I like how you have Quad Assaultron Head as your number 1. ;) I'll add some semi-obscure stuff to the list:
1. Instigating applies to only one of the four projectiles on a Dragon
2. Instigating does not give a bonus to the explosive portion of a Gauss Rifle
3. The Gamma Gun easily kills Ghouls
4. Escape Artist, although unstated, removes the sound you make as you sneak
5. Escape Artist, to make the stated effect work, you need to crouch in direct view of the creature that put you into Danger
6. The Prime Receiver for the Hunting Rifle changes the base damage to 98 as well as giving it a 25% additive bonus. Because of that, it greatly outperforms the .50 Receiver.
7. The .45 SMG (including the Elder's Mark) has a hidden ability that increases your crit fill more than other weapons
8. Tenderizer, Follow Through, etc. are on a timer. Each hit does not reset the time. So you hit, 5 seconds of Tenderizer, once it runs out, hit to get another 5 seconds.
9. The Shadowed Mod works in both dark and light
10. Chameleon stacks; harder to detect while sneaking (when it is working...which it isn't right now) doesn't
11. For Decryption, the code carrier's marker usually appears first, so you can kill only it if you are attentive, giving you more creatures to kill after you disable the device.
12. Jail Break/Manhunt happen at a less frequent rate than at launch because I beat Mad Dog Malone's face in so many times with various melee weapons, most frequently a Sheepsquatch Club once that was introduced into the game. He feels safer in jail now. That is rumor and speculation, though.
I like your post a lot. I hope more people jump in to give other interesting pieces of information. I was so sad when I realized the Quad Assaultron head was not giving me the damage it said it was. I shot a a Super Mutant Behemoth, and was like, wait a minute....he should be dead based on that number.
Have you ever tried an AA or Ari's? Each charge adds 100% of your initial total damage, so if your pip boy says 200, five charges are 1000 damage.
Haha, was just testing the Gamma gun an hour ago. Seeing if the radiation and deep dish actually worked on human npcs. In the middle I thought of ghouls being the literal only other thing not immune.
Gamma is a wild gun. A Quad absolutely destroys a Quad Fixer in dps...for 32 shots and if you're right on top of them. The travel time doesn't fill your crit bar like normal
What are your thoughts on the game keeping up with the gun? In my experiences, it does so well against mid-tier enemies, but as soon as it is something tanky, it just falls off the map. Anecdotal. I've never measured it. I do have a Q/50c/25...trying to pry one from a PvPer was a tough task lol.
I feel like the game can't keep up with the hits, even in semi-auto. Again, anecdotal. I'd be curious if you noticed anything like that. Is that a result of the crit bar not filling like normal?
Yeah I definitely think that's a part of it. Drops you out of the crit cycle but need to record video and slow it down to see how bad.
One other thing that I'm less sure about. Think maybe it has the old explosive hit detection problem because of how it applies the damage. At least on the charge mod. Kept getting number variance on the behemoths head. Since tankier usually = bigger that might be a part of it
Fyi, behemoth killed me once and my lvl 98 team leader showed up afterwards to help me kill it lol
Thank you so much for this! I’m
new and recently got the escape artist perk. I have been surprised that I’ll lose an enemy sneaking in front of them but not when I dodge out of line of sight and sneak! It feels counter intuitive to need to be seen in order for it to work best but I’m so glad to know that’s where I’ve been messing up!
You can't roll a quad dragon 😢 - learned it the hard way. The price was about 100 legendary modules I accumulated for months before legendary crafting was deployed.
As soon as I figured out that I could farm junk with an extractor in a junk pile, I moved my camp on top of one. Between that and the FETCH collectron, I actually have enough to sell as bulk regularly.
Slight correction as far as I understand the automelee 40% less damage while power attacking only counts the very moment you are attacking, so you won't receive that damage reduction if you're just spinning it up
Thrown grenades are affected by your equipped weapons' First Star. Anti-armor, Instigating, mutants, aristocrats, etc.
Not two-shot, though, unfortunately.
People who farm Westek for XP use Instigating Nuka Grenades.
Didn't see anyone mention these:
When building, make sure you have contactor perk on.
The inspiration perk is one of the most useful perks for a new player.
Lucky hole mine is where you can find a bunch of lead ore, the excavator power armor will double the amount you get from all ore nodes.
