Fallout 4 legendary armor effects

For legendary weapon effects in Fallout 4, see Fallout 4 legendary weapon effects.
For legendary effects in Fallout 76, see Fallout 76 legendary effects.

In Fallout 4, Legendary armor effects are effects applied to basic armor that use special prefix modifiers that cannot be obtained elsewhere. They cannot be scrapped, but can be modified. They will appear on screen when picked up, and are marked with a star. Unlike unique armors, they are randomized and are never named. Legendary effects can provide the same effects as unique armor. Like unique armors, Legendary armors can be given a custom name and modified at an armor station.

Legendary armor pieces are only found on the bodies of "Legendary" variants of enemies. These enemies spawn at random locations throughout the Commonwealth, the Island, and Nuka-World, depending on the difficulty setting. They are much more difficult to defeat than regular enemies, as each one will "mutate" after 50% of their health is depleted, restoring it to full and boosting their stats. They will almost always have a legendary piece of equipment in their inventory. Sometimes the legendary enemy (or ally) is not labeled as "Legendary," but can be identified by the healing waves during and after a fight (if still alive). Legendary armor pieces can also be awarded for completing certain quests, and can rarely be found in tribute chests or as rewards from the Nuka-Cade.

Legendary armor prefixes

Any legendary mod will add 2 Damage Resistance and 2 Energy Resistance to the armor.

Name	Stat	Form ID	Found in	Randomly drops in
Acrobat's	Reduces falling damage by 50%. Equipping two items with this effect will prevent 100% of fall damage.	001F1DF9		Legs
Assassin's	Reduces damage from humans by 15%.	001F1DF3	Destroyer's chest piece, Protector's left armguard, Silver Shroud costume (armor)	Chest, Arms, Legs
Atom's Bulwark	Damage resistance and energy resistance increase with Rads.	xx057054	Atom's Bulwark only	–
Auto Stim	Automatically use a stimpak when hit while health is 25% or less, once every 60 seconds.	xx00F5BC		Chest
Bolstering	Grants increasing energy and damage resistance the lower your Health (up to +35).	001F8165	Steadfast BOS combat armor chest piece, Apocalypse left greave, Mark 3 synth chest piece	Chest, Arms, Legs
Cavalier's	Reduces damage while blocking or sprinting by 15%.	001F579D	Destroyer's left arm	Chest, Arms, Legs
Chameleon	Enemies have a harder time detecting you while you're sneaking and not moving.	001F4D18	Mark 2 synth chestpiece, Mark 4 synth chest piece	Chest, Arms, Legs
Fortifying / Champion	+1 Strength and +1 Endurance	001CF57F	Champion left arm, Black Ops chestpiece	Chest, Arms, Legs
Cloaking	Being hit in melee generates a Stealth Field once per 60 seconds	xx0107B0		Chest
Cryogenic	10% chance to freeze melee attackers, once every 20 seconds.	xx0107AF		Chest
Cunning	+1 Agility and +1 Perception	001CF57C	Recon marine helmet, Mantis left greave, Champion right arm, Wastelander's chest piece, Mark 2 synth helmet	Chest, Arms, Legs
DiMA	+1 Agility, +1 Endurance and +1 Intelligence.	xx043225	Acadia's Shield only	–
Diver Suit	Wearer gains ability to breathe under water and protection from radiation.	xx05D371	Rescue diver suit only	–
Duelist's	10% chance to disarm melee attacker on hit.	001F3A49	Mantis left armguard	Chest, Arms, Legs
Exterminator's	Reduces damage from Mirelurks and bugs by 15%.	001F81ED		Chest, Arms, Legs
Freefall	Prevents falling damage if both legs have this.	00093BBD	Freefall Legs only	–
Ghoul slayer's	Reduces damage from ghouls by 15%.	001F1DEE		Chest, Arms, Legs
Grognak's Loin-cloth	Increases the wearer's strength and melee damage.	00225AEE	Grognak costume and wildman rags only	–
Hunter's	Reduces damage from animals by 15%.	001F1DEB		Chest, Arms, Legs
Incendiary	30% chance to ignite melee attackers, once every 20 seconds.	xx0107AE		Chest
Inquisitor's cowl	Wearer's Intelligence increases with Rads.	xx05D372	Inquisitor's cowl only	–
Little Menace's	+1 Strength. -1 Perception. Reduces detection from moving and makes the wearer 15% faster.	FEXXX835	Pint-Sized Slasher costume only	–
Lucky	+2 Luck	001CF57E	Mark 4 synth left leg	Chest, Arms, Legs
Martyr's	Temporarily slows time down during combat when you are at 20% or less Health.	001F2D3D	Devastator's right greave, Recon marine left arm, Apocalypse armor chestplate	Chest
Mutant Slayer's	Reduces damage from super mutants by 15%.	001F1DF4	Protector's right armguard, Wastelander's right leg	Chest, Arms, Legs
Nuka-Girl	Grants ability to breathe underwater and +1 Charisma.	xx04BDA7	Nuka-Girl rocketsuit only	–
Poisoner's	+25 poison resistance.	001F3072		Chest, Arms, Legs
Powered	Increases Action Point refresh speed.	001F7A75	Visionary's T-60c helmet, Commando chest piece, Honor, Mark 3 synth right arm	Chest, Arms, Legs
Punishing	Reflects 10% of melee damage back on attacker.	001F1E47	Vengeance, Devastator's chestpiece	Chest, Arms, Legs
Rad Powered	Grants additional Strength the higher your rads. (+1 Strength per 133 rads)	xx010B86		All
Safecracker's	Increases size of sweet spot while picking locks.	001F3CA9		Chest, Arms, Legs
Sentinel's / Titan's	Reduces damage while standing and not moving by 15%.	001F57E4	Overseer's right armguard, Recon marine chest piece	All
Sharp	+1 Charisma and +1 Intelligence.	001CF57D	Destroyer's helmet, Mechanist's helmet	Chest, Arms, Legs
Sprinter's	Increases movement speed by 10%.	001F1C2F	The Captain's Hat, Oswald's tophat, Destroyer's right leg, Destroyer's left leg, Black Ops right shinguard, Recon marine right arm	Legs
Troubleshooter's	Reduces damage from robots by 15%.	001F81EE	Champion chestpiece, The Dapper Gent	Chest, Arms, Legs
Unyielding	+3 to all stats when you are at 25% or less health	xx010BB5	Unyielding synth chest piece	All
VATS Enhanced	10% reduction in Action Point cost in V.A.T.S.	001F1D62	Exemplar's T-60c, Overseer's left armguard, Commando helmet	Chest, Arms, Legs

