Fallout 3 | Perks Tier List 

Ghoul Ecology doesn’t give you +5% damage with all weapons, it gives you a flat +5 damage to all weapons, which is even better, meaning a lot of low-damage automatic weapons such as the minigun are ridiculously good.

Paralyzing Palm should get its own tier. For the record, you don't actually need to be completely unarmed to use it, just have an unarmed weapon equipped. It is my absolute favorite way to play Fallout 3 and yes it is extremely OP. This perk + a Deathclaw Gauntlet makes the game into easy mode. And this perk + a Deathclaw Gauntlet AND the Ninja perk just negates everything

I personally think educated is at least B since you can get a true perfect character with it. Also, ghoul ecology and superior defender add +5 each to EVERY BULLET, not just dps, so that means with automatic weapons or a combat shotgun you will be doing way more damage. edit: fixed some wording

FO3 perks are sloppy. You are forced to waste perk slots on bs perks early game and some builds feel like they're not worth it when you can just use small guns and breeze through everything.

+10% DR with toughness = S tier +10% DR + bonuses with Cyborg = A tier wut

Fans: Bethesda, these “perks” that increase skill points are garbage, please don’t add them to another fallout game ever again… Bethesda: we hear you fans! We are never adding skill points to any fallout game (that we specifically make) ever again! Fans: oh thank- wait WHAT THE *F-*

The two perks that let you redo locked out computers and picklocks that's you tried to force would of been a good way to have some hidden stuff like just have some places where the locks are broke or computers are locked out and the perk would let you retry

A fun strategy is using the unique Alien Blaster, Firelance, with Better Criticals, Pyromaniac, and the Xenotech Expert. It tunrs the blaster into a great nuke option.

I woukd rate Scrounger considerably higher than Fortune Finder, at least low B Tier. Fortune Finder is just a 10% chance to add extra caps to containers. Scrounger makes all containers effectively roll for ammo twice, and those rolls are not mutually exclusive, meaning you statistically get twice as much ammo. Selling that ammo is a far more consistent source of caps than Fortune Finder. It also means you find more alien power cells in all the containers they show up in.

Cyborg is just better toughness

I once had to take Explorer because after completing Point Lookout and returning to the Capital Wasteland, all locations I've discovered completely disappeared for some reason. I wasn't pleased

Wow, I did not ever expect something like this from you, Ron. Can’t wait to watch this!

5 seconds in and i predict grim reaper sprint is #1, being able to dump all your ap into someones head and guarantee a kill each time with high crit is nuts edit: also the one that gives extra skill points, i forgot the name lol

Educated gives you +3 skill points per level to put in whatever you want, comprehension gives you an additional point per skill book, educated give you the points to put in the skills you want and comprehension puts them in set skills. Educated is better

Ghoul ecology is not 5% to all damage Its a flat +5 to all damage like superior defender. This is very usefull on fast DPS weapons like Fully Automatic Rifles and Machine Guns that have low damage per bullet like minigun that hits for 5 damage per bullet with those 2 perks its damage jumps to 15 damage per bullet prior all damage increasing perks and unique weapon variants. Thats 300% increase in damage not 5% you mentioned.

lawbringer is pretty decent imo, especially if you're hard-up for money and exploring a lot. maintaining very good karma and wiping out enclave soldiers, talon company mercs, slavers and raiders nets you 15 caps per kill essentially. you can make thousands of caps just fast-traveling around the map and doming low-level NPCs. contract killer, on the other hand, sucks because the only source of "good" non-unique NPCs are brotherhood members and regulators, which never spawn as frequently as talon company mercs.

I read on the wiki that the perk you get for destroying harolds heart gives you a flat +5 dr, not +5% its a good bit better than youve described in that case.

