Talk:Fallout 3 perks/Archive 1

The #1 perk in Fallout 3 is.... Comprehension (+2 skill points instead of +1 per skill book read)
With (approximently) 25 books for each of the 13 skills in the game the difference between 1 skill notch and 2 skill notches per book read is 325 points distributed across your skills. There is absolutely nothing that compares to this perk. P.S. Considering not reading your books even from vault 101 until you get this perk. Dragonalumni 15:05, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Agreed 1000%, even without being a power gamer you WILL come across at least 5 skill books for each skill.. thats 10 free points in every skill you end up using, and even the ones you will use occasionally (explosives, barter, etc.). 10(points instead of 5)x13(number of skills) = 130 free skill points. No other skill can compare. Bones


 * Hold the Phone Here, Pardners!


 * You can still keep your first skill book, Grognak the Barbarian, after the birthday party quest ends. It will be in one of your dressers when you get woken up after your father has left the vault. You may then keep it until after Comprehension has been learned.


 * With that, Comprehension has the same problems as any other skill-raising perk. Namely, the skill cap and the availability of Bobbleheads. I max out most of the skills I need just through the points awarded each level, plus Bobbleheads. The Skill-Heads give you a 10 point boost, equal to 5 books read with Comprehension, and they can't be sold anyways so you might as well get those Bobbling Bastards. Once you hit 100 in the skills you use or care about, this perk just takes up a slot.


 * If Bethesda or a well-supported mod ever raises the skill cap to 150 (to compliment the level 30 cap, hint-hint), or allows your Companions to read and benefit from skill books (hint-hint-hint) then Comprehension is something to shout about.


 * Otherwise, a sensible rule is to select perks that provide persistent powers unobtainable or rare in the game world. Bobbleheads permantently raise your SPECIAL stats by +1, but there is almost no other way to do so in play. You can get either Ant Sight or Ant Might perk as a quest reward. Several clothing and armor items give a boost to one or some of your stats while worn, but these either impose a penalty on other stats, or suffer problems such as low DR, low durability, or high weight. You lose the effect when you take off the item. Same with chems, which only last so long and impose an addiction penalty. So picking ranks for Intense Training may be a wiser investment for leveling characters. Any perk that permanently raises your DR is good, because even though there is also cap on damage resistence, it is hard to get there without unique armor and temporary boosts.--Brian ranzoni 00:58, 28 April 2009 (UTC)


 * cough::Comprehension is the best perk in the game, flat out. With it, maxing nearly every single special and ability becomes much easier (feasible, actually), and is possible to max all 13 skills. Even accounting for special books unavailable through ever play (such as those available only from lawbringer/contract killer HQ's, or from one of the houses), or books lost due to accidents (and explosions), the twenty something books you can find per skill is 40+ points per skill. Throw in the bobbleheads, and more than half the points you need are free, you don't even need to level to get them (though leveling makes it much easier to access the locations some of the books are stored in). With this in mind, it becomes feasible to have a low intelligence (3 or 4, depending on if you want to get the INT bobblehead, or wait to retrieve it). For more on why playing a character with low intelligence is a good idea, see Bloodwars' explanation here: User:Bloodwars For casual players, comprehension, a high intelligence score, and educated are a must, but for perfectionists, comprehension outshines any other perk in the game (except maybe nuclear anomaly, because it's fun to blow up entire game cells), and educated falls by the way side, as does an intelligence score higher than four. ~N8 Lac'k 2328h, 12MAY2009

One comment about skill books, there are officially 25 books for each skill, except Barter which has 24. Still, as a book hunter myself, I have found there are a few that are difficult if not impossible to obtain, even moreso if there are explosions (grenades or rockets) in the area. I consider it safe to assume you can find 20-22 of each skill book as far as planning ahead. Medeasin 15:54, 24 May 2009 (UTC)medeasin

One more word on Comprehension. It's usefulness with the new level 30 cap is much lower, so much so that I no longer consider it necessary to take unless playing a low intelligence game. The extra 200 skill points from 10 intelligence (230 if Educated) from the level 20 cap makes a big difference when wanting to play the game without needing every little book.

I have personally noticed that the game does allow for skill levels above 100. Although it is not displayed on the Skills menu on the pipboy, and you cannot add skill points gained on level up. The books, however, DO continue to add these "invisible" points to the skills. This is evident when a related SPECIAL stat is reduced in some way, such as Power Armor reducing Agility. This would normally reduce a 100 Small Guns skill down to 96. However, by reading the Guns and Ammo skill book beyond reaching 100 in that skill, I can now wear Power Armor without it dropping the skill below 100. This functions for the XBOX 360, don't know about the game on other platforms.

Don't be stupid
The title says it all. If you're going to try to add a tip about perks, don't be stupid. Not everyone plays the game exactly like you have, so don't try to justify your point with some specific examples that would only apply to certain characters. Other tips seem to be arguing with themselves because people keep editing it like it's a forum or something. Just remember that the world isn't going to end if you don't share your vast Fallout 3 wisdom here. There are lots of forums where you can do that. --Clean Up 00:42, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Still it's discussion Clean Up! Hardcore perfectionists will digest all points of views emitted from passion, but to "Clean Up" the pages according to rules and "What is and what should never be" should still keep insights from all given generosity and thoughts (with respectful regard to apparent repetitions, nuances...). I don't see much stupidity here, only dispersion. Apply for admin or help to rebuild and Clean Up but throwing rocks just won't help (even politely). Overall perfection is a never-ending endeavour hence most likely impossible... Redefine or make the rules more precise and communicate them more efficiently (known by all before entering the edition of any field of edition thru admin) .... With love for constructive destruction. Knowledge is power. 173.179.166.249 03:21, September 14, 2009 (UTC)

Perk codes added!
I've added perk codes, and enhanced the quest perk Survivor by much Goekhan 15:27, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Do you feel lucky punk?
A nice combination of perks is Finesse, Better Criticals and Survival Guru (snide). Combined with 8 luck, (+1 with the lucky eight ball, +1 from the bobblehead [Another +1 luck is from getting Lucky's Shades]) you will find yourself doing massive criticals on a regular basis. Dragonalumni 15:05, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Plus a good sneak and, say, Paulsons Revolver are the Gauss Rifle you will be brilliant critical wise.

