So I couldnt stay away I had to play FONV again. This time softcoe and perhaps different weaponskill instead of guns, say EW and Explosives!
But hell the first few hrs with a laserpistol and a RCW rifle was just painfull!
Did I realy do this little damage with a 9mm pistol? Should the weapons realy degrade this fast?
On the other hand dynamite, fun fun fun! (so explosives was a good chice.)

Honestly should I give up now and use the pc-comm to shift energy to something else, or should I stick to it sooner or later I will get to Freeside and the van Grafs?
What is FUN with EW?

BTW explosives + what? Meele?????

The upcomming patch will change energy weapons quite a bit and explosives too. So wait till then and instead try a melee unarrmed build or something.

EW is perfectly usable now since the Death Claw and Spuer Mutants have their DT reduced to 15.

However, you have to aware that damage multiplier is done after DT, that means you still want some high damage weapon against things mention above.

And other advice is search area with Coyotes in early game; you should be able to find more Laser Pistol.

And don't forget Johnson Nash is a vendor as well.

And since this isn't your 1st playthrough, I recommend Vegas rush so you can loot some weapons off the fiends.

Never knew explosives are to be changed too. Still, this. EW's are manageable now too, but it'll propably be worthwhile to wait for the patch.

i use the Gauss rifle as my range weapon. it is very effective against scorpions and death claws. also the energy weapons have equals to machine guns and mini guns. and the ammo can be over charged.

I started a mele/unarmed, explosives character simply for the change of pace, and the achievements (yup, I'm an achievement hoor). Once I got those achievements I switched to EW and use the mele for backup. So far its working pretty well. Especially since I had built up enough loot to hit the EW vendor in Freeside and pick up some new toys. (Repair at 90, jury rigging, cheap but busted big EW repaired with cheap little EWs = WIN)

Gauss Rifle, Plasma Caster, Pew-Pew and that perk that makes people you kill with energy weapons explode.

Plasma Rifles worked for everything I needed them too. Then Plasma Defender after that.

maybe because i have energy related perks on my char that uses energy weapons too, energy weapons dont seem all that bad. i just use the Q-35 matter modulator and the gauss though when i get bored with guns. i put up my guns first though because it just seems easier that way. most of the weapons you come by in the beginnin are in the "guns" category....

Wait for the patch. I'm guessing lots of players will ditch their Golbis/Sniper Rifles overnight and replace them with Q-35s and YCS/186s.....Or EW will still svck.

What you should know?

If you go with Gauss, Multiplas, Plasma Caster and Laser RCW you are perfectly fine to finish the game without much hassle. Make sure to build your character for criticals, you want to maximize your crit% meaning 10 Luck after an implant and Built to Destroy are very much desired. Fast Shot is something you want to seriously consider over Trigger Discipline, spread on Multiplas or Tri-beam is nowhere near spread of real shotguns so they aren't as affected - and you want to be able to fire as many shots as humanly possible to get more kills with criticals. Top that with Finesse, Better Criticals, good Sneak value and you are rocking it.

Don't take Metldown unless you also picked another skill Unarmed or Melee. Get Pushy for example with Piercing Strike and you are able to fend off V34 security or whoever gets in your face. I've played a Paladin (unarmed + energy meltdown) and it was a stroll through the game.

Pick Vigilant Recycler, make sure 20-30% of your ammo is MC for tougher encounters (don't bother with OC until the patch) and don't shoot MC at armored targets (proven pointless). Your character demands Jury Rigging and you will need regular trips to Fiend territory to gather their weapons to repair your stuff.

Best companion is most likely Raul, he prevents item decay (some weapons are really hard to maintain, like Plasma Caster or Tesla) allowing to MC the crap out of enemy and still not have to run down Fiends as often. You also could take Gannon for a Gauss team or Veronica and dress up as the Brotherhood.

Top that toys like Pulse Pistol, Pew Pew and Euclid and you are looking at a lot of fun.

Life is hard early on in the wasteland for a EW user. You will have to rely on guns for a good while. There are a few things I recommend you do if you plan on creating a pure EW/sci/int/etc... character.

*SPOILERS* your primary weapon should be the Q-35 Matter modulator found at REPCONN HQ. The Q-35 MatterModulator is not the best energy weapon at all, but it conserves ammo, aquired fairly early and is excellent for general purpose(killing weak enemies and effective at many ranges). Another excellent weapon is a fully modded Lazer Rifle it works really well as a sniper rifle and if you dont kill the target just keep shooting! (again for weaker targets). A critical moment is reaching freeside and getting into the silver rush. I suggest going tottaly naked except one stealthboy and rob them blind. This point in the game you will have some energy weapon related perks and now a substantial arsenal to play with. Take your time and try out all the weapons.

My choices at this point in the game were; Q-35 MM as my bread and butter weapon with modded lazer rifle for longer ranges, plasma defender for close up encounters and a relief from my MF ammo(It uses EC), and The plasma caster whooo boy that thing is amazing(even without the weaponmod), whenever I found myself in a bind i would whip that baby out and melt everything I set my eyes on! I wanted to use fire weapons but the investment into pyromaniac to make them compete with my other weapons was pretty steep.

