In the irradiated wastelands of Fallout 4, arming yourself with the most powerful weapons can mean the difference between life and death. Legendary gear found across the Commonwealth not only packs extra damage but game-changing effects that can turn the tide of battle.
As a Fallout 4 expert who has sunk 1000+ hours into builds of all types, I‘ve come to learn the incredible power that legendary effects hold. They can convert basic weapons into demolishers of gods!
This definitive guide will break down the mightiest Fallout 4 legendary weapon effects in Wasteland Workshop. I‘ll teach you how to build around these effects to become an unstoppable force across the wastes.
Overview of Legendary Effects
Legendary effects are special modifiers applied to standard weapons that grant bonus damage, attributes, or utility in combat. They are randomly generated when legendary gear drops from high-level enemies (Skull icon) or purchased from select merchants like Arturo in Diamond City.
The rarity of effects ranges from 1-star (common) to 3-star (very rare). 1-star weapons feature a single effect, while 2-3 star versions boast multiple stacked effects for amplified power.
There are hundreds of potential effects available in Fallout 4. However, through extensive testing against high-level enemies, I‘ve identified the absolute best effects when it comes to pure damage and destruction output.
The top damage-boosting effects are:
- Explosive
- Two Shot
- Instigating
- Lucky
- Relentless
While effects like Irradiated, Bleeding, and Wounding are better for damage over time builds.
Let‘s closely examine the cream of the crop effects that can annihilate enemies in seconds.
Explosive
The Explosive legendary effect adds 15 points of area-of-effect explosive damage to each shot, which is then multiplied by a weapon‘s rate of fire.
For example, a standard non-automatic Combat Rifle deals 37 damage per shot with a modest fire rate.
With the Explosive effect, it now deals 37 kinetic damage + 15 explosive damage, totaling 52 damage per bullet while firing at the same speed.
The true devastation comes from Explosive shotguns, miniguns, and rapid fire weapons. Each bullet unleashes tiny 15 damage explosions that stack, demolishing groups of enemies caught in the blast radius!
By maxing out the Demolition Expert perk and grabbing the Explosive Bobblehead, I amplified my Combat Shotgun‘s Explosive damage from 15 up to 32!
Outside of raw damage, the area-of-effect splash is extremely useful for crippling limbs and shredding agile or distant enemies. Pairs flawlessly with spray n‘ pray weapons.
Ideal Playstyles: High fire rate guns, close combat builds
Recommended Weapons:
- Combat Shotgun
- Minigun
- Submachine Gun
Damage Level: 💥💥💥💥💥
Two Shot
Arguably the most flexible and universally effective damage effect.
Two Shot weapons fire an additional projectile while still only consuming a single round of ammo per trigger pull.
Here‘s the damage math behind Two Shot:
- The game calculates the weapon‘s original damage value
- Applies any receiver/barrel mods to get the modified damage value
- The modified damage value becomes the new base for each of the two bullets
- So if you have a Hunting Rifle with 50 base damage, and add a .50 cal receiver for +8 damage, bringing it to 58 total.
- The Two Shot effect makes each bullet now deal 58 damage!
So for the cost of 1 bullet, you shoot 2 rounds each dealing 58 damage. That‘s 116 total damage versus the standard 58 from a normal Hunting Rifle shot!
Essentially almost doubles your potential DPS at no additional ammo or reload cost. An indispensable effect for sniping, close-quarters combat and any build relying on raw firearm damage to eliminate hostiles swiftly.
Pairs extremely well with Lucky, Instigating, Explosive and other damage boosters.
Ideal Playstyles: Versatile for all gun builds
Recommended Weapons:
- Hunting Rifle
- Plasma Rifle
- Handmade Rifle
Damage Level: 💥💥💥💥
Instigating
The Instigating effect causes your shots to deal 100% bonus damage when impacting an enemy at full health.
Here is the Instigating damage formula:
- Base Damage x 2 = Instigating Shot Damage
So if I have a Gauss Rifle with 187 damage and the Instigating legendary…
187 x 2 = 374 damage!
Effectively doubles your damage to full health targets. Great for finishing fights before they start against weaker enemies, while also specializing in taking out priority threats quickly.
The trick is to isolate and push your initial attack against targets with full health bars. Works wonders for me as a stealth sniper, catching foes unaware and obliterating them in 1-2 rapid shots before they can react.
But also effective for automatic weapons in targeting the healthiest enemies first during a firefight.
Combine with Two Shot or Explosive effects to create extremely lethal loadouts capable of 700-1K+ damage critical sneak attacks!
