@@vaultboya6253 that's true for literally any weapon lol Even mini nukes fail to 1hko some enemies on very hard, red glare has one of the highest dps in the game, damage most definitely isn't one of it's weaknesses
A little question, the life of the enemies increase with higher dificult levels?? I'm playing with the very high difficultness and the red glare can't kill a single deathclaw without at least around of 45-60 rockets
Not gonna lie. I almost never used explosives in any of my runs but one day I decided to do a melee + explosive playthrough and it was my most fun and memorable playthrough. Annabelle, Red Glare and Esther made that run so much fun.
Melee/Unarmed plus Explosive builds are my favorite. Explosive launchers are great to use outside of vats, throwing grenades in vats usually puts the grenade at their feet.
Yo that’s sick, I’m currently doing an Unarmed/Explosives build(because they’re the two builds I’ve never really used) and it’s a lot of fun punching stuff and blowing stuff up.
mixing unarmed/melee with explosives works well because of weight issues. explosives are heavy, but melee/unarmed is light. it's also a great cost balance, as you dont' need to buy ammo. you're already in medium/heavy armor, so why not?
The Mercenary's Rifle also accepts the "Long Barrel" mod. The Mercenary's Rifle and the Weathered 10mm both accept mod and are the only weapons from the Courier's Stash that accepts mods.
Makes those weapons even more broken, ngl I get why Sawyer mod hides them 😂. Although I see lack of unique caravan shotgun on yo list, did it not get mods? 😢
how does mercy do with the better criticals perk? does that perk multiply damage on a crit by 1.5x or the crit bonus by 1.5x? if its the first implementation then it could still do monstrous damage.
@@quadroninja2708 yes, but my question was if better criticals multiplied the bonus crit damage or the total damage if the attack is a crit. the question is which of these two equations does it use to calculate crit damage with better criticals. base damage+(crit bonusx1.5) vs (base damage+crit bonus)x1.5. if it uses the first method, the damage is sort of less than advertised for a lot of weapons, not making crits do 50% more damage, but 50% more bonus damage. however the second equation will make a crit do 50% more damage than before (regardless of if bonus damage is 0), like the perk's description reads.
Thump-Thump is way better than you gave it credit for as it can be used from way further away than basically any explosive due to its longer range and increased projectile velocity. Also, the Grenade Launcher was maybe placed too high due to have an absolutely dreadful range that often makes it really dangerous to use without Hit the Deck, and at that point you should just a GMG or the unique GMG, Mercy.
Just my opinion, but I would give thump thump an easy A tier for late game, S tier for early game. The bonus projectile velocity is phenomenal. And the reload speed and damage boost give this a solid 35% dps increase. I often carry this weapon from start to finish in an explosive run. Using this indoors and for fast reloads and Annabelle for big hits!
@@FattyCheeseburger66 yea. If you go through hidden valley and climb the mountain instrad of going through the gate, you only have to kill 1 or 2 knightkin and the boss lady.
the mercenary rifle is a really good one for how early you get it, makes the walk north to Vegas pretty easy even on harder difficulties. plus you can use it pretty effectively without planning on using explosives much down the line.
Fun fact with rapid reload and enough agility you can fire the grenade rifle faster than the grenade launcher meaning its worse with the time it takes to pump and reload
If you’re trying to get Annabelle early with an explosives build, I’ve found that fusion cell cluster grenades absolutely wipe the super mutants there. One time I cleared the entire main village area with one throw.
@@joseavila5747 yup! ever since i found that you can simply go the back way up to the hole in the fence at the top i haven't bothered with carving a bloody path up the normal way
You can absolutely use a GRA Fat Man indoors, used the timed mini nukes, fire into a room, shut the door as fast as possible. This saved my life a ton of times in a hardcore jsawyer playthrough.
I never really used many explosive weapons in NV until a playthrough I did during the covid lockdown. Man, was I missing out. Mercy and the 25mm Grenade APW are like my go-to weapons for a playthrough now just due to how freaking fun they are.
Mercy is so fun. The Deathclaw Promontory was a piece of a cake with it. I usually don't build for explosives, but I am trying out cool glitches this run and had perks to spare after doing the Chet dialogue glitch.
A good method for using explosives on high difficulty runs is to put them somewhere and pick them up later, this means everything, mini nukes, 40mm gl rounds, missiles, whatever you find you should stash until you need it.
My favorite weapon class in game! Best to get into good graces with both the NCR and Great Khans because they sell explosive rounds in the hundreds. Quartermaster Barton in the bowels of the Hoover Dam and the Great Khan Armorer in the cellar of a destroyed house at the edge of Red Rock Canyon will be your plugs. (Also, I know for sure the Armorer sells at a 1:1 value rate!)
