successful use, so if you follow these steps you don't need to rest 24 hours after maxing out your First Aid attempts but rather only rest long enough so that its 24 hours after your last Doctor success. Another tip on Inventory Management. Accessing your inventory during combat uses AP, however you can perform as many actions during that time as you wish. So for the cost of 4 action points (3 with the Quick Pockets perk) you can reload all guns, change weapons and armor and use any drugs or healing items you want. Just make sure you have done everything you need to do in your inventory before you exit back to combat. Both these tips also apply to Fallout 2 and are actually more useful due to the lack of time limit and a better Quick Pockets perk.

A good tip is that war.... war never changes

In combat you don't have to equip healing items and use them that way, it burns action points. You can use as many of them as you like from within the inventory screen, which will only cost you the AP for opening the inventory.

Lock Dogmeat behind closed doors to keep him alive. Always have one rope with you. Snipe your enemies through the window while you can. Grenades are great against groups of light armoured targets. Try drastically different builds (especially in Fallout 2).

I don’t need these tips because I stumbled upon the truck full of 10,000 caps immediately upon exiting Vault 13.

After about 3-4 hours of playing Fallout, I finally got the hang of all the different systems. This video certainly made my time easier!

This game is really detailed.

Goofy tip: Increase your accuracy in the dark as a ranged character. light up one of your flares in advance and put it into one of your weapon slots. Throw it at an opponent for one Action Point and watch your accuracy return to daylight-levels before you take your next shot. It's also just really satisfying to throw a flare at an enemy dealing 1hp damage but then seeing them flinch like "did you really just throw a FLARE at me?"

I'm playing fallout right now and the timer has stressed me out to the point where im just gonna restart and do things more efficiently

I admit i didn't expect to learn anything new but i didn't realize that bartering would ignore companions carry weight. Always used steal since i realized they wouldn't just give things back. Good tips.

I remember when fallout came out, I was shit in it... BTW, the copy of the game I bought was in russian and I did not know russian at that time, but I non the less loved the game, so because I did not understand any of the dialog, or the context, my first games went like this - go somewhere, take something, if I can take it without being attacked - good, if not - I get killed. I once accidentally stumbled in BOS with vault suit and brass knuckles, save scummed allot and actually killed the 2 BOS guards. ( good thing they only had 3 shots each ). Oh I was disappointed when I could not loot their armor. I also remember the fun times when I wandered west and got "raped" by mutants. Some time later I asked my grandfather to translate some of the dialog for me, so I actually completed the game and learned some context of the story. I remember when my grandfather laughed out loud when I asked him to translate my dialog with BOS council when reporting their Marpiosa militarry base situation. He found it hilarious when in the dialogue it was stated that mutants were green. The funny part is, that for a long time I did not know how to reload a weapon and actually discarded or sold my empty weapons. ( stupid, I know ) Later, when I was a little bit older and actually got a copy of F1 and F2 in english I just played the hell out of it. P.S. My tip is just play the game, don't read anything but these tips in the video ( they are basic, but very necessary and good ), try to complete it on your own the first times, it is more fun that way ! Later on you can read all the walkthroughs and try to do everything perfectly but first, just try it without help. :) Also, when you get bored, you can do the evil playthrough or ironman ! Ironman ir always fun ! My first evil playthrough was actually ironman, I got killed by bounty hunters with critical hit. P.P.S. After completing normal installation, you might like fallout FIXT mod, that fixes allot of bugs and adds some cut content, fixes some text dialogues and more. And if you will like fallout 1 , you will like fallout 2, so that means you MUST , I mean that you ABSOLUTELY MUST !!! get fallout 2 restoration project mod by Killap ( praise be to Killap ! ) mod for playing fallout 2. It also adds cut content, fixes bugs , glitches, text dialogs and more !

I have been playing Fallout since 2000 and I never knew that you would get certain items based off of what skills you have tagged.

that's incredible, thank you Caedo!

Another thing I like to do is open my inventory during combat (I tend to use the Quick Pocket perk to reduce the amount of AP needed), and heal myself here instead of via a stimpack in the quick item slot. Why? Because by right-clicking the stimpacks and other drugs in your inventory, you can use as many per turn as you need. Otherwise, it's 2 AP per stimpack.

Don't forget to patch on current hardware. I had to start over because of game changing bugs especially in Junktown.

Did not know the part about the multiple merchant tables. Thanks. :P

My tip as a recent beginner (started last week) Shoot. Take steps back. Don't end turn on your own.

Just fyi, when you make a deal with The Hub water merchants, to supply Vault 13, it lengthens the time you have for finding the water-chip, but it will also mean that the super-mutants will be able to find the Vault (or sooner, don't remember which).

