so ive used semi automatic rifles on all of my characters. i always have gone for the semi autos in fallout. i was wondering how good automatic weapons are in this game (with perks, of course) and if i should invest in them?

I'd like to know this as well. I've stuck with semi-auto or single action weapons due to wanting to preserve ammo.

Only have the Spray & Pray as an automatic. (emergency back-up)

Only used it a few times as I'm playing a sniper. It's good. Recoil is low and spread is narrow. Both damage and RoF are great. With no perks.

In previous editions of Fallout they were good if you had the concentrated fire perk that does 20% more damage per attack. The mechanics might have changed but I think in the past each bullet hit increased the accuracy and damage.

The problem with auto's is the lack of ammo. 10mm, 38 is what I see most of. Some 308, 45 and VERY little 50. You can put the full-auto mod on the 10mm pistol. But I haven't since I like to snip with the 10mm pistol.

I noticed i had around 2,000 rounds of .38 and just happened across a raider with a near maxed out full auto pipe rifle, compensator and recoil stock and all. I added the finned barrel and played with it a bit at level 20 and found it a great general purpose gun. easily mowed down raiders, gunners and super mutants since with all the mods it barely moves point of aim. i figure once i start actually using a humanoid companion i'll give it to them and let them go to town with it. I may move them up to a full auto 10mm since i have over a 1,000 rounds of that sitting around too. .45 is still too rare to waste on a full auto but thanks to Synths everywhere lasers and institute full autos could be feasible as well.

I run around with a combat assault rifle and automatic piple rifle. I find that I go through a lot of more ammo because the damage output is a lot lower. I don't buy ammo either, so it's not a good situation to be in.

It might be more effective once your commando perk is up, coupled with a legendary drop that does extra damage or fires more projectiles, but on standard guns it doesn't really make sense for me.

I can't hit the broad side of a barn with the submachine gun unless I do short bursts and with that the damage is low; I finally have a .50 sniper rifle so I think I'll be sticking with my go-to combo of laser rifle, .50 cal sniper rifle, 10 mm handgun, and missile launcher.

It doesn't look to me that energy weapon ammo will be a problem like it was for NV.

Used a laser pistol on full auto for a bit. Made a cool sound, was pretty powerful but did burn through ammo. I stopped using it but may convert the laser rifle now that I've built up fusion cells again. I've consider making a smg or machine gun from a pipe gun to use all that .38. Whenever I sell too much to a vendor I take the change in 5.56 or .44.

This is about what I'm doing, except I'm only level 13 and had to build it myself. It's great as automatic, but I'm thinking about making it semi-automatic instead.

Does anyone know EXACTLY how the rifleman perk affect weapons like this where you can mod them to be either automatic and semi-automatic? If I lose out on the perk benefit by making it automatic then I'd probably make it a .45 instead.

early on my playthrough i made a pipe rifle called the metal storm that was fully automatic with .38 rounds and had basically no Recoil while aiming down the sights. I could burn at long ranges with it.

it was great but it ate ammo.. Killed a few DeathClaws with it.

later on near the end of the game one of the best weapons you can use is the Laser Gatling, which uses Power Cores (1 for 500 rounds). its very nice when facing a large number since you generally cannot VATS the entire group.

Autos are best when you have plenty of ammo and are facing a large number of enemies.. they do plenty of damage over time when you can hit with them.

I did find that most of the time you are better off with a single shot weapon tho, Mostly to save on ammo.

Theres just not enough ammo to use automatic weapons in this game, you'll blow through a whole days worth of scavenging in just a few minutes, I ended up getting all the rifle perks and converting all my weapon recievers to semi.

Its difficult at first, but as you get further into the game it becomes more and more easier to find vendors and such to keep yaself stocked, still, its wise to be careful with your shots and only shoot small bursts.

Combat rifle is good when turned to auto.. It only uses 45. And when I head into the city it's everywhere.

so it sounds like the review is that automatic weapons outdamage their semi auto counterparts but burn through ammo?

