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1

Increases the speed of changing prose (leaning, crouching, going prone, standing up) by 50%.

Not as game changing as it seems, but it will help make your soldier feel more responsive. It synergies well with the perk that increases movement speed while crouching/prone.

1

Cuts the time it takes to put yourself out in half.

You don’t get caught on fire often. In the rare event that you do get caught on fire however, this perk can mean the difference between life and death. Overall, it’s an ok choice for 1 point.

1 (3)

Increases how fast you move while crouching or prone by 20% (max 60%) per step.

This is a good choice because crouching/going prone reduces recoil by a noticeable amount. With this perk, you can throw off the enemy’s aim while crouching. It also synergies well with the perk that increases prose change speed.

2 (4)

Increases how high the soldier can jump by 20% (max: 40%) per step.

A pretty situational skill that often doesn't get much use. It helps you jump into rooftops which makes it good for snipers. It also allows you to jump over trenches, which means you won't have to climb in order to pass through them, as well as barbed wire.

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3 (6)

Increases how fast the soldier moves overall by 5% (max: 10%) per step.

This also increases your sprint speed, albeit not as much as the sprint speed perk. It helps you reach places faster. I've heard that it increases dispersion while moving, but i'm sure you'll be fine.

2 (8)

Increases how quickly the soldier climbs walls and into windows by 25% (max: 100%) per step.

An alright choice for assaulters because they may have to frequently climb into windows in order to breach into buildings, and you are virtually defenseless while climbing.

3 (9)

The ingame description is misleading, it actually reduces the time it takes to use a med kit by 25% (max: 75%) per step.

By maxing this out, the time it takes to heal yourself while downed gets cut down from 8 seconds to 2 seconds. This, by itself, makes this perk a really strong choice.

5 (10)

Increases how fast your solder aims through his sights by 10% (max: 20%) per step.

Not that useful, but it can help out soldiers with weapons that take a long time to look into their sights (like AT rifles and LMGs). Not recommended due to its high cost,

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16

Increases the soldier's movement speed while sprinting by 15%

This also affects your speed while charging. It’s a great perk for when you need to get somewhere quickly. What holds this perk back however, aside from how expensive it is, is the fact that bots never sprint. This means that this perk will only take effect on the soldier you are currently controlling.

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Thoughts

1

Improves stamina regeneration speed by 100%.

You should take this perk because it's good for it's price. Unless you have 16 points, in which case you *hopefully* spent them all on the tier 3 perk.

1 (3)

Increases how long the soldier can hold his breath (which reduces dispersion and stops the gun from swaying while not moving) by 33.3% (max: 100%) per step.

Good for snipers, or anyone who will be aiming for extended periods of time really. But aside from that, it isn't really worth it.

2 (4)

reduces the effect of head-shaking caused by nearby explosions, and how long it lasts for by 25% and 12.5% (max: 50% and 25%) respectively per step

Very useful, but you usually don’t have the points for it due to the tier 3 perk. (you will notice a trend here...)

1 (5)

Increases the speed at which you heal outside of combat and the maximum amount of hp you can heal to by 20% and 10% (max: 100% and 50%) respectively per step.

This is a lousy perk. 6 hp simply isn't a lot, especially considering that most weapons do more damage than that.

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2 (6)

increases maximum stamina by 33.3% (max: 100%) per step.

A good perk, who doesn't want to run for longer? Well unfortunately, it's heavily overshadowed by the tier 3 perk.

4 (8)

Increases the amount of hp a med kit restores by 100% (max: 200%) per step.

Just take the tier 3 perk instead?

2 (8)

Increases aim stability after getting hit by 20% (max: 80%) per step.

In any other FPS game, this perk would be wonderful. Unfortunately, solders in this game are simply too frail for this perk to make a meaningful difference. It would synergize well with the tier 3 perk, but you won't have the points for it and will die quickly anyway. Avoid

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16

Increases the soldier's max hp and downed hp by 35%

Increasing your solder's hp from 10 to 13.5 actually does wonders for your solder's survivability. Understandably, this is a must-have perk.

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Thoughts

1

Improves how fast you switch to another weapon (or grenade) by 50%

Good perk for 1 point, that is if you switch weapons a lot. This perk is especially good if your soldier uses 2 weapons, but not really needed if your soldier only has 1.

1 (2)

Reduces the dispersion penalty from quick turning and how long it takes for it to go away by 12.5% and 7.5% (max: 30% and 15%) respectively per step

It's good to have as it helps reduce your dispersion, which means that you can hit more of your shots. I heard that it also helps keep your bots from missing as much, so there's that.

1 (4)

Improves melee damage and attack speed by 25% and 5% (max: 100% and 20%) respectively per step.

This is actually a nice perk to have, but not for the reason you might think. Spoiler alert: It also increases how fast you can dig with a shovel. Consider having this perk for your engineers if they are equiped with shovels, because digging a ditch for your rally point is better than surrounding it with sand bags.

3 (6)

Increases the range at which a grenade (or TNT pack) can be thrown by 25% (max: 50%) per step.

It's nice to lob a TNT pack further and destroy a tank farther than expected. That being said, if you are going to take this perk, have it on every soldier at the same step. Having this perk on a random soldier will more than likely throw off your aim and cause you to throw farther away than you intended. Fortunately the game lets you know if the soldier's throw range has been increased, but it's better for your soldiers to have the same throwing range.

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4 (8)

Improves reload speed by 6% (max: 12%) per step.

Useful perk, but it's better to take either the bolt action reload or the vertical recoil perk first. After that, feel free to put points on to this.

2 (10)

Increases the chance of getting downed when you run out of hp. It also increases how long you can be downed for until you die by 10% (max: 50%) per step.

Only invest one step onto this if you want to increase your chances of getting downed instead of dying outright, the rest only increase the time you can be downed.

4 (12)

Increases the fire rate of bolt action rifles by 4% (max: 12%) per step.

Excellent for bolt action rifles, but completely useless for everything else. Take this if you are equipping your soldier with bolt action rifles.

3 (12)

Reduces vertical recoil (i.e. how much your aim veers upward while shooting) by 10% (max: 40%) per step.

Highly recommended for semi-autos and autos, but not so much for bolt action rifles. Take this if you are equipping your soldiers with a semi-auto or an automatic weapon, especially if it has a high vertical recoil.

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16

Reduces horizontal recoil (i.e. how much your aim veers left/right while shooting) by 30%.

Standard gaming convention would argue that it’s better to reduce horizontal recoil due to it's unpredictability, while vertical recoil can be countered by pulling down. However, horizontal recoil isn't quite pronounced in this game (and relatively predictable) so you usually don't need this perk. If your weapon has a high horizontal recoil though, feel free to take this perk if you don't mind the large opportunity cost.