First, DO NOT NERF ANY OF THIS!!! K.

Now, as far as it being the highest dps build in the game, its kinda true and kinda debatable, I do not have the exact math on it.

The idea is to use the recharger pistol to spam shots in VATS to trigger the Mysterious Stranger and Miss Fortune.

The Mysterious Stranger is not your Fallout3 Mysterious Stranger. He will show up 10% (20% after use perk) of the time in vats like miss fortune, and kill his target.

The Mysterious Stranger will show up 20% of the time in VATS and spam 18,000 damage on the 1 target.

Miss Fortune will show up 20%of the time in VATS and cripple / kill / knock down the target. She will do this to large groups as well when she shows up.

So you end up with like a 36% or so chance that one of them will show up per VATS shot. Kinda like doing a better paralyzing palm at range.



So the idea is to spam the recharger pistol 1 shot in VATS over and over, and the highest dps comes from the mysterious stranger doing like over 100,000 damage... lol. (ya ya, I know)

Very little is needed for this build.

You will want: 10 agility, math wrath, fast shot, nerves of steel, mysterious stranger, miss fortune, and the recharger pistol. That is all you really need.

Not sure how AP is rounded, but, you should be able to fire 1 shot in VATS about every 1.4 seconds, after you run out of AP. The recharger pistol recharges once per second. So you can pretty much spam it forever and walk backwards on large groups of targets and be fine.

The build needs very little, so you can just give whatever build you are playing the stuff it needs to play this build as well.

I am running a Chemist unarmed build with Rad Child, so I can use rebound for more action point regeneration... and turbo.


Hitting the target does not really matter, you just wanna fire 1 shot at it, so energy weapons skill is not really needed.

Mysterious Stranger takes you exp and does not give credit for the kill, so it is not good to use early on if you wanna kill for a lot of your exp.

The Mysterious Stranger does not give you credit for the kill, so if you want someone dead, anyone, just fire shots at 1% at them until he shows up. No one will care and you can loot them.

Now, the non wall of text version.

Mysterious stranger has the highest damage in the game. 20% chance to show up in Vats.

Spamming Vats with a 9-10 action point per shot weapon(recharger pistol) will proc Mysterious Stranger more often to make up for its low damage.



Without using rebound, you should be able to spam 1 Vats shot every 1.4 seconds AFTER you have run totally out of AP.


No need for ammo.


Since Mysterious stranger will kill you even if you have like 100,000 hps, this build should work well in harder modes.




EDIT: The Mysterious Stranger has no problems killing the Lonesome Drifter. lol.

Or...bear with me on this.

Just use guns and blow mofos away from as far away as line of sight allows.

Interesting but what do you suggest if no one shows up?

Well, the point is, this build does not need that many skills or perks, so you can try to fit it into another playthrough to give yourself another way to play your character. Like if you are making a melee character or something, you can fit this into the build as well. The build is fun by itself though.

If they do not show up, just keep firing. You can get a lot of shots off on someone before they can even turn around, because your 1 shot in Vats, and the time you can enter Vats again, is very short.

There is about a 36% chance one or the other will show up.


20% of the time the Vats shot means death.

20% of the time the Vats shot means cripple, knockdown and loss of weapon. Miss Fortune also attacks groups, if they are anywhere near each other.

Like when you find those 6 or 7 or so legion guys in that town, when Miss Fortune showed up, she downed them all.


So you just walk backwards and spam, the enemy will hardly move in between shots, and eventually one of them will show up.

You can even be a chemist and spam turbo and rebound.


When you are totally out of AP, it only takes 1.4 seconds to get enough AP to fire another Vats shot. So it is easy to spam forever even without using Rebound.

Wait what? If you can high dps just use the 12.7 SMG. You don't need this whole convoluted thing. Is it really possible to get the Mysterious Stranger 36% of the time? I thought it was much rarer than that.

The Mysterious Stranger will show up 20% of the time and kill the target.

Miss fortune will show up about 20% of the time and trash anyone around, but not usually kill, might as well be dead though.

So there is about a 36% chance one or the other will show up with every shot.

EDIT: once they show up 15 times you get a perk that lets them show up 20% of the time instead of 10%

I doubt this build has the highest DPS, unless you're not counting the seconds wasted shooting a worthless weapon in VATS waiting for the stranger to show up.

Much easier to just get the avenger minigun or Gobi.

errr....Pretty sure shooting them in the face with a Trail Carbine would be faster.

Well, the highest DPS is kinda true and kinda a joke at the same time. The seconds are in AP and Vats.

The recharger pistol can be shot once every 9-10 AP, and the game moves very little in the time it takes to fire one shot in Vats and open Vats again.

