One of the big changes in Fallout 4 is the addition of the SPECIAL Perks system. We covered the system in detail if you’re not familiar with it, but in short it allows you to level up your character in a unique way by unlocking Perks in the Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck categories. Each category also has a set of 10 Perks that will further enhance your character’s abilities. We already covered Strength and Perception, so in this article we’ll move on to Endurance and Charisma.
Endurance
Endurance is essentially a measure of your overall physical fitness. The higher your Endurance the more options you have for food and nourishment, and the longer you’ll be able to sprint to get places or flee from enemies. In short, Endurance has an impact on your total health and the action points you lose when you sprint.
The more Endurance you have the more HP you’ll have, and the longer you can survive against a group of enemies. This is a very important stat to have, especially early on. If you don’t have much health, you won’t be able to survive long no matter how good you are at Fallout 4. Likewise, if you’re having difficulty early on, increasing your Endurance and therefore your health points can make it much easier to survive in post-apocalyptic New England.
In the Endurance category you can unlock several Perks, including Toughness, Lead Belly, Chem Resistant, Cannibal, Solar Powered and more. Toughness is very straightforward in that it simply gives you a bonus to damage resistance. If you’re having a hard time staying alive early in the game, this can be a useful Perk.
Lead Belly will allow you to consume food and other items that would otherwise be harmful to your health. You’ll also be less likely to develop addictions to various chemicals with Chem Resistant, while Cannibal will allow you to harvest human remains for your own personal use. Finally, Solar Powered will give you various bonuses when adventuring outside in the sun.
Charisma
Charisma is a unique category because it impacts your ability to barter and persuade others, as well as your ability to withstand addiction to alcohol and other drugs. While Perception can lower the prices you pay when selling and buying from vendors, when bartering with other NPCs, it’s Charisma that plays a role. The higher your Charisma, the easier it will be to barter and the better the chances are that you can get higher prices or better deals when you barter.
There are also instances in Fallout 4 when you will have multiple dialogue choices with which to persuade individuals to do what you want. The higher your Charisma, the more success you’ll have convincing these NPCs to do your bidding and the conversations will go your way more often. But the ability to persuade doesn’t stop with humans.
When you’re out in the wild you can even use your high Charisma to stop animals from attacking and convince them to take the higher ground and do your bidding. Some of the Perks you unlock in the Charisma category include Cap Collector, Lone Wanderer, Attack Dog, Animal Friend and Intimidation. Cap Collector is great if you plan on selling or buying a lot of merchandise at vendors. As you increase the rank of the Cap Collector Perk, you’ll get better prices from vendors on most items.
If you’re not planning to play with a companion to assist you, Lone Wanderer is definitely a Perk you’re going to want to rank up. You take 15 percent less damage and can carry additional weight when you’re traveling without a companion once you have this Perk active. If you rank up Intimidation you can simply point your gun at any human below your level and there’s a chance you will pacify him so you don’t have to fight.
Be sure to check back with Prima Games over the coming weeks as we cover each category in the SPECIAL Perks system. If you haven’t checked out the Strength and Perception article, you can head over there now. We’ll also have in-depth walkthroughs and guides when Fallout 4 releases on November 10, so stay tuned for more on one of the most highly anticipated games of 2015.
