TLDR; I killed some raiders and spend much time looting in general, this text piece is only a handful of real life minutes.

At this point, I was kitted out with four different weapons. My trusty 10mm pistol, existing only to make us of my 10mm rounds, a fast firing single-shot rifle that used up my most accessible ammunition resource (MAAR), a very slow firing bolt action rifle that used my least accessible ammunition resource (LAAR), and a laser rifle, using my fusion cells. I've chosen to censor the two ammunition types in the middle, as throughout the game I've gone through multiple different stables, and I really am serious about that whole making your own choices thing.

With near rock-bottom Agility, I still like to stealth, relying on, as they'd say in the D&D realm, player expertise, rather than character expertise to land great shots with my LAAR rifle. My MAAR rifle is my stable damage dealer in a fight, and the laser rifle is what I use against enemies weak to Energy damage.

Walking around with my trusty dog, I get a message that he's found something, "What's that, boy?" I think to myself, and step off in the direction of his barks, a small wood and scrap metal platform holding a lonely toolbox catches my attention, and Dog seems to be pointing right at it. I step up, and hear a frantic beeping that I've learned to associate with automated turrets honing in on their target. I duck, and I re-survey that platform, noticing the silver shine of metal, and managing to pull out and shoot my MAAR rifle once before the turret fires a salvo of machine gun fire.

I fire six more shots, a bare noticeable amount of my sizeable 48 round magazine, and the turret explodes in a satisfying flame, Dog was of no use, but I trot up unto the platform, pick up the items in the toolbox, read the magazine on the table, and take the ammo from the turret. I don't have a weapon that fires these rounds, but they might come in use later.

I notice something new, a red button on a small 'extra' part of the platform, I step up, and press it, before I'm slowly carried upwards, apparently I've stepped onto a lift! - It slowly raises me up to the sky-bridge (big highway) above me, and I crouch down, pulling out my LAAR rifle. I spot two-three raiders a little further down the sky-bridge, and I crawl in cover behind a destroyed car, I make sure I'm far away from any intact cars, as they might explode after heavy gunfire.

I use VATS to determine which of the raiders are the most powerful, using what I know of their naming schemes, and a perk that allows me to see levels and defence levels. I leave VATS as I'm a pretty fine shot, and I line up a headshot. Bang. His health drops about a third, I should've popped a Calmex (double sneak damage for.. A while).

It doesn't take long for the raiders to spot me, I'm not exactly stealthy with my noisy rifle, and I take a shot at one of the weaker ones, removing about half his health bar with a headshot, before I switch to my MAAR. I use a scope on everything, so the range isn't a problem as I pelter his torso with weaker rounds, killing him with an extra three shots.

Okay, not two or three raiders, definitely four, and a dog. An attack dog, [censored]. I aim down the sights and I fire, fire, fire, fire, I shoot perhaps 20-something shots as it approaches, just pulling the trigger as fast as I can, and I down it, only to find out a raider has moved into a spot where my left flank is exposed - the only arm I haven't put armour on yet. It's the original big-head, I swap to my Laser Rifle, which has a very effective damage per-shot, and a quick fire, I pop a Jet, slowing time, and I quick-fire four shots on the raider's head before he disintegrates in a most satisfying manner, leaving a pile of ash.

Just two more raiders, and they're hanging back. I use the Pip-Boy app and equip my fragmentation grenades before I move up closer, chucking a grenade over their defences, and watching the arms and legs go flying as I kill one, and severely hurt the other, a message comes in the upper left corner "Legendary Raider has mutated!" - What!? Legendary loot is my favourite!

Legendary enemies do this thing when they drop beyond a certain health point.. Sometimes, where they regain all health, and mutate, giving them a bonus to something or other (Really, I don't know yet, and I've killed perhaps a hundred of them) - they usually switch up their tactics to be much more aggressive, and so does this guy, he charges out, and I pull out the MAAR again, before I notice Dog is on the job, grabbing his leg and letting me just pelter the raider with rounds. I kill his glowing mutated persona, and I step up, looting.

Looting isn't as simple as you think, if you're clever, you'll want to upgrade things before you have the required crafting perks, and, ammo, you really need that stuff, and there's a trick, I pick up every drug, foodstuff, gun, and any armour items that match what I want (Leather pieces, arms, legs, chests, whatever).

