Enemies so tanky ...

[Joeb]

I recently switched to a heavy gunner build and I don't know how you can keep ammo with that build. Enemies seem to take so many shots to kill and they don't drop enough .50 cal for me to have ammo.

I guess I have to invest in the ammo legendary perk in order to have enough.

[lockwoodx]

It's how they encourage you to try different weapons. ALL weapons work. Just some of them are better than others. Those are the ones you'll run out of ammo for first.

[Neialeis]

For early heavy gunner builds try the gatling gun. Fires slower but more powerful shots and you'll basically never run out of ammo. I regularly sit on 10k+ ammo and use the ammo converter to turn that excess ammo into something else I actually need. Plasma/Gatling laser can be a good alternative with how easy fusion cores are to get, and plasma cores are a pretty easy craft.

For the 50 cal or minigun etc you'll need a lot of damage boosting perks and legendary effects. Your ammo economy is very reliant on your actual damage due to how fast you're firing.

If you're absolutely set on the 50 cal then yeah, grab the ammo legendary perk, also make sure to use Ammosmith and Super Duper. Not hard to craft up a large stockpile.

[Major Troll]

Originally posted by Neialeis:

For early heavy gunner builds try the gatling gun. Fires slower but more powerful shots and you'll basically never run out of ammo. I regularly sit on 10k+ ammo and use the ammo converter to turn that excess ammo into something else I actually need. Plasma/Gatling laser can be a good alternative with how easy fusion cores are to get, and plasma cores are a pretty easy craft.

For the 50 cal or minigun etc you'll need a lot of damage boosting perks and legendary effects. Your ammo economy is very reliant on your actual damage due to how fast you're firing.

If you're absolutely set on the 50 cal then yeah, grab the ammo legendary perk, also make sure to use Ammosmith and Super Duper. Not hard to craft up a large stockpile.

This. Just swap the perks to make the ammo and then swap them back off to your normal perk build.

I run a .50 cal and I have over 20k ultracite and over 30k normal .50 rounds.

Also having a secondary or tertiary weapon is a great idea, like a Holy Fire and some sort of melee (auto axe/chainsaw)

Just my 2 cents.

[NIkto Barada]

50 and the gatling too miss every 2nd or so shot unless you crouched , stood still, had a few perks and their prerequisite power armors.
its endgame but still situational. maybe start with something more accurate and then switch when they get closer.

[virpyre]

There isn't really a "best" as most do things better than others.

The Flamer / Holy Fire can also do this but I have to be a lot closer and fuel is harder to get ammo for outside of farming for it in expeditions/daily ops.

The Plasma Caster's the best gun for VATS if you want a heavy gunner rifleman/commando feel. Absolutely amazing with an anti-armor/50% VATS hit chance on Eviction Notice for example. You might chug some coffee/nuka cola with this thing though.

The Minigun is best as a bashing variant. I have a vampire's/bashing one that feels like it performs better than my vamp's chainsaw lol. The Gauss Minigun outclasses the normal Minigun in every way minus ammo since 5mm is so plentiful.

Gatling Gun's the most efficient one and you can still do a firing trick to make it shoot faster so that's worth mentioning. 5mm ammo as well so it's the best bang for your buck in efficiency.

Gatling Plasma absolutely wrecks but it kicks like a horse, so you need to hope you have a steady aim or a massive target to hit with it. :P

The .50 Cal Machine Gun feels the most "heavy gunner" to me because there's no wind-up, you just point and shoot. I'm still hunting for an anti-armor/explosive variant but the Final Word from Beckett's questline holds me over.

The Pepper Shaker's an amazing tool for crippling the Scorchbeast Queen and crippling in general, and it can double-dip into heavy gunner and shotgun perks, but otherwise it kinda tickles with damage.

The Ultracite Gatling Laser has a fun interaction with 25% faster fire rate. You can get the charging barrels for it and have an efficient heavy hitting gun, or just lay on the trigger with the normal barrels and spew lasers. Super fun and one of my favorites.

The Light Machine Gun is amazing if you can find a quad version with explosive or something but it absolutely chews through .308 ammo. That's the only real downside of it. Prime it to make more efficient crafts of .308 ammo and it's a real powerhouse.

Ones not mentioned as well are the Auto Grenade Launcher (Nuka Launcher is an absolute beast but any two-shot AGL works) and the Grand Finale Broadsider.

[kitekrazy]

Melee weapons seem only effective when they are in your face.

[virpyre]

New Working Copy - FO76 - Weapon Stats Data[docs.google.com]