Intimidation

Intimidation is a perk in Fallout 4.

Effects
To use this perk, one must aim a ranged weapon at a human enemy and press the interact button (X on PS4, A on XBOX). This perk is not guaranteed to work, even on enemies with a significantly lower level than the player character. Once an attempt is made, another is possible after waiting a short amount of time, often sixty seconds. If successful, the target will raise their arms and surrender, turning friendly on one's HUD; however, it seems like after waiting a span of several minutes or performing certain actions (such as picking locks or entering or exiting power armor), some pacified targets can become hostile again.

Once intimidated, the individual appears to lose their faction allegiance, but will still react to crimes committed against them. For example, an intimidated enemy will not attack if their allies are wounded/killed, or if loose objects are looted. However if one damages them or is caught pick pocketing from their inventory, they will turn hostile. Note that damaging/killing one intimidated enemy will have no effects on other intimidated enemies, only that specific individual.

Like the two other perks, Animal Friend and Wasteland Whisperer, it only works with enemies below the player character's level, enemies who are on-par or above the player character's level cannot be pacified.

This perk can be used on non-hostile NPCs; however, if it fails, it is counted as an assault on them. If one is detected during the act, the intended target will turn hostile and attack.

Characters that can be intimidated

 * Raiders
 * Gunners
 * Synths (Generation 3 only)
 * Children of Atom
 * Commonwealth Minutemen
 * Various human and non-feral ghoul NPCs

Dialogue
The Sole Survivor will sometimes make faction specific comments when pacifying and inciting targets.

Behind the scenes
This perk was implemented into Fallout 4 by level designer Justin Schram.