The LCM is called a MGN (minsta gemensamma nämnare) in Swedish because it's for use in a denominator. You have several fractions with different denominators and want to expand them to use the same. In principle it doesn't have to be about denominators, so call it LCM.

To find the LCM of two numbers, construct a number that contains all the prime factors of both.

Bigger than the Greatest common factor (GCF), in the sense that you use every prime you have access to (though not in their full multiplicity). Note the naming of LCM versus GCF. "Multiple" refers to a product of possibly many numbers, "factor" refers to something you can factor out of a single number.

To find the GCF of two numbers, find what primes they share.

Use Divisibility tests or the Euclidean algorithm.

Smaller than the Least common multiple (LCM) in a sense, that you don't use all the primes you have access to. In reality it's apples and oranges. The LCM is to expand two fractions to have the same denominator, so that you can then add them. The GCF is to deexpand a single ratio (fraction or equation) to its most simplified form.

In short, you shrink a denominator to the GCF, or you expand a denominator to the LCM.

See Anki cards. Basically |x| + |y| ≥ |xy|, because x and y, being vectors or complex numbers, take a long way around while xy takes the shortest way.

The rules are braindead. This wand just works everywhere.

(A)^B mod C ≡ (A mod C)^B mod C

(A + B) mod C ≡ A mod C + B mod C

(A * B) mod C ≡ A mod C * B mod C

You've used long division. You're familiar with getting a quotient and a remainder? This is just a realization of that, which we can then use for other things. Warning: the polynomial q(x) has an unfortunate name, it is not the quotient. Without further ado, realize that:

for two polynomials p(x) and q(x), there are unique polynomials r and k such that

$$\frac{p(x)}{q(x)} = k(x) + \frac{r(x)}{q(x)}$$

which can be written

$$\frac{p(x)}{q(x)} = \frac{q(x)k(x)}{q(x)} + \frac{r(x)}{q(x)}$$

which is the same as

$$p(x) = q(x)k(x) + r(x)$$

See the Polynomial Remainder Theorem on how to use this last form.

Divide the polynomial p(x) with (x - a). The remainder will be identical to the value of plugging a into the original: p(a). This lets us know all sorts of things. If the remainder is zero, then (x - a) did divide the polynomial cleanly, and a is a root.

Restate the original Division algorithm, $$p(x) = q(x)k(x) + r(x)$$

in these terms. New division algorithm: $$p(x) = (x - a)k(x) + p(a)$$

Which leaves only k(x) as the unknown.

Let's find GCF(209,77). Realize that 209 can be restated in units of 77, plus something to make up the remainder.

209 = (2 * 77) + 55

This rewrite is the basic step. Repeat: restate 77 in terms of the new thing.

77 = (1 * 55) + 22
55 = (2 * 22) + 11
22 = (2 * 11) + 0

The algorithm is: Re-apply division until you get zero remainder. Then the divisor you just tried is the GCF.

Diophantine equations come in many forms. Fermat's Last Theorem is a famous example. What we mean with this word, 'Diophantine', is that we're interested in integer solutions only. This is why it has applications for e.g. proving the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, which is about prime numbers, which of course are integers. We're going to solve a simple kind, the linear Diophantine equation.

Note: it may seem pointless to run the Euclidean algorithm when you can detect that two numbers share no common factor. But you do it for the steps in the process, not the end result (that GCF=1).

Take an equation of the form ax + by = c, where a, b, and c are known integers, and we're interested in integer solutions. For example 43x + 19y = 4.

Normally equations of this form describe a continuous line, crossing an infinite number of points in the real plane, and some such equations even manage to skip any integer pair (x, y).

Crux: For there to be an integer solution to ax + by = c, then all GCF(a,b) must be a factor of c. If a and b have a common factor not shared by c, then stop. There are no integer solutions. This means you can't e.g. have even numbers for both a and b and an odd number for c, but one of a or b may be even, and c may be too.

Aside: a statement (ka + lb) is a linear combination of (a + b). Therefore, ax + by is a linear combination, too. You can put in any x and y. Anything that divides (a + b) will retain its ability to divide (ax + by).

All numbers are either primes, or a combination of primes.

Minimally stated: Every positive-degree polynomial has a complex zero.

Alternatively: An nth-degree polynomial has n zeros, if you include complex zeros and count multiplicity (duplicate zeros).

That follows from the minimal statement, because once you know you have a zero, you can factor it out and are left with a new (lower-degree) polynomial, which of course also has a zero.

