Which Perk is the most useless one to you?

[Sal]

To kept this poll relatively short and only listed options that I believe to be the obvious choices by census. If one of the perks was not listed then feel free to choose "other" and why.

 

Personally, I find alot of these perks useless based on my play-style.

 

This my top-5 list of most useless perks, in order, based on MY play-style and opinion .

 

1) "Charismatic Nature" perk is by far the most useless to me.  I usually play SP so this "perk" doesn't benefit me at all.  And even if I did play MP, I wouldn't put points into it anyways because it's not that big of a "perk" anyways vs the other perosnal options available for your team. (i.e other teammates putting points into Healing, pain intolerance, etc).

 

2) "Animal Tracker" perk is completely useless to me. Animals and food are everywhere. Even when I'm maxed out I don't think I have ever used this "feature" at all.

 

3) "The Penetrator" perk for the same reason as #1. A perk that make enemies armor less penetrable.  I could see a reason for it in MP, but I don't play MP and I don't think this applies to zombies either (I could be wrong tho)

 

4) "Lock Picking" is the next most useless perk IMO. It's completely useless. Sure there are times when a safe is hard to break into and it takes ~15 lockpicks, but it doesn't happen very often. Alot of times it takes about 4-5. Besides, lockpicks are found everywhere. Plus, once you put points into miner 69ers, get a decent iron axe, and read the book that gives you the ability to do more damage to safes, then all is good after that since it only takes about 30 hits to break in. This perk also becomes completely irreverent in late-game once you get an Auger since you can literally break into a safe quicker than using a lockpick.

 

IMO, they need to give you more of a reason to put points into this perk by making it alot harder to pick safes with lockpicks AND disable the ability the break into safes with an Auger or an Axe.

 

5) "Hidden Strike" and "from the Shadows".  I don't play stealth in this game so these two perks don't interest me at all.

 

I would, however, be more inclined to change my style for stealth if I really thought it was worth it. But I never have since "stealth" in this game is really lacking for various reasons.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Sal (see edit history)

[Darklegend222]

Brawler is a perk based on knuckles, you can pull an easy 4x damage just by drinking beer, then you get way better bonuses by reading the books for it, I'd suggest going for a brawler build sometime and testing it yourself.

 

Infiltrator is very good for PvP, the penetrator is amazing for horde bases that utilize funnels and enemy grouping, 1 bullet can kill 4 enemies. That's not bad at all!

 

The rest are good perks provided you have an actual use. When Cardio is paired with parkour and any fluid, you can regenerate stamina while running. That's perfect for POIs and times when you need a quick getaway. Not to mention you save food with iron gut. They're necessities on insane difficulty.

 

The three actually worthless perks are charasmatic nature, physician, and the shadows stealth perk. No one wants to stand around while their friend is crafting, or be bound to another player 24/7 for a shouting buff. No one is gonna stand around at base waiting for 15+ minutes until their friend gets there to heal them which they can do manually. And the stealth is broken unless you kill outside of the box the zombies don't detect you in POIs, or unless you do it at night if it's a fetch/clear. You know, when you can't accept quests or turn them in.

 

[canadianbluebeer]

3 double pockets, triple storage mods and packmule isn't required.

 

so that perk is useless for me no matter what playstyle.

 

[Catdaddy]

Animal Tracker? Why? Animals are everywhere. In my modded games, I turn down animal spawns by half and still have no issues finding them. You don't need a perk to be good at hunting, you just need to become good at hunting. You can do this by hunting.😐

[POCKET951]

I am shocked that Penetrator is on that list. It is insanely powerful, especially if you do funnel style horde bases with AP sniper rounds

[hiemfire]

1 hour ago, POCKET951 said:

I am shocked that Penetrator is on that list. It is insanely powerful, especially if you do funnel style horde bases with AP sniper rounds

I think it is a reading comprehension error on the OP's part or maybe a localization error with the perk's description. Per their explanation (bolded by me) :

On 2/2/2022 at 10:57 PM, Sal said:

3) "The Penetrator" perk for the same reason as #1. A perk that make enemies armor less penetrable.  I could see a reason for it in MP, but I don't play MP and I don't think this applies to zombies either (I could be wrong tho)

@Sal

Penetrator actually boosts the player's ability to penetrate enemy armor and, at higher ranks, causes even normal rounds to hit multiple zombies in a line like the Diablo 2 Bone Spear spell could.

