Last Updated: October 13th, 2016

Intro

I’ve been looking for a good hero collect type mobile game for my brother and I to play and after trying out 15-20 of them, I settled on Dragon Blaze.

The premise of the story is that this king named Gram pissed of the Dragon God of Life and Death named Deathcrown. Deathcrown comes down to the kingdom and starts wreaking havoc. He gets the orcs to attack the humans and war breaks out. You learn pretty quickly that there’s more going on that it at first seems.

I decided that I’d write up what I’ve learned about the game so far since there’s so much information out there and a lot of it is outdated or written poorly.

Note: I will be updating this as I go, so it is a work in progress.

Guide

What character should you choose?

It depends on if you are a “casual” player or a “hardcore” player.

If you just plan on playing the game everyone once in a while and don’t care about progressing slowly, pick Paladin and just play the game. Skip past my new account walkthrough and read info further on about allies, enhancing, gear, and other stuff.

If you are more hardcore and want to progress quickly, pick a Priest. Here’s why…

In order to help new players catch up with established players, the developers have bundle in the shop that will set a character’s level to 80, complete every stage up to the end of chapter 2, give them a maxed out set of red SSS gear, and 3 SSS Ally class recruitment tickets. Here’s the other thing: the SSS maxed gear has a level requirement of 1. That means that you can put it on every other class to help them level (except the weapon and offhand if they can’t carry it).

New Account Walkthrough

So, if you like what you’ve read above, start with a priest (we’ll use the 990 rubies upgrade pack on a paladin once we can afford it).

Why pick a priest?

I doesn’t actually matter that much which class you start with, as long as it isn’t a paladin. We’ll get into why you will want to level all of the classes later.

What build should I use?

Here’s the thing; no matter what class you choose, their early build doesn’t matter as much compared to when you start facing tougher enemies (usually around level 65 in act 2).

The way character skills work is, you have three active skills that can be leveled up to 10 and each has a corresponding ultimate. You can only get one ultimate. There are four passive skills and each can be leveled up to 12. The thing is, you won’t have enough points at max level to max every active and passive skill. That’s where builds come in. A lot of people disagree on the best build for each character. I’ll post the suggested build based on the most up to date information as of the writing/updating of this guide.

The suggested build for the priest (and the one that I have been running) is the magnify build: max the second active “Magnify!” and get the ult for it and then distribute the rest of the points evenly between the first three passive skills (skip the fourth passive).

Here’s the thing though, you’ll start with one point in the first active (Charming Light), so if you want to do the magnify end game build, you’ll have to spend the 100 rubies to do so. At lower levels, it’s perfectly fine to put the skill points in whatever you want until you get stuck in the game. In fact, getting heal early on may make things easier. Just know, that you’ll want to switch to the magnify build once things start getting tough.

Now, you will basically play through every level in order, going through the story, until you have 990 rubies.

Who do I pick for my free SSS hero selection ticket?

For now, just wait. You will be getting some random SSS heroes as you play the game a bit more, so we can wait until the 6th or 7th day of playing to make our choice. In the end, you’ll want to make up for what your team is deficient in. If you need a tank, choose the top ranked tank. If you need a healer or dps character, choose the top ranked one of those. Head over to the Dragon Blaze Reddit Page and click on the “Global” link on the right side of the page under “Tier Lists”. This list will change from patch to patch so I’m not going to provide a direct link here.

How do I build my team?

Generally speaking, you want 1 tank, 1 healer, and 2 dps.

I have 990 rubies. Now what?

Now we are going to put your main priest character on hold and get a maxed paladin.

Create a paladin character and play through the tutorial until you get to the point where the innkeeper unlocks the last row of your inventory. Now go to the shop and purchase the Special Jar of Growth. This will return you to the character select screen and your paladin will be level 80. When you re-enter the game, you will show up in the town and an NPC will start talking at you. If you want to avoid ruining the story for yourself, press the button on the lower right and skip over the dialogue. The game will tell you to go chapter 3. Just skip the dialogue again and then press the left arrow at the top of the map twice to go back to chapter 1.

Next, go get your gear from your mailbox and equip all of it on your paladin. The suggested build that I used was 11/1/10 for actives 12/12/0/x for passives (x being the rest of your points). This build will make you tanky enough to survive hits and strong enough to kill most things easily in act 1 and 2.

Now it’s time to get a bunch of rubies. Go around through act 1 and kill each dragon boss in order (Komodo Fairy, Storm Tyrant, Junglefury, Deathcrown, Deus Deathcrown) and then do the same in act 2 (Phoenix of the Flames, Aqualis of the Abyss, Valmut of the Netherworld, Ragnarok, Deus Ragnarok). NOTE: If you don’t want to spoil the story and the surprise of fighting these bosses for the first time normally, set your device down and don’t look at the boss. Also, Deus Ragnarok is a 6-man raid, so you may not be able to find a group.

Now that you’ve cleared all of the raids, you should do the very last stage on the level “Scorched Terra”. The first time you clear this you get 1500 rubies.

Ok I have a ton of rubies after killing the raid bosses. Now what?

First, unlock all of your paladin’s inventory space, all of his potion slots, and all of your shared account storage (click the storage button).

