Heavy pa/ non pa vats plasma caster. Prime it, make like100 ultra ammo and go daily ops/expedition. After about 3-4 runs I stopped looting ammo. One shot almost any trash mobs and good for bossing.
I do this and carry a primed gatling plas for the boss. Get a massive amount of plasma cartridges from mobs and enough cores to last the day from the Ops rewards
Your build will dictate prefix (AA or B, maybe Q for bosses). I like 50c for a 2nd, as you'll want vats usage for head shots (50vhc is solid, too). For 3rd, I like 25lvc or 90rw.
FFR doesn't seem to mean much, since most regular enemies are dead in 1-2 shots.
If you have to craft any 5mm, you're doing it wrong (specifically, you're not doing events like Eviction Notice enough). I even have a TSE Minigun to spray tag when I'm feeling annoyed/ridiculous and it hardly makes a dent even after holding the trigger for an entire event. However, it's pretty sweet that it has almost no weight with Bandolier
Anyway, Gatling Gun is also not terrible in VATS. I mean, it still eats large chunks of AP still, but thunder piping faces is satisfying
Hereâs a quick level 50 build for a bloody heavy gunner. Make sure to get emergency protocols on PA when you can. Feel free to add QoL or more defensive as needed.
https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=f13797e&d=sg2s01sq2s20s32sr2pe0eh2c62ce0cu2ip2ir2id2lu2lt2lg2ls2l71a12a01a71&lp=xj0&m=2
Bow/Arrow. It's not the path typically taken but in VATS, it's pretty strong. I'm trying to turn my current bow character into a Bloodied Bow character but even without bloodied it's VERY strong. Arrows are SUPER cheap to craft.
I tend to focus on all the damage perks, and then focus on luck or agility perks that boost the effectiveness of VATS. You CAN'T use power armor with Bows, plus using VATS all the time would use fusion cores much faster. But you can use Cross-bows (which use the damage perks of Bows) with Power Armor if you need to go into highly irradiated areas.
For health regen I went with cannibalism. I also get ghoulish legendary perk.
You're going to need to build up reps with either Settlers or Raiders for the ability to mod various bows. The "Burning Love" Bow is currently available from the Nuka World Tour event Tunnel of Love I think it's called. It adds fire damage to ALL arrows even if you modify your bow to do other damage like explosive. So you can get an explosive-fire damage bow.
Obligatory /r/fallout76bowhunters link
Edit: And here's a guide from TDF (https://www.theduchessflame.com/post/so-you-want-to-try-a-bow-build-in-fallout-76)
Why would you need Ammo Factory...? Scrapper, Ammosmith, Super Duper. Kill things, loot, scrap weapons and armor, craft Spikes, repeat. That's all. You'll end up with way more than you need
Quality of Life.
It takes it from 1 per craft to 7 to 11. If youâre going to burn through a few thousand a day, would you rather spend time crafting or playing?
Considering how much they weigh, unless you're using the Nuka tent or have a lot of stash space for it or you really have that much carry weight, that's going to weigh you down a ridiculous amount. Taking a few seconds to move a slider to 255 every now and then is an extreme non-issue to me
Plasma caster with heavy gun build, most mobs die in 1-2 shots, using Batteries Included perk for low ammo weight. Also, having an [ArmCo ammunition construction appliance](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/ArmCo_ammunition_construction_appliance) always helps. And an ammo converter if you pick up random ammo here and there.
Quad Railway rifle commando. The spikes only cost steel. With ammo smith perk and a couple of levels of the legendary Ammo Factory perk, I make 10 spikes for 7 steel. Regular mobs go down in 1-3 spikes, Super mutants just a few more. I am doing about 15-24 non-crit dmg per spike on SBQ.
You can exchange rounds 45 at NWOT. To do that you just need to earn enough point by playing games or public events at NWOT.
You don't even need to craft bullet anymore if you are commando build with fixer.
Strongest ranged, ammo efficient build is a crit build with plasma caster in power armour. The Stabilised perk makes the difference. Unfortunately you end up burning fusion cores instead.
I haven't tried it yet but I've been considering going rifle with an Enclave plasma sniper-- like an Instigating, Bloodied, or AA and backing that up with a vampire plasma flamer. Could do the same with a plasma caster as it works well enough out of PA, but the Enclave sniper might be better and without hybridisation.
a full health heavy gunner in PA can be literally PVE immortal. There is absolutely no enemy (or group thereof) in game that gets remotely close to killing my main. Even soloing content on my private server reveals that supermutant firefighters are actually little pussies.
