“A pillbox of mind-altering chems. Increases memory related functions, and speeds other mental processes. Highly addictive.”— Fallout in-game description
Mentats are most useful for characters with low Intelligence. Furthermore, they are one of the games' more valuable items yet are relatively easy to find. This also makes them useful as an easy source of funds, particularly when first starting.
Fallout 2[]
The +1 to Charisma can allow recruiting another companion if the new Charisma is an even number. The new member will stay once Charisma returns to the normal value.
Mentats are roughly a little bit less common than Buffout: a bit hard to find and a tad expensive, but nowhere near as rare as Psycho. However, the overall usefulness of Mentats, aside from being able to recruit additional companions, is a bit dubious. Even doubling up on Mentats will only increase a few skills marginally and is far more situational.
Locations[]
Fallout[]
One in a locker in the storage section on level three of Vault 13.
The chem's name is a reference to Frank Herbert's novel Dune, in which "Mentats" are humans trained for computer-like mathematical and logical computations.
According to the Fallout Demo, the Mentats were syringes.[5][6] The Fallout and Fallout 2 graphic's filename SYRING2 reflect this.
↑Item description in the demo: "A syrige filled with mind-altering drugs. Increases memory related functions, andspeeds other mental processes. Highly addictive."
