Fallout: New Vegas Hints

Level 10 Perks

• * Animal Friend (Charisma 6, Survival 45): The first rank of this perk prevents animals from attacking you automatically, and the second rank causes them to come to your aid if you're fighting a non-animal. Note that you can't gain animal followers this way, making this perk of very little use.
  
  * Finesse: This perk will increase your critical chance by the same amount that 5 points of Luck would. That's great for everyone except perhaps stealth specialists who depend on sneak-attack criticals most of the time. Remember that in this game, using V.A.T.S. mode only adds 5% to your critical chance, making this perk even more valuable than it was in Fallout 3.
  
  * Here and Now: This perk gives you enough XP to immediately level up again. It should never be taken due to the fact that there's a level cap (30), and you'll only be able to get a total of 15 level-up perks in all.
  
  * Math Wrath (Science 70): Despite its high skill requirement, this perk is tremendously useful to just about everyone since it reduces the action points required by any type of attack in V.A.T.S. by 10%. Remember that V.A.T.S. is very useful for attacking nearby enemies, and the fewer action points each attack takes, the more attacks you can carry out in any V.A.T.S. session. (Though since you take 75% of normal damage in V.A.T.S. mode instead of 10% like in Fallout 3, this perk isn't quite as useful as it would have been in that game.)
  
  * Miss Fortune (Luck 6): Similar to the Mysterious Stranger perk, this one has some crazy woman appear while you're attacking in V.A.T.S. mode and do something non-fatal to your target. There's only a 10% chance that she'll appear, and she won't instantly kill your target like the Mysterious Stranger will. Instead, she'll knock the target down, knock his weapon out of his hand (if he has one), or cripple a randomly chosen limb. Amusing, but not very useful.
  
  * Mister Sandman (Sneak 60): This perk lets you instantly kill any sleeping human or ghoul, and you get an XP bonus for it. That's far too rarely useful to be worth getting.
  
  * Mysterious Stranger (Luck 6): As in Fallout 3, this guy has a 10% chance (or 20% with a certain challenge perk) of appearing during a V.A.T.S. session if your target has less than 150 health left. Unlike that silly Miss Fortune character, he'll quickly kill the target with his super-powerful magnum. He may also kill other nearby targets, but that's fairly rare. Disadvantages include not always getting the XP for the kill, the stranger sometimes appearing in a spot where he can't shoot anyone, and the fact that the level 20 perk Grim Reaper's Sprint won't kick in. I really had fun with this perk in Fallout 3, but the fact that you can only choose a perk once every two levels makes it a bad choice for this game.
  
  * Nerd Rage! (Intelligence 5, Science 50): This perk sets your Strength to 10 and adds 15 to your damage threshold whenever your health is less than 20% of max. Problem is, it's dangerous to have your health be that low in combat, and it's not worth getting that injured just to carry more stuff around. Healing yourself up will negate this perk's effects, so it's best to never get it.
  
  * Night Person: This perk gives you a +2 to both Intelligence and Perception at night, even if you're indoors. The attribute increases aren't all that useful, and most people will want to rest or wait until morning before they go exploring.
  
  * Plasma Spaz (Energy Weapons 70): With this perk, the action point cost of using any plasma weapon in V.A.T.S. is reduced by 10%. Since you have to use a specific type of weapon, this perk is inferior to the above Math Wrath perk. You might want to consider taking both perks if you're building a plasma weapon specialist, but that's it. (Note that a game update increased the AP reduction from 10% to 20% to make the perk more attractive to plasma weapon users.)
  
  
  Finesse is a perk that just about everyone will want to take right away, but keep Math Wrath in mind for later level-ups.
  

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