Fallout 4: what exactly do all those Legendary Weapon effects do?

Keep getting those random Legendary Weapons? Here's all the different effects you can come across.

Playing through Fallout 4 you'll come up against Legendary Enemies that are a lot tougher to kill than the usual Raider, Bloatfly or Super Mutant.

But take them down and you'll be rewarded with a Legendary Weapon complete with a devastating effect. These encounters and weapons are random, but almost always cough up a nice little treat to make your character that bit tougher.

You'll know a Legendary item when you see it as it will begin with a prefix such as "Assassin's" or "Hunter's" and then the name of the item. So an "Assassin's bolt-action sniper rifle" will be a long-range weapon that deals an additional 50 percent damage to human enemies.

So, here's a list of every effect and what it does:

Fallout 4 Legendary Weapons Effects

Assassin’s: An additional 50 percent damage against humans.

Automatic : Adds an automatic fire mode to the gun..

Berserker’s: The lower your damage resistance, the higher the damage output of the weapon.

Bloodied: The lower the player’s health, the higher the damage output of the weapon.

Cavalier’s: Damage reduced by 15 percentage when sprinting or blocking.

Crippling: Deal 50 percentage more limb damage.

Enraging: Critical Hits from weapons with this effect will cause the target to Frenzy.

Explosive: Explosive weapon bullets will explode on impact, dealing area of effect damage of 15 points.

Exterminator’s: Deals an additional 50 percent damage when used against Mirelurks, Radroaches and other bugs.

Freezing: Critical Hits freeze the enemy, dealing 10 points of Cryo damage.

Furious: Deals more damage the more you hit the target.

Ghoul Slayer’s: An additional 50 percentage damage against Ghouls.

Hunter’s: Adds 50 percent damage to animals.

Incendiary: Sets enemy on fire, adding an additional 15 points of damage.

Instigating: Deals double damage when enemy is at full health.

Irradiated: An additional 50 points of radiation damage.

Junkie’s: The more the player is suffering from chem withdrawal effects, the more damage a weapon with this attribute does.

Kneecapper: You have a 20 percent chance to cripple a target’s leg.

Lucky Weapon: Your critical meter will replenish 15 percent faster, and cause Critical Hits to deal twice the damage.

Medic’s: Weapons with this effect will heal targets rather than hurt them.

Mutant Slayer’s: Super Mutants take an extra 50 percent damage.

Nimble: Move 75 percent faster while aiming.

Never Ending: Unlimited ammo capacity.

Nocturnal: Weapons does less damage during the day, increased damage at night.

Penetrating: Penetrating weapons bypass 30 percent of a target’s armour.

Plasma Infused: Deals an additional 10 points of energy damage plus a chance to turn enemy into goo.

Poisoner’s: Enemies poisoned for 10 seconds.

Powerful: Increase damage by 25 percent.

Quickdraw: Uses 25 percent less Action Points. Great for V.A.T.S.

Relentless: Get a Critical Hit and you'll instantly refill your Action Points..

Sentinel’s: Stand still using this and you'll take 15 percent less damage.

Staggering: hits have a change of staggering an enemy. Great on melee weapons.

Stalker’s: If you're not yet in combat this will increase V.A.T.S. accuracy at the cost of Action Points.

Troubleshooter’s: An extra 50 percent damage to robots.

Two Shot: fires two shots at a time.

V.A.T.S. Enhanced [1]: Improves the chance of a hit in VATS and reduces Action Points by 25 percent.

V.A.T.S. Enhanced [2]: A variation of the above, these weapons cause V.A.T.S. Action Point cost to reduce by 40 percent.

Violent: Deal 25 percent more Critical Hit damage at the cost of higher recoil.

Wounding: Enemies take an additional 25 points of damage from bleeding.

Back to the Fallout 4 guide to weapons, Perks, companions, crafting and more