Sneak



Sneak is a Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout 3 skill.

Quiet movement, and the ability to remain unnoticed. If successful, you will be much harder to locate. In Fallout and Fallout 2 you cannot run and sneak at the same time unless you have the Silent Running perk.

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics
Initial Level: Starting Sneak skill is equal to 25% + (1% x Agility). Average characters will have a 30% Sneak. Sneak only covers sneaking as such, while pickpocketing is covered by the Steal skill.

Fallout 3
Sneaking can be one of the most important skills in Fallout 3 for certain characters. Sneaking up on a target allows you to get closer, allows you to avoid taking damage for the longest time possible, and maximizes your damage potential through the use of Sneak-Attacks. Sneaking increases your ability to loot and steal, and allows you to avoid undesired confrontations, working as an offensive and defensive skill. Sneak also increases normal movement speed.

Unlike its predecessors, in Fallout 3 a player can both sneak and run at the same time regardless of perks, however, without the Silent Running perk the player will suffer a detection penalty while running.

Sneak states
The sneaking state is displayed while crouching, and alerts the player to detection and possible detection.

Note: As soon as the conditions are satisfied for any state it replaces the one above it on the HUD even though the player may still be in the HIDDEN state to several targets around them. Essentially, it reports the worst detection state towards the Player of all potential targets.
 * [HIDDEN] means undetected. In this state, a Sneak-Attack hit is guaranteed, and pickpocketing is available.
 * [DETECTED] means detected by a friendly target or multiple friendly targets. Pickpocketing is enabled, but always fails.
 * [CAUTION] means suspicion from an unfriendly target or multiple unfriendly targets. After a time the enemy will dismiss the disruption and the state will return to HIDDEN. Pickpocketing is disabled for the enemy searching for the player.
 * [DANGER] means detected by an unfriendly target or multiple unfriendly targets. If [DANGER] is flashing, it serves only as a visual effect to draw your eyes to it, and means only that an enemy has just discovered your position. The state can be returned to HIDDEN by moving away and staying out of sight for a long period of time.

Factors in successful sneaking

 * Sneak skill: The Sneak skill applies whenever the player crouches. The higher the player's Sneak skill, the easier it is to remain undetected while attacking, stealing, or picking someone’s pocket.
 * Cloaking fields: The Stealth Boy and Chinese Stealth Suit will wrap the user in a cloaking field that makes him more difficult to detect while sneaking, rendering the player invisible even in plain sight. The stealth field effect is extremely powerful, and its value matters very little, so the Chinese Stealth Suit's stealth field of 5 works almost (but not quite) as well as the Stealth Boy's 75. It should be noted that this field only increases one's sneaking ability, and the field will be negated if the player breaks sneak mode in any conventional manner, such as firing a loud gun. The stealth suit only has a +15 sneak versus the stealth boy's +100, but its effects are not limited by time. Cloaking can also be stacked, so a Stealth Suit and Stealth Boy can give a player a combined field of 80.
 * Enemy's perception: Enemies with low Perception are easier to sneak around than enemies with high perception. A target's perception will be impaired (with a -5 reduction) if they have a crippled head.
 * Line of sight: While out of sight an enemy can only detect the player through sound.
 * Light level: The player is more difficult to see in dark areas or at night if outdoors. The Pip-Boy light, while active, will make the player much more visible. Likewise, glowing weapons such as the Shishkebab, Plasma Rifle, and Jingwei's Shock Sword can give away the player's position. Tesla Armor is especially difficult to sneak in due to its high weight and many bright lights. Light effects can be partially countered by a stealth field, but never completely.
 * Movement: The player is hardest to detect when motionless and easiest to detect when running. You are able to avoid the sound aspect of this by getting the perk Silent Running. Moving faster while within line of sight will still make you easier to spot, but you will no longer get any penalty for movement speed to your sound made.
 * Contact: Touching or running into targets whilst crouched will immediately alert them to your location. Regardless of how hidden you are, if you bump into a target, friendly or otherwise, you will immediately be detected. This does not apply if the enemy bumps into you; the enemy can push past you without becoming aware of your presence.
 * Equipped Weight: The total weight of all equipped items (weapons count only if they are in your hands) makes your footstep noise louder for NPCs. Silent Running removes this penalty entirely, allowing you full sneaking ability in any equipment. You will still hear your footsteps while sneaking with the perk, but NPCs never will.
 * Sound: Most guns make noise. Louder guns make you easier to detect. The Silenced 10mm Pistol, Dart Gun, Infiltrator, Perforator, all melee weapons, and all unarmed weapons are considered entirely silent, and thus will not break sneak mode. Grenades will also not break sneak mode, as they do not make a noise at your location. Hitting but not killing an enemy with silent weapons still causes a CAUTION alert. All other weapons will most likely be heard, depending on your distance from the target. Missile Launchers and Fat Man units make noise at your location and then at the impact point as well. Oddly enough, your Pip-Boy's radio has no effect on sneaking.

