Fallout TV Show star talks a big game about Lucy being a deadly softie, but fans have done the RPG math and she's barely level 8 by the end of season 1
Lucy's under-levelled, but isn't that the point of the wasteland?
The actor behind the lovable lead in the Fallout TV show, Lucy, claims their character is a big-yet-deadly softie, but fans have run the numbers, and they're relatively under-leveled.
Earlier this month, Fallout TV show lead Ella Purnell, who plays Lucy in the Prime Video series, spoke to 12DOVE about her character being a combination of Leslie Knope and Ned Flanders. Even if you haven't watched the series yet (and you should, it's great), you've probably got a pretty good idea of the goofy, softer side of the character Purnell is pointing to.
Now, the Twitter account seen just below has compiled an extensive thread attempting to figure out what level Lucy is when she concludes her journey at the end of the debut season. Be warned: the tweet thread below and the article following it contain significant Fallout TV show spoilers.
Ok, let's run some data here;The Fallout TV series presumably runs by Bethesda rules, and thus we can reasonably assume the ratio of XP-from-combat to XP-from-quests is going to skew heavily towards combat. This works against Lucy's levelling speed. https://t.co/JN3WewswPvApril 14, 2024
First thing's first: Many A True Nerd believes Lucy is playing on the harder 'Survival' difficulty, due to the fact she needs water like a real-life person. That's some solid reasoning there, and it also means that Lucy would theoretically level up much faster, gaining more XP for activities like completing quests and killing enemies than she normally would.
With this base to work off, the Twitter account can deduce roughly how much XP Lucy earns throughout the entire series - and it's a maximum of 5,000 points. This is because the protagonist merely completes six total quests in the TV show, with four of them being "main" and two of them being "side" quests, while she doesn't do a whole lot of actual killing.
This would put Lucy at character level eight if she's playing on a lower difficulty and using Fallout 3's skill features, considering she's operating on being proficient at the repair, science, and speech skills. The "low" difficulty claim is being assessed on the mutated bear being killed with just one shot from a 10mm pistol, but unfortunately, this goes against the 'Survival' mode difficulty level, so we're at a bit of an impasse.
If Lucy is around a level eight, then it's a bit of a minor miracle she managed to make it through the Fallout TV show while merely losing a finger (although she regained it later, obviously). Then again, the Fallout TV show repeatedly emphasizes how punishing and harsh the overworld wasteland is, just like the Bethesda games, so perhaps Lucy's miraculous progress despite her level was the whole point all along.
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Read up on our Fallout TV show Easter Eggs guide for a look over all the references and call-backs we've spotted.
Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.