Thump-Thump deserves to be either A-tier or S-tier IMO. It remains useful and viable throughout the entire game on an explosives character, and its DPS is comparable to the Grenade Launcher with Rapid Reload / high agility. It's incredibly versatile and can be used effectively against just about anything in any situation. Annabelle is also arguably an S-tier weapon simply due to its absurd damage that trivializes any outdoor threat, and it's surprisingly effective indoors thanks to how slow missiles travel, allowing you to shoot and then strafe around a corner to avoid taking damage.
"Can't use the fatman indoors... easily" That made me laugh since I once used the MIRV on Three Dog in Fallout 3 and that one is notorious for self-deleting if you even slightly aim it wrong. That was quite fun, I also managed to glitch Harkness into a wall in the Rivet city carrier thanks to using the MIRV. In New Vegas, it was quite satisfying using it on Ulysses cause of previous runs that really made me not like him (I reloaded the save and managed to speechcheck him into becoming friendly).
I know this might be random but could you maybe do a tier-list of all the different vendors in FNV when you you’re finished with the weapons and so on? Just an idea.
i got back to playing this game after years thanks for always making these tierlist/guides. theyre super helpful since i lost a lot of knowledge about this game
If you use the timed bombs on the fatman it actually becomes really good for indoor fighting. Also love how cheap and easy it is to get a lot of ammo for the fatman. Its my favourite weapon. Sad it didnt enter S tier.
Note: during crazy crazy crazy quest on black mountain if you take out the nightkin sniper who specifically carries Annabelle and beat the quest before searching the unique weapon carriers remains, it will disappear
The grenade rifle and red glare should be S tier and can take you through the entire game, and are the safest and most accurate. Though they are bad against deathclaws, and other endgame bosses, but in an explosive build thats what the throwables are for.
Man you did my boi thump thump dirty, it deserves higher placement then those useless garnade launcers lol. Thump thump is such a good weapon, probably my favorite explosives weapon, nothing more satisfying then sniping somebody from forever away in vats with a garnade.
Activating some GRX right before firing off a Psycho-Powered High Explosive Missile from Annabelle and watching a crowd of ragdoll physics is one of the most satisfying experiences in Fallout: New Vegas.
Grenade launcher is just a blast, pun intended. It's my go to explosive weapon just cause of how fun it is to use. Great sound design and animation, probably one of the reasons why I love the holorifle.
I just use the FatMan and Esther for Big Bosses or hard Areas. Like the Boss RoboScorpion or the Quarry Junction and Deathclaw Promentory and the Legendary BloatFly, besides that its just ThumpThump and the 25mm one.
If you're using the Fat Man indoors, you should use Low Yield or Timed mini nukes. Low yield is self-explanatory, more likely to be able to use them in tight spaces since they have less blast radius, and timed mini nukes can be bounced around corners so that you can have cover from the explosion, although fast enemies might be able to take cover from them too, so that's something to consider.
Fat Man/Esther are definitely S tier if you use them outside (they are really good in clearing deathclaws), other then this I agree with your tier list.
I felt really disappointed when using Red Glare. Aesthetically it's impressive but in practice it's such a wimpy weapon in my experience, not as strong as it seems. Also the upgrades for it are ridiculously expensive for what you're getting. I'll stick to good ol' Thump-Thump myself
The problem I've always had with using explosives in Fallout NV is the annoying amount of stagger you receive when you fire too close and then trying to find the body to loot.
The 25mm APW can be a little underwhelming on paper but it works beautifully on an explosives build as a primary weapon, especially with fast shot. It’s not so great on its own but if you build around it you can make it shine.
One thing I like with all the grenade rifles is that they stack with Grunt. Grunt is also a cooler perk if you run jsawyer so that all the dlc rifles like battle rifle also use grunt.
Mercy is a great weapon to take to clean out the numerous Deathclaws down south across the river. Lure them out one at a time with your followers along with mines and you should be ok.
I know I am late to the party but I argue that the APW is S tier. It's low weight, fast fire rate decent range.And this thing cripples enemies easily. I have cause groups of enemies to frenzy to fight each other while I continue to shell them with more grenade rounds.
Fun real world facts: The Grenade Rifle and all it's variants are based on the US M79 grenade launcher, affectionately nicknamed "Thumper", "Thump-Gun", "Bloop Tube", "Big Ed", "Elephant Gun", "Blooper", and "Can Cannon". The Grenade Launcher is an almost direct copy of the much rarer China Lake grenade launcher, which features prominently in Black Ops I as well. The original China Lakes were hand built prototypes almost exclusively used by the US Navy Seals in Vietnam. It was based off of the firing system from an existing weapon system, the Remington 870 pump action shotgun. The M79 was much loved, however the China Lake had teething troubles and received mixed reviews. Even modern reproductions of the China Lake have reliability issues with regards to ammunition properly feeding into the action or being extracted after firing.
