Movement Speed
| Running Speed | |
|---|---|
| Default: | 5 Hex/s |
| Increased by: | |
| Decreased by: | |
| Walking Speed | |
|---|---|
| Default: | 2.5 Hex/s |
| Forced by: | |
| Keybind: |
|
Information
Movement Speed is an important stat to keep an eye out for, especially, if you want to run away from enemies, or catch them, as they are running away!
The default Running speed is 5 Hexes per second. The default Walking Speed is half of that, 2.5 Hexes per second.
There are not many reliable things that can increase this value, though there are quite a few that decrease it, or enforce walking instead of running!
Walk Speed
In the game's code, Walk Speed is calculated via a value that tells the game how many milliseconds you need to cross 1 Hex. The default value is 400. This means every 400 Milliseconds, your character walks 1 Hex. Thus. Effects that decrease that value, actually make you faster, as well as vice versa.
Unlike Run Speed, this value is static and is hardly changeable at all. It is of note that some NPCs have different values for their Walk Speed, and thus could catch you, even when they are suppressed! It is however possible, to force an NPC or Player to walk, instead of to Run.
Drugs
Yellow Nuka Cola (Drug) is currently the only Drug that modifies Walk Speed by adding +200 on-top, causing you to be ~50% slower when walking.
Forced Walking
Ways to force a target to walk, instead of run.
Suppression
Suppression is one of the more straightforward Status Effects you can apply to the enemy. Simply equip a weapon with the Suppresison perk, the more, the better! Most guns that burst have that perk, with the exceptions of small Submachine Guns. Then, fire in the direction of the enemy! You do not even have to hit them, just make sure they are in the cone of fire at the time of firing your weapon. The more bullets fly, the higher the chance to suppress them and force them to walk for a while!
Winded
Another Status Effect, usually applied by Snipers however, instead of Machine Gunners. It can also be a result of Drug Withdrawal, such as the case for Voodoo (Drug) for example. Winded is usually the effect of shooting the Groin or Legs. Those shots have a chance to put the target character into a Winded state, which will disable their running for a while, just like Suppression does!
Broken Legs
As soon as any of your legs is broken past level 2, you will be forced to walk! White (Healthy) legs are fine, yellow (injured) legs slow your run speed, but red (very injured) and black (broken) legs will force you to walk!
Weapons
Some very heavy weapons will force you to walk, as long as you have them in one of your hands. Though, in most cases, those weapons occupy both hand-slots anyway. You can circumvent it, by equipping the weapon only shortly before a fire-fight. Do mind, that equipping a weapon costs a substantional amount of Action Points however!
Overweight
Being above your character's carry weight will cause him to be overweight. For as long as you are, you will only be able to walk, instead of run.
If you are above double your character's carry weight, you will lose the ability to move at all and will only be able to stand still, forcing you to drop things to be able to move again.
Manual Walking
Holding Default: and walking, will force a character to walk, instead of run. This can have a few uses. For example, making sure to stay close to a teammate, who has looted a whole warehouse and currently walks back home. Or a Sneaker, who does not want his Sneak-Value to go up faster, as they are spotted more easily, when running! Walking will also make you bleed out slower - though standing still is still preferable in this situation!
Run Speed
In the game's code, Run Speed is calculated via a value that tells the game how many milliseconds you need to cross 1 Hex. The default value is 200. This means every 200 Milliseconds, your character runs 1 Hex. Thus. Many drug and trait effects that decrease that value, actually make you faster, as well as vice versa.
Take Voodoo as an example. It decreases your Run Speed by -34. This means your Run Speed is now 166ms, which means you run approximately
Increasing Run Speed
Increasing this value semi-permanently is best done with a Leadership Boost. If the Leader has a Running Speed Implant, you can see an increase of almost 20% at 10 Charisma!
Two additional ways to increase this value are drugs.
- Voodoo (Drug) increases the running speed of your character by almost exactly 1 Hex per second for 2 full minutes! Due to weird stacking, having a Running Speed Implant increases this number to a whopping 2.35 Hex per second, for a total of 7.35 Hex per second!! Just watch out, when your Voodoo runs out, you will be forced to walk for 30 seconds as a withdrawal effect!
- Blue Nuka Cola (Drug) is much more "nuclear" - in that it doubles your Running Speed up to 10 Hexes per second! Voodoo does not increase this number, as it gets overwritten by the Blue Nuka Cola - but the Leadership Boost works, to achieve over 14 Hexes per second! Unlike Voodoo, Blue Nuka Cola is only active for 15 seconds however.
Some specific armors can also give a boost to your Running Speed, when specific conditions are met. For example, the Leather Jacket has the Run for Your Life (Armor Trait) perk, which gives you up to 50% decaying Runspeed over 10 seconds when receiving damage!
Decreasing Run Speed
Most options of decreasing Run Speed of an enemy, actually force them to walk entirely. There are ways however, to instead slow their actual running speed - though you would almost always be better off to force them to walk!
Crippled Legs
Having ones leg crippled at the first cripple-level (Yellow), will lower the target's movement speed by 100ms (25%). Since the second level already enforces walking, one could only lower the movement speed even more, by crippling the other leg into the first cripple-level.
Interaction with mechanics
Bleed
Running causes a character to take more Bleed damage, then when they would have if they walked. Standing still further diminishes the amount of Bleeding damage you take!
Check the Bleed page for more details.
Stealth
A Sneaker will be less visible walking, then he would be if running around! Of course, just like the Bleed mechanic, standing still, preferrably next to a wall, is still the best thing to do.
