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Range is a weapon statistic that determines how far the equipped weapon can be thrown, shot or used.

Fallout and Fallout 2[]

Fo1 Range Reference

Range reference. Characters are spaced out at 10 hex intervals from the Vault Dweller in the lower left corner.

Range in the first two games is expressed in hexes. No matter how skilled with that weapon, one can never fire it beyond that distance without the help of an appropriate perk or other special ability.

  • Unarmed and melee weapons have a range of 1 hex.
  • Spears, sharpened poles and sledgehammers have a range of 2 hexes. Some critters like spore plants have a special flag that allows attacking from two hexes away.
  • Thrown weapons have a range determined by the thrown weapon, varying from 8 hexes to 20 hexes.
  • Firearms have a range determined by the weapon, varying from 5 hexes to 50 hexes.
    • The flamer and improved flamer have the shortest range at 5 hexes.
    • Weapons can have different ranges even if they use the same ammunition. For example, the pipe rifle can deliver a 10mm round at a range of 20 hexes, while a 10mm pistol can put it in a target at 25 hexes. Shotguns vary greatly, from the sawed-off shotgun with just 7 hexes of range to the Pancor Jackhammer with 35.
    • The greatest range of 50 hexes belongs to dedicated marksman weapons, like the sniper rifle, PPK12 Gauss pistol and the M72 Gauss rifle. This max range is represented by the female Vault dweller on the image to the right. Unless the games are patched with high resolution patches, it's impossible to scroll far enough to use sniper rifles and the like at max range, due to the camera being constrained to a limited range around the player character.

See Ranged combat for details on how range affects combat.

Fallout 4[]

Range is a weapon statistic that determines the furthest distance that a particular weapon will deal its maximum damage outside of V.A.T.S. and additionally affect the chance to hit a target when using V.A.T.S. In effect, it represents not the maximum, but effective range.

When it comes to hitting targets, range is virtually meaningless in real time shooting; any missile launcher with a low range stat will still reach targets that ballistic or energy weapons with a far higher range cannot. However, range will drastically affect damaging targets: Once outside effective range, the damage will suffer significant fall-off.

  • Rifles tend to have the longest range modifiers, with the exception of shotgun-type weapons that fall off fairly quick.
  • Pistols used with the Gunslinger perk (Ranks 2 and 3) can compete with rifles, usually at the cost of lower accuracy. When applying range mods to weapons, one can test it by going into V.A.T.S. and selecting settlers or turrets, turrets being the better choice due to being stationary; queued shots will indicate less damage once one is past the range limit.

Fallout 76[]

Range Template Max Value Added Range
Point blank 1 +12
Very short 6 +36
Short 9 +108
Long 16 +192
Very long 18 +216
Suppressor -1.5 -18

The game retains the effective range mechanics of its predecessors. Past effective range, damage will suffer significant fall-off.

Range is calculated by the following formula:

12(Base + Mod1 + Mod2 + Mod3 ....) = Range

The Base value is always 1 and the Mod# values are granted by the max range curve tables attached the weapon mods. For readability purposes, the base range stat on weapon infoboxes will always be the sum of the base and the default barrel modification. In this case, the Standard short barrel (Mod1) uses the short range template making the Mod1 value 9.

12(1+9) = 120

So our new weapon range is 120 units.

References[]

The following links should serve as examples:

Out of range multiplier[]

If a weapon hits a target that is further than its max range value, it will deal reduced damage based on a multiplier.

Standard refers to every single weapon that is not otherwise listed here.

Weapon Template Multiplier %Dmg
Standard 0.5 -50%
Broadsider¹
Flamer
0.7 -30%
Pipe gun
Pipe revolver
Pipe bolt-action
0.25 -75%
Black powder pistol
Black powder rifle
Combat shotgun
Crossbow
Double-barrel shotgun
Gauss shotgun
M79 grenade launcher¹
Pump action shotgun
0.1 -90%
¹ only affects the on-hit damage (Attack 1).
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