Mercy knows No Mercy! Dang. I had too much fun with Mercy. For 25mm APW's credit, it is much lighter than Grenade Machine gun, and with high explosive round, it hits fairly hard.
I'd swap the places of the Fat man and Mercy tbh. Because, as you said, Fat Man is cool for wiping out strong enemies or groups of weak enemies outdoors. While Mercy has terrible ballistics, so you can't hit a thing further than 25m, and a bigger blast radius than 25mm GMG. That could be a plus, if only it didn't fire grenades literally at your feet, like i said earlier.
High yield time bomb with the perk that increases explosion radius with all demo expert perks u can literally clear a whole legion camp like cottonwood in one bomb. Sneak towards the center of camp plant the bomb and run.......they literally all die
Fat Man is a boss fight weapon and if you’re not a bot, it’s easily S tier. Quarry Junction Robo scorpion boss fight. The giant cazador in the cave, and more death claws and the battle of Hoover dam. That thing is destroying everything. Just gotta aim a little high and learn its trajectory or us TT rounds if you’re scared of blowing yourself up or Timed Mini nukes.
Mercy is my favorite weapon in the game, and it's probably the best overall. However, it's more of a win harder button than an actual game changer because you have to enter Dead Wind Cavern to get it, and it's pretty ammo hungry so it only becomes useful at the end of the game. Still, nothing beats the feeling of clearing the entire final battle and killing Lanius in seconds with this beast.
Since there’s a slow “flying time” for the fat man shell I find myself do using it indoors. I’ve gotten good at firing and then hiding behind a wall because, you know, the environment isn’t destructible in FNV. However, you must be nearly pinpoint accurate with that shot placement and be confident in you’re ability to duck and cover if you use what I like to call the fatman cqb maneuver.
I almost never use explosives weapons. Sometimes if I'm clearing out Sloan Quarry I'll use one but otherwise they're just too dangerous to me to ever be my weapon of choice.
The Grenade Launcher has dramatically reduced range compared to the Grenade Rifles. So much so that the Splash Damage perk can make them near unusable on low DT characters, while the Rifles can be effective from a tremendous distance.
Never really use explovise weapons in NV aside from Thump Thump because of the name haha wish it had a ping pong noise when reloading that would be coool lol. Great tierlist my guy!
Both the LR Launchers do not get a damage bonus from the grunt perk. So that’s a point taken away, Thump-Thump would beat them both by damage with the perk
I tend to glitch out my explosive damage on my PS3. I also intentionally glitch a level 50 build out of Goodsprings and a minimum of +25 agility coming out of Dead Money.
Not ranking the 25mm APW as S tier is criminal. For me, that weapon is the bread and butter of any strict explosive builds. It is the weapon I use most often. Obviously I pick something else if dealing with deathclaws or other tanky enemies, but for everything else in the game, it’s my go-to.
I dont remember many of the nuances of explosives, but one of my most memorable playthroughs of FNV years and years (and years) ago was a melee/explosives build named Jackie Chan on hardcore. Explosives in the open or at a distance then smear stuff with melee up close. Tin can grenades and other throwables were the brunt of the explosives though. I dent think explosives are really supposed to be a main weapon type. They work best to supplement your main offense.
I would say that the Grenade Launcher is worse than the Grenade Rifle since its practical Rate of Fire is actually worse due to how long reloading takes.
Annabelle is, IMO, the best long range weapon in the game--mostly on account of the fact AI doesn't react until they're hit lol Seriously though, I tried an explosive build and it genuinely outperformed the anti materiel rifle!
I will not tolerate this Esther slander I find the riot shield adds character to the weapon because it protects you from the high blast radius range of the mini nuke It also looks badass with the T-51 power armor. The increased damage plus the tier 3 demolition expert perk makes this weapon so fun to use.
Regular grenade machinegun is probably my favorite weapon. Underlookedbut but extremely good. Mick at Mick and Ralph sells them as part of his special inventory (you need speech 30). Try it out. 25 mm grenades are plentiful unlike 40mm.
The Fat Man is GOATED for me. Sure you can’t really use it indoors. But most weapons are situational. You couldn’t take on Quarry Junction with just a Service Rifle.
The grenade launcher is an easy S for me. I've used that thing my entire playthrough on hard and it's amazing. Get the 3x demo perks and the grunt perk and it does absolutely nutty damage per shot considering its ammo type. Just don't get the increased blast radius perk, it's a trap, grab heave-ho instead it works on grenade launchers.
