Fallout 76 has come a long way from the negatively received state of the game at launch, mainly through major content additions and ongoing support. Namely, Fallout 76 has received a couple of major story add-ons, concluding the Scorched storyline with the Wastelanders update and the Brotherhood Of Steel storyline with the Steel Reign and Steel Dawn updates. Throughout updates to the game, some of the weapon rewards from Fallout 76’s main quests can provide some serious firepower to the player’s arsenals.
A majority of the weapons that have only one legendary effect out of a standard total of three aren’t worth the trouble to acquire outside of experiencing the story. On the other hand, some of the weapons have qualities that still hold up against the best of Fallout 76’s legendary effects to this day. Even though they are all scripted rewards, the high-end weapons from some of the quests still make for valuable items in Fallout 76’s player vendors since the weapons can only be earned once per character.
S-Tier
Blade of Bastet: The Blade of Bastet is one of the Mistress of Mystery-themed weapons, and perhaps the best of the set. The weapon is a variant of the Chinese Officer sword and comes with an unconditional 50% armor penetration, which can be improved to 100% when wearing the related clothing items. While the outfit prevents players from utilizing other legendary armor effects in Fallout 76, a majority of other weapons can’t compete with the 100% armor penetration provided here.
Face Breaker: The Face Breaker is a unique variant of the power fist unarmed melee base weapon. It comes with an increase to consecutive hits on single targets that stacks up to 45%, a 40% increase to power attack damage, and +1 Strength, which translates to an extra +5% damage on melee weapons. The Face Breaker is a solid weapon choice, with the only downside being that since it’s an unarmed-class weapon, it can’t be used while wearing Fallout’s famous power armor.
Final Word: The Final Word is arguably the best named weapon in Fallout 76, let alone the best quest reward. Coming with +50% armor penetration, a 25% faster fire rate, and +250 damage resistance while reloading, there isn’t much room for improvement for this gun, in a good way. With how many other named weapons have conditions to get the most out of their legendary effects, the Final Word is one of the easiest to use, and the weapon doesn’t need a dedicated build in Fallout 76 to see its full potential.
Slug Buster: This weapon is an excellent way to start or finish any player builds in Fallout 76 that use critical hits in VATS. The Slug Buster comes with Anti-Armor, which increases armor penetration by an unconditional +50%, a +50% increase to VATS critical hits, a 90% weight reduction, and a fourth hidden trait that reduces VATS AP usage by 20%. This weapon has every trait that critical hit builds should ever need.
A-Tier
All Rise: On a weapon as strong as the Super Sledge base weapon, limb damage is unnecessary since it doesn’t modify overall damage. This Super Sledge variant comes with a unique cinder block that increases damage anyway, at the cost of weapon durability. Since the base weapon is one of the best melee weapons in Fallout 76, the added health bonus and weight reduction make this weapon overkill.
Oathbreaker: Coming from the finale of Fallout 76’s Steel Dawn update, the Oathbreaker is a powerful 2-handed melee weapon. The legendary effects on this weapon increase power attack damage by 40%, decrease incoming damage while power attacking by 40%, and reduce targets' damage output by 20% shortly after striking them. With so many effects to mitigate incoming damage, this weapon turns players into a tank, regardless of their armor situation.
Mind Over Matter: Mind Over Matter could be a much better weapon if it didn’t have a situational legendary effect, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad weapon. The legendary effect in mention boosts the weapon’s damage against the Fallout series’ ghouls enemy type, which paired with a flamer nozzle mod can move down hordes of ghouls with piercing damage. This weapon's other 2 legendary effects are a +25% damage increase and a +50 damage resistance, both only active while aiming.
The Fact Finder: Two-Shot and Explosive is an amazing combination of legendary effects on weapons in Fallout 76. In fact, Two-Shot and Explosive energy weapons are what make “legacy weapons” the most brokenly overpowered weapons in the game. The only downside to this weapon is in the third legendary effect that reduces the AP cost for firing in VATS, since VATS unfortunately nullifies the extra projectile from Two-Shot.
B-Tier
Black Diamond: The Black Diamond is a weapon with a simple legendary effect that has no downside. The single legendary effect on this 1-Handed melee weapon is +1 Strength for a +5% increase in melee damage. It’s not exactly overwhelming, but any melee weapon with repair materials that are easily generated at Workshops in Fallout 76 is a good backup weapon for preserving ammo.