Burst firing with the 10mm smg is so good in early game.

i only recently discovered that you can type a number when giving caps in barter menu. i used to hold that plus button for ages to get the desired amount of money, geez

Holy shit, I didn't know that clicking on the tables changed the shop inventory! Thanks man.

You can also hit the "Ask About" buton and type peoples names locations ect that the character might know about and you can get some extra diolouge. Also listening to what they say and pick out keywords to ask them.

this was the most thing I've found on RU-vid thank you

I played fallout 1 once but died twice to those huge scorpions. But I had a good gun that I got when someone attacked a shop.

This was immensely helpful

I didn't know about the merchant tables nice tip.

This was actually super helpful. Thanks!

absolute great video! this helped me get into fallout 1 man without this video i would never come back to the game.

Played the game through a few times, and I admit I never knew about the extra inventories that merchants have.

For me i got this game 2 years ago and still hyped to this cant wait for computer

Nice guide, thanks man!

Nice refresher since fallout 1 was my first game

Lifesaver thanks caedo

I finally learnt how to play this game and it’s amazing. The guide helped the basics but you really have to play the game to understand how it works. And in a way I like how there’s no pointers where to go to find the water chip since it feels more rewarding once you get it

Thank you for time stamps! That deserves a like!

Never played this one but thank you for sharing video footage and tips nice to see a you tuber show some decent videos keep it up man

thx 4 making these guides man, now i know how to play the game correctly :D

When using books, they only increase skill level to 93%. Turn difficulty to hard and you can read more. Then if you want to play on normal your skills will be really high. Also the librarian in the Hub never runs out of books.

I remember the first time I played fallout 1 I was crippled and I didn’t know how to heal it...I ran out of time because of it!! It’s such an atmospheric game

Thank you for the tips I can finally play now!

Very informative video, ty for all the tips 😀

Just finished 2 loved it more than i thought I was goong to going in.

My tip is this: keep firing til it's dead

It's awesome to see UpIsNotJump helping a smaller channel!

1. Remember was taking Mentats before reading books to get more EXP. 2. Farming exp in Boneyard by killing deathclaws without killing eggs in the nest so they are re spawned next day. 3. If you cannot open the door you can kick/punch/shoot/use explosive on it.

Thanks, I needed this.

Tkx man, this was actually really useful.

I just spent close to 50 hours completing Fallout 1 (multiple restarts) and I didn't know a fair few of these! I guess that's part of a first playthrough. I didn't know Killian's shop had more sections! I thought he'd fight me if I tried to click on his tables.

I remember my first playtrough. Not even an hour (in game) out of the vault I got ambushed by a group of raiders. One of them had a minigun. Figured that playthrough was cursed.

Any other vault dwellers who have never played FO1 but knows to respect their roots? This looks so well made

What do I do if I’ve pretty much hoarded all the caps in the wasteland so now I can’t sell anything cuz no one has caps anymore?

Good guide!

1. Make combat speed maximum. 2. Save constantly. 3. Use F1 to show menu of different hotkeys. 4. You can use the alarm feature in your pip boy to rest until healed. Doctors can also patch you up. 5. Right click your weapon to change fire mode.

Thank you for the helpful tips.

What's the kotkey to instantly die? I'd like to save some Deathclaws the trouble of ripping me apart at level 2.

awesome video!!

here's a great mechanic to earn a lot of money (do note, you have to have some saved up before hand) go to a casino (Gizmo's may be the only one, I don't remember) and when you're playing roulette, use something to put some pressure on your 1 and 4 keys - 4 should be the highest bet and 1 should be option 'play again' afterwards leave your PC and come back half an hour later to hundreds of thousands of caps

Always get agility to 9 if you can. Also, don't tag the skills that can be bought with books. I like having high luck and gambling, then you can win loads of money at the casino. I just rest heavy batteries on 1 and 4 and leave the room for a few hours!

great video I love fallout 1, and I love 4. I hope they remaster 1 with just nicer graphics and they keep the turn based over heads view

Here's the thing about the first 2 Fallouts. If you compare them to the other isometric RPG games of the time like Baldur's Gate or Planescape Tournament Fallout 1 and 2 have a fairly simple and easy to understand combat and gameplay system

The only few of these I never use is the tools to increase the skills and decreasing the difficulty to increase the skills and also saving up the skill points

Im downloading the fallout classic bundle right now , it was like 5.99$ on steam for Fallout 1 , 2 and tactics I'm pretty excited to start em since I've played fallout 3 , new vegas and 4 a bit too much lol it'll be cool to get a fresh start on a fresh game . Hopefully it's not too hard tho Lbs .

