What weapon stats matter to companions/NPCs?

[Dirt Merchant]

The title pretty much sums it up:

If you study how mods affect weapon customization, you realize there's lots of subtle little factors; like stocks and barrel length having an effct on how much AP it costs per shot in VATS, or how big the crosshair will be when you hip fire, and a whole bunch of other things in addition to the big obvious weapon stats like damage, ammo capacity, weight, etc.

That said, I don't think all those factors I mentioned above matter as much for when you hand a gun to a companion or a settler (or when hostile NPCs spawn with them). The only weapon stats that seem to matter whenever an NPC uses it is weapon damage, rate of fire (they'll shoot a submachine gun faster than a hunting rifle, for example), and ammo capacity. Beyond that I'm not entirely certain they're any more accurate with one gun compared to others (pistols VS rifles), or that the other factors that affect us also affects NPCs - hip fire accuracy and recoil, for example.

I'm just curious if anyone noticed if companions you equip shot any better with guns that had a higher rated accuracy, if scopes made any difference, if weapons designed for hip-fire accuracy did any better for NPCs when shooting up close, and other stuff like that?

[stormarmy]

Not sure for certain, but damage and vats i think are what matters, as vats is the ai aiming for you, and would make sense for the companions/enemies to be using a similar system

[Ficelle]

For settlers, i like auto weapons / miniguns as they dont use ammos
This, combined with turrets, is such a rain of bullets that everything approaching just vanishes

For companions, they seem to do better with precise, hard hitting, slow firing weapons
It seems they do better with high accuracy guns too
Preston, with a 6 charges scoped musket (not the default one...) is quite impressive
One shot, one kill
I dont like auto for them, or fast firing low power weapons, because ammo consumption (unless it is their default one or robots)
I prefer high range too, aka, mostly rifles, as i dont like them running in the middle of enemies to fire
They can do really good too with melee
Nothing absolute, just impressions

Anyway, i tend to stick to a weapon close to their default for RP reasons
Because, in the end, you are the one doing 90% of the damage anyway...

[Swagmaster Love 🇪🇺]

Feels like companions do better with single-fire weapons tbh. they hit their target far more often. Might be because single-fire weapons have high accuracy and range.

Shotguns seem pointless because the companion AI is terrible and has a tendency of doing awful with those.

Automatic guns... if youre playing without unlimited ammo mod for companions, just dodge those, because theyre wasting bullets at such an extreme rate that you won't be able to keep up.

[jonnan.west]

Has anyone come up with a best method for arming/armoring settlers? I keep intending to walk around and 'trade' but I ... get bored. Is it enough to improve a bunch of .38 pipe rifles and drp them into Workshops? And is it worth armoring settlers?

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by jonnan.west:

Has anyone come up with a best method for arming/armoring settlers? I keep intending to walk around and 'trade' but I ... get bored. Is it enough to improve a bunch of .38 pipe rifles and drp them into Workshops? And is it worth armoring settlers?

Low-recoil(Spread) automatic weapons are the best for settlers.

Handmade Rifles are probably the best, and most readily accessible mass weapon for arming Settlers.


As for OP's question, from my experience, PER is the primary factor which sets NPC (Including enemy and friendly) weapon spread. Since all guns except Plasma and a handful of other exotic weapons are hitscan.

Perception sets the base spread. AI does not get "ADS" bonuses, so long barrels are wasted except for the range benefits. (AI actually seems much more accurate with short barrels)

So focus on Perception, the gun's accuracy rating (Scope just about every weapon your companions use) and use as much recoil-compenasting equipment as you can, coupled with (ideally) Short Light barrels. (Short Ported and Long Light are also acceptable)

[Doombringer]

Scopes don't matter, otherwise parts on the bottom of the list are best.
(Short barrels did worse when I tested them...)
Low recoil autos are generally the best for settlers.
charging barrel gatling laser > gatling laser > gauss rifle > auto handmade rifle > auto assault rifle > plasma sniper = plasma auto = advanced assault rifle
(Relative Effectiveness (max upgrades): 100%, 72%, 61%, 40%, 33%, 24%)

Hard to get enough gold to max upgrade large numbers of gatling laser (need contraptions DLC to even get a reasonable number of gatling lasers); gauss also takes gold to upgrade. So generally auto handmade rifles (or assault rifles if you don't have Nukaworld DLC) are good settler weapons.