• Divisible by 2 if it's even.
• Divisible by 3 if the sum of the digits are.
• Divisible by 5 if it ends in zero or five.
  • An odd number containing the factor five will end in five.
  • An even number containing the factor five will end in zero.

domain and range

• take a function f: A → B
  • the domain is A, can refer to it by D_f
  • the målmängd is B
    • the range (värdemängd) V_f is a subset of B

find the range of a function

• see if it has a min or max

The range of a function that only takes on the values 1 and 2 is written {1,2}, not [1,2], which would be the full interval.

A closed interval [a,b] includes the ends. $\{x \in \mathbb R | a \le x \le b\}$ .

[a,b]  --------[a----------b]--------

An open interval ]a,b[ excludes the ends. Unfortunate notation. $\{x \in \mathbb R | a < x < b\}$ .

]a,b[  ---------a[--------]b---------

Memory key: the sum will have a binomial factor that contains a plus sign, just like the sum itself.

a³ + b³ = (a + b)( … )

a³ - b³ = (a - b)( … )

Solve x³ − 125i = 0 for $\mathbb C$ .

First, the notion of algebraic numbers: a number that can be a solution to some equation with rational coefficients. This would be most numbers that you actually use.

One example is √2 because it is the solution to x² - 2 = 0. It is algebraic.

Though there are many more transcendental numbers than algebraic, it is hard to prove that a number isn't algebraic. Examples of proven transcendentals include π and e.

• Math

Addition and subtraction work for matrices of identical dimensions.

Multiplication works when the "inner two" dimensions are the same. Meaning: columns of first matrix = rows of second matrix.

The matrix multiplication A_3x2 times B_2x3 is defined. Putting the dimensions next to each other: 3x2 2x3 The "inner two" are the same.

To multiply, a visual aid is to raise the second matrix:

    1  0  0
    3  2  1
2 3
1 0
4 1

Then, for the first item, add the product of 2*1 and 3*3.

An identity matrix I, in Swedish denoted E, looks like this. The zeroes are shorthand for "there are zeroes all over here".

1     0
  1
    1
0     1

A square matrix has two possible properties:

• EITHER its determinant is zero
• OR it is invertible

Take two square matrices A and B. If AB = I and BA = I, they are inverses to each other. The inverse is unique. The inverse of A is denoted A^-1.

Powers function like you expect: (AB)^-1 = B^-1 A^-1 but only square matrices

Calculating a determinant - Sarrus' rule, Laplace utveckling, or Gauss-Jordan elimination

Calculating the inverse of a 2x2 matrix: determinant (ad-bc) times the adjugate.

Calculating the inverse of a 3x3 matrix:

Your original KhanAcademy method involves the determinant, the matrix of minors, the cofactor matrix and the adjugate matrix.

• Matrix of minors is nine 2x2 determinants.
  • This produces something called the cofactor matrix.
• Taking the transpose of the cofactor produces the adjugate matrix.
• You know this. 1/det(A) times adj(A) produces the inverse to A, same as for 2x2 matrices.

The Gaussian method

• Draw your matrix. Draw a vertical line. Draw the identity matrix on the other side.
• Do elementary row operations, and whatever you do to the first matrix, you have to do to the identity matrix.
• Goal: the first matrix should become the identity matrix.
• Result: the original identity matrix has become the inverse matrix.

Take a couple of 2x2 matrices, call them A and B. Say that

det(A) = -1 and
det(B) = -3.

What are the following?

det(AB) det(2A) det(A⁺) det((B²)^-1) det(B⁵)

How to calculate a determinant:

You can Gauss it until you have a triangular matrix. Then the determinant is the product of the diagonal elements.

For a 2x2 matrix, the determinant is $ad-bc$ .

Write a system of equations as a talschema (this is not a matrix). Reduce.

Elementary row-ops:

1. Swap two rows
2. Multiply row with something
3. Add the expanded row to another row

Reduced row echelon form -- trappstegsform.
1 * * * * | *
    1 * * | *
      1 * | *
        1 | *

Each 1 in the diagram above is a "pivot".

Three possibilities

1. There is a row 0 0 ... 0 | a. No solutions.
2. There is a pivot in every column. One unique solution!
3. There are columns without pivots. Infinite solutions.
4. If there is a row 0 0 ... 0 | 0, you can just toss that row. 0=0 is true but adds no info.
5. If there are two identical rows, you can toss one of them. It adds no info.

Warning: Can have $\overline{AB} = \overline{CD}$ as vectors, but $\overline{AB} \ne \overline{CD}$ as directed distances (riktade strackor).

Subtraction is tricky: get the order right. Take three points A, B, C. AB minus AC is what? Look at the minuend(?), AB. The thing being subtracted from is AB. Therefore, AB is pointing at the same point that the resulting vector will point at. So the resulting vector is CB: it goes from C to B.

