Level 18 character, high guns skill, lots of perks built up through using Cowboy Repeater and Hunting Rifle, etc. Feeling good about myself, even owning the Cazadors (sp?) with little trouble (with Boone along).....until Boone and I ran into some Deathclaws tonight. Holy sh%t! Boone and I were owned by them! So much for my "bring on anything" confidence!

Any advice on weapon and ammo type for them? Iwas frantically switching between 10mm SMG, Cowboy Repeater, Hunting Rifle with armor piercing, regular, and hollow point rounds. Not a lot of DAM being done tonight. Guess I won't go that way again anytime soon.

Use armor piercing rounds and a sniper rifle, I'd say.

That being said, I've only tangled with Deathclaws on my melee character. The Fire Axe knockdown special is a godsend when dealing with them.

Avoid them until you have a better gun. Either a Sniper Rifle, Brush Gun, or Anti-Materiel Rifle.

Hehehe...Oldsmobile had an ad campaign a while back that went "It's not your father's Oldsmobile."

Incidents like this should be part of a similar campaign: "It's not Bethesda's Fallout game."

:D

Try not to mess with Deatclaws until you get guns with a high enough DAM to punch through their DT.
Also NEVER use hollow point ammo on Deathclaws. Hollow point increases the targets DT by 3 times which means if you shoot at a deathclaw your doing like 1 damage per shot.
Always use Armor Piecing rounds or Max-Charged Microfusion Cells.
Guns that are good against Deathclaws:
1. Anti-material rifle
2. Gauss rifle
3. Brush gun with Hand-load rounds

Thanks. I trhink I;'ve seen the anti-material rifle for sale, but didn't want to spend the caps at the time. Maybe I should soon and sell some of the lower DAM weapons I have been holding on to.

Use a sniper rifle, make sure to pack a couple dozen AP rounds. Or get the AMR and they will be wasted in 2 shots.

This Machine with hand loaded rounds will put down Deathclaws very quickly.

Picking them off sniper-fashion is the only practical way to deal with them. Sniper rifle is nice because of the suppressor and will drop them with a head shot; AMR or gauss rifle can drop them in one hit to the torso, but make sure there's none closer to you than the target which will be attracted to the noise. Consider using mines: explosive weapons have a high chance of crippling limbs, and a limping deathclaw is a defeated deathclaw. Grab high ground wherever possible.

Deathclaws cheat. Do not fight fair. You will lose.

Deathclaws are easy to deal with 1v1. However, I got into a 3v1 tangle once...

I got two before the third one got me.

Deathclaws are nothing short of [censored] stupid in this, emptying an entire clip of armor piercing rounds from a service rifle into one's face without causing it to so much as blink disgusted me. I use Oh Baby! on them but it still pisses me off I can't just shoot them to death.

Deathclaws are supposed to be hard, so it's more satisfying when you beat them. But if you would rather be an unstoppable murder machine, you could always just drop the difficulty to Very Easy mode. Deathclaws are no problem, then, and you can shoot them with your Service Rifle at your leisure.

It's one thing for them to be a challenge it's another for them to be tanks with a face. No animal should be that strong, I don't feel satisfied after killing them just like I wasted a lot of bullets or a lot of armor/weapon condition.

The thing is that if you build your character correctly, you can still kill Deathclaws with ease even at Medium and Hard difficulty. My own character can one-shot them every time while they are charging me. Heck, just read other people's suggestions in this thread and it's as easy as picking up an Anti Material Rifle, Brush Gun, or Sniper Rifle. Service Rifles were intentionally designed to come up underpowered in the latter stages of the game.

I took out the ones at the quary with the ratslayer ,cowboy repeater and high sneak for crits, still took a lot of ammo to get them all, but have you noticed how easy it is to find ammo in this game?, especially on the dead bodies of powder gangers B)

Level 18 is usually when I can start killing Deathclaws (One at a time I may add) with no problems assuming they don't hit me.

I did build my character correctly and I can one shot them, but not with the only non low ROF weapon I own. All my high-power guns didn't have the ROF I need given the situation. I managed to kill every deathclaw at the Quarry with Oh Baby! and only Raul for backup but the point is I think the new deathclaws are [censored]. Hell I thought the old ones were [censored].

The normal ones officially have a DT of 20. I've seen some youtube vids, and the only easy way seems to grab an AM rifle with 100 guns and pick them off from afar. Have Boone wait somewhere while you use his perk to make life easier.

Grab a sniper rifle, adjust actor fade above 2(not necessary, but recommended), have ED-D in your party but leave it and all your companion at Sloan/Railway station, snipe them with AP rounds.

Well then, if you can still kill Deathclaws well enough to clear out the Quarry and stay alive, the only thing I'm seeing now is a guy who is complaining he can't kill Deathclaws as quickly as he wants to. :rolleyes:
What would your suggested alternative be? Make Deathclaws as easy to kill as Molerats? If you have the PC version maybe you can just make your own mod that will adjust Deathclaws downward like that. Or, again, you can just drop the difficulty of the game whenever you run across a Deathclaw.

Does the name "Deathclaw" not give you a hint as to their difficulty level?

You have to usually set up ambushes for Deathclaws. Find a nice rock or other piece of cover to kneel behind if not a high ledge, and set up some frag mines around that area if you have any to spare. I wouldn't recommend taking them on with anything below a Hunting Rifle. Anti-Material and Sniper Rifles are obviously preferred, but a Brush Rifle is good too. Haven't tried Trail Rifles yet.

Try to get the Deathclaw when he's away from the others with a sneak attack critical. Lure him in the directions of your mines while unloading rifle rounds into it's hide as it charges you. When it gets close, whip out a shotgun and open fire on it's head. Usually they hit the dust right before they get within arms reach; or should I say "claws" reach. :gun:

Same strategy here. Plus, the deathclaw will most likely get one of his legs broken if you have enough mines, leaving his other leg almost broken which you then target, slowing down the beast considerably. Allows you to kill it with a little more ease.

I fear my sheriff-type old man will have to resort to higher technological weapons to take them off, as I use only western-type weaponry and wear the sherrif's outfit. It gives a nice challenge. But at least he fights, walks and talks with style.

A sniper with handloaded .308 should one hit kill a death claw to the head on normal.
With Boone's hat and finesse you should be getting a critical with almost every shot when not hidden.

The sniper character build with a Sniper Rifle is extremely overpowered against Deathclaws. Just make sure you aim for the head, and it's an instant kill with one bullet.

Sniper seems too powerful.