I have 500 water generated at my sanctuary settlement so im fine on money and dont mind doing runs into town for more ammo. I'm going to try them out. i also found a laser rifle that shoots two projectiles. that thing full auto is going to be a monster

Auto weapons have baseline armor penetration from modifications - semi auto's need to invest into their associated perk in order to gain any armor penetration. If you find an automatic weapon with the bleeding effect, you're pretty much going to roll over anything in this game - doubly so with 5 ranks in the commando perk (which also gives you a high chance to stagger enemies).

It's a no brainer. You get significantly more damage with the semi-automatics on each shot and you can still fire very fast just by pressing the trigger. I even found a legendary plasma rifle that shoots 25% faster and it fire almost as fast as an auto plasma gun using a sniper barrel.

For groups of enemies I find laser and plasma shotties to be the best.

I've got a modded Pipe auto-pistol/smg thing with a drum mag. Needed something to do with all that .38 ammo. I use it for ghouls, bugs, and other fast moving/OMGPanic situations where I just want to throw lots of bullets over that-a-way.

I've yet to play with any of the heavier semi-auto rifle weapons (combat shotgun, combat rifle, assault rifle), because they're so heavy & I can't figure out what weapon I'm currently carrying to replace with them. (current loadout: shock baton, 10mm pistol, .50 sniper, pipe sutopistol, institute pistol)

so many pistols. i like keeping my weapons to a minimum. im currently running either a 5 shot musket rifle or a combat rifle with a drum mag combat shotgun.

on my other character, i found a combat shotgun with infinite ammo capacity. that thing is rediculous

Honestly it depends on difficulty lvl and if you choose the perk that lets you find more ammo. I personally do you use automatic on my normal playthough, but on my hard one and even with the perk ammo is still scarce.

Pistols all the way! I never liked automatic rifles in fallout because you go through ammo in no time and the damage never seems to be worth it.

My first character I'm going for a ex marine using full auto whenever he can. First full auto gun was the full auto mod for the 10mm. Later pipe-rifles, etc. All I can say is be very gentle with the trigger as you'll empty a clip in just a few seconds. But once you got a handle on 'short burst' it isn't that bad. Just always have a backup weapon. As far as DPS and such ... man after adding a few boost Perks nothing really stands a chance. Most enemies are dead before they even know I'm shooting at them.

A few well place shots at higher DAM, is way better in-game (and in RL) than the fairly inaccurate/low DAM/short range/deplete your ammo bag quick, of full auto. I've perked both as a test and am still finding semi-auto the preferable approach (outside of Big Guns). If someone is nervous about not having that 9-1-1 effect...well...that's what grenades and shotguns are for. No arguing with perked explosives and the per pellet DAM calc of shotgun shells.

I tried out a sub machine gun briefly, but it just didn't have the stopping power of the semi-auto rifles I've been using and its ammo efficiency leaves much to be desired.

The way I see it, it goes like this with the primary gun types :

Pistols : The Luck VATS weapon. Most shots, gets surprising range with perks. Very good combined with all the Luck perks due to number of shots. Concentrated Fire is divine with it. My weapon of choice.

Single shots : The versatile all rounder VATS weapon. Good in long, medium and short range due to shotguns. Far more effective per shot in VATS than the other, and good outside, as most of them have a great ROF. The default weapon of choice. You probably want this if you use VATS at all, even if you go mainly for pistols.

Automatics : The non-VATS weapon of choice. People really malign automatics, but actually, they are really good in unskilled hands. They are very inefficient in VATS, true, but a non VATS user will be as effective with AGI and Per 2 as with 10. He only needs the Commando perk. That makes Automatics amazing as a weapon for non gun focused characters. Spend 5 perks, get tons of ranged firepower. Going melee without Per? Going pure charisma? Automatics! Particularly if you get some on hit Legendary effects, like bleed or explosive rounds.

Heavy : Heavies are a secondary weapon, period. Hugely niche until you get the gatling laser, which has plenty of ammo available (Fusion Cores). But oh so powerful. Again, really nice for the non VATS user, like the melee god, but dont expect to be able to use it all the time.