Gerrard
Arcane
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- Nov 5, 2007
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Bullshit, I used only 7 characters throughout the whole game.
You don't need 200% in weapon skill to be effective.
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Fallout: Tactics - Any tips from the pros?
- Thread starter the_shadow
- Start date
You don't need 200% in weapon skill to be effective.
Browning M2 will still be effective, you'll get some nice rare ammunition for it later too
You can still use sniper rifle as a bleeding gun
Shotgun with EMP shells does nicely
Of course, you'll get your hands on gauss weapons eventually
Things like that is why you better have 10 Charisma on your main guy.
First encounters with robots seem to be supposed be hard and make you rush quest for pulse rifle and feel underpowered. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense how terminators managed to press even muties into running from them.
laclongquan
Arcane
8 Cha, with a pile of Mentats you can buy, borrow, and steal. 8 because divine favour.
+ Mentats before you get to the mission completion that award you with rank. Rank depend on: Cha, sub-objectives completed, and main objectives. Brown Noser perk works, but who would waste a perk on that?
You dont actually need 5 guys for each phase. What you actually need is the two main combatants who shoot the most. They invest, level after level, in one among three shooting skills only. No science, no sneak, no nothing. Meaning you have about 3-4 regular troops (if you insist on them) and 6 extras.
+ Mentats before you get to the mission completion that award you with rank. Rank depend on: Cha, sub-objectives completed, and main objectives. Brown Noser perk works, but who would waste a perk on that?
You dont actually need 5 guys for each phase. What you actually need is the two main combatants who shoot the most. They invest, level after level, in one among three shooting skills only. No science, no sneak, no nothing. Meaning you have about 3-4 regular troops (if you insist on them) and 6 extras.
Lonely Vazdru
Pimp my Title
Pancor Jackhammer + EMP shells = Massive Robot Rape. EMP grenades are also very effective.
Or you can make Rebecca energy weapons specialist in mid-game. With perks Tag! + Gain Luck + Better Criticals + Bonus Rate of Fire she fires two aimed shots per round.
Lonely Vazdru
Pimp my Title
Well, between those you can buy in the bunker, those you can buy from outside merchant and those you get during missions there are enough. Sure you can't afford to waste them on shit, but there are still enough to provide 2/3 shooters during the whole robots missions. A shell area of affect is quite large and you often damage/destroy several robots with a single shot. So for me, shotguns are a very viable option for the endgame, maybe more so than energy weapons. In most of my games shotgun weilders probably killed half the robots.
Last edited:
laclongquan
Arcane
If I remember correctly, I used my squad of Big Gun specialists to shoot SAW at Behemoth in late game grinding. It's a method to exchange my plentiful 5.56 mm ammo for DU ammo of Browning M2.
Drive by shooting: an armored vehicle drove near, shoot all our AP, then run out of range to recover AP, rinse then repeat. The cost can be borned with our resources, in order to gain the loot of DU ammo.
Real time, of course. I only use TB in the beginning missions and the first few runs. Later I almost always turn on RT.
Drive by shooting: an armored vehicle drove near, shoot all our AP, then run out of range to recover AP, rinse then repeat. The cost can be borned with our resources, in order to gain the loot of DU ammo.
Real time, of course. I only use TB in the beginning missions and the first few runs. Later I almost always turn on RT.
Yup, these suck big time, high caliber sniper rifle added by Redux mod is much better. Unlike those purists who consider other changes in Redux to be over the top, I think the game is really improved with it.
the_shadow
Arcane
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- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 1,181
Ok, so I attempted the first robot level with energy weapons, and it wasn't too bad. A couple of things:
- I finally caved and used chems. With power armor and psycho, a character's resistance to normal damage is a ludicrous 105%, meaning that they shrug off virtually all of a humanoid bots damage (unless they score a critical hit
)
- A few people have been mentioning EMP shells with a shotgun to waste bots. EMP shells aren't available in Act 4, but I have found that slug shells (with their 80% penetration) are better at hosing bots than energy weapons!