[Sjustus548]

Lockpicking becomes pointless after going looting for a little bit because we have found so many lockpicks plus the 100% lockpicking candy seems very plentiful in the vending machines.  I think we are up to like 200 lockpicks currently so even if each lock takes a few we still have plenty.  Maybe require the first point of lockpicking to be obtained before the player is able to lockpick.  

Infiltrator is pretty bad until the last point that allows you to pick up landmines.  Some of the POIs, namely the military ones, have a ton of landmines that are great additions during horde nights.  

Animal Tracker I find useless because the only ones on the list that are difficult to find at times are the rabbit and chickens.  All the predators will find you easy enough that the extra points are wasted.  The only time I've ever put points into this perk is when I'm doing a test world give myself all the perks lol. 

The Penetrator can be very nice on horde nights but I don't use Rifles or Archery so I can't really say how effective it really is.  

Treasure Hunter can be nice to find treasure faster, size is reduced ever 3 blocks instead of 10 with 3/3, but we haven't really found anything in the treasure chests that having 30% more of would make a difference.  Mostly it's just some ammo and ammo crafting supplies.  Maybe if they reduce the looted ammo more it might be a good perk but currently it's pretty pointless.  

Pack Mule can be completely negated by the pocket mods for armor and clothes.  There are very few mods that can be put on armor so I don't feel the need to decide between the pocket mods or some other great mod.  

Master Chef can be helpful at first but becomes pointless after you've found a few of the recipes.  I haven't put any points into this and have most of the cooking recipes now.  Cooking 50% faster is nice but I always get stuff started cooking before leaving out to go looting so it'll be done by the time I get back.  I wouldn't even notice the faster cooking. 

The Brawler I'm not sure why this one is on the list.  Knuckle weapons are one of the most powerful weapons in the game.  

The Huntsman doesn't feel needed in this alpha build because animals are a lot more plentiful in our experience.  Every other alpha build someone on our team has always had this to get the extra meat but this one we have more meat then we know what to do with now.  Not much point in getting more if it's just going in a chest.

Well Insulated I haven't found the weather to be punishing enough that I would want to put points into this.  We've been living in a desert for half of this playthrough and haven't needed anything extra for the heat.  Just our clothes were good enough and we weren't that bothered if we had to drink a little bit more water.  We're moving to the snow here soon so I'll see how annoying it gets there but I'm going to assume I won't even notice.

Iron Gut used to be good when it increased the buff time by double but only 50% doesn't feel as worth it.  Plus reducing food/drink consumption by 25% isn't that big of a deal.  Might be good early game but mid/late game you have food and drinks figured out already so it isn't important anymore.

Rule 1: Cardio is another one I've not bothered putting points in.  Early game stamina can be a little more annoying to manage so these points can be nice but later on when you have better ways to manage your stamina plus have much more the stamina from sprinting is pretty easy to deal with.  Also the addition of vehicles means I'm not sprinting that much anymore anyway.

Deep Cuts I'm not a big fan of the knives in the game so this one is pretty pointless in my eyes.  I've found the dots in this game to be pretty bad.  Why would I want to put dots on a zombie and then leave it alone to die on it's own?  Just attack it more and kill it faster.  The slowing effect could be nice on always run playthroughs or on horde night but knives feel pretty bad in those situations anyway.

Hidden Strikes and From The Shadows I'm not a sneaky type of player, I would rather just go in with my shotgun singing and take the zombies out much faster than having to take the time to sneak thru a POI.  Sneaking doesn't feel like it adds any benefit over just running and gunning so not much of a reason to bother with it.  The only thing I bother trying to sneak attack from a distance are deer currently lol.

Daring Adventurer is one of my favorite perks.  With how OP traders are getting the extra dukes will allow me to buy more nice things and getting to choose 2 rewards is a bonus as well.  Usually I can just pick 2 items to sell right back to them but it's still a bonus since I like to quest a lot.

Charismatic Nature If you have two players get a 7 in Int and then put 4 points into Charismatic Nature then they both have a 2 in each stat to begin with, plus have +20 health and stamina, do 20% more damage to zombies and blocks, and take 10% damage from all sources plus bleeding becomes less of a problem.  This is a great way to start a map and can give your team a big advantage.  Then say you want to go into Str next.  With the Charismatic Nature buff and the cigar you only need to get 8 points in the stat, saving you 5 points.  You only get these buffs if you are close to your team member but you will probably be pretty close anyway.   

[Boidster]

We play MP and stealth and the only perk we regularly disregard is Pack Mule.

