Farming Legendary Items

Intro

So after my first playthrough I wanted to play on a harder difficulty and started playing survival. Its hard, and I am really looking to maximize my character, armor, and weapons.

I began testing with the loot drop mechanics of the game to see if there are ways to influence how loot drops by the use of saving and loading. I just wanted to share some of my findings so far. The goal of things findings is to be able to assist with 'farming' of these mobs.

I've also done a little bit of testing with Idiot Savant in order to maximize my XP gain.

Legendary Mobs and Item basics

Legendary Mobs :

- Legendary Mobs are special mobs that spawn within the game with a star next to their name.
- They are stronger then a regular mob, and appear to have a chance to mutate.
- a legendary mob that mutates suddenly has full health, and can really mess up your day. (I don't know if mutation causes any other effects at this point)
- I also think that regular mobs can mutate as well, becoming legendary (? unconfirmed)
- They tend to (but not always) drop a legendary item.



Legendary Mobs are not to be confused with named mobs, which sometimes have special loot, but are usually bosses during the levels. Often they will have a skull marking, which distinguishes them as a much higher level then the player.




Legendary Items :

- Are regularly spawned, randomized items that have a trait
http://gameswiki.net/fallout-4-legendary-weapons-and-armor-effects-detail/ (see below for details)
- they cannot be scrapped, but can be sold for extra caps, or used and modified as normal



Legendary Items are not to be confused with named items, which are pre-placed items with specific names and traits. For example : Eddie's Peace, The Last Minute, Partystarter

Legendary Weapon Effects

Legendary Weapons Effects:

Assassin’s
Effect: 50% more damage against humans

Automatic
Effect: Automatic fire mode

Berserker’s
Effect: More damage the lower your damage resistance is

Bloodied
Effect: More damage the lower your health is

Cavalier’s
Effect: 15% less damage while blocking or sprinting

Crippling
Effect: 50% more limb damage

Enraging
Effect: Critical hits cause target to frenzy

Explosive
Effect: Bullets explode on impact doing 15 area effect damage

Exterminator’s
Effect: 50% more damage against Mirelurks and bugs.

Freezing
Effect: 10 points cryo damage and will freeze targets on critical hits

Furious
Effect: Damage increase after each hit on same target

Ghoul Slayer’s
Effect: 50% more damage against Ghouls

Hunter’s
Effect: 50% more damage against animals

Incendiary
Effect: Sets target on fire for 15 points of damage

Instigating
Effect: 2x damage if the target is at full health

Irradiated
Effect: 50 points additional radiation damage

Junkie’s
Effect: Damage increase more withdrawal affects you are suffering

Kneecapper
Effect: 20% chance to cripple the target’s leg

Lucky Weapon
Effect: Critical shots do double damage and the critical meter fills 15% faster

Medic’s
Effect: Heals targets instead of hurting them

Mutant Slayer’s
Effect: 50% more damage against Super Mutants

Never Ending
Effect: Unlimited ammo capacity

Nimble
Effect: 75% faster movement while aiming

Nocturnal
Effect: Does increasing amounts of damage as the night grows longer and less damage during
the day

Penetrating
Effect: Ignores 30% of the target’s damage and energy resistance

Plasma Infused
Effect: Adds 10 points of energy damage and can turn enemies into goo

Poisoner’s
Effect: Target is poisoned for 10 seconds

Powerful
Effect: Provides 25% more damage

Quickdraw
Effect: Costs 25% fewer Action Points

Rapid
Effect: Provides 25% faster fire rate, 15% faster reload

Relentless
Effect: Refills your Action Points on a critical hit

Sentinel’s
Effect: 15% less damage while standing and not moving

Staggering
Effect: Chance to stagger on hit

Stalker’s
Effect: If you are not yet in combat, increases VATS accuracy but costs more AP

Troubleshooter’s
Effect: Does 50% more damage against robots.

Two Shot
Effect: Shoots an additional projectile

VATS Enhanced
Effect: Improved VATS hit chance, 25% less Action Point cost

VATS Enhanced
Effect: 40% less Action Point cost

Violent
Effect: Deals +25% damage and limb damage, but has more recoil

Wounding
Effect: Targets bleed for 25 points of additional damage

Legendary Armor Effects

Legendary Armors Effects:

Cunning
Effect: Agility +1, Perception +1

V.A.T.S. Enhanced
Effect: 10% reduction in Action Point costs in V.A.T.S.

Powered
Effect: Increases Action Point refresh speed

Chameleon
Effect: Hard to detect while sneaking and not moving

Sharp
Effect: Charisma +1, Intelligence +1

Duelist’s
Effect: 10% chance to disarm melee attacker on hit

Freefall
Effect: No falling damage

Cavalier’s
Effect: 15% reduces damage while blocking or sprinting

Titan’s
Effect: 15 % reduces damage while standing and not moving

Hunter’s
Effect: 15% reduces damage from animals

Exterminator’s
Effect: 15% reduces damage from Mirelurks and bugs

Ghoul Slayer’s
Effect: 15% reduces damage from Ghouls

Assassin’s
Effect: 15% reduces damage from humans

Troubleshooter’s
Effect: 15% reduces damage from robots
Mutant Slayer’s

Effect: 15% reduces damage from Super Mutants

Acrobat’s
Effect: 50% reduces damage from falling

Safecracker’s
Effect: Increases size of sweet spot while picking locks.

Martyr’s
Effect: Temporarily slows time during combat when you are at 20% or less Health

Lucky
Effect: Luck +2.

