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This page lists all perks in Fallout 2.
  • The content is not described in full detail on this page. For details, please see the respective articles.
  • For perks in other Fallout games, please see "Perk".
  • For an overview of Fallout 2 content, please refer to "Portal:Fallout 2".
 
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General information[]

In Fallout 2, perks are selected every 3rd level (or every 4th level if you have the Skilled trait). There are 70 regular perks and 12 special perks. For perks with multiple ranks the benefit listed should be interpreted as "per rank".

You can take chems (e.g., Mentats or Buffout) to increase desired SPECIAL stats temporarily; This way you can get perks that wouldn't normally be available. Perks taken under drug influence remain permanent, even when your stats fall under the requirements after the chems wear out.

List of perks[]

Not all perks are equal due to the way the game is structured. A quick breakdown of the usability of perks is as follows:

Recommended
Good
Average
  • Dodger and Toughness: Protection is good.
  • Gain Charisma, Gain Intelligence, Gain Luck, Gain Perception: Depends greatly on the situation, allowing the player to respectively gain an additional party member if the new value is even, more skill points if Intelligence is less than 7 or 8, improving critical hits, and/or sniping. Situational.
  • HtH Evade: Perfect for unarmed experts (unarmed weapons like the power fist can be used in conjunction with this perk).
  • Lifegiver: Accumulates a lot of hit points over the course of the game. Probably a good choice for those who get hurt often.
  • Magnetic Personality: Useful for those with low Charisma and an even score to boot (otherwise, Gain Charisma is superior).
  • Mutate!: A good choice of traits renders this useless, unless used to replace Finesse with Fast Shot after taking Sniper.
  • Tag!: Can be used on previously increased skills to gain a whole lot of skill points.
Bad
  • Bonus HtH Damage and Bonus Ranged Damage: The bonus to max damage is too low to make a noticeable effect (short of using burst weapons).
  • Explorer, Ranger, Scout: Marginally helpful if playing with low Luck and Hard difficulty. Otherwise pointless.
  • Gain Strength: Pointless with power armor and chems.
  • Pickpocket: Failing at stealing causes everyone to turn permanently hostile regardless. Save scumming is effectively mandatory for any sort of normal gameplay, rendering the perk null.
  • Silent Death and Silent Running: Sneaking is poorly implemented and the perks follow the pattern. Silent Death only affects the first attack made, while Silent Running is a convenience.
  • Smooth Talker: Diplomat characters will have a good starting intelligence.
  • Pack Rat, Strong Back: Inventory capacity is hardly an issue, especially with a party member to use as a mule.
  • Weapon Handling: Negligible impact. More skill points in the governing skill compensates for this.
Useless

Abilities[]

Perks in this category provide miscellaneous bonuses that do not fit in other categories. Awareness is among the most useful of perks.

Name Level req Other requirements Ranks Benefit
Awareness 3 PE 5 1 Examining a target shows hit points, weapon and ammunition count
Comprehension 3 IN 6 1 50% more skill points when reading books
Faster Healing 3 EN 3 3 +2 bonus to your healing rate
Here and Now 3 1 Immediately gain an extra level
Kama Sutra Master 3 EN 5, AG 5 1 Some characters more likely to have sex with you
Quick Pockets 3 AG 5 1 Inventory access during combat only costs 2 AP
Strong Back 3 ST 6, EN 6 3 Carry an additional 50 lbs. of equipment
Swift Learner 3 IN 4 3 +5% bonus whenever XP is earned
Educated 6 IN 6 3 +2 skill points at level up
Empathy 6 PE 7, IN 5 1 Reaction levels are shown when in an in depth conversation
Magnetic Personality 6 CH < 10 1 +1 to the number of party members who can be recruited
Pack Rat 6 1 Carry an addition 50 lbs. of equipment
Demolition Expert 9 AG 4, Traps 75% 1 Explosives do more damage and always detonate on time
Light Step 9 AG 5, LK 5 1 50% reduction in your chance of setting off a trap
Master Trader 9 CH 7, Barter 75% 1 25% discount when purchasing items from stores and traders
Mutate! 9 1 Change one of your traits
Gain 12 (Statistic) < 10 1 (x7) +1 to the respective Statistic

Combat[]

A group of useful perks, especially those increasing the frequency of attacks. Bonuses stack.

