NMLevesque
Commie Ghost
I saw an old thread where people complained that there wasn't a general thread for perk related questions. Maybe that person was just being annoying, but I couldn't find one. Maybe I suck at searching. Either way, I thought I'd just go ahead and create one. Maybe sticky this and yell at people who ignore it, if it's actually needed. If not, whatever.
The first number after the SPECIAL and skill reqs (where applicable) are the level req and # of ranks where applicable respectively btw.
To start, here's all the regular vanilla perks I thought had commentary worth making.
Friend of the Night 2 PE 6, Sneak 30 1 Your eyes adapt quickly to low-light conditions: pointless. Take drugs, or crank up your gamma as needed. There are also several nightvision helmets and scopes.
Hunter 2 Survival 30 1 In combat, you do 75% more critical damage against animals and mutated animals: doesn't count insects or abominations...so why bother wasting a perk to nerf the weakest enemy type?
Entomologist 4 IN 4, Survival 45 1 You do an additional 50% damage every time you attack a mutated insect: cazadors aren't that bad people. Sometimes I take this though because I play with the Tale of Two Wastelands mod and albino radscorpions are completely *!@#$&* ridiculous.
Intense Training 2 10 You can put a single point into any of your SPECIAL attributes: it's already trivial to get high SPECIALs.
Retention 2 IN 5 1 Skill Magazines last for 3 real-time minutes: waaaasteful. Seriously, when would this ever come in handy? I always have too many skill mags...
Comprehension 4 IN 4 1 You gain one additional skill point for reading books and double the skill points for reading magazines & Educated 4 IN 4 1 You gain two more skill points every time you advance in level: it's possible to get enough skill points for all your needs at 1 intelligence...making out skill points without using any skill books is possible with a moderate INT value. LAZINESS is here.
Fortune Finder 6 LK 5 1 Considerably more bottle caps will be found in stockpiles: like you won't end up with more than you could ever spend anyway...
Lead Belly 6 EN 5 1 -50% radiation taken from food and water sources: who even runs out of radaway?
Rad Resistance 8 EN 5, Survival 40 1 +25% Radiation Resistance permanently: " "
Scrounger 8 LK 5 1 Considerably more ammunition in stockpiles: or you could visit merchants slightly more often...
Fast Metabolism 12 1 +20% Hit Points restored with stimpaks: it's already too easy to stockpile stimpaks.
Nerves of Steel 26 AG 7 1 20% Faster AP regeneration: AP restoration items are plentiful.
Rad Absorption 28 EN 7 1 -1 Rad every 20 seconds: RADAWAY PEOPLE. RADAWAY.
Miss Fortune & Mysterious Stranger are a great way to get stuck in VATS so you are forced to reload.
Pyromaniac 12 Explosives 60 1 +50% damage with fire-based weapons: this doesn't really ever come in handy. Superheated Saturnite fists aren't the best, flamers are crap (which is dumb), the Sonic Emitter - Tarantula is all about proc-ing its auto-kill effect, and Gehenna is mid-tier. Edit: apparently this affects the damage of incendiary rounds (dragon's breath, 40mm, .50), but I'm not sure if it's just the DOT for all three.
Heave, Ho! 2 ST 5, Explosives 30 1 +50% thrown weapon velocity and range: this affects grenade and fatman launchers. I haven't tested it out, but I will in my newest run. Mostly I'm interested in seeing how it plays with the loose cannon trait.
Ferocious Loyalty 6 CH 6 1 When you drop below 50% HP, companions gain +50 DR: I sort of doubt this would actually come in handy.
Nerd Rage! 10 IN 5, Science 50 1 +15 DT and Strength increased to 10 whenever health is 20% or lower: is this ever actually useful?
Black Widow / Lady Killer 2 +10% damage to the opposite sex and unique dialogue options with certain characters & Cherchez La Femme / Confirmed Bachelor 2 +10% damage to the same sex and unique dialogue options with certain characters: these should have just been high charisma speech checks...>_> I think something similar about Terrifying Presence (8 Speech 70 1 Can intimidate foes through dialogue; closing dialogue results in the foe fleeing for 5 seconds).
Cannibal 4 1 When you're in Sneak mode, you gain the option to eat a human corpse to regain hit points, but lose Karma: I need a perk to do this because...? I guess if it was always available then your character would always at least consider the possibility. So that's not totally RP friendly. I think it should be an acquired perk though. Ghastly Scavenger (12 Cannibal perk 1 When you're in Sneak mode, you gain the option to eat a super mutant or feral ghoul corpse to regain hit points, but lose Karma) makes some sense as a perk I guess, but it also be an acquire one.
