With over 80 obtainable perks in Fallout New Vegas, it‘s incredibly easy for new players and veterans alike to feel overwhelmed by the choices available. Perks provide special effects ranging from direct combat boosts to quality of life upgrades and unlock as your character gains levels.
But with only one perk selectable every two levels on the old-school perk screen, figuring out which perks perfect your playstyle is crucial knowledge. After hundreds of hours enjoying multiple playthroughs, I‘ve distilled knowledge down to the 10 definitively best perks worth focusing on first in any run.
Why These Perks?
I selected these perks based several key criteria:
- Pure Damage Potential – Several picks directly crank up your weapons‘ killing capacity
- Synergy For Maximizing Damage – Many work together with other perks and gear boosts to enable the highest possible damage
- Early To Late Game Viability – Most maintain their usefulness across entire playthroughs
- Massive convenience bonuses – Less time worrying about gear repair or ammo scarcity
- Survivability safety nets – Few things boost resilience better when pushed to the brink
Now let‘s dive into the list!
#1 – Math Wrath
Level 14, 70 Math Skill Required
I start this list with a criminally underused damage gem – Math Wrath. Each rank adds +10 damage to any weapon attack, reaching an epic +30 bonus damage at 3 out of 3 ranks.
Flat damage boosts synergize tremendously well with improved base weapon damages from skill ranks and mods. Here‘s an example damage comparison of the powerful Anti-Materiel Rifle with/without Math Wrath‘s scaling wrath:
| Anti-Materiel Rifle | Damage With Math Wrath 3/3 | Damage Without Math Wrath |
|---|---|---|
| Base | 175 | 175 |
| All Mods | 230 | 230 |
| 100 Guns Skill | 288 | 288 |
| Total | 318 | 288 |
Adding +30 flat damage from Math Wrath to the Anti-Material Rifle raises its mighty damage potential over 30 points higher, a 10% increase!
Math Wrath works universally across all weapon types. Pistols, rifles, heavy weapons, melee blades, and explosives all become markedly deadlier backed by studied mathematical carnage. It even boosts the damage of special V.A.T.S melee finishers like the Ranger Takedown or explosive ordnances like the missile launcher and grenade rifle.
With a plethora of damage multiplier perks and bonuses in New Vegas, that +30 from Math Wrath enjoys all accompanying boosts:
- Sneak attack criticals
- Bloody Mess’ +5% damage
- Grunt’s +15% damage with heavy guns
- And all of the category-specific damage perks like Shotgun Surgeon, Gunslinger, etc
Math Wrath blows away the competition for its excellent scaling, no-nonsense damage improvements, and broadly applicability. Slap it on any combat build ASAP!
Side Note: Math Wrath does not technically improve unarmed damage directly. However, weapon finishers and power attacks done WITH your weapon still enjoy the +30 bonus!
#2 – Educated
Level 4 Required
Educated might seem like an unusual damage pick at first glance. However, the additional skill points it grants every level are invaluable for meeting weapons skill prerequisites faster.
An extra 60 skill points spread across your playthrough from Educated enables earlier specialization into ideal weapons for your build. That means deadlier gear and perks unlock much sooner!
For example, meeting the 90 Repair requirement for Weapon Handling at level 8 rather than level 12 accelerates a gunslinger build tremendously. Earlier access to additional critical chance and tighter shotgun spreads then indirectly pumps damage numbers higher quicker.
The benefits of faster skill ranks cannot be understated. Absolute must-have perk in the first half of all playthroughs!
#3 – Better Criticals
Level 24, 8 Luck Required
Scoring Critical Hits in V.A.T.S. already doubles your damage output when they trigger. The aptly named Better Criticals perk increases critical hit damage by a whopping 50%. Instead of just 2X, your criticals now deal 2.5X normal damage, overall a +25% critical damage increase!
Combining Better Criticals with perks like Finesse that raise critical chance gives a probability-based damage hike. The more likely criticals occur, the more their amplified impact benefits you.
Certain weapons like the snide .22 SMG have Lucky legendary mods that greatly raise critical chance as well. All synergies point to further weapon critical destruction!
#4 – Lady Killer
Level 2 Required
Alright, I know what you might be thinking…
How does a perk that just makes me sound sexier actually help me slay my enemies better? 🤨
Well, hold that thought! Lady Killer (and its twin perk Black Widow) grant +10% damage against opponents of the opposite sex.
That might still seem paltry on its own until realizing that many human enemies are male in the Mojave wasteland. Not to mention menacing creatures like the iconic Deathclaws and Night Stalkers.
With Lady Killer, a female courier enjoys a flat +10% damage dealt against:
- Most raiders, fiends, vipers, Jackals, convicts
- Rival couriers
- All Legion members
- House‘s Securitron robots
- Ghouls are technically genderless now, but used to be male humans after all…
- The list goes on…
Situational? Perhaps – but a free +10% damage vs. scores of enemies is wonderful supplementary offense.
Oh, and the Confirmed Bachelor perk gives +10% damage against other males if you prefer gentlemanly company! 😉👍
#5 – Shotgun Surgeon
Level 12, 60 Guns Skill Required
Time to look at category-specific damage! Shotgun Surgeon increases damage with shotguns and standard shot ammunition by 10% per rank for a total of +30% bonus at 3 out of 3 ranks.
The tighter shot spread granted also dramatically increases pellet hit probability within optimal range. Combined with And Stay Back’s chance to knock down on hit, Shotty Surgeons become relentless battlefield mowers.
Now let’s examine how impactful that full +30% actually is with an example!
