When starting a new game of Fallout 4 you will have to choose your base attributes. Those are quite important because they will impact how quickly you will get access to different perks. The stat and perk system in Fallout 4 is quite immersive so you may not always know what do you want to prioritize so here’s the breakdown of all the perks and best starting stats in Fallout 4.
Stat and Perk System
The base stats in the game are – Strength, Endurance, Perception, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Or S.P.E.C.I.A.L for short. Leveling up each stat boosts a certain aspect of your character and gives you access to its perks. Every stat has 10 perks behind every level of the stat. Perks are the unique buffs that you can unlock with points after meeting a certain level and stat requirement. As an example of perks, “Hacker” allows you to try and crack more advanced terminals, and “Lead Belly” gives you more resistance to the radioactive stuff you eat.
During the prologue of Fallout 4, you will be asked to introduce yourself to a member of Vault-Tec. This is where you can allocate 28 points to your S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes. Up to 10 per stat (min 1 per stat is required). After that, you will get a point every time you level up in the game.
How to Be S.P.E.C.I.A.L
Now let’s discuss the best stats to prioritize and perks to aim for. The choice of perks is very subjective and is based on your playstyle and the type of build you are going for. We will give basic recommendations a bit of advice and the full list of perks so you know what you get with each stat.
Note: We will provide a general description of each perk. Buffs depend on the level of a perk so if you want to know the exact information check this list.
Strength
Recommended starting level: 4
Strength affects how much you can carry and how much damage your melee attacks will do. How much to invest into this stat depends on how likely you are to punch everything you see. Or do you prefer always to keep your distance? There are a few crucial perks that you will need. Both “Armorer” and “Blacksmith” will allow you to mod armor and weapons and “Strong Back” increases your inventory size (max weight).
All the Strength perks:
- Iron Fist (STR 1) – Increasing punching attack damage
- Big Leagues (STR 2) – Increasing melee damage
- Armorer (STR 3) – Access to higher level armor mods
- Blacksmith (STR 4) – Access to higher weapon mods
- Heavy Gunner (STR 5) – More heavy gun damage
- Strong Back (STR 6) – You can carry more weight
- Steady Aim (STR 7) – Improved hip fire accuracy
- Basher (STR 8) – More gun bashing damage
- Rooted (STR 9) – More melee damage and damage resistence when standing still
- Pain Train (STR 10) – While in Power Armor sprinting into enemies deals damage and staggers them
Perception
Recommended starting level: 4
Perception stats is very controversial in Fallout 4. It has a must-have perk of “Locksmith” so you can pick more difficult locks. “Rifleman” is also great as most of your weapons will be non-automatic. But that’s about everything. Other perks are good if you are using V.A.T.S a lot. In that case, you might want to invest a bit more than average.
All the Perception perks:
- Pickpocket (PER 1) – Picking pockets is easier
- Rifleman (PER 2) – Increased non-automatic rifle damage
- Awareness (PER 3) – Improved V.A.T.S
- Locksmith (PER 4) – Allows you to pick more difficult locks
- Demolition Expert (PER 5) – Explosives deal more damage
- Night Person (PER 6) – Increased stats during the night
- Refractor (PER 7) – Increased Energy Resistance
- Sniper (PER 8) – Improved V.A.T.S when using a scoped non-automatic weapon and a chance of knockig the enemy down
- Penetrator (PER 9) – Allows to target an enemy behind the cover using V.A.T.S
- Concentrated Fire (PER 10) – In V.A.T.S every attack on the same body part increases accuracy
Endurance
Recommended starting level: 2
Endurance increases your max HP and sprint time. That may sound good but in fact, endurance is pretty useless unless you want to walk without the power armor. The best perks here are probably “Lead Belly”, “Toughness” and the last few that allow you to heal in weird ways. Invest in this only if you will be adventuring without Power Armor and heal yourself with all the weird food that you can find (as opposed to classic Stimpaks).
All the Endurance perks:
- Toughness (END 1) – More Damage Resistence
- Lead Belly (END 2) – Less radiation form eating or drinking
- Lifegiver (END 3) – Increased maximum health
- Chem Resistant (END 4) – Immunity to chem addiction
- Aquaboy/Aquagirl (END 5) – you are less detectable when submerged
- Rad Resistant (END 6) – Increased Radiation Resistance
- Adamantium Skeleton (END 7) – Reduced limb damage
- Cannibal (END 8) – Eating human corpses restores health
- Ghoulish (END 9) – Radiation now regenerates your lost health
- Solar Powered (END 10) – Sunlight heals radiation damage and lost health
Charisma
Recommended starting level: 4
Charisma increases your chances of persuading someone in a dialogue. But has also a few more cool usages. The perks that allow you to pacify literally anything in Fallout 4are hilarious but not crucial. The best perks here are “Cap Collector”, “Lone Wanderer” (if you don’t use companions), and “Lady Killer/Black Widow”. If you enjoy building settlements “Local Leader” is a must as well.