19:17, July 13, 2010 (UTC)

Resistance is not futile
A combination of the Toughness (+10% DR), Cyborg (+10% DR), Barkskin (+5% DR) and Survival Guru (+6% DR) perks will really make you "tank" material. Dragonalumni 15:05, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Removing the Restriction
I was wondering when and why the restriction was removed? I know it was placed there to prevent leaked information. -- (Middle Man 02:38, 26 October 2008 (UTC))
 * The game's manual, which includes all the perks, was released on Steam]. Ausir 10:36, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Rank
What exactly is the "rank" list here? There needs to be a one sentence explanation76.111.17.14 22:14, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Some perks, you put a point in and you get a bonus. Other perks, like Intense Training, you can add a point to multiple times either for an extra effect, or for the same effect more than once. 137.99.139.67 00:54, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I have no idea what this explanation means. "...you put a point in and get a bonus." What??? Put a point in? "...you can add a point to multiple times..." huh??? Could someone exlain the intent of "RANK" in this table. The term implies usefulness (to me). Since I can't decipher the explaination above, could somebody else give it a shot??
 * It's very simple; when you choose a perk, you have one rank in it, and most perks can only have one rank in it. Others can be selected more than once for multiple ranks, adding their benefits, and some have different but related benefits for each rank.
 * Ranks are to perks as levels are to characters.

In deed, what thehell does RANK means?
 * One more time: Rank is the number of times you may select the same skill upon gaining a new level. If it has a rank of 1 then you may only aquire this skill and it's benefit one time. If the Rank is 2, you may aquire this skill twice on two seperate level ups and either increase its benefit (Example: Animal Friend is suposedly improved on it's second rank encouraging animals to fight for you not just not attack you unprovoked) or repeat it's benefit (Examples: Intense Training gives you another SPECIAL point to spend up to 10 times if selected 10 times, Iron Fist gives you an additional 5 points of Unarmed damage up to 15 points if it is selected 3 times upon three seperate level ups). XxSylphxx 05:30, March 10, 2010 (UTC)

Order Of perks
would like to see this page in order of level obtained, as you see in the game Fallout 3.


 * It would also be nice to know if one can save up Perk points between levels or not.


 * Doesn't seem like you can.-Accountless Avenger


 * seriously, can you guys reorganize this in level obtained rather than alphabetically, whoever thought alphabetically was a good idea wasnt thinking straight at the time


 * It's easier to find a specific article when they're arranged alphabetically. Chances are, the readers of this page know the names of the perks better than the levels they're received at. The page is fine the way it is, and in any case, the levels are displayed right next to the perk on the list.


 * Just press the icon in the "level" box, and the table will be re-sorted with respect to level


 * I believe the best chart/table to be shown is one with a sort-effect (i.e. what is being said above). Some people want to know the order of obtained for references of which one to choose during that time period in the game, which is by far the most logical sortment idea. For others who do not care as far as WHAT to choose at the time but WHEN to obtain, the alphabetical is more precise. Overall, I believe sorting by the header (a-z, requirements, or effects) is strongly advised in any chart of this sort. And I strongly disagree that alphabetically should be the most desired. What should be desired is what to choose at your current state in the game for the reason that you must take every action in this game VERY carefully, especially when you have only 20 levels and have only very limited amounts of skill points and perk effects to choose from.
 * -Sig- "If fighting without V.A.T.S. is working better than with it, It's time to put that program to sleep....forever..."

Perk Reviews
In the discussion page of each perk (save the ones that just add 5 skill points to 2 skills) I have taken the liberty to write reviews of each perk. tell me whatcha think.-Accountless Avenger

After about a hundred hours of game exp. and testing various perks me'sa figured it could be useful to add notes about character creation, developing and perks. Read the discussion pages. -marcus-

I put the review in the talk page since it didn't really flow with the page itself.

When looking at some perks, one can only come to the conclusion that they're useless. Listed below:

-animal friend- Animals are not everywhere, most of the tough locations like downtown D.C. don't have a lot of animals. When your character gets around lvl 7-8 he or she should have NO problems wasting anything from radroach to Yao Guai. With higher levels some just run-a-way. In short: there are much better perks available. An alternate consideration is that Animal Friend lets you keep as many animals alive as you want, vegetarianism is possible in the Capital Wasteland.

I *always* have problems with a pack of dogs unless I happen to have the Alien Blaster out. Have you considered using a hunting rifle and Dogmeat to counter packs of dogs?

Animal Friend x1 is useful to avoid annoying dogs or yao guai. It makes the Yao Guai caves a cake walk. Friendly animals will also attack your enemies with just ONE RANK of this perk (in both the xbox and PC versions for me). Animal Friend x2 seems no different from x1 rank in my experience. 16:00, 24 May 2009 (UTC)Medeasin

-bloody mess- This perk is fun and has a broad range of helpfulness You get 5% extra damage but with all weapons. This does not go for explosives and heavy weapons... but still..getting 5% xtra on something that already rocks...your call. --Super Mutant 23:42, 25 February 2009 (UTC) 5% Damage is 5% damage, is 4.8% something dies faster, and is compounded in critical hits, as it changes base damage. (105 base dmg * 125%crit (sneak), 150% (better crits), and 125% (ninja) can become 210% to 245% depending on how critical damage is calculated. Always useful, especially against those blasted albino rad scorpions trying to eat Dogmeat128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k)

-computer whiz- This perk doesn't do much considering right before you are about to be locked out you can just back out of    the hack attempt and just try again, this method goes the same for lockpicking Unless you want to play "hardcore" and don't want to quicksave before hacking...why bother? Same goes for the "infiltrator" perk. --Super Mutant 23:45, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The fact is that hacking is trivially easy. I don't recall ever getting to the fourth try comparing letters in specific positions to the three prior attempts and failing to find the correct word.

Don't force locks, and use some patience when opening them, and infiltrator is worthless. Don't use your fourth guess, just reboot the computer, and Computer Whiz is worthless. Sure, it might cost extra karma to keep restarting the computer (NOT the save file), but it doesn't break the "hardcore" code, or waste a perk for computers ouchies occurred on. 128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k

-entomologist- As stated above there's not a single insect except the giant rad scorp. that you can't kill with your little pinky once you're about 7-8

I chose this perk and I am happy with it ... since you get grim reaper's sprint at level 20, it is useful in VATS if you are attacked by 4 giant radscorpions at once (which happens quite often when travelling the wasteland or quick-travelling to a wasteland location)

I'm on my 5th (or so) playthrough and got it this time for dealing with fireants in Grayditch/Marigold, but I can't tell if it made any difference. I do think that you are forgetting about the Queen Ant Guardians, who would burn your little pinky right off, but the Alien Blaster makes short work of them. 'Entomologist has made a huge difference in dealing with rad scorpions, giant ones, and albino ones. As Albino Rad scorpions and deathclaws are the only things posing even a remote threat to Dogmeat and my follower (generally Charon, Clover, or Sgt "Gunny RL-3 (because the rubutt is just too funny to not have around), this cuts down the chance of having to find a replacement because I failed to see the red ticker go up on my compass, and hear the telltale rattle of death approaching.'128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k

-fortune finder- I'm currently lvl 20, and up until now I've found about a     gazillion assault rifles, averaging 100-180 a pop. You'll find plenty'o'money...trust me. Same goes for the "scrounger" perk. Lot's of ammo. Everywhere.

