Best Starting Skills and List of Skills

There are 13 Skills in Fallout New Vegas (FNV) that the Courier can have an affinity to. Read on to see a list of all skills, the best starting skills, how to increase skills, and additional information on what skills are!

List of All Skills

Note: The enclosed parenthesis refers to the amount of skill needed to learn the perk

Perk	Overview	Items
Barter
	★ Better Prices Perks: Pack Rat (70) | Long Haul (70) |	Skill Magazine: Salesman Weekly Skill Book: Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor
Energy Weapons
	★ Effectiveness of Energy Weapons Perks: Run 'n Gun (45) | Concentrated Fire (60) | Plasma Spaz (70) | Meltdown (90) | Laser Commander (90) |	Skill Magazine: Future Weapons Today Skill Book: Nikola Tesla and You
Explosives
	★ Effectiveness of Explosives Perks: Heave, Ho! (30) | Demolition Expert (50) | Pyromaniac (60) | Hit the Deck (70) | Splash Damage (70) |	Skill Magazine: Patriot's Cookbook Skill Book: Duck and Cover!
Guns
	★ Effectiveness of Guns Perks: Rapid Reload (30) | Run 'n Gun (45) | Shotgun Surgeon (45) | Cowboy (45) | Concentrated Fire (60) | Center of Mass (70) |	Skill Magazine: Milsurp Review Skill Book: Guns and Bullets
Lockpick
	★ Picklock difficult doors Perks: Infiltrator (70) |	Skill Magazine: Locksmith's Reader Skill Book: Tumblers Today
Medicine
	★ Recovery from Stimpaks and Radaway Perks: Chemist (60) | Chem Resistant (60) | Living Anatomy (70) |	Skill Magazine: Today's Physician Skill Book: D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine
Melee Weapons
	★ Effectiveness of Melee Weapons Perks: Cowboy (45) | Super Slam (45) | Ninja (80) | Unstoppable Force (90) |	Skill Magazine: Tæles of Chivalrie Skill Book: Grognak the Barbarian
Repair
	★ Effectiveness of repairing equipment + Ammunition Recipes Perks: Hand Loader (70) | Jury Rigging (90) |	Skill Magazine: Fixin' Things Skill Book: Dean's Electronics
Science
	★ Hack difficult terminals Perks: Nerd Rage! (50) | Robotics Expert (50) | Vigilant Recycle (70) | Math Wrath (70) | Computer Whiz (70) | Nuka Chemist (90) |	Skill Magazine: Programmer's Digest Skill Book: Big Book of Science
Sneak
	★ Better sneaking, stealing, and pickpocketing Perks: Friend of the Night (30) | Silent Running (50) | Mister Sandman (60) | The Professional (70) | Ninja (80) |	Skill Magazine: ¡La Fantoma! Skill Book: Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual
Speech
	★ Influence NPCs through dialogue Perks: Terrifying Presence (70) |	Skill Magazine: Meeting People Skill Book: Lying, Congressional Style
Survival
	★ Effectiveness of Food and Drinks + Crafting Recipes Perks: Hunter (30) | Lead Belly (40) | Rad Resistance (40) | Entomologist (45) | Travel Light (45) | Animal Friend (45) | Rad Child (70) |	Skill Magazine: Lad's Life Skill Book: The Wasteland Survival Guide
Unarmed
	★ Effectiveness of Melee Weapons Perks: Piercing Strike (70) | Paralyzing Palm (70) | Slayer (90) |	Skill Magazine: Boxing Times Skill Book: Pugilism Illustrated

Best Starting Skills

1. Weapon Type

Guns		Explosives		E. Weapons
Melee Weapons			Unarmed

For the most part, you should prioritize adding points to your preferred weapon type first. Each weapon skill has potent and unique perks locked behind high-skill caps.

More often than not, the perks you get from each weapon perk will define your playstyle for the rest of the game!

2. Speech

Speech	Determines the ability to influence others through dialogue.

While Charisma is usually a dump SPECIAL for most builds, the Speech skill remains a priority tag to cover the Charisma deficit. With high Speech, you can access more content and dialogue that are otherwise inaccessible, some of which trivialize certain quests!

3. Repair

Repair	Determines the ability to maintain weapons and apparel, and allows you to create more items and ammunition.

As Fallout New Vegas introduces a repair system that affects weapon damage and armor durability, having a high Repair skill will help you maintain consistent damage and DT. Furthermore, reaching rank 70 unlocks Hand Loader, letting you craft ammunition with damage multipliers!

How to Increase Skills

Have High Intelligence

Note: All decimals are rounded down.

If you have a higher Intelligence, you will have more skill points to use when allotting unto skills. For most builds, these additional skill points are the reason to have a high Intelligence SPECIAL!
EXP Farming Guide: How to Level Up Fast

Get the Educated Perk

With the Educated perk, you will have two extra skill points to spend everytime you level up. It is recommended to get this perk as early as level 4 to get the maximum value of 52 skill points in total!

Use the Tag! Perk

If you have a particular skill that you need to increase, you can use the Tag! perk to tag a skill to give it +15 points.

Read Skill Books

Increase your skills by 3 points permanently by reading Skill Books scattered around the Wasteland. If you are a bookworm with the Comprehension perk, you can get an additional skill point when you read a Skill Book!
Skill Books Map Locations and Guide

What are Skills?

Courier's Aptitude on Certain Activities

Skills pertain to certain activities that the Courier can have an affinity towards. Skills govern most of the fundamentals of the game, as they are responsible for calculating damage and unlocking better perks. There are also instances where dialogue only resolves under skill checks!

Fallout New Vegas Related Guides

Fallout: New Vegas
Walkthrough and Guides Wiki

Fallout: New Vegas Wiki
Story Walkthrough	Side Quests
Weapons	Companions
Tips and Tricks	Interactive Map
SPECIAL	Perks
Skills	Traits
Armor	Power Armor
IDs and Item Codes	Trophies