Fallout 2 – Maximize your gains

130 Unarmed for 10 skill points

Assumes starting Unarmed skill of 50 from 5 Strength and 10 Agility.

• Do NOT talk to Lucas at the start of the game.
• Invest +6 skill points in Unarmed to bring it to 56.
• Get 2 Buffout from the Den (Tubby’s and/or Shanna SanPaolo’s grave), return to Arroyo, use them, then wait 6 hours. The drop in Strength & Agility means you will now have exactly 40 Unarmed. Talking to Lucas now will give you +15. After the effects of Buffout wear off you’ll now have 71 Unarmed.
• Invest +4 more skill points to bring Unarmed to 75.
• Train with the Dragon 4 times for +20 total to bring Unarmed to 95.
• Do the following in any order:
  +10 – Plus 5 strength from Red ACE Module & Advanced Power Armor
  +10 – Sullivan in Klamath
  +5 – Prizefighter in New Reno
  +10 – Punching bags in the Sierra Army Depot.

There you go. 130 Unarmed with only 10 skill points invested.

140 Unarmed for zero skill points

Assumes starting Unarmed skill of 50 from 5 Strength and 10 Agility. Doing this is a bunch of work, as it requires you to lower your Karma below -250 to train with Lo Pan, and then raise it above 250 to train with the Dragon. Too much work for me but I figured I would put it here for all the crazy min-maxers out there.

• Do NOT talk to Lucas at the start of the game.
• Get 2 Buffout and a Psycho from the Den, return to Arroyo, take the 2 Buffout, wait 6 hours, use the Psycho. You should now have an Unarmed skill of exactly 40. Talk to Lucas for +15. After everything wears off, Unarmed should be 65.
• Drop your Karma to -250 or below and train 4 times with Lo Pan for +20. Unarmed should be 85.
• Increase your Karma by 500 so it’s at 250 or above and train 3x with the Dragon for +15. Unarmed should be 100.
• Take a Buffout, wait 6 hours (actually, you’ll want to wait a day first since you can’t train twice with the Dragon on the same day), train one last time with the Dragon for +5. After the Buffout wears off Unarmed should be 105.
• Do the following in any order:
  +10 – Plus 5 strength from Red ACE Module & Advanced Power Armor
  +10 – Sullivan in Klamath
  +5 – Prizefighter in New Reno
  +10 – Punching bags in the Sierra Army Depot.

There you go. 140 Unarmed with zero skill points invested.

Notes on Unarmed Skill Gains

Here’s a list of all the possible skill gains with details on how to get them:

+15 Lucas
For the full details on Lucas see fallout.fandom.com – https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Lucas_(Fallout_2). He’s the guy standing next to the big head in Arroyo, your starting village. Basically, if you have below 40 Unarmed when you talk to him he’ll bring you up to 40. If you have between 40 and 55 Unarmed when you talk to him he’ll bring you up to 55. So to get the most from him you want to be at exactly 40 Unarmed so you get the full +15.

+10 John L. Sullivan
For the full details on Sullivan see fallout.fandom.com – https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/John_L._Sullivan. He’s the bald dude in the Golden Gecko in Klamath. Just talk to him and go along with his joke and he’ll train you for +10 Unarmed and +10 Melee.

+20 Lo Pan
For the full details on Lo Pan see fallout.fandom.com – https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Lo_Pan). Except it doesn’t even tell you he can train you in Unarmed. He’s the guy in the red shirt and black vest in the building directly Northwest of the fighting ring in San Francisco. If you have Karma of -250 or below you can ask him to train you 4 times for +5 Unarmed skill each time with a day or two between each training. If you’re at 100 Unarmed or above he won’t train you.

+20 The Dragon
For the full details on the Dragon see fallout.fandom.com – https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_(Fallout_2). He’s the shirtless guy in the building directly Northeast of the fighting ring in San Francisco. If you have Karma of +250 or above you can ask him to train you 4 times for +5 Unarmed skill each time with a day or two between each training. If you’re at 100 Unarmed or above he won’t train you.

+2 Red ACE Module
For the full details on the red memory module see fallout.fandom.com – https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Red_memory_module. Basically you find it on the second floor of the vault in Vault City, in the locker in the room behind the elevator. Use some Buffout or Power Armor to get into the room. Once you have the module you’ll need to go to San Francisco and talk to the guy in front of the Brotherhood of Steel building. He’ll send you on a quest to recover the vertibird plans from Navarro. Once you return with the plans he’ll let you into the facility where you can use the module to increase your Strength by 1 for a +2 Unarmed increase.

+8 Advanced Power Armor
For the full details on the Advanced Power Armor see fallout.fandom.com – https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Advanced_power_armor_(Fallout_2). It’s in a locker in the underground area of Navarro. Wearing it increases your Strength by 4 for a +8 Unarmed increase.

+10 Sierra Army Depot
For the full details on the Sierra Army Depot see fallout.fandom.com – https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Sierra_Army_Depot. You’ll need to talk to Orville Wright in New Reno and do his initial quest before he’ll mark the depot on your map as a part of his second quest for you. Once you get inside, on the first level is a gym with a couple punching bags. Interact with the punching bags for +5 Unarmed skill each.

+5 Become a Prizefighter
For the full details on how to become a prizefighter see fallout.fandom.com – https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Become_a_Prizefighter. Basically, you need to go to the gym in New Reno and talk to Stuart Little with a strength of 6 (or pass a speech check). Win 4 fights to get the Prizefighter title for a +5 Unarmed increase. If the Masticator bites your ear off in the final fight it reduces your Charisma by 1 so I would recommend reloading and trying again.

Notes on Starting Stats

I’m assuming 5 Strength and 10 Agility for starting stats because it’s perfect for any build in my opinion.

Anything less than 5 Strength is a pain even for ranged builds since so many weapons require that to be used without an accuracy penalty. Anything more than that is a waste since Strength can’t be raised above 10 and you can get an additional 5 strength from the Red ACE Module and Advanced Power Armor.

Action Points are king in Fallout 2 so having 10 Agility is important for any build.

Each point of Strength or Agility gives 2 points of Unarmed skill, so anything above or below my recommended starting stats will affect your Unarmed skill and adjustments will need to be made accordingly.

Notes on Consumables

All possible ways to temporarily increase or decrease your Strength or Agility:

Buffout
Gives +2 Strength and +2 Agility. Gives -2 Strength and -2 Agility after 6 hours. Returns to normal after 18 hours. Affect can be stacked once for a total of 4 Agility and Strength increase or decrease.

Psycho
Gives +3 Agility. Returns to normal after 4 hours.

Jet
Gives +1 Strength. Gives -3 Strength after 5 minutes. Returns to normal after 24 hours.

Monument Chunk
Give +3 Strength and +3 Agility. Gives -3 Strength and -3 Agility after 1 hour. Returns to normal after 2 hours.

I only list how these consumables affect Strength & Agility. For the full list of consumables and their affects see fallout.fandom.com – https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_2_consumables.

Credits

Yah, I know this guide is overkill, but I’m OCD. I also need to give credit to Barnaky for his fallout.fandom.com – https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=199851159, which has a lot of this same information. The formula there is incorrect, starting Unarmed skill is 20 + 2 x (Strength + Agility).

This is all about Fallout 2 – Maximize your gains; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!