Herbalist’s
Effect: +25 poison resistance

Punishing
Effect: Reflects 10% of melee damage back on attacker

Bolstering
Effect: Grants increasing energy and damage resistance the lower your Health (up to +35)

Sprinter’s
Effect: Increases wearer’s movement speed by 15%

Fortifying
Effect: Strength +1, Endurance +1

Low Weight
Effect: Low carry weight

Almost Unbreakable
Effect: Quadruples durability

Legendary Mob Testing

Legendary Mobs tend to spawn in the same level. The number and amount of them is supposedly dependant on the difficulty level played, where higher difficulty levels have more legendary mobs spawning.

A list has been compiled of several legendary mob locations by http://www.gamersheroes.com/ :
http://www.gamersheroes.com/game-guides/fallout-4-legendary-creature-location-guide/

However I have tested some of these locations and found the following :
- Sometimes no legendary mob will appear at all, and the locations within specific rooms or areas can be random.
- the legendary mob can also have random size/appearance when compared to other similar mobs.

- entering a level through a loading doorway appears to set the amount and nature of the mobs (legendary or not and location)
- reloading when inside a level does not change the amount or nature of the mobs.

To summarize, if you go through a level looking for a specific mob and it is not present, you must load to a save from before you entered the level. Leaving the level will likely not reset the mobs (untested)

So you have found a legendary mob, now what?

Legendary Item Testing

So from my testing I have made the following observations about loot drops from legendary mobs.

- Once a level is loaded, a legendary mob is set with a specific type or weapon or armor piece with a random trait.

- saving just prior to confronting a legendary mob and reloading does not reset the type of item or trait. You will continue to loot the exact same item with exact same trait.

- If you save after entering the level, and the travel through the level to kill the mob, and then re-load the game to the earlier save when you first entered, the trait appears to randomize, but not the item type.

- completely re-loading the instance from an earlier save outside of the level will make the legendary mob have a different piece of equipement however this is just as likely to cause the mob to disappear, or move within the level to a different location.

How to Farm Legendary Items

Step 1 : Identify a spot that a legendary mob spawns within a level.

Step 2 : Continually re-load the instance until the mob appears and drops a specific type or armor or weapon that you want.

Step 3 : Continually re-load from the start of the instance to randomize the trait of the item.

Conclusion

To conclude farming items in Fallout 4 is tedious and annoying.

One of the reasons for this is because the list of randomized traits is extensive. For example to get a specific armor trait, each time is a 1 in 27 chance, each time you reload. It can take a significant amount of time to find the right combination of item and weapon. It is not impossible, just VERY time consuming.

For example while attempting to find, locate, and farm the above pictured radroach, it took me an hour or so to complete the process to a point where the armor I selected had a useful trait for me. I went in trying to find a specific trait (chameleon) and ended up with the most useful one for me (lucky)

I'll add more at some point, but these are my findings so far. Its almost not worth it, and very tedious.

If anyone has been able to duplicate these tests, or has any other things to add let me know

Re-Loading and Idiot Savant

Another area in which I've done some testing, is the use of Idiot Savant to level faster. You can, in a burst, gain 3x or 5x the usual XP.

When handing in a quest, quicksave right before you complete the quest and get the experience. By re-loading, you can repeat and attempt to get Idiot Savant to work. Sometimes it takes awhile, but the benefits can be very great.

My testing shows that Idiot Savant appears is determined every time XP is gained, and is not pre-determined in any way. Every time the game is re-loaded, you have a chance to gain the extra XP.

Example, handing in a quest netting 350xp, will result in 1750xp, resulting in nearly 2 full level's worth. (A full level appears to be about 1000xp).

[Fruitcakez69]

aint readin allat but thanks

[evilbeefmarine]

lol your solution is to save scum? tldr just reload the save from the begining of the cell

[nosaubi]

thats just sad

[Onion of Ohio]

I'm new to the game but my buddy who has played it since release has a "penetrating" boxing glove

I wish I was making this up

[Jaybo]

Every legendary weapon effect or armor is listed. So conceivably every item is already there, just without the weapon or armor piece. For example you could have a Assasin's Combat shotgun, or a Beserker's Combat shotgun, and so on. Unless you are talking about named items, which is not the point of this guide.

[GlutenFreeBaguette]

Can you list every legendary item name?

[[HAN]Playmaker]

It's actually a very good guide. I'm using the same method too, and almost have every legendary weapon i want. I just don't understand why this guide is so underrated.

[Jaybo]

Yeah I don't know much about the damage multipliers and how the formulas work and the order.

[<color=#CD3210>Lunatic]

I also looted a combat shotgun with unlimited magazine capacity, to be fair, it's not that good, it's just reloading, it's would be far more effective for fatmans and launchers. I also have a .45 semi rifle modded for mid range combat with the 'explosive' affix, and it's set on 128dmg + 15 dmg, and that has a slight aoe, so it's works well as a crowd control weapon, and with the suppressor, i can use the explosion to raise enemy awareness when i'm sneaking, without luring them to the supposed source of the fired shot, they will instead just roam the area that the explosion took place. very effective weapon, finally 'plasma infused' is one of the best, because any enemy that is goofied, drops nuclear materials

[<color=#CD3210>Lunatic]

Also i was lucky enough to finally come across a hunting rifle with Instigating, i love it. I mdoified it into a full marksman rifle with suppressor, and named it 'One Shot Kill' the original damage is 148, so now it's 296 versus enemies with full health, and then it's 4.5x for sneak attack's, pretty perfect. But i must admit that i think that 'Two Shot' is far more effective, considering that it's basically the same affix, without the full health requirement.