im thinking of trying a unarmed or melee weapons, which ive never tried, but how successful is this?

Get high strength and endurance, Oh Baby!, and all related perks. make deathclaws cry.

Get high strength and endurance, Oh Baby!, and all related perks. make deathclaws cry.
sorry for the double post...

Saturnite Fist - Superheated is another nasty, nasty weapon. And the Proton Inversal Axe. And that's just going with ones that aren't uniques, but are extremely effective. They can rival the Riot Shotgun for all-around usefulness.

In general, Guns is the easiest, simplest weapon skill. All the others are more powerful in their own ways, but harder to use right.

Melee/Unarmed is competitive with Guns, but you either need to be a tank or a ninja. Have HP & DT & DR to spare, or tons of points in Sneak. Preferably, both.

As for successful, my Lvl 38 DID character is killing DCs by the truckload with a Shovel & taking on Cazadores, Nightstalkers, and everything else with a Mantis Gauntlet & Shishkebab. There are people who have done entire playthroughs without firing a single bullet, and mine is one of those.

My advice? Try it and find what works for you.

-Nukeknockout

Personal opinion; Depends on what type of battle your in. Close range on Fallout New Vegas I use probably either Old Glory (Lonesome Road) or Oh, Baby! simply because it saves bullets, and both of those (mostly Oh, Baby!) are highly effective. At my level, about 36, I use the Oh Baby to take out lone Deathclaws.

As for long range, recomend either an Anti-Material Rifle, a Marksman Carbine, or A Sniper Rifle. Especially when your fighting something like a ghoul or a typical wild mammal that has to come at you in order to injure you. As for humans, unless you think you can smash their head inside out your that close, recomended a gun, simply because humans even petty Raiders and Fiends have guns that can and will fire if they squeeze the trigger.


If you are gonna go with a hammar thing like a lets say a super hammar thing type deal, if your gonna use it, keep it's condition high, so you get maximum DAM so you might actually kill a Deathclaw before it kills you. As well as have a high sneak.

If you are, watch out for landmines, its a pain in the crack especially when your at lower levels (aka, you probably just started) they (Not sure) can practically kill you in one, and at higher levels, they take away a lot of HP from the player.

So, if you go with Melee, keep your condition high, and well, as well has teach yourself to have a good eye for mines.

Maybe about 350

Or get Light Step. Such a wonderful perk, that one.

Approved.

Use unarmed, and then use Slayer and read Elijahs Letter.

Blade of the West or Oh Baby! + Super slam + High END&STR&LCK&AGL + Crit.Boosters.
No one dares stand on their feet when I'm swinging

Edit: If you have all DLC you may want to calculate your SPECIAL so you don't end up wasting points from perks etc. You should be able to get nearly 10 in all the above mentioned SPECIAL if you include - but don't over include - Intense Training.

Well, according to the wikia:

Oh, Baby! reaches 110.4 in DAM with the correct perks and 306.8 in DPS: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Oh,_Baby!

Close but no cigarr are:
Knock-Knock with 91.1 DAM and 276.1 DPS
Blade Of The West with 82.8 DAM and 268.3 DPS
Thermic Lance with 138 DAM and 220.8 DPS

Don't forget that with Pyromaniac, Saturnite Fist - Superheated, and Gehenna become serious powerhouses. Of course, that requires a large amount of Explosives skill to get the perk.

The highest damage output in one hit I can think of for unarmed and melee is this:

Old Glory + Ninja + Elijah Ramblings + Just Lucky I'm Alive + Better Criticals with Old Glory's special VATS move in sneak mode.

(45 + 80) * 1.25 * 1.5 * 1.5 * 1.5 * 2 * 2 = 2109 DMG.

Might also in that case want to get more Action Points, so you can do the special move.

And in order to do that move at all, melee 50+

The Thermic Lance does have a lower DPS than them, but wouldn't it still be more viable against armored foes since it ignores DT/DR?

No idea, I just copied the wikia information.
I don't care for the number crunching of weapons.
I just pick one that is relatively good and which I like and stick with it.


But Thermic Lance is a continuous weapon, like Chainsaw and Ripper. Meaning that in real-time it does minimal points of rapid damage.
That DAM is probably from it's VATS attack that does a large direct amount of damage.
So since AP is limited and can drain out I'd say Oh, Baby! is better as it can keep attacking with humongous damage without worrying about AP draining out.