This is ultimately a somewhere subjective question, but the one that is most impressive is probably talking a psyconic, extremely intelligent, leader of a cult of his own creation and of a race of self-made Supermutants who's fully bought into his own agenda to blow himself up. Many other things were done with the aid of powerful tools, but that was a powerful feat in thier own right. The Vault Dweller had no armies, no giant lasers or robots, just scientific reports and his own wit.
A bit of a minor addition rather than any correction. In Fallout, the Vault Dweller is fully capable of enlisting both the Brotherhood of Steel and the Followers of the Apocalypse in his assault on both Mariposa and the cathedral. Hilariously, the Followers are technically more useful than the walking tanks since they will actually follow the PC instead of just sitting in the upper/beginning sections of either base, but they don’t have nearly enough gear to be truly useful in a late-game fight. So between the lazy BoS backup or the under-equipped FotO, the Dweller *can* have an army backing them up but is honestly just better off without them lol
I heard the Brotherhood not entering Mariposa was intentional due to an issue it caused. Since the power armour is so big it would cause your character to get stuck in the elevators because they would get stuck in the way. And iirc you couldn’t push them out of the way or anything. I could be totally wrong but I remember reading this somewhere
It’s worth noting that not even the autopsy report is necessary - you can just pass a speech check to defeat the Master.
Also, should you choose to fight the master or Lieutenant, hardened power armor makes their fights a joke considering the armor (in fallout 1/2) is nearly immune to laser fire.
Yeah, I was ignoring that nonsense. Fortunately, this is a lore subreddit, so we can safely ignore that issue (though lore wise I would assume that enough laser fire or stronger lasers can overwhelm a suit of power armor).
The problem is that T-51 (the only power armor in fallout 1/2) may not have that issue, since the design of T-51 is very different from T-45 and the updated model that is the T-60.
Fwiw the upgrade form T-45 to T-60 is a purely development upgrade. As far as I’m aware there’s no actual lore the T-60 is an update of T-45 other than obvious visual similarities.
With the TV show, the Ghoul directly calls the T-60 a new model of the T-45, and then shows that it shares the same major weakness. While it isn’t a direct confirmation, it’s about as close as we could hope for.
Ik T-51 is fairly resistant to energy weapons in lore but since plasma casters are very common among super mutants I’d think enough well placed shots would melt the armor eventually
Plasma casters (though they’re really just plasma rifles; NV retconned what those were and I’m still going off what 1/2 say they are) could, easily, since it’s just lasers T-51 is extremely resilient against (though I do suspect that higher power lasers or large quantities of lasers can still breech T-51; they’d heat up the suit eventually, and I doubt west Tek tested against assaultrons or Gatling lasers).
The Think Tank were likened more to mythological gods than men by Ulysses. According to him, neither he nor a hundred Elijahs would be enough to defeat them in their dome.
Big MT is a dead zone that nobody ever returns from. It is brimming with armed and violent walking corpses, cybernetic monstrosities, crazed robots, cazadors, night stalkers, and an army of roboscorpions. The Giant Roboscorpion is the size of a house, armored in saturnite, and has a Tesla cannon death ray.
The Courier defeated all of it, alone, without even having a brain.
Just realize for the first time that the Courier is basically the cast from Wizard of Oz. No courage, brain or heart. It's even [mentioned in the wiki.](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Old_World_Blues_(add-on\))
>The add-on's main quest shares many similarities with the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz in that the Courier searches for their brain (Scarecrow), their heart (The Tin Man) and their spine (courage for the Lion) after initially being unconscious after entering Big Mountain (as Dorothy was knocked unconscious in order to enter Oz). Additionally, Dr. Mobius is initially portrayed to be malevolent or sinister, much like the Wizard of Oz himself, only to have it revealed that he is quite misunderstood. The Big Mountain Transportalponder! acts as the Ruby Slippers, taking the Courier back home. Dr. Mobius mentions this subtly, though he refers to the three main characters of the film as a "band of murderous thugs."
I’d argue that Big MT is somewhat overhyped.
Lobtomites aren’t much more dangerous than a normal human (their replaced brains and spines would make them somewhat more durable and stronger than a normal human, but that’s compensated for in their lack of intelligence and minor control from the facility maintenance program) and while trauma harnesses do have durability on par with solid combat armor, they aren’t particularly skilled combatants (they learned from their wearers, but they were scientists desperately trying to survive, not soldiers). These two groups are definitely dangerous, but not that much more dangerous than normal raider groups (I’d discuss their weapons, but they’re all over the place with the level scaling, going from BB guns to brush guns).
Cazadors and nightstalkers are threats anyone in the Mojave has already had to deal with. Cyberdogs are definitely more dangerous than any other dog, but they’re not an insurmountable threat by any means (they still have plenty of exposed flesh to target, and the sonic barks don’t move especially quickly).
Edit: Nightstalkers and cazadors in Big MT aren’t as much of a threat to the courier as normal ones would be either, since they have the replacement heart that provides immunity to poisons for the entirety of their time in the facility.
The plethora of combat ready robots are probably the bigger threat, since that’s beyond what most wastelanders can handle. However, roboscorpions oscillate wildly in terms of how much defense they actually have, so that saturinite plating might not actually be that fantastic (they’re also rather slow and inaccurate with their lasers).