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. armor effects

Fortifying, Cunning, Lucky, and Sharp are stackable.

Auto Stim armor effects

The Auto Stim effect will not increase one's dehydration level in survival mode, unlike using a stimpak normally.

Camouflage armor effects

Cloaking and Chameleon effect has the same effect as the Stealth Boy mod for power armor - it turns the wearer invisible. Which part of the armor bears the mod is irrelevant; it will always work the same. However, it has been proven that multiple pieces of Chameleon armor do stack to provide additional stealth. For example, a character of identical build was continuously seen and attacked when using one piece but "lost" and ignored when a full set was equipped in daylight.

All the underlying rules for effective sneaking still apply, so without good sneaking abilities (enough points invested in the Sneak perk and enough U.S. Covert Operations Manuals collected) as well as careful use of the environment, even invisibility may not save the user from being detected by vigilant enemies. The mod also turns not only the wearer invisible but also their weapon including its sights (even the glowing portions of glow sights will not glow,) making aiming difficult unless an electronic scope mod (night vision scope or recon scope) is installed. On the other hand, this makes it easier to see the surrounding world when a weapon is drawn. It is also possible to offset the invisibility of the weapon's sights by using the third person view, in which case a green dot will be displayed at the center of the screen while aiming.

Furthermore, it works on companions as well, although the effect will simply stop working fairly often due to the "Ability Condition" bug, somewhat limiting its usefulness (especially given most companions' unpredictable sneak behavior). Unequipping and re-equipping a Chameleon piece from a companion's equipped inventory fixes their Chameleon armor's effect.

