Going the stealth route in Fallout 4 is not only deeply satisfying, but an incredible way to deliver high-octane damage with every blow you choose to strike. There are Companion perks, magazine perks and SPECIAL perks that can stack to create an unbelievably powerful character based on stealth that will let you one-shot deathclaws even on Survival difficulty. You can use stealth to go either the sniper route or the melee route (armed or unarmed). Here’s a few tips and tricks on how to build a stealth character in Fallout 4.

Best Stats To Focus On For Stealth

Perception: This stat directly affects your accuracy in V.A.T.S. If you’re going the sniper route, there are some perks you won’t want to miss out on.

Agility: Agility affects the ability to sneak as well as the number of action points in V.A.T.S. Every point of Agility gives you +10 Action Points.

Luck: Luck modifies the recharge rate of critical hits, as well as your chance of finding caps/ammo out in the wasteland. The high-level Luck perks enable you to spam V.A.T.S with great success. With the right perks, you’ll be able to rapidly bank crits and easily take down the bullet-spongiest of enemies.

Strength: If you want a melee stealth route, strength will increase your melee weapon and unarmed damage. Straightforward enough.

Best SPECIAL Perks For Any Stealth Build

AGI 3 > Sneak: You’ll want all 5 ranks of this Agility perk. With all 5 ranks, you will be 50% harder to detect while sneaking, sounds from movement (like running or power armor) are eliminated, you won’t trigger floor traps or enemy mines, and when you engage stealth, distant enemies will lose you.

PER 6 > Night Person: This perk has 2 ranks and will cause you to have +3 INT and PER between 6 PM and 6 AM, as well as night vision while sneaking. Sneaking is already better at night, so this means your hits will have an even better chance to land in V.A.T.S.

AGI 7 > Ninja: This perk unlocks at AGI 7. When you unlock all 3 ranks, your ranged sneak attacks will do 3.5x normal damage and your melee sneak attacks will do 10x normal damage, making all ranks invaluable for both a sniper and melee stealth build.

LCK 3 > Bloody Mess: This 4-rank perk will give you +15% combat in battle regardless of weapon. Just for fun, it also causes some enemies to explode -- a fate which can cause other neighboring enemies to explode as well.

LCK 6 > Better Criticals: Unlock all 3 ranks and your criticals will do 2.5x as much extra damage.

LCK 7 > Critical Banker: Unlock all 3 ranks and you can save up to 3 critical hits for when the time is right. Banking a critical has the chance to save an additional critical as well.

LCK 8 > Grim Reaper’s Sprint: Unlock its 3 ranks and any kill in V.A.T.S. has a 35% chance to restore all Action Points and refill your critical meter.

LCK 9 > Four-Leaf Clover: This perk’s 4 ranks will give you a successively better chance for each hit in V.A.T.S. filling your critical meter. Bank ‘em, shoot or attack from stealth and take down even the biggest game no problem.

Best SPECIAL Perks For Stealth Melee Build

STR 1 > Iron Fist : If you’re determined to make your stealth killer unarmed, you need all 5 ranks of this perk. Punching attacks do double damage, V.A.T.S criticals paralyze your opponent, and your opponent has a chance to be crippled or disarmed.

STR 2 > Big Leagues : For the discerning stealth melee build. This perk has 5 ranks and when fully maxed out will do double damage with a melee weapon, a chance to disarm your opponent, you’ll hit all targets in front of you, and you’ll have a chance to cripple your opponent or slam their head off.

STR 9 > Rooted: If you stay still and crouch in V.A.T.S, any stealth perks as well as this perk will both activate. This 3-rank perk gives you +50 damage resistance and causes melee and unarmed attacks to deal 50% more damage.

AGI 9 > Blitz: For the melee stealth build, this perk unlocks at AGI 9. It has only 2 ranks and increase V.A.T.S. melee distance greatly. The farther the Blitz distance, the greater the damage. (Blitz and Rooted work with each other!)

