Irradiated Beauty¶

Any time you sleep, you remove all of your Rads in addition to regaining all of your Health. (In Hardcore Mode, you still don’t regain health, but you lose 100 Rads.)

This seems fairly intriguing for Hardcore Mode… until you remember that you have RadAway. And Doctors. And the Auto-Doc in the Sink. The only time this is ever really an issue is in the Dead Money expansion, and the radiation there is entirely manageable without spending a perk.

Laser Commander¶

From the humble Laser Pistol to the might Gatling Laser, you do 15% more damage and have +10% chance to critically hit with any laser weapon.

If you decided to use Energy Weapons, you might want this perk. Lasers are generally weaker than plasma weapons, but the bonuses from this perk do a good bit to close the gap. Turn your Tri-Beam Laser Rifle into a destructive force! Okay, seriously, no laser weapon will become so strong from this perk that it will easily overcome the Damage Thresholds of stronger enemies, but the bonuses are nice, nonetheless. Especially with Gatling Lasers, which do little damage per hit, but fire fast… the more chances you have of each little laser dealing critical damage, the better off you’re going to be. Still, seriously think about the damage that most laser weapons are doing before getting this perk. At 15%, you’re looking at an increase of a couple of points, at best. Pick it for the crits, not for the damage boost.

Nuka Chemist¶

You have unraveled some of the greatest mysteries of Pre-War masters: formulas for developing special Nuka-Colas! This perk unlocks special Nuka-Cola recipes at the Workbench.

This perk allows you to make Nuka-Cola Quartz, Nuka-Cola Victory, and Ice-Cold Nuka-Cola… all of which are novelties, but not great items in their own right. The only purpose to this would be to use Nuka-Cola Quartz to make Nuka-Grenades, which also requries the Mad Bomber perk. Two perks for one admittedly powerful weapon is just not a good trade.

Spray and Pray¶

Your attacks do much less damage to companions, allowing you to liberally spray an area with reckless abandon.

If you stay away from explosive weapons, you shouldn’t have much trouble keeping your companions alive, and if you’re not playing in Hardcore Mode, it doesn’t matter if they occasionally take a bad bump or two. You don’t need this perk.

Voracious Reader¶

You don’t just read books, you tear into them. Damaged books you pick up become blank magazines, which you can use to copy your existing skill books at a workbench (or convert blank magazines back to books).

Alright, you pick up useless books, and they become Blank Magazines. Sure. Then you take whatever skill magazines you have to a Workbench and with these Blank Magazines (and some Wonderglue!) turn them into new skill magazines. If you to max all your skills out at 100, you won’t need these magazines, and by the time you can pick this perk you should 1) have plenty of skill magazines ready for when you need them and 2) have most of the more important skills up to decent levels already. Nobody needs this perk, and only because Nobody is notoriously stupid.

Slayer¶

The slayer walks the earth! The speed of all Melee Weapons and Unarmed attacks is increased by 30%.

Ah… Good old Slayer, returned to us in a different form in New Vegas. If you use Melee Weapons or Unarmed, you must pick this perk. It increases your damage output by 30%. What more is there to say? If you don’t use Melee Weapons or Unarmed attacks, ignore this perk.

Lessons Learned¶

The wasteland has taught you some hard lessons, but you’ve remembered them all. You gain +1% to earned experience per level gained. (For example, +25% experience at level 25.)

Don’t you love how they give an example of the perk in action at a level where you can’t possibly have this perk. Let that set the stage for the butt-nuttery of this perk. It’s like Swift Learner, except you have to wait until there is much more perk competition to pick it, and you’re already halfway done leveling. What’s more fun is the absolute stupidity of the fact that the stronger this perk gets, the less you need it.

Nerves of Steel¶

With the Nerves of Steel perk, you regenerate Action Points much more quickly than you normally would.

As has already been stated, the best defense in New Vegas is a good offense. Or failing that, high ground the enemy can’t reach and a superior ranged weapon. When using V.A.T.S. it’s often better to take fewer shots as the situation presents itself. To this end, regenerating more Action Point is better than having more to spend at once, which makes Nerves of Steel a better perk choice than, say, Action Boy.

Tunnel Runner¶

The warrens of The Divide have taught you to keep your head down. Your movement speed is greatly increased while sneaking in light armor.

If you have the Stealth Armor MK II from the “Old World Blues” DLC, don’t you already move pretty fast while sneaking? Also, doesn’t the Travel Light perk allow you to move faster in light armor all of the time? Why would you ever waste a perk pick on this?

Rad Absorption¶

With the Rad Absorption perk, your radiation level slowly decreases on its own over time.

You always have RadAway and Rad-X to deal with high radiation, and when minor exposure finally starts to wear on you, you can always take a trip to see a doctor. 100 Caps is much easier than wasting a perk.

Roughin It¶

You’re more at home under the open stars than under a roof. Any time you sleep outside, you gain the benefits of being Well Rested, even if you don’t own the bed.

There are two types of beds in the game; beds you “own” which give the Well-Rested bonus (hotel rooms, safehouse beds, the bed in the Sink, etc.) These heal you fully, limb condition and everything Compared to this, the fact these beds give the Well-Rested bonus is inconsequential. The other types of beds are unowned beds, which pretty much covers the majority of sleeping opportunities. These beds are no better for you that simply waiting; you’ll only heal if you have the Monocyte Breeder Implant, and a small amount at that, and you will recover no limb condition what-so-ever. For Hardcore Mode gamers, this perk changes every bed out in the wastelands into an “owned” bed. Every time you find a place to sleep, you can instantly recover all your lost Health and limb condition for a mere hour of time. Still, it’s not too much work to find a doctor to patch you up in most cases, and failing that, bring Doctor’s Bags and/or Healing Poultices. Also, there is obviously no combat value to this perk whatsoever. For normal mode characters, this perk is absolutely useless.