Love the game, love the forums.

My question: currently wrecking face with the spray and pray, going full commando and loving it. I'm to the point where I want to drop my .38 sidearm for some more firepower and I was wondering do plasma rifles (or any rifles for that matter) compare to the damage of my SMG?

The explosive rounds disintegrate enemies but is this my end game? Or are their laser/plasma weapons that are just as good, but havnt been discovered

Plasma is great, it deals both Ballistic and Energy damage, which is nice. Plasma rifle with neat legendary effect (like irradiated or wounding) can still be effective in late and very late game


And yes, rifles are as effective as auto weapons.

I don't really like the 'feel' of plasma in this game... the 'projectiles' take way too much time to reach their enemies

but the damage output is very high... an auto plasma rifle has something like x4 the damage of the spray and pray and while missing the exploding damage, it still manages to get rid of everything within seconds

the real problem is the rare ammo at the beginning, but that won't be the issue in the end-game

you can also get a random legendary explosive drop from an enemy on one of the other rifles

having the explosive rounds and also the usual damage advantage over the Spray'n'Pray may make them even better than anything else

Plasma flamer is beast

I have a plasma sniper rifle (not legendary), that I use mainly as an assault rifle. I get the power and negate the slow flight time. The weapon produces damage of 125/125.

I can turn most Greenies to goo in 2 shots; Warlords might take 4 (i.e. 1 second).

my go to plasma rifle is the two-shot legendary variant. currently at 241/241 damage.


I still main a .44 (2 shot) which is at 380ish damage and is the highest ballistic weapon I have. The cocking animation is annoying but in VATs it's a monster.

I'm hoping that bethesda adds some kind of Plasma melee weapon like a Plasma blade in the future or a dlc that gooifys enemies on kill, basically the Fallout version of a lightsaber

Thanks for the info guys, I couldn't imagine the destruction of a two shot plasma rifle, I must find this elusive beast!

Also after some quick YouTubeing, that plasma flammer is freaking insane! I had no idea that was even a thing.

Bet it chews through ammo like crazy

Ballistic prefix was out of the window the moment explosive effect was on the weapon.Sadly you reach the end of the line on your game with a gamebreaker weapon.

I found it worked great with a reflex sight but with a scope it was completely off the mark. Because of that I ended up taking the muzzle completely off and just using it with a reflex scope.. With my characters high Ap that gets 7 shots in VATs and does 110/110 damage per shot. (for me, the improved sniper barrel gives my character 150/150 damage.) It's the perfect running around, hip fire, "oops I ran into a nest of radscorpians" type weapon for my sniper character.

Ballistic weapons work the best for me in Fallout 3, NV, and now Fallout 4. In Fo3 it was the Lincoln repeater, sniper rifles, and the dart gun. NV it was the lever actions, snipers, with a silenced hand gun for interiors. In Fo3 i also found grenades very usefull while in NV i used the grenade launcher in place of throwing grenades.



In Fallout 4 i use the combat rifle, assualt rifles, snipers, and the railway rifle. The spray and pray is my go to survival weapon but can be a problem at close range. The light recoil 5.56 auto assualt rifle with 80 shot magzine is great against charging ghouls. With all the perks and or special effects 2 assualt rifles might be all that is needed along with the spray and pray One full auto with suppressor and one semiauto with a medium scope and suppressor as a sniper. The only problem with using assault rifles is the lower amount of ammo vendors carry and are ammo is very rare to find in containers. With the spray and pray i never need grenades.



The plasma/lazer weapons may have high damage stats and provide impressive ash piles, but against charging looney ghouls i will take an assualt rifle every day. The assault rifle works well as a sniper as low recoil and high fire rate provide possible qwick on target second shots. The Intigating version is great for sniping. The potent railway rifle offers a unique satsifaction when used against raiders inside buildings. I don't use the shotguns or handguns.