Mysterious Stranger

Mysterious Stranger is a Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout 3 Perk.

Fallout and Fallout 2

 * Requirements:
 * Fallout: Level 6, LK 7
 * Fallout 2: Level 9, LK 4
 * Ranks: 1
 * Benefit: When you select this Perk, there is a chance (30% + (2x Luck)) that your character will gain a temporary ally, but only in random encounters.

Details depend on the player's level:
 * 9-14: 50 HP, leather armour. (52 HP if stranger is female)
 * 15-18: 70 HP, combat leather jacket.
 * 19-22: 90 HP, metal armour mk II.
 * 23-26: 110 HP, combat armour mk II.
 * 27-99: 130 HP, power armour.


 * 9-13: Hunting Rifle or FN FAL.
 * 14-19: Assault Rifle or Combat Shotgun.
 * 20-26: Laser Rifle or H&K CAWS.
 * 27-99: H&K G11.

Fallout 3

 * Requirements: Level 10, LK 6
 * Ranks: 1
 * Benefit: You've gained your own personal guardian angel...armed with a fully loaded .44 Magnum. With this perk, the Mysterious Stranger will appear occasionally in V.A.T.S. mode to lend a hand, with deadly efficiency.

If you can get an opponent down to 150 health or less in V.A.T.S, there is a 10% chance the stranger will show up and finish them off with his highly accurate magnum (His shots can still hit team mates or obstructions and not kill a target), regardless of whether you can still see them or if you hit. Also could be considered adding a critical chance to V.A.T.S. Quite humorously, the Stranger still appears next to the target even if you are using a Fat Man. Luckily he can only be knocked out. Unfortunately, you cannot retrieve a persons ear or finger from the corpse because you did not make the kill. Also kills made by the Stranger do not replenish your AP while using the perk Grim Reaper's Sprint

His appearences have a counter called 'Mysterious Stranger Visits' that is displayed during the loading screen of the game and on the Pip-Boy 3000 under the Stats tab - General.

Theories

 * 1) The Mysterious Stranger is a P.I. (Private Eye) hired by a wealthy admirer, sent to protect you on your journeys and take graphic photos of you if you fool-around!
 * 2) The Mysterious Stranger is not one person, but one of many Secret Agents sent by an unknown government organization to track your movements and keep logs of your activities. Who ordered this surveillance is unknown, but what is known is that it comes with strict orders not to break cover, except when the target is in danger (V.A.T.S.).
 * 3) The Mysterious Stranger is your real father, trained as a top secret government agent he was forced to swap you with another infant at birth, leaving you in the capable hands of the only father you've ever known. Years later after being betrayed by his own organization The Mysterious Stranger faked his own death and escaped the Commonwealth. He now spends his days shadowing you, keeping you safe. In moments of extreme terror and violence, (V.A.T.S.), when you catch glimpses of him off in the shadows, you see a face much like your own, with an expression of caring and concern that comforts you instead of causing alarm the way a real stranger's face would.
 * 4) The Mysterious Stranger is actually an Android, but wait, it gets better, you are too! Your subconscious mind has been programmed to ignore the Mysterious Stranger when he shows up, instead of getting paranoid and chasing after him to demand to know why he's following you. In fact, your programming is so deliberate that you never stop to consider the fact that some strange guy has been showing up every time you get into a fight without ever once stopping to say hello, or you're welcome! You've also been programmed to think you're the Vault Dweller, in reality the real Vault Dweller, pristine, uncontaminated, pre-war DNA and all, was captured shortly after exiting the vault and is currently imprisoned in an underground bunker somewhere in the Commonwealth. Blood and tissue samples were used to create a clone matrix of muscle and flesh for your android exterior. It has been suggested that your true purpose is quite sinister: you're a synthetic Manchurian Candidate! Programmed with a mental-trigger event, should you manage to infiltrate the organization your creators suspect the real vault dweller would draw the attention of - and be interrogated by this high ranking individual, chemicals found in your synthetic organs will precipitate out and set off a massive chemical chain reaction - equivalent to a small thermonuclear device!