I started a stealthy sniper character a while ago, and set Strength to 4 since I planned on carrying a light load and wearing light armor. I did not know that the Sniper Rifle would "require" a Strength of 6. I never even thought about it until the Weapon Handling perk was offered to me, and reading the text got me to investigate a little and realized that I was too weak to handle the Sniper Rifle.

But what does this really mean to my character? How much difference does it make when one is too weak for a weapon?

I have Guns up to 90 at this point, and I miss long-distance sniper shots quite a bit - maybe 50% of the one made at the most extreme distances. Would the Weapon Handling perk, or two more points in Strength, make that much of a difference?

Take the Intensive Training perk a couple of times. Add the points to Strength and you should be ok.

You could also take Intensive Training once and purchase a Strength Implant.

The anti-material rifle requires a strength of eight so you may want to bump it up to 6 and take Weapon Handling.

Yes.

If you're not planning on using anything heavier than the sniper rifle, go with the Perk only.

Thanks Granite.

Could you give me some idea of the difference I should see? My searching and reading suggests that sway will not be reduced, but I assume I'll hit more often. A little more often or lots more often? And/or more criticals?

Yes, it is a good idea to get your strength up. You may want to get it to 6, even, and take the weapon handling perk for the Anti-Material Rifle.

One thing I just discovered is that Ant Nectar gives your strength a boost of +4!! There are plenty of ants in the wasteland to provide it for you too. I boosted my strength from 5 to 6 using an implant just to be able to use the sniper rifle. I *was* going to add another couple of points via Intense Training so I could use the Anti-Materiel rifle but now I think I'll just use Ant Nectar and save the AM rifle for packs of Deathclaws and other hordes and packs of enemies. Moonshine adds +2 Strength and alcoholic beverages add +1. Keep this in mind when designing the strength component of your character.

Also, it's way more worthwhile to take the reduced strength requirement perk once than intense training multiple times just to be able to fire a weapon.

As far as how much does inadequate strength affect weapon performance, I have noticed it's largely irrelevant when talking about the fatboy that will vaporize most anything regardless. For the sniper rifle I mostly missed everything when using VATS so it made a big difference there. Didn't experiment with how it affected manually aiming though.

I think that I'll go kill some ants and see if I notice a difference. Then I can decide about Weapon Handling.


That's what I've been thinking, but I'm not so sure if WH is worth it at all. Tests with some Ant Meat will hopefully give me some idea.

That's Ant Nectar not Ant Meat. And keep in mind it's addictive so keep some Fixer handy and visit your doctor now and then.

There is an abundance of Steady in this game and it may even be possible to craft in the campfire.

If you want to be sniper dedicated, take weapons handling perk.

But there other creative solutions as well.

Whiskey rose perk with Cass (strength buff w/ alcohol)

Big Horner Meat (strength buff )

Steady (works wonders!)

I suggest implanting to STR 5 then using a buff.

AMR is to big of an investment for a "once a day gun."

leave your strength at 5, i play a sniper and 5 is just right, if your weapons skill is 90 or 100 you handle the sniper rifle or hunting rifle pretty good still, especially if you crouch, 4 is too low but 5 is fine and any more is a waste of IT perk or SPECIAL stat, strong back perk is a good sniper perk as well since it lets you carry quite a bit more stuff without having to raise your strngth stat leaving more points for perception, luck or agility etc.