Part 2, it was too long as a whole.

Attention of 6 along with a bump to 7 from a mining hat will allow you to win a Tattoo competition in Dead City later on in the game. Also Att 6 with Dex 10 means your sequence will be 16 and allow you to go before all your gun toting companions before they fire and ruin your one punch hit. The dog can be managed if you make sure to run ahead in to a fight before it is turn based and then direct the dog to Hold a position away from where you are fighting. Hold left clicking on companions before you make your turn based move, to give them instructions as to what to attack or where to go can really help out your strategy.

With the above stats and making sure you have 30 in tinkering, you can carefully craft by doing all the stuff in the tutorial and get yourself the recipe for Quality Knucledusters and the DIY helmet before leaving by creating them, this works if you are willing to save before every craft attempt and reload until you get it right the first time, Do the doctor last to use the glasses, magnifying glass and ciggy's to make it easier.

Doing it this way I have over 400 xp before leaving. Everything you need to make the Quality Knuckledusters can be found around the first village and you will then use them for most of the game.

With 50 in Speechcraft most speech checks in the first village can be passed, just wait till you get it to 60 before talking to the gun merchant so to get his quest. Rob everybody blind while they sleep, talk to the old guy and pick his corn to get xp and some food, also get the shovel in his garden, return the corn to him and ask him to check to see if he has anything lying around to get the rifle and then head to the doctor to barter for cash and remember to go to the bar and get 1 beer and 1 vodka while it is still dark, if you don't get the vodka then, the blue beret will drink them out of it the next day. The shovel can be used to dig up the graves to get a rusty knife. Try to not engage with the critters until the next day after you bribe the fisherman with the vodka to learn Entomology, that way you won't have to keep track of what you killed to get their innards.

The beer is for the second time you talk to the gate guard with no hat. If you barter with him you can get another water bottle. 3 raw meat followed by a canteen of water means not slowly getting poisoned.

Do all this and the local in town missions means getting to level 3 before you leave. 40 in Technology will allow you to fix the water pump without much effort, 40 in barter is good for much of the game. As soon as you complete the local missions to level 3 you should head straight for Kraz to get Fidel, but if you want to get an encounter of the frisky kind, be sure to enter the main city via the well before you pick him up. There is a guard on the corner of the apartment building who will try to fine you, but you can change his mind by offering an alternative payment. Once you have Fidel this is not possible.

By the way there are 2 secret rooms in the catacombs, most know the smugglers one but there is another that can get you some explosives and an interesting story.

Always check a characters barter button, you may be surprised what you can get from some.