The Unarmed Sneak Guide for the Fallout 2 Restoration Project

About

This is an in-depth guide for a stealth HtH playthrough for the Fallout 2 Restoration Project.

This build uses a Mega Power Fist and the Sneak skill ^{(and a Stealth Boy)} to remain almost completely invisible while dismantling your opponents one by one in close combat and then vanishing back into the shadows.

Table of Contents

1. SPECIAL
2. Traits
3. Tagged skills
4. Starting skills
5. Developed skills
6. Perks
7. Special Perks
8. Weapon Progression
9. Armor Progression
10. Chem Usage
11. Sneak Mechanics
12. Grenades
13. Combat
14. Routing

SPECIAL

Traits

• One Hander
• Kamikaze

Tagged skills

• Unarmed
• Sneak
• Speech

Starting skills

Developed skills

Perks

Special Perks

Weapon Progression

Armor Progression

Feel free to pickup the Power Armor in Navarro if you'd like.

Chem Usage

Buffout is needed to reach certain ST/EN requirements during the game:

Psycho is not strictly required but can help with some of the more difficult combat encounters (i.e. vs Miniguns and Gauss weapons).

Sneak Mechanics

Sneak skill

The cornerstone of this build is the Sneak skill and its interaction with the singular Stealth Boy you can find as part of the Restoration Project.

The Sneak skill has a couple of interesting breakpoints. The most important one by far is Sneak 121 that lowers the perception range of NPCs by 1 (one hex).
Beside that, Sneak has breakpoints that lowers the Sneak retry timer after an unsuccessful Sneak; although it could be argued it's efficacy is limited as you should not fail many sneak checks at Sneak 121. See the Sneak retry table for details.

The Stealth Boy grants a +20 bonus to Sneak when active which could be used to reach certain Sneak breakpoints, but more importantly it allows for sneaking in front of NPCs at much closer ranges than without one.

When combined with knowledge about the NPC perception range you can plan your combat in such a way that you'll be able to exit combat while sneaking when you normally wouldn't be able to (i.e. with active threats still in your vicinity). This is extremely helpful in random encounters.

The map illumination level has no effect on sneaking, so you won't be able to sneak more successfully during the night.

NPC perception range

You need to stay outside of the NPC perception range in order to stay undetected. What complicates things is we don't know the PE value of a given NPC and the best we can do is make educated guesses (outside of looking up every enemy you encounter on the wiki).

Perception range of NPC with PE 1-10 with Sneak skill >120 on successful Sneak

Perception range formula

PerceptionRange = NPC Perception x Location x Sneakiness - SneakLevel

Sneak failure retry time

Successful Sneak lasts 60 seconds.

Grenades

Grenades are used to supplement the build in situations where HtH combat could be disadvantageous. See Battles.

Some of those situations involve robots and/or defence turrets, both of which are extremely susceptible to Pulse grenades.

Plasma grenades can be useful in tight places where (non power-armored) enemies tend to clump together and for baiting enemies into a more advantageous position for you to fight them in; or better yet just kill them outright (i.e. Melchior the Magnificent).

Chance to Hit

ChanceToHit = Throwing skill + One Hander Bonus + (PE-2)*8 - Range*4

Chance To Hit is capped at 95% after target AC and other modifiers have been subtracted.

Damage

Combat

Fighting Style

The general fighting style of this build is to sneak up on your enemies one at a time and eye-punch them to death, preferably without being detected by other enemies.

Familiarize yourselves with the NPC perception range table to get a feel for how close you can generally get to enemies and from which direction to approach them from (front vs. back). You'll want to use your Bonus Move AP to close the last hex or two of distance before you initiate combat.

Against ranged humanoid enemies, especially in groups you should be using the Stealth Boy, then sneak behind each one and eye-punch them to death. If you have additional AP after each kill you should move away from the nearest enemies to maximize then chance at getting out if their perception range. If no other enemies detect you then you'll be able to end combat after each kill and move on to the next one.

Against creatures (everything from Ants to Wanamingos and Deathclaws) use your Sneak skill to get moderately close to them and attempt to have them initiate combat (i.e. toggle Sneak on and off) only to have them spend all their AP closing the distance towards you. Then due to our high Sequence we get two turns in a row which we can spend using aimed punches to their eyes — or whatever eye-equivalent they might have.

Against robots and defence turrets the most effective strategy is frying them with Pulse Grenades.

Random Encounters

Always keep your Stealth Boy in one of your two active slots when traveling on the world map so you can initiate Stealth Boy Sneak for only 2 AP. Once sneaking you should use all of your remaining AP to get as far away from the enemies as you can and try to end combat. If you can't end combat on your first turn, then you'll be able to on your second combat round after you put additional distance between you and your enemies.

After you end combat you are free to sneak around the map and take care of all the enemies one by one. Again, familiarize yourselves with the NPC perception range table.

Battles

Routing

Generally speaking, do all quests at each location unless otherwise noted.

The Nearly Ultimate Fallout 2 Guide is a fantastic resource for a detailed walkthrought of the game, including all of the quests in the original Fallout 2 release.
The Fallout 2 Restoration Project Supplementary Guide is a similar resource that covers quests added by the Restoration Project and are not included in the Nearly Ultimate Fallout 2 Guide.

You should be between level 27 and 30 when you enter the Enclave Oil Rig (unless your grinding random encounters for XP). The screenshot shows the stats, skills and inventory after just arriving on the Enclave Oil Rig.