Next, get your allies up to level 80. Go repeat stages over and over to level your team. Depending on how tough your team is, you may have to do much lower levels. They key is, you don’t want anyone to die, otherwise they only get the experience from the beginning of the fight. If you just want to be lazy, then just do the very last stage over and over. Your guys will die, but they’ll get some experience for the short time that they are alive.

 

Here’s a list/guide on the Fallout New Vegas mods that I am using and how to install them.

Similar to my oblivion mod guide, my goal is mostly to make the game look better while keeping the gameplay as close to vanilla as possible (with few exceptions).

 

You MUST follow everything exactly as it is written or you will cause massive headaches for yourself.

Make sure to go to options on the launcher and set your graphics to High or Ultra, depending on what your system can handle. Also, MAKE SURE to set Mode (in the bottom left corner of the options menu) to “Windowed”. (We’ll use this later for borderless full screen, which will allow us to alt tab out of the game without it crashing.) If you don’t care about borderless full screen, don’t use windowed mode.

Pre-Setup:

First thing’s first. We need to make it so the game can use multi threading.

Start the game once by launching the game, clicking play, and then exiting the game when you can. This will create the ini file that we will be editing below.

Open “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout New Vegas\Fallout_default.ini” and do the following:

Change “bUseThreadedAI=0” to “bUseThreadedAI=1”.

Right below that line add, “iNumHWThreads=2” (without the quotes).

We also have to change the ini so that some mods will work correctly:

Change “bInvalidateOlderFiles=0” to “bInvalidateOlderFiles=1” if it isn’t already set to 1.

Another nice thing that I do is disable the intro images for faster game startup. Change the following:

SMainMenuMovieIntro=0
SIntroSequence=0

Now let’s fix the insanely fast mouse. Search the ini for “bBackground Keyboard” (without quotes) and after that line paste the following:

fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0

One last fix for the character overhaul mod. Set the following:

bLoadFaceGenHeadEGTFiles=1

Next, be sure that the steam overlay is enabled. (Go to steam settings, go to “In-Game”, check “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”, click “Ok”, go to Fallout 3 in steam and right click it, select “Properties”, check “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”.)

 

Tools:

New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE) – You need to install this to get certain mods to work. On the website, find the section labeled “stable version” and select the link to download the latest stable version. Copy everything but the “src” folder and txt files to your fallout nv folder. (“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout New Vegas”)

4GB Fallout New Vegas Updated – This will add an exe file that will launch the game with 4gb of ram available. This will allow you to use mods that are graphically intensive. Copy the exe and dll file to your fallout nv directory. Make a copy of the fnv4gb.exe file. Make a copy of the FalloutNVLauncher.exe file. RENAME the fnv4gb.exe file to FalloutNVLauncher.exe. This will allow you to launch the game from steam normally.

After following the instructions above you should have the following files:

FalloutNV.exe (original exe)
FalloutLauncher – Copy.exe (backed up original version)
FalloutLauncher.exe (renamed fnv4gb.exe)
nvse_loader.exe (original exe)

Now you don’t have to touch this crap anymore.

 

LOOT – Automatic mod sorter. This needs to be installed so that NMM’s mod sorting feature will work.

Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) – This is the official nexus mod site’s tool for installing mods. It will allow you to click a single button on the site to download mods and add them to the program. When it first starts up, it will scan your hard drive for supported games. Click the green check mark on each of the games that it finds and click Ok (If you get tired of waiting for it to search for games you know you don’t have, just click the red X on each of those games). When it asks to revise folder settings, just accept where it defaults to by clicking Ok. When it asks you if you want to make the Fallout.ini file not read only, say Yes. You’ll be asked if you want categories; I chose Yes. When you try to install your first mod from the site, NMM will ask you for your login credentials. (If you haven’t already, sign up for an account on nexusmods.com)

 

HOW TO USE NMM

Unless otherwise noted, go to the files tab on the webpage for the mod in question, click the “DOWNLOAD WITH MANAGER” button for the file you want to download. I will specify which file you should be getting if there are more than one (or multiple versions). Once you click the button, you will probably get a windows popup asking you to allow the mod manager to accept the link; Click yes. Now the mod will start downloading. You can see the progress down in the bottom left.

Go to the “Mods” tab in NMM and find the mod you downloaded. (Note: you can hide unused categories to lower the amount of clutter by going to the icon on the left with four lines, clicking the drop down button on the right edge of the icon, and selecting “Categories: Toggle Hidden Categories”. Alternatively, you can click the last icon on the left to disable categories, then sort by download date. I do the latter.) Once you’ve found your mod, double click on it to install.

Now go to the “Plugins” tab and make sure that all of the items on it are checked.

Another thing you’ll want to do after you’ve installed a bunch of (or all) mods is to have NMM auto sort them in the optimal order. To do this find the wrench and screw driver icon and click the down arrow on the right of the icon. Select “Automatic Plugin Sorting” and wait for it to finish sorting your plugins for you. This will help to avoid conflicts between mods. Another thing we’ll do later is to uncheck Archive Validation and recheck Archive Validation. If you are installing a small number of mods at a time and then launching the game, this will help resolve issues (especially graphical ones).