Scrounger might be useful for those who use .44 ammo a lot since this is hard to come by in the game and it also influences how many alien power cells you will find at fort independence. It becomes a totally useless perk if you mostly use 5.56 ammo, microfusion cells or shotgun shells. 5.56mm Rounds can be "made" and made either through turning in items to the outcasts, or at the steel mill in The Pitt DLC, and money can be found aplenty without cheating. Just pick up every weapon and armor ever found, transport back to a home or safe storage location, wait until you have 70+ repair, and then (intelligently) repair items and sell to the scattered vendors of the wastes. Since raider armor is limitless (and seems near limitless even without waiting around for Kaylen's Bed and Breakfast to respawn), these and assault rifles make the bread and butter of "vendor trash." Frequent trips between dungeons and your stash may be required, especially without a follower. While it is true there are only 240 alien blaster rounds without scrounger, there are numerous weapons of comparable prowess with much cheaper munitions. A3-21's Plasma rifle (no DLC), Metal Blaster the 9 beam laser shotgun (Pitt DLC), Tribeam Laser Rifle (Broken Steel DLC), and the Guass Rifle because of the incredible knock back ability (Anchorage DLC), and the shiskebab for those who want to get up personal and dirty (or fiery)128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k

-here and now- You actually LOSE a perk. You gain a level, yes, but you don't get a perk for the current level and MAX level is 20. Which you will get to eventually! "swift learner" is quite the same...Believe me, tha LAST thing you want to do is getting to lvl 20 fast, so take it easy, wastelander! This is just totally wrong. Yes, you lose a perk in the long run, but that only matters if you have an alternative perk to choose which you think is worthwhile, and sometimes, you don't. But the really wrong statement is that it is bad to get to level 20 in a hurry. Think about it: at Level 20, no matter how slowly or quickly you get to it, you will have had 400+ points to assign to your skills, plus 19 perks to raise your skills and S.P.E.C.I.A.L levels even higher -- that's it!! You don't get any more points by going slowly. The sooner you raise those levels, the sooner you can do more damage to the hostiles, and the easier your quests will be to complete. . . . N8 disagrees, the point of achieving a level is to get a perk, and when the player reaches 20 or 30 (depending on downloads), here and now becomes a wasted perk if viewed in this manner. Leveling only gives more SP, a perk, and levels all the npc's around the player. It does not increase damage, or infer any other special abilities. In this author's opinion, Hear and Now is actually counterproductive for those players who wish to continue playing after achieving maximum level. 128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k

-lead belly- Drink nuka cola, bottled dirty water or purified eat yao guai meat or use stimpacks... There are dozens of ways to gain health, all of them readily available. Rad-away is plentiful as well, so don't even try and consider this one.

-life giver- Hmm. This one is a maybe. IF you have low endurance and a close-combat character...? Otherwise: c'mon..once you're up at about 12-15 you should already have around 300 hp.. at max level that will be 400+.. Do you REALLY need those 30 hp? I didn't. Although raising endurance with intense training only gives you 20hp, it also gives you 2% radiation resistance, 2 to    big guns and 2 to explosives, so it's actually a better idea (Although there are many perks that could be taken instead    that are better) Fast Metabolism is a better idea if you're having trouble surviving encounters. As Stimpaks will be used more often than a static 30hp gain, the 20% bonus is much greater in usefulness and survivability as it accumulates with each stim used.

-light step- Traps ARE around but not a lot, and once you step on one mine you know there's more. And when you get some hours in, there will be less and less traps untill the perk is dead and has no use anymore. Unlike OTHER perks! Light step is not only for mines, but for traps as well. In addition, you actually get a combat shotgun in better shape when defusing the shotgun trap because that thing hasn't fired.

Mines and traps never go away. On level 20, cruising around with Fawkes, I frequently come across them. I wouldn't notice them (since I always get Light Step), but it is funny to hear behind me -- Bang! "Ow!!" -- because Fawkes has tripped them. It's not so funny when I'm close enough to get damaged by them. A little observation can go a long ways, and negate the need for this perk. If there's one trap, there's bound to be more. Just remember to jump away from the direction you were traveling if you here the mine start to go off. Narrow doorways are good places for tripwires, be cognizant of this, and look for the black line of doom.128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k

-master trader- YOU WILL FIND PLENTY OF MONEY! -sigh- Money is easier to find with a bit of foresight, and a large surplus of unneeded weapons

-nerd rage- Well, in certain conditions... But when health drops below 20% U should be RUNNING with a STIMPACK in your ASS!! By the way, your DR will be high enough pretty early in the game.

-explorer- There are totally 162 locations to be discovered. This perk will only show you the ones you have not discovered. So does your radar on the left! If you intend to discover all locations, just keep track on "Location discovered" in General stats page and explore the wasteland from discovered positions. Once you discover all locations, the perk is useless. By the way, you can find the map with all the locations over the internet. So, waste your precious last level 20 perk for something MORE USEFUL.

True ... explorer would be useful if you could fast-travel to the revealed locations ... but since you initially have to go there anyways ... don't choose this perk.

C'mon. By Level 20, what perk could you possibly need all that badly? Yes, you could walk around blindly hoping to find everything, but Explorer is the easiest way to make sure that you have visited everything.

Play the game at very hard without a follower and the value of Grim Reaper's Sprint becomes apparent. Not a needed perk, but sure saves on the stimpacks.

With broken steel I think this perk is excellent. At lvl 30 you can get enough perks to make your character nigh invulnerable, so a perk that smoothens your experience is a good thing.

The ones that ROCK!:

-action boy/girl- A must have! Especially in combination with grim reaper sprint, some nuka quantum...   This will enable more shots in V.A.T.S and when combined with the reaper allows for endless bullet time when used right!

-adamantium skeleton- I've tried this and it appears I very rarely get a critical, serious dmg in general or crippled limbs. It litteraly takes a deathclaw to take me down! I laugh at muties HAHAHA!

Unless I am mistaken, adamantium limbs does not affect damage done to the character; it makes it take twice as many hits to damage limbs. As a bit of evidence: Dart Gun does 1000 'damage' to legs -- it DOES NOT do 1000 damage. Limbs have there own damage seperate and apart from hp damage, though high high hp damage does cause high limb damage, but theoreticallyt every limb (including torso) could be crippled and the character still alive.

Ditto on that, it's not all that great a perk - it doesn't reduce the amount of HP damage you take, just the amount of 'damage' your limbs sustain (in other words, how many hits they can take before they become crippled). It doesn't improve your ability to take damage at all, and since you'll rarely end up with crippled limbs as it is (except for when hit by specific attacks like the Robobrain's mind blast, which automatically cripples your head regardless of this perk), this perk's usefulness should be questioned.

-better criticals- This IS worth it, 50% dmg added! YEAH!

50% to criticals. Always good, critical (pun intended) for ninjas.

