Summary

• Bethesda has given many Fallout show characters official SPECIAL stats, which reveals more about them.
• SPECIAL stats in Fallout games influence player interactions, skills, and dialogue choices in a wide range of ways.
• The Fallout show's characters have well-rounded SPECIAL stats, unlike the extreme traits commonly seen in the games.

Several main characters of the The Fallout show has many references to the video games, but Bethesda's recent addition to the show brings it even closer to the source. According to PC Gamer, Bethesda released characters from the show into its game, Fallout Shelter, and assigned them all official SPECIAL stats based on their abilities. SPECIAL stats are incredibly important to the Fallout games, but there wasn't a way to directly translate that to the show's characters, until now.

SPECIAL stats serve as a way to determine how intense the attributes and abilities of certain characters are. SPECIAL is an acronym, with each letter corresponding to a different attribute: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. In the Fallout games, these statistics influence what the player can and can't do, as well as how they interact with the wasteland. For instance, a player with high intelligence can use science-based skills and convince other people in the wasteland of their intelligence. With low intelligence, those same skills are impossible to acquire, and even dialogue choices change, forcing the player's character to speak in unintelligible grunts.

5 Lucy MacLean

Her upbringing in Vault 33 made her a well-rounded wastelander

In a subtle nod to the Fallout games, Lucy actually came the closest to explicitly bringing SPECIAL skills into the show. Her introduction saw Lucy listing out some of her SPECIAL traits while applying for marriage to someone from Vault 32. Lucy's time in the vault also directly affected her SPECIAL skills, and made her a well-rounded wastelander. Of all the show characters featured in Fallout Shelter, she has the least variation across the board, with several fives, sixes, and sevens. She also only has one four, in strength, which makes sense given how little she used melee weapons in the show.

Lucy's strongest traits were perception, which affects how accurate a character is while shooting and what they notice in the wasteland, and luck, which functions the same as it does in the real world. As shown at the beginning of the series, Lucy was a skilled sharpshooter, so her high score in perception makes perfect sense. She also had several lucky moments in Fallout, from allying with Maximus to just happening to be at the same store as Siggi Wilzig, her only lead to finding Hank, at the same time.

Even Lucy's less impressive SPECIAL stats were in keeping with her characterization in the show. Her intelligence, which works the same as in real life, was above average. As Lucy explained in the show's premiere, she always had some skill with subjects like history and science, and she was also able to easily reprogram the Mr. Handy robot that tried to harvest her organs later on. She was also about average in agility, which modified how many actions the player could perform per turn in the early games, and how many shots they could take with the later games' targeting system.

While most of Lucy's SPECIAL skills were accurate, some could be slightly adjusted. Lucy had some of the highest endurance of any non-Ghoul character in the entire show, and it could have been raised a point or two. She survived several injuries, from being stabbed in the initial attack on Vault 33 to drinking irradiated water and having her finger cut off while in the Ghoul's captivity. On the flip side, Lucy had very bad charisma from being raised in a vault and being a complete foreigner to the wasteland. Since charisma affects how well characters can persuade others, her score might have been lowered a bit.

4 Maximus

His inconsistent abilities translate to largely average SPECIAL skills

Many of Maximus' SPECIAL stats are fairly straightforward and fit him rather well. His strength and agility are his highest stats, which matches with his Brotherhood of Steel training and ability to carry Titus' heavy bag across long distances throughout the wasteland. Maximus' endurance is also rather high, which he earned by surviving a considerable amount of time roasting alive while locked in his power armor. His perception was similarly high, which was shown in the several instances he made very precise shots, like killing the mutated bear that attacked him and the cannibals on the bridge.

There are also a few of Maximus' stats that aren't as clear-cut as the rest. His luck, for example, widely varied throughout the show. At one moment, a bear luckily killed Titus, giving him an opportunity to claim the power armor as his own, yet in another moment, he jumped the gun while attempting to rescue Lucy from Vault 4 and ended up getting himself banished alongside her.

Another example is his charisma, which is set at five, but he wasn't consistently average throughout the show. There were moments where he was especially adept at persuading others, such as when he convinced Quintus to let him be Titus' squire, and others where he was especially inept, like when Lucy offered to have sex with him in Vault 4. Maximus' intelligence also seems lower than it should be, as he demonstrated considerable knowledge of the wasteland and how to survive. He did, however, have several moments where he didn't think things through, such as when he sold his tooth to pay for a simple repair.

On the whole, many of Maximus' skills and abilities weren't very consistent, which demonstrates a difference between the games and the show. In the Fallout games, SPECIAL stats were a simple threshold: if the player had a high enough skill, they were able to use it, if not, they couldn't. In the Fallout show, however, it seems SPECIAL stats are more of an average for each person, and that depending on the situation, those abilities can increase or decrease.

3 The Ghoul

His SPECIAL skills barely fit his portrayal in the show, though they might be a mix of his abilities both before and after the apocalypse

Like Maximus and Lucy, some of the Ghoul's SPECIAL stats fit him well. The Ghoul's life as a bounty hunter prepared him well for the wasteland, and also helped him earn fittingly high scores in perception, agility, and endurance. The best example of those stats being correctly attributed to him is the endurance stat, which governs how much damage a person can survive. Since he was a ghoul, he could survive almost anything, from being repeatedly shot to being exposed to huge amounts of radiation.

