Dog, Boomstick & V.A.T.S
Ever wonder why you should get more than a double-barreled shotgun to blast down your foes with the most faithful friend that ever was? This endgame "glass cannon" build might just answer that rhetorical question and even do it in style by reaching the hard limit of 16 queued V.A.T.S commands by stacking Cunning legendary effects and using a V.A.T.S Enhanced Double-barrel shotgun.
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More: Challenge builds, Close Range builds, Endgame builds, Glass Cannon builds, Survival builds
Preface
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Since the latest perk points unlock at level 50, this build comes fully online once level 50 is reached.
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This is a build designed to be played in survival difficulty.
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This is an endgame build. It relies on specific legendary items to work as intended.
We aim to reach the hard limit of 16 queued V.A.T.S commands with a Double-barrel shotgun. Is it stupid? Maybe. Does it sound amazing? To me it does! Below you'll find several entries where I explain my choices of perks, weapon & armor mods.
This build does not support Power Armor, we will need the AP coming out of our legendary armor pieces and their mods.
Starting SPECIAL stats
STR - 5
PER - 1
END - 3
CHR - 3
INT - 1
AGI - 8
LCK - 7
Why start like this?
This stat distribution gives the build a strong AP pool early on as well as a fast critical build-up but sacrifices survivability with a low Endurance. Be warned that sprinting will be extremely costly on our AP because of our low END! Use cover between sprint if possible and allow your AP to come back or you'll have to manually fire the shotgun and suffer the lengthy reload animation without the damage reduction that comes with V.A.T.S.
Eventually, with Dogmeat as our companion of choice, we will have a decent damage reduction via the Attack Dog perk. In addition to the Lone Wanderer powerful damage reduction and the absurd one from V.A.T.S itself, we will be able to survive crazy amount of punishment while giving a severe case of lead poisoning to any and all baddies in our vicinity.
The Core Perks
- Rifleman - Our only weapon is a double-barrel shotgun, which is falling under this perk.
- Better Criticals & Critical Banker - It is a V.A.T.S build, these are mandatory.
- Quick Hands - Getting rid of the reload AP cost in V.A.T.S is a huge boon for this build, shooting a shotgun through V.A.T.S is taxing and we only ever have 2 shotgun shells to cycle through. Every AP counts!
- Lone Wanderer - A staple of survival difficulty, beside the already talked about damage reduction, the carry weight is actually the most wanted effect early on since our ammunition are very heavy.
- Mysterious Stranger - Shotguns have great damage when in range but fall off very quickly even with a long barrel, this perk is our primary way to circumvent the range problem.
The Other Perks
STR
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Armorer - Needed to get the most of our armor as soon as possible, also Railroad's ballistic weave is great for any build but especially for those not using a Power Armor in order to leverage their legendary armor pieces.
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Strong Back - A great QoL perk to have when 12g ammo weighs 0.1 per unit and possibly engage in base building here and there by hauling various junk on foot since we don't have the benefit of supply lines.
END
- Lifegiver - As a low END build, bonus flat HP is great! The passive health regen is another great QoL perk to eventually have as well.
CHR
- Attack Dog - Given our range disadvantage, a more powerful companion is a great thing to have. The last point gives us more damage reduction, it works extremely well alongside the Lone Wanderer own damage reduction.
AGI
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Action Boy/Girl - The quicker our AP come back, the sooner we can defend ourselves.
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Moving Target - Great endgame perk to have when we need to charge into the fray and get in range of our targets, the last point halving sprint AP cost being the best.
LCK
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Scrounger - Given our weapon of choice, this build makes the most of the last point of this perk since we will be reloading a bunch. Great perk to have for bartering as well, ammo is a great commodity to accumulate over time and having access to Strong Back means a higher ammo stock for better trade power.
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Bloody Mess - More damage = Less problem. It's simple like that.
Yes, we have a low INT. But this is a build designed for survival difficulty and I believe that Idiot Savant isn't really needed as every vanquished enemy gives twice as much XP as on regular difficulty. Of course, while an Idiot Savant proc on a quest completion sounds pretty cool (especially early on), we can't really save-scum every chance we get to trigger it and leverage the perk to its full potential. So I prefer to embrace the dumb, have a slower XP progression and put the two points in a QoL perk such as Strong Back that would benefit me more in the long run.
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Strength - More carry weight and unlocks the Strong Back perk to satisfy the loot goblin that lurks within all of us.
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Perception - The only bobblehead really needed for this build to properly function as it unlocks the Rifleman perk.
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Endurance - Gives us more HP, not needed to get Life Giver, our only END perk but highly advised later on because the HP gained from the +1 END is retroactive with all our level up.
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Charisma - Midgame bobblehead, unlocks the Attack Dog perk and coveted lategame damage reduction.
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Intelligence - Pretty useless for us.
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Agility - Endgame bobblehead, unlocks more AP for us to reach the big 16 queued V.A.T.S commands.