If you ever have coordinates X, Y, neither of which are in the origin, you can point at either of them with vector addition. Take a point O in the origin and add OY to YX to get OX. Or add OX to XY to get OY.

A scalar is just a number.

• Multiplying a vector with a scalar obviously gives you a different vector.
• Multiplying a vector by another vector gives you a scalar.

The scalar product of two vectors comes from multiplying them together like $\vec{u} \cdot \vec{v}$ , so called because you get a scalar out of it. Different from Cross product. If the scalar product is zero, the vectors are orthogonal to each other. The algorithm is as follows (where φ is the angle between the vectors):

$$\vec{u} \cdot \vec{v} = \left\lbrace \begin{array}{ll} |\vec{u}| |\vec{v}| \cos \phi & \textrm{if } \vec{u} \ne 0 \textrm{ and } \vec{v} \ne 0 \\ 0 & \textrm{if } \vec{u} = 0 \textrm{ or } \vec{v} = 0 \end{array}\right.$$

The second clause is necessary because, though $|\vec{0}| = 0$ , any angle φ between a vector and the null vector is undefined, breaking the math.

You can see that if the angle is 90 degrees – i.e. they are orthogonal – the scalar product will be zero, because what is the cosine of 90 degrees?

Note, often in linear algebra, the angle between two objects indicates the smaller of the two possible angles – the pointy angle, so $0 \le \phi \le \pi$ .

A formula that does not use the angle, is this. Let $\vec{u} = (a,b)$ , and $\vec{v} = (x,y)$ . Then

$$\vec{u} \cdot \vec{v} = ax + by.$$

So named because a you get a vector out of it. Also called cross product. Only defined in 3D-space.

There is no "the" normal-vector of a plane. A normal-vector is determined by its direction, but its length can be whatever you like. As such, the cross product of two vectors within a plane is one possible normal to that plane.

To get the coordinates of a vector product, the practical method is this:

Let $\vec{u} = (a_1, a_2, a_3)$ and $\vec{v} = (b_1, b_2, b_3)$ . (Coordinates are given in a fixed ON-base, this time positively oriented). Then

$$\vec{u} \times \vec{v} = \vec{e}_1 \ \begin{array}{|ll|} a_2 & b_2 \\ a_3 & b_3 \end{array} - \vec{e}_2 \ \begin{array}{|ll|} a_1 & b_1 \\ a_3 & b_3 \end{array} + \vec{e}_3 \ \begin{array}{|ll|} a_1 & b_1 \\ a_2 & b_2 \end{array} \, .$$

As a memory rule, you can use the nonsensical expression

$$\vec{u} \times \vec{v} = \begin{array}{|lll|} \vec{e}_1 & a_1 & b_1 \\ \vec{e}_2 & a_2 & b_2 \\ \vec{e}_3 & a_3 & b_3 \end{array} \, ,$$

nonsensical because determinants shouldn't contain vectors, but it works here as a memory rule to produce the formula. Do not forget the negative sign in the formula.

The magnitude, or length of a vector, is calculated with the Pythagorean theorem.

Want to find the parallellogram between two vectors? Take the cross product of the two, and calculate the absolute value of it. It's the same as the determinant of the two.

In two-dimensional space, two vectors u and v, create a positively oriented base if:

when you rotate the first vector, u, counter-clockwise, you can make it point in the same direction as v without rotating more than 180 degrees.

In three-dimensional space… imagine yourself perched on the top of the third vector, looking down at the plane made by the other two. Apply the above rules.

(VERIFY) Alternatively, you can use the hand rule:

Form your right hand so that your thumb, index and middle fingers are orthogonal to each other. May require some stretching of muscles.

You can pivot your hand any way you like, the point being… if your palm is facing upwards, your middle finger is pointing upwards, and the thumb to your right. Then the thumb should represent the x-axis (the first vector), the index finger the y-axis (the second vector), and the middle finger the z-axis (or a cross product of two vectors). Now that you've named your fingers, you can pivot the hand around.

If the vectors you are looking at don't follow that arrangement, they create a negatively oriented base(?).

An orthonormal base is one where the base vectors are orthogonal to each other and have length 1.

There are several different ON-bases: it can be orientated all manner of ways. In particular, some rules are different if it has a "positive" versus "negative" orientation, see Positive/negative orientation.

If in R³ you have a plane $x = 0$ , which can also be written $1x + 0y + 0z = 0$ , how does the plane look?

Think before you read on!

…

Does it matter what y or z are?