Yo anybody here ever use the signature weapons mod? It’s pretty old now but it was instrumental in making the Mercenary’s grenade rifle my favourite weapon
All DLC Grenade Rifles, including the Mercenary Grenade Rifle, are considerably worse than either the default version or Thump-Thump, because they are unable to benefit from the Grunt perk due to cross-DLC restrictions.
With good agility or rapid reload, the grenade launcher fires slower than the grenade rifle reloads, removing the benefit of the launchers 4 shot capacity. The launcher also has lower effective range. The comparison becomes even more unfavorable if we compare it to thump thump with its increased reload speed and projectile velocity. Thump thump is incredible for an explosives playthrough--it can be obtained fairly early and retains its value late into the game.
You wouldn't say a Lamborghini Aventador is a c tier car because it would get stuck if you took it off road, so personally i don't think something like the Fat Man should get a penalty for not being good indoors. The Fat Man has a purpose, so the only question that needs to be answered for a tier list is, how good is it at fulfilling that purpose.
I definitely think the red glare would be an easy S tier. It destroys everything in the game, its rockets are easy to craft, its mods make it op, etc.
Honestly I'll have to disagree. While strong, on hardcore it does nothing to most npcs unless you just you borage them with dozens of shots.
@@vaultboya6253 that's true for literally any weapon lol
Even mini nukes fail to 1hko some enemies on very hard, red glare has one of the highest dps in the game, damage most definitely isn't one of it's weaknesses
I find that it is pretty good.
A little question, the life of the enemies increase with higher dificult levels?? I'm playing with the very high difficultness and the red glare can't kill a single deathclaw without at least around of 45-60 rockets
@@josealv5851 I do believe the difficulty affects hp. Hardcore doesn't though
Not gonna lie. I almost never used explosives in any of my runs but one day I decided to do a melee + explosive playthrough and it was my most fun and memorable playthrough. Annabelle, Red Glare and Esther made that run so much fun.
Yeah it is usually better to mix a build with an explosive build.
Melee/Unarmed plus Explosive builds are my favorite. Explosive launchers are great to use outside of vats, throwing grenades in vats usually puts the grenade at their feet.
Yo that’s sick, I’m currently doing an Unarmed/Explosives build(because they’re the two builds I’ve never really used) and it’s a lot of fun punching stuff and blowing stuff up.
mixing unarmed/melee with explosives works well because of weight issues. explosives are heavy, but melee/unarmed is light. it's also a great cost balance, as you dont' need to buy ammo. you're already in medium/heavy armor, so why not?
In Hardcore mode melee/unarmed is almost a necessity. Less ammo to haul around. Plus boom boom fun times.
The Mercenary's Rifle also accepts the "Long Barrel" mod. The Mercenary's Rifle and the Weathered 10mm both accept mod and are the only weapons from the Courier's Stash that accepts mods.
Yeah that is true.
Oh shit I never thought to try that! Thanks for the information man I’m doing an explosive/energy playthrough right now, much needed 🤙
Makes those weapons even more broken, ngl I get why Sawyer mod hides them 😂.
Although I see lack of unique caravan shotgun on yo list, did it not get mods? 😢
Mercenary's Grenade Rifle; the cure for them damn cazadors north of Goodsprings.
@@danielsurvivor1372Caravan Shotgun has no mods available
I feel like Mercy was initially the most OP weapon in the game by doing crit damage, and then the devs nerfed it
Could be.
how does mercy do with the better criticals perk? does that perk multiply damage on a crit by 1.5x or the crit bonus by 1.5x? if its the first implementation then it could still do monstrous damage.
@@nathaniel1207 isn't 0 multiplied by 1.5 just 0?
@@quadroninja2708 yes, but my question was if better criticals multiplied the bonus crit damage or the total damage if the attack is a crit. the question is which of these two equations does it use to calculate crit damage with better criticals. base damage+(crit bonusx1.5) vs (base damage+crit bonus)x1.5. if it uses the first method, the damage is sort of less than advertised for a lot of weapons, not making crits do 50% more damage, but 50% more bonus damage. however the second equation will make a crit do 50% more damage than before (regardless of if bonus damage is 0), like the perk's description reads.
@@nathaniel1207 that's an interesting question! I wonder if source code of FNV has been leaked, that would solve the mystery
Thump-Thump is way better than you gave it credit for as it can be used from way further away than basically any explosive due to its longer range and increased projectile velocity. Also, the Grenade Launcher was maybe placed too high due to have an absolutely dreadful range that often makes it really dangerous to use without Hit the Deck, and at that point you should just a GMG or the unique GMG, Mercy.
Those are all fair points.
