For my first couple of FO4 characters I naturally gravitated toward rifles and the Rifleman perk to supply the bulk of my damage. Non-automatic rifles use a wide array of ammo so you never run out, you have close range and long range (sniper rilfes down to shotguns), the playstyle dovetails perfectly with V.A.T.S./sneak utility.

With later characters I wanted to try other weapons but they seem vastly inferior. Pistols don't have the same damage and range. Heavy weapons are hard to come by, hard to get ammo for, and take up huge amounts of inventory space. Automatics burn through ammo much faster. The damage from close combat options are just inferior, not to mention that you have to GET into melee range in the first place, and fighting any more than 1 enemy in melee is suicide. Every time I try another weapon type I end up using rifles to finish the fight when I struggle.

Are rifles overpowered? Do other weapons really svck so bad? Am I playing them the wrong way?

Any input welcome.

Your weapon choice isn't solely dependent on rifleman, gunslinger,or heavy gunner. For each of those perks in order to maximize efficiency you need to build around them with complimentary perks, for instance, gunslinger pairs well with stealth in order to close the distance without getting murdered. I don't think there's a "wrong way" to play, but there are certain perks that when used together do make things easier.

The benefits of pistols is high number of shots = fast refill of critical meter.

Combine that with critical perks and you have a ready weapon for ghoul and raider crowd control without depleting other ammo.

In principle you are not wrong in what you say, but I use my Gauss Rifle for tougher and more isolated middle-distance enemies.

You want something overpowered?

Spray n' Pray - Unique Weapon Guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hw4_8J-RGo

I was all about the rifles in the previous games, but I found rifles to be fairly inferior pretty quickly, especially when the 50 cal wasn't any better than anything else. After modding laser guns and then getting the gauss with a lot of perks, rifles are nothing but scrap now to me.

my build was originally going to be melee. ya, that didn't last long. went with rifles after about 1 hour. =P

So what's needed to make melee viable? I mean I'm tickling enemies with a sledgehammer, and an unmodified double barrel two-shots them... and that's with one point in Swing for the Fences (or whatever) already!

All well and good, but should you go all-out to build around one unique weapon?

With laser guns, do you mean laser rifles? Automatic lasers?

Heavy/super sledgehammer + Gronak's Costume + Pyshco = Unstoppable im close combat.


Ive been playing around with this forumla after i got bored of shooting and its actually quite fun. I have solat healing so i never really have to worry about that. Also if you invlude power armor into the equation above then youre delivering one hit kills on just about everything

Because Gatling lasers and Mini-guns are amazing.

Why use anything other than a Gatling laser?

If you upgrade melee perk + blitz perk + power armor + super sledge + perks geared toward VATS and Critical Refills = room full of baddies dead before they can even react.

Also, i have a "bleeding" minigun that does 8 damage per hit but also bleeds for 25 per hit. Everything dies after one VATS hit anywhere on body.

Rethink your perks builds. May not be as easy to "perk up" around melee or more interesting weapons (other than rifles) but there are definitely powerful builds out there.

Having said that, The non auto rifle build is really easy to power up. And, as you said, the varying ranges available are very effective.

In answer to the topic title;

1) Role-play. I often choose a particular weapon set based on a role I wish to play.

2) Fun? I'll often restrict what I can use just to put myself outside my comfort zone. The last run I did only used pistols and grenades; created some fun game experiences.

I was making a statement not a suggestion.I understand rifles are more noticeable in terms of power for their piercing capabilities,overall the game becomes broken the moment you had a legendary effect on the weapon.You can be a jack of all trades,but are more penalize in the beginning.

My current level 46 character has self imposed restrictions on SPECIAL stats in that I have not let them increase since level 2 or so. Strength is 1 so there's no heavy gunner perks for me in this play-through. The only automatic I use once in awhile is a 10mm pistol. I have Rifleman perks and all the gun nut and science perks. Mostly I use a fully mod-ed combat shotgun that can take out a deathclaw in 6 shots or so ;p The other rifles I use are a combat rifle re-chambered for .308 and a hunting rifle re-chambered for .50. Righteous Authority is the only energy weapon I use.

