Mentats

Mentats are a chem in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Fallout Tactics, Fallout: The Board Game, and Van Buren.

Background
This pre-War chem was created by Med-Tek. They were designed to increase memory related functions and speed up other mental processes. These chalky red pills were a popular party drug once favored for the boost it gave to creativity; turn on, tune in, drop out.

After the War, the Professor allegedly developed an easy method to mass-produce Mentats, likely owing to its ubiquitous nature across the country, even years after the war had already ended.

Mentats were sold in both cardboard and tin packaging, the latter a bit more likely to survive the nuclear holocaust. They are, of course, highly addictive, with regular Mentats at a 5% chance of addiction and Party Time Mentats at a 15% addiction chance.

Mentats


Mentats are most useful for characters with low Intelligence and Perception, as they grant a useful bonus for both these SPECIAL stats. The downside however, is that they are addictive.

Grape Mentats


These Mentats do not increase Intelligence and Perception; instead, they only increase Charisma.

Berry Mentats


Berry Mentats do not have the Perception bonus that normal Mentats bring, only increasing Intelligence and in Fallout 4 provide enemy highlighting.

Orange Mentats


Orange Mentats do not have the Intelligence bonus that normal Mentats bring, as they only increase Perception.

Party Time Mentats


Party Time Mentats are a crafted variant of Mentats made by the Courier, requiring a Science skill of 50 and can be produced at any campfire.

Behind the scenes
The name Mentats is a reference to Frank Herbert's Dune, where, in the wake of humanity rejecting artificially intelligent computers and robots, Mentats are humans trained for computer-like mathematical and logical computations. The pills are colored red. Red-stained lips are a distinguishing characteristic of a Dune Mentat.