Skill

Skills are areas of expertise a character has points in. The higher the percentage in a skill, the better that character is in it. You receive more Skill Points by earning Levels through gaining Experience.

Skill advancement
Raising a skill one percentage point initially costs one skill point, or two percentage points for one skill point if the skill is tagged. When buying skills, if the skill type is tagged, two skill % (at 1-100%) are given for each skill point spent. There are no half skill points for a cost of one. Similarly, when buying skills at cost two or higher, two or more skill points must still be purchased at once, for a cost of two, or three for three, etc. E.g. if a skill is at 101%, and tagged, the next purchase must be of two skill, taking the skill to 103%, for a cost of two skill points. To raise a skill one percentage point (or two if it is tagged) when its current percentage value is between or including: Note that if the second of the two skill points bought for a tagged skill ends up above the transition between two costs, the cost is the lower one. E.g. if a skill is at 100%, and tagged, spending one skill point takes the skill to 102%, for the cost of one skill point. Unlike perks, skill points can be left unspent and will remain, to be spent later. This could conceivably be useful in the event of a hurdle in the game of unknown type that would prevent further progress, e.g. a locked door. Any unspent skill points in excess of 99 are lost.
 * 1% to 100% costs 1 Skill Point
 * 101% to 125% costs 2 Skill Points
 * 126% to 150% costs 3 Skill Points
 * 151% to 175% costs 4 Skill Points
 * 176% to 200% costs 5 Skill Points
 * 201% to 300% costs 6 Skill Points

Real time 'Base' stat modifier to skills
SPECIAL stats (Strength, Perception, etc) modify skills with a considerable bonus. The game keeps track of this bonus throughout the game, in real time. Any changes to stats, (e.g. chem effects, aftereffects, and addiction effects, the Hubologist zeta scans, Gain Strength perk, Red memory module enhancement, Mirrored Shades equipped, ear bitten off by the Masticator etc) during the game add to or subtract from this modifier.

The effect of Difficulty settings on skills
Combat skills are unaffected by Difficulty settings Tagged skills are unaffected by Difficulty settings Active and Passive skills are lowered by 10 (%) when the difficulty is changed from Normal to Hard. Active and Passive skills are raised by 20 (%) when the difficulty is changed from Normal to Easy.

Fallout and Fallout 2 skills
The first six of the following skills are Combat skills The last four are Passive skills The rest are Active skills
 * Small Guns
 * Big Guns
 * Energy Weapons
 * Unarmed
 * Melee Weapons
 * Throwing
 * First Aid
 * Doctor
 * Sneak
 * Lockpick
 * Steal
 * Traps
 * Science
 * Repair
 * Speech
 * Barter
 * Gambling
 * Outdoorsman

Fallout 3 skills

 * Main article: Fallout 3 skills


 * Small Guns
 * Big Guns
 * Energy Weapons
 * Unarmed
 * Melee Weapons
 * Explosives
 * Medicine
 * Sneak
 * Lockpick
 * Science
 * Repair
 * Barter
 * Speech

Maximizing all skills in Fallout 3
It's possible to gain 100 points for all skills in Fallout 3, by retrieving all the respective Vault-Tec Bobbleheads and skill books. Your best bet is to acquire the Comprehension perk, which enables you to gain 2 skill points per book instead of 1. With this in mind there are a total of 25 books for each skill, except for Barter (Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor)which only has 24 meaning you can acquire 50 points per skill (48 for Barter) from reading skill books alone. Couple this with the fact each Vault-Tec Bobblehead you find adds 10 points to its respective skill, and you can guarantee 60 points for each skill (58 for Barter). This means you only need to take your skills to a value of 40 each through levelling up to maximise all skills.

Your level in each skill at the start of the game is determined by a mathematical formula using the values of the relevant S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat and your luck. The formula is as follows: (Skill*2)+2+(Luck/2). So a player with 5 strength and 7 luck would have a starting melee weapons skill of 16 (5*2)+2+(7/2), with rounding up. With this in mind, it may be worth analysing which stats affect which skills. Perception and Intelligence both affect 3 skills each, so it is wise to put points into these skills to maximise your starting skill points. At the other end of the scale, Strength affects just one skill, so it is not as useful in terms of skill points.

In addition to the starting levels determined by your S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats, you are assigned an additional 15 points each to three skills based on your answers in the GOAT test. However, you do not have to go with the test results - you can choose what skills you want to 'tag' based on your own preference.

Keep in mind that there are perks available to make this process a little easier(albeit to the previous strategy mentioned above). For example, the Tag perk allows you to select another skill as a "Tag" skill. Also raising your Intelligence will respectively enable you to gain more skill points every time you level up. For example, 5 Intelligence will give you 15 skill points per level up,6 Intelligence will give 16 points per level up,and so on.

Fallout Tactics skills

 * Pilot
 * Small Guns
 * Big Guns
 * Energy Weapons
 * Unarmed
 * Melee Weapons
 * Throwing
 * First Aid
 * Doctor
 * Sneak
 * Lockpick
 * Steal
 * Traps
 * Science
 * Repair
 * Barter
 * Gambling
 * Outdoorsman

Maximizing skill point gain / cost in Fallout 1/Fallout 2/Fallout Tactics
Reducing the base stat modifier of skills with chem effects, and/or by changing the difficulty to Hard, can reduce the cost of skill points if it lowers the skill below a skill cost threshold. E.g. Science can be raised to 135% for only one skill point per % by lowering Intelligence to zero with Mentats' aftereffects or Psycho effects (there is a limit of two chems unless you save and reload, but that will doubtlessly be necessary in any case to avoid become Addicted), and raising the Difficulty to Hard before spending. It can be raised a further 20% if needed, afterwards, by setting the difficulty to Easy (same goes for reading Books). This also works for higher tiers of skill point cost. Note, however, a player buying the higher tiers is doubtless in late game or finished with the game story, and may prefer to just wait for or look for the Vault City Designer Notes after finishing the oil rig.