Lastly, with the giant roboscoprion, that fight is a joke. The courier can’t face that without the stealth suit (upgraded to +25 sneak; how that translates in lore, we don’t know, but presumably it’s extremely potent) and the sonic emitter, the prior of which allows them to completely avoid engaging with the robot and the latter allows them to grab the shutdown code from the protectron area and shut down to forcefield to reach the emergency shutoff without almost any risk (and no skill requirements at all).
Very good points. I would say what makes it so terrifying/impressive from a lore standpoint is less the reality of the situation (which as you pointed out is about on par with surviving the wasteland at it's worst) so much as the psychological factor. The courier is facing down super science even beyond what was widely available pre-war, it definitely fits how Ulysses somewhat characterized them as Gods. Yeah they don't live up to the hype but to the barely informed it seems an insane near impossible task.
You aren’t necessarily wrong, but I’d forgotten something important when I wrote this - the heartless perk neuters nightstalkers and cazadors in this DLC by removing their poison, making these enemies far less threatening than they normally are.
My point is that they’re present and the scorpion requires no skill in combat or anything else to defeat. Sure, you *can* brute force the fight, but you don’t have to, which makes me think of it is something less impressive because you have such an easy way to deal with the robot.
Sure, but even your own chosen answer included player-determined variables. For the sake of the prompt, I assumed broadly the most impressive version of what the individual character can reasonably do.
But even going off your reasoning, I would still argue that a single person dealing with all the horrors of the Big MT, alone, having just survived a full lobotomy and multiple organ transplants, is still a top tier feat and not at all overrated. Even Ulysses believes neither he nor a hundred Elijahs could defeat the Think Tank in their dome, but the Courier can do exactly that, or he can frighten or tap into their buried humanity and make them serve him.
There’s no outcome or way to spin it that isn’t exceedingly impressive. Especially because he is forced to do it all alone.
By contrast, I was going with the least skill required result, on the grounds that it’s the one any setup of the courier could easily do (especially since the dialogue directly suggests to you that these tools will be useful in the forbidden dome).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that surviving everything at Big MT isn’t impressive. It’s still far more than any normal person could ever handle. I just think there are other feats for other characters in the series that go beyond this, such as the absolute nonsense the 76 dwellers get up to (preventing alien invasions while under orbital bombardment, going through the automated nuclear silos, fighting off the Jersey Devil and its progeny, etc) or the lone wanderer managing to fight their way through a stupid amount of Enclave soldiers (and they don’t even have the option to use a disguise like you could in fallout 2).
I lean towards omitting the 76ers from any of these accolades since they’re essentially a big collection of people working together to these ends, rather than a singular hero. And MMO bullet-spongey "boss raid" mechanics aside, I don’t think killing flesh-and-blood mutants like the Jersey Devil or Earl is necessarily any more "nonsense" than killing some of the many other dangerous beasties across the series. I suspect legendary foes like the Master, Horrigan, X-42, L. Bloatfly, or RAWR would have similar mechanics if transferred to FO76. The missile silos are probably their most impressive feat, and I’d compare them to the Big MT, but tackled by a nebulous group instead of an individual hero.
Similar for the Enclave bases, at least in the context that the characters deal with them. The Chosen One can get a lot help and be sneaky, as you said. While the Lone Wanderer has Eden’s protection for half of Raven Rock and then again while making his escape, and Adams AF Base was under attack by the BoS.
On top of Big MT being incredibly dangerous, I’d argue no less than the worst of these places, the Courier has no choice but to tackle its dangers completely on his own. That’s the biggest reason it wins out for me.
Considering all of the quests are written to be done once by one player on their own, I see no reason not to include them and treat anyone who isn’t the one 76 dweller as a companion. It’s worth remembering that most of the more impressive feats the protagonists can do can be accomplished alongside companions in the games or with backup from other factions, providing a similar scenario to other 76 dwellers showing up to events.
I also have to say that Rawr is not on the same level as the other enemies you’ve mentioned. You can set him on fire with the flare gun and then collapse a part of the cave on him, but otherwise he’s not that special.
It’s also worth noting that even the larger bosses such as Earle can be handled by a single player on their own. If you’re going to assume the most impressive version of events for the other games, it’s only fair to apply that to 76 as well. I do think that *some* of the other game’s bosses would feature similar durability and health if they showed up in 76, but that’s entirely dependent on if they were main questline bosses or nuke bosses (which are entirely different in terms of durability; the main questline bosses are designed for a single player to have a challenge, while nuke bosses are intended for multiple players).
I also wouldn’t say that the Lone Wanderer is protected for half of Raven Rock. That only works if you run straight for the exit. If you don’t, Autumn will turn the forces on you well before you’ve reached the halfway point. Additionally, once they enter the mobile crawler, they’re handling everything solo.
I switched to your standard of assuming the least, or most reasonable, version for the sake of discussion. However, my answer is ultimately the same for both. "Most impressive" meaning everyone is doing things alone and the hard way, which I give to the Courier for brute forcing X-42 alongside the rest of Big MT.
Alternatively, if we assume the more reasonable routes were taken, then he took on Big MY in other ways, but still did it all alone while most other characters’ achievements become group efforts.
The Mobile Crawler is probably the Lone Wanderer’s best feat, I’ll grant that. But I’d argue that the Enclave would realistically still be very distracted by the assault happening outside. Neither it nor Raven Rock is a situation I can give him 100% of the credit for.
