A lot of people skip over perks in Blackout, but some of them are actually really useful. Notice how I say “some of them”, because on the flip side some of them are in fact totally worthless and should be left where they spawned rather than being allowed to take up a precious slot in your inventory space.
Below, I have detailed the different perks that you can get along with an explanation and a verdict on whether you should pick it up or not. I have also split the perks into tiers, with Tier 1 perks being my personal favorites:
Awareness: Makes enemy footsteps louder
Lasts 120 seconds, 2 uses
Verdict: This is one of the best perks for the late game, especially when playing either solo or duo. You’ll be surprised by how much louder it makes enemy footsteps, and if you’re using a decent headset you can almost tell exactly where they are. This perk is especially useful in the late game when the circle is small, but it’s also good early game, especially if you drop in one of the ‘hot spots’, as it will let you know if there’s anyone around you while you’re looting.
Pick this up whenever you see it if you have the space, and if you don’t have the space then see if you can make some. It’s incredibly useful, especially in the late game. (Did I mention that it’s useful in the late game?)
Dead Silence: Move quietly and make less noise opening stashes
Lasts 240 seconds, 1 use
Verdict: Dead Silence is especially useful in both the late and early game when there are several people in the same proximity. This coupled with ‘Awareness’ is lethal; you can hear everyone perfectly, but they can’t hear you. You should always pick them up and you can generally use them straight away, but try to keep at least one for the late game.
Consumer: Use time of health and consumable items reduced by 50%
Lasts 300 seconds, 1 use
Verdict: Consumer makes it much quicker to heal, which is always useful. Whenever you have space pick this up and activate it right away, as you never know when the next battle is going to take place. Don’t try to wait until you enter conflict before using it – by the time you activate it it may be too late.
Reinforced: Less damage from fire and explosives, with improved resistance to flashbang, razor and concussion
Lasts 240 seconds, 3 uses
Verdict: As with Consumer, you should pick this perk up and use it right away; it’s extremely useful and is surprisingly effective at what it does. You won’t die if a grenade is thrown at you, and you never know when someone’s lobbing a grenade through the window, so try and keep it active.
Medic: Revive and heal faster. Healing items give more health and downed allies can be revived with more health
Lasts 240 seconds, uses: 2
Verdict: Medic is an extremely useful perk, its strongest advantage is the speed at which it revives fallen teammates, which saves a lot of lives, especially in quad play. The reason I haven’t added it into the Tier 1 perk list is because it’s not as good when playing solo; it doesn’t really take too long to heal anyway, and you don’t usually get a chance to heal unless you’re fighting at range, and if that’s the case then you’ll have time to heal anyway.
Engineer: Reveals nearby equipment and vehicles
Lasts 240 seconds, 2 uses
Verdict: You should only pick this up if you have a long run to the circle, as it will allow you to see where vehicles are, which will obviously allow you to get to the circle a bit quicker. It will also highlight enemy vehicles as well as enemy equipment, which can be very useful in the right situation. I find this perk more useful in solo queue as there’s a lot of campers sitting round with Mesh Mines, which this perk allows you to see.
Skulker: While in prone or crouched, you will move faster
Lasts 180 seconds, uses: 2
Verdict: Skulker is a situational perk. If you’re in confined quarters—like Rivertown for example—it might be worth picking it up and activating it, especially if you don’t have Dead Silence. It can also be useful towards the end of the game when everyone is close together; if you can move without being heard you have a massive advantage over your opponents, unless (of course) they’re also moving silently. I see this more as an alternative for Dead Silence if you don’t manage to find that perk instead.
Outlander: Take less damage and gives faster movement in circle collapse
Lasts 300 seconds, uses: 2
Verdict: This is another situational perk and it’s usefulness really depends on your game plan, quite often towards the end of a game my squad will play the circle which essentially means rotating round to the slow side of the storm (the slow side of the storm is determined by how close the storm is to the circle, the closer the storm is to the circle the slower it moves) and playing this way sometimes forces you into the storm for a moment which is where Outlander comes in very useful.
Iron Lungs: An increased steady time when using sniper and tactical rifles, as well as underwater breath time
Lasts 300 seconds, uses: 2
Verdict: As with Skulker and Outlander, this perk is situational. If you have a sniper rifle or a tactical rifle then it can be very useful, and it’s also useful if you’re about to cross a river by swimming, as it will allow you to stay underwater (and safe) for longer. I rarely use—or find, for that matter—a sniper rifle, so I personally only really pick this up and use it if I find it when I’m about to cross a river.
Squad Link: View teammates through walls.
Lasts 120 seconds, 2 uses
Verdict: To be honest, this perk is a bit pointless. Sure, it is a bit better to see your teammates through walls (as you know exactly what floor their on etc rather than just seeing their name tag) but it doesn’t help you win and, in my opinion, it’s much better to have the inventory space. Try to avoid this perk and don’t pick it up, unless of course you’re fully kitted out with plenty of healing and spare inventory space, then pick it up but swap it out if you find a better perk.
Paranoia: Gives an audio alert when targeted by an enemy
Lasts 240 seconds, 2 uses
Verdict: This one is seen by many as a poor perk, but it can actually be pretty good when used in the right situation. You wouldn’t want to use this while in an area such as Rivertown because if someone has you in their sights they are most likely going to shoot you on sight. However, when you are running across open spaces where people can see you from far away it’s great. In this situation people might not shoot straight away because you’re too far away for the weapon they have (there’s not many snipers around), but they will still take a look at you through their scope, at which point you’ll get an alert.
Knowing that someone had you in their sights is useful as you can take measures to make sure you don’t get cut off or shot in the back.
Brawler: Increases melee damage and awards 50 health for each melee attack
Lasts 240 seconds, 1 use
Verdict: If you’re ever unfortunate enough to get yourself into a fist fight then this perk will come in useful. However, that situation is almost never going to happen; you’ll usually either find a gun right away or be unlucky enough to find nothing and get shot in the face. Because of this, Brawler is officially the most useless perk in the game.
So, there’s my personal opinion on where the perks are ranked in terms of tiers. Don’t agree with me? Let me know what your favourite perks are in the comments!
Summary
To sum up almost all the perks can potentially be useful depending on the situation so before dismissing a perk think about what your game plan is and also think about your current situation, for example even ‘Brawler’ can come in useful if you haven’t found a weapon fairly early on and you might want to equip it, it’s not uncommon to kill someone with your fists if they have a rubbish gun and can’t aim. Likewise if you’re far away from the circle pickup and equip the ‘Outlander’ perk just in case you need it.
Checkout my other Blackout guides if you want to win more games:
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