.44 ammo and gunslinger build

[CaimDark]

New player here, running a gunslinger build. Other than lame pipe weapons, which I won't use anymore, I was stuck with the 10mm until I bought the .44 in Diamond City. Exciting, I thought, except there's hardly any .44 ammo! Even the vendor sells like 10 .44 ammo.

I expected more ballistic handgun variety like in previous games, but it lools the pistol options are fairly limited this time. I also have a decent laser pistol but it seems to perform poorly, and I don't have the intelligence for the science perk and don't want invest in it, I expected to rely on gun nut. The plasma gun seems good, but again, no science, and I have exactly 0 ammo for it.

Will I start finding more .44 ammo or another type of handgun with available ammo anytime soon, or ever? Did I make a mistake going gunslinger? I was already considering investing in rifleman for variety after I was done getting the more important perks, should I start prioritizing that instead? So far I've done alright with the good old 10mm, but I don't want to have to rely on the same starting gun forever.

[Ilja]

.44 ammo is quite rare in early game. Scrounger perks will increase your chance of finding it. Vendors will start selling ammo later in the game, but you will be mostly collecting it from enemies you kill, when .44 weapons start to appear in the game.

It is a viable weapon, but ammo is under the rock in early levels of the game.

Tip about .44 weapon location.

There is one .44 near Sanctuary. You can get it at level 1 or 2, if you like. You will be bound to stumble to it, if you do some scouting around the area surrounding Sanctuary. :)

[Emmental]

Buy it wherever possible and consider taking scrounger (the find more ammo perk), but it's generally not worth it for semi auto builds from my experience. A back up fighting style is a good thing. Rifleman would make sense for a gunslinger. Snipe from range then finish off stragglers at close range with the pistol. This would also spread your ammo consumption between 2 ammo types instead of all .44 for everything.

[CaimDark]

Originally posted by Ilja:

.44 ammo is quite rare in early game. Scrounger perks will increase your chance of finding it. Vendors will start selling ammo later in the game, but you will be mostly collecting it from enemies you kill, when .44 weapons start to appear in the game.

It is a viable weapon, but ammo is under the rock in early levels of the game.

Tip about .44 weapon location.

There is one .44 near Sanctuary. You can get it at level 1 or 2, if you like. You will be bound to stumble to it, if you do some scouting around the area surrounding Sanctuary. :)

I explored the area around sanctuary thoroughly, I probably found most if not all map markers in a good radius around it, but I missed this .44 :(
Where is it?

Also, I'm level 14, when does. .44 ammo become more plentiful? Is there another handgun caliber?

[CaimDark]

Originally posted by Grumpy Old Git:

Buy it wherever possible and consider taking scrounger (the find more ammo perk), but it's generally not worth it for semi auto builds from my experience. A back up fighting style is a good thing. Rifleman would make sense for a gunslinger. Snipe from range then finish off stragglers at close range with the pistol. This would also spread your ammo consumption between 2 ammo types instead of all .44 for everything.

I have a point in scrounger, is it worth putting more? I also have a point in fortune finder. I think they were my first two perks.

I already carry a shotgun just in case and use a sniper rifle when possible to soften/kill enemies from afar, so I guess I should just go ahead and start putting points in Rifleman. The others perks can probably wait.

[tulle040657]

Originally posted by CaimDark:

Originally posted by Ilja:

.44 ammo is quite rare in early game. Scrounger perks will increase your chance of finding it. Vendors will start selling ammo later in the game, but you will be mostly collecting it from enemies you kill, when .44 weapons start to appear in the game.

It is a viable weapon, but ammo is under the rock in early levels of the game.

Tip about .44 weapon location.

There is one .44 near Sanctuary. You can get it at level 1 or 2, if you like. You will be bound to stumble to it, if you do some scouting around the area surrounding Sanctuary. :)

I explored the area around sanctuary thoroughly, I probably found most if not all map markers in a good radius around it, but I missed this .44 :(
Where is it?

Also, I'm level 14, when does. .44 ammo become more plentiful? Is there another handgun caliber?

map marker? Well that's your problem. you need to explore not follow a litte icon on your HUD

[Ilja]

The nearest .44 weapon is right next to old water pump in Sanctuary region. Coming from Sanctuary, go left from the bridge and up to the second (higher) hill in view. Pump has another switch and pipe at the shore, so it is hard to miss.

I don't recall exactly when .44 weapons starts to appear in leveled lists. Ammo will naturally become more common, when that happens.

Level 3 stores in your settlements will also sell .44 bullets.

What comes to perks, I actually skipped the perk to fine more caps, in favor of Scrounger. Bullets are basically caps. You can sell them and finding them a lot prevents your from spending caps to ammo.

I am selling all .38 ammo and scrapping all .38 weapons in my game. Sometimes I can have 5000 .38 ammo and similar amounts of 5mm in my storage checsts.

My character took all Scrounger perks, except the last one. If my bullets run out in the middle of combat, then I am swapping weapons directly, without even trying to see if some luck based perk added more ammo to my clip.

