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Family Perk Ratings [UPDATED - Final Patch]

By willum.d

Perk ratings for Family, updated up to the final patch

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willum.d
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Category: Crafting, Loot, Walkthroughs, Weapons

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

4 May, 2024 @ 7:21pm

22 May @ 1:12pm

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Guide Index

Overview

Introduction

Best

Strong

Decent

Weak, Part 1

Weak, Part 2

Trash

Unrated

Outro

Comments

Introduction

This game has been abandoned by the devs.

I do not recommend buying it if you haven't already, nor do I recommend buying any future products from GUN due to their track record of failing to maintain their games.

Victim Perk Ratings: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3239658365
Family Builds: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3213292554
These are my ratings of all of the perks for Family. The effects of every perk will not be described in this guide. They can be found here:
https://texaschainsaw-massacre-the-game.fandom.com/wiki/Perks#Family_Perks

Best

These are meta defining perks. These should generally always be equipped when possible.

Scout

The meta perk. Moving faster is so important for catching up to Victims. It's great on slow characters to compensate for their lack of speed, and great on fast characters for making them unfairly fast.
Its buff which swapped its damage penalty for a stamina penalty has only made this perk better.

Security Pins

This perk makes it so hard for an average Proficiency Victim to work on a door, that it's practically not even worth trying. For high Proficiency rushing Victims, this perk slows them down to a more fair speed, making them more likely to be found while the Family patrols locks.

Strong

These are solid perks that are generally going to get good value across most matches. You can never go wrong with equipping these, unless otherwise stated.

Barrier Breaker

One of the best of Hands' few viable perk options.
Not that important with a competent Leatherface.

Dinner Bell

Great perk for knowing which trap a Victim stepped in. The entire Family can see the Victim's aura with this perk, meaning that they can possibly kill the trapped Victim very quickly.
The stamina boost isn't terribly useful, but it's a nice bonus.

Feral

Savagery is the best of the three Family attributes. Every character in the game should be investing a considerable amount of points into it if playing to win.

Fired Up

Strong effect - The increased stamina recovery applies always, and not just when you fully run out of stamina.
Nice for countering Scout's stamina penalty, but admittedly unnecessary for that.
The nerf to this perk wasn't enough to bring it down.

Hurt 'Em

Venom but for Nancy. Makes her traps actually threatening, because they do a pitiful amount of damage otherwise.
Not as good as Venom, since the effect doesn't apply if the Victim removes the trap. Still, it can get value if they're being chased, and is likely to at least result in a few more points of damage each time a trap triggers.
Arguably belongs in "Decent" tier.

Poisoned Claws

Deadly effect (especially against console Victims), but doesn't get Scout at the same time. Nancy without Scout moves slower than dashing Victims, so not having it really sucks.
Still, this perk's effect is pretty strong, and the path for it gets access to some other good options. It can be worth trading Scout for.
One of the best perks in this tier, arguably belongs in the "Best" section.

Rip Stalled

Helps with Victims carrying two fuses to counter your Ripstall.
One of the best of Hands' few viable perk options.

Rough Cut

Finally works.
Just a better Serrated for Leatherface only.
Getting Scout along with this perk is great.

Serrated

More damage with no precondition or downside, unlike most damage perks in this game.
This perk alone gives a lot of extra damage compared to percentage boosts or raising Savagery.
- For reference, +20% damage gives ~5 extra damage for Family members (except LF), assuming their Savagery is at 50.
- For additional reference, raising Savagery by 12-16 points gives ~5 damage for Family members.
This perk stacks with itself and with other bleeding perks, and ignores damage resistance modifiers like Ana's ability, making it even better.
One of the best perks in this tier, arguably belongs in the "Best" section.

Unrelenting

Feral is preferred, but more attribute points is still good.
Arguably belongs in "Decent" tier.

Venom

Makes Hitchhiker's traps much more threatening, since they don't do much damage at base. Combined with Hitchhiker's trap damage upgrades, a Victim's health bar can be destroyed by stepping in just one trap.

