I've had this happen 3 times now. I kill a legendary, pick up the weapon and..... I already have it.

In each case, I had modded the original weapon, used it for a while, and then stored it when I tired of it or found something better.

It appears to me that the prefix changing on the weapon after you mod it puts that legendary back into the pool of available drops, so you can get it again.

Never heard that you couldn't get the same kind of legendary twice to begin with, they are legendary, not unique.

Yes they are random weapon / armor with an random legendary effect.

if you save before killing the legendary enemy you can reload and kill him again to get another effect.

Uniques are unique named weapons with legendary effects you can buy or get as quest reward,

Actually If I save before killing a legendary I get the SAME weapon if I reload and kill him again and again.

Could it be due to mods ? I don't have mods that modify drops or anything.

I have several weapons with the same Legendary status, seems to me that the legendary stat on the weapons/armour is random.

Legendary weapons are not unique. The same legendary weapon can be dropped multiple times.

I have...

5 Two Shot 10mm pistols

2 Never Ending Double Barrel Shotguns

3 Violent 10mm pistols

4 Wounding 10mm pistols

3 Freezing Tire Irons

2 Plasma Infused Pipe Rifles

What I find weird is that basically all the legendary drops I have been getting are low level weapons. And legendary 10mm pistols seems to be the most common weapon drop I have received.

I think you have to save well in advance of the fight, before the enemy actually spawns. So you have to know there's a legendary enemy present I think.

Loot is randomly generated when an enemy spawns. It is not randomly generated when the enemy dies. That is why you get the game loot over and over again if you save before killing an enemy.

I observed the same. I have 3 junkie 10mm (after I sold 2) and 3 assassins switchblades. Never modded any of them

You're joking, right? Legendary Affixes don't mean they're not common, it's just a silly name plastered upon it to give the said weapon/armor a slight advantage (or huge) upon other weapons/armors. Already I have multiple Mutant Slayer Chest pieces that do the same crap: -15% less damage from Super Mutants.

I thought that if you save before killing a legendary, you can get a different prefix of the item he drops every time you load. Meaning you can get a wounding minigun, then if you load again an explosive minigun and so on, but it's still the same base item - a minigun.

When I load, it's the same prefix every time.

Oh lord. I sell em'. Lots of em'. I get them all the time on Survival. I have maybe 8, in a box, waiting to go to the store, I'll trade for various shipments most of the time.

My guns are all modded to the hilt, keeping the crafting perks as high as I can is my way. Because of this the various 25%, 50% + etc are not as good as what I'm using till I mod it. As I dominate the game as it is, I just sell em'. Four days since the last death, that was clumsy that one.

Not sure exactly how it works, that was just what I read. I don't do it myself.

Nope they are correct. Its like Skyrim where loot is generated when an area loads. There is no way to get a different legendary weapon by loading because the chance a legendary enemy will spawn is determined when an area loads also so once one spawns, it will always have the same loot.

In order to farm a Legendary, you need to save outside of the cell the Legendary spawns in. In the Wasteland, this is difficult to do, but if you save outside of a building, you can pull it off that way. The idea is to have one save outside the door, and one save inside. You go in, kill the legendary enemy, then check its loot. If the base item for the Legendary isn't something you're interested in (Synth Armor when you want a Shotgun, for example), reload the save outside. If the item is correct, but the effect isn't, load the save inside to get a different effect.


It is worth noting, though, that the information I've seen says Quicksave outside, then rely on the Autosave that is created inside. I don't know how strict these requirements are; does doing a hard save inside lock something in that the auto-save doesn't? And of corse, there's the issue that opening your pip-boy also creates an auto-save, so you wouldn't be able to actually pull it up without possibly ruining the farm.


Also, I should note: I've never farmed a legendary myself, so all my info is second-hand.