Ranking the Fallout 4 Perks in a Tier List

Today, I'm attempting to rank all of the perks in Fallout 4's SPECIAL chart into a tier list!
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You Only Live Once: • Fallout 4 YOLO
Heavy Weapons Only Permadeath: • Fallout 4 Heavy Weapon...
VATS ONLY Permadeath: • Fallout 4 VATS Only

[@LemonLuke]

Your opinion is wrong. >:(

[@wolfdwarf]

based

[@darrenmills3943]

Based

[@SuperTwonky]

Based

[@vovasyhin7219]

Is that what you think? IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!

[@wolfdwarf]

@@vovasyhin7219 I did 👌🏾

[@TimNurTV]

mysterious stranger is S tier because it's funny no other justification needed

[@thohangst]

Since we've established that we're giving a premium to dopamine-inducing perks, yeah, I'd raise it up a few grades.

[@yunuss58]

especiall with Biggie Smalls mod

[@reagansido5823]

one of the best uses of mysterious stranger is when you have nick in your party just to hear nick comment on his appearance.

[@GazzyD]

Isn’t there a theory that Nick is a synthetic representation of the Mysterious Stranger?

[@ManTheManLV255]

​@GazzyD we learn in game who he is based on. It would be the mysterious stranger who is based on the original Nick pre great War.

[@miraclewhipped5068]

Always put a single point into mysterious stranger no matter the build cause it’s fucking great to just randomly after 10 hours finally getting a proc and being like oh fuck forgot I had that

[@TheFlyingV]

Lead Belly should have been changed in survival to have a third rank that makes you immune to disease. Seems like an easy way to give the perk any viability but not so game breaking at such a low endurance cost since it costs three perks to get the disease immunity.

[@colbytutterow1060]

And could be used to lose mole rat disease if you go for the vault 81 quests.

[@the-bonser3059]

I think in survival taking perks that negate survival debuffs takes away from the challenge and the whole point of playing survival

[@elianrodriguez7318]

Last I checked the 3rd rank of Lead Belly only grants you immunity to radiation from food and drinks, it doesn’t give you immunity to illnesses. You can still get sick from eating raw meat and dirty water sources, and it *DEFINITELY* doesn’t get rid of mole rat disease (you’ll need to use the cure to get rid of it, luckily this is a Bethesda game so you could just use the cure duplication exploit).

[@SepticSafe_]

@@colbytutterow1060 wait does it negate the mold rat disease????

[@rangerdeadeye6730]

​@@SepticSafe_no

[@extestential6638]

Fun fact, lone wanderer perk works with dogmeat

[@ratlord0133]

HAD NO IDEA I LOVE DOGGY

[@randompotato2894]

​@@ratlord0133doggo is just a special companion...the gooddest of boys

[@argotheslicer1654]

@@randompotato2894 * dogmeat has found something *. And you find the most absurdly tucked away loot

[@RextheCatYT]

21:30

[@inerevaraskedforthis]

I've always thought about using the intimidation perks with a heavy weapons + power armor build. Being able to kill something is never an issue, the dilema is "is that raider/mole rat actually worth spending ammo on?".

[@karlkoskie2891]

(Laughs in aeturnus) Waste?

[@wilomica]

Also intimidation is needed to protect settlements with various monsters. I mean you could just have dogs and cats at your settlements but a few Monsters protecting it works wonders. 5 Mirelurks can make a big difference if you get a raid.

[@daniellee8162]

You have a Gunner mentality

[@therealevilmudbug]

Also, you could theoretically use Intimadation to finish fights before they start. I've never done it, but maybe that's because I am unlucky

[@MyHentaiGirl]

You still gonna kill it anyway Why just waste your exp?

[@ashleyneku5432]

I think Penetrator's worthy of an S rank, personally. It trivializes many encounters, specifically Sentry bots, power armored humans and mirelurk shells. You can technically also use it to shoot mole rats and radscorpions that are underground, with a little more finesse. One cool thing it allows is the ability to shoot two or more people with a single bullet, but I've never actually done it myself, just seen clips of it. Overall a cool perk that manages to skirt around some of the more difficult enemy types imo.

[@nikospurr307]

Yes, it's very op and underrated. I've just decided to leave a survival mode playthrough because it's become to easy, level 60ish, and I'm basically unstoppable. Power armor user's and sentry's become free granades with penetrator 😂. I'm starting over with a power armor run with commando and to save on cores I'll have sneak melee for some interiors where I don't need power armor.

[@maestrofeli4259]

I wouldn't it's op but it is very fun and effective, which is deserving of S mostly for the fun aspect.

[@GremlinSciences]

You missed that it removes the penalty for shooting through visual obstructions such as grass and shrubs, which usually make it difficult to hit small targets like molerats and hounds.

[@lordhallibel3604]

your comment so is so wrong ,a word was left out @@maestrofeli4259

[@PeterMartyrVermigli_is_cool]

And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. -Jeremiah 29:13 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. - John 3:16 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out. - Acts 3:19 If are in North America, please go check out any of the churches available to you: PCA, OPC, Rpcna/Rpc, Urcna, or a canrc church (These are conservative and actual Presbyterian churches) If you can’t find one of the conservative presby churches then, maybe a Lcms or Wels Lutheran church. If you are Scottish, I recommend the Free Church of Scotland and the APC. (Different from the Church of Scotland) If you are English I recommend the Free Church of England. (Different from the Church of England) Also online you can look up church finders for each of the groups and it will show you locations.

[@jstyxx4110]

Scrapper is REALLY useful early on as screws are very rare early on, and it lets you make more mods early. Rank 2 allows you to get really useful things like Nuclear Material.

[@57ashdot]

Taking any perk you could compensate by just looking around harder is a waste. Tons of junk vendors for screws.

[@UteChewb]

I go for rank 2 because then I can get optical fiber for heavy laser turrets. Easy to find in the more advanced Institute weapons. And on the Institute weapons, everyone knows they are crap but they are a godsend of resources with scrapper, just as super mutants are a resource for making oil.

[@MarkJones-gt2qd]

@@UteChewb You can make oil from super mutants?

[@UteChewb]

@@MarkJones-gt2qd super mutants have heaps of bones, and bones are the rare resource needed to make Cutting Solution, which is 1 part steel and 3 parts oil. It's at the bottom of the Chemistry bench.

[@MarkJones-gt2qd]

@@UteChewb Ew. Also ooh. That passed me by. I thought all the bones were just yuck factor!

[@PajamaPantsStudios]

I love the aqua boy perk. It makes the trek to diamond city easy, because you just swim there instead of dealing with any of the bridges or traps. There’s some early game quests that it REALLY pulls through for, like the last one with the water valves. Definitely handy.

[@samkaffinsky]

I usually unlocked as soon as possible because I usually go in bodies of water, and end up with a lot of radiation for it

[@noramay6523]

i love aqua boy/girl rank 1 but rank 2 is genuinely useless imo

[@therealevilmudbug]

@@noramay6523 What does it do? I've never invested in Rank 2, so I've forgot

[@brodyrichter8113]

@@therealevilmudbug if you go under water the enemies lose track of you. It’s useless because there’s two guaranteed groups of raiders near water.

[@brodyrichter8113]

@@therealevilmudbug if you go under water the enemies lose track of you. It’s useless because there’s two guaranteed groups of raiders near water.

[@MxrtyRobbins]

I love using lead belly to simulate that feeling of eating 72 cheese wheels in Skyrim

[@ILikeMen823]

Idk why he dislikes lead belly. The fact that I can eat stuff without accidentally making myself a one-shot for all enemies is pretty cool.

[@blaineburns4325]

@@ILikeMen823 The problem with Lead Belly is that so many healing items don't even give you rads, and the ones that do it isn't even that many, so it barely impacts you at all. Plus, there are so many other perks you could spend that perk point on that would increase your damage or survivability, so Lead Belly incurs a massive opportunity cost.

[@ILikeMen823]

@@blaineburns4325 water Free health

[@anoobindisguise4337]

@@ILikeMen823 well with ghoulish you're getting extra health out of irradiated food and by taking lead belly you're actively denying that useful property, for what it's worth (which isn't much tbf)

[@MLPGamer636]

I still think that VANS should have had a third level that reveals all undiscovered locations on the map (Explorer perk).

[@tylerzehnder]

It should increase the range that you can get them instead by like 2x

[@mugiwarafan18]

I have only ever taken the Lead Belly perk when I played as a deranged hermit character. One of their characteristics was that they had questionable sanity and hygiene, and so would often eat whatever they found from fancy lad snack cakes, to puddle water, to raw radroach meat. Having max rank Lead Belly for the first time ever was quite the experience, as it meant that whenever I got hurt in a fight I could just spam sips from one of the many puddles or ponds in the world and get health back quickly without spending carried food or stimpaks. I had plenty of supplies, but never really needed as much I did before Lead Belly, only enough to get me through firefights. Of course this tactic doesn't hold up in survival mode, but otherwise it's a neat experience and you don't even need to be that high of a level to max out the perk.

[@Josh-qr9fo]

Appreciate the respect for chemist. Lots of people say you don't need chems. Well you don't need guns even really. Chems strengthen literally every build, multiply everything and more

[@JohnRollercoasterJr]

A fun exploit you can do with pain train is opening up your pip boy right before running into an enemy. Not only does this fix the bug where it stops working late in the game, it also makes any enemy you touch fall as if you ran into them, with no cooldown.

[@SuperTwonky]

Good to know. I ran into that glitch on my all perks run, and only way I knew to fix it was using console commands to remove and then re-add pain train.

[@thatonetyeguy2330]

Has anybody else's fallout 4 been crashing like every 20 minutes? I'm on Xbox one and when I first got the game it would crash every 3 to 4 hours maybe. After I got all the dlc it started to crash more. I thought "maybe it's my mods" so I deleted them all and started a new character. It didn't help. I tried installing the unofficial patch, nytras tweaks, and less enemies in Boston. It helped a little bit but not enough. The games still unplayable. Doesn't anybody know what the hell happened here?

[@thatonetyeguy2330]

I went online and they said it's been a known issue on Xbox one, best issue is to just delete all your dlcs/mods and start a new save. Are you freaking serious right now? Before I had the dlcs the game did run way better but like.. is that really the sacrifice I gotta make?

[@Jjjjjjjnomjjjj]

@@thatonetyeguy2330 There are mods you can get that remove grass as well as some lighting effects it might help with reducing crashing because of less demand on the console just look up FPS boost or any variation of that and they’ll pop up.

[@carlasghost656]

I played for over two years before I discovered the joys of the shredding minigun. Given that most enemies will charge you, especially at closer range, it becomes a heavy upgraded ripper. I learned to look forward to swarms of ghouls.

[@demonpride1975]

i love gun bashing, i take it all the time. i am playing the game as an rpg, and i cannot count how many insta kills i got from a gun bash with rooted.

[@AmorphisBob]

The only roadblock for a shredder build is mirelurks. Not even the dangerous mirelurks like hunters kings and queens. Just the basic bitch mirelurks will fuck up your day.

[@maestrofeli4259]

​@@AmorphisBobyeah it's so shitty how they are constantly blocking. If it was like other melee enemies and blocked from time to time, yeah that's fine, but no, those crabby little fucks GO THROUGH THEIR ENTIRE WORTHLESS LIVES BLOCKING it's so annoying

[@Heretic6sic6]

I suggest you do a run with only terrible perks.

[@SuperTwonky]

I already have lots of ideas for runs, but I’ll have to keep this in mind

[@CoastalKite]

This is a good idea. Here we come VANS and Lady Killer :joy:

[@Mojo_Jojo9869]

That would be more fun. boring when everyone does the same challenges this one is new creative haven’t seen it done before.

[@PvMKrazy]

@@SuperTwonky FO4 coming back super hard rn. Probably a good time for you to make a resurgence 😉

[@americansuperdad5769]

When you reach the max level of Medic, one stimpack fills your entire health bar. Combining that with an auto stim piece of armor will save your hind parts often. Edit: Also, one Radaway eliminates all Rads.

