Sharpshooter vs Gunslinger

[Bryan]

Hey, I have not played this game since release and I am gonna start a new Playthough tomorrow, I was wondering what you guys like more Sniper or Gunslinger, in terms of fun and effectiveness.

[hawkeye]

Snowball fighter would be closer to the tactics that work best. Real world tactics don't work. Weapons don't behave like the real thing. The most effective weapon/tactic is an automatic double shot .45 rifle. Uses ammo by the truckload but it's the fastest way of stopping everything. Walk up to the enemy, point the weapon at its head and pull the trigger. Catch is that you need decent armor and stimpaks.

Revolvers and rifles have similar ranges. A scoped western .44 revolver makes a better sniper weapon as it easier to aim and has much the same range as a rifle and does more damage. The catch with revolvers is close-up you'll have to reload and that can get you hurt bad.

Early game just stay in cover and if in doubt run away.

[DouglasGrave]

I tend more towards sniping, which isn't always the fastest, but is generally the safest. However, I typically carry weapons for both purposes, since I won't always be in the ideal circumstances for one or the other.

I also often use glitch-built weapons, so when it comes to pistol versus rifle, the ideal is more AND than OR.

[Protoman]

It depends. The sneak bonuses in this game are huge. If you stack all of them, you can do as much as 10x damage with a sneak attack (sometimes even more), so a sneaky sniper will always be more effective than a character that guns everyone down from mid to short range.
There are also weapons that completely break the balance of any style:
- Deliverer: a silenced pistol that you gain from a quest. Stronger than the 10mm by default, and you can stock a ton of shots in VATS. A TON.
- Handmade Rifle: it's a weapon from the Nuka-World DLC. I don't know what they were thinking when they made this. The weapon is mostly perfect for any play style, and you can mod it to be either a spray gun or a sniper. The gun does a lot of damage by default, the recoil is minimal (even less than a pistol!), and you can find 2 legendary versions right from the start of the DLC: one is The Problem Solver, and another is the Splattercannon. Their effect is that each successive shot does more damage than the last.

[davbenbak]

I really play both though mostly sniper at first (especially on Survival Mode). I have found that a fully upgraded, scoped and silenced Overseer's Guardian is my primary weapon and the Deliverer for close quarters. As I played through I maxed rifleman, gunslinger, sneak as well as VATS related perks. I've found "cunning" armors that add to PER and AGI. I don't see as how it needs to be one over the other. I prefer to call it a "VATS build"

[Heimdall313]

Rifleman is super versatile for any character. Shotguns, semi-auto combat rifle, sniper rifles.
I like gunslinger a lot as well, the disarm is hilarious with Deliverer and a magnum is always good damage. Pistols are very lightweight for survival and take less resources to upgrade, as well as being brutal in VATS. Main issue for sniping is you can't put a silencer on a magnum without modding. Playing through with Gunslinger and melee right now.

[Protoman]

The only thing I dislike about the Deliverer is that it looks rather goofy when you use VATS while in Power Armor.

[ghpstage]

In terms of what you can do with the guns, there isn't much difference between any of the gunslinger, commando or rifleman groups. All have weapons that will give a decent enough performance in any of VATS, sneak attacks (sniping), in general use or while hip firing, provided you pick the right parts.

But there is a difference in the quality of the weapons available. Gunslinger brings up the rear here with its lack of serious high tier weaponry.

[Aᴘᴘʟᴇᴄᴏʀɴ]

Originally posted by Protoman:

- Handmade Rifle: it's a weapon from the Nuka-World DLC. I don't know what they were thinking when they made this.

i'd prefer the Rad Rifle from Far Harbor DLC, bcs it uses .45s and ammo is abundant. the Handmade Rifle are good, but the 7.62 is only in Nukaworld. having to return to refill is not a perk.

[Zotliatlicor]

Dont bother with Gunslinger or Rifleman until you have leveled up quite a bit. It is far better to take Gun Nut and just see what the game throws at you. There are so many good rifles and equally so many good pitols in the game.

But each single perk point is better spent on Gun nut first, then a weapon speciality second when it comes to damage output.

You may plan for a Gunslinger build and find awesome Legendary Rifles, or vice versa, plan for Rifleman / Sniper and get really cool pistols.

If you know where to buy the in-game weapons, you can always make a bee-hive for those, but where is the fun in that ?

[Aᴘᴘʟᴇᴄᴏʀɴ]

Originally posted by Zotliatlicor:

It is far better to take Gun Nut and just see what the game throws at you.

If you know where to buy the in-game weapons, you can always make a bee-hive for those, but where is the fun in that ?

or . . . you can loot guns from enemies and remove the mods from their guns rather than build your own, not worrying about Gun Nut or Science!. this works for Armorer too. just saying . . .

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by Applecorn:

or . . . you can loot guns from enemies and remove the mods from their guns rather than build your own, not worrying about Gun Nut or Science!. this works for Armorer too. just saying . . .

Most of the parts for guns will require you to carry a replacement piece, however. The game doesn't allow you to simply break down a gun into all of its component mod parts, or have a gun that's only partly complete.

[Aᴘᴘʟᴇᴄᴏʀɴ]

Originally posted by DouglasGrave:

Most of the parts for guns will require you to carry a replacement piece, however. The game doesn't allow you to simply break down a gun into all of its component mod parts, or have a gun that's only partly complete.

making a stub barrel, requires 1 screw and 1 piece of steel. removes a long finned barrel, that you can attach to the gun you're already using. you saved yourself 5 adhesives, 3 pieces of aluminum, 6 pieces of copper, and 3 screws - and 2 perks into Gun Nut.

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by Applecorn:

Originally posted by DouglasGrave:

Most of the parts for guns will require you to carry a replacement piece, however. The game doesn't allow you to simply break down a gun into all of its component mod parts, or have a gun that's only partly complete.

making a stub barrel, requires 1 screw and 1 piece of steel. removes a long finned barrel, that you can attach to the gun you're already using. you saved yourself 5 adhesives, 3 pieces of aluminum, 6 pieces of copper, and 3 screws - and 2 perks into Gun Nut.

Yep, just noting that you'll need to have that in order to make the switch.

If you're into glitches, you can also fudge the crafting interface into building mod parts even when you don't meet their requirements, as long as they appear on-screen at the same time as a valid mod part.

[kaffekoppen]

Originally posted by Zotliatlicor:

Dont bother with Gunslinger or Rifleman until you have leveled up quite a bit. It is far better to take Gun Nut and just see what the game throws at you. There are so many good rifles and equally so many good pitols in the game.

Depends on difficulty. I feel like on Very Hard I need every damage perk as well as Scrounger to keep up ammo-wise.

[JobeGardener]

Use the junk jet