Living Anatomy 8 Medicine 70 1 Shows health and Damage Threshold of any target. +5% bonus to damage against humans and non-feral ghouls: it's not like I can remember what the bloody stats of everything are...or that knowing this comes in handy at all.
Grim Reaper's Sprint 20 1 A kill in V.A.T.S. restores 20 AP immediately: with low AP weapons it's possible to get a good chain going, but it's rather situational in my experience.
Spray ‘n Pray 22 1 Your attacks do 25% less damage to companions: I guess this might be a good idea if you use Meltdown or explosives? Not sure.
Paralyzing Palm 18 Unarmed 70 1 Can paralyze an enemy for 30 seconds with a V.A.T.S. unarmed attack: I do not recommend it because super slam exists, as do two special moves (Ranger Takedown, Great Khan Trick) to knock the enemy down, albeit for a shorter duration. Which is the only reason I'm not sure about this one. If you want to stun a bunch of enemies for a while then the compliance regulator is a better option. Also there is the stomp attack in VATS to consider, which does double damage...despite kicking them with your literally unarmed feet...so using AP to stun limits your ability to make use of this technique.
Nuka Chemist 22 Science 90 1 Unlocks special Nuka-Cola recipes at the workbench: basically this allows you to craft Nuka Quartz & with Mad Bomber (6 Repair 45, Explosives 45 1 Allows you to create special Explosion recipes at a workbench) that means a tonne of Nuka Grenades. Which are the best unlimited supply grenade in the game (the best is the Holy Frag grenade which requires the Wild Wasteland trait)...unless you consider the 40mm launchers, which are far more practical and also include Mercy for all of your overkill needs.
Hand Loader 6 Repair 70 1 When using Guns, you are twice as likely to recover cases and hulls. You also have all hand load recipes unlocked at any reloading benches: new recipes are kinda nice?
Vigilant Recycler 6 Science 70 1 When using Energy Weapons, you are twice as likely to recover drained ammunition. You also have more efficient recycling recipes available at workbenches: new recipes are...oh who are we kidding? It's max charge all the way (except for the compliance regulator).
Pack Rat 8 IN 5, Barter 70 1 Items with a weight of two pounds or less now weigh half as much: boring.
Strong Back 8 ST 5, EN 5 1 +50 Carry Weight.
Stonewall 8 ST 6, EN 6 1 +5 DT against melee and unarmed attacks and cannot be knocked down during combat: I guess if you want to run up and punch deathclaws or tunnelers without ever blocking then this is nice. I miss those frantic moments though.
Animal Friend 10 CH 6, Survival 45 2 On 1st rank, hostile animals become friendly. On 2nd rank they come to your aid against enemies except against other animals: rank 2 rarely works. It basically just means you don't have to fight a bunch of enemy types. There's only one situation I can think of where this is nice to have and that's OWB with the nightstalkers.
Concentrated Fire 18 Energy Weapons 60, Guns 60 1 +5% accuracy in V.A.T.S. with every attack on a given body part queued: steady is a good alternative, and can be supplied by the BoS bunker vending machine after completing Dead Money.
Splash Damage 12 Explosives 70 1 Explosives have a 25% larger area of effect: this is a double edged sword, even for explosive builds.
Unstoppable Force 12 ST 7, Melee Weapons 90 1 4 times normal damage through enemy blocks with melee and unarmed attacks: it's nice to have, but is kind of a lazy way to play.
Adamantium Skeleton 14 1 Damage taken by limbs reduced by 50%: I guess doctor's bags can be a bit difficult to source in hardcore mode.
Light Step 14 PE 6, AG 6 1 Floor traps or mines will not be set off: soooooo nice to have....traps in Dead Money and the satchel charges in Lonesome Road in particular are just brutal, but this also cuts out an entire aspect of gameplay...that a lot of people don't enjoy.
Rapid Reload 2 AG 5, Guns 30 1 All of your weapon reloads are 25% faster than normal: very important for any weapon that loads one round at a time, e.g grenade launchers, some shotguns, the holorifle, etc.
Quick Draw 8 AG 5 1 Makes weapon equipping and holstering 50% faster: if you want to switch weapons instead of reloading then get this instead of rapid reload. With the right weapons it's a viable alternative, but kinda takes me out of the moment tbh.
Run 'n Gun 4 Guns 45 or Energy Weapons 45 1 Halved spread with one-handed ranged weapons while walking or running: it can come in handy with the 12.7mm smg especially. As it has crap all for range, and is ridiculously powerful...plus it has a silencer that works far better than should be possible, but I digress.
