Fallout 4: Best Legendary Effects

These legendary effects live up to their name in Fallout 4.

Fallout 4 is known for taking a few deviations away from the standard Fallout formula, introducing new mechanics to the series. One new mechanic introduced in Fallout 4 is legendary equipment. Legendary equipment refers to various types of weapons and armor that come with a unique effect. Think of it like Skyrim’s enchanted equipment system but with added firearms.

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Although all legendary effects are meant to be beneficial to the player, there are some effects that seem to give you more bang for your buck, even at end-game levels. If you find something bearing any of these unique effects, it’s best that you hold onto them.

If you're a fan of playing it fast and loose or like high-risk, high-rewards, then the "Bloodied" legendary effect is just what you're looking for. This effect makes whatever weapon it's on deal more damage the lower your health is. This means that, when you're walking between life and death, every shot you'll make will be extremely powerful.

A guaranteed weapon with this attribute is the Survivor's Special laser gun. This is carried by Paladin Brandis, who is part of the quest The Lost Patrol. You can steal it from him or have him give it to you by convincing him to go back to the Brotherhood of Steel.

The legendary effect “Instigating” gives your weapon the ability to do double its normal damage – but only once. The double damage effect applies only if the target is at full health. If a target is missing some of their health by the time you get to them, the effect won’t apply. If you prefer sniping, you will find that, coupled with a well-placed headshot, you can kill or at the very least critically injure even the toughest enemies.

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You don't have to travel too far to find an Instigating weapon. Arturo, the weapons vendor in Diamond City, sells Old Faithful, a laser pistol with this effect.

Another change Fallout 4 brought to the series is how critical hits work. When in VATS, every successful shot fills up a critical meter which, when activated allows for a guaranteed critical hit. The “Lucky” legendary effect allows you to do double damage with a critical hit, and also makes the critical meter fill 15 percent faster.

This means, if you have a lot of Luck-based perks and a weapon with a Lucky effect, you will be getting constant critical hits. This effect excels on rifles and shotguns rather than anything automatic. A guaranteed weapon with this effect is Righteous Authority, a laser rifle given to you from Paladin Danse after assisting him at ArcJet Systems.

Imagine having a double-barrel shotgun that you never need to reload, allowing you to constantly spam buckshot into whatever's clueless enough to stand in front of you. The "Never-Ending" attribute essentially gives whatever gun it's attached to a bottomless magazine, meaning that you're never have to reload. Of course, this doesn't mean your gun will run out of ammo the way you keep firing it.

But there is one exception to this rule. If you travel to Nuka-World and fight in the arena until you defeat the Rogue Knight, who drops Aeternus, a gatling laser with the Never-Ending effect. Due to how the gatling laser uses fusion cores for ammo, the result is that Aeternus will never run out of ammunition, giving you a truly never-ending barrage of lasers to use at your disposal.

Okay, so this isn't a legendary effect. But this unique wooden bat has a unique effect that no other weapon in Fallout 4 has: the chance to launch enemies off their feet.

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Located in the treasure room of Jamaica Plains, the World Series 2076 Bat boasts a small chance to send enemies flying through the air — and by flying, we mean sending them a good couple feet up into the sky. Whenever this happens, there's the sound of a baseball being hit followed by a roaring crowd, bringing to mind that all-American pastime as you reduce whatever it was you hit into red mist.

At first glance, staggering an enemy doesn't seem like it's all that powerful. But this legendary effect focuses on constantly staggering the enemy in place, preventing them from attacking or retaliating against your attacks.

While the Staggering effect may not be all that useful on non-automatic weapons, it's incredibly powerful on select weapons — especially on one of Fallout 4's many powerful melee weapons. If you travel to Far Harbor, you can find The Harvester at the Echo Lake Lumber mill. This Ripper, with its incredibly fast attack speed, 'stun-locks' your enemy by constantly staggering them as you drill into them.

It's simple knowledge that any enemy will go down provided you wail on them as much as possible. That’s what the “Furious” legendary effect is all about. This effect increases the damage of the weapon every time it hits an enemy, resetting only if the enemy in question dies or the player stops attacking.

Because the effect requires you to constantly be laying into the enemy, this makes it a perfect modifier for any automatic weapons or melee. An automatic shotgun or a submachine gun, for example, are great choices thanks to their high rate of fire, while a melee weapon like the Ripper with its multiple hits per second will shred through any enemy at an astounding speed. A guaranteed Furious weapon can be found at Swan’s Point in the form of a power fist carried by Swan.

Imagine if you had a missile launcher that could fire two missiles at once, or maybe if you have a double-barrel shotgun that fired four rounds instead of two. All these possibilities are a reality provided your weapon has the “Two Shot” legendary effect.

The beauty of the Two Shot legendary effect is that it gives your firearm a second projectile while still using only one round of ammo. You’re massively increasing your damage output with every shot without using extra ammunition. This powerful effect shines when used on explosive weapons such as the Fat Man or missile launchers. Arturo in Diamond City, who also sells the Old Faithful weapon, sells the Big Boy, a Fat Man that fires two mini-nukes for the price of one. Talk about overkill…

As many a wise man said, “If it bleeds, it can die.” The “Wounding” legendary effect seeks to put that statement to the test. Every enemy hit by a weapon with this attribute bleeds for 25 points of health over five seconds.

The bleed effect is triggered with every hit, meaning that even two or three hits on an enemy is enough to drain a sizable chunk of their health or, provided what level you are, kill them outright. Humans, ghouls, and mutants are all capable of bleeding, making this modifier very good for clearing out hordes of them in little time. You can find Pickman’s Blade, a knife with this bloody modifier if you complete the Pickman's Gallery side quest in Back Bay.

If there’s one thing any video game teaches, it’s that there's nothing a few explosives can’t handle. The “Explosive” legendary effect takes this one step further, giving your firearms the ability to cause a small explosion with every round fired.

An already powerful effect itself, the Explosive modifier becomes outright broken when the weapon in question is either a combat shotgun or an automatic weapon, as the wide spray of bullets will each deal explosive damage. The explosion also has a small area-of-effect, meaning any enemy (or neutral NPCs) standing near your target will get splash damage. Traveling vendor Cricket sells an Explosive submachine gun called Spray n’ Pray — a weapon that will soon show its value very quickly.

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Chase is a freelancer writer who wants to produce top-quality content for all of his readers. He will be happy to discuss anything related to the Fallout or BioShock series -- a trait he believes will come in handy one day!