Mentats (Fallout: New Vegas)

Mentats are a chem in Fallout: New Vegas.

Characteristics
Mentats in the Mojave are different from the ones found in The Capital Wasteland. For one, they grant a Charisma bonus, arguably making them better than alcohol in terms of benefit, although without the Strength benefit, the low addiction rate and the fact that Mentats are much less common than alcohol. They also give significantly smaller bonuses than Capital Mentats. They appear to have the same basic effects as Core Region Mentats.

While the Mentats of New Vegas still give a +2 Intelligence modifier, unlike previous games, the bonus only translates into a +4 bonus to related skills like medicine. Keep this in mind, especially when playing hardcore, as skill checks of 55 and 75 do occur. See the quest, "Beyond the Beef".

It is also possible to craft Party Time Mentats, which confer an augmented +5 bonus to Charisma, in addition to the effects of standard Mentats. However Party Time Mentats also have a drastically decreased effect time of 1 min, a 75% decrease from standard Mentats.

Locations

 * In the base game, Mentats are a little more rare than other drugs, but can be found on most doctors in the game.
 * In the Big MT, Mentats are extremely common and may be found in large quantities, especially in the Forbidden Zone.

Behind the scenes

 * Their name 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. Also of note is that the pills are colored red. Red-stained lips are a distinguishing characteristic of a Dune Mentat.
 * Berry, Orange, and Grape Mentats are also present in the Fallout: New Vegas game files but are not used in-game.