Martyr's armor effects

The Martyr's effect does not stack with additional pieces. In fact, wearing multiple pieces can prevent the slowing of time that the effect is supposed to cause. In the game's files, this effect was intended to only spawn on chest armor. However, due to a bug, it instead spawns on any armor piece.^{[citation needed]} Also, if the player character has the superior Nerd Rage! perk, it will completely override the Martyr's effect.

Bolstering armor effects

The Bolstering effect does not add extra resistance to the armor itself, but rather to the player character. This can be apparent by looking at the resistance totals under the "STAT" tab of the Pip-Boy, or in the apparel section of the "INV" tab while having full HP, then again after taking damage. The resistance of the armor does not change, but the totals do.

Bolstering increases defense by 4 points for every 10% of health lost, maxing out at +35 damage and energy resistance when at 90% health lost. The Bolstering effect also stacks, making multiple pieces potentially beneficial depending on play style.

Damage Reduction armor and weapon effects

All Damage Reduction (i.e. Hunter's, Ghoul Slayer's, Assassin's, Exterminator's, Troubleshooter's, Mutant Slayer's, Cavalier's and Sentinel's) effects stack with the armor and weapon effect of the same name. The resulting bonus is applied multiplicatively. Equipping seven pieces will negate all but approximately 32-33% of incoming damage.

Unyielding effect and Endurance buffs

The description of the Unyielding effect, "+3 to all stats when below 25% health," is incorrect, not the function of the effect; it should read "+3 to all stats except Endurance when below 25% health." The effects infobox in the Pip-Boy for items with the effect correctly shows only SPECIAL stats aside from Endurance being buffed.

It is not possible for the effect to buff Endurance without negating itself on application or possibly killing the player character on deactivation. This is because Hit Points are based directly on Endurance, but also act as the trigger for the effect. If the effect buffed Endurance, then on equipping a piece of Unyielding armor and losing 76%+ health to trigger the effect, the player character's total health and current health would be increased, stopping the effect from ever activating.

If the player character got around this (e.g. becoming 76%+ irradiated then when the armor was unequipped) the game would remove the amount of HP corresponding to the added Endurance from both the player character's total and current health, likely killing them or leaving them with 1 HP.

This can be testing using any Endurance buff, such as X-cell. Take X-cell while wearing Unyielding equipment and being 76%+ irradiated, then wait for the chem buff to wear off. The player character's health will drop from 24% to about 0, though they may not die. Due to this, all Endurance buffs, such as Solar Powered rank 1, are dangerous while wearing Unyielding equipment. Perks that cause automatic health regeneration or radiation reduction can also interfere with the Unyielding armor pieces' effect while they are worn.

Rad Powered effects

The Rad Powered effect provides +1 Strength for every 133.3 (rounded to the nearest integer) rads the player character has. The maximum Strength bonus per armor piece is 7, which is granted at 933.3 rads.

In addition, any armor piece with this effect only has the +2 to Damage Resistance and will not have the +2 to Energy Resistance that is always present in legendary armor pieces.

Breathe Underwater effects

The water breathing effects of the rescue diver suit and Nuka-Girl rocketsuit do not allow the user to breathe underwater when added to any other armor pieces. The +1 Charisma from the latter also does not apply. Neither effect is tied to the legendary modification, but rather the unique effects of the armor pieces themselves.

