- BS - Exclusive Perks

Fallout 3 - Broken Steel Guide

Exclusive Perks

Level 22 Perks

Deep Sleep: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: NO
‘This Perk will get you the “Well Rested” bonus in any bed you sleep, instead of just your own bed in your house.  The Well Rested bonus grants 10% Exp, so it’s hardly worth getting this Perk for.

Puppies!: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: MAYBE
With this perk, Dogmeat will reincarnate as a puppy whenever he dies and you’ll be able to get him back at certain places, such as Vault 101’s entrance.  If you are a big fan of Dogmeat and at the same time very reckless (which is an odd combination to say the least), then this Perk might be something for you.

Quantum Chemist: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: MAYBE
When you have this Perk, for every 10 Nuka Cola’s you acquire, they will automatically be converted into a Nuka Cola Quantum.  Cute, but if you’ve already done this quest then it is nothing to write home about.

Level 24 Perks

Devil’s Highway: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: NO
This Perk automatically sets your karma to Very Evil.  It’s not worth it to spend a precious Level on this Perk, as there are other ways of attaining this.

Escalator to Heaven: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: NO
This Perk automatically sets your karma to Very Good.  It’s not worth it to spend a precious Level on this Perk, as there are other ways of attaining this.

Karmic Rebalance: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: NO
This Perk automatically sets your karma to Neutral.  It’s not worth it to spend a precious Level on this Perk, as there are other ways of attaining this.

No Weakness: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: NO
This Perk puts all SPECIAL stats that were below 5 points, now to 5.  Higher stats remain the same.  It’s completely blown away by a Level 30 Perk called ‘Almost Perfect’, which makes this Perk useless altogether.

Level 26 Perks

Nerves of Steel: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: YES
This Perk increases your AP regeneration rate. If you already have Grim Reaper’s Sprint then the usefulness of this Perk can be questioned.  On the other hand, it makes for a killer combination should it happen that you didn’t immediately managed to kill a powerful enemy.

Rad Tolerance: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: NO
You will no longer suffer from minor radiation poisoning.  This is one of the worst Perks ever, to be quite honest.

Warmonger: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: NO
All custom weapon schematics are added to your inventory. While it is actually pretty nifty to get all the schematics for free at once ... You most likely already have all of them, making this Perk completely useless at this point.  Even if you’re missing some schematics, it’s hardly worth it to sacrifice a Perk on this.

Level 28 Perks

Party Boy: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: MAYBE
With this Perk you never have any alcohol withdrawal. This allows you to infinitely benefit from the effects of alcoholic beverages.  These always lower your INT by -1 and increase your STR 1 and CHR 1.  You’ll have to decide for yourself whether or not you like this shift in stats, although the Charisma increase isn’t all that useful.

Rad Absorption: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: NO
While it sounds really awesome, by the time you reach Level 28 you’ll have TONS of RadAway in your inventory, rendering this Perk completely useless.

Level 30 Perks

Almost Perfect: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: YES
All SPECIAL stats are set to 9.  If you have bobbleheads then these will not make the stat totals 10.  Instead, collect the 7 SPECIAL bobbleheads after getting this Perk to get a perfect character concerning stats.  This Perk does not lower any stats that already are at 10, BUT if you have the Lucky 8 Ball on you while selecting this perk, and unequip the Lucky 8 Ball, then your base stat will only be at 8.  Solve this by unequipping the 8 Ball before choosing this Perk.

Nuclear Anomaly: 1 Rank
Requirements: Unknown.
Useful: YES
When your HP gets below 20 you’ll explode, doing tremendous damage to everything around you.  This means that you can only die if something kills you by doing 20 damage, as the blast does not kill your character - in fact it heals you.  The more irradiated you are, the more you get healed.

Perks Path

This section is about making a very powerful balanced character, keeping in mind that the Broken Steel adds ten new levels and fourteen new Perks.  Because both Level 30 Perks are useful, there are two possible lists.  Read on.

TAKING ALMOST PERFECT AT LEVEL 30:
This list will not require any Intense Training, and if you pick up the SPECIAL Bobbleheads only AFTER making it to Level 30, you can have a truly perfect character as far as SPECIAL stats go.  Also, this list assumes you’re a female and take the Black Widow perk, since it is REALLY good ( 10% damage against ALL male NPC’s?  Including Enclave?  Yes!  That’s wicked.)

