Fallout 4 Luck Perks

Stat Benefits and Making Use of LCK Perks

Luck is one of the 7 SPECIAL stats in Fallout 4. This stat is a bit more mysterious than the others, as people might not realize the benefit or know how much it will affect their gameplay. I've studied luck to learn just how good it is, as far as the base stat and its increased caps and ammo loot, and have some things to say about the Perks in the Luck tree. Strategically, playing a Lucky character is quite fun and I've come up with some build suggestions as well. Luck has two main purposes - the aforementioned increase in ammo and caps, with or without the perks, and an increase in the rate the critical meter fills.

Jump to a Luck Perk! - Just need the Perk ID to cheat, or want to know more about one of the Luck Perks? Click to jump to info about that perk:

• Fortune Finder
• Scrounger
• Bloody Mess
• Mysterious Stranger
• Idiot Savant
• Better Criticals
• Critical Banker
• Grim Reaper's Sprint
• Four Leaf Clover
• Ricochet

Luck Effects

Filling the Critical Meter
This affects only VATS, and the Luck Perks primarily rely on use of VATS. Having low luck, it takes many hits to fill the Critical Hit meter. The meter, when full, allows you to instantly execute a critical hit, which is guaranteed to hit even if your percentage is in the single digits. It's wonderful for lowering the number of attacking enemies quickly when you can take out a high value target or disable a limb with a single shot. I found that going from 4 to 10 Luck, my meter filled about twice as fast. It gets much, much better when you can store up multiple critical hits via Critical Banker, as you'll learn more about below.

At 12 luck, I observed that it took 4.2 shots to fill my meter, regardless of weapon speed - but bigger weapons that consume more AP per shot in V.A.T.S. typically do more damage on a critical. You could fill your meter with a fast weapon, then go for the big shot with a sniper rifle or other powerful weapon with a high crit modifier. Weapons can also be modified to deal more crit damage, and Guns and Bullets magazines will raise your critical damage along with Perks found in this tree.

Details on shots per Luck to make Critical Hits, and the Critical Damage formula can be found here.

Luck and Ammo/Caps Found
I did several runs in the same location with both low and high luck to see how this would affect the amount of ammunition I found. There were not many containers, and I was fighting ghouls, so the sample size was a bit low. Still, I was able to determine I got about double the odds of finding ammo in containers and on corpses. You can see in the screenshots above the results of two separate runs. All I had on me were shotgun shells and fusion cells so as to keep things simple.

This was a low level run, so there was not much GREAT Ammo to be found, but the odds of mini nukes and high-caliber bullets would increase with level. Therefore, I'll say that having high luck starts to really shine when you're in the mid to upper teens in terms of level. You'll be more likely to find ammo for higher-end weapons at about twice the rate. Caps findings were too variable without a large sample, but I did indeed notice a little difference aside from this test. Low amounts of caps showed up more frequently, and those add up.

So not only are you finding more caps, you're also finding ammo so that you don't have to use as many caps buying specific types you need. You're also conserving ammo because Critical Hits deal more damage from a lone bullet, and with the Luck Perks you can increase the damage of your crits! Read below to learn about the luck Perks, and get some suggestions on other stats that synergize well with Perks in Fallout 4's Luck category.

Luck Bobblehead Location

Where to Find the Luck Bobblehead: On Spectacle Island, in a nearly sunken boat.

Luck Perks

This is the list of all Luck Perks in Fallout 4. Every perk starts with a minimum SPECIAL rank, which does not go up with future points in the perk - only the level requirement changes. You will find the Perk ID for the player.addperk cheat, as well. This is useful in order to avoid leveling your character to get perk points, or to remove perks and respec your build with the player.removeperk cheat. In case I've made a typo in any of these, you can find any Perk ID in the cheat menu by typing help perkname 0 - for perks with multiple words, try only one word in the perk name. Expect to see them listed without ranks. You can omit the 00s when using these cheats - start with the first non-zero character to save yourself some typing.

About Fortune Finder: This Perk is low on the list of priorities. Luck will already help you get more caps, and honestly when an enemy explodes into a shower of caps, it's a pain to find them on the ground! It's not a BAD Perk, it's just not nearly as good as others you may invest into. Earlier on you may want to improve your damage/accuracy because selling loot can earn you more caps than any of the explosions. It's worth a point or two, but don't expect rank 5 to be impressive - it's just fun to see sometimes, and doesn't happen as often as you might like.

About Scrounger: Like the above, Luck is helping you to get more ammo, but it's better than the previous as later in the game you will have a chance at rare ammunition you might not otherwise have easy access to. Much, much better than more caps, because you can sell excess ammo or make use of it for yourself. Read the linked guide to see my discoveries regarding this Perk - for those who want quick info it affects containers AND the amount of ammo found from fallen foes.

About Bloody Mess: The extra damage applies to all weapons and will reflect on the numbers you see in the inventory screen, and it's really the only perk that increases damage flatly without being tied to a specific weapon type. Very rarely, you may actually see other nearby enemies affected by this but it does not happen often. Honestly, the gore is entertaining for a while but eventually you may find that in big fights it's harder to keep track of which body part belongs to who, for looting purposes. While it does have a strength for people who have difficulty deciding on a weapon type because of the extra damage, this is a big weakness - especially once the novelty factor wears off.

