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Character Build: The Heavy (FO4)

Tags: #Albino Fallout Build  #Fallout 4 Build  #Character Build Gunslinger  #Character Build Infiltrator  #Character Build VATS 
  • Member
    April 20, 2016

    The Heavy

    For my first Fallout 4 build I thought I’d take a look at one of the game’s primary factions, the Railroad. A heavy is someone who takes the fight directly to the Institute and any other groups that might threaten the Railroad’s operations, and is the player’s designated role in the faction.

    The Heavy needs to be able to blend in with the shadows as well as hold his own in a firefight and that’s where I discovered the power of one particular weapon: the Deliverer. As it comes with a suppressor by default it’s ideal for sneaking in the earlygame, but it also has good DPS which makes it a solid choice for the entire game. Most importantly, however, it has a low VATS cost, letting you get in a lot of hits. The Four Leaf Clover perk has a chance of filling your critical meter with every hit in VATS. So what happens when you combine the two? Crits for days…

    SPECIAL

    Strength (1): As the Heavy doesn’t make use of melee weapons Strength is more or less unnecessary. Deacon (the Heavy’s companion of choice) can be used to make up for low carrying capacity.

    Perception (8): The Heavy is already accurate in VATS due to Deliverer’s legendary effect; combined with high perception he has excellent hit chances anywhere within close to mid-range. Be sure to pick up the Perception bobblehead to put your Perception at nine, allowing you to grab the Penetrator perk later on.

    Endurance (2): This isn’t a particularly tanky build; you don’t need the extra health when sneaking and in firefights you can simply rely on Deacon to keep the heat off of you. Still, you’ll want to start with two Endurance and grab the bobblehead as well so you can pick up the Life Giver perk.

    Charisma (1): Another unnecessary stat for the Heavy. The low selling / high buying prices aren’t a big issue, the reduced maximum population for settlements is irrelevant to this build, and you can simply pop some Grape Mentats if you absolutely need to persuade someone.

    Intelligence (3): The Heavy works well with at least a little Intelligence for decent EXP gain. Grab the bobblehead here so you can get the Hacker perk.

    Agility (6): The Heavy needs both good stealth capabilities and a decent pool of AP so this is an important stat. You’ll want the bobblehead here too for the Ninja perk.

    Luck (7): A good portion of the Heavy’s damage output comes from crits, making Luck another important stat. The bobblehead combined with You’re SPECIAL will put your final luck total at nine, enabling you to pick up the Four Leaf Clover perk.

    Perks

    Listed (roughly) in order of priority. All of them should be maxed out (with the exception of any DLC exclusive ranks) unless indicated otherwise.

    Night Person: Additional Perception and Intelligence is always nice, and the night vision means that you never have to risk using your Pip-Boy light when sneaking. I recommend picking this up ASAP in order to start reaping the benefits of the increased EXP gain from the Intelligence bonus sooner.

    Locksmith/Hacker: The Heavy infiltrates all sorts of places during his missions for the Railroad, and these perks ensure that he’s never locked out of any of them.

    Gunslinger: Essential for maximizing the Deliverer’s damage.

    Rifleman: The Heavy’s two secondary weapons both gain damage from this perk, making it important but slightly less so than Gunslinger.

    Sneak: Essentially a required perk for being able to effectively use stealth.

    Life Giver: As this is a low Endurance build, the health boost from this perk is great for some extra survivability, and having a constant source of health regeneration is very helpful.

    Ninja/Mister Sandman: Both of these perks, in combination with Cloak & Dagger (Deacon’s companion perk) will give you the maximum permanent damage multiplier from ranged sneak attacks possible. Note that while the official patch addressed this to some degree, you still need to grab C&D and the highest ranks of Ninja and Mister Sandman in a set order to get the highest multiplier (4.8 for ranged sneak attacks as of the patch). Either Ninja 3 -> C&D -> Sandman 3, C&D -> Sandman 3 -> Ninja 3, or C&D -> Ninja 3 -> Sandman 3 will work. Any other combination will result in something lower (either 4.7 or 4.4).

    Better Criticals: Puts more power behind your crits, simple as that.

    Critical Banker: Between your high luck, the Deliverer’s low VATS cost, and Four Leaf Clover, you should be racking up criticals pretty quickly. Critical Banker ensures that you never have to waste them.

    Four Leaf Clover: As mentioned earlier, this perk synergizes well with Deliverer. According to Nukapedia, it has an 8% activation chance for the first rank but increases by only 2% for every rank thereafter, so you may want to just pick up the first rank only and invest the remaining three perk points into something like Grim Reaper’s Sprint.