 

Mods:

OneTweak for FNV – If you enabled windowed mode for the game as described at the beginning of this guide, this mod will put the game in borderless full screen mode, allowing you to alt tab instantly (and also prevent the game from crashing when you return to it).

Yukichigai Unofficial Patch – YUP – fixes a bunch of bugs that weren’t in official patches. Be sure to get the “YUP – Base Game and All DLC” file and none of the others (unless you want another language).

NVAC – New Vegas Anti Crash – Prevents crashes.

New Vegas Stutter Remover – Makes the game more stable. Be sure to get the latest version. (“NVSR_4-1-36” at the time writing this guide)

NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegas – Adds better looking textures for roads, landscape, trees, rocks, vehicles, buildings, and a whole host of other things. Drastically improves the look of the game. Be aware that this is the largest mod we will install and it will take A VERY LONG TIME to download so be patient. Select the following files: “NMCs Textures NV LARGE Pack Part 1 of 3 FOR NMM“, “NMCs Textures NV LARGE Pack Part 2 of 3 FOR NMM“, “NMCs Textures NV LARGE Pack Part 3 of 3 FOR NMM“, and “NMC_Large_Texture_Pack_NV_Patches“. Install each part in order, but don’t install the patch file yet. If you get a pop up asking you to upgrade, select “No”. Now install the patch file. Select “Yes to all” when asked to overwrite.

Weapon Retexture Project – WRP – High res textures for normal guns. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite changes from YUP.

UIO – User Interface Organizer – Required for the character overhaul mod.

Fallout Character Overhaul – High res textures for all of the characters in the game. Also expands character creation options. Hold ctrl + shift to bring back the eye brow options if you want to reselect them. Be sure to get the “Fallout Character Overhaul 3.0” file and the “Fallout Character Overhaul 3.01” bugfix file. When you install the mod, it will give you a bunch of options. I use: Animated Sweat Effects, Glowing Ghouls, HD Teeth Clean Textures, and Hair Textures. Select “Yes to all” when installing the bug fix and the overwrite dialog pops up. I had a problem with the FCO – Russell.esp file causing the game to crash. Go to Plugins and DISABLE it so that your game doesn’t crash. (The esp is for a companion mod that we will not be using. Not sure why it’s enabled by default.)

New Vegas – Enhanced Camera – Lets you look down and see your body. Also adds first person view when sitting down, getting knocked down, and a few other things.

Enhanced Blood Textures for NV – High resolution blood textures. Select “Yes to all” for the overwriting the NMC textures.

Sprint Mod – Allows you to sprint by holding the run button (default shift) at the cost of AP points. I’m pressed for time in completing New Vegas, as Fallout 4 is coming out soon, so this will be nice for getting around faster. You mostly crouch and sneak during normal combat anyway, so it doesn’t feel like a cheat to me. I like to disable head bobbing. (Open Pip-Boy, go to Apparel, Vault-tec Pedometer, Display Settings, Toggle Head Bobbing, Ok, Ok, exit Pip-Boy). Mess with settings to taste. (I also found out you can remove the AP cost of running and set the running speed. Remove the AP cost by entering the following into the console: “set SprintAPMultGLOB to 0”. To change the speed enter the following into the console: “set SprintSpeedMultGLOB to 1”, replacing 1 with whatever faster value you want instead. Unfortunately, there’s no way to disable sprinting in combat, which is what I’d want, since I’m basically just using it to get around faster.)

CASM_NV – Replaces the buggy save system in Fallout NV with a better one. Use F4 to quick save. Unfortunately, there is no button to quick load a casm save. You’ll have to go to the menu. Load the game and disable the auto save functions built into the game by going to Settings, Gameplay, “Save On Rest” OFF, “Save On Wait” OFF, “Save On Travel” OFF. Many people suggest not using the normal quick save and quick load features of the game if you are using casm (e.g. F5 and F9).

Authentic Burned Man – Better looking burned man npc.

EVE – Essential Visual Enhancements – Improves the visuals of energy weapons, explosions, and more. Be sure to get the the “EVE v1.17” file and not any of the other ones. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflict with YUP (Unofficial Patch). Also, make sure “True Iron Sights” is set to ON in the game’s settings, otherwise you’ll end up having two target reticles when you aim your weapon.

New Vegas – Re-Animated – Changes the animations so that it looks better when you are holding weapons. Be sure to get the “Release v0_23” (or whatever the latest is) and none of the others.

Mojave Nights – a moon and stars replacer – High resolution night sky. Be sure to get the “Mojave Nights” file and none of the others.

SmoothLight – Pip-Boy light enhancer – Makes your pip-boy light work more like a normal flashlight instead of being terrible. (If you don’t remember how to turn it on, you can do so by holding Tab.)

Less Intrusive Kill Camera – Makes kill cams last half as long. (I get annoyed at how they seem to hang sometimes after the enemy dies.)

Faster Terminals – Do you get annoyed at how long terminals take to sloooooowly show up? I know I do. This makes them pretty much instant.

5x faster waiting – Makes waiting five times as fast.

Daily Vendor Restock – This changes the time it takes vendors to restock take one day instead of four days. Mainly a quality of life change.

Quicker PipBoy Light – Makes the Pip-Boy light turn on much faster. Be sure to get the “QPBL 0_2 sec” file and not the other one.