The plane doesn't give a shit about y or z, but x must be zero. So, at any point on the plane, x must be zero. That means, that the x-axis is orthogonal to our plane.

Good going! Now, find a normal to that plane. It is easy: pick any value of x: $(1,0,0)$ , for instance.

Notice how you can get that from reading the plane's equation: they are the coefficients to x, y, z.

You know that it is a normal because the Scalar product of orthogonal vectors should be zero, right? A vector $(x,y,z)$ within the plane multiplied with $(1,0,0)$ is zero. So an alternative way to express the equation of that plane is $(x,y,z) \cdot (1,0,0) = 0$ . IOW by writing this, we are considering all vectors $(x,y,z)$ whose dot product with $(1,0,0)$ is 0, and they all lie within that plane.

Let a new plane $x + 128 = 0$ . You can express this as $(x,y,z) \cdot (1,0,0) = -128$ , or $(x+128, y, z) \cdot (1,0,0) = 0$ , so it is a plane parallel to $x=0$ but that is -128 units away from it in the x direction.

Let a new plane $4x - 11y - 5z + 128 = 0$ . Once again, you can find a normal by taking the coefficients: $(4,-11,-5)$ , because the value of $4x-11y-5z+128$ remains constant when you move perpendicularly to $(4, -11, -5)$ , by linearity and definition of perpendicularity.

Use both ways to do the dot product. The only unknown becomes $\cos \theta$ , which you can solve for.

Also, a trick is: the angle between two lines is the same as the angle between their normals. (Draw this)

To project the vector u on the vector v, the formula is

$$\frac{u \cdot v}{|v|^2} v$$

Look at R². If you have two vectors pointing different directions, you can create any other vector in R² by scaling those two and adding them to each other an appropriate amount of times.

If those two vectors are on the same line, you can only ever get another vector on that line. Make sense?

Zero vectors, regardless of scaling, can only produce another zero vector.

Now, you can extend this to higher dimensions. If two vectors are within a plane, there is no combination of those two vectors that can produce a vector poking out of the plane. It is said that any set of three vectors within the plane is a linearly dependent set, because the other two can be used to produce the third – there is redundancy.

A linearly independent set of three vectors within R³ is one where none of the vectors can be produced by a combination of the other two.

To check for linear dependence, e.g. to check if three vectors within space are in the same plane, put them in a determinant like so: det(u, v, w):

$$\begin{array}{|lll|} c_1 & a_1 & b_1 \\ c_2 & a_2 & b_2 \\ c_3 & a_3 & b_3 \end{array} \, .$$ If the determinant is zero, the vectors are linearly dependent.

determinant=0, system of equations solutions, invertability of matrix

• Math

• VARK
  • Visual
    • icons by your notes
    • color pens
    • mind maps
  • Auditive
  • Read/write
  • Kinesthetic
    • Move while learning
    • Flashcards in a sequence, learn the flow
• Develop my weak sides?
• Ordlista
  • empty wikinodes for everything
  • Speciellt okända/nya begrepp
    • What's the point of the new concept?
    • Avgränsa!
  • Choose the subject to read about & decide a duration
    • Diana's "x pages left tonight"
• Jot down where each note is from
• Substantiv
  • the brain hooks upon them
• Good system for your notes
• Left-right principle
• Plan for a part of the course
• Review how your plans went
• TDT: Choose to live in the world where I succeed tenta or fail it
• 20 minutes context-switching
• Working memory
  • is a shared resource
    • Long-term memory
    • Focus
    • Language
  • Bad working memory? Revise more, prepare more.
• When behind others, think positive thoughts also
• The importance of skimming
  • Hooks for relevance
  • substantiv
  • kursiva ord
  • diagram
• Lectures give you the key to understanding
  • no need to prepare 100%
  • just familiarize, get confused, then go to lecture
  • prep lightens the load on working memory
• Plan to use a given reading method "now I will skim"
• Tell your inner voice it's bullshitting
  • not black and white, you're not an all good or all bad student
• Ask questions to your book
  • experienced readers do this automatically
  • predictor +
  • criticize
  • Don't read something you've read before
    • you don't notice that you're wasting time, much like you can reread a wikipedia article
• Read old summaries of yours before reading new material
• Forgetting curve
  • revise notes at once!
  • every study occasion
• SP3R
• ARMS
• Keywords in the margins