Wire Frame

One of the best chasing perks in the game, probably only second to Scout.
Good for chasing Victims with poor Endurance, chasing in loop sparse areas, or chasing around certain infinites.
Keep in mind that it isn't a good idea to chase Victims for too long, even if you'll eventually kill them. You need to spend time patrolling objectives.

Decent

These perks are alright, but there's generally better options to choose from. Still, these perks can be viable and worth using, especially if there's no better options.

Activated

There's a good chance that Victims will be too far away or have made it to a strong loop or to a well for this perk to get value. Can be okay if you happened to get stunned by one Victim and then run into another, however.
Only useful on Johnny, since Victims will close encounter him frequently. Not worth using on anyone else.

Big Swings

Mainly good on Leatherface for a free 15% damage boost. He unfortunately loses access to Scout if he goes for this perk, however.
Can also be decent on Hands with his high base damage and lack of Scout regardless.
For everyone else, the penalty isn't worth it and this is only good for meme damage builds.
Johnny used to care about this perk back when his swing was nerfed, but now that he can spam swings again he doesn't care about this perk.

Bruiser

Hands' barge hitbox is bad, but he doesn't have many perk options, and this gives extra damage if you use the barge as a Victim climbs down a well.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Lets you know when a Victim leaves a breached area. Effect lasts for a while too.
Mainly just used on Leatherface, since he lacks other options with his Scout path.

Linger

Decent effects all around. The extra size lets you poison a Victim out in the open if close enough.
No Scout or Special Blend with this perk means that you're better off using Rubber Legs.

Pins and Needles

RNG, but at least Nancy's trap speed got buffed.
Strength of Victim rushing means that you might not have time to set up all of your traps, and probably won't have time to farm for this perk to proc.
Still, one of Nancy's better perk options out of her limited selection.

Rubber Legs

Can be decent with Spore Loser, or if you happen to poison a Victim while another Family member is around.
Sissy doesn't apply poison on hit anymore, so this perk can't be used to delete a Victim out in the open now.
No Scout with this perk, but at least gets Special Blend.

Short Fuse

Dinner Bell that only works for you and doesn't give the stamina boost. Still an okay effect, and can be nice if you're on comms.

Special Blend

Good effect, but the poison effect only triggers for the next one attack each time it activates. The stamina buff is nice.
No Scout with this perk.
Don't use this if you're not Sissy.

Spore Loser

Decent with how strong close encounters are.
No Scout with this perk.

Strong Minded

Okay effect. Pretty much guaranteed to get value unlike some of Nancy's other perks.
One of the weaker perks of this tier, mainly since the effect just isn't that spectacular. Arguably belongs in the "Weak" category.

Surgical

One of the best blood perks, although it doesn't help right at the beginning of the game, where you want blood the most.
This perk doesn't require you to go out of your way to get blood which is a nice upside.
Can cause an overfill of blood, especially if you end up killing the Victim you're attacking and/or don't have Blood Banker equipped.
Blood perks are weak after the Grandpa perk rework and with rushing still being strong.
Arguably belongs in the "Weak" tier just because feeding Grandpa isn't worth it.

Tracker Tagged

Fine perk for solo queue, but you probably just want a perk that helps you kill the Victim faster instead.
This perk also isn't as useful when there's global voice lines for attacking Family members, and teammates can just use Family Focus to see where you are.

Universal Donor

One of the best blood perks, allowing you to harvest only 3 buckets before being able to tier up Grandpa with 35 Blood Harvesting.
Great for getting Suffocating Grip or Windoom (on Family House) active early.
Blood perks are weak after the Grandpa perk rework and with rushing still being strong.
Arguably belongs in the "Weak" tier just because feeding Grandpa isn't worth it.

Vial-ent

Solid effect with a downside that isn't that bad considering that Grandpa typically isn't worth feeding.
However, it can be a good idea to feed Grandpa if you have a good perk such as Suffocating Grip equipped, which this perk discourages.
If you're not playing a harvester (which you shouldn't be with this perk equipped), then it's going to take too long to gather enough blood from buckets to fill your vial. This perk is generally only going to proc once you kill a Victim, which you might not get a chance to do in a match, or the kill might happen too late in the game to matter.
Everything considered, this is still one of the better damage perks in the game, but Serrated should definitely be preferred if it is available.

