So this seems to be an issue I keep running into in bethesda games like fallout and obllivion. I get about 5 hours into the game and I try to explore side quests and such but end up being way underpowered, so I try to follow the main story thread and am still facing troubles. Any advice, I cant seem to get into the flow with these open world, first person, rpg-esque games. And I would like to keep at it because I understand they are quite excellent.

@david3cm:

Make sure you don't spread your points out too much when leveling up. Focus on only 3 or 4 skills.

Lower the difficulty in the menu, other than that I can think of any other advice without any information.
Make sure you have high medicine skill in Fallout?

Well, I always play Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas on Very Easy now. I gave up trying to bash my head against it. I like exploring, advancing my character and to experience the story. Fighting...not so much. To me it's just a hindrance and I've never really bothered to try and get good at it as I find it frustrating.

It might also be because I tend to favor non-combat skills and that's also a good reason to turn the difficulty down.

Hope that helps.

Um turn on vats, choose face, profit?

Are you spamming stimpacks? You should be spamming stimpacks.

@david3cm:

Make sure you don't spread your points out too much when leveling up. Focus on only 3 or 4 skills.

Normal is not hard in this game, assuming you're on the default. It's got to be something else. What build are you going for? What perks are you taking? Are you comfortable w/Vats? From Goodsprings, did you find and complete all side quests in order to gear and lvl up before traveling the wastes of the Mojave? Which enemies are giving you trouble? More info would help to give pertinent advise tc.

As others have said, just play on Very Easy and enjoy the ride. Also, recruit teammates and have them take care of most of the combat.

@desolation15 said:

Are you spamming stimpacks? You should be spamming stimpacks.

The end of NV for me was pretty much just this.

Will probably get laughed at for saying this, but just play on Easy. My first playthrough of FO 3 was on Easy and I'm currently doing the same for New Vegas. It lets you more easily experience the best parts of Fallout (exploration, side quest stories, general atmosphere, etc.)

You don't get anything extra for playing on higher difficulties and the combat is tedious until you get good weapons, so play on Easy. Also, get Boone an ED-E early on and you are pretty much set.

Put all your points in malee and always be power swinging.

Once you get Boone, nothing will stop you. Nothing!

on very easy to normal (and on hard once you leveled up a bit). Use VATS shoot the head. 
On hard (lower level) and very hard, or playing a character with very low combat skills. Cripple leg (and arm if the enemy is ranged) shoot the enemy and never let it come close. 
You should also specialize In 3-4 skills and pick perks that complements those skills.
I played the game on hard hardcore and found most of the game pretty easy (although I never finished the game cause I lost my saves).

My strategy was just getting a lot of points in stealth, small guns and repair. Keeping your guns in good shape and sneakcritting took care of everything "a silenced gun or melee weapon helps a lot". THEN STEAL AND HOARD EVERYTHING "I played like an insane capitalist, never pay for anything, but get EVERYTHING" having a lot of money and ammo let's you screw around more. I think I finished the game with 250 stimpaks and probably didn't use more than 2 over the course of the game, on normal I think.

Repair is hands-down the best skill in the game. 
 
Especially once you get it to >90 and level >14. Jury Rigging is probably the single most useful perk in the entire game.

Like they've been saying, focus your skills. Tag small guns, melee or unarmed depending on how you want your dude. Do all the side quests in the first town and then take it slow as you progress through areas. I play stealth type and had no issues playing hard hardcore. I was playing it on the PC though so its easier to control than on the consoles, shooting's a lot easier. Take shit and selling it is always handy too, karma doesn't figure as much in this as it did in Fallout 3. Get Boone and Ed-e and they'll handle the enemy for you without much trouble. Ed-e will help you avoid things that are too tough for you as well. What sort of dude do you like playing as?

Head east of Good Springs into the main entrance of Hidden Valley, enter and make a break straight north (you can run faster than the Bark Scorpions) until you can find the 2 dead BOS knights in a crater among 6-8 centaurs. Run past them and loot their bodies. Fall back into Hidden Valley and locate the closest bunker that faces north (2nd bunker to your right). Reach the intercom system and from there all your troubles will end. Knight Torres has bare none the best arsenal of weapons and armor in New Vegas only rivaled by the Gun Runners booth outside Freeside. The Ballistic Fist is by far the best weapon in the game. Powerful and doesn't use ammo; you can pretty much go through the entire game with just this one weapon. 
 