Good when combined with the Commando & Finesse perks, lincolns repeater/Sniper Rifle/Gauss Rifle make you pretty much indestructible with these perks, especially if you get to level 20 and pick Grim Reapers Sprint

-commando- This one, as with other perks that increase chance to hit: gunslinger, concentrated fire, finesse and sniper, If you get them ALL, like me, oh man, let me tell you: enemies WILL fall heh heh. It gets even better with high agility and action boy!

While Commando, Finesse, and Sniper are all pretty great, Concentrated Fire is useless. Either aim for the head (and by a certain point in the game, a single headshot should kill most anything) or use the dart gun to cripple the limb entirely. Finesse does NOT increase your chance to hit in VATS. It increases critical chance by 5%. I would still recommend it, however.

-cyborg- Try this one with the adamantium skeleton. Make that wolverine body haha! Cyborg's 10 points to energy weapon skill and the 10% damage resistance make it a must have. Like a second toughness, this perk allows your base DR to increase substantially, allowing for a much better survival rate. Adamantium skeleton. . . is of debated worth128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k

-educated- This perk will generate 48 xtra skill points! That beats all the regular +5 to 2 skill perks and tag! Get it at level 4!

True power gamers can get 100 in every skill without this, though not without comprehension. Educated is good for casual players, but confers no bonuses once 100 points are reached in each skill, an easily accomplished feat with comprehension(a must have), and some exploring of off the beaten path locations.

-intense training- This perk is a great way to jack-up low attributes. Oh, by the way, unlike fallout 1 and 2, LUCK covers chance to hit in V.A.T.S., NOT perception...! EDIT: Luck does not affect your chance to hit in V.A.T.S it affects your chance of a critical hit by 1% per point (10 LUCK = 10% crit chance). Intense Training is of moderate usefulness because it raises a a SPECIAL, giving bonuses to skills, and whatever the ability also boosted (damage/carry weight for str, crit % for luck, or ability to see enemies on the compass for PER), but other perks can be more beneficial, especially if careful consideration was taken in character creation.128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k

-iron fist- The way of the samurai can be great when you have this. Try combo's with: adamantium skeleton, cyborg, ninja, paralyzing palm and silent running..FUN!

Well, there's my beef... hope it's useful...oh, and finally: max your skills at about 94-96 plenty of books out there it'll be 100 someday! ciao -marcus-

EDIT -Comprehension- I read somewhere on this Wiki that there are nearly 25 for each. This means through good readin' skills, you can raise each stat 50 points. That's a pretty good perk.

FistFullofNovocain 07:48, 6 December 2008 (UTC) Please see Bloodwar's argument about low intelligence, and the need for comprehnsion found at User:Bloodwars (128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k)


 * i honestly agree with this completely but what about Lawbringer (evil Characters drop fingers that you sell to regulators for 10 caps that increases fun and caps)? or Comprahension (1 extra point from skill books helps when your level 20 so you can still max out your character)?(doubt i spelt that right) Onikage01 23:31, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Lawbringer and Contract Killer are not the best perks, because they only keep your karma on the chosen path (good/evil) which can be easily done with purified water, and caps (good), or theft and murder (evil) and give you caps, which are easily found through other methods. The level 10 and 12 perks are much better choices over one of these.128.223.32.10 07:52, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k

Chill02 10:53, 23 January 2009 (UTC)


 * The thing with Adamantium Skeleton is that it only reduces the damage received on limbs (arms and legs) and nothing else. It doesn't increase your damage resistance nor reduce an enemy's chance of scoring a critical hit on you. Furthermore, the only limb state that you should worry about is if it's crippled, and it is, a stimpack should fix that quickly. A limb with 1 HP works as well as one with full HP. Plus, enemies generally aim at your chest (which doesn't count as a limb, obviously). So this perk is useless for the most part. - Chill02

Plus if you got Rad Regeneration Perk from wasteland survival guide your limbs are not affected by being crippled or at 1 hp - rendering this perk pretty poor in these circumstances

Format Change
Hey guys, I'm thinking the reviews of the perks kind of goes against the rather streamlined table above it. How about we make a separate page for strategies, as well as putting the review of each perk in each individual perk's page? --DarkJeff 16:23, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I'll leave it for now, if there's no objections I'll clean this up a bit and stick the reviews into each perk's individual page later on today. --DarkJeff 17:13, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Err, yeah, life got in the way. Moving it over to discussion is a start for cleaning it up, but perk advice really ought to be integrated into the perks themselves. Looks like someone's in the process of doing that, so good job! --DarkJeff 10:23, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Perkpoints saveable?
Hey, Can you safe up Perkpoints, to distribute them later? For example, I just reached Lvl 2, but i want three of the Perks @ Lvl 4 and none of the Lvl 2 ones, can I save the points of Lvl 2 + 3 for the Lvl 4 Perks? Answers to karl-heinz-killer@gmx.de please.


 * This should be included in the wiki-page! No, you can't! I just found out the hard way.

Notes and Tips
Hot tip: Don't create characters with more then 9 in starting SPECIAL Skills. As each SPECIAL has a +1 Bobblehead. And you can get an extra +1 Strength/Perception from the ant quest. Also remember that each skill has a +10 from the Vault_Boy_Bobblehead's so don't go past 90 before you have collected the specific bobblehead. Also note that certain perk also adds points. So with energy weapons you can get +10 from bobblehead and +10 from Cyborg perk and if you are really into power gaming look up the Fallout_3_armor_and_clothing page. As you can see the Tesla Armor can add +10 to energy weapons. So hypothetically once you reach 70 in Energy weapons you are capped. If you factor in books on top of that you can easily call yourself capped at 65 or 60 with the comprehension perk. --MediaMogul 08:46, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

There are also special items (mostly gained through quests) that raise S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes by +1 ... like the "Lucky 8-Ball" given to the player by NPC "Timebomb" in Big Town. Pre-war baseball caps and hats increase perception, quest perks do, too.

As for skillbooks and bobbleheads: it is admittedly tempting to get decent lockpick, small guns and repair skills right from the beginning of the game but players who want to max out all skills should try to evenly develop all skills to 50 (or 60 if the corresponding bobblehead has already been found) since there are 24+ books for every skill which yields 48-50 points (with the "comprehension" perk). Nothing is as frustrating than finding skillbooks or bobbleheads one can't use (except for that nice bobblehead presentation device in your home and the fact that selling skillbooks yields 50 caps a piece). Due to (the possible bug of) respawning NPC's (who respawn with skillbooks previously taken from them), it isn't even necessary to invest skillpoints into "Science" and "Big Guns" since the corresponding skillbooks can be obtained again and again. Just use the in-game "wait" function until these NPC's respawn.

