Besides the five hidden Islander’s Almanc magazines and a slew of new equipment, Fallout 4’s Far Harbor DLC also beefs up the number of perks available.
In addition to new ranks in seven of the existing perks (in a futile effort to try outpacing the lack of a level cap), the expansion offers up four exclusive perks that can only be earned here. Of course, they are all mutually exclusive, so you can’t get ’em all in one playthrough.
Those devious Bethesda developers decided you’d have to play the main story line through multiple times and side with different factions if you want to see them all. Below you can find a rundown of all the upgraded and entirely new perks, along with how to unlock the four faction-specific bonuses.
Far Harbor Extended Base Perks
Strong Back Rank 5
Bonus: Going up to rank 5 lowers the AP cost by 50% if you run while over encumbered. Who needs to make a trip to the crafting station and drop off all your collected junk? Nobody with this perk, that’s who.
Night Person Rank 3
Bonus: Gain an extra 30 health between the hours of 6PM and 6AM. Frankly, this one is kind of a waste of a rank. Unless you somehow have every single other perk in the game, why even other?
Rad Resistant Rank 4
Bonus: Gain +40 to your overall radiation resistance level. This is obviously much more useful if you don’t walk around in power armor all the time, otherwise you probably won’t need it.
Lone Wanderer Rank 4
Bonus: Gain +25 action points whenever you are traveling without an active companion. For those who like to go it alone and are VATS users, this is one you should probably pick up as soon as possible.
Scrapper Rank 3
Bonus: Earn additional material when you salvage items. If you do a lot of crafting / building (and don’t feel like pulling up the console to cheat for all the material you need), this could be helpful.
Action Girl / Action Boy Rank 3
Bonus: Your action points regenerate at a 75% faster speed than normal. If you use VATS, you want this one.
Critical Banker Rank 4
Bonus: Store a fourth critical hit to be used in VATS whenever you please. By the light of Atom, this one’s insane. When coupled with the Action Girl and Gunslinger style perks you can potentially be dealing out just massive storms of high-damage ranged attacks in VATS.
Far Harbor New Perks
These four perks are outside the normal level system and aren’t gained when you earn a new rank to spend at each level up. Instead, these are tied to the island’s main factions and are unlocked when you complete quests that aid one faction or utterly destroy another.
Destroyer Of Acadia
Bonus: Deal significantly more damage with all attacks during a 30 second window when you first drop to critically low health.
While undertaking the quest called “The Way Life Should Be,” you have to side against DiMA and destroy Acadia. To do this, talk to Alan Lee in Far Harbor and convince him to rally his troops to destroy the observatory (you can also rat out the rogue synths to either the Brotherhood or the Insitute to see them destroyed).
Way Life Should Be Quest
Inquisitor Of Atom
Bonus: Your damage will increase steadily based on your radiation exposure – the higher your rad level, the more bonus damage each attack will deal.
During the “Cleansing The Land Quest” at the end of the DLC, you have to side with the Children Of Atom and wipe out Far Harbor by turning off the fog condensers. Go to the Wind Farm Maintenance Shed location and plug in the fuses, then use the kill switch program to turn off the turbines.
Far Harbor Survivalist
Bonus: You gain a slight increased resistance to all forms of damage.
During the “Cleansing The Land Quest,” convince the High Confessor that it’s Atom’s will to launch the nuke. After activating the launch key in the submarine and escaping, you will be awarded with this new perk.
Cleansing The Land Quest
Protector Of Acadia
Bonus: Gain a huge bonus to energy damage resistance during a 30 second window when you first drop to critically low health.
To get this perk, you need to avoid launching the nuke or turning off the fog condensers, and instead forge a path of peace between the three factions.
To start the quest for peace, talk to DiMA near the end of the story during “The Way Life Should Be” and discuss Captain Avery, which will eventually give you the option to suggest what to do about Confessor Tektus and start the “Reformation” quest. At the end of the quest, if you didn’t wipe anybody out, the perk will unlock.
Reformation Quest
That’s all the new perks available in Far Harbor – let us know what ending you went with and if you found any hidden goodies we missed in our playthrough! If you haven’t decided to pick the DLC up yet, be sure to also check out our review here, as its well worth grabbing to extend the base Fallout 4 experience.
