Talk:Deathclaw (Fallout: New Vegas)

Son, Get me my Rifle
... I'ma gonna have some fun hunting some Deathclaws! Draco122 13:40, October 16, 2010 (UTC)

Careful these are nasty sons of bitches. Saw one on a road tried to kill it with dynamite. To strikes on me and i was a gonna. Just me or they WAY stronger than fallout 3. Mary roc 22:00, October 22, 2010 (UTC)

Just popped lvl 20, and I haven't killed one of the bastards YET. I think I managed to kill one Young one, but then me and followers got ripped to shreds by 4 adults. --98.235.201.206 08:17, October 25, 2010 (UTC)

The first time i ran into deathclaws i was slaughtered. However after steering clear of them for the better part of the game i was finally able to deal swift death to them at 20. Using the Anti material rifle and getting sneak attack crits drops many in one shot. However i still have a hard time if i get caught off guard due to fast traveling. I have no idea how to take these guys out as a melee character.

I owned them with Maria and a hunting rifle at level 14.... (True story) "The Deathclaw Mother goes beserk over the death of her baby" HOLY CRAP RUN! i got owned on one attempt when that happened #1 Scariest/Awesome quote in Fallout De Accipitre Deserta 21:17, October 26, 2010 (UTC)

A good thing to use against deathclaws is the Gauss Rifle. i was lvl 20 with a energy skills of 90 and i took two shots to cripple a leg. then let the headshots fly... after some turbo. --MkII Power Armor 16:41, October 27, 2011 (UTC)

i dont find them that hard,i ignored the warnings and ran straight north to vegas through deathclaw territory early on, that was hard, but i dont find them hard now, anti-material rifle with ap rounds or the unique gauss rifle and their peice o cake


 * I was used to the 30DT deathclaws, it made each one feel like an epic battle that was nearly impossible... these new weak deathclaws are no fun at all... are there any mods that restore deathclaws back to prepatch ways?

cripple the leggs and run
for some reason these guys are WAY tougher than fo3, I only managed to kill ONE so far and that is because I had Boone and ed-e on my side and we got the jump on it, cost me nearly all my stimpacks (24 at the time) plus a super stimpack.Superinsomniac 23:42, October 25, 2010 (UTC) thought I should also note that we sniped its legs first, still didn't manage to cripple it, but Boone seemed to be taking head shots,+ we was both using hunting rifles. oops forgought to signSuperinsomniac 23:44, October 25, 2010 (UTC)

A-P rounds, you only need 10 of 'em for the hunting rifle for everything but the baby ( mainly for the 2 Titans the normal deathclaws go down easily with any weapon when it has -10 bars babys go down with 2 caravan shotgun shells to the torso or any headshot, kill the mother first or it goes beserk and will kill you unless using overpowered weapons, mods, TGM, 10 endurance lvl 30 etc... crippling the legs is for bottlecap mines, De Accipitre Deserta 21:23, October 26, 2010 (UTC)

How to kill these things
Im on level 20 and when i try to kill a deathclaw i always get killed even with a fully upgraded laser rifle.

Anyone has any idea on the easiest way to kill them ?
 * For starters, not using a laser rifle would be good. EW users should go with a plasma rifle or other high-powered energy weapon. Melee weapon specialists would be well advised to get a thermic lance. Players who specialize in guns should use a high-powered rifle such as the anti-materiel rifle. -- 22:03, October 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * I second Anti-Materiel Rifle. Any ammo can get a one shot kill at high enough Guns. Shooting them with Incendiary ammo makes them look like Balrogs lol.


 * The plasma caster with a HS mod is the only weapon that I have found that can handle a Deathclaw straight up. Get its attention, and once it starts to charge at you in a straight line, fire away. If it gets close, vats headshots should finish it off. Doing this you shouldn't have a problem with one, and can take out a pair under the right conditions(Long range, open terrain). This is good enough for most encounters, but I still can't figure out how to get into quarry junction and the deathclaw promontory.--Sartanpham 02:25, October 30, 2010 (UTC)


 * It seems to me with a Energy Weapons of about 50 and a good condition plasma rifle the blind deathclaws take about 4 shots to take them out however against regular ones your screwed. Anon

I agree that the Anti-Materiel Rifle is one of the best ways to kill Deathclaws, along with the Gauss Rifle, which is the Energy Weapons equivalent. I personally, find a sniping perch (elevated if possible, so they can't run up to it easily) as FAR away as possible and snipe them, one at a time while crouching/sneaking. If you do it right, they won't even detect you and you can take them out with impunity, although they might panic and run away if they don't detect you.

the Brush Gun did a spectacular job of killing these guys with me, i was one shot killing loads of em

I'm the Deathclaw Killer
Hey everybody! Use beanbag shells on Deathclaws! I'm Lv 20 with 92 Guns, and I've killed around 5 normal Deathclaws using beanbag shells in the Hunting Shotgun. Shot them 2 to 3 times with it, and they pass out for a long time. Then I just whip out This Machine and unload the entire clip into their head. Seriously, this works most of the time. I haven't tried it on the other types of Deathclaws or groups of normal ones. I even found an egg on one of them. Companions serve as a good distraction.

