The Fallout series has been around for a long time. With all of the changes that have been made in modern games, some things have been kept the same up until the most recent installment. One mechanic that players can get involved with is perks. Many fans consider Fallout: New Vegas to be the best 3D game in the series, so we thought we would take a look at the perks available in that game. Below is a list of the best and the worst perks that can be found in Fallout: New Vegas.
Updated September 30th, 2020 by Morgan Austin: After news broke about Microsoft acquiring Bethesda, some fans have turned their focus towards Bethesda's games. Whether they might be playing Fallout or Elder Scrolls games for the first time or jumping into their favorite games once again, the news about Bethesda and Microsoft has reminded some fans why they love these games. Fallout: New Vegas is sure to be a replayed game currently. Fans of the series will be familiar with the creative perks in the games, but not all of them are perfect for some players.
Updated December 12th, 2020 by Charles Burgar: Even after a decade has passed, Fallout: New Vegas is still considered by many as one of the best Fallout titles ever released. Some even argue it's one of the best games Obsidian has ever made. With the plethora of well-written quests and content there is to discover, it's easy to see why. It's also easy to see why so many fans love delving into unique builds that involve unique perk combinations. To account for this, we went ahead and updated this list to include some different choices that New Vegas fans might not have considered. As before, we are only including perks you obtain on level-up and not from companions or quests.
14 Best: Strong Back
Strong Back: With the Strong Back perk, you can carry 50 more pounds of equipment.
As you venture throughout the Mojave Wasteland, you are more than likely going to find hundreds of pounds of equipment you'll want to grab. From weapons to chems and everything in between, you're going to need a lot of room to carry around everything you want.
Strong Back is a fantastic solution for this, granting you an additional 50 pounds of carry weight. Anyone that has been caught short of becoming encumbered while foraging for valuables will know how powerful this perk can be.
13 Worst: Swift Learner
Swift Learner: With each level of Swift Learner, your character will gain an additional 10% to total Experience Points whenever Experience Points are earned.
Every source of XP will grant 10% more than usual with the Swift Learner perk. This sounds fantastic on paper, yet this is hardly necessary when you consider just how much content there is in New Vegas. Hundreds of side quests and multiple DLCs grant more than enough experience for players to reach the level cap of 50. Is using one of your precious 25 perks on earning XP faster really worth it? It's hard to make a good case for it.
12 Best: Silent Running
Silent Running: Running no longer factors into a successful sneak attempt.
Crouch-walking towards targets is one of the worst aspects of a melee-oriented stealth build. Silent Running fixes this by making your maximum crouch speed produce no noise, an absolute game-changer for melee stealth builds.
Enemies in New Vegas make two checks to detect someone, they look for enemies and they can hear enemies. Silent Running removes all audio-related checks enemies make altogether, meaning a build that has a maxed sneak skill can easily melee targets without getting caught. Combine this perk with Implant M-5 and Tunnel Runner for some absurd movement speed while crouched.
11 Worst: Mister Sandman
Mister Sandman: Sneaking up to sleeping targets gives you an option to kill them, granting increased Experience Points when you do so.
Mister Sandman is one of the most useless perks mainly because of how few times players get the opportunity to use it. This perk lets players kill sleeping characters instantly, plus gives a little extra XP from the kill.
Very few moments in New Vegas involve sleeping targets, much less opponents tough enough to where Mister Sandman's instant-kill effect would be useful. If an enemy is sleeping, chances are it can be killed with a single sneak attack. The bonus XP is minimal at best.
10 Best: Chemist
Chemist: Doubles the duration of all chem effects.
Despite what the description implies, every aid item in New Vegas benefits from Chemist such as Stimpacks and food. Nearly every healing item in the game becomes twice as strong thanks to this perk, making this an invaluable perk for Hardcore playthroughs. This perk pairs especially well with Psycho, Turbo, and the Implant GRX perk.
9 Worst: Broad Daylight
Broad Daylight: Pip-Boy 3000's light does not affect sneak.
For a level 36 perk, Broad Daylight might be one of the worst choices a player can make. The number of times New Vegas gets dark enough to warrant turning on your Pip-Boy light can be counted on one hand.
Most players never use the Pip-Boy light at all since it projects light around you and not directly in front of you. If an environment is dark enough to warrant a light, a single Cateye chem is all you need. Don't take this perk.
8 Best: Finesse And Better Criticals
Finesse: You gain 5% increased critical hit chance.
Better Criticals: Your critical hits deal 50% increased damage.
Critical builds are some of the strongest in Fallout: New Vegas. This is mainly due to how potent critical damage is on most top-tier weapons such as energy weapons. For those that want to kill enemies in a single shot, there isn't a more iconic duo than Finesse and Better Criticals.
Finesse will grant 5% increased critical hit chance while Better Criticals grants 50% more critical hit damage. One perk is decent on its own, but both become top-tier when used together. A 5% critical chance boost might not sound great on paper, yet the way New Vegas handles criticals means this is anywhere from a 5% to a 25% critical chance increase based on the weapon. With a high enough Luck stat and the Built to Destroy trait, critical builds can output critical hits repeatedly that are all boosted by Better Criticals' absurd 50% damage increase. Just be sure your weapon has a good critical percentage multiplier before taking both of these perks.
