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PerksConcept

Perk concept drawings.

Perks is a gameplay mechanic associated with the level up system of player's mercenaries. With each new character level reached by your mercenary he will gain 1 Perk point in addition to Attributes stats points.

There is a total of 7 Perk rows. To unlock the second perk row, you need to spend one perk point. To unlock the third row you need to spend two perk points. These points can be allocated in any of the unlocked perk rows. So, a player is somewhat forced to pick several perks in the early level up rows till all seven perk rows are unlocked. If a player decides to make some adjustment to perks already chosen, he can reset selected character's perks with a Potion 08 Potion of Oblivion.

Upon reaching the veteran character level a regular mercenary brother will gain 10 perk points. An extra perk point can only be gained upon using a Jug 01 Mysterious Jug.

Every player, who would like to broaden and deepen their knowledge of Perks, is recommended to read the In-Depth Perks Guide by turtle225 and Abel. It provides "an up to date guide that deep dives into each perk to help you make educated decisions when building your bros".

After you read about what each perk does, you can use the Battle Brothers Perk Calculator tool made by EveryCrime or the Battle Brothers Planner tool made by Unislash. They let you visually calculate how you can spend your perk points on a character with a certain level or how you have to progress in order to achieve the perk combinations you want.

Tier 1[]

Bb t1
Perk Description
Perk 33   Fast Adaptation Gain an additional stacking +10% chance to hit with each attack that misses an opponent. Bonus is reset upon landing a hit.

Note: For the purposes of a reset on ranged attacks, hitting terrain blocking the target or a scattered shot counts as a hit and will reset the counter.

Perk 57   Crippling Strikes Lowers the threshold to inflict injuries by 33% for both melee and ranged attacks.

Note: some enemies are immune to injuries or have very large Health health pool that protects them from receiving injuries.

Perk 06   Colossus Hitpoints are increased by 25%, which also reduces the chance to sustain debilitating injuries when being hit.

Note: the bonus is always retroactively updated with maximum Hitpoints.

Perk 07   Nine Lives Once per battle, upon receiving a killing blow, survive with a few Health Hitpoints left and receive +15 Melee Defense, +15 Ranged Defense, +15 Resolve,+15 Initiative until your next turn. All damage over time status effects (bleed, poison, etc) are removed.

Note: Health Hitpoints gained are a random number between 11-15.

Perk 20   Bags and Belts Unlock two extra bag slots to carry all your favorite things. Items placed in bags no longer give a penalty to Maximum Fatigue, except for two-handed weapons.
Perk 23   Pathfinder Learn to move on difficult terrain. Action Point costs for movement on all terrain is reduced by -1 to a minimum of 2Action points Action Points per tile, and Fatigue Fatigue cost is reduced to half. Changing height levels has no additional Action points Action Point cost anymore, but Fatigue Fatigue cost is unaffected.
Perk 37   Adrenaline Unlocks the Perk 37 active Adrenaline skill (costs 1Action Point and 20Fatigue) which puts you first in the turn order for the next round, to have another turn before your enemies do.

Note: if two characters are using Perk 37 active Adrenaline, the one with the highest Initiative Initiative will act first.

Perk 54   Recover Unlocks the Recover Recover skill which allows for resting a turn (costs 9Action Points) in order to reduce accumulated Fatigue Fatigue by 50%.
Perk 21   Student Gain additional 20%Experience from battle. At the eleventh character level, you gain an additional perk point and this perk becomes inert.
Playing the Manhunters origin, your Background 60 Indebted get the perk point refunded at the seventh character level.

Tier 2[]

Bb t2
Perk Description
Perk 16   Executioner Inflict additional 20% Damage against targets that have sustained any injury effects, like a broken arm.
Perk 17   Bullseye The penalty to hit chance when shooting at a target that has no clear line of fire is reduced from 75% to 50% for ranged weapons.

Note: this affects an initial, separate, hidden roll which determines whether the shot hits the intended target, and only applies when the intended target has cover. See Combat Mechanics and Hit Chance for further details.

Perk 01   Dodge Gain 15% of the character's current Initiative as a bonus to Melee and Ranged Defense.
Perk 08   Fortified Mind Resolve is increased by 25%.

Note: the bonus is always retroactively updated with maximum Resolve.

