The official online guide has a master list of unarmed weapons ("Wasteland Guns and Gear"), which includes both generic and unique ones.

For example, Spiked Knuckles is a generic unarmed weapon, and it lists its strength requirement as being 1-3 (in-game I think it was listed as 1)
Then next to it, we have Spiked Knuckles:Love and Hate which is a unqiue weapon, and has a listed strength requirement of 1-3 (in-game I have one that is 3)

Now my conundrum is that there is a listing for "Ballistic Fists" which has an astronomical strength requirement of 7-9 and unarmed proficiency requirement of 100. It also has the highest value (7800) as well as the highest base damage. Yet there is no other entry in this list that comes close to this requirement (the next highest strength requirement is 5). So I'm wondering if "Ballistic Fists" is a unique item and that there are several copies but with different strength req? Or are the unique versions missing from the list?

Has anyone come across a ballistic fist and/or know it's strength req? Right now I have 7 STR in my character, and I'm wondering if I should get a strength implant for 8 strength.

Thanks!

It's used by high level Legion troops. It's not a unique weapon but it is very powerful. Even without high strength or unarmed skill it can cause a huge amount of damage.

It's really powerful and kills most enemys under 2 hits. The only problem is I've only seen it at the Legion Fort so repairing can get expensive. And about the strength I'm not sure but my character has 8 or 9 strength and I use it fine.

Thanks! I found another location -- help Hardin in Brother of Steel to get access to more items in Armoury there, and you can buy it!

Don't like repair bills? Repair once to 75% then give it to Veronica companion!

Repair costs is easily mitigated if you get your repair skill to 50 and keep a look out for duct tapes, scrap metals, scrap electronics and wrenches so you can make your own weapon repair kits.

I gave one to Veronica, and now I hardly get a chance to kill anything myself anymore, even with sniper rifles

I used the Zap Glove with my EW character who has 20 in unarmed skill and I kill stuff really easily.
So I'd nominate it for the best.

Wiki says mantis gauntles has best DPS and also ignores all armor. Myself I like paladin toaster out of those easy to acquire.

mantis gauntlets are good vs armoured due to ignore armour but Ballistic Fists has the highest DPS and highest damage untill you hit 5 luck and 1.5 crit damage according to GECK, +1 DPS for mantis and at 10 luck its 6 DPS more for the mantis not worth bothering about really.
BTW mantis gauntlets are listed as Melee weapon equipment type that uses unarmed skill along with Cram opener Bladed Gauntlets and Deathclaw Gauntlets (all 4 of these ignore resists as well) so I dunno if they count as unarmed weapons for the unlockable fighting moves.

TBH the Paladin Toaster looks like it can do more damage due to it Zap effect that does 50 damage.

The unique Pushy is pretty decent, I am one hit killing Nightstalkers with it and only have unarmed on 30. Takes ages to wear it out too.
The Mantis Gauntlets looks decent too for those harder to get to internal organs though.

The pushy has proven to be the best fist overall for me atm, and wasn't that hard to obtain.

I gave veronica Pushy its a unique displacer glove and she absolutely wrecks everything, it is also very funny watching her throwing people 30 feet with every hit

Gave Veronica Pushy as well, makes her a terror! Also makes it hard to find the bodies sometimes