So I've done 3 playthroughs using almost exclusively guns (nearing the completion of a 4th), and did a short playthrough (10 hours) with energy weapons. As it stands right now I've got about 150 hours of playtime on guns characters and 10 on energy weapons, and that's it. I've really enjoyed guns and all. Each playthrough I tryed to use a different type of guns weapoin, though ultimately I've used most of them in each playthrough at least once. Automatic, snipers, shotguns, pistols/revolvers, bolt actions, lever actions... They're all fun. But since I'm about to finish another guns character, I feel it's time to switch it up a bit. I know unarmed is supposebly really over powered, but over powered doesn't mean fun. I intend to do atleast one extensive playthrough with each type of weapon, but I was just hoping for some advice on what to do next.

I've been thinking of doing an explosives character next since they've expanded explosives beyond grenades and mines, and I've used a grenade machine gun once or twice in times of emergency and could easily clear a room of weak enemies even with an explosives skill lower than 15.

On the other hand I've also considered an unarmed skill just with intention of having a "crazy" playthough, using wild wasteland, low inteligince (for the few low intelligence speach options), and completely quests in a funny or brutish way.

Energy weapons sort of interest me since on my only EW character I made it to level 13, and wanted to see if any of the higher tier EW were any good, plus running around in power armor with a gatling laser is always a plus.

As far as melee... I've considered doing the same thing as my unarmed, or maybe kind of trying to use both melee and unarmed on one character, but I'm not sure if that would just be a hassle because of having more skill point I would need in combat skills alone, and I do enjoy the uses of the other skills...

I'm open to suggestions or reasons why I should do a different type of playthrough next, with the exceptions of another guns character. It's time for something fresh...

Unarmed or Guns.

Energy Weapons are something collected from a waste drain.
And Explosives are just so damn hard to get ammo for.
And Melee?
It's basically Unarmed but Unarmed has special moves outside of VATS.

I've never played a character I was serious about that didn't use guns/small guns as his main weapon of choice. Usually with melee as a secondary option.

3rd? 4th playthrough? I know this isn't the topic but I simply can't get over that... I'm not even close to finishing my first... do people get to play at work?

Explosives have one downside:

The damage done to an actor is based on their center mass at their feet, and damage falls off with the square of distance.

The end effect is that you will have amazing difficulties killing high-DT mobs like deathclaw.

It's best to pair explosives weapon skill with a secondary weapon skill like unarmed (mantis gauntlet for high-DT enemies, explosives for hordes of wimps).

Actually, I just finished my 5th playthrough moments ago. How many hours have you put in? I've played 160 hours now, but my playthrough I just finished lasted 70 hours, so my first 4 were obviously fairly short.

I think I've narrowed it down to doing an explosives NCR character or an unarmed Caesar's Legion Character with low intelligence, though I'm leaning towards unarmed. I kind of see not being able to take a deathclaw down with a rocket a bit agitating. Might end up just flipping a coin though...

If you haven't done legion yet, it's fun, though sadly one of the major parts of the quest requires low karma, which is super hard to get in this game thanks to the fact half the map is covered in very hostile, very aggressive large-aggro-radius NPCs that give you karma when you kill them. It's worth it to see though and pick up the achieves.

Unarmed is absolutely brutal, I find it funny how it went from being the weakest of all combat skills in FO1, to having to be specially rebalanced after they'd written the majority of the game in FO2, to arguably being the most powerful in raw skill/damage ratio in FO:NV. You get the only DT-bypass weapon, and an EMP weapon.


Oh and I just tried it out, for your edification. Freehand firing (not VATS) 7 missiles to kill a deathclaw, on easy, with capped skill and normal missiles.

Please don't do the "dumb melee" character.

For some reason Obsidian made skill points MORE important for melee and unarmed characters than guns or EW because they made quite a few cross-skill perks. You end up having to put points into both unarmed and melee to get the most out of your character regardless of which skill you are using, and that leads to less skill points for other areas. I'd recommend at least 6 Int.

At least you can choose from both unarmed and melee weapons.

I have done the legion quests. My first playthrough was indepedent, then ncr, then house, then legion. Care to tell me what part of the main quest requires low karma? I didn't pay much attention to my karma, since I'm much more concerned about my factions reputation then karma as I've only seen 2 or 3 instances where I had special dialogue options revolving around karma. I think my legion guy ended with negative karma though since the narrator in the ending slideshow called the courier "the worst of the worst of them" or something a long those lines.


Why not do the dumb melee character? I've yet to have a character with less than 6 interligence yet, and low interligence gives you some different dialogue I hear. Besides, inteligence isn't as big of a deal as far as skill points go like it was in Fallout 3. I may just end up spending my first few levels into raising unarmed and melee though for the perks and since a 1 inteligence guy isn't likely to be able to hack computers or have a silver tongue.

The part that requires low karma is:


And low-int is very viable, and in fact makes it EASIER to do some things and get some very nice stuff, including Arcade Gannon as a follower with less than the required speech, and the top floor of REPCONN HQ without high luck.