[@carlasghost656]

Penetrator is great when dealing with Sentry Bots. In VATS it let's you shoot through them directly at their core. It works from any angle and you don't have to wait for it to cool down.

[@christinaedwards5084]

Could always use a critical 💁🏻‍♀️

[@maestrofeli4259]

​@@christinaedwards5084I'm pretty sure you can't use a critical hit if the hit % is zero

[@jamesworkshop9181]

I used to rank that combat move high but stopped doing it once I figured I was destroying the most valuable bit of loot

[@bad-people6510]

Overpenetration from Penetrator has screwed me over before. It's particularly good against Sentry Bots, since it lets you hit their fusion cores directly, but many a time I've blown up people I didn't men to because I ended up hitting a car on the other side of my target.

[@noah11115]

Inspirational is underrated for if you play the automaton dlc at all. The robot companions can have INSANE damage output but you need to be immune for it to be worth it as a playstyle.

[@WhiteManOnCampus]

Personally I'd put Scrounger in A-tier: fusion cores also count as ammunition, so their drop rate is increased with Scrounger. This means, of course, that you can find these incredibly valuable items for your settlements/power armor/gatling laser, or just have really pricy things to sell. With the value of ammunition being pretty high anyway, I'd say even a melee build could benefit from Scrounger just from the side benefits.

[@christinaedwards5084]

You can find 4 cores in ammo boxes easily enough with 1 luck and no scrounger perks. Scroungers only good if you’re using a .44 magnum early on.

[@LunarBloodRose27]

Finding 4 mini nukes in ammo boxes on 2 separate occasions made me truly appreciate scrounger in my first/current playthrough

[@GreenPikmin]

​@@LunarBloodRose27 I cant remember if it was fusion cores or mini nukes, but got them from two of the ammo boxes in Kellogg's house one time. Probably my mosf lucky moment.

[@Fossil08]

Animal Friend+Wasteland Whisperer is my play style lol. I often pacify animals and then have them attack human or robot enemies. It's how I like to play the game, I like to have those allys

[@ospr88n21]

Allies*

[@Easy_ryder9]

AVENGER'S, ASSEMBLE

[@andrewpeli9019]

Lifegiver can be looked at as an income source. The hp generation allows you to avoid using stims, and food which leads to less rads. You can then sell excess stims and rad away for a lot of caps. Lifegiver also is strongest at the beginning of the game when the game is hardest. I think it’s better than most people give it credit for

[@mikeshaver-miller745]

One of the most fun builds I ever did was an automatic shotguns build. I had a wounding Lazer rifle that I converted to an automatic Shotgun that fired like, ridiculously fast. I used the Hip Fire perk to make the gun more stable and also get some cheeky bonus damage out of it, too. The basher perk is underrated, in my opinion. I play a lot of fast, up close builds and having the extra damage when you bash is amazing. With proper timing, you can knock opponents prone with a bash, leaving them vulnerable for damage. It's huge to also do big damage that way!

[@DuckInGameStop]

Thank you for making this!! I started playing Fallout 4 a couple weeks ago and I'm still a complete beginner, and I felt really overwhelmed looking at all the different perks on the screen and trying to figure out which ones would actually be useful. I took some notes while watching this video and I think they'll be really helpful for prioritizing my perks in the future, because so far my leveling up process has just been "ooh this looks kinda cool, I'll get it" haha

[@SuperTwonky]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@tedzaleschook]

If you want some adivce get the idiot savant perk as soon as you can as it is the best passive perk in the game. It especially shines in crafting, which if you do alot of it will level you up at an astonishing rate. Gun nut and armorer I consider must have perks as well, because they are essential to survival. Scrounger, Lockpick and Hacker are also strong perks because it adds to "problem solving" at times. It is always nice to be able open extra doors, find extra loot, shut down turrets etc. Last thought, keep charisma stats high: The better your charisma the better prices you get at vendors ( along with cap collector,) and the easier it is to pursuade people in speach checks. You can double caps inquest rewards if you pass red speach checks. Happy gaming!

[@SuperTwonky]

@@tedzaleschook I actually don’t recommend going for high charisma for bartering or speech checks. Between charisma clothing and grape mentats (which are very easy to craft), it’s unnecessary. You can pretty easily get by with 3 charisma (for lone wanderer). At just 3 base charisma, you can switch into glasses, hat, and clothes for +4, bringing it to 7. Then take a grape mentats to bring it to 12. That will make you pass every speech check in the game, and get very good prices at stores. And if there is a big ticket item you want, take a Day Tripper to bring charisma to 15. If you’ve picked up a few Junktown Vendor magazines, that will give you the best prices possible, or you can also drink a beer for 16 charisma. Obviously, if there’s a perk further up the Charisma path you want to use, like local leader or inspirational, then go for it. But otherwise, I would put those points elsewhere.

[@DuckInGameStop]

@@tedzaleschook I was thinking I'd do a lot of intelligence since there's so many useful perks in intelligence, wouldn't that make idiot savant a lot worse because the chance goes down with higher intelligence? And having more intelligence already increases the amount of XP you get, so I was thinking I probably wouldn't need idiot savant for XP

[@tedzaleschook]

@@SuperTwonky Agreed and I do all of those things above in the early game, However did you know that the number of people you get in your settlements is tied to 10 plus your charisma score? I also simply prefer the natural stat over alot of jury rigging it with chems, etc. But in the end it is a personal play option choice.

[@Kamarovsky_KCM]

As an Omnilooter who takes every single piece of loot and scrap and anything from every single location, I was flabbergasted at the Carry weight and Lockpicking perks not being S, coz they're absolutely the most important ones in my "build", and definitely worth it coz I already have 35k caps at level 20 and I've never even been to Diamond City yet lmao

[@ILikeMen823]

Oh for sure. Scavenging is one of the most important aspects in Fallout 4, it literally allows you to use cap cheeses that would be near impossible without. (I'm talking about carrying 250 cigarette cartons and 250 clean bottles of water at the same time and selling them all to vault 81)

[@thohangst]

They're S-tier purely out of necessity. You don't not get them as a scavenging sort. I can't get enough copies of Blast Radius, personally.

