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Other Statistics
Action Points

To pay tribute to its turn-based predecessors, Fallout 3 features action points. At any time during combat, you can enter the game's Vault Assisted Targeting System (VATS) and leisurely decide the next sequence of attacks your character will make. Each weapon type uses a different number of action points, so the more you have, the more you can shoot or swing in a pre-calculated, full-motion fashion.


Carry Weight

This statistic determines just how much wasteland junk you can sling over your shoulder before your movement rate slows to a crawl. Depending on your strength and whether or not you have the Strong Back perk, this number can be as high as 300. Considering that a single item can weigh as much as 50 pounds, you'll probably find yourself wishing you could get it even higher.


Critical Chance

As you may have already guessed, this is your chance to score a critical hit during the heat of battle. The number itself is transparent during the game, though you can feel confident that you're increasing it when you invest more points into your Luck attribute, pick certain perks, and use better weapons.


Damage Resistance

If you find yourself taking too much damage from that Super Mutant's minigun or a Mister Gutsy's flamer, then you may want to look at increasing your damage resistance. Each point in this transparent statistic reduces all damage inflicted upon you by 1%, with a cap of 85%.


Experience Points

I can only assume you know exactly what experience points are in an RPG, but I'll list them here anyway. Basically, the more you gain, the higher level your charater becomes. You'll need 200 experience points for 2nd level, 550 for 3rd level, and 1050 for 4th level. See the pattern? Each level you gain increases the number of experience points you need by 150, to a cap of 29,450 at 20th level.


Hit Points

The more hit points you have, the more punishment you can endure before you die. This number is determined by your level (you gain 10 hit points for every level attained), your Endurance, and whether or not you have certain perks like Life Giver.


Karma

Whether you're a righteous "Saint", a sinister "Villain of the Wastes", or something in between, your karma score affects how you're perceived by NPCs in the wasteland, and can open up dialogue options that may not have been available otherwise.


Poison Resistance

Your resistance to all things toxic, aside from radiation. A great score to increase if you're striving to rid the post-nuclear world of its radscorpion population.


Radiation Resistance

The capital wasteland is a radiation hotbed, so you'll be subjected to it quite a bit during your adventures (and even while eating and drinking). If you'd rather not fall prey to radiation poisoning or grow extra extremities, then you may want to do what you can to raise this score.