Unarmed in power armor sucks

[bloodymonarch]

Confirmed. I didn't believe people, but as my last character in F4 I decided to do unarmed/power armor on survival. No DLC, no mods. It's complete trash. The damage is just far too laughable, even with dual hydraulic bracers and rank 4 iron fist and 13 strength. I'm going to try to salvage the build by ditching the PA and using legendary armor and actual legendary unarmed weapons... But I'm not feeling super optimistic with no sneak capabilities.

One would think the PA build would have something going for it as far as unarmed goes. I mean, you're slugging people with a full suit of awesomeness. It should hit pretty damn hard. Harder than a guy wearing just a gauntlet of the stuff and his contracting meat bags.

[WarMachine]

I agree. I made a mod, over on beth net called War Fists, alows you to equip a invisable power fist to smash some melons.
https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/2340417

[bloodymonarch]

I'd rather not mod the game for a build that I wasn't even really all that interested in to begin with. Hence saving it for last. I'm just surprised Bethesda didn't think anyone would want to do an "iron man/war machine" build and actually be able to do damage. They clearly thought of it because of the bracers you can put on. But they do such little damage, so...? Dafuq Bethesda?

I'll probably just pump him with exp until he's got melee weapons instead of unarmed.

[Borrolan]

How did you get to the level where you could unlock Iron Fist 4? You need to get to level 31 for that. How did you survive in Survival mode until then? Were you using Unarmed from the very start or did you use weapons then switch across?

Any tips or advice on how you got to level 31? If I'm reading this correctly, "as my last character in F4 I decided to do unarmed/power armor on survival" suggests you were a pure, Unarmed character. Maybe I'm reading this the wrong way.

[WarMachine]

Unarmed is messed up, why most people don't mess with it. The most us less fighting skill without a lot of addsons. Power armor has been balanced to the game, not lore. Outside of survival and the hardest difficulty, it's a super weapon, even wrecking with it's fists if you have the unarmed perks. But survival it's us less without a mod, unless you really like scavenging for glue.

[Jirki88]

Pretty sure the Power Armor suit was designed to suppress recoil and allow you to use huge weapons, not go around hitting people. Probably not designed to hit with, which probably would make it like swining a frying pan around.

What is disappointing is more that there is no way to construct your own power armor suit for the sole purpose of being able to hit hard instead (like with mechanics in the arm pieces connecting to the chest allowing you to do heavy bashes with extra power backing it up).

[bloodymonarch]

Originally posted by Borrolan:

How did you get to the level where you could unlock Iron Fist 4? You need to get to level 31 for that. How did you survive in Survival mode until then? Were you using Unarmed from the very start or did you use weapons then switch across?

Any tips or advice on how you got to level 31? If I'm reading this correctly, "as my last character in F4 I decided to do unarmed/power armor on survival" suggests you were a pure, Unarmed character. Maybe I'm reading this the wrong way.

Yes, I used unarmed the whole time. I did a lot of drugs. Killed swan with explosives and used his power fist, some tactical retreats from things I couldn't handle until I got power armor really going. I mean, with tons of caps from purified water you can eventually beat the game using anything. I know the game inside and out, so it's pretty easy to farm XP taking it where it's easy to get. As long as you don't engage super mutant suiciders or other things that can wreck you it's fine... Until late game. When you start encountering things that just have waaaaay to much HP. Sure, you can use regular unarmed weapons but power armor bracers are terrible.

[bloodymonarch]

Oh yeah, I also grabbed aqua boy ASAP and swam down to the Atom Cats to steal their suit of T-60. Bought the helmet for 300 caps or w/e off of their merchant chick.

Pretty easy sailing after that.

[Borrolan]

Originally posted by bloodymonarch:

Oh yeah, I also grabbed aqua boy ASAP and swam down to the Atom Cats to steal their suit of T-60. Bought the helmet for 300 caps or w/e off of their merchant chick.

Pretty easy sailing after that.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

I wondered about the Mutant suiciders. I avoided them at low levels.

[bloodymonarch]

Originally posted by Borrolan:

Originally posted by bloodymonarch:

Oh yeah, I also grabbed aqua boy ASAP and swam down to the Atom Cats to steal their suit of T-60. Bought the helmet for 300 caps or w/e off of their merchant chick.

Pretty easy sailing after that.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

I wondered about the Mutant suiciders. I avoided them at low levels.

The main enemies unarmed power armor sucks against are:

Suiciders because of the vats bug that takes you out of vats randomly... and then they splode on you. More reliable to do jet and use power attacks, just don't hit their nuke arm.

Mirelurk Queens above your level: Pretty much suicide.

Legendary Bugs that use poison: Until your build is at it's strongest, almost guaranteed death.

Behemoths: Suicide.

[Borrolan]

Originally posted by bloodymonarch:

Legendary Bugs that use poison: Until your build is at it's strongest, almost guaranteed death.

The poison-based attackers were a real hassle. I recall finding legendary armor with poison resistance. It was 25 resistance I think. I often wondered whether it stacked and whether it even had much effect.

[Trubie]

You are supposed to also use the drugs to increase your damage. Maybe add some bloody mess perk. If the power armor punch was overpowered it would be over used. My kid is running an all fists character and having a great time.

[bloodymonarch]

Originally posted by Lolzifer:

You are supposed to also use the drugs to increase your damage. Maybe add some bloody mess perk. If the power armor punch was overpowered it would be over used. My kid is running an all fists character and having a great time.

Survival mode? In power armor? I'm trying to be really specific here. Anyone could use only fists and win with sneak abilities... Simple. Legendary fist + legendary armor that buffs str/end +sneak attacks= tons of damage.

Bracers for power armor on the other hand suuuuuuuuuck.

[Kalsu]

Try using unarmed blitz build with sneak spec mods on your armor and wear at least one piece with cloaking on it. You won't need any sneak perk with that imo.

[bloodymonarch]

Originally posted by Kalsue:

Try using unarmed blitz build with sneak spec mods on your armor and wear at least one piece with cloaking on it. You won't need any sneak perk with that imo.

What I ended up doing is just going heavy weapons with gatling laser. Most of the perks I had for the power armor synergise well with it, even on survival. I'm already wrecking things.

[Kalsu]

Originally posted by bloodymonarch:

Originally posted by Kalsue:

Try using unarmed blitz build with sneak spec mods on your armor and wear at least one piece with cloaking on it. You won't need any sneak perk with that imo.

What I ended up doing is just going heavy weapons with gatling laser. Most of the perks I had for the power armor synergise well with it, even on survival. I'm already wrecking things.

Tried the Broadsider in power armor? Look great ^^