Fallout 4 legendary armor effects

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

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 and in the inventories of merchants. They can spawn at random locations throughout the Commonwealth, depending on the difficulty setting. They are much more difficult to defeat than regular enemies, as each one has a chance to "mutate" after 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.

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. You can't stack several mods on a single item, but you can stack over multiple pieces (armor). You can also replace a mod with another one 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) (how you would normally drag ragdoll and other objects around).
3. Open console and enter "GetPlayerGrabbedRef". This returns the RefID of the item you're holding 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. For example, you would enter in something like this: "f00726b.amod 001cc2ac" (minus the quotes).
8. The item will drop to the ground, and when you go to pick it up, you will get an overview similar to the one you get when you pick up any given legendary item for the first time.

By utilizing the steps described above, it is possible to apply legendary effects to power armor pieces. Keep in mind, though, that contrary to regular armor and weapons, power armor can't be renamed and doesn't display its legendary effect in any menu except the Pipboy's apparel section. Trying to keep multiple console-enhanced power armor pieces apart under these circumstances can quickly turn into a chore.

Armor mods

Name	Stat	Form ID	Armor slot
Acrobat's	Reduces falling damage by 50%. (Equiping two items with this effect will prevent fall damage)	001F1DF9	non-power armor legs
Almost Unbreakable	Quadruples durability.	001F1E0C	power armor
Assassin's	Reduces damage from humans by 15%.	001F1DF3
Bolstering	Grants increasing energy and damage resistance the lower your Health (up to +35).	001F8165
Cavalier's	Reduces damage while blocking or sprinting by 15%.	001F579D
Chameleon	Enemies have a harder time detecting you while you're sneaking and not moving.	001F4D18
Cunning	+1 Agility and +1 Perception	001CF57C
Duelist's	10% chance to disarm melee attacker on hit.	001F3A49
Exterminator's	Reduces damage from Mirelurks and bugs by 15%.	001F81ED
Fortifying	+1 Strength and +1 Endurance	001CF57F
Freefall	Prevents falling damage.(Needs to be present on both equipped leg armors)	00093BBD
Ghoul slayer's	Reduces damage from ghouls by 15%.	001F1DEE
Hunter's	Reduces damage from animals by 15%.	001F1DEB
Low Weight	Low carry weight.	001F1E0B
Lucky	+2 Luck.	001CF57E
Martyr's	Temporarily slows time down during combat when you are at 20% or less Health.	001F2D3D
Mutant Slayer's	Reduces damage from super mutants by 15%.	001F1DF4
Piezonucleic Lining	Radiation exposure increases Action Point refresh speed.	0022879C	power armor
Poisoner's	+25 poison resistance.	001F3072
Powered	Increases Action Point refresh speed.	001F7A75
Punishing	Reflects 10% of melee damage back on attacker.	001F1E47
Safecracker's	Increases size of sweet spot while picking locks.	001F3CA9
Sharp	+1 Charisma and +1 Intelligence.	001CF57D
Sprinter's	Increases movement speed by 10%.	001F1C2F
Titan's / Sentinel's	Reduces damage while standing and not moving by 15%.	001F57E4
Troubleshooter's	Reduces damage from robots by 15%.	001F81EE
VATS Enhanced	10% reduction in Action Point cost in V.A.T.S.	001F1D62

Notes

• Any legendary mod will add 2 damage and energy resist to the armor it's added to. For example, an unmodded heavy combat armor chest piece will have 35 DR/35 ER. A legendary version with no other mods will have 37/37. Similarly, a shadowed leather arm goes from 4/7 to 6/9.
• The Chameleon mod has the same effect as the Stealth Boy mod for power armor - it turns the wearer invisible when they crouch down and stop moving except for aiming. Which part of the armor bears the mod is irrelevant; it will always work the same. Note that all the underlying rules for effective sneaking still apply, so without good sneaking abilities (which means, 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 won't 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 fail to glow), making aiming quite difficult unless one of the electronic scope mods (night vision scope, recon scope) is installed. Furthermore, it works on companions as well, although the effect will simply stop working fairly often with no apparent reason and no reliable fix, 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.

• The Martyr's mod does not stack with additional pieces. In fact, wearing multiple pieces can prevent the slowing of time that the effect is supposed to cause. Also, if the player has the superior Nerd Rage! perk, it will completely override the Martyr's effect.

• The Sentinel's mod stacks with the weapon mod of the same name. Equipping 7 pieces (weapon, helmet, left arm, left leg, right arm, right leg, chest) will negate all damage while standing still.

Bugs

• PC When using armor with the Chameleon Legendary 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 PipBoy can result in the PipBoy being transparent so the user is left looking through the character's arm.^[verified]
  • Can be solved by saving and then loading that save or going into 3rd person and 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.
• PC There is a relatively uncommon bug whereas the player character will retain the effects of chameleon permanently, even after removing all buffed items. There is currently no known fix to this bug.^[verified]
• PC The Martyr effect may not work at certain times unless you go into V.A.T.S. This seems to be related to having multiple items equipped at once with the Martyr effect. ^{[verification overdue]}
• PC The Fortifying effect will add 10 carrying weight but no HP bonus. It does show you had +1 Endurance on S.P.E.C.I.A.L. chart. This might be an intended design, in case player buff too much HP with all armor pieces equipped in higher level.^{[verification overdue]}