Here are the average damages per shot dealt across common shotguns before and after Shotgun Surgeon:
| Weapon | Damage | Surgeon Bonus | Damage With Perk | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single Shotgun | 60 | +18 | 78 | +30% |
| Caravan Shotgun | 84 | +25 | 109 | +30% |
| Hunting Shotgun | 120 | +36 | 156 | +30% |
Pumping out 30% more pain per trigger pull adds up swiftly!
Shotgun Surgeon is thus highly recommended for any shotgun aficionados.
#6 – Lord Death
Level 24, 8 Endurance Required
Lord Death grants escalating resistance to physical and energy damage each rank:
- 6% at rank 1
- 12% at rank 2
- 20% ultimate damage resistance at rank 3
Reducing incoming damage by 20% effectively works like raising your HP by 25%! The perfect offensive-defensive balance for survivability while maintaining firepower.
Now while shotguns and explosives benefit most from close in fighting, they‘re also exposing users to reciprocal damage more often. By dampening those threats significantly, Lord Death enables much more aggressive play at close ranges.
The difference just 1-2 more blasts or enemy swings endured can make is substantial. And since Lord Death lowers ALL non-radiation damage types, it provides excellent well-rounded protection no matter the foe faced.
#7 – Splash Damage
Level 22, 6 Strength Required
Explosives become exponentially more destructive tools of obliteration with the Splash Damage perk. Each rank increases splash damage radii of explosives by 1 foot up to an incredible +3 foot total spread at 3 out of 3 ranks!
But why does wider explosive spread matter damage-wise?
More affected targets per blast equals more overall damage dealt! Having fragmentation grenades and missiles impact multiple grouped up enemies is a godsend.
In addition, bonus damage is conferred per Splash Damage rank to both impact hits and resulting explosion damage separately:
- +20% damage at rank 1
- +30% damage at rank 2
- A whopping +50% explosion damage at max rank!
Combining those separate direct hit and splash damage increases creates some downright disrespectful area of effect detonations:
Splash Damage 3/3 Affect On Frag Grenade:
| Damage Type | Damage Per Nade |
|---|---|
| Impact Hit | +20% |
| Explosion | +50% |
| Splash Radius | +3 feet |
Simply put, Splash Damage allows demolitions experts to rain supreme explosive punishment across more widespread areas.
#8 – Piercing Strike
Level 28, 6 Strength Required
Bladed melee builds benefit tremendously from Piercing Strike. It adds +5 damage per rank to blade attacks including:
- Standard Knives
- Straight razors
- Rippers
- Thermic lances
- Chainsaws
- Light switches?! (Shout outs to Old World Blues)
At 3 ranks that tallies up to +15 more damage per swing, a very welcome flat boost for edged implements.
But the namesake piercing effect is arguably even more impactful. Piercing Strike reduces enemy DT (damage threshold) by 5 points per rank. This allows your attacks to bypass damage resistance more effectively to inflict TRUE raw damage.
Many heavily armored foes in Fallout New Vegas have high DT scores. Trying to hack away with dinky combat knifes would be an annoying, fruitless endeavor.
However, by Level 28 with Piercing Strike, suddenly that ripper chews apart Enclave Remnants and lobotomites with ease!
#9 – Grunt/Cowboy
Grunt – Level 6, Guns 45 Required
Cowboy – Level 6, Guns 45 Required
These classic damage boosters confer hefty bonuses to their respective weapon categories:
Grunt:
- +5% damage with pistols and submachine guns
- +15% damage with assault rifles, sniper rifles, miniguns and other heavy guns
Cowboy:
+25% damage with revolvers, lever-action guns, dynamite and knives
The choice depends mostly on preference given Grunt supports automatic weapons while Cowboy favors traditional Old West arms plus explosives and blades.
But their damage upgrades are undeniably potent – granting at minimum +25% and upwards of +35% additional offense!
#10 – Light Touch
Level 22, 8 Luck Required
Light Touch nudges crit-crafted pistol and unarmed builds into serious damage contention. Requirements are steep at level 22 and 8 Luck but perfectly attainable.
At rank 1, +4 damage and tighter spread offered to holdout weapons like machine pistols and shotgun-pistol hybrids.
Rank 2 confers +25% critical damage, vastly improving those lucky V.A.T.S 10mm headshots!
And the capstone benefit at rank 3 grants +2% crit chance AND removes recoil sway from close and personal unarmed attacks.
Properly specialized builds wielding guns akimbo or jabbing Power Fist detonations capitalize on all of Light Touch’s significant benefits.
The loss of sway and recoil in particular helps land many more crits or meaty haymakers. Lucrative skill checks also become easier for speech mains with higher crit frequencies!
In Conclusion
I believe these 10 wonderful perks comprise the definitive Fallout: New Vegas dream team for their incredible combat performance. Their powerful advantages unlock achievement of the highest damage capacities possible.
Obviously personal preferences and playstyles may change depending on whether one prefers automatic rifles vs explosives and melee for example. But the damage upgrades highlighted suit nearly any weapons-focused build.
Hopefully new players can leverage these recommendations to amplify their killing potential tremendously on first runs! Veterans likely already know many of New Vegas’ best perks but may discover some hidden gems not on their radar as well.
I‘ve accumulated hundreds of hours across 10+ playthroughs and can absolutely vouch for these perks optimizing combat to feel deeply gratifying. Your journey through the Mojave enormously benefits from their incredible effects!
Pair some of these decisive damage dealers together and enemies better watch their backs! No one escapes your wrath. Happy hunting partners! 🤠👍
