[Editor’s note: I commissioned this article from Ian Walker over a year ago upon learning he had pitched it to multiple outlets only to find nobody was buying. I then, due to various circumstances, sat on it until now (sorry Ian!). I’ve since watched the show (pretty good!) and they’ve made a whole entire second season, which is coming out immediately. So I felt like it was finally time for this article to see the light of day. The people need to know Lucy's level as they roll in to season 2! Note also that while the methodology is sound, he chose to give her the Swift Learner perk - like all Fallout games the build you have in your brain might be a bit different, but now you have the tools to play along!]

LUCY'S LEVEL

While watching Fallout on Amazon recently, my video game-poisoned brain couldn’t help but track protagonist Lucy MacLean’s journey as though she were the heroine in one of the video games rather than a surprisingly good television series based on them. So, naturally, I started taking notes with the goal of figuring out Lucy’s level by the end of the first season. After all, why just sit back and enjoy a show when you can pause it every few minutes to pore over GameFAQs guides and wikis instead?

First, let’s go over what we know for sure: Lucy’s guest appearance in the Fallout Shelter mobile game gives us her complete stat sheet, known as SPECIAL in every Fallout game. Seeing as Lucy’s stats in Fallout Shelter add up to 40, or the exact number of points provided during character creation in Fallout 2, Fallout 3, and Fallout Tactics if you’re rolling a human (this is the last time I reference Fallout Tactics, so enjoy), I’m comfortable with considering them her beginning stats.

This means Lucy has a starting 4 in Strength, a 7 in Perception, a 6 in Endurance, a 5 in Charisma, a 6 in Intelligence, a 5 in Agility, and a 7 in Luck. Although the only stat that really ended up mattering for my purposes was Intelligence (more on that later), it’s nice to have such a clean breakdown.

Lucy’s self-introduction in the first episode of the Fallout show also provides us with her starting skills, which she rattles off by name: Repair, Science, and Speech. Again, these specific skills had very little bearing on my research, but Lucy’s varied knowledge base and extracurriculars (“I also participate in Gymnastics Club, Fencing Team C, Intermediate Phys Ed, and I dabble in Riflery,” she explains), came into play as she leveled up.

That’s where the rock-solid information ends, unfortunately. The story of the Fallout television adaptation isn’t taken from any one game, which means there isn’t a single, unified source against which to compare Lucy’s achievements. Every game in the series has its own leveling system, right down to the amount of experience needed to advance, and so things quickly became complicated.

After some deliberation and experimentation I decided it was best to consider only the single-player Fallout games (sorry, Fallout 76, you’re just too weird) developed after Bethesda Softworks acquired the franchise from creator Interplay Entertainment in 2007. Bethesda director Todd Howard was involved in the creation of the show, after all, and I don’t think it’s too controversial to say the program’s tone and aesthetics are more in line with the modern video game installments—Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4—than the first two games in the series.

METHODOLOGY

I decided the best tactic was to average the amount of experience needed to reach each level in the three aforementioned Fallout games (and where one game or another did not award experience points for a given activity I chose to remove it from the results rather than assign it a zero). The result was a tidy table consisting entirely of whole numbers (a sign from the Fallout gods, to be sure) that seemed logical for my needs. For example, Lucy would - at level one with zero experience - proceed to level two at 200 experience, then to level three at 525 experience, level four at 975 experience, level five at 1,550 experience, and so on and so forth, capping at level 30 with a whopping 56,550 experience. I’m not expecting Fallout to run for enough seasons to ever reach this point but who knows.

(As an aside, I didn’t go through and calculate these averages by hand, instead opting to look up an Excel formula that automatically averages the sum of three columns and letting Google Sheets do all the work. Not that any of this matters, it just felt cool to learn an actual useful skill while writing about video games. It doesn’t happen very often. Here's the full level chart for reference.)

I followed this pattern for just about everything by taking note of Lucy’s actions over the course of the show, comparing them as best I could against the experience that would be gained from similar achievements in Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4, and then averaging my findings. And, for the most part, I think it worked out well. Below, you’ll find my research broken down by episode, with notes explaining my thinking where it may not be as obvious. Now let’s get into the good stuff. Be warned: This is absolutely chock full of spoilers if you’ve not seen the show.

LET THE LEVELING BEGIN

Episode 1, “The End” (Current Total XP: 0)

• Slept with Monty (15% experience boost)

While randomly having sex in Fallout games doesn’t provide any actual experience, doing so in Fallout 4 bestows upon the player a temporary perk known as Lover’s Embrace. As such, Lucy will gain additional experience for the next eight hours.