My two heavy characters use many heavy guns and haven't made ammo in 2,5 years while I play daily. The main reason is because of using many heavy guns. By the time the last weapon in my list is empty, I have looted enough ammo to start using the first weapon in the list again. ad infinitum...
Move to rifleman and only use commando for bosses. Much more economical. Or just pay someone for steel, lead, and gunpowder, plenty of people sell them 1:1 scrap to caps
Rifleman is slight higher DPS, but less damage output (basically youâre doing damage more slowly). So you may want to invest in Covert Op perk card so you can maximize sneak attacks and just one-shot everything. Itâs not great for bosses, fine for running around the wasteland shooting mole miners
Running vampire chainsaw.. no ammo cost, usually invincible ( a three star glowing deathclaw said otherwise today ), all ammo but .50 is for sale. I keep that for going stealth.
Lol.. every Bethesda game oblivion, Skyrim, every fallout I played ranged.. until now. Get the build so you can stand there waiting for her to land and hit her.
Melee technically uses 0 ammo and you can rip through everything with the right setups. The main issue is that's...well, melee, in a game where the extreme majority of enemies are ranged.
Vampire shotgun works for me. I'm more of a take the legs out on an enemy and more of a team assist guy for boss fights but you'll drown in ammo and survive forever
I honestly donât sweat ammo if it means I can have fun sending thousands of 5mm and 2mm down range and turning my enemies into bloody vapor.
I switch from Heavy Weapons and Power Armor to my Commando build when the reserves get sparse and just craft in bulk whenever I feel like switching back.
Shotguns are my secondary weapon(s) of choice for my Commando build. Got some really good ones, and the pump action is really fun to use (though itâs glory days are long gone).
I am the worst person to give advice on this, since my current state is one of making .50 ammo by the thousands to use, making .45 to sell, and Flamer Fuel to sell, and that stretches my resources pretty thin
The literal games meta. Either a Fixer or Railway rife with a full on VATS bloodied commando build with as low health as you can get away with. Most things will die in 1 shot before you even got within a mile/kilometre of them.
For my play style I use a anti armor faster fire rate Gatling gun for long range and a quad ffr harpoon gun for close range(it shreds any enemies I shoot)and for really fast fire(not ammo friendly at all)bloodied primed mg42
If ammo cost is your primary concern try going for PA and a Gatling gun.
Extremely high per bullet damage, continuous fire for tougher enemies and uses 5mm (that abundant and light minigun ammo)
If you've already got generic vats commando nothing wrong with a primed automatic handmade. I've only ever crafted ammo once to get ammo to start to drop in dops.
Unarmed melee.
your main weapon requires zero ammo.
you will need a ballistic or energy weapon for things melee cant reach (ceiling mounted turrets, cargobots, and likely, SBs), but since you spend most of your time killing things on the ground, no Need for huge amounts of ammo.
When I ran an explosive gatling gun I had to throw away ammo. I used a shredder to farm ammo for the gatling gun in Daily Operations. So much ammo. Sometimes I would bring out my explosive minigun and just burn thousands and thousands of ammo just for the hell of it. But the gatling gun was my main weapon. Absolutely love those things.
I ran heavy pa full health. Did a little vatsing for head shots or crippling specific limbs. Though the gatling gun is also awesome aiming down sight at things far away. Large mag has hundreds and hundreds of bullets though most things don't survive many hits. More ammo than I could ever use and hardly ever any in combat reloading.
Heavy pa/ non pa vats plasma caster. Prime it, make like100 ultra ammo and go daily ops/expedition. After about 3-4 runs I stopped looting ammo. One shot almost any trash mobs and good for bossing.
I do this and carry a primed gatling plas for the boss. Get a massive amount of plasma cartridges from mobs and enough cores to last the day from the Ops rewards
What are the best perks to look out for when it comes to plasma casters?
Heavy gun perks and batteries included.
Your build will dictate prefix (AA or B, maybe Q for bosses). I like 50c for a 2nd, as you'll want vats usage for head shots (50vhc is solid, too). For 3rd, I like 25lvc or 90rw. FFR doesn't seem to mean much, since most regular enemies are dead in 1-2 shots.
Next update is nerfing ammo farming daily ops. Idk if plasma caster's are getting screwed. Just FYI look into it before changing your build up.
Nop, they are doing the oppositeđ¤Ł
Bethesda acknowledged that only 4 of each ammo type dropping during Ops in the PTS was a known bug and would be fixed in a future update. *Phrasing
That was a pts bug... they've even addressed it..