Plus with INT as a dump-stat you should be able to have the appropriately massive STR, END and LCK to make an absolute beast in melee.

Melee for me without a doubt. Love all the new perks they have for it, and Knock Knock/Ballistics Fist is just pure awesomeness. :celebration:

Yep, I had low karma enough then because I did that quest. Unarmed is sounding more and more atractive, though doing another Legion run I'm a bit iffy about. Unarmed/melee seems like it'd fit best with Caesar's Legion, but they just have so very few quests...

My current run is a guns run WITHOUT stealth, I'm going for a pistolero kind of thing as opposed to my sniper build run and I'm finding it very satisfying to basically pretend I already know I want the wasteland to myself. Doing as MANY quests as possible for both sides. My goal is to do every single noncompeting quest in the game that isn't bugged for me (companion quests bug better than 50% of the time for me for some reason). The end result will be legion and NCR both beating up on each other and everyone else in the wasteland loving me.

My sneaky, snipy, unseen character has been the most fun for me in New Vegas, Fallout 3, Oblivion, Dragon Age and Mass Effect Only handguns and rifles (or shortswords and bows for her fantasy version). Should propably try the classic Fallouts with her.

That's what I thought until I found out that Oh Baby!'s Mauler VATS attack is an auto-knockdown.

I have a 1 int melle unarmed char...

THUD

S P E C I A L

9 1 9 2 1 9 9

Traits heavy handed wild wasteland

tagged skills melee unarmed survival
also train lockpick
somewhat train repair

perks

2 hunter
4 lady killer
6 toughness
8 stonewall
10 toughness
12 piercing strike
14 purifier
16
18
20
22 super slam
24 slayer
26 nerves of steel
28

so far hes a beast. I plan to take him down legion side.

Also trying out an explosives build that so far is fun..

Blamo McBoom

s p e c i a l
9 9 9 1 9 2 1

traits loose cannon good natured

tagged skills explosives science survival
other skills lockpick repair barter

Perks

2 heave ho
4 educated
6 demo expert
8 toughness
10 demo expert
12 demo expert
14 strong back
16 toughness
18 hit the deck
20 stone wall
22 pack rat
24 entomologist
26
28
30

so far its been rather funny.

Don't forget that you can have a decent number of IN points and still get "dumb" dialog options by drinking alcohol before chatting with folks. I am doing fine and having fun on skill points on a Guns/Melee/Unarmed character with high Speech and Repair and IN at 4, getting "dumb" conversations sometimes inadvertently when I drink beer to help me carry stuff.

Incidentally: Unarmed is super powerful, but it's way more fun to whack things with bumper swords and golf clubs.

Got to be guns for me - specifically a sniper model: I love my sneak crits! :ninja: And because it normally means I've got a head start if I need to run away :bolt:

I have to side with GUNS. There's just something special (no pun intended) about a good sneak critical kill with a Varmint Rifle. I like carrying a good sniper rifle, a backup rifle, and a good sidearm (.357 is my fave just for the cowboy feel) and having the freedom to mix things up: snipe folks from afar, charge in guns a blazing with pistola or just crack off rounds with that Cowboy Repeater.

UNARMED is fun but it pigeon holes your tactics a bit more, since every fight is up close and personal. The bonus moves and cool perks makes it a nice runner up to Guns, and always worth a play through.

ENERGY is a bit watered down compared to guns, but with the new recycling system for ammo, at least gives you some good variety. In FO3, I usually carried an extra blaster of some sort, but I'm less inclined to specialize. I'm still confused as to whether Flamers are Energy or not. FO3 had the Big Guns skill, and I always had a flame thrower character.

I just got done playing as an explosives/guns character, used lever-action guns only. It was pretty fun... Cass and I tore up some deathclaw's for the heck of it.

Overall for me i prefer a Gun combat character :gun: Rifle/Sniper for range & Shotgun for close quarter surgical destruction :gun:

Still any style is viable really, considering you can complete the game with killing no one if you wanted, but that would be pretty boring from my point of view.

I would say that imo as Explosives doesnt tag to flamer or incinirator, that Explosives always seems to be a secondary rather than a primary. Combined wit a stealth character, droping grenades in ususpecting enemies pockets is hialrious, is that a grenade in your pocket or are you just happy to see me :nuke:

one word: "super slam" (ok actually it's more than one word "super slam plus supersledge")

you will enjoy running right up to enemies with high armor and knocking them down with a super sledge or rebar club, hacking them to bits as they try to stand up again.

I'm not a great shot so it's Energy Weapons for me. I've also turned off animations because a bloody mess makes me queasy. A pile of ash or goo, on the other hand, is easier to clean up.

How about "all" as an option

Have 4 characters atm, encompassing quite a few combat varieties. sneak/explosives/EW, a sniper/stealth/guns/melee build, a heavily armored EW user with unarmed skills for CQC, and a shotgun surgeon/cowboy/gunslinger type w/explosives.

Guns in NV, but Energy Weapons in F3. Perhaps with some explosives mixed in when attacking multiple targets.

I have never tried Unarmed or Melee, I just find that you take too much damage getting close to your target. :shrug: