After extensive research, trial and error, I have found that the only, absolutely only thing you need to do to survive deathclaw attacks is to have your guards trained from level one to level 50 while having 10+ endurance. The more the better.


So the short/long answer is, all defenders, level 1. Train endurance to rank 10. Equip anything that boosts endurance even more. Send out to wasteland to quickly level them up to 50. Bring them back and have them guard your vault. They will basically never die due to having a ridiculous amount of HP.


This works because the dwellers gain hit points per level, based on how much their endurance is. So let's just say that level 2 endurance= +2 HP per level. If your dweller has level 10 endurance, with say sturdy wasteland Armor for an additional +5 endurance, they would gain+ 15 HP per level up.


They could literally defend against the deathclaws weapon-less at this point and the deathclaws will just move on to the the next room leaving your God dwellers with at least half a health bar. Give them some weapons and laugh at how easy this all has become.


I'm currently in the process of replacing all of my dwellers with level 1's called via the radio. Training them up this way to make a god vault. It's kind of ridiculous.

Thanks for the post Wingheaven7. I'm wondering if maybe my guide was not structured very well, or too long, as that is exactly the strategy outlined in my guide. You may have outlined it more succinctly though. I'll look if maybe restructuring the guide will focus on the solution better, though I do give a lot of smaller advice about other aspects on "getting to the training stage". I really split the game into "get to the training treadmill to replace everyone" and "replace everyone" into post 60 pop goals.

I would suggest not using radio rooms though since that attracts deathclaws, and instead just make babies that are Lv1. I also suggested sending them out to level them, especially with +end gear.

It's good to hear it is indeed the winning strategy.

The baby thing definitely has merit. I've not had a baby in a while and just recently I "accidentally" had one via the dancing dwellers objective. To my suprise the level 1 baby came out with stats comparable to the boosted regular dwellers you get from lunch boxes. Granted the parents where both level 50's with maxed special.


Been playing since day one and I've never noticed a baby having anymore special than a random radio attracted dweller. Maybe this is new to the latest patch? I dunno.


The radio method is cool for getting lots of level 1dwellers to fill up the training rooms quick. I also like that I can quickly see what the dweller will look like verses the incubation guessing game. Nothing like waiting forever only to have a bald baby, or one with a full blown beard???


Either way works and your guide will be most helpful for many a new overseer!


Kudos!

Wing, that doesn't really address the problem that casual players face, which is that they won't want to spend hours min-maxing. While the game should be challenging, it shouldn't require an entire defense force of level 1s with days of training followed by days of leveling and more than likely moving armor around before leveling.


That being said, however, I'm doing the same thing myself. I've got like 5x3 training rooms full of lvl 1s. I'm doing it more for the exploring though. I've only had one explorer reach the 60 hour event, and I want more to survive to that point.


Frankly, I'm not sure what the issue is with deathclaw attacks, as I never trained stats on ANY of my dwellers in my first couple vaults, and the DCs never drained enough health from anyone to actually kill them. In other words, my strategy has always been this: Just don't chase them, and keep some Stimpaks in case something happens after the raid.


Edit: OP, I just went and actually read your guide, and your initial disclaimer (after the first time you ask for money) tells me that you've never even faced deathclaws. You then go on to suggest staying under 60 population because the reader "isn't ready" to face them. More words, then more requests for money.


My suggestion for you is to grow to over 60 and call some dwellers from the wasteland via the radio. Fight some DCs. Don't chase them, let the room defenders stay with their rooms, then see what you think.

A simple solution I found is put as many rooms on the top floor as possible. I have it set up as follows; fortified vault door, power gen level 3, power gen level 2, power gen level 1, 2 room merged storage level 3. All of them have max lvl and stat ppl in them with the strongest weapons I have. My door has two mirvs and is fun to watch mini-nuke hot potato. My power gen has vengeance and hardens missile launcher and the rest plasma rifles. This way death claws have to pass through 5 rooms (6 if u keep the end room separate) before ever getting to the second floor. Also I can use the top power rooms to rush my wasteland explorers happy and my vault can never use to much power. It's a win win for everyone but death claws!

I just did a huge rewrite of the guide, I did not like the Tip style and how confusing it was to read. I also incorporated feedback from the announcement threads to better organize things into 3 phases. So thank you, and I hope you find it useful!

It really sounds like there are a lot of veterans around, and I'm sorry the guide is not more suited to your needs, but I really wanted to focus on beginners who don't have good weapons, good dwellers or a lot of caps. I want to show them how to get to the collection end-game quickly without the hell that is rushing to 60 population too quickly.

First floor vault door, elevator (this elevator is not operational) 3 blocks of living quarters, 2 blocks of living quarter, elevator (operational).


Deathclaws only run through two floors. Living quarters at first floor make it easy if I want to drag low hp dwellers (radiation from water shortage or two deathclaws in short session, or molerat outbreak etc) to safe spot from revive cost and save simpack (after deathclaw make way to second floor obviously. Not sending low hp to first floor to die). No guards at vault entrance. First floor is empty unless making babies.


Second floor from left to right, elevator, 3 blocks of power rooms, 2 blocks of power room, 3 blocks of power room, elevator.


