Breakdown of Skill Points

There are 13 skills in Fallout 3, each maxing at 100, totaling 1300 potential skill points.

Players gain (10 + Intelligence score) skill points per level. For this build, expect 19 points at level 2 and 20 points thereafter, prioritizing the Intelligence Bobblehead from Rivet City.

Leveling alone provides 579 skill points.

Base points add 26 skill points (2 in each of the 13 skills), bringing the total to 605.

Tag! skills add 15 points each, for a total of 650 skill points.

The _Almost Perfect_ perk, setting all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes to 10, grants an additional 20 points per skill.

Luck adds 5 points to all skills, resulting in a total attribute boost of 25 points per skill (325 total).

This brings the skill point total to 975 out of a possible 1,300.

Skill Bobbleheads add 10 points to their respective skills, totaling 130 more points, reaching 1,105.

This leaves 195 points to be gained from skill books.

With the _Comprehension_ perk, this requires finding 98 books out of 323.

The Yew's Bear Charm provides 10 points to _Speech_.

The _Cyborg_ perk adds 10 points to _Energy Weapons_, and the _Silent Running_ perk adds 10 points to _Sneak_.

These perks reduce the book requirement to 165 points, necessitating only 83 books.

A Raider in the Bethesda Ruins drops a U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes book (_Big Guns_), which respawns regularly, potentially negating the need to invest points in _Big Guns_.