Knowledge perks | Character development Wasteland 2 Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Surgeon

Three useful perks here, two out of which form a thread. One of them is compulsory. The remaining two, not as much, but they still may be useful.

Trained Physician, level 3 - It decreases the duration of the post-reanimation effect by 25%. It is useful in areas with many fights, where it is easy to suffer large injury and which brings about the frequent necessity to reanimate. It is worth buying, if you have problems with that.

Smooth Operator, level 6 - +20 CON while reanimating party members. For surgeon this perk is necessary and it increases the lifespan of the party.

Expert Physician, level 9 - The upgraded version of the Trained Physician, which decreases the duration post-reanimation effects by another 25%. If you have bought the previous one, buy this one also.

Alarm disarming

Three independent perks, two out of which are of highly limited use. The remaining one requires developing two perks. There is a chance that you buy none of them and, as a result, you will lose little.

Cyber Scrounger, level 2 - You receive electric fuel cells after you use the perk. This one is a strange perk that also requires Computer Science level 2 and it works after both have been used. For a character that specializes in only one of the two, this perk is useless. Otherwise, buy it to get more ammo.

Quick Reflexes, level 4 - Increases your chance of avoiding enemy reactions, by 25%. This is a useful perk but only in a situation, in which enemies use traps and this happens only when they cannot see your party, or cannot reach it. In other words, rarely. For this reason, this is not a particularly good choice.

Ghost, level 6 - thanks to this perk, your character does not cause reaction mode in enemies. Identical as in the case of the previous perk.

Computer science

Three independent perks. One of them requires you to develop another one, one is context-reliant and the last one becomes useful towards the end of the game. While developing this perk to 100%, buy one and the rest depending on what you need.

Cyber Scrounger, level 2 - See: the identically named perk in Alarm repair

Roboticist, level 5 - +10% damage against robots and synths. Later into the game, it is highly useful, so take it.

Overclocker, level 8 - The hacked robots automatically receive the bonus of overclocking. In practice, this saves up some time, because overclocking can be performed by using the perk once again, which may be difficult in combat. If you often seize enemy machines, buy it. Otherwise there is no need to.

Safecracking

One independent perk that requires you to develop two perks. You can buy it but there is no need to.

Master Thief, level 10 - While using Safecracking, you do not risk a critical fail. This one is a bizarre perk. First of all, it requires you to max out on two skills, which may not necessarily coincide with your plans. Secondly, critical failures at level 10 of skills are not too frequent, unless you are trying to crack especially strong locks. Thirdly, in the case of a critical failure, all you need to do is load the game over again. You can buy this, if you want to, but it is better to spend the point on something else.

Mechanical repair

Two independent perks. One of them becomes useful later into the game, whereas the other one is not that necessary. One is a good idea to buy one, and it would be good to buy the other.

Handyman, level 3 - using the mechanical repair skill does not result in critical failure. This is useful, as long as you forget that there is an option to save. In practice, at best, it saves you several minutes that you would spend waiting for the game to load after you fail for yet another time. You can buy it, but there are ones that are more interesting and more useful.

Armour Maintenance, level 6 - -20% damage from energy weapons. Later into the game, it is very useful, especially while you are fighting with robots and synths. Undoubtedly worth buying.

Field medic

Two independent perks of identical features, which every medic should have.

On the Mend, level 3 - +10% to effectiveness of healing items. Buy it.

Stimpaks, level 7 - Each turn, it heals 2% CON of the character. In other words, the longer the fight, the less wounds the character has. It is a good idea to buy it, even if combat is a secondary line for your medic.

Demolitions

Three independent perks. Two of them are for the characters who use grenades and other explosives, and one for the demolition expert. Buy, at least, one of them, although all are useful. You need to tune the character to them, but this pays off.

Long Arm, level 2 - increases the range of grenade-throwing by 10%. For the characters that throw grenades it is a must have. The rest of sappers can leave it out.

Improvised Explosives, level 4 - 25% of chances to craft an additional grenade, while disarming traps. Take it as soon as this perk gets available. Explosives crafted this way are or moderate power, but an additional grenade, even a weak one, will always come in handy.

Bomberman, level 6 - Increases the radius of explosives by 15%. If your character uses explosives, buy it. Otherwise, ignore it.

Toaster repair

Two independent perks. One of them is highly useful and worth buying, whereas the other one is also useful, but not as much.

Junk Diver, level 2 - When you find junk, you get 50% chances of finding another junk. Junk is not expensive, but with a bit of luck, and other perks, you can find quite a lot of it. It is a good idea to get it, to add to the party's finances.

Toaster Expert, level 6 - 50% of chances to find additional loot, while fixing a toaster. Three are few toasters in the game, so it is up to your luck if the perk is beneficial. You can buy it, but it will probably not pay off too much.