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Up close and personal, that's how you like it. Your Sneak Attack Criticals with pistols, revolvers, and submachine guns, whether Guns or Energy Weapons, all inflict an additional 20% damage.— In-game description

The Professional is a perk in Fallout: New Vegas.

Effects[]

Taking this perk grants a 20% bonus to critical hit damage when using one-handed pistols, revolvers, or submachine guns (both Guns and Energy Weapons).

Affected weapons[]

Notes[]

  • This perk significantly increases the player character's ability to make stealth kills in close quarters, making silenced pistols and SMGs more useful. Additionally, despite the perk description, out-of-stealth critical hits are also affected, so fighting in general with pistols, revolvers and SMGs is also improved. This is especially important in holdout situations which haven't been or cannot be circumvented.
  • Although this perk significantly improves the effectiveness of stealth kills with close-range weapons, rifle-type weapons of the same caliber will still deal more single-shot Sneak Attack Critical damage, especially given any possible bonuses from other perks such as Cowboy. At moderate range and beyond, rifles are superior for one-shot kills. However, no rifles are considered holdout weapons, which makes this perk useful for any combat done inside weapon-free areas such as the Strip casinos or Fortification Hill.
  • Better Criticals also increases sneak attack critical damage, providing a further critical damage boost.
  • The perk icon shows the Vault Boy dual-wielding 10mm pistols with the silencer attachment. Dual-wielding is impossible in-game.

Behind the scenes[]

The Professional is a reference to the French movie Léon, also known as The Professional and Léon: The Professional. In the movie, Léon remarks that "rifles are for beginners" as they let the user keep a distance from their target; in his view, a true professional gets up close. Léon also has a close connection to a potted plant, a detail portrayed in the perk image. The clothes, hat, glasses, and face stubble worn by Vault Boy in the perk icon are identical to the titular character Léon played by Jean Reno in the movie.

Bugs[]

  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 The portion of this perk meant to confine the bonus to apply only to sneak attack criticals is set up incorrectly: rather than checking if the target has detected the player, the perk mistakenly checks if the player has detected the player. Additionally, there is no check in place to ensure that the target has not been alerted without overt detection of the player, nor is there any check to ensure that the player is currently sneaking. Due to these issues, the perk applies to all critical hits the player inflicts. [verified]
  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 Despite being one-handed revolvers, both That Gun and the police pistol Dead Money are unaffected by this perk. [verified]
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