Perks are passive upgrades to your character. You'll be able to pick one perk every 2 levels, starting at level 2.
Confirmed Bachelor
Requirements: Level 2
In combat, you do +10% damage against male opponents. Outside of combat, you’ll sometimes have access to unique dialogue options when dealing with the same sex.
Friend of the Night
Requirements: Level 2, PE 6, 30 Sneak
You are a true friend of the night. Your eyes adapt quickly to low-light conditions indoors and when darkness falls across the wasteland.
Intense Training
Requirements: Level 2
With the Intense Training perk, you can put a single point into any of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes.
Lady Killer
Requirements: Level 2
In combat, you do +10% damage against female opponents. Outside of combat, you’ll sometimes have access to unique dialogue options when dealing with the opposite sex.
Rapid Reload
Requirements: Level 2, AG 5, Guns 30
Rapid Reload makes all of your weapon reloads 25% faster than normal.
Retention
Requirements: Level 2, IN 5
With the Retention perk, the bonuses granted by skill magazines last three times as long.
Swift Learner
Requirements: Level 2, IN 4
With each rank in the Swift Learner perk, you gain an additional 10% to total Experience Points whenever Experience Points are earned.
Heave, Ho!
Requirements: Level 2, ST 5, Explosives 30
Quite an arm you’ve got there. All thrown weapons fly farther and faster for you.
Hunter
Requirements: Level 2, Survival 30
In combat, you do +75% Critical Damage against animals and mutated animals.
Cannibal
Requirements: Level 4
With the Cannibal perk, when you’re in Sneak mode, you gain the option to eat a corpse to regain health. But every time you feed, you lose Karma, and if the act is witnessed, it is considered a crime against nature.
Comprehension
Requirements: Level 4, IN 4
With the Comprehension perk, you gain double the bonus from reading magazines and one additional point from skill books.
Educated
Requirements: Level 4, IN 4
With the Educated perk, you gain two more skill points every time you advance in level. This perk is best taken early on, to maximize its effectiveness.
Entomologist
Requirements: Level 4, Survival 45
With the Entomologist perk, you do an additional +50% damage every time you attack a mutated insect, like the Radroach Giant Mantis, or Radscorpion.
Rad Child
Requirements: Level 4, Survival 70
You truly are a Rad Child. As you go through the increasingly devastating stages of radiation sickness, you will regenerate more and more health.
Run ‘n Gun
Requirements: Level 4, Guns 45 or Energy Weapons 45
The Run ‘n Gun perk reduces accuracy penalties with one-handed Guns and Energy Weapons while walking or running.
Travel Light
Requirements: Level 4, Survival 45
While wearing light armor or no armor, you run 10% faster.
Bloody Mess
Requirements: Level 6
With the Bloody Mess perk, characters and creatures you kill will often explode into a red, gut-ridden, eyeball-strewn paste. Fun! Oh, and you’ll do 5% extra damage with all weapons.
Demolition Expert
Requirements: Level 6, Explosives 50
With each rank of this perk, all of your explosive weapons do an additional 20% damage.
Ferocious Loyalty
Requirements: Level 6
The power of your personality inspires die-hard loyalty from your followers. When you drop below 50% Health, your companions temporarily gain much greater resistance to damage.
Fortune Finder
Requirements: Level 6, LK 5
With the Fortune Finder perk, you’ll find considerably more bottle caps in containers than you normally would.
Gunslinger
Requirements: Level 6
While using a pistol (or similar one-handed weapon), your accuracy in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.
Hand Loader
Requirements: Level 6, Repair 70
You know your way around a reloading bench and don’t let good brass and hulls go to waste. When you use Guns, you are more likely to recover cases and hulls. You also have all hand load recipes unlocked at the Reloading Bench.
Lead Belly
Requirements: Level 6, EN 5
With the Load Belly perk, you take 50% less radiation when consuming irradiated food and drink.
Shotgun Surgeon
Requirements: Level 6, Guns 45
Your precision with a scattergun is something to behold. When using shotguns, regardless of ammunition used, you ignore an additional 10 points of a target’s Damage Threshold.
The Professional
Requirements: Level 6, Sneak 70
Up close and personal, that’s how you like it. Your Sneak Attack Criticals with pistols, revolvers, and submachine guns, whether Guns or Energy Weapons, all inflict an additional 20%.
