In my last game I eschewed power armour altogether, collecting many suits in Sanctuary and more than 100 fusion cores at level 62. The suits are just not very good for a sneaky sniper build which this game kinda shoves in your face. Interested in tapping into this other gaming experience, I'm thinking about possible applications for power armour. How do you use it? Are in you a suit the whole time? Do you have to go farm fusion cores? Do you use the suit only for special missions, and if so which ones? What weapons do you use?

Any input welcome.

Once ya know where to find those early cores its easy to do a Power armour run, I had several characters where I use it everywhere, only getting out to use workshops or talk to npcs.

To use it, you simply....use it. That fight in Concord gives you a good idea what to expect. Just be wary as walking and sprinting is slower and sprinting uses up more AP. Power armor doesn't allow you to swim. If you need to abandon it for whatever reason, make sure the fusion core is out. Otherwise it might disappear. The only difference between the sets are armor health, resistances, and paint jobs. You can wear and use it all the time if you wish. My character only stepped out of it during specific quests and hackable terminals that where blocked by a chair. One quest *Spoiler*

Nope, you don't have to farm fusion cores. They are EVERYWHERE, including vendors. If you get certain perks ( Scrounger and/or Nuclear Physicist ), you'll find plenty and they will last much longer. Nuclear Physicist also affects fusion cores used by the gatling laser BTW. Weapons are up to you. For me, I went with the Gatling Laser and Minigun. My GL (Nicknamed Ashbringer) has the "Rapid" effect ( 25% firing speed and 15% faster reload), and Minigun (Nicknamed Hellfire) has explosive effect.

Aggressively.

I use it as a scarecrow

I equip mine with Titanium Plating rather than paint because it lasts longer that way. But if I want to say go to a very radioactive environment I don't only bring my hasmat suit I replace the Titanium Plating with Lead Plating that way I am protected from radiation and other types of damage.

Power armour use.

Initially in the game it was a bare minimum.

Later i started using it sparingly in radiated areas but would equip a companion in a frame.

At first i would maintain the companions suit but gave up after a while cos it was a never ending job and consumed scarce resources as they trash them in five minutes.

At a certain level I started to use it most of the time because I was coming across lots of enemies with skulls in their health bar and i just got used to wearing it.

Instead of health damage enemies would give me more armour damage.

i got into the habit of repairing, modding, painting suits .

I then went through a period of suit collecting and displaying them for the aesthetics.

After a while i tired of that and now the only time i enter one is to move it somewhere.

If I take one from a foe i order the companion to steal it and later on dump it at the bottom of a lake with all the other stolen ones.

I prefer the magic suits and hats that provide basic protection ( ballistic weave)

On the plus side you can easily cross water.

On the down side you have to descend carefully from height as you don't have the protection that power Armour provides..

I haven't really used it that much because I was worried about not having enough fusion cores. But once I found out the merchant in the Prydwen replenishes on his stock of fusion cores, every few days, I was more willing to just jump in my PA when I felt like it.

I don't see how this game shoves a sneaky sniper build in your face, I did very well with my High Intelligence High Charisma Power Armor Build and I'm doing well with my Sneak Melee Assassin build.