Always running out of ammo - any tips?

[SkullKnight]

Im new to the game and I just made a character focused on using guns. However, Ive been finding that I never have enough ammo and end up pulling out my trusty baseball bat to fight enemies. This is an especially big problem since I frequently encounter super mutants in the wasteland, which are really annoying to kill. Also, I have a gun-based companion who burns out ammo very quickly and ends up fighting with a secondary melee weapon. Stimpacks tend to run out fast as well when dealing with super mutants (especially the ones with the miniguns). This is forcing me to simply run past all enemies on my way to a destination. Any ideas on how to keep myself well-stocked with supplies?

[JackTrenton]

Just play the game for a while and it will come. Make some scavenging trips and bring back the loot to vendors. Do enough exploring and you'll get what you need.

 

My character is level 30 and has thousands of each ammo type and hundreds of stimpacks without using console commands or cheats.

[SkullKnight]

The vendors (at least the ones I have visited at lvl 3) have less stuff than I do. Im journeying to another town to hopefully find a vendor that actually has some caps left and isnt sold out on ammo. Im looking forward to getting a house soon and having a place to store extra loot.

 

Any ideas on where to explore? Exploring the wasteland tends to cost me more ammo than it gets me. Although I use VATS when I can, I still tend to lose a lot of bullets through missed shots. Would you recommend using the right-mouse button aiming?

[evilneko]

Grab a Rich Vendor mod to give the merchants more caps. :thumbsup:

[Fonger]

unmodded - learn to use many different kinds of weapons so you will always have some weapon that has ammo

-- buy the schematics for that Rock-it Launcher - only real use for this thing is that it conserves ammo by using junk instead

 

modded - well now there's lots of nice mods to help

-- Reload Your used Ammo - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1899

-- Respawning Ammo Boxes - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4144

-- Rich Private Merchant - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3592

-- Dimensional Safe -- you loot everything and sell it then buy all the ammo you can find http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1627

[Rabbit1251]

Fight smarter, not harder. Tailor your weapons to the foe. Baseball bats work well against radroaches and costs no ammo. You can take out radscorpions with a pistol. Save your big guns like the shotgun for Supermutants.

 

10 mm ammo is fairly common and I've used the pistol many times to kill Supermutant Brutes. If the Mutant is using a mêlée weapon plant a landmine along his approach to you. This will generally cripple him. Then backtrack while shooting him with your handgun 'til he drops.

 

The rusty old hunting rifle is a pretty good weapon. The ammo is fairly common and repair parts are too. I play the game using little more that just it.

 

Stay away from the submachine gun. It has good damage, but is somewhat inaccurate and eats up ammo like crazy.

 

Buy .44 magnum and shotgun shells wherever you find them even if you can't use them right away. When you eventually find a weapon that uses them you'll be all set. Plan ahead.

 

Don't be too quick to use up stimpaks. Hot key them and use them when needed during a fight but only at the last moment. Don't heal up right after a fight when there may be a bedroll just around the next corner.

 

 

Rabbit

[SkullKnight]

I do waste a lot of bullets missing shots. I probably wasted ~25 shooting across a river at raiders (well hey, they didnt think twice about shooting across the river at me, so why not? :P). I ran out of ammo for both the pistol and hunting rifle, so I ended up having to switch to weapons that I had 15 skill for using, which isnt particularly effective. Although I have skills for both small and big guns, the only big gun I have is a broken flamethrower thats no longer functional. Im thinking about building the rock-it launcher to use as my big gun (since ammo for it is easy to find), but I think finding repair parts for it will be difficult if not impossible.

[TheOriginalEvilD]

First, do the Wasteland Survival Guide quests right out of the gate instead of following the main quest. This will give you a nice experience boost in the beginning and get you leveled up a couple times so you're not such a push over. I would recommend always tagging Repair, so you don't waste your money fixing your weapons and armor. Don't ever buy weapons and armor because you WILL find what you want in the wasteland if you're patient....spend your money on ammo and repairs until you can repair yourself. Get yourself a hunting rifle and get used to it...ammo is easy to find, as are the guns to repair yours, it's fairly accurate and does decent damage for early enemies, and being a single shot 5 round clip, it will keep you from wasting ammo like you'll do with a machine gun. Learn to sneak, learn to get head shots so you average one bullet per kill. Use melee weapons on weak enemies instead of wasting your bullets. Don't overlook mines and grenades to soften up enemies so you use less bullets to kill them. Don't waste money on house themes and accessories until you've built a nice arsenal and a few thousand caps to spare.

 

Lastly, one thing i personally cheat on is i use a weight limit mod. It may be really unrealistic to carry 20 sets of power armor and 30-40 guns and a bunch of other crap...but i only have so much gaming time to spend and i can't stand loot/sell/loot/sell/loot/sell over and over when i can just loot everything all at once, pack it all back to town all at once and sell it all at once instead of making 10 trips. It's one area that i can over look realism and RPG for the sake of getting on with the game.

 

And yeah, don't waste your ammo shooting at something really really far away until you get one of the weapons that has 0 spread...or until you have enough ammo that it won't matter. SNEAK up to them and get a head shot.

 

When it comes time to cash in your loot....sell/sell/sell/sell, and then buy/buy/buy/buy AMMO. Buy every bullet that every vender has for sale even for the guns you don't use. Later on you may find you end up using those guns in a pinch or you can sell off the rounds to buy ammo for what you do use. Also remember that if you can repair stuff yourself, money is essentially USELESS....it only serves as something to trade in for AMMO. What good does 50k caps do you when you only have 200 bullets?

[bukerbusted95]

put a ammo box down with the geck and put ammo in it and make it respawn and able to pick up

[kartman314]

Play smart, sneak in as close as you can, and aim/use vats rather than just spraying and praying like a noob.