1:26 literally just happened to me. I only use 1 slot for saving my progress and overwriting the old one, then I did something wrong in Junktown and I can't undo! T_T Lesson learned. Gonna start a new playthrough tonight lol...

still such a beautiful game, I think I wanna revisit. Again. lol

I'm already mostly done with my playthrough, I got the water chip, joined the BoS, and am getting very close to defeating the master, but this still helps a lot since I'm still a fat noob. (I'm doing a pacifist run with high speech, science, 10 intelligence, 10 agility 10 charisma 8 luck but 1 for everything else. Shit's hard sometimes because killing creatures like deathclaws is impossible. I can't even shoot a gun and power armor is too heavy for me to wear. But I'll manage)

My tip is to equip youeself with ufo laser gun and plasma rifle for the endgame. The UFO has higher damage, however when fighting mutants with minigun and with UFO gun out of range, plasma rifle comes in handy. It can be enhanced in Adytium.

i actually might have a chance to find that dam *WATERCHIP* !!!!

Heh, never knew about the starting equipment ^^

thanks mannnn

I found out that one shouldn't stress out about any particular skill (other than luck, you can get only +1 [or +2, there is bug/exploit that let you get bonus two times] so you should pump it to 9), so Gifted + small frame isn't the only viable build. As for skills, you should put any points in skills you can learn from books - small guns, first air, repair, science and outdoors, at least if they are under 80 (that's the learning cap for books I think?). Even with time limit, you can read enough books in Hub library (and librarian lady restock them, so it's great way of dumping your excess gear, including very expensive late game guns like Miniguns, Bazookas, Lasers and Plasmas). Hell, I even managed to get ALL Brotherhood operations with few days to spare and no water caravans. Also, consider Bloody Mess a "no trait", since it's purely visual and give you best ending IMHO (I assume as reward of having no extra benefit). Always pick it if you otherwise didn't want Trait. 10/10, would explode rats with groin punches.

One of those advices is VERY wrong! The vault's location is secret, if you reveal it to the water merchant you severely reduce the time you have for the second part of the game! Because the bad guys learn about it too!

The Water Merchants can extend the time limit for finding the water chip by 100 days. However, it also lowers the Vault 13 invasion time limit by 100 days. 1. Nonviolent solutions often give more XP than violent ones. 2. You can shoot through windows. 3. Talk to everyone. Check every building. Especially named NPCs. It's easy to miss entire shops or quests. 4. Check the top edges of the top, bottom, left, and right of each map. A city or location might be bigger than you think. 4. Always have a rope. 5. If you enter combat, you can walk past NPCs who bust you for sneaking and stealing. 6. A is enter combat, Space is End Turn (and get bonus AC based on unused AP), Enter is End Combat. Get comfortable with abusing that. 7. Interrupting LOS can be huge when finagling enemy AI. 8. Use lots of save slots.

Useful tips

Here is more tips like this: -reload the gun if its run out of ammo -if you need a brake in your game just push “exit” in main menu -hold > key to show NPCs who is real helecopta

What about storage ? I've been reading a couple of posts on some forums and they all say that all of the storage spaces are fine, the loot you place there won't go away and no one will take it. Is that true ?

My #1 tip? Suppress any loot whoring tendency you may have. There is not only a weight limit to what you can carry, there’s also an upper limit to the number of different items you can have in your inventory. Exceed that limit and things will start disappearing. You can even get burnt badly trading with your companions if you exceed the limit. I’m not even sure what that number is. I once had to repeat hours of game play because I “lost” my combat shotgun, cattle prod and rad away simply because I had “saved often” for a long time before I had noticed it happened.

Albert Cole is good at gambling. You can become rich gambling in the Maltese Falcon by saving and loading winnings on the roulette table. Unlike New Vegas, there are no max lockout earnings so go nuts.

Just started a new game of fallout1 the first random encounter gave me like 8k caps!

I really want to play this game some day, do you think it can run smoothly on a Macbook Pro?

I once get the alien crashed event. And i deleted the savefile because after that i got the water chip warning and thinking i could not do it in time.

Bout to start fallout 1 after wanting to play it for ages wish me luck

Time to give it a shot

My tip: Examine companions regularly, preferably after each battle. That way you know their health, and if they need patching up, which isn't immediately clear by just looking at them. The game also doesn't do a good job of telling you when a companion has gotten an injury, like a crippled leg. If they start running away from every fight like scared chickens, an injury is often the issue. You will find out if they have an injury if you examine them. And you can easily heal it by using even low Doctor skill, or just a doctor's bag, which you can often find in/steal from any doctor's office in the game.