• SQ3R
  • Survey: skim
    • Evaluate the book, who wrote it? What is it? Why?
    • The style, the structure, the cursives
    • Chapter by chapter
    • Difficulty
    • Links
  • Question: formulate questions
    • Those you got from skimming
    • Write headers as questions
    • Different perspectives on the text
      • To remember
      • To compare
      • To sum up
      • To discuss
  • Read
    • Carefully, aiming for understanding, based on your questions
    • Flexible reading speed
    • Don't read too much at once
  • Recite: lay clear the meanings
    • Your own words
    • Can you answer your questions?
    • Some summary for use in review
  • Review: reread/flashcards

• ARMS
  • Anticipate
  • Read
  • Map
  • Summarize

Gifted or not Gifted

The big choice lies in whether or not to get the Gifted trait. It is the best trait by far, worth the setback for most players, but not getting Gifted lets you get skill-points faster so that you may enjoy the game more in its early to mid-late stages. And in end-game (level ~24) you have hundreds of extra skill points, allowing you to have all necessary and all useful skills at 100, and some skills past 100 (such as Science), which is nice for experiencing more game content.

Other traits

• Finesse is decent, but gets obsolete with the Sniper perk, so it'll benefit you only up until then. That said, that’s most of the game.
• Fast Shot will disable your sniping ability (to aim at specific body parts), but with it you can often fire more shots. Choose whether you want to be a tactical sniper or a bullet-raining commando. Keep in mind that aimed shots in Fallout 2 are not limited to sniper rifles - you can do it with most any weapon, excepting shotguns and big guns.
  • The tactical sniper may not need to spend as many points on LK, which enables him to get more CH, EN or PE. A very minor tradeoff is needing a bit more weapon skill.
• Sex Appeal is mostly for bartering with shopkeepers of opposite gender to your own when your CH is low. Most shopkeepers are male, so this is only useful for females. There is some “fun” stuff that this trait will enable, however it's nothing that Kama Sutra Master, Sexpert or Gigolo can't do, and those do not include a penalty with NPCs of the same gender.
• Good Natured makes you gain more useful skillpoints (Doctor +15, Speech +15) than you lose useful ones (one or two combat skills -10 each), so it's a fine choice if you don't want any other trait. Prepare to suck hard in Temple of Trials (the very first mission), though.
• Small Frame is for opening up an additional attribute point if you're not planning to loot a lot of stuff. Remember that if your ST is high you can simply take points off ST and lose less carrying capacity than you would by picking this trait.

All traits besides these are crap. Some downright injure your performance, such as Bruiser (losing AG 4 for ST 2?) and Skilled (you level up for perks, not for skills) to name a few.

First, understand that attributes will never go above 10. If you set something to 10 and get a further bonus in the game, that bonus is wasted. That’s why this part is so important.

Strength

Set Strength to 4 or 5 (recommended). It will be increased by 5 points in the game (surgery +1, armour +4). You can’t cut back to less than 4 because good guns require at least this much, and it’ll be some time before you get Strength boosts. 3 might be feasible, you stick with the 10mm pistol and let your henchmen do the heavy damage until you find power armour. 2 strength should be your minimum, you need to hit 8 with Advanced Power Armor and a Buffout to gain access to the +1 strength implant.

You can use henchmen as pack mules, however it’s tedious trading with them all the time, so you still want Strength for yourself.

Perception

Set Perception to 5. It's the minimum you should have as a gunner, since the Sniper perk requires PE 8, you'll get PE upgrade +1 while you play, and you can use Mentats to give you a temporary +2 to take the perk. Not that Sniper matters, since you don’t have it for most of the game.

PE 6 has some quest benefits that come early in the game (before your PE boost) and PE 7 has a few more quest benefits. So set it to 6 if you want (you end up with a permanent 7). We'll return to this stat later if we have points available.

Endurance

Stimpaks, first aid kits and doctors' bags can be found in great abundance, so Endurance is fairly useless. Leave it at the minimum value. Come back and spend points here if you have a surplus of points. If you want to become a pornstar in New Reno you will need 5 EN and take Buffout to meet the 8 EN requirement. [wait, sounds like you can double dose Buffout]

Having low EN while not knowing the game well enough to avoid injuries can get irritating because of the constant self-healing.

There's also a much higher chance of getting insta-gibbed outright if you encounter particularly difficult enemies (something that occurs often in your early levels), so for taking such enemies on, EN actually turns into something more than pure convenience. Your choice.

Note that low Endurance will force you to take the perk Quick Pockets (for accessing stimpaks), when you could get some other perk (Awareness or Bonus Move) at that level. However, Quick Pockets is useful for anyone, so you might've ended up taking it anyway.

Every other point of EN gives no benefit - go for an even number of EN if not minimum. EN gets no upgrade in the game, so it’ll stay at the level you set it.

