Fallout: New Vegas Hints

Level 8 Perks

• * Commando: This perk works like the level 6 perk Gunslinger, except with two-handed weapons. It isn't recommended for the same reason that Gunslinger isn't.
  
  * Cowboy (Guns 45, Melee Weapons 45): This perk gives you a damage increase of 25% if you're using a revolver, lever-action firearm, dynamite, knife, or hatchet. Once again, the damage increase is great, but you'd have to specialize in using the types of weapons it applies to in order to get enough use out of it.
  
  * Living Anatomy (Medicine 70): This odd perk lets you see the health and damage threshold of any target, plus gives you a 5% damage bonus against humans and non-feral ghouls. If you want a 5% damage bonus, get the level 6 perk Bloody Mess instead, since it applies to all enemy types. (Getting both perks sounds good, but would take two of your 15 level-up perks.)
  
  * Pack Rat (Intelligence 5, Barter 70): This perk will halve the weight of any item in your inventory that weighs 2 pounds or less. This is pretty useless unless you're playing on hardcore mode, in which case it'll be useful for carrying lots more food and water items. (Too bad about that huge, irrelevant Barter requirement.)
  
  * Quick Draw (Agility 5): This perk makes your weapon equipping and holstering 50% faster. That's of extremely little value no matter what your combat style is.
  
  * Rad Resistance (Endurance 5, Survival 40): This perk adds 25% to your radiation resistance. This isn't useful, as there aren't as many areas in this game with hard radiation as there were in Fallout 3, and you can always use rad-x and radaway items to help when necessary.
  
  * Scrounger (Luck 5): This perk is similar to the level 6 perk Fortune Finder, since it increases the amount of ammo you find in containers. It's not recommended, either.
  
  * Stonewall (Strength 6, Endurance 6): This perk gives you an effective +5 to your damage threshold vs. melee and unarmed attacks, plus makes you impossible to knock down in combat. Thing is, not that many melee opponents are powerful enough to do you a lot of damage or knock you down if you're well-armored. For those that are, snipe at them from a distance, lead them across mines that you set, etc.
  
  * Strong Back (Strength 5, Endurance 5): With this perk, you can carry 50 more pounds of stuff -- up to a max of 300 pounds if your Strength is 10. This is very useful for thorough looters and those who like to carry lots of heavy armor and weapons around everywhere, and should therefore be taken as soon as possible.
  
  * Super Slam (Strength 6, Melee Weapons 45): This perk will randomly knock down an enemy if you hit him with a melee weapon or unarmed attack. This isn't very useful, even to melee and unarmed specialists.
  
  * Terrifying Presence (Speech 70): This perk gives you special dialogue topics during certain conversations that you can use to scare people into doing what you want or turning hostile. It's never very useful, so don't bother taking it even if you get your Speech skill all the way up to 70.
  
  
  The only universally useful perk here is Strong Back, though you might want to consider Cowboy if you think you'd get enough use out of it.
  

• Up One Level