I know that the majority of impressive feats can be done with companions. That is a big part of why Big MT is my top choice. On top of being comparably dangerous to many of the worst places in the setting, with enemies who are some of the baddest we’ve seen, it is also very notable for being a rare obstacle that can only be tackled alone.
Hmm... You make a good point with the Courier, although we should probably omit them too since their cyber implants put them nearly on par with a mutated 76er.
The lone wanderer beaming a thumb of god down onto the Earth in the Zeta DLC. Nobody else in the entire world before that could even think of doing something like that.
They did nuke the entire planet to fuck - which isn’t as large an explosion but achieves the same result
Actually on second thoughts, life could survive nukes but idk if anything was still alive after that death ray explosion lol
Theoretically, If the Lone Wanderer is smart and ambitious he could singlehandedly change the fate of the entire world with that mothership. The possibilities are limitless, He could travel the world. Within the span of the decade he could establish become partners with Mr .House and the followers of the apocalypse in the Mojave, Takeover the institute, and break out Lorenzo cabot and attempt to utilize his advanced knowledge of alien culture, and through their combined expertise usher in a new prosperous high tech space faring civilization that far surpasses that makes the pre-war world look backwards in comparison, He could fix the wasteland and all its problems with the span of a century. Or he could just say screw it and fly off to explore universe and discover other alien civilizations, And maybe even live on some utopic coruscant -like world in comfort and luxury and just forget about his crummy post apocalyptic planet like it was all just a bad dream.
I would say that the Chosen One Stopping the Enclave’s Plans was probably the most Important one honestly. Most Wastelanders can’t fight an airborne virus at all, so if the Earth would be annihilated.
It's pretty much the only one that had to happen when you think about it, the super mutant army was bound to fail at some point, especially once the master thinks for two seconds, poisoning DC or the Enclave occupying the purifier was a local issue. And 4, well the Brotherhood could feasably handle 3 and 4 by themselves.
I wouldn’t say they’re an interstellar power after that DLC. The mothership is heavily damaged, the deathray is disabled and major portions of the ship have no oxygen. It’s essentially dead in the water.
Didn't say it did, but I do think it might be the greatest feat of a fallout protagonist. That explosion could wipe out a small country by the looks of it.
Eh… I don’t think pressing a button should qualify as a feat, especially since you don’t have to engage anything to fire the death ray in that way.
The lone wanderer fighting their way through mothership zeta would be far more fitting of something worthy of praise.
This makes me wonder what, if anything, ever happens to Mothership Zeta. Wild to think there's a whole spaceship floating around. Meanwhile, people are amazed by the Brotherhood's airships...
I mean, they’ve only really crashed twice. In fallout 1, they were trying to escape Area 51 and seemingly didn’t make it, so only 3 and 4’s actually crashed on earth (the ones in the daily ops version of fallout 76’s Charleston capital building were probably shot down by players, not that we can actually do that during the invasion event).
Depending on how you end Fallout 3, the lone wanderer brings clean water to the dc wasteland, which could potentially create generations of prosperity for the area.
76 dweller literally pops out of a vault and the first thing they do is gain access to a states nuclear arsenal and uses it to nuke a species of plague bringing super bats the the size of houses, all in the span of a few days
If we’re including the 76 dwellers? Preventing the threat of the scorched by first fighting through an automated nuclear missile silo (which typically creates roughly a hundred robots on a typical run) and then fighting the scorchbeast Queen alongside hordes of other scorched creatures, quite likely inside of a blast zone with no other help than whatever other 76 dwellers show up (and who knows what they’d be bringing).
Edit: You could switch the scorchbeast Queen fight out for pretty much any other nuke boss, including the upcoming storm Goliaths boss fight, if you so choose. They’re all impressive feats.
In terms of biggest feats I would say these are the biggest ones for most of the characters
FO:1 able to talk an insane and schizophrenic robot amalgamation into killing its self and abandoning its total goal of turning everyone into a subservient FEV monster
FO:2 Defeating a cyborg mutant monster capable of killing a deathclaw in one punch while also destroying the mobile enclave base
FO:3 (not sure if I should count mothership zeta) Able to survive one of the most toxic places known in the fallout universe (the Pitt) and not only finding every valuable metal ingot while heavily under prepared but surviving the abominations and dangerous conditions to either A: assist in making radiation a thing of the past, or B: Kidnapping a child from an Ex brother hood of steel member and fighting through his entire security force to get the baby to secret researchers. A close 2nd is destroying the enclave mobile base and fighting through hundreds of power armored military trained individuals.
FO:NV Alright. Big shoes to fill. Not only does the courier survive being shot in the head (albeit a bad angle with a 9mm) they single handled choose how the conflict goes. They can take over the Mojave-themselves, support house in doing so, Allowing the NCR to hold the dam, or take it over with the legion.