Noteworthy weapons; Multiplas rifle (plasmashotgun), YCS/186 Unique Gauss Rifle(equivalent to 50 cal/STRONG single shot sinper), Pew Pew multishot lazer pistol (late game though), Lazer RCW, Tri-beam Lazer Rifle, Tesla Cannon Prototype.

the recharger weapons are neat but once I hit up the silver rush I found I had a good amount of ammo that I didnt have to rely on them but if you find yourself breaking your guns or running out of batteries they are good backup weapons(infinite ammo)

I suggest pumping points into sci and EW and getting math wrath, vigiliant recycler, Meltdown(be careful at close range), Lazercommander. Topped with maybe plasma spaz and pyromaniac.

With these perks and the weapons from above you will fear nothing in the wasteland as long as your batteries are charged for awsomeness!

You might want to make save before you pick the meltdown perk, then try it out before you decide to keep it. Just sayin'.

Actualhy to rob the silver rush all you need to do is drag everything into the bathroom and close the door...

Id enjoy a nice melee unamred char for a bit or a guns build and wait for the patch as it might change how you build ew chars for all we know.

I recommend to go with guns until you hit some higher level and accumulate some perks. First you will have hard time to find enough EW to maintain them. Only EW which you can get early on in some numbers is laser pistol, which is totally useless. So get your guns skill to 30-50 points and rely upon guns early on.

You want to get repair high. First stage is to be able to make repair kits. They will be your primary means of maintaining your EWs. Jury rigging helps but is not essential. You will not be allowed to repair laser rifle with laser pistol so you still be dependant or repair kits even later on. High repair however helps on its self. Higher your repair (in increments of 25), more effective your maintenance is. Also look vendors for repair kit components and buy them when ever possible.

Once you hoarded some reserve of repair kits and confident you can maintain your energy weapons, you can start to use them. Weapon modifications and proper perks are important now. Your main weapon at the beginning should be plasma rifle. This is only EW which caries significant power enough for punching through armour. At the expense of ammo consumption efficiency however. You can also consider using plasma pistol for lesser targets, it uses cheaper ammo and with better efficiency. And with jury rigging you can use laser pistols to repair it. Its sights are off however so its bit tricky to use. Modified laser rifle is good for sniping but consider moding it with beam splitter with care. It will rise its damage but lower its efficiency against armour significantly.

Perks you need are finesse, better criticals and laser commander. Melt down is interesting but dangerous to player and companions. I don't recommend it. Vigilant Recycler is also must as ammo is expensive, heavy and more powerful energy weapons have enormous consumption.

If you want to combine EW with explosives, you definitely should take pyromaniac perk. Incendiator and heavy incentiator are excellent weapons with plenty of ammo. You can even craft your own fuel. Again maintenance will be problem at the beginning.

I thought the multi-plas was pretty effective as well

Not really, there is enough energy weapon to get by along the way if you pay attention.

And really, there isn't much point to have both EW and Guns on a character determent for a EW playthrough.

Consumes 6 ECs for single shot (18 bucks). Quit punitive if you want to use it as your general purpose weapon.


When I reached Novac I had found 2 plasma rifles, 2-3 laser rifles, 2 plasma pistols, 2 incinerators and perhaps 15 laser pistols. You can get lucky and be able to buy some EW from traders on occasion. If you are willing to pay the price. I was level 16 when I got there so explored quit a bit on the way.

I can count 6 Laser Pistol along I15 to Nipton; they are guarded by rather weak critters.

But lv18 to Novac is just.....wow....

Save before entering indoor areas around Goodsprings then scout around locked caches as one game I came away with the two laser pistols at the Docs place.
two plasma pistols one scattered around one bought, a plasma rifle at the shack at the little airport another at the Yangtze memorial, and a laser rcw in the Inn at goodsprings.
All when I was not playing a EW build, so there are good weapons available straight out, another location is the NCRCF as it has quite a few mid level spawn containers, but two of which require an average ( 50 ) lockpick skill.

Laser rifles require modding I would suggust one fuly, the other just with the scope and plus 3 damage mod, as the fully modded version makes a good shotgun for low DT foes, the other makes a good mid level sniper.

Full modded is actually good for sniping as well.....as long as you shot far enough you double your critical damage.

Actualy if you save before entering the sky diving shack... you can net yourself a rcw and ammo.

On my EW run I went north, and stealthed/stealthboyed my past the big boys... Honestly there is squat for EWers down south.

Get your Y(whatever), or alien blaster fast.
As soon as you can enter the BoS bunker rob them blind. In there bunks there are tons of MF cells...
I only really used three weapons...
1. Y(whatever)
2. RCW
3. Recarger rifle.

The recarger rifle is a god send early on... keep day skipping till Goodspring vendor has one.

Did somebody else realised that plasma pistol iron sights are off bye the way?

Never use that piece of junk after I find out it use 2 SEC per shot.

Laser and Plasma have the tenancy of "went wild"; i.e. you see the projectile hit the targets legs, it actually hit their head......