The majority of the Ghoul's SPECIAL stats didn't fit, though, and his scores in intelligence, strength, and charisma were among the most incorrect. The Ghoul's charisma, for example, is far too high. The only times he successfully convinced anyone to do anything was at gunpoint, which had a much larger effect on their cooperation than his charisma. Conversely, his intelligence is far too low. Throughout the show, the Ghoul consistently demonstrated he had learned a considerable amount from the wasteland. Even before the apocalypse, as Cooper, he was shown to have above average intelligence in his dealings with both Hollywood executives and Moldaver's group.

The most egregiously wrong stat was the Ghoul's luck, as even putting him at a four for the skill is too high. He was turned intoFallout's apocalypse, which was a devastating revelation that was beyond his control. One of the few good things that happened to the Ghoul was when Lucy saved his life, which wouldn't have even been lucky if his vials weren't destroyed in the first place.

Of all the characters from the show that made it into Fallout Shelters, the Ghoul's stats are by far the most different from his depiction in the show. Part of the reason for that might be because of the dramatic transformation he went through, both physically and mentally, when he became a ghoul. As Cooper Howard, his SPECIAL skills were significantly different. Some of the biggest changes in his skills could be explained by Fallout Shelter using Cooper's better stats in those areas, but they're still unfitting for the Ghoul specifically.

2 Ma June

Ma June was the proprietor of Ma June's Sundries in Filly, and the intermediary between Siggi Wilzig and Moldaver. She only appeared in the second episode of Fallout, so she didn't have much time to display many SPECIAL abilities in depth. Still, Ma June did showcase more than a few of them, like her perception and endurance, at the same time during her shootout with the Ghoul. In that firefight, Ma June successfully shot the Ghoul several times. She also was able to effectively manage being shot in the leg herself long enough to help Siggi and Lucy on their way, which acted as evidence of both her perception and endurance.

The few other SPECIAL skills that can truly be commented on with regard to Ma June are her charisma and intelligence, and they mostly fit her portrayal in the show. As Filly's main trader, Ma June would have had natural charisma as part of her job. She also displayed it more overtly when she convinced the entire town to fight against the Ghoul with the promise of 1,000 bottle caps. She also showed remarkable intelligence that fits with her score of 6, as she knew about Moldaver, vaults, and several other aspects of the wasteland.

Ma June's remaining SPECIAL skills have far fewer examples to draw upon. Her agility was somewhat on display in the firefight, as she did get several shots off, but most of her time in battle was spent in cover. That, plus her age, probably justifies her lower agility score. Strength is a much harder skill to judge, though, as there were few instances of her displaying it. As such, she earned a five, which is exactly average. Ma June's luck was a mixed bag, as she did draw the Ghoul's attention to her store, but she also had Lucy there to escort Siggi for her.

1 Snake Oil Salesman

The shady merchant's stats prioritize persuading others

The Snake Oil Salesman was the person who tried to convince Lucy and Siggi Wilzig to buy his serums, and who eventually successfully sold a remedy for Thaddeus' crushed foot. Several parts of his SPECIAL stats are quite difficult to gauge, though, since he had so little screen time in the show and wasn't able to display examples of his strength, endurance, or agility. Luckily, those stats are about average, and they also aren't terribly important to his character. His role as a salesman relied much more heavily on his ability to convince others his wares were worth buying.

The stats that can be examined based on his appearance in the show seem to fit rather well. The Snake Oil Salesman earned a considerable intelligence score, which tracks with his on-screen depiction as he knew exactly how to cater his marketing to the opportunities Siggi and Thaddeus presented. He also displayed remarkably high charisma, in keeping with his SPECIAL stat, as he was able to convince Thaddeus to drink a mysterious serum that turned him into a ghoul without question. That success may have more to do with Thaddeus' intelligence stat than the Snake Oil Salesman's charisma, though, as he did fail to convince Siggi.

His remaining SPECIAL stats, perception and luck, may need a bit of adjustment. The Snake Oil Salesman's luck, for example, was never very high. Before Thaddeus ran into him, he was about to take his own life, indicating that he didn't have many opportunities like that one. On the other hand, he likely had a higher perception score than Fallout Shelter gives him credit for. He was able to notice people who were more likely to buy his serums - those who needed medical attention - and target them. Overall, though, the Snake Oil Salesman's stats fit rather well.

All 8 episodes of Fallout are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

The characters chosen for Fallout Shelter show a key difference between the Fallout show and the games. In the games, there are often people at further extremes of their SPECIAL stats, being both very high in some areas and very low in others. The Fallout show's characters, however, are much more well-rounded. That's a more realistic view of what it would take to survive the wasteland, as having a low score in any category would eventually lead to death. The SPECIAL scores are just one more way Fallout has paid homage to the games, while still finding new ground for itself.

Source: PC Gamer