It seems to me that the Deathclaws are ridiculously overpowered. I have all lol 50 dwellers with20+ weapons and the DC still rip through three room.


In other vaults they can wipe out the majority of the vaults with lower dwellers. Just seem ridiculous to me.

Deathclaws are... difficult to assess in difficulty, they heavily punish overextending early on and not being prepared, if you didnt take time to get better weapons or train/level dwellers they can be a nightmare, or even sent out all your stims with explorers they can kill quite a few people.

As to them being OP, I disagree, they are more than manageable if you are prepared for them, better weapons and dwellers in the first few rooms, quick fingers with stims, etc,

There is no point achievable (as of right now that I know of) that they can just be ignored like raiders, even in my main vault, my first room is lv 50s, max stat, all in power armor, 3 fat mans, 2 gatling lasers, and a missile launcher they would still kill everyone in that room without me healing them.

so in my opinion, are they OP? no, it feels like it if you rushed and arent prepared for them, but they are alaways a threat, which is why I like them, you cant be safe while they loom out there.

Edit: This is from experience with regular vault configuration, I haven't tested one of the "anti deathclaw" vault configurations like the checkerboard or zig-zag

I am playing three vaults and all of them are reaching 80 population. First time I got deathclaws attack was one of vault with 65 population. Thanks to Internet I read ahead and well prepared. I lost two dwellers on first attack.


Since then I got like 12 deathclaws attack out of three vaults I am playing and can survive without using simpack and paid little attention. My dwellers are using shotgun with damage 7 to 8.


So I think not only deathclaws is not op, I am running bored with this game now that deathclaws isn't even a challenge.


Quick tip: top 2/3 floors dwellers need endurance trained to 4.

They never make it off my 1st floor

Only build single width rooms on your top floor (you can eventually upgrade to max) with two of your best armed and equip'd/stat dwellers with no elevator at the end, two are much easier to stim that 6, so you never really lose anyone, they funnel through to the end (I actually have an elevator down to an empty store room with no connection to another room, which gives me even more time to stim pack if required) then they have to run back through the death corridor again!

The 3rd usually drops the room before the last by the elevator, my peeps are about level 25-30 half are armed with 15 damage weapons the other half about 6-8.

All about planning in this game but it is also all about finding out the hidden rules, like the fact that beasts reflect the level and size of the room they are in, so a single unit base room has 5x (roughly) weaker beasts that a 3 wide max upgrade room.

I usually have no big problems (1-2 dead dwellers) defending against them after one of my vaults got completely destroyed by them and I finally decided to be prepared. Since this point I really think they are OP and I do not enjoy playing against them. You should have an option to switch them off, something like "easy mode" with only Raiders and RADs.

But last attack I discovered somethingbreally strange: The Deathclaws seem to deal some kind of AOE damage. Some of my dwellers who actually weren't even in the attacked room, but next to it or on top of it, died. And I tell you: This is annoying like hell! Someone expirienced that too?

Nah, they're not OP, it's just that they get most people caught unprepared.

1-. DC's get enabled at 60 dwellers. Stay under that value and you have all the time in the world to get ready for them (I'd stay at 55-56 max, in case of a "legendary wanderer lunchbox")

2-. Last training room (Luck) enables at 50 dwellers , so you can train to your heart's content. The single most important thing here: MAX ENDURANCE AT DWELLER LEVEL 1. Dwellers get extra HP everytime they level up, and the more endurance you have and teh earlier they max it, the more HP they'll get. At level 50, a 10E dweller that trained it at lv1 will have much more health than a 10E dweller that trained it at lv40. People keep complaining whay their maxed SPECIAL dwellers die to DC's. They probably trained endurance too late to give them a decent HP increase.

3-. Luck is probably the second most important stat for wasteland wanderers. More luck = more caps and chances for better loot on the fixed hourly loot events. Events still may require other stats to make the "success check", but luck is essential to see more rares. More rares = better equipped dwellers, and better equippend dweller = faster DC kills..

4-. Deathclaws tend to move from left to right until they check all rooms in a floor, then move towards the nearest elevator and go down a floor, depending on your vault layout, you may force them to double-back to an elevator they left behind (thus, fighting twice the dwellers they find on their way back to the elevator; you may need less dwellers but they must be better equipped and you'll probably need to stim them), or give them ways to go down so they only need to cross each room once (you'll ned more dwellers, but they'll only have to fight DC's once, after they leave the room, they're no longer in danger.)