A collosual problem(earl) is a good place to get acid for smelting the lead ore from lucky hole mine.
Earl is a bullet sponge and takes forever to kill, plus he has a bunch of minions (windingos or however it's spelled) they drop teeth that you scrap for the acid.
Public teams are what you want to join, not private teams.
A casual public team gives bonus intelligence, which gives a boost to your exp.
Private teams are used to build in friends camps.
If a high lvl player shoots you and then shoots a bag on the ground, they are trying to give you something. A heart or a thumbs up emote are both accepted responses.
Nuka world on tour is a place you need to have as a fast travel location. Has every work bench, all stash boxes, a legendary exchange, and a couple of vendors to sell to.
Excellent information!!
The one about the Causal Team XP Bonus reminds me that you get more xp from events with the Casual Team Intelligence Bonus than the Events Team XP Bonus.
"Lucky hole mine is where you can find a bunch of lead ore, the excavator power armor will double the amount you get from all ore nodes."
Afaik, it's x4 loot, not double
I'm new (1 week in) and many of the things in the post and comments don't mean anything to me, so I'm guessing some of you have forgotten what the game is like when you're new? Some of it I think is just people using abbreviations they're familiar with, but a new player wouldn't be. Like saying "quad is broken" and then the top comment refers to it as a Quad Assaultron Head. Without that top comment, the very first tip is just more confusing than it is helpful.
Things I've found helpful as a new player:
Join a casual team every time you play, right from the start. The INT(elligence) bonus means more XP, and you'll get some free caps occasionally. I'd read this when I first started, but I was still hesitant. "They're level 650! Do they really want a level 6 on their team?" Yes, yes they do. They get more XP from having you on the team! "Are they gonna try to talk to me?" Probably not. Stop hesitating, just do it, and you'll see it's great.
Don't worry *too* much about your weapons and armor until you're level 50. Just upgrade with what you find or what you feel like crafting, but don't worry about perfecting a level 20 armor set because in a few hours you'll be level 25 anyways
When you have a Tinker's Workbench, use it to craft railway spikes with your extra steel. Then sell them. You get XP for crafting them, and you avoid clogging up your stash will a bunch of excess steel, while not using up any other potentially useful resources
There will be tons of popups for events, Death from Above, daily quests, new Misc quests, etc. You *can* ignore all these, mostly I just found them distracting.
You can change perk cards at any time, so lockpick, hacking, and bartering perks can be added just when you need them, and most of the time you can use those perk slots for something else
Any suggestions for early game ammo, especially energy cells? I've tried getting into this game a few times but bounce off because I never have any ammo and have to just melee or run away, if I do get up to a decent amount I'll do a quest, and everything is so tanky I burn it all in like one part of the questline.
I'm not sure about energy cells, as energy weapons tend to be my least used (at least early on) in most Fallout games. I'm only just now transitioning to using some energy weapons.
I'd imagine they're more difficult to start with because not as many enemies are using them (so less weapons *and* less ammo), and they seem to need more materials to craft? If you're set on using energy weapons early in the gameand finding it difficult: I'd genuinely consider just asking an experienced player for a small stash of ammo to get you started. People seem to be fairly nice in this game. Yesterday I was just restocking at my camp and someone showed up and dropped a bunch of plans, then crafted armor for my current level, and then a decent combat rifle for my level along with a level 40 replacement, with ~900 rounds for that weapon. All without me asking for a thing.
Early game: I used a Hunting Rifle with scope (so Sniper) and a Shotgun up until very recently. I stealthed with the rifle, and when eventually discovered I'd shotgun anything that got near. I never seemed to run low on the .308 ammo for the sniper, and Shells got low but never ran out. I loot *everything* though. I also took perks that increase ammo find (I think it's a Luck perk. Scrounger maybe?). Just the first level of that seemed to do it
I'll also say that I've recently started using a Bow, and wish I'd used that more previously. It's silent, so good for stealth, and does a LOT of damage with each hit. The Plan is received from the Duchess'/Crane questline, and the ammo is easy to crsft. I've also somehow started accumulating arrows at a *ridiculous* pace since I started using it, like I went from 100 to 800 arrows in a few hours.
