So, you have the best perks, your skills are high, and you think you're ready to take on a thousand Deathclaws at once. But all the skills and perks in the world won't save you if you are missing one final, critical component - Your Weapon. Without the right weapon, you simply won't stand a chance.
Armed To The Teeth: Unarmed And Melee Weapons
As in most RPGs, the amount of weapons you can carry in Fallout 3 is hilarious. Multiple firearms, swords, knives, twenty grenades, a dozen mines - all of this can fit on a single character. Despite the amount you can carry, your inventory space is still limited by your strength. You will at some point have to get rid of some of your gear in order to carry better armor or to make sure you have enough weight left for hauling around the loot you need to sell in order to afford ammo and repairs. This means you'll always be limited in the weapons you can carry, and you'll need to choose which ones are worth keeping and which ones you'll want to ignore.
This guide will cover all non-unique weapons. Unique weapons are not covered because they are rare, and you'd have to perform specific steps to get ahold of them. It is not the intention of this guide to include spoilers. There are some Unique weapons in the game that are absurdly powerful, but it should be readily apparent which ones these are once you run across them, as these super-powered weapons do absurd amounts of damage and can even be dangerous to your character's health. These super-powered Unique weapons are also often impractical for everyday use.
Unarmed Weapons
Bare Fists: DPS 3 - Bare fists are obviously always with you. Their damage is only four - which is very low - but they are also a very fast weapon, which makes up it somewhat. That said, bare fists are not a good weapon to use for long unless you begin to pick up the Iron Fist perk, which increases your unarmed damage.
Brass Knuckles/Spiked Knuckles: DPS 3/4 - These are common drops from Raiders and other humanoids, and provide a decent damage increase for your in the lower levels. Once you pick up a more powerful unarmed weapon or upgrade your bare fists, these become entirely useless. They are not valuable to merchants, so they are not even worth picking up as loot.
Power Fist: DPS 9 - Obviously this is a major upgrade compared to Brass or Spiked Knuckles, and you should absolutely jump at the chance to get your hands on this weapon if you are an unarmed character. The Power Fist will be your mainstay throughout much of the game. With a value of only 100, they are not very good as loot.
Deathclaw Gauntlet: DPS 10- At first glance with a DMG value only equal to that of the Power Fist, you might wonder why this weapon - which is built via a schematic - is worth bothering with. The key to the Deathclaw Gauntlet - and the reason it is the best unarmed weapon in the game - is its massive crit multiplier of x5 and crit bonus damage of +30. It is in theory possible for a player with the Ninja perk to have a 100% chance to crit when using this weapon and other Perks which increase crit chance. On the downside, the Deathclaw Gauntlet is not an easy weapon to get a hold of, as the schematic is rare.
Fallout 3 Weapons Guide
So, you have the best perks, your skills are high, and you think you're ready to take on a thousand Deathclaws at once. But wait - you're missing perhaps the most important part of survival. Your Weapon.