This is the build I used for my first full playthrough a couple weeks ago. Try and get your small guns up to around 100% as soon as possible if you want to hit anything. Kill all most or all of the rats in the beginning cave for a head start on exp.
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When you get to Shady Sands, make a save and try to persuade Ian to join you, if the speech check fails (a lot of the speech checks in fallout 1 are chance based, sort of like fallout 3), you’ll never be able to recruit him. Either savescum it or come back after killing a few radscorpions and have the town doctor turn their tails into antivenom, which you can sell to the jeets around town for around 40(?) caps a piece, which means around 3 should more than cover Ian’s recruitment fee. Selling prices aren’t affected by the barter skill, which you should never put points into.
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Afterward, grab the rope from a shed in the eastern part of Shady Sands and loot Vault 15 with Ian. There’s a hunting rifle on the ground by one of the bathrooms in the living quarters, make sure to take it. There are a good few items you can find laying on the ground in this game, so make sure to hover your mouse over anything that looks out of place in the dark. You should also find a leather jacket, which will be your first piece of armor, and when you reach Junktown, will make Dogmeat join your party. You’ll also want to talk to Tycho in the bar at Junktown, as he can be recruited for free if you’re working for the mayor
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I’ll leave the guideish section off there. Just know that you’ll eventually want to start dumping points into energy weapons and find up a plasma rifle, which you can have upgraded by a guy in the Boneyard, which also has a guy who can upgrade your power armor, but that’s all a fair bit later in the game. Also, having a high speech skill makes certain parts of the game a fair bit easier, and lockpick can come in handy but I wouldn’t raise it too high