Ways to increase Sneak

 * Bobblehead - Sneak (Permanent +10 Sneak)
 * Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual (Permanent increase of +1 or +2 with the Comprehension perk))
 * Recon Armor (+5 Sneak)
 * Shady Hat (+5 Sneak and +1 Perception)
 * Poplar's Hood (+10 Sneak - Also provides +1 Agility, which will increase Sneak level by an additional +2 if the player has less than 10 Agility)
 * Stealth Boy (+100 Sneak, temporary +75 Cloaking Field)
 * Chinese Stealth Armor (+15 Sneak, persistent while crouched +5 Cloaking Field) (Operation Anchorage DLC only)
 * Lag-Bolt's Shades (+3 Sneak, with Chinese Stealth Armor)

Sneak-Attacking
Attacking while undetected by the target results in an automatic Sneak Attack Critical if the attack hits. It is possible to miss a sneak attack which will result in probable detection by the target. For best results, maximize chance to hit as much as possible before attacking so the sneak critical is not wasted. It is possible to get a sneak critical while being detected by one target, friendly or unfriendly, on another target that has not detected the player if you act quickly before it has time to alert the other targets.

It is possible to kill an enemy without alerting those around them if the sneak critical is also a one-hit-kill even with loud weapons like the Assault Rifle. Additional attacks after the first, queued in V.A.T.S., will be treated as non-sneak attacks and will reveal the player's location to the target and possibly other enemies, presumably because the target then alerts their friends.

Using equipment such as a Stealth Boy or the Chinese Stealth Armor, and a silent weapon, one can rack up sneak attacks one at a time by waiting for the sneak state of a the enemy to go from CAUTION back to HIDDEN before attacking again.

Killing friendly NPCs, such as those in Megaton, whilst stealthed will not alert and make them aggressive as long as you stay in stealth for a short period of time after.

Pickpocketing
While sneaking and HIDDEN, activating an NPC will allow you to pickpocket them; in other words, steal items that they are personally "holding." This will open both your and your target's inventories. Items can be transferred either way, and thus items can also be planted on NPCs, also known as 'reverse-pickpocketing'.

For each item you steal or plant in an NPC's inventory, there is a chance (presumably based on your Sneak skill, Luck, and the NPC's Perception) that you will be detected. If detected, the NPC will automatically reclaim the item(s) you took and you will not be able to pickpocket that NPC again (leaving the area and returning 24 hours later should allow you to re-attempt this).

You can not steal items an NPC currently has equipped. If you want to steal an item the NPC is wearing or using (armor or weapon), you can reverse-pickpocket a better item into their inventory and then leave and re-enter the area. The NPC will equip the item with the highest stats and you will be able to steal the item he or she was using before.