[@lucfxgambitgaming7494]

What a ret term

[@WdoubleyouW]

I know this is a tier list on vanilla fallout 4 but if you are playing a fully hardcore run with low loot and high scarcity, lead belly and Rad Resistant are actually really good perks. Nice vid btw mate

[@dylanking6960]

Damn Apocalypse is a good mod set for hardcore survival runs, and also bumps Locksmith up to S-tier.

[@demonpride1975]

i did a run where the only thing i used was doctors and food and water. never rad x rad away and stims, kinda makes survival pointless.

[@gregwright615]

Great video! Gotta say rifleman is S+ tier in my book. It applies to semi auto rifles AND shotguns. One perk, two weapons.

[@gregwright615]

Another reason lead belly isn’t worth it is because you can still get sick from drinking dirty water even if you don’t get the rads.

[@SuperTwonky]

If I were to redo the list, I think I would put rifleman at S instead of A.

[@BenedictMHolland]

It's totally useless for a melee build. If melee weapon damage is a tier then this should be as well. Both are extremely good.

[@Alexandrosps12]

Also applies to plasma flamer when in rifle shape. Does count as automatic for some reason.

[@chewy99.]

I can kinda rely on wasteland whisperer q good amount, it’s pretty fun to get a bunch of creatures on your side to fight for you, and if you want their drops or xp anyways, you can just kill them without them attacking you.

[@trentonthomas3127]

Chem resistant is huge if your a jet addict like me who likes to spend the whole combat in slow motion without consequences

[@SuperTwonky]

Alternatively, you could craft up a bunch of jet fuel, and always be on that so you don’t experience any withdrawal effects of jet addiction 😁

[@eatzombie7281]

I’ve watch this tier list like 10 times and I’ve used it for both my survival runs. Thank you sir

[@SuperTwonky]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@RAYNE0912]

I agree mostly with the whole list, two perks that I would change are ricochet and mysterious stranger, I would place them at C. They don't add a ton of character power improvement, but the entertainment value is quite high. They're perks I always want to use because they're fun but never end up taking in favor of something more practical. Really annoyed that luck is entirely tied to vats, it should have more use.

[@SuperTwonky]

That’s totally fair. While Mysterious Stranger didn’t end up being useful on my VATS only run, it was always fun whenever he did show up.

[@GoodlyData86596]

The luck stat does effect more things than just vats in fallout 4, to name two, there’s loot tables, and there’s the bat that has a nondescript chance of launching foes sky high with a strike, both have the odds put more in your favor the higher your luck stat is. I’m also pretty sure the only reason they made luck effect the critical hit recharge rate was to give it a tangible effect not based on rng.

[@SuperTwonky]

@@GoodlyData86596 luck has zero effect on loot tables in fallout 4, unless you are talking about the fortune finder and scrounger perks. It does do have an effect on a few specific things, though, like your chances of getting a perfectly preserved pie, or getting the random encounter Mr. Gutsy to self-destruct.

[@GoodlyData86596]

@@SuperTwonky I also think luck effects ricochet’s chance of activating its effects (although at that point you can’t boost its odds much further because it’s a rank 9 perk) and more importantly, effects how often idiot savant triggers like your intelligence stat would, just inversely, which can make idiot savant viable even on high intelligence builds, so I think the devs were trying to make luck effect the nondescript odds as if it effects the stated odds, then luck becomes a huge factor in how viable the perks that give a chance to trigger an effect are, so they tried to not open that balancing can of worms. Shame because it makes luck seem like a non factor in non vats builds, especially because the game never tells you luck effects nondescript odds and lies to you about effecting loot tables (if what you said is true)

[@demonpride1975]

is it sad that ever since fallout came out in 1997, i have never used mysterious stranger. not once have i taken it. does it work sure, but i hate the randomness of it.

[@BastosFC2]

Glad to see Fallout 4 still getting some love after all this time

[@androth1502]

been a fan of dogmeat since fallout 1. probably the only companion i'll take consistently in every fallout game where he is available. and it doesn't interfere with lone wanderer.

[@demonpride1975]

i love dogmeat he's the only companion none companion i use, if that makes any sense.

[@_You_Are_Not_Him_]

The only companion that isn't constantly judging you or talking.

[@chrismargaritis5297]

Wait having dog meat doesn’t count as a companion?? So Lone Wanderer still works? Is this legit?

[@androth1502]

@@chrismargaritis5297 yup. dogmeat is always with the lone wanderer. just like a boy and his dog.

[@d20initiative]

I personally love high Intelligence builds, and I try to stay at a constant +5 with mentats and chemist, as well as other perks that boost it like night person. What were you thinking for the next playthrough? I would love to see a high INT power armor melee build.

[@SuperTwonky]

I have a playthrough that I started streaming last year and put on hold, which is trying to get 1 million caps on survival mode. I want to edit the streams into shorter videos and also complete the run. Was also thinking of doing a no-kill survival run, and a permadeath run using the mod that makes all enemies legendary.

[@BastosFC2]

What do you like about high intel exactly ? Getting a bit more XP ? I don't get it

[@d20initiative]

@@BastosFC2 I’ve grown fond of power armor and drugs in the game, both of which have amazing perks in the intelligence tree. And then seeing just how high I can get it for great XP is awesome. I still spec into luck for scavanger and idiot savant for absolutely insane XP when it triggers.

[@BastosFC2]

@@d20initiative I see, I need to try some interesting perk combination like this more. I usually start a new game with a cool build in mind but always end up with pretty much the same perks everytime (commando, lone wanderer, armorer etc)

[@d20initiative]

@@BastosFC2 Take a look at his heavy weapons only run, might get inspired from that!