Perk 04   Resilient Any negative status effect with a finite duration (e.g. Bleeding, Charmed) has its duration reduced to 1 turn. Status effects that have their effects grow weaker over several turns (e.g. Goblin Poison) are at their weakest state from the start.
Perk 09   Steel Brow Hits to the head no longer cause critical damage to this character, which also lowers the risk of sustaining debilitating head injuries.

Note: Steel Brow negates the additional damage provided by Brute or Chop.

Perk 39   Quick Hands Swapping any item in battle except for shields becomes a free action with no Action Point cost once every turn.

Note: This perk doesn't extend its effect for any actions with shields.

Perk 56   Gifted Instantly gain a levelup to increase this character's attributes with maximum rolls but without talents.

Tier 3[]

Perks Tier 3 (2019)
Perk Description
Perk 59   Backstabber The bonus to hitchance in melee is doubled to +10% for each ally (including your Hounds) surrounding and distracting your target.

Note: surrounding starts when two allies are adjacent to an enemy. See this section in Combat Mechanics and Hit Chance.

Perk 10   Anticipation When being attacked with ranged weapons, gain 1 + 10% of your base Ranged Defense as additional Ranged Defense per tile that the attacker is away, bonus is minimum +10 Ranged Defense.
Perk 05   Shield Expert The shield defense bonus is increased by 25%. This also applies to the additional defense bonus of the Shieldwall skill.
Shield damage received is reduced by 50% to a minimum of 1.
The 'Knock Back' skill gains +15% chance to hit.
Perk 40   Brawny The FatigueFatigue and Initiative Initiative penalty from wearing armor and helmet is reduced by 30%.
Perk 26   Relentless At all times your Initiative Initiative is reduced only by 50% of your accumulated Fatigue Fatigue, instead of all of it. Using the 'Wait' command no longer gives you a −25% penalty to Initiative Initiative when determining the turn order on the next round.
Perk 11   Rotation Unlocks the 'Rotation' skill (costs 3Action Points and 25Fatigue) which allows two characters to switch places while ignoring Zone of Control as long as neither character is stunned, rooted or otherwise disabled.
Perk 42   Rally the Troops Unlocks the 'Rally' skill (costs 5Action Points and 25Fatigue) which can rally fleeing allies, and raise morale of all nearby allies to a steady level. The higher the Resolve of the character using the skill, the higher the chance to succeed.

Note: Rally triggers a morale check to raise morale of any ally at Wavering or worse morale within 4 tiles; with a bonus of 40% of the skill user's Resolve, and a penalty of -10 per tile of distance, to the roll. It can also rally fleeing allies within the same range at no penalty. Character attracts moderately more attention from enemies.

Perk 38   Taunt Unlocks the 'Taunt' skill (costs 4Action Points and 15Fatigue) which makes the targeted opponent take offensive actions instead of defensive ones, and attack the taunting character over another, potentially more vulnerable one.

Note: this only works if the taunted enemy is able to engage the taunted character, ranged or melee. And will be ignored if there is no unobstructed path. Character attracts more attention from enemies, higher Resolve gives more attraction.

Tier 4[]

Bb t4
Perk Description
Perk 43   Mace Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Knock Out, Knock Over and Strike Down have a 100% (+25%) chance to stun the target if not immune.
The Polemace no longer has a penalty for attacking targets directly adjacent.
Perk 47   Flail Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Lash and Hail ignore the defense bonus of shield.
Pound gains +10% Direct Damage on a hit to the head.
Thresh gains +5% chance to hit.
Perk 53   Hammer Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Destroy Armor and Demolish Armor inflict 33% more damage against armor.
Shatter gains +5% chance to hit.
The Polehammer no longer has a penalty for attacking targets directly adjacent.
Perk 44   Axe Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Split Shield damage to shields is increased by 50% when used with axes.
Round Swing gains +5% chance to hit.
The Longaxe no longer has a penalty for attacking targets directly adjacent.
Perk 52   Cleaver Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Bleeding damage inflicted by cleavers and whips is doubled to 10 and 20 per turn, respectively.
Disarm penalty to hit is reduced to -10%.
Perk 46   Sword Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Riposte no longer has a penalty to hitchance.
Split and Swing gain a +10% chance to hit.
Gash has 50% lower threshold to inflict injuries (+17%).
Perk 51   Dagger Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Stab, Puncture and Deathblow have a reduced Action Point cost (3 AP from 4) to allow for an additional attack each turn.
Perk 58   Polearm Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Polearm skills have their action point cost reduced to 5, and no longer have a penalty for attacking targets directly adjacent.
Perk 45   Spear Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.