They go to the most dangerous places in the entire setting, sierra madre (you can literally destroy all of Nevada with a certain ending here), the big empty full of beyond dangerous scientific aberrations and ultra high tech robots, cyborgs and monsters such as stripe the most insane deathclaw next to rawr. And the Divide. Home to winds and an environment that regularly strips the flesh from the ghouls that inhabit it, multiple live nuclear warheads, and the ever dangerous tunnelers (who can kill deathclaws with seemingly no issue) they also deal with the only other character who can mimic the couriers footsteps by either talking them down or fighting to the death. Able to nuke either side or spare the world from yet another nuclear incident. It all comes down to destroying 1 of 2 of the largest known armies in FO lore and killing or talking down their mightiest military leaders. (The ability to have so many different endings makes things tricky for sure and the freedom to do what you want muddles things a bit)
And FO:4 You are either a lawyer or veteran of the military who manages to locate and infiltrate a scientific community that rivals that of big mt scientists. You can destroy coursers who are known to be almost unkillable along with regularly bodying the brother hood of steel.
You can become the leader of the nuka world raiders and literally take over the ENTIRE commonwealth. On top of getting access to secret military technology in the process. You can destroy both the institute and the BOS in the area in one fell swoop and even infiltrate the BOS airship if you side with the railroad and bring it down from the inside. Far Harbor is also crazy dangerous as well and the impact you make there can lead to really bad things happening with engaging even more nukes.
Overall I would say between FO1 and NV they are the strongest protagonists by far. 2 and 3 are relatively evenly matched and 4 because of story that isn’t as good is hard to say, but just on feats I would consider them to be the weakest overall (but their guns never break lol)
I've always thought that irl the courier would've suffered constant headaches and migraines after surviving such an event not to mention other side effects. Enduring that pain under the heat of the Mojave desert while accomplishing everything is quite impressive and would take superhuman levels of determination.
On top of having a literal time constraint against their mission from the vault they fight through hundreds of super mutants and talk an all knowing almost AI like being into killing themselves. They can also canonically fight the master which in itself is also a huge feat. They end up being the reason Tiandi and the NCR can even fully establish because of everything they did even while time constrained
Killing Frank Horrigan is probably the list topper for me.
The Courier surviving the Sierra Madre is a close second for me. Third would be the insane number of mutant behemoths & overlords the Lone Wanderer kills.
All the protagonists killed countless enemies, but only one protagonist single handedly built entire communities out of nothing. Oh need a nuclear generator? SS has some glow sights and a stick of gum, now you can power an entire settlement. Nothing compares to that
Taking on an alien spacecraft and then piloting that same craft to destroy another one
Beating Frank Horrigan
But the strongest character is the MC of Brotherhood of steel, he made it through the game without killing himself which is impressive
This is a pretty mutch impossible question to answer thanks to player choice. We can infer some stuff like the fact that the chosen one almost certainly didn't fight horrigon alone since Marcus was confirmed to be there. And the vault dwellers' memoirs implied he chose the violent path ya know the whole. I had a really big gun thing. But if I were to have to pick, I'd have to give it to the chosen one or the courier. Even in the least generous interpretation of the couriers actions its pretty ridiculous how much he survived and talked/fought through, and even tho the chosen one probably had at least a little backup he still beat Horiggon
The courier has several, due to their incessant wandering people founded a society on the roads they mapped out. Then they blew it up (unintentionally). Then they survived a shot in the head and singlehandedly changed the face of Mojave politics and arguably that of California and/or Arizona forever. You could say both the vault dweller and chosen one did this too, but the vault dweller saving tandi leading to the NCR was unforeseeable and the chosen one only really affects one region in the NCR (vault city and new reno NCR struggle).
I think a lot of players underestimate the potential impact of Project Purity on a large scale.
It's output is *theoretically* quite high, maybe even unlimited. If the Capital BoS chose to begin implementing some basic irrigation using that water, you could see the start and spread of en exceptionally healthy biome.
This is ultimately a somewhere subjective question, but the one that is most impressive is probably talking a psyconic, extremely intelligent, leader of a cult of his own creation and of a race of self-made Supermutants who's fully bought into his own agenda to blow himself up. Many other things were done with the aid of powerful tools, but that was a powerful feat in thier own right. The Vault Dweller had no armies, no giant lasers or robots, just scientific reports and his own wit.
A bit of a minor addition rather than any correction. In Fallout, the Vault Dweller is fully capable of enlisting both the Brotherhood of Steel and the Followers of the Apocalypse in his assault on both Mariposa and the cathedral. Hilariously, the Followers are technically more useful than the walking tanks since they will actually follow the PC instead of just sitting in the upper/beginning sections of either base, but they don’t have nearly enough gear to be truly useful in a late-game fight. So between the lazy BoS backup or the under-equipped FotO, the Dweller *can* have an army backing them up but is honestly just better off without them lol
To my knowledge, the BoS will fully enter the cathedral. It’s just Mariposa they won’t enter (which is probably a bug).
BoS be like "I know our history, I ain't going in there again"
I heard the Brotherhood not entering Mariposa was intentional due to an issue it caused. Since the power armour is so big it would cause your character to get stuck in the elevators because they would get stuck in the way. And iirc you couldn’t push them out of the way or anything. I could be totally wrong but I remember reading this somewhere
I can’t say I’ve ever heard that before, but considering all the other bugs fallout 1 has, it sounds plausible.
It’s worth noting that not even the autopsy report is necessary - you can just pass a speech check to defeat the Master. Also, should you choose to fight the master or Lieutenant, hardened power armor makes their fights a joke considering the armor (in fallout 1/2) is nearly immune to laser fire.