Somerset Special: Even though handguns in Fallout 76 are categorically outclassed by other weapon types, the Somerset Special is a great weapon to carry players into the endgame weapons. The Anti-Armor effect of this weapon makes it powerful without needing any additional mods or perks for damage output. Alongside the high damage, the low capacity and fire rate of this weapon factor into players needing and using less ammo compared to any other automatic weapons.
Old Guard’s 10mm SMG: This is the best of the 10mm weapons available from quest rewards. The Old Guard’s 10mm SMG comes with the Anti-Armor legendary effect as well as a faster fire rate than the base weapon. What makes this weapon good is that Anti-Armour is one of the best legendary weapon effects in Fallout 76, and the 50% trait can be increased through weapon mods and perks.
V.A.T.S. Unknown: The V.A.T.S. Unknown is a blaster pistol from the aliens in Fallout games that comes with 3 legendary effects for VATS users. As a pistol, this weapon is best used in stealth where damage has enhanced modifiers, but that guarantees that the weapon isn’t much better than any random legendary weapon. While increased VATS critical damage and increased critical accumulation are an amazing combination, the Medic effect that heals allies on critical hits is nowhere near as useful as Vampire, which heals the user on every hit, unconditionally.
C-Tier
Bunker Buster: Unconditional boosts to damage are a rare find across the many weapon effects in Fallout 76, so the +20% boost on this weapon is a keeper. Bunker Buster is a pre-modded triple barrel rocket launcher, along with the mentioned 20% damage increase. The standard rocket launcher isn’t the best explosive weapon, but its high-damage output is easy to utilize without needing any perks related to explosives.
Daisycutter: Daisycutter is a great way for players to add one of Fallout’s most unconventional weapons to their arsenal with the least amount of interference. Although it doesn’t apply to the ammo, this shoulder-mounted catapult for mini-nukes comes with a 90% weight reduction, which is ideal for randomized rolls of legendary effects on this weapon. Players can at least use this weapon before deciding to invest Legendary Modules into a Fat-Man with a full set of 3 legendary weapon effects, though mini-nukes don’t necessarily need much from legendary effects to perform.
Pyrolyzer: The Suppressor effect doesn’t provide any damage bonuses to compete with the top-tier legendary weapon effects, but on a flamer, it doesn’t need to. The flamer base weapon has mods that trade-off range for boosts to damage, with substantial changes to both aspects. At its shortest range and highest damage, any flamer, legendary or not, is extremely powerful. With the Suppressor effect, players can at least mitigate incoming damage without needing endgame armor in Fallout 76.
Voice of Set: This weapon is the firearm of the Mistress of Mystery set, and is a modified variant of the .44 pistol with increased damage. The Voice Of Set deals energy damage to robot enemies, and when wearing the Mistress’ outfit the energy damage is increased along with the additional chance for struck robots to be stunned. Unlike how powerful the Mistress’ melee weapon can be while wearing one of Fallout’s most impractical armors, this novelty weapon is relatively weak like the rest of the game’s pistols.
D-Tier
Anti-Scorched Training Pistol: This weapon is a poor tutorial for how weapons work in the endgame, and shouldn’t be actively used long enough for that to matter, even in the easier Scorched Holiday Events. Unlike how the Zealot legendary effect has no negative trait, this weapon deals increased damage to Scorched enemies while dealing less damage to everything else. Not only is this weapon’s effect a poor introduction to legendary weapon effects, but the prime mods and related ammo upgrade for weapons also deal increased damage to Scorched without any negative drawbacks.
Civil Unrest: The effect on Civil Unrest is +10 AP, which is another way of saying +1 Agility. For players that use VATS in Fallout 76, having extra AP isn’t a bad weapon effect, especially since shotguns are best used for targeting limbs to cripple them, which VATS helps with. Increased AP also allows players a little bit more stamina to run longer distances, though without any damage-increasing effects, the Civil Unrest is easily outperformed by other close-range weapons.
Pearly Peepers: On paper, Pearly Peepers should be a worthy component to any sniper build, though it is far too restrained. The trait of these binoculars is that they tag enemies on the player’s compass. What the item doesn’t explain, though, is that the tag goes away when they swap to a gun and that recon scopes on any weapon will tag enemies anyway.
Perfect Storm: Perfect Storm pales in comparison to the other 10mm SMGs, especially the Old Guard’s 10mm SMG. Fire damage may sound appealing, though most of the status effects in Fallout 76 are more useful in the enemy's hands. Fire and other utility damage types are also better off on semi-automatic weapons since the status effects generally don’t stack or accumulate very effectively.
Fallout 76 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
