The 13 Ancillary Skills in Fallout: New Vegas will affect your character’s progress. Each skill has a maximum level of 100 skill points. Skill points aren’t easy to find. If you have a High Intelligence, then they will be easier to find. Once you earn skill points, it’s important that you don’t waste them. You want to distribute them wisely. This doesn’t mean you should distribute them evenly. Remember, the type of character you choose to be will determine how you should distribute your skill points. Let’s take a quick look at the 13 Ancillary Skills.

Barter: As stated earlier, Barter is important because it allows you to buy low and sell high. It can also lead to more conversations with people, which can then lead to more allies. It can also raise bounties and payments. Another important note is that Barter skill points can lead to more side quests. All that said, Barter isn’t the most important of the Ancillary Skills.

Energy Weapons: This pertains to Small Energy Cells, Micro Fusion Cells, EC Packs and Flamer Fuel. Without any exaggeration, these are awesome weapons. These are the kind of weapons that get you pumped up about playing the game. Put simply, these weapons make you feel very powerful, which is always kind of cool. It’s highly recommended that you put a good deal of your points into Energy Weapons. If you’re like most gamers, then you won’t regret it.

We hinted at this before, but if you’re more of a standard firearm kind of player, then disregard everything we wrote about Energy Weapons. If you’re thinking about taking a balanced approach, forget about it. Remember, this isn’t the real world. Different rules apply. A balanced approach will do more harm than good. You need to decide which road to take and go with it. If you try to balance out between Energy Weapons and Guns, you’re only going to negatively impact the effectiveness of your weapons. For example, if you prefer Energy Weapons, yet you decide to add some Guns, you’re going to take away the power of your Energy Weapons. You don’t want to do that.

Explosives: This skill will allow you to disarm hostile mines and decrease the effectiveness of grenades and missile launchers. This skill is MUCH more important in the early stages of the game. When you’re roaming around new areas and trying to build your Experience level, you’re going to want Explosives. Otherwise, you will find yourself a bodiless limb, which isn’t much fun. After you have explored several areas in the beginning of the game, you can seriously decrease your skill points for Explosives and put them to better use. In fact, if you get really comfortable with the nature of the game, it wouldn’t be insane to forget Explosives all together.

Guns: This pertains to any weapon that uses ammunition. If you’re going for all Energy Weapons, then you can completely ignore the Guns skill. However, if you’re going to ignore the Energy Weapons, then it’s important to pour a lot of points into this skill. This would be a good time to point something out. While Energy Weapons are the more effective route, going with Guns can be a lot more fun. It’s a freer and more adventurous life in the Mojave Wasteland.

Lockpick: After you play Fallout: New Vegas for a few hours, you’re going to notice that there are locked doors, safes and containers all over the place. You should be familiar with this type of environment if you played Fallout 3. You should also be familiar with the importance of this skill. You simply can’t be a great player without a lot of Lockpick skill points. This might not sound exciting, but it actually leads to a lot more excitement. When you’re constantly opening locked doors, it leads to completely new areas and adventures. Your goal should be to reach 100 Locksmith skill points by Level 30.

Medicine: If you want effective health recovery, then you should consider adding Medicine skill points. You don’t need to go anywhere near the maximum skill point area, though. Medicine will help you heal faster, but there are others ways to keep yourself healthy. For example, a Stimpak is the most effective way to improve your health. Rad-X and RadAway are also more effective for radiation poisoning.

Melee Weapons: If you’re the type of person who likes to walk into random bars and pick fights, then you’re also the type of person who might want to consider using Melee Weapons opposed to Energy Weapons or Guns. Just note that people who like to go into random bars and pick fights might have fun for a while, but they’re eventually going to meet their match. If you’re excited about the Melee Weapons used in Fallout: New Vegas, then you’re not likely to be disappointed with what is offered.

The options include a Lead Pipe, Super Sledge, Sword, Knife and Axe. Striking an unsuspecting victim across the head with a Lead Pipe is the epitome of fun.

The Super Sledge is a unique weapon that can do a ton of damage. With the Super Sledge, you never have to worry about a second strike. If you’re a gamer, then you have plenty of experience with a Sword. This is the perfect weapon for slicing your enemy into two pieces.