[@lolniceinreal]

Intimidation is good for firefights with lots of people, as you can basically take out one guy instantly and kill him after

[@ogrebattler]

When it comes to that version of it and firefights I recommend only taking two levels of it so you can pacify / make patrol multiple raiders. Unfortunately the third level takes away that option which is annoying

[@technicolorskies5432]

With the awareness perk you can tell the difference between a human and a gen 3 synth

[@milkmonstrosity]

*THIS CLAIM IS DISPUTED*

[@technicolorskies5432]

@@milkmonstrosity it works for the random encounter where the guy is holding himself up, (I think his name is Art). That's the single time I remember it being useful

[@MarkJones-gt2qd]

@@technicolorskies5432 Weirdly, the synth in that encounter is pretty obviously a synth. One guy talks about his family, the other himself.

[@vovasyhin7219]

Demolition expert is so OP it should have its own SSS Tier. When combined with explosive bobble head and Explosive Legendary Effect High DPS Weapons and Shotguns WILL surpass a mini nuke in terms of DPS. The only way to survive a fully upgraded shotgun with said Explosive Legendary Effect with perk and bobble head boost is to have fully upgraded armor with Ballistic Weave MK5 and armor add-ons that reduce explosive damage by 75%, otherwise you will kill your self often!

[@SuperTwonky]

I don’t know if I rank it quite as highly as you, but in hindsight, demolition expert should have been S tier instead of A.

[@gus.smedstad]

I find the bias against companions - and hence for Lone Wanderer - a little weird. If you bring a companion, you get the carry weight benefit from Lone Wanderer without spending any perk points, since they all carry at least 50lbs more than Dogmeat. By skipping companions you’re also missing out on *all* the companion perks. Some of them aren’t great, but combined they’re pretty significant. You can of course take Lone Wanderer and only keep companions around until you get their perks, but in that case you’re spending a lot of time with Lone Wanderer disabled. I feel like Lone Wanderer is in there just so you don’t *have* to bring a companion if you are really dead set against them.

[@coolperson5479]

You should do a damage less run curious to see what build you would use to survive it all the way through.

[@SuperTwonky]

That’s something I’m hoping to try this year.

[@michaelweiske702]

Depends of what you mean by damage less: A) if you mean you cannot deal damage, then any perks that increase damage or upgrade your ability to increase damage would be useless, and any perks that increase survivability and stealth would be preferred along with a high charisma to avoid some encounters B) if you mean you cannot take damage, then any perks that give increased resistance or upgrade your ability to resist damage would be useless, and any perks that increase your stealth and damage would be preferred. In either case, the stealth build has you covered if you can pull it off, just a different playstyle for each run.

[@daniellee8162]

Chem resistant, though I do agree with you, I find it useful solely because of how convenient it is.

[@BrotatoeGod]

1:56 A bonus for it is that it also increases rad damage on a weopon like Atoms Glory

[@veverron]

Fun vid Twonkster, as usual, keep 'em coming.

[@rm2569]

For unarmed, i highly recommend using the Unarmed gameplay overhaul and SLIDE KICK mod. It allows you to do counter animations with unarmed at will by blocking and attacking. It makes it feel really different and cool from melee. Also, demo expert and heavy gunner combo together.

[@georgemcfadden680]

When you talked about what you get in safes that is spot on with what I get every time

[@DanielFlores-tl5vu]

Wasteland whisperer is incredible when you can literally convert yao guai and deathclaws to fight for you even synths if i remember right

[@chubbuck35]

First time playing FO4. This video was very helpful. Wish I would have watched it before getting to level 30!

[@CoastalKite]

The man, the myth, the LEGEND is back! This is gonna be a good weekend, I can tell.

[@willblizard3610]

Blacksmith should be an easy A tier since it unlocks the robot mods as well. imo more useful since the bleed robot does the most damage, than just melee mods in general.

[@Sefk76]

Yo Twonky, I just found your channel and I wanted to let you know that I really, really like your presentation. It's your opinion based off your playstyle, but still obviously well informed. That being said, if you do tier videos like this in the future, would you mind doing timestamps for people to pull up on the fly? If it doesnt negatively affect your engagement. I'm planning on pulling this video up as needed through different playthroughs. Its no big deal, really

[@Teadon86]

Did a build that used scrapper, fortune finder and scrounger. I always had good use of scrapper throughout my gameplay whilst the two others, primarily fortune finder, had a big impact at the beginning which faded the higher levels I reached. The ammunition and caps I found thanks to these perks were overshadowed by the loot I found on even low-tier enemies. The caps from the sales of the loot I used to buy the ammunition I needed, which put the perk scrounger out of use. Although, it is nice to replenish a portion of your ammunition on the go, more so for expensive ammunition, and it is even nicer when you've scrounged so much expensive ammunition you simply have to sell some of it off or stash it for later use. My suggestion is to ditch fortune finder and keep scrapper and scrounger if you want a more self-sufficient build.

[@a_catfish5180]

One thing that vans does amazingly is getting perception to 12, 13, or 14 base stat depending on how much you planned for it

[@maestrofeli4259]

only problem is perception sucks lmao but if you are doing a vats build it's ok I guess. Amazing is a word nobody should ever use for VANS

[@a_catfish5180]

@@maestrofeli4259 I didn’t say it is amazing I said it does one thing amazingly and yes it’s obviously for vats, I know some people play exclusively with it

[@michaelbyrd1674]

VANS+NIGHTOWL+Perception10= max perception with no armor slots taken to do it

[@a_catfish5180]

@@michaelbyrd1674 you can also (if I remember correctly) get any stat to 11 using the you’re special book start with 10 in a stat and use clothes or consumables that give negatives in that stat… use the book and then when you take it off or the effect ends you’ll have 11

[@itsgenguy7275]

Thats been fixed but bobbleheads still improve past 10. So you could get 11. ​@@a_catfish5180

[@bacd-nn2lg]

I am suprised to see on how similar our ranking is on this tier list. Ghoulish is pretty good perk if you combine it with high intelligence boosting perks, sneak rifleman, wearing Children of Atom clothes like Inquisitors Cowl, and Robes of Atom's Devoted (those clothes is the most broken item in a game that you will get radiation immunity at one point, and you can even heal to full health). With this build finished completed I was getting crazy amount of XP. The only negative side is not being able to see your hp bar on the screen,b tu you can still see it in your pip-boy.

