best gun?

Jabberwok

Jabberwok

Mildly Dipped
What are people's thoughts on the best weapons in the game?

I'm at the end of a run with all of the DLCs completed, right before the battle at the dam. I'll be wearing Enclave power armor, but I'm trying to decide what weapons to take. I've had good luck using the Dinner Bell and the shotgun perks (Shotgun Surgeon and the one that adds knock down), but it could be better against armored opponents. I also use the Scout Rifle a lot, but it's damage could be higher. When I look at the weapon stats, the gauss rifle seems to be pretty much the best in the game, with both high damage and high DPS, and relatively light ammunition compared to some of the heavy weapons that might compete with it. I've been messing around with the GRA weapons, too, but none of them seem better than what I've been using.

Also, it seems like the ballistic fist is the best melee/unarmed weapon.
 
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There's a YCS/186 Gauss Rifle available at a mercenary camp east of Brooks Tumbleweed Ranch that does more damage than the regular Gauss Rifle but isn't available if you have the Wild Wasteland trait since the merc carrying the YCS/186 will be replaced by an alien captain carrying an Alien Blaster instead (the Alien Blaster is guaranteed criticals though, so it's still one of the best weapons). There's a youtube video showing where it's at as well which is what I used to find it for the first time. Other good weapons are the Anti-material Rifle, Medicine Stick, Christine's CoS silencer rifle (or This Machine or Paciencia if you don't want to carry around 2 sniper rifles), Annabelle, Thump-Thump, Tesla-Beaton prototype, and Pew-Pew...all of which use different ammunition. The Holorifle (and to a lesser extent, the Multiplas Rifle) is a faster-firing but lower damage per shot alternative to the Gauss Rifle, and Big Boomer does significantly more damage per shot when compared to Dinner Bell but can fire only once before reloading.

The Ballistic Fist is definitely powerful but I think (not sure though) the Thermic Lance might be able to out-damage it. The Thermic Lance is basically an automatic weapon so you need to hold down the button when attacking an enemy and it doesn't seem to work well in VATS.
 
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Phoenix VII said:
There's a YCS/186 Gauss Rifle available at a mercenary camp east of Brooks Tumbleweed Ranch that does more damage than the regular Gauss Rifle but isn't available if you have the Wild Wasteland trait since the merc carrying the YCS/186 will be replaced by an alien captain carrying an Alien Blaster instead (the Alien Blaster is guaranteed criticals though, so it's still one of the best weapons). There's a youtube video showing where it's at as well which is what I used to find it for the first time. Other good weapons are the Anti-material Rifle, Medicine Stick, Christine's CoS silencer rifle (or This Machine or Paciencia if you don't want to carry around 2 sniper rifles), Annabelle, Thump-Thump, Tesla-Beaton prototype, and Pew-Pew...all of which use different ammunition. The Holorifle (and to a lesser extent, the Multiplas Rifle) is a faster-firing but lower damage per shot alternative to the Gauss Rifle, and Big Boomer does significantly more damage per shot when compared to Dinner Bell but can fire only once before reloading.

The Ballistic Fist is definitely powerful but I think (not sure though) the Thermic Lance might be able to out-damage it. The Thermic Lance is basically an automatic weapon so you need to hold down the button when attacking an enemy and it doesn't seem to work well in VATS.
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Yeah, for melee, I also thought the industrial hand might be better, but I ran into a similar problem, that it has to keep making contact to reach its potential. Which is hard if an enemy is knocking you back with their own melee. On the other hand, the ballistic fist just does its damage in one quick burst, so I don't have to worry about staying in range as much.
 
Ok. Looking through the wiki, I can see that the Oh, Baby! (I really liked using this weapon), Blade of the West, Knock-Knock, Super Sledge, Saturnite Fist Super-heated (out-damages Ballistic Fist if you have Pyromaniac), Protonic Inversal Axe, and Gehenna are all top-tier weapons, but of course the Ballistic Fist is as well. I forgot to mention this, btw, but if you're interested in throwing weapona then protonic inversal throwing axes are the best by far (and, IMO, the only acceptable end-game throwing weapon) but, personally, I never saw the point to using them instead of grenades.
 
Personally I find the survivalist rifle to be the best "gun". It has decent damage and a very nice rate of fire with an acceptable clip. There isn't really anything to complain about and about nothing to compare to it in it's range. Anything else is either stronger but a lot slower, or faster but a lot weaker. However guns can vary by what perks you pick up. The Riot shotgun with every ammo-type is a versatile beast. The medicine stick is great for a cowboy.

Melee: I sort of like having a big three in terms of weapons for different builds. Gehenna is very good if you are willing to get pyromaniac, but still good if you don't. Chance's knife is too good if you are willing to get two relatively easy to get perks, cowboy, and grunt, which both give a 25% bonus, and the speed on it is godly. You'll be dealing massive amounts of damage and knocking someone down every 1-2 seconds. However my third pick is the Blade of the West. While it does decent damage, it's real kicker is it's crit. It doesn't have a high crit, but I believe you can get somewhere around a 54% chance to crit (Although the math might be off by a few %) and 3.4 attacks per second. However crit wise it's not noticeable, but on a crit it knocks down combing it with the knockdown perk means you actually have a better chance to knock down than chance's knife. Otherwise I loadout with the Inversal axe and the Oh Baby! just to round out what I need for specific situations.

Energy weapons: Elijah's Advanced LAER I think mostly tops everything. Big power and a good speed. Other weapons have more power, but with the max-load or efficient ammo I personally go Advanced LAER for most cases. It's at the point where going any higher in damage just makes a weapon too slow. The Jury Rigged Tesla cannon is good power with it's DoT to be fair, but it's a straight 40 over two seconds. Still beat by the LAER. The YCS is a sniper rifle and isn't really suited for most combat, use it to enter a fight or try and stop one from happening from afar. Sometimes you just can't do that.

