So far, I've acquired the Cowboy repeater, Varmint Rifle, An assault Rifle I picked up from the NCR outpost, 10mm pistol and and incendiary flame thrower. I'm about three hours or so into the game. I was just wondering what a good early game weapon would be for picking off legion troops and other various creatures in the wasteland? The rifles just don't seem to do much damage. The flamethrower works well against rad scorpions, but I'm trying to conserve fuel. What are you guys using for early game weaponry, and where did you find it?

The Cowboy Repeater is a lovely little weapon and I use it religiously, much like my trusty Hunting Rifle back in Fallout 3. That and the Sturdy Caravan Shotgun (pre-order bonus) are the only weapons I really need right now, one for long range and one for short. The damage and DPS on the Cowboy Repeater are actually quite high for being obtainable so early in the game, so just make sure its CND is high and your Gun skill is kept up as you level.

Between the Varmint rifle w/ scope one-shotting most things with a headshot from stealth and the Cowboy Repeater or 10mm pistol killing just about anything else in a couple shots, I can't say I'm feeling a lack of firepower. I'm only playing it set to Hard though.

Are you playing on Very Hard?

I haven't got the game yet, but man am I looking forward to picking up my first proper revolver, thumbing in a couple rounds and slotting an unruly bandit or two.

Cowboy Repeater seems to be best early on. I cleared out the whole rocket facility (including the nightkin guys in the basemant) with it. I don't have any points in guns either.

Where can I find a scope for the varmint rifle? It seems to me it never shows up. Do I just have to keep waiting until chet or the guy in Novac stocks them?

I guess? I SWEAR that the guy in Goodsprings has one tho. Its callled like a Night Vision Scope or somesuch.

If you're past 10, just head to Broc Flower Cave south of Novac or Slightly Northeast of Wolflorn (not exact on this name) Ranch for the named Vermit rifle, the RatSlayer. If you're below 10, I'd make sure you have a stealthboy or two, or just be quick about it. Giant rats are more dangerous than they look....I ran in and out at level 8, but this took me a few attempts.

I picked up the NCR armor in their tent outside of Primm. It has a good damage threshold of about 10 in pretty good condition. There's actually two types there too, so you have your pick and you can use the other to repair it. Love that armor repair works like this now, with similar items melding for repair. There are also two helmets that are different. I don't mind the bad karma in the beginning of the game. The way I see it, I won't have to steal as much later in and my good will outweigh my bad. I found a cool laser machine gun, but I'm not using it. I use a 9mm smg, cowboy repeater, and spiked brass knuckles. The spiked brass knuckles are making me want to level unarmed so bad. They are bad-ass! When an enemy closes in, I take them out so quick. Two shots mostly. It's so satisfying too, having them right in you face as you take them out. Matter of fact I am def leveling unarmed on my next tag skill. Ha. This game is so much fun.

Yeah, I noticed that. At first I thought it was a bug when I saw the spiked knuckles were worth hundreds of caps. They definitely buffed them for this game.
They went from slightly better brass knuckles to FIST OF THE NORTH STAR ATATATATATATATA

Yea they really are fun to use too. Can't wait to learn new unarmed moves. Btw I'm level 3 playing hard - hardcoe mode.

Where do I find the cowboy repeater? and/or the Spiked knuckles?

Heh, at 75 skill you get "Cross". Unarmed becomes godlike then. Higher damage move (I believe) that knocks enemies backs and often drops their weapon to the ground.

First place you'll normally see the Spiked Knuckles is in Primm. The Casino (Vikki & Vance) has a room with several safes, it's there with several other objects in one of the opened safes.

I saw the Vermint Night Scope or whatever it's called in Chet's store in Goodsprings. But that was with my unarmed char - he was only selling one weapon mod (as opposed to 3) for my guns one.

Another really good early weapon is found in Primm. In the Bison Steve hotel, there's a "Hard" safe with a revolver named Lucky. With decent guns, it does something like 40 damage per shot at 120 DPS. After I got it, it took me like 8 hours to replace it with something better, didn't even bother with the Cowboy repeater - same ammo but pales in comparison (damage-wise).

As I can't even get into an "average" container, I'm sure I won't be donning "Lucky" anytime soon. Where is the cowboy?

A Varmint Rifle with a scope at long range while hidden will kill most of the early stuff in one hit if it's a head shot. Key is to be very long range so you can remain hidden and kill their friends too.

I found my first one going south from Primm towards the Mojave Outpost. There's a police station on the road, with Jackal gang members. One of them has a cowboy repeater.

For the first 10 levels, I used a combination of the 9mm pistol, sturdy caravan shotgun, varmint rifle, and finally the cowboy repeater once I finally laid my grubby hands on one.

I'm at level 15 now, and am mostly relying on the .357 magnum, sturdy caravan shotgun (still), hunting rifle instead of varmint rifle, and still the cowboy repeater.