Okay, I've looked over a number of forum topics discussing this, but I think I still have a question further-

Do weapons continue to improve in use after passing the (implied) requirements?

For example: If I were going to use a weapon that required 5 strength and 50 weapon skill, would its stats continue to improve if I pass those requirements?

If the answer is yes, then what purpose do the requirements serve? Does it just improve less after reaching the requirements?

No. If a character with 6 STR and a character with 10 STR will both be equally as accurate with a Hunting Rifle. It's only that characters with 5 STR or lower will feel a penalty.

Okay, good to know.

So what does a weapon skill requirement affect?

Damage and accuracy

Okay, so I know weapon skill determines damage with any weapon of the given type.

Now, as per the actual stated requirement, I can take it to mean that that with ranged-weapons it reduces accuracy until you've reached the stated requirement and damage is decreased further as long as it's under the requirement? So this would mean that the bonuses from increasing a skill past the requirement are reduced, as far as damage goes?

Weapon skill affects:

-accuracy. Higher the skill, more accurate you are (as much as I can tell, it affects mainly VATS, in real time it is not noticeable at normal distances)

-damage. Higher the skill, more damage you are doing with weapon.


If your skill or stat is under required level, you get penalty in accuracy.

Accuracy: you can show yourself exactly how the accuracy thing works- a sniper rifle, for instance, requires 6 STR and 75 points in guns skill, before it achieves 'best' accuracy. That's the minimal amount of wobbling and weaving around the crosshairs can possibly do when you're kneeling down and trying to aim at something outside of VATS (it will never be perfectly still and stable unless you use the temporary Steady drug). If you try that with a STR of 4 and gun skill of 50, and compare that to how steady your crosshairs are AFTER you gain all the required stats, you will definitely notice the difference. Your crosshairs will wobble all over the place until you gain the required stats, but that wobbliness will get a little bit better with each addition to those stats on the way up to those requirements.

As for what benefits you gain from additional gun skill points above the max required to effectively us a given weapon, I know you gain a steady amount of extra +damage from your weapon all the way up to 100... but I'm not sure about what additional accuracy benefits you may get from them, if any. Perhaps it only affects VATS accuracy beyond the max requirement? Don't know.

You get maximum accuracy only at 100 skills. What you get if you do not meet required level of skill is additional penalty.

So let say you have 30 skills and you use gun n.1 which requires 10 skills and gun n.2 which requires 50 skills.

You will fire gun n.1 at 30% of its max accuracy but you will fire gun n.2 at just 5% its max accuracy (I do not know how big penatly is so consider it just example).

Once you reach 50 skills you will fire both guns at 50% of their max accuracies.

Thanks for that great explanation....

Is the requires Str/Gun Skill info for a weapon displayed in game or do you have to go look on a wiki to find it?

No. As soon as you reach 8 strength (or 6 if you pick up weapon handling), the only benefits you'll gain from further strength are Melee Weapons and Carry Weight.



It's displayed if you select the weapon.

The required Skill set is diplayed in your inventory when a weapon is highlighted, if a character does not meet the requirements, the stats will flash slowly.

Ah cool. I can see it now.

Okay first off no once you meet the strength requirement you won't be anymore accurate with that weapon. Perception adds accuracy to VATs. And the weapons skill requirement is for the damage. So if your skill is lower than the skill requirement you won't do the damage indicated. However if you have 100 guns and the weapon calls for a 50 you will do a lot more damage. So I hope you weren't listening to anyone that said otherwise. And no this isn't made up I'm tester with Bethesda and they moved me and a few of my friends who are developers over to Obsidian to help with New Vegas.

Sorry forgot to add that Guns Skill also effects accuracy. So there is really no reason not to put your Guns at 100. Especially since you can have everything at 100 anyways.

Formula: Final Damage = Base Damage x (50 + Skill x 0.5)
Over 100
Sorry no division sign.

And accuracy is +7.5% every 10 skill points.

