The builds that broke Fallout 4: The Infiltrator

For the denizens of the Commonwealth, this is the face of fear.

Whether you’re a Fallout 4 beginner looking for a build guide or a veteran wanting to try a new approach, have I got an idea for you. Gather round, my darlings: I’m going to tell you how to break the game.

Follow my advice and I guarantee that by the time you’ve checked out even just the main story and a few factions, you’ll be trampling the Commonwealth beneath your booted feet, complaining that everything is too easy and turning that difficulty slider way, way up.

There are many ways to break Fallout 4, but this is mine: the classic glass rogue. We’re going to be sneaking, using VATS and never, ever, ever getting shot. You don’t even need to be able to shoot straight, which is handy for strict RPG fans.

I once murdered a Legendary Deathclaw by silently shooting it six times in the leg. It didn’t see me. The five raiders standing in the next room didn’t hear me. I killed them with five silent headshots. They didn’t see me, either. Nothing can find me. Nothing can stop me. Nothing can survive in the face of my instantaneous barrage of VATS-guided bullets. I am an invincible killing machine.

I call this build … the Infiltrator.

Getting started: SPECIAL stats

Let’s start with the basics: selecting your SPECIAL stats and planning for perks. This provides the skeleton on which you’ll construct your mighty vault dweller. Initially, you’ll want to have a minimum of:

• Perception: 4
• Agility: 6

You can do what you like with the rest, but I’d recommend going for:

• Strength: 3
• Endurance: 1
• Charisma: 1
• Intelligence: 3
• Luck: 3

As soon as you reach Sanctuary after leaving Vault 111, visit the nursery in your old home. There’s a book called You’re SPECIAL on a cabinet here. Read it to gain one extra SPECIAL point, and put it on Agility to bring your total to seven.

• Expert tip: never set any of your SPECIAL stats to ten right off the bat; there’s a Bobblehead out there with a bonus point for each SPECIAL stat. You’ll also be able to increase your SPECIAL points whenever you have a spare perk point, and there’s no level cap, so there’s plenty of time to get those level ten perks.

Essential Perks

The very first perk you should pick up in any build is Locksmith. At level one it can be tough to survive, making it tempting to go for a damage or health-boosting perk, but trust me: ensuring you have enough ammo, cash and aid items is vital. Make sure you can loot everything you find.

Once you’ve attended to that basic requirement, turn your attention to our first key skill: Sneak. Any time you can level up Sneak, do it.

The next most important Perks to pick up are Ninja and Action Boy/Girl. The first will increase your sneak attack damage, while the second will restore your VATS points faster.

We’re going to be focused on a non-automatic handgun, so grab Gunslinger to boost your damage output (use any appropriate weapon until we get the one we’re after – with a suppressor, if available). It’s a little bit whimsical, but I also took Bloody Mess. The damage bonus is small at first, but really adds up. And everything explodes! It’s great.

• Expert Tip: need more survivability? Customise this build by leaving out Bloody Mess and changing your dump stat from Endurance to Luck. Note that a lower Luck stat does make a lot of things (hitting targets, passing Persuasion checks, picking locks) ever so slightly harder.

Max out these essential perks as soon as you can, in order of priority presented above. If you’re not high enough level to purchase any more ranks in the essential perks, turn your eyes to the next section.

Growing and changing

As you’re levelling up, you may reach situations where you’ve maxed out all the above perks. When that happens I recommend the following secondary perks:

• Local Leader and Caps Collector are best for those wanting to build and expand settlements.
• Armorer, Gun Nut, Scrapper and Science will help you build better mods for guns and armour than you can buy or find in the wild – if you’re willing to collect loot and drag it back to a Workshop.
• Finally, Better Criticals and Gun-Fu are for those who want extra damage. Which is everyone, eventually.

To achieve all of these perks, you’ll need higher SPECIAL stats than we started with. Whenever you have a spare point, but can’t choose any of the essential or secondary perks, do not buy a random perk. Instead, add a SPECIAL point to build towards whichever secondary perks you like best. To get the whole list above, you’ll eventually need:

• Strength: 4
• Charisma: 6
• Intelligence: 6
• Agility: 10
• Luck: 6

Expert tip: After you complete everything above, you’ll want to max out your Perception to continue increasing your potential for mass VATS murder. You may also want to push Strength up to six and grab Strong Back for the masses of treasure you’ll find on your murder sprees. Everything else is just gravy.