Name Level req Other requirements Ranks Benefit
Bonus HtH Damage 3 ST 6, AG 6 3 +2 points of damage for hand-to-hand and melee attacks
Earlier Sequence 3 PE 6 3 +2 to attack sequence
Night Vision 3 PE 6 1 20% reduction in darkness level
Bonus Move 6 AG 5 2 Two extra APs per turn that can be used only for movement
Bonus Ranged Damage 6 AG 6, LK 6 2 +2 points of damage for attacks with ranged weapons
Heave Ho! 6 ST less than 9 1 +2 to Strength when determining range of a thrown weapon
Pyromaniac 9 Big Guns 75% 1 +5 points of damage with fire-based weapons, more violent fire death animations
Sharpshooter 9 PE 7, IN 6 1 +2 to Perception when determining range modifiers
Action Boy 12 AG 5 2 Additional action point available in combat
HtH Evade 12 Unarmed 75% 1 +2 for each unused Action Point, plus 1/12 your Unarmed skill to Armor Class at the end of a combat turn
Living Anatomy 12 Doctor 60% 1 +10% to Doctor and +5 damage to living creatures
Weapon Handling 12 ST < 7, AG 5 1 +3 to Strength for weapon calculations
Bonus HtH Attacks 15 AG 6 1 Hand-to-hand attacks cost 1 AP less to perform
Bonus Rate of Fire 15 PE 6, IN 6, AG 7 1 Ranged weapon attacks cost 1 AP less to perform

Dialogue[]

Perks in this category are useless, either tied to broken mechanics or easily bypassed with drugs.

Name Level req Other requirements Ranks Benefit
Presence 3 CH 6 3 +10% to initial reaction of non-player characters
Smooth Talker 3 IN 4 3 +1 to Intelligence for the purposes of dialogue
Karma Beacon 9 CH 6 1 Karma is doubled for the purposes of dialogue and reactions
Cult of Personality 12 CH 10 1 People will always view you favorably, no matter your reputation and their alignment

Survivability[]

Perks in this category should generally be chosen only if no better perks are available. See notes for details.

Name Level req Other requirements Ranks Benefit
Stonewall 3 ST 6 1 Reduction in chance to be knocked down during combat
Toughness 3 EN 6, LK 6 3 +10% to damage resistance
Adrenaline Rush 6 ST < 10 1 +1 to Strength when your HP drops below 50%
Quick Recovery 6 AG 5 1 Getting up after being knocked down in combat only costs 1 AP
Rad Resistance 6 EN 6, IN 4 2 +15% to Radiation Resistance
Snakeater 6 EN 3 2 +25% to Poison Resistance
Dodger 9 AG 6 1 +5 to your Armor Class
Lifegiver 12 EN 4 2 Additional 4 Hit Points on level-up

Worldmap[]

Name Level req Other requirements Ranks Benefit
Cautious Nature 3 PE 6 1 +3 to Perception during random encounters
Scout 3 PE 7 1 Amount of viewable map increased
Fortune Finder 6 LK 8 1 Additional money is found during random encounters
Pathfinder 6 EN 6, Outdoorsman 40% 2 25% reduction in travel time on the world map
Explorer 9 1 Higher chance of finding special places and people in random encounters
Mysterious Stranger 9 LK 4 1 Chance you will gain a temporary ally in random encounters

Skills[]

These perks provide flat bonuses to skills or modify them. They are best avoided, as the skills they affect have marginal use in gameplay, with the exception of Tag!.