Heave ho is a must have perk just because it also affects grenade launchers
The thump thump has a much higher reloadspeed=fire rate plus plentiful ammo type. def 1 tier up
That is fair, I was thinking about moving that up to A Tier.
Seconded, that fire rate is definitely a tier up.
It also has a bigger aof radius.
Just my opinion, but I would give thump thump an easy A tier for late game, S tier for early game. The bonus projectile velocity is phenomenal. And the reload speed and damage boost give this a solid 35% dps increase. I often carry this weapon from start to finish in an explosive run. Using this indoors and for fast reloads and Annabelle for big hits!
It is quite good.
annabele is an S for me, missiles become too ez to obtain at one point and it just oneshots most stuff. love it!
That is true, and for long range it is really good.
plus you can get it decently early on at black mountain
@@FattyCheeseburger66 yea. If you go through hidden valley and climb the mountain instrad of going through the gate, you only have to kill 1 or 2 knightkin and the boss lady.
@@johnsmith-fy8jo i usually just take that route, but use a stealth boy and a throwing spear, really quick and easy
@@FattyCheeseburger66 do you click the door to the maintence room through the chainlink? Thats my favorite
the mercenary rifle is a really good one for how early you get it, makes the walk north to Vegas pretty easy even on harder difficulties. plus you can use it pretty effectively without planning on using explosives much down the line.
That is very true!
Fun fact with rapid reload and enough agility you can fire the grenade rifle faster than the grenade launcher meaning its worse with the time it takes to pump and reload
Yeah that is a strange quirk that the grenade launcher has.
If you’re trying to get Annabelle early with an explosives build, I’ve found that fusion cell cluster grenades absolutely wipe the super mutants there. One time I cleared the entire main village area with one throw.
Yeah that is one of the best weapons that you can make and is very good on any difficulty.
I try not to kill them you can make the supermutants friendly if you sneak in and fix tabithas robot. She will thank you and not attack you
@@joseavila5747 I fix Rhonda and still obliterate them all
@@joseavila5747 yup! ever since i found that you can simply go the back way up to the hole in the fence at the top i haven't bothered with carving a bloody path up the normal way
those MFC clusters are sooooooo goated
You can absolutely use a GRA Fat Man indoors, used the timed mini nukes, fire into a room, shut the door as fast as possible. This saved my life a ton of times in a hardcore jsawyer playthrough.
That is true.
The fat man is super situational but when you can use it, you win
I totally agree with that.
I never really used many explosive weapons in NV until a playthrough I did during the covid lockdown. Man, was I missing out. Mercy and the 25mm Grenade APW are like my go-to weapons for a playthrough now just due to how freaking fun they are.
Mercy is so fun. The Deathclaw Promontory was a piece of a cake with it. I usually don't build for explosives, but I am trying out cool glitches this run and had perks to spare after doing the Chet dialogue glitch.
Keep in mind half the granade rifles dont work with the grunt perk cuz dlc perks dont work with weapons from other dlcs
A good method for using explosives on high difficulty runs is to put them somewhere and pick them up later, this means everything, mini nukes, 40mm gl rounds, missiles, whatever you find you should stash until you need it.
Yeah that is true.
@@ReapeeRon also you should do a video on how the Yao guai roast is bugged and grants 500% melee damage.
My favorite weapon class in game! Best to get into good graces with both the NCR and Great Khans because they sell explosive rounds in the hundreds. Quartermaster Barton in the bowels of the Hoover Dam and the Great Khan Armorer in the cellar of a destroyed house at the edge of Red Rock Canyon will be your plugs. (Also, I know for sure the Armorer sells at a 1:1 value rate!)
Thump-Thump deserves to be either A-tier or S-tier IMO. It remains useful and viable throughout the entire game on an explosives character, and its DPS is comparable to the Grenade Launcher with Rapid Reload / high agility. It's incredibly versatile and can be used effectively against just about anything in any situation. Annabelle is also arguably an S-tier weapon simply due to its absurd damage that trivializes any outdoor threat, and it's surprisingly effective indoors thanks to how slow missiles travel, allowing you to shoot and then strafe around a corner to avoid taking damage.
That is fair and it should be quite a bit higher.
"Can't use the fatman indoors... easily"
That made me laugh since I once used the MIRV on Three Dog in Fallout 3 and that one is notorious for self-deleting if you even slightly aim it wrong. That was quite fun, I also managed to glitch Harkness into a wall in the Rivet city carrier thanks to using the MIRV. In New Vegas, it was quite satisfying using it on Ulysses cause of previous runs that really made me not like him (I reloaded the save and managed to speechcheck him into becoming friendly).
I know this might be random but could you maybe do a tier-list of all the different vendors in FNV when you you’re finished with the weapons and so on? Just an idea.
Pro tip, always point your grenade and rocket launchers away from face.
