This.

Earlier today I one-shot a deathclaw with a sneak attack >.>

I killed a Deathclaw without PA, and just like Ma Murphy, I did it with a single pistol round.

However, I wasn't using a pipe, it was a sneak attack using a .44 revolver with the best reciever upgrade (and 4 out of 5 pistol perks). I could probably cripple the Prydwin with this thing.

Come to think of it, I have NEVER killed a Deathclaw who was wearing Power Armor....

So, no takers on the deathclaw vs undie-clad hero (ine) melee battle?

I hear people all the time talking about how they love melee combat, and I see things like supersledges and swatters in the game, but is a melee- only protagonist really viable? How does he/she get past the Deathclaw encounters? What if the unarmed protagonist heads for concord immediately after talking to codsworth? I wonders, I does... and if he/she is successful, where does that leave brave high level heroes who fight in armor from a distance or in unreachable places? I mean, how does he/she get any respect, eh?

Just a stray thought, eh? Imagine two guys sharing a campfire. The first one (Johnny Blaze) tells the other guy about the time he jumped a helicopter on his motorcycle, but the other guy just smiles, while he keeps stirring the fire with his dike...

The moral is that all courage is relative, as are all accomplishments.

Step 1: Feed Piper to the Deathclaw

Step 2: Shoot the Deathclaw as it is busy eating Piper

i killed the Death Claw at level 4 or 5, with all the weapons i had at my disposal, took A LONG time, but he could not reach me, so far the most exillirating fight i had in game lol... sadly no screenshots of it...

Man you guys are just pussies.

I killed a deathclaw matriarch with just a combat knife. Mano y mano. No power armor (or str 10 and perks). No drugs or bear steak. No sneak multipliers. Just me, me knife and the water fountain.

I kill deathclaws without power armor all the time. Now doing it in melee is the hard part, since they have that insta-kill move and all. Once they grapple me and lift me off the ground, I might as well just start loading my last save now. Otherwise, at least with my build and my armor my character can take a direct attack like a champ. Power armor only really accomplishes preventing the grapple move from killing me outright. But seriously, 4/5 rifleman perk, open up with a 6-crank laser musket sneak attack and just plow through their remaining health with the combat rifle. I've met super mutants with more durability.

I hope you don't actually reload the game before that attack animation actually goes through completely, because it actually won't kill you unless you're already close to death. They'll just grab you and throw you down, or something like that.

I killed the first deathclaw with lvl 1, on Survival, naked and standing on one leg with a mere glimpse of my eyes. At least that's what I remember.

Fortunately my deathclaws all got stuck on environment parts. Dumb beasts. Nevertheless I always wet my shorts.

This, power armor is only needed if the enemy hits you.

i can claim i killed one without firing a shot

my character when she was level 15 was doing the recon quest for paladin dance xhen she ended up at the satelite station i was thinking on how to eliminate those high level super mutants when this deathclaw appeared

he spotted me a started to run at me i just got up and sprinted into the supermutant camp

it started to attack the supermutants and i escaped and enjpyed the fireworks

So, I fought off a Deathclaw with a Loose Leaf Notebook. Top that.

Level 27, killed a deathclaw alpha yesterday in two hits with my legendary combat knife.

I didn't get to kill the deathclaw in Concord. It fell out of the sky and died on impact.

Perfectly possible so long as you don't get hit.

I think sentry bots are more of a threat they move quicker then they look and there fire power is devastating. And on death the nattle is still not over. But props go to the beth artist for making the deathclaws look terrafying.

My favorite deathclaw encounter isn't impressive by any stretch, but it was one of my favorite game memories.

Walking to meet the Minutemen at the Castle. Wandering through urban ruin sprawl. Hear a terrible roar and my health takes a dive. Spin around to see an Alpha Deathclaw.

I'm backpedaling while firing Justice (chance to stagger). I'm running out of health and rounds barely keeping this thing off of me.

Last bullet staggers him. He backs up, lifts his chin...

"HHEEEEYUUURGH!" Cait comes out of nowhere and gives him a Furious Power Fist hey maker to the chin, knocking his head clean off.

It was so tense and beautifully timed, with such a great angle that you'd swear the whole sequence was scripted.

I have a 3 shot combo for "heavies." I just killed the mirelurk queen at the Castle with a 6 crank charged shot from an Instigating Laser Musket, followed up with a double tap from a Flaming Assault Rifle... all modded to the max. 3 shots total. No problem. Of course I'm nearly level 45 by the time I finally meandered down to the Castle.

after level 30 I was killing legendary matriarch and alpha deathclaws with a sword, never cared much for power armor. I kill a few a day as I try "farming" the glowing sea for legendary weapons a lot.

I've killed Deathclaws without power armor one of them was a legendary... and I received a freezing tire iron... umm... whoopee...

I primarily relied on .308 sniper rifle (92 damage) and .38 auto pipe rifle (28 damage). I had a height advantage in all those situations though especially when taking out the legendary one....

I basically fast traveled to Starlight Drive to install some turrets to protect my two industrial water purifiers; I have no settlers assigned there. I noticed the legendary deathclaw so I climbed on top of the diner to temporarily install two turrets. Unfortunately, they immediately started to fire upon the deathclaw when I exited build mode so I didn't even have a chance for a surprise attack.

There was one time where I didn't even know Sanctuary was under attack by two normal deathclaws. I was busy modding some weapons when I heard the machine gun turrets firing at something. I figured it was a raider attack so I didn't even bother to defend the settlement, I simply continued to mod my weapons. I don't count those as personal kills.

Deathclaws arent actually hard to kill exactly. They just kill you too if you arent careful.

Know the week spots, headshots just piss off deathclaws, but the belly is soft. A well aimed shot to the belly with steath will drop one as well as a raider or mutant with a headshot.

Using terrain to advantage will work well also, deathclaws dont climb and cant fit into normal doorways.

Aiming for the legs while it charges can work, especially if you have a crippling weapon.

On the other hand, a deathclaw getting the jump on you without power armor is probably death.

Charging at a deathclaw with a melee weapon and no power armor is at best a highly questionable tactic.

If a deathclaw gets the jump on me, I can sometimes pull it out by quickly hitting vats, if I have my gause rifle or shotgun in hand, I can usually drop him before I run out of AP. If I have my sniper rifle, well, just quicksave a lot.

But overall, I've killed dozens of the things, sometimes with just one shot (never just one from a pipe pistol though), and I never use power armor.

killed my first deathclaw with my current character and Swan with melee only. Now that was fun

Killed a Deathclaw in about 7 seconds last night without power armour ... Plasma-Thrower Pistol ftw haha. That was truly insane. I thought I'd just 'try it out' ... wasn't really expecting that!

Since I was too stubborn tonlet the other minutemen die, and foolish to take big guns to this fight, I had to reload a dozen times and get realy creative to beat her. Had to get her to chase me away from the Castle to where the cars where and blew her up with grenades/exploding cars. I was still pretty low-level at the time.

I nearly killed a Behemoth at level 7 with a pipe rifle. Several Deathclaws died in this little scenario. I don't remember what I was wearing but it was not PA.

Went south, exploring and running away from most things. Found the Behemoth by a building and managed to get inside and upstairs. Harassed the local Deathclaws from there, and by running around got them to take on the Behemoth. After quite a long time doing this I noticed the Behemoth was at maybe 20% Health. I started shooting him and got him down to, well very low before he burst into the building I was hiding upstairs in and smashed the place up. I laughed, I died.