What should I use as the best armor, weapon, and ammo type for fighting Deathclaws?

Most of the Deathclaws I've met so far are extremely deadly, kill my 2 companions in a matter of seconds, then kill me almost as fast. But this is mostly because I wear the Spacesuit and Space Helmet as armor, and keep weapons like That Gun, Hunting Shotgun, 10mm Submachine Gun, Rat Rifle, etc. with normal ammo.

And no Energy weapons please; I haven't put anything into the stat and haven't ever used one in the game. And don't plan to; just not my type of weapons.

Any other armor or weapon type I'll find if it works well against tough Deathclaws.

(One other question: the wiki says that Legendary Deathclaws are the 3rd most dangerous enemy in the game. Does anyone know what the 1st 2 would be if the Legend Claw is only the 3rd most deadly? :blink: )

No offense but you're not killing Deathclaws with that setup. At least get the And Stay Back! perk for the Hunting Shotgun if you want to stand a chance and even then I'd use the Riot Shotgun for that.

Anything stronger than the Legendary Deathclaw is in DLC only.

Legendary Bloatfly is most dangerous, X-42 is second, Legendary DC is 3rd.

You're not going to be killing Deathclaws with that loadout.

I take on Deathclaws with Thin Red Paste, Sierra Madre Martini, Med-X, Slasher, and the Embrace of the Mantis King. You'd need a similar series of buffs plus an end-game weapon to kill them easily.

For you, I'd advise:
Weapon(Long-range): AMR w/AP or Match Hand Load
Weapon(Short-range): Riot Shotgun w/ perk "And Stay Back"
Weapon(Melee): Ripper(don't bother if you have no points in Melee)
Armor: CSA if have 75+ in Sneak, T-45d PA if STR <8, T-51b PA or Combat Armor(Reinforced) if Sneak <75.
Helmet: NCR 1st Recon Beret or matching armor helmet.
Buffs: Slasher/Psycho(doesn't stack), Med-X + Buffout + Brahmin Steak if DC is going to close. Of course bring Stimpaks.

If you have the perks "Better Criticals", Finesse and Cowboy, That Gun should be decently effective, but only with headshots using 5.56mm AP.

That's not "The" best setup, seeing as the absolute best setup is very debatable. But this should work for you.

-Nukeknockout

The easiest eggs to get are at Quarry Junction and there tons of different ways to take care of the deathclaws there, but don't even think about going to Dead Wind Cavern with that setup. The easiest way to take on deathclaws at your level(which I assume is fairly low considering the weapons you have) is to stay far away with some sort of scoped rifle. I'd suggest a scoped Hunting Rifle for the near perfect accuracy and it being more powerful then a regular Sniper Rifle(the Gobi and AMR being out of reach currently). I'd suggest having ED-E and Boone as companions, their perks are very useful here and leave them in Sloan. You'll want to be stealthy and Boone will not allow you to be. Once you get into the quarry you can exploit a glitch, if you want to. There are large rocks spread around the quarry and if you jump on them the deathclaws should ignore you, it also works with the various trucks. Watch out for the Mother and the Alpha Male since they are much stronger and faster then the other advlts.
If you want to wait a bit and boost your Guns skill a better solution would be to slowly make your way through with the CZ57 Avenger, the strategy with this is to make sure that they don't surround you and to have a good backup weapon if too many of them charging manage to empty your pack.

Thanks, I'll see about getting some of those. I have a nice set of Combat Armor Reinforced Mark 2 that I should put on to get ready, and plenty of NCR hlemets, including 1st Recon Berets. Now just need some of those weapons.




Yeah, I'm aiming at getting the eggs from the Quarry, and no, I never intended trying it with my walking around equipment. And yeah, as long as I can snipe them before they get up close the better. Definitely don't want to go in and take them all on at once. And my level is a hair from 29, I just seem to not have been able to find any great weapons in the game. I don't know what I did wrong. I search every inch of every place I go to, and have found so many places.

Ever heard of Gun Runners? Or do you lack the caps needed?

There's also the Fallout wiki which is mostly accurate where you can find information and location of a unique weapon.

I agree.

Sniper rifle of some sort is the best way to handle Deathclaws, especially at Quarry Junction. And, yes, I find that there are certain places, a set of rocks overlooking the central crusher (the one with the three conveyer belts radiating from it) where you can pick them off without their being able to get to you. Going to need a whole lot of ammo though.

The problem is that, even with a scope, the range is very long. After a while they just stop coming in range. And when you try to go closer, well, thens when they get you.

In order to solve the range problem, I positioned Boone at one side of the quarry, and then went around to the other side, so as to catch the Deathclaws in a cross-fire pattern.

The first time I killed a number of DCs at QJ, I ran out of ammo (I was using a laser rifle, but I to each his own.). Then I noticed there were several more. Just when I was ready to leave, they came up on me and killed me. I hate it when that happens, especially if I haven't saved recently.

No, never heard of such a place, in a world.

Seriously though, I had been saving up my caps since the beginning, surviving off of what I can loot. Then in the process of spending all of that on upgrades from the doctor, and I have 10 intelligence, so that took a lot, and just about done with those. Held off buying those extremely expensive weapons because I hadn't needed them for the whole game up to this point.

Asking for best weapons I can find and buy, because I will now, for Deathclaws. Not asking for tips on how to get them; I can figure that out just fine.

This is the exact problem I had when I stayed on the rocks. Since they can't get at you, they won't try. I had taken them all out except the Mother who for some reason was hiding behind a large building, I died about three times when I ventured out to lure her over and running back to the rocks of safety...she ran much faster then me and she has a very long reach.


The CZ57 Avenger can be found for absolutely free in the Devil's Throat which is east of Bitter Springs. It will completely shred deathclaws of all shapes and sizes.

Sounds like a plan, thanks.

edit - Man, got the Avenger, put the Gauss Rifle as my long-range, put on my Mark II Combat Armor, and went for it. Took down 3 Deathclaws, started feeling like a boss, then got cocky and caught the Alpha male's attention. Died with 1 swipe (30 DR and 400 full HP).

Time to work on that strategy now.

Armour:
1st Recon Beret
Joshua Grahams Armour
Lucky Shades

Perks:
Super Slam
Finesse
Ninja
Light Touch
Bloody Mess
Lord Death
Melee Hacker
Unstoppable Force

Weapons:
Oh Baby!
Protonic Inversal Axe
Blade Of The West
War Club ++

I can take down Deathclaws from Lonesome Road with this set up easier than I can with a AMR AP or HP rounds.

Oh, I love killing Deathclaws

You may find it an idea to have a few different weapons, one for long distance, one for mid-distance, and something with a hell of a kick for those times when you fall from a great height directly into a nest of them whilst watching your companions flee/die.

Small pistols dont seem to have much effect, energy weapons dont seem so effective. Explosives are great if your timing is good and you can actually see where the Deathclaws are.
The LMG is excellent for the unfortunate close combat situation. I know it's heavy and cumbersome and eats ammo, but it is truly an excellent weapon if you have a streak of bad luck with Deathclaws like I do. The LMG, if used properly, can be used as a mindless wave of bullets that will hold off Deathclaws giving your stimpacks or food a chance to heal you a little.
For Mid range, the assault rifle seems to work quite well. Shotguns are great but slow re-loading can be fatal, watching a deathclaw stampeeding towards you as your charecter frantically fumbles in more ammo can be upsetting.
I'm no good at sniping, but some of my companions seem to have a fair amount of success with the Gobi-campaign rifle at long distance.


Good luck, good hunting!!

When in doubt, pull out that Assault carbine with believe hollow points