As long as you do not get a bunch of Vats lag, it actually does not take that long, and the Mysterious Stranger / Miss Fortune show up often enough. I mean its like 36% of the time.


The highest DPS had to do with the Mysterious Stranger doing over 100,000(maybe 144,000+?) damage when he shows up, and the recharger pistol being able to fire around every 2 seconds in game time that an enemy can move, counting both vats time and AP recharge. That is when you are totally out of AP, and are waiting for it to recharge, not using Rebound. Then divide his damage over shots fired, lol. So yeah, it is a joke, but, if the game actually had enemies with over 100,000 hps, it could be true, lol.


Like I said though, this build does not require much, so you can just include it in a build you are already going to play, to give you another way to play your character.

It is funny watching Miss fortune cripple large groups of people over and over.

Interesting. I had no idea that Recharger pistol AP cost in VATS was so low, or that the proc rate of MS/MF were so high. I messed around a short time with both perks and never saw either of them, but I guess I was just very unlucky and/or didn't test long enough.

I have a question....with MF/MS do they have a 20% chance of showing per VATS shot, or per VATS sequence? Do you have to do 1 shot VATS sequences over and over to maximize your chances of MF/MS showing or can you load up 4-5 attack queues as normal?

Yeah, well the recharger pistol is like 13 ap per shot. So with fast shot and math wrath it should be 9-10 ap per shot. Not sure how the game rounds.

Mysterious Stranger and Miss Fortune have a natural 10% chance to show up each, but once they show up 15 times, you get a perk that makes it 20%.

So until you get that perk you do not notice them showing up very often.


Also, the Mysterious Stranger svcked in fallout 3, because he only finished off targets, but he just kills them in fallout new vegas.


He does steal your xp though, but, you can also kill anyone you want with him, because it counts like you did nothing, as long as your shots miss.


There are also a few Vats bugs where they will hang around for like 5-10 seconds, but it does not seem to happen often. Maybe fixed in next patch?

Yes, from what I have seen it is once per VATS sequence. So yes, you do only fire 1 shot in VATS, then start it again right after it ends.

It is kinda funny though, you just fire shots, watching them move VERY slowly at you, heh.

Hmmm. I just did some testing where I fired probably 20-ish VATS single shots with the Recharger Pistol with both MS and MF perks, and saw only 1 MF occurance the entire time. Are you sure on the 20% rate?

Well the base rate is 10%, but once they show up 15 times you get the Friendly Help perk, which makes it 20%.

So yeah, that is likely why.


EDIT: Using Ferocious Loyalty and staying at 50% health or less with 10 Charisma is really fun with this build, like having minions. I like Raul.

This.
Don't let this game get over your head, just have fun with it.

Probably is the highest DPS build, but not anywhere near the highest effective DPS.

Sorry, hit the wrong button.

Nice idea, but I don't use the mysterious stranger anymore. I have had him get stuck while I am in VATS only to be killed by some slow moving critter who now has time to chew on me....while I watch.

Where do you get 20% chance he shows up?

Well, at one time the wiki said 10% chance on Mysterious Stranger and Miss Fortune, and I believe I saw it in the official guide as well.

Plus, the Mysterious Stranger was 10% in fallout 3 as well.


The wiki also said that Friendly Help doubled it and made it 20%.


Looks like they pulled it down for some reason since then, but, in using it, I can tell you it is more than 10% and less than 50%, lol.


So it is likely right, but now I guess I need someone to check the GECK or something to be sure.

So after taking a break from the game, it looks like this build is even better now, + lucky shades.

Muhuhahaha.


Might have to load up this guys save file for some fun.

/necrotic bump

GAH! Zombie thread! Kill it! Shoot for the head! :hubbahubba:

I'm sure those figures were removed from the Wiki for a good reason. :wink_smile:

I'm sure there is some GECK Geek who can unearth the numbers, but there are just way too many variables at play here.

Much depends on your Luck. Do the scripts check for the appearance of the other NPC? Does the health of your primary target coming out of VATS enter into it? There may be a counter indicating the number of times you have entered VATS which triggers an appearance after a certain number—modified by a random generator. I don't know if they would bother tracking every instance where you used VATS, in order to calculate an over-all appearance rate. (although they could.)

Well, I have played with the build a lot... with 8 luck, the % of them showing up seems 20-30% ish range. It is very rare that I shoot 8 times and have neither of them show up. Sometimes they show up 2 or 3 times in a row.

This build supported with high charisma minions is a lot of fun.

The health of the target does not seem to matter, as I have not noticed a difference in the way they show up vs full health and damaged targets.

The cool thing about miss fortune is, like I said, she attacks every target in the area when she shows up. So if there are 8 she will attack all 8.