Perks are an element introduced into Saints Row that let players have a bit more control over what aspects of the game they want to excel in. While there’s a healthy selection of perks to choose from, players can only have five equipped at any one time, and there’s a tiered structure in play too that’ll mean you can only have a certain amount of one type of perks. Knowing which perks are best can be tricky, so luckily we’re on hand to let you know which perks you should focus on. Here are the best perks in Saints Row, along with an explanation of how to unlock them.
How Do You Unlock Perks?
Perks are unlocked by completing challenges in-game, which can be found under the Missions app on your in-game phone. Completing challenge milestones will reward you with an equippable perk, allowing you to grow more deadly as a result. In the beginning, you only need to complete one challenge to unlock a perk, but towards the latter stages of the game, you’ll need to complete more challenges in order to receive perks.
How Does The Tier Structure Work?
Perks are broken up into three tiers, which dictate how much of an effect they have on gameplay. The first is the minor tier, which will provide some minimal yet useful buff. Next up is the Major tier, which offers some more robust changes to your gameplay style, while the final tier, Elite, is reserved for the truly game-breaking perks.
The way the tiers work is that you can only have two Minor perks, two Major perks and one Elite perk. With that in mind, we’ve broken this up into each tier to explain some of the more highly recommended perks, with the perk’s description and a brief explanation as to why you should use it.
Minor Perks
Loot Grab – You automatically pull in nearby cash and ammo.
One of the more tedious parts of a fight or the aftermath of a fight is running around, making sure you’ve picked everything up. Loot Grab isn’t going to help you kill things quicker, but it’ll make your life a lot easier.
In The Flow – You never lose Flow except when you perform a skill.
Flow is the resource you need to perform skills, which can be gained by dealing damage. If you’re not dealing damage, you can lose flow, but this perk prevents that from happening. It’s a brilliant mission perk, as it ensures you can have some flow carried over from one fight to the next.
Fire Resistant – You stay in control while on fire and take less fire damage.
A perk with a specific gang in mind, Fire Resistant is perfect when fighting against the Los Panteros gang, as a bunch of their goons will regularly throw molotov cocktails at you. They can be annoying to deal with, so reducing their effectiveness is a great way to get the upper hand on those meatheads.
Major Perks
Shiny & Chrome – You do more damage when sideswiping in a car.
Saints Row has a fairly robust vehicle combat experience that lets you slam into other cars by holding X/Square and pressing a direction while driving. Being able to do more damage with that sideswipe ability can make pursuits much easier to handle, so don’t rule the Shiny & Chrome perk out. Chrome spray and complementary War Boys are not included, unfortunately.
Back Off/Full Contact
Both perks here involve kicking (pressing the right analogue stick/R3), but they’re both excellent. Back Off means bullets do more damage to an enemy after you kill them, while Full Contact reduces your takedown cooldown further when you kill a kicked enemy. Depending on your playstyle, both of them are useful, but you could also lean into it by equipping both, turning Santo Ileso into a Young Bucks-esque superkick party.
Scavenger – You collect more rounds when you pick up an ammo box.
Nice and simple, this one. Most killed enemies drop ammo. Scavenger means they have more ammo for you. If you’re regularly burning through rounds, Scavenger is pretty much an essential perk.
Dual Wield – When wielding pistols or SMGs, you hold a weapon in each hand.
Potentially the reason why you’d need to equip the Scavenger perk, the Dual Wield perk can transform your pistol and SMGs selection from decent last resorts to the actual highlight of your entire arsenal. Sticking Dual Wield with an upgraded D4th Blossom SMG is a beautiful recipe for destruction.
Elite Perks
Saving Throw – Gain 2 health bars when your health is depleted. This perk has a cooldown.
The benefits of this perk are immediately obvious, as being able to keep fighting when you otherwise would have died will save you from spending too much time trying to recover your progress from the last checkpoint. Saints Row doesn’t do the best job of telling you when the Saving Throw has been triggered, which can lead to surprising (to you) deaths, but its usefulness as a perk can’t be denied.
Surgical Strike – Temporarily do more damage for each precision kill (up to 5) made in quick succession.
More damage is always nice, so this is a great perk to equip, even if you have to put in some work to make it trigger. Weapons like the K-8 Krukov AR are brilliant at getting headshots from a short to mid-range, meaning you can enjoy the bonuses that the Surgical Strike provides.
Saints Row is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X & S.
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