SECONDARY SKILLS

When creating a character in Fallout 2, you must choose three tag skills.

Tagging a secondary skill provides an immediate 20% bonus to that skill.

Each skill point invested in a tagged skill further increases it by 2%.

The following secondary skills are available:

Small Guns: For rifles, pistols, and various small arms. Tagging this is recommended as most combat uses small arms. This skill can be increased by reading the magazine 'Guns and Bullets.' It covers weapons from the pipe-rifle to the G11E and M72 guns.

Big Guns: For miniguns, rocket launchers, and flamethrowers. This skill is not highly recommended as big guns are easy to aim and some small arms are superior. Notable exceptions include the Bozar, CZ53 "Avenger", and Vindicator minigun.

Energy Weapons: For weapons powered by power cells. This skill is good in the endgame and includes the YK42B Pulse Rifle, the strongest single-shot weapon.

Unarmed: For combat using fists. This skill is helpful early on but becomes less useful midgame, primarily serving boxing rounds.

Melee Weapons: For knives, sledgehammers, spears, etc. Tagging this can be beneficial due to the early availability of the Super Sledgehammer, which is light, powerful, and can knock down enemies from a distance.

Throwing: For throwing knives and grenades. This skill is generally considered useless; grenades are hard to find, expensive, and suffer from low accuracy.

First Aid: Recovers a few hit points. This skill can be increased with first aid books. It is not recommended to tag or build this skill, as first aid kits increase success rates.

Doctor: Recovers more hit points than First Aid and can heal crippled limbs. A skill of 45% can heal crippled limbs, and a doctor's bag increases success. Building this skill to 90% is required to research combat implants at Vault City.

Sneak: For moving without being noticed. While its general use is debated, a low skill level can enable assassinating the President in the endgame. One reader found it useful for opening lockers when guards are present.

Steal: For taking items from others. Chances of success are enhanced by stealing from behind a character. One reader found it useful for pilfering items like Bozars from guards.

Lockpick: For picking locked doors. This thief-type skill is important; building it to around 65% is recommended. A skill of 85-90% and a decent traps skill are needed for the end-game maze. Using lockpicks increases skill by 25%, and upgraded sets increase it further.

Traps: For arming explosives and disarming traps. 50% is adequate for arming explosives, detecting some traps, and disarming end-game maze doors.

Science: Covers computers, biology, chemistry, and physics. This skill can be increased by reading 'The Big Book of Science.'

Repair: For standard repair techniques. Build to about 60%. This skill can be increased by using tools and reading 'Dean's Electronics.' Using a tool increases skill by 25%, and a Super Tool Kit increases it further.

Speech: For convincing others. This skill is second only to small guns in usefulness for bullshitting others. Tagging it allows characters to convince others, take a diplomatic endgame approach, and complete quests.

Barter: Used to determine trade prices. Unlike in Fallout, bargains in Fallout 2 are generally poor, even with high skill levels.

Gambling: For games of chance. There are more gambling opportunities and money-requiring activities in Fallout 2 compared to Fallout, so building this skill might be considered.

Outdoors: Practical knowledge of the outdoors. This skill can be increased by reading Scout handbooks and influences travel distance and random encounters to a lesser extent.