Carl's Fallout 4 Guide
for PC, Xbox One, and PS4

I'm writing a Guide to Nuka World, piece by piece. Here are the newest/most popular pages:
See a full list of guides on the Nuka World page. I've written over a dozen in just a week and plan to continue. There is much more to this DLC, it will just take time to write it all. Check back for more. Comment on the appropriate page if you have a tip to share with other readers.

Fallout 4: Rifleman Perk

Damage, Armor Penetration and Limb Crippling

The Rifleman Perk in Fallout 4 Rifleman affects energy and ballistic rifles, which includes shotguns. It's a great perk and easily the most important to any sniper build.

The Rifleman Perk is good for both Snipers and players who want to make their character super-proficient in using a shotgun. Anything non-automatic that isn't a pistol or heavy gun is pretty much a rifle - from simple pipe rifles, laser rifles, to double-barrel shotguns and the immensely powerful Gauss Rifle. Here are the 5 ranks of this Perk, its requirements, and further assessment of its strength and mechanics:

Rifleman Perk
RankRequiresPerk DescriptionPerk ID
1PER 2Keep your distance long and your kill-count high. Attacks with non-automatic rifles do 20% more damage 4a0b6
2Level 9Attacks with non-automatic rifles do 40% more damage and ignore 15% of a target's armor. 4a0b7
3Level 18Attacks with non-automatic rifles do 60% more damage and ignore 20% of a target's armor. 4a0b8
4Level 31Attacks with non-automatic rifles do 80% more damage and ignore 25% of a target's armor. They also have a slight chance of crippling a limb. 6fa20
5Level 46Attacks with non-automatic rifles do double damage and ignore 30% of a target's armor. They also have a slightly higher chance of crippling a limb. 65e52

Rifleman PerkGameplay Effects & Utility
Rifleman is unique in its ability to penetrate armor, making it the weapons perk that boosts damage the most in Fallout 4. How much extra damage you will deal is complicated to people who aren't great at math, but in general the higher their armor the more you'll do over what you would've done without the extra armor penetration. Here is Fallout 4's Damage Reduction formula for those interested. It's worth noting that in the game files you can see this is currently only reducing ballistic (not energy) damage resistance. Hopefully this is a bug that will be fixed.

That this can be used with combat shotguns and fast-firing non-automatic rifles is a major plus, in that you can not only snipe with it, but also have a good weapon for when enemies are close and you need to eliminate them quickly. Damage values you see in Pip-boy will reflect this Perk's boosts, and you can easily get weapons over the 100 damage mark without them being two-shot.

Rifleman is the quintessential perk for a Sniper, because without that extra damage enemies will gradually outclass your output even with a good gun. If you're making a Sniper build, you should take this at every level it's available again, especially if you're playing on a high difficulty setting.

The chance to cripple limbs is an afterthought that sometimes comes in handy when facing legendary opponents and powerful creatures like deathclaws and yao guai. Rank 4 gives you a 5% chance to instantly deal 9999 damage to a limb, Rank 5 is 7% - so it's not something to be relied upon but is awesome when it works. With 5 ranks in Rifleman and a good weapon, you will not often need this but appreciate it when it does happen. It's particularly helpful if you like to play on very hard, where enemies' limbs can actually be crippled as opposed to normal/easy where often you will kill just about anything before their limbs can even be crippled.

More Fallout 4 Guides

Share Tips and Strategies Below



Back to Top


Share Tips and FAQs

Nothing yet.

Join In

Captcha
Refresh
 
Enter code:
 
Remember my name and email for future contributions.
 

Search the Guide

Far Harbor DLC Guides

See my Far Harbor Guide for new features in the DLC. There, you can also watch the trailer and view new weapons that can be found. The area is massive, so we can expect plenty of quests and exploration in a foggy, rugged area with new and challenging creatures to battle.

Pleae note there are different endings for this DLC, something we all wanted! It's like the actual end-game of FO4 in that you can choose the outcome.

Walkthroughs
Islander's Almanac Magazine Locations
Far From Home: Quest 1
Walk in the Park: Quest 2
Where you Belong: Quest 3
Best Left Forgotten: Quest 4
Ware's Brew Quest New
The Striker New

Automatron Guides & Walkthrough

The final quest Restoring Order (Mechanist Fight/Options) is now available. I've also released a page that describes Getting Started in Automatron to accompany the main page about the DLC. This covers how to make the Robot Workbench to begin making your own Automatrons, and walks you through the first two quests while providing some tips for fighting the Mechanist's creations. Quest 3 Walkthrough: Headhunting is also live on the site.

Robots in Automatron New
Mechanist's Lair, Eyebots, and Rogue Robots covers what happens after the Mechanist story is complete.

Perks & Bobbleheads

Now that I've written about all Perks in Fallout 4, I've put them all in a list, with how they work, what you can expect, and my own opinions on them. Hope this is handy! I've also compiled map shots of all Bobblehead Locations in the game. You can choose to explore the locations on your own or read descriptions for those I've taken notes about.

shopify analytics ecommerce