Child at Heart

Requirements: Level 4, Charisma 4

Ranks: 1

“The Child at Heart perk greatly improves your interactions with children, usually in the form of unique dialogue options.”

So… you can have a few extra dialogue options with the handful of kids in this game who have something to do with quests. Don’t waste your perk.

Comprehension

Requirements: Level 4, Intelligence 4

Ranks: 1

“With the Comprehension perk, you gain one additional skill point whenever a skill book is read.”

Let’s see. Almost 25 skill books per skill, 13 skills… that’s a potential of 325 extra skill points. That is the biggest pool of skill points in the game, even better than all the skill points you can get from Intelligence. This is one of the must-have perks. This perk is pretty much in a league of its own in terms of usefulness, seeing as how it can potentially remove the need for an entire attribute.

With Broken Steel installed, this build should be reaching an average of 80~ or so in all their skills by the time they hit level 30… not including Big Guns , which gets ignored because it’s a waste to put skill points into it. This is counting the Bobbleheads, the +10 to Speech you get from Yew’s Bear Charm , and of course, the few perks we’ll pick that raise skills (incidentally, of course.) This is NOT counting the boosts from Almost Perfect , so keep in mind that’s easily maxing out my Barter and Speech, and giving some substantial (usually 4-8 points) boosts to my other skills… One has to wonder if you even need comprehension any more, as we’ll find more than enough books on an average play-through without having to use them all… Pick Comprehension if you don’t think you’ll bother finding five to ten of each book… and of course, with Big Guns you’re going to need to do the Bethesda run about… seventy times?

Educated

Requirements: Level 4, Intelligence 4

Ranks: 1

“With the Educated perk, you gain three skill points every time you advance in level. This perk is best taken early on, to maximize its effectiveness.”

Now that you have an extra ten levels to gain, getting this perk is over-kill on the skill points. You’d think that with 10 extra levels, this perk would be even MORE useful… and technically it is. Previously you could get 48 extra skill points from this perk. In Broken Steel you can get 78 points… But the fact that you’ll get a flat extra 110+ (200 for this build) skill points for the extra levels kinda makes this perk moot. Relying on finding a lot of books is a pain, but finding a third of them is not, which is all this build requires you to do. Don’t bother with this perk in Broken Steel.

Entomologist

Requirements: Level 4, Intelligence 4, Science 40

Ranks: 1

“With the Entomologist perk, you do an extra 50% damage every time you attack a mutated insect, like the Radroach, Giant Ant, or Radscorpion.”

Due to the lack of competing perks and the emergence of Albino Radscorpions, this perk starts to look more appealing. Still, Albino Radscorpions are rare enough, and they are managable, if not mindlessly easy like the rest of the bug-category monsters. You still don’t need this perk, but it does deserve a more favorable mention, and it might end up being a perk pick due to the sheer number of perks we’ll get by level 30.

Iron Fist

Requirements: Level 4, Strength 4

Ranks: 3

“With the Iron Fist perk, you do an additional 5 points of Unarmed damage per rank.”

Five points of unarmed damage is HUGE. It’s the same damage bonus you’d get from 10 points of Strength. If you decide to try and play with your fists, these perks are essential. If you don’t want to go melee, don’t bother with this.

Scoundrel

Requirements: Level 4, Charisma 4

Ranks: 3

“Take the Scoundrel perk, and you can use your wily charms to influence people–each rank raises your Speech and Barter skills by 5 points.”

Another 10 skill point perk. Yuck.