The perception perk is described as such: Perception is your enivromental awareness and "sixth sense", and affects weapon accuracy in VATS.

So I wonder, since I never use VATS and play without any HUD (no compass with enemy markers), is there any use to put points into perception? Will not using these two game mechanics render perception useless?

Look at the perks and decide. I would say at least perception 4 so you can lock pick all the things.

edit:

P 1: pick pocketing (good if you like that kind of thing)

P 2: Rifleman (great if you are going semi automatic. Works outside of vats)

P 3: Awareness (meh)

P 4: Locksmith (For my play style...max it out)

P 5: Demo Expert (good if you like exploding things and crafting said explosives)

P 6: Night Person (meh)

P 7: Refractor (+50 energy resistance is nice)

P 8: Sniper (Gives you better control when you are sniping outside vats and a possibility for knock downs when sniping with a scoped non automatic weapon)

the rest are VATS intensive and unnecessary for your build. My suggestion is to have at least 4 in perception.

Enemy markers never show on your hud, not untill you make them look for you. Before it would show them off in the distance 6th sense kind of thing. I dont see it doing anything this game. I dont use VATS but once in a blue moon so I don't know if this SPECIAL does anything for me. Only thing is it lets me pick perks below it.

The blind marksman. You also can't get explosives.

Yes, as a way to other perks it's useful. But with my play style, the perception will not enhance my game play in any way, would it?

GECC, sorry, sideways question here, but define "semi automatic" for me, please. What fire rate is semi automatic?

One pull of the trigger, one bullet out the the barrel. The game lists it as non-automatic. Semi automatic is a basic term for anything that self chambers after every pull of the trigger but require another pull of the trigger to fire again. Everything that isn't an automatic weapon is a semi-automatic weapon expect for hand loaded firearms like black powder guns (IE muskets) or chambered long rifles. I think they did that because the laser musket wouldn't be effected by any of the perks because, like black powder guns, it needs you to crank it before it fires.

Edit: I'm not a fire arms instructor so if I said something incorrect...correct me hahahaha

Not in the Special sense, but you would be missing out on qualifying for perks. If you have no intention on using Vats, then raw perception won't have any effect on you. Also, unless you recon scope enemies, they no longer show up on your compass. Well, until you are in active combat with them.

I'm not GECC,

Semi-automatic is when you have to keep pushing the button to shoot.

thanks guys.

You can safely ignore it entirely if you don't want the perks. There's no story content that becomes unavailable if you don't have lockpicking, only loot (which you will be swimming in regardless). You can also bring companions with you that can pick locks.

VATS is accurate at short range (where it's most usefull anyway) even without perception.

Explosives are nice but not essential.

Rifleman is essential if you use semi-automatic rifles.

Perk is called rifleman and affects everything which is not full automatic or pistol or heavy gun. Means if it have long stock and fires one shot per trigger pull, it's affected by rifleman perk, not just semi automatic guns. Includes level action rifles, shotguns, laser and plasma rifles.

It's also the base pick pocket that the % increase of the perk is applying too like the relationship between agility and stealth so if you pick every pocket you walk by but don't want to play a reloading game it can work for that.

If you're going to snipe, Perception is useful outside of VATS for steadying scopes and for the rifleman perk. If you want to be able to lockpick, I'd suggest starting with 3 points. You can get the Bobblehead extremely early in the game for an extra point, so if you don't care about lockpick and are going to use non-scoped rifles, 1 point is fine. I personally have found Perception more useful than Endurance.

That's funny, I've found the opposite. It really seems like Bethesda succeeded at making no stat a dump stat this time, while still making your stats have a big effect on how you play the game.

It's probably the build I'm doing. I really only needed Endurance for the Toughness perk. Everything else was useful, imo, but felt they weren't really necessary, especially with other ways around radiation (Rad-X, RadAway, Hazmat suit). I also have a melee Athlete build who's all about cardio who has high endurance and agility, but most of my other builds don't use it. The only stat I've really felt was necessary at higher levels is Intelligence for mods.

Indeed. I should have been more specific. Was trying to explain 2 things at once and didn't end up giving good info for either. Funny thing is, I only realize the perk said non automatic instead of semi automatic when responding to the OP hahahahha. My brain is a bit broken these days I guess.

Semi Automatic just means, not automatic.

fallout 3 and nv was pretty pointless to have per. unless you go for vats. in fallout 1 and 2, it is a must. fallout 4, just depends if you want a sniper rifle and lockpicking, like a few others mentioned in this post.