What does it take to kill a death claw?

[KimonoBoxFox]

At level one, your best bet is evasion. Give yourself a sneak of around 35-40, stay at a VERY respectable distance, clinging to a steep hill or something, and just slink on by. A Stealth Boy works wonders.

Save the Deathclaw fighting for late, late, late game. A Guns skill of 100, a slasher, a psycho, and a steady, along with an Anti-Materiel Rifle and Incindiary rounds will allow you to assured one-shot headshot regular Deathclaws from Stealth Mode. As for the Deathclaw Alpha and Queen... well... My advice is to be very exploitative about scaffolding and ledges that are out of their reach, and pick them off with "That Gun" shots, outside of VATS. Go for chest shots so you're not missing all day long.

Never, ever, ever engage a deathclaw in close combat, unless you intend to gamble for a Paralyzing Palm strike or repeat Super-slam lockdown. And remember--if they chase you, you can still use the terrain to get away and back to stealth.

 

[Hazy]

An anti-material rifle, one round, and me, with a clear line of sight.

And if the game is "too easy," install these mods asap:
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38719 - AWOP
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34723 - No auto aim bullshit
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35037 - Realistic headshots (for you and the enemy)

 

[srawcripts]

Bottle-cap mines and maybe four or five... but it really hard to find those mines... and it that that much too kill one and there are normally several... so you do the math...

 

[Ava Elzbieta]

Anti-Materiel Rifle or This Machine

You know, something that kicks ass and takes names. Be sure to give it and ammo to Boone, cause chances are he's better with it than you are.

Indeed. Boone's lord supreme badass of New Vegas, perfect with guns or melee. I can't play the game without him by my side.

 

[Dark Prophet]

The answer: Use a gun.
If that don't work.. use more gun.

I see what you did here

 

[KimonoBoxFox]

Bottle-cap mines and maybe four or five... but it really hard to find those mines... and it that that much too kill one and there are normally several... so you do the math...

Lunchbox + cherry bomb + sensor module + bottlecaps + appropriate Repair skill/Recipe. There's your bottlecap mines.

 

[srawcripts]

Bottle-cap mines and maybe four or five... but it really hard to find those mines... and it that that much too kill one and there are normally several... so you do the math...

Lunchbox + cherry bomb + sensor module + bottlecaps + appropriate Repair skill/Recipe. There's your bottlecap mines.

Thanks for the recipe...

 

[Will Bowes]

only an idiot goes north at first in fallout new vegas death claws are scary in fallout 3 the best way to deal with them was a lot of gauss rifles in new vegas...you may have to be a bit more..imaginative my advice would be to take advantage of the way death claws run(very fast) get a high explosives skill and A LOT of mines cripple said deathclaw in the legs and make it run into the mines it wont kill the monster but it's a good start

 

[Dark Prophet]

I was mere lad of level 2. walked into sloan just skipped the conversation with the guy ( didn't want to hear it) walked down to the mine turned around some massive werewolf like bat creature is running up to me. I fired my only grenade at it, then took my laser rifle a 4-5 shots on V.A.T.S then when it got into range i used my cowboy repeater but it was less use then the laser rifle. It reached me and took one swipe knocking out 4 fifths of m health, then took another knocking my head off.

And that was my first encounter with a Death Claw. havent gone back to sloan since.... I want to go back to explore it Escapist. How do i go about it?

Cripple the legs,preferably in vats and then use mines and grenades. And also level 2??? Bwhat?? Are you fucking insane The earliest I managed to kill a deathclaw was like level 5 or 6 and it was just barely and with the help of plenty of dumb luck.

 

[Ghengis John]

I challenge all of you to learn the game very well, put a gag in your skills, whip them hard and make em your ***** and you'll realize how dreadfully easy the game is even on higher difficultys. difficulty changes health and damage ratios, but if you have good skill and knowledge of the game then it will only make you take longer to kill things. simple as that.

Uh excuse me? He's level two. There's no way in hell he's got 100 guns skill. I think you misunderstand the question being posed here. We are not saying it's hard to do at level 10 or even level 20. We are saying it's hard to do at level 2. (well I trust we are because I am)

 

[Jovip]

I challenge all of you to learn the game very well, put a gag in your skills, whip them hard and make em your ***** and you'll realize how dreadfully easy the game is even on higher difficultys. difficulty changes health and damage ratios, but if you have good skill and knowledge of the game then it will only make you take longer to kill things. simple as that.