You could just throw some AP .308 in that Garand of yours. That's what I do. One-shot anything but the legendary if you aim it right that way. I&#39;m the best at space!

Alternatively, you can use Digh-DAM weapons such as the Anti-Materiel Rifle or the Gauss Rifle and sneak-attack them. Cheaper in bullets, and less dangerous to you and your companions.

However, using Fatigue is interesting. A lower-leveled character could feasibly defend itself from Deathclaws by carrying a Double Barrel and beanbags. Do Sneak-attacks effect fatigue damage?

--72.167.183.33 16:04, November 8, 2010 (UTC)

Include Information on habitats in New Vegas.....
These baddies will make fodder out of low level players......someone should work on a list of habitats that they frequent so people will steer clear of them until they get better levels and better equiped

DT Ratings
Out of curiosity why is there no DT ratings in the stats for foes in this Wiki? Surely that info is the G.E.C.K? I'm playing console so I can't check myself. It just seems odd that every other rating is there but that.

I second this. For example, the gauss rifle does 120 damage, the anti-materiel rifle does 110. So what's better against a deathclaw? At first glance, the gauss rifle, but if the anti-material rifle has DT penetration as implied by its name (Who knows? I can't find it on the wiki.), and if the deathclaw has 10 or more DT (Who knows?  I can't find that on the wiki either.) then the anti-materiel rifle is actually a better choice.

I do have the PC version though, so I'll be poking around in the GECK later. I invite others to do the same.

Daniel Benoy 13:33, November 4, 2010 (UTC)

I checked the GECK and I didn't see it in there. I know there is a perk that claims to show you enemy DT values, so I know they have them. I wonder if it's a derived statistic based on creature level or creature endurance or something. I think I'll grab that perk, then find out what enemy DT values are and see if they match some sort of formula.

Daniel Benoy 13:28, November 5, 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to experiment to find out the DT values for creatures. I plan on using the console to give myself the Living Anatomy perk so I can see DT values, turning off enemy AI so I don't get attacked, and spawning creatures one by one to find out their DT values.

Daniel Benoy 19:04, November 5, 2010 (UTC)

After some experimentation, I found that Deathclaws have between 28-32 DT in Hard/Hardcore settings. I found this by using a Fully-Repaired Cowboy Repeater w/Long Tube (28 Damage/Shot) and having it shielded. A Fully-Repaired Hunting Rifle w/Scope (32 Damage/Shot) did not show the icon. I can't recall my Guns level, but I'd wager it was around 60-ish. I used normal .357 and .308 ammunition at Level 12, and I used Non-VATS, non-sneak Headshots. If I'd have to make a guess, I'd say that a Hard/Hardcore Deathclaw has 30 DT, given the wiki article states Normal Mode Deathclaws have 20 DT and I'm making an assumption that the Hard Mode multiplier is 1.5 x Base DT.

As for HP values, I can't help with that. I had an angry Deathclaw coming at me, so I unloaded. Barely survived, too.

I'd also like to report that a Non-VATS Fully-Repaired Anti-Materiel Rifle sneak-attack headshot one-shots Deathclaws in Hardcore/Hard. However, a non sneak-attack or non headshot sneak attack will not kill it in one shot (Non-sneak attack headshots did about 6 bars of damage, and non-headshot sneak attacks did about ~75% damage) using standard ammunition. Guns level was also around 60 at Level 18.

In a slightly unrelated note, the same sneak-attack Fully-Repaired Anti-Materiel Rifle Headshot will bring a Deathclaw Mother down to 2 bars.

Whether you find this of use, I wouldn't know. I'll experiment with some more later.

