- New - A guide to making a Pistol/Gunslinger Build
- New - A guide to making a Melee Build
- New - Scav Magazine - All locations and details
- For New Players - Read the walkthrough.
- New - Open Season
- New - Power Play Quest
- New - Raider Outposts
- New - Nuka World Endings Guide - Options and Benefits
- The Grand Tour
- Faction Perks and New SPECIAL Ranks in Nuka World
- Gage (Companion)
Fallout 4 Charisma Perks
Stat Benefits and Making Use of CHA Perks
Raise your Charisma with drugs, an outfit, alcohol - those are optional - but every Wastelander should consider keeping a hat, clothing, and glasses on them that raise Charisma for the purpose of shopping and passing questgiver speech checks.
Charisma is a stat that many wonder about, because it has a few mysterious Perks and the buy/sell price modifiers are not documented within the game. This guide will list all of the Charisma Perks and some of their benefits, teach you about the buy/sell prices and let you know what Charisma can do for your character!
Jump to a Charisma Perk! - Just need the Perk ID to cheat, or want to know more about one of the Charisma Perks? Click to jump to info about that perk:
- Cap Collector
- Black Widow & Lady Killer
- Lone Wanderer
- Attack Dog
- Animal Friend
- Local Leader
- Party Boy
- Inspirational
- Wasteland Whisperer
- Intimidation
Charisma Effects
Prices
Charisma affects buying prices by roughly 4% per point - so you'll pay about 4% less per point you have. This stacks multiplicatively with the Cap Collector Perk and can lead to some amazing discounts. With each point, you'll also gain an increase in the sell price of your own goods - about 2.5% for each point. These are rough, and based on a few tests I did. It's good enough just for that, given the outrageous prices for some of the legendary gear in Fallout 4.
While you can save scum, you can also just wear nice clothes to make others like you more, resulting in more passed Persuasion/Charisma checks.
Speech Checks
Charisma is also involved in the majority of the game's speech checks when you're questing. If you see a yellow option, it means you're likely to succeed. Orange is like 50/50, and Red means it has a very low chance of success. These can help you skip steps in quest by getting you the information faster, ask for a better reward, or even find a solution right away in a few cases. Charisma is a stat that is not necessary at all in high quantities if you are playing a Lone Wolf type character, but it greatly comes in handy if you are going to use Companions.
Settlements
Charisma determines the maximum number of Settlers you can have live in your various Settlements. The base is 10 + 1 per Charisma. Charisma from gear and drugs can affect this cap as well, and some people have managed to get populations well into the 30s+.
The Bobblehead can be found inside Parsons Insane Asylum but is inaccessible until you're doing a quest. Find this location on a quest line with Mr. Cabot
Where to Find the Charisma Bobblehead: Found inside Parsons State Insane Asylum. You must be on the quest chain with Mr. Cabot in order to get inside, only after meeting a Ghoul named Edward Deegan who sometimes shows up at Bunker Hill in a bar.
Charisma Perks
Attack Dog will make Dogmeat give you a higher chance to hit in VATS when he grabs onto an opponent. This effectively gives you an extended range/accuracy on your weapons. He can always bring them down, but without the Perk you don't get the boost.
This is the list of all Charisma 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.
| Cap Collector Perk | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 1 | You've mastered the art of the deal! Buying and selling prices at vendors are better. | 1d2456 |
| 2 | Level 20 | Buying and selling prices of vendors are now much better. | d75e2 |
| 3 | Level 41 | You can now invest a total of 500 caps to raise a store's buying capacity. | 1d2457 |
About Cap Collector: The first rank gives you a 10% discount when buying and 10% increase in price when selling items. The second rank gives 20% on top of that, multiplicatively. It's also multiplicative with your character's Charisma. Going from 6 Charisma to rank 2 of this Perk, I saw an item valued at 109 before the perk go all the way to 144 with both ranks and at 10 Charisma to 191.