About Mysterious Stranger: The Mysterious Stranger appears at random to kill an enemy, based on their remaining health. He only appears on the last shot of a VATS salvo, so consider that when you judge this Perk's proc rate. It works much more often than it seems. The chance to fill the critical meter seems to be 25% for the Rank 3 bonus. If a player is not using a luck-heavy build, it is probably better to take only the first 2 ranks to get the Stranger appearing at a decent rate while ignoring the third. For a player with Critical Banker, the free full meter would be more useful given it can overflow.

About Idiot Savant: The lower your Intelligence, the more you'll benefit from this perk, though it always gives more XP than not having it, even once you're past 10 Intelligence. The sweet spot is 4 INT, as far as proc rate and average gains. This can apply to quest experience, as well as building in Settlements. This is a strong pick if you're focusing hard on a Perception/Agility/Luck or Melee build and neglecting Intelligence. Question whether you want to level faster, since enemies level up with you and you may have less time to find upgrades for your character, plus have 2-3 Perk points that only sped up that process without contributing anything to your combat abilities, settlement building, etc. Anyone who wants to max out a character (given the lack of a level cap in Fallout 4) should consider this Perk at some point, in order to reduce the time to get all the Perks.

About Better Criticals: Synergizes wonderfully with the below Perks, particularly Grim Reaper's Sprint - you're more likely to get a killing blow, and criticals are guaranteed headshots. Absolutely take this if you will invest heavily in Critical Banker and the other amazing Luck Perks.

About Critical Banker: This Perk is absolutely amazing, and probably the best Luck Perk, definitely one of the best Perks in Fallout 4 for players who use VATS heavily. You've got three stars that appear to the right of your critical meter. You can fill all 3, plus your bar, so you can stock up 4 crits in a row from utilizing V.A.T.S. heavily. Save these for an emergency or go on a rampage with Four Leaf Clover and Grim Reaper's Sprint!

Note that last bit - when you bank a critical, there is a small chance that you get ANOTHER Critical, instantly. This Perk is too good to pass up for V.A.T.S. users! If you need multiple criticals in a row, just hammer the space bar (or jump button) in between shots to ensure the second attack is also a critical. The only (minor) drawback is that aside from Four Leaf Clover, you won't gain the normal fill of Critical Meter by doing a Crit.

About Grim Reaper's Sprint: In a big fight, having all your action points completely restored is huge. You can immediately start stocking up criticals again. You can weaken enemies with normal shots if low on AP, then go in for the kill and possibly get all of your points back.

About Four Leaf Clover: This would be nearly useless without at least one point in Critical Banker, but with that Perk it shines. The best part about Four Leaf Clover is that with Critical Banker it gives you a full star, with overfill. So, without it, you would only get the rest of the meter - WITH it, you will get one full meter's worth of crit. It goes off at around 10% at rank 4, which can be seen by viewing my testing through the link above. Very rarely it triggers on an actual critical shot so that you get that crit back immediately. A luck build revolves entirely around taking this Perk to the max along with CB.

About Ricochet: For random hilarity and only in gun fights, this can be interesting but is not that useful most of the time. I've seen 2-3 enemies drop dead in just a second or two because of having this Perk maxed out. Overall the others are more important, but you can do yourself well to take this at high level once the others are maxed. Some players may enjoy this with a melee build, as some ranged opponents will be instantly nullified while you continue your onslaught.

Luck Build Ideas

While you may take Luck just for the extra loot mid-adventure, you can also build entirely around its perks. Critical Banker is absolutely amazing, as are Grim Reaper's Sprint and Four Leaf Clover and Better Criticals. Having all four of these, along with a chosen weapon type can make you a God.

Using a fast weapon is not a bad idea because of Four Leaf Clover - more shots = more chances to trigger it and more criticals. You're also benefiting from Luck's natural boost to the rate your meter fills. I found this quite fun to play with a pistol build. Keep in mind that some weapons can be turned into pistols just by changing to a normal stock (grip).

None of this is meant to say a slow-firing weapon or melee is bad with a Luck build, this is just my personal taste. Automatic or shotgun could also be fun, but the higher damage your weapon is the less likely you are to even need critical hits unless there's a Legendary opponent around.

Take what you will from this. High luck has its benefits, and you may for example only want Grim Reaper's Sprint with some entirely different Perks to go along with it. The more AP you have, the more useful Reaper's Sprint, however.

Any Luck build will benefit heavily from high AP (from Agility) and accuracy from Perception. The more accurate your weapon, the less you need Perception so you may want to go for more Agility first. You can modify armor to add AP, as well, so do keep that in mind. Your need for Intelligence is based only on your desire for its specific Perks, because you can absolutely rely on Idiot Savant to even you out and randomly give you massive chunks of XP.

Contact
Feel I've made a mistake or underrated one of these? Have I missed something? Shoot me an email at [email protected] and let me know what you think.