--72.167.183.33 15:58, November 8, 2010 (UTC)

I think they avenge their young
Just saying I came accross a young deathclaw (I had EDE in my party) and I killed him and traveled towards the west part of vegas (near the Thorn) and all of the sudden (out of nowhere) a deathclaw attacks me from behind......highly irregular

That has been happening to me ALOT as of late. I'll be sneaking around, say, Black Mountain, picking off Muties or going through Feind territory, headshoting my way through any and all comers when my companion will suddenly use their 'nearly dead' remark. I turn around and there's a random deathclaw tearing them in two. And no, I did not stumble in them. I actually turned to go one way, walked a few paces, had my companion seen, turned to help them and it appeared behind me. I think it's a 'feature' but it's a damned nasty one and very unfun. 72.152.250.13 20:14, December 9, 2010 (UTC)

I recall a message that pops up in the corner about the alpha mother being enraged at the death of her young. --LordVukodlak 07:01, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

oh shit i better watch out up by vault 19 boone and rex killed a baby deathclaw and i just fast traveled out of there the second i noticed it great now my guys gonna have to be paranoid --Corporal grif 07:29, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

Fists of Fury
As stated engaging New Vegas deathclaws at close range is risky however, consider the following: Heavy Handed, Piercing Strike, Bloody Mess. Lord of Death rank 1 Strength 10, Unarmed 100, Good Condition Ballistic Glove, using VATS uppercut I can consistantly reduce a Deathclaw to 10%-ish health on the first punch unless I miss, I soloed the Legendary Deathclaw in a single 5-hit VATS cycle

Blind Deathclaw

I found a group of blind deathclaws I think its north of Las vegas lake, is ther anyway to sneak up on them or do i just gota spray and pray?

Correct DT
The correct DT of the regular Deathclaws are 15, not 30. I checked this is normal and hardcore mode, with the game setting in normal/hard/very hard setting and with the perk Living Anatomy. Brfritos 16:25, December 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * I can confirm this. It was 30 in the Xbox version pre-patch, but it does seem to be 15 now (Don't have Living Anatomy right now, so I'm not 100% sure if it's 15 or less, but 5.56/5mm AP ammo breaks their DT.) 24.27.46.248 07:00, December 19, 2010 (UTC)

So someone changed it to 20 (from 15). Which is it? Do the Quarry deathclaws have different DT than the Promontory deathclaws? I intend to find out but I'm on 360 so I can't just GECK or Console-command my way into finding out so it may take some time. Usernametaken 20:41, December 20, 2010 (UTC)
 * Xbox 360 version. I've ventured back through Quarry Junction, the area north-ish of it, the Promontory and Dead Wind Cavern. Deathclaws (well, adult ones) have 15 DT regardless of location, according to Living Anatomy. Be aware: if you have a perk like Shotgun Surgeon or Piercing Strike that lowers DT from a non-ammunition source, Living Anatomy will display the 'altered' DT, not the actual DT. Usernametaken 06:36, December 22, 2010 (UTC)

Quarry Junction deathclaws are 2-3 times as stronger and more durable than deathclaws in other locations. Elavenger209 00:55, July 18, 2011 (UTC)

Toughest in-game creature?
personally i think that a swarm of Cazadors is capable of owning each Deathclaw in Quarry Junction, Cazadors obviously don't have as much Hit points or damage per attack but obviously are faster and harder to hit, what do you think? .

Spawn a few Cazzies and a DC with combat AI turned off, get to a safe distance, turn combat AI (and maybe god mode) back on, wait for the fireworks. Then let us know how it goes. SimuLord 07:26, January 12, 2011 (UTC)

MY ASS!
The article says that deathclaws DONT get encountered randomly...MY ASS i was helping my friend run from giant rad scops and then came a night stalker THEN came one motha you know what death claw.......just one ONE so point of story death claws CAN BE RANDOMLY ENCOUNTERED(also this was by good springs). i was surprised by one over at hidden valley came out of no where and scared the shit outta me--Corporal grif 07:33, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

Can they swim?????????????????
Can Deathclaws swim? I have never seen one in the water so can someone go to Deathclaw Promontory and check this for me? ZERO 04:21, March 16, 2011 (UTC)

I think they can depending on where you are and how big the DC is. However they don't go near the water that much so really water won't help you in any way what so ever with one User:Riond55 09:07, May 7 2011

Problem need help
I heard that a riot shotgun with slugs works well against deathclaws is that true because I don't want to waste my caps if not.