The Knife is for those gamers who enjoy close-quarters combat. In other words, if you want to make it personal, then this is the best weapon for you.

The Axe does the most damage of them all and comes highly recommended.

Some players feel that Melee Weapons should only be used when you run out of ammo, but we would have to disagree with that. Using Melee Weapons can definitely add some oomph to your Fallout: New Vegas experience. That said, if you simply want to do well in the game, and you’re wise about making the most out of Energy Weapons or Guns, then there is little use for Melee Weapons.

Repair: This Ancillary Skill is all about maintenance. You want your weapons and apparel to stay in good condition at all times. If you fail in this area, you will definitely fail in the game all together, which is something you obviously don’t want. Another neat aspect for Repair is that you can create items when you’re at reloading benches. This will save you a whole of bottle caps and makes Repair important. However, Repair is most important for explorers. If you’re just attempting to play the game straight through – not recommended whatsoever – then you won’t have to worry about Repair as much. If you’re going to play the game the right way, which means a lot of exploration, then Repair is imperative. That’s not all Repair can offer. If you have two weapons that aren’t in great condition, you can use Repair to combine those two weapons and form a well-operating machine. This is one of the more creative aspects of the game, and it’s also a great tool to take advantage of.

Science: This might not sound like the most exciting skill in the world. After all, not many gamers are the type of people who cherish the days of sitting in science class. Let’s be honest. Science can be boring at times. That said, science can be a great ally in the Mojave Wasteland. The number one reason for this is because the Science skill will allow you to hack into computers. When you have the ability to hack into computers, you can disable enemy robots, collect valuable information about your enemy’s game plans and unlock a lot of side quests. Therefore, if you don’t have the Science skill, you’re basically taking the experience down a few notches. Another benefit for the Science skill is that you will be able to recycle Energy Weapon ammo at workbenches. However, this is only valuable for those who are going the Energy Weapon route.

Sneak: This skill is exactly as it sounds. If you want to go places undetected, then you’re going to want the Sneak skill. You can attack people from behind, steal items that are of great value, pick someone’s pocket and more. At this second, it might sound like Sneak is very important. That’s not the case, though. Sneak is nearly obsolete because you can do the same exact thing with Stealth Boys.

Speech: This skill is used to influence other characters through means of dialogue. The number one reason to use Speech skills is to retrieve valuable information that otherwise wouldn’t have been attainable. It’s the most important non-combat skill in the game. That being the case, you should strongly consider getting your skill points as high as possible and as fast as possible. If you can get to 100 points, then you will be the most persuasive character in the game, which will open a lot of doors.

Survival: We did mention that survival is the key to the game in the game’s early stages. However, the Survival skill isn’t very important. All it does is increase your Hit points when you consume food and drinks. That might seem important, but there’s no use for it since you can just use healing items. When you use healing items, you don’t need to lug around food and drink, which means you can leave more room to carry weapons. The Survival skill is pretty much useless. It wasn’t in Fallout 3, and it should have been left out of this game as well. It should be mentioned that the Survival skill can also help you create items at campfires, but don’t overvalue that.

Unarmed: This might sound similar to Melee Weapons, but with Melee Weapons, you’re actually implementing an object. Unarmed refers to true hand-to-hand combat. You can choose between Brass Knuckles, Power Fists and Displacer Gloves. All of these are self-explanatory. As you might have guessed, this skill should be used sparingly, if at all.

Now that you have learned everything about stats and skills, let’s get to tactics. This is an important aspect of the game. Without using wise tactics in the Mojave Wasteland, you have no chance. We have already established that there is the Main Quest and Side Quests.

We have also established that the Side Quests are much more important as well as the key aspect of the game. The Side Quests are key because that’s where you will meet new people and earn points by communicating and establishing new relationships. You have to choose the right places to visit. After that, you have to determine who are the right people to talk to. If you choose incorrectly, you will be rebooting.

The communication aspect of the game is very similar to Fallout 3. The difference is that it’s much more complicated and challenging. If you visit relatively safe places, and you communicate well, you will be able to keep your karma at the right levels. On the other hand, if you visit too many places, or if you visit the same place too often, you’re going to make a lot of enemies. This will lead you to a great deal of trouble and should be avoided. You need to be in the explorer mind frame. You don’t want to get attached to any one area. That will only lead to disastrous results.