All the Charisma perks:
- Cap Collector (CHR 1) – Buying and selling is much profitable
- Lady Killer/Black Widow (CHR 2) – Opposing sex is easier to pursue in dialogue
- Lone Wanderer (CHR 3) – Increased stats when adventuring without the companion
- Attack Dog (CHR 4) – Dog can now hold an enemy and has a chance of causing them to bleed or cripple the limb
- Animal Friend (CHR 5) – Now you can pacifiy with beasts
- Local Leader (CHR 6) – More buldings to build and trade lines between settlements
- Part Girl/Party Boy (CHR 7) – Less chance to get alcohol addiction
- Inspirational (CHR 8) – Buffs for your companions
- Wasteland Whisperer (CHR 9) – Now you can pacify any wasteland creature
- Intimidation (CHR 10) – Now you can pacify any wasteland human
Intelligence
Recommended starting level: 6
Hands down the most important stat in the game. Not only does it allow you to level up quicker, but intelligence also hides a great variety of perks. Almost every perk in the first six is something you might want to use. The best ones are “Medic”, “Hacker”, “Gun Nut” and “Science”. So intelligence is definitely worth investing in.
All the Intelligence perks:
- V.A.N.S. (INT 1) – Increaed perception
- Medic (INT 2) – Stimpaks restore more health
- Gun Nut (INT 3) – Access to higher gun mods
- Hacker (INT 4) – Allows you to crack more difficult terminals
- Scrapper (INT 5) – You can salvage different components
- Science! (INT 6) – Access to higher high-tech mods
- Chemist (INT 7) – Increased chem duration
- Robotics Expert (INT 8) – Allows yuo to hack and control a robot
- Nuclear Physicist (INT 9) – Increased radiation weapon damage and Fusion core last time
- Nerd Rage! (INT 10) – Increased damage and damage resistance when health drops below 20%
Agility
Recommended starting level: 4
Agility gives you more Action Points which is great. But the perks you choose depend on the weapons you like as there is a perk for each type. There are good late level perks if you are using V.A.T.S so you will have to balance those out.
All the Agility perks:
- Gunslinger (AGI 1) – Non-automatic pistols do more damage
- Commando (AGI 2) – Automatic weapons do more damage
- Sneak (AGI 3) – You are harder to detect when sneaking
- Mister Sandman (AGI 4) – Silenced weapons do more damage
- Action Boy/Action Girl (AGI 5) – Action Points regenerate faster
- Moving Target (AGI 6) – More Damage and Energy Resistence when sprinting
- Ninja (AGI 7) – Sneak attacks do more damamge
- Quick Hands (AGI 8) – Faster reload speed
- Blitz (AGI 9) – Increased melee distance in V.A.T.S
- Gun Fu (AGI 10) – More damage to the second+ target in V.A.T.S
Luck
Recommended starting level: 4
Luck is a universal stat that gets you more critical hits. Luck’s perks like “Fortune Finder” and “Scrounger” are great for looting and “Bloody Mess” for fighting. This stat is very flexible so you might invest even more in Luck than recommended. Especially if you use V.A.T.S.
All the Luck perks:
- Fortnue Finder (LCK 1) – You can find more bottle caps
- Scrounger (LCK 2) – You can find more ammunition
- Bloody Mess (LCK 3) – You inflict more damamge in combat
- Mysterious Stranger (LCK 4) – Mysterious Stranger will appear in V.A.T.S
- Idiot Savant (LCK 5) – Random extra EXP from any action
- Better Criticals (LCK 6) – Criticals do more damage
- Critical Banker (LCK 7) – You can save more critical hits in V.A.T.S
- Grim Reaper’s Sprint (LCK 8) – Kills in V.A.T.S have a chance to restore all Action Points
- Four Leaf Clover (LCK 9) – Each hit in V.A.T.S has a chance of filling your Critical meter
- Ricochet (LCK 10) – Enemy’s shot has a chance to ricochet off you back and kill them