- For some reason, the electric prodder is useless vs. bots. Although it should do electric damage, I suspect it does normal damage instead, since the overload feature only does about 12 damage.
- I haven't used my Browning M2 yet. I'm getting the impression I'll need it later down the track.
- The only real threat were Tank bots (which you can easily avoid in Act 4) and security bots with laser rifles. No joke, it took me about a dozen reloads to take out two of these security bots without dying, because they have what must be a 100% accuracy.
- One of my energy weapons specialists bit the dust. She died fighting a security bot, and I accidentally saved instead of reloading. Oops.
--------------------
Anyway, I'm on to Act 5. At this point, my plan is:
- To get an acid gun. I've got a few canisters of acid, so I need to hunt down that special encounter where you can acquire an acid gun.
- Recruit a grenadier. A few good grenades have been made available. Since I fucked up and lost an energy weapons specialist, I might as well recruit someone who has *some* combat capabilities.
- Clean out the supermutant base. I'm really low on cash atm. The robot levels of Act 4 didn't turn up much in the way of loot. Hopefully I'll be able to afford some acid/EMP grenades and armor piercing rockets.
One question. People keep telling me how great the Browning M2 gun is against bots. I can see why it would be good with depleted uranium shells, but would regular 0.50cal be any good, given the bots high resistance to damage?
- I finally caved and used chems. With power armor and psycho, a character's resistance to normal damage is a ludicrous 105%, meaning that they shrug off virtually all of a humanoid bots damage (unless they score a critical hit
)- A few people have been mentioning EMP shells with a shotgun to waste bots. EMP shells aren't available in Act 4, but I have found that slug shells (with their 80% penetration) are better at hosing bots than energy weapons!
- For some reason, the electric prodder is useless vs. bots. Although it should do electric damage, I suspect it does normal damage instead, since the overload feature only does about 12 damage.
- I haven't used my Browning M2 yet. I'm getting the impression I'll need it later down the track.
- The only real threat were Tank bots (which you can easily avoid in Act 4) and security bots with laser rifles. No joke, it took me about a dozen reloads to take out two of these security bots without dying, because they have what must be a 100% accuracy.
- One of my energy weapons specialists bit the dust. She died fighting a security bot, and I accidentally saved instead of reloading. Oops.
--------------------
Anyway, I'm on to Act 5. At this point, my plan is:
- To get an acid gun. I've got a few canisters of acid, so I need to hunt down that special encounter where you can acquire an acid gun.
- Recruit a grenadier. A few good grenades have been made available. Since I fucked up and lost an energy weapons specialist, I might as well recruit someone who has *some* combat capabilities.
- Clean out the supermutant base. I'm really low on cash atm. The robot levels of Act 4 didn't turn up much in the way of loot. Hopefully I'll be able to afford some acid/EMP grenades and armor piercing rockets.
One question. People keep telling me how great the Browning M2 gun is against bots. I can see why it would be good with depleted uranium shells, but would regular 0.50cal be any good, given the bots high resistance to damage?
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 28,794
IIRC, standard .50 cal is virtually useless against bots.
One suggestion in lieu of the grenadier, find the special encounter with Fallout Boy and recruit him instead, he has a unique perk that sometimes allows him to attack without spending APs.
Gozma
Arcane
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2012
- Messages
- 2,951
Regular 50 cal is still decent with an optimized build that has bonus ranged damage and so on because it has extreme enough base damage and burst size that it can hit pretty hard through resistance/DR and the crits still do instakill type damage. You can definitely just start blowing through your stockpile in the robot stage of the game instead of saving it up though.
Zdzisiu
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2009
- Messages
- 3,531
Bollocks! Just pump yourself full of psycho and punch that bitch to death, ask Pope Amole II for details!
Pope Amole II
Nerd Commando Game Studios
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2012
- Messages
- 2,052
Yeah, you can watch from 0:28 to two minutes mark to see that it really isn't hard to beat down a behemoth (or anything for that matters) to death with nothing but your fists and legs. I've actually tough guyed through the game in the RP mode that way - not on insane difficulty but it worked rather fine on hard.
the_shadow
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 1,181
I decided to take a quick intermission before starting the final Chapter of Fallout: Tactics, by testing out a few weapons against bots.