"* You do NOT get additional bonuses above 100% in any of your Skills and a level 10 in any of your SPECIAL scores; perks won't add anything beyond that, either! "

This is not all true, if you add lets say another point to SPECIAL in Strength your char will be able to hold more so I would guess adding to the SPECIAL does effect the game after ;)

Wait, so 11 Str carries more than 10 Str, even though the display caps at 10? Is this verified? Does it work for things like Power Armor, which gives +2 Str, if you already have 10 Str? Does FO3 actually store the higher values? --DarkJeff 19:35, 29 December 2008 (UTC)


 * No. Ten is max for all SPECIAL stats and 100 is max for all skills. Period. Wearing gear that gives a bonus for a stat at the cap simply does not grant you the bonus for that stat. The same applies to perks that give stat bonuses. --Keebalicious 20:22, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

How come in the Pib-Boy's SPECIAL display, it shows stuff like "Luck 10(+)". I assume the plus means that it is adding points in the gameplay to the maximum level you can reach by ADDING points. For example, if I pick the Intense Training Perk, I cannot add a PERMANENT point to a Luck score of 10, ditto for finding a Luck Bobblehead, but if I am wearing Lucky Shades, I get the equivalent of a Luck score of 11 total. It even shows up under Status-Effects as LCK +1. I cannot believe that it would show that as an effect if it were not, in fact, adding it to the 10 I already have. Likewise for having a Strength of 10 and popping a Buffout, beer, Ant Nectar, etc.

No - If it says 10(+) It means you are at ten and that this is above your natural level e.g you have 8 endurance and have taken Buffout your endurance will become 9(+) As you are at nine at the time but this is not your natural level

Question: Supposedly, I need max effect with Big Guns skill. There is perk Size Matters that gives additional 15 points to Big Guns skill. Of course I don't need this perk if I already have 100 Big Guns skill points. BUT there is some description You’re obsessed with really big weapons. Does it give some additional bonus to this skill or it's just a description? -NO

Jingwei's Shocksword has the highest damage already for melee/unarmed, and pyromaniac increases this by a half. And it's got a x2 critical modifier, meaning you'll have a critcal chance of 66% (for practical reasons, expecially on higher difficulty levels, the extra 6% DR from wasteland survival guide may be more useful than the extra 6% (after x2) critical)! And the best thing about this is you won't even be missing Grim Reaper's Sprint. Also, gun players will be buying finesse and better criticals anyway, and you'll only have to by pyromaniac vs their Commando/Concentrated Fire/Sniper/Action Boy Combo. This frees up some perks for whatever you want, though this author would recommend demolitions expert. Use those free AP's for throwing a grenadce or two in before slicing and dicing. Also, should the player not want to use Demo expert, he now has no use for AP's, and agility can be set to 1, freeing 8 SPECIAL points vs a Gun using player, since they'll want to max agility. One downfall of this is that you will lose your sneak +25% damage bonus, as the Shishkebab does give away you position. For this reason, some might want to use unique power fists +3x iron fist. A ninja with toughness, cyborg, reilly's combat armour or better, power helmet, barkskin and tough version of wasteland survival guide won't care, however, about sneaking.
 * Ninja + Better Criticals + Finesse + Snide version of Wasteland Survival + Pyromaniac + Shishkebab = Crazy Damage.

Perk Conversation listing
We should have a listing of where different perks open up for added conversation options. Example that comes to mind is the Merchant_Empire quest where the master trader perk allows you to half the investment amount into making traders expand their inventory. I also seem to remember having the gun nut perk opening special dialouge with Brick but its a long time since I had that perk so that needs verification. Main point is still that several perks open up for unique dialouge options and influence paths in conversations even tough the description doesnt mention it. As such a guide or some such stating where with whom, to what end and at which rank would be beneficial in order to get more out of the fallout 3 experience. --MediaMogul 09:03, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Animal Friend
This is an idea and has not been tried but theoretically if you invest two ranks in the animal friend perk, then if you are an evil character you could attack a trade caravan and rather than having to be encumbered and take only half the stuff to the nearest town, the Brahmin will just follow you and carry it all for you.--67.71.189.204 15:47, 10 January 2009 (UTC)Robert de Bruce

In the second level of animal friend, will the animals attack any of your allies, such as you see a wastelander near a Yao Guai? Would the Yao Guai attack him even though you have the second rank of animal friend

I consider Animal Friend x1 a must-have. Not having to deal with every wandering dog pack and yao guai is a huge time-saver and annoyance-reducer. In fact, friendly animals will attack my enemies even with ONE RANK of Animal Friend. I have seen NO difference when I take two ranks. Plus it makes the Yao Guai caves (with the Sneak bobblehead) a true cake walk. There are a couple other dog and yao guai areas that make it useful too. It's amusing to see the yao guais lounge around you or have molerats sit up on their hindlegs like a dog trick. It's also easy XP if you decide to attack those animals for several free hits before they turn red and attack.

As for the first question above, the animals you befriend will not follow you or carry things for you.

As for the second question, the friendly animals will attack friendly wastelanders. They will not attack your companions though.

98.224.218.108 15:41, 24 May 2009 (UTC)medeasin

SPECIAL Still Matters
The benefits of increasing SPECIAL are greater than implied in the main article. They include:

- Skill points in 2 or 3 skills associated with that SPECIAL. - Improvements in derived qualities. - Satisfaction of prerequisites for other perks and certain dialog choices.

Would you rather take a perk worth 10 skill points, or one worth 6 that also increased your ability to sense enemies or raised your action point total?


 * Agreed. Perks that primarly boost skills are a waste to begin with, because the game has a skill cap that is easy to reach, and because it isn't necessary to max all skills. SPECIAL increases, on the otherhand, provide persistent effects that are difficult or catchy to get in the game world.

NECESSARY perks
-Wired Reflexes - from the replicated man quest, unless you never use vats -educated - 3 skills points for 17 levels = 51 skill points, that sure beats those 10 point perks -comprehension - even if you only get ten of each book (on average) that's 130 extra skill points


 * Remember Educated can only be taken at level 4, so that's 16 levels and 48 skill points. According to the Intelligence article you can do without :it.--Cruentuz 18:56, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

crappy perks
-Gun nut, daddy's boy, little leaguer, scoundrel, etc - 10 skill points, pretty crappy


 * Scoundrel can actually give you unique dialouge options. --TheFrogger 19:55, September 12, 2009 (UTC)

-Here and Now - you LOSE a perk

-swift learner - leveling up is easy enough, at level 20 this perk becomes useless. plus you could just sleep in your bed

-entomologist - bugs are MINOR compared to other enemies( . . . /gag Giant rad scorpions and albino rad scorpions are some of the toughest creatures in the game, and while YOU can out run them quite easily, your followers normally can't or won't. I would dispute the "worthlessness" of entomologist~N8 Lac'k)

-fortune finder - caps are easy to come by, especially with a moderate barter skill and a high repair skill (just find a place to stockpile your left over findings, you'll have 30k caps easily)

-lead belly - when do you drink from water sources?