Spearwall is no longer disabled once an opponent manages to overcome it. Instead, Spearwall continues to give free attacks on any further opponent attempting to enter the zone of control.
Spearwall can be activated when being already adjacent to opponents.
The Spetum and Warfork no longer have a penalty for attacking targets directly adjacent.

Perk 48   Crossbow and Firearms Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
An additional 20% of damage inflicted with crossbows ignores armor.
Handgonnes now require 6Action Points to reload and can be fired every turn instead of every other turn.
Perk 49   Bow Mastery Skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Vision is increased by 1.
Maximum firing range with bows is increased by 1.
Perk 50   Throwing Mastery Throwing weapons skills build up 25% less Fatigue.
Damage is increased by 30% when attacking at 2 tiles of distance.
Damage is increased by 20% when attacking at 3 tiles of distance.
Note: Throwable consumables and Slings cost less Fatigue to use. Slings receive damage bonus as well.

Tier 5[]

Bb t5
Perk Description
Perk 19   Reach Advantage Each hit with a two-handed melee weapon adds a stack of Reach Advantage that increases your Melee Defense by 5, up to a maximum of 5 stacks, until this character's next turn. A single attack hitting multiple targets can add several stacks at once.
If you put away your weapon, you lose all stacks.
Perk 62   Overwhelm Learn to take advantage of your high Initiative and prevent the enemy from attacking effectively by overwhelming them with your attacks!
With every attack, hit or miss, against an opponent that acts after you in the current round, inflict the 'Overwhelmed' status effect which lowers both Melee Skill and Ranged Skill by 10% for one turn.
The effect stacks with each attack, and can be applied to multiple targets at once with a single attack.
Perk 61   Lone Wolf I work best alone. With no ally within 3 tiles of distance, gain a 15% bonus to Melee Skill, Ranged Skill, Melee Defense, Ranged Defense, and Resolve.
Perk 60   Underdog The defense malus due to being surrounded by opponents no longer applies to this character. If an attacker has the Backstabber perk, the effect of that perk is negated, and the normal defense malus due to being surrounded is applied instead.
Perk 25   Footwork Unlocks the 'Footwork' skill (costs 3Action Points and 20Fatigue) which allows you to leave a Zone of Control without triggering free attacks by using skillful footwork.

Tier 6[]

Bb t6
Perk Description
Perk 35   Berserk Once per turn, upon killing an enemy, 4 Action Points are immediately regained. Characters can not regain more than their maximum Action Points and no more than 4 for a single attack.
The character attracts slightly more attention from opponents.
Perk 15   Head Hunter Hitting the head of a target will give you a guaranteed hit to the head also with your next attack. Connecting with your hit will reset the effect, but missing a hit - won't.
Perk 29   Nimble Specialize in light armor: the lighter your armor and helmet, the more you benefit! Hitpoint damage taken is reduced by up to 60%, but lowered exponentially by the total penalty to Maximum Fatigue from body and head armor above 15.
Perk 40 Brawny does not affect this perk. Does not affect damage from mental attacks or status effects.
Perk 03   Battle Forged Specialize in heavy armor: the heavier your armor and helmet, the more you benefit! Armor damage taken is reduced by a percentage equal to 5% of the current total armor value of both body and head armor.
Does not affect damage from mental attacks or status effects.

Tier 7[]

Bb t7
Perk Description
Perk 27   Fearsome Make them scatter and flee! Any attack that inflicts at least 1 point of damage to hitpoints triggers a morale check for the opponent with a penalty equal to 20% of [your Resolve - 10], as opposed to with no penalty and only if at or above 15 points of damage.

Note: only triggers once per target for a same skill use (however, for Orcs it is applied on each Charge vs Spearwall) [1] [2]. Bonus from Resolve is capped at 20.

Perk 41   Duelist With the offhand free or carrying a throwable tool (e.g. a throwing net), an additional +25% of any damage ignores armor. Does not work with two-handed weapons.
Perk 36   Killing Frenzy A kill increases all damage by 25% for 2 turns. Does not stack, but another kill will reset the timer. The character attracts more attention from opponents.

Note: the timer starts on the turn it activates, meaning that the buff will expire on the end of the character's next turn.

Perk 30   Indomitable Unlocks the 'Indomitable' skill (costs 5Action Points and 25Fatigue) which grants a 50% damage reduction and immunity to being Stunnedstunned, knocked back or grabbed for one turn.
The character attracts less attention from opponents.

References[]

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