Seems every build I make for a survivalist character begins to fail, and turns into a mess at around lvl 10. Anyone got any good ones?

Edit: Forget it, i'll figure something out. Seems all i'm getting here are "These skills are useless and these ones are good, even though your goin for somethin I deem useless"

Don't take the Survival skill, its completely useless, I beat the game on hardcoe Mode (start to finish) without using the Survival skill nor even the Campfire once.
But, I didn't really do a survival build yet, so I'm not much help.
My advice: Use guns.

Repairs a bigy

Does anyone even need builds on NV? Just keep everything at least 5 (well okay maybe lower one or two to 4 if you feel the need) and specialise in one attribute.

I like making character builds so that it's not all hectic/random stuff. I like to plan out my perks, but none of my builds are working in NV. I made plenty in F3, and they all worked perfectly, and I figured with NV, geting half the perks would make it easier to plan out.

Stealth isn't that important, you'll be detected anyway
Survival is pointless, unless you're going for the achievement
Barter isn't super important past 50
Medicine doesn't need to be over 50
Get either guns or energy weapons to 100
If you're doing unarmed get it at least above 75
If you're doing Melee get it at least above 50
Explosives aren't that important
Lockpick and Science help, but aren't important
Speech should get around 50

But that's just my personal opinion.

alot of unique weapons are in very hard boxes I make it a biggy depending on my characters back story

What do you mean by "survivalist character"? Do you mean specializing in survival or something else? I like the survival skill though I don't normall get it to over 65. Most of my fav recipes don't need it above that and a Lad's Life will let me make things at the 75 level. I don't like using stim packs so the food is the way I prefer to heal. More realistic to me. If I'm going for a survival character I take the Perks Entomology and Hunter. Hunter may be considered weak, but I'm going for the roleplay aspect of it. Get your END to 8, then you can get an implant to get it to 9, and either use a Brahmin Skin suit or Intense Training Perk to get it to 10. For a hunter type I prefer a PER of 6 or 7. ED-E mitigates this though. He is better than a PER of 10.

My opinion

Stealth, spend any spare points on it
Survival, don't bother
Barter, quite important spend some
Medicine, get to around 60
Guns or energy weapons, isnt absolutely necessary but is useful. If your using it get to 100
Unarmed, use a friggin gun please!
Melee, if your using it, get to 100
Explosives, not important
Lockpick, get to 25 or 50, you can then pick most locks
Science, get to 25 or 50, you can hack most terminals
Speech, very important, get 100

You are kidding.

Even in normal Survival provide good progressive heal and stat bonus; the down side is side effect is multiple if it is too high.

In general, 55 Survival allow you to make most things, use magazine if more is needed.

My advice:Use Melee and Unarmed.

You can beat the game without relying on any specific skill. That doesn't make a certain skill useless, however.
Survival is incredibly powerful, especially on HC mode.




Wrong figuring. in Fallout 3, ending up with a maxed out character was inevitable. There wasn't any thinking needed

Here's my Lvl30 character

S 6
P 6
E 5
C 5
I 8
A 8
L 8

Traits

Built to destroy +3% base crit chance, the trade off is very minor
Wild Wasteland, fun encounters and the Alien Blaster

Perks

Train INT
Comprehension - Magazine effect doubled to 20, saves heaps of skill points, Skill Books also yield a point more each
Train LCK
Scrounger - more ammo? get in
Finesse - +5% base crit chance
Travel Light - makes you run faster in light armor
Hand Loader - craft powerful special ammo
Better Criticals - 50% more crit damage
Chemist - doubles the duration of any consumable taken, drunk or eaten
Grim Reapers Sprint - 20AP when killing an enemy
Laser Commander - +15% damage, +10% base crit chance for Laser Weapons
Miss Fortunate - Revolver chicks wearing hot pants are awesome
Nerves of Steel - 20% faster AP regeneration
Jury Rigging - repair expensive and rare stuff with common and cheap stuff
Lady Killer - for some funny lines

Implants bought

Strength
Perception
Agility
Luck
Sub-dermal Armor

Skills

Barter 28
Energy Weapons 100
Explosives 78, with apparel and magazines ->100
Guns 100
Lockpick 75, with apparel and magazines ->100
Medicine 80, with apparel and magazines ->100
Melee 26
Repair 90, with apparel and magazines ->100
Science 79, with apparel and magazines ->100
Sneak 50
Speech 70, with apparel and magazines ->100
Survival 85, with apparel and magazines ->100
Unarmed 24

See, it is pretty much a jack of all trades character, allowing me to pass any skill check, except for the Barter checks which usually can be solved with Speech.
I don't like Melee or Unarmed, I don't need Barter, and 50 Sneak is enough for someone who relies on ranged combat and to keep a good hold out weapon.
I started out as a Guns user and proceeded over to using Energy Weapons at Level 22.