Trait Heavy Handed
	Vault Boy image, as first appeared in Fallout
	Fallout, Fallout 2, TORN benefits +4 Melee Damage penalties Critical hits have a -30% modifier to the critical hit tables Fallout: New Vegas benefits +20% damage (Melee and Unarmed only) penalties -60% Critical damage. (Melee and Unarmed only) base id 00135ec5 Fallout Tactics benefits +4 Melee Damage penalties Critical hits have a -20% modifier to the critical hit tables Lionheart requirements not combined with Finesse benefits +2 damage in melee combat penalties Critical hits have a -30 modifier to critical chance
	Fallout: New Vegas

 

Heavy Handed (called Brutal in TORN) is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout Tactics, Lionheart, and TORN trait.

Fallout, Fallout 2, TORNEdit

You get +4 points of melee damage, but your critical hits have a -30% modifier to the critical hit tables.

Fallout: New VegasEdit

Your melee and unarmed attacks do more damage, but less critical hit damage.

More specifically, your Melee and Unarmed damage is increased by 20%, but your Critical Hit damage is reduced by 60%, but only for those two weapon types. Since you inflict more damage consistently with Heavy Handed though, Critical Hits are less of an issue, unless the player relies on Sneak attack criticals as a major source of damage or if the character criticals often due to perks, Luck, and high weapon modifier (certain perk/weapon combinations give you a guaranteed chance to critically hit).

Assuming a Critical Hit chance of 7.5% (Base 5%, multiplied by a Machete's x1.5 Critical Hit Chance), a player will Critical Hit once out of 13 to 14 swings, on average. So, a machete's damage with and without Heavy Handed should work out to this:

• Without Heavy Handed: 13 swings * 11 damage + 1 crit (+11 damage) = 154 damage
• With Heavy Handed: 13 swings * 13.2 damage + 1 crit (+4.5 damage) = 175 damage

Weapons most useful with Heavy Handed

• Thermic lance: Only 10 critical hit damage.
• Chainsaw: Only 8 critical hit damage.
• Ripper: Only 5 critical hit damage.
• Rebar club: Extremely low critical hit chance (maximum critical chance of 33%).
• Nailboard: x0 critical hit multiplier.
• Pool cue: x0 critical hit multiplier.
• Rolling pin: x0 critical hit multiplier.
• Cattle prod: Only 5 critical hit damage.
• Two-Step Goodbye (GRA): Only 10 critical damage

Heavy Handed with Better CriticalsEdit

Example: Using a cattle prod.

See Also

• Critical chance#Fallout: New Vegas

NotesEdit

• Synergizes well with the Loose Cannon trait and/or Heave Ho! perk due to the usefulness of throwing spears with this trait. It can be somewhat useful with Better Criticals due to weapons such as the throwing spear and cattle prod, which inflict greater damage on a critical hit or sneak attack critical with both Heavy Handed and Better Criticals.

• Having Better Criticals as well as the Dead Money perk Elijah's Ramblings along with the Lonesome Road level 50 perk Just Lucky I'm Alive reduces the Melee Crit DMG penalty received by this trait from -60% to actually increasing the critical damage by +135% ( 150% * 150% * 150% * 40% = 135%).

• Example: a Crit DMG of 10 would be reduced to 10 * (1.0 - 0.6) = 4. With Better Criticals it becomes 4 * 1.5 = 6. Elijah's Ramblings then increases the damage to 6 * 1.5 = 9. With Just Lucky I'm Alive, it's from 9 to 9 * 1.5=13.5 critical damage.

Fallout TacticsEdit

You get +4 points of melee damage, but your critical hits have a -20% modifier to the critical hit tables.

LionheartEdit

You do +2 points of damage in melee combat (hand-to-hand or non-ranged weapons). Your critical hits have a -30 modifier to critical chance. This trait cannot be selected with Finesse.