I'm level 18, have two perk points to spend, and I'm considering taking Robotics Expert. However, I'd like to know how useful it is at lower levels. I've seen some awesome videos of people "enslaving" robots with rank 3 of the perk, but that's not available until level 41. How do the lower levels of this perk stack up? And why would I want to incite a robot to attack me?

So you can shoot them in their metal face and harvest their tasty circuits, I guess. I haven't used them myself, seems easier to shoot stuff than spend perks to domesticate them.

Pretty sure "incite to attack" means you can turn them against their friends, or against anyone except you. That's how Animal Friend, Wasteland Whisperer, and Intimidation work.

Does that perk include synths?

Cannot hack synths. Robotics expert really is a gem of a perk considering you get access to the best companion combat-wise...

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/387670047318524966/404E3FA5DA29CA3BB313A582AB57C8FE5C8EE903/

Double edged sword though, they are hostile to anyone and everyone other than you.

Really useful against sentry bots
Perfect example: a certain sentry bot found in a certain armory was supposed to be a boss enemy, but I just sprinted up to him and turned him off as he was activating. You can also steal from the weapons dealer in Goodneighbor if you turn her off and make sure not to touch her before you turn her back on.

This perk is best to use with stealth. You can use robots as bombs by having them explode near other enemies. Get loot, save ammo. Later levels you can use the robots to handle some of your light work as well as distract enemies while you snipe from a distance. You can also find skill manuals to hack other things like turrets.

You can shut down robots at early levels or set them to self-destruct so sort of useful.

But how do you get close enough to the robots to hack them?

Sneak.

I took it on one of my last playthroughs and found it pointless. You can't sneak up on a robot. It's just easier to shoot them.

If you are looking to kill robots, the penetrator perk from the perception tree makes most robots easy to kill since they cannot hide their fusion cores or combat inhibitors.

If you are looking for fun stealth play, this is a good perk for toying with your enemies. It also lets you shut down some robots that are not hostile yet, but will be in the future (such as robot guards) without triggering hostile action.

You crazeh!!! You absolutely CAN sneak up on a robot.

I reap all kinds of chaos in dungeons using stealth and Robotics Expert, then sit back and start knocking off heads undetected. Easy as pie, and perhaps tastier. No, pie is tastier.

I guess i"m not that good then. I just shoot their combat inhibitors and let them go on a rampage while I squat under cover somewhere.

I guess I'm not that good- I can't aim for squat (I'm a VATS fiend and I hide a lot)! Lol!

It's like intimate or animal friend but for robots and melee and only works when they aren't hostile but the trade for it's major weaknesses seems to be having a better success rate.

Can you be more specific? What level sneak do you need to pull it off?

I used the perk to get the Prototype Sentry-Bot as a companion. It's neutral by default, so it won't attack settlers and other neutral/friendly things. However, unless you are on PC, it will eventually be destroyed. As you won't be able to heal him without using console commands.

You'd think the command hack would remove them from their "faction" and set their aggressiveness accordingly. PC users can rectify that by clicking on your hacked robot in console command mode. Use "Setav aggression 1" then "removefromallfactions" and then use help "player faction" 0 to get the faction code and add it to the player faction[you] "addtofaction xx 1"

Excellent suggestion, I tried adding it to me (player faction 0001c21c), but it is still hostile to anything that isn't me. When I try putting "Setav aggression 1" , It says item "aggression" not found for parameter actor value. The other commands seem to be accepted, but in the end, the robot still attacks anything that isn't me -- settlers, provisioners, and other non-hostile NPCs.

Edit: I got it to work so that it does not attack my settlers on sight, but my settlers attack the robot first, then consequently turning it hostile against them. I am sure I added it to my player faction, so I'm not sure what gives.

Steps taken:

Hack Legendary Assaultron Robot and set "Command" in Pipboy

Entered Console Commands in this order:

Clicked Assaultron

Setav aggression 1 (which results in the error code above)

Help 0001c21c 0

Addtofaction 0001c21c 1

It seems the aggression stat has been changed. Or maybe re-worded/called something else? I haven't had a chance to test this out first-hand. The reason the robot attacks regardless of being in Player faction, is because its aggression(or whatever it is called in G.E.C.K now) is "Very Aggressive." So it will openly attack anything not in its faction[s] or allied with said faction[s]. I imagine putting it in say, Brotherhood of Steel faction, would make it friendly with B.O.S members. Tedious, but might have to just set it to various factions of whatever settlements you want it to accompany you on your visits..

Haha, I was afraid you'd say that. I'll play with it a bit more, and see if I can find a more effective solution. Would be nice if there was a console code that would have it attack any NPCs naturally hostile to the player, and any NPC the player shoots/ engages with hostility.

Well, it's the price you pay for having a "boss" enemy as a pet. RP it as you inputting specific commands to a complex combat bot AI. ;p

wow, Still learning stuff about what each perk tree does. here I thought I'd never find a use for the robotics expert perk.