While the third rank may not seem very useful, it is - very much so. There are 6 types of shops you can build in your Settlements with Local Leader. There are several variants for each type - from simple to full-blown emporium. If you invest 500 caps in a Trading station, all Trading buildings - from the simplest to Emporiums, throughout all of your Settlements will have that additional 500 Caps to spend! It's very good for the later half of the game, when you're finding items that are higher value and cannot seem to find a vendor with enough money to pay you the full price.
The Cap Collector Perk pretty much gives you the effect of a full 10-point Charisma build, just shy of what a character would get in discount without this Perk. It works even better when you've got both.
| Lady Killer & Black Widow Perk (Click for Guide) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 2 | You're charming... and dangerous. Members of the opposite sex suffer +5% damage in combat, and are easier to persuade in dialog. | 19aa3 (M) 0004a0d4 (F) |
| 2 | Level 7 | Women or Men now suffer +10% damage in combat, and are even easier to persuade in dialog. They are also easier to pacify with the Intimidation Perk. | 65e33 (M) 00065e31 (F) |
| 3 | Level 16 | Women or Men now suffer +15% damage in combat, and are much easier to persuade in dialog. They are now even easier to pacify with the Intimidation Perk. | 65e34 (M) 00065e32 (F) |
About Lady Killer and Black Widow Perks: You'll get offered the Perk for the opposite sex - men are Lady Killers and women are Black Widows. The flat damage boost is nice, but much higher damage can be found in other Perks, though this may be part of your build strategy for maximizing damage in the end. This is more about the combination effect. Women have it a bit better than men as there seem to be more guys to kill in Fallout 4, although both will benefit from the persuasion checks. See the guide for more details on this perk.
| Lone Wanderer Perk (Click for Guide) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 3 | Who needs friends, anyway? When adventuring without a companion, you take 15% less damage and carry weight increases by 50. | 1d246b |
| 2 | Level 17 | When adventuring without a companion, you take 30% less damage and carry weight increases by 100 | 1d246d |
| 3 | Level 40 | When adventuring without a companion, you do 25% more damage | 1d246e |
About Lone Wanderer: I love this perk, because I'm not a big fan of companions. I like to sneak around, however it is definitely not for everyone. There is a second Perk in this tree for Companions - Inspirational, and it will let you increase their carrying capacity. Dogmeat does not count for Inspirational, and having the dog does not break the bonus you get from Lone Wanderer. This is reported to be a glitch, and may be fixed in the future so don't flame me if a patch comes and makes the carry weight bonus disappear when using Dogmeat. Dogmeat can carry 150lbs.
My attitude about companions may change later in the game. I am certain that equipping them with a good weapon and armor set, they can be incredibly useful, plus there are hidden perks you can get only by having a certain type of Companion around and reaching max relationship status with them by doing things they approve of. This is an either/or situation. Either you take this, to get an early game boost, or you wait and get the boost to your Companions. If you DO take Lone Wanderer, expect to spend more points in Attack Dog so that you can make Dogmeat a little better.
| Attack Dog Perk | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 4 | Your faithful canine companion can hold an enemy, giving you a greater chance to hit them in V.A.T.S. | 4b26d |
| 2 | Level 9 | When your dog holds an enemy, there's a chance he'll cripple the limb he's biting. | 1d244d |
| 3 | Level 25 | When your dog holds an enemy, there's a chance he'll cause them to bleed. | 1d244e |
About Attack Dog: As stated above, you might take this if you're going the Lone Wanderer route. It takes Dogmeat from a simple assistant and pack-mule to a true, helpful ally in combat, though it's worth noting you will get XP from any kills made by the dog. While Dogmeat can normally hold an enemy and help you to manually target an enemy better, he doesn't give the chance to hit from V.A.T.S. without the first rank in this Perk. So, I'd definitely give that a favorable review.
The second rank isn't very exciting to me personally, but I know that in tougher fights it could come in handy when he grabs an arm - most enemies are just going to go down so fast that this doesn't matter. Him holding them, period, is what helps - they're temporarily removed from combat and Dogmeat can do that anyway.
