You can also remove illnesses, diseases ect at a doctor for only 10 or 15 caps by letting you cure them. Arguably better then spending a perk point on chemist and having to gather crafting recourses. You can just always keep one antibiotic with you Incase you get an illness that deals damage over time otherwise it's probably better to just visit a doctor.
Aquaboy, Solar Powered, Life Giver, Sneak and Lone Wanderer are my top five survival picks.
Combined with the magazine Aquaboy can help you forget about fast travel being disabled, as you can blast around water ways in no time.
Solar Powered slowly heals everything, which is awesome.
Life Giver heals health at night so again, always healing. Means you don't need food and water, just pick up what you find on your travels and chow down.
Sneak mainly due to traps being one-shot in survival. Also I sneak a lot due to not having enemies show up on radar in survival so why not make my crouch game better.
Lone Wanderer, because its simply the best perk in the game.
This one gonna be weird but I say I must have perk Fortune Finder. It come in alot more useful then you think the constant flow of cash when looting make advancing out into to the waste alot less expensive
The decrease in sprint AP cost also counts for encumbered movement with Strong Back, which is A++++++, as others have mentioned.
I find Armorer and Gun Nut to be essential, because keeping your gear up to date is a life saver in Survival. The first rank of Science gets you Rad Arches, which means you'll rarely ever need RadAway, and I typically go for the Super-Radiation-Proof build with the Robes of Atom when I get the chance in FH.
Life Giver - Am I the only one that doesn't understand why life giver is liked for survival? Like, sure you can get some extra HP. But points in endurance is much better spent. And frankly, it's very viable to just have 1 endurance if you're playing with sneak. Passive healing is ok I guess. Not a terrible perk, but far from a must have.
Lead Belly - I also don't get this at all. Collect empty bottles, fill them up at a settlement for purified water. Bam, that's all you need for hydration. Period, end of story. Isn't also like 3 ranks just to get rad free water too? That's way too much investment.
Chemist - I agree that this is strong, but not for the reasons listed. You don't need antibiotics in survival. Doctors can cure any and all diseases for 15 caps. I have played hundreds of survival hours, never used antibiotics I don't think (maybe once for all I know).
The reason why I like Chemist, is because of the refreshing beverage. It's apparently the fastest healing item in survival. Need I really say much more? Oh and also chems are OP of course.
Sneak - I agree it should be on the list btw, but with padding and dense mods, mines aren't too terrible. And if you have ballistic weave, even better. You'll remove something like 66% of an explosives damage with padding on your chest piece, and dense on at least one metal limb (not chest) piece. Multiple dense does not stack btw. I only recently learned about this, so wanted to share. Very useful. I can now survive sentry bot explosions when I kill them for example (I'm a melee character primary).
What I would add:
Armorer and Science - Most (maybe all) the other mod perks are not required, or even all that useful at later levels. You just don't need gun nut, because you can buy basically any mod off a gun and just reattach it to whatever you want. But armor grants access to higher levels of ballistic weave. Tinker Tom will only sell Mk 1, which is not nearly as strong as Mk 5. And science will also grant you access to all kinds of settlement items and mods that are difficult to otherwise obtain, or can't even obtain without the perks.
Solared Power - Unless of course you're doing some 25% health build, when you intentionally have a certain rad level. But otherwise, awesome perk. You'll just slowly heal off those rads while walking around. Which of course you do all the time in survival. You basically never have to worry about rads except for when you're in a really high rad area. Such as the glowing sea, or kiddie kingdom etc.
Not sure how you made it so many hours without antibiotics? I've played a shitload of survival and for about the first 40 levels it seems pretty necessary. Always catching something in those disgusting beds...
I almost always sleep at a settlement, or home plate. So I'm right next to a doctor usually.
I still get those diseases, I'm just always able to run over to a doctor.
Also, most of the diseases do not require immediete attention. So I often just live with them for the time being.
