This is going to be fun.  A maxed out level 30 character is quite a joy to play… so much so that my last game I made I did 2 quests (which are required to get certain things a certain way so that I could get certain perks), and then did the scrap metal glitch (http://www.ngook.com/archives/140) to get to 30 so I could play the rest of the game like that.

1. Plan your character.
2. Starting Stats.
3. Recommended Quests
4. The Importance of bobbleheads and Stats explained in detail.
5. Books.
6. Summary.

Section 1 – Plan Your Character

Fire up your favorite spread sheet program.  I’ve made you a nice little file with all the perks layed out (including quest perks/Comma Seperated Values so it should be compatable with everything):
http://www.ngook.com/files/perks.csv (Right Click Save As). This file is All The perks you can get in the game.
http://www.ngook.com/files/usefulperks.csv This File has all the perks with the useless ones (mentioned below) removed.  I recommend just getting this one but I included the other one so you can decide if you want any of the useless perks.

This file is my build.  Blank lines are wildcards (I pick a perk based on how I felt and which way the wind was blowing):
http://www.ngook.com/files/mybuild.csv

Now I’m going to list completely USELESS perks and the reason why:

Daddy’s Boy/Girl, Gun nut, little leaguer, Thief, Swift Learner, Scoundrel, Size Matters, Impartial Mediation, Tag!: These add points to stats only. We can do that with books (and we will top them all out) without wasting a perk on them.

Swift Learner: Once you are at level 30 this perk is pointless.

Night Person: Your Intelligence will be topped out by the end of this guide.  Actually, your intelligence should be topped out by level 2.  This will not do anything because you will already have 10 points in the stats it affects.

Here and Now: Just a plain waste… Especially if you scrap metal your way to 30.

Infiltrator / Computer Whiz: If you haven’t figured out how to back out of a hack before locking yourself out and trying again, you are a retard.  If you save before you force a lock you can reload.  These are “convenience” perks but there’s better things to get.

Solar Powered: You will have 10 str, and 1 hp every 10 seconds?  Really? At 536 health it will take you 2680 seconds to get to full health from half health.  Thats 44 minutes of your charactor just standing… doing nothing…  Use a stimpack… Find a bed.  If it was 1 health a second it would be useful… but its totally gimped.  Also there is only 1440 seconds worth of daylight in the game (6am to 6pm is your solar powered perks span, and the game operates at a rate of 2 seconds to 1 game minute means 12 hours a day * 60 Min to an hour * 2 seconds to the minute = 1440.  The game cycle is a 48 minute cycle.  This means a level 30 character can be brought down to half health, and allowed to stand in the sunlight from 6am to 6pm game time (24 minutes) would be brought up to just more than 75 percent health.  Then 24 minutes later after the night cycle ends you can stand there for another 20 minutes and heal.  WTF were you thinking Bethesda…?  Do you offer your employees’ cars as a bonus for doing good work only for that employee to find out that the car tops out at 3.5 mph?  Somebody should really get fired over this perk…  ok maybe if we weren’t going to top out strength it *might* have some use… but the health regen shouldn’t even be there.  Either commit or back out, but don’t stand around like an alzheimer patient on a freeway trying to remember which side he was trying to cross to.  Ok I’m done with my rant on retarded gimping of perks.

Deep Sleep: Gives you an xp bonus for 8 hours in any bed slept in. At level 30 you won’t be earning xp, and you can always sleep in your own bed if that extra 10% means that much to you.

Devil’s Highway, Escalator to Heaven, Karmic Rebalance: Karma can be altered without waisting a perk on it.  Spend money in a church to go up, enslave raiders to bring it down (its like 100 points per enslave it’ll get you down quick).

No Weakness: At level 30 you will have 10 in everything so this is a waste.

Party Boy / Girl, Chem Resistant, Chemist: Even if you do get addicted to alcohol/Chems… My first lab and cure yourself as necessary.  Also at level 30 the effects of alcohol/Chems will not be there because your stats are topped out, so no point in taking chems in the first place.

Nerves of steel: Your Ap fills up pretty fast as it is… same problem as solar powered… +1 ap every 10 seconds… I’m usually completely refilled on my action points at about 15 seconds or so…  1 point?  really?!  If you get grim reapers sprint (very cool perk) you get full action points anyways if you make a kill in vats.

Rad Absorption, Rad tolerance: My first Infirmiry.  Same problem as solar powered… -1 rad every 20 seconds… really?  It could be useful if it wasn’t retardedly gimped. Rad tolerance is useless if you go home every once in a while and hit up the med kit.

Matter of opinion perks (Some may find useful, some may not):

Explorer: You don’t NEED to know where everything is.  But god damned its handy (I love this perk).

Warmonger: A convenience Perk as you can always go through the game and get schematics.  Has a bonus tho: You don’t need to give up 30 nuka quantums to that one bitch for the 3rd schematic for the nuka grenade.

You cannot get Nuclear Anomaly with this guide because level 30 perk will be “Almost Perfect”.

Required Perks: Almost Perfect.
Recommended Perk: Educated, Comprehension.

Note the requirements to get the perks you want.  You need to meet them before you can get the perk, so on previous levels you will need to level up certain skills.  I recommend you delete the lines of the perks you don’t want, compress them (like I did) and print it.  Follow it.

Next: Section 2 – Starting Stats