That sounds like something that should be stamped on the side of the missile launcher.
Gotta love the ChatGPT written description
Wym fam?
i got back to playing this game after years
thanks for always making these tierlist/guides. theyre super helpful since i lost a lot of knowledge about this game
Glad to help!
_This is legit the first I've seen and heard about the APW. _*_Excuse me?!_*
Yeah it is in the GRA DLC. A lot of vendors sell it for not to much money.
If you use the timed bombs on the fatman it actually becomes really good for indoor fighting. Also love how cheap and easy it is to get a lot of ammo for the fatman. Its my favourite weapon. Sad it didnt enter S tier.
Note: during crazy crazy crazy quest on black mountain if you take out the nightkin sniper who specifically carries Annabelle and beat the quest before searching the unique weapon carriers remains, it will disappear
thump thump is a easy s tier imo grunt+demoexpert(3)+bloody mess 90% damnge inscrease really good for cripling limbs and single targets
The grenade rifle and red glare should be S tier and can take you through the entire game, and are the safest and most accurate. Though they are bad against deathclaws, and other endgame bosses, but in an explosive build thats what the throwables are for.
Along with the apw
I can see that. They are both a lot of fun to play around with.
Throwables and placed explosives are cool. Turbo makes placed explosives a blast, pun intended.
if Mercy didn't exist, i'd say they could be S-tier. Mercy has to be on a level above. you can clear a field of cazadors in seconds.
Man you did my boi thump thump dirty,
it deserves higher placement then those useless garnade launcers lol.
Thump thump is such a good weapon, probably my favorite explosives weapon, nothing more satisfying then sniping somebody from forever away in vats with a garnade.
I love using the 25 mm and the GL for my explosives build, solves every issue I have.
Activating some GRX right before firing off a Psycho-Powered High Explosive Missile from Annabelle and watching a crowd of ragdoll physics is one of the most satisfying experiences in Fallout: New Vegas.
Im going to try that asap. Thx.
Remember: the best explosive weapon in NV is the Laser Detonator glitched for Red Glare rockets
Putting grenades on pants is the most OP explosive.
Justo que hice una build de explosivos, sin duda voy a estar muy atento al vídeo 👁👁
Awesome!
Grenade launcher is just a blast, pun intended. It's my go to explosive weapon just cause of how fun it is to use. Great sound design and animation, probably one of the reasons why I love the holorifle.
I just use the FatMan and Esther for Big Bosses or hard Areas. Like the Boss RoboScorpion or the Quarry Junction and Deathclaw Promentory and the Legendary BloatFly, besides that its just ThumpThump and the 25mm one.
If you're using the Fat Man indoors, you should use Low Yield or Timed mini nukes. Low yield is self-explanatory, more likely to be able to use them in tight spaces since they have less blast radius, and timed mini nukes can be bounced around corners so that you can have cover from the explosion, although fast enemies might be able to take cover from them too, so that's something to consider.
This makes me want to start an explosives only run 😂
Fat Man/Esther are definitely S tier if you use them outside (they are really good in clearing deathclaws), other then this I agree with your tier list.
You haven't lived until you did an all-explosives-weapons build in FNV.
the Grenade Machinegun is what I equip when things go south, and it always works
I felt really disappointed when using Red Glare. Aesthetically it's impressive but in practice it's such a wimpy weapon in my experience, not as strong as it seems. Also the upgrades for it are ridiculously expensive for what you're getting. I'll stick to good ol' Thump-Thump myself
On Very Hard Red Glare sucks, especially if on hardcore mode wasting carryweight on rockets
red glare is a nightmare to face, but does so little for you.
always love these videos. Appreciate the uploads :)
My pleasure!
The problem I've always had with using explosives in Fallout NV is the annoying amount of stagger you receive when you fire too close and then trying to find the body to loot.
The 25mm APW can be a little underwhelming on paper but it works beautifully on an explosives build as a primary weapon, especially with fast shot. It’s not so great on its own but if you build around it you can make it shine.
Yeah in practice it is a very good weapon.
One thing I like with all the grenade rifles is that they stack with Grunt. Grunt is also a cooler perk if you run jsawyer so that all the dlc rifles like battle rifle also use grunt.
Mercy is a great weapon to take to clean out the numerous Deathclaws down south across the river. Lure them out one at a time with your followers along with mines and you should be ok.
Yeah it is great for everything.
Love these New Vegas tier pist videos. It helped me a lot through my playthroughs
Which category are you gonna do next?
I know I am late to the party but I argue that the APW is S tier. It's low weight, fast fire rate decent range.And this thing cripples enemies easily. I have cause groups of enemies to frenzy to fight each other while I continue to shell them with more grenade rounds.
