Legionary Assassin

Legionary Assassin
The Legionary Assassin is an extremely powerful enemy. Individually, one can survive several VATS headshots from a fully repaired hunting rifle. They carry an assortment of weapons, including 12.7mm pistols, hunting rifles, rippers, machetes, 10mm submachine guns and 9mm submachine guns, to name a few.

The Player may encounter a squad of four legionary assassins if they are at a status of "Hated" or worse with Caesar's Legion*. This may also occur after aiding the Legion's enemies, namely the NCR, by successfully completing the quests Three-Card Bounty, I Put a Spell On You, I Don't Hurt Anymore, or any other quest that improves the reputation of the Player with the NCR.

Encountering the first legionary assassin squad will result in the assassins running up to the Player until one is within talking range*, at which point the closest assassin will declare that Caesar has demanded the Player be killed. This will both trigger and complete the quest Beware the Wrath of Caesar! which immediately results in the failure of all quests given by the Legion. The Player is attacked as soon as dialogue ends.


 * Note: The Mark of Caesar will not protect the Player from this.


 * Note: This results in all four of the heavily armored and well equipped assassins standing very close to the player when they attack. Even with a DT of 14, the Player will be killed at this proximity before they can even put a dent in the first enemy. It is advised that the Player not under ANY circumstances allow the assassins to initiate combat. Instead, take the first shots from as long a range as possible. Once the assassins attack, they will draw their weapons and move more slowly, allowing the Player to utilize long range weapons and explosives more effectively.


 * Note: It is also possible to kill an assassin with two hits from a fire axe, alternatively the thermic lance works quite well. This is highly dependent upon the player's level and skill point allocation when attacked. Obviously, a high melee weapon and strength skill, as well as a fire axe or thermal lance are required.

Combat
Fighting legionary assassins is generally not recommended. Not only are they extremely difficult to kill, the rewards for doing so are lackluster when compared to the cost of armor repair, weapon damage, healing and ammunition cost. When traveling through the wasteland, save often so that if an assassin squad is encountered*, the save can be reloaded and preparations made.


 * The assassin squad will stay in the same place for an extended period of time (and certainly long enough to allow for the player to gear up for a fight).

Lower Level Characters (1-15)
Required:
 * Armor Piercing Rounds
 * Both high base and high DPS weapons. Hard-hitting slow weapons should be used in VATS while high DPS weapons are used otherwise)

Recommended:
 * Equipment:
 * (20+) Stimpacks
 * (5+) Super Stimpacks
 * (5+) Rebound
 * (5+) Hydra/Doctor's Bags
 * (5+) Plasma grenades
 * Any type of land mine
 * Boone (He will shoot on sight, rather than waiting for the dialogue, and with any luck he will kill or seriously injure two of the assassins before fainting)
 * 1st Recon Beret (All bonuses improving critical hit chance/damage are very helpful)


 * Perks:
 * Sniper (Getting headshots with AP rounds and high-damage weapons will decrease enemy accuracy and kill quicker)
 * Mysterious Stranger/Lady Fortune (For obvious reasons)
 * Commando (Or the respective pistol accuracy improvement perk. The point is to increase accuracy at range with the highest DPS weapon as possible.)

If the battle seems to be swinging in the Legion's favor, holster your weapon and run (Preferably for the nearest NCR outpost, or towards Boone if he's close. Ranger stations would probably be the most helpful since they will kill each other off and provide more loot to compensate the cost of fighting the assassins).

Don't hesitate to reload a save, do a few quests and get some useful perks before returning. The better prepared you are, the costs of fighting the assassins will be greatly reduced. Not getting killed is good too.