I generally use a sniper rifle (double tapper) when just wandering around outside but in an interior space, the scope is a severe liability (hip firing accuracy is poor) so I swap to a silenced 10mm which lets me churn out a ton of VATS shots in close quarters. I tried melee, and with the proper perks it can be efficient, but I did not care for the "teleporting" from one cutscene to the next with VATS and yet without VATS it always felt weird trying to swing at foes. I've been playing other games like Mad Max, Shadows of Mordor and Far Cry4 and they all have more fluid melee controls / feeling than Fallout 4.

Sorry for double post

Gunsligner with stealth is pretty deadly. Paired up with some tanky perks and agility perks so that youre harder to shoot and can actually take a shot is pretty awesome. Who needs range when you can just get up close and personal with no problem?


Plus pistols shoot pretty fast and when youre used to them the are pretty accurate.

Because there are many different ways to build a character and because not everyone likes using rifles. Personally, rifles are my preferred weapon type. I rarely use anything else, but doing melee builds and pistol builds are a lot of fun too because they change the game. If I'm doing a rifle build I can snipe half of the enemies from long range and another quarter from midrange, leaving just a few to take out from close range. If I'm doing a pistol build or a melee build, I'm not going to have nearly the range that I'd have with a rifle build. I've gotta take all of them out from a much closer range.

I think there's a very valid argument for rifles being the best weapon type as far as outright effectiveness is concerned (this is why basically every military force in the world uses some kind of rifle as their primary weapon rather than pistols or baseball bats and sledgehammers), but not everyone wants to play the game in a way that's going to make them as powerful as possible. Games are often more fun when you limit yourself. There are some incredibly overpowered rifles in this game (gauss rifle, Overseer's Guardian, explosive/wounding shotguns, and so on). Not allowing yourself to use these weapons introduces an entirely different kind of challenge to the game. I'm generally not a fan of melee weapons, but successfully completing an entire game using only melee weapons is way more of an accomplishment than completing it using only rifles.

Rifle + Sneak can handle all situation in FO4.

You won`t need anything else except for fun.

I use the overseer's guardian and deliverer. The first for range, the second inside and close quarters. With a VATS build you can unload the whole clip in VATS on a room full of baddies in pretty short order. I focus my shots on limbs to disable opponents and then mop up any that did not die in the initial barrage. Head shots from distance, even without MacCready's perk is pretty lethal with Ninja perk and Better Criticals.

I chose Pistols over rifles because they can shoot faster and are generally lighter so you can carry more for different situations/enemies. Shooting faster is key for VATS because then you can get more shots off. So a rifle might be 40% stronger, but if you can shoot two pistol shots to 1 rifle shot, you come out ahead...

That said, the experience won't be much different switching from rifles to pistols so I would go with one of the other suggestions on this post.

I like the Grognak Melee idea although not being able to use chest armor seems like a real drawback, and then using power armor takes away the grognak melee boost (it has that, right?) I think I'll just dress Cait up in the Grognak costume instead

Actually I'd like to become better at Melee. First person melee is so tough though, but this game seems to have the bare bones moves (block, rush) to make it interesting.

Oh yeah and the minigun and gatling laser are SOOO satisfying to use! +1 on those

Because you can't spin the cylinder like a boss with a rifle

Depends how you play, tactically and strategically really is best. A 10mm Pistol is the backbone of suvival as it always has been, it's stated in the blurb, and it's true. More fun as well, I got bored with sniping.

One of my favorite character uses unarmed, explosives, and power armor. Charging in with the pain train perk then finishing weaker enemies with a single follow up punch is awesome. The tesla bracers deal the most damage of all the options for arm upgrades, even compared to the hydraulic bracers with all the unarmed perks and high strength. The tesla damage portion from the bracers does not benefit from perk or strength boosts, but it does enough damage without boosts and seems to totally ignore armor rating.


Grenades are great to soften grouped enemies before you charge in among the chaos post-explosion.


Eventually I will use the jetpack and explosive vents leg mods to make an explosive landing on the battlefield before I pummel my enemies to death.

Many players' responses seem to suggest that rifles are indeed superior, but they decided to impose something different and weaker on themselves out of boredom?