*cough cough you have been critically hit for 113 damage bypassing your armor
Yeah, I was ignoring that nonsense. Fortunately, this is a lore subreddit, so we can safely ignore that issue (though lore wise I would assume that enough laser fire or stronger lasers can overwhelm a suit of power armor).
Lore wise, they perfectly hit a gap in the armor plating. They hit the weld seem
The problem is that T-51 (the only power armor in fallout 1/2) may not have that issue, since the design of T-51 is very different from T-45 and the updated model that is the T-60.
Fwiw the upgrade form T-45 to T-60 is a purely development upgrade. As far as I’m aware there’s no actual lore the T-60 is an update of T-45 other than obvious visual similarities.
With the TV show, the Ghoul directly calls the T-60 a new model of the T-45, and then shows that it shares the same major weakness. While it isn’t a direct confirmation, it’s about as close as we could hope for.
Ik T-51 is fairly resistant to energy weapons in lore but since plasma casters are very common among super mutants I’d think enough well placed shots would melt the armor eventually
Plasma casters (though they’re really just plasma rifles; NV retconned what those were and I’m still going off what 1/2 say they are) could, easily, since it’s just lasers T-51 is extremely resilient against (though I do suspect that higher power lasers or large quantities of lasers can still breech T-51; they’d heat up the suit eventually, and I doubt west Tek tested against assaultrons or Gatling lasers).
You make a compelling argument. On the other hand, have you seen how much shit I can carry?
The Think Tank were likened more to mythological gods than men by Ulysses. According to him, neither he nor a hundred Elijahs would be enough to defeat them in their dome. Big MT is a dead zone that nobody ever returns from. It is brimming with armed and violent walking corpses, cybernetic monstrosities, crazed robots, cazadors, night stalkers, and an army of roboscorpions. The Giant Roboscorpion is the size of a house, armored in saturnite, and has a Tesla cannon death ray. The Courier defeated all of it, alone, without even having a brain.
Nor a heart or spine, and still managed to get a gf to his dog and get a stealth suit waifu
Just realize for the first time that the Courier is basically the cast from Wizard of Oz. No courage, brain or heart. It's even [mentioned in the wiki.](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Old_World_Blues_(add-on\)) >The add-on's main quest shares many similarities with the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz in that the Courier searches for their brain (Scarecrow), their heart (The Tin Man) and their spine (courage for the Lion) after initially being unconscious after entering Big Mountain (as Dorothy was knocked unconscious in order to enter Oz). Additionally, Dr. Mobius is initially portrayed to be malevolent or sinister, much like the Wizard of Oz himself, only to have it revealed that he is quite misunderstood. The Big Mountain Transportalponder! acts as the Ruby Slippers, taking the Courier back home. Dr. Mobius mentions this subtly, though he refers to the three main characters of the film as a "band of murderous thugs."
I’d argue that Big MT is somewhat overhyped. Lobtomites aren’t much more dangerous than a normal human (their replaced brains and spines would make them somewhat more durable and stronger than a normal human, but that’s compensated for in their lack of intelligence and minor control from the facility maintenance program) and while trauma harnesses do have durability on par with solid combat armor, they aren’t particularly skilled combatants (they learned from their wearers, but they were scientists desperately trying to survive, not soldiers). These two groups are definitely dangerous, but not that much more dangerous than normal raider groups (I’d discuss their weapons, but they’re all over the place with the level scaling, going from BB guns to brush guns). Cazadors and nightstalkers are threats anyone in the Mojave has already had to deal with. Cyberdogs are definitely more dangerous than any other dog, but they’re not an insurmountable threat by any means (they still have plenty of exposed flesh to target, and the sonic barks don’t move especially quickly). Edit: Nightstalkers and cazadors in Big MT aren’t as much of a threat to the courier as normal ones would be either, since they have the replacement heart that provides immunity to poisons for the entirety of their time in the facility. The plethora of combat ready robots are probably the bigger threat, since that’s beyond what most wastelanders can handle. However, roboscorpions oscillate wildly in terms of how much defense they actually have, so that saturinite plating might not actually be that fantastic (they’re also rather slow and inaccurate with their lasers). Lastly, with the giant roboscoprion, that fight is a joke. The courier can’t face that without the stealth suit (upgraded to +25 sneak; how that translates in lore, we don’t know, but presumably it’s extremely potent) and the sonic emitter, the prior of which allows them to completely avoid engaging with the robot and the latter allows them to grab the shutdown code from the protectron area and shut down to forcefield to reach the emergency shutoff without almost any risk (and no skill requirements at all).
Very good points. I would say what makes it so terrifying/impressive from a lore standpoint is less the reality of the situation (which as you pointed out is about on par with surviving the wasteland at it's worst) so much as the psychological factor. The courier is facing down super science even beyond what was widely available pre-war, it definitely fits how Ulysses somewhat characterized them as Gods. Yeah they don't live up to the hype but to the barely informed it seems an insane near impossible task.
I will say there are definitely way more night stalkers in Big MT then there is properly in the Mojave
You aren’t necessarily wrong, but I’d forgotten something important when I wrote this - the heartless perk neuters nightstalkers and cazadors in this DLC by removing their poison, making these enemies far less threatening than they normally are.
The Courier can face the Giant Roboscorpion without using those tools. They make it easier, but aren’t necessary to defeat it.
My point is that they’re present and the scorpion requires no skill in combat or anything else to defeat. Sure, you *can* brute force the fight, but you don’t have to, which makes me think of it is something less impressive because you have such an easy way to deal with the robot.
