How to play 'Fallout 4' in 4 completely different ways

At the very beginning of the game, you need to set up your your character.

You begin with 21 stat points and you can distribute them across seven main attributes, each with their own basic perks. These are: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Or S.P.E.C.I.A.L. — get it? — for short.

Here's a quick rundown what basic perks each attribute offers:

-Strength affects how much you can carry and the damage of your melee attacks.

-Perception affects weapon accuracy in the V.A.T.S, or the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System you can use to slow down time and make your player shoot specific parts of an enemy.

-Endurance affects how long your health bar is and how quickly AP (Action Points) drain while you sprint.

-Charisma affects your success to persuade in dialogue and bartering.

-Intelligence affects how many Experience Points (XP) you earn.

-Agility affects the number of AP in V.A.T.S and sneaking ability.

-Luck affects the recharge rate of your Critical Hits.

Each attribute can use up to 10 points, and the more points you assign to a specific attribute, the more you'll benefit from its basic perks. For example, if you assign most of your stars to Strength, you'll be able to carry a lot of stuff and your melee attacks will be more powerful.

Then there are 10 more advanced perks within each main attribute, ranking from Level 1 to Level 10. If you want to access the Strength Level 10 advanced perk, for instance, you need to have assigned 10 stat points to the Strength attribute.

By planning ahead, you can create a super player that's really good at a certain style of play without wasting valuable points on attributes or perks that won't really help you. For example, if you want to be a gun-toting maniac, the "Sneak" perk in the Agility attribute won't do you any good.

Here are four main player types and how to manage your stars to achieve greatness in each:

There are four S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes you should distribute the 21 stat points you begin with if you're a "shoot first, ask questions later" kind of player: Strength, Perception, Agility, Intelligence.

Strength:

Heavy Gunner - more heavy weapons damage.
Strong Back - add carry weight.
Steady Aim - better hip-fire accuracy.
Basher - more gun bashing damage.

Perception:

Rifleman - more semi-auto rifle damage.
Awareness - shows enemy damage resistance in V.A.T.S.
Demolition Expert - more explosives damage.
Night Person - better aiming in V.A.T.S at night.
Sniper - hold breath longer while using scope.
Penetrator - target enemies behind cover with V.A.T.S.
Concentrated Fire - stack damage of V.A.T.S attack.

Agility:

Gunslinger - more semi-auto pistol damage
Commando - more automatic weapon damage;
Quick Hands - faster reloading.

Intelligence:

Gun Nut - more advanced gun mods
Science - more advanced energy weapon mods
Nuclear Physicist - more radiation weapons damage.

(Optional) Luck : Scrounger - find more ammo in containers; Bloody Mess - pulverize enemies into a gooey red mush.

To play "Fallout 4" with your fists and melee weapons like it's the year 1199, you can save yourself the worry of running out of ammo.

For this type of play, you'll want to split your 21 stat points between Strength (for more powerful melee attacks), and Endurance (to survive the shower of lead you'll attract from enemies trying to protect themselves against raging medieval nutcase you've become).

Strength:

Iron Fist - more punching power.
Big Leagues - more melee damage.
Armorer - more advanced armor mods.
Blacksmith - more advanced melee weapon mods.
Rooted - better damage resistance when standing still.
Pain Train - stagger enemies by sprinting into them.

Endurance:

Toughness - better damage resistance.
Lead Belly - absorb fewer rads when eating contaminated food or water to heal.
Life Giver - longer health bar.
Adamantium Skeleton - better limb damage resistance.
Cannibal - eat corpses of those you just killed for health.
Ghoulish - radiation restores your health.
Solar Powered - more strength and endurance during the day.

You'd also benefit from taking a bunch of performance-enhancing chems for more powerful melee attacks and damage resistance. If you do, you should invest in "Chem Resistant" (also in Endurance) so that you don't get addicted to chems, which reduces a bunch of your attribute points.

To sneak around and keeping your kills quiet and/or distant, you'll want to spread your 21 stars between Agility for as much sneakiness as possible, Perception for some sneaky-style perks, and some Intelligence for modding long-range weapons.

Agility:

Sneak - less chance of being detected.
Mister Sandman - more damage with suppressed weapons.
Ninja - more damage from sneak attacks/melee attacks.

Perception:

Pickpocket - easier pickpocketing.
Rifleman - more semi-auto rifle damage.
Awareness - show enemy weak spots in V.A.T.S.
Locksmith - pick advanced-level locks.
Sniper - hold breath longer when using scopes.
Penetrator - target enemies behind cover with V.A.T.S.

Intelligence:

Gun Nut - more advanced weapon mods.
Hacker - hack advanced-level terminals.
Science - more advanced energy weapon mods.

Optional: Use the Lone Wanderer perk in Charisma to ditch your companion, who isn't as sneaky as you and could easily compromise your sneakiness.

The smooth talker is a super interesting and difficult way to play "Fallout 4," as you avoid violence by using your words and actions. It's almost like playing with the "most interesting man in the world" from those beer commercials on TV.

Don't believe me? Check this out:Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/0SbsHiWj19E
Width: 800px
Height: 450px

You'll need to use 10 of your starting stars to max out your Charisma attribute. No ifs, ands, or buts.

You can pacify animals, creatures, and humans with the following Charisma perks, but it'll only work if you're at a higher level than they are.

To level up quickly, you should invest the other 11 stars in Intelligence, which gives you more XP points when you win them. Alternatively, you can give your player no Intelligence and use five of your stars on "Idiot Savant" in the Luck attribute, which will randomly multiply your XP. The dumber you are, the higher the chance of getting more XP.

Charisma:

Animal Friend - pacify animals below your level when you aim at them with a gun.
Wasteland Whisperer - pacify creatures by aiming at them with a gun.
Intimidation - pacify humans by aiming your weapon at them.