Wait a Second

Nice for denying a Victim from immediately removing their trap, such as when they go through a trapped gap or crawl space. Nancy's traps hardly do damage, so having this bit of utility is good.

Weak, Part 1

These are perks that have lackluster effects, are too situational to be worth using, or both. You're best off ignoring these unless there's really nothing else available.

Battering Ram

Only useful on Family House for quickly barging all of the doors before Victims can rush out of the basement. Even then, you're probably better off taking another perk instead.
This perk isn't necessary if playing with a knowledgeable Johnny, since he can barge doors instantly.

Blood Banker

Blood capacity isn't that important, since you mainly care about just getting 100 blood to tier up Grandpa.
Blood perks are weak after the Grandpa perk rework and with rushing still being strong.

Blood Runner

Mild effect that has a prerequisite for some reason. At least it does something.
Can be annoying if you want to tier up Grandpa for a good perk like Suffocating Grip.
Fired Up and Unrelenting are better picks for a stamina perk, and stacking them is unnecessary.

Confusing Mechanic

Either highly situational or requires a massive time investment to set up. The effect is decent, but you're better off using other perks.

Ding Dong

Tied to a bad path with no Scout, Pins and Needles, Poisoned Claws, or Wait a Second.

Dracula

Immediately situational because it's a blood perk tied to close encounters.
The effect is poor if you lose the close encounter (which you likely will) and not that useful if you win the close encounter (since you already get a lot of blood anyway).
There are so many better blood perks.
Blood perks are weak after the Grandpa perk rework and with rushing still being strong.

Easily Tuckered Out

Very annoying penalty for an effect that wasn't even too crazy to begin with, even before its nerf.
The problem with this perk is that it is situational - finding a Victim while you have low stamina is detrimental, since the swing cost reduction isn't enough to spam swings at low stamina, and this perk makes stamina regeneration take longer.
This perk is only really worthwhile on Johnny, since he is the only character that wants to just outright spam swings due to his different lunge. Every other character only gets 2 swings on a Victim before they're out of range, and they don't get movement speed from swinging. Using this perk on anyone else is really just not worthwhile. Johnny can't get this and Scout at the same time, though, so this perk is ultimately irrelevant.

Efficient Herbalist

Poisoning items takes too much time, of which you do not have.
Poisoning items isn't that rewarding either.
RNG perk - has a chance to just not work.
Poisoning health items is the best use of this, but even then there are plenty of heals in the basement, and Victims can easily rush out before you have time to poison enough heals.

Fresh is Best

Worse effect compared to Surgical and has a downside for some reason.

Give Me More

More ability usage is good, but the downside potentially makes this perk detrimental to equip.
You aren't necessarily going to be spamming your ability constantly, since it slows you down significantly.
Shouldn't even have a downside.

Hey Sissy

Mild effect with a precondition and a downside, for some reason.
Downside is admittedly not that bad, though.
Going to a powder station is time consuming and keeps you from watching objectives.

Hunting Enthusiast

Animation is too slow. Victims can just run back into you and vault the barricade after your vault. Although you might be able to get a couple hits off, at least.

Hurt 'Em

This perk seems like it would be good, but Nancy's traps only do 5 damage at base. That means that this perk only makes them deal an additional 2.5 damage.

Hurt Pride

Situational stamina perk. You're better off with most other stamina perks.

Weak, Part 2

Hysterical Strength

Decent perk for Leatherface, but not that good for everyone else. Since Leatherface ignores the stamina mechanic and can continue sprinting despite being out of stamina, this perk can proc with an overhead hit for good damage.
However, Leatherface can no longer get this and Big Swings / Scout at the same time due to his skill tree rework, so it's an irrelevant perk now.

