hi can anybody tell me whats the best/weapon to kill a deathclaw? cheers

Depends on what skills you advance, but if you go for guns (and sneak), the antimateriel rifle seems mow them down pretty fast.

Hunting/sniper/anti-material or gauss rifles. Or perhaps a missile launcher if you focus on explosives.

Keep distance and stay in stealth mode so you get those sneaky critical hits.

The sneak attack is the best bet. Basically, figure on needing a gun with some punch or good criticals. The prototype Gause Rifle is my favoritte, but the other mentioned weapons will do the job. A lot depends if you are encountering one or a bunch. If you get shots off from a distance in a concealed or high location, you can bring down a deathclaw with quite a few medium power weapons. If you encounter multiple deathclaws, the problem gets a lot worse. The Gause Rifle is great, but one shot reloaders can put you in harm's way when they are getting up close and personal.

I had a lot of fun once from a high perch with the prototype Tesla Cannon. Boy, it was fun watching those deathclaws thrown through the air with multiple bursts from that gun. They never even found me and I must have killed at least a half dozen.

Strategy and sneaking are very important to taking out deathclaws. Watch out though! They are very good at findiing you once you open fire.

For guns, Sneak attack from a sniper rifle, AMR, Minigun or LMG with AP ammo.
For explosives Grenade Machinegun and Mercy are pretty much the only choices.
For Energy Weapons: Sniping with Gauss Rifle, or Plasma Caster (i'd imagine, haven't tried). If you're feeling tough, try Multiplas with MC ammo

thanks guys always a great help

If you have enough distance, the AM Rifle is the bomb. However if they are running at you, that gun will not fire fast enough if you need more than one shot. For that I use the Brush Gun.

One key thing for guns is Armor Piercing (AP) ammo. The .308 Sniper Rifle + AP ammo lets you keep your distance and get the sneak shots, silencer ("suppressor", really) helps a lot.
I like to have a backup rapid-firing gun like a 12.7 or 10mm smg for when they get too close.

Strategy for where you are sitting really comes into play, too. Up on cliffs or structures where they can't reach = better.

You can melee & unarmed them with the help of some of the Knockdown perks, high stats, and good weapons. They have very long reach, so it ain't easy. I did succeed in killing one with Love and Hate, though it took 4 or 5 tries. :ahhh:

for just about any character the brush gun is amazing (always reminds me of the brush of death quest in es4 purely because of the word brush ) even with out cowboy or a high gun skill it still mauls them.

Don't forget about the AER14 and it's ability to 100% critical. Oh, and the Pew Pew with standard ammo can one shot sneak attack a Deathclaw. Here's the http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y123/celica62/New%20Vegas/FalloutNV2010-11-2111-41-08-07.png. The picture's pre patch 1.2 but I think the result would still apply. If not, use MC ammo. I love those two weapons.

all above

riot shotgun if then get up close and wanna hug ya

This, ammo and skill are what will do best against deathclaws..

Also adding to list..
12.7 pistol it's great against deathclaws up close.
Marksman carabine and AP or .223 ammo, this is a fast firing, medium damage gun that ignores DT with these ammo types.
Has a great RoF and is accurate and comes with a scope.
Hunting rifle and AP or JSP ammo, fully modded will be a great weapon to use.
As well as a trail carabine with .44SWC rounds, or a plain ol' brushgun.

for energy weapons, I'd sugest MC ammo for the Multiplas rifle, or the prototype gauss.

I want to try going in there with one of my Automatic Rifles.

I just haven't had the patience to do so yet. Getting killed by a Deathclaw makes me... unhappy.

What difficulty is that? As soon as I got Pew Pew (playing on VH with 100 Energy weapons skill) I went out the back of the Sarsaparilla factory to try it out: I got a sneak crit on a Fiend and he was still running about quite happily - which led me to conclude that Pew Pew was poo poo.

And the ammo consumption svcks on top of it. It's like adding insult to injury.

Shotgun Surgeon+ Riot Shotgun+ slugs up close.

AMR + AP ammo at long range almost always does the job.

Sniper rifle+ AP ammo + Sneak critical to the head. Might need to be repeated a couple of times.

It was Hard. There shouldn't be that much of a difference. However, sometimes crits go end up being flunks mind you. Whether that's a bug or not, I'm not sure.

Overall, there's a reason why I call the Pew Pew a "Double-Barrel Laser Shotgun"; Because it works just like that. It's not great for rushing in head on but it's perfect for sneak attack crits and medium to long range combat for me.

Edit: I may of had chems working with me on that screenshot.. I may have not.. but it does a lot of damage without chems.



I say it's fine. With Pack Rat, I can easily carry close to 1500 Energy Cells perfectly into my inventory space without compensating for it by taking out other things. The reason why it's like that is for the sake of balance I believe. If it were something like the Metal Blaster from FO3, I.E. Better ammo consumption rate, then it would simply be horribly overpowered.