Also before every messy fight make to sure take a nice boost of Psycho and Med-X. I don't like to waste Buffout as you can use it to temporarily boost you max carrying capacity at most to 30 pounds.

@desolation15 said:

Are you spamming stimpacks? You should be spamming stimpacks.

You really shouldn't. If you need to be spamming stimpacks then you're doing something wrong with your character.

@innacces14 said:

Also pick Bloody Messwhen you get to level 6 or when you get the chance to pick a perk. Always go for bloody mess.

Bloody mess provides only 5% damage boost. There are way better perks to take at the start.

@innacces14 said:

Also pick Bloody Messwhen you get to level 6 or when you get the chance to pick a perk. Always go for bloody mess.

Bloody mess provides only 5% damage boost. There are way better perks to take at the start.

@desolation15 said:

Are you spamming stimpacks? You should be spamming stimpacks.

You really shouldn't. If you need to be spamming stimpacks then you're doing something wrong with your character.

@innacces14 said:

Also pick Bloody Messwhen you get to level 6 or when you get the chance to pick a perk. Always go for bloody mess.

Bloody mess provides only 5% damage boost. There are way better perks to take at the start.

Um turn on vats, choose face, profit?

(also lower durability quicker)  

@Ventilaator said:

@Beaudacious said:

Um turn on vats, choose face, profit?

Get 2% hit chance, miss...?

max weapon type of choice skill, get 95% chance to hit face

Play on easy. Its the only way I can enjoy the gameplay in Fallout 3 and NV.

@TheDudeOfGaming:

That video guide is kinda bad. :/

I cringed at some of those "tips"

@Ventilaator said:

@Beaudacious said:

Um turn on vats, choose face, profit?

Get 2% hit chance, miss...?

max weapon type of choice skill, get 95% chance to hit face

@Ventilaator said:

@Tennmuerti said:

@Ventilaator said:

@Beaudacious said:

Um turn on vats, choose face, profit?

Get 2% hit chance, miss...?

max weapon type of choice skill, get 95% chance to hit face

Oh, this is the New Vegas forum. I'm sorry. That works in that game. I was thinking about Fallout 3.

Works in Fallout 3 too.

@TheDudeOfGaming:

That video guide is kinda bad. :/

I cringed at some of those "tips"

 But yeah you're right, i took it down, the minute i had seen the dude not taking charisma down to 1 i said "fuck this video."

While I haven't beaten New Vegas yet, I've been playing it on Hardcore mode, and it isn't really difficult for me. The hardest part of Bethesda games is the beginning. After you get enough stimpaks, good weaponry and ammo, the game gets really easy. In Fallout 3, after I got to level 20, I could take on groups of enemies without getting hurt. 

@Ventilaator said:

@Tennmuerti said:

@Ventilaator said:

@Beaudacious said:

Um turn on vats, choose face, profit?

Get 2% hit chance, miss...?

max weapon type of choice skill, get 95% chance to hit face

Oh, this is the New Vegas forum. I'm sorry. That works in that game. I was thinking about Fallout 3.

Works in Fallout 3 too.

 But yeah you're right, i took it down, the minute i had seen the dude not taking charisma down to 1 i said "fuck this video."

He used Luck as his dump stat. Luck! 
 
As in no Better Criticals! Sheesh!

Find yourself a companion or two. Early on I quickly put points into things like lockpick, science, speech, etc. because I hate not being able to get into locked doors and computer terminals. My companions did most of my fighting until higher levels when I had more points in combat and better weapons.

Avoid ALL Razorclaws until your high levels (and even then bring big guns and lots of meds). I also always specialize on ranged / rifles.

pick at least 1 combat skill (guns, Energy weapons, etc.) and always put a couple skills in it when you level up. Don't lower your intelligence too much because the higher it is, the more skill points you get per level up.

