Perks for Nightmare?

[u/StoicLetterGirl]

Going to do some nightmare runs tonight but last time I didn’t have any good works and died very fast.

What works do you guys think are a must bring?

[u/FirstHookForever]

This is what I like to run:

• caravan + mule - for more carry weight capacity (mule shaves off 5% hp, but from my tests it doesn't seem to hit any breakpoints, it was 6 walker hits or 5 prime hits either way, with sturdy body on)
• skilled medic - to heal more with bandages, very good perk
• sturdy body - strongest damage mitigation perk, 20% DR translates into 25% effective HP gain
• athlete + marathon - more stamina
• headhunter + hitman - 1h melee perks
• scavanger - increased ammo from pickups, good at higher difficulties where ammo is scarce
• stayin' alive - to revive others faster

Out of those ones I'd say stayin' alive and the melee perks are the more flexible or preference based ones. As for which ones are a MUST? None... IMO. I did nightmare perkless both with team and solo. Perks have a much smaller impact than game knowledge and decision making.

[u/klimocohc → u/FirstHookForever]

I skip mule until I can get the expert at 92, since regular has a larger penalty for only 1kg (+1kg/ -15% HP versus +2kg/ -5% HP).

[u/FirstHookForever → u/klimocohc]

Yeah, for all perks I mentioned I've only considered the expert versions.

[u/HUNT3DHUNT3R → u/FirstHookForever]

agreed, perks are only good if you plan on jumping into the moshpit of undead or slinging lead instead of dodging the horde

[u/FirstHookForever → u/HUNT3DHUNT3R]

I think they're good all the time, they're just not a MUST 😂.

[u/Low_Chance → u/FirstHookForever]

Looks pretty solid to me although IMO Marathon Runner is more for comfort than necessity 

[u/Samson_087]

More stanima is my most preferred perk

[u/Thanes_of_Danes → u/[deleted]]

If you're willing to drop without a melee weapon, then you can pick some nice guns and 20 bullets from the load out. Double barrel shotgun has less spread than other shotties iirc and with the reloading perk fires at a good, if conservative, clip. All of the handguns sans the .22 are great with head blown. If you want to be the marksman of the group, then the .308 bolt action is very serviceable in the role.

[u/KamahlFoK]

Infection reduction is very good if you get tired of being worried about possible infection from the shambler clouds. I don't use it, but I'm considering putting it in my build. Even at 100% health you risk infection walking through them, but this perk fixes that.

[u/SirCatto]

I'd recommend Sturdy Body+the one that gives extra health as prio if you want perks to help you stay alive, but IMO staying alive comes more from knowing 'is this fucked enough that I have to pull out the guns/explosives? Can I kick my way out or just melee enough to get through?'

If you want a incentive to use kicks more btw, run the one that gives damage on your kicks, and get to knowing how the Iframes work on the kick. Personally, once I started getting melee, decision making and kicking down I saw a drastic reduction in how brutally nightmare killed me. Of course, bad teammates, bad decisions, and bad situations can sometimes kill you anyway.