HI-RES Chems and Health Re-Texture – Because, why not?

Ghouls Hires retexture – High resolution ghouls. I like these textures better than the FCO mod’s texutres. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflict with FCO.

FeralGhouls Hires retexture – High resolution feral ghouls.

Pre-War Money Retexture – Because, why not? Be sure to get the “Pre-War Money Retexture -RRS” file and none of the others.

UHQ Terrain – Rocks – Roads Overhaul – High resolution textures for rocks and roads. Looks even better than the NMC textures. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflict with NMC.

MGs Neat Clutter Retextures – High resolution textures for most of the small clutter type items in the game. Be sure to get the “MGs NCR Pack 7” file and none of the others. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflict with NMC.

HD Smoky Fire and Explosions – High resolutions smoke, fire, and explosions. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflict with EVE.

PipBoy 3000 HD Retexture – High resolutions texture for the Pip-Boy.

HD Glass Impact Decals – Because, why not?

Improved Super Mutants Textures – High resolution textures for super mutants. Make sure to get the “Improved Super Mutants Textures” file and none of the others.

Improved Deathclaw Textures – High resolution textures for deathclaws. Be sure to download the “Improved DeathClaw Textures” main file and the “DeathClaw Vanilla Color Patch” file (if you want the normal colors in hd). Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflict with the main file when you install the patch.

Improved LOD Noise Texture – Improves the look of textures that are far a way for very little cost to performance. Be sure to get the “Improved LOD noise Texture” file and not the other one.

Auto Aim Tweaks – Removes buggy auto aim (that tries to force your aim at the torso) and increases the max distance that you can shoot enemies from (changed from 1800 to 9999).

Its a Dogs World – Dog Texture Overhaul – High resolution dog textures! Be sure to get the “DogsWorldTextureOverhaul_Large_V1_0” file (or whatever size you want). Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflict with YUP.

Dust Mote and Fluid Drip Effects HD for NV – Adds high res textures for the dust devils and fluid effects. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite conflicts with EVE.

HD Mist – Better looking floating mist. Be sure to get the “HD Mist 2k” file since it won’t affect frame rate too much.

PipWare UI New Vegas Edition – Improves upon various UI annoyances. For example, DAM/DPS is split on the inventory page. Be sure to get the “PipWareUI_NV_v1_3” file and none of the others. NOTE: this mod and all of the UI mods listed below must be installed in the order this guide presents them.

MTUI – UI mod that makes the game more playable at 720p. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite conflicts with PipWareUI.

Shiloh DS – Clean Pipboy Screen – Cleans up the Pip-Boy screen so that it looks better. I use these settings: Remove Scanlines, Remove Screen Glare, Remove Distorting Effects, Add Pure Black BG, Remove Map Tinting, MTUI 1.0 Compatibility, Glow Intensity 200%. Select “Yes to all” for the MTUI override pop up.

Shiloh DS – Colored Map and Icons – I only use this for the icon pack and getting the ability to zoom out more on the map. The next mod is for the map itself. I use: “No Custom Map”, Zoom Out Setting 2, and “Icon Pack #4”.

Realistic World Map – High resolution map to use in conjunction with the two mods above. Be sure to get the “Realistic World Map 250 Percent Brighter” file and NONE of the rest.

The Mod Configuration Menu – We need this to use the oHUD mod below. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflict with MTUI and PipWareUI.

One HUD – oHUD – Allows you to totally customize your hud. NOTE: you have to press “i” to toggle the hud on and off, otherwise the mod assumes you want the immersive hud to only show stuff when needed. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflict with MTUI. Now then, press escape when in game and go to Mod Configuration. Here’s my setup: Go to Extra HUD, go to Show / Move, Check Show Clock, Check Show Encumbrance, Check Show Rads. Click on “Click to Move” for Show Encumbrance and use the arrow or wasd keys to move Weight UI element below your weapon condition. You can see where weapon condition is by pressing any key other than arrows, wasd, or space to stop moving the Weight UI element and click on “Adjustable HUD” to show the regular hud. Go back and forth between the “Click to Move” and “Adjustable HUD” to move each item where you want. After moving Encumbrance below weapon condition, move the Rads indicator below your ammo count. I leave the clock where it is. You can mess with other stuff like when things should show up if you are using the immersive hud or the location of basically any HUD element, but that’s basically all I use the mod for. Adjust yours to taste.

PipWare UI New Vegas Edition (Status Page Addition) – We had to install all of the previous UI mods in the order above to get part of the PipWare UI mod to work (like displaying DAM and DPS at the same time) This time go back to the download page and get the “PipWareUI_NV_v1_2c_statsOnly” file and none of the rest. This will make the combined status page work. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite the conflicts with MTUI and the main PipWareUI mod. NOTE: I also like to change inventory scrolling to be one line at a time (like in fallout 3) instead of the default one page at time. To do so, open the following file: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout New Vegas\Data\menus\config_pipware.xml”. Change “scrollVert_wheelStepMode” from 1 to 0. Now you have one line scrolling again. Hurrah.

The Weapon Mod Menu – Adds a more advanced weapon mod menu and let’s you remove weapon mods. This file must be manually downloaded. Open up the 7z file and double click the fomod. This will add the mod to NMM. You can then install it like normal. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite conflicts with MTUI.