Just to clarify I am talking about fallout 3 but it sounds like the strategies you guys are talking about translate between the two games. Im not much of a melee or stealth guy so it sounds like I should just focus putting points into small guns and repair with complimenting perks? thanks for all the help guys, Im going to go back this game tonight and see how I do!

Here's how I play fallout (completely different from Oblivion BTW). My starting stats usually involve high or maxed out intelligence. This way you're maxing out the number of skill points you receive per lv. Early game is the most difficult, cause you'll often run into enemies you're just not ready for (Especially New Vegas). Choose one combat skill to focus on. Regular guns seem to be the most common, and they're not too bad late game either. The guns skill seems to be a necessity. Next skill priority is sneak. Sneak and sneak related perks can save your ass (Guaranteed crits, so the goal is to get perks that increase your damage to kill in one hit). It doesn't seem to be as strong in New Vegas, but it's still quite useful. Melee or unarmed complement the sneak skill, cause they don't alert other enemies. I can happily kill a group of enemies one by one with no one the wiser. Melee + sneak combat isn't for everyone, cause there will be a lot of reloading saves upon skrew ups, but you can get out of and complete combat scenarios that would be impossible otherwise. After maxing out the few necessary combat skills, it's best to focus on complimentary skills. Speech just makes the game a lot easier, cause you can skip the random crap people tell you to do and complete quests much faster. Maybe get science or lockpick after that, but how you spend your points then is really up to you.

Im also playing through it right now and my advice is to only do missions that involve little to no combat. Freeside is full of these quests(the kings, atomic wrangler twins, etc.). The kings quests get you a free pass into vegas and a companion if you follow up on the required dialog. I would also recommend NCR Camps. They usually contain tons of missions with and without combat 
 
Oh fallout 3? Never mind......why is this in the fallout new vegas forum then?

Pick up as much crap as you can, sell it. Buy stim packs or better weapons. Don't spread out your points focus on what you want your character to excel at.

@TheWyotee93: I figured there would be strategies that transfer between the two games since I hear they are so similar.

oh, one more thing. I hate selling something for 10 dollars and than have the merchant try to sell it back for 10,000. is it a complete waste to put points into barter or do i pick up enough resources were i dont need that skill.

@innacces14: If a player is having such huge problems with the games difficulty 5% dmg isn't going to save him either. And you will always have a wide selection of perks available, not just ones without requirements, no matter the character, he/she will always meet some perk requirements.

@david3cm said:

Just to clarify I am talking about fallout 3 but it sounds like the strategies you guys are talking about translate between the two games. Im not much of a melee or stealth guy so it sounds like I should just focus putting points into small guns and repair with complimenting perks? thanks for all the help guys, Im going to go back this game tonight and see how I do!

Yea, if you want a short and dirty guns and repair in tandem can get you through the whole game.

@david3cm said:

oh, one more thing. I hate selling something for 10 dollars and than have the merchant try to sell it back for 10,000. is it a complete waste to put points into barter or do i pick up enough resources were i dont need that skill.

That's what barter is for, if you max it then the sale and purchase values will be very close together, converging on the actual item price. But no you don't really need barter, since there is way too much loot around then you will ever need money. Especially at the start there are better skills to focus on, and later on in the game money isn't a problem.

Just to clarify I am talking about fallout 3 but it sounds like the strategies you guys are talking about translate between the two games. Im not much of a melee or stealth guy so it sounds like I should just focus putting points into small guns and repair with complimenting perks? thanks for all the help guys, Im going to go back this game tonight and see how I do!

@JoeyRavn said:

@david3cm said:

Just to clarify I am talking about fallout 3 but it sounds like the strategies you guys are talking about translate between the two games. Im not much of a melee or stealth guy so it sounds like I should just focus putting points into small guns and repair with complimenting perks? thanks for all the help guys, Im going to go back this game tonight and see how I do!

Try to get the Jury Rigging perk ASAP. It's a vital perk to have, especially if you use unique or rare weapons and armor. It makes you able to repair items with any kind of similar item, not just the exact same as the item you are repairing. For example, you can repair a plasma rifle with a laser pistol (well, I don't really remember if you can do that, but you get the idea).

No Jury Rigging in Fallout 3, this is a New Vegas only perk