Battle armor gives 2 strength and 1 endurance. Second floor dwellers are equipped with battle armor and better weapon.


Third floor from left to right, elevator, 3 blocks of water room, 2 blocks of water room, 3 blocks of water room, elevator.


Third floor dwellers are equipped with radiation suit that give 1 perception 2 endurance.


Four floor left to right, elevator, 3 blocks of diner, 2 blocks of diner, 3 blocks of diner, elevator.


Fourth floor dwellers use handyman jumpsuit that gives 3 agility.


Fifth floor and so on can be whatever. Most of time deathclaws will die on my third floor with water rooms.


Train dwellers to endurance 4 and take advantage of battle armor at power room and radiation suit as mentioned above help early deathclaws invasion. Later on as you have more time on endurance training then you can switch armor that gives purely strength or perception.


Edit: my power rooms are level 3. Rest are level 1. Training endurance 10 seems overkill and I don't have much trouble fighting deathclaws with this setup.

so it is better to train dweller's endurance to 10 at lever 1 and than level them up? it will increase the total amount of HP?

I don't even bother with vault guards. My first room has 6 level 28+s with weapons of 10+damage, then the next room is an agility room with four mixed levels also with 10+ damage. I have ONE elevator shaft, so the Deathclaws go through my first room, then to my second, then whatever survives gets finished up as they pass back through my first room. They never even make it to the second floor. The only time I lose is when the damn game refuses to click on the guys I want, or when they decide to attack right after I send an explore out with the my last stimpacks.

i thought of this room organizing... seems very reasonable since there is one elevator. i ve already made a vault of 3 / 3 / 2 form. slash is elevator and i have this obsession towards symmetry. if i were to reorganize my first floor what would be the best choice?

The second shaft really isn't needed at all, and if you wanted symmetry with two shafts, you'd go 3/2/3. All my floors are 3 / 3, 2.

Yes. Training level 1 this way will make dwellers with the highest HP possible. More so than any legendary or lunchbox regular can have.


Level 1 to start.

Get endurance to 10

Equip dweller with endurance boosting armor. More E the better.

Send to wasteland for quick level up.

At level 50 they will be ridiculously hard to kill.


If you was super soldiers, ie captain America status,

Start with level 1 dweller

train ALL special to level 10 - completely overkill btw

Equip The power armor with +1S, +1P, +5 E stats, or the wasteland gear that gives +7 E

Give them the MIRV Fatman

Send out to wasteland with 25 stimpaks and zero rad away


Laugh as you see your dweller skyrocket from 1 to 50 in less than two days in the waste, never getting radiation, not once using a stimpak, never loosing a fight, even to super mutant behemoths and be able to stay out in the waste days after they max out on weapon/armor pickup slots. Then bring them home and collect the well over 20k in caps they picked up along their merry way.

this sound too good to be true is it really that unbalanced? and if dwellers wear a certain gear and level up (in this case endurance gear), does extra gear endurance boost increases the permanent HP? even when dweller takes off the uniform?

Yup.


Now I'm not sure what benefits the other special stats gain from being maxed out, then leveled up to 50. I just know for certain than E when maxed out, add more HP's per level up.

I have no problems with deathclaws attacks.In my vault on the first floor there is 2 room with dwellers both with 4 persons on the 2nd floor there is three rooms 2 with 4people 1 with 6people.The deathclaws manage to go maximum to the last room on the second floor.On the 2nd floor the weapons are shotguns(enhence or normal), on the first floor there is laser rifel, a sniper, a laser pistol, nail gun and gaussrifel,assault rifel and doublebarrel shotgun so the deathclaws are free exp. i dont even use stimpacs during the attacs but keep in mind that all dwellers there are above lvl 30

i made a 6 person group that reached the 10 endurance. i will max out all stat without working (well according to theory 1st generations who worked their ass off for the prosper of vault can never out perform the SPECIAL-ly trained 2nd and 3rd. this would be interesting to observe +_+

Sadly this is how it works.

Hp gained per level up is: 2.5 + (0.5*E), with bonuses given by outfits being counted if the formula.

This is not retroactive. If you train endurance on a level 50 dweller, they will NOT gain the hp that they would have gained if they had max endurance when they were level 1.

Don't panic about this. People with super high hp are absolutely good at exploration, but my level 50 dwellers that grew up with 1 endurance can still fight against the deathclaws without dieing.

what weapons are you using?

I used to have 12 explorers, all level 50 that had no special training and eventually leveled up to 50 from exploring. I converted them to guards thinking these guys would be a great team against DC's. The only modifiers during exploration was the armor they would pick up. I let them keep whatever weapons and armor they had on when they returned, as a reward for their efforts.

Every DC incident at least 5-7 died...was painful and led me down a path of inquiry that ended at a reddit post about leveling E at 1 then level dweller to 50. No deaths from anything ever since using this method. I even had a level 1, maxed special dweller survive in the wasteland for a full 7 days! (technically 6 days 23H, 43M)

You mean for defending my vault? I have a plasma rifle and a flame thrower that i equip to people at the moment they have any incident running in their room. When DC arrives, i don't move anyone. I just move these 2 weapons, equipping them to people who are actually fighting them. DC never killed anybody (just a level 1 dweller once).