Hall Of Equipment – High resolution clothes and armor. Be sure to get the “Hall Of Equipment X2“, “Hall Of Equipment X2 For Dead Money“, “Hall Of Equipment X2 Honest Hearts“, “Hall Of Equipment X2 Lonesome Road“, and “Hall Of Equipment X2 Old World Blues” files. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite conflicts with MG Neat Clutter and YUP. Also, select “Yes to all” to overwrite any conflicts when installing the DLC texture packs as two conflict.

Reload Speed Game Start Fix – Fixes a bug where weapons reload slowly when you start up the game. Normally reload is slow until you switch weapons. This fixes that so that weapon reload is always normal.

Improved Robots Textures – High resolution robot textures. Get all four files and install them in order: “Improved Main Robots Textures“, “Improved LR Robot Textures“, “Improved OWB Robot Textures“, and “Lore patch“. Select “Yes to all” to overwrite conflicts with the main robot textures file.

Further 3rd Person Camera – Makes it so that you can zoom out as far as you could in Fallout 3.

FNV_MoreVendorCaps – Gives vendors ten times the amount of caps. This is mainly a quality of life change. You won’t have to wait over and over to refresh their money. Don’t use this if you plan on playing hardcore as it will allow you to save in game time.

Junk Be Gone – Removes junk items that you would never want to pick up anyway from CONTAINERS ONLY. Leaves normal junk items laying around. Mainly a quality of life change as you would never pick up this crap anyway.

Lutana NVSE Plugin – NVSE plugin used for the Enhanced Item Info mod below.

JIP NVSE Plugin – NVSE plugin used for the Enhanced Item Info mod below.

Enhanced Item Info – Extra UI HUD – I only use this mod to show the value to weight ratio (V/W) in the Pip-Boy and container UI. Be sure to get both files: “Enhanced Item Info” and “Enhanced Item Info – Non-Darn patch“. Select “Yes to all” to confirm the overwrite of the main mod’s files. NOTE: I disable all of the extra stuff besides V/W by going to the mod’s directory “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout New Vegas\Data\menus\prefabs\EII”, creating a folder called “hide” and moving the following files to the folder to disable them: “EII_ListBox.xml”, “EII_ListBox2.xml”, “EII_Recipe.xml”, and “EII_VATS.xml”. If you want to use these other features, go for it. Just know that they might look a little screwed up with the UI mods we are using.

Dynamic Quantity Prompt Beta NVSE – Allows you to hold shift to instantly sell/move a stack of something or ctrl to sell/move one of something. Also makes it so that the scroll wheel works on quantity prompts.

Inventory Sorters – Puts a category word (e.g. food) in front of items so that it’s easier to sort out stuff. Be sure to get the “Inventory Sorter Combined 2-2” and “Inventory Sorter Dead Money 2-2” and NONE of the rest. There may be a very smaller number of items that the mod doesn’t cover.

A Cuter Veronica Felicia Day edition – When I met follower Veronica and realized that she was voiced by Felicia Day, I wanted to make the character look like her. Found this mod.

 

AFTER YOU ARE DONE WITH EVERYTHING BE SURE TO DO “AUTOMATIC PLUGIN SORTING” IN NMM AS DESCRIBED AT THE TOP.

Lastly, go to “C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\My Games\FalloutNV” and set Fallout.ini as not read only (if you didn’t choose to do so in NMM). Now go to NMM, click the wrench and screw driver icon,  and UNCHECK Archive Invalidation, then go back and CHECK Archive Invalidation. This will fix any graphical mod problems.

 

BONUS

Here’s the Energy Weapon only build that I used.

STR     5 (6 w/ implant)(7 w/ end game armor)
PER    5 (6 w/ implant)
END    5 (6 w/implant)
CHA    1
INT    9 (10 w/ perk)
AGI    6 (7 w/ implant)
LCK    9 (10 w/ implant)

Traits:
Built to Destroy (+3% crit chance, +15% weapon decay)
Good Natured (+5 to Speech, Medicine, Repair, Science and Barter, -5 to Energy Weapons (and other skills we won’t use))

Low Level Perks:
2 Intense Training INT
4 Educated
6 Comprehension
8 Vigilant Recycler (Science 70)

Early skill points: get lockpick and speech up quickly otherwise the game will punish you with stuff you can’t open and people who you can’t use speech on. Shoot for lockpick 55 and keep getting speech up as you go. Novac has one for 41 speech and you get there pretty early. Get science to 70 by level 8 (though you could wait to get the perk if you wanted). The rest is up to you, though I focus on energy weapons first and then worry about sneak later.

Here’s a list/guide on the Fallout 3 mods that I am using and how to install them.

Similar to my oblivion mod guide, my goal is mostly to make the game look better while keeping the gameplay as close to vanilla as possible (with few exceptions).

 

You MUST follow everything exactly as it is written or you will cause massive headaches for yourself.

Make sure to go to options on the launcher and set your graphics to High or Ultra, depending on what your system can handle. If your system can’t handle those, at the very least, go to advanced and enable depth of field.

Pre-Setup:

First thing’s first. We need to make it so the game can use multi threading.

Start the game once by launching the game, clicking play, and then exiting the game. This will create the ini file we will be editing below.

