Can SPECIAL stats be increased past 10?

Solution 1:

If a stat is already at 10 when a SPECIAL raising Bobble-head is picked up it can raise it to 11 if you really want to have a stat of 11 you must wait till you raise it to 10 naturally before picking the Bobble-Head up. The You're SPECIAL book that is found in your house after you leave the vault on the other hand can NOT raise your stats above 10. Things that provide temp boosts such as perks ex. Night Person, drugs, clothing or other items will raise it above 10 as long as its equipped or in effect but since its just a temp boost you can NOT use it to get perks you normally wouldn't have access to but it does give you all the other advantages of having a higher stat an example would be for strength being able to carry more.

I already looked this up a bit ago when I was looking up the Bobble-Head locations for someone elses question it came from a guy on reddit who wanted to test this specific thing several others also supported his comment so it is most likely true.

Solution 2:

To boost your stat past 10 with the You're S.P.E.C.I.A.L. use drugs or what have you to temporarly lower your stat below 10 then use the book on the desired stat, once the effects wear off you either be at 11 or 12 depedning if you had used the Bobblehead when you were at 10 or not.

Solution 3:

I tested it with the intelligence bobblehead and was able to boost it to 11 permanently, by starting with 10 in that stat. The SPECIAL book only would boost stats that were not already at 10. So to really maximize things if you want to take the time you should start with 10 int and end and go get those 2 bobbleheads ASAP and then work your levels to boost other stats up.

To max your SPECIAL stats you need a total of 42 points over starting one of which you can get through the SPECIAL book in your house. Not seen or heard of any other books though so the soonest would be L42.

Solution 4:

By first getting the desired stat to 10 then getting a drug to give it a temporary debuff you can use the You're Special! book to increase it back to 10 but then when the debuff wears off you will have 11 in that stat and then you can increase it to 12 by getting the corresponding bobblehead. and why i say do it in this order is because it is easier to find a -1 debuff than a -2. don't know exactly wich stats you can do this for as i believe you can't do this on some not sure wich ones though. afterwards you can then of course also use items and clothing to increase past this. I've heard of people able to get their charisma far enough to get 40+ settlers in a settlement.