I noticed recently that certain NPCs(companions included) will sooner punch with their fists(or use a melee weapon) than they are to fire their weapons. In the case of companions, before now, when they run out of ammo I give them, they would default to a certain weapon(like a 10mm pistol), with unlimited ammo, that they use. But they won't do that now. They always default to their fists(which as all experienced Fallout players know, is completely useless.)


And not just in companions, but even certain NPCs! For example,

, was just a big fist-fight between the Minutemen and the Synths. Despite the Synths and Minutemen clearly having guns and ammo, they will run all the way towards each other to enter in a fist fight. (Made it a LOT less exciting.) Why is this? Why are most NPCs defaulting to fists late in the game? (It gets rather annoying being attacked by a bunch of NPCs that do nothing but crowd around me.)

are you on PC and have mods installed?

if not probably a bug so best to post in the support forum section

You probably ran out of minutemen in that fight. The newly spawned minutemen have a chance of spawning without weapons. If they can't find a weapon lying about and are attacked they run to attack with their fists.


It is much useful then you think though. Fisting doesn't damage much but fist fighting minutemen hold the enemy down for a long time taking them out of combat for days.

I actually like the idea of a massive brawl between minutemen and synths

What about the Synths?


Not to mention it didn't help much since the Synths prioritized attacking me.