[@SuperTwonky]

I find Ghoulish to be counterproductive to using a child of Atom build. When wearing the robes, you want to just stay at 900 rads. That means the early ranks of ghoulish don’t do anything, since you aren’t gaining more rads (at 900 the robes make you immune), and the final rank of ghoulish isn’t good because you’ll start healing radiation which is the opposite of what you want, especially if you are using the Inquisitor of Atom perk.

[@lookimlost]

He said it he can't calculate the di Pps on one its too much for him ..... sadly that's the way his works it happens tho he made it this far from his own .........let's give it to him brotha dnt do it to him now he just "made it

[@protojager]

Pretty fun basic FPS build: Demolitions expert up enough to see grenade arcs, rifleman or commando for your primary, with a little into gunslinger so you can carry a high power secondary like Kellogg's revolver, armorer to improve survivability, gun nut to up your damage, action boy, moving target, quick hands, and steady aim.

[@Squatch-sj3vg]

Nice list man i appreciate your insight. As for lead belly personally it's my most used perk across all my builds for as long as I've been playing lol i like to horde chems and meds so for me I've always looked at it as diversifying my healing strategies. But i never thought it was really any better or worse than most ither perks, gonna go start your melee series man inhope you have a great day

[@copper4eva]

One thing I don't see mentioned is attack dog, lone wanderer, and pack alpha all stack. So together you get pretty good damage reduction percentage.

[@kylesmith4173]

I found heavy weapons and explosives expert pair nicely for when you want to be sure to just delete whatever is in front of you.

[@connycontainer9459]

Played for the first time this week, with tons of mods, cause why not. Took lead belly as one of the first because water and nuka cola were so expensive. Now I'm running around with multiple infections and a tapeworm, because radiation isn't the only hazard in surface water. Vans is really good though, just finding the right door in these dungeon like quest areas or finding the right person to speak to without getting spoiled by internet guides is a godsend.

[@protojager]

Mr. Sandman is the scoundrel's friend, good for sneakily killing friendly NPCs inside towns and settlements for nefarious purposes.

[@jjforcebreaker]

Good list and a pleasure to listen to.

[@SuperTwonky]

Thank you! 🙂

[@willomalley7619]

You should do a run using only d and f tier perks here. Good assessment overall I would say. I mainly avoid chems and vats which turns off two major power boosts in the game.

[@Mall_man_]

Party boy with a strength melee build is as crazy as it sounds in your head

[@BadekHWDP]

I'd argue for Ghoulish as this very perk saved my ass multiple times fighting with atom child, robots or any other opponents with radiation explosives. You basically can't die from nuka grenades nor radiation explosive of robots. Never tested it against bigboy, so it's kinda situational but for me it's B tier especially when some ghouls stops to attack you and you can lead them to attack another factions

[@peacefulrevolution3390]

Hey, great video, if you decide to redo it ever, it would be nice to have some minimal description of what the perk does included with the ranking. A lot of the perks you named I was not too sure what their benefit was ....

[@SuperTwonky]

I am kinda wishing I’d taken extra time to put the perk descriptions from the wiki on the screen.

[@MarlowPreston]

Think you might do a build tier list at some point? And the practicality of stuff like building around stuff that need random drops like Unyielding armor in Survival with Bloodied weapons or using Junkie's weapons, ect. Or even with fixed stuff stuff like the Spray n' Pray or Robes of Atom's Devoted for a max irradiated build.

[@kepler_drew853]

Great list! I must have at least a thousand hours in fallout 4 and I don't think I'd move a single perk up or down more than a tier from where you placed it

[@NavajoNinja]

Last level of Life Giver should be the ability to walk on water. Make JC proud!😅

[@lance134679]

This is pretty close to how I'd rank these perks, although I like Aquaboy a lot, especially on Survival. Next, do a run with all the worst perks. 😄

[@CmacG_Live]

How do you make the tier lists? Ive seen so many vids like this but can find 0 info on how to create it any help would be greatly appreciated!

[@MistaOppritunity]

With Richochet, it doesn't need to happen consistently enough to kill almost every enemy, it just needs to take one or two people out in a fight. Which I've used it before and it felt like it did pretty much every large gun fight. In general I think spreading your perks out thin in luck is a lot of fun and pretty effective. If you place bets everywhere one of them will hit. And it varies the way you kick ass.

[@lesser8531]

I think Night Person deserves a C at least. It doesn't look very impressive at first, but there's a ton of synergy for a stealthy VATS build. You are harder to detect at night and the perk bonuses incentivize you to make use of that. The night vision effect is quite nice since the Pip-Boy light will reveal your position, but if you really don't like it, a case can be made for just the first rank. My last two full Survival playthroughs were built around Night Person and they were a ton of fun. Don't bother with the third rank though. You need to be level 37 to get it and you already have like 350 health with just one Endurance at that point. An extra 30 health is pretty bone-headed for a stealth build, should have been AP instead.

[@VergilTheLegendaryDarkSlayer]

With night person, *NEVER* upgrade it to get the night vision, it makes seeing indoors nearly impossible if theres any light sources around

[@marko_23410]

EARLYYYYYYY !!!!! AWESOME VIDEO AS ALWAYS .LOVE TO SEE YOUR POSTS . KEEP IT UP !!!!!!!

[@samkaffinsky]

I'm planning on doing a new playthrough were I ally with the railroad for the first time, any build you guys recommend?

[@unhingedsonus8249]

Personally the only time i’ve ever been able to justify using cannibal is when traveling with Strong. One of the only ways to level up his affinity easily to get his perk.

[@tedzaleschook]

Pretty solid list, and i wont quibble about some of your choices because the value of a particular perk be tied to your play style and character build. Idiot Savant I regard as a must have perk so much so it is one of the first perks I take.

[@SwissSauce]

i'm late, and this was a great vid, but you should try getting footage to play in the background for each perk you talk about! it'd make it way more engaging and you can drive points home much easier with related gameplay

[@SuperTwonky]

If I do another tier list video like this for Fallout 4, there are definitely improvements I plan on making!

