Cannibal

Requirements: Level 12

Ranks: 1

“With the Cannibal perk, when you’re in Sneak mode, you gain the option to eat a corpse to regain Health. But every time you feed, you lose Karma, and if the act is witnessed, it is considered a crime against nature.”

If you want to be truly despicable, you can go ahead and get this perk. If you’re looking for any gameplay advantage, look elsewhere. There is plenty of water around if you need healing, and Stimpaks, and beds. The only reason to pick this perk is to commit a crime against nature, for what that’s worth.

Fast Metabolism

Requirements: Level 12

Ranks: 1

“With the Fast Metabolism perk, you gain a 20% Health bonus when using Stimpaks.”

Or you could raise your Medicine skill, which over the course of your play time will raise your benefit from Stimpaks, RadAway, and Rad-X. If this perk gave a 20% bonus to all medicine you administered… eh… it still wouldn’t be worth it, especially considering your base Stimpak healing rate won’t reach 100. 20 extra points of healing from a Stimpak isn’t worth a perk.

Life Giver

Requirements: Level 12, Endurance 6

Ranks: 1

“With the Life Giver perk, you gain an additional 30 Hit Points.”

Considering that you gain 20 hit points for a point of Endurance, this perk is pretty much on the same level as an Intensive Training perk spent on Endurance-minus the bonuses to resistances and the skills, which aren’t htat useful anyways. Life Giver can constitute a good bit of your end Hit Points, and unlike Intensive Training , it wasn’t made redundant by the expansion.

Pyromaniac

Requirements: Level 12, Explosives 60%

Ranks: 1

“With the Pyromaniac perk, you do +50% damage with fire-based weapons, like the Flamer and Shishkebab.”

A +50% damage boost is quite a bit of a boost, but for two weapons? If you absolutely love the Flamer and the Shishkebab, go ahead, but it’s a very specific selection of weapons you’re limiting yourself to. Still, with +50% damage, nearly anything can be useful. Especially consider that there simply aren’t a whole lot of other useful perks to choose from…

Robotics Expert

Requirements: Level 12, Science 50%

Ranks: 1

“With the Robotics perk, you do an additional 25% damage to any robot. But, even better, sneaking up on a hostile robot undetected and activating it will put that robot into a permanent shutdown state.”

There are a number of robots in the game, including the Protectron, Robobrain, Mister Handy and Mister Gutsy, and of course, the Sentry Bot. 25% is a decent damage bonus against a number of enemies that, while mostly being nuisances, you’ll certainly encounter more than bugs. The shut down ability is extra nice, too, especially for sneaky characters. With the oodles of extra perks you’ll get in the expansion, this perk is a more than welcome addition to the build.

Silent Running

Req: Level 12, Agility 6, Sneak 50%

Ranks: 1

“With the Silent Running perk, you gain an additional 10 points to Sneak, and running no longer factors into a successful sneak attempt.”

Skill point perks aren’t normally worth our attention… except for the fact that this perk will also greatly improve our Sneak ability. If you want to play stealthy, pick this perk, if not, it’s a complete waste.

Sniper

Requirements: Level 12, Perception 6, Agility 6

Ranks: 1

“With the Sniper perk, your chance to hit an opponent’s head in V.A.T.s. is significantly increased.”

Headshots are the best way to take out Fire Ants, Super Mutants, Raiders, and Talon Company Mercs. If it has a head, chances are it’s a good idea to shoot it there. If you use V.A.T.S., you’re probably going to want this perk.