Charisma

The amount of Charisma you need depends on whether you want to be a solo fighter or run around with a group of henchmen. Every two points allow you to have one more party member. Charisma also helps keep your dialogue options open, but isn't really important in that light - Intelligence is actually the social stat in this game.

6 is a good value, since it'll let you have the three good end-game henchmen\* (Cassidy, Sulik and Vic). Otherwise, leave it at 1, or 2 (able to pick up NPCs temporarily for xp).

Charisma is increased by 2 points in the game, however those bonuses will be negated by the combat implants you get later on. If you're not much of a soldier, you may decide against those, so you can start out with a 4 instead of 6. It is notable that said implants are very expensive, you have to be a focused money-gatherer to even get one. So they are an endgame concern and for most of the game you would still have higher CH than the level you set now.

\* These three henchmen are good because you can insert them into power armour and they have good combat skills and will consent to wielding good guns. You’d think that’d come easy but… In any case, during mid-game, several other henchmen work as well because you don’t have any suits of power armor anyway. When you tire of them, just shoot them in the head.

Intelligence

You want as much as possible. Put it to at least 7 and up to 9. When you have IN 7, Mentats is sufficient to hit the roof for the occasions it's needed.

High intelligence is nice for dialogue options - depending on the kind of character you want to play, you might not mind dragging it down to 7. Doing so goes well with dragging Charisma down to 1, since you’re not putting priority on successful conversation (though you can definitely be successful anyway).

Intelligence will be increased by +1 in the game. There is another +1 increase in the game, but that one will put you out of luck for a LK +1 bonus, so you might as well favour Intelligence in character creation instead.

Agility

Set it to 10. You'll appreciate every single action point.

If you plan to be a Fast Shot 'n' max-Luck character, you can set Agility to 9 and end up with 10 by taking the perk Gain Agility in the place of Living Anatomy (see Perk Progression), which is not overly efficient with burst-fire weapons such as those you might choose to use with Fast Shot. It is extremely good for pistoleers though.

Never let AG stay at 9 - odd numbers are worthless. Even AG 8 is better, due to the leftover stat point.

Luck

Here is where we'll possibly increase Perception again; match your Luck level to your Perception, then distribute points to both however you see fit.

LK may be increased up to a value of 8, since you'll get +2 while you play the game.

LK is valuable for doing damage when you get the Sniper perk, since it gives you extremely large chance for critical hits. With Sniper, LK 4 gives a 42% crit chance, while LK 9 gives a 91% chance.

For aimed shots, the benefit of very high Luck is much less, because aimed shots add their own critical chance. This is why I recommend the Fast Shot trait if you max out Luck: you don’t benefit much from aiming anyway. It causes bonus damage and cripplement, but the crit chance is wasted.

Summary

Fast Shot, or aimed shots. Decide. Distribute points as appropriate. These are the main choices:

• Fast Shot or aimed shots
• Solo or henchmen
• Social or asocial
• Gifted or not-Gifted

You don’t have to decide right now. Feel free to keep reading. The chapter on weapons will help you settle on choices.

Tagging a skill makes it much cheaper to raise. Most skills do not benefit you beyond 100. Therefore, you tag skills you want above 100. These would be the weapon skills, and Science.

Consider keeping a surplus of skill points (do not spend them all). A surplus of 79 is safe because you gain 20 at most from a level and 99 is the maximum. You can spend the points when the need arises for a certain skill.

Tag Small Guns, because you want it at about 130 - more if you practice aimed shots. Don't tag Energy Weapons or Big Guns, because you won't find the weapons early on, and you will hopefully have leftover points by the time you do.

Science is among the only skills that benefit you beyond 100. There are minor uses for it all the way up to 200.

Keep in mind the existence of skillbooks which can only be used until the skill is at about 90. By keeping a surplus of points, you can blow the whole surplus on Science after it's hit 90 through skillbooks.

For the third tag skill, choose Lockpick or Speech, whichever is lower. They will be useful nearly right off the bat, and there is no skillbook for either. Traps, Barter and Gambling don’t come into use.

Progression

• level 3 Quick Pockets or Awaremess
• level 6 Bonus Move, Quick Pockets or Awareness
• level 9 Better Criticals (must have)
• level 12 Living Anatomy
• level 15 Bonus Rate of Fire (must have)
• level 18 Action Boy (must have)
• level 21 Action Boy (must have)
• level 24 Sniper (must have)

Alternatives

As far as I've figured, Awareness is good for the following two things: Finding out which enemy has the most powerful weapon, and therefore which enemy to kill first

If you know the damage you will do, finding out which enemy you can kill in one round (mostly when there are different enemies around, with different amounts of hit-points left)

Quick Pockets will have you thanking the Lords you took it every time you access the inventory. You can reload weapons and heal yourself up at the same time, all for 2 AP.

