Dear friends,

Those vertibirds. Magnificent war machines, weapons, soldiers, miniguns... really fascinating vehicles.

But I think that they are too fragile. I mean, they are lvl 20! Playing on Survivor mode, the BoS vertibirds are taken down too easily by a small group of common raiders. Finishing the game with the Brotherhood of Steel creates some random encounters, related to them obviously, that consist basically in one or two (almost always just one) BoS vertibirds that come to support a ground patrol to attack a certain location. Usually full of raiders, Super Mutants or gunners.

The vertibird drops a couple of BoS Knights (in power armor) to aid those already in ground and keep flying around the location, with a BoS Initiate operating the minigun. When I see this event, I usually rush and use lots of V.A.T.S., criticals and heavy weapons to take down the enemies as fast as I can... because I know that soon the vertibird will go down!

With the knights dropped, the vertibird continues even when it is clearly damaged. Damn, go way!! The airship is damaged, take it away to fix it, the ground soldiers will do the job. But no. With a couple more seconds, the lvl. 20 airship is taken down by usually lvl. 50+, 70+ enemies. There are also lvl. 190+ enemies (those that has the player level), but independently, the vertibirds are always in a fixed low-level.

The most fun part of it is that usually the vertibird falls and explode on me. Cute. The ground patrol is still alive, usually with undamaged power armor, not a single scratch, the enemies all dead... even those soldiers who already were in ground, before the airship comes, without power armor are still alive. But the vertibird is thorn apart in the ground, burning, and the crew, dead.

There were few occasions that I could kill the enemies fast enough to the airship continues on the air.

So, the vertibirds should be a little more resistant? The pilot shouldn't retreat when the airship is clearly damaged? They are more for dropships. Drop and go away!

What you guys think?

Agreed.

The best way to fix it would be to introduce new levels of vertibird, like level 40, 60, 80, and 100 variants so they aren't as weak sauce.

Hey, they are an excellent method of keeping track of time. Like a quick route from DC to Bunker Hill takes about 30-50 VBCs (Vertibird Crashes), depending on enemy population

How do the BoS even get crews to fly them? I mean, its not like they haven't noticed that nearly 100% of sorties end in death....

I definitely expect a mod one the GECK comes out to make VB's tougher. I consider them the dragons of FO.

And how were they able to procure that many vertibirds in the first place, and transport them to the commonwealth. The Prydwen is not that big.

i would change the script of the vertibirds , they would fly in land with troops , provide fire support by a guy operating the minigun . when low on health they would retreat

i guess it's cool for anti-BoS to blow them up though

personally i hate to see them blow up left and right , even if i don't side with the BoS and i'm forced to crash the prydwen

I have to admit that the first time I rode a vertibird and something on the ground started plinking at it with bullets I was like, "Oh nos! Can I jump out of this thing? Where's the parachute?"

This is out of topic...


but I have a vertibird landed in Swan Lake and staying there forever for absolutely no reason..



What`s up with this guy? Just slacking off to avoid certain sortie of death? Lol

Some of the AI is more "I" than others. Either that, or maybe he ran out of gas.....

haha. He definitely didn`t run out of gas since his engine is still running and you can hear that vertibird purr from a mile away.


But he might be definitely more "I" .. the way he Eyes me when I look at him through that cockpit window.

I once had a vertibird explode and kill a named NPC who was in the middle of talking to me...and everyone around who survived acted as if nothing happened. Even if I don't side against the BoS, I will at least try to search the wreckage for any good loot. Still hoping to find a black or green BoS uniform, because I see some vertibird riders wear them...

Just like real helicopters....

If you're on PC, the Durable Vertibirds mod is worthwhile. It makes them more damage resistant and has several levels of durability that you can choose from. The lowest level makes them just a bit tougher, while the highest durability option makes them nearly invincible.

There already is a mod that makes them stronger. It was one of the first mods I downloaded.

In respect to the OP's comment about the Knights being alive after the fight. Every time I see a Vertibird drop boots they are all dead within a few seconds. Since I downloaded the Stronger Vertibird mod they still go down but take way more damage before crashing.

I don't think they will run out of gas since they use nuclear-fusion cores as "fuel" hehehe

When the Prydwen came to Commonwealth, there were only 5 or 6 vertibirds with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmGMKo_2ntc

But I've already saw more than 15 exploding. Indeed, if I was Lancer-Captain Kells and notice that basically all the vertibirds never come back, there's some problem and needs a solution.

When the mods come out for consoles, the Durable Vertibirds mod, as QuantumCurt said, will be one of my priorities.

I'm convinced that the Brotherhood actually enslaves synths to just constantly build new Vertibirds. They've got a secret Vertibird production facility somewhere. It's the only possibility. I've seen dozens of them go down in flames.

Oh... by the way, talking about vertibirds. In the very beginning of my gameplay, I saw an Gunner vertibird. They attacked me, of course, and I remember that I had a lot of trouble to take it down due to my low level (maybe around lvl. 10 in the occasion). But, after that, I've never saw a Gunner vertibird again... and I think that's a bit strange. Just one?

You guys ever saw a vertibird that didn't belong to the Brotherhood of Steel?

Aside from the fact they should scale with the player to always be 20 levels ahead they should have at least twice the health they do now if not more. It's entirely possible to take one down with a pipe pistol.

Yes, they are way too fragile. There's no reason these things should be exploding in the air. Military aircraft have things like self sealing bladder fuel tanks, and titanium armor plating.

I use the Durable Vertibirds mod, at I think the 'Deadly' setting, and recommend it highly. This is particularly true if you are playing against the BOS and want to actually feel a little concern when a Vertibird flies by. My Institute guy was chased halfway across Boston by 3 Vertibirds and only using stealth and narrow alleys saved me. I thought they would never give up.

They are made out of painted paper-mache, aren't they? That's the only reason I can see for your average raider to be able to shoot them out of the sky with an unmodified pipe-rifle.

The Vertibird grenade is pretty damn useless too. It should drop a couple BOS soldiers at least.

I miss the Enclave, and their Vertibirds of Doom. But yeah, Vertibirds are pathetically weak this time, thankfuly some mods adress this issue.

It's the only possibility indeed. They enslave Synths and, those who fight back and need do be destroyed, are used as spare parts for the new airships.