    Sniper: The Heavy utilizes the Tinker Tom Special for long range, and since it’s scoped, it benefits from this perk, making it a much more useful weapon.

    Penetrator: The Heavy is already quite accurate in VATS, so with this perk, he can hit his enemies from virtually anywhere.

    You should be at level 50 once the build is complete.

    Equipment

    Like the other Railroad heavies seen in the game, this build opts to use the Railroad Armored Coat for protection. It can be found on fallen Railroad heavies either during the Battle of Bunker Hill or from the checkpoints across the Commonwealth after the main quest is complete. The coat comes in five different versions; the higher level ones offer more protection but are also really heavy (up to 50 weight for the Mk V version). In addition to the coat, I also recommend using ballistic weave compatible headwear of your choosing with the Institute Killer Weave obtained from completing the Randolph Safehouse quests; I went with a Battered Fedora (not the Worn Fedora, as that can’t use Ballistic Weave) along with the Patrolman’s Sunglasses (strictly for looks).

    Aside from the weapons listed below, I also recommend making use of Vertibird Signal Grenades (which are available to Railroad players after completing the Main Quest with them); air superiority is always helpful.

    The Heavy’s go-to weapon and a personal favorite of mine after this playthrough. The Calibrated Powerful Receiver, Sharpshooter’s Grip, and Large Quick Eject Mag are all sold by Tinker Tom after completing enough Railroad sidequests, with each mod requiring a different number of Weathervane quests. Combine that with the fact that the Short Barrel, Glow Sights, and Suppressor all either come with gun by default or don’t have any perk requirements to be crafted, that means you can completely modify the Deliverer to your specifications without needing Gun Nut.

    While the Deliverer is great for close to mid-range combat, it’s not a good choice for long-range, which is fortunately where the Tinker Tom Special excels. As this build doesn’t use Gun Nut, you’ll simply have to strip whatever hunting rifles you find for mods. The ones to aim for are pictured above; the gun comes with the Long Scope and Suppressor by default, but you’ll need to get lucky with the Calibrated Powerful Receiver, Long Ported Barrel, Marksman’s Stock, and Large Quick Eject Mag.

    Yes, it’s actually called the Railway Rifle; I changed it to Railroad for obvious reasons. Similar to the Deliverer, all of the mods that you’ll want to use with this either come with the weapon by default or can be crafted without Gun Nut perks, the exception being the Recoil Compensating Stock, a negligible loss. This may not be the most effective weapon in the Heavy’s arsenal, but it’s the most entertaining, and works as an alternative to the Deliverer in firefights (though not stealth, obviously) should you be running low on 10mm ammo. While you can simply pick this weapon up from Big John’s Salvage or Bedford Station, I advise against that. Instead, just play through the Railroad questline as normal, buying Railway Spikes whenever you can (merchants are the only reliable source of them, but thankfully they’re cheap). Upon completing Underground Undercover you’ll get the gun from Desdemona, at which point you’ll have plenty of Railway Spikes to use.

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  • Member
    April 20, 2016

    Awesome work Albino!

  • Member
    April 20, 2016

    Everytime I pick up a Heavy armor coat, I think - that's a great looking set. But I never use it. Great use overall. And, somehow in all of my playing I've completely missed the night vision aspect of night person perk. That's for illuminating that :)

    I've also never seen someone explain the sneak / ranged multiplier and always wondered why it comes out different from time to time. So thanks! (Is 5.3x not possible anymore after patches?)

    I love the overall focus on "accuracy" too..between the gun and perk choices, he's a real marksman. +1

  • Member
    April 20, 2016

    Thanks Chris!

  • Member
    April 20, 2016

    Hope to see more from you

  • Member
    April 20, 2016

    Thanks Motty! Yeah, with the way I have my game set up interiors and nights can get quite dark if there isn't a nearby light source so having the night vision is really helpful. According to the Fallout Wiki the maximum ranged sneak attack multiplier is now 4.8 after the most recent patch and from what I can tell, that's right. So yeah, no more 5.3x multipliers with ranged weapons.

  • Member
    April 20, 2016

  • Member
    April 20, 2016

    I see. I mean, the 5.3 isn't really necessary anyway. Most snipers I've played I have to crank up the difficulty once the multipliers are in place anyway. Otherwise it's a one-shot bonanza which is only fun for so long.

    Which is also why I like that you're featuring the Deliverer. 

  • Member
    April 20, 2016

    That's what I thought

  • Member
    April 20, 2016

    Like I said, I got some more builds in the works, so count on it.