I'll Kill Them All

Situational damage buff.
Nancy slows herself down so much when she uses her ability, so she couldn't take advantage of this mid chase.
Nancy being a bad chaser makes it less likely for her to get hits.
You're just hoping that you happen to stumble into someone after using this perk - the Victim you spotted with your ability will be expecting you and will easily be able to get away due to Nancy's aforementioned poor chasing ability.

Master Key

Some maps don't have enough doors for this to matter, or you just don't encounter a situation where you need to break a door faster in a match.
Using this on Leatherface means that you aren't stacking maximum damage with Big Swings, Serrated, and Vial-ent.
Worthless on Johnny since this effect is already built into his base kit. Clear sign of ignorance from the devs to even give it to him.

No Escape

Animation being too slow makes this too situational.
Chasing in basement is a good way to throw a match.

Not That Easy

Tied to a bad path with no Scout, Pins and Needles, Poisoned Claws, or Wait a Second.
Seems like it could be a decent effect otherwise, comparable to Wait a Second, but its poor position on the skill tree really holds it back.

Pack Animal

Situational since it relies on you getting sneak attacked, the Victim not immediately welling afterward, and for someone to be able to do something with the information (probably another Family member).

Punishment

Victims hardly use hiding spots.
This perk is only worthwhile on Leatherface, due to Victims typically only using hiding spots to avoid overhead hits. However, Leatherface can't get this with Big Swings / Scout, so it's irrelevant.

Siphon

Everyone's skill tree paths leading to this perk are simply not worth using.
Blood perks are weak after the Grandpa perk rework and with rushing still being strong.

Slow Hands

Doesn't work with door unlocks.
Relies on Victims screwing up.

Tenderizer

Good luck winning a door war against a Victim.
Victim might still be able to get away anyway (especially if they're Ana or Leland).
Just use an actual damage perk like Serrated.

Wired

No Scout with this perk on Johnny.
Might otherwise be okay on Hands for some random info, but nobody cares to even try this perk which is telling enough. Even with Hands' limited perk options, he still has better and more consistent choices than this.

You'll Pay For That!

Situational requirement for a good effect that doesn't last that long.
Okay for those annoying Ana's and Leland's who stab Grandpa in your face, but they will probably just use their abilities on you and get away anyway.

Trash

These are terrible perks. They are either far too situational, have too weak of an effect, outright do nothing, or are actively detrimental. Never use these unless you're trolling or running some meme build.

2 Cycle Charge

Leatherface ignores the stamina mechanic, meaning that this perk is useless.

Bloodlust

Gallows kills are very rare.
This perk at least does something useful, unlike Bringing Home The Bacon, but Gallows kills being rare combined with the time investment required to get a Victim there makes this perk pretty much never get value.

Bringing Home The Bacon

Gallows kills are very rare.
This perk doesn't do anything useful when it triggers either. Not sure what the devs were thinking with this one.

Chicken Whisperer

I hope that I don't have to explain why this perk is useless to anybody.

Insulated

Nobody playing the game seriously is ever wasting time interacting with lamps.
There is a tech that allows Victims to quickly booby trap a lamp, but even then it's not worthwhile for them.

I Smell Blood

Proximity range for last Victim is a pointless mechanic that the devs shouldn't have even bothered implementing.
Even if proximity range wasn't a pointless mechanic, this is still a perk that only helps to catch the last Victim. The game is already won or lost by that point. Spending one of your three perk slots on this is just such a waste.

Patience

Johnny wants to be moving while using his ability.
Johnny also doesn't use his ability that often, and certainly doesn't want to waste a perk slot on this when he could be using anything else.

Prey Drive

Cook benefits the least from any sort of stamina buff, since he is the worst chaser in the game with the slowest move speed.
Cook's ability is typically used when camping, and requires you to be standing still to use, meaning that this perk might not even do anything.
Using this perk means that you aren't using Scout, Security Pins, and Serrated.

Rage

This perk might actually be okay if it was available to Nancy, but instead it is only available to Cook and Johnny, who don't care about their ability bars all that much.
A bit better than Warmed Up at least, but still garbage.