And they other 25% is made up by meeting you're strength requirement

VATs is a whole different story as you may notice your Strength and Guns may be both be in par. But you will still miss sometimes.

VATs is largely based on Perception and Luck. As well as Strength and Skill.

I should also add that Strength only makes you more accurate because it greatly reduces gun wobble. In VATs it automatically reduces it for you. And unlike FPS games. You can't simply try and put the cross hairs on your target because of the RPG element of this game.

I'm actually relatively certain Perception does not add accuracy to VATS.

The Fallout Wiki says, on the Perception page, under New Vegas and Notes, that "Contrary to what the name would make one believe, Perception does not actually increase V.A.T.S or regular accuracy at all." (I'd have added a link but for whatever reason I'm not allowed to)


So if your skill doesn't meet the requirements the damage listed is actually not how much you'll be doing?

Wish they included something in-game to explain all this...


Interesting, so strength doesn't actually make that much of a difference compared to having a high weapon skill.


According to the Wiki, Perception does nothing for accuracy and it doesn't even mention luck regarding accuracy or VATS. I thought you said VATS automatically reduced the wobble that strength would reduce, so what does strength do in VATS?


So any strength penalties I'd receive from not having enough strength are ignored while using VATS?


I think some weapons are better about this than others (less spread), but enemies are way too mobile to get headshots all the time : /

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So I've heard that inadequate strength slows close-ranged weapons (instead of reducing accuracy, as with long-ranged weapons). I don't actually know if Grunge is correct about weapon skill being the greatest determiner of accuracy, but would that means that weapon skill affects close-ranged attack speed as well? Or for close-ranged weapons is weapon-skill purely for damage?

And on the subject of grenades: do they get the same accuracy determiners as long-ranged weapons?

For Mines: what does strength affect? I read weapon skill affects the timer on both your mines and enemy mines (to your presence).

My current character has a high Explosives Skill, I can deactivate any Mine my character can see. I can hit anything within the range of a Grenade Launcher, but I will rarely see an accuracy reading in VATS of more than 40% on a body part. Grenades are very similiar, with Explosive Weapons, the first shot in VATS will always damage the target. A second toss will always hit where a target was.

Strength boosts Melee.
Agility boosts Firearms.
Perception boosts Energy and Explosives.<-- I may be wrong about Explosives?
Endurance boosts Unarmed.
Perception affects when a character can see and identify a target.

Targets that are in close Melee range are a pain to hit, and VATS does not seem to be able to target anything that is below a characters waist.
I went into Lonesome Road with a character who had 6 in SPECIAL skills that determined effectiveness with Weapons, at Level 1. I ended up using a Melee Weapon because I could kill the levelled opponents faster with a Melee Weapon in third person, until I decided to loot a Trailer

I generally only use VATS for firing/throwing explosives at enemies. The 40% is about right, but generally irrelevant- that may indicate how likely you are to actually strike your enemy with your explosive projectile/device, but of course you don't have to actually hit them with it to blow them to hell. I kill things with explosives just as often with a 5% VATS hit chance, as I do with any higher numbers. I always aim for the legs, cuz if you aim for anything higher up and your projectile fails to actually contact a bodypart, then it may well fly past them and explode too far away to do much harm. Aiming for the legs pretty much guarantees a good first shot/throw which will lay some real hurt on them when it lands at their feet. Gaining a higher vantage point before firing downwards towards your target helps a lot, too. Less chance of overshoot. When I get the tactical high ground on a bunch of enemies, I can really lay waste with a grenade launcher.

You're right, under many circumstances, your second toss in VATS will often land where they were, not where they are going to be, and will be wasted. Have to judge each encounter to decide whether or not it's worth firing or throwing a second explosive at them, or not. Some enemies, like Nightstalkers, are so damn fast you'll never get a second grenade throw at them (though grenade launchers might), while many human enemies give you ample opportunities to hit them repeatedly in VATS with explosives of all kinds. And any enemy that stays at range from you can be worked over as well.

them der rednecky deathclers sure due like em diddy trailers.