How To Max Out SPECIAL Stats In Fallout: New Vegas

I'm a completionist. I love to collect every item, finish every quest and max out all of my characters' stats and abilities. This was easy enough in Fallout 3 - you practically tripped over skill books everywhere you went and with the Almost Perfect perk, it was easy to raise your SPECIAL to 9 across the board, then collect all of the Bobbleheads in order to bring them all up to 10.

Unfortunately, Fallout: New Vegas made maxing out your SPECIAL quite a bit more difficult. I've heard people say that it's impossible even. Well it's not. I've done it. On the Xbox 360 version, so I can guarantee there were no console commands involved. If you wish to max out your character's SPECIAL, follow my simple guide below:

(You will NEED to buy 3 of the 4 DLCS - Dead Money, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road.)

First off, when you first interact with the Vigour Tester machine in Doc Mitchell's office - set your starting stats as follows:

Strength - 7  (This MUST be 7!)
Perception - 6  (This MUST be 6!)
Endurance - 9
Charisma - 1
Intelligence - 9
Agility - 1  (The lower, the better!)
Luck - 7  (This MUST be 7!)

Following this, you need to take the Four Eyes trait and another trait of your choice, if you wish. You can take the Small Frame trait if you need an initial boost to your Agility. I chose Wild Wasteland, which doesn't affect SPECIAL.

This is just the way I personally did it, but there are different ways to do it - I chose to raise my Intelligence to 9 to make it easier to max out all of your skills, which is fairly easy to do providing you take the Comprehension perk and collect the extra skill books hidden in the DLCs.

In order to max out your Perception, you will need to get the Lucky Shades item, which is located at the Caesar's Legion Safehouse - so try and stay on their good side until you've gotten the keys to the safehouse if you intend to work against them. :)

You will also need to take the Intense Training perk 9 times, so remember to make allowances with your level-up perks.

You will also need to wear glasses, so you may not be able to wear Power Helmets.

Now I'll go into detail on how to max out each individual stat:

Strength
- Take the implant from Dr. Usanagi at the New Vegas Medical Centre to increase it to 8.
- Take the Reinforced Spine perk included in the Old World Blues DLC to increase it to 10.

Perception
- The Four Eyes perk will reduce your base stat initially, so your stat becomes 5.
- Put a point into Perception with an Intense Training perk to increase it to 6.
- Take the implant from Dr. Usanagi at the New Vegas Medical Centre to increase it to 7.
- Wearing the Lucky Shades provides a +3 to Perception, which will increase it to 10.

Endurance
- Take the implant from Dr. Usanagi at the New Vegas Medical Centre to increase it to 10.

Charisma
- Put 8 points into Charisma using the Intense Training perk 8 times to increase it to 9.
- Take the implant from Dr. Usanagi at the New Vegas Medical Centre to increase it to 10.

Intelligence
- Take the implant from Dr. Usanagi at the New Vegas Medical Centre to increase it to 10.

Agility
- Take the implant from Dr. Usanagi at the New Vegas Medical Centre to increase it to 2. (Optional!)
- Here is where we will abuse a little glitch in the Dead Money DLC. Whenever you find some light clothing, equip it and then return it to the vending machine. You will lose the item but retain the Agility boost permanently. Do this 8 times to increase it to 10. (Or 9 times if you choose not to buy the implant.)

Luck
- Take the implant from Dr. Usanagi at the New Vegas Medical Centre to increase it to 8.
- Complete the Lonesome Road DLC to receive a permanent boost to one of your SPECIAL stats, use this to increase it to 9.
- Wearing the Lucky Shades will provide a +1 boost to Luck to increase it to 10.


And our stats will end up looking like this:
Strength - 10 (+)
Perception - 10 (+)
Endurance - 10
Charisma - 10
Intelligence - 10
Agility - 10 (+)
Luck - 10 (+)

Good luck! :D