All the player character’s stats in theFalloutseries fall under theacronym S.P.E.C.I.A.L., which stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. At the beginning of the game, the player decides how many points to distribute to these seven stats, and they can use more points whenever they level up. Each stat also has ten perks (which must be unlocked when leveling up) associated with it, and each perk has a number of ranks that increase its abilities.
The Luck stat helps players in a few ways. It raises the rate at which the critical meter recharges, and indirectly affects how many caps the player finds when exploring and the quality of items found in containers. Its associated perks also affect these areas of gameplay, and can end up tipping the scales in the Sole Survivor’s favor.
10Idiot Savant
Gain More XP For Being Unintelligent
Idiot Savant is a niche perk that is useful for characters with low Intelligence. The perk grants a small chance for any action — defeating an enemy, cooking food, discovering a location, etc. — to grant extra experience. The amount increases from triple to quintuple experience in the first two ranks. The final rank adds a chance to have triple experience from all kills for a brief period after it activates.
The chance to get this experience boost is higher based on how low the Sole Survivor’s Intelligence stat is. The highest chance is 11% if the character only has one point in Intelligence. Idiot Savant is therefore useful for players that like to min-max their characters, rather than those whoinvest in all statsfairly equally.
9Bloody Mess
Add Gore And Gain A Small Damage Boost
Bloody Mess is a strange perk that offers a small damage boost, along with a chance that enemies will explode in a gory mess. Some players may be turned off by the gore from the explosion, while others may find it entertaining.
Each rank gives a 5% increase to all damage done by the player. It’s the only perk in the game that raises all damage across the board instead of a specific type. The final rank also adds a chance that the explosion from one enemy will trigger their nearby allies to do the same, which means that any encounter could end in a series of bloody explosions.
8Grim Reaper’s Sprint
Potentially Restore Action Points From V.A.T.S Kills
Thanks toFallout 4’s updated engine, many players feel that V.A.T.S. is not as necessary as it was inFallout 3andNew Vegas.That said, it’s still a useful tool that helps players target weak spots, increase their accuracy, and charge up their critical meter.
Players spend Action Points witheach shot made in V.A.T.S.and have to wait for them to recharge before using it again. Grim Reaper’s Sprint lowers the cooldown time for V.A.T.S., by adding a chance that any kill with it will instantly restore all Action Points. At its highest rank, this becomes a 35% chance, and adds the possibility of filling the critical meter so that the next V.A.T.S. shot can be a critical hit.
7Four Leaf Clover
Chance To Fill Critical Meter From V.A.T.S. Hits
In previousFalloutgames, players always had a chance to make a critical hit against an enemy. InFallout 4, this was replaced with the critical meter, which partially fills up with each successful V.A.T.S. hit. When it is full, the next V.A.T.S. is a guaranteed hit that will deal extra damage.
The Four Leaf Clover perk helps the player make more critical hits by adding a chance to completely fill the critical meter whenever an enemy is hit with an attack in V.A.T.S. This can be crucial against enemies that normally take a lot of shots to bring down, like Super Mutants and Deathclaws.
6Scrounger
Find Ammo More Easily
Like most Bethesda games,Fallout 4encourages players to explore every nook and cranny in search of loot to use or to sell. Thanks to the settlement building system, players even have ways to use junk items that would go ignored in other games. Players are always thrilled to find ammo when exploring, especially in the early game.
Since there are so many types of ammo in the game, it can be difficult to find enough to make new weapons useful. The Scrounger perk alleviates this issue by adding a chance for players to find extra ammo any time they search a container. Its first three ranks bring this chance from 40% to 100%. The final perk adds an even greater ability to find ammo: there is a chance for the player to gain ammo whenever they fire the last bullet from their gun.
5Better Criticals
Improve The Damage Done By Critical Hits
Critical hits can turn the tide of battle. Legendary enemies that are damaged by a critical hit can even be taken out without them regaining all of their health. Killing enemies with fewer shots also means using fewer bullets, which can keep players from getting low on caps.
The Better Criticals perk makes critical hits even better by increasing the amount of damage they do. The first perk increases critical hit damage by 50%, the second rank doubles their base damage, and the last rank makes every critical hit do 2.5 times the damage. Having this perk witha powerful weaponis sure to turn any battle into a cakewalk.
4Ricochet
Enemies May Take Themselves Out
Ricochet is the final perk in the Luck column, and requires players to max out their Luck stat. At this point, players have likely increased the speed of their critical meter as well as the damage of their critical hits, so killing tough enemies is probably easy. However, many enemies travel in groups and might still overwhelm the Sole Survivor before they can take out enough of them.
The Ricochet perk is helpful in these situations. It adds the possibility that any ranged attack that hits the Sole Survivor will instead bounce back and kill the enemy that fired it. Not only does this prevent the player from taking any damage, it also takes an enemy out without the player having to do anything. Since the chance is increased when the player’s health bar is low, this perk can also save them from dying by giving them time to use astimpack or food.
3Mysterious Stranger
A Man In A Trench Coat Occasionally Appears In V.A.T.S.
The Mysterious Stranger is a classic perk that has existed in everyFalloutgame since the original.The Mysterious Strangeris a man who always wears a trench coat and fedora, and wields a pistol. He appears suddenly (although always when the player is using V.A.T.S.) and disappears as quickly as he arrives.
By unlocking this perk, the player may get help from this mystery man whenever they use V.A.T.S. When he shows up, there is a special piano sting right before he kills the player’s current V.A.T.S. target in a single shot. Not much is known about this stranger, but players can always feel relief and excitement when he appears to help them out.
2Critical Banker
Save Critical Hits For When They Are Needed Most
When the player’s critical meter is filled, they can choose to activate it before firing in V.A.T.S. so that the next shot will be a guaranteed hit with extra damage. By default, the critical meter cannot start refilling until this has been done. This means that players can only fire a critical hit every once in a while, and must wait for the meter to fill again before they get their next one.
The Critical Banker perk helps improve the player’s critical hits, because it allows the critical meter to start refilling regardless of whether the player has used their previous critical hit or not. Each rank allows players to save an additional critical hit. At maximum, players could fire 5 critical hits back-to-back, which is sure to take out almost any enemy.
1Fortune Finder
Get Rich Quicker
It can be difficult to start saving up caps in the beginning of the game, since early quests don’t typically pay more than 100 caps or so. Finding caps in containers is a great way to start building a fortune, but is slow unless players focus solely on exploration for a while.
The Fortune Finder perk offsets this by giving players an extra chance to find caps whenever they look in containers. And, since it is the first tier Luck perk, it only requires players to have a single point in the Luck stat. Players can invest points into this perk from the beginning of the game and start earning more money from the first few hours. By doing so, they willbe much richerthan players who ignore this simple, yet immensely helpful perk.