Honestly, I think No Weaknesses does have a niche use. If you dumped an attribute to something like 2 where it would take multiple Intensive Trainings to get to 5, and there's a perk that requires 5 in that attribute that you want, No Weaknesses is a quick way to get the requirements for that perk in one go. Or if you need 6 in an attribute then use No Weaknesses and a rank of Intensive Training. So you know, not applicable to most playthroughs, but still enough of a niche that I think the perk should be more of a C-/D+ lol

Why is Cyborg lower than Toughness when they give you similar Damage Resist but you get additional benefits from Cyborg. (Cyborg is one of my favorite perks. The flavor is on point and it provides more bonuses than most perks period. Plus Energy weapons are insane in this game.)

21:19 I strongly disagree with Lawbringer being D-Tier, it's closer to being in B-Tier considering how often you run into raiders (which count as evil). Not only do you get fingers from evil people, you also get the special raider that gives 1 000 caps when you give his finger to the regulators (I also think he carries a unique hunting spiked knuckles called Plunkett's Valid Points, he is in the same building as the luck booblehead is). Only way Id agree with Lawbringer being D-Tier is if you are hellbent on playing a evil run, in that case it doesn't help to get good karma from cashing in on killing evil characters.

How come you put toughness (+10% DR) in S and cyborg (+10% DR, RR, PR and 10 points EW) in A?

This makes me so glad that i played fallout 3 through tales of two wastelands, cause all those perks that just gave you skill points instead had actual effects, like daddy's boy lowering the amount of options in terminals

Scoundrel, gun nut and cannibal can also unlock unique dialogs not mentioned in their descriptions. Thought I'd mention that at least since they're F tier

The main problem with nuclear anomaly is that, why would you take it when almost perfect is right there

The best thing about ghoul ecology is that it inadvertently benefits automatic weapons the most, which were the weakest type of weapon in my experience, with this, Eugene and the heavy incinerator become great, the Destabiliser becomes less of a waste of rare ammo, the Assault Rifles are actually usable, and Vengeance is fucking insane,

A solid use for the Puppies! perk is that you can perfrom an exploit that allows you have every companion in the game follow you which is neat. So it has a really good use, but for it's general (i.e the way it's intended to be used) I agree it's pretty niche.

I think albinos scorpion in Fallout 3 are among the top 3 of the hardest creature. I think entomologist deserve at least an A.

I personally wouldn't put Concentrated Fire any higher than C-Tier. Any V.A.T.S. attack that would normally have at least a 55% headshot accuracy or a 69% bodyshot accuracy will reach the cap of 95% accuracy if you have the perks Wired Reflexes, Gunslinger, Commando, and Sniper. This means that you won't see any benefit from the perk outside of mid-to-long range. I'm also pretty sure that Concentrated Fire's accuracy bonuses are additions at the end of the accuracy formula, so they aren't boosted by the multiplicative bonuses of the aforementioned perks. As you can have a permanent maximum of 110 Action Points, the only weapons that can consistently fire more than 4 times in a row in V.A.T.S. are the 10mm SMG, the 10mm Pistol, the .32 Pistol, the Chinese Pistol, the Laser Rifle, and every one-handed Energy Weapon aside from the Mesmetron. This means that most of the game's more powerful weapons will not see an accuracy boost higher than 15% outside of using temporary enhancements such as Jet, Ledoux's Hockey Mask, and the Tribal Power Armor. Another issue comes with the fact that the accuracy bonus does not affect the first attack queued, which is the most important for dealing sneak attack criticals.

One thing i learned from this video, in fallout 3, do not up the big guns skill because there is a respawnable book for it...

Old video but I look forward to seeing a fall out 4 and 76 perk list too

The only real use no weaknesses has is as a way to unlock access to other perks you were locked out of if you didn't have the SPECIAL stats for them.

23:52 There are also "code snippets" that when you click on them, either remove a dud or refresh your allowed attempts. It can be worth going for that instead of rebooting the computer if you are very close to guessing the password right (like having 5/7 letters right).

Here and Now is not even D tier. It should be F tier at least

Ever since I played through FNV's Dead Money DLC, I've leaned towards not taking Light Step just because this particular Fallout DLC essentially trains you to save scum through the more difficult sections of the Villa or the Sierra Madre. For Fallout 3, I lack the gamer discipline to not abuse this technique in my revisit playthroughs viz., going to Minefield to harvest frag mines early game for Moira. With that said, good job on the sorting. I'm approaching lvl 30 (again for probably the tenth time(!)) and can't decide what to dump my last perks into.