[Fightingchook]

in the beginning of perks,... i would rush to max out pack mule.

but once you learn about pockets it become a useless perk to me.

Now the Penetrator is the first perk I max out.  eg: 4 heads(shots) are better than one

 

The Penetrator and deadeye are probably whats keeping me alive on horde night. 

Just did a day 66 horde night.  killed 611 using 370 ap rounds with a tier 5 Lever-Action Rifle

Playing solo permideath, vanilla except for..... insane level 64x always run zombies with random horde nights with horde warnings turned off.

[Sal]

12 hours ago, hiemfire said:

I think it is a reading comprehension error on the OP's part. Per their explanation (bolded by me) :

@Sal

Penetrator actually boosts the player's ability to penetrate enemy armor and, at higher ranks, causes even normal rounds to hit multiple zombies in a line like the Diablo 2 Bone Spear spell could.

Correct on both accounts. 

 

See I always took it as bullet penetration against armor and since zombies don't have armor (except for maybe the soldier and demo, model wise) I just assumed it was made for PvP.

 

Well damn...after all these years I'm still learning stuff about this game.

15 hours ago, canadianbluebeer said:

3 double pockets, triple storage mods and packmule isn't required.

 

so that perk is useless for me no matter what playstyle.

 

Same.  Even on day 1 or 2 I start crafting 3 clothing mods to put into the shirt, pants, and overcoat. That's 3 open slots right there. Add in double/ triple mods in early-mid stages and you have opened up every inventory slot.

 

 

[Sal]

I agree with with most of your points here but just to comment on a few of them.

 

10 hours ago, Sjustus548 said:

Treasure Hunter can be nice to find treasure faster,

This is true, which can save alot of time. The problem is that treasure quests are almost always buried in the SW or SE and so it's still quick and easy to find. So why put points into it? Unless they changed this in A20 but I haven't noticed it.  I still start digging around the S and always find it pretty quickly.

 

10 hours ago, Sjustus548 said:

Master Chef can be helpful at first but becomes pointless after you've found a few of the recipes.  I haven't put any points into this and have most of the cooking recipes now.  Cooking 50% faster is nice but I always get stuff started cooking before leaving out to go looting so it'll be done by the time I get back.  I wouldn't even notice the faster cooking. 

I don't go right after master chef immediately or anything but I do use it.  But you are right about "faster cooking" though.  I don't notice it either. This seems like one of those things they just threw in to make it seem more like a "perk".

 

10 hours ago, Sjustus548 said:

The Brawler I'm not sure why this one is on the list.  Knuckle weapons are one of the most powerful weapons in the game.  

It's on the list to give everyone an option. Not because I thought it was useless. Nothing more or less.

 

I recently tried a run with knuckles and they are powerful when maxed out, especially with a tier 5-6 steel. But the range is weak (as it should be) and it really shows on Z's like crawlers (whose hit boxes can be funky). So why would I choose this over a machete or club, which does more damage and longer range? The only perk I really found in this is that you don't have to carry a knife/machete.

 

10 hours ago, Sjustus548 said:

Well Insulated I haven't found the weather to be punishing enough that I would want to put points into this.

I feel the same way. I don't even notice the weather at all. I made a map with about 55% snow, 25% waste, and 20% desert and I don't even care about the cold.

 

10 hours ago, Sjustus548 said:

Iron Gut used to be good when it increased the buff time by double but only 50% doesn't feel as worth it.  Plus reducing food/drink consumption by 25% isn't that big of a deal.  Might be good early game but mid/late game you have food and drinks figured out already so it isn't important anymore.

Agreed. I use to put points in this too but that seems like ages ago. Now, food and water is everywhere now so there really isn't a need for me.

 

10 hours ago, Sjustus548 said:

Deep Cuts I'm not a big fan of the knives in the game so this one is pretty pointless in my eyes. 

Not only that, but if a zombie dies of bleeding there's a good chance you won't even get any xp from the kill. Same with the burning shaft mod. 

 

10 hours ago, Sjustus548 said:

Daring Adventurer is one of my favorite perks.

Same here. I like to combine this one early with the trader perk that shows more "special" items.

[Matt115]

Well i think most useless perk and number 1  is The infiltrator - 5 levels are too much because only last one is usefull (pick up mines) because mines are very rare and easy to spot. 