Open “C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Fallout3\FALLOUT.INI” and do the following:

Change “bUseThreadedAI=0” to “bUseThreadedAI=1”.

Right below that line add, “iNumHWThreads=2” (without the quotes).

We also have to change the ini so that some mods will work correctly:

Change “bInvalidateOlderFiles=0” to “bInvalidateOlderFiles=1”

 

Next, be sure that the steam overlay is enabled. (Go to steam settings, go to “In-Game”, check “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”, click “Ok”, go to Fallout 3 in steam and right click it, select “Properties”, check “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”.)

 

Tools:

Fallout Script Extender (FOSE) – you need to install this to get certain mods to work. On the website, find the section labeled “Current stable version” and select the link next to “Download:” to download the latest stable version. Copy everything but the “src” folder, txt files, and html file to your fallout 3 goty folder. (“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\fallout 3 goty”)

Next, make a backup copy of “FalloutLauncher.exe” (right click and drag then select “copy here”). Now delete the normal “FalloutLauncher.exe”. Also make a backup copy of the “fose_loader.exe” file. Now rename “fose_loader.exe” to “FalloutLauncher.exe”. This will make the game launch through the FOSE loader when you open the game in steam.

4GB Exe Patcher – This external tool will allow you to patch Fallout3.exe so that it can use more ram. Go to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\fallout 3 goty” and first make a backup copy of your Fallout3.exe file (just in case). Run the tool and select the Fallout3.exe file to patch. Now Fallout 3 can use more ram. (The FOSE loader will be starting this executable)

After following the instructions above you should have the following files:

Fallout3 – Copy.exe (backed up original version)
Fallout3.exe (patched with 4gb patcher)
FalloutLauncher – Copy.exe (backed up original version)
FalloutLauncher.exe (renamed fose_loader.exe)
fose_loader.exe (original exe)

Now you don’t have to touch this crap anymore.

 

LOOT – Automatic mod sorter. This needs to be installed so that NMM’s mod sorting feature will work.

Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) – This is the official nexus mod site’s tool for installing mods. It will allow you to click a single button on the site to download mods and add them to the program. When it first starts up, it will scan your hard drive for supported games. Click the green check mark on each of the games that it finds and click Ok. (If you get tired of waiting for it to search for games you know you don’t have, just click the red X on each of those games) When it asks to revise folder settings, just accept where it defaults to by clicking Ok. You’ll be asked if you want categories; I chose Yes. When you try to install your first mod from the site, NMM will ask you for your login credentials. (If you haven’t already, sign up for an account on nexusmods.com)

 

HOW TO USE NMM

Unless otherwise noted, go to the files tab on the webpage for the mod in question, click the “DOWNLOAD WITH MANAGER” button for the file you want to download. I will specify which file you should be getting if there are more than one (or multiple versions). Once you click the button, you will probably get a windows popup asking you to allow the mod manager to accept the link; Click yes. Now the mod will start downloading. You can see the progress down in the bottom left.

Go to the “Mods” tab in NMM and find the mod you downloaded. (Note: you can hide unused categories to lower the amount of clutter by going to the icon on the left with four lines, clicking the drop down button on the right edge of the icon, and selecting “Categories: Toggle Hidden Categories”. Alternatively, you can click the last icon on the left to disable categories, then sort by download date. I do the latter.) Once you’ve found your mod, double click on it to install it.

Now go to the “Plugins” tab and make sure that all of the items on it are checked.

Another thing you’ll want to do after you’ve installed a bunch of (or all) mods is to have NMM auto sort them in the optimal order. To do this find the wrench and screw driver icon and click the down arrow on the right of the icon. Select “Automatic Plugin Sorting” and wait for it to finish sorting your plugins for you. This will help to avoid conflicts between mods.

 

Mods:

UPDATED Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch – Fixes bugs in the game. Be sure to download the file called “Updated_Unofficial_Fallout3_Patch” (Described as the “NEWB FRIENDLY version“) Run the installer. Be sure to select “Full ALL DLC installation” from the drop down on the “Select Components” screen.

NMCs_Texture_Pack_for_FO3 – Adds better looking textures for roads, landscape, trees, rocks, vehicles, buildings, and a whole host of other things. Drastically improves the look of the game. Be sure to get the “NMCs Texture Pack LARGE Pack SINGLE FILE FOR NMM” file. If your system isn’t great, consider using the performance file instead. Be aware that this is the largest mod we will install and it will take A VERY LONG TIME to download so be patient.

Fallout 3 Redesigned – Improves the look of most of the NPCs in the game. Be sure to download the “FO3 Redesigned HD version” file. This mod will crash your game unless you DISABLE the “Mart’s Mutant Mod – Project Beauty.esp” plugin under the plugins tab. Don’t ask me why the developer didn’t make the esp an additional download.

Fallout 3 Re-Animated – Changes the animations so that it looks better when you are holding weapons. Be sure to get not only the “Release v0_22” file but also the “Idle Revisions2 – Fixed” file. When you activate the “Idle Revisions2 – Fixed” file in NMM, select “Yes to all” when the confirm overwrite dialog pops up. This will overwrite the old stuff with the updated changes.

EVE – Energy Visuals Enhanced – Makes the energy weapons and kills from said weapons look much cooler.

