Fallout perks

This page lists all perks in the original Fallout.

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 content, please refer to "Portal:Fallout".

List of perks[]

There are 53 character perks in Fallout. For perks with multiple ranks the benefit listed should be interpreted as "per rank."

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

Awareness: Essential for any sort of planning in combat.
Bonus Rate of Fire/Bonus HtH Attacks: Self-explanatory.

Good

Action Boy: Universally useful. Bonus Move is good for melee characters.
More Criticals and Better Criticals: Good pairing in Fallout, as the top perks are only available in the end game, if at all.
Slayer and Sniper: Ultimate combat perks that are usually not available in normal gameplay, due to the extremely high level requirement.

Average

Dodger and Toughness: Protection is good.
Quick Pockets: Improved access to inventory, but not as useful as the variant in Fallout 2.
Tag!: Can be used on Energy Weapons late in the game.

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).
Lifegiver: The impact is negligible due to the level cap and limited number of experience points available
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.
Strong Back: Inventory capacity is hardly an issue, especially with a party member to use as a mule.

Useless

Animal Friend: Animals are not a threat.
Cult of Personality, Presence: The reaction system is broken, rendering these useless.
Earlier Sequence: Minimal impact on combat.
Educated, Master Thief, Medic, Mr. Fixit, Speaker: There are enough skill points in the game without the need to waste perks on getting more skill points.
Empathy: Marginal effect.
Faster Healing, Healer: Healing rate is never an issue.
Flower Child: Convenience for chem users.
Fortune Finder, Master Trader: Money is not an issue in the game.
Friendly Foe: Poor, poor design choice.
Ghost: Even less useful than Silent Death.
Heave Ho!: No effect at Strength 4.
Mental Block: No need. The psychic nullifier is always available.
Mutate!: A good choice of traits renders this useless.
Night Vision, Sharpshooter: Marginal effectiveness in any combat situation. Directly increasing a weapon skill has a much more noticeable effect.
Rad Resistance, Snakeater: Radiation and poison are marginal threats.
Explorer, Mysterious Stranger, Pathfinder, Ranger, Scout, Scrounger, Survivalist: All world map perks are useless, due to the marginal nature of random encounters: They're neither particularly dangerous nor profitable to farm.
Swift Learner: Useless. The purpose of levels is to gain perks. The purpose of perks is not gaining more levels.

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
Animal Friend	9	IN 5, Outdoorsman 25%	1	Animals will not attack unless you attack first
Awareness	3	PE 5	1	Examining a target shows hit points, weapon and ammunition count
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 indepth converstaion
Faster Healing	3	EN 6	3	+1 bonus to your healing rate
Flower Child	9	EN 5	1	50% less likely to be addicted to chems, and withdrawal time is halved
Friendly Foe	6	PE 4	1	In combat characters on your team are highlighted green
Master Trader	9	CH 7, Barter 60%	1	25% discount when purchasing items from stores and traders
Mental Block	15		1	Resistance to Master's psychic attacks
Mutate!	9		1	Change one of your traits
Night Vision	3	PE 6	3	10% reduction in darkness level
Swift Learner	3	IN 4	3	+5% bonus whenever XP is earned
Strong Back	3	ST 6, EN 6	3	Carry an addition 50 lbs. of equipment

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 (including Melee attacks!)
Bonus Ranged Damage	6	AG 6, LK 6	2	+2 points of damage for attacks with ranged weapons
Bonus HtH Attacks	6	AG 6	1	Hand-to-hand attacks cost 1 AP less to perform (including Melee attacks!)
Bonus Rate of Fire	9	PE 6, IN 6, AG 7	1	Ranged weapon attacks cost 1 AP less to perform
Bonus Move	6	AG 5	3	Two extra APs per turn that can be only be used for movement
Action Boy	12	AG 5	3	+1 Action Point
Quick Pockets	3	AG 5	3	-1 AP cost for opening inventory in combat
Earlier Sequence	3	PE 6	3	+2 to attack sequence
Silent Death	18	AG 10, Sneak 80%	1	When sneaking, HtH attacks from behind do double damage
Heave Ho!	6		3	+2 to Strength when determining range of a thrown weapon
Sharpshooter	6	PE 7, IN 6	2	+2 to Perception when determining range modifiers

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
Cult of Personality	12	CH 10	1	People will always view you favorably, no matter your reputation and their alignment
Smooth Talker	3	IN 4	3	+1 to Intelligence for the purposes of dialogue

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
Lifegiver	12	EN 4	3	+4 HP per level
Dodger	9	AG 4	2	+5% to your Armor Class
Toughness	3	EN 6, LK 6	3	+10% to damage resistance
Rad Resistance	6	EN 6, IN 4	3	+15% to Radiation Resistance
Snakeater	6	EN 3	1	+25% to Poison Resistance

Worldmap[]

Name	Level req	Other requirements	Ranks	Benefit
Explorer	9		1	Higher chance of finding special places and people in random encounters
Pathfinder	6	EN 6, Outdoorsman 40%	2	25% reduction in travel time on the world map
Mysterious Stranger	6	LK 7	1	Chance you will gain a temporary ally in random encounters
Ranger	6	PE 6	3	Chance of hostile random encounters is lowered
Scout	3	PE 8	1	Exploration is increased by 1 square in every direction on the world map
Scrounger	9	LK 8	1	Doubles the amount of ammunition found in random encounters
Fortune Finder	6	LK 8	1	Additional money is found during 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
Tag!	12		1	Pick an addition Tag Skill
Master Thief	12		1	+10% to skills: Sneak, Lockpick, Steal and Traps
Medic	12		1	+20% to skills: First Aid and Doctor
Mr. Fixit	12		1	+20% to skills: Repair and Science
Speaker	12		1	+20% to skills: Speech and Barter
Ghost	6	Sneak 60%	1	+20% to Sneak in dark conditions
Pickpocket	9	AG 8, Sneak 80%	1	Size and facing modifiers are ignored when stealing from someone
Survivalist	3	EN 6, IN 6, Outdoorsman 40%	3	+20% bonus to Outdoorsman for survival checks
Healer	3	PE 7, IN 5, AG 6, First Aid 40%	3	2-5 more hit points healed when using First Aid or Doctor skills
Silent Running	6	AG 6, Sneak 50%	1	Able to sneak and run at the same time

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	18	ST 8, AG 8, Unarmed 80%	1	All HtH attacks are critical hits
Sniper	18	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	Every five points of damage knocks the target back one hex
Weapon Long Range	Various	Doubles the effective range of the weapon
Weapon Penetrate	.223 pistol Ripper Power fist	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

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