While Dogmeat can absolutely bring down Supermutants, there are certain enemy types he can only skirmish with and not grab. This is the big weakness of using just Dogmeat and not a companion with, say, a gun. Additionally, you're not able to raise Dogmeat's carrying capacity though you can with Companions like Preston Garvey and Cait.
| Animal Friend Perk | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 5 | Commune with beasts! With your gun, aim at any animal below your level and gain a chance to pacify it | 1e67f |
| 2 | Level 12 | When you successfully pacify an animal, you can incite it to attack | 4a0d9 |
| 3 | Level 28 | When you successfully pacify an animal, you can give it specific commands | 1d2450 |
About Animal Friend: Aim (hold the actual aim button down), then press the interact button you normally use to loot things to use the Animal Friend perk. Animals are not that common, and Wasteland Whisperer may be more useful for this reason. Being able to turn a raider's attack dog against them is cool and all, but enemies won't be permanently pacified. I'd take this perk later in the game when I just don't feel like engaging a wild beast that has attacked me.
| Local Leader Perk (Click for Guide) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 6 | As the ruler everyone turns to, you are able to establish supply lines between your workshop settlements | 4d88d |
| 2 | Level 14 | You can build stores and workstations at workshop settlements. | 1d2468 |
About Local Leader: If you're going to make use of Fallout 4's Settlements system, this is the main perk you'll need. First, having a trading station (doable with rank 2) will allow you to raise Happiness a bit in Settlements where you make that investment. Additionally, being able to set up Supply Lines will let you share resources among connected Settlements for building and crafting purposes. All your Settlements will dump their water/wood/etc. into one large stockpile, and you can take it out anywhere you are (for the useful items they come up with). This also applies to things that are scavenged. It's suggested that you use one heavily fortified city as the main hub, then connect other Settlements TO that hub, directing them from their home town to the hub city.
To establish a Supply line, click one of the people named 'Settler' in your town, because Quest NPCs can't be used to do this. That settler will then magically make all items available in the town they're connected to. This applies ONLY to items that are in Settlement Workshops' inventories, not items you have stashed away, of course.
| Party Boy & Party Girl Perks | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 7 | Nobody has a good time like you! There's no chance you'll get addicted to alcohol | 4d887 (M) 0004d888(F) |
| 2 | Level 15 | The effects of alcohol are doubled | 1d2473 (M) 001d2475 (F) |
| 3 | Level 37 | Your Luck is increased by 3 while you're under the influence of alcohol | 1d2474 (M) 001d2476 (F) |
About Party Boy or Girl: Good for Melee Characters, because Alcohol can raise strength. You may also wish to drink before talking to an NPC quest give or shopping, because it also raises Charisma. There are many variants, some better than others. If you take the first rank, definitely take the second. Having a drink or two may let you fast travel back home with 20-40 more pounds of gear than you could otherwise, though you'll be encumbered when you reach your destination. Removing the chance of addiction is decent. This is a perk I'd take later in the game, given the need for Local Leader, Gun Nut, Armor, and other awesome Perks that raise your combat potential and damage resistance.
| Inspirational Perk | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 8 | Because you lead by example, your companion does more damage in combat, and cannot hurt you | 1d2461 |
| 2 | Level 19 | Your companion resists more damage in combat, and can't be harmed by your attacks. | 1d2462 |
| 3 | Level 43 | Your companion can carry more items. | 1d2463 |
About Inspirational: If you use Companions, this is almost required. You don't want them throwing a grenade toward you and knocking you out, and the fact that they need gear (Which Dogmeat does not) means they could use the extra Carry Weight to help you bring more loot home to sell and break down into materials.
I've read that rank 2 is bugged at present, though they should still resist more damage from enemies. Shooting your companion is a wasted bullet, anyway, so you should try to avoid doing that and hit your target! Much more important if you have a melee companion who will get in the way more often.
