am level 15 in the game and although I understand enemies will get harder the further I get in the game, the damage is making less and less sense. My questions will be at the bottom.


Last night I was playing and used a shotgun with 50 damage. When I shot someone with the shotgun or my 37 damage weapon, it barely took away their health. The bad guys were right in front of me, so the shotgun was point blank but was not killing them or even taking away much of their health. The weird part is that when I would hit the bad guy, their health dropped significantly. I was better off hitting the bad guys instead of shooting them. This happened with several of them, so it was not a 1 time fluke.


I read an article here that was talking about how great the Instigating gun (I believe that was it), is and that you will do so much better with it. i got the gun and the damage was around 12, but doubled damage if the person you shot was at full health. The problem is that it is only 24 damage when I double it, yet my shotgun is around 50 damage.


If my damage on my shotgun is 50, how does me hitting the guy do more damage? One of my guns has a bayonet, so I understand why it does so much Melee damage but my shotgun does not have one and it was doing more damage with hitting the npc.


Why is a gun with such low damage being listed as a powerful weapon in the game? I just don't feel like 24 damage is that great.


I have used the mods with the weapons bench, and I thought my damage was great. After fighting last night, it was obvious I needed more fire power.


Is there a specific gun i need to be on the lookout for? What am I missing about weapons and damage?


Thanks

Looks like I stumped everyone. Haha


It looks like I need better/different perks

Each point of Damage resistance in this game, will give you an reduction of 1%. So, if you shoot at an enemy with 20 points of armour, he will have a damage resistance of 20%, reducing incoming damage by 20%. At the 50% mark, you will begin to see diminishing returns. So, the more power per bullet you can put behind it vs armoured enemies, the better.

I believe the shotgun damage is actually divided among X amount of pellets (not sure tho) which will give each pellet less penetrating power vs well armoured enemies. Same reason why the minigun sux baboons behind (base damage of 8 is underwhelming, comparing to a 10mm base damage of 18. Meaning you are better off fast firing your basic 10mm pistol, than peppering enemies with a freaking minigun!!!)

Which is also why, your bash damage will do greater damage, because it is one chunk of damage, instead of spread out on individual pellets.......

Also, have in mind, that various armours have better protection vs various forms of damage. So your blunt damage might be better, than the bullet, because of this.

I'm not impressed with how they have done this, since there is no mechanic, that counts for overloading an area with damage (which would make the minigun and shotgun better) For now, I would recommend to hide it away, or use it vs less armoured enemies (ghouls, wildlife and the occasional scavenger who might turn hostile on you)

There isn't just one single "instigating gun" in the game. Instigating is a legendary perk that is on a wide range of weapons. I have an Instigating .50 Sniper Rifle that does 134 base damage, and 268 damage when the enemy is at full health.


I also have an instigating pipe pistol that I've never once bothered to even use because a twice as powerful pipe pistol is still a horribly weak weapon.

Have you invested perk points into the Rifleman perk? Once it's maxed out all of your rifles (including shotguns) will be doing double damage at all times. Add in the sneak multipliers, the Mister Sandman bonuses for suppressed weapons, Deacon's perk, and a few other perks and you can get something like 6.1x sneak attack bonuses.


As I said, the base damage of my Instigating Sniper Rifle is 134. If I have a suppressor on it and kill them while sneak is active, I am getting 134x2x6.1=nearly 415 damage. That's roughly on par with the base damage of the gauss rifle.

Do you have your strength built up higher than some of your other stats? That could make a big difference. If you have jacked up strength but have invested very little in the perks that make rifles more powerful, you could see a big difference.

I don't even use a shotgun anymore. Loss of the specialized perks like Shotgun Surgeon or And Stay Back! make it just another overweight gun, unless you unload it point blank into a baddies gut, and even then with the system and design as they stand, why not just use a Gauss Rifle...all the time?!.

What's your strength at?

I believe you deal more damage with butt-strokes and the like with higher strength, no?

The damage reduction is not linear as you say Ytrumz, it is scaled to weapon base damage

If the enemy armor = your weapon base damage you deal 50% damage

The minigun has a base of 8, so an enemy with 8 damage takes half damage, mods and effects do not change this

A mininuke does 468, so you need 468 armor to reduce it's damage by half.

This causes low damage weapons like the shotgun to be heavily effected by low armor, while heavy hitting weapons are not effected as much until armor starts climbing to their level, meaning the difference between medium armor, and high armor enemies becomes significant, as the toughest enemies aren't taking as much damage proportionately from the heavy weapons, but the difference for low damage high rate of fire difference is negligible.