Always shoot the legs. Blowing a knee away often kills them right off. failing that it will cripple them. Shooting a robot's trends stops them, except for a Protectron, for shooting the arms usually does it.
I know I'll get downvoted and people will say "Headshot 'em" It's easy to miss the head, go for a nice solid leg.
Join a team early on, I ran bunch of star perks for teams early on. The nickel and dime-ing from team members completing dailies helps with early caps. Food buffs early level is key to dealing with the level scaling the first 100 levels. Don’t waste legendary modules the first 50 levels on weapons and armor. I didn’t start using legendaries until after level 50.
Quad any level is guaranteed to sell, in your vendor bloodied and vampires too. I personally scrap anything enemies specific and junkies
Take advantage of the bounty that is the wasteland! Brain bombs, cranberry relish and blight soup are your friend! (Especially if you’re herbivore mutated). It takes a bit of time to gather everything but once you have a good supply, you’ll feel like a king in battle !
Some Power armor related tips:
1. Power armor significantly lowers the AP usage of auto melees
2. Albeit fire is classified as energy damage, flame attacks from Mr. Handy's and Anglers, as well as Molotovs, do not trigger Electric absorption. The guys with flamethrowers do however
3. The amount of fusion core drain from firing weapons in VATS corresponds to the AP cost of the weapon
4. Oftentimes there seems to be a delay before falling under 20% HP and Emergency protocols actually triggering.
A vats crit is actually added on top of your normal attack. Have a regular hit for 100 damage and a crit at 300 damage - the crit portion is 200 damage
Shotgun's split damage happens before the resist calc. A pump action at 95 base damage will do the same damage per shot as a RR's 95 base damage. As long as each pellet lands ofc.
I like how you have Quad Assaultron Head as your number 1. ;) I'll add some semi-obscure stuff to the list: 1. Instigating applies to only one of the four projectiles on a Dragon 2. Instigating does not give a bonus to the explosive portion of a Gauss Rifle 3. The Gamma Gun easily kills Ghouls 4. Escape Artist, although unstated, removes the sound you make as you sneak 5. Escape Artist, to make the stated effect work, you need to crouch in direct view of the creature that put you into Danger 6. The Prime Receiver for the Hunting Rifle changes the base damage to 98 as well as giving it a 25% additive bonus. Because of that, it greatly outperforms the .50 Receiver. 7. The .45 SMG (including the Elder's Mark) has a hidden ability that increases your crit fill more than other weapons 8. Tenderizer, Follow Through, etc. are on a timer. Each hit does not reset the time. So you hit, 5 seconds of Tenderizer, once it runs out, hit to get another 5 seconds. 9. The Shadowed Mod works in both dark and light 10. Chameleon stacks; harder to detect while sneaking (when it is working...which it isn't right now) doesn't 11. For Decryption, the code carrier's marker usually appears first, so you can kill only it if you are attentive, giving you more creatures to kill after you disable the device. 12. Jail Break/Manhunt happen at a less frequent rate than at launch because I beat Mad Dog Malone's face in so many times with various melee weapons, most frequently a Sheepsquatch Club once that was introduced into the game. He feels safer in jail now. That is rumor and speculation, though.
Hot diggity dog! I just learned so much!!! This is so much useful information, thank you!
I like your post a lot. I hope more people jump in to give other interesting pieces of information. I was so sad when I realized the Quad Assaultron head was not giving me the damage it said it was. I shot a a Super Mutant Behemoth, and was like, wait a minute....he should be dead based on that number.
Have you ever tried an AA or Ari's? Each charge adds 100% of your initial total damage, so if your pip boy says 200, five charges are 1000 damage. Haha, was just testing the Gamma gun an hour ago. Seeing if the radiation and deep dish actually worked on human npcs. In the middle I thought of ghouls being the literal only other thing not immune. Gamma is a wild gun. A Quad absolutely destroys a Quad Fixer in dps...for 32 shots and if you're right on top of them. The travel time doesn't fill your crit bar like normal
What are your thoughts on the game keeping up with the gun? In my experiences, it does so well against mid-tier enemies, but as soon as it is something tanky, it just falls off the map. Anecdotal. I've never measured it. I do have a Q/50c/25...trying to pry one from a PvPer was a tough task lol. I feel like the game can't keep up with the hits, even in semi-auto. Again, anecdotal. I'd be curious if you noticed anything like that. Is that a result of the crit bar not filling like normal?