Fallout Stutter Remover – Makes the game more stable. Be sure to get download the latest version. (“FSR_4-1-36” at the time writing this guide)

Enhanced Blood Textures – Higher resolution blood. Select “No to all” when a popup tells you there is a conflict with EVE. The two instances look better in EVE.

Hi-Res Weapons – Nicer looking weapons. Be sure to get the latest version. (“HiRes Weapons v3_1” as of the writing of this guide) Select “No to all” when a popup tells you there is a conflict with EVE.

CASM – Replaces the buggy save system in Fallout 3 with a better one. Use F4 to quick save and F8 to quick load. Load the game and disable the auto save functions built into the game by going to Settings, Gameplay, “Save On Rest” OFF, “Save On Wait” OFF, “Save On Travel” OFF.

MTUI – UI mod that makes the game more playable at 720p.

Fallout 3 – Enhanced Camera – Allows you to look down at your body in first person. Also keeps first person camera when sitting down and doing other things…like dying. If you want to get a better look at your character, holster your weapon by holding R. (Weapon stance hunches over, making it hard to see your body)

Enhanced Night Sky – Adds a nicer looking night sky.

krzymar HI-RES Moon – Adds a nicer looking moon. Be sre to download the Bright version. (“krzymar_HI-RES_Moon-0_2_0-bright” as of the writing of this guide)

Megaton Lighting Overhaul – Turns all Megaton lights into real light sources rather than just decoration.

Ambient Wasteland 2 – Adds ambient noises to the game for a more immersive experience. Be sure to download the “Ambient Wasteland 2 WAV edition” file and the “Ambient Wasteland 2 Wav Patch” file. When installing the patch, select “Yes to all” to overwrite the old files.

DYNAVISION – Dynamic Depth of Field – Makes the player’s vision work like in real life. When looking at things that are close up, the background blurs and vice versa.

Now we want to change the settings. Launch the game, open your pip-boy, select apparel, and select “<DYNAVISION Lens Package>”. Select “DynaVision SPEED Options”, “Fast”, “Back”. Select “DynaVision BLUR STRENGTH Options”, “DynaBlur: Low”, “Back”. Select “DynaVision SOFT FOCUS Options”, “DynaFOCUS: LOW”, “Back”. Select “Done” and exit your pip-boy.

SmoothLight – Pip-Boy Light Enhancer – Makes your pip-boy light work more like a normal flashlight instead of being terrible. (If you don’t remember how to turn it on, you can do so by holding Tab.)

Vandr HD Creatures – Adds high res textures to the monsters and mutants in the game.

HD Smoky Fire and Explosions for FO3 – Adds high res textures for fire and explosions.

Better clutter and furniture pack – Adds high res textures to clutter (i.e. bottles and other random stuff) and furniture. Be sure to download both the “New Clutter Pack” file and the “New Furniture pack” file.

Better HiRes Skill Books – Adds high res textures to skill books. Be sure to download “HiResSkillBooks” and “WastelandSurvivalGuideRedone“.

Improved LOD Noise Texture – Improves the look of textures that are far a way for very little cost to performance.

FPS Grenade Hotkey – Allows you to hold ‘G’ to equip a grenade and charge it up and throw on release (no need to go into pip-boy anymore to equip grenades). Also add the ability to switch between grenade types by pressing ‘H’.

Better PreWar and Burned Books – Adds high res textures for books (but not skill books). Be sure to download the “HiResBooks” file and none of the rest.

Fallout Street Lights – Makes street lights actually provide light rather than being a decoration.

Color Hi-Detailed map and icons – Adds high res textures to the map. You may want to change your pip-boy color to white in the options menu to see the map better.

Faster PipBoy Light – Makes pip-boy light turn on and off faster.

PipBoy 3000 HD Retexture – Adds high res texture for pip-boy.

UHQ Terrain Overhaul – Adds even more high res textures for terrain. When the conflict dialog pops up, select “Yes to all” to overwrite some of the stuff from the NMC Texture pack. (It won’t overwrite all). Both of these mods combined improve the graphics dramatically. Download the “HQ Terrain Overhaul v2″ file.

Improved Glass Bullet Impact – Adds better looking effects when you shoot glass.

Swampfolk Backwater Retexture – Adds high res textures for the swamp people.

Mothership Zeta DLC Retextured – Adds high res textures for the Mothership Zeta DLC.

Auto Aim Explained and Properly Applied – Despite its terrible name, this mod extends the range at which you can target enemies. Extremely helpful if you use sniper rifles a lot.

Retex_Gorycorpseparts – Adds high res textures to dead bodies.

Chems and Meds Re-Texture Pack – Adds high res textures to chemicals and medications.

Hi-Res Vault Door Panels – Because why not? Be sure to download the “Hi-Res VaultDoorPanels -repack-” file and not the other one.

Its a Dogs World – Dog Texture Overhaul – Adds high res dog textures. Be sure to download the optimized file: “DogsWorldTextureOverhaulFO3_Optimized_V1_0“.

Ghouls Hires retexture – Adds high res textures to human ghouls.

Dust Mote and Fluid Drip Effects HD – Adds high res textures for the dust devils and fluid effects.