You can consider Sniper an overpowered perk that was put there in case the player messed up his character design, so he can still beat the endgame bosses. Since you will spend most of the game not having Sniper, you can act as though there is no such perk, and Better Criticals becomes less important - because it synergizes with Sniper. It’s still very good if you do aimed shots, but otherwise you could pick something else at level 9. Bonus Ranged Damage good with miniguns?

At level 12, if you shoot a lot of burst-fire (and therefore have the Fast Shot trait), you can skip Living Anatomy because it doesn’t add 5 damage to each bullet, but to the sum, and therefore not amazing. Exploit this at character creation by setting AG 9, and taking Gain Agility at level 12. If you failed to take Fast Shot at character creation, you can take Mutate! to get it, though in this case I would consider sticking to the aimed shot playstyle.

Finally, how many ranks in Action Boy to take can be affected by what weapon you ultimately want. Enter: the chapter on weapons!

Reasons to choose a weapon

Picking an endgame weapon from the outset will not ruin the natural progression, because even if you find your chosen weapon early, you won’t have the ammunition for it. So let’s pick a weapon so you know what to design your character around. You’re still allowed to mix things up for a change, but it doesn’t hurt to pick one that will be the best for you. All weapons in this list are brutal, given you have the traits and perks to exploit them. Take something that fits your style, there is no single best choice.

Recap of weapon mechanics

First, understand how Action Points can affect your combat performance. Each attack costs a certain amount of AP, and depending on your perks you probably have 10, 11 or 12 total AP available. That means if an attack costs 5 AP you can only ever attack twice in a round: if it cost 4 AP, then you’d be able to get three attacks, which makes a huge difference. That’s why you pay attention to this.

Base cost

All weapons that can do single-shot can also do aimed shot. Aimed shots always cost 1 more AP than the single shot. Some weapons can do burst shots, which also always costs 1 more AP than the single shot. An assault rifle can do single shot, aimed shot as well as burst shot, usually at costs of 5 and 6 and 6 respectively.

Reductions of cost

The perk Bonus Rate of Fire will mean all attacks cost 1 less AP than usual. If you chose the trait Fast Shot, that’s another 1 less AP. So a single shot that costs 5 AP will cost 3, and a burst shot from the same weapon would have cost 6 AP but will only cost 4.

Energy Weapons

• Turbo Plasma Rifle is a single shot-rifle. 5 AP cost. As an aside, this was much more powerful in Fallout 1 due to lower AP cost, and blew other guns out of the water. Now it’s outdone by the Pulse Rifle, but has an advantage in accuracy and range.
• Pulse Rifle is a very powerful single-shot rifle. 5 AP cost. Has poor accuracy and low ammo capacity. Switch to it when enemies get close.
• Alien Blaster - This is a pistol that does a ridiculous amount of damage, but it’s only effective in close quarters. Since it costs 4 AP to fire, it drops to 2 AP with Fast Shot & Bonus Rate of Fire. That means up to six shots per round! It only requires 2 strength to wield effectively, nice for a minimum-strength character before you get power armor.

Small Guns

• M72 Gauss Rifle is the endgame sniper rifle. 5 AP cost. So aimed shots cost 5 AP with Bonus Rate of Fire, and you only need 10 AP to get off two snipings. Uses rare 2mm EC ammunition.
• H&K G11E is an assault rifle that uses rare 4.7mm caseless. 5 AP cost. Ammo capacity for seven bursts and one single/aimed shot. The H&K P90c is a good backup submachinegun that uses common ammo.
• The PPK12 Gauss Pistol requires only 4 strength to wield. Since it costs 4 AP to fire, it drops to 2 AP with Fast Shot & Bonus Rate of Fire. That results in up to six shots per round! This is a bit wasteful with rare 2mm EC ammunition though. It’s very accurate, pierces armor well, and has range like a sniper rifle. You could get three snipings a round with this compared to the Gauss Rifle’s two snipings.
• Pancor Jackhammer

Big Guns

• The legendary Bozar looks like a big-ass sniper rifle, but fires full automatic. It is not a sniper rifle, it doesn’t even have the range. It uses relatively common .223 FMJ rifle rounds. Only does burst shots, that cost 6 AP. It runs out of ammo after two bursts, so you don’t quite need Fast Shot.
• The Avenger minigun is pretty good mid-game, but against tough armor you have to switch to the Bozar.
• The Vindicator minigun is the other top-tier Big Gun, but It’s only found at the oil rig at the end of the game. Bring 4.7mm caseless ammo to that mission if you want to give it a spin. This weapon and the Light Support Weapon both have the ammo capacity for three bursts a round, unlike the Bozar.

