Limb damage

[Dearana]

Does this legendary modifier increase damage dealt to limbs or does it just make it easier to cripple limbs? idk if that is a dumb question but it's confusing. i have a bloodied tesla and bloodied plasma flamer with 50% limb damage and once i started getting dailies to cripple limbs i started to wonder what the limb damage modifier actually means. lol

[LT2483]

So limbs all have their own hidden health bars, and when you shoot them, they take damage to that bar in addition to the enemy's overall health (you can see these bars if you have the concentrated fire perk, they show up below the hit chance). Limb damage increase means that the hidden bar takes more damage (without increasing the damage dealt to the overall health).

Overall, it's pretty useless to get limb damage increases due to the crippling perks, which when triggered, will instantly cripple the limb, regardless of how much health the limb haves.

[Dearana]

Damn I really thought the bloodied plasma flamer with limb damage was the best gun in the game lol. Appreciate the info! Def gonna re-roll it now

[Mooman]

A fun few bugs with limb damage.

Shoot Super Mutants legs. If you cripple both they leap into the air when killed, easy to do with a flamer. This bug was "supposedly" fixed...

Shoot Mole Miners in the arm. If you cripple a limb they drop their weapon (only mob to do so). You can pick up the weapon and also loot another from their body...

[Percello]

Originally posted by Dearana:

Does this legendary modifier increase damage dealt to limbs or does it just make it easier to cripple limbs? idk if that is a dumb question but it's confusing. i have a bloodied tesla and bloodied plasma flamer with 50% limb damage and once i started getting dailies to cripple limbs i started to wonder what the limb damage modifier actually means. lol

Honestly, limb damage is useless and dumb. Yes, 50% limb damage would increase damage done to a limb by 50%. If you were to VATS an enemy's limb, you'll see that the limb has its own health bar. If you empty that health bar, the enemy will be crippled. Now, if you do too much damage while trying to empty that limb's health bar, the enemy will just die. This is the problem I've had when I played. There was no such thing as crippling an enemy even when VATS'ing because the enemy would die before I emptied the limb's health bar. There are, however, perks that give you a chance to cripple an enemy without having to aim at limbs. The "Tormentor" perk, for instance, gives your rifle attacks a 15% chance to crippling a limb at rank 3 and this works VERY well with a tesla rifle.

[Grendalcat]

For limb crippling challenges, I usually use a Fixer to pot shot the required body part.
Usually cripples before they die, even on something weak like Scorched. On stronger enemies I also sometimes use a chainsaw, works really well on super mutants.
Only enemy I have a problem crippling before they die are deathclaws, oddly enough.