But, after armor exceeds the damage of your weapon it becomes increasingly inefficient. the difference between 40 armor and 400 armor is almost nothing to a minigun, a fifth the damage reduction from 0 to 40 armor, but to a mininuke that is nearly 50% difference in damage.

The shotgun has low damage per pellet, so armor effects it very heavily at first, while the melee bash has a higher base damage, so low levels of armor don't reduce it as much, however once the base damage creeps up from the damage of the shotgun to that of the bash the effectiveness will decline rapidly.

Thanks for the explanations. I was selecting and using weapons based on damage and range (carry sniper, shotgun, hunting rifle and pistol at all times).


I found some site that told me how to start a character and what abilities to choose. I have followed it, but do not know my stats for each category. I know I am trying to get local leader and have upgraded lock pick. Will work on the gun perks as I do want gun nut.


I am enjoying the game and really like the settlement aspect. There is so much I need to learn and I appreciate you taking the time to tell me this..


This is the site I followed for the beginner starting stats, so I have no idea if it is good or not.

idigitaltimes did an article on best starting styles. I cannot post a link though. /fallout-4-character-build-guide-best-starting-perks-and-stats-basic-play-styles-489316

When I first start a character hitting melee with the gun seems to be stronger than actually shooting with it too. After playing the game for many levels and adding the right perks for my gun type, shooting is way stronger than hitting melee hits. Way stronger.

A shotgun has a wide spread, so it's useful for larger enemies that provide a big target.

Also not all shotties are the same.

Many available in the game are [censored] shotties.

The better ones have higher accuracy and longer range than others.

Some have a better range (the shot pattern not spread out so much.)

I like to use a shottie when the badass big boys cross my path and I want to make quick work of them.

Behemoth, Deathclaws, Mirelurk Queen and big bears, mostly.

With the first two I can quickly cripple their legs with the shottie and finish them off with melee, saving on ammo.

As you proceed in the game you can get perks and acquire skills to craft a better shotgun.

Starting with a legendary weapon effect like extra damage of some sort you can craft faster fire rate, large magazine, quick reloads, low recoil and so on.

If I find a promising prospect I mod it and compare it to what I already have by using it in battle.

With a gun the accuracy stat means you can actually miss when you think you have hit.

The shotgun I use has a legendary effect of 25% more damage but it's accuracy is only 47 and range is 71.

Also i don't always hit the target when using it.

With bashing it's hit or miss unless the foe actively blocks.

I personally like to melee and use pistols so that's where I put most of my attacking perks when I started the game.

I still don't have many perks put towards big guns because I prefer other weapon types.

Others will have a different view.

A short video of shotgun use on tough Deathclaws.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6HtPlv0QfQ

Great stuff everyone. How often do you wear your armor set? I always worry the fusion core will run out and the suit will be stuck somewhere.

First, it sounds like you're most likely using a double-barrel shotgun.

Those things aren't worth much. Now, a Combat Shotgun... there's a good shotgun for ya. Especially if you can get it as wounding (where the bleed damage stacks per pellet) or explosive (where... well, each pellet explodes.)

For Power Armor... I generally spam Intelligence until i get it to 9, then take the Nuclear Physcist perks. That allows me to essentially run all the time without worry about the core's power level. You shouln't worry too much about the core going out of power- you can still walk and fast travel in the suit if your power armor runs out of power. You just can't run, sprint, or use VATS. Getting levels in Scrounger will increase the liklihood of finding extra fusion cores, and you can buy them off of some vendors.

because of the needs of crafting, the only time I ever bought fusion cores was to balance out the barter amount from all the chems, grenades, and mines I was selling.

The explosive shotgun is probably the most overpowered gun in the game in my experience. That thing is just insane. It mows through anything. You don't even have to aim it. You just point it in the general direction and it mows down everything in its path.

You've gotta be careful with that thing in close quarters though. The legs of my power armor were getting worn down to nothing pretty quickly when I first got that thing. You've gotta make sure you've got some space between you and explosions.

As you progress through the game you will find many sources of power cores.

You will come across many power armour frames in various states of completion.

I have accumulated over 30 suits and have over 100 power cores.

At the moment I am using power armour because I am wearing clothing with no protection.

For most of the game I went without it until around level 90 when the foes got meaner, but now I have overtaken them again.

Currently I am visiting settlements wearing charisma boosting apparel and can't be bothered changing clothing to answer call outs.

Easier to jump in the power suit if my assistance with battle is likely, rather than just observing the defences do their work