-animal friend - animals are so few and far between in most locations, and already starting to phase out by lv 10 and 11.

-nerd range - you shouldn't be fighting at under 20%, and if you are, and if you also melee, your strength is probably already almost 10

-life giver - less than a 10% bonus to hp in the end

-light step - just watch where you walk

-chem resistant - just save before taking chems or pay to be cured, or buy the medical facility for your tenpenny/megaton house

-computerwhiz/infiltrator - save before hacking/picking, or stop an attempt and restart it before using your fourth guess, and never force a lock

-explorer - save before hitting level 20, get explorer, take a picture of your vat's map, reload, choose a better perk, or look at the wikia map

-solar powered - ninja/grim reaper's sprint is much better, and even with Broken Steel (lv 30 cap), you're in the sun so little (going inside, wandering around at night), the healing and strength bonuses are negligible, though it is free healing as long as you wait in the sunlight (15hp/hour? please confirm)

-rad resistance - just take rad-x, or buy the medical facility for your tenpenny/megaton house, and stop buy when your radiation gets too high

Explorer is an awful perk. If you even consider it, save BEFORE you take the perk, then reload and take a *GOOD* 20 perk. Then just load your old game and manually mark your pip-boy with the location on your *GOOD* perk game. Easy, quick, and 1000% crappier than just finding a fallout map online to use. Bones

Solar Powered is a great perk and eliminates having to get hp form most radiated sources. mater of fact for most tanks that might enjoy wearing the T-51b will enjoy this perk the most as ninja is well for ninjas and grim reaper's sprint is for vats-a-holics, matter of fact most health related perks are useful as they eliminate the need to carry loads of stimpacks and water.Gwyllgi 01:34, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Rebuttals (with counters in parentheses) -Gun nut, daddy's boy, little leaguer, etc - 10 points aint that bad (though 10 points pales in comparison to what you CAN get with static bonuses lasting through the end of the game, past reaching the 100 roof for a skill128.223.32.10 07:07, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k)

-Here and Now - great if you want to hit level 20 faster (but once you get there, then what, you're still short a perk, which is the point of leveling128.223.32.10 07:07, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k)

-fortune finder - caps arn't that easy to get early on (but if you're worried about dropping 3k caps on your house at level 6 . . . fortune finder isn't going to help you regardless. steal 300 caps from Brass lantern, acquire 400 caps from Springvale ranch (pass the speech check for 300, then kill the jet addict for the other 100), and 500/600 caps for the power of the atom (the bomb in megaton) should keep you sitting pretty for almost anything you need early on. All of this can be done before level 4, with only minimal skills (25 science, 25 explosives, and patience to pass the speech checks).128.223.32.10 07:07, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k)

-chem resistant - useful if you don't want to reload every time you make a mistake (why reload, if you can just return to your house in 5 minutes to your lovely medical facility which can cure your rads, remove your addictions, and heal you to full, wait, why don't you have a house . . . ?! 128.223.32.10 07:07, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k)

-computerwhiz/infiltrator - same as above, and useful if there's no more, and you have one guess left while being as close to correct without eliminating all but one answer (There is no need to reload, even random speed hacking (choosing the first 3 options in a computer) does not require reloading, only backing out, and opening up the computer again, after 3 false attempts. Why are you going for that fourth attempt, really. Third time is the charm, not fourth. **Be careful if you care about your karma, hacking owned computers results in karma loss, and speed hacking can result in 20 to 50 karma loss, so keep your donation caps and purified water handy. Infiltrator: why are you trying to force the locks, they're not that hard to do, and bobby pins are fairly abundant if you don't break one with every lock attempted128.223.32.10 07:07, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k)

-explorer - being able to see all the places you missed can be fun, and allow you to explore places you missed previously ( . . . walking blind isn't good enough for you? You want a map? Then why are you not looking at the perfectly legitimate map available here on the wikia site under places > map? 128.223.32.10 07:07, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k)

-DragonJTSLeave me a message 16:11, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

As was discussed earlier, Light Step is incredibly useful. It's not fun to crawl every inch of a dungeon cause you're worried about traps or grenades. If you're a hardcore player, only using this site for ideas on character builds instead of using it as a guide to the game, you'll probably save yourself from a few painful deaths with this perk. 75.21.164.94 02:04, 6 May 2009 (UTC)Rauen

(I would argue, why are you crawling? Many traps can be seen, and you can avoid the explosion from most mines with a little quick foot backpedal jump. If you encounter the first trap, there are more traps, until then, keep an eye out for them, but chances are, they're not there128.223.32.10 07:07, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k) Line breaks added because I /fail at formatting128.223.32.10 07:09, 13 May 2009 (UTC)N8 Lac'k

New Perks?
Does anyone know if new perks will be released with any of the Fallout 3 Downloadable Contents, especially Broken Steel since it will raise the level cap to 30? Super Mario 126 23:34, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, there will be new Perks in Broken Steel. Ausir 23:43, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

BUT from the level 30 cap in Broken Steel this means that they will be making perks for levels 22,24,26 etc... correct? So technically maxing a character will be hell of a lot easier unless they add a new skill, which I'm pretty sure they won't. --Super Mutant 23:57, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Less useful perks after Broken Steel
A VERY important thing to note about one of the new perks added in Broken Steel. The Almost Perfect Perk that raises your stats to 9 includes any bonuses you have from Bobbleheads and special items such as the Lucky 8 Ball. So if you have 9 Luck including the bonus from the Luck Bobblehead it will not be raised to 10 Luck. This is because Bobbleheads and S.P.E.C.I.A.L. items dont affect the modified value of your stats, but the base value. So it will register that the stat is already at 9 and wont increase it further. So serious power gamers will have to wait until AFTER they have gotten this perk to start hunting Bobbleheads if they want to maximise its use, which in my opinion is much greater than Nuclear Anomaly which is only marginaly useful for melee characters (I got into a fight with Lucas Simms on Very Easy Difficulty and the resulting explosion barely even scared him or the Megaton Settlers around me). The one S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat which breaks this rule is the Intelligence stat, which should be raised to 10 ASAP to maximise your skill points all the easier. The good thing about this perk is that it gets rid of the need for you to invest in Intense Training multiple times to get better stats, leaving precious perk slots open to be filled with more interesting/useful perks (I'm not saying that Intense Training isn't useful, but with this perk in your build it does become useless). --Cmd Zoidberg | XBOX 360 User | 09 May 2009 | 02:24 --
 * Agreed. The only choice you will probably make at 30 is to go for either Nuclear Anomaly or Almost Perfect. Nuclear anomaly isn't considered to be that good (See : Discussion Page), so most will, after trying Nuclear for the fun of it, choose this perk.The above tactic will have it downsides though: You will have to raise certain SPECIAL stats at the start, to be able to meet requirements for certain perks. This means you will have to choose certain perks from the start, and stick by those.--87.208.36.84 07:21, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Also, high intelligence combined with Comprehension and Educated seems a bit overdone with all the extra skill raises you get with Broken Steel. (Right now I'm lvl 24, about 15 points to go per skill,(except for Big Guns which I don't count because of the bug), not even caring about skillbooks anymore.)--87.208.36.84 07:21, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

