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Fallout 4's Character System and Perks Revealed

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Today, Bethesda Game Studios posted a video and an article detailing the whole perk system that will be included in Fallout 4. The system is going to be changed drastically from its predecessors and will be able to accommodate players who want to choose different play styles. When a new game is started, the player will have 28 points to spend into their 7 SPECIAL stats. Choosing how to allocate these points is one of the first decisions the player will make in their journey, and it will be a very important one for how the player wishes their character to be early on.

The SPECIAL video series that is gradually being released shows the effect that your stats will have on the game and against certain threats. The new perk chart shows how the stats that you choose will allow you to gain certain abilities and skills. For example, if your Luck is at least 3 or higher, you will be able to unlock the "Bloody Mess" perk. However, if your luck is only at 3, you will not be able to unlock any perks that require you to have Luck at 4 or higher.

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The new perk system will be this multi-tiered chart that has new and familiar perk icons from Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas but with different requirements. Your character will still level up, but the perks will only require you to have your stats at a certain level. This means that the player will be able to access any perk at any point in the game, as long as their stat is high enough. The perk "Nerd Rage" has a requirement of 10 INT, but if you manage to get up to 10 INT early on, you can get that perk considerably earlier than you could in previous Fallout games.

Perk points will be given in the same way that they were in Fallout 3. Every time your character levels, you will be able to spend a perk point to either level up your SPECIAL stats or unlock a perk for yourself. Are you concerned about leveling speed? Don't be. Bethesda says it is "closer to Skyrim, and not as slow as Fallout 3" which means we will have additional opportunities to choose our perks and shape our character in the way that we want to. Fallout 4 will also be the first game in the entire series to not have a level cap. Bethesda claims that there will still be a challenge at higher levels, despite the lack of a cap.

Going back to the perks, there will be 70 base perks. Each individual perk will also have their own tiers to level, just like some of them did in Fallout 3. However, leveling up a perk multiple times will give a completely different effect or bonus, whereas in previous games, perks with multiple stages just gave additional skill points (+5 Medicine and +5 Repair). Intimidation (10 CHA) will have three different stages, and at each stage, the player will be able to use their charisma to influence others around them. At its first stage, the player can aim their weapon at an NPC and gain a chance to pacify their target, which could lead to instances where the player could threaten someone instead of outright killing them. The second stage will allow the player to incite their pacified target to attack others, and the third stage will unlock the ability to give them specific commands. What this will entail is not fully known, but it gives insight as to what the rest of the new perk system will contain.

The higher stages of perks will come with an actual level requirement, however. In the video that was released, it is shown that to level up Intimidation twice, the player needs to meet a level requirement of 23, and 50 for its third stage. This was likely implemented to balance how strong the player's character could be early on in the game, as being able to control other NPCs could prove to be overpowered at that point in the game.

There has also been some information released regarding the skill books, and it will feature "a 10-issue run of Grognak the Barbarian comics that each give you an additional rank of the Barbarian Perk, which raises the critical damage of melee attacks." This could potentially mean that the other skill books will take a similar approach, and the player will have to collect all of the skill books to fully level the respective perk. This addition will undoubtedly provide players with more incentive to fully explore the game so that they can unlock the entire perk chart. With a total of 270 perks in the game, players will certainly have their hands full trying to unlock all of them.



Speaking of the new perk chart, Bethesda has announced that every physical copy of Fallout 4 will come with a poster of it to put up on their wall. It has not been determined what digital copy buyers will get with their purchase, but knowing Bethesda, they will not leave fans hanging.

With Fallout 4 shipping out in just under a month and a half, how excited are you for this game? Do you like the way that the new leveling and perk system is structured? Are you going to try and get every perk for yourself and be the ultimate Vault Dweller? Let's talk about it and everything Fallout related in the comments below!

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