I'm working my way through the Fallouts from the beginning and i'm at level 8 now. One thing i've been wondering about is which guns are classed as 'Big Guns'? I thought the rocket launcher the arms dealer in the hub sells would be a big gun but i tried it out and it seems to be fairly accurate despite my skill being 0% (could be Perception bonus though?)

Can someone please list the big guns from smallest to biggest? Thanks. No spoilers (ie, where to find them) please.


Another question while i'm at it: Do allies suffer from radiation poisoning? They don't seem to but i want to be sure before taking all the Rad Away myself.

Thanks for the info.

Let's see, hopefully I won't forget some.

Fallout 1: Minigun, Rocket Launcher, Flamer.
Fallout 2: Of course the above, add to that the Bozar, Light Support Weapon, M60, Avenger Minigun, Vindicator Minigun and Improved Flamer (upgraded).
Fallout 3: They made some changes in this game so it's better to start from scratch. Rock-It-Launcher, Minigun, Gatling Laser, Flamer, Heavy Incinerator, Drone Cannon, Missile Launcher and the Fat Man.

In Fallout 3 they have a lot of weapons with unique names that give bonuses over the regular weapons, but I haven't listed them here. You can pretty much find anything on the Fallout wiki by now.

About the allies: no I don't think they do. I'm not sure though, so if you're planning a trip to an irradiated place, maybe it's a good idea to leave your guys waiting for you in the Hub.

No they'll never get radiated nor poisoned... those cheaters :stare:

Thanks guys.

Evidence from my last game suggests allies are indeed cheating...

I thought there would be more 'big guns' too. Now i don't feel at all bad about neglecting the skill.

You shouldn't. While it can be great fun and also very useful, particularly in later-game Fallout 2, you can go around with Small Guns the entire games, you just have to pick out the right perks and a good distribution of your SPECIAL. I usually put points into Big Guns in Fallout 2 after level 18 or so, to get rid of some surplus ammo and to level more quickly facing the more dangerous enemies in random encounters.

As an avid fan of Big Guns I always end up carrying around a Minigun or Gatling Laser (the latter were rather poor in FO2 though), and am also constantly annoyed at the fact you don't actually need them to get through the game.

Of course, if you DO have to use a certain class of weapons to finish the game that is a problem as well, but there's something to be said for requiring heavier weapons to take out the toughest opponents.

FO3 exacerbates the issue by providing Grenades that do more damage than anything short of a Bottlecap Mine or Fat Man, thus negating any reason to carry the heavy Big Guns. The way Sneak-Crits work doesn't help either...

Where FO3 improves in regard to Big Guns compared to the previous games is that it's a LOT easier to use them from an early level since you can actually get them without having to break into a heavily guarded military base or find an out-of-the-way settlement that happens to have the one guy who sells them (or two/three guys, as the case may be). Even so, without modding the class as a whole is a bit...lacking...even for someone like me who prefers them to the other weapons despite their shortcomings.

Well i haven't even got onto FO2 yet, i'm going through them in order. I haven't even bought FO 3.

I haven't spent any skill points for the last 5 levels so i've got 70 points i can put into BG or Energy...

My minions are carrying around: plasma pistol, laser rifle, plaser rifle, flamerthrower, missles and i'm standing in the Gunrunners...

I've taken the water chip back to the Vault and been down the glow (hence some of the weapons (i thought there was meant to be a minigun down there but didn't find one)), sold a bunch of stuff and have 40k caps. I figured i might as well take a big gun to finish the game, why miss out on big explosions and carnage?

I'll probably go back to the BoS next so i can get the Space Marine armour and the thought of running round with a minigun appeals. Wasteland terminator...

My dude is only Strength 5 though so i need the PA before i can use the heavy weapons anyway.

I think the plasma rifle might be the most effecient way to go though.

*aside* Maybe i'll just buy try all the heavy weapons out against the Regulators and reload afterwards...

@Salival: my SPECIAL is 5 8 5 7 7 10 6, i tagged small guns, speach and doctor. My dude is a good natured doctor that shoots people in the face (eyes) with a .223 pistol. I know i can finish the game by making SG even higher and use .223 and Sniper rifle. (perks are Swift Learner (a change from awareness), More Crits and Improved RoF, going for Sniper later)

That's a pretty solid setup for a sniper shooting in the eyes. The .223 pistol is amazing, I used to use it all the time as my main Small Gun. The Plasma Rifle is considered by many to be the most efficient weapon in the game, but at some point I got bored with Energy Weapons so in all Fallout games I hardly use them anymore, unless I'm a high level and don't have any other skill I can put points in. By the way, you can upgrade the Plasma Rifle to Turbo Plasma Rifle, if I remember correctly you can do that in the Boneyard.

Yeah, i just went to the Brotherhood and got all the stat bonuses so now my SPECIAL is: 6 9 6 7 8 10 7 (picked up the extra, extra luck in Boneyard sometime too) and upgraded to Hardened PA and Turbo Plasma.