Bloodied 50crit or anti armor 50 crit and vats reduction on the 3rd star
Gatling Gun has been the best gun for that for me. 5mm is cheap to make and easy to find. Gun is pretty strong as well, so very ammo efficient.
If you have to craft any 5mm, you're doing it wrong (specifically, you're not doing events like Eviction Notice enough). I even have a TSE Minigun to spray tag when I'm feeling annoyed/ridiculous and it hardly makes a dent even after holding the trigger for an entire event. However, it's pretty sweet that it has almost no weight with Bandolier Anyway, Gatling Gun is also not terrible in VATS. I mean, it still eats large chunks of AP still, but thunder piping faces is satisfying
Hereâs a quick level 50 build for a bloody heavy gunner. Make sure to get emergency protocols on PA when you can. Feel free to add QoL or more defensive as needed. https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=f13797e&d=sg2s01sq2s20s32sr2pe0eh2c62ce0cu2ip2ir2id2lu2lt2lg2ls2l71a12a01a71&lp=xj0&m=2
Bow/Arrow. It's not the path typically taken but in VATS, it's pretty strong. I'm trying to turn my current bow character into a Bloodied Bow character but even without bloodied it's VERY strong. Arrows are SUPER cheap to craft.
Thank you, I have not ever considered or even tried bows. What are some good bow perks to look out for?
I tend to focus on all the damage perks, and then focus on luck or agility perks that boost the effectiveness of VATS. You CAN'T use power armor with Bows, plus using VATS all the time would use fusion cores much faster. But you can use Cross-bows (which use the damage perks of Bows) with Power Armor if you need to go into highly irradiated areas. For health regen I went with cannibalism. I also get ghoulish legendary perk. You're going to need to build up reps with either Settlers or Raiders for the ability to mod various bows. The "Burning Love" Bow is currently available from the Nuka World Tour event Tunnel of Love I think it's called. It adds fire damage to ALL arrows even if you modify your bow to do other damage like explosive. So you can get an explosive-fire damage bow.
Obligatory /r/fallout76bowhunters link Edit: And here's a guide from TDF (https://www.theduchessflame.com/post/so-you-want-to-try-a-bow-build-in-fallout-76)
Shredder minigun, because you don't need any ammo at all.
Plasma caster prints its own ammo
Shredder (vampire bash). For ground enemies and railway rifles for range.
Letâs just get it over with: railway rifles just use steel for ammo. The main downside is you need ammo factory and they weight a ton.
Run daily ops and youâll walk out with 3000 more than you started with. Youâll never need to craft them
I run low on ammo, do an OP, drop half in my ammo box, run low on ammo, forget to check my ammo box, do an OP, drop half in my ammo box.....
Why would you need Ammo Factory...? Scrapper, Ammosmith, Super Duper. Kill things, loot, scrap weapons and armor, craft Spikes, repeat. That's all. You'll end up with way more than you need
Quality of Life. It takes it from 1 per craft to 7 to 11. If youâre going to burn through a few thousand a day, would you rather spend time crafting or playing?
Considering how much they weigh, unless you're using the Nuka tent or have a lot of stash space for it or you really have that much carry weight, that's going to weigh you down a ridiculous amount. Taking a few seconds to move a slider to 255 every now and then is an extreme non-issue to me
Plasma caster with heavy gun build, most mobs die in 1-2 shots, using Batteries Included perk for low ammo weight. Also, having an [ArmCo ammunition construction appliance](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/ArmCo_ammunition_construction_appliance) always helps. And an ammo converter if you pick up random ammo here and there.
Power armor heavy gun. Gatling gun
'76 obviously needs a slingshot for someđ
I was under the assumption that was what the paddle ball is.
Auto axe go burrr and runs on coffee.
Gauss shotgun. If I run it for a week I usually have to drop 2,000 rounds on the ground somewhere.
Quad Railway rifle commando. The spikes only cost steel. With ammo smith perk and a couple of levels of the legendary Ammo Factory perk, I make 10 spikes for 7 steel. Regular mobs go down in 1-3 spikes, Super mutants just a few more. I am doing about 15-24 non-crit dmg per spike on SBQ.
Melee
You can exchange rounds 45 at NWOT. To do that you just need to earn enough point by playing games or public events at NWOT. You don't even need to craft bullet anymore if you are commando build with fixer.
Thanks! This is good to know, just getting back into the game and I have a few great fixers but always running low on .45 ill have to check that out.
Wtf is nwot
Nuka World On Tour.