None of the guns are useful to me, I've already practically kitted out my weapons, but, I pick them up anyway, not to scrap, but because of a near-hidden mechanic looting weapons that were used in combat will give you all ammo left in their magazines. Because of this, I just throw the weapons over the edge of the sky-bridge, and then I look at the armour pieces, I'm especially on the lookout for lightweight upgraded things, as I'm fond of going light into the war zone.

I find a Leather Left Arm, that has an upgrade which makes it harder to detect me when sneaking - maybe next time they'll flank me to my right, hah! - The rest is pretty much garbage, so I just throw it away, except a right leg with lightweight. Now, my right leg is a legendary piece with an incredible bonus, so obviously I'm not going to just throw my old piece away, so what do you do? - The answer is easy, you find an armour workbench, and you replace the lightweight mod in the new piece, with a None mod, this places the Lightweight mod in your inventory, and you can now attach it to your legendary piece, free of charge!

I keep drugs, caps, junk with pieces in it I need, and give the area a once over, the whole process took perhaps 5-6 minutes, I work fast and efficiently, and I don't mind if I miss something - I've played too many ARPGs to care, it's about how fast I can get to higher tier content and find higher tier gear, not how much gear I get, on each tier.

This list was inspired by: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1548592-tips-i-wish-i-had-known-48-hours-ago/

• You can drop off gear at your settlements, at any workbench, whether it be for armour, weapons, power armour, chems, food, or even just settlement construction. On PC you press R to open the transfer interface, and you can even press T to automatically store all Junk. Every workbench is linked, so you don't need to worry about where you put your stuff, except which settlement you put it at.
• Enemies which lose their limbs completely when crippled, such as feral ghouls, can be permanently grounded by crippling just one leg. Other enemies such as raiders require you to cripple both legs.
• The weak spot of an enemy is not always the head, open VATS and check out what deals the most damage before you just fire all your minigun ammo into a deathclaw, their face is panzer, and their belly is cotton candy.
• Pick up all weapons dropped by your enemies, if you do not intend to use them, you'll get whatever ammo was left in their magazine in the process.
• If you find yourself lacking ammo, consider investing perks into single-shot weapons, almost every ammunition type can be fired with a single-shot weapon of some sort, and you can conserve ammo this way (some exceptions may apply to minigun and flamer ammo).
• Actually, invest perks into your weapons, and try to use just one type, be it automatic rifles, single-shot rifles, pistols, unarmed, or melee weapons. If you have a high perception, you can invest perks into increasing explosives damage, which is useful for almost everyone, as grenades and molotovs can be used to flush enemies out of cover, while mines can cover you if you're willing to drop them before the enemy charges.
• Try to survey what you're attacking, before you attack, what enemies are there? - What weapons do they carry? - Can you remove any before you attack? - This doesn't mean you need to sneak, just keep your eyes open.
• Shoot. To. Hit. Take a deep breath, aim, fire, repeat. Try not to panic, a feral ghoul might take six shots to kill, but if you miss half, you'll be firing twelve, and your magazines will feel far too small.
• Inject a stimpak if you're about to take damage, it heals over time, and if you hit full health, then take damage, it'll just continue to heal.
• Don't be afraid to use chems, removing addictions isn't too expensive.
• I am afraid to spend money, but if you need ammo, remember, caps in your pocket aren't helping you in a war zone. Buy that grenade, those stimpaks, the rad-away you need, buy buy buy, if you're not great at shooters, or you're rubbish with a controller or whatever, don't worry, you can make it even if you miss, just realize where your problem is, and try to play smart.
• Companions are useful, but if you find yourself not using them, or not feeling their impact, consider the Lone Wolf perk, requiring CHA SPECIAL 3, which increases your carry weight and reduces damage dealt to you.
• Quick save very often.
• I apologize for this feeling like a rant, but do consider defensive perks if you're having trouble surviving.
• Tying in with ammo shortages, being a poor shot, or wanting to use automatic weapons, don't forget that there's a certain perk in the LCK SPECIAL line that'll help you find more ammo, and doesn't require more than near rock bottom LCK!
• Consider carrying a Missile Launcher or Fat Man around, along with ammunition, if you're having trouble with big enemies, use these weapons right, and you'll come out of nearly every scenario with a good number of notches on your belt!
• You can equip companions with gear by opening the Barter / Transfer interface and pressing a certain button (I think it is F or T on PC) after having transferred the item to your companion. Try this out with Dog, as he too can use certain things.