Hi all, I'm not very far in the story as I've been focusing on never ending side quests and it's beginning to become a challenge. I have the gauss rifle maxed, but ammo for it isn't exactly abundant. Was wondering what other guns are considered OP

I've found any "explosive" version of a gun is pretty good.

Overseer's Guardian - Alexis in Vault 81

Spray n' Pray - Cricket (usually around Valut 81 or Diamond City)

Le Fusil Terribles - LIbertalia, in the captain's quarters I believe

Depends entirely on what perk points you put into commando/gunslinger/rifleman/etc.

A modded Automatic Combat Rifle is very deadly for crowd control. I still prefer an automatic assault rifle for personal reasons, but i'm not blind to the fact that a fully modded, silent auto combat rifle does more damage.

For early to mid levels, you can't go wrong with a combat shotgun.

where did you find a gauss rifle that early on anyways? lol don't see many of those around, even at my current level of 43.

I've seen several in the hands of traders. Tinker Tom sometimes have one for sale as well. Lastly, there is one aboard the Prydwen you can steal.

You can get a gauss rifle as early as level 21 (which is the level you can get Master Hacker I think or 19 if you lockpick) just steal the one from the supply guy on the prydwyn, there is always one behind him and also an x-01 helmet. Of course good luck finding ammo for it at those levels.

Overseer's Guardian

I got to the brotherhood airship and hacked into the master terminal and stole it from the brotherhoods armory lol I have a scientist build and I'm lvl 26 from all the side quests

this gun has leveled very nicely...I think I have 3-4 commando perks, and a couple explosives perk (if it helps I'm not positive) and I'm still using it at lvl 45+

Cricket also sets up at bunker hill...

I got to the brotherhood airship and hacked into the master terminal and stole it from the brotherhoods armory lol I have a scientist build and I'm lvl 26 from all the side quests

I got to the brotherhood airship and hacked into the master terminal and stole it from the brotherhoods armory lol I have a scientist build and I'm lvl 26 from all the side quests

if you want to sneak down there, there is also one in a house on the outskirts of the glowing sea.

Don't forget, after re-taking the Castle you can by the Last Minute (Gauss Rifle with +Limb damage) from Ronny. Pretty good way to get a solid (and well modded) gauss rifle relatively early without feeling too exploity.

Exploity? how? all the above suggestions are how to get the weapon through legit means allowed by the game.

aye. You can also find 1 or 2 in the smuggler cache aboard the airplane that is crashed near Sanctuary, just behind the cemetery (its content is leveled btw, and Gausss can spawn from level 25+) altho, you have to pass a Master grade lock

Spray and Pray fully modded up with full commando perk and full explosives perk is a total killer even at level 56. High rate of fire and area effect. Usually one shots most anything but will mow down any legendary in just a few seconds. Alpha DC, monster mutant, scorpions does not matter. Just blows them away. Best thing to see is what if does to power armor. You start shooting and pieces of armor start shedding off your target. It is so deadly, I mostly don't use it any more.

I bought Overseer's Guardian with lvl 20 and still use it at lvl 45, fully modded of course although for optical and roleplay reasons I never use a suppressor. In .308 it does 162 damage a shot with Rifleman 4 and you can shoot fast. I despise energy weapons but for the big-guy-first-shot version I have a two-shot legendary laser musket, 111 damage x 6 is quite massive, but it usually rests in the Castles storage unused. I don't like Gauss rifles, so they are off the table, but The Last Minute is a fully modded Gauss monster you can buy in the Castle (347 damage a shot for me currently). For the very-big-guy I have the Big Boy fatman variant. And to battle the most annoying and dangerous enemy in the game, a bunch of flying insects, I bought the Spray-and-Pray SMG recently, it's great in the desparate struggle to kill the flying bugs. The only other satisfying way to deal with the flying beasts is to start the chainsaw and run around frantically.

If you find an explosive combat shotgun you will be very happy indeed.

I was lucky enough to get an Explosive Minigun as a drop off a legendary beasty at around 50ish. (For any of you 40K lovers out there, it's basically an Assault Cannon in every sense of the weapon now.)

Absolute god darn murder. I was already going forward as a heavy gunner, but was mostly using a Gatling Laser. One test of the explosive minigun was all I needed to know.

Combined with the Bloody Mess perk, enemies just disintegrate while under fire from it. Killing 3-5 raiders in a single strafe (if they're clumped) is not uncommon. Obviously the game is set up to handle quick multi-kills as on more than one occasion, one lucky survivor of a quick strafe has started screaming "EFF ME EFF ME EFF ME!" and then runs off screaming and cowers behind the nearest cover. The first time it happened I just stared at the guy going 'Did he just NOPE! out of that fight?' The next time it happened I was murdering the upper deck of Mass Pike Interchange (needed Gunner gear to outfit settlers), and I finished killing everything up top so I jumped off the elevated highway and landed right next to the last Gunner in the area -- who proceeds to simply run away screaming.