Travel Light 4 Survival 45 1 While wearing light armor or no armor, you run 10% faster: useful for closing distances, escaping, or disarming traps in time. Anything to make Dead Money less of a pain I guess.
The Professional 6 Sneak 70 1 Your sneak attack criticals with revolvers, pistols, and submachine guns (guns and energy weapons) all inflict an additional 20% damage: neat. I recently realized that the 12.7mm and the 45 auto pistol can outshine Christine's COS Silence rifle at close to mid-ish range DPS wise. This helps.
Robotics Expert 12 Science 50 1 +25% damage to robots, can shut down robots by sneaking up on them: very useful, but also kind of a lazy way to play. I can't remember if there are any interesting robotics expert skill checks for New Vegas.
Jury Rigging 14 Repair 90 1 Repair any item using a roughly similar item: this is so nice to have, but I would also recommend getting an armor and weapon repair kit mod, and that denecessitates this a fair bit.
Purifier 14 1 You do 50% extra damage with melee and unarmed weapons against (abominations including but not limited to) centaurs, nightstalkers, spore plants, spore carriers, deathclaws, super mutants, and feral ghouls: this is probably the only enemy type damage boost that I can get behind. It's somewhat necessary if you want to go toe to toe with abominations.
Rad Child 4 Survival 70 1 +2 HP per second per 200 rads accumulated: overpowered and oh so lovely. At 6hp/s I completely stopped using stimpaks on VH hardcore with a light armor build. Heals limb damage too. Ghouls would be invincible if they had this perk. Also see Atomic! for how to maximize the benefit of being radical. Note that the Monocyte Breeder implant is 2/10s and is trash, Solar Powered ( 20 EN 7 1) adds +1 HP/s (and 2 Strength) while in sunlight (6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M, not in Dead Money I think), and the Scorched Sierra Power armor adds 2/s which is a pretty good bump.
Super Slam! 8 ST 6, Melee Weapons 45 1 All melee (except thrown) and unarmed attacks have a chance of knocking your target down. 15% for Unarmed or one-handed melee, 30% for two-handed melee: YEEEESSSSSS. Greased Lightning or Blade of the West is recommended for maximum fun.
Meltdown 16 Energy Weapons 90 1 Foes killed by your Energy Weapons emit a corona of harmful energy: this is really fun, and also dangerous to you and your allies. It does make energy weapons somewhat situational as a result, but it also creates new opportunities. Basically the killing blow is what determines the damage. So extremely high damage weapons can set up a chain reaction. Like I said: it's really fun.
The first number after the SPECIAL and skill reqs (where applicable) are the level req and # of ranks where applicable respectively btw.
To start, here's all the regular vanilla perks I thought had commentary worth making.
Friend of the Night 2 PE 6, Sneak 30 1 Your eyes adapt quickly to low-light conditions: pointless. Take drugs, or crank up your gamma as needed. There are also several nightvision helmets and scopes.
Hunter 2 Survival 30 1 In combat, you do 75% more critical damage against animals and mutated animals: doesn't count insects or abominations...so why bother wasting a perk to nerf the weakest enemy type?
Entomologist 4 IN 4, Survival 45 1 You do an additional 50% damage every time you attack a mutated insect: cazadors aren't that bad people. Sometimes I take this though because I play with the Tale of Two Wastelands mod and albino radscorpions are completely *!@#$&* ridiculous.
Intense Training 2 10 You can put a single point into any of your SPECIAL attributes: it's already trivial to get high SPECIALs.
Retention 2 IN 5 1 Skill Magazines last for 3 real-time minutes: waaaasteful. Seriously, when would this ever come in handy? I always have too many skill mags...
Comprehension 4 IN 4 1 You gain one additional skill point for reading books and double the skill points for reading magazines & Educated 4 IN 4 1 You gain two more skill points every time you advance in level: it's possible to get enough skill points for all your needs at 1 intelligence...making out skill points without using any skill books is possible with a moderate INT value. LAZINESS is here.
Fortune Finder 6 LK 5 1 Considerably more bottle caps will be found in stockpiles: like you won't end up with more than you could ever spend anyway...
Lead Belly 6 EN 5 1 -50% radiation taken from food and water sources: who even runs out of radaway?
Rad Resistance 8 EN 5, Survival 40 1 +25% Radiation Resistance permanently: " "
Scrounger 8 LK 5 1 Considerably more ammunition in stockpiles: or you could visit merchants slightly more often...
Fast Metabolism 12 1 +20% Hit Points restored with stimpaks: it's already too easy to stockpile stimpaks.
Nerves of Steel 26 AG 7 1 20% Faster AP regeneration: AP restoration items are plentiful.
