For legendary weapon effects in Fallout 4, see Legendary weapon effects.

For legendary effects in Fallout 76, see Fallout 76 legendary effects.

In Fallout 4, Legendary armor effects are effects applied to basic armor that use special prefix modifiers that cannot be obtained elsewhere. They cannot be scrapped, but can be modified. They will appear on screen when picked up, and are marked with a star. Unlike unique armors, they are randomized and are never named. Legendary effects can provide the same effects as unique armor. Like unique armors, Legendary armors can be given a custom name and modified at an armor station.

Legendary armor pieces are only found on the bodies of "Legendary" variants of enemies and in the inventories of merchants. They can spawn at random locations throughout the Commonwealth, depending on the difficulty setting. They are much more difficult to defeat than regular enemies, as each one has a chance to "mutate" after their health is depleted, restoring it to full and boosting their stats. They will almost always have a legendary piece of equipment in their inventory. Sometimes the legendary enemy (or ally) is not labeled as "Legendary," but can be identified by the healing waves during and after a fight (if still alive). Legendary armor pieces can also be awarded for completing certain quests and can rarely be found in tribute chests.

Any legendary mod will add 2 Damage Resistance and 2 Energy Resistance to the armor.

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Legendary armor prefixes Edit

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. armor effects Edit

Fortifying, Cunning, Lucky and Sharp are stackable.

Auto Stim armor effects Edit

The Auto Stim effect will not increase one's dehydration level in survival mode, unlike using a stimpak normally.

Camouflage armor effects Edit

Cloaking and Chameleon effect has the same effect as the Stealth Boy mod for power armor - it turns the wearer invisible. Which part of the armor bears the mod is irrelevant; it will always work the same. However it has been proven that multiple pieces of Charmeleon armor do stack to provide additional stealth - with an identical build being continuously seen and attacked using one piece but "lost" and ignored when a full set was equipped in daylight.

All the underlying rules for effective sneaking still apply, so without good sneaking abilities (which means, enough points invested in the Sneak perk and enough U.S. Covert Operations Manuals collected) as well as careful use of the environment, even invisibility may not save the user from being detected by vigilant enemies. The mod also turns not only the wearer invisible but also their weapon including its sights (even the glowing portions of glow sights will fail to glow), making aiming quite difficult unless one of the electronic scope mods (night vision scope, recon scope) is installed. It is also possible to offset the invisibility of the weapon's sights by using the third person's view, in which case a green dot will be displayed at the center of the screen while aiming.

Furthermore, it works on companions as well, although the effect will simply stop working fairly often with no apparent reason, somewhat limiting its usefulness (especially given most companions' unpredictable sneak behavior). Unequipping and re-equipping a chameleon piece from a companion's equipped inventory fixes their chameleon armor's effect.

Martyr's armor effects Edit

The Martyr's effect does not stack with additional pieces. In fact, wearing multiple pieces can prevent the slowing of time that the effect is supposed to cause. In the game's files, this effect was intended to only spawn on chest armor, however due to a bug it instead spawns on any armor piece [citation needed] . Also, if the player character has the superior Nerd Rage! perk, it will completely override the Martyr's effect.

Bolstering armor effects Edit

The Bolstering effect does not add extra resistance to the armor itself, but rather the player character. This can be apparent by looking at the resistance totals under the "STAT" tab of the Pip-Boy, or in the apparel section of the "INV" tab while having full HP, then again after taking damage. (The resistance of the armor does not change, but the totals do).

Bolstering increases defense by 4 points for every 10% of health lost. Maxing out at +35 damage and energy resistance when at 90% health lost.

Bolstering also stacks. So, multiple pieces could be beneficial depending on play style. Consider using on settlers.

Damage Reduction armor and weapon effects Edit

All Damage Reduction (i.e. Hunter's, Ghoul Slayer's, Assassin's, Exterminator's, Troubleshooter's, Mutant Slayer's, Cavalier's and Sentinel's) effect stacks with the armor and weapon effect of the same name. The bonus is applied multiplicatively. Equipping seven pieces will negate all but approximately 32-33% of incoming damage.

Unyielding effect and Endurance buffs Edit

The description of the Unyielding effect: "+3 to all stats when below 25% health" is incorrect, not the functioning of the effect; it should read "+3 to all stats except Endurance when below 25% health." The effects infobox in the Pip-Boy for items with the effect correctly shows only SPECIAL stats aside from Endurance being buffed.

It is not possible for the effect to buff Endurance without negating itself on application or possibly killing the player character on deactivation. This is because Hit Points are based directly on Endurance, but also act as the trigger for the effect. If the effect buffed Endurance, then on equipping a piece of Unyielding armor and losing 76%+ health to trigger the effect, the player character's total health and current health would be increased, stopping the effect from ever activating.

If the player character got around this (e.g. becoming 76%+ irradiated then when the armor was unequipped) the game would remove the amount of HP corresponding to the added Endurance from both the player character's total and current health, probably killing them or leaving them with 1 HP.

This can be testