Essential and non-essential perks

[Ffabbia]

Fairly simple quiz.
That is the one perk that you absolutely cannot live without, irrespective of your build or playstyle?

And contrarywise, is there a perk that you have never, ever used in all the time you've been playing Fallout 4 and never will?

For me, I think the essential one is probably Sneak, in that it's the one perk that, if it didn't exist, would break my game and prevent me from playing how I want to play. Every other one has at least some kind of botched-together workaround or alternative that I could make use of if need be.

And for the ones I've never used - well there's a lot - but I think I'm going to go with Ricochet. I've yet to find a use for it, and the damned thing is so utterly situational that I have a hard time envisioning even why it's in the game.

[𝕾𝖍𝖆𝖉𝖞™]

Nexus Mod manager

[dbond1]

Idiot Savant is the most powerful perk in the game for me. Take it first, profit forever.

[Ffabbia]

Nexus Mod manager

That isn't really a perk though is it? Or did you mean "I install mods that give me a load of new custom perks?"

[Ffabbia]

Publicado originalmente por dbond1:

Idiot Savant is the most powerful perk in the game for me. Take it first, profit forever.

Agreed. That perk is so powerful that it's 'almost' borderline unfair, to the extent that I sometimes vow to play without it - yet I always end up giving in to temptation and learning at least one rank.

[𝕾𝖍𝖆𝖉𝖞™]

Publicado originalmente por Ffabbia:

Nexus Mod manager

That isn't really a perk though is it? Or did you mean "I install mods that give me a load of new custom perks?"

You are right it's not a in-game perk,but it's a perk I can't live without when playing "Fallout"...

Ok..I'll play...

BLACK WIDOW or any perk that ups Crits

[PeaceMaker]

I always take the lady killer perk. Every single time, even though it's not really essential .. well it helps talking around the ladies especially when I want to get into vault 81... among other things.

After that the rifle perk so I can use shotguns.

[Ffabbia]

Publicado originalmente por 𝕾𝖍𝖆𝖉𝖞™:

Publicado originalmente por Ffabbia:

That isn't really a perk though is it? Or did you mean "I install mods that give me a load of new custom perks?"

You are right it's not a in-game perk,but it's a perk I can't live without when playing "Fallout"...

Ok..I'll play...

BLACK WIDOW or any perk that ups Crits

Black Widow is very much a mid-to-late game perk for me, as I tend to initially focus on getting the basics, along with all the crafting skills maxed out first and getting settlements set up with Local Leader etc. But after all that's sorted I'll start focusing on the sexy stuff like Ninja, Critical Banker, Mr Sandman, Grim Reaper's Sprint etc.

[Ffabbia]

Publicado originalmente por PeaceMaker:

I always take the lady killer perk. Every single time, even though it's not really essential .. well it helps talking around the ladies especially when I want to get into vault 81... among other things.

After that the rifle perk so I can use shotguns.

Yeah Rifleman is another essential for me. In situations when you're absolutely in the shizzle and faced with a something that's likely to kill you - a Sentry Bot in your face when you're at low health - something like that - Combat Shotgun + Psychojet is a get out of jail free card. Was lucky enough to get a Staggering Combat Shotgun fairly early in this latest run, which is like winning the lottery.

[Varanus]

Sneak and ninja are must have for me. Though judging from literally every playthrough I've seen, lots of people just NEVER sneak. Which I find utterly bizarre. Doesnt matter my build. Melee, automatic, heavy weapons, power armor. I still sneak everywhere.

[Saujana]

Locksmith, Hacker, Scrapper and Scrounger perks.

[PeaceMaker]

Publicado originalmente por Ffabbia:

Publicado originalmente por PeaceMaker:

I always take the lady killer perk. Every single time, even though it's not really essential .. well it helps talking around the ladies especially when I want to get into vault 81... among other things.

After that the rifle perk so I can use shotguns.

Yeah Rifleman is another essential for me. In situations when you're absolutely in the shizzle and faced with a something that's likely to kill you - a Sentry Bot in your face when you're at low health - something like that - Combat Shotgun + Psychojet is a get out of jail free card. Was lucky enough to get a Staggering Combat Shotgun fairly early in this latest run, which is like winning the lottery.

Yea, that's a good one indeed.

[Ffabbia]

Publicado originalmente por Varanus:

Sneak and ninja are must have for me. Though judging from literally every playthrough I've seen, lots of people just NEVER sneak. Which I find utterly bizarre. Doesnt matter my build. Melee, automatic, heavy weapons, power armor. I still sneak everywhere.

I think a lot of people have a 'run and gun' mindset, they just see the game as a shooter and so they run around shooting stuff and just spam stimpacks when they take damage, same way they'd approach Doom or whatever.

I personally find that boring but each to their own.

[dolmore]

Strong Back - it let's you fast travel even when encumbered.

[id795078477]

Regardless of build? Well, if we're talking regular stuff, that eliminates all perks above 5 special requirement. But since levels aren't capped, you'll eventually be able to max out all specials and take all perks - but in that case the question loses meaning. So I'll assume "good for any build before crazy late-game" and therefore it can't go beyond 5 special.

I guess it will all depend on your difficulty and some context. Among the lower-end perks, I'd say Awareness and Lone Wanderer are always worth it. The latter is when you don't use any companions, obviously. A bit more costly and you're looking at Idiot Savant and Demo Expert - but that's 5 special, so really on the edge and will require take special points as perks in some builds.

If you're playing on survival, Scrapper, Armorer and Gun Nut would be obvious choices. I don't include Blacksmith because that's really build-dependent as you likely won't need a strong melee weapon on a sniper build (but you want a good weapon with a melee build). Why these?

-- Awareness: any build benefits from VATS usage and it's free information even if you don't use VATS
-- Lone Wanderer: if applicable, the buffs are way too strong to ignore it
-- Idiot Savant: folks explained above
-- Demo Expert: even if you don't use explosives, the weapons with explosive rounds are one of the best in the game. Absolute must.
-- Scrapper: really underrated, especially on early-mid levels. I say for survival you want to take this early.
-- Armorer/Gun Nut: will help you get the latest gadgets likely 10-20 levels earlier than you'd otherwise get them. Good for early-mid levels.

[Langkard]

I also play with sneak on nearly every build. I also go with gun nut, since I stick with ballistics.

I have never bothered with VATS perks. I have never used VATS, except bringing it up accidentally in my first run years ago. That just led to me disabling the key binding for it.