Power armor exclusive

Name	Stat	Form ID	Found in
Almost Unbreakable	Quadruples durability.	001F1E0C	Tessa's Fist only
Low Weight	Low carry weight.	001F1E0B
Nuka	+3 Agility with all pieces equipped	xx01152A	Nuka T-51 power armor
Overboss Tesla coils	Deals Energy damage to nearby enemies.	xx04703C	Overboss power armor chest piece only
Piezonucleic Lining	Radiation exposure increases Action Point refresh speed.1	0022879C	Piezonucleic power armor
Quantum	Increases Action Point refresh speed with all pieces equipped	xx0417E8	Quantum X-01 power armor
Tesla	Increases Energy damage.	xx00C575(right) xx00C578(left) xx00C577(torso)	Tesla T-60 armor

¹ The description of the piezonucleic lining is misleading. The legendary effect mod_Custom_PA_APRegenRad adds an enchantment ench_mod_LegendaryPA_RadsCoreHealth, which increases the power armor's fusion core drain by 50% and adds a perk LegendaryPA_RadsCoreHealth, that does not have any effect because its condition can not be fulfilled. Additionally, the legendary effect also increases damage resistance and energy resistance by 2.

Console command

Legendary effects can be added to items by dropping them on the ground and using the console command attachmod while having them selected, followed by the mod ID. A single item cannot be given multiple effects, but they can be stacked over multiple armor pieces. Mods can also replace one another via console.

If the item is for some reason unclickable (a semi-common glitch,) legendary effects can be added to items using this alternative process:

1. Drop the item on the ground.
2. Pick up the item in the air by holding E_(PC) or whichever control is used to drag ragdolls or moveable objects.
3. Open the console and enter GetPlayerGrabbedRef. This returns the RefID of the item currently being held in the air.
4. Take note of the returned RefID.
5. Look up the ModID below for the desired legendary armor effect, note it as well.
6. Enter the following in the console (substitute the appropriate RefID and ModID): [RefID].amod [ModID]
7. The following command is an example: f00726b.amod 001cc2ac.
8. The item will drop to the ground, and when picked up, an overview similar to the one received when obtaining any legendary equipment for the first time will appear.

By utilizing the steps described above, it is possible to apply legendary effects to power armor pieces. Unlike regular armor and weapons, power armor cannot be renamed, making it harder to separate enhanced power armor pieces from others of the same name.

Bugs

• PC Playstation 4 Xbox One When using armor with the Chameleon modifier, the Pip-Boy's display will be warped and the text colors over bright and blurry, making it difficult to read. If crouching and invisible, attempting to access the Pip-Boy will sometimes result in the UI being rendered partially or completely white and unusable. If standing and invisible, attempting to access the Pip-Boy can result in the Pip-Boy being transparent so the user is left looking through the character's arm.^[verified]
  • This can be solved by saving and then loading that save or going into 3rd person and then back into 1st person. Another way to solve this is to be using the Fallout 4 Pip-Boy companion app on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet.
  • The over-bright, blurry Pip-Boy effect seems to be the game adding the HUD and Pip-Boy lighting/color together, so if the settings are changed so that these colors contrast (i.e. a red Pip-Boy and green HUD), the Pip-Boy may become more readable, though still not as clearly as when not "invisible."
  • Each additional piece of Chameleon armor equipped appears to slightly reduce the distortion of the Pip-Boy display.
• PC Xbox One There is a relatively uncommon bug whereas the player character will retain the effects of Chameleon permanently, even after removing all buffed items. Suicide seems to fix this bug.^[verified] If suicide isn't an option crouching to activate the effect and typing Player.RemoveSpell 976E5 into console will do the trick.
• PC Playstation 4 The Martyr mod may not work at certain times unless V.A.T.S. is entered. This seems to be related to having multiple items with the Martyr effect equipped at once.^[verified]
• PC Xbox One The Fortifying mod will add +10 to Carry Weight but no HP bonus, despite showing an increase of +1 to Endurance in the effects menu. This might be an intended design, in case the player receives too much of an HP bonus with all armor pieces equipped at higher levels.^[verified]
• PC The Unyielding mod does not provide a +3 bonus to Endurance. This might be an intended design, because if the Unyielding mod were to add +3 to Endurance, there is a high chance that the player could go over the health threshold required to activate the effect, creating a paradox.^[verified]
• PC Xbox One Playstation 4 The Duelist's mod will add a 10% chance to disarm any enemy instead of just melee attackers.^{[verification overdue]}}}
• Playstation 4 The Duelist's mod will occasionally cause enemies in the player's vicinity to be disarmed even if they are not hit by the player.