- As mentioned by Gozma, the Browning M2 does *decent* damage against bots with regular 0.50cal ammo (in the range of 40-50 per target). Naturally when it is loaded with DU shells it does an obscene amounts of damage. The SAW machine gun doesn't have high enough base damage to even make a dent.
- I tested the rocket launcher. Both regular and explosive rockets *suck*. Surprisingly, electrical rockets do jack shit (approximately 20 damage points) to robots, despite costing a couple of grand a pop. Sabot missiles are OK, but cost an arm and a leg. Overall, the rocket launcher isn't that good, especially considering how long it takes to set up a clear shot.
- The Flamethrower still sucks. The damage isn't great anymore, and it's hard to get off a clean shot without my character 'flinching' from getting hit.
- Pulse grenades do awesome damage, but are few and far between. Every other type of grenade is useless at this point.
- As far as energy weapons go, the Sunbeam rifle seems to do more damage than plasma weapons. This is strange since the plasma rifle should do more damage, but I'm assuming the added range and different damage resistances come into play, making the Sunbeam rifle a more versatile weapon.
After all that experimentation, I decided to tackle my first Act 5 mission (with the 6 power nodes). One of my energy specialists got the EMP gun prototype, and 4 characters have laser rifles. One of these four also has big guns expertise, and is toting around the Browning and DU shells. My sixth character is a small guns expert + doctor, and is carrying a jackhammer with EMP and slug shells. The PC with the EMP gun was juiced up on Psycho and acts as a meat shield to draw fire.
As a result, there has been a *massive* drop in difficulty. Given how much I have struggled up to this point, I blew through the level in about 30 minutes. I also managed to get my hands on a Sunbeam gatling laser, which is a welcome addition. It does decent damage up close, but I still prefer the Browning.
- As mentioned by Gozma, the Browning M2 does *decent* damage against bots with regular 0.50cal ammo (in the range of 40-50 per target). Naturally when it is loaded with DU shells it does an obscene amounts of damage. The SAW machine gun doesn't have high enough base damage to even make a dent.
- I tested the rocket launcher. Both regular and explosive rockets *suck*. Surprisingly, electrical rockets do jack shit (approximately 20 damage points) to robots, despite costing a couple of grand a pop. Sabot missiles are OK, but cost an arm and a leg. Overall, the rocket launcher isn't that good, especially considering how long it takes to set up a clear shot.
- The Flamethrower still sucks. The damage isn't great anymore, and it's hard to get off a clean shot without my character 'flinching' from getting hit.
- Pulse grenades do awesome damage, but are few and far between. Every other type of grenade is useless at this point.
- As far as energy weapons go, the Sunbeam rifle seems to do more damage than plasma weapons. This is strange since the plasma rifle should do more damage, but I'm assuming the added range and different damage resistances come into play, making the Sunbeam rifle a more versatile weapon.
After all that experimentation, I decided to tackle my first Act 5 mission (with the 6 power nodes). One of my energy specialists got the EMP gun prototype, and 4 characters have laser rifles. One of these four also has big guns expertise, and is toting around the Browning and DU shells. My sixth character is a small guns expert + doctor, and is carrying a jackhammer with EMP and slug shells. The PC with the EMP gun was juiced up on Psycho and acts as a meat shield to draw fire.
As a result, there has been a *massive* drop in difficulty. Given how much I have struggled up to this point, I blew through the level in about 30 minutes. I also managed to get my hands on a Sunbeam gatling laser, which is a welcome addition. It does decent damage up close, but I still prefer the Browning.