Oh, and just because I’m sure someone might point this out, it doesn’t seem as if Lucy gets any actual sleep between consummating her short-lived marriage to Monty and realizing he’s a radiation-addled raider, so I chose not to give her the Well Rested status and its benefits.

• Left Vault 33 (Fallout 3: 200 XP. New Vegas: N/A. Fallout 4: 200 XP. Average: 200 XP x 1.33 bonus = 266 XP)

Leaving the safety of your Vault and heading into the Wasteland is a pretty big deal in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 (a comparable moment doesn’t exist in Fallout New Vegas, sadly). I took the experience gained by completing the story missions “Escape!” and “Out of Time” respectively, averaged it out, and then multiplied it by Lucy’s current experience bonus for the total.

But wait, 1.33? Shouldn’t it be 1.15? Nope! Lucy also enjoys a constant 18% boost to her experience gain thanks to her Intelligence stat, a quirk I adopted from the SPECIAL system in Fallout 4. See, I told you I’d get to it.

*military snare* Lucy reaches Level 2!

Every game in the Fallout series differs when it comes to what you get from leveling up. I chose to take the easy path and award Lucy a permanent perk at every level à la Fallout 3 rather than drive myself crazy with all the SPECIAL-raising options provided to the player in Fallout 4. And, as I said before, skills don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, so I ignored that headache too.

Due to Lucy’s obvious aptitude for quickly picking up new concepts, I gave her the Swift Learner perk present in both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas for another permanent 10% bonus to experience gain.

Episode 2, “The Target” (Current Total XP: 266)

• Discovered oceanside ruins (Fallout 3: 10 XP. Fallout New Vegas: 10 XP. Fallout 4: 20 XP.  Average: 13 XP x 1.28 bonus = 17 XP)

Stumbling upon a new location rewards the player with a little bit of experience in every Fallout game. I did the same for Lucy every time she reached a named or notable area that could feasibly be used as a fast travel location. Her experience boost dropped a bit due to Lover’s Embrace reaching its time limit.

• Built fire (Fallout 3: N/A. Fallout New Vegas: N/A. Fallout 4: 5 XP. Average: 5 XP x 1.28 bonus = 6 XP)

Fallout 4 is the only one of the three games that lets the player build a campfire thanks to its settlement-building mechanics.

• Discovered church farm (17 XP)
• Discovered Filly (17 XP)
• Clue to dad’s location (Fallout 3: 300 XP. Fallout New Vegas: N/A. Fallout 4: N/A. Average: 300 x 1.28 bonus = 384 XP)

A big chunk of the Fallout 3 story concerns tracking down your dad after he leaves Vault 101 ahead of you, which makes it the perfect analog for Lucy’s own crusade to rescue her dad from his kidnappers. Once she figured out where to find him, I felt she had earned story-mission-appropriate experience equivalent to the “Following in His Footsteps” quest in Fallout 3.

*military snare* Lucy reaches Level 3!

I gave Lucy another rank in the Swift Learner perk, upping its bonus to 20%.

• Discovered The Shithole (Average: 13 XP x 1.38 bonus = 18 XP)

This isn’t an off-hand remark about a terrible place, funny enough, but the actual name of a huge stretch of arid wasteland between Filly and the base where Lucy’s dad is being held, as noted by its capitalization in the show’s subtitles. Finally, my poor hearing pays off.

Episode 3, “The Head” (Current Total XP: 725)

• Built fire (Average: 5 XP x 1.38 bonus = 7 XP)
• Discovered Hollywood Boulevard (18 XP)

Not much happens experience-wise in this episode, but I do like The Ghoul (played by the amazing Walton Goggins) complaining about always being “sidetracked by bullshit” as he and Lucy trudge off towards what could accurately be described as a side quest. Ain’t that the truth.

Episode 4, The Ghouls (Current Total XP: 750)

• Discovered Westside (18 XP)
• Discovered Super Duper Mart (18 XP)
• Intimidated Huey and Squirrel (Fallout 3: 10 XP. Fallout New Vegas: 20 XP. Fallout 4: 15 XP. Average: 15 XP x 1.38 bonus = 21 XP)

Despite Lucy’s aptitude in the Speech skill, I didn’t want to turn on the experience spigot for psyching out a couple of idiots. I derived the figures above from an easy speech check in Fallout 3, an early-game speech check in Fallout New Vegas, and an early-game, yellow-difficulty speech check in Fallout 4.

