Assassin

The Assassin upgrade path has a variety of perks that increase your ability to traverse the terrain, sneak, fight more effectively with your hands and more mundane weapons, and craft. These perks offer the stealthy player a ton of options and greatly affect your ability to assault cult outposts without raising suspicion. If all else fails and ammo is low, you’ll find you’re more than a match in unarmed combat.

Grapple

There are many locations in the world you must grapple to. Additionally, there are missions and Prepper Stashes that you can’t complete unless you have this perk. Due to Grapple’s cheap cost and extreme usefulness, take this as soon as possible.

Nimble Fingers

The Nimble Fingers perk affects a variety of other perks, decreasing the required time to perform their action. A careful planner won’t find much use for this perk even though it is quite helpful. However, the ability to reduce the time required to disarm an alarm at a cult outpost is extremely useful. Since alarms should be disabled first, if possible, this reduces the chance a patrol

will spot you while you’re disarming. If you’re interested in gaining more rewards for silently eliminating all cultists and disarming all alarms at a cult outpost, then this perk is an essential early pick.

Sneaky Sprint

Takedowns are one of the most powerful and effective ways of killing cultists. With Sneaky Sprint, you can more easily catch up to unaware cultists without being spotted, making a stealth takedown much more likely. It is also useful for traversing open areas between patrolling cultists without being spotted.

This is a cheap perk to get; grab it early if you intend to assault cult outposts without raising alarms.

Master Blaster

If you like using remote and proximity explosives, this is an essential perk to take. The ability to craft these explosives for half the cost means it is easier to stay fully stocked. Getting this perk early requires you to visit Zip Kupka’s Ranch, which is located in southeastern Holland Valley. Once there, you must complete a couple of missions for Zip before this perk becomes available to purchase.

Takedown Mastery

Takedown Mastery is a fun and efficient way to eliminate numerous enemies that are grouped close together. Taking this perk opens three options for additional takedowns after the first takedown kill. With chain takedowns, you can quickly eliminate cultists with just your hands if they are really close together. Melee Throw takedown allows for a little more distance but you

must have an available melee weapon in your inventory to trigger this option. Pistol takedowns allow you to quickly kill multiple cultists within short range, if you have a loaded pistol. Don’t take this perk early; it requires quick reflexes and good situational awareness to use effectively

Primal Mastery

If you like using bows and slingshots more than other weapons, this is a great perk for you. Reducing the weapon sway makes targeting vital locations much easier. While the slingshot is not an ideal weapon to use against enemies, the bow is and can be quite powerful in the right hands. Bows

can kill cultists silently, which is especially useful when clearing cult outposts. You can get a composite bow almost immediately in the campaign. If you like turning the cultists into your prey, pick up this perk very early.

Close-Combat Mastery

If you like using melee weapons and handguns more than other weapons, this is a great perk for you. Reducing the bullet spread and sway of pistols makes targeting vital locations much easier. Most pistols are quick to reload, but this perk makes them super-fast, meaning you are always ready to blast the enemy (if you have ammo). Additionally, Close-Combat Mastery increases

the durability and damage of any melee weapon, which is great when ammo is running low. Since pistols and melee weapons are quite numerous, this is a great perk to purchase after getting some of the initial Survivalist and Renegade perks.

Locksmith

Locksmith is an amazing tool if you don’t want to explore areas to find keys for doors, hate wasting explosives on safes, or don’t have the Repair Torch perk. This perk, coupled with Nimble Fingers, will have you opening doors and safes quickly and quietly. Safes and locked doors typically lead to a

decent amount of cash, weapons, or Perk Magazines; with Locksmith, you can be sure you won’t miss any of these valuable goods. This perk is extremely useful for the sneaky player and should be picked up as soon as possible.

Throwback

An extremely situational perk, Throwback is only useful if the enemy throws grenades or dynamite at you. Typically, most foes in the campaign just assail you with either melee weapons or bullets, with the occasional flamethrower or RPG thrown in for fun. However, if you are low on grenades, and one is thrown near you, you can turn the tables on your would-be killer. Don’t get

this perk unless you have all the perks that are recommended as early picks or you have a surplus of Perk Points.

Ghost

Ghost is a great perk to pick for players who enjoy sneaking up on enemies and using a takedown to silently kill them. It is also a great perk to have when attempting the Death From Above challenge; if you miss, you won’t be harmed much—unless, of course, you attempted it in your wingsuit! Ghost gives you a greater chance of not being detected by cultist patrols; this is

extremely useful when trying to disarm alarms at cultist outposts. This perk is well worth the cost to get early since silently liberating outposts grants bonus income, which is extremely useful in the early game.