I've been playing Fallout 1&2 for 12 years now...

[MPPlantOfficial]

...and have only just now found out that Flares are Thrown Weapons.

 

[Mr Fish]

Hmmm...
Can they actually hit enemies?
I've been playing Fallout for 17 years now and I never bothered with any throwing weapons so I have no idea.

 

[0wing]

Can they actually hit enemies?

Kind of. Critical hits can be very devastating, as flares can even penetrate through Enclave PA with crits.

 

[Black Angel]

Try it, if you dare.....

 

[MPPlantOfficial]

Try it, if you dare.....

Yeah I'm actually 10 minutes in as I'm typing this. Cheat Engine required for the picking up flares part XD

 

[naossano]

Problem is that the game is too bright to ever really need flares.

 

[Kohno]

Problem is that the game is too bright to ever really need flares.

To my recollection they do affect the darkness level that affects your chance to hit enemies in the dark (night, caves, unlit interiors). Granted that's not really a problem since the penalties aren't that big, but nonetheless.

 

[PrimmSlim]

If you give some to Sulik to carry, there's a chance he'll put his weapon away and start throwing those instead. That's how I found out.

 

[PlanHex]

You can insta-kill people with them on a critical hit regardless of armor when aiming for the head/eyes. Think you need Better Criticals for that though.
edit: oh, that was the entire point of that video posted before. derp
edit2: I don't understand why he's lighting the flares in that video though. He could just not light them and then not need to use that exploit so they never burn out.

 

[naossano]

More fun with light on.