Most Effective Settler/Provisioner Weapons?

[=яενєηąŋŧ=]

Hey, does anyone have any preference for Settler/Provisioner weapons? Since they don't use ammo I've been giving them automatic variants of weapons which definitely makes them better as their accuracy seems to be garbage with single-shot, but I haven't found one yet through experimenting that I can say is the best. So far:

Assault Rifles seem to be better than Combat Rifles at any range.

Laser Rifles seem to be better than Plasma Rifles at medium or longer range, but since they Leeroy Jenkins into any fight Plasma Rifles seem to win out overall.

My favorites, then, are Automatic Assault Rifles or Automatic Plasma Rifles. Haven't noticed much difference with other mods. Can anyone confirm?

Haven't tried them with any kind of heavy weapon or with shotguns/scatter lasers/plasmacasters, either.

[Tarrasque]

Wait if they don't use ammo, couldn't you just give them all fatmans. That would be interesting.

[Brutal Deluxe]

Sincc they dont use ammo?

Ive checked my settlers after a defense incident and they are defintely cheing through the ammo stocks ive supplied them with.

Can anyone else confirm this please?

That would be like assuming your companions dont use ammo when they most assuredly do...

[Neme]

Yeah, I'll give them a "Fatman"

[Dodece]

Originally posted by Painbringer:

Sincc they dont use ammo?

Ive checked my settlers after a defense incident and they are defintely cheing through the ammo stocks ive supplied them with.

Can anyone else confirm this please?

That would be like assuming your companions dont use ammo when they most assuredly do...

Perhaps it is a bug, or perhaps it is working as intended. Who can say for certain with this game, but all you need to give them is one bullet, and that one bullet will last forever. They will use up all of the other bullets you give them, but that last bullet lasts forever. So when you give them a weapon and ammunition. You just give them one of the ammunition. It is a well know trick at this point.

[ImHelping]

I'd say Doube Barrel Shotguns for lowest investment to end result. I've seen a non essetial NPCs take out a legendary mirelurk with one in the past, even if that was early game. They don't take nearly as many parts to trick out as most later game guns (long barrel also helps a lot, from my personal use experience), and are somewhat common as enemy drops even past level 50.

Remember, Settlers don't have all your combat perks. So even the most tricked out weapons will be basically half damage in their hands compared to what you are used to.

So even if you put in the resource intensive investment to give everyone in your settlement the best lasers possible, they are still going to only land it's default damage, WHEN they hit. (And settler automatic weapons will suffer as enemy DT rises, and they lack the perks to back it up).

For maximum comedy give infinite resources, I'd say give everyone a super sledge. It will be like watching a game of post appocolyptic whack a mole.

Given infinite resources and you want them to instantly kill the ♥♥♥♥ out of themselves and others with nowhere near as much collateral damage as explosives? Give them plasma flamers.

Plasma flamers are freaking insane, despite being bad in VATS. Seriously, enemies I can kill in 0.3 seconds realtime plasma flamer fire, will barely take half their health in damage if I VATS crit with my flamer. WTF.

[magnetmannen WW3]

2 handgrenades.

[=яενєηąŋŧ=]

It seems like they DO use ammo for fatmans and missile launchers, but so do standard NPCs out in the wild. All other ammo, including grenades, seems infinite.

My provisioners are now carrying plasma grenades and automatic plasma rifles. They're pretty much desolating every enemy camp they come across, especially because they're essential.

[=яενєηąŋŧ=]

Surprised I didn't think of it earlier, but... HOLY CRAP GIVE THEM GAUSS RIFLES!!!!

[Mithrals]

Fatman is the only weapon that the settlers cant get infinite ammo with if i remember correct.

[Veya]

Originally posted by =яενєηąŋŧ=:

Surprised I didn't think of it earlier, but... HOLY CRAP GIVE THEM GAUSS RIFLES!!!!

Too low fire rate, AI needs something a little faster to make up for the incredible lack of accuracy.

Same reason you NEVER give a settle a Laser Musket, they manage to be worse than Preston with those.

[Kameraden]

Long range weapons work well personally, high accuracy and such. 50+ Damage per shot semi auto weapons. Combat Rifles and Laser Rifles. Spam Spam Spam. Since you have so many settlers volumn of fire with good reach without losing damage. Mini gun for example high volumn but kind of short range, so you're better off giving them like a fully out Assault rifle with like 200+ range.

[SeriousCCIE]

I usually strip them naked and give them stun batons and knuckles. Sometimes a machete if I give them a bandana as well. I was hoping for a New Amazon sort of theming, but my Mr Handys wearing bowlers floating around sort of ruined the effect.

[Megumeru]

Everyone stationed in my castle are armed with my own customized automatic laser rifle with hardened capacitors, fine-tuned beam focuser, and a full stock. All are equipped with combat armors and army fatigues--one is carrying a missile launcer and two got a long-barrel automatic assault rifle.

Took a while to get that setup, but you can imagine how well it went when 'defend the castle' quest pops up

[Emmental]

I gave an upgraded laser rifle to one of my settlers with no ammo. In a fight he pulls out a pipe pistol. Gave him fusion cells and he uses the laser rifle. Same with companions, however if a companion picks a weapon up themselves instead of you giving it to them it seems to have infinite ammo.

[CrUsHeR]

Mostly for style, but also quite effective:

Full set of Combat Armor
Gunner Harness
Yellow Flight Helmet
Stimpack (not sure if they ever use it)
Grenade (ideally Plasma)

And for the weapon, anything seems to work but their grenade spam is the real killer.