FO2: Ironman Build

Just tried an unarmed Ironman char. I made it to Klamath, barely, and then got pasted because I ran out of healing stuff. Without armor, it's really hard to focus on melee early. For those of you that Ironman: do you solo or party?

For me, the melee build was something like...

Str: 5
Pe: 5
End: 8
Chr: 1
Int: 5
Agi: 9
Lck: 8

Perks: small build and one hander

Tagged: unarmed, Doctor and Sneak

I'm going to give Gifted a shot to see if its overpoweredness helps alleviate the gimpiness of unarmed.
 
Arghh!. Damn ironman. I died again, after
getting as far as vault 15!

I know theres been alotta posts about burst
effects - but i have to ask - with DR 69%
and AC 39 (H2H evade) i rarely got hit for
more than 5 points of damage by ANY
normal damage weapon. Suddenly one
of the vault 15 guards splats me for 218
in a point blank burst from a crappy 10mm
SMG! How can this happen?!
 
It can happen with an armor-piercing critical. Unless I'm gravely mistaken, the best/worst burst attack ignores armor and does 3x damage. So even a 10mm SMG can easily exceed 300, and the heavier burst weapons will easily reach four-digit numbers. If one is playing ironman, one should do one's utmost to avoid being bursted at. One lucky burst on their part will end the game, and since the game is long, if one allows enemies to burst, the probability is that sooner or later one of them will be critical.
 
Armor-piercing criticals really suck, and can justify getting the Lifegiver perk and some mindless leveling up to increase your max HP. Playing on the rough combat setting, I once got hit by a rocketbot in the SAD for 500-something damage. Kaboom. I reloaded and survived getting hit for 264. A raider did 288 with a burst from an FN FAL. The only solution is, as ocelot said, to try to keep enemies from firing bursts, and having enough HP to survive when they do.
 
So all this talk has inspired me to try an ironman through the current iteration of the megamod. (I know that technically stuff about a modded game should go in the modding forum, but, hey, this is where this thread is.) Here's my build.

ST 6
PE 8
EN 6
CH 2
IN 6
AG 10
LU 10

Gifted and Small Frame. Obviously I went for an overpowered character for survival's sake. It has been so long since I played with Gifted that I was just shocked all to pieces that I could actually fight well in the (new-and-improved) Temple of Trials.

Early stuff. Rescuing that dog. I just blew by all the geckos. It was probably a huge risk even doing that, but I made it! Also, Smiley the trapper is going to have to wait a good long time to be rescued. And, I've never had such an incentive to spend points in Outdoorsman.

Fun!

Misteryo[/img]
 
Started my first ironman game now, on hard game difficulty and hard combat difficulty. Never played on these settings before, or ironman style, for that matter. We shall see how far I get.

my guy is Gifted and Chem Resistant, with stats at
ST 6
PE 6
EN 4
CH 2
IN 10
AG 10
LU 9

tagged Small Guns, Big Guns and Unarmed.

EDIT: I'm also using Killap's new patch, so traveling is as perilous as it's supposed to be.
 
k, so much for that game. I already got past the dangerous stage, had a good strong character at 141 hp... so didnt bother playing safe... had combat armor mk2 and the toughness bonuses from boxing, but indeed a lucky burst from a crappy weapon ended the game
 
on second thought, I still dont like rough combat settings... the opponents just cheat. if the way it was done was by giving them a higher skill, better weapons, or just make there be more of them, that would be ok. but giving their attacks a magical damage bonus is just lame imo.
 
My most recent Ironman death was a crit hit suffered upstairs at bishops. One of his henchmen burst a Combat Shotgun that passed through my armor.

After several failed Ironman attempts, I think I'm going to update my FAQ to address ways to avoid the most common deaths.

I will re-iterate that almost all of my deaths were bad tactics related (IE, letting multiple opponents burst fire on me per round).
 
ocelot said:
on second thought, I still dont like rough combat settings... the opponents just cheat. if the way it was done was by giving them a higher skill, better weapons, or just make there be more of them, that would be ok. but giving their attacks a magical damage bonus is just lame imo.
Click to expand...

I hear that. Apparently someone has finished an ironman game
on rough combat but it's a serious challenge. I've had highwayman
encounters where me and my entire party have been slaughtered
in the first round when all 6-8 of them fire on burst (well, those
that have burst weapons)
As far as i can see, the only way to get
out that one is to use your NPC's as a burst shield (bye, sulik!), or have a damn good outdoorsman and avoid the encounter in the first place.
In fact, i've decided outdoorsman may well be a good TAG for
an ironman.... anyone agree?
 
Well I'm in San Francisco so it looks good for me finishing the game unless I screw up in Navarro (generally you can avoid death there with the kind of equipment you now have).

This time around I took two levels of toughness at levels 3 and 6 and it seemed to help. Amazingly I haven't really had any close calls yet.

Will update the FAQ with some tips and hints when I'm done (I'm only about 1000 EXP from the Sniper perk, and the game becomes pretty easy from there).
 