Successfully stealing the ammunition from an NPC with a gun equipped will immediately render that NPC unable to fire their gun. The amount of ammo an NPC is carrying will not match the amount they could fire if not pickpocketed (which is actually unlimited); this discrepancy can be attributed to gameplay purposes. Because this renders NPCs able to use only unarmed attacks unless they pick up a nearby weapon in the gameworld, this tactic can be used to influence the outcome of both NPC/PC and NPC/NPC conflicts. Concerning NPC/NPC conflicts, this allows you to remain non-hostile to NPCs on both sides of a conflict (by not needed to intervene with gunfire) while still ensuring victory for one side or another.


 * A combination of the above two tactics can disarm an enemy carrying a melee weapon. Reverse-pickpocket a better ranged weapon onto the NPC along with the appropriate ammo. When the NPC is reloaded, it will equip that weapon and unequip the melee weapon. Steal the melee weapon and the ammo you gave them, and reload the NPC. The NPC will be unarmed and you can steal your ranged weapon back. Keep in mind that just because you do more damage with a specific ranged weapon doesn't mean that the NPC will (usually but not always). This is because of the NPC's skills. An NPC wielding a Super Sledgehammer with a melee weapons skill of 85 and a small guns skill of 10 will probably do more damage with that Super Sledgehammer than with a Hunting Rifle, so they won't equip the hunting rifle. Change things up and experiment to get the desired effect.

NPCs will notice you pickpocketing other NPCs, hence the DETECTED sneak state, but in large open areas one can manoeuver into gaps or around corners to avoid line-of-sight and return to HIDDEN. NPCs laying in beds may appear to have their back to you and still detect you, this is because as far as the game is concerned they are not facing the way they are laying down, that is merely an animation. To get "behind" an NPC laying in bed, go to the foot of the bed.

The player can also use pickpocketing offensively to plant a live explosive. This will detonate after a short time, automatically killing the target regardless of the player's explosive skill or the target's health or resistances.

The Mothership Zeta add-on added another way to pickpocket friendly a NPC. Reverse-pickpocket a Cryo Mine or Cryo Grenade onto the NPC, after existing the pickpocket menu the cryo charge will go off but only stun / knockdown the NPC. The NPC can then be pickpocket like any disabled target with the exception that the NPC wont turn hostile when he/she recovers.

Pickpocketing expensive or heavy items
Although not confirmed, but it seems that expensive items (e.g. minigun) are more difficult to pickpocket than cheap items (e.g. ammo). In order to increase the chance for obtaining a unique and expensive item from an NPC, reverse-pickpocket an item which has similar value into the NPC's inventory. Press E to Exit and wait around 10 seconds, then pickpocket the item you want and now you are likely to get it. (Tested with Eugene)

Partially confirmed with Somah. With 100 sneak, 800 caps where pickpocket at 1st try five times in a row, while 3000 caps could not be pickpocket in 20 tries even if a stealth-boy was used

The weight of the item may also be a factor. The heavier the item, the more likely you will be caught (which makes complete sense, logically). Weightless items are not "freebies," however. There is still a risk of being caught with "--" weight items.

Stealing Items
Picking up NPC owned items in the game world while sneaking and HIDDEN, will allow you to steal items undetected.

One easy way to steal items in shops (as in Rivet City) is to simply "grab" the item (gun, chem, food, etc.) by clicking the right thumb stick (Z key on the PC). You can then drag the item to a concealed area, go into sneak mode, and steal it without anyone noticing. This is a good way to acquire any goods you see on display or simply to collect items (like chems) to sell to another shop owner.
 * Items you steal from shop owners cannot be sold back to the original shop, but will not be removed from your inventory if you try to do so. The items can be sold to any other shop.
 * Stealing from "good" or "neutral" characters will always result in a Karma loss. Stealing from "evil" characters will sometimes affect your karma, and sometimes it will not. An example of an evil character from which you can steal without losing Karma is Smiling Jack in Evergreen Mills, and Eulogy Jones in Paradise Falls. Some examples of evil characters that will negatively affect your karma when stolen from are the cannibals of Andale and the Chinese Soldiers of various rank found in the Operation: Anchorage DLC simulation.

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