I’ve been playing an explosives build for the past week! Good timing because I’m hunting for uniques and have no idea what’s good.
Very cool!
I think the only place you can reasonably find Grenade machine guns are from the BoS. Only problem is they are usually not that great condition.
the red glare makes me want to do an explosives build at least once
Fun real world facts: The Grenade Rifle and all it's variants are based on the US M79 grenade launcher, affectionately nicknamed "Thumper", "Thump-Gun", "Bloop Tube", "Big Ed", "Elephant Gun", "Blooper", and "Can Cannon". The Grenade Launcher is an almost direct copy of the much rarer China Lake grenade launcher, which features prominently in Black Ops I as well. The original China Lakes were hand built prototypes almost exclusively used by the US Navy Seals in Vietnam. It was based off of the firing system from an existing weapon system, the Remington 870 pump action shotgun. The M79 was much loved, however the China Lake had teething troubles and received mixed reviews. Even modern reproductions of the China Lake have reliability issues with regards to ammunition properly feeding into the action or being extracted after firing.
Mercy knows No Mercy!
Dang. I had too much fun with Mercy.
For 25mm APW's credit, it is much lighter than Grenade Machine gun, and with high explosive round, it hits fairly hard.
Yes, I like all of those weapons too!
I'd swap the places of the Fat man and Mercy tbh. Because, as you said, Fat Man is cool for wiping out strong enemies or groups of weak enemies outdoors. While Mercy has terrible ballistics, so you can't hit a thing further than 25m, and a bigger blast radius than 25mm GMG. That could be a plus, if only it didn't fire grenades literally at your feet, like i said earlier.
That is a fair placement.
High yield time bomb with the perk that increases explosion radius with all demo expert perks u can literally clear a whole legion camp like cottonwood in one bomb. Sneak towards the center of camp plant the bomb and run.......they literally all die
i LOVE the grenade machine gun made s-tier. it's easily the funnest weapon in the game.
Fat Man is a boss fight weapon and if you’re not a bot, it’s easily S tier. Quarry Junction Robo scorpion boss fight. The giant cazador in the cave, and more death claws and the battle of Hoover dam. That thing is destroying everything. Just gotta aim a little high and learn its trajectory or us TT rounds if you’re scared of blowing yourself up or Timed Mini nukes.
Mercy is my favorite weapon in the game, and it's probably the best overall. However, it's more of a win harder button than an actual game changer because you have to enter Dead Wind Cavern to get it, and it's pretty ammo hungry so it only becomes useful at the end of the game.
Still, nothing beats the feeling of clearing the entire final battle and killing Lanius in seconds with this beast.
i feel if you aren't laughing maniacally when using mercy, then you aren't using it right.
Since there’s a slow “flying time” for the fat man shell I find myself do using it indoors. I’ve gotten good at firing and then hiding behind a wall because, you know, the environment isn’t destructible in FNV. However, you must be nearly pinpoint accurate with that shot placement and be confident in you’re ability to duck and cover if you use what I like to call the fatman cqb maneuver.
Esther,my beloved
Super satisfying to toss dynamite etc. into a group that didn't see it coming.
Killing deathclaws with fat man in very hard difficulty is one of the best feelings in FNV
Yeah it can be very satisfying
I did Explosives/Melee once, it was a super fun build.
Awesome, sounds like a good build.
We want a melee weapons tier list!
The Fat Man’s Little Boy Kit is in the base game.
I almost never use explosives weapons. Sometimes if I'm clearing out Sloan Quarry I'll use one but otherwise they're just too dangerous to me to ever be my weapon of choice.
Yea, you have to build a character around explosives. "Hit the Deck" perk really helps.
Esther and fatman is s tier iconic and just fun
The Grenade Launcher has dramatically reduced range compared to the Grenade Rifles. So much so that the Splash Damage perk can make them near unusable on low DT characters, while the Rifles can be effective from a tremendous distance.
Never really use explovise weapons in NV aside from Thump Thump because of the name haha wish it had a ping pong noise when reloading that would be coool lol. Great tierlist my guy!
Both the LR Launchers do not get a damage bonus from the grunt perk. So that’s a point taken away, Thump-Thump would beat them both by damage with the perk
I tend to glitch out my explosive damage on my PS3. I also intentionally glitch a level 50 build out of Goodsprings and a minimum of +25 agility coming out of Dead Money.
The dead wind caravan is pretty easy to clear out if you have a riot shotgun and stay back with two companions as distractions.
Not ranking the 25mm APW as S tier is criminal. For me, that weapon is the bread and butter of any strict explosive builds. It is the weapon I use most often. Obviously I pick something else if dealing with deathclaws or other tanky enemies, but for everything else in the game, it’s my go-to.
