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Fallout: New Vegas

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Level 6 Perks

By
Nathan Garvin

Bloody Mess

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1

With the Bloody Mess perk, characters and creatures you kill will often explode into a red, gut-ridden, eyeball-strewn paste. Fun! Oh, and you’ll do 5% extra damage with all weapons.

Okay, the aesthetics are cool, but that’s no reason to get a perk. 5% damage against everything is nice, though. Considering the fact that other damage increasing perks only affect certain weapon types, or certain enemies, a pure, honest, damage boost is special. There’s also the nostalgia factor, for us old school Fallout players.

Demolition Expert

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 3
Explosives 50

With each rank of this perk, all of your explosive weapons do an additional 20% damage.

Guess what? This perk isn’t so useless anymore. Explosives now encompasses all the weapon types it originally should have, and 20% is a huge damage bonus, that goes a long way. Make your Explosives even more spectacular or - if a pun may be excused - get more bang for your buck with the Demolition Expert perk. That said, if you don’t consider Explosives a big part of your build, you shouldn’t consider this perk a priority.

Ferocious Loyalty

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1
Charisma 6

The power of your personality inspires die-hard loyalty from your followers. When you drop below 50% Health, your companions temporarily gain much greater resistance to damage.

Three problems with this, well, four, really. First, you have to rely on your companions to make the most of this perk. Second, if you drop below 50% of your health, the enemies are clearly attacking you, and not your companions. Third, it’s a duration effect, so you can’t even strategically keep your health below 50% so your allies reap the benefits. Fourth, it requires six points of Charisma, which is just a waste of five S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points.

Fortune Finder

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1
Luck 5

With the Fortune Finder perk, you’ll find considerably more Nuka-Cola caps in containers than you normally would.

More caps. Yay. You’ll get plenty of caps killing things and selling their loot.

Gunslinger

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1

While using a pistol (or similar one-handed weapon), your accuracy in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.

If you plan to use one-handed ranged weapons-and V.A.T.S.-you should definitely pick up this perk, but since long range combat is a more viable option in New Vegas (as opposed to Fallout 3), rifles definitely have an edge over one-handed weapons.

Hand Loader

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1
Repair 70

You know your way around a reloading bench and don’t let good brass and hulls go to waste. When you use guns you are more likely to recover cases and hulls. You also have all hand load recipes unlocked at the Reloading Bench.

This perk allows you to recover ammo cases in hulls, which in and of itself isn’t worth much. It does, however, unlock all the ammo recipes for guns, which includes the hand load ammo recipes. These, in turn, do wonderful things, typically giving a damage boost as well as altering the ammo in some other wonderful way. For instance, the 50mg rounds you can build with this perk deal x1.2 damage and increase spread. Now, if you buy plenty of ammo and break it down, and convert it to the better, hand load ammo recipes you’ll reap the benefits. It sounds like a lot of work, and you tend to take a loss on the ammo in the process (breaking down 100 rounds of ammo will not allow you to rebuild 100 rounds of ammo), but how can you really argue with a damage bonus on every shot? If you specialize with Guns, you can’t.

Note that to actually make some of the ammo this perk gives you access to, you may need a significantly higher Repair score. For example, .45-70 Gov’t, SWC Hand Load ammo requires a Repair score of 90, and .50MG, Match Hand Load ammo requires a whopping 100 Repair score. Getting up to 75, using magazines and wearing a Utility Jumpsuit comes highly recommended, in this case. Also note that most Guns don’t have Hand Load ammo recipes… and some of the few that do aren’t really worth making. You’re really looking at three types of ammo when it comes to the Hand Load recipes; .308 rounds, 50mg rounds, and 45-50 Gov’t rounds, all of which have excellent Hand Load recipes. Fortunately, they are the ammo used by pretty much all the good Guns in the game.

Lead Belly

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1
Endurance 5 or Survival 40

With the Lead Belly perk, you take 50% less radiation every time you drink from an irradiated water source.

There’s plenty of clean water around. You can buy Purified Water cheaply. You can get your Rads cured from doctors and by using chems. Nobody needs this perk. Ever.

Mad Bomber

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1
Explosives 45
Repair 45

Your intimate knowledge of gadgets and explosives have combined to make you… the Mad Bomber! At Workbenches, you have special Explosives recipes unlocked for use.

Mad Bomber is for Explosives nuts what Hand Loader is for Gun nuts- albeit, if you think grenades make up the entirety of the Explosives. This perk will allow you to make a slew of different Grenade types you’d otherwise not be able to make, from the potent Nuka-Grenade to simple and cheap grenades that allow you to convert Microfusion Cells to grenades… it’s honestly the only way you can expect to use Explosives as a primary weapon (as clunky as that would be, at best). If you’re a fan of Explosives, and plan to pick perks like Demolition Expert, you should get this perk, too.

