Commando¶

While using a rifle (or similar one-handed weapon), your accuracy in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.

V.A.T.S. might not be the prime-and-only combat solution in this game, in fact, as often as it’s a godsend it’s a liability, but it does have its uses. In New Vegas, rifle-grip guns are by far the dominant branch of weapons. One-handed weapons typically lose the damage battle by a wide margin. While this was excusable to some extent in Fallout 3, you really need that damage this time around, and no, being able to run faster with a one-handed gun doesn’t make up for their lack of power (especially not with the Agility this build calls for.) The bottom line, V.A.T.S. may not be king, but it has its uses, and if you use V.A.T.S., and use two-handed weapons, this perk is calling to you. It’s better than Gunslinger, in any event.

Cowboy¶

You do 25% more damage when using any revolver, lever-action firearm, dynamite, knife, or hatchet.

Promising on paper, as 25% is a big chunk of damage, there’s just one catch. Most of the weapons this applies to are rather weak, with the exception of the Brush Gun and Ranger Sequoia. The Brush Gun is good at short to mid range combat, and is easily a better choice for close encounters than the AM Rifle or Sniper Rifle. If you’ve got a good handle on sniping (especially when it comes to the stronger enemies, like Deathclaws), you may not even give this perk a second glance. On the other hand, the Brush Gun has some excellent utility it when comes to slaying Cazadores, or swarms of moderately powerful enemies (many human enemies come to mind). In fact, if something isn’t far enough away to bother shooting at with a Sniper Rifle, you might as well be using a Brush Gun, and this gives a hefty 25% damage bonus to that weapon, making it a useful-although not vital-addition to any Guns build.

Grunt¶

Just good, honest infantry work! You do 25% more damage with 9mm and .45 Auto Pistols and SMGs, Service Rifles, Assault and Marksman Carbines, Light Machine Guns, Frag Grenades, Grenade Rifles and Launchers, and Combat Knives.

Most of the weapons on this list are low-to-mid damage auto-fire weapons… or failing that, are so useless they’re not worth considering. It’s a decent damage bonus, but it’s a shame most of the weapons it affects aren’t worth using. Just grab a powerful, single-shot rifle and punish critters that way, and ignore this perk.

Home on the Range¶

Whenever you interact with a campfire, you have the option of sleeping, with all the benefits that sleep brings.

When would you EVER need this perk? If you’re not playing in Hardcore mode… well, if you can sleep, you can fast travel. If you can fast travel, you can’t find somewhere to sleep. If you are playing Hardcore mode… same thing, except if your sleep deprivation meter is in the 900’s… well, then you’re an idiot and should have slept earlier.

Living Anatomy¶

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.

Ah, another pre-Fallout 3 perk that makes its return in New Vegas. First lets discuss the damage. 5% isn’t much, and the fact that it applies only to humans and non-feral Ghouls means you can safely ignore it, as it’s only as effective as, say, Black Widow. On the other hand, being able to see an enemies Health and, more importantly, their Damage Threshold is a huge advantage, especially on your first playthrough. When you see a that a Super Mutant Master has a 20 Damage Threshold, or a Giant Radscorpion has a 36, you begin to understand why your Cowboy Repeater wasn’t hurting it. Once you’ve played the game a bit, however, you start to understand this intuitively, especially after playing with this perk. Anybody knows that a Deathclaw is going to have a high Damage Threshold, and even without knowing the exact number of hit points, you can always see an enemies health bar in V.A.T.S. For veteran players, this perk becomes much less useful, although anomalies exist, and once you have played the game more you’ll realize that getting a bigger, stronger gun is always the answer.

Pack Rat¶

You have learned the value of careful packing. Items with a weight of 2 or less weigh half as much for you.

At first this perk almost seems silly, and it does have some flaws. For one, if you’re not playing in Hardcore mode, it’s a complete waste of a perk. If you are playing in Hardcore mode, however, it still requires what can be a brutal and potentially wasteful amount of points in Barter. On the other hand, anything that weighs less than a pound will weigh, well, half as much. This comes with an important implication for Hardcore mode players; most of your vital food, ammo, and crafting components will weigh half as much, allowing you to stock up and carry around twice as many, which is worth its weight in gold. Worth more, really, gold isn’t very good for drinking. Right Crassus? With this benefit you have to weigh it against the Strong Back perk… if you’re not going to carry more than fifty pounds of supplies, you might as well get that perk instead. Also if you have some allies, you can just load them up full of gear. So, this perk does have its issues, but if you just want to be sure you are carrying as much gear as possible… Well, pick Strong Back, if you’ve got the Strength and Endurance. A flat 50 pounds of carry weight is probably more useful than this perk any day.