Best SPECIAL Perks For Stealth Sniper Build

PER 2 > Rifleman: You’ll want all 5 ranks of this perk if you’re building a stealthy sniper. At rank 5, your non-automatic rifle attacks do double damage and ignore 30% of your target’s armor, with a slightly higher chance of crippling a limb.

PER 8 > Sniper: When all 3 ranks are unlocked, this perk will give you the ability to hold your breath longer when aiming with scopes, +25% head shot accuracy in V.A.T.S, and non-automatic scoped rifles will have the chance to knock down your target. It’s really that head shot accuracy in V.A.T.S at Rank 3 that is the most interesting aspect of this perk, especially if you are avoiding the MacCready companion perk bug (discussed below).

PER 10 > Concentrated Fire: Accuracy is of the essence for a sniper build. With all 3 ranks unlocked, every attack on the same body part gains +20% accuracy and does 20% more damage. Even if you have headshots on lock, this offers lots of opportunities to turn your enemies into stumpy, gushing torsos.

AGI 4 > Mister Sandman: This unmissable perk has 3 ranks which will ultimately enable you to instantly kill a sleeping person and do 50% more sneak attack damage with silenced weapons.

AGI 10 > Gun-Fu: This perk is a mob killer. With all 4 ranks maxed, you will do 25% more damage to your second V.A.T.S target and beyond, 50% more damage to your third target and beyond, and a critical hit against your fourth target and beyond.

LCK 2 > Scrounger: Snipers, it’s up to you: you can farm purified water or mutfruit for caps in your settlements and use that to purchase ammo, or you can ignore settlements and put points into this perk to find more specialty ammo out in the Wasteland. Scrounger has 4 ranks and each rank increases how much ammo you find randomly lying about.

Companion Perks To Get

Deacon, Cloak & Dagger: Deacon’s perk gives you 20% more sneak attack damage and increases Stealth Boy duration by 20%.

MacCready, Killshot: The Killshot perk gives players a 20 percent greater chance to hit an enemy's head in V.A.T.S.

Note that MacCready’s perk is bugged, and if you have it, you will automatically have a 95% chance of a headshot in V.A.T.S. This video explains the perk and its bug:

Magazine Perks To Get

Astoundingly Awesome Tales #2: Gives +5% damage with scoped weapons. This is located in the Coast Guard Pier. Check by the secured storage room on the toilet inside the locked cell.

Grognak the Barbarian: Each issue raises the critical damage of unarmed or melee attacks by 5%, for a max increase of 50% for all 10 issues. You can find all locations at our Magazine Location guide here .

Covert Operations: Each issue makes you more difficult to detect while sneaking. You can find all locations at our Magazine Location guide here .

Tips and Tricks To Consider

Gun Nut (INT 3) is what enables you to craft gun mods; you’ll need Gun Nut Rank 2 to craft a suppressor, and silenced weapons are required to get that Mister Sandman stacking sneak damage. But you find so many modded guns anyway that waiting to find silencers could also be a viable choice, if you prefer not to have to put 5 points into Intelligence in order to build those. If you don’t want to wait, and you want to play a stealth sniper, then Gun Nut at INT 3 will be absolutely required for you to take fullest advantage of your build.

Also remember that if you crouch you’re much less likely to be spotted. If you run away after being spotted and crouch somewhere, odds are good your enemies will forget you were ever there. Teleporting with Blitz is slightly bugged in that if there is anything in the way of your path from you to your target, you may not physically teleport, but you’ll still kill your enemy with the damage from all your perks.

In terms of armor, keep a look out for Chameleon armor, which causes enemies to have a harder time detecting you while you’re sneaking and not moving. Crafting muffled and ultra-light armor mods will also help you make less noise and not be detected. You’ll need the Armorer perk at STR 3 and its 4 ranks to craft armor yourself, though honestly, you get enough crazy loot in a normal playthrough that I don’t consider this necessary unless you like crafting.

Any more tips and tricks for a good stealth build? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.