2. The penetrator- well idk if  soldier zombie have armor if you don't play pvp is pointless to invest.

3. Charismatic Nature - well even if you play with someone you have to be very close each other to be usefull. so This is just waste of points

4. Well Insulated - you can find books to make clothes very easy so this a little bit pointless to invest point in this perk

5. Hidden Strike- it give not big enough bonus and can be not so usefull against zombies in POI so to be usefull need to have good mods and light armor

 

[ElCabong]

There's no way to answer this question because it depends on how I'm playing my character. It also depends on how new you are to the game. Animal tracker is great for somebody who just started the game. I'm good enough with the bow that I can one shot chickens and two or three shot rabbits. If I don't scare them off, LOL. So it's useless to me.

 

Three pocket mods are hard to come by now and pack mule may not be a bad idea. It also frees up slots in your armor to add something else you may want.

 

If you really enjoy treasure hunting and those dig quests, treasure hunter is not a bad idea. 

 

Your question kind of implies that the developers are creating perks that we don't need. What they're doing is creating perks that let you create the kind of character you want. They'll be plenty of them you want and don't.

[PoppaSmirk]

So many different viewpoints.  I've enjoyed reading this thread.  For Myself I can only say that I use most of the perks at some time, even in a minor way.  I regularly do take 1 level of pack Mule,  but none beyond that.

 

Penetrator became a 'must have' perk for Me,  probably about six months ago. 

 

I also take at least 1 level of Well-Insulated.  Not sure about the rest of you but puffer coats have been hard to find in My game world, so after a Winter Biome visit recently where My snowflake went red,  and then the pumping heart icon came up,  so I invested in well insulated.

 

MasterChef is a favorite, and for me is worthwhile,  because I can then turn all the recipes I find into coin at the traders

 

Deep Cuts,  is a fond perk, and finding it more useful now when I go into city areas and wasteland where 'silence'  can be much more desired.  I can carve a zomb with My machete and not attract a mini-horde from surrounding buildings.  I currently have a silenced pistol and a flaming machete in My "go to" weapon slots on My toolbelt,  along with My Level 4 Steel Spear.    I am using My bow a LOT more in Alpha 20,  whereas in previous Alphas I hardly ever used a bow after maybe,  Day 6.

 

Animal Tracker is a perk I have only used once previously and its true, in alpha 20 there is more than an abundant animal population.   So I don't think I will find this perk of use much anymore..  Same for Huntsman.  Normally I would have at least 2 points in this perk by the time I reached level 20.   Right now I am level 45 and still haven't placed any points into Huntsman.

 

Treasure Hunter is something I like having one point in, but using loot goggles when hunting treasures already reduces the 'shrink' of the location ring by 1, so wearing loot goggles plus 1 level of Treasure Hunter reduces the digging down to 6, which suits Me fine to be able to have a quicker getaway when digging up treasure.

 

Lockpicking is an odd perk for me,  I really seem to get more locks open without placing points into the perk.  I used to regularly place at least 1 or 2 points into it,   but I stopped investing in it maybe a year ago.

 

I do like Daring Adventurer cause..."twists thumbs out in My direction"   Hey....its me all over... hahahaha  But seriously, especially in Alpha 20 the bonuses are very useful.

 

Hidden Strike, I have only used once, in a playthough over a year ago.  I don't see a lot of use in it now.  Either the zomb dies,  or starts to get up ,  at which point I plunk them again --- and then they die. 

 

I personally am not much into the brawling.  I really prefer to not let a zomb get a chance to strike at Me.   However one of My regular troupe has started getting into brawling a lot more and I am sometimes amazed at the hits she puts down on the zombs.

[Boidster]

5 hours ago, Matt115 said:

2. The penetrator- well idk if  soldier zombie have armor if you don't play pvp is pointless to invest.

 

You may want to read the description more closely. It's pretty useful once you have a supply of AP ammo. Multiple kills per bullet.

 

Quote

You find weak spots in a target's armor and can use AP rifle bullets to shoot through multiple organic targets.

 

[Matt115]

59 minutes ago, Boidster said:

 

You may want to read the description more closely. It's pretty useful once you have a supply of AP ammo. Multiple kills per bullet.

 

 

This rare enough situation to have  a few zombie in line ( and manage to do good shot) - so i don't it can make this usefull. if zombie were 4x at least more and walk slow this could be usefull. Now it is just too much sitational

[BFT2020]

35 minutes ago, Matt115 said:

This rare enough situation to have  a few zombie in line ( and manage to do good shot) - so i don't it can make this usefull. if zombie were 4x at least more and walk slow this could be usefull. Now it is just too much sitational

 

It's great on horde nights, especially if you funnel the zombies into a kill corridor.....

