I'm trying to choose my "bread and butter" weapon for my explosive / melee / barter character. What weapon do you think is better all around ?

Thump- thump has better range , less dam , less weight, quick reload, single shot. According to the vault it also has a larger AOE, though I can't tell in game. Has style points with the unique skin. :disguise:

Grenade Launcher has less range, more dam, more weight, slower reload, 4 nades per reload.

item hp I'm not so worried about. And before anyone says "get mercy/ nade machine gun" I'm waiting till later in the game till I get the weapon handling perk.

Any advice? I'm only lvl 6 and never played an explosive based character. I'm curious how these weapons perform in later game. Thanks in advance.

Well personally, I would recommend the Grenade Launcher over Thump Thump. As said, you have four grenades to fire instead of one, which makes it much more effective in group situations.

Range only matter in VATS, and explosive isn't exactly VATS friendly.

Also 40mm isn't numerous enough as "bread and better", Grenade Machine Gun is better alternative.

Heave ho! greatly reduces gravity on the grenade rifle with long barrel mod. Heave Ho! does not seem to have any effect on thump-thump or the grenade launcher. I go with my Mercenary's grenade rifle with long barrel mod until i can get a grenade rifle and another long barrel because Mercenary's grenade rifles DAM is lower. Rapid reload and high agility will make you reload faster than you can pump the grenade launcher.

Not entirely true, you can stick a barrel extender on a regular Grenade Rifle which will noticeably improve your range outside of VATS. But you can not stick a barrel extender on Thump Thump.

Personaly, I use both with an explosives character. Load the Grenade Rifle/Thump Thump with Incendary Grenades and the Grenade Launcher with regular grenades. Ammo is a problem in the stock game. I use a mod that ups the ammo.

Unless you try to bombard targets well outside of your sight range, otherwise I don't find a huge difference.

I do not notice any increase using the Heave Ho. Even with regular grenades.


Not at all. Even just straight shooting I notice a big difference in range. Range is critical because you can not use them up close.

I've been finding 40s everywhere on my current character. Was there a patch I missed? I remember a recent 360 system update -- did I overlook a patch?

I think at the last update they drastically increased drop rates for rare ammo types and added them to vendors. I know this is true for the gov't ammo and I've seen a lot more grenade ammo as well.

But 40mm does less damage than .45-70, it also come in smaller patch (20~40 as oppose of 30~60).

Thanks for the suggestions.

I actually use the launcher and thump in VATS alot. The lack of accuracy is usually compensated with the AOE, so many misses give you some dam and usually some cripple effect.