Small Guns

Small Guns is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, and Fallout 3 skill. In Van Buren it was merged into a more general Firearms skill.

The use, care and general knowledge of small firearms. Pistols, SMGs, Shotguns, Assault Rifles and Rifles.

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics
Initial Level:
 * Fallout: 35% + (1% x Agility). Average characters will have a 40%.
 * Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics: 5% + (4% x Agility). Average characters will have a 25%.

Small Guns are the staple weapons choice of the post apocalyptic nuclear war survivor. Namely, you. Although small guns lack the wide devastation possible with big guns (Rocket Launcher) and energy weapons (P94 Plasma Rifle) they are more than capable of holding their own in a fight. Small guns, unlike big guns or energy weapons, can be quickly trained with books and is naturally high to begin with. Ammo is also plentiful and can usually be bought or looted when you run low which is seldom.

The small guns character can easily exploit these advantages by building a gunfighter or sniper character. There are several perks available that directly increase this skill, the most powerful being "Sniper" at level 21 (F1) or 24 (F2).

Also, some of the most unique and powerful weapons (read: Red Ryder LE BB Gun, not available in Fallout 3) are available for those who specialize in small guns.

The Bottom line: At the end of Fallout 2, a character who carefully developed this skill with books and perks can do almost 200 damage with the Red Ryder against power armor. While Energy Weapons is often hailed as the supreme weapon type for its unparalelled damage potential, a well-built Small Guns character can easily outpace late game enemies and will generally have no more trouble dispatching them than an Energy Weapons character would. While there is certainly some debate about the subject, Small Guns is probably the "best" overall weapon type because of its adaptability - A Small Guns character can at least match the damage potential of other weapon types and has far more weaponry options available.

Fallout 3
Initial Level: Starting Small Guns skill is equal to 2 + (2 x Agility) + Luck/2 (rounded up). Average starting characters (Agi 6, Lck 5) will have a Small Guns skill of 17%.

In addition to assigning Skill Points at Level up, Small Guns can be permanently raised by taking the Gun Nut Perk, finding the Bobblehead: Small Guns, and reading Guns and Bullets. Small Guns can be temporarily raised by wearing various clothing which enhances either Agility or Small Guns directly.

On average, increasing Small Guns by 5 points will increase Small Gun weapon damage by ~3.5%. There is also a diminishing margin of return. In general, increasing Small Guns from 5 to 10 will increase weapon damage more than increasing it from 95 to 100.

Also, the higher the Small Guns skill, the more stable scoped weapons such as the Sniper Rifle or the Scoped .44 Magnum will be when aiming.

The first decent small gun available in the game is the 10mm Pistol. Common Raider and Super Mutant Small Guns such as the Hunting Rifle, Assault Rifle and Chinese Assault Rifle are also efficient weapons that you can reliably keep in good condition for the entire game.

Combat related Perks such as Gunslinger (L6), Commando (L8), Sniper (L12) and Wired Reflexes (Quest) will increase the accuracy of Small Guns in VATS.

Perks that improve VATS accuracy:
 * Gunslinger improves VATS accuracy for pistols/one-handed small guns.
 * Commando improves VATS accuracy for rifles/two-handed small guns.
 * Sniper improves VATS accuracy on headshots for all small guns.
 * Wired Reflexes improves VATS accuracy for all weapons (by 5%).

Perks that improve damage:
 * Black Widow improves damage by 10% vs. male humans/non-feral ghouls.
 * Lady Killer improves damage by 10% vs. female humans/non-feral ghouls.
 * Entomologist improves damage by 50% vs. insects.
 * Robotics Expert improves damage by 25% vs. robots.
 * Bloody Mess improves damage by 5% against all targets.
 * Finesse increases the chance of getting a critical hit (by 5%).
 * Better Criticals increases the damage of critical hits (by 50%).

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