Capt Vee said:
Well I'm in San Francisco so it looks good for me finishing the game unless I screw up in Navarro (generally you can avoid death there with the kind of equipment you now have).
Click to expand...

Right on man. I don't care how easy it sounds, finishing an ironman game on rough is an achievement.

Capt Vee said:
This time around I took two levels of toughness at levels 3 and 6 and it seemed to help. Amazingly I haven't really had any close calls yet.
Click to expand...

Toughness - help an ironman? .... YES! i always take 2 levels of toughness asap. it's only 10% but combined with armour, boxing
tournament etc can really make the difference.

Capt Vee said:
Will update the FAQ with some tips and hints when I'm done (I'm only about 1000 EXP from the Sniper perk, and the game becomes pretty easy from there).
Click to expand...

Let us know when (if) you make it. gl!

Currently: still trying to get past vault 15 with my melee ironman build. melee builds are NOT suited to ironman as standing right in front of enemies qith burst weapons tends to result in death. Also: i never
take gifted as i consider it to be a VERY unbalanced trait.
 
Sorry to break it to you guys, but the Ironman requires a fast Bozar. That is to say: a shitload of luck. Especially on Hard/Rough. But get that out of the way and you're done. The game is beatable on Hard/Rough with a Big Guns char with a Bozar with a Leather Armor MKII. I have a screenshot to prove it. Not Ironman, but nonetheless. Once you get the bozar and 125%+ Big Guns, you can blow through any armor, apart from power armor. Of course the sniper/better critical combination kills. We're talking FO2.
 
You guys make this ironman thing sound fun. Next playthrough I'm gonna jump on the bandwagon. Although I'm gonna be a little wimpish about it and do normal difficulty.
 
Omegawolf said:
You guys make this ironman thing sound fun. Next playthrough I'm gonna jump on the bandwagon. Although I'm gonna be a little wimpish about it and do normal difficulty.
Click to expand...

Heh, Ironman on normal difficulty is anything but wimpish. In fact, i rather prefer normal as rough basicly means you have no choice other than to go gifted small guns sniper to give yourself a fighting chance....
 
patriot_41 said:
Sorry to break it to you guys, but the Ironman requires a fast Bozar. That is to say: a shitload of luck.
Click to expand...

I've attempted Ironman with a stupid character, and every time I bought the farm happened because I got impatient. Luck has little to do with FO2 Ironman. If you know the game inside and out before you try Ironman (and reading Capt Vee's FAQ gave me a few ideas) and if you work out layouts of hostile random encounters on paper first (I got as far as NCR in one game before I got the exploding brahmin encounter--ouch!) you'll be well-prepared. And if something looks fierce, GTFO. Reckless play leads to swift death.

(And on a side note, if you're going to use meat shields, make sure they open fire on the person who shot them, not you! Side with Tyler in the Den, piss off Metzger, and run to the SW corner of the map to spread out his goons and use Tyler's gang as living armor. Lara shoots you in the back, sad to say.)

FO1, otoh, takes a bit of luck because you can't grind levels from easy areas because of the time limit. And stupid FO1 means a lot of grinding.
 
Pirengle said:
Luck has little to do with FO2 Ironman.
Click to expand...

I meant luck as in 'escape unscathed or mildly damaged from any Master's Army/Alien/Deathclaw encounters till you get to NCR' type of luck.

A Big Gun specialist with a Bozar doesn't need a luck stat. You can score over 400+ damage without a critical.
 
Since my Iron-man intro a few years ago, I've done nothing but Ironman. Literally. Played Arcanum Iron-Man, when I first played it.

Makes for a great fun game.

You can actually do pretty well with a charisma guy on Iron Man. I've completed Fo2 Ironman on hardest with a charisma guy, rather than combat one.

Ok, admittedly, on my 9th or something charisma guy :oops:
 
Wow. I thought my friends and I were the only people crazy enough to play Fallout 2 like this. Ironman style.

To all the ironman melee-haters, I registered to let you in on the biggest secret in the world: Jinxed. I pushed an unarmed/melee specialist through all the way to Horrigan twice (a painful hurdle). I was able to violently punch my way out of NCR when my assassination of Carlson got botched. NCR police were powerless as their guns dropped ammo, fell to the ground, or for the very unlucky - exploded in their own faces.

With only my fists to worry about, 90% of jinxed problems did not affect me. A lost turn here or there, occasionally falling down, and between two full games, I broke one leg with a missed punch. Since doctor is tagged to ensure fast healing/combat implants anyways, this is never a problem. It freed up points in luck to boost other stats - allowing some NPCs or whatever additional gimmick you might enjoy.

In combat, always open up with a called shot to the legs - since this provides a motion free knockdown. Shots to the eyes and head will send opponents sliding away, and valuable AP is lost chasing them. Once they're on the ground, you'll get free shots on the eyes anyways.

To the guy who dumped a ton into luck on his melee guy. Don't bother. Even if you don' t believe in the power of Jinxed, Slayer makes all of your attacks criticals anyways, so unless you plan on using Luck rolls for something other than punching (what else is there?) you're fine. Having 1 luck also negates possible a downside with the Hubologists, you can only go up!
 
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