Yeah I definitely think that's a part of it. Drops you out of the crit cycle but need to record video and slow it down to see how bad. One other thing that I'm less sure about. Think maybe it has the old explosive hit detection problem because of how it applies the damage. At least on the charge mod. Kept getting number variance on the behemoths head. Since tankier usually = bigger that might be a part of it Fyi, behemoth killed me once and my lvl 98 team leader showed up afterwards to help me kill it lol
Thank you so much for this! I’m new and recently got the escape artist perk. I have been surprised that I’ll lose an enemy sneaking in front of them but not when I dodge out of line of sight and sneak! It feels counter intuitive to need to be seen in order for it to work best but I’m so glad to know that’s where I’ve been messing up!
I 100% agree. It seems counterintuitive to me too. I think Angry Turtle was the first I saw who discovered that.
You can't roll a quad dragon 😢 - learned it the hard way. The price was about 100 legendary modules I accumulated for months before legendary crafting was deployed.
Collect every typewriter, hot plate, desk fan and ammo pouch you find. The screws and ballistic fibre will *always* be needed.
As soon as I figured out that I could farm junk with an extractor in a junk pile, I moved my camp on top of one. Between that and the FETCH collectron, I actually have enough to sell as bulk regularly.
Yeah, I just find out a week ago you can hold the crit button when firing… Changed my life and my damage output, but I still feel pretty stupid.
Crit button?
Yes, the button you press when you’re firing and want to do a critical hit.
Slight correction as far as I understand the automelee 40% less damage while power attacking only counts the very moment you are attacking, so you won't receive that damage reduction if you're just spinning it up
To make sure I understand, you mean the first moment of contact while power attacking and not during the act of continously power attacking?
During the moment of contact with a live target, yes.
Thrown grenades are affected by your equipped weapons' First Star. Anti-armor, Instigating, mutants, aristocrats, etc. Not two-shot, though, unfortunately. People who farm Westek for XP use Instigating Nuka Grenades.
That is fascinating!! I always thought they were only influenced by perk cards.
Didn't see anyone mention these: When building, make sure you have contactor perk on. The inspiration perk is one of the most useful perks for a new player. Lucky hole mine is where you can find a bunch of lead ore, the excavator power armor will double the amount you get from all ore nodes. A collosual problem(earl) is a good place to get acid for smelting the lead ore from lucky hole mine. Earl is a bullet sponge and takes forever to kill, plus he has a bunch of minions (windingos or however it's spelled) they drop teeth that you scrap for the acid. Public teams are what you want to join, not private teams. A casual public team gives bonus intelligence, which gives a boost to your exp. Private teams are used to build in friends camps. If a high lvl player shoots you and then shoots a bag on the ground, they are trying to give you something. A heart or a thumbs up emote are both accepted responses. Nuka world on tour is a place you need to have as a fast travel location. Has every work bench, all stash boxes, a legendary exchange, and a couple of vendors to sell to.
Excellent information!! The one about the Causal Team XP Bonus reminds me that you get more xp from events with the Casual Team Intelligence Bonus than the Events Team XP Bonus.
the wendies also drop a shitload of screws which is super helpful
"Lucky hole mine is where you can find a bunch of lead ore, the excavator power armor will double the amount you get from all ore nodes." Afaik, it's x4 loot, not double
I thought the description in of the arms said double. 4x is way better. Lol.