Name Level req Other requirements Ranks Benefit
Healer 3 PE 7, IN 5, AG 6, First Aid 40% 2 4-10 more hit points healed when using First Aid or Doctor skills
Thief 3 1 +10% to skills: Sneak, Lockpick, Steal and Traps
Survivalist 3 EN 6, IN 6, Outdoorsman 40% 1 +25% to Outdoorsman
Gambler 6 Gambling 50% 1 +20% to Gambling
Ghost 6 Sneak 60% 1 +20% to Sneak in dark conditions
Harmless 6 Steal 50%, Karma 50 or more 1 +20% to Steal
Negotiator 6 Barter 50%, Speech 50% 1 +10% to skills: Speech and Barter
Ranger 6 EN 6 1 +15% to Outdoorsman
Salesman 6 Barter 50% 1 +20% to Barter
Silent Running 6 AG 6, Sneak 50% 1 Able to sneak and run at the same time
Speaker 9 Speech 50% 1 +20% to Speech
Living Anatomy 12 Doctor 60% 1 +10% to Doctor and +5 damage to living creatures
Master Thief 12 Lockpick 50%, Steal 50% 1 +15% to skills: Lockpick and Steal
Medic 12 First Aid 40% or Doctor 40% 1 +20% to skills: First Aid and Doctor
Mr. Fixit 12 Science 40% or Repair 40% 1 +10% to skills: Repair and Science
Tag! 12 1 Pick an additional Tag Skill

Criticals[]

General perks affecting criticals.

Name Level req Other requirements Ranks Benefit
More Criticals 6 LK 6 3 +5% chance of critical hits
Better Criticals 9 PE 6, AG 4, LK 6 1 20% bonus on the critical hit table
Slayer 24 ST 8, AG 8, Unarmed 80% 1 All HtH attacks are critical hits
Sniper 24 PE 8, AG 8, Small Guns 80% 1 Increased chance to score a critical hit with ranged weapons


Weapon perks[]

Weapon perks are enjoyed when one uses a specific weapon.

Name Weapons wielded Benefit
Weapon Accurate Various +20% bonus chance to hit
Weapon Knockback Sledgehammer
Super sledge
Louisville Slugger
Boxing gloves
Plated boxing gloves
Every five points of damage knocks the target back one hex
Weapon Long Range Various Doubles the effective range of the weapon
Weapon Penetrate Various Reduces target's Damage threshold to one-fifth it's normal value

Armor perks[]

Armor perks are enjoyed when one wears a specific piece of armor.

Name Armors worn Benefit
Combat Armor Combat armor
Brotherhood armor
+20 Radiation resistance
Powered Armor Power armor
Hardened power armor
+3 Strength, +30 Radiation resistance

Special perks[]

Name Requirements/cost Location(s) Benefit
Alcohol Lowered hit points 2 Luck, Consume 100 bottles of Alcohol-Z Vault City -2 HP
Alcohol Lowered hit points II 1 Luck, Consume 100 bottles of Alcohol-Z Vault City -4 HP
Alcohol Raised hit points 9 Luck, Consume 100 bottles of Alcohol-Z Vault City +2 HP
Alcohol Raised hit points II 10 Luck, Consume 100 bottles of Alcohol-Z Vault City +4 HP
Autodoc Lowered Hit Points 2 Luck, Intelligence < 4 Vault City -2 HP
Autodoc Lowered Hit Points II 1 Luck, Intelligence < 4 Vault City -4 HP
Autodoc Raised Hit Points <4 IN, Ride the Autodoc Rodeo Vault City +2 HP
Autodoc Raised Hit Points II 10 Luck, Intelligence < 4 Vault City +4 HP
Dermal Impact Armor Combat armor, $5000–$7000, 2 days Vault City, Redding, San Francisco +5% to Damage Resistance against normal and explosion damage
Dermal Impact Assault Enhancement Dermal Impact Armor, combat armor, $30000-$40000, 5 Days Vault City, Redding, San Francisco +10% to Damage Resistance against normal and explosion damage, -1 Charisma
Expert Excrement Expeditor >4 Intelligence Broken Hills +5% Speech skill
Gecko Skinning Rescue Smiley Toxic Caves Ability to skin geckos for sale
Phoenix Armor Implants Combat armor, $8000–$10000, 3 days Vault City, Redding, San Francisco +5% to Damage Resistance against plasma, laser and fire weapons
Phoenix Assault Enhancement Phoenix Armor Implants, combat armor, $30000-$50000, 4-6 Days Vault City, Redding, San Francisco +10% to Damage Resistance against plasma, laser and fire weapons, -1 Charisma
Vault City Training 75% Doctor Skill Vault City +5% to skills: Doctor and First Aid
Vault City Inoculations 75% Doctor Skill, Vault City Training Vault City +10% to poison and radiation resistance

See also[]

Perks in Fallout 2
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