Rad Absorption 28 EN 7 1 -1 Rad every 20 seconds: RADAWAY PEOPLE. RADAWAY.
Miss Fortune & Mysterious Stranger are a great way to get stuck in VATS so you are forced to reload.
Pyromaniac 12 Explosives 60 1 +50% damage with fire-based weapons: this doesn't really ever come in handy. Superheated Saturnite fists aren't the best, flamers are crap (which is dumb), the Sonic Emitter - Tarantula is all about proc-ing its auto-kill effect, and Gehenna is mid-tier. Edit: apparently this affects the damage of incendiary rounds (dragon's breath, 40mm, .50), but I'm not sure if it's just the DOT for all three.
Heave, Ho! 2 ST 5, Explosives 30 1 +50% thrown weapon velocity and range: this affects grenade and fatman launchers. I haven't tested it out, but I will in my newest run. Mostly I'm interested in seeing how it plays with the loose cannon trait.
Ferocious Loyalty 6 CH 6 1 When you drop below 50% HP, companions gain +50 DR: I sort of doubt this would actually come in handy.
Nerd Rage! 10 IN 5, Science 50 1 +15 DT and Strength increased to 10 whenever health is 20% or lower: is this ever actually useful?
Black Widow / Lady Killer 2 +10% damage to the opposite sex and unique dialogue options with certain characters & Cherchez La Femme / Confirmed Bachelor 2 +10% damage to the same sex and unique dialogue options with certain characters: these should have just been high charisma speech checks...>_> I think something similar about Terrifying Presence (8 Speech 70 1 Can intimidate foes through dialogue; closing dialogue results in the foe fleeing for 5 seconds).
Cannibal 4 1 When you're in Sneak mode, you gain the option to eat a human corpse to regain hit points, but lose Karma: I need a perk to do this because...? I guess if it was always available then your character would always at least consider the possibility. So that's not totally RP friendly. I think it should be an acquired perk though. Ghastly Scavenger (12 Cannibal perk 1 When you're in Sneak mode, you gain the option to eat a super mutant or feral ghoul corpse to regain hit points, but lose Karma) makes some sense as a perk I guess, but it also be an acquire one.
Living Anatomy 8 Medicine 70 1 Shows health and Damage Threshold of any target. +5% bonus to damage against humans and non-feral ghouls: it's not like I can remember what the bloody stats of everything are...or that knowing this comes in handy at all.
Grim Reaper's Sprint 20 1 A kill in V.A.T.S. restores 20 AP immediately: with low AP weapons it's possible to get a good chain going, but it's rather situational in my experience.
Spray ‘n Pray 22 1 Your attacks do 25% less damage to companions: I guess this might be a good idea if you use Meltdown or explosives? Not sure.
Paralyzing Palm 18 Unarmed 70 1 Can paralyze an enemy for 30 seconds with a V.A.T.S. unarmed attack: I do not recommend it because super slam exists, as do two special moves (Ranger Takedown, Great Khan Trick) to knock the enemy down, albeit for a shorter duration. Which is the only reason I'm not sure about this one. If you want to stun a bunch of enemies for a while then the compliance regulator is a better option. Also there is the stomp attack in VATS to consider, which does double damage...despite kicking them with your literally unarmed feet...so using AP to stun limits your ability to make use of this technique.
Nuka Chemist 22 Science 90 1 Unlocks special Nuka-Cola recipes at the workbench: basically this allows you to craft Nuka Quartz & with Mad Bomber (6 Repair 45, Explosives 45 1 Allows you to create special Explosion recipes at a workbench) that means a tonne of Nuka Grenades. Which are the best unlimited supply grenade in the game (the best is the Holy Frag grenade which requires the Wild Wasteland trait)...unless you consider the 40mm launchers, which are far more practical and also include Mercy for all of your overkill needs.
Hand Loader 6 Repair 70 1 When using Guns, you are twice as likely to recover cases and hulls. You also have all hand load recipes unlocked at any reloading benches: new recipes are kinda nice?
Vigilant Recycler 6 Science 70 1 When using Energy Weapons, you are twice as likely to recover drained ammunition. You also have more efficient recycling recipes available at workbenches: new recipes are...oh who are we kidding? It's max charge all the way (except for the compliance regulator).
Pack Rat 8 IN 5, Barter 70 1 Items with a weight of two pounds or less now weigh half as much: boring.
Strong Back 8 ST 5, EN 5 1 +50 Carry Weight.
Stonewall 8 ST 6, EN 6 1 +5 DT against melee and unarmed attacks and cannot be knocked down during combat: I guess if you want to run up and punch deathclaws or tunnelers without ever blocking then this is nice. I miss those frantic moments though.
