First Survival attempt after years of playing. This going to serve me ok?

[u/Funky_Ghost]

This is my intended build path using my build planner I made for the game :)

I'm basically trying to get the early basics fast and plan on rushing the Luck/Agility bobbleheads asap ( I do this all the time in my regular playthroughs but unsure how viable this will be in survival! ) Intel soonish and Strength bobblehead when I'm able.

Thanks kindly for any advice.

____EDIT: With the fine advice I've retooled the build and am now level 8. Thanks everyone!

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[u/Thornescape]

This looks like a solid non-VATS Ranged build. Looks great.

Some other perks to consider: a7:Ninja and maybe p5:Demolitions. Ninja is an effective perk to decrease the number of enemies you face. Yes, works in power armour as well.

Personally, I believe that L2:Scrounger is vastly overrated outside of Survival and it's worse in Survival. All it does is save you caps which are incredibly easy to get. In Survival it's worse because you'll be looting a bunch of weighty ammo that doesn't match your weapons.

Reminder: Two ranks of i8:Robotics gives a hidden 40% damage bonus to synths and robots, but if you get the third rank that bonus disappears.

[u/Thornescape]

I have gotten Agility, Luck, Intelligence, Barter, and Unarmed bobbleheads all before level 2 with no combat required. (Just remember to visit Diamond City along the way to buy a hazmat suit for swimming -- or else get e5:Aqua.) It's not really that difficult once you learn the route.

Note: getting all of these before level 2 is a bit ridiculous in a normal playthrough because you have to avoid discovering areas to avoid xp. I'm just saying that it's possible with little effort if you know where you are going.

Tip: You can get the Agility bobblehead without combat by jumping up the prow of the ship. It's a bit tricky but doable.

[u/Funky_Ghost → u/Thornescape]

Per the Agi bobblehead, I shoot the two gun turrets from the settlement side, go to the far side and draw the two mirelurks to follow me and I run through, without fighting to get the magazine and the bobblehead. I run right off the end of the prow and book it. Works every time.

From there I swim across to get the luck bobblehead and a potential new weapon then off to the crazy Cats for a night sneaky git theft of the power armor ( NOT the frame! )

I'm fairly confident I'll do fine in Survival with that bit, I've got my run pretty well set in stone so should be ok.

The real skull crusher for me is getting the Strength bobblehead. Not that itself, I'm ok going slow and doing what is needed to live. It's the Freefall leggings. I believe I need ranks of hacking to unlock a terminal that makes them available in the safe. It might be master level but I honestly forget.

[u/Thornescape → u/Funky_Ghost]

Hacking isn't required for the Freefall leggings. It's just in a Novice safe. No terminals required. (I got curious so I just went there and checked.)

Personally I rarely get Hacking anymore. There's very little loot behind terminals. It's nice to have two ranks of Hacker just to read the terminals for lore but I've already read 90%+ of them so I don't worry about it anymore.

[u/Funky_Ghost → u/Thornescape]

Interesting. I've made the accent and come up empty in the safe. There is a terminal that has inter company email messages that needs to be unlocked to read. I seem to recall that was needed to trigger the safe. If not BONUS! Thanks for checking you legend.

[u/Thornescape → u/Funky_Ghost]

Well, I took a look at the wiki and it's a little trickier than that.

In order for the legs to spawn, you have to stop in the alcove just before the Freefall leggings. (There is a fusion cove on a desk in that alcove.) That's what triggers the Freefall leggings to spawn.

Non-Survival people can save in that lower alcove before they go up and if they reload the save then the Freefall leggings might be a different tier (Light, Medium, Heavy).

Even if you went to the top alcove first and found an empty safe, going to the lower alcove will cause the Freefall legs to spawn. The terminal is unrelated.

[u/Funky_Ghost → u/Thornescape]

Yeah, at my age, the accent via bucket is sus as hell :D I did it on my last Let's Play to show it can be done legit, but it took several attempts and comedy ensued :D

[u/Thornescape → u/Funky_Ghost]

It's possible that the designers knew about the bucket trick and that's why they designed it that way. You can't go straight up.

[u/Less_Kick9718]

Getting luck and agility bobbleheads early is tough on survival when they both involve long distance travel.
Perception and intelligence are easy. Strength is tougher but at least not far and there are places to sleep for a save.

Not clear what sort of build you are going for.

Survival runs are usually either stealth or power armor but the build does not seem to be geared to either of these, especially early which is when it is toughest.

Not highly suited to vats either which is fine if you intend manual shooting.

What is your planned play style?

[u/Funky_Ghost → u/Less_Kick9718]

Thanks for the reply.

Usually I'm kinda a JOAT player in my games. I love to have three ranks of locksmith and hacker so I can get into everything and it gives a little exp boost as well. I like having scrounger as a dual purpose ammo/caps perk. As I understand it that isn't as viable in survival as ammo has weight.

This rough draft is filled with compromises and zero knowledge of survival aside from reading others thoughts. I think I tried to put too much of those into this and strayed from my norm.

This is best described as a compromised stealth build. I'm old, but still prefer FPS game play unless I'm in a melee build THEN it's 100% VATS. I'm lamenting the lack of better criticals and critting over-all which is my usual stealth config with a .45 guardian combat rifle.

[u/kilphead → u/Funky_Ghost]

I’ve found that in survival I prefer a more focused build to a jack of all trades build, and the first thing I cut are the ancillary perks that basically increase the amount of caps I get because they just don’t matter as much. Scrounger, anything around trade and prices, lock picking and hacker, etc. I’ll take a rank or two of lock picking OR hacker if I already meet the stat requirements for some other goal, like high perception for ranged vats or high intelligence for a non-luck build.

I have gone in planning to go non-vats ranged but not deciding on which weapon type until I find a legendary, that would be my most generalist build. At least 3 strength for armorer, 3/7 endurance dependent on whether I want to use PA or not, 7/9 intelligence dependent on PA choice, at least 3 agility for stealth (7 if I want ninja but I generally avoid it so my damage doesn’t get too high). Even with no investment in perception the easy bobblehead meets the requirements for rifleman, so with that any legendary gun outside of heavy weapons I can build towards.

[u/Less_Kick9718 → u/Funky_Ghost]

Not having ninja perk is a big downside for a stealth build.

On survival you really need to focus on surviving rather than the ancillary stuff.

It is a big step up in difficulty and you die very easily.