Enemies that are only damaged by critical hits?

[MeyerX]

Playing on Normal, only the unofficial Patch Mod. Caracter at Lvl 53

I run into Bilge on the Far Harbor Island. He seemed immune to any damage, ballistic or energy or radiation, unless I did a Critical Shot at him. Luckily I had saved a few crits and could then quickly get two more to finish him off. But Even with that guys health bar below 25% (estimate) my normal shots seemed to do no damage.

is this a thing? Crit Only Enemies?

Or is this due to the high (?) level of my character?

[steventirey]

No, there is no such thing as an enemy requiring critical hits to damage. The only difference between a normal hit and a critical hit (besides a critical hit normally requiring VATS and being a guaranteed hit) is that critical hits deal additional damage.

There are some enemies where hitting certain spots deals a lot more damage (and even more damage with a crit) such as targeting the fusion cores on a sentry bot, but no enemies where a crit is necessary to damage them at all.

[DouglasGrave]

The only similar case that comes to mind is the arena fight with Colter in the Nuka World DLC. There, he is typically impossible to damage, but critical hits can bypass his shield, aside from the standard quest way to temporarily disable it.

It's not otherwise a normal behaviour in the game.

[Charon]

Maybe your weapon damage is just too low? Most high level npc with good armor are blessed with the power of bullet sponge.

[worm_master]

There's a similar issue in New Vegas, when fighting Ulysses's? he seems to shrug of rocket attacks, AM guns, Gatling lasers, an every weapon u can name. YET if u get him unawares with a explosive .50 he dies.

I've never figured out WHY u cant seem to damage him directly.

[Bored Peon]

A critical hit in VATS always hits. There could have been something obstructing your non-critical shots.

[MeyerX]

Ok, thanks, good to know all of that.

I reloaded to a point before I run into that guy and this time it was easy. One Crit with the cranked Musket and then some other weapon to finish him off. Nothing weird with the damage this time

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by MeyerX:

Ok, thanks, good to know all of that.

I reloaded to a point before I run into that guy and this time it was easy. One Crit with the cranked Musket and then some other weapon to finish him off. Nothing weird with the damage this time

All energy weapons in the game, lasers, gauss rifles, plasma, etc have issues where the slightest piece of environment can cause their shots to be blocked. It happens far more than your standard ballistic rifles. One of the reasons I refuse to use them in Fallout 4.

So basically you were bypassing the object using the special ability critical that always hits.

I cannot count how many times a bush, railing, shrub, branch, etc ate my gauss rifle shots in Fallout 4 while playing. While in Fallout 76 I have no issues with the gauss rifle there.