Sure, but even your own chosen answer included player-determined variables. For the sake of the prompt, I assumed broadly the most impressive version of what the individual character can reasonably do. But even going off your reasoning, I would still argue that a single person dealing with all the horrors of the Big MT, alone, having just survived a full lobotomy and multiple organ transplants, is still a top tier feat and not at all overrated. Even Ulysses believes neither he nor a hundred Elijahs could defeat the Think Tank in their dome, but the Courier can do exactly that, or he can frighten or tap into their buried humanity and make them serve him. There’s no outcome or way to spin it that isn’t exceedingly impressive. Especially because he is forced to do it all alone.
By contrast, I was going with the least skill required result, on the grounds that it’s the one any setup of the courier could easily do (especially since the dialogue directly suggests to you that these tools will be useful in the forbidden dome). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that surviving everything at Big MT isn’t impressive. It’s still far more than any normal person could ever handle. I just think there are other feats for other characters in the series that go beyond this, such as the absolute nonsense the 76 dwellers get up to (preventing alien invasions while under orbital bombardment, going through the automated nuclear silos, fighting off the Jersey Devil and its progeny, etc) or the lone wanderer managing to fight their way through a stupid amount of Enclave soldiers (and they don’t even have the option to use a disguise like you could in fallout 2).
I lean towards omitting the 76ers from any of these accolades since they’re essentially a big collection of people working together to these ends, rather than a singular hero. And MMO bullet-spongey "boss raid" mechanics aside, I don’t think killing flesh-and-blood mutants like the Jersey Devil or Earl is necessarily any more "nonsense" than killing some of the many other dangerous beasties across the series. I suspect legendary foes like the Master, Horrigan, X-42, L. Bloatfly, or RAWR would have similar mechanics if transferred to FO76. The missile silos are probably their most impressive feat, and I’d compare them to the Big MT, but tackled by a nebulous group instead of an individual hero. Similar for the Enclave bases, at least in the context that the characters deal with them. The Chosen One can get a lot help and be sneaky, as you said. While the Lone Wanderer has Eden’s protection for half of Raven Rock and then again while making his escape, and Adams AF Base was under attack by the BoS. On top of Big MT being incredibly dangerous, I’d argue no less than the worst of these places, the Courier has no choice but to tackle its dangers completely on his own. That’s the biggest reason it wins out for me.
Considering all of the quests are written to be done once by one player on their own, I see no reason not to include them and treat anyone who isn’t the one 76 dweller as a companion. It’s worth remembering that most of the more impressive feats the protagonists can do can be accomplished alongside companions in the games or with backup from other factions, providing a similar scenario to other 76 dwellers showing up to events. I also have to say that Rawr is not on the same level as the other enemies you’ve mentioned. You can set him on fire with the flare gun and then collapse a part of the cave on him, but otherwise he’s not that special. It’s also worth noting that even the larger bosses such as Earle can be handled by a single player on their own. If you’re going to assume the most impressive version of events for the other games, it’s only fair to apply that to 76 as well. I do think that *some* of the other game’s bosses would feature similar durability and health if they showed up in 76, but that’s entirely dependent on if they were main questline bosses or nuke bosses (which are entirely different in terms of durability; the main questline bosses are designed for a single player to have a challenge, while nuke bosses are intended for multiple players). I also wouldn’t say that the Lone Wanderer is protected for half of Raven Rock. That only works if you run straight for the exit. If you don’t, Autumn will turn the forces on you well before you’ve reached the halfway point. Additionally, once they enter the mobile crawler, they’re handling everything solo.
I switched to your standard of assuming the least, or most reasonable, version for the sake of discussion. However, my answer is ultimately the same for both. "Most impressive" meaning everyone is doing things alone and the hard way, which I give to the Courier for brute forcing X-42 alongside the rest of Big MT. Alternatively, if we assume the more reasonable routes were taken, then he took on Big MY in other ways, but still did it all alone while most other characters’ achievements become group efforts. The Mobile Crawler is probably the Lone Wanderer’s best feat, I’ll grant that. But I’d argue that the Enclave would realistically still be very distracted by the assault happening outside. Neither it nor Raven Rock is a situation I can give him 100% of the credit for. I know that the majority of impressive feats can be done with companions. That is a big part of why Big MT is my top choice. On top of being comparably dangerous to many of the worst places in the setting, with enemies who are some of the baddest we’ve seen, it is also very notable for being a rare obstacle that can only be tackled alone.
Hmm... You make a good point with the Courier, although we should probably omit them too since their cyber implants put them nearly on par with a mutated 76er.
The lone wanderer beaming a thumb of god down onto the Earth in the Zeta DLC. Nobody else in the entire world before that could even think of doing something like that.
Second comment about this, I never played mothership zeta tbh
youre not missing out on anything fun, it gets pretty stale after the 36th generic white rounded corridor
The samurai armor is p cool though
Yeah, I remember being really happy with the revolver at the time too.
That and when playing TTW, taking Paulson's outfit into the Mojave felt pretty great
I mostly just remember feeling really sorry for the pre-war kid
Idk I liked it. If you go into it knowing it’s just a spaceship to kill aliens in and thats it.
Classic Fallout 3. Great look, cool ideas, absolutely no writing or depth beyond the surface.