[@SwissSauce]

@@SuperTwonky i WILL be watching!

[@cheesemoon6319]

Can I know the name of the songs used in this video? They're all very good.

[@Makoto03]

Thank you. Playing next gen Fallout 4 now and these were helpful.

[@Shwa_Shwa42]

I feel fortune finder might be a bit better than you think, 1 less in luck to take for non-vats focused builds, and if you take it and lvl it early on it completely fixes money issues without needing a cheesy exploit or selling caltrops. Much more containers can spawn bottle caps than ammo, making it similar to scrounger in value. Still not an amazing or even great perk.

[@starwish1037]

ricochet underrated, when im having to reload on a frustrating boss on survival and i hear the little ricochet sound and see the boss drop dead, always so hype to me lol

[@roodguyentertainment2620]

lame for being 10 luck

[@samd2013]

Ricochet and Mysterious Stranger are perks that in my survival runs have sometimes been the reason why I didn’t die after not saving after awhile and losing valuable progress lol. Yes it’s true that in most cases it’s random and happens when you don’t need them, but every now and then I’m almost dead on my last leg and am about to die and someone ricochets and dies with the bullet that would’ve killed me and sometimes an enemy that will kill me and I’m struggling to hurt them in VATS gets killed by the mysterious stranger. For these reasons I have to put them in the B/A tier range. It really does feel like your character gets lucky sometimes.

[@vega8876]

I would like to add that for a stealth build, the later ranks of Gun Nut can be almost essential. The ability to put a suppressor on almost any gun is game changing in a stealth build, especially when paired with Mister Sandman

[@phoenixbrown105]

I think vans is pretty good value if you are looking for extra damage on perception builds. As you can get perception to be pretty high with starting at 10, the bobblehead, the book, and cloths that have balistic. It's a pretty solid pick for snipers and non automatic builds

[@uncannyvalley3190]

I haven’t played vanilla Fallout in years. I had totally forgotten that perks like Commando and Rifleman increase weapon damage and not just hipfire or armor pen 😂

[@capncrunchfan255]

Fun Fact if you have Dogmeat as your companion Lone Wanderer is still active

[@Durnrhaegar]

Thank you for making such a tier list in 2023. Right in time for Steam Sale as well as the release of Fallout 4 Lost World mod. An updated tier list for Lost World would be welcome!

[@yogibeats9037]

I second this !

[@mythicalabigail]

Aqua boy is the best perk in the game. I will not be taking questions.

[@SuperTwonky]

Understood.

[@57ashdot]

Aqua Boy is defeated the second you find a gasmask with 15 rad protect...

[@stevet1396]

​@@57ashdotor a hazmat suit I found on 1st visit to diamond city this run, with +1000 rad resist for 230 caps....

[@khornymen7611]

Giving B tier to fast reload perk is heresy when You think of how well it pairs with slow-mo drugs like jet.

[@jessespeers5357]

Will there be another video for the companion and/or quest perks?

[@lesser8531]

I agree with almost everything. Demo Expert is S for me. Explosives are already powerful and you can slot them into literally any build. I know it's extremely specific to a single playstyle, but Sniper is insane with MacReady's perk. You'll have 95% on headshots when torso shots only have like 60. I'd say Hacker is better than Locksmith. The stuff you can do with Turrets and Protectrons outweighs the minor amount of loot you get from that safe or medkit. Intimidation is pretty good for just getting heat off of you. Maybe not worth going Charisma 10 for but even a charmed low-level enemy means that his friends are less likely to shoot you. I find Gun Nut and Blacksmith to be kind of overrated. You can find most mods from weapon vendors or as loot much earlier than you can normally craft them. You need to be level 39 to craft the .308 Receiver for the Combat Rifle, but it can spawn as early as level 16. I feel automatic weapons are underpowered due to how the damage resistance system works. It's going to take a lot of caps and inventory space to keep you topped off. Granted, some legendary effects are better on automatics but Commando is still kind of lackluster for me.

[@SuperTwonky]

After posting this video, I did think that maybe I should have put Demolition Expert as S tier, for exactly the reason you said. I can see your reasoning behind valuing hacker over locksmith too. I find I personally end up using locksmith more, which skewed my rankings more in favor of it. Blacksmith may be too high, but I feel Gun Nut is a solid perk. I’ve done builds without it, and been able to upgrade weapons by finding the mods in the wild or in shops. But I still prefer having it so I can craft upgrades to my specifications without having to rely on finding the exact parts I want. Rifleman is superior to Commando, but I’ve never felt underpowered playing an automatic weapons build. They are still very good, and lots of fun to use. I think maybe rifleman would be A+ and Commando is A-.

[@Sunpraiser95]

One thing I will say, rad resistance when you're doing the bloodied build is definitely useful. Makes life easier when you're trying to stay in the 18% - 25% HP threshold

[@Panthers-wt1oe]

I just finished ished a run of fallout and went all in with Solar powered, Ghoulified, and Lifegiver and I didn't really have any issues with health unless I was fighting groups

[@sethalmand9901]

I definitely disagree with pain train's placement, I personally would put it in A tier. When used in a melee build, it's absurdly useful, especially if you have a slow swing speed weapon like the super sledge( I use atom's judgement), as it makes it so you cannot be stunned by melee attackers, since you can just ragdoll them, and then hit a heavy attack, and do like half their health in a single swing if they're the tankiest of enemies, if not outright kill them if they're an average one.

[@SuperTwonky]

Pain Train was one that I wasn’t sure about. Sounds like I’ll need to try a power armor melee build!

[@christinaedwards5084]

Doesn’t really become useful till much later in a build when you can reduce AP costs, too juicy on power cores early on.

