By Evie Moriarty, Lead Game Designer
Photo by Fatima Martín Pérez

 

One of the mainstays of the Fallout video games has been perks: special abilities, traits, or upgrades that change how your hero interacts with the world. The new edition of Fallout: Wasteland Warfare makes them a core part of how characters grow and develop on tabletop.

 

How do I gain Perks in Fallout: Wasteland Warfare?

 

Over time, heroes and companions gain experience. This might come from mowing down enemies or completing quests. Regardless of the source, when your hero accrues enough experience, they gain a level.

When they level up, heroes are rewarded with a perk. Every three level-ups, they’ll get to increase one of their S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats instead. In addition, some models might start with a perk or two, to show how they’re particularly skilled at one thing or another. Followers, being the replaceable cannon fodder that they are, never gain experience or levels, and so the only perks they can have are the ones they start with.

 

What do Perks do in Fallout: Wasteland Warfare? 

 

The answer is honestly almost anything. Some of them give you new special actions that let you use your Charisma to charm or deceive your enemies; others let you make peace with nearby factions; still more improve your raw killing power through several different mechanisms. Instead of trying to cover all of the available perks, let’s take a look at three that we in the studio particularly like.

 

 

Junk Shield is a Luck perk that increases your physical and energy resistance at the expense of loading up your character with, well, junk. As long as your carrying capacity is full, the model gets the boost, making them that much harder to hurt. Jess, one of the designers, created a character called “Bat Man” who loaded their inventory full of baseball bats so they could run screaming at their enemies with impunity.

 

 

Cannibal is an Endurance perk which, well… uh… ahhhh, I’m sure you get the idea. It’s very helpful for healing out in the Wasteland, where food gives you a little bump of healing in exchange for some radiation sickness. I’m sure there are no awful moral implications to struggle with at all. It’s good on its own, but when you combine it with this next perk it becomes really effective…

 

 

Lead Belly means your model never suffers radiation damage when they use a consumable. Suddenly, there are no downsides to chowing down on that ass jerky, giving you a constant source of healing… assuming you can find ‘volunteers’. There are lots of synergies and combinations of perks like this, letting you craft really iconic and unusual characters that excel in ways not available to less experienced models. 

 

 

Finally (Lead Belly was a bonus!), Blacksmith is one of several perks that expand the utility of weapon mods. In this case, you can fit two mods onto a melee weapon, turning a humble baseball bat into an extremely lethal close combat killing machine. Who wants to go up against a Heavy Flaming Super Sledge? Not I! It’s in ways like this that perks interact with other systems, helping you get the edge in one of a dozen different ways as you engage more deeply with the game.

 

Since we’re talking about mods, we’ll get our McGuyver on and start modding weapons and armor! In the meantime, Fallout: Wasteland Warfare is available for preorder! If you’re still not sure, you can always take a look at the free quickstarts (UK/US). See you next time!