Unarmed Weapons Build | Fallout 76
(QUICK NOTE: These Builds are usable but NOT updated past the Steel Reign update. Until I get a chance to update all the builds, these should be thought of as more of a build starter)
Unarmed Weapons in Fallout 76, although recently nerfed, may still be some of the most powerful weapons you can use. Even though their perks are more limited, and they might seemingly have low damage numbers, unarmed can be built to absolutely decimate your enemies.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
Perk Cards (Solo)
Perk Cards (Team)
Legendary Perk Cards
NukesDragons has a FANTASTIC Fallout 76 Character Builder, and if you’re looking to create a build concept BEFORE you go for the real thing, definitely check out:
Weapons
With Unarmed melee weapons, you’ll want to definitely use some of the higher damage dealing ones, or else you’ll end up feeling as useless as unarmed builds sound. Mole miner gauntlets, meat hooks, and power fists can all be some great damage dealing unarmed weapons to look out for.
BUT, the weapon is only as good as the legendary effects you roll on it. Here are the effects to keep an eye out for!
Legendary Main Effects:
- Bloodied : More Damage the Lower your Health it
- Junkie’s : More Damage the more Addictions you have
- Anti-Armor : Ignores 50% of your enemies Armor
- Instigating: Enemies at full health take double damage
- Furious : Damage Increases every Consecutive Shot
Legendary Major Effects:
- 40% Faster Swing Speed
- 50% Limb Damage
Legendary Minor Effects:
- +1 Strength
- 90% Reduced Weight
- 1 Agility
Armor
With an Unarmed Melee weapons build, you CANNOT use power armor whatsoever, so get that idea right out of your head. Besides, regular armor is typically better for Melee builds anyways, providing you with the chance to roll far more powerful legendary effects that will boost your unarmed damage numbers even higher.
Under Armor
Under armor is a key essential piece to all builds, and one piece that so many people forget. These don’t come as legendary’s, BUT they can be modified to have some pretty great benefits.
The best one you’ll want to try and get is the Secret Service under armor providing:
- +15 Damage resistance
- +15 Energy Resistance
- +15 Radiation Resistance
With Shielded Lining:
- +4 Strength
- +2 Perception
- +4 Endurance
If you can’t get this under armor yet, which new players won’t for a good while, stick with any others you can get along the way, modding them with what you can! (Collect those plans!)
Regular Armor
Regular armor is totally up to the user on which they wear, but when we’re talking aboutUnarmed Melee builds… well, actually any build pretty much, you’re going to want to go with Secret Service armor, which is purchased with Gold Bullion after completing the Wastelander’s main campaign. It provides an insane amount of armor, better than anything else, and the ONLY problem is that you need to buy it at the extremely expensive price and then HOPE you roll some good perks on it.
By the way, quick note, if you’re wanting to use a bloodied build with Unarmed Melee weapons (which is where Nerd Rage comes in handy, and damage goes crazy) you’ll want to definitely stick to either Unyielding or Bolstering if you’re dying a lot.
If you can’t get Secret Service armor just yet, don’t worry about it, as long as you have armor like Combat Armor, Brotherhood Recon, or Marine Armor. Speaking of perks, these are the ones you’ll want to look out for:
Legendary Main Effects:
- Unyielding
- Bolstering
- Vanguard’s
Legendary Major Effects:
- Any of the +1 to SPECIAL, ESPECIALLY +1 Strength
- Action Point Refresh Speed
Legendary Minor Effects:
- 50% More durability
- Receive 15% less Limb Damage
- Weapon Weight Reduced by 20%
- Food, Drink, and Chem Weight reduced by 20%
- Junk Weight Reduced by 20%
Buffs
This is for those of you that enjoy going out and absolutizing maximizing the damage output you can deal with your builds. Little do a lot of folks realize, taking the right foods and drastically boost the performance of your build, making it beyond worth it to gather these quick items.
Food/Soup
- Grilled Radstag:
- Super Easy to make, increases Carry weight by +20
- Pumpkin Pie:
- Max Health +40
- Smoked Mirelurk Filets:
- +250 HP and +30 Carry Weight
- Blight Soup:
- Critical Damage +20%
- Megasloth Mushroom Soup:
- Critical Damage +20%
- Glowing Meat Steak
- Melee Damage +10%
Drink
- Firecracker Berry Juice:
- +10% Critical Damage
- Hard Lemonade:
- +30 Max AP and +10 AP Regen
- Steeped Tea Thistle/Sweet Mutfruit Tea:
- Critical Hit +20%
Alcohol
- To be honest, ANY Alcohol that raises your strength is beneficial to melee builds
Mutations
- Marsupial
- Carry Weight +20%, +Jump Height
- Adrenal Reaction
- Higher Weapon Damage the lower your HP
- Speed Demon
- +20 Faster Movement Speed +20% Faster Reload
- Twisted Muscles
- +25% Melee Damage
- Healing Factor
- Slow Health Regeneration
- Carnivore
- No disease from eating meat and twice the benefits
Drugs
- Overdrive
- +15% Damage, +15% Critical Damage
- Pyscho
- +25 Damage Resistance, +15% Damage
- Pyschobuff
- +25% Damage, Strength/Endurance +3, Max HP +65
Magazines & Bobbleheads
Thing about Magazines is that there are SO MANY of them that is can make it difficult to pick and choose between them all, whereas Bobbleheads are quite a bit easier as there are FAR less.
Here are just my few suggestions:
Magazines:
- Grognak the Barbarian #1 – “Blood on the Harp
- +15% Melee Damage
- Grognak the Barbarian #4 – “In the Bosom of the Corsair Queen”
- +30% Critical Damage with Melee Weapons
- Grognak the Barbarian #6 – “Enter Maula: War Maiden of Mars
- -75% Weight of Melee Weapons
- Grognak the Barbarian #7 – “Fatherless Cur!”
- Melee Weapons lose condition 50% Slower
- Live & Love #2 – “Nuke-The-Man”
- +5% Damage when in a Team
- Tesla Science #8 – “10 Number 1 Hits!!!”
- +15% Critical Damage
BobbleHeads:
- Strength
- +2 Strength
- Melee
- +20% Damage with Melee Weapons
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