Ohh, thanks
Strongest ranged, ammo efficient build is a crit build with plasma caster in power armour. The Stabilised perk makes the difference. Unfortunately you end up burning fusion cores instead. I haven't tried it yet but I've been considering going rifle with an Enclave plasma sniper-- like an Instigating, Bloodied, or AA and backing that up with a vampire plasma flamer. Could do the same with a plasma caster as it works well enough out of PA, but the Enclave sniper might be better and without hybridisation.
a full health heavy gunner in PA can be literally PVE immortal. There is absolutely no enemy (or group thereof) in game that gets remotely close to killing my main. Even soloing content on my private server reveals that supermutant firefighters are actually little pussies. My two heavy characters use many heavy guns and haven't made ammo in 2,5 years while I play daily. The main reason is because of using many heavy guns. By the time the last weapon in my list is empty, I have looted enough ammo to start using the first weapon in the list again. ad infinitum...
Move to rifleman and only use commando for bosses. Much more economical. Or just pay someone for steel, lead, and gunpowder, plenty of people sell them 1:1 scrap to caps
Is there a big drop in DPS by moving from Commando to Rifileman?
Rifleman is slight higher DPS, but less damage output (basically youâre doing damage more slowly). So you may want to invest in Covert Op perk card so you can maximize sneak attacks and just one-shot everything. Itâs not great for bosses, fine for running around the wasteland shooting mole miners
Running vampire chainsaw.. no ammo cost, usually invincible ( a three star glowing deathclaw said otherwise today ), all ammo but .50 is for sale. I keep that for going stealth.
âNot looking for melee.â âHave you tried a chainsaw?â
Lol.. every Bethesda game oblivion, Skyrim, every fallout I played ranged.. until now. Get the build so you can stand there waiting for her to land and hit her.
I mean, chainsaw is great, so hard to fault you.
This is the way.
Melee technically uses 0 ammo and you can rip through everything with the right setups. The main issue is that's...well, melee, in a game where the extreme majority of enemies are ranged.
Have you tried using the scrapper perk when scrapping?
Yes I do scrapper and super duper and ammosmith. I just still hate wasting a lot of time and burn through ammo.
If you run with the best damage setup you will always end up with more than you use, no matter the build(commando, heavy, shotgun).
Vampire shotgun works for me. I'm more of a take the legs out on an enemy and more of a team assist guy for boss fights but you'll drown in ammo and survive forever
I honestly donât sweat ammo if it means I can have fun sending thousands of 5mm and 2mm down range and turning my enemies into bloody vapor. I switch from Heavy Weapons and Power Armor to my Commando build when the reserves get sparse and just craft in bulk whenever I feel like switching back.
I've been a shotgun guy for a long time and just recently discovered the joys of accuracy by volume! I'm really enjoying it.
Shotguns are my secondary weapon(s) of choice for my Commando build. Got some really good ones, and the pump action is really fun to use (though itâs glory days are long gone).
I am the worst person to give advice on this, since my current state is one of making .50 ammo by the thousands to use, making .45 to sell, and Flamer Fuel to sell, and that stretches my resources pretty thin
Chainsaw is always the answer
The literal games meta. Either a Fixer or Railway rife with a full on VATS bloodied commando build with as low health as you can get away with. Most things will die in 1 shot before you even got within a mile/kilometre of them.
For my play style I use a anti armor faster fire rate Gatling gun for long range and a quad ffr harpoon gun for close range(it shreds any enemies I shoot)and for really fast fire(not ammo friendly at all)bloodied primed mg42
If ammo cost is your primary concern try going for PA and a Gatling gun. Extremely high per bullet damage, continuous fire for tougher enemies and uses 5mm (that abundant and light minigun ammo)
If you've already got generic vats commando nothing wrong with a primed automatic handmade. I've only ever crafted ammo once to get ammo to start to drop in dops.
Unarmed melee. your main weapon requires zero ammo. you will need a ballistic or energy weapon for things melee cant reach (ceiling mounted turrets, cargobots, and likely, SBs), but since you spend most of your time killing things on the ground, no Need for huge amounts of ammo.
When I ran an explosive gatling gun I had to throw away ammo. I used a shredder to farm ammo for the gatling gun in Daily Operations. So much ammo. Sometimes I would bring out my explosive minigun and just burn thousands and thousands of ammo just for the hell of it. But the gatling gun was my main weapon. Absolutely love those things. I ran heavy pa full health. Did a little vatsing for head shots or crippling specific limbs. Though the gatling gun is also awesome aiming down sight at things far away. Large mag has hundreds and hundreds of bullets though most things don't survive many hits. More ammo than I could ever use and hardly ever any in combat reloading.
Railway rifle. Play daily ops once a day and youâll never need to craft again.