So i've started a new Courier after finishing my first account (based on Guns). This new one will be based entirely on the Unarmed skill, but it isn't going well so far.

6 Strength
3 Perception
8 Endurance
7 Agility
7 Intelligence
6 Charisma
4 Luck
Unarmed
Sneak
Lockpick

It takes me forever and a day to kill anything more then a Gecko, things that could be ended with a 5.56 to the head at 100 meters. I walked up to Joe Cobb, bludgeoned him with fists for about a minute (while circling) and died to a measly 9mm. Then I loaded up a previous save, and put 1 bullet in his head and I win. So does Unarmed just flat out fail for the first few levels, the whole game, or am I doing it wrong? I know that you do can normal punches, power punches, block with your fists, or go with good 'ol VATS. But how and when to do these is beyond me, so I want some teaching. How do I use my fists properly? And where can I find some Unarmed weapons beside these Boxing Gloves with 10% condition?

Thanks.

http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/c/c0/BallisticFist.png

Wait until you get the Ballistic Fist and Pushy. Unarmed may seem to be bad at first but you'll find that its a bit overpowered by the end of the game. My advice, up your melee till you can get Super Slam. That way, even deathclaws can't stand before you provided you still have your good weapons.

Weak at first, until you hit Novac and learn the Ranger Takedown from Ranger Andy. Its like real life, you start out a mere student of wasteland fighting, but in time YOU become the master!

Warpenergybot got it about right; except you can pick up Pushy rather fast, and get Jury Rigging so you can repair them with boxing tape :celebration:

To prepare for an unarmed character I'd HEAVILY suggest watching a lot of 70's kung-fu flicks, listen to a lot of Wu-Tang Clan's early material

Does it actually help? IT SURE DOES!

The seller in Primm sells bladed gauntlets. That's a good place to get a decent unarmed weapon early game.

Hmmm...

Could a low level player sneak into Black Rock cave with some Stealth Boys and grab Paladin's Toaster without being seen by Nightkin?

I'm 5 levels in and i've just been using my guns most of the time because there is no way to bypass DT until I get the Bladed Gaunlet/Cram Opener.

you need more str, so drop your int by 2 and agi by 1and then add to str and luck

Strength does nothing for damage for an unarmed character. May I suggest forgetting about Ballistic Fist and going for Pushy/Mantis Gauntlet instead for much lower strength requirements.
5 Strength
5 Perception
9 Endurance
1 Charisma
4 Intelligence
9 Agility
7 Luck

You can buy one implant for each of your abilities to raise each by one.

Some perks you will want are:
Educated
Toughness
Superslam
Finese
Piercing Strike
Purifier
Better Crit
Paralyzing Palm
Grim Reaper's Sprint

I'm going to try and get all the 'moves' aswell. In this order:

Ranger Takedown
Scribe Counter
Legion Assault
Khan Trick

And nobody has told me 'how' to fight. When should I punch normally, when should I power punch, when should I VATS, and when I should run?

Actually Strength does affect Unarmed damage from what I've seen, albeit by about half a point of damage per point of Strength added to your base damage with unarmed or what 'unarmed' device you are using.

Good early weapon is love and hate.
Kinda on topic, Melee or unarmed ? Which is better I am thinking of upping one of them, but both seem the same.

It's all about personal taste really. But there should certainly be enough points to do both if you so desire.

I'd also advice comprehension and here's why. Though out the game there are certain checks you have to make you don't need the skill that high all the time just for a moment. Barter, speech, science, medicine and lockpick or survival in some cases. The extra temporary points you get from those magazines saves you SP you'd normally have to spend. This advantage is most obvious on locks, terminals and speech challenges but can show up in other skills to depending on the quest. Comprehension can give you increased flexability in how you can complete those quests as the skill checks may be attainable without investing unnecessary skill points.


Which is basically the same as saying it does nothing.

Just get Veronica to kill those Nightkin.

Both, as a lot of the perks require each other, which is very annoying, I think it should be one or the other for those perks.

e.g. piercing strike works for both meelee and unarmed, but you need to have 70 unarmed to get it. I think you shpuld be able to get it while at 70 melee, but it doesn't work for unarmed until that also gets to 70.