HD Mist – Better looking floating mist. Be sure to get the “HD Mist 2k” file since it won’t affect frame rate too much.

Bear Trap Retextured – High res bear traps.

Schematics – High rest textures for schematics.

Tiny Marie Retexture for The Pitt – High res texture for baby npc. Be sure to get the “Tiny Marie Retexture for The Pitt – Large” file.

BobbleHeads_HiRes_Retexture – Adds high res textures to bobbleheads. Choose whichever skin color you want.

Weathered Bobblehead Case – Changes the bobblehead case to be more weathered so that it matches with the rest of the wastes.

Almost Perfect Anytime Bobbleheads – There’s a way you can screw yourself over in the game. When you get to level 30, you can choose a perk called “Almost Perfect”. It raises all of your stats to 9. Getting a bobblehead for that stat AFTER getting the perk will raise it to 10. If you get the bobblehead BEFORE getting the perk, the stat is only raised to 9. This mod fixes that, so that you can get the bobbleheads whenever you find them and not have to worry about screwing yourself (or remembering the locations and returning to them once you are max level). Be sure to get the “Almost Perfect Anytime Bobbleheads” file and none of the others.

NPC-Confessor Cromwell has a Break EV _ DV – There’s a guy who stands in front of the bomb in the first town preaching…all day…everyday. This gives him a schedule so that he sleeps, eats, and hangs around town as well so that he’s less annoying. Be sure to get the “Confessor Cromwell has a Break_EV” file and not the other one.

Refurbish DLC – This will make it so that the DLC is unveiled to you at a more natural pace rather than dumping it all on you at the beginning of the game. You will talk to NPCs in the game that will give you the quest for each DLC in a way that makes more sense. Be sure to get the “All Refurbishes Merged” file and not any of the others. (NOTE: I didn’t naturally find the Operation Anchorage DLC during my playthrough. Head north east from the nuka cola factory to find the outcast base if you don’t end up finding the dlc naturally.)

5X Faster Waiting – This mod will making waiting faster. This is important because you have to wait three days to refresh the money on a merchant and waiting 66 seconds every time gets old fast.

AFTER YOU ARE DONE WITH EVERYTHING BE SURE TO DO “AUTOMATIC PLUGIN SORTING” IN NMM AS DESCRIBED AT THE TOP.

Note 2: If you want to change game settings like pip-boy color or keybinds, you need to launch the Fallout3.exe by itself rather than using the renamed FOSE launcher; otherwise your settings won’t be saved. Just go the fallout goty folder and launch the Fallout3.exe, change your settings, and exit.

BONUS

For Starting stats I did some research and decided to go with the following based on recommendations:
Strength       5
Perception   6
Endurance   6
Charisma    1
Intelligence 9
Luck           6

These stats set you up in the best way possible for perks and to enjoy the game the most.

Suggested starting perks on the G.O.A.T. test are:
Lockpick
Sneak
Speech

Extra Tips:
Hold R to holster your weapon.Hold the Pip-Boy key (default Tab) to turn on or off your flashlight)
Press R while hovering over an item to repair it (if you have compatible items).
You can assign items like weapons, armor, and medicine to hotkeys 1-8 by holding down the hotkey and clicking on the item you want in the slot.

NOTE: If you want to change any setting in the game and have them stay saved, you need to rename the launcher file back to normal and rename the fose file (which is renamed as the launcher) back to fose. Make your settings change, then rename fose back to launcher and launcher back to launcher – copy.

Borderlands 2 Wishlist:

• Eridium shared between all characters – if my high level character has a bunch of eridium, why shouldn’t a new character be able to benefit.
• Money shared between all characters – same thing here. There’s no reason to have money in multiple different places. Follow what diablo 3 did and make money shared across all characters.
• Show Weapon Stats to party members – push a “show party” button in while on weapon in inventory and it will pop up on party member’s screens
• Roll for drops -at the very least on bosses, it sucks to be the guy in the back with the sniper rifle while your team member who’s using shot guns gets all the boss weapons, could be applied to chests too. use the need or greed system like in WoW
• DPS stat on weapons – multiply the damage, fire rate, and multiplier and if it has elemental damage add that. I know this doesn’t take into account burning or a few other things but it would take a lot of the work out of comparing weapons. Possibly consider taking reload speed into account.
• More class mods with ammo regeneration – I had this on my siren in the first game for smg’s and it was awesome
• A relic with ammo regen – allow everyone to have bullet regen and allow poor salvador to take whatever class mod he wants
• Buy All Ammo – could be an icon listed at the top similar to each individual ammo icon, could be a single keyboard button press
• Badass Rank Shows Percentages – next to each possible upgrade, show the new percentage that you would get

Here is The Vampire Chronicles, by Anne Rice, reading order. I had to do some digging to figure this out. Thought it might be useful to others. This includes the Mayfair Witches books too. The last few books combine the two series.

01 Interview With The Vampire
02 The Vampire Lestat
03 Queen of The Damned
04 Tale of The Body Thief
05 Memnoch The Devil
06 Pandora
07 The Vampire Armand
08 Vittorio The Vampire
09 The Witching Hour
10 Lasher
11 Taltos
12 Merrick
13 Blood And Gold
14 Blackwood Farm
15 Blood Canticle