Part 41: Mechanics 2: Follower Profiles and the Pip Boy

Mechanics Update 2: Follower Profiles and the Pip Boy

As a little break, I'm going to talk a bit about our followers and our trusty Pip Boy. First up, let's talk a little bit about Sulik:



This is Sulik at his starting level. I mentioned before that followers can level up along with you, but they all vary a bit in how many level ups they get and the benefits those level ups provide. As one of the earliest starting characters, Sulik can actually get six level ups over the course of the game, and his stat block will look something like this according to the Fallout Bible:

Level 2
ST: 7
PE: 7
EN: 8
CH: 8
IN: 7
AG: 7
LK: 6

HP: 93
Unarmed Damage: 1-10
Carry Weight: 200

Level 3
ST: 7
PE: 7
EN: 8
CH: 8
IN: 7
AG: 7
LK: 6

HP: 103
Unarmed Damage: 1-11
Carry Weight: 200

Level 4
ST: 7
PE: 7
EN: 8
CH: 8
IN: 7
AG: 7
LK: 6

HP: 113
Unarmed Damage: 1-12
Carry Weight: 200

Level 5
ST: 7
PE: 7
EN: 8
CH: 8
IN: 7
AG: 7
LK: 7

HP: 123
Unarmed Damage: 1-13
Carry Weight: 200

Level 6
ST: 8
PE: 7
EN: 8
CH: 8
IN: 7
AG: 7
LK: 7

HP: 134
Unarmed Damage: 1-15
Carry Weight: 225

Level 7
ST: 8
PE: 7
EN: 9
CH: 8
IN: 7
AG: 7
LK: 8

HP: 146
Unarmed Damage: 1-16
Carry Weight: 225

As you can see, Sulik is a beast with an incredible stat total. It's never a good idea to give him a ranged weapon and he can't exactly be trusted with thrown items. Give him a Super Sledge Hammer, a Ripper, and a Power Glove, though, and you can't ask for a more monstrous melee character. He eventually ends up with 13 AP for fights somehow. Power Armor only boosts his already high strength and makes him that much harder to stop. It's no exaggeration to say that Sulik is a character you can easily take from the beginning of the game until the end. He's also one of the easiest characters to recruit.

Additional Notes: Sulik's quest to find his lost sister was never finished in the game, so that just kind of trails off and is never revisited.

Now, for Vic:



Our friend Vic here is a bit of Magikarp character. He starts off awful, and it takes a while to see improvement in him. Like Sulik, however, he can actually level up six times and can become one of the most useful characters in the game. There's more information on him available, so I'll also list his top three skills instead of his unarmed damage.

Level 2
ST: 5
PE: 6
EN: 4
CH: 6
IN: 7
AG: 6
LK: 5

HP: 78
Top 3 Skills: Repair 75%, Small Guns 65%, Lockpick 55%
Carry Weight: 150
AP: 8
Crit Chance: 7%

Level 3
ST: 5
PE: 7
EN: 5
CH: 6
IN: 8
AG: 6
LK: 5

HP: 90
Top 3 Skills: Repair 90%, Small Guns 75%, Lockpick 65%
Carry Weight: 150
AP: 9
Crit Chance: 9%

Level 4
ST: 5
PE: 7
EN: 5
CH: 6
IN: 8
AG: 6
LK: 6

HP: 102
Top 3 Skills: Repair 95%, Small Guns 90%, Lockpick 75%
Carry Weight: 150
AP: 9
Crit Chance: 12%

Level 5
ST: 6
PE: 7
EN: 5
CH: 6
IN: 8
AG: 7
LK: 6

HP: 111
Top 3 Skills: Small Guns 115%, Repair 105%, Energy Weapons 100%
Carry Weight: 175
AP: 10
Crit Chance: 16%

Level 6
ST: 7
PE: 8
EN: 5
CH: 6
IN: 8
AG: 7
LK: 7

HP: 117
Top 3 Skills: Small Guns 130%, Energy Weapons 115%, Repair 112%.
Carry Weight: 200
AP: 10
Crit Chance: 19%

Level 7
ST: 7
PE: 8
EN: 5
CH: 6
IN: 8
AG: 8
LK: 8

HP: 132
Top 3 Skills: Energy Weapons 145%, Small Guns 135%, Repair 130%
Carry Weight: 200
AP: 12
Crit Chance: 22%

I can confirm that Vic will use laser pistols and plasma pistols if you hand him one at a high enough level. Given a high powered handgun he's actually a very good character in the end game, and he all of those AP with a fast firing Handgun can give him quite a bit of damage potential. You just have to carry him around with you while you level up.

Additional Notes: Supposedly he'll take refuge at Mom's Diner if you kill Metzger's crew off without rescuing him first. I'll verify this with Dakka later.

Your Pip Boy and You!



You might have noticed a little button that says Pip-Boy 2000 at the bottom left corner of my screen and wondered a bit about it. We got our Pip-Boy 2000 way back in the village, but this is a good time to get a look at it. The first thing we'll look at is the little bell icon next to the date and time.



This is your Pip-Boy alarm clock, with all the following options. Sometimes it's worth it to wait for drug effects to clear, wait until morning (some shops and other things are only available in daytime) and, if you really must, wait for your body to heal naturally. You also get an option to rest until your party is healed once you have party members (these screen shots are from playing as Hung Wei Lo), but this isn't a great idea since they have so damn much HP.



Next up, we've got the Status Screen which is arranged according to towns.



This basically serves as your quest log, giving you a list of things you've agreed to do and crossing them off when you're done. If you're forgetful or haven't played this game as many times as I have this is pretty useful.



Next up: Automaps! Arranged the same way as Status…



I don't think they're very useful, but you might enjoy looking at them for some reason.



For the moment the only other function is as a Video Archive, which I can't really display. If you really want to see the few video sequences in the game again, though, it's there.

We've got one more function for the Pip-Boy, but that won't open up for a bit yet. It also won't be tremendously useful when it does.