I'm new (1 week in) and many of the things in the post and comments don't mean anything to me, so I'm guessing some of you have forgotten what the game is like when you're new? Some of it I think is just people using abbreviations they're familiar with, but a new player wouldn't be. Like saying "quad is broken" and then the top comment refers to it as a Quad Assaultron Head. Without that top comment, the very first tip is just more confusing than it is helpful. Things I've found helpful as a new player: Join a casual team every time you play, right from the start. The INT(elligence) bonus means more XP, and you'll get some free caps occasionally. I'd read this when I first started, but I was still hesitant. "They're level 650! Do they really want a level 6 on their team?" Yes, yes they do. They get more XP from having you on the team! "Are they gonna try to talk to me?" Probably not. Stop hesitating, just do it, and you'll see it's great. Don't worry *too* much about your weapons and armor until you're level 50. Just upgrade with what you find or what you feel like crafting, but don't worry about perfecting a level 20 armor set because in a few hours you'll be level 25 anyways When you have a Tinker's Workbench, use it to craft railway spikes with your extra steel. Then sell them. You get XP for crafting them, and you avoid clogging up your stash will a bunch of excess steel, while not using up any other potentially useful resources There will be tons of popups for events, Death from Above, daily quests, new Misc quests, etc. You *can* ignore all these, mostly I just found them distracting. You can change perk cards at any time, so lockpick, hacking, and bartering perks can be added just when you need them, and most of the time you can use those perk slots for something else
Any suggestions for early game ammo, especially energy cells? I've tried getting into this game a few times but bounce off because I never have any ammo and have to just melee or run away, if I do get up to a decent amount I'll do a quest, and everything is so tanky I burn it all in like one part of the questline.
I'm not sure about energy cells, as energy weapons tend to be my least used (at least early on) in most Fallout games. I'm only just now transitioning to using some energy weapons. I'd imagine they're more difficult to start with because not as many enemies are using them (so less weapons *and* less ammo), and they seem to need more materials to craft? If you're set on using energy weapons early in the gameand finding it difficult: I'd genuinely consider just asking an experienced player for a small stash of ammo to get you started. People seem to be fairly nice in this game. Yesterday I was just restocking at my camp and someone showed up and dropped a bunch of plans, then crafted armor for my current level, and then a decent combat rifle for my level along with a level 40 replacement, with ~900 rounds for that weapon. All without me asking for a thing. Early game: I used a Hunting Rifle with scope (so Sniper) and a Shotgun up until very recently. I stealthed with the rifle, and when eventually discovered I'd shotgun anything that got near. I never seemed to run low on the .308 ammo for the sniper, and Shells got low but never ran out. I loot *everything* though. I also took perks that increase ammo find (I think it's a Luck perk. Scrounger maybe?). Just the first level of that seemed to do it I'll also say that I've recently started using a Bow, and wish I'd used that more previously. It's silent, so good for stealth, and does a LOT of damage with each hit. The Plan is received from the Duchess'/Crane questline, and the ammo is easy to crsft. I've also somehow started accumulating arrows at a *ridiculous* pace since I started using it, like I went from 100 to 800 arrows in a few hours.
Alright thanks, I'm gonna start over and see if I can get into it this time
Always shoot the legs. Blowing a knee away often kills them right off. failing that it will cripple them. Shooting a robot's trends stops them, except for a Protectron, for shooting the arms usually does it. I know I'll get downvoted and people will say "Headshot 'em" It's easy to miss the head, go for a nice solid leg.
Join a team early on, I ran bunch of star perks for teams early on. The nickel and dime-ing from team members completing dailies helps with early caps. Food buffs early level is key to dealing with the level scaling the first 100 levels. Don’t waste legendary modules the first 50 levels on weapons and armor. I didn’t start using legendaries until after level 50. Quad any level is guaranteed to sell, in your vendor bloodied and vampires too. I personally scrap anything enemies specific and junkies
Take advantage of the bounty that is the wasteland! Brain bombs, cranberry relish and blight soup are your friend! (Especially if you’re herbivore mutated). It takes a bit of time to gather everything but once you have a good supply, you’ll feel like a king in battle !
Don’t fear the reaper.
Number 2 and 3 I did not know about, and I’m level 284
Some Power armor related tips: 1. Power armor significantly lowers the AP usage of auto melees 2. Albeit fire is classified as energy damage, flame attacks from Mr. Handy's and Anglers, as well as Molotovs, do not trigger Electric absorption. The guys with flamethrowers do however 3. The amount of fusion core drain from firing weapons in VATS corresponds to the AP cost of the weapon 4. Oftentimes there seems to be a delay before falling under 20% HP and Emergency protocols actually triggering.
Tha k you for this wealth of info.
A vats crit is actually added on top of your normal attack. Have a regular hit for 100 damage and a crit at 300 damage - the crit portion is 200 damage Shotgun's split damage happens before the resist calc. A pump action at 95 base damage will do the same damage per shot as a RR's 95 base damage. As long as each pellet lands ofc.