Quick Draw¶

Quick Draw makes all of your weapon equipping and holstering 50% faster.

With the base of five Agility this perk calls for… maybe… but with anything higher you’re going to be doing just fine on your own. And, since this game allows you to be the sniper more successfully and from a safer distance, chances are you’ll have your gun out before the enemy anyways. Don’t waste your perk.

Rad Resistance¶

Rad Resistance allows you to – what else? – resist radiation. This perk grants an additional 25% to Radiation Resistance.

25% is a fairly large amount of radiation resistance, but there are plenty of environmental suits in the game, and of course… Rad-X. You can take a perk to permanently gain resistance, or take a pill to get the resistance when you need it. Even if you get irradiated, it only costs 100 Caps or some RadAway to fix you up. If you’re the Hardcore mode survival type, just wait for Rad Absorption.

Scrounger¶

With the Scrounger perk, you’ll find considerably more ammunition in containers than you normally would.

Buy your ammo, instead. Problem solved.

Sneering Imperialist¶

You don’t take kindly to raiders, junkies, or tribals trying to “settle” or “stay alive” in civilized lands. Against dirty raider and junkie types as well as Zion’s tribals you do +15% Damage and have a bonus to hit in V.A.T.S.

…or you could get something like Black Widow, which does +10% damage to every male character in the game; NCR, Great Khans, Fiends, Caesar’s Legion, or whatever other politics they have. Not to say that Black Widow is a great perk, but more to put this perk up for comparison. Plus, most raiders and tribals aren’t terribly strong (compared to Cazadores, Death Claws, etc.) There are just better damage-dealing perks to pick, and many that help you kill stronger creatures, or give bonuses when fighting… well, anything.

Stonewall¶

You gain +5 Damage Threshold against all Melee Weapons and Unarmed attacks and cannot be knocked down in combat.

Sure, +5 DT isn’t a big deal when it applies to only melee attacks… but honestly most of the enemies that will blast through your Damage Threshold are things like Cazadores, Deathclaws, Radscorpions, and to some extent Nightstalkers and Geckos, all of which use… you guessed it; melee attacks. Still, Deathclaws routinely hit for over 100 points of damage (even with a modest Damage Threshold of 20), so five points probably isn’t going to save you. On the other hand, if you view this perk a bit like Toughness (but only applying to half the attacks in the game) it doesn’t seem half bad.

Strong Back¶

With the Strong Back perk, you can carry 50 more pounds of equipment.

It was in the suggested build for Fallout 3, but with only 15 perks in the vanilla version of New Vegas, it just didn’t make the cut. Now, with the Utlimate Edition, it’s a more viable option. Carrying extra stuff is nice, even nicer in Hardcore Mode, and very, very nice during the expansions. After hitting level 40~ you’ll probably have nearly every perk that’s remotely interesting.

Super Slam¶

All Melee Weapons (except thrown) and Unarmed attacks have a chance of knocking your target down.

It’s simple enough to gun everything down with the Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle and .308 JSP Ammo, and it’s still one of the best methods of dealing with stronger foes. Still, in some of the expansions, you’re rather limited by what you can carry with you. Instead of getting Pack Rat to carry twice as much ammo, you can opt for a fully functional melee build. It kills the critters that are too weak to bother wasting precious ammo on, and it allows you to be more versatile. This perk shines with a melee build; it’s much better than Paralyzing Palm, since it always has a chance to work, and it works very often. Many times you can risk going toe-to-toe with foes somewhat secure in the knowledge that there’s a decent chance you’ll simply knock them down. If you plan to attack anything in melee, this is a great perk to have.

Terrifying Presence¶

In some conversations, you gain the ability to initiate combat while terrifying a mob of opponents, sending them fleeing for safety.

You don’t need to scare off NPCs, they tend to be weak enough. Don’t waste a perk pick on this.

Tribal Wisdom¶

Your limbs take 50% less damage from Animals, Mutated Animals, and Mutated Insects, you gain +25% resistance to Poison Damage, and can eat Mutated Insects when you’re in Sneak mode.

Who really cares about limb damage? Seriously? Poison Resistance also sucks, since you’ll get the Cardiac Arrest or Heartless perks for free. Finally, eating dead bugs is the equivalent of the Cannibal perk… which also sucks. It doesn’t heal much. If you want to eat crap from dead enemies, get the ‘Them’s Good Eatin’ perk, instead.