Condition

Condition is a numerical representation of how close your item is to breaking. It is the number you see when you examine your armor/weapon on the inventory screen ("I" by default). Most new items start at 100/100.

As you fire your weapons, have your armor absorb hits, or drive your cars around, they "deteriorate," i.e., their condition gradually decreases. Investing points in Engineering can increase the longevity of your armor, delaying its destruction. If you want to do the same for your weapons, consider investing in their corresponding combat skills. Failing that, there's always the Repair skill that allows you to restore some of your equipment's lost condition. Whichever you choose, tools might come in handy. And if you're lucky enough to successfully level up your item all the way to level six, ~resetperks will make it brand new again, at the cost of all of its perks.

Using poorly maintained equipment carries significant risks: weapons are more likely to miss critically the lower their condition, and armor with holes in it is much more easily bypassed. Using gear broken beyond repair is either impossible (such weapons simply won't fire) or ill-advised.

Deterioration

Under the hood, the game calculates the deterioration (condition loss) of an item by subtracting formula-derived values from the pool of the item's so-called condition points whenever the item is used. Each 100% of condition displayed on your inventory screen corresponds to 10,000 of those points. That's what most equipment starts with but high-end items such as Hardened Power Armor can have significantly more than that, changing the effect of losing any given amount of condition points drastically.

Weapons

• Weapons deteriorate whenever they're used to perform an attack.
• The higher your combat skill level, the less condition will be lost.
• The higher the tier of the weapon, the more condition will be lost.
• The formula that the game uses to calculate your weapon's per-attack condition loss is:

Weapon Condition Point Loss = X - Combat Skill, where X changes based on the tier of your weapon as follows:

Tier	I	II	III	IV	V	VI
Optimal combat skill level (X)	150	250	350	500	600	700

• Note that the final number of condition points lost by performing a single attack can never drop below 1, and can never exceed the value of "X."
• Additional significant condition loss may occur due to critical effects, such as the weapon exploding after a critical miss.
• Stackable weapons, such as spears, are an exception: they have no condition and thus cannot lose it.

Armor

• Armor deteriorates whenever the wearer is hit.
• The higher the attacker's and the lower the defender's Luck, the more condition will be lost.
• The higher the tier of the armor, the more condition will be lost.
• The formula that the game uses to calculate your armor's per-hit condition loss is:

Armor Condition Point Loss = [(Attacker's Luck + 5 x Defender's Armor Tier) - (Defender's Luck + Engineering/50)] x 10

• The number of condition points lost when hit can never be lower than 1 or exceed the values presented in the table below.

Tier	I	II	III	IV	V	VI
Condition point loss cap	50	75	100	125	150	175

• Note that having the Surgeon level perk removes the "Attacker's Luck" variable from the equation.

Repair

Repair is the art of fixing equipment by converting its maximum condition into current condition points.

• Since there are currently no NPC repairmen available, you've gotta do it yourself.
• To attempt a repair, open your Skilldex, select "Repair" and then left-click the damaged item you wish to perform maintenance on. Alternatively, you can click and hold the left mouse button on the target item, wait for a menu to appear, mouse over Vault Boy's face, release the button, and then select "Repair."
• The higher the tier of your gear, the higher the skill level required to perform a successful repair.
• Failing a repair attempt will result in 5 to 30% of maximum condition being lost.
• Tier 4 and higher gear will lose maximum condition even if your repair attempt was successful.
• The table below provides a complete breakdown of the Repair skill required by each tier and guaranteed loss of maximum condition that must be planned for:

Tier	Weapons		Armor
	Required Repair skill level	Max condition loss (success)	Required Repair skill level	Max condition loss (success)
I	150%	0%	125%	0%
II	300%	0%	250%	0%
III	450%	1%	400%	0%
IV	600%	3%	500%	1%
V	800%	5%	650%	2%
VI	1000%	10%	900%	3%

• Every craftsman needs his tools, if only to blame them for his failures.
• The table below is designed to help you pick the right tool for the job:

Tools	Bonuses provided by the tool when repairing items of a specific tier
	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III	Tier IV	Tier V	Tier VI
Your Bare Hands	-25%	-50%	-75%	-100%	-300%	-700%
Standard Tool	+50%	+100%	+50%	+25%	0%	0%
Wrench	+75%	+150%	+75%	+50%	0%	0%
Super Tool Kit	+50%	+100%	+150%	+75%	0%	0%
Professional Tool Set	0%	0%	0%	+100%	+75%	+25%
Oil Can	+150%	+300%	+450%	+50%	+50%	0%

• While tools are useful, nothing beats simply increasing the skill by:
  • Reading books: to be exact, 10 copies of Dean's Electronics, each worth at least (4 + INT) Repair points;
  • Acquiring Mr. Fixit (support perk) for 100% extra;
  • Unlocking all ten ranks of Repairboy (PvE perk) for another 200%.