Dr Skeleton
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
- Messages
- 867
Yeah, once you get your hands on decent weapons and armor final missions become very dull. It will be just the same robots and damage sponge walkers until the end. Once you get a gauss minigun with fast shot + bonus rate of fire and/or that mutant perk that lowers AP cost for burst weapons it will be even easier.
the_shadow
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 1,181
Wooooo, I finally beat this long ass game! And on Hard difficulty. I have to admit, there were a few points where I was close to giving in (encountering the supermutants and bots for the first time), but I'm glad I pushed through. Overall I found the game to be quite enjoyable, if a bit unpolished in places. Some quick observations about the gameplay:
- At the end, I found laser rifles to be the best all-rounder weapon. The pulse rifle does slightly more damage, but the added range and accuracy of a laser rifle ends up making it a better weapon.
- The Browning M2 is a fantastic weapon until the very end, even with regular 0.50 cal. You can't use it liberally for most of the game, but on the last map you gain access to 1000+ bullets, which makes it your main weapon.
- The gauss pistol is cack, and the rifle is underwhelming, but the Gauss Minigun does the most damage per hit in the game, even against highly armoured bots. The problem is that gauss ammo is as rare as hens teeth. Still, it's great to break out when you need a bunch of enemies dead quick (eg. 6 security bots)
- A few people have mentioned Behemoths are being the most dreaded enemies. However, I found the humble security bot armed with a laser rifle to be an absolute *nightmare*. You have a low energy resistance for most of the game, and the only way to get it high is to wear Tesla armour, which you only find 1 suit of. Hover bots and bots with rocket launchers are perhaps the second-most dangerous opponent, since explosion resistance is also hard to come by. Obviously supermutants with depleted uranium shells are bad, but you don't have to fight those guys (thankfully).
- All of the non-human recruits in the Brotherhood suck. The robot recruit has 35 hit points for damage. Supermutants can't use laser rifles or wear power armour, and ghouls can't use large weapons.
- Most of the human recruits are sub-optimal, particularly in regards to perk selection.
- I didn't select any traits for my PC. I used mutate on a few of my squad members. Kamikaze makes a *huge* difference to damage, and fast shot is great on big gunners. I actually think 'gifted' might has lost its place as the best trait.
- Chems are essential for playing on higher difficulties. You need at least one character to have 100% physical damage resistance and act as a bullet sponge.
- Getting a weapon skill to 200% sounds extravagant, but there are going to be a lot of time where you just need to snipe away at your enemy from as far away as possible.
- At the end, I found laser rifles to be the best all-rounder weapon. The pulse rifle does slightly more damage, but the added range and accuracy of a laser rifle ends up making it a better weapon.
- The Browning M2 is a fantastic weapon until the very end, even with regular 0.50 cal. You can't use it liberally for most of the game, but on the last map you gain access to 1000+ bullets, which makes it your main weapon.
- The gauss pistol is cack, and the rifle is underwhelming, but the Gauss Minigun does the most damage per hit in the game, even against highly armoured bots. The problem is that gauss ammo is as rare as hens teeth. Still, it's great to break out when you need a bunch of enemies dead quick (eg. 6 security bots)
- A few people have mentioned Behemoths are being the most dreaded enemies. However, I found the humble security bot armed with a laser rifle to be an absolute *nightmare*. You have a low energy resistance for most of the game, and the only way to get it high is to wear Tesla armour, which you only find 1 suit of. Hover bots and bots with rocket launchers are perhaps the second-most dangerous opponent, since explosion resistance is also hard to come by. Obviously supermutants with depleted uranium shells are bad, but you don't have to fight those guys (thankfully).
- All of the non-human recruits in the Brotherhood suck. The robot recruit has 35 hit points for damage. Supermutants can't use laser rifles or wear power armour, and ghouls can't use large weapons.
- Most of the human recruits are sub-optimal, particularly in regards to perk selection.
- I didn't select any traits for my PC. I used mutate on a few of my squad members. Kamikaze makes a *huge* difference to damage, and fast shot is great on big gunners. I actually think 'gifted' might has lost its place as the best trait.
- Chems are essential for playing on higher difficulties. You need at least one character to have 100% physical damage resistance and act as a bullet sponge.
- Getting a weapon skill to 200% sounds extravagant, but there are going to be a lot of time where you just need to snipe away at your enemy from as far away as possible.