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Luck - As long as we wear a LCK headgear piece such as the advised Battered Fedora, this bobblehead is rather useless as it won't particularly help us bank critical hits faster than we already could and is not required for any LCK perks
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Small Guns (Gunner Plaza) - Enhances critical damage of ballistic weapons, great for a ballistic V.A.T.S build.. Which we are!
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Astoundingly Awesome Tales #8 (Vault 114) - Believe it or not, the +5 AP offered by this comic are actually needed to reach the 16 queued V.A.T.S commands!
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Guns & Bullets - The most valuable set of magazines for us, each issue enhances the ballistic critical damage we do.
Companions
Bobbleheads
+1 Perception.
+1 Strength.
+1 Endurance.
+1 Charisma.
+1 Intelligence.
+1 Agility.
+1 Luck.
Plus 25% critical damage with ballistic guns.
Magazines
Gain +5 Action Points.
Ballistic weapons do +50% critical damage.
Quests
Set it here to see what they really contribute.
Effects
Weapons
In order to get up to 16 queued V.A.T.S commands, we need either a V.A.T.S Enhanced (Improved V.A.T.S accuracy and 25% less AP usage) or a more humble Quickdraw (25% less AP usage) legendary effect on our Double-barrel shotgun.
Also, since we haven't got the Gun Nut perk, we will need to salvage the receiver on an already existing shotgun.
Receiver
Advanced Receiver - Best damage for the AP cost in V.A.T.S.
Barrel
Long Barrel - Higher AP cost but a much needed higher range.
Stock
Short Stock - Lower AP cost but comes with higher recoil, which is actually irrelevant for our V.A.T.S build and a footnote on a weapon having two shells to play with.
Sight
Reflex Sight - Greatest AP reduction in V.A.T.S. Mandatory!
Muzzle
None - Muzzles reduce the range of any gun to offer better recoil, it would only hurt us. Do not install one!
The legendary distribution system means we would need to wait for the RNG to bless us with the perfect shotgun. In the meantime, it is possible to come close to the projected AP cost for one V.A.T.S command by either using a Light Frame Receiver or using a Short Barrel. However, it means sacrificing almost half of our damage potential and burning twice the ammo for the former or losing valuable range for the latter.
Both suck but we can kind of overcome both with the use of chems. Went for the Light Frame? Go with Psycho to counteract the damage loss. Went with a Short Barrel? Go with Buffout to boost your END & HP, you can sprint more efficiently and take a bit more damage while you get in range.
10 sec
Improved VATS hit chance, 25% less Action Point cost.
Armor Sets
Clothing
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Headgear - The Battered Fedora can be upgraded with a Ballistic Weave mod and gives us +1 LCK.
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Eyewear - The Operators Goggles are stylish, ever so slightly armored and bumps our PER by 1.
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Underarmor - The Military Fatigues can also be upgraded with a Ballistic Weave mod and gives us a huge +2 AGI bonus!
Armor
Each piece of armor should have a Cunning legendary effect (+1 AGI & +1 PER), the limb armor pieces should have an Ultra-Light Build (+5 AP) mod each to push our AP into obscene territory. The torso has a better selection of mods to install for defense or utility, a Biocommmesh (extended chems duration) or an Asbestos Lining (better energy resistance + immunity to burn damage) are actually preferable there.
The Numbers
A Double-barrel shotgun with our mods but no legendary effect uses 26 AP per shot, while our endgame shotgun uses 18 AP per shot and both won't cost any AP to reload thanks to the Quick Hands perk, so we need a minimum of 288 AP with a legendary shotgun reducing our AP costs to reach the hard limit of 16 V.A.T.S commands while a regular shotgun will never reach the hard limit.
When the Agility bobblehead and You're Special book have been retrieved, our AGI should sit at 10, giving us have a base 160 AP. Enough to queue up to 8 V.A.T.S commands. (6 for a regular shotgun)
Some of our perks add flat AP. Lone Wanderer adds 25 AP, Quick Hands adds 10 AP, Astoundingly Awesome Tales #8 adds 5 AP, all three perks adding 40 to our 160, totalling 200 AP or up to 11 queued V.A.T.S commands. (7 for a regular shotgun)
Our clothing and legendary armor effects give us 7 AGI, adding 70 AP to our 200 totalling 270 or up to 15 queued V.A.T.S commands. (10 for a regular shotgun)
Finally, the 4 Ultra-Light Build mods on our limb armor pieces give us 5 AP per mod or a total of 20 AP to our 270, totalling 290 AP or up to 16 queued V.A.T.S commands. (11 for a regular shotgun)
Of course we would usually burn a few AP by sprinting towards our targets, but we can technically reach this hard limit! Be on the lookout for some Jet Fuel for a sweet AP boost and regeneration maybe?
Power Armor Sets
Build several and switch between them.