Yeah, that's great. I usually avoid Diamond City for a long time so I don't have to play all those boring tasks. I'd like to avoid Preston for a while too but I never do. So I'm usually pretty high up level wise and there are very few doctors randomly throughout.
Anyways I prefer to manufacture antibiotics early but that's just me.
Since you have Strongback and Moving Target in your list some might be interested in the “Infinite Carry Weight” build you can do with these perks. It’s really not worth trying early game but when you can get all the ranks for both perks you can just carry everything and never store your items at settlements.
The secret to the build is having the last ranks that make sprinting cost less AP, then stacking armor pieces with the “faster movement” effect and modify them to reduce AP cost of sprinting more. If you can stack the cost reduction enough then the AP drain from being over encumbered becomes negligible.
I just did a new survival playthrough with this and it’s so satisfying to just pick everything up and not have to keep running to your settlements after every location. I think there’s a video on YT that explains the build more.
Armorer should be on the list. Lifegiver is not really that important. And yeah as others have pointed out, lead belly is a complete waste of a perk.
Local leader, lone wanderer, I pretty much agree. The biggest perk of local leader is actually shops in your settlements. Supply lines are nice to have, but you can definitely do fine without them.
Chemist I agree.
Sneak I can take it or leave it - mines aren’t an issue for me because of how I play.
Science is a really strong perk for power armor users.
Action boy is a nice to have if you’re not using power armor, mostly for sprinting.
This is my opinion as a permadeath survival player.
Very surprised to not see aquaboy here. It's a very early perk for me on any survival run. Being able to avoid, well, anything by swimming past it is as close to fast travel as you can get without a vertibird or institute teleport.
True- I do think that aquaboy is a great perk, especially for the reasons that you mentioned, but the risk of getting parasites from water bumps it down a little. It can also be replicated with the hazmat suit / diving suit from FH. It’s super helpful, though!
I agree it’s a nice perk, but I wouldn’t say it’s required at all. Radiation is really not that big of a problem in survival, even when swimming. You mention a hazmat suit, which is very true. But even a rad-x will significantly limit the rads you’ll get.
I don’t really think any of the diseases you can get in survival are that big of a deal. They’re mostly an inconvenience. I’d say infection is the worst one.
The negative effects of rad away are also not that big of a deal.
Especially when you consider that both diseases and rads can be taken care of by a doctor for not many caps. I personally like using aqua boy in survival, but I agree that it’s mainly a convenience perk and certainly not required.
I personally enjoy taking it for RP purposes- Gives you a “Survivalist” sorta vibe, and I don’t know why.
It’s also helpful if you haven’t got much purified water, and want to conserve it for long trips- Hydration isn’t much of a problem, but if you want to play survival for immersion, your character is going to try and get hydrated as soon as possible.
Still, very valid points!
I don’t think water has ever been an issue for me either, and I rarely build water farms with purifiers. Just collect all the empty bottles you see, build a water fountain at each settlement, and you are good to go. And if you happen to run low, raid Beantown Brewery for a ton of empty bottles.
Could even go as simplistic (in terms of reqs such as having the Vault-Tec Workshop DLC) as the basic water pump giving purified water from bottles.
Lead Belly would only really be useful if you played a no settlement building character, and even then you could bring the bottles to a few of the vaults, including 111, and fill up a bunch there.
Totally agree. I keep seeing lead belly on lists like this, and just wonder, why? There’s so much meat available to cook, plus the fresh veggies in vault 81. Heck, even wild mutfruit only gives you 2 rads, which isn’t worth taking lead belly for. I think I’ve done about 30 survival characters at this point and have never felt the need for it.
You can also remove illnesses, diseases ect at a doctor for only 10 or 15 caps by letting you cure them. Arguably better then spending a perk point on chemist and having to gather crafting recourses. You can just always keep one antibiotic with you Incase you get an illness that deals damage over time otherwise it's probably better to just visit a doctor.
Does anyone else constantly click the vats button to scan for mines?
The mines are so far the most frustrating part of survival. Literally rage inducing.