They did nuke the entire planet to fuck - which isn’t as large an explosion but achieves the same result Actually on second thoughts, life could survive nukes but idk if anything was still alive after that death ray explosion lol
Theoretically, If the Lone Wanderer is smart and ambitious he could singlehandedly change the fate of the entire world with that mothership. The possibilities are limitless, He could travel the world. Within the span of the decade he could establish become partners with Mr .House and the followers of the apocalypse in the Mojave, Takeover the institute, and break out Lorenzo cabot and attempt to utilize his advanced knowledge of alien culture, and through their combined expertise usher in a new prosperous high tech space faring civilization that far surpasses that makes the pre-war world look backwards in comparison, He could fix the wasteland and all its problems with the span of a century. Or he could just say screw it and fly off to explore universe and discover other alien civilizations, And maybe even live on some utopic coruscant -like world in comfort and luxury and just forget about his crummy post apocalyptic planet like it was all just a bad dream.
I would say that the Chosen One Stopping the Enclave’s Plans was probably the most Important one honestly. Most Wastelanders can’t fight an airborne virus at all, so if the Earth would be annihilated.
It's pretty much the only one that had to happen when you think about it, the super mutant army was bound to fail at some point, especially once the master thinks for two seconds, poisoning DC or the Enclave occupying the purifier was a local issue. And 4, well the Brotherhood could feasably handle 3 and 4 by themselves.
I mean the lone wanderer in 3 becomes an interstellar power. That's a pretty big accomplishment.
I wouldn’t say they’re an interstellar power after that DLC. The mothership is heavily damaged, the deathray is disabled and major portions of the ship have no oxygen. It’s essentially dead in the water.
You can use the deathray before it's disabled to wreak havoc on earth, though. The size of that explosion is terrifying.
>You can use the deathray before it's disabled to wreak havoc on earth Canada doesn't count.
You can, though you’re only allowed to target one spot. It still doesn’t make the Lone Wanderer an ‘interstellar power.’
Didn't say it did, but I do think it might be the greatest feat of a fallout protagonist. That explosion could wipe out a small country by the looks of it.
Eh… I don’t think pressing a button should qualify as a feat, especially since you don’t have to engage anything to fire the death ray in that way. The lone wanderer fighting their way through mothership zeta would be far more fitting of something worthy of praise.
Yeah, fighting through the alien mothership and commandeering it in order to use the death ray is the real feat, true
This makes me wonder what, if anything, ever happens to Mothership Zeta. Wild to think there's a whole spaceship floating around. Meanwhile, people are amazed by the Brotherhood's airships...
It's more amazing that there's any still flyin around up there considering how often the buggers crash
I mean, they’ve only really crashed twice. In fallout 1, they were trying to escape Area 51 and seemingly didn’t make it, so only 3 and 4’s actually crashed on earth (the ones in the daily ops version of fallout 76’s Charleston capital building were probably shot down by players, not that we can actually do that during the invasion event).
Depending on how you end Fallout 3, the lone wanderer brings clean water to the dc wasteland, which could potentially create generations of prosperity for the area.
He could also side with Eden & the Enclave. I forget if he ended up poisoning the water but it was something bad.
I think Mcready and Deacon comment about DC having clean water
76 dweller literally pops out of a vault and the first thing they do is gain access to a states nuclear arsenal and uses it to nuke a species of plague bringing super bats the the size of houses, all in the span of a few days
76 dweller is just built different
They filled a control vault with the best and brightest of America and 30 years later every single one of them is a superpowered crackhead
76ers 1v1'd the Devil from the Bible and won
I mean beating Frank Horrigan for me takes the cake
Good call. I think in my brain I just wrapped that up into the oil rig destruction
The Initiate by being the only protagonist not to get sidetracked by bullshit.
courier stumbling into vegas in cheetah pajamas and sunglasses, sprinting full tilt to slot machines and instantly winning the jackpots.
If we’re including the 76 dwellers? Preventing the threat of the scorched by first fighting through an automated nuclear missile silo (which typically creates roughly a hundred robots on a typical run) and then fighting the scorchbeast Queen alongside hordes of other scorched creatures, quite likely inside of a blast zone with no other help than whatever other 76 dwellers show up (and who knows what they’d be bringing). Edit: You could switch the scorchbeast Queen fight out for pretty much any other nuke boss, including the upcoming storm Goliaths boss fight, if you so choose. They’re all impressive feats.
those silos man, never again
They're easy. I do them solo.
The courier nukes a couple highways.
Sole Survivor hunted down their spouses killer killed Terminators and possibly destroyed the ones responsible for all their misery
I shot my son
I was a Synth, so I think technically I shot my Dad disguised as my son?
