Recently, I played through the first game with a pistol character taking One Hand. The endgame weapons were the .223 Pistol and the Alien Blaster. I started with 9 Perception and got the implant later on. At the start of the game, there was a noticeable difference in accuracy between this character and my previous one where I started with only 5 as I wanted more points to spend elsewhere and use chems to qualify for Sniper. This second character was built around Big Guns.

One difference between the two characters was that the second one needed more skill points in their combat skills to make up for the lower Perception. The other character didn't need that as much to reach 95% accuracy at the longest range. Due to the bonus to accuracy from taking One Hander together with the 20% increased accuracy on the Alien Blaster due to a perk it has, I could hit Deathclaws at maximum range in the eyes at night with a final score of 110%. Of course, since the .223 Pistol didn't have an accuracy perk, it needed more points in Small Guns. But even at 200%, the .223 Pistol couldn't get 95% chance to hit Deathclaws in the eyes at the Deathclaw warehouse in Adytum at maximum range.

Since Perception affects range modifiers, I thought that perhaps having maxed Perception by the end of the game meant that I wouldn't need to invest as many points in my combat skills if I wanted to hit things at maximum range. Should all ranged characters have maxed Perception by the end of the game or only those who use targeted shots? Or shouldn't I even bother maxing Perception?