Jury Rigging, Cannibal, and Hand Loader.
Never pay for repairs, never go hungry, never run out of exceptional ammunitions.

-Cowboy: My Trail Carbine with .44 SWC's, Lucky with .357 JFP, the Ranger Sequoia, and the Brush Gun give me one-hitter quitters in VATS against all human enemies.

The only perk I always take no matter what run I have done so far is Cannabalism

Essential Perks:

Primary:

Jury Rigging--use cheap crap to fix expensive stuff... best perk evar!

Cowboy--25% damage bonus to knives/hatchets, Lever guns/revolvers, and dynamite... Only dirty commies don't like doing it the cowboy way!!!

Hand Loader--load your own! Rare ammo is a thing of the past!!! Actually makes the most powerful weapons in the game useful.

Companion Perks:

Whiskey Rose--drink booze and get buffs to strength, charisma, and DT with NO DOWNSIDE... Plus you get to hangout with Cass!

-Cowboy
-Hand Loader
-Entomologist
-Toughness x2


Those are my most picked so far. Repair cost are currently too cheap for Jury Rigger to be worth the perk slot. Maybe if weapons melted in your hands like in FO3 it would be worth it or the cost of the repairs where 10x the current cost. Nerfing Weapon Repair Kits would help also.

Bloody Mess. I just have to. Every single time. It gives me a cheap thrill every time I free snipe somthing and it pops. I still love it, every single time.

The Professional. Certainly not the best or most powerful perk around, but just cool.

I'm currently liking Travel Light for my unarmed gal. The faster run in light armor lets you get into cover nice and quick and step right into punching range without taking many hits.

Last playthrough I tried the unarmed perk where you knock enemies down (I forget the name) and it was awesome/overpowered. You can beat Deathclaws with Love and Hate. This time I'm going to really try to learn the Ranger Takedown so I can save the perk for something else...

Hunter is pretty cool. 75% is a big jump for any damage. I'm also getting into other benefits of the Survival skill... Tanned hides are worth a lot o' caps, and cooked food works better for the weight. It's a pretty good addition to the RPG aspect of the game, and it opens your eyes to the plant life around.

Fast Reload is great, especially for the lever rifles. Those things are great to shoot with, but agonizingly slow to load.

Bloody mess is my favourite. Explode into a red, gut-ridden, eyeball-strewn paste...Its beautiful

Shotgun Surgeon with a Hunting Shotgun. :fallout: