7 Fun Videos that Present Every Primary Ability for Fallout 4's SPECIAL
Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. These are the primary abilities that make up the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. leveling system. All Fallout games follow the SPECIAL system, including the recently released Fallout 4.
I’ve been playing Fallout 4 since Bethesda released it to the public on November 10. During one of my gaming sessions, I was greeted by a video that explained Agility – in a terribly amusing manner. After a bit of research, I found that Bethesda has an entire series of fun videos that present the 7 primary abilities that make up SPECIAL. If you want to see them, they’re embedded below.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Strength
Strength determines how much loot you can carry and how much damage you do when you fight with your fists or with a melee weapon. If you have enough Strength, you can select perks that let you improve your armor, modify melee weapons, and increase heavy gun damage.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Perception
The higher your perception, the higher your environmental and situational awareness. It affects your ability to detect enemies, your accuracy when using VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), and your chances of successfully picking pockets and locks. With enough Perception points, you can enable the Penetrator perk which allows you to target enemies even when they’re blocked by cover.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Endurance
Endurance influences your total health and your resiliency against physical damage and radiation. With enough Endurance points, you can activate some very useful perks, such as Lead Belly, Aquaboy or Ghoulish. With the Lead Belly perk, you take less radiation from eating and drinking. With the Aquaboy perk, you take no radiation damage from swimming and you can breathe underwater. And with the Ghoulish perk, radiation exposure restores your health instead of doing you harms.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Charisma
Charisma influences your character’s ability to negotiate, barter, and charm others. Furthermore, charisma lets you pacify animals or people, and inspire companions to do more damage. If you don’t like to explore the wasteland with a companion by your side, get the Lone Wanderer perk. Your carry weight will increase, you will take less damage, and you will do more damage when adventuring without a companion.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Intelligence
Intelligence, a measure of your overall mental ability, affects the number of experience points you earn. Want to modify and improve your guns? You’ll need Intelligence and the Gun Nut perk. Want to better restore health and remove radiation? You’ll need Intelligence and the Medic perk. Want to hack a terminal? You’ll need Intelligence and the Hacker perk. Want to get screws, aluminum, and other junk when scrapping items? You’ll need Intelligence and the Scrapper perk.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Agility
Agility influences your overall fitness, reflexes, number of Action Points in VATS, and your ability to sneak. If you want to become a shadow and sneak up on your enemies, you’ll need Agility and the Sneak perk. Speaking about becoming a shadow, the Ninja perk significantly increases the damage you deal when you’re hidden. And speaking about damage, the Gunslinger and Commando perks increase the damage you deal when using non-automatic pistols and automatic weapons.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Luck
There are lots of dangers in Fallout 4’s post-nuclear world. With lady luck on your side, you’ll have a better chance of successfully surviving it. Luck influences the amount of bottle caps you find – use bottle caps to purchase all sorts of items. Luck influences the amount of ammo you find – I just have to tell you, running out of ammo is really annoying. Luck also influences your chances of finding rare items, helps reduce the recharge rate of critical hits, and increases the amount of damage critical hits do.
A note for novices and anyone who hasn’t played Fallout before:
First, you have to create and customize your Fallout 4 character. Then, you get to assign points to your primary SPECIAL abilities. As you play the game and level up, you get new points that you can assign to primary SPECIAL abilities or to ability perks.
To activate a perk, you need to have the required ability points and the required level. Take the Sniper perk for example. Sniper rank 1 unlocks if you have 8 Perception points. Sniper rank 2 unlocks if you have 8 Perception points and a level 13 character. And Sniper rank 3 unlocks if you have 8 Perception points and a level 26 character.
Visit this online character creator to see all the perks you can choose for your Fallout 4 character.
I’ve been playing Fallout 4 since Bethesda released it to the public on November 10. During one of my gaming sessions, I was greeted by a video that explained Agility – in a terribly amusing manner. After a bit of research, I found that Bethesda has an entire series of fun videos that present the 7 primary abilities that make up SPECIAL. If you want to see them, they’re embedded below.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Strength
Strength determines how much loot you can carry and how much damage you do when you fight with your fists or with a melee weapon. If you have enough Strength, you can select perks that let you improve your armor, modify melee weapons, and increase heavy gun damage.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Perception
The higher your perception, the higher your environmental and situational awareness. It affects your ability to detect enemies, your accuracy when using VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), and your chances of successfully picking pockets and locks. With enough Perception points, you can enable the Penetrator perk which allows you to target enemies even when they’re blocked by cover.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Endurance
Endurance influences your total health and your resiliency against physical damage and radiation. With enough Endurance points, you can activate some very useful perks, such as Lead Belly, Aquaboy or Ghoulish. With the Lead Belly perk, you take less radiation from eating and drinking. With the Aquaboy perk, you take no radiation damage from swimming and you can breathe underwater. And with the Ghoulish perk, radiation exposure restores your health instead of doing you harms.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Charisma
Charisma influences your character’s ability to negotiate, barter, and charm others. Furthermore, charisma lets you pacify animals or people, and inspire companions to do more damage. If you don’t like to explore the wasteland with a companion by your side, get the Lone Wanderer perk. Your carry weight will increase, you will take less damage, and you will do more damage when adventuring without a companion.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Intelligence
Intelligence, a measure of your overall mental ability, affects the number of experience points you earn. Want to modify and improve your guns? You’ll need Intelligence and the Gun Nut perk. Want to better restore health and remove radiation? You’ll need Intelligence and the Medic perk. Want to hack a terminal? You’ll need Intelligence and the Hacker perk. Want to get screws, aluminum, and other junk when scrapping items? You’ll need Intelligence and the Scrapper perk.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Agility
Agility influences your overall fitness, reflexes, number of Action Points in VATS, and your ability to sneak. If you want to become a shadow and sneak up on your enemies, you’ll need Agility and the Sneak perk. Speaking about becoming a shadow, the Ninja perk significantly increases the damage you deal when you’re hidden. And speaking about damage, the Gunslinger and Commando perks increase the damage you deal when using non-automatic pistols and automatic weapons.
Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – Luck
There are lots of dangers in Fallout 4’s post-nuclear world. With lady luck on your side, you’ll have a better chance of successfully surviving it. Luck influences the amount of bottle caps you find – use bottle caps to purchase all sorts of items. Luck influences the amount of ammo you find – I just have to tell you, running out of ammo is really annoying. Luck also influences your chances of finding rare items, helps reduce the recharge rate of critical hits, and increases the amount of damage critical hits do.
A note for novices and anyone who hasn’t played Fallout before:
First, you have to create and customize your Fallout 4 character. Then, you get to assign points to your primary SPECIAL abilities. As you play the game and level up, you get new points that you can assign to primary SPECIAL abilities or to ability perks.
To activate a perk, you need to have the required ability points and the required level. Take the Sniper perk for example. Sniper rank 1 unlocks if you have 8 Perception points. Sniper rank 2 unlocks if you have 8 Perception points and a level 13 character. And Sniper rank 3 unlocks if you have 8 Perception points and a level 26 character.
Visit this online character creator to see all the perks you can choose for your Fallout 4 character.