- - - - -

TLDR: Don't rush your dweller numbers, train your Endurance ASAP, equip your dwellers as best as you can, think of your vault layout.

Pretty sure it's confirmed that Vault Dwellers gain no bonus from SPECIAL when it comes to combat, the only main focus is the level, and their weapon. Armor has no use in the vault, as it's only a stat bonus, nothing more, so if people think their power armor will protect them, it won't.

This game really isn't complex when it came to the SPECIAL system.

SPECIAL is of no use on combat, but there are topics around, (and some "looking under the skirt") that tested endurance effects on health bars, and the conclussion is that the higher the endurance and the earlier the training, the slower the HP bar drain on hazards (essentially, more HP). While it's still a constant drop, HP bars on dwellers in a room don't drop at the same rate, and the earlier you trained End, and the higher your level, the more noticeable that effect.

https://www.reddit.com/r/foshelter/comments/3i20hk/vaulttec_mechanics/

https://www.reddit.com/r/foshelter/comments/3ibkjj/endurance_affects_hp_only_during_leveling_not/

So, the higher the Endurance and the earlier the training, the slower a dweller's HP bar will drain compared to another dweller of the same level and "worse training"; and, since DC's "get bored" after they spend some time in a room and move to the next one, highly end trained dwellers may not even require stims to stand against DC attacks, they just hold their ground until the DC's move away. With enough trained dwellers, you simply must keep an eye in case DC's decide to stay in a room for longer than expected.

Of course, this is still not 100% confirmed, but still consistent.

Deathclaws are not op, They stop you from rapidly expanding and remove the toybox experience but they arent op. Just like balancing food and water to dwellers and power to rooms you also have to balance stats. I handled death claws with 60 dwellers and 14 babies, 1 person died because they ran behind someone so I couldn't heal. Stop at 60 and work on upgrading stats and finding weapons, when you get decent stats and gear, increase the pop and put the weaker people down below so they dont even have to fight them. lvl 30-40 dwells with almost max endurance lasted for a good bit. I always max their main working stat, endurance and luck. As for my explorers max everything . Also I think they tested that endurance increases HP as well as leveling.

My main vault has 130+ dwellers, and I have yet to lose anyone to deathclaw attacks. I'm not sure if my situation is unique, but the DCs don't stay in a room long enough to drain anyone's HP low enough to kill them on their own, even level 1 dwellers (as long as everyone is max beforehand). My strategy is simply this: spread all weapons and gear out evenly among dwellers, and just let the room inhabitants deal with their own rooms. Don't move dwellers ever (unless a fire breaks out in an empty room, etc.) By the time the DCs move on to the next room, everyone's HP is around 5-50%,but nobody is dead.


Secondly, is the increased HP gain per point of endurance per level tested? This is the first I'm hearing of this, and it could be a game changer.

Addendum


I just had a second deathclaw attack within literally SECONDS of the first pack being killed. That is absurd.


Luckily, I was able to preemptively heal everyone using my Handy Stimpak strategy I've posted a couple places, so there were no deaths, but wtf?

If I recall, DC's have two separate procs:

1-. When the vault doors open for any reason, or the radio tower transmits (radio tower is timed). This is the most common issue and focus of most complains ("I just sent my best geared dweller to the wastes and 10 seconds later Deathclaws attacked, WTF Bethesda!!!!")

2-. As a random hazard (like fires radroaches, and the like).

So, you can have a DC attack because you let a wanderer in (or out), and seconds later another attack because a random hazard procced.

All these people posting complex strats lol, MAX STATS!! lol, as posted there is no reason a DC should ever get off your top floor, half my dwellers are level 15+ the other half 20-30 and only 4 have 15-16 damage weaps, the rest have 5-8, I use 8 stim packs and that's it. You only have 2 people in a room so uber simple to stim, I have 65 dwellers and a max radio room plus I send people out about once every 30 minutes, I have 3 DC attacks about every 30 minutes (probs about 15 now) and they never make it back to the central elevator.

Keep it simple, cos it is.

I believe I was hit by the 1 2 punch here.

@OP - You have 50 dwellers and 20 weapons. Sounds like you expanded way too fast. All of my dwellers have weapons, I even have enough to leave weapons on pregnant women (just not good weapons). Also, I don't think DCs are possible at that dweller count. I'm at 50 and I've have yet to see a DC attack.

I think he means lvl 50 with 20+ damage weapons. Still, they aren't hard to fend off if you don't chase them down.

Ah, that would make a lot more sense and be more solid ground for calling the DCs OP.