The other day I was fighting a Sentry Bot, and decided to take it out with a Fat Man. I had a crit ready to go, so I hit the space bar as I was attacking and launched a critical. The bot's health bar went down by about half. Slightly dismayed, I launched another mini-nuke at it. To my surprise, the 2nd nuke finished it off. So it seems that there was no increase in damage from the critical.

So are crits with a Fat Man pointless, other than the guaranteed hit? It seems I've had similar problems with rocket launchers too. Something with explosive weapons maybe?

I think the guaranteed hit is the point of critical. I've has many times a critical hit with a weapon didn't kill unless it was a headshot

Well I assumed (yes, I get the joke) that a critical resulted in increased damage. In fact I seem to recall seeing increased damage with small arms and energy weapons, both in my own playthrough and in Let's Plays on youtube. Can anyone confirm your supposition?

I think it does more damage, just not a guaranteed 1 shot kill. How much mor e I have no idea

It does do more damage with small arms, but with large explosive "splash" damage type weapons I don't think they have criticals as a hit from one is pretty much already critical. If that makes any sense. At my current level 68 (I think) the Le Fusil Terribles critical shot will take a Super Mutant Primus to almost half its health, were as a normal shot takes them down about 25-33%.

Seems dumbed down to me. Its area of effect damage svcks compared to the older games.

I can confirm that the Fat Man does not have critical damage. I restart a lot, and on the last two characters, I finally wised up and collected the Fat Man and Mini Nuke from the Robotics Disposal Site. On the first character, I used it without a Crit, and nearly got a one-hit kill. On the second character, I built up my Critical meter, then used the Crit on the Fat Man shot. The damage this time was exactly the same as it was without the Crit.


Morals of the story: don't waste crits on a Fat Man, and if you're going to nuke the Concord Deathclaw to death, bring multiple Mini Nukes.

That's a damned shame. It sort of makes sense that AoE weapons wouldn't have critical damage (they're not very precise, after all), but disappointing all the same. I wonder if anyone can confirm that missile launchers have the same problem...

Nuke him as he's passing close to the wrecked car... double whoomp!

that deathclaw you speak of took a nuke and at least 3 missiles and some more shots from the .45 I had at the time before I finally killed it.

Ehh.. Not really, especially if you focused your character around Luck. (Or just went mid-way)

Im at level 49, maxed crit-related perks aside from grim reapers sprint and supprisingly you end up getting an i alot of them with the relevant perk and they do an insane amount of damage with the other relevant perk so you'll use them constantly. I'll never have trouble with any creature, even when its a 72+ mythic deathclaw


But.. In regards to fatman criticals? Only one instance ive considered using a fatman atall was with a mirelurk queen late-game and, yes, i did use a crit.. Wasnt much good, oddly. Better off hiding in a corner, crippling its legs with a gauss rifle and letting it sponge my useless bullets.


Id assume it would be different with infantry-like creatures but, yknow. If you're running a build that uses crits often, youd much rather be using a pistol or rifle

In previous games explosives couldn't crit

There is a slight increase in damage, guaranteed hit, and the targeted body part is usually crippled.

For the life of me I don't know why anyone would use this beast for anything other than for a slapstick goof. It's about as practical, and combat applicable as a tennis racket. As for me, my needs are simple...I'd just like to have a 6 lb. grenade launcher available in game. But gaudy is the design choice for Beth, so I throw it in the ever-growing discard pile of garbage weapons of FO4.

Probably should have mentioned that I play on Normal.

Hmm, 400 points of damage seems very useful, even if you can't use it at point blank range. And, personally, I don't mind a light show when my enemies die.

I think the fatman is a practicable weapon. It's for the rare instances indoor (outdoors I'm an artillery man) where you desparately need big numbers for alpha damage. For example it saved me in the State House once against a legendary glowing mirelurk. You see how nasty and practical the fatman is when you fight enemies who use it against you. It's a monster weapon. Because I'm a fan of the rule that the recipe to deal with violence is more violence I prefer to use artillery than.

Well, like I said, slapstick fun. As for Damage, give me a Gauss Rifle any day (I mean...of the available FO4 weapons). 441 Damage (fully perked) at less than half the weight. Just me though. Yeah, the big boom light show is fun the first few times...just not willing to carry a boulder around for the few goofs I get out of it.

You need the right enemies. With a Gauss rifle against fatman armed power armor guys? I wish you the best of luck. However I don't know wether such fights are in an unmodded game at all.

Would work just fine if you also had the Penetrator perk to hit their fusion cores.

Maybe. I would be too bad a shot I presume. But I'm also talking about a special modded situation, scripted attacks on your settlement. Four legendary guys in power armor with fatmans in addition to 30 other attackers. I could only survive (sometimes) with indirect BigBoy shots and immediately seeking cover again or running away from the incoming blasts.

Enimies keep gaining health when you level, maby at lvl 600 it will be useful lol

give me the gause rifle.

More damage, can make use of headshots and crits, and I have enough AP to pop three of them from stealth for extra damage.

I Snipe raiders in power armor in the head with a gause rifle all the time, its highly effective.

On a related amusing note, I got a legendary Enraging fat man last night, and didnt realize they couldnt crit. My thoughts were along the lines of 'If I crit someone with a fatman, and it lives, the last thing I would want would be to piss it off more'.

I play on normal as well, but I was at a fairly low level when I got to that quest. so chances are I wasn't strong enough to take down that deathclaw with ease. I'm not sure if that's how it works, I'm new to this type of game and series.

Don't quote me on this...but I think you can sneak attack with explosives. I rarely use explosives because I'm a not a peasant. I shoot them in the head, like a gentleman.