For a cross-game overview of this perk, see Basher. |
“Get up close and personal! The amount of time you use the butt of your gun to inflict a bloody nose (or worse) at close quarters reflects how important you deem this perk to be. But it does increase the flexibility of more complex combat situations where you may not wish to switch between a favoured firearm and a different weapon type (like a punching weapon).”— Fallout 4 Vault Dweller's Survival Guide description
Basher is a Strength perk in Fallout 4.
Effects[]
Taking this perk grants bonus damage when gun-bashing. Higher ranks increase the damage amount as well as grant a chance to cripple an enemy's limbs and a chance to inflict a Critical Hit.
Ranks[]
Rank | Requirements | Description | Form ID |
---|---|---|---|
1 | STR 8 | Get up close and personal! Gun bashing does 25% more damage. | 00065DF9 |
2 | STR 8, LVL 5 | Gun bashing now does 50% more damage and possibly cripples your opponent. | 00065DFA |
3 | STR 8, LVL 14 | Gun bashing now does 75% more damage and has an increased chance to cripple your opponent. | 00065DFB |
4 | STR 8, LVL 26 | Gun bashing does double damage and has an increased chance to cripple your opponent. It may also inflict a Critical Hit. | 00065DFC |
Rank 2 grants an 11% chance to cripple limbs
Rank 3 increases to 16%
Rank 4 grants a 15% chance to inflict a Critical Hit
Notes[]
- Gun bashing does not deal as much damage as melee or unarmed weapons, especially when the latter two are modded or paired with the Iron Fist and/or Big Leagues perks. This is due to several factors:
- The "best" gun bashing weapons are essentially limited to common-place mods, such as the Small or Large bayonet muzzle mods; therefore there is a hard early-game cap on itemization for gun bashing.
- Gun bashing does not benefit from Big Leagues, despite being a melee attack.
- Gun bashing also does not benefit from any of the characteristics of the gun itself, such as bonuses from Commando or legendary weapon effects.
- Despite this, gun bashing is still very useful; it is almost guaranteed to stagger enemies, so it can buy valuable time against foes who have gotten too close for comfort. Moreover, gun bashing can be used to artificially shorten the reload time of a weapon: while gun bashing when reloading cancels the reload, gun bashing after a new magazine has been inserted into the gun allows for performing a quick melee attack and, upon its completion, having a fully loaded gun.
- Bashing damage is affected by Strength.
- Bashing damage is affected by enemy ballistic armor. Armor-piercing weapon mods, the legendary Piercing prefix, and the Rifleman perk actually do affect bashing with those weapons.
- Bashing critical damage with rank 4 is affected by any modifiers that increase critical damage; such as Better Criticals, the Lucky legendary weapon effect, or a calibrated receiver.
- The Overdrive chem does stack with rank 4, granting a temporary 40% Critical Chance when bashing.