Lonesome Road tips requested for primarily melee/unarmed build.

[Valden21]

I'm not there yet, but I'm planning on doing LR SOMETIME in the future. But like the title says, my build is primarily melee/unarmed, and I'm NOT looking forward to those deathclaws. So I'm asking for tips to improve my survivability. However, there is one caveat I need to mention. You see, I've based this build on a particular theme, and that happens to be the protagonists of Hong Kong action movies of the 60's and 70's, so any suggestions of chems or heavy armor just won't fit. However, as long as it fits with that theme, any other suggestion is welcome!

[MannsOverMeta]

Just stun them with special moves or use VATS to tank and kill. By now your attacks should be very powerful to the point that they can’t hit you more than once, if even that.
There’s also the flares to shoo them away if you aren’t super dedicated to melee and/or unarmed.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by MannsOverMeta:

Just stun them with special moves or use VATS to tank and kill. By now your attacks should be very powerful to the point that they can’t hit you more than once, if even that.
There’s also the flares to shoo them away if you aren’t super dedicated to melee and/or unarmed.

That's good for one-on-one combat, but what am I supposed to do when TWO of them decide to come at me?

[MannsOverMeta]

Shoo/Stun one kill another.
Use sneak to kill one and then get the other.
Position yourself good and kill the first before the second gets to you.

[walter]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by MannsOverMeta:

Just stun them with special moves or use VATS to tank and kill. By now your attacks should be very powerful to the point that they can’t hit you more than once, if even that.
There’s also the flares to shoo them away if you aren’t super dedicated to melee and/or unarmed.

That's good for one-on-one combat, but what am I supposed to do when TWO of them decide to come at me?

Hit one with a flare - this should give you enough time to kill the other one. You can also try to lure them apart or use the terrain to your advantage.

Edit: also, drugs, if you char does drugs ;-)

[Valden21]

Originally posted by walter:

Originally posted by Valden21:

That's good for one-on-one combat, but what am I supposed to do when TWO of them decide to come at me?

Hit one with a flare - this should give you enough time to kill the other one. You can also try to lure them apart or use the terrain to your advantage.

Edit: also, drugs, if you char does drugs ;-)

Did you read the part about how chems don't fit with my build's theme?

[SecretEnemy]

If you took both ranks of toughness and have J. Graham's armor, you should be fine if you've optimized the rest of your build for raw DPS and/or crits.

If you want even more performance, using nuka chemist + high survival skill can give you extra DT when using non-addictive Nuka Quartz.

Speaking of addictive, LR adds rushing water as a craftable aid item at campfires. It's literally just purified water spiked with jet, creating a non-addictive "energy drink" that significantly boosts your attack speed. It only lasts 30 sec. by default, so you should also take chemist to double the duration of all consumables.

As for weapons, greased lightning for ora, pushy for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles, or the ballistic fist for ♥♥♥♥ you. Two of the best melee/unarmed weapons are in the Divide, one of which is the ultimate weapon for Legion RP if you want to get around to doing a Legion run....

[Valden21]

Originally posted by DFS SecretEnemy:

If you took both ranks of toughness and have J. Graham's armor, you should be fine if you've optimized the rest of your build for raw DPS and/or crits.

If you want even more performance, using nuka chemist + high survival skill can give you extra DT when using non-addictive Nuka Quartz.

Speaking of addictive, LR adds rushing water as a craftable aid item at campfires. It's literally just purified water spiked with jet, creating a non-addictive "energy drink" that significantly boosts your attack speed. It only lasts 30 sec. by default, so you should also take chemist to double the duration of all consumables.

As for weapons, greased lightning for ora, pushy for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles, or the ballistic fist for ♥♥♥♥ you. Two of the best melee/unarmed weapons are in the Divide, one of which is the ultimate weapon for Legion RP if you want to get around to doing a Legion run....

FOR THE LAST TIME, NO CHEMS! It doesn't work with the theme I've got going. It doesn't matter if the chem in question is non-addictive, as it doesn't fit. This build has worked so far, and I just feel that if I use any chems now, then my idea has failed, so I'm holding the line on that issue.

