What I've done with my current pistol build is change pipe gun sniper rifles into pistols. I've got one now which uses .308, is bolt action, does 81 damage, and has a range of 283.

Thinking about doing this with a blond haired character who fancies a red trench coat

Only if you call him the humanoid Typhoon.

If only I could rack up a bounty of $$60,000,000,000.

This is what I wanted do to but I don't like Piper's outfit. I'm probably just going to use ballistic weaves on MacCready's duster

I normally go with pistols on all my characters. Just my preferred style of play. Pipe pistol early on along with the 10mm. I eventually drop the pipe pistol, once ammo becomes abundant for the 10mm, and replace it with a laser pistol. I do carry a Laser Rifle for those long range targets that the 10mm can't seem to reach reliably. I rarely use it though.

The only other thing that gets changed is I have a mod that lets me convert the 10mm to a .45. That happens around level 15 to 20ish. I also add the Legendary wounding effect to get the bleed damage when I can. I like the explosive legendary effect but you have to be careful with it or you can take out friendly NPC's with it if they are too close to what your shooting at. I killed Cricket and her whole posse by mistake thanks to the explosive legendary effect.

Depending on who I side with my armor is either my vault suit with leather or combat armor over it. I might change the vault suit out for a BOS uniform or some clothing added by mods. Spartan Sniper outfit or the Daisy Dukes shorts are my current favorites for female characters.

Did you guys bother to get gun nut?

I've never seen it as an option, and I looked. Was I just completely missing it?

Oh wait, I forgot that the X-01 had its own body upgrades


I never used the medic pump because I always keep myself topped up with stims. The X-01s increased durability and defense is why I use it. Plus the looks.

Yeah, the downside of being developed after the War, it apparently isn't reverse compatible with the other tech. That's my explanation for the lore, anyway. More likely that kind of durability coupled with auto stimpacks was completely OP

Yeah, update on the whole "only pistols" thing... It took care of the Deathclaw, but I did have ammo issues. Additionally, I chose to take the first rank of Better Criticals at rank 5 instead of Scrounger, because, ammo issues aside, I needed the damage against the deathclaw. Ended up taking him out with only a pipe pistol and .45 pipe revolver (my 10mm ran dry when I was wiping up the common raiders)

The pipe revolver will probably be your go to weapon until you kill Kellogg and get his gun.

Its not really a crazy plan lol.

Was doing it the other night and its basically the same as my rifle guy but instead of rifles/shotgun I just use pistols.

It was kinda better because of the higher rate of fire. I took bloody mess early for extra damage too. ( which might lower the whole not enough bullets thing )

Had a penetrating pipe pistol that was pretty good, 10mm obvs, .44 and changed the gun danse gave me to pistol.

I also had moded guns by taking mods off other guns instead of gun nut so that's not going to be a huge problem. Just keep an eye out for mods on dropped weapons.

$I just got an unlimited .44 too so no wasted time reloading lol

I hadn't thought about changing stocks on rifles to make them pistols lol

I basically play pistols only. I guess i use a sniper rifle too, but u can mod a plasma or laser pistol to be a better long range weapon in some respects. I guess I dont see what the big deal is... Pistols are the best weapons in the game IMHO

I'm doing pistols only. Gunslinger, luck, gun nut and agility is what I'm investing in. No uniques or legendaries. After lvl 15 it's not too hard. Just play it safe until then and you'll be fine.

Not much of a challenge...I use pistols primarily, because personal preferences.

Want a real challange? Try it with only the minigun, junkjet, and/or a dart rifle.

Why would you consider Handguns challenging? They all have similar stats with other weapon types in the top tier, so there's nothing different besides what ammo is used, and weight. Remember, Gunslinger perk at max rank doubles the damage, range, and can cripple enemies incredibly easy, making something like Kellog's revolver into a hand-held cannon of ridiculous range.

Max Agility and Luck first in the beginning, then work your way up with the other perks. Personally, I would save the book for either Agility or Luck, because the bonus still applies to your stat, meaning you can get more AP with agility, or even faster criticals with a point in Luck. After that, sink points into Perception if you enjoy using VATS (spoiler alert, you will use VATS often with a gunslinger perk, so 5-10 Perception will really help with your handgun overall and allow you to pull off some hilarious crap.

Heavy Weapons on the other hand, now that's a challenge to even get through the entire game, let alone first area.

what accuracy?

and how high of accuracy can you get on a pistol? any pistol?

for my mostly pistols build, I play VATS and have high perception and agility. Luck is 1. Critical banker sounds nice but so far away!

I've recently made a fists only character. I'm finding him pretty fun and challenging. Just a big dumb oaf who only knows how to punch. All strength, endurance and agility. Nothing else.. no perks in any other category and best of all.. no armor. He can wear clothes that give armor but no additional armor. (toughness perk will pretty much make up for that anyway.) I figure he'll probably actually turn out to be my wealthiest character since he can sell all weapons and ammo. He'll basically need nothing but the clothes on his back. .. (and chems.. Yeah, he might turn out to be a drug addict. We'll see.)

Even fist mode isn't that challenging, unless you're purposely ignoring the Rooted and Blitz combo. Best part is you don't even have to sink a single point into Blacksmith to get the highest damaging fist weapon in the game.

Accuracy of that pipe piston was 92.

I did a pistol run and loved it. VATS is your friend so AGI and LCK as others have noted. I also kept all my gun barrels short so there were no 'hip-fire' penalties. I could really unload on an enemy in real-time or VATS. It did become somewhat of a problem around 30+ level as there are only so many mods you can put on a gun to improve damage, so some combat did get tricky. REALLY wished I could have used dual pistols though, as that would have evened things out some at higher levels. Maybe dual pistols with a aim penalty or something.

(Note I've fired dual pistols before in real life and it is about impossible to hit anything doing that).