[Matt115]

14 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

 

It's great on horde nights, especially if you funnel the zombies into a kill corridor.....

i don't play in this  way - i prefere forts because... dunno this more logical that pull zombie in corridor - well corridor is effective but for me this is just exploit

[hiemfire]

2 hours ago, BFT2020 said:

 

It's great on horde nights, especially if you funnel the zombies into a kill corridor.....

Or have backed through a door in a POI and have them funneling through that.

[ElDudorino]

19 hours ago, Sal said:

Not only that, but if a zombie dies of bleeding there's a good chance you won't even get any xp from the kill. Same with the burning shaft mod. 

I've been getting exp from zombies bleeding out so it looks like that's not an issue.  Unless there's an issue that only occurs some of the time?

[BFT2020]

22 hours ago, Matt115 said:

i don't play in this  way - i prefere forts because... dunno this more logical that pull zombie in corridor - well corridor is effective but for me this is just exploit

Exploit how?  A kill corridor can just be obstacles in the way of zombies to force them into your gun sights.  My more elaborate ones incorporate auto turrets shooting them the back, dart traps at the side shooting them, and a combination of electrical and barb wire to slow them down

[Blasphemous]

Charismatic nature is the most useless for me, since I never play multi.

Pack mule and well insulate are quite pointless as well, since I pretty much always get lots of clothes early on plus the storage mods are rather common.

Cardio is very underwhelming, I wouldn't even take this perk if the numbers were doubled.

Master chef and iron gut are a waste of points, because the effect can be easily replicated with the frequently found recipes and the different types of tea.

The huntsman and the brawler are equally useless - lots of animals everywhere and lots of ammo that makes brawling simply stupid.

I'm surprised how many people consider the sneaking perks useless. I play on very high difficulty and usually need that extra sneak multiplier to dispatch sleepers, it's very rewarding and conserves ammo and stamina. My first 10-20 levels typically go into agility for this very reason - sneaking and higher jumps really make the early game more bearable, especially with high-hp zombies always sprinting, day and night.

[Matt115]

2 hours ago, BFT2020 said:

Exploit how?  A kill corridor can just be obstacles in the way of zombies to force them into your gun sights.  My more elaborate ones incorporate auto turrets shooting them the back, dart traps at the side shooting them, and a combination of electrical and barb wire to slow them down

Well this is exploit - i will wrote this as simple  as possible - trades bases are rectagles, military bases are rectagles , in mgs base is rectagle etc. "Forcing" zombie AI to go from one heavy defenced side is exploit.  in older alphas zombie were more... "typical" zombies you know caming from diffrent sides  and jumping zombies were for me not problem because.... world war z had this same solution. But killing corridor is this same exploit like in mount and blade you could 100 soldiers if  you have tons of arrows in box . in bordelands you can fast  exp if you have a lot of ammo and you are fighting againt high level maruder or zombies in dlc.  So kill corridor is a type of exploit

[theFlu]

17 minutes ago, Matt115 said:

trades bases are rectagles, military bases are rectagles , in mgs base is rectagle etc. "Forcing" zombie AI to go from one heavy defenced side is exploit.

I have a hard time calling it an exploit. Mostly because if you actually build a rectangle base, the first thing the zeds will do is to turn it into a choke-point base by opening a face-height hole in it. Then it turns into a funnel base as they break the second block there. Then you add a bit of walls and couple ele fences and you have a "killing corridor" .. if the AI makes it themselves, exploiting it isn't exactly wrong..

[hiemfire]

29 minutes ago, Matt115 said:

Well this is exploit - i will wrote this as simple  as possible - trades bases are rectagles, military bases are rectagles , in mgs base is rectagle etc. "Forcing" zombie AI to go from one heavy defenced side is exploit.  in older alphas zombie were more... "typical" zombies you know caming from diffrent sides  and jumping zombies were for me not problem because.... world war z had this same solution. But killing corridor is this same exploit like in mount and blade you could 100 soldiers if  you have tons of arrows in box . in bordelands you can fast  exp if you have a lot of ammo and you are fighting againt high level maruder or zombies in dlc.  So kill corridor is a type of exploit

Then I take it you consider zombies climbing up on top of sunk spikes trying to get to the same height level as the player as rapidly as possible an exploit as well?

 

"Kill corridors" are not exploits. Ffs every damn POI in the game is built with multiple "kill corridors" in them. They're called doorways and hallways.