Silent Running is S tier when paired with the chinese stealth suit: you become literally undetectable. Only by literally running into an enemy, are they able to detect you, otherwise you can walk in circles around them without any concern.

Who DOESN’T take bloody mess???

Animal Friend is broken: Even at the first level of the perk animals can run over and fight for you.

Scrounger is really good for mothership zeta you get so many more alien power modules

Cannibal is a good perl. B tier for me. You Can eat and restore HP for free. You never got the problem of stimpack

Damn most of the perks lowkey sucks😂

I think little leaguer should be in S tier because you cant larp as a pro baseball player without it

Hi there. I bought the Deluxe Edition Fo3. I watched this video up til the dlc perks. I was hoping someone could recommend to me when is a good point to start the DLC’s. I’m worried about two things. Either starting them too early and being too hard for me. And two, if I should wait until late late game, fearing that I’ll make the base game too easy. Should I finish base game, then do DLC in a second playthrough, if I want a pure base game experience? I’m also struggling to decide how to proceed in FoNV, if anyone could recommend the best order in that game for when to do DLC’s. Thx 😊

Paralyzing palm is so broken, very handy against albinos and overlords

6:53 Considering the absurd amount of skillbooks for each skill, id agree that Educated is weaker than comprehension.

What's up with this dude's stim wizardry? He doesn't take Fast Metabolism, Adamantium Skeleton, or Light Step. And, somehow he's stacked with stims? I couldn't go 2 fights without me stepping on some mine, or some dude shooting me with a grenade or missile

lawbringer is ok if you want to collect all unique weapons in the game.

Fortune finder is d teir if you are using the cap glitch

How on earth is Toughness better than Cyborg?

I like to get only meme perks to make the game harder lol

Compared to New Vegas, what I love about Fallout 3’s Perks is not only that you can get one every level (30 total Vs. 15/25), but you seldom run into any wasted Perk slots. - I always just mainlined Intense Training 3-4x to get STR and INT to 10, so I can make Melee Weapons & Unarmed more viable early game while leveling up faster. - Chemist isn’t as busted in FO3 versus in New Vegas, but it’s still an essential Perk here like in FNV! - 3x Demolition Expert to make full use of the Fat Man and Frag Grenades 🤟🏽 - Ninja if I went for a Stealth & Melee/Unarmed Build or Grim Reaper’s Sprint due to how overpowered it was in FO3; couple GRS with Action Boy/Girl and 10 AGI then you’re set for a VATS Only playthrough! - Educated is A LOT more useful in FO3 vs FNV since the lack of levels even after Broken Steel means you’re gonna be pressed to find Skill Books left and right to really get the most of your playstyle…and also get Comprehension if you plan to get 100 in everything (easier than you’d think) - Animal Friend is almost more busted in FO3 vs how peaceful it makes the Mojave Wasteland in FNV, so I recommend it if you’re not a wet blanket that uses CHR as a Dump Stat - Almost Perfect @ Level 30 + all SPECIAL Bobbleheads is definitely a great way to end your playthrough. - Contract Killer and Regulator (I forgot the name) were neat Perks that gave you more ways to play the game whilst bearing in mind how much Karma affects your perception from other NPCs/Companions - Mysterious Stranger was more viable in FO3 since the chance was much more than it was in FNV, at least in my experience lol - Strong Back is necessary in every build in any Fallout game - Fast Metabolism is pretty great in FO3 vs. in FNV, which kind of made returning Perks either unrecognizable or utterly useless at times - Silent Running was also way better in FO3, since you could literally hit the ground running with Power Armor Training after Operation Anchorage and your brand spankin’ new suit of Winterized T-51b Power Armor and SNEAK IN IT WITHOUT THE PENALTIES!!! In FNV, Sneak is still pretty busted…but Silent Running is half the Perk it used to be in 3 😢 - Pyromaniac + Shishkebab = never need to use another weapon EVER AGAIN!!! - Finesse is also essential - Toughness was pretty underpowered in FO3 versus the nearly triple effectiveness it had in FNV after two ranks…but it’s good enough to get you by until Level 10ish 😢 - Comprehension if you’re playing a dumb character. The Extra Skill Point from Skill Books is vital! - Cyborg is a more advanced version of Toughness in FO3, but they both go hand in hand 👍🏽 I could go on, but many of the best Perks are from doing the Quests in the game! Ant Might/Sight, Wasteland Survival Guide (perk effects are dependent on your choices), Wired Reflexes, Barkskin (another variant of Toughness), and Rad Regeneration (Hydra before Hydra but as a Rad-reliant Perk!)

