One of the most powerful and popular ways to traverse the Wasteland is clad in a bulky power armor, carrying deadly weapons to obliterate those who stand in your way. In this list I’ll review the best heavy weapons you can add to your arsenal ranked in order of usefulness, versatility, and raw power. There’s lasers, explosives, nukes and even harpoons! No matter what you want there’s something for you in this list.
10. The Broadsider
The tenth spot fits arguably one of the most unique weapon choices in the game. The Broadsider is basically an 18th century naval cannon strapped to a 23rd century contraption that allows you to easily carry, fire, and reload it like you would any other weapon. Its damage is comparable to that of a Missile Launcher making it a more viable alternative for close-range shootouts where explosives would damage you as well. It’s also much lighter. The only downsides to the Broadsider are how hard it is to aim, and that the only way to acquire it is to support Captain Ironsides during the Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution quest, making it impossible to get if you wish to side with the Scavengers.
9. Sergeant Ash Flamer
The Sergeant Ash is a flamer unique to the Far Harbor DLC. You may think the damage output of flamers in general is somewhat mediocre, but the Sergeant Ash makes up for this with its Kneecapper effect, which gives it a 20% chance to cripple an enemy’s legs. This makes it a great option for battles against big mobile enemies which may otherwise give you a hard time fighting, such as Deathclaws. With this effect you can easily cripple them allowing you to calmly burn them to a crisp or take shots at them from a distance. Dealer’s choice. Ammo for this thing is also quite lightweight and easy to procure. You can buy the Sergeant Ash from Dejen in Acadia.
8. Ashmaker Minigun
Continuing the trend of setting wasteland dwellers on fire, here we have the Ashmaker. This aptly named incendiary minigun belongs to Fahrenheit, John Hancock’s bodyguard and head of the Neighborhood Watch in Goodneighbor. You can get it at the end of The Big Dig, either as a reward for betraying Bobbi No-Nose or looting it off Fahrenheit’s corpse if you choose to side with the nose-less ghoul. This weapon has a marginally better damage output than a regular minigun, but being able to set enemies on fire makes it much more viable. And it’s a great option for gunning down crowds of smaller enemies such as mirelurks.
7. Cryolator
On the other side of the heat spectrum we have the Cryolator. This is a cryogenic sprayer able to freeze enemies solid for a period of time, allowing you to focus on other enemies or just take control of a situation. You can also convert the weapon into an ice crystal shooter by adding the crystalizing barrel mod. This increases ammo efficiency, damage, and range, making the Cryolator an overall stronger weapon especially compared to some others in this collection. You can find the Cryolator in Vault 111 at the very beginning of your adventure, but you may only acquire it after you’re able to pick master-level locks. So this is a weapon you’ll be forced to return to snag later on in the game.
6. Partystarter Missile Launcher
The Partystarter looks like any other missile launcher at first glance. But what sets it apart from its regular counterpart is the Assassin weapon effect which gives it a 50% damage increase against humans. The fact that humans are one of the most common enemies in the game makes this missile launcher a fan favorite and absolutely unstoppable with the right mods, such as the quad barrel (increased ammo capacity) and the targeting computer (homing missiles). The biggest downside to this weapon is the considerable weight of its ammo, which may keep you from carrying around as much as your missile-fueled massacres require. If blowing raiders to bits is what you want, well you can get the Partystarter from KL-E-0 which is the merchant at Goodneighbor.
5. Admiral’s Friend Harpoon Gun
The Admiral’s Friend Harpoon Gun shares its brand of uniqueness with the Broadsider. It feels somewhat out of place in 23rd century America. But don’t let its anachronism fool you! The Admiral’s Friend has a damage output equal to that of a Missile Launcher and it also deals double damage to enemies with full health, killing most humanoid enemies easily in one shot. The harpoons it uses as ammunition are also retrievable making an already amazing weapon into a truly great option for any sea dog. You can only obtain the Admiral’s Friend by purchasing it from Allen Lee in the Far Harbor DLC.
4. Aeternus
Aeternus, meaning “eternal” in Latin, is a fitting name for a weapon that offers virtually unlimited ammo. That’s right: this legally obtainable variant of the Gatling laser allows you to shoot indefinitely under the right circumstances. To activate this effect you must have at least three fusion cores in their inventory. The gun will seemingly consume one ammo when first used, but you can continue to shoot without consuming any more after that. There are other more powerful Gatling lasers in the game, but having unlimited ammo definitely makes this one stand above the others as the most ammo-efficient weapon. Note you can only get the Aeternus if you have the Nuka-World DLC. You just need to repeat the Amoral Combat quest until you get to face the Rogue Knight in combat. After he’s defeated he’ll drop Aeternus.
3. Fat Man
One of the things that make the Fallout franchise so special is just how absurd and over-the-top it can get. Enter the M42 Fat Man portable mini-nuke launcher, a weapon that puts nuclear destruction right at your fingertips. Few things look cooler and let you feel more powerful than firing one nuke after another in the general direction of your enemies, of which only the strongest may survive a single shot of this thing. If you somehow find it lacking in power you can make it 50% stronger by turning it into a Nuka-nuke Launcher in the Nuka-World DLC. With the right perks, such as Heavy Gunner and Demolition Expert, nobody should dare defy you. Except, they do, and that’s where the fun begins. You can find the Fat Man in several locations such as the armories in The Castle and Fort Hagen.
2. Final Judgement
Contrary to the Aeternus, this Gatling laser focuses not on allowing you to fight endlessly, but on killing everyone as fast as possible. Final Judgement fires 50% faster than a regular Gatling laser once you fit it with the charging barrels mod. Couple this with a very high base damage for an automatic weapon and this beast will shred anything the wasteland throws at you in the blink of an eye. You can only get this weapon by taking it from Arthur Maxson, either by somehow disarming him or looting his body after the Airship Down quest.
1. Big Boy
At the very top of this list stands the most powerful and coolest weapon in all of Fallout 4. This mini-nuke launcher has the single highest damage potential in the game with the right perks and mods. How does it achieve this? Instead of one mini-nuke, it launches two. Yes, the only way to make portable nuclear destruction cooler is by doubling the payload. And that’s exactly what the Big Boy launcher does. Not only that, but it only spends one ammunition per doubled shot and it’s compatible with the Nuka-nuke mod from the Nuka-World DLC which makes it 50% more powerful. Seriously this thing is a beast. You can acquire the Big Boy by buying it from Arturo Rodríguez at the Diamond City market for the fittingly high price of circa 14.000 bottle caps with no charisma bonuses. Ruling the wasteland doesn’t come cheap.