Pipboy accuracy is actually an amalgamation of ~19 different variables. Scopes/sights have the largest impact on it, but 100% do not effect settler damage output.
Settlers also do not get bonus hitpoints from Endurance bonuses (from clothes/legendary armor, etc.). They also do not benefit from 'Dense' mods on metal/robot limbs.

As far as armoring settlers, it takes 30 ballistic weave to give them maxed hat/clothes and 'Dense' torso mod. You only get ~120 ballistic weave per shop reset (you will find almost none exploring/looting), so if you have a lot of settlers trying to equip them all will take forever. (Endless shopping followed by way too much crafting.)

Most settlers are level 2 with 100 hitpoints. They take a knee when hurt too much, so armor isn't super important. (The only way to kill them is if the player does it or if you ignore a settlement defense and get a low defense roll which results in all the settlers being wiped out.)

[ⓀⒾⓦⒾ‰]

i give mine single shot big hitters like a tricked out plasma rifle or gauss sniper, except for danse, he gets a gatling laser cause it looks awesome with his PA even tho hes a terrible shot with it and cant hit the side of a barn its all just there for show and distraction

as for arming the settlers themselves i usually wait for them to get raided then strip the raiders and put all the gear and weps on the locals. i dont think it makes enough difference to bother maxing it all out on the bench

[stormarmy]

Originally posted by ᵏᶤᵚᶤ‰:

i give mine single shot big hitters like a tricked out plasma rifle or gauss sniper, except for danse, he gets a gatling laser cause it looks awesome with his PA even tho hes a terrible shot with it and cant hit the side of a barn its all just there for show and distraction

as for arming the settlers themselves i usually wait for them to get raided then strip the raiders and put all the gear and weps on the locals. i dont think it makes enough difference to bother maxing it all out on the bench

You'd be surprised

If you want weapons and gear for your settlers just whack on your PA and your most OP weapon and go raid a load of gunner settlements, they almost always drop egregious amounts of combat armour and laser weapons or assault rifles

[=Axton=]

Nick always seems to default to his pistol, even when I take it from him and give him 5 more weapons he magically pulls out another pistol from somewhere and starts shooting with it. How do I force him to use a weapon of my choosing?

[Nobody]

Originally posted by jonnan.west:

Has anyone come up with a best method for arming/armoring settlers? I keep intending to walk around and 'trade' but I ... get bored. Is it enough to improve a bunch of .38 pipe rifles and drp them into Workshops? And is it worth armoring settlers?

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Cost you as player 400 Coins
Equip jeans and shirt + Vault armor + Mining helmet + Laser Gun and ammo + Clothes for special cases

[Nobody]

Originally posted by =Axton=:

Nick always seems to default to his pistol, even when I take it from him and give him 5 more weapons he magically pulls out another pistol from somewhere and starts shooting with it. How do I force him to use a weapon of my choosing?

Put in his inventory
Equip with T
Add ammo to his inventory

[Dirt Merchant]

Six years later, I wanted to bring this discussion up again to see if anyone has any more input and observations. The TV show and recent update to the game has given me the itch to reinstall the game and start building up settlements again. Thanks!

[Pip]

For a lark, give everyone a molotov cocktail or grenade.

Seems like autos with low spread is still very good advice.

Rather than focusing on efficiency, consider going for entertainment. Maybe run the settlements like the vaults and make little experiments. See how punch town compares to the one where you gave everyone a flame thrower.

[Doombringer]

Nothing has really changed in 6 years, so my previous post in this thread is still valid. ;)

[The Inept European]

I invested a lot of time on both these problems (what to give NPCs and how to get settlers to pick up gear).

I would say in the end it's not worth over optimising. Don't bother with armour because you are forever updating everyone's armour. Do not craft or buy anything for settlers (unless you are a fetishist about them all having the same loadout).

The biggest effort:reward ratio is to give them all one molotov and a melee weapon. A group of settlers with molotovs will own anything up to the late game. And they can't resist melee at every opportunity so make sure their melee weapon isn't gun bash with a pipe pistol.

Apart from that just give them whatever surplus auto weapons you brought back from your last mission. Low recoil? I guess so, should improve their effective accuracy and/or effective RoF. But don't over think it. The return on your effort will not be justified.

My biggest tip not already listed is to give them auto lasers or other auto energy weapons. Just to show you clearly where the attackers are. NPCs spot enemies way better than you do, so make use of that. You can easily get tons of basic institute lasers and lots of auto lasers. Even if you have 20 settlements with 25 population.