Science

Science is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout Tactics, Fallout: New Vegas, Van Buren, and J.E. Sawyer's Fallout Role-Playing Game skill.

Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics

 * $$\text{Initial level}=25\%+(2\%\times\text{Intelligence})$$

Example: A starting Intelligence of 5.


 * $$25\%+(2\%\times5)=35\%$$

The Fallout Tactics 1.27 patch notes readme file says:

suggesting that science somehow affects critical chance or effectiveness against robots (at least in Tactics).

Fallout 3

 * $$\text{Initial level}=2+(2\times\text{Intelligence})+\left\lceil\frac{\text{Luck}}{2}\right\rceil$$

Example: A starting Intelligence of 5 and Luck of 5.


 * $$2+(2\times5)+\left\lceil\frac{5}{2}\right\rceil=15$$

Science primarily allows you to hack terminals using a mini-game. Certain terminals have different difficulty levels, and different science skill levels are required to hack them. The difficulty ratings and skill levels are: very easy (15), easy (25), average (50), hard (75), and very hard (100). This is one of the few skills that may be useful to find a way to raise it to 100% (like lockpick) as some terminals require a very high level. On the other hand, there are few terminals which require 75 science skill and even fewer that require 100. The relative values of your science level and the difficulty rating affects how hard the minigame is (at 100 science, average terminals are a breeze, presenting only about 5 possible passwords). Harder terminals have more words, longer words, and fewer brackets.

Science in quests and exploration

 * A Science skill of 50 is required to reactivate the robots during Big Trouble in Big Town.
 * With a science skill of 60 or higher you can unlock certain dialog options with Doctor Lesko during the quest Those!. This allows you to learn he had been using a modified Forced Evolutionary Virus to induce pyrosis reactions in giant ants, creating fire ants.
 * With a high science skill you can bypass the speech check required to convince John Henry Eden to self destruct during The American Dream.
 * Although a high science skill increases your chances of disarming a slave collar, the explosives skill is also taken into account. Even when both skills are high, the slave could still blow up, so saving before disarming it is advised.
 * During Mothership Zeta players with a science skill of 75 or above can modify Healing archways to fully heal the player, though this reduces their number of uses to three.
 * During the Broken Streel]] add-on, a science skill of 75 is needed to hack the Mobile Crawlers' mainframe.
 * Also during Broken Steel players with a science skill of 80 or above can deactivate the repulsion fields aboard the Mobile Base Crawler.

Ways to increase Science

 * Bobblehead - Science (permanent +10)
 * Big Book of Science (permanent +1 or +2 with Comprehension, unlimited skill book)
 * Daddy's Boy/Girl (permanent +5 for each rank)
 * Tag! (permanent +15)
 * Survival Expert (permanent +2, 4 or 6)
 * Covert Ops (permanent +3, requires Operation: Anchorage)
 * Vault lab uniform (temporary +5)
 * Enclave scientist outfit (temporary +5)
 * Lab coat (temporary +5, requires Broken Steel)
 * Lesko's lab coat (temporary +10)
 * Scientist outfit (temporary +5)
 * The Surgeon's lab coat (temporary +5)
 * Mentats (temporary +2-10 depending on intelligence, a perfect intelligence of 10 will see no benefits)

Ways to increase Science

 * Big Book of Science (permanent +3 or +4 with the Comprehension perk))
 * Programmer's Digest (temporary +10 or +20 with the Comprehension perk))
 * Followers lab coat (temporary +10)
 * Scientist outfit (temporary +5)
 * Night Person (temporary +4), (int +2)
 * Mentats or Party Time Mentats (temporary +2-4, characters with 10 intelligence will see no benefit)
 * All-purpose science suit (temporary +5)

Science in quests and exploration

 * 25 Science to use the chemistry set in Mitchell's House.
 * 25 Science to see Victor has been overridden when you asked him to help fighting the Powder Gangers in Goodsprings.
 * 45 Science to use rebreather instead of finding a pressure cooker for Jack in Volare!.
 * 50 Science to hack Daniel Contreras's terminal and download the weapons manifest to get the weapon This Machine.
 * 50 Science to figure out who hacked Primm Slim in Primm.
 * 50 Science to unlock the terminal used to reprogram Fisto, the sex robot.
 * 55 Science to upgrade Rocket Trajectory at the end of the quest Come Fly With Me.
 * 55 Science to run the bypass on ED-E, thus lowering the repair requirement to 35 (instead of 65). However on the Xbox 360 (no patches) this is reversed, 55 repair lowered to 35, requiring 65 Science.
 * 60 Science to repair Rhonda in Black Mountain.
 * 70 Science to convince Keely that the player must return the data of Vault 22 to Thomas Hildern in the quest There Stands the Grass.
 * 80 Science to bypass the fee to enter The Strip.
 * 80 Science to convince Scribe Ibsen to delete the Brotherhood of Steel's files on the computers at Hidden Valley.
 * 90 Science to convince Henry to test the Stealth Boys on nightstalker brains in Guess Who I Saw Today.
 * 100 Science to hack computer add face data in REPCONN Headquarters 3rd floor terminal or shut down the robots.
 * 100 Science to hack computer in Security Station A of Vault 34 in I Could Make You Care.

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