Explosives: You are going to want Mercy. Best gun in game overall hands down I believe (And I do believe it is legit the best in terms of DPS). You want something dead? Use mercy. 3.1 projectiles per second, that have 100 explosive damage before perks? Throw in a plasma round and you're good. If you have pyromaniac, try the fire rounds, slightly less damage than the plasma and less AoE range, but you'll do some DoT for the hell of it. The nuka grenades are good too if you want to throw something behind a corner and the 25mm is good for general use. I guess the Esther is good if you want a fatman, but I always found fatmans sort of dumb. I never even used them in fallout 3, felt more like cheating or cumbersome.

Unarmed: I personally just use every unarmed weapon. Unarmed was better IMO before DLC because they had mostly every weapon you needed before DLC. The Saturnite heated up is good with pyro just as gehenna is, I like the versatility. I like the paladin toaster, industrial fist, and Pushy for most of my unarmed needs. They deal consistent damage and are good for most situations without having to get a perk in pyromaniac. And Fist of North Rawr because it has an awesome name (Wild Wasteland Only, otherwise it's just fist of rawr). The ballistic fist as well for if I want to shotgun fist something. Otherwise I think it's rather slow. Veronica can beat Lanius with it though, so there's that I guess.
 
I don't know about how much these compare overall stat-wise but my Courier never goes without either Lucky or That Gun as a sidearm. Being a big Cyber Punk and Blade Runner fan usually tends to make me lean towards the later.
 
Pew-Pew or Christine's Silenced CoS rifle, IMO.

Elijah's Advanced LAER is amazing fully modded, but it breaks super-quickly with max-charge ammo.
 
Depends on the build. I've done a Grunt build once or twice, really got a lot of work done with the All-American. Super flexible gun, useful at pretty much any range with decent damage.
For my Cowboy runs I've tried La Longue Carabine, Paciencia (which I realize doesn't work with the perk but flavour wise it fits the build), and the Medicine Stick. Longue Carabine worked until I got into the DLCs, then it didn't pack enough oomph. Paciencia has higher crit damage and crit chance and a better spread, but outside of that Medicine Stick has it beat in all categories by a decent margin.
For sidearms I carry the Ranger Sequoia, That Gun, and Lucky. My preference ranks in that order.
For sniping I believe an upgraded sniper rifle/Christine's CoS are the best choices, with the Anti-Mat rifle coming in third.

Don't know much about melee or energy weapons but I do like Blood-Nap from Lonesome Road. Chance's Knife is also good and can be found within 5 minutes of starting.
 
Vergil said:
I don't know about how much these compare overall stat-wise but my Courier never goes without either Lucky or That Gun as a sidearm. Being a big Cyber Punk and Blade Runner fan usually tends to make me lean towards the later.
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I really like That Gun, but looking at the stats, I don't feel like it's as good as the high tier pistols, like the 12.7. Maybe with different perks or skills it'd be better. Though I can't remember if those factor into the listed stats or not. I wish the game had some sort of sidearm system, that gave me an incentive to keep a loaded pistol on hand. Not sure how that would work, since it's already easy to switch weapons in combat.
 
Now that I'm looking into this, it is amazing how many unique weapons I missed on a playthrough that lasted around 250 hours.
 
A Light Shining in the Darkness (Joshua's pistol) is the second best pistol in terms of dps. The 1st best being a unique variant on That Gun, which is not my thing.
In my experience, it handles really well, giving a good mixture of damage-per-shot, firing rate and accuracy. It looks good to boot and has an abundant ammo type.
So I wind up using the thing as a sidearm a lot.
 
I only play on hardcore mode and I always carry the MF Hyperbreeder Alpha; it's a beast and perfect for dealing with low/mid tier baddies or knocking out pretty much anything this side of a deathclaw with a surprise attack critical barrage all without needing any ammo. Medicine Stick is pretty freaking good, as well. I've reached a decent level on my current play-through (hardcore with JSawyer mod) and now I'm only carrying the Hyperbreeder and Medicine Stick. I would also concur with people above who have said That Gun, Survivalist's Rifle, and YCS/186.
 
Standard issue Service Rifle.

What? Sometimes, simple works best. And besides, ammo is relatively easy to find, and that's a factor.

Reliable, easy to repair on account of it being plentiful, ammunition isn't rare. It sounds dumb, but it's a win for me.
 
At the moment i really like A Light In The Darkness. But im only maybe halfway through the game if that so ill probably end up finding something better.
 
My favourite will always be YCS/186. Melee weapon of choice - Gehenna. That blade can kill anything in seconds, even Alpha Deathclaws (but its risky of course lol). If I want some fun, my fully modded Gatling laser has 800 dps. Annabelle is fun too.
 
As an honorable mention, giving Boone the All American and a couple thousand rounds of surplus 5.56mm is hilarious.
All American is not quite so good for the player, but Boone is an NPC aimbot, so he can actually take advantage of its high theoretical dps.

Boone: All mine. (These words are followed by an unending staccato of death.)
You: :shock:
 
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Mercy with all explosive perks. Add in fast shot and the very evil karma perk and you'll be walking death. You can prance around the entire game naked and simply aim in the sky, click, and watch the fireworks. Indoors is not a problem either as you simply have to hit behind them.

Nothing is going to touch you. Nothing.
 
A light shining in the darkness. Such a good gun, can easily kill anything in vats except the toughtest foe.

Grew a foundness for the medicine stick on my last playthrough. Kills a deathclaw with a sneak headshot.

ONE headshot.
 
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