Example Infiltrator gameplay. I didn’t actually see the Super Mutants until I turned at the sound of the Suicider’s bomb. Notice the huge number of AP at my disposal, and how the second Super Mutant doesn’t see me even after I blow up his mate.

How to play an Infiltrator

Now that you know what you’re aiming for, how do you put this baby to use?

We play slow and careful. Whenever you approach the entrance to a structure, sneak. Make sure your AP is full, then hammer VATS. As soon as you see an enemy in VATS with a hit chance of 65% or more, smack it; with any luck you’ll get a sneak attack bonus.

• If there are multiple enemies, you may opt for one sneak attack on each of them to start with.
• Take out nearby and melee enemies first as they’re harder to evade.
• If you have a choice of limbs with a good hit chance:
  • Go for the legs of melee attackers.
  • Hit the arms or heads of enemies using firearms.
• As soon as you destroy a limb, cancel your VATS attack and immediately re-initiate it to hit a different target.
• If you have destroyed the leg of a melee attacker, ignore it and move to another enemy.

At low levels, you may complete your VATS attack to find half a dozen angry baddies heading for you. Run away. Break line of sight and go into Sneak mode. Wait until they get over it.

Now just rinse and repeat.

This is very slow and annoying in the beginning, but by the time you have levelled up a bit you can walk into a room and kill everything in a single VATS session before they even know you’re there. The whole “run away and hide” part never needs to happen again.

Of course, it helps to have the right gear.

Essential equipment

The key weapon of the Infiltrator build is the Deliverer. This gun is awarded to you when you join the Railroad faction. Its amazing special power is that it uses less Action Points in VATS, and has an increased chance to hit.

So what? So everything. At higher levels of the Infiltrator build, I’m talking so many shots queued up in VATS that the user interface literally cannot account for them; they fill the bar and overflow and disappear. (I told you I broke the game.)

Get this gun and mod the shit out of it. A suppressor is essential; if you haven’t got the perks to mod one, try checking in with Tinker Tom at Railroad HQ, as he sometimes sells Deliverer mods. Do what you like with sights, although note that you’ll be using VATS mostly. Get the most powerful receiver you can to increase the damage, but don’t go automatic – you’ll lose the benefits of the Gunslinger perk. (I don’t recommend going automatic as it means using more ammo to get the same job done. If you really must, be sure to sub out Gunslinger for Commando when choosing perks.)

I’m talking so many shots queued up in VATS that the user interface literally cannot account for them; they fill the bar and overflow and disappear. I told you I broke the game.

For your back-up guns, look for anything with VATS, accuracy or AP-related bonuses (the Tinker Tom Special, purchasable in Railroad HQ, is a pretty good example), or just good old fashioned extra damage. Whatever you pick, try to put a suppressor on it.

Armour-wise, the lighter the better while your Sneak perk is low, but you can afford to go a bit heavier as you get harder to detect. To be honest, you won’t need to; you will almost never be hit, so who cares? I tend to stick to leather, modded up with pockets and shadowing, and worn over clothing with native or modded-in damage reduction (the Railroad can help you with that). Fuck Power Armor right off immediately; it’s not any use at all to this build.

There are a couple of Legendary armour bonuses that are worth grabbing if you find them. Chameleon makes Sneak unbelievably easy, although the visual effect is really annoying. VATS-enhanced armour pieces are pretty common once you’re about 20 levels in, and are a big help.

Finally, you definitely want to snaffle any U.S. Covert Operations Manual books you find, as they’ll permanently boost your Sneak ability.

AP for days.

Conquer the Wasteland

That’s it. Congratulations! You’re ready to absolutely smash Bethesda’s latest.

Like I said, this is just one way to play; there are plenty of other terrific, über-powerful approaches for those who like frontal assaults, or can’t be bothered faffing about with VATS. We’d love to hear about your builds.

If you have any questions about building or using the Infiltrator, want to swap tips, or just have some videos and GIFs of the Deliverer to share, you know where to find me.

DELIVER US pic.twitter.com/EFwyPIBp7c

— Borderline Helpful (@draqul) November 12, 2015