When's the earliest I can get something better than a pistol

Makatak

Makatak

First time out of the vault
without having to barter away all of my worldly possessions?

I retried Fallout 2 for the sixth [censored] time last night, with a custom class that has finesse as a perk (see my thread in general fallout discussion). So obviously, I do piss-poor damage with my pistol and I'm too dependent on my dumb-as-dirt companions, Vic and Sulik. I did every quest I could find in Arroyo, Klameth, and the Den and even looked at the guide to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'm close to level 6 and there's hardly anything I can handle past the Den. Fortunately, I was able to survive the trek to Modoc thanks to my high Outdoorsman skill. But its obvious at this point in the game that a pistol bearer + 2 blockheads isn't enough of a fighting force to do things like protecting Brahmin from wolves, or fight off half-a-dozen bandits in the wastelands (I don't think I would have made it without Outdoorsman tagged). Unfortunately guns, ammo, and other things are so much more expensive in this game. And there's no way I could afford the hunting rifle in the Den. So what now?
 
Murdering the store owners in The Den is an easy way to get a good inventory early.
 
ok. Guess that helps. Stole some guns from the sheriff in Redding too. He didn't seem to mind.
 
Killing at least on of the Den merchants is definitely the best way to get yourself going - even my nicest of pacifist characters conveniently find an excuse to remove their gear.

Finesse is going to make the early game very hard unless you invest heavily in your combat skill and make frequent called shots. The real kick to finesse is that its penalty disappears during crits that ignore armor, so unless you are shooting at the eyes to generate criticals, don't bother wasting your AP.
 
ok. so far so good.

But now that I have my car, and completed most things in Modoc, VC, Gecko, Broken Hills, and New Reno, what are some of the better small guns out there? I'm not too happy with the damage output of the combat shotgun or assault rifle. Does the .223 pistol do decent criticals?
 
The .223 pistol or the sniper rifle are highly recommended at this point.
The pistol can be found in various random encounters if I'm not mistaken. There's probably a bit of both at the Sierra Army Depot.
Don't know which merchants sell them, though I'm guessing the gun guy in new reno has them, either in the normal or special stock.
 
NCR and New Reno both sell the .223 pistol/sniper rifle (you might have to gain access to the better "wares").

Also: Keep in mind that burst weapons are going to fall a little short with finesse due to the 30% reduced damage spanning over all of your bullets. Give them to Cassidy and Vic and they should be able to do some decent work with the combat shotgun and assault rifle. Try using called shots with the .44 Magnum/Deagle. You should see heads exploding wildly due to your increased critical chance.
 
If you're playing the RP 2.0 patch and have Science above 50% and a good level of Speech, you can rob the Enclave troopers in the Verti-Assault Encounter for three free Pancor Jackhammers and (I think) a Gauss Pistol.

Good times.
 
Also keep in mind that the assault rifle sucks, and the combat shotgun is only good for a little while after you get it. You'd've had more luck using the .44 Magnum -- I generally use it for an obscenely long time, at least until I get the .223 pistol. Sniper Rifle's a good choice too, especially with mods so you can actually move the screen to see 50 hexes.
 
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