Fallout 4: 4 Tips for dealing with your first deathclaw

Fallout 4 is here, and I’m sure for those of you an hour or two into the game, you’ve just gotten your suit of power armor. There you are, strolling down Concord blowing raiders away with your minigun, you feel like you’re king of the world. Then the first real roadblock of the game pops up from underground:

This guy.

On difficulties higher than normal, he’s a fast-moving bullet sponge that hits like a truck. Not a good combination.

If you’re having trouble with this thing, here are a few strategies you can use to take him down:

1. Car bombs

In case you haven’t learned from misfiring, most of the cars in Fallout 4 are extremely dangerous explosives.

This might take a bit of tricky maneuvering, but those cars lying around on the streets of Concord? A focused blast from your minigun can detonate them, dealing a massive chunk of damage to this guy. Just be careful you aren’t caught in the blast! 

2. Spam heal

This is a bit tough to pull off on survival difficulty, where healing is slowed, but stimpaks are your friend, and the power armor is sturdy enough to take a few blows from the Deathclaw. Just get all of your healing items ready, unload your minigun into the scaly bastard, and heal when necessary. 

Since there haven’t been too many dangerous encounters at this point in the game, you should have a wealth of items to gain HP back with.

3. Go for the legs!

The biggest threat the Deathclaw poses is its speed. If you can focus-fire on its legs (or VATS-spam them, more likely), its movement will be hindered, and kiting it around Concord will be an easy, albeit tedious, task.

Or, if all else fails…

4. Cheese it

This being a Bethesda game, there are a dozen ways to cheapen this fight. The most optimal, it seems, is to enter the building right across from where he bursts out of the ground, and then blast him from safely inside the entrance or the balcony.

He will get tired of your shenanigans eventually and wander off, so you’ll have to come out and get him angry again, meaning this will take a while, but sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Once it’s all over, breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy your new power armor! Back to the Wasteland!