How did the Courier survive two pistol bullets to the head?

Dienan

It Wandered In From the Wastes
It's not clear to me even after covering the whole Nevada, Sierra Madre, Zion, Big MT and the Divide in his (Courier's = mine) shoes. Maybe you guys know how he did?
 
Bullets to the head are not 100% lethal, there is a little window of opportunity to survive it with enough luck and medical attention which you received. Also you were shot with a rather low caliber gun so that improves the chances of surviving by a bit.
 
I think that this question actually prompted Game Theory to explore this topic.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNTCRBArJ38[/youtube]
 
Don't forget The Courier was also wearing their plot armor that day. "Back from a shallow grave" is a staple of the kind of tumbleweed noir vibe Obsidian was looking to strike.
 
Yeah I've got no idea why they felt it was necessary to make it TWO bullets. One is stretching it, to be honest.

Quick fan theory: In Fallout 2 the Enclave president said that due to radiation and FEV basically every human in the western wasteland is at least slightly mutated in some way. Hence the mass destruction: if a new, superior human race arises, the old one will be killed off. The Courier has such a mutation: extra-strong bones. This makes the skull hard to penetrate, and also accounts for how hard it is to kill even a level 1 Courier with minimal Endurance compared to any other person in the game.
 
Was the Courier actualy shot in the head or in the face? Lanius remarks something like: "I can see it in your face, where two bullets left their mark".
Either way, I'd say Benny was a sloppy shooter, add to that he used a 9mm gun.
 
The "sloppy shooter" bit goes a long way towards explaining this all-- it's entirely possible that one of the bullets was a glancing hit and didn't penetrate the skull. That just leaves the Courier needing the luck to survive one small-caliber bullet.

Really, though, this is Fallout we're talking about. If we should be surprised about anything, it's that someone was brought down with less than a full clip.
 
Yamu said:
Really, though, this is Fallout we're talking about. If we should be surprised about anything, it's that someone was brought down with less than a full clip.

Fatman!.. Wait 1 mini nuke = 1 clip.. crap :evil:
 
Makta said:
Yamu said:
Really, though, this is Fallout we're talking about. If we should be surprised about anything, it's that someone was brought down with less than a full clip.

Fatman!.. Wait 1 mini nuke = 1 clip.. crap :evil:

Antimat rifle + headshot + explosive rounds + psycho. Kills most things in less than a clip.
 
CthuluIsSpy said:
Makta said:
Yamu said:
Really, though, this is Fallout we're talking about. If we should be surprised about anything, it's that someone was brought down with less than a full clip.

Fatman!.. Wait 1 mini nuke = 1 clip.. crap :evil:

Antimat rifle + headshot + explosive rounds + psycho. Kills most things in less than a clip.

Uhm, guys, you're really reading too much into Yamu's comment ;)
 
I would instead ask myself how did the PC go from a simple courier-walk-the-wasteland-fuck to becoming Thor incarnate in a matter of in-game months.
 
Ugh, I hate the way Condition affects things in the game. It's ridiculous to assume that by firing a few clips continuously from the same weapon that the weapon will BREAK and that over time the bullets will deal less damage. The best aspect of the Condition system was that the lower your condition, the more likely your reload animations would slow down, because that's what wear and tear WOULD affect. Maintaining gun condition keeps it performing more efficiently, not more potently. If a rifle has fired so many rounds that the rifling has worn down and that the bullets no long spin when exiting the barrel, and that the barrel width has grown so much that the bullets might exit at potentially 90 degree angles (which is possible), that's not a gradual thing that affects bullet damage over time, that's sudden and abrupt, gun crippling damage. You retire a weapon that has such damage done to it.

If Condition had merely been the modern FO answer to the Jinxed Trait, in that the worse condition your weapon is in, the more likely you will be to experience REALLY BAD scenarios such as your clip falling out of your weapon, losing your ammo, backfiring, gun jamming, etc, then I would have loved it. As it is, it was absurd.

But that's all an aside. Yes, depending on the caliber of bullets used, shots to the head are NOT always lethal. Simple as that. Larger bullets, however, will carry so much kinetic energy that they will both "mix" the fluid brain matter while penetrating the skull, as well as leaving the skull with an explosive force that propels it opposite of the bullet's trajectory (see JFK assassination for an example). But smaller bullets that merely rely on the immediate damage of direct brain injury are quite survivable.
 
When talking to Cass the Courier can reply "yes, twise" implying that Benny shot him in the head two times. He's a legend. Not becoming a lobotomize even after being lobotomized. Makes me think he's the most advanced FEV mutant in the whole wasteland..
 
No thick skull can stop a 9mm bullet at point blank range, with that being said I don't think he would be able to stand a DT. (double tap is used to penatrate armor and send the (2nd) next bullet throuh the armor for maximum damage and as a make-sure-it's-dead method)
He survived. Well.. How the Lone Wanderer turned in to a pile of goo in the vanilla FO3 and him waking up in a inf: bed (with broken steel addon) tells what I kept from saying ''it's Fallout baby!" :D
 
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