Important Note: Furthermore, Comprehension is no longer necessary, although you MUST to start with Intelligence at 9 to get those skills jacked up.  There’s not a lot of room for error, so you can’t “overboost” many skills (only Lockpick, I’d say).  With “over-boosting” I mean that you can’t go above around 45 points or so, because you’ll need to get 25 Skill Points from the Skill Books, you’ll want to figure in the other bonuses you get from stats, and the same goes for the boosts you get from Bobbleheads.

SPECIAL Stats:
Assuming you take Almost Perfect (and leave the bobbleheads alone until you have taken this perk), your stats will all end up being 10’s.  Start out with 9 INT to ensure the maximum amount of skill points.  Here’s a short breakdown of how many points you need to get, and how many points you’re going to find.

Regardless of the fact that your stats will be perfect in the end, you MUST start out with the following stats if you want to be able to fulful all the stat-requirements that come with the following list:
Starting Stats:  STR: 6, PER: 6, END: 6, CHR: 1, INT: 9, AGL: 7, LCK: 5

I repeat, you MUST start with these stats or you might not be able to take some of the perks mentioned in the list below due to not having reached the stats requirements of the perk.

Other Important Requirements:
Be sure to have the following skills at the following levels in order to pass the requirements for the perk list below.  Please do NOT just boost them regularly or you will NOT be able to max out all skills.  Instead, start hunting skill books for these skills very early on to ensure that you can reach these levels in time.  Remember, this is not about convenience, it’s about maxing everything. Nobody said it was easy, and no one ever said it would be so hard, so that’s why I’m telling you now.
Note: It may be helpful to tag Science at the GOAT test.

• Science at 40 points    [Do this at or before Level  4]
• Explosives at 50 points [Do this at or before Level 10]
• Sneak at 60 points      [Do this at or before Level 12]
• Science at 60 points    [Do this at or before Level 13]
• Medicine at 60 points   [Do this at or before Level 13]
• Explosives at 60 points [Do this at or before Level 14]
• Unarmed at 70 points    [Do this at or before Level 17]
• Sneak at 80 points      [Do this at or before Level 20]
• Melee at 80 points      [Do this at or before Level 20]

Skill Points:
TOTAL AMOUNT REQUIRED: 13 Skills * 100 Points p/Skill = 1300 POINTS.

Levelling up 29 times with 9 INT will net you 551 points.
You get 25 * 13 = 325 points from skill books (without comprehension).
You get 13 * 10 = 130 points from skill bobbleheads.
You get 26 points from SPECIA bobbleheads.
You get 65 points from Luck at value 10.
You get 45 points from tagging three skills at the GOAT test.
You get 20 points from Cyborg/Silent Running perks.
You get 9 points from Covert Ops perk (Operation Anchorage only).  You get 216 points in total from your SPECIA stats at value 9 (as we have already calculated the Bobbleheads value).

Note: You can also grab the Daddy’s Boy/Girl perk at Level 3 if you don’t care much about the 10% EXP you get from Swift Learner.  This nets you 10 Skill Points.  The 5 Science Boost will help you get Entomologist at Level 5, since it requires 40 Science. This already puts our total at 1397 possible skill points. You could furthermore abuse tricks such as the Big Guns skill book respawn trick (and thus no need to ever boost that skill manually, saving another 30 points or so).

So let’s play it safe and say that you have about 80 points to spare.  This will allow you to boost Lockpick to 75 (just for convenience purposes), and it also allows for a slight boost towards high skill requirements such as Unarmed at 70 on Level 17, and Sneak/Melee at 80 on Level 20.  Don’t boost everything, mainly fill the gap with skill points from Skill Books, and only use your “spare” points when you’re running out of options.