This is true for vanilla FO3, wich is more oriented to be played in a fun way, so you can spend perks like Lawbringer/Contract Assassin, Quantum Quemist, Mister Sandman, etc. For modded FO3 specially with more levelling challeging, like WttW (Welcome to the Wasteland) and so on, perks like Tag!, Deep Sleep, Demolition Expert and the three Swift Lerner levels makes a lot of sense to use. The majority of this mods prevents you to reach level 30 and rip most of the XP books in the game (there are a lot of them, 300+). For example, playing FO3 + all the DLCs, discovering every single location + every single book I couldn't reach level 30, I stuck in the middle of 27, going to 28. It adds a lot of challeging in the game, I recommend everyone to try it. In vanilla mode I find Mister Sandman uterlly funny to use. Brfritos 00:00, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

Listing
Should these be listed in level order, instead of alphabetically? It seems to me like it would be a lot easier to find, if that were the case. 98.232.157.119 07:15, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
 * You can sort the table by any column by clicking on the http://images.wikia.com/common/releases_200904.1/skins/common/images/sort_none.gif image. Sorting alphabetically by default makes more sense in my opinion. -- Porter21 (talk) 08:27, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah...didn't know that. 98.232.157.119 02:50, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Retroactive Perks?
Can you use perks earned for levels 20-30 for level 1-20 perks? :)

Yeah, and I strongly advise it, every perk except Puppies, Almost Perfect, and Nuclear Anomaly (if you play on the easier modes), in my opinion. Warmonger and Quantum Chemist aren't terrible, but the other perks are jokes in the face of perks like Grim Reaper Sprint compared to Nerves of Steel, the older one is much better. Lawlimnator 10:07, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Wait, unless you mean using perks from the levels 20 to 30 while you level from 1 to 20. Then no, you cannot use perks you are not high enough level for. I made the leap that you had not asked a bad question to ask that would normally result in sarcasm from my end. Lawlimnator 10:09, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Qualifying for Sniper
I want the sniper perk, my per is at 5, and i dont wanna waste a level with intense training, cuz i have broken steel and am gonna get almost perfect and then my bobble heads. my question is if i pop some mentats befor i level up and theyre still in effect can i get the sniper perk?
 * No. With one exception that applies only to Luck (the Lucky Eight Ball), only permanent increases to SPECIAL stats grant access to perks. There is a second way to boost Perception though, the Ant Sight quest reward from "Those!", so you might consider getting one boost now, and the other after you get Almost Perfect. Personally, my approach was to min-max in such a way that I was eligible for most of the perks up front, and the few I wasn't eligible for could be obtained after acquiring No Weaknesses: S1 P8 E7 C7 I9 A7 L1. I drop the Lucky 8 Ball before getting No Weaknesses, pick it back up after getting the perk, then purchase Strong Back and Better Criticals between level 25 and 29. Unless you're a melee specialist, or want some of the fun but mostly useless perks, this will allow you to get all the "shooty", "social" and "sneaky" perks. And it only costs a single (admittedly high level) perk, instead of blowing a whole bunch of low level perks. ShadowRanger 19:21, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

Can I spare my perk points some levels and invest them later?
That way Intense Training might be learned after getting the Almost Perfect perk to achieve absolute perfect stance!
 * No. This is partly for game balance and character design reasons (trying to force you to choose a focus for your perks, instead of getting everything, though the extra 10 levels from Broken Steel and the crappy new perks mostly throw that out the window). But for the specific goal you're trying to reach, it's unnecessary. Just hold off on acquiring the stat Bobbleheads (unless you started with a stat of 9) until after you get Almost Perfect. Then go on a collection spree, boosting each stat to 10. Make sure to drop the Lucky Eight Ball before hitting level 30 though, otherwise your Luck stat will be partially dependent on holding on to an otherwise worthless item. ShadowRanger 17:19, September 2, 2009 (UTC)

Quest Perks
Considering that some new perks like Xenotech Expert and Ghoul Ecology aren't acquired through the completion of a quest, I suggest their classification be changed. That, or the name of quest perks be changed to something of better classification for the perks--Master of cheeZ 02:25, 1 September 2009 (UTC).
 * Given that most of the perks are from quests, making a separate category would be rather pedantic. The distinction between purchased perks and perks acquired through gameplay is adequately expressed without resorting to more complicated descriptions. After all, the pre-DLC Quest Perks do come from quests, so changing the name there would reduce specificity.--ShadowRanger 17:24, September 2, 2009 (UTC)

Hints and Tips
Note: Many of the following tips are strategic recommendations for building the most efficient type of character. Remember that your character in Fallout 3 is your character and you should develop him or her the way that you think is appropriate! Also, since you can't obtain a perk at level 1, that leaves only 19 (29 with Broken Steel) perks to choose from.