7 Worst: Lead Belly
Lead Belly: You take 50% less radiation every time you drink from an irradiated water source.
Unless you love drinking out of toilet bowls or have a real thirst for irradiated water, Lead Belly is easily one of the worst perks in the game. Drinking from irradiated water sources is a bad idea regardless. New Vegas also heavily nerfed how much HP water sources give when compared to Fallout 3.
New Vegas has so many methods of purifying water and crafting beverages that there's little reason to take this perk. Even Hardcore players will have a hard time convincing themselves this is good since RadAway is rather common.
6 Best: Hand Loader
Hand Loader: You are more likely to recover casings and hulls. You also have all hand load recipes unlocked at any of the wasteland's reloading benches.
Hand Loader might be one of the most underrated perks in New Vegas. This perk allows you to craft any ammunition type at workbenches and doubles the chance of finding casings and hulls from corpses.
What's so strong about this perk is the ammunition recipes it gives you. JHP, JSP, and hand-loaded rounds can all be crafted when you have this perk. For those unaware, these ammo types have a massive damage multiplier of 1.3 to 1.65x and are much better at penetrating armor (excluding JHP). If this perk stated that it let you craft bullets that increase your damage by 65%, it would be a much more popular pick.
5 Worst: Computer Whiz And Infiltrator
Computer Wizz: You gain a second chance at any computer you were previously locked out of.
Infiltrator: You gain a second chance at any lock you previously broke while trying to force it.
Computer Whiz and Infiltrator effectively do the same thing: gain a second chance after failing a hack or lockpick forced entry, respectively.
The issue is that the game already does this. When you are on your last guess attempt on a computer, leaving and entering the computer will reset your attempts. That renders Computer Whiz useless. Infiltrator doesn't fare much better since the force lock percentage is so low that it is rarely worth using.
4 Best: Implant GRX
Implant GRX: You gain a non-addictive Turbo (chem) injector. This perk may be taken twice, with the second rank increasing the effect from 2 to 3 seconds and the uses per day from 5 to 10.
Many fans have wanted a real-time alternative to V.A.T.S. that mimics bullet time, a mechanic that slows down time and lets you line up your shots. Thing is, Obsidian thought of that already. Bullet time is in New Vegas under the guise of the Implant GRX perk, available at level 30 if you have eight Endurance or higher. This implant grants a non-addictive drug that works exactly like Turbo, slowing down time for two in-game seconds. That duration is not accounting for the slow; the effect actually lasts for around 5.7 seconds. Grabbing the perk again will upgrade the duration from two seconds to three seconds, effectively granting a 50% duration increase.
What's even crazier is that Implant GRX grants five uses a day for no cost, the chem is non-addictive, and it is affected by chem-related perks such as Chemist. With Chemist and Day Tripper, a rank two Implant GRX can last nearly 23 seconds! And it has ten uses per day! New Vegas players that don't fancy V.A.T.S. need to try this perk.
3 Worst: Here And Now
Here and Now: Immediately gain a level.
The concept of leveling has so much positive reinforcement in video games that it has been drilled into most RPG player's heads since they were young. It may feel counter-intuitive, but this perk isn't something you should ever consider taking.
Yes, it gives your character a new level, but that doesn't change the fact that you're wasting one of your valuable perk choices. The only use for this perk is for gaining a few extra skill points at that moment, something magazines are meant to do. There are far better perks out there, so just wait until the levels come naturally and use up the precious perk points on something worthwhile and long-term.
2 Best: Jury Rigging
Jury Rigging: You may now repair any item using a roughly similar item.
One of the most important mechanics in New Vegas is the degradation of your gear. It will often sneak up on you, which is why it's important to have Jury Rigging. Not only does this weapon allow you to repair weapons that share categories, but it also makes maintaining unique items substantially easier. Items such as the Remnants Power Armor and Anti-Material Rifle are nearly impossible to use long-term without this perk. Did your Anti-Material Rifle break? No worries, just find a BB Gun and you're good to go. This perk is equally absurd and powerful.
It might not do anything exciting like Meltdown or Bloody Mess, but it surely raises the power level of your character by a substantial amount in the long run. Jury Rigging is easily the strongest perk in the game.
1 Worst: In Shining Armor
In Shining Armor: You gain an additional +5 Damage Threshold against energy weapons while wearing any metal armor, +2 while wearing reflective eyewear.
In Shining Armor sounds great in theory, allowing metal armor and even T-45 Power Armor to gain additional DT against energy weapons, some of the strongest weapons in the game. Sadly, this perk is broken.
No hyperbole, In Shining Armor is broken. It doesn't work. This perk checks for the "Energy" tag instead of the "EnergyWeapons" tag, which means that this perk never works because "Energy" isn't a skill. Unofficial Patch mods have fixed this issue, but this list isn't taking into account mods. As it stands, In Shining Armor is objectively the worst perk in New Vegas as it doesn't do anything.