Most of the power armor is somewhat random, and only rarely do you find a complete set. It is also somewhat leveled (X-01>60>51>45, generally speaking). You can google for a map of all the locations, but eventually you’ll be swimming in power armor. An easy one to get early on, aside from the one you get in Concord:
Head east from Tenpines Bluff, down the hill (the second settlement, not counting Red Rocket). You’ll hit some train tracks. Find the abandoned train.
Not a great idea to leave power armor lying around for settlers, they’ll leave it in weird places. They will only steal them if you leave a core inside.
They can leave it wherever they want. I think I use the cores to level potting benches in my greenhouse. I collect the frames because the game keeps throwing them my way, and because I have an impulse to collect stuff, but the only time I’ve actually used one is in the mission that compels you to. When I find a frame, I hop in it long enough to fast-travel home and drop it off at the workshop. I repair and upgraded pieces when I find better stuff, but I don’t use it.
In the back of my head, I think of it as my character refitting equipment for the Minutemen to use, so they don’t have to keep calling on me to handle everything personally.
I’m a sneaky sniper for my first playthrough. I have three different sniper rifles: a .308, a .45, and a .50. Any ammo not one of those or 5mm usually gets sold off.
I do a fair amount of sniping, because it helps keep annoying companion shenanigans to a minimum. After I pick off the easy ones and mark as many as I can with a scope, though, I close in for ninja action. It’s just ridiculously deadly with the right perks and weapons, and you can get one of the best melee weapons super early.
I do keep some other guns equipped, though. I have a silenced 10mm for taking out spotlights and some “novelty” guns that I like to play with occasionally, like the Junk Jet and the Cryolator. As with its predecessor, it’s fun to load the Junk Jet with wacky stuff and go to town. I currently have it loaded with Pre-War Money, so I can actually shoot money at problems, rather than just throwing it. I also like loading it with teddy bears, for the sheer humiliation factor.
I find that once you get Overseer’s Guardian, you can kind of stop bothering with any other weapon. Apparently, other legendary weapons with the two-bullet feature have holy-shitballs recoil, but the Overseer’s Guardian doesn’t. So, you can build it up as a sniper’s weapon, and it’s still pretty handy in close quarters, desperately spamming the trigger until nothing is killing you anymore. So I don’t even carry a combat shotgun anymore.
Not all that far in yet. Only level 30 and just about to start tracking Kellogg.
Picked up the .45 rifle off somebody I killed and added a large capacity magazine. Fires fast and the extra capacity makes it good for close quarters as well. For really close quarters, I have an incendiary .45 automatic rifle and the Broadsider if speed isn’t an issue.
I bought the Last Minute gauss rifle from what’s-her-name at The Castle. I carry it everywhere, just in case. It’s my go-to weapon for when I absolutely, positively must take down whatever comes at me. Upgrading it, and combining it with rifle shooty perks makes it a truly badass weapon.
The most badass weapon I ever found in the game, bar none, was a simple explosive shotgun found early on and upgraded along the way. I called it my Boom Stick, and I never found anything that took it more than 3 shots to kill.
The “Vault Tech” DLC went live a couple nights ago, which introduces Vault 88. The patch notes state that it will unlock in game when you hit level 20. I have cleared the above ground area, and it looks like there are extensive underground areas to look through (and eventually build settlement stuff in).
For new recipes, so far, I saw some “vault” style passageway and room pieces.
I’d like to see a standalone expansion in which one plays a raider from beginning to end. A Quincy Gunner recruit starting right after Preston and his band of refugees escape, for example.
It’s going to be a while before I explore Nuka World itself. I’ve just started a new character, as I now have a world which presumably won’t change any further around them. Especially as the PS4 doesn’t offer modding.
I’m still hung up on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. It’s a shame that for clarity I have to type all that. We should give a nickname, like maybe DeXMud. No, then people will think it’s a Multi User Dungeon. How about DEManDive?
Anyway, who knows when I’ll get around to dicking around in Nuka World. But in the meantime, I’ve got a character level 60 or so who has hardly touched the main story line.
OK, I’m playing Nuka World and I think it’s a lot of fun. Then agin, when it comes to video games, I’m easily amused.
I have a squirt gun now! It squirts water, and does zero damage!
The new map is much more involved than I expected. I am still on my original play through, so I’m like level 150 with every perk I could need, so even the new baddies aren’t too imposing. But I would think that a new playthrough from the beginning with Nuka World, Far Harbor, Vault Tec, Automotron etc. all active would would be interesting and very, very big.