[@sethalmand9901]

@@christinaedwards5084 I'd say that's true, but only if you're strapped for fusion cores in the first place. If you have the scrounger perk, which, is always great for power armor builds, it's a non-issue. Plus, you only need to sprint for like half a second for it to activate and send the enemy flying, so it doesn't take TOO much AP. I often will be in melee and sprint at them even if I'm in swing range due to that. Plus, AP is not nearly as important in a power armor melee build

[@christinaedwards5084]

@@sethalmand9901 AP usage power swings and sprinting really drain power cores, even swinging melee weapons is juicy. I had Grognak in mind from the start, not power armour so I chose my specials accordingly. I know, as I did a survival run, started in power armour and ended as grognak. Where as you prob go all in on STR at the start for *rooted* and *pain train* I went with chems and dirty wastelanders on a 4 STR character. In power armour I had 23 STR plus all the HP and critical hits and melee bonuses chems give. S:4 P:1 E:7 C:7 I:7 A:1 L:1. Used special book for 8 charisma and inspirational perk and rocking with a melee companion like codsworth or strong. Overtime I put into STR and AGL so I could ditch the power armour as strong hated it. So many perks in STR tree after STR 4 are kinda useless to melee builds and power armour gives 11 STR by default. 10% damage increase per 1STR means nothing if your weapon does low damage and chems did more than special point in STR would ever have done. If I was on any other difficulty i wouldn’t of bothered with the power armour 💁🏻‍♀️

[@WoodenFloorsRock]

I genuinely think critical banker is the best perk in the game. Certain encounters simply wouldn't be possible to overcome without popping an enemy in the head with three criticals. I also always use VATS so maybe that's my bias coming through.

[@SuperTwonky]

Being a single player RPG, personal preference does play a role in how some of these are ranked. Personally, I prefer to play the game as a pure FPS and not use VATS. On my YOLO run, I think I used exactly one critical in VATS during the whole run, which was using a fat man on Kaylor’s crew at the Nuka World transit center.

[@WoodenFloorsRock]

@@SuperTwonky Damn, couldn't imagine doing a YOLO run without VATS. When I did mine on FO4 I used the shit out of it. Now I'm doing a YOLO Skyrim run (on legendary) and obvi without VATS I'm finding it quite tough

[@SuperTwonky]

@@WoodenFloorsRock I’d recommend checking out the YOLO playlist on my channel. If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, watch episode 28 “Gunning for Trouble” and maybe episode 19 “RADical Rebirth” (start at about 27 minutes to skip the meet and greet dialogue with the raider bosses, and get to the part where the build really comes together). Episode 28 still stands out to me as one of the most fun videos to make.

[@WoodenFloorsRock]

@@SuperTwonky Hell ya dude I'll check it out. I didn't even know that you made YOLO content. Sounds absurd but it's the only way I play Bethesda games now. I'd highly recommend you do a New Vegas YOLO run if you haven't already. Some of the most fun I've ever had gaming.

[@SuperTwonky]

@@WoodenFloorsRock yeah, I’ve got a few survival permadeath runs on my channel too. My favorite one is the Heavy Weapons Only run.

[@lockade_9958]

Sneak, silencers, pickpocketing everything related related makes a great choice.

[@MrSgoudreau76]

Upgraded Pickmans's knife is crazy with the bleed damage.

[@neil2796]

Disagreements: Ghoulish is a lynch pin of my high level characters. Yes, it's not useful until it's maxed at level 50, but that's when I start really taking the rads (Far Harbor, Kiddie Kingdom, Glowing Sea). I put it at A or B. I would swap Locksmith and Hacker. I have several locations where I use Hacker and not a single time I feel the need for Locksmith. I would move Blacksmith to C because it really needs to pair with Science to be useful.

[@TheFlyingV]

Science isn't needed to make heavy sledgehammers (I think), so there is still some access to the high level damage gear for melee character builds of say, a slightly stupider persuasion (dumbasses).

[@BboySquidfoot]

I disagree with you disagreements. Lockpicking and hacking is... Useless as all hell. 7 years of this game made me realize that. Scrounger and scrapper are better alternatives, unless you like reading terminals. Containers are everywhere and some are novice locks. Use ammo as 2nd currency and junk mats are painfully important early game. Although scrapper isnt necessary for vets who know what to grab and leave behind. 2nd, ghoulish setup requires too many steps to achieve early and is as you said, end game past lv 50. I agree with blacksmith though, melee crafting is not as deep compared to guns and armor. Pickmans blade or disciples blade are decent enough or any serrated bleed weapon(s). Even the unique baseball bat from jamaica plans or from vendor moe in diamond city is good. There's also kremvh's tooth. This excludes legendary prefixes since those take time and chance to acquire over time.

[@neil2796]

@@BboySquidfoot Hacking is useful for skipping the Mechanist final battle which makes it a useful perk for me. There are a couple other places I use it, but it's mainly for that. I could use Ada's hacking mod, but if it fails, I have to reload from my survival save spot and that's just too far away. My play style starts as a glass cannon with endurance 1 and ends with endurance 11. Ghoulish is just part of my build at this point. They're both just convenience perks and aren't necessary. I like using them.

[@shopkeep9710]

Had no idea you could run with dogmeat and have lone wanderer at the same time

[@christinaedwards5084]

Lone wander being a sneak/loner perk having the dog is a hinderance.

[@jcohasset23]

Yeah, Dogmeat doesn't technically count as a companion. It's believed early builds of Fallout 4 were going to allow the sole survivor to have Dogmeat and a companion at the same time similar to prior games but that was changed by the time of the final release. Most likely it was due to the already sometimes glitchy companion AI making it even more difficult when NPCs are aiding the player on missions (as an example can you imagine the player, Dogmeat, a companion in power armor like Danse, and an npc all crowding into an elevator or trying to get through a doorway) and probably karma abuse as most companions "like" when the player uses a stimpack on Dogmeat, and with Dogmeat's AI it's not difficult to get him into a "downed" state. Either it was an oversight with the perk or something they just couldn't fix (it may also be why the Attack Dog perk is not that great unless it's maxed out and even then that's 4 points which might be more useful in other places).

[@FlourEater]

I have it simple.. I am still playing my one character that I´ve started when I first installed F4...currently lvl 136 and having most of them, all stats 10. Feels like when by the end of F2 you acquire the book.