The Perks List:
Level 2:  Black Widow
Level 3:  Daddy’s Boy/Girl [Nothing better available!]
Level 4:  Iron Fist (1)
Level 5:  Entomologist
Level 6:  Toughness
Level 7:  Bloody Mess
Level 8:  Strong Back
Level 9:  Commando
Level 10: Finesse
Level 11: Demolition Expert (1)
Level 12: Sniper
Level 13: Silent Running
Level 14: Cyborg
Level 15: Pyromaniac
Level 16: Action Boy
Level 17: Better Criticals
Level 18: Paralyzing Palm
Level 19: Robotics Expert
Level 20: Grim Reaper’s Sprint
Level 21: Ninja
Level 22: Iron Fist (2)
Level 23: Iron Fist (3)
Level 24: Life Giver
Level 25: Demolition Expert (2)
Level 26: Nerves of Steel
Level 27: Gunslinger
Level 28: Demolition Expert (3)
Level 29: [Choice: Puppies!/Quantum Chemist]
Level 30: Almost Perfect

Closing words: This is one of the most powerful builds in the game, hands down.  There is no longer a need to do Intense Trainings or Comprehension, which saves several slots, and with the addition of 10 levels there is room to expand on melee and explosives abilities, along with other great perks you had to leave behind otherwise, such as Life Giver.

Perks Left Behind Analysis:
Let’s take a look at what we left behind, and whether we should feel bad about it or not:

o At Level 2 we leave [Intense Training], [Gun Nut], [Little Leager] and [Thief] behind.  Since Almost Perfect at Level 30 makes Intense Training obsolete.  While you could choose [Swift Learner] at this point, it’s probably better to choose Daddy’s Boy/Girl since it gives you 10 free skill points which you might just need, while Swift Learner is mainly convenience since it nets you 10% extra EXP for everything you gain EXP with.

o At Level 4 we leave [Child at Heart], [Comprehension], [Educated] and [Scoundrel] behind.  Comprehension is no longer necessary for a maximum investment in skill points and Educated never was.  Scoundrel only boosts skill points, so there’s no harm done there either by leaving it.  Child at Heart is actually the only perk at this level that has a few decent benefits we won’t get by leaving it behind.  On the other hand, most of the speech challenges can be won through other means, and there aren’t many children in the game, let alone unique options through Child at Heart.

o At Level 6 we leave [Fortune Finder] and [Lead Belly] behind.  We certainly postpone most other perks such as Demolition 2 & 3 and Gunslinger, but those are nailed eventually.  Since Lead Belly only decreases the radiation poisoning you get from using sinks, toilets and the like it isn’t useful.  Fortune Finder sounds good but you won’t need all that much Bottle Caps when you’re all-powerful at level 30.  Selling ammo nets you plenty enough caps.

o At Level 8 we leave [Impartial Mediation] alone since all it does is increase your Speech Challenge chances by 30%.  We also ignore [Rad Resistance] since it has no added value at all.  We also leave [Scrounger] alone, which is fine as well - it only increases the amounts of ammo you find in boxes.  Handy, but not more than that and there’s plenty of ammo around in Fallout 3.  We also ignore [Size Matters] since it only boosts skill points.

o At Level 10 we actually leave a useful perk behind for a change: [Animal Friend] will cause Dogs, Brahmins, Mole Rats and Yao Guai to not attack you at Rank 1 of the perk, and at the 2nd rank they’ll even assist you in battle (just not against their own kind).  Admittedly this is a handy feat, but only Yao Guai are noteworthy allies, and spending two ranks on this perk just for that is too much.  If we were talking about Albino Radscorpions on the other hand .. :p .. But that’s not the case!
Naturally, we also skip [Here and Now], which only instantly grants a LevelUp.  Then there’s [Mister Sandman] that we’ll ignore.  While the concept is pretty cool, there’s no real reason you’d need to kill humans in their sleep.  We also leave [Mysterious Stranger] alone, another decent perk - since it kills enemies that you target in VATS when they have 150 HP or less, but only with a 10% chance.  Grim Reaper’s Sprint makes this perk a bit obsolete when you think about it, because that instantly replenishes your AP when you kill an enemy - and if the enemy survives (90% chance if Mysterious Stranger does not show up) there’s no party pie for you, only an angry Overlord!