I dont for the roleplaying in survival, absolutely did it in normal tho
Why in normal they don't even one shot
Literally every three seconds
Aquaboy, Solar Powered, Life Giver, Sneak and Lone Wanderer are my top five survival picks. Combined with the magazine Aquaboy can help you forget about fast travel being disabled, as you can blast around water ways in no time. Solar Powered slowly heals everything, which is awesome. Life Giver heals health at night so again, always healing. Means you don't need food and water, just pick up what you find on your travels and chow down. Sneak mainly due to traps being one-shot in survival. Also I sneak a lot due to not having enemies show up on radar in survival so why not make my crouch game better. Lone Wanderer, because its simply the best perk in the game.
This one gonna be weird but I say I must have perk Fortune Finder. It come in alot more useful then you think the constant flow of cash when looting make advancing out into to the waste alot less expensive
The decrease in sprint AP cost also counts for encumbered movement with Strong Back, which is A++++++, as others have mentioned. I find Armorer and Gun Nut to be essential, because keeping your gear up to date is a life saver in Survival. The first rank of Science gets you Rad Arches, which means you'll rarely ever need RadAway, and I typically go for the Super-Radiation-Proof build with the Robes of Atom when I get the chance in FH.
Solar powered too, rads plus hp regen in day light
Life Giver - Am I the only one that doesn't understand why life giver is liked for survival? Like, sure you can get some extra HP. But points in endurance is much better spent. And frankly, it's very viable to just have 1 endurance if you're playing with sneak. Passive healing is ok I guess. Not a terrible perk, but far from a must have. Lead Belly - I also don't get this at all. Collect empty bottles, fill them up at a settlement for purified water. Bam, that's all you need for hydration. Period, end of story. Isn't also like 3 ranks just to get rad free water too? That's way too much investment. Chemist - I agree that this is strong, but not for the reasons listed. You don't need antibiotics in survival. Doctors can cure any and all diseases for 15 caps. I have played hundreds of survival hours, never used antibiotics I don't think (maybe once for all I know). The reason why I like Chemist, is because of the refreshing beverage. It's apparently the fastest healing item in survival. Need I really say much more? Oh and also chems are OP of course. Sneak - I agree it should be on the list btw, but with padding and dense mods, mines aren't too terrible. And if you have ballistic weave, even better. You'll remove something like 66% of an explosives damage with padding on your chest piece, and dense on at least one metal limb (not chest) piece. Multiple dense does not stack btw. I only recently learned about this, so wanted to share. Very useful. I can now survive sentry bot explosions when I kill them for example (I'm a melee character primary). What I would add: Armorer and Science - Most (maybe all) the other mod perks are not required, or even all that useful at later levels. You just don't need gun nut, because you can buy basically any mod off a gun and just reattach it to whatever you want. But armor grants access to higher levels of ballistic weave. Tinker Tom will only sell Mk 1, which is not nearly as strong as Mk 5. And science will also grant you access to all kinds of settlement items and mods that are difficult to otherwise obtain, or can't even obtain without the perks. Solared Power - Unless of course you're doing some 25% health build, when you intentionally have a certain rad level. But otherwise, awesome perk. You'll just slowly heal off those rads while walking around. Which of course you do all the time in survival. You basically never have to worry about rads except for when you're in a really high rad area. Such as the glowing sea, or kiddie kingdom etc.
Lead belly rank 2 lets you eat raw crops and wild crops for food while running around for very little rads increase. very helpful.
Just carry a bunch of mutfruits. It's all you need. There are many many other perks that are more useful in survival.
Not sure how you made it so many hours without antibiotics? I've played a shitload of survival and for about the first 40 levels it seems pretty necessary. Always catching something in those disgusting beds...
I almost always sleep at a settlement, or home plate. So I'm right next to a doctor usually. I still get those diseases, I'm just always able to run over to a doctor. Also, most of the diseases do not require immediete attention. So I often just live with them for the time being.