Unfortunately, many things are very easy to miss. Fallout 2 would normally require twenty playthroughs to explore everything. It is my opinion that an informed playthrough enhances the quality of the experience.

To avoid spoilers, I resorted to making a checklist so you know what keep an eye out for as you progress. I will not include certain things that would be boring to get too soon, like the Advanced Power Armor. You’ll find that one eventually.

By item

• Turbo Plasma Rifle - upgrade a Plasma Rifle
• Alien Blaster - Sold during a random encounter north of Modoc
• H&K G11E - hostile Hubologists || soldiers at Navarro || Snake Morton (random encounter after you complete the kill Frog Morton quest)
• Bozar - once you have electronic lockpicks and high Repair skill, revisit the Toxic Caves north of Klamath.
• If you’re just itching for the Strength bonus from power armor, you can find a basic suit in Mariposa, level 2. Harden it at the Hubologists in San Francisco.
• PPK12 Gauss Pistol - Mariposa, level 4.
• Mirrored Shades (CH+1 when held) - The grave of Presnell, New Reno. Bring a shovel.
• blue memory module (CH+1) - Navarro, armory
• yellow memory module (IN+1) - Sierra Army Depot, level 1
• green memory module (PE+1) - Mariposa, level 3
• red memory module (ST+1) - Vault 8, level 2

By zone: What to do Gecko when to use Mentats for a quest

Drugs

Many drugs weigh nothing, so you can gather and carry huge stacks. You can apparently also double-dose many of them, something that might not be obvious.

Use Buffout for those times when you have too much to carry - it'll increase your strength.

Jet increases your total Action Points by 2, which can be a very powerful benefit. Save them up, buy them everywhere, and start using them near the endgame. The permanent addiction is bad, but you improve performance when it counts. You can get access to a cure for addiction from Myron or the Vault City doctor.

Melee

Melee weapons or unarmed weapons are fully viable in Fallout 2. This section contains what you need to know.

The main problem is that you often knock enemies back many steps. At this point you either switch to a ranged weapon, as you easily hit and crit enemies who are down, or you can catch up. You’ll want the Bonus Move perks for this purpose, which become even better than the Action Boy perks.

It’s also very important to max strength (start with 5, let power armour and implant get you to 10). Furthermore some perk choices will be different. Bonus Rate of Fire obviously is changed out for Bonus HtH (Hand-to-Hand) Attacks, and Sniper is changed out for Slayer. In addition, Slayer does not need you to make a Luck roll, so you may not need as much Luck. Ditto for Perception. PE 6 and LK 6 are required for Better Criticals, though.

One Hander

Unarmed weapons (the Mega Power Fist) count as one-handed weapons. This means you can exploit the trait One Hander, and also get a bonus with one-handed ranged weapons. The best would be the P90c against soft targets, and Gauss Pistol against armour, and probably the .223 Pistol before you find that one. The G11E may look like a submachinegun but actually counts as two-handed.

Hotkeys

My first time, I went through the whole game without knowing this… it was rather bad. There are hotkeys for your skills. They go from 1 to 8 in the same order as they appear on the skilldex list (which can itself be accessed by pressing 's').

Find a guide/walkthrough for Fallout 2 and search through the document for where to find stat upgrades as soon as possible, especially IN. Then keep your eyes open for references to these places while you play the game. Do also pay attention to when you'll be needing to temporarily boost PE or IN for quests. You'll thank yourself.

List

Just in case.

Item/Perk Bonus Location

Blue Memory Module Green Memory Module Red Memory Module Yellow Memory Module Mirrored Shades

Zeta-scan

Vault City Inoculations Combat implants

Gigolo

Sexpert Gecko Skinning Alcohol Raised h.p.

Autodoc Raised h.p.

(CH +1) (PE +1) (ST +1) (IN +1) (CH +1 when worn)

(LK +2 or LK+1 IN+1)

(pois/radresist +10%) (CH -2, all DR +10%)

?

? (Nice.) (+2 — +4 HP)

(+2 HP)

Navarro Military Base Vault City Vault Sierra Army Depot Golgotha (Grave) or New Reno (Mason) NCR (Hubologist) (probability occurrence) Vault City Vault (Doctor 75%) Vault City Vault (Sci 51%, Doc 75%, $92,000) Have "good" sex, or a lot of sex Have sex ten times Klamath (Smiley) Vault City Parlor Room (LK 9—10) Vault City (Dr. Andrew) (IN 3)