Useful only to the extent that it saves you from using Radaway. You shouldn't drink from irradiated sources (especially VERY irradiated sources) unless you are A: prepping for a tough fight, or B: desperate and outta stimpacks. There are better perks.-Accountless Avenger
- In NV you will absorb a lot of radiation if playing on harcore mode, this perk is very usefull on it. But in casual play I agree with you, it is uselless. Brfritos 01:23, November 13, 2010 (UTC)
This perk is no very useful in New Vegas at all. Rads are easily purged, using Radaway, and maintained using Rad-X, or simply avoiding radiation sources as much as possible.
Even in Hardcore mode when you are concerned with Hunger and Thirst, keeping Rads down is still very easy. Thirst is the easiest, once you have the Goodspring Source WP to fast travel too, because all you have to do is drink from there and your thirst is GONE. Once your survival is high, you'll gain massive Food boosts from anything you eat, and most things have a relatively low Rad count associated with them. Gecko Steaks are a great source for Food management, with a minimal Rad penalty. 71.194.53.48 08:55, June 2, 2011 (UTC)
Bad analyses
Among other things, I removed the note about Rad Resistance being better. I think a lot of players (including previous comments on this talk page) aren't thinking about Lead Belly in the right context. A few points:
- Lead Belly and Rad Resistance are not mutually exclusive. There's nothing stopping you from getting both.
- Due to the fact that radiation resistance stacks additively, you essentially get increasing returns the higher you can pile it on.
- Assuming Endurance 5, going from 8% to 58% resistance is actually a 54% reduction in radiation. Going from 8% to 33% resistance is a 27% reduction.
- Going from 58% to 83% (tacking on Rad Resistance to Iron Belly) is a further 60% reduction in radiation. The sum of the two perks is better than the parts.
- With Lead Belly, water basically becomes a cost-free source of healing:
- Cleaner sources of water on par with an infinite source of Ice-Cold Nuka Colas (24 health for 2 rads).
- Dirtier sources of water on par with an infinite source of better-than-food (24 health for 5 rads or better than the 6 health for 2 rads that is so common).
- Really unclean sources of water on par with food (24 health for 9 rads is almost the same as 6 health for 2 rads).
- Awful sources of water are still bad (think toilets), but are less painful to use when desparate
- All this has the ramification of saving you money (since you're not plowing through Rad-X/aways and food/stimpacks as much).
- The above benefit is, established earlier, not mutually exclusive with Rad Resistance. You pick it up the two, and you actually make water all that much better than food (or you can just wear power armor with Lead Belly).
- The above benefit is not replicated with Rad Resistance which, while making food safer to eat, does not make Water a good source of health replenishing (except for clean sources of water, which are already on par with food).
- Lead Belly is available earlier than Rad Resistance so the opportunity cost of taking Lead Belly is less than taking Rad Resistance, which could mean you missing out on Commando for a level.
Long story short - Lead Belly fulfills a different niche than Rad Resistance. Both are sort of weaker perks, but don't make the mistake that one substitutes for the other. For the record, unless I'm playing an explosives guy (and am taking Demolitions Expert repeatedly once I hit level 6), I take Lead Belly - I think the boost to your low-level healing is severely underrated (and lets you push off increasing your Medicine for quite a while). On the flip side, I've never ever played a game where I've taken Rad Resistance (except once when I stacked it on with Lead Belly, just out of curiosity). (Thelee (talk) 00:25, November 8, 2012 (UTC))