Animal Friend 10 CH 6, Survival 45 2 On 1st rank, hostile animals become friendly. On 2nd rank they come to your aid against enemies except against other animals: rank 2 rarely works. It basically just means you don't have to fight a bunch of enemy types. There's only one situation I can think of where this is nice to have and that's OWB with the nightstalkers.
Concentrated Fire 18 Energy Weapons 60, Guns 60 1 +5% accuracy in V.A.T.S. with every attack on a given body part queued: steady is a good alternative, and can be supplied by the BoS bunker vending machine after completing Dead Money.
Splash Damage 12 Explosives 70 1 Explosives have a 25% larger area of effect: this is a double edged sword, even for explosive builds.
Unstoppable Force 12 ST 7, Melee Weapons 90 1 4 times normal damage through enemy blocks with melee and unarmed attacks: it's nice to have, but is kind of a lazy way to play.
Adamantium Skeleton 14 1 Damage taken by limbs reduced by 50%: I guess doctor's bags can be a bit difficult to source in hardcore mode.
Light Step 14 PE 6, AG 6 1 Floor traps or mines will not be set off: soooooo nice to have....traps in Dead Money and the satchel charges in Lonesome Road in particular are just brutal, but this also cuts out an entire aspect of gameplay...that a lot of people don't enjoy.
Rapid Reload 2 AG 5, Guns 30 1 All of your weapon reloads are 25% faster than normal: very important for any weapon that loads one round at a time, e.g grenade launchers, some shotguns, the holorifle, etc.
Quick Draw 8 AG 5 1 Makes weapon equipping and holstering 50% faster: if you want to switch weapons instead of reloading then get this instead of rapid reload. With the right weapons it's a viable alternative, but kinda takes me out of the moment tbh.
Run 'n Gun 4 Guns 45 or Energy Weapons 45 1 Halved spread with one-handed ranged weapons while walking or running: it can come in handy with the 12.7mm smg especially. As it has crap all for range, and is ridiculously powerful...plus it has a silencer that works far better than should be possible, but I digress.
Travel Light 4 Survival 45 1 While wearing light armor or no armor, you run 10% faster: useful for closing distances, escaping, or disarming traps in time. Anything to make Dead Money less of a pain I guess.
The Professional 6 Sneak 70 1 Your sneak attack criticals with revolvers, pistols, and submachine guns (guns and energy weapons) all inflict an additional 20% damage: neat. I recently realized that the 12.7mm and the 45 auto pistol can outshine Christine's COS Silence rifle at close to mid-ish range DPS wise. This helps.
Robotics Expert 12 Science 50 1 +25% damage to robots, can shut down robots by sneaking up on them: very useful, but also kind of a lazy way to play. I can't remember if there are any interesting robotics expert skill checks for New Vegas.
Jury Rigging 14 Repair 90 1 Repair any item using a roughly similar item: this is so nice to have, but I would also recommend getting an armor and weapon repair kit mod, and that denecessitates this a fair bit.
Purifier 14 1 You do 50% extra damage with melee and unarmed weapons against (abominations including but not limited to) centaurs, nightstalkers, spore plants, spore carriers, deathclaws, super mutants, and feral ghouls: this is probably the only enemy type damage boost that I can get behind. It's somewhat necessary if you want to go toe to toe with abominations.
Rad Child 4 Survival 70 1 +2 HP per second per 200 rads accumulated: overpowered and oh so lovely. At 6hp/s I completely stopped using stimpaks on VH hardcore with a light armor build. Heals limb damage too. Ghouls would be invincible if they had this perk. Also see Atomic! for how to maximize the benefit of being radical. Note that the Monocyte Breeder implant is 2/10s and is trash, Solar Powered ( 20 EN 7 1) adds +1 HP/s (and 2 Strength) while in sunlight (6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M, not in Dead Money I think), and the Scorched Sierra Power armor adds 2/s which is a pretty good bump.
Super Slam! 8 ST 6, Melee Weapons 45 1 All melee (except thrown) and unarmed attacks have a chance of knocking your target down. 15% for Unarmed or one-handed melee, 30% for two-handed melee: YEEEESSSSSS. Greased Lightning or Blade of the West is recommended for maximum fun.
Meltdown 16 Energy Weapons 90 1 Foes killed by your Energy Weapons emit a corona of harmful energy: this is really fun, and also dangerous to you and your allies. It does make energy weapons somewhat situational as a result, but it also creates new opportunities. Basically the killing blow is what determines the damage. So extremely high damage weapons can set up a chain reaction. Like I said: it's really fun.
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