Uh excuse me? He's level two. There's no way in hell he's got 100 guns skill. I think you misunderstand the question being posed here.

Good point. however i was simply giving an example of how you can bend them to your will. i mentioned in an earlier post i was level 3 with a sniper rifle and tons of ammo and was completly able to drop some deathclaws. my point was it's all about using what you have, learning the game and using that knowledge to win, not just dumb luck or running and gunning.

 

[Ruedyn]

Long range combat is preferable with a weapon like the anti material rifle or any other sniper-y weapon but if they get any closer than 4 football fields away from you I would suggest taking out the legs.

Also, never use vats, it never does enough damage and in the time it takes for you to shoot it, it will have closed the distance between you and procede to give you the one- two punch and urine treatment.

 

[FalloutJack]

I was mere lad of level 2. walked into sloan just skipped the conversation with the guy ( didn't want to hear it) walked down to the mine turned around some massive werewolf like bat creature is running up to me. I fired my only grenade at it, then took my laser rifle a 4-5 shots on V.A.T.S then when it got into range i used my cowboy repeater but it was less use then the laser rifle. It reached me and took one swipe knocking out 4 fifths of m health, then took another knocking my head off.

And that was my first encounter with a Death Claw. havent gone back to sloan since.... I want to go back to explore it Escapist. How do i go about it?

Quite alot, I would say. Sloan's mining operation has been overrun by the bastards, as you would learn from the people of Sloan itself. You're looking at a MESS of Deathclaws, not to mention the mother and father of the brood.

So, I am going to quote Burt Gummer and say "Full auto, preferrably belt-fed!". And I say that because Deathclaws are tops in New Vegas. In a fight between a hardened Sentry boy and a Deathclaw, the only reason the Sentry can hold its own is MISSLES.

What you need is {A} to be stronger than Level 2, {B} to have AT LEAST Combat Armor on, and {C} to be armed with something heavier than a laser rifle.

 

[rs2000]

Manning up, growing some balls, and facing that ***** face to face... with a sniper with a high powered scope from 5 miles back... and a companion with same.

Yup about same as me, I didn't tak them on till after I had done the Great Kahn's side quest and was on the far side of the quarry, made it a damn site easier to shot them from high up then lead through a few mines!, shot the legs out then blast them with what ever does the most damage!

 

[dancinginfernal]

Punch them.

Unarmed 100, Deathclaw Gauntlet. Sneak 100, Chinese Stealth Suit.

It is amazing how satisfying punching deathclaws is.

 

[aristos_achaion]

I was mere lad of level 2. walked into sloan just skipped the conversation with the guy ( didn't want to hear it) walked down to the mine turned around some massive werewolf like bat creature is running up to me. I fired my only grenade at it, then took my laser rifle a 4-5 shots on V.A.T.S then when it got into range i used my cowboy repeater but it was less use then the laser rifle. It reached me and took one swipe knocking out 4 fifths of m health, then took another knocking my head off.

And that was my first encounter with a Death Claw. havent gone back to sloan since.... I want to go back to explore it Escapist. How do i go about it?

In general, you're going to either want to take it down from a distance before it notices you or take out its legs so it's not so bloody fast. In Fallout 3,

Spoiler

the latter can be achieved instantly with the dart gun, assuming you haven't sold all the ammo before you realized it's important, since darts are lying around everywhere with no indication they'll be ammo for a game-changing superweapon.

In New Vegas, however (which I assume is what you're playing, given the setup), it's even harder, since there's no longer an insta-break-both-legs gun. I cleared out the area you're describing at level 30 using the following strategy: use ED-E's enhanced scanners to spot the Deathclaws from as far away as possible, crouch with my Gauss rifle zoomed in and wait till it wandered into draw distance, and then pray that my sneak-attack critical headshot is enough to bring it down in one hit. It was probably the most nerve-wracking section of the game, and I was 100% leveled up and maxed out in energy weapons. Deathclaws are nasty critters--taking one down at level 2 is nigh impossible.

 

[megaraccoon]

1. anti-material rifle
2. alien blaster
3. a lot of plasma mines
4. fat man
5. ballistic fist
6. thermic lance
all these options are greatly improved by wearing enclave power armour or being stealthed also having max'ed out the skills required will help e.g. 100 guns for the anti-material rifle.

 

[RAWKSTAR]

Man up and fight the sucker hand-to-hand.

EDIT: Well I did not know someone else wrote more or less the same thing before. Maybe I should learn to read.