• Killed feral ghoul Martha (Fallout 3: 5 XP. Fallout New Vegas: 5 XP. Fallout 4: 7 XP. Average: 6 XP x 1.38 bonus = 8 XP)

It took almost half the season, but Lucy was finally forced to kill something. Rest in peace, Martha.

• Escaped Super Duper Mart (Fallout 3: 100 XP. Fallout New Vegas: N/A. Fallout 4: 200. Average: 150 XP x 1.38 XP = 207 XP)

Here, I used the experience awarded from easy, Super Duper Mart-related side quests in Fallout 3 (“Wasteland Survival Guide”) and Fallout 4 (“Ghoul Problem at Super Duper Mart”). I’m guessing the grocery chain never made its way west and that’s why you don’t see any Super Duper Marts in Fallout New Vegas.

*military snare* Lucy reaches Level 4!

Lucy gets yet another rank in the Swift Learner perk, further increasing its experience boost to 30%.

Episode 5, “The Past” (Current Total XP: 1,022)

• Killed radroach (Fallout 3: 1 XP. Fallout New Vegas: 1 XP. Fallout 4: 5 XP. Average, 2 x 1.48 bonus = 3 XP)
• Killed radroach (3 XP)
• Killed radroach (3 XP)
• Persuaded Maximus to join her as a companion (Fallout 3: 10 XP. Fallout New Vegas: 20 XP. Fallout 4: 15 XP. Average: 15 XP x 1.48 bonus = 22 XP)

Again, this was an easy feat for Lucy considering her budding romance with Maximus.

• Maximus killed Fiend (Fallout 3: N/A. Fallout New Vegas: 20 XP. Fallout 4: N/A. Average: 20 XP x 1.48 bonus = 30 XP)
• Maximus killed Fiend (30 XP)

Fallout New Vegas is the only game of the three we’re using that awards you experience for companion kills even if you freeze up and do zero damage to the enemy like Lucy. Thanks Maximus!

• Discovered Shady Sands (Average: 13 XP x 1.48 bonus = 19 XP)
• Discovered Hawthorne Medical Laboratories (19 XP)
• Discovered Vault 4 (19 XP)

Episode 6, “The Trap” (Current Total XP: 1,170)

This is a great episode but Lucy doesn’t really do anything worthy of experience points.

Episode 7, “The Radio” (Current Total XP: 1,170)

• Persuaded Maximus to leave Vault 4 (22 XP)
• “Escaped” Vault 4 (Fallout 3: N/A. Fallout New Vegas: N/A. Fallout 4: 75 XP. Average: 75 XP x 1.48 bonus = 111 XP)

The closest equivalent I was able to find to Vault 4 in our three source games was Fallout 4’s Vault 81 which, lucky for us, has a similarly-named quest associated with it.

• Discovered KPSS Radio Station (19 XP)

Episode 8, “The Beginning” (Current Total XP: 1,322)

• Discovered Griffith Observatory (19 XP)
• Bartered with Moldaver for her dad’s freedom (Fallout 3: 20 XP. Fallout New Vegas: 20. Fallout 4: 20. Average: 20 x 1.48 bonus = 30 XP)
• Persuaded her dad to give Moldaver codes for the cold fusion reactor (30 XP)

Both of these speech checks were more difficult than those accomplished by Lucy earlier in the show, necessitating experience equal to an average success in Fallout 3 and an early-game orange success in Fallout 4.

• Killed feral ghoul (Average: 6 XP x 1.48 = 9 XP)
• Reunited with dad (Fallout 3: 600 XP. Fallout New Vegas: N/A. Fallout 4: N/A. Average: 600 XP x 1.48 bonus = 888 XP)

You reunite with your dad in Fallout 3 after completing the “Tranquility Lane” story quest. Looking at it now, this may be a tad too much experience for this stage of Lucy’s adventure, but what the heck, the season is over and that’s somebody else’s problem.

*military snare* Lucy reaches Level 5!

*military snare* Lucy reaches Level 6!

LUCY-ED DREAMING

There you have it: Lucy is level 6 at the conclusion of Fallout’s first season (I’ll leave what perks she gains as a fun thought experiment for you to ponder on your own). I don’t think my process was air-tight by any means, but to me the result sounds about right. Was it worth all the work? Did it make me appreciate the show more? The games? I don’t know, man, I just like researching stuff, even if it’s all ultimately meaningless. See you in season two.


Ian Walker is a freelance writer who spends way too much time on silly stuff like this. Check out his personal blog for more.