Silenced .22 Pistol

[Befuddled Honey Badger]

Decided to re-install NV and decided to do a Sneak build as I'd never done so before and decided to use the .22 Pistol for x3 Crit bonus. However I can't seem to get it to work as strange as that sounds.

Silly question but is this thing broken or something? I can get Sneak Attack Criticals with everything from Hunting Shotguns to the Anti-materiel Rifle but even point blank range shots whilst Hidden with the .22 more often than not results in a non-crit hit. When I do get a Sneak Attack crit I one shot almost all unarmoured enemies but it's getting the crit that's the issue.

I was at the Gun Runners booth buying ammo and decided to test it out in the Crimson Caravan compound. It was night so most people were in bed so it was easy to Sneak in and wait until I was hidden. I made a quick save and out of 15 or so attempts I got a a total of 4 Sneak Attack Criticals from a few feet away, all the others were normal hits.

[Bomb Bloke]

Sounds a bit odd. Is this a modded game? Does using VATS make a difference?

[misters82]

Cause it meant use against unarmored targets due to low damage. You better upgrade pistols like 10mm or 12,7mm with silencers.

[Befuddled Honey Badger]

No mods.

@misters82, not sure you read what I said. I didn't mention anything about low damage but the fact I don't get sneak attack criticals. DR does not make enemies immune to sneak attacks.

[Tabloid tuesday]

Jack ass, just get the mysterious stranger to do your dirty-work.

[talgaby]

That pistol an ammo have very low damage, so almost any DT negate it. If you want to be sneaky, rush through the Honest Hearts DLC and get a silenced M1911. Or just get the Ratslayer.

[Greb]

The only thing I can think of is somehow when you fire the pistol you're becoming [Detected] just before the bullet hits, but that sounds bizarre and unlikely. There's a bug where even when completely hidden from sight, NPCs still notice you aiming a weapon at them or firing a weapon near them "cosmetically" and call you out on it even though it claims you are [Hidden] - this doesn't lead to hostile NPCs detecting and starting combat though...but maybe it's related to that, too?

I also figured maybe you were sneak attacking the enemies equipped weapon which maybe (dunno, never checked) can't be sneak attack critical'd, but enemies don't have their weapons visible when sleeping so probably not.

Are you sure the game just isn't swallowing your notification with another one, like crippling an enemy or something? I've never encountered a bug where you simply can't land sneak criticals on stuff, so long as you are [Hidden] the next damage from most sources should trigger the critical hit.

There's no traits that grant bonus damage but no chance to critically hit, is there? I vaguely remember one for melee attacks, but I don't remember if that was from Fallout 1 / 2 or just a reduced critical damage bonus instead of outright disabling critical hits.

Anyway, seems like a weird bug. Hopefully it's only connected to the .22 Pistol and not every weapon in the game, anyway, because you could grab yourself a 12.7mm Pistol or a .45 Auto Pistol and slap a suppressor on those if you wanted some silent assassin vibes.

[Befuddled Honey Badger]

Yeah I ditched the .22 and got the .45 Auto as I was in Honest Hearts and have had no issues since. Also, there's a trait called Built to Destroy that gives a global 3% chance to crit but reduces weapon durability and the perk Finesse gives you crit chance equal to 5 levels of Luck but I have neither of those yet.

[Grendalcat]

Get Sleepytime. Excellent for close range crit kills, especially on sleeping targets.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Sleepytyme_(GRA)