Albino radscorpion in 3.2

[Orpheus]

Hello,

I just runned a little test to see if a heavy gunner (only using heavy gunpowder weapon) would be viable.

I think it doesn't influence that much the following considerations, but I play in hard hardcore and used the shoulder mounted machinegun. I was level 27 and had a endurance of 9.

I ended up against two albino radscorpion while a sentry robot was shooting at me (which was both helping and not helping me, because he was senting missiles on the albino radscorpion). Finally, a deathclaw killed me.

It was simply impossible to win despite the use of med-x and psycho.

I just checked how powerfull there are now : they have 1500 hp, a damage threshold of 18 and basically the same damage than in Fallout 3.

In the version 2.9 I could still use hollow point ammunition and a combat against an albino radscorpion was harsh but still manageable.

In 3.2, it's only with a lot of turbo that such ennemies can be managed. Even if you survive, you anyway wasted all your ammunition.

Those ennemies are definitivly fun killer.

We could argue that there were this way in Fallout 3, but you're considerably more powerfull at level 27 in Fallout 3 than new vegas, furthermore you have 60 % damage resistance, 85 % with med x or 70 with toughness, which against the albino radscorpion is much more usefull than 48 damage threshold (42 with the hellfire armor, 6 with the two ranks of thoughness).

What do you think ?

[RoyBatty]

I have no issues with them, they cannot climb rocks/terrain and are easy to circle strafe too.

Their attacks don't do much damage, same as regular Large Radscorpions. The poison acts much faster though, it is the same otherwise. They also have the same DT as Large Radscorpions.

You are much less powerful in Fallout 3 at level 27 damage wise, especially with Better Criticals and AP rounds that bypass their DT, or weapons that also bypass their DT now which was broken in Fallout 3. A chainsaw or ripper destroys them, same with any energy weapon with OC/MC ammo, or any gun with AP rounds. They die much quicker than they did in Fallout 3. If you are using heavy weapons, you should invest in the Size Matters perk as well.

Remember to use the new mechanics available in the New Vegas engine, it levels the playing field a lot when combined with the bug fix to DT/DR bypass mentioned.

[Risewild]

Also try to hit their stings.

[Orpheus]

I had the three ranks of size matter during this fight. Honneslty, in this configuration, I'm not sure I could have won in any way.

[RoyBatty]

SMMG is not a very good weapon, try a minigun instead.

[Orpheus]

I tried with codes and handed the situation but I think it's more because of the tons of turbo I added to myself. I don't like that much minigun because of the "warming" time (except the CZ57avenger). In a global way, heavy blackpowder guns are quite mediocre in new vegas. But with size matter FIDO and K9000 become quite worth of use. CZ57avenger is always good. I didn't put my hands on Eugene yet however.
Unfortunatly, with 2.9 version there was a nice mod working called "caravan to new vegas" enabling to moving in a roleplay way and extremly fast to the mojave and I kept the capital wasteland for more experimented character. It's still possible with the submarine mod however to do so.

[4891$$]

No offense OP but you are playing in hard mode deliberately and you are complaining about the albino radscorpions being hard to kill on hard difficulty? I'm not trying to be an ass here but it seems to me that if you are playing at higher difficulty having enemies being harder to kill kind of comes with the territory. If you already have gone to the mojave and made it to new vegas you can load up on mini nukes at the gun runners if you have the caps for them and if you don't it's not exactly hard to get caps to buy them. Fatman and mini nukes would make the game easier on hard mode if that's what you are looking for.

[EnderDragonFire]

What do you think ?

For me, they actually seem super trivial and disappointing. My heavy guns build can kill them in 3 shots with a plasma caster at level 30, without even using any chems or special ammo.

[comatosedragon]

The Albino Scorpion was certainly a surprise for me when I first encountered them in the wasteland. (around level 25, IIRC) I play on Hard with Hardcore on, and BLEED and sawyerbatty mods. I got killed fairly quickly by the first one I encountered (which was actually right around Megaton).

Turbo was my friend when fighting them. And usually a laser rifle, or Infiltrator (with AP rounds) was needed to take them out. I never used any big guns with this build, other than Missile Launcher, which was essential for me against Sentry Bots. I slowly grew to love it (the missile launcher). But back to the Albino Scorpion: I think I found that the laser rifle was the most damaging against them, and ammo was certainly cheaper and more plentiful than AP .556 rounds.