I'm not a big explosives player either, but I have a desire to do a Powder Ganger themed RP run...
That could be very fun!
@@ReapeeRon Sort of the gaming equivalent of a stress ball 🤣
The big downsides of the red glare parts are that they're about 13,000 caps each lmao
That is also true. It can cost a lot!
@@ReapeeRon unless I remember incorrectly, one modification for it costs more than a fully repaired red flare without mods
I've been appreciating your content recently, but the Fat Man is S tier. Coolness +9000.
I dont remember many of the nuances of explosives, but one of my most memorable playthroughs of FNV years and years (and years) ago was a melee/explosives build named Jackie Chan on hardcore. Explosives in the open or at a distance then smear stuff with melee up close. Tin can grenades and other throwables were the brunt of the explosives though. I dent think explosives are really supposed to be a main weapon type. They work best to supplement your main offense.
Currently loving my BigBang Liu Kang playthrough: unarmed/explosives asian dude :)
I would say that the Grenade Launcher is worse than the Grenade Rifle since its practical Rate of Fire is actually worse due to how long reloading takes.
That is fair to say.
love the content! you should do a 100% run of FONV
I might, next FNV run I want to do is a Grave Robber run.
Annabelle is, IMO, the best long range weapon in the game--mostly on account of the fact AI doesn't react until they're hit lol
Seriously though, I tried an explosive build and it genuinely outperformed the anti materiel rifle!
Try the anti-material rifle with explosive rounds. They work off the explosives perks and can literally one tap almost anything.
I love using thump-thump with the wmx mod long barrel and heave ho! for peak artillery performance
Yeah that is pretty great, I always have to get used to using when I have those on it.
I will not tolerate this Esther slander
I find the riot shield adds character to the weapon because it protects you from the high blast radius range of the mini nuke
It also looks badass with the T-51 power armor.
The increased damage plus the tier 3 demolition expert perk makes this weapon so fun to use.
Regular grenade machinegun is probably my favorite weapon. Underlookedbut but extremely good. Mick at Mick and Ralph sells them as part of his special inventory (you need speech 30). Try it out. 25 mm grenades are plentiful unlike 40mm.
The Fat Man is GOATED for me. Sure you can’t really use it indoors. But most weapons are situational. You couldn’t take on Quarry Junction with just a Service Rifle.
I freaking love the 25 mm apw
It is a very cool weapon!
In case you didn't know, Heave Ho applies to Grenade launchers, grenade machine guns and incinerators. 😈😈😈
Yeah it does, and that is pretty cool!
The grenade launcher is an easy S for me. I've used that thing my entire playthrough on hard and it's amazing.
Get the 3x demo perks and the grunt perk and it does absolutely nutty damage per shot considering its ammo type.
Just don't get the increased blast radius perk, it's a trap, grab heave-ho instead it works on grenade launchers.
Love playing explosives until I get into a melee battle 😅
What will be the next tier list about?
Pistols?
Also i agree with your ranking
I have already done pistols, next will be thrown explosives and maybe place ones or they will be two different lists.
@@ReapeeRon Nice, how could i forget about the pistols
Yo anybody here ever use the signature weapons mod? It’s pretty old now but it was instrumental in making the Mercenary’s grenade rifle my favourite weapon
The one big downside of explosives in all the Bethesda-style games is that they send the loot flying to God knows where.
Ah yes my favorite fighting style, boom boom
9:58 rofl. you took the easy way out!
All DLC Grenade Rifles, including the Mercenary Grenade Rifle, are considerably worse than either the default version or Thump-Thump, because they are unable to benefit from the Grunt perk due to cross-DLC restrictions.
With good agility or rapid reload, the grenade launcher fires slower than the grenade rifle reloads, removing the benefit of the launchers 4 shot capacity. The launcher also has lower effective range. The comparison becomes even more unfavorable if we compare it to thump thump with its increased reload speed and projectile velocity. Thump thump is incredible for an explosives playthrough--it can be obtained fairly early and retains its value late into the game.
I only touch Explosive weapons in the very late game and they are strong against everything except Caesar Legion Assassins
I'm a simple man, when I see Mercy on S-tier I click the Like button.. my fav weapon in the game... Even more with plasma ammo
It is quite a good weapon.
You wouldn't say a Lamborghini Aventador is a c tier car because it would get stuck if you took it off road, so personally i don't think something like the Fat Man should get a penalty for not being good indoors.
The Fat Man has a purpose, so the only question that needs to be answered for a tier list is, how good is it at fulfilling that purpose.
Fun Fact You can you the same Weapon mods on the mercenary grenade rifle as the default grenade rifle
how did this video get past me? I'm am subscribed btw.