Wandering the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout: New Vegas, you’re constantly faced with choices that shape your character’s destiny. From weapon preferences to faction alliances, every decision matters. Among the myriad of options available at each level-up, one perk consistently sparks debate: Intense Training. But is dedicating precious perk points to boosting your SPECIAL stats actually worth it? Are you truly maximizing your character’s potential, or are you sacrificing more valuable skills and abilities for marginal gains? This guide delves deep into the world of New Vegas Intense Training, exploring its advantages, disadvantages, and viable alternatives, helping you make an informed decision for your unique Courier.
Whether you’re a seasoned New Vegas veteran or a fresh-faced wanderer embarking on your first journey, understanding the nuances of Intense Training is crucial for crafting an effective and enjoyable character build. We will examine how this perk impacts various playstyles, assess the availability of alternative methods for stat enhancement, and ultimately, help you determine whether Intense Training deserves a spot in your perk selection.
What the Perk Does
New Vegas Intense Training is a perk available to your character whenever they level up. Upon selecting it, you are granted a single point to allocate to any one of your seven SPECIAL attributes: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. You can take this perk multiple times, increasing your ability to customize your character. There is no level requirement to take the perk. The perk can be taken whenever the player levels up.
Early Game Benefits
In the early stages of the game, Intense Training can be a lifesaver. When you’re just starting your journey, your SPECIAL stats might not be perfectly optimized for your desired playstyle. Perhaps you rolled a character with low Strength, hindering your ability to carry essential equipment, or maybe your Perception is lacking, making it difficult to land accurate shots. Intense Training offers a rapid solution to these shortcomings, allowing you to quickly shore up weaknesses and improve your overall effectiveness. It could give you that crucial point you need to meet the requirements for a useful perk, and give you a bit of a boost to your abilities.
Early Intense Training selections can enable you to unlock perks earlier than you otherwise could. Some perks have high SPECIAL requirements that can be daunting to reach. By using Intense Training, you can grab those game-changing abilities sooner, allowing you to specialize your character to what you want faster. You may even be able to pass speech checks with an increased Charisma score, allowing you to persuade someone or get a questline started early.
Fine-Tuning Your Build
Even beyond the early game, Intense Training remains a valuable tool for fine-tuning your character build. Many players have a specific vision for their Courier, a meticulously crafted skillset and playstyle that requires precise stat allocation. Intense Training provides the flexibility to make small but significant adjustments to your SPECIAL stats, enabling you to reach desired perk requirements or optimize your abilities for specific combat scenarios. Maybe you need just one point of Luck to unlock a critical hit perk, or one point of Intelligence to craft a powerful weapon mod. Intense Training grants you the power to achieve these subtle but impactful enhancements.
Reaching Maximum Potential
For dedicated min-maxers, Intense Training offers a path to achieving true SPECIAL perfection. While most players are content with simply reaching the necessary stat requirements for their desired perks, others strive to maximize every aspect of their character. Intense Training can be used to push your stats to the absolute limit, creating a Courier that is virtually unstoppable. However, it’s important to consider whether the investment in Intense Training is truly worth the marginal benefits gained from exceeding the typical stat thresholds.
Enhancing Role-Playing Opportunities
Beyond its mechanical benefits, Intense Training can also enhance your role-playing experience. Perhaps you envision your character as a cunning diplomat with a silver tongue, but your initial Charisma stat is disappointingly low. By investing in Intense Training, you can increase your Charisma and better embody the role of a charismatic leader or persuasive negotiator. Similarly, if you want to play a brilliant scientist but have low Intelligence, you can train yourself to be smarter.
The Opportunity Cost is Real
The most significant drawback of Intense Training lies in its opportunity cost. Each rank of Intense Training represents a perk point that could be spent on a more impactful ability, a game-changing skill, or a unique advantage that defines your character build. New Vegas boasts a vast array of incredible perks, ranging from combat enhancements to crafting bonuses to unique dialogue options. Choosing Intense Training means forgoing one of these potentially powerful perks, and in many cases, the trade-off simply isn’t worth it. You might be able to get a damage boost, or unlock an extra crafting recipe, or get a skill that affects dialogue checks.
Late-Game Value Declines
As you progress through New Vegas and gain levels, the value of Intense Training tends to diminish. In the early game, a single point of Strength or Perception can make a significant difference, but later on, the impact of a single SPECIAL point becomes less pronounced. Furthermore, the perks available at higher levels are often far more compelling than simply boosting a stat by one point. There are amazing perks at level 20 or higher that you don’t want to miss out on.
Viable Alternatives Abound
Fortunately, New Vegas offers a plethora of alternatives to Intense Training for increasing your SPECIAL stats. These methods provide more efficient and flexible ways to enhance your attributes without sacrificing valuable perk points.
Implants Can Improve Your Stats
The New Vegas Medical Clinic, located just outside of the Strip, offers a selection of implants that permanently increase your SPECIAL stats. For a reasonable fee, you can acquire implants that boost Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, and Agility. These implants provide a direct and permanent stat boost without requiring any perk points, making them a highly attractive alternative to Intense Training.
Dress to Impress
Certain pieces of apparel can also provide temporary or permanent bonuses to your SPECIAL stats. For example, wearing glasses or a hat might boost your Perception, while equipping a piece of armor could increase your Strength. Experiment with different clothing combinations to discover how you can maximize your stats without relying on Intense Training.
Chemical Cocktails
Chems and other consumables offer temporary stat boosts that can be incredibly useful in specific situations. Buffout increases Strength and Endurance, while Mentats enhance Perception and Intelligence. By strategically using these consumables, you can temporarily raise your stats to meet perk requirements or overcome challenging encounters.
Skills and Stats
The SPECIAL stats affect the skills, so it is beneficial to level the skills that you enjoy. By leveling the skills, you will increase the value of the corresponding SPECIAL stat, which may in turn boost your skills again, in a constant positive loop.
Build Considerations
The effectiveness of Intense Training varies depending on your chosen character build. Combat-oriented characters might find it useful for boosting Strength or Agility, while speech-focused characters might prioritize Charisma and Intelligence. However, even in these cases, it’s important to weigh the benefits of Intense Training against the opportunity cost of other potentially more powerful perks.
When to Consider It, and When to Avoid It
Intense Training can be a viable option early in the game to reach a key perk requirement or fine-tune a stat that’s just below the desired threshold. However, it should generally be avoided later on, when there are many other compelling perks available. If you can easily obtain the stat boost from alternative sources, such as implants or apparel, Intense Training is likely not worth the investment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, New Vegas Intense Training is a perk with both potential benefits and significant drawbacks. While it can be useful for boosting stats early in the game or fine-tuning your build, the opportunity cost of sacrificing other potentially more powerful perks is often too high. By carefully considering your character build, exploring alternative methods for stat enhancement, and weighing the pros and cons of Intense Training, you can make an informed decision that maximizes your Courier’s potential and enhances your overall New Vegas experience. Intense Training can be useful in specific situations, but it’s crucial to weigh its benefits against the opportunity cost of other perks. Now go out there, and conquer the wasteland your way.