Head to Primm, in the caged room on the left inside of Vicky and Vance casino is a open safe.
On which is a 9mm SMG, a switchblade some drugs and *spiked knuckles*...

These will turn a low damage fist / boxing tape / boxing glove character into a killer.

Third ranged foes allways keep one between you and the others if facing multipule enemies, as they won't / can't shot you then.
You can deal more on a one to one basis and not take as much damage.

Oh and both Melee and unarmed are symbiotic skills a pure build focused in both will work wonders.

Actually Unarmed doesn't need high Melee skill perks; Unarmed Perks alone is more than powerful enough to bring down anything.

Melee ~50 allow you to get Super Slam(which almost feel like cheating at times) and use Rebar Club, which is rather light and can handle anything that you don't want to put on your Ballistic Fist/Pushy to kill.

True you don't need it, but depending on what you like using cross perk use will add to the mix.

Ninja better critical chance even if you don't sneak.
Super slam seems to work less on unarmed but still is fun when using other moves or need to get fast blows in quickly.
Peircing strike makes bare fists more deadly combined with paralyzing palm you can see its use, but even with just brass knuckles you get a great advantage.
Combine it with more dps melee weapons it turns health eaters into health and armour eaters.
Paralyzing palm a very specialised perk but has its uses.
Purifier this really is a free perk and any close combat build should take it imo.
Stonewall is great no matter what.
Unstoppable force is overlooked but most foes like ganging and chain blocking.
Slayer is just great.

Other ones are..
Hunter and emntologist add damage to those tricksy foes and raise up survival at the same time.
Cowboy ( limited but a very good cross skill ).
Heave Ho, ( for when you need a silent range kill ).
Hit the deck ( if you need range and defense go explosives ).
Cannibal, grow strong on your enemies corpses win win.

Peircing strike require Unarmed.
Purifier only require level.
Stone Wall only need S6&E6.
Unstoppable Force is meh with decent control.
Slayer also need Unarmed.

Hunter only work on rather non-threatening creatures and only on critical.
Cowboy is very very limited for Melee; but great if you want to double some Gun.
Heave Ho and Hit the Deck require explosive.
Cannibal is really for Karma control/roleplay

Animal Friend helps Unarmed, especially if you get the second level. However, not having to deal with most animals unless you want to is nice whilst traveling.

Or, pick companions that have Ranged Attacks. Ed-E is nice for that early on.

+1 for Brass, then Spiked Knuckles early in the game. Later on there's a pretty good unique Dogtag Fist, and Love and Hate (unique spiked knucks) are about all you need for most of the game. The heavier, slightly slower and more powerful power fists are awesome.
With Pushy and a high unarmed skill, you can one-punch a Sentry Bot.

It is too bad there aren't more sophisticated truly unarmed attacks --i.e. bare fists, feet, grapples and throws in the game, but that gets into some pretty elaborate animation.

As for tactics, beyond the obvious hiding in cover from ranged attackers until they're close enough, the usual sidestepping, circling ("strafing") around a charging enemy works quite well. I haven't been that impressed with the "block" method when someone swings a mellee weapon at me or tries to bite me, but maybe if I practiced more. I get better results just goin' in punching.

Weirdly, I found the ranging to be easier in FO3 in 3rd person because the camera is a bit further back. 1st person view is a little awkward because you don't have true depth of field with a screen-- only visual clues from the background-- so it's a bit hard to judge range right up close. Stepping right in 'til you bump into them works pretty well, and can put you inside the sweep of some dangerous guns, like gatling lasers and miniguns.

I was about to give up on Unarmed, but decided i'd pick up these Spiked Knuckles first. Run into the open, and uh-oh, hear comes a Jackal in reinforced Metal Armor, i'm hopeless. Punched him once and his head blew off. WTF? SWEET!

I also snuck into Black Rock cave with a Stealthboy, evaded 4 Nightkin, and stole Paladins Toaster At level 5 no less.