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Introduction

While we're calling this a "puncher" build, it should work for both Melee and Unarmed characters. That's because while Melee and Unarmed characters get several very nice perks, about half of them require a high Melee skill, while the rest require a high Unarmed skill, and so you might as well learn both. Plus, being capable with both types of weapons will make you more versatile, which is always a good thing.

Your goal as a puncher is to get up close and personal with enemies and bludgeon them to death. If you can sneak up on them first, and smack them with a sneak attack critical hit, then even better, but it's not required (it's much more difficult to sneak up on enemies as a melee character than as a ranged character). Since enemies will almost always get to return fire against you, you'll need to work harder at maintaining a high Damage Threshold (DT), and you might also need to carry around more healing foods and chems.


Attributes

• Strength 6 (8). Each point of strength will give you an extra half point of damage, but you'll eventually acquire Power Armor in the game, which can give you +2 STR, and so there isn't any reason to take your natural strength beyond 8. The Unstoppable Force perk requires a strength of 7.
  
  
• Perception 5 (6). Perception controls how well you detect things, and so keeping a moderate amount is a good idea. The Better Criticals perk requires a perception of 6.
  
  
• Endurance 7 (8). Endurance improves your health and resistances, and so the more you have, the better. Endurance also controls how many implants you can add to your character, and so again, the more, the better. The Stonewall perk requires an endurance of 6.
  
  
• Charisma 3 (3). Charisma helps to make your companions more powerful (by increasing their damage and DT), so if you're planning to use companions a lot, then you might want to increase this attribute, but if you're not planning to use them at all, then you can safely drop it to 1.
  
  
• Intelligence 6 (7). Intelligence controls how many skill points you receive each level, and so the more you have, the better. However, each point of intelligence will only add 14-15 skill points by level 30, and so you don't need to go wild with the stat. An intelligence of 7 is enough for most of the intelligence speech checks. An intelligence of 4 is required for the Comprehension and Educated perks.
  
  
• Agility 5 (7). Agility controls the number of Action Points you receive in VATS, plus how quickly you do things like walk and draw your weapon. The Slayer perk requires an agility of 7.
  
  
• Luck 8 (9). Luck determines your critical hit chance, plus does some nice things like improve all of your skills and help you win at casino games, and so it's another attribute where the more you have, the better.

Traits

The two traits we'd recommend are:

• Built to Destroy (+3% critical chance, +15% weapon decay rate). The increased decay rate is troubling, but with Weapon Repair Kits and the Jury Rigging perk, you should be able to keep your gear in good shape regardless.
  
  
• Small Frame (+1 agility, +25% limb damage). This trait isn't a good idea if you're planning to play in hardcore mode, because then your limbs will get crippled all the time. But in a regular difficulty, this is a fine trade-off, and you might not even notice the difference.

Other possibilities include Wild Wasteland (to see several tongue-in-cheek pop culture references) and Good Natured (since you'll need all of the utility skills, but probably only two or three of the weapon skills).


Perks

2. Intense Training: Strength. This perk will add 1 to your strength (and along with an implant and power armor eventually give you 10 strength).
   
   
4. Educated (Intelligence 4). This perk will give you 52 more skill points over the remainder of the game.
   
   
6. Comprehension (Intelligence 4). This perk will give you up to 53 more skill points, depending on how many skill books you find. The bonus to skill magazines is also useful, because it means that you won't need to take most of the utility skills past 80.
   
   
8. Stonewall (Strength 6, Endurance 6). This perk is currently broken, but in a good way. It will give you +5 DT as long as you're wielding a Melee or Unarmed weapon (rather than if you're being attacked by one).
   
   
10. Finesse. This perk will add +5% to your critical hit chance.
    
    
12. Super Slam (Melee 45, Strength 6). With this perk you'll automatically knock down your enemies.
    
    
14. Piercing Strike (Unarmed 70). This perk will remove 15 DT from your enemies.
    
    
16. Better Criticals (Perception 6, Agility 6). This perk will increase your critical damage by 50%.
    
    
18. Paralyzing Palm (Unarmed 70) / Unstoppable Force (Melee 90, Strength 7). Paralyzing Palm can automatically stun your opponent, but only if you're using an Unarmed attack, and only if you're in VATS. If that doesn't sound useful for you, then you might want to consider Unstoppable Force, which will allow you to do more damage through enemy blocks.
    
    
20. Ninja (Melee 80, Sneak 80). This perk will increase your critical hit chance by +15%, plus give you a sneak attack bonus. (Currently the perk is broken -- you'll probably only add 1-3% to your critical hit chance -- but it's still useful.)
    
    
22. Toughness (Endurance 5). This perk will add 3 to your DT.
    
    
24. Slayer (Unarmed 90, Agility 7). This perk will increase your attack speed by 30%.
    
    
26. Purifier. This perk will give you a +50% damage bonus against deathclaws, super mutants, and more.
    
    
28. Toughness, Rank 2 (Endurance 5). This perk will add another 3 to your DT.
    
    
30. Jury Rigging (Repair 90). This perk will make it much easier to keep your equipment repaired, and Repair is a useful skill to take to 90 or higher anyway.

Skills

If you follow this build, then you'll end up with over 800 points to spend on your skills. We'd recommend tagging Lockpick, Science, and Speech, since those are the skills you'll want to build up as quickly as possible, and then by-the-by build up Melee, Unarmed, Medicine, Repair, and Sneak. You might also want to put some points into Survival (to increase the number of food items you have available), but you shouldn't need any points in Barter, Explosives, Guns, or Energy Weapons.