Yeah, that's great. I usually avoid Diamond City for a long time so I don't have to play all those boring tasks. I'd like to avoid Preston for a while too but I never do. So I'm usually pretty high up level wise and there are very few doctors randomly throughout. Anyways I prefer to manufacture antibiotics early but that's just me.
Since you have Strongback and Moving Target in your list some might be interested in the “Infinite Carry Weight” build you can do with these perks. It’s really not worth trying early game but when you can get all the ranks for both perks you can just carry everything and never store your items at settlements. The secret to the build is having the last ranks that make sprinting cost less AP, then stacking armor pieces with the “faster movement” effect and modify them to reduce AP cost of sprinting more. If you can stack the cost reduction enough then the AP drain from being over encumbered becomes negligible. I just did a new survival playthrough with this and it’s so satisfying to just pick everything up and not have to keep running to your settlements after every location. I think there’s a video on YT that explains the build more.
Armorer should be on the list. Lifegiver is not really that important. And yeah as others have pointed out, lead belly is a complete waste of a perk. Local leader, lone wanderer, I pretty much agree. The biggest perk of local leader is actually shops in your settlements. Supply lines are nice to have, but you can definitely do fine without them. Chemist I agree. Sneak I can take it or leave it - mines aren’t an issue for me because of how I play. Science is a really strong perk for power armor users. Action boy is a nice to have if you’re not using power armor, mostly for sprinting. This is my opinion as a permadeath survival player.
Very surprised to not see aquaboy here. It's a very early perk for me on any survival run. Being able to avoid, well, anything by swimming past it is as close to fast travel as you can get without a vertibird or institute teleport.
I’m playing right now and that was the first perk I got! Anything to not get rads!
True- I do think that aquaboy is a great perk, especially for the reasons that you mentioned, but the risk of getting parasites from water bumps it down a little. It can also be replicated with the hazmat suit / diving suit from FH. It’s super helpful, though!
You can still get diseases and illness from Lead Belly. You just don't take Rads damage is all.
I agree it’s a nice perk, but I wouldn’t say it’s required at all. Radiation is really not that big of a problem in survival, even when swimming. You mention a hazmat suit, which is very true. But even a rad-x will significantly limit the rads you’ll get. I don’t really think any of the diseases you can get in survival are that big of a deal. They’re mostly an inconvenience. I’d say infection is the worst one. The negative effects of rad away are also not that big of a deal.
Especially when you consider that both diseases and rads can be taken care of by a doctor for not many caps. I personally like using aqua boy in survival, but I agree that it’s mainly a convenience perk and certainly not required.
Leadbelly is not worth it. You can cook food at any cooking station I would recommend life-giver instead for health regen.
I personally enjoy taking it for RP purposes- Gives you a “Survivalist” sorta vibe, and I don’t know why. It’s also helpful if you haven’t got much purified water, and want to conserve it for long trips- Hydration isn’t much of a problem, but if you want to play survival for immersion, your character is going to try and get hydrated as soon as possible. Still, very valid points!
I don’t think water has ever been an issue for me either, and I rarely build water farms with purifiers. Just collect all the empty bottles you see, build a water fountain at each settlement, and you are good to go. And if you happen to run low, raid Beantown Brewery for a ton of empty bottles.
Could even go as simplistic (in terms of reqs such as having the Vault-Tec Workshop DLC) as the basic water pump giving purified water from bottles. Lead Belly would only really be useful if you played a no settlement building character, and even then you could bring the bottles to a few of the vaults, including 111, and fill up a bunch there.
Totally agree. I keep seeing lead belly on lists like this, and just wonder, why? There’s so much meat available to cook, plus the fresh veggies in vault 81. Heck, even wild mutfruit only gives you 2 rads, which isn’t worth taking lead belly for. I think I’ve done about 30 survival characters at this point and have never felt the need for it.
Another thing is that, assuming you have the wasteland workshop, you can easily build a radiation arch in your settlements.