demolition expert does not work on bottle cap mines smh

In Fo3 you can actually get a perk every level, rather than every 2

Hematophage is far more usefull in TTW especially if you are in hardcore mode it will heal you by 60 points and remove dehydration by 60 as well, i thinks its also effected by the camel of the mohave perks, Further boosting dehydration reduction.

personnally lawbringer in d tier is a bit too low. i would put it in c or b tier because you constantly kill evil enemies and by the time you realize how many finger you have. you have 10k caps

I am gonna have to disagree with your tier for lawbringer, it is a decent way to make caps compared to contract killer and I think it should be at the very most put on C tier You never run out of bad guys especially raiders but you do run out of good guys quickly.

you mixed up the names for educated and here and now but its ok

All those proves to me is fallout 3 has crappier perks a new vegas

Impartial Meditation is actually really good because in order to maintain the bonus you need to be neutral, and being neutral means no Talon Company or Regulators, which are the most common enemies you encounter randomly

How do you get lone wanderer perk?

First thought on Fallout 3 before fully watching, lots of mediocre perks because many only have skill boosts.

Unlike New Vegas, the traps are kinda meh. New Vegas always only shots you with them traps lol

Fallout 3? Terrible. Put it in D tier. Fabric of reality? D tier.

Educated is good or not?

Pro tip: If you want views on your video, DON'T stack twelve advertisements in It. Can't watch.

comprehension is really fucking bad. You should never pick Comprehension since bobbleheads are really easy to get if you're an experienced player.

I think you should have added an F Tier, too much in D Tier. And Educated is S Tier for me I pick it every build (some value skillpoints more than others I guess)

If Finesse & Better Crits are not in S tier this list is trash. Good. I wasn't disappointed. 40:26 He messed up here, if your build is a 9 Luck build or lower the best armor is by far Reiley's Rangers or Chinese Stealth Suit. Power Armor sucks, it ruins stealth, the defense system based on a flat % where 75 or 85% is the cap is trash & this is the reason why New Vegas came up with the DR system & why FO4 pretty much did something similar. Armor matters the least of any Fallout game in FO3. Defense is one of the most useless stats in this game because Bethseda is inept. You are better off wearing the Vault Utility suit early game, or wasteland wanderer playing stealth then upgrading to the Chinese Stealth Suit.

Fallout 3 perks were so bad.

I would rank Swift Learner in B tier. Hear me out: I feel like you’re not considering competition or availability with these perks. Lv 2-3 perks include: Black Widow/Lady Killer Swift Learner Intense Training Daddy’s girl/boy Gun Nut Thief Little Leaguer You are stuck with just these perks at lvs 2 and 3. So you have to pick something other than BW/LK. I would argue that Intense Training is a real waste with Almost Perfect in the mix, so it seems like a suboptimal use of a perk point. Skill point perks are just not good, except for Gun Nut which has the most immediate impact on combat for any character (IMO). Swift Learner becomes obsolete by level 30 but there’s literally not much else to pick. Leveling up faster means getting more perks quicker. I think it stands above the skill point perks, at least.

Ew the amount of ads.. had to watch at 2x speed Talk to slow

I wonder if getting your SPECIALs to 9 at level 3 is worth it because by then you will pretty much have conquered the game. Like what do you do? Just run around DC? Mod? Then isn’t SPECIALs irrelevant and also subject to modding? (I have never modded before)