Only the top two tiers of Supermutant or something ridiculous like a Mirelurk Queen or a Legendary Albino Deathclaw will bullet sponge it, and for those I'm going to shift to my Quad Barreled Missile Launcher anyways.

Only drawback? (and I imagine this is the same with Spray N Pray) You can /not/ fire at a point blank enemy or you will shred yourself. On Very Hard I will kill myself (in full X-01 mk VI) in about 2-3 seconds if I'm right next to what I'm shooting. Have a melee weapon or something that handles close in work as an alternate weapon.

The only other weapon I've seen that was random that was superlatively traited was an Instigating Hunting (later Sniper) Rifle on my playthrough as a Perception primary sniper. I used that same gun from level 10 until end game. Double damage VS max health enemies with a sniper rifle, the Sniper Perk (so your aim is rock steady), and all the stealth and sneak attack perks (and a chameleon armor suit) makes it so you are able to one shot anything short of a Behemoth.

Nothing, absolutely nothing is more OP and devastating than a explosive shotgun! Especially with the right perks its getting crazy. Dont be fooled with wounding weapons as the way to go. The explosive shotgun deals huge damage plus it cripples bad guys like crazy. So even if they survive they lay on the floor like a wet towel waiting till you end their suffering.

No double shot weapon came close to the performance of a explosive shotgun.

A combat shotgun with the Explosive Legendary tag, modded with a long ported barrel and the best stock is an absolute beast for clearing close-quarters locations, although as has been mentioned before, slap a bayonet on it because if the target is within melee range when you fire, you'll take the explosive damage yourself.

Making it Auto or not is purely up to your play-style and ammo-needs. Personally I'm fine with it being a non-auto weapon, but then again, there's nothing quite like screaming "FUDGE EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE YOU HAVE EVER LOVED!" as you walk into a room full of hostiles and just going bat-bleep nuts.

Possibly the best non-auto pistol in the game is http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/The_Gainer, a .44 pistol. Not only does this gun have considerable stopping power, but if you've invested heavily in the pistol perk, this thing can and will see you through the game even into the triple-digit levels as a close-range weapon or the 'last resort' if you run out of ammo for rifles, heavy weapons or grenades. The damn thing wrecks face as far as I'm concerned.

Any Combat or Assault Rifle with the Penetrating, Plasma or Wounding Legendary tags.

Penetrating doesn't scale quite so well towards the triple-digit levels, but has the potential to, up until level 80 or 90, be amongst the best Legendary weapon-tags you can get because it can punch through a strong enemy's armor super quickly, or just completely bypass a weaker enemy's defences entirely. Slap a Semi-Auto or Auto mod onto a rifle with this Legendary tag and you'll blast through the enemy's defences so fast it will feel criminal.

Plasma works well if you can't get access to the large amounts of caps needed to keep yourself swimming in Plasma Ammo, since it allows you to potentially 'goo-ify' enemies and also adds energy damage to an otherwise balistic-only weapon, and also has the chance to force a dead enemy to give up a single unit of nuclear material for your crafting needs, which is one of the rarer items and necessary for high-end power-plants and turrets, let alone personal weapon and armor crafting.

Wounding is one of the overlooked Legendary tags/effects since NOTHING in the game is immune to this except possibly Vertibirds, Assaultrons and Siege-Bots. I've noticed the effect even working on Gen-1 and Gen-2 Synths. You couple Wounding with a semi-auto or automatic weapon and you have the potential to absolutely murder an opponent with just a short burst, and let all those individual bleeds gnaw away their health while you reload or wait for the Stimpack's effects to kick in.

Darn tootin. When I'm up against a Deathskull Radscorp, it's my weapon of choice. Pop up next to me, oh, hello, BAM BAM. What's that? Crippled limbs and you're all immobilised. Cue insane laughter NOW!

Stupidly overpowered (but insanely fun because of it).

Spray and "I win" pray

I think since like 50ish level I stuck with a fully modded gattling laser. The cheapest ammo around. Around 75-95 I played with the Last Minute, but I get 5 shots with the GL in VATS and since 95 went back to it. Shotguns and pistols were my favorite for the first levels, I think I had an explosive shotgun somewhere, but they lack considerably in range. With GL and the (glitched) McCready perk I headshot (headshoot?) almost anything I can see.

I don't recall where I found my first Gauss Rifle. But during the Battle of Bunker Hill, it seemed every RR agent had one. By the time that was over I had like 11 or so. None did the damage like the one I found however.

Early on the best weapon I think is a combat shotgun with narrow spread barrel. That thing is downright nasty.