A lot of you have been complaining lately about not being able to get enough damage to run West Tek. So I thought it was time to cover the factors that affect grenade damage and how to get the most damage out of your Grenades. Hopefully, this helps those who are having trouble, especially with Double XP Weekend coming up.

Base Damage

Let’s start with a baseline for Nuka Grenade damage. I’m going with Grenadier 2 and Demolition Expert 5 perk, plus Bloody Mess 3. I’ve removed all the radiation since Adrenal Reaction mutation increases damage. All in all, we have Nukas at 460 physical damage, just like any other full health character.

Legendary Effect

The first legendary star on a weapon applies its damage boost to grenades, so as always, we’ve used Instigating. Instigating does double damage to full health enemies, and in West Tek you’ll definitely be throwing grenades at full health enemies, so this is a perfect fit.

Note that the bonus damage isn’t shown in the item description, but it certainly applies. We’re basically getting double the base damage, up to about 820.

Also, if you’re low on health, you can use Bloody instead of Instigating. Aristocrat and Junkie also increase the damage of grenades similarly if you’re playing at full health.

At this point, weapon damage boosting perks don’t apply to grenades, they only boost your weapons. But for a character at full health, Adrenaline perk is key to getting damage over 1000 and getting you kill. So it’s important to make sure you have the full Adrenaline bonus before you start throwing grenades.

Reduce Enemy Armor

But dealing more damage takes more than just increasing the number of grenades. The other side of the equation is that all enemies have resistances that reduce the amount of damage they actually take.

The way Anti-Armor works is that it applies a global reduction to the resistances of enemies. This reduction is applied just by holding the weapon, so it applies to your Grenades and Mines, too. You can see this by using Awareness perk under Perception.

There are several ways to reduce enemy armor. One of the obvious ways is the legendary first star on your weapon, which gives them -50% armor reduction.

Another is perks. Most weapon types have perks that reduce armor. For Pistols and Rifles, you can use Tank Killer Perk, which gives a -36% armor reduction. For heavy weapons, you can use Power Armor and Stabilized perks. This gives a -45% armor reduction while also increasing accuracy.

And the biggest bonus comes from Incisor for melee weapons. The -75% armor reduction is huge, easily the biggest armor reduction in the game. Unfortunately, Shotguns don’t have any Armor Piercing Perks at all, which is one reason why they become less effective after upgrading.

Last but not least are the weapons themselves. Some weapons allow for Armor Piercing Magazines, which give a global reduction to enemy armor. If you have multiple Armor Piercing Perks, they work in a multiplicative way.

But focusing only on reducing enemy armor is not a good idea. I personally limit myself to using no more than two weapons that include Anti-Armor Perk for the weapon. To get the most benefit, you’re better off focusing on both increasing damage and reducing enemy armor.

Hidden Cursed Effect

Some Fallout 76 items also have hidden cursed effects. Two good examples are Elder’s Mark and Holy Fire, both of which have hidden properties for bonus damage. What’s especially nice about them is that you can re-roll their legendary stars while still retaining their cursed effects. But their damage boost seems to increase the base damage of the weapon rather than providing a general damage boost.

Strength Buff

In addition, melee weapons get a damage boost from your Strength attribute. To be exact, each point of Strength adds 5% damage. For a character with low health, I have around 40 points of Strength, which means our melee weapons have a 200% damage bonus.

I am using Bloodied Power Fist with Armor Piercing mod. These perks include Unarmed Weapon damage boost, Armor Piercing, and Faster Swing. You can see how effective Incisor is in reducing enemy armor, which indirectly makes grenades very effective.

Detonator

Another tip is about Detonator legendary perk. Normally, you won’t use this skill because grenades are a rarely used weapon. But in cases like West Tek, it does have benefits.

There are cases where Nukas may only kill one Mutant but damage another nearby. In this case, Detonator skill will kill an additional Mutant. You can definitely see some benefits from this skill.

We need to spend about 300 perk coins to upgrade this skill to increase the chance of explosion. Therefore, I recommend you avoid this skill and instead focus on upgrading the legendary perk that you will always use.

How To Maximize Nukas Damage?

Based on this test, let’s summarize the best way to maximize Nukas damage.

First, Instigating can be used as the first legendary star of your weapon, especially if you play the game at full health, while Bloody can be used as a low health character replacement through Adrenaline perk.

Second, stack Anti-Armor through perks and weapon mods, and your weapon’s first star should be a damage boost.

Third, make sure to stack Adrenaline bonuses before throwing grenades, and your perks should always include Grenadier 2, Demolition Expert 5, Adrenaline 5, and Bloody 3.

All three of these combined should give you enough damage to kill almost any enemy that Nukas hits, even if you play the game at full health.

Regardless, hopefully, this guide will help you stack the damage on your grenades to easily kill all enemies. See you in the game!