Still got 70 skill points to spend and i really can't decide on BG or Energy. With the tuirbo plasma i can make 3 normal shots a round or two aimed and move a bit but there's no point taking any other weapons with me. However, with big guns i can take one of each and switch between them depending on the situation. Bursts of minigun against lone supermutants, and rockets and flamers against groups at distance or up close, respectively. (I think rocking out with just fockets and flamethrower would be the most awesome looking though.)

Aaaarg! I can't decide! >_<

If anyone wants to try sell me on one skill over the other, feel free. Use colourful language.

Well, since you're playing a doctor role, I'd say go for Energy Weapons. A doctor pulling out his minigun sounds a little less genuine than the Plasma Rifle. Besides that, you will quickly run out of ammo with Big Guns, which can get annoying if you have to go back to the vendors for more ammo after splattering 20 mutants all over the floor. I can understand the appeal of killing five enemies in a single burst of excessive violence though...In the end it's still up to you to choose which you find the most fitting and appealing :shrug:

Actually at this point, you might as well forget about investing on new skills and go ahead and finish the game -- I expect of what you are writing that you are almost done and you're not likely to face any challenges considerably tougher than the ones you faced already.
I'd say just finish it and move to FO2 which is a lot longer - so you will have plenty of time to experiment and decide.

@ Sal, that sounds quite logical actually, in respect to playing to the role. I had been planning to load up on ammo and thought i'd be able to loot some off supermutants later, am i overestimating how much i could loot?

@Rebet. Yes, i think i am nearly finished the game but that's no reason to completely miss the opportunity to blow things up! I've got a lot of skill points unspent so it's not like i have to grind some levels to skill up.

I might just save before spending the skill points then try both weapon types out against the CoC then decide which to take against the supermutants.

So far the only Fallout game I have played is Fallout 3, and I liked using the Big Guns skill for a while, but then it got a little boring since it's pretty easy to wipeout most enemies pretty quickly once you have a fairly high big guns skill (80 or higher), so I switched back to Small Guns to have a bit more of a challenge. Anyway I think I will pick up Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 to play over Christmas and I am sure well into the new year (I hear you can play both games for well over a month before finishing them if you are exploring the game worlds in detail). It sounds like Big Guns are sort of overkill in Fallout 2 as they are in Fallout 3, but what about in Fallout 1? Would increasing your character's Big Guns skill early on in Fallout 1 make combat more manageable, or does it make combat too easy?

You don't see Big guns until a good way into the game in FO1.

Actually, in FO2 Big Guns are NOT overkill, due to the presence of Enclave Patrols and Remnants of the Master's Army (assorted mutants, some carrying a Rocket Launcher), as well as the fact almost all random encounters are vs large groups of foes and you need to thin the herd quickly.

Against gangers or mobsters (found around New Reno) they are a tad excessive, but they're quite handy if you decide to level NCR or Vault City after getting fed up with their attitude since the police/guards in those two places are tough customers.

I tried out Big Guns and was appaled to find that the minigun burst fires 40 rounds! I can't reload every three shots.

So i went back a save and did it with the turbo plasma. Supermutants were usually melting with one shot to the eyes, it was a massacre.

I think there would have been more than enough ammo to loot to supply the BGs, i know there was tons for the plasma.

Finished the game, awesome. Went back and did the evil ending too, just to see it. I might go back to an old save and try for a more perfect ending (i spared the Khans earlier, i'll see what happens at the end if they're wiped out).

Interesting, so I am guessing that if a player was creating a combat oriented character in Fallout 1, then during the early part of the game they would put skill points into other combat skills like Small guns or energy weapons, and then start putting skill points into Big Guns around the mid-point of the game, when I presume they would start finding big gun type weapons and also start running into tougher enemies.



Good to know. Whenever I get around to Fallout 2 I think for my first run through I'll go with a combat oriented character with at least a decent Big Guns skill to make combat a bit more manageable, and after I have a feel for the game, I'll try less combat oriented characters on subsequent run throughs, since I do like experimenting with different character types in RPGs.

For manageable combat your best chance is to go with small guns.
Big guns are very heavy, their ammo is very limited and also very heavy - so they need a certain amount of dedication.

The problem with that is your Big guns starts very low (20% or less IIRC), you'd need to start putting stuff into it early to get it to a viable level early.

Fallout 2 mitigates this with the TAG perk.

I see, that all makes sense. I think for my first run-through then I'll concentrate on small guns as my main weapon skill. I plan on doing multiple run-throughs of Fallout 1 and 2 anyway, so I can always try specializing in Big Guns in a later run-through.

Especially in Fallout 2, I usually work my character up to at least level 24, usually going on until level 30 before going for the ending, so I have more than enough room for choosing multiple fighting skills. Big Guns comes in handy when you're trying to level through random encounters (Floaters, Centaurs, Deathclaws, Enclave, the caves with the mercenaries armed with Gauss Rifles and Pulse Rifles), the Bozar mows down every single one, and the ammo for it is everywhere in the game and reasonably cheap.