Fallout: New Vegas skill magazines

General information
Skill magazines temporarily raise the corresponding skill by ten points (twenty with the Comprehension perk), but wear off after 1 minute (3 minutes with the Retention perk). True Police Stories is the only exception to this general rule, raising the "skill" (Critical Chance) by five points (ten with Comprehension). There are a total of 236 skill magazines placed in permanent locations, plus 63 in the add-ons (Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road). Certain merchants also sell them, providing a limitless source. Also, the magazine vending machines on the Strip provide random magazines the first time they are opened. Similar to chems, skill magazines are not stackable, therefore using two magazines will not result in double the skill increase.

Once added to the inventory, they appear in the "Aid" section of a player's Pip-Boy menu. In Fallout: New Vegas, reading a skill magazine for a combat skill can be used to boost the damage of weapons. With a +10, this translates into an increase of 5% base weapon damage. With a +20, this translates into an increase of 10% base weapon damage. See individual weapon pages for specific information. As an example, +10 Energy Weapons with a Gauss rifle will result in an additional 6 damage per shot. A +20 results in an additional 12.

Because weapons start off doing only 50% base damage (at skill 0), the actual relative % increase is much larger than 5 or 10%. Going from 10 to 30 Energy Weapons in the above Gauss rifle example is actually an 18% increase, for up to 6 minutes, non-additively.

Random locations
These magazines can be found in containers such as mailboxes and the nine red magazine boxes on the Strip. Some of these containers will be replenished over time.

Fixed locations
Note: Clicking on the closest map marker's sort box will sort the magazines by location.