Jack Of Owls
Arcane
Make sure at least one in your squad is skilled in explosives/grenades. The game won't be so needlessly difficult.
laclongquan
Arcane
100+% dmg res is not necessary because I dont play it that way and I completed several runs with no problem. I use chems for the fun factor, such as for rank management and recruit management.
200% gun skills are the name of the game because lots of time you dont want fuckers get into range. Ideally, you need it get into range to get killed by your combined fire right before it manage to unload its can of whoopass, meaning it need softened up by your gunner earlier. 2 top gunners for each phase, baby~
Rocket launcher is for role playing factor only, not powergame. "My big gun specialists open up with a salvo of rocket and blew that group to pieces", that kind of thing.
Behemoth is a role playing enemies. A behemoth firing rocket launchers at an armored carrier with 5 shooters firing back sure make nice image.
200% gun skills are the name of the game because lots of time you dont want fuckers get into range. Ideally, you need it get into range to get killed by your combined fire right before it manage to unload its can of whoopass, meaning it need softened up by your gunner earlier. 2 top gunners for each phase, baby~
Rocket launcher is for role playing factor only, not powergame. "My big gun specialists open up with a salvo of rocket and blew that group to pieces", that kind of thing.
Behemoth is a role playing enemies. A behemoth firing rocket launchers at an armored carrier with 5 shooters firing back sure make nice image.
the_shadow
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 1,181
Upon reflection, I think my previous experience with Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas made more life *more* difficult in regards to Fallout:Tactics. If I had come into the game fresh, I wouldn't have carried a lot of preconceptions that turned out to be incorrect.
For example, I didn't max out charisma, so I was stuck with a bunch of lackluster recruits. I didn't use chems until 2/3rd's of the way through the game because I was worried about withdrawal penalties, although you don't usually experience them until the mission is over. I also tried to carry the same recruits through the entire game, instead of swapping out the weaker small gun recruits for big guns as early as possible.
I'm not sure how anyone could complete the game on Hard without chems, without a lot of reloading.
For example, I didn't max out charisma, so I was stuck with a bunch of lackluster recruits. I didn't use chems until 2/3rd's of the way through the game because I was worried about withdrawal penalties, although you don't usually experience them until the mission is over. I also tried to carry the same recruits through the entire game, instead of swapping out the weaker small gun recruits for big guns as early as possible.
I'm not sure how anyone could complete the game on Hard without chems, without a lot of reloading.
Dreaad
Arcane
If you build your dude right from the start to focus on being a long range death machine, you can safely cruise through on hard without chems.
Dr Skeleton
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
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- 867
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Jim_Grimm
You must find a special encounter to get him though. Some ghouls have 10+ perception so they work as snipers.
the_shadow
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 1,181
Just for the record, I played through the game with the unpatched version. The final patch fixes the flamethrower so that there is no delay between when the flamethrower animation occurs and when the enemy is damaged, making it a far more effective close-range weapon.
Thor Kaufman
Arcane
Is there any reason to use snipers instead of fastshot? They don't seem to do more damage just very occasionally seem to make more criticals with aimed shots. Is their only use to incapacitate enemies? Or do they get way better with energy weapons?
How does Better Criticals work? It doesn't seem to have any effect it seems even with sniping.
When I mutate Mandy, should I give her Fast Shot or Kamikaze, i.e. sniper role? Seeing how snipers seem so useless I guess fast shot.
btw pleasantly surprised that mutants just fall to Jackhammer bursts with regular ammo. Just walking up to them with psycho and boom. I might restart game with a roflstomp gunner.
How does Better Criticals work? It doesn't seem to have any effect it seems even with sniping.
When I mutate Mandy, should I give her Fast Shot or Kamikaze, i.e. sniper role? Seeing how snipers seem so useless I guess fast shot.
btw pleasantly surprised that mutants just fall to Jackhammer bursts with regular ammo. Just walking up to them with psycho and boom. I might restart game with a roflstomp gunner.
Perkel
Arcane
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2014
- Messages
- 16,392
They can kill from far away and can properly support your soldiers from afar. They are the essential part of you traps. Also they don't waste ammo.
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