[Imafishb]

I know its not relevant to meele but, It might be useful to have 100 speech/or find all the logs..

[Mister Holdout]

What difficulty do you play on? Because if you play on a higher difficulty, then Lonesome Road will be pretty tough.

Couple of tips that might help:

-Look up the perk "Rad Child". Very underrated perk. Basically, the more irradiated you are, the more health you regenerate. With 800 rads, you'll be able to shrug off a lot of damage. Won't let you tank Deathclaws tho. So don't expect to be super man.

-I know you don't like chems, but there is a perk called called "Implant GRX". It's a non addictive drug that is accessed through your inventory. It has the same effect as turbo, which is slowing down time. I highly recommend this perk to anyone playing melee builds. It's incredibly helpful when fighting tough enemies. You could possibly rationalize its use by thinking of the implant as a surgical advantage to your combat abilities. In other words, you can move as such incredible speeds that everything else appears to be moving slow. And honestly, I'm not sure Implant GRX is technically a drug. It may just be treated as a drug for game play purposes. The perk says "Implant" and has a picture of a chip. So it's probably a chip inserted into your body. Again, not sure though.

-As for weapons, you have some good options. I'm a personal fan of The Blade of the West. It's a bumper sword found in the Divide. The sword is nice because it has a high knock down chance. This will help crowd control enemies. You should also look up the Thermic lance. If you're using a crit build, this weapon is the most damaging melee/unarmed weapon in the game. I've seen it completely shred Deathclaws. But again, even though these weapons are nice, you'll really want to use Implant GRX. You don't want to trade blows with Deathclaws.

-Look into the perk "Elijah's Ramblings". Gives extra crit damage to melee weapons only. The Blade of the West can seriously tear up some enemies with this perk.

That's about it really. Even though you dislike drugs, there's also the weapon binding ritual. It's a non addictive drug used by the tribals in the HH dlc. Imo, it fits warrior type characters.

[Rabbit CoCo]

Originally posted by Mister Holdout:

What difficulty do you play on? Because if you play on a higher difficulty, then Lonesome Road will be pretty tough.

+1
Especially hard if you ""insist"" using melee/unarmed in here.
You will meet death claws and it's not one ...............
Suggest you use melee/unarmed in somewhere else.
Lonesome Road's enemies are different, ""they have special ability(s)"".
Even 1 vs 1 is hard under highest difficulty.
You will get some good and useful weapons here.
Please don't give up and enjoy Lonesome Road, it's is the best DLC.
Good luck.

[walter]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by walter:

Hit one with a flare - this should give you enough time to kill the other one. You can also try to lure them apart or use the terrain to your advantage.

Edit: also, drugs, if you char does drugs ;-)

Did you read the part about how chems don't fit with my build's theme?

Feel free to ignore my actual suggestions instead of the addition i made to that later when i had already forgotten most of your initial post.
It also depends heavily on your definition of "chems" or "drugs" - since coffee and alcohol fit well in both categories but tend to be staples of hong kong movies (among other things).

[talgaby]

Do not engage with tunnellers, just run past them.
As for deathclaws, deal with them how you deal with the ones in the Mojave. Run in, punch them with a special attack for knockback, punch a few more times, run to high ground, repeat.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by walter:

Originally posted by Valden21:

Did you read the part about how chems don't fit with my build's theme?

Feel free to ignore my actual suggestions instead of the addition i made to that later when i had already forgotten most of your initial post.
It also depends heavily on your definition of "chems" or "drugs" - since coffee and alcohol fit well in both categories but tend to be staples of hong kong movies (among other things).

I'm not considering coffe and alcohol to be chems in this sense, since that doesn't make any sense for my theme. But things like Psycho, Jet, or Buff-Out, even Med-X, that doesn't fit. Even anything that replicates their effects is too similar to my tastes. Some of the implants though, those are on the table, as long as they don't replicate chem effects.