[Nerd Rage] is totally worthless.  You’ll reach 10 Strength permanently on your own, and you’ll get so close to the maximum amount of DR (85) that this perk only increases your DR around 5 points or so.  And of course, only when your HP is lower than 20%.
Then there’s [Night Person] that increases your INT and PER 2 points whenever the sun is down (18:00 - 06:00).  You’ll reach max stats in the end anyway, making this perk obsolete.

o At Level 12 we leave [Cannibal] and [Fast Metabolism].  While Cannibal is nothing to mourn about (25 Health and -1 Karma when you feast on corpses..?), Fast Metabolism is not completely useless: It does increase the effectiveness of Stimpaks by 20%.  Then again you’ll find plenty of Stimpaks and they’ll start healing enough when you get stronger.

o Level 14 has [Adamantium Skeleton] that we ignore.  Limbs take 50% less damage but there’s not much point when you get stabbed and shot in the chest.  Then there’s [Chemist] which prolonges the effects of chems by 2x.  Yes, that’s actually another useful perk that we’ll have to leave behind.  Most chems are not worth using, but others (such as Psycho and Yao Guai Meat that boost your damage) can be nice to have - 20% additional damage is a lot on powerful weapons.

[Contract Killer] and [Lawbringer] aren’t even remotely useful other than giving a unique peek at some new dialog.  Their rewards are poor: 5 caps for killing either a good or evil characters.

We also ignore [Light Step] - which doesn’t really matter - and [Master Trader], which is nothing more than a fun addition.  The 25% lower prices at shops doesn’t compare to ther other useful perks however.

o At Level 16 we don’t leave much behind: Only [Chem Resistant], which decreases the chance to get addicted to chems by 50%, and [Tag!], another worthless perk that boosts 15 skill points - a useless effort at this point (or any point when you’re maxing power) of the game.

o At Level 18 we leave [Computer Whiz] and [Infiltrator], both worthless perks that assume you suck ass at lockpicking and/or hacking.  They also assume you never reload anyway when you get locked out of something.  [Concentrated Fire] isn’t good either, as it has a very low increase in accuracy when targetting enemy limbs.  Yup, it’s lame.

o At Level 20 we leave [Explorer] behind.  It’s not useless at all, but simply because you can explore all locations yourself (and we’re attempting a max character here) it’s not helping our goal.  We also skip Grim Re.. Oh, Heh.  We also skip [Solar Powered], of which the 2 STR increase has no uses when you reach 10 STR, and the 1 HP increase every 10 seconds in sunlight is ..  little to say the least (get it?).

o Level 22 has [Deep Sleep] which we’ll skip (I mean, the “Well Rested” status isn’t even that great, and you’ll reach level 30 anyway).  You’ll have to choose later between [Puppies!] and [Quantum Chemist].
I personally find [Puppies!] a bit of a paradox, unless you’re aiming to make things easier on yourself.  See, if you’re a careful gamer and save a lot then you can simply reload should Dogmeat die (or just not bring him along all the time), and this the perk is useless.  And if you’re a reckless gamer that doesn’t care about these things, then you probably have little interest in maxing everything out.  [Quantum Chemist] allows you to create Nuka Cola Quantums out of every 10 regular Nuka Cola’s (which is still a pretty big amount).  Since you can use Quantums in Nuka-Grenades (powerful suckers), and Quantums are normally limited, it could be a useful perk to have.  Then again, regular Nuka-Cola’s are also limited, there’s just more of them.  It does cost 10 to create just one Quantum, so decide for yourself..

o Level 24 has no useful perks when we pick Almost Perfect at Level 30.  The 3 karmic perks [Devil’s Highway], [Escalator to Heaven] and [Karmic Rebalance] aren’t useless (feel free to get the achievements/trophy’s with these by picking them at level 30 (save beforehand!).  [No Weakness] doesn’t compare to Almost Perfect.

o Level 26 has [Rad Tolerance] and [Warmonger] that we’ll skip.  Rad Tolerance is probably one of the worst perks ever, especially this high up, and Warmonger just isn’t a good perk either since you can collect all custom weapon schematics yourself.

o Level 28 has two more useless perks: There’s no reason to take [Party Boy] (or to consume alcohol for that matter) when you have max stats. [Rad Absorption] is just crap as well, no need to detail it - you’ll have tons of RadAway at this point.  If you don’t then you just suck at Fallout 3. :p

o And Level 30 forces us to choose between Almost Perfect and [Nuclear Anomaly].  I’d personally go with Almost Perfect (hence this in-depth list) simply because Nuclear Anomaly doesn’t work well on higher difficulties.  Besides, read the following example to illustrate its relative uselessness:

Example: You’re Level 30 (and thus very powerful), you have tough armor, good weapons and plenty of life.  You chose for Nuclear Anomaly - and remember that it blows everything up around you when under 20 HP, and heals you with your radiation.