Reckless

Needing to jump through windows as a Family member is so situational.
- Gas Station and Slaughterhouse don't have any windows.
- Family House windows are pretty easy to run around - you don't need to jump through a window.
- The animation for this perk is so slow that it's probably faster to just run around to where the Victim landed instead of jumping through the same window as them.
It's surprising that this perk isn't merged with No Escape and/or Hunting Enthusiast (but then again, these are the same devs that made Well Well Well and Windoom separate perks).

Rubber Boots

Meme perk that is only worthwhile on Leatherface. Leatherface's path to get this perk also happens to be horrible, with no access to Scout or Big Swings and the least attribute points at 28.
Decent Victims know that this perk exists and won't just wait at the exit for you to hit them. Even if they do wait, it's possible for them to just react to you crossing over a cattle grid and leave.
The only other use this perk has is in patrolling the front exit with the generator turned on in Nancy's House, but even then it's not worth it, due to the aforementioned loss of Scout and Big Swings.

Sip Sip Sip

10x worse version of Surgical.
Reducing melee damage by 20% (the penalty increases per tier for some reason) is such a huge downside for just a bit more blood.
This is probably the second worst perk in the entire game - I'd rather just have an empty perk slot instead.

Slow and Steady

Makes you move slower.
Moving slower is just that bad - there's a reason that Scout is one of the best perks in the game.
Speed penalty caps at 10% - it doesn't go down to 5% for some reason. Horrible.
This is probably the worst perk in the entire game - I'd rather just have an empty perk slot instead.

Spring Clean

If Victims decide to wake up Grandpa at the start of the game (which good Victims will always do) then this perk literally does nothing.
Even if Victims don't immediately wake up Grandpa, there's nothing worthwhile to do with the stamina buff anyway, since you can't go in the basement until Grandpa wakes up.
What were they thinking?

Warmed Up

This perk might actually be okay if it was available to Nancy, but instead it is only available to Cook and Johnny, who don't care about their ability bars all that much.
This perk being tied to close encounters instead of just hits makes it even worse compared to Rage.

Unrated

Perks that I have yet to rate. I will do so when I have more information or time.

Blunt Force Trauma - need more data, but probably weak.
Heart Attack - need more data, but probably weak.
Muscle Memory - need more data.
Resourceful Engineer - need more data.

Outro

I hope you found this guide helpful. If you did, then make sure to like, favorite, and share it. If there's anything in this guide that you disagree with or would like to see added, then please leave a constructive comment down below. Any corrections of false information, grammar, etc. are also appreciated.

4 Comments

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willum.d [author] 14 May, 2024 @ 10:11am

Thank you for the suggestions. Builds are not included in this guide - they are in my other guides.

Rocky 11 May, 2024 @ 4:07am

Also, these perks at least playing very decently right now and have a place in the current Meta

- Ding Dong
- Wait A Second
- Pins And Needles
- Poisoned Claws
- Master Key
- Vial-ent
- Wire Frame

Rocky 11 May, 2024 @ 3:59am

There are also two very good builds on SIssy and the Cook:

1. Maximum Blood Gatherer - Cook.
- Universal Donor
- Siphon
- Blood Banker

2. Hand-to-hand combat master Sissy.
- Spore Loser
- Rubber Legs
- Special Blend

The Cook build is allowed into a very strong support role and give almost 2 levels of grandy at a time (maxing Blood Harvesting)

The Sissy build allows you to provide a real counter to all the fight fans (Ana, Leland). Read all the effects of these perks and you'll see the honorable power of Hand-to-hand Sissy

Rocky 11 May, 2024 @ 3:50am

Thank you Sir

I have some notes about some perks:

1. Efficient Herbalist - A good perk that allows you to poison survivors' first aid kits in your spare time, as well as occasionally poison electrical boxes and pneumatic valves
2. Rubber Boots - This perk is also available from Nancy (random), allowing it to be included in any build. It only makes sense on one map, but it actually has potential power as it allows you to check the backyard gate very quickly in seconds.

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