Toughness
Requirements: Level 6, EN 5
With the Toughness perk, you gain +3 to overall Damage Threshold. This perk may be taken twice, with the second rank granting an additional +3.
Vigilant Recycler
Requirements: Level 6, Science 70
Waste not, want not. When you use Energy Weapons, you are more likely to recover drained ammunition. You also have more efficient recycling recipes available at the Workbench.
Commando
Requirements: Level 8
When using a rifle (or similar two-handed weapon), y our accuracy in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.
Cowboy
Requirements: Level 8, Guns 45, Melee 45
You do 25% more damage when using any revolver, lever-action firearm, dynamite, knife , or hatchet.
Living Anatomy
Requirements: Level 8, Medicine 70
Living Anatomy allows you to see the Health and Damage Threshold of any target. It also gives you a +5% bonus to damage against Humans and non-feral Ghouls.
Pack Rat
Requirements: Level 8, Medicine 70
You have learned the value of careful packing. Items with a weight of 2 or less weigh half as much for you.
Quick Draw
Requirements: Level 8, AG 5
Quick Draw makes all of your weapon equipping and holstering 50% faster.
Rad Resistance
Requirements: Level 8, EN 5, Survival 40
Rad Resistance allows you to – what else? – resist radiation. This perks grants an additional 25% to Radiation Resistance.
Scrounger
Requirements: Level 8, LK 5
With the Scrounger perk, you’ll find considerably more ammunition in containers than you normally would.
Stonewall
Requirements: Level 8, ST 6, EN 6
You gain +5 Damage Threshold against all Melee Weapons and unarmed attacks and cannot be knocked down in combat.
Strong Back
Requirements: Level 8, ST 5, EN 6
With the Strong Back perk, you can carry 50 more pounds of equipment.
Super Slam
Requirements: Level 8, ST 6 Melee Weapons 45
All Melee Weapons (except thrown) and Unarmed attacks have a chance of knocking your target down.
Terrifying Presence
Requirements: Level 8, Speech 70
In some conversations, you gain the ability to initiate combat while terrifying a mob of opponents, sending them fleeing away for safety.
Animal Friend
Requirements: Level 10, CH 6, Survival 45
At the first rank of this perk, animals simply won’t attack. At the second rank, tehey will actually come to your aid in combat, but never against another animal.
Finesse
Requirements: Level 10
With the Finesse perk, you have a higher chance to score a critical hit on an opponent in combat, equivalent to 5 extra points of luck.
Here and Now
Requirements: Level 10
The Here and Now perk immediately grants an additional experience level, complete with all the advantages that brings.
Math Wrath
Requirements: Level 10, Science 70
You are able to optimize your Pip-Boy’s V.A.T.S. logic, reducing all AP costs by 10%.
Miss Fortune
Requirements: Level 10, LK 6
Just when your enemies think they have the upper hand, Miss Fortune appears to turn their world upside down. Appearing only in V.A.T.S., she has the ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Mister Sandman
Requirements: Level 10, Sneak 60
With the Mister Sandman perk, when you’re in Sneak mode, you gain the option to silently kill any human or Ghoul while they’re sleeping. And, all Mister Sandman kills earn bonus XP.
Mysterious Stranger
Requirements: Level 10, LK 6
You’ve gained your own personal guardian angel…armed with a fully loaded .44 Magnum. With this perk, the Mysterious Stranger will appear occasionally in V.A.T.S. mode to lend a hand, with deadly efficiency.
Nerd Rage!
Requirements: Level 10, IN 5, Science 50
You’ve been pushed around long enough! With the Nerd Rage! Perk, your Strength is raised to 10 and you gain +15 Damage Threshold whenever you Health drops to 20% or below.
Night Person
Requirements: Level 10
When the sun is down, a Night Person gains +2 to both Intelligence and Perception (up to a maximum of 10). This perk directly affects your “internal clock,” and remains active both inside and outside.
Plasma Spaz
Requirements: Level 10, Energy Weapons 70
You’re just so excited about plasma that you can’t (magnetically) contain yourself! The AP costs for all plasma weapons (including Plasma Grenades) are reduced by 10%.