You suddenly run into two Albino Radschorpions and Fawkes isn’t nearby, he just happened to glitch behind some cliffs and still needs to respawn.  Crap!

The Albino’s stab you like crazy, wankers that they are, and they instantly kill you because they inflict more than 20 damage per hit.  You die.

Assuming you don’t die from regular Raiders anymore (or any other weak enemies for that matter), this perk would only be useful against the stronger foes, but it is especially those stronger enemies against which it’s the least likely to be effective against.

Furthermore, only when you’re playing on lower difficulties (Very Easy) and thus need the perk the least, it will work the most.  And the higher the difficulty (the more you need it), the less it’ll work.  Shame, ain’t it?

So I choose Almost Perfect. And then make a Perfect Stats Character. ;)

Summary:
There are a few perks that have their remote uses which we have to ignore, and a ton of perks that are useless altogether.  Here’s a short summary on those that are completely worthless (in THIS build!) and those that have some value to some people:

Worthless:
[Intense Training], [Gun Nut], [Little Leager], [Thief], [Comprehension], [Educated], [Lead Belly], [Impartial Mediation], [Rad Resistance], [Here and Now], [Mister Sandman], [Nerd Rage], [Night Person], [Cannibal], [Lawbringer], [Contract Killer], [Tag!], [Computer Whiz], [Infiltrator], [Explorer], [Deep Sleep], [Devil’s Highway], [Escalator to Heaven], [Karmic Rebalance], [No Weakness], [Rad Tolerance], [Warmonger], [Party Boy], [Rad Absorption].

Some Usefulness:
[Child at Heart], [Scoundrel], [Fortune Finder], [Impartial Mediation], [Rad Resistance], [Scrounger], [Animal Friend], [Mysterious Stranger], [Fast Metabolism], [Adamantium Skeleton], [Chemist], [Light Step], [Chem Resistance] [Concentrated Fire], [Explorer], [Solar Powered], [Nuclear Anomaly.
And lastly, a choice between [Puppies!] and [Quantum Chemist].  That’s it!

TAKING NUCLEAR ANOMALY AT LEVEL 30:
Well, the list changes due to your SPECIAL stats not being maxed out.  It’s certainly more of a hassle doing things this way, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone to be quite honest if it weren’t for Nuclear Anomaly (which is a good Perk, admittedly).
What we’re going to do is take the No Weakness Perk at Level 24 while we start with the following stats:

STR: 8, PER: 1, END: 8, CHR: 1, INT: 7, AGL: 8, LCK: 7.

Don’t get any boosts for Perception (don’t do the quest ‘Those!’), or for Charisma for that matter.  After that level, pump in 4x Intense Training into STR, AGL, END, and PER.
Ending Stats (with Ranger Armor and Lucky 8 Ball):

STR: 10, PER: 7, END: 10, CHR: 6, INT: 8, AGL: 10, LCK: 10.

The List:
Level 2:  Black Widow
Level 3:  Swift Learner (Nothing better available!)
Level 4:  Iron Fist (1)
Level 5:  Entomologist
Level 6:  Toughness
Level 7:  Bloody Mess
Level 8:  Strong Back
Level 9:  Commando
Level 10: Finesse
Level 11: Demolition Expert (1)
Level 12: Sniper
Level 13: Silent Running
Level 14: Cyborg
Level 15: Pyromaniac
Level 16: Action Boy
Level 17: Better Criticals
Level 18: Paralyzing Palm
Level 19: Robotics Expert
Level 20: Grim Reaper’s Sprint
Level 21: Ninja
Level 22: [Choice: Life Giver or Iron Fist]
Level 23: Iron Fist (2)
Level 24: No Weakness
Level 25: Intense Training
Level 26: Nerves of Steel
Level 27: Intense Training
Level 28: Intense Training
Level 29: Intense Training
Level 30: Nuclear Anomaly

Please note that this list may be subject to change when someone finds a better rearrangement.  There is no such thing as a perfect character, although there are better and worse builds.  It is a process of tweaking, so keep multiple save files and tweak like crazy to find your own personalized god-like character, and use the above lists as guidance.