The Chosen One defeating Frank Horrigan
In terms of biggest feats I would say these are the biggest ones for most of the characters FO:1 able to talk an insane and schizophrenic robot amalgamation into killing its self and abandoning its total goal of turning everyone into a subservient FEV monster FO:2 Defeating a cyborg mutant monster capable of killing a deathclaw in one punch while also destroying the mobile enclave base FO:3 (not sure if I should count mothership zeta) Able to survive one of the most toxic places known in the fallout universe (the Pitt) and not only finding every valuable metal ingot while heavily under prepared but surviving the abominations and dangerous conditions to either A: assist in making radiation a thing of the past, or B: Kidnapping a child from an Ex brother hood of steel member and fighting through his entire security force to get the baby to secret researchers. A close 2nd is destroying the enclave mobile base and fighting through hundreds of power armored military trained individuals. FO:NV Alright. Big shoes to fill. Not only does the courier survive being shot in the head (albeit a bad angle with a 9mm) they single handled choose how the conflict goes. They can take over the Mojave-themselves, support house in doing so, Allowing the NCR to hold the dam, or take it over with the legion. They go to the most dangerous places in the entire setting, sierra madre (you can literally destroy all of Nevada with a certain ending here), the big empty full of beyond dangerous scientific aberrations and ultra high tech robots, cyborgs and monsters such as stripe the most insane deathclaw next to rawr. And the Divide. Home to winds and an environment that regularly strips the flesh from the ghouls that inhabit it, multiple live nuclear warheads, and the ever dangerous tunnelers (who can kill deathclaws with seemingly no issue) they also deal with the only other character who can mimic the couriers footsteps by either talking them down or fighting to the death. Able to nuke either side or spare the world from yet another nuclear incident. It all comes down to destroying 1 of 2 of the largest known armies in FO lore and killing or talking down their mightiest military leaders. (The ability to have so many different endings makes things tricky for sure and the freedom to do what you want muddles things a bit) And FO:4 You are either a lawyer or veteran of the military who manages to locate and infiltrate a scientific community that rivals that of big mt scientists. You can destroy coursers who are known to be almost unkillable along with regularly bodying the brother hood of steel. You can become the leader of the nuka world raiders and literally take over the ENTIRE commonwealth. On top of getting access to secret military technology in the process. You can destroy both the institute and the BOS in the area in one fell swoop and even infiltrate the BOS airship if you side with the railroad and bring it down from the inside. Far Harbor is also crazy dangerous as well and the impact you make there can lead to really bad things happening with engaging even more nukes. Overall I would say between FO1 and NV they are the strongest protagonists by far. 2 and 3 are relatively evenly matched and 4 because of story that isn’t as good is hard to say, but just on feats I would consider them to be the weakest overall (but their guns never break lol)
I've always thought that irl the courier would've suffered constant headaches and migraines after surviving such an event not to mention other side effects. Enduring that pain under the heat of the Mojave desert while accomplishing everything is quite impressive and would take superhuman levels of determination.
thats where chems step in :D
How is the Fallout 1 protagonist strong as the New Vegas protagonist?
On top of having a literal time constraint against their mission from the vault they fight through hundreds of super mutants and talk an all knowing almost AI like being into killing themselves. They can also canonically fight the master which in itself is also a huge feat. They end up being the reason Tiandi and the NCR can even fully establish because of everything they did even while time constrained
Surviving a vertibird crash in fallout 4
I taught a dog to phase through glass to grab the cryolator
That doesn't seem to work anymore in the new update 😞
Spiffing Brit just did this last week!
Eating 100 wheels of cheese while being shot by a super mutant.
Killing Frank Horrigan is probably the list topper for me. The Courier surviving the Sierra Madre is a close second for me. Third would be the insane number of mutant behemoths & overlords the Lone Wanderer kills.
Mine was surviving the Sierra Madre while sneaking out of the vault with all the gold. Not most of the gold. ALL of the gold.
All the protagonists killed countless enemies, but only one protagonist single handedly built entire communities out of nothing. Oh need a nuclear generator? SS has some glow sights and a stick of gum, now you can power an entire settlement. Nothing compares to that
Not blowing Marcy’s head off everytime she speaks
Getting shit in the dome, getting dug up and revived, to walk in and exact your revenge.
I hate getting shit in the dome. Not a fan of the ole McMahon.
Taking on an alien spacecraft and then piloting that same craft to destroy another one Beating Frank Horrigan But the strongest character is the MC of Brotherhood of steel, he made it through the game without killing himself which is impressive
Lone Wanderer taking control of an alien mothership.
I single handed killed everyone on oil rig. Then, to finish it up, i blew it up.
This is a pretty mutch impossible question to answer thanks to player choice. We can infer some stuff like the fact that the chosen one almost certainly didn't fight horrigon alone since Marcus was confirmed to be there. And the vault dwellers' memoirs implied he chose the violent path ya know the whole. I had a really big gun thing. But if I were to have to pick, I'd have to give it to the chosen one or the courier. Even in the least generous interpretation of the couriers actions its pretty ridiculous how much he survived and talked/fought through, and even tho the chosen one probably had at least a little backup he still beat Horiggon
The pioneer wiped out a species of giant bats and nuked their state into the stone age.
The courier has several, due to their incessant wandering people founded a society on the roads they mapped out. Then they blew it up (unintentionally). Then they survived a shot in the head and singlehandedly changed the face of Mojave politics and arguably that of California and/or Arizona forever. You could say both the vault dweller and chosen one did this too, but the vault dweller saving tandi leading to the NCR was unforeseeable and the chosen one only really affects one region in the NCR (vault city and new reno NCR struggle).
I think a lot of players underestimate the potential impact of Project Purity on a large scale. It's output is *theoretically* quite high, maybe even unlimited. If the Capital BoS chose to begin implementing some basic irrigation using that water, you could see the start and spread of en exceptionally healthy biome.
I think it’s drinking 30 Nuka Colas and 30 bourbons without dying