Once you're higher level than them, you can even pacify Deathclaws with the Wasteland Whisperer Perk. It also works on Radscorpions, insects, and other mutated creatures (just not Supermutants - they're human).
| Wasteland Whisperer Perk | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 9 | Master the post-apocalypse! With your gun, aim at any Wasteland creature below your level and gain a chance to pacify it | 1d248a |
| 2 | Level 21 | When you successfully pacify a creature, you can incite it to attack. | 1d248b |
| 3 | Level 49 | When you successfully pacify a creature, you can give it specific commands. | 1d248c |
About Wasteland Whisperer: Mutated creatures, like Deathclaws, Radscorpions and Blood Bugs can now be pacified the same way animals can - assuming they're under your level. To use it, see how Animal Friend works. This is a Perk I'd take later in the game, though you may find it useful at times strategically, it will be used sparingly until you're regularly facing powerful wasteland creatures.
I used Wasteland Whisperer to successfully pacify a Deathclaw. It was only pacified about 15 seconds, though as you know with multiple Deathclaws attacking it is nice to have one out of the fight for a moment. It seemed like by giving the Deathclaw some commands, it stayed pacified just a bit longer. Order them to attack another threat and make use of this Perk when you can.
The cooldown seems to be at least 30-45 seconds. It's yet unknown just what might make a persuasion attempt easier in this regard, perhaps more Charisma, an even bigger level gap, maybe a bigger gun! I'd imagine that lower level creatures can be pacified for longer periods of time, while in the case of my Deathclaw example, it was just useful to either escape or keep it out of the fight for a time.
The cooldown on persuasion attempts is tied to the specific target, so you could try on 2-3 targets in quick succession and it's likely at least one of them might obey.
| Intimidation Perk | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Requires | Perk Description | Perk ID |
| 1 | Charisma 10 | Time to show everyone who's boss! With your gun, aim at any human opponent below your level and gain a chance to pacify them. | |
| 2 | Level 23 | When you successfully pacify someone, you can incite them to attack. | |
| 3 | Level 50 | When you successfully pacify someone, you can give them specific commands. | |
About Intimidation: See my info on the Wasteland Whisperer Perk above for some examples on how this works. They must be below your level, as stated. This will come in handy way more often than Wasteland Whisperer or Animal Friend. You can try on each humanoid attacking you, and it's likely at least one will obey. Order them to attack their friends, though do know that any XP earned for those kills will not be counted.
Charisma Builds
Charisma is not a stat that can be used exclusively, like for most stats in Fallout 4. It complements others. The main role I see here is for helping in quests - by having high Charisma and the Ladykiller/Black Widow Perk to pass more Persuasion checks. The pacify commands are not as useful as we'd like, it'd be nice if they would follow you a bit longer given you stuck a gun in their face. Doesn't make much sense they turn on you after all their friends are dead.
If you're into Settlements and are seeking to rebuild, at least 6 Points in Charisma is recommended for Local Leader so that you do not have to lug around supplies to other Settlements to build them up. It can be very annoying to get all the way there and discover you're short a screw or circuit that is necessary to make something you need to raise the Settlement's population/stats.
More Fallout 4 Guides
Share Tips and Strategies Below
- Raider Outposts in Nuka World
- Nuka World - Play as a Raider in this DLC
- Far Harbor - Learn about the DLC, its secrets, and read walkthroughs
- Automatron - Guides to building bots and quest walkthroughs
- Settlements - An in-depth guide to Settlements and managing them
- Melee Build - the best perks for a melee character
- Sneaking - Learn to be stealthy
- Critical Hits - Shots to Crit and Crit damage mechanics
- Tips for Making a Build - General advice for creating your own build
- Action Points - AP and all the things that affect it
- VATS - all about the V.A.T.S. and AP usage on weapons
- Gameplay Tips - pointers that will help new players
- Making a Sniper Rifle Weapon mod examples. Heavy hitter and fast-firing Comparison - two guns from the same base.
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