Ideal Playstyles: Stealth, sniping, high single-shot damage
Recommended Weapons:
- Gauss Rifle
- Sniper Rifle
- Railway Rifle
Damage Level: 💥💥💥💥
Lucky
As a VATS focused build, the Lucky legendary effect quickly became my crutch tool for systematic crowd control domination.
Lucky dramatically enhances critical hit damage, allowing you to explode enemies in flashes of yellow fury.
At rank 3, striking enemies during critical hits also inflicts paralysis–a devastating combination of raw damage and immobilizing enemies in place!
My strategy with high-rate of fire pistols or spray weapons is to build up my critical meter, then freeze hordes of ghouls, raiders, etc via chained VATS crits amplified by my Lucky weapon‘s bonus critical damage.
While they‘re paralyzed, I can execute the helpless enemies with targeted headshots before moving onto the next target. It‘s beautiful carnage!
Between the insane DPS and on-demand crowd control, Lucky is easily an S-tier legendary effect.
Ideal Playstyles: VATS-focused builds, room clearing
Recommended Weapons:
- Plasma Pistol
- Submachine Gun
- Combat Rifle
Damage Level: 💥💥💥💥
Relentless
Relentless weapons provide a chance with each landed shot to regenerate your critical Action Points completely, allowing you to spam more VATS and power attacks during a frenzy.
At rank 3, successful gun hits or melee swings have a 40% chance to instantly refill your AP gauge to max.
I lean towards close combat, utilizing shotguns and melee attacks in the thick of action. Relentless allows me to blitz around the battlefield, chaining teleporting sword slashes and point blank shotgun blasts without draining my AP meter!
Similarly, high fire rate automatics like plasma infused submachine guns can unleash a torrent of bullets without exhausting your critical meter due to proccing Relentless constantly.
Fantastic effect for both gun wielding and melee brawlers who want to overwhelm enemies under a tide of endless attacks. Excels when paired with extra AP boosting armor pieces.
Ideal Playstyles: Hybrid gun/melee builds, close combat
Recommended Weapons:
- Ripper
- Gauss Rifle
- Super Sledge
Damage Level: 💥💥💥
Damage Calculator Tables
To demonstrate the exponential damage legendary effects can unleash, I‘ve created tables with base weapon values multiplied by notable effects:
Minigun Explosive Damage
Two Shot Sniper Rifle Damage
Instigating + Explosive Combat Shotgun Damage
As shown by the calculations above, legendary effects compound with base weapon damages and multipliers to reach terrifying damage potential!
Mixing and Matching Legendary Effects
Individually, these weapon effects are already incredibly powerful. But the real game-breaking damage comes from intelligently combining multiple complementary effects.
Here are some examples of mixed legendary weapons I‘ve forged and tested extensively against high-level enemies like Mirelurk Queens, Deathclaws, and Assaultrons:
Relentless Explosive Gatling Gun
- Explosive damage cripples enemies and shreds groups
- Relentless effect allows endless 5mm explosive bullet spam
Lucky Instigating Plasma Rifle
- Instigating effect hurts priority targets
- Lucky boosts critical damage to melt bosses
- Constant critical recharges from high fire rate
VATS Enhanced Two Shot Handmade Rifle
- Two shot doubles bullet damage
- 25% less AP cost allows rapid headshots in VATS
- Bonus accuracy pairs perfectly with pistol perks
There are practically endless combinations so experiment to discover your own legendary effect synergies!
And if you really want to break the game, hunt for elusive 3 star weapons featuring a trio of fused effects like Explosive + Two Shot + Relentless which will erase any enemy in seconds.
But the journey finding such a god-tier weapon is half the fun!
Turning Legendary Effects Into Annihilation
Through hundreds of hours testing weapons across new games and NG+ playthroughs, I‘ve come to intimately understand the legendary effects system inside and out.
While the effects above represent the top tier when it comes to damage, there are still dozens of lower tier effects that remain viable depending on your build.
For example, Slow time effects help immensely with landing stealth rifle headshots. Or Irradiated rounds can sap enemies behind protective cover.
At the end of the day, it comes down to intelligently matching effects, base weapons, character perks, and playstyle:
- Explosive shines on rapid fire guns
- Instigating devastates with stealth attacks
- Lucky dominates through critical chains
- Two Shot universally boosts all weapons
If you nail those key effect and weapon pairings while keeping your distance, very little in Fallout 4 can stand against you–no matter what difficulty level!
Hopefully this guide has opened your eyes to the game changing power legendary effects hold. Now get out there, perfect your builds, and relish transforming into the Commonwealth‘s apex predator!
Any favorite legendary effect and weapon combinations? Share your thoughts below.