Shotgun Surgeon

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1
Guns 45

Your precision with a scattergun is something to behold. When using shotguns, regardless of ammunition used, you ignore an additional 10 points of a target’s Damage Threshold.

If you use Shotguns, you need this perk, period. Shotguns function something like automatic weapons, firing numerous, low-damage shots at a time. This makes the Damage Threshold reduction absolutely crucial for Shotguns, and the fact that SMGs and Assault Rifles don’t have a perk like this really argues for the supremacy of the Shotgun. Combine this with Slugs, and you’ve got a good combination. It’s possible to kill a Deathclaw in three shots with this perk and a Riot Shotgun, which is a pretty nice feat. That said, there are plenty of weapons out there that are simply stronger than Shotguns. A Sniper Rifle will punch through an enemy’s Damage Threshold just fine. No perks required.

The Professional

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1
Sneak 70

Up close and personal, that’s how you like it. Your Sneak Attack Criticals with pistols, revolvers, and submachine guns, whether Guns or Energy Weapons, all inflict an additional 20% damage.

The high Sneak requirement on this is somewhat justified by the fact that you’d need a decent Sneak to get within range for these weapons. Honestly, though, this isn’t a great perk. It’s a 20% damage bonus that only applies to sneak attack criticals, and only to a variety of guns that aren’t really suited for sniping (or for dishing out huge amounts of damage, in any event)… and the guns that are most useful for this-the Ranger Sequoia or the .44 Magnum will already do loads of damage if you perform a sneak attack with them.

Toughness

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 2
Endurance 5

With the Toughness perk, you gain +3 to overall Damage Threshold. This perk may be taken twice, with the second rank granting an additional +3.

Here’s how Damage Threshold works. If an enemies weapon can’t overcome your Damage Threshold, you only take a small fraction of that weapons’ damage. Many enemies use fairly typical weapons and thus do fairly low damage. A suit of Power Armor (typically granting you 20 some Damage Threshold) is about the best you can shoot for. With two of these perks, the Implant, and Remnant Power Armor and Helmet, you can aspire to the upper 30’s. Many enemies, however, will do much more damage than this. A Deathclaw, Cazador, Giant Radscorpion, or an enemy with a high-end gun will still do plenty of damage to you, regardless of your Damage Threshold. This perk will help you mitigate a bit of damage from every attack, but three points off a 50 damage attack is less impressive than Fallout 3’s base 10% damage resistance.

Vigilant Recycler

Requirements Ranks
Level 6 1
Science 70

Waste not, want not. When you use Energy Weapons, you are more likely to recover drained ammunition. You also have more efficient recycling recipes available at the Workbench.

Just like the Hand Loader perk, but for Energy Weapons. Eh. There’s a quest you can do which will net you a good bit of free Energy Weapon ammunition that respawns over time. Also, there are fewer types of Energy Weapon ammunition, and less need to convert such ammo. Even if you love Energy Weapons, however, you might not want to pick up this perk, as you can create Maximum Charge ammo just fine without it.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Bethesda Softworks
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS3, XB 360
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    1 November 2015
  • Last Updated
    7 December 2020
  • Guide Author
    Nathan Garvin

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The year is 2281 - two hundred years after the old world was eradicated by nuclear fire - and now the New California Republic has become powerful along the western coast of what used to be the United State of America. They’ve expanded east into Nevada, but across the Colorado river to the east a united army of tribals - Caesar’s Legion - have been organized under the guise of ancient Rome. War never changes, and impending conflict looms between the two sides, the prize being the Hoover Dam and control over the Mojave. Stuck in the middle are the residents of Nevada and the jewel in the desert; the city of New Vegas. But the mysterious overlord of New Vegas has his own plans for the future of the Mojave…

You are Courier six, an employee of the Mojave Express who has been entrusted with delivering a mysterious Platinum Chip. The delivery goes horribly awry, however, and after you are robbed and nearly killed for the package you were carrying, you must set out in pursuit of your attackers. Along the way you’ll have to navigate the political struggles between factions both large and small, making friends and enemies between the various groups as your actions in the Mojave influence your reputation. Ultimately, a new overlord of the Mojave will be crowned… but will you place that crown upon the brow of Caesar, the New California Republic, the mysterious ruler of New Vegas… or yourself?

  • Character creation strategies including a run-down of SPECIAL attributes, Skills and Perks.
  • An ideal chronological order of events walkthrough that will take you through the entire Mojave.
  • Complete walkthrough of all the main quests and side quests, including faction quests and endings.
  • A power-gamey New Vegas Medical Center run, for those gamers who want to get off to a great start.
  • Information about factions and reputation.
  • The locations of stat-boosting Skill Books, unique weapons and armor and collectible Snowglobes.
  • A Trophy Guide including detailed information (when necessary) about how to obtain all the game’s trophies.
  • Old World Blues DLC.

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