Hi!

I recently discovered that you find better gear when you have a higher level. For example: I found a 10mm pistol that has higher damage than my previous 10mm (same mods of course) and better leather armor than my old one. That is no problem for normal gear since you can just remove all the mods and put them in the better piece.

But what abut "unique" gear like the Spray n' Pray? Does it stay the same, will there eventually be a new one for sale or is the only way to get a new one by randomly dropping from a legendary enemy (in this case a "normal" submachine gun with the explosion effect)?

If you mean, do the legendary effects improve with leveling, I think the answer is no.

The weapon or armor with the legendary effect (dropped by a legendary foe) will have a random assortment of mods with the legendary effect added to it. The mods will be better as you level, though. You can still re-mod the legendary weapon or armor however you like, without endangering the legendary effect. Appears to be a randomly generated item with a random legendary effect. The damage of the weapon does not level. It is the better mods that result in the higher apparent damage. The damage of the un-modded weapon only levels if you add perks to the appropriate skill. (afik)

You can farm for what you want, though.

I found a legendary guy just inside a building, and repeatedly reloaded a save from just outside the building until he dropped a legendary sniper rifle. Then I repeatedly reloaded the "auto-save" that was created when I entered the building until the Legendary effect on the sniper rifle was the one I wanted. Instigator.

Read about doing this on some other website and decided to try it.

The legendary foe did not spawn 100% of the time, though, so it took quite a bit of reloads on the outside of the door to get the sniper rifle (not the pipe one, I wanted the hunting one).

edit: Then reloads of the auto-save to get the legendary effect I wanted.

May try for an exploding shotgun at some point if I don't stumble across one soon!

No my question is about the base weapon damage. As I said I found a 10mm that is stronger than my old 10mm even when both have the same mods.

did you increase your handgun skill before finding the new one?

I think you must either be mistaken, or have encountered some type of glitch, then. The base damage of the weapon does not level. Your perks are the only things that affect the base damage of a weapon. afik. I have never seen two copies of the same un-modded weapon with differing base damage.

Perhaps you are seeing the legendary effect applied to the reported damage of the weapon as viewed in your pip-boy. if it is a 2-shot legendary effect, for example, I think the damage modifier already displays the result of 2-shots being fired.

Someone else may know more about that, but base damage stats do not level, as far as I know.