Slugs vs. Deathclaws
It seems to work for me when I used a riot shotgun with slugs against deathclaws. I approached the quarry area from the north and killed some deathclaws pretty easily, just crouch and aim, wait for them to get close, then fire fire fire. Also, going for headshots with a good sniper such as a gauss rifle or anti-materiel rifle will work well. Not only that, but using Oh Baby! with a good melee works very well. Just block, and when they recoil after attempting to attack you while you're blocking, you spam their face. Imagine the kinetic disc of a super-sledge impacting upon a deathclaw's ugly mug. Don't use heavy weapons unless you're using max-charge ammo or AP ammo. Don't bother with explosives either, they tend to do little damage to them and more damage to you. I wish there was something in the wasteland that was worth using my fatman on. Like a behemoth. All the legendaries are indoors, so you can't really nuke them :( I wish their was like an epic swarm of radscorpions or feral ghouls that happens in a quest, that way I could use my grenade machine gun or fatman :)

Kanonamos

114.76.2.127 05:44, March 21, 2011 (UTC)

Hard?
Not so hard with This Machine, and possibly a Light Machine Gun Donovans Wrench 23:37, April 26, 2011 (UTC)

Size comparison
I think it would be really cool if someone was to upload a picture for the size comparison of all the different forms of deathclaws in new vegas as well as for the other creatures found in new vegas too.--Terminator512 16:17, May 8, 2011 (UTC)
 * Good idea. Ausir(talk) 11:57, May 12, 2011 (UTC)

Dam
Just seeing one deathclaw can be enough to piss yourself there so dam tough I thought i could get to meliissa to convince her to make papa kahn support the NCR without seing a deathclaw turns out i was wrong and please obesidan make a perk or device to make deathclaws friendly--Kanto&#39;s Champion 10:03, May 13, 2011 (UTC)

Legendary Deathclaw? Not really.
I just stormed in the front door and one-shotted it. I don't have any fancy schmancy crit-enhancing perks, I don't use chems, I didn't use VATS. Just walked in, used This Machine on the normals in the cave, then whipped out the AMR and fired once. Got it in the neck. Down it went. Armor wsn't even required! Real legendary, Obsidian, some ham-fisted FPS noob one-shotted the most powerful NPC in the game with something he got due to a gambling streak... I&#39;m the best at space!

Yea...play on something higher than 'Very Easy' then try it. --Drldrl 03:24, May 21, 2011 (UTC)

Even on Very Easy, you couldn't one shot the legendary deathclaw with ANYTHING, especially not This Machine. This story is obviously BS. --Wiseman of the Wastes 11:59, May 28, 2011 (UTC)

Legendary your ass? why does it have to be hard to kill to be legendary. IT LOOKS SCARY AS HELL!!! and yea that sounds like BS there is no way in 37 hells you 1 hitted it with a POS (piece of shit) like this machine.

I found even on very easy it demolished me, until i stopped trying to melee it with Super Sledge. -- Whyyoushouldstoptalking 12:37, June 29, 2011

In at least normal one headshot from the anti-material rifle while undetected can do it. Having the gun skill maxed out probably helped too.--24.147.62.26 04:57, August 6, 2011 (UTC)

Abominations? Animals? Classification, please!
For the purposes of which perks might help wallop these & which challenges they fulfill--do they count as abominations or "mutated animals" or what? Somehow I'm betting not animal, cause then Animal friend would be like, the BEST perk ever. Heeeeere, kitty kitty kitty! 168.150.201.176 15:11, June 19, 2011 (UTC)
 * They are Abominations. -- 15:58, June 19, 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh thanks. I'd looked up abominations, but presently that's only for FO3.  Didn't remember to look up abominable.  Doh! 168.150.201.176 06:31, June 20, 2011 (UTC)

The Overseer
Should it be capitalized on this page? the overseer or The Overseer.
 * Capitalised. --233345-cartman1_tiny.gif Avatar talk.png 22:13, June 29, 2011 (UTC)

It is done.--OmnipotentPotato 01:09, July 1, 2011 (UTC)

Mother and alpha male disappeared from quarry
So, I finally decided to clear out the quarry, but for some reason there are only regular deathclaws and a single baby there now. Anyone know where they could have possibly gone to? I've searched pretty much all of the surrounding areas figuring maybe there was a remote possibility that they somehow wandered out of the quarry.--Darth Oblivion 05:49, August 6, 2011 (UTC)

I think they either glitched into the ground or went to "breed" some more deathdealers. 17:15, August 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * I've just recently run into an alpha-male who was glitching in the rocks just west of The Hidden Valley. He didn't pose too much trouble since he couldn't move at all. :/
 * Insolentius 20:14, August 7, 2011 (UTC)

Need section For Lonesome Road Deathclaw and confusion over irradiated one
When close to level 50 the Deathclaws I encountered along the Lonesome Road had and HP of 700 and would always kill with a single attack no matter how high my DT was, same was true of the irradiated ones but when i encountered them they had a DT of 0.