 * Remember that skills can be increased through skill books, leveling, and bobbleheads. Perks that give +Skills are not as valuable overall as perks that add damage or new abilities.
 * Pay special attention to perks that raise your skill levels per "rank." A rank means each time you take that perk, not every level. You are only receiving 10 skill points in those skills for that perk.
 * Consider what kind of character you want to build and develop. Think ahead.
 * Some perks work great when combined like Toughness and Life Giver, or Iron fist and Ninja, others have prerequisites that need to be met before they become available for selection.
 * In the context of Fallout 3's game design, maximum proficiency in any Skill is 100% and maximum score in SPECIAL is a 10 in any one attribute; it is strongly advised that the player be mindful of that limit when choosing perks.
 * Without much experience in the game some perks are tempting to get, but keep in mind that the level limit is 20 (30 with the Broken Steel DLC), and thus the number of perks you can get through level up is limited. Perks like Here and Now or Swift Learner give the player a decent amount of exp (depending on when they are taken) but with these you can waste a total of 4 perks for a handful of exp. Experienced players refrain from taking these quick-win perks and instead choose unique perks that give abilities that cannot otherwise be obtained. (It should be noted that there are no perks for level 3 after Lady Killer/Black Widow is taken that offer a unique ability and therefor Swift Learner is a perfectly reasonable alternative to other perks at that level).
 * Remember the Bobbleheads! Whenever you're leveling up, consider what effect the Bobbleheads are going to have. These trinkets can raise all your attributes by 1 point and all skill points by 10! This means that when you're distributing points after leveling up, you should not raise a skill above 90 unless you already have its bobblehead or unless you plan to NEVER get it.
 * It is best to create a list of all perks desired at each level from 2 to 20 (or to 30 with the Broken Steel DLC). The player should note the requirements for the perk (such as "60% in Science") and make sure the requirements are met before reaching the level to get the perk.
 * Players coming from the classic Fallout games often tend to choose the Intense Training perk because in past games the SPECIAL stats were the most important factor in deriving character attributes. In Fallout 3, however, SPECIAL's role is less critical. For example, even players with 1 Charisma can pass speech tests by either saving and re-loading very often or by putting skill points into Speech via leveling up or reading books. Another example is the Survival Expert perk. When the player wants to get the 'Tough' aspect of this perk, they are required to have 7 Endurance to give the appropriate answers in dialogue. Even if the player only has 4 Endurance, they can take a Buffout just before the dialogue to raise it to 7 temporarily to give the right answer. Thus, think carefully before choosing the Intense Training perk.
 * It is recommended that the player save all Skill Books until they get the Comprehension perk, which should be acquired as early as possible. The usefulness of the perk depends entirely on how many books are read after acquiring it. However, the usefulness of Comprehension lowers considerably with the Broken Steel DLC, as more skill points are available when leveling up.
 * Animal Friend can be a useful perk if one rank is taken. Lower level characters benefit much more than higher level ones do from not having to deal with Yao Guai, while at the same time higher level characters get to avoid getting into fights for small amounts of experience.
 * Chem Resistant is usually not a good choice, owing to the amount of ways provided to detox oneself.
 * If you choose the Ninja perk, there are two perks that really complement this: the first is Better Criticals, which further increases the effectiveness of your sneak attacks. The second is Pyromaniac, as this makes the most powerful melee weapon (the Shishkebab) do 150% of the damage it normally does, making it more damaging than any weapon save explosives. Alternatively, one can use 3 levels of Iron Fist, Paralyzing Palm and one of the unique power fists and/or Deathclaw Gauntlet, but this will take five perks instead of one, however they ignore defense and stun on a regular basis (and power fists attack very quickly).
 * It is wise to bear in mind when creating a character build that the new perk Almost Perfect will raise your current SPECIAL values up to 9, and not raise their base values. This means that if you have the Bobbleheads for any of these attributes then you won't receive the full benefit and have your stats raised to 10, so if you aim to take this perk it is best to go for the SPECIAL Bobbleheads AFTER you've taken this perk. Also its been mentioned that the Lucky 8 Ball affects this perk too, so before you level you may want to drop it out of your inventory before leveling, otherwise you will have a base value of 8 Luck instead of 9, as the Lucky 8 Ball affects your base Luck, not altered.
 * Another note for when taking the Almost Perfect perk is that trying to use only this perk to raise your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats will severely hamper your characters build. A workaround would be (during character creation) to raise your Intelligence value to 9 and find the Intelligence Bobblehead so that you can get the most out of your skill points. This will still limit your choices when it comes to Perks. The best piece of advice has already been provided above: "Consider what kind of character you want to build and develop. Think ahead."
 * Assuming one is willing to sacrifice Charisma along with the perks that require it, it is possible to raise the other SPECIAL stats to the requirements necessary for every other perk and have a 10 Intelligence for skill points. This requires you to pick up the INT Bobblehead at level 2, as well as acquiring the Lucky 8 Ball and completing the Those! quest. The final SPECIAL would be 5 7 7 1 10 7 6. With Almost Perfect, it is still possible to raise this character to a perfect SPECIAL at level 30.
 * Similarly, by sacrificing Strength and Luck initially, you can use No Weaknesses and the Lucky 8 Ball to acquire virtually any Perk you choose (and still have a high Charisma for dialogue options). Starting Stats: S1 P8 E7 C7 I9 A7 L1. Pick up the IN Bobblehead immediately. Get the PE Bobblehead whenever you like, and choose Ant Sight when playing Those! (allowing you to have a PE of 10 long before level 30, which is particularly helpful for stealthy types). Before reaching level 24, drop the Lucky 8 Ball. Choose No Weaknesses and pick up the Lucky 8-ball again and you will now qualify for all of the ST and LK based perks you bypassed (e.g. Strong Back and Better Criticals), which you can pick up with your level 25-29 perks.
 * (GLITCH) If you take a perk increases skills, e.g. Daddy's Boy/Girl, return to the skills page, then go forward to the Perks page again and select a different perk, returning to the Skills page will still show the improved skill rating. Upon selecting Accept, the true values are restored. (tested on xbox 360)
 * (GLITCH) When leveling, you can increase a prerequisite skill high enough to select a perk and then return to the skill page before accepting the level up. At that point, you can adjust the skills as you see fit. When you return to the perk page, the previously selected perk is still selected even though it may no longer be available due to the unmet prerequisite skill. I used this technique to advance my Demolition Expert perk without having to increase Explosives. I have also tested this with Cyborg.

For a subjective view on some perks, see the Discussion Page.

Good old puppies perk
dogmeats puppie comes to fallout 3 and guess what it will give you a glitch that counts him as a 2nd follower and if you leave any place like the pitt or operation anchorage you will not receive another follower because the glitch of this puppie nightmare

That Poster
Please tell me who made that Poster so I can congratulate them on their genius and tell them to make it bigger so I can hang it on my wall.

Perk Leveling Glitches/Tricks
I was unsure where I should put this information in the wiki, so I'm providing it here. On certain perks where there's a skill requirement (aka Cyborg with 60 in Medicine and Science), if you have sufficient points while leveling up, yet want to spend the points in a different skill, try this. Add the points in the skill you need to get the perk, and press continue, select the perk you want and then hit cancel to go back to the skill point selection screen, now remove the points from the stat and add the points to whatever you were initially planning. When you go to the next screen, the Perk you initially wanted will be grayed out, but will still be selected (apparently it checks whether you have sufficient requirements, but doesn't reset any selections if they don't meet them).

Also, there's a glitch where if you select a perk which adds skill points, such as Daddy's Boy/Girl or Silent Running, backtrack to the skill screen and back again to perks, and select a different perk, backtrack and retern to perk screen again and reselect the same initial perk, you can keep adding skill points from the perk until the specific skill is maxed out at 100! Note though, that this is only at the level select screen, and is more a visual anomaly than anything else, since even if shows its at 100, once you confirm everything it resets back to its default values at what you're supposed to be at. Further confirmation to this, if you had to add points in a skill in order to meet a perk prerequisite, and then take those points away, even if it still says 100 you won't be able to reselct the perk since the real skill value is below the minimum...and at this point you can't add any skills back into the tree since its "thinks" its already maxed at 100..

Hope this information proves to be useful. Oh, and this was tested on the original Fallout 3 for Xbox360 without any expansions..so if these tricks works on the other versions and/or expansions feel free to confirm. :)

-Satoshi

98.225.236.34 21:52, April 1, 2010 (UTC)