[CaimDark]

Originally posted by tulle040657:

Originally posted by CaimDark:

I explored the area around sanctuary thoroughly, I probably found most if not all map markers in a good radius around it, but I missed this .44 :(
Where is it?

Also, I'm level 14, when does. .44 ammo become more plentiful? Is there another handgun caliber?

map marker? Well that's your problem. you need to explore not follow a litte icon on your HUD

Those little icons on the hud are called map markers. They are places that you explore. And in order to find them, you also need to explore the area around them.

Thank you for your helpful contribution.

Originally posted by Ilja:

The nearest .44 weapon is right next to old water pump in Sanctuary region. Coming from Sanctuary, go left from the bridge and up to the second (higher) hill in view. Pump has another switch and pipe at the shore, so it is hard to miss.

I don't recall exactly when .44 weapons starts to appear in leveled lists. Ammo will naturally become more common, when that happens.

Level 3 stores in your settlements will also sell .44 bullets.

What comes to perks, I actually skipped the perk to fine more caps, in favor of Scrounger. Bullets are basically caps. You can sell them and finding them a lot prevents your from spending caps to ammo.

I am selling all .38 ammo and scrapping all .38 weapons in my game. Sometimes I can have 5000 .38 ammo and similar amounts of 5mm in my storage checsts.

My character took all Scrounger perks, except the last one. If my bullets run out in the middle of combat, then I am swapping weapons directly, without even trying to see if some luck based perk added more ammo to my clip.

Yeah, the position that you get more caps by investing more in scrounger and passing over fortune finder seems to be unanimous. Unfortunately, by the time I found that out I already had fortune finder. Oh well.

Is it worth adding more points to scrounger even if I also invest in rifleman? Having both gunslinger and rifleman means I'll use two types of ammo, making it less likely that I'll run out.

As for settlements, I build what the quests ask me to, other than that I ignore this aspect of the game, it just doesn't interest me.

[Ilja]

I would say that Scrounger is even more important with Rifleman. You will likely upgrade your rifle weapons to .308 and .50 caliber, when you progress in Gun Nut, or just pick up upgraded weapons on the road.

.50 cal can sometimes be under the rock, without Scrounger. You can buy it from high tier weapon vendors, but they are pricey and high tier vendors are not always that common.

Scrounger is among most practical perks in the game, at least in my opinion.

For example, my Combat Rifle was upgraded from .45 to .308 and my Sniper Rifle was upgraded from .308 to .50. You will be likely spending more ammo with Combat Rifle, so Scrounger is practical for both weapons.

[Stardustfire]

just build a ammo factory, problem solved. and for findeable .44: east from Finch farm , at the other side of the water, is a bunker entrace, go in and find a legendary .44.

[ghpstage]

Level 14 is a bit early to discount pipe guns. They can remain useful and effective for long after that, and as you have noticed the choices available for pistol users are limited.

Don't worry too much about not having the science perk as you can strip higher level parts from weapons you buy or find to fit on other weapons.

Scrounger is very good for anyone using unusual ammo types be they .44, 308, 50 or plasma.

[Duneman]

Sources for .44 ammo:
- 1 rank of Scrounger, adds ammo to containers and enemies everywhere
- unmarked vendors like the ones near Fairline Hill Estates or Custom House Tower, they can carry 100+ rounds
- the ammo plant with the Contraptions Workshop DLC(requires ranks of Gun Nut, and I think 1 rank of Science!)

Gunslinger options:
- 10mm -> Deliverer, good for weak enemies and to kill things from stealth
- .44 Magnum -> Western Revolver(requires Nuka World DLC), legendary versions of these will be your mainstay in open combat
- Laser, thanks to the interchangability of parts you can create a pistol sniper with the longest effective range in the game, goof for sniping at extreme distances

[CaimDark]

Thank you for the tips.

[MortVent]

Don't underestimate the .45 pipe revolver early on while building up a gunslinger build. The ammo is almost as plentiful as .38 and 10mm

My last gunslinger was :[often with a legendary]
10mm pistol
.45 pipe revolver
.44 revolver/western revolver
Laser pistol
Laser musket (built as a sniper rifle) or Silenced Sniper Rifle (hunting or combat)
Machete or Combat Knife

[CaimDark]

I took the advice to try the .45 revolver, and now at level 23, I'm still mainly using it, and I seem to find more ammo than I spend, and so far I've been able to take everything down without much trouble. Except for the Mirelurk Queen, which I did took down but certainly had trouble.

I havr nearly 2000 .45 ammo and over 1000 .10 and laser ammo, but mostly the 45 revolver is enough. I've yet to start consistently finding .44 ammo in the wild, but vendors are stocking it regularly now and I've stocked up around 500 so far. In the meantime I'm keeping the .44 in the stash until it's really needed and Im confident ammo won't be an issue.

On paper the plasma gun seems to be pretty good but I don't see it recommended much. Is it due to the expensive and hard to find ammo?

I'm now going to start putting points in Rifleman just to have some variety, and also in case late game enemies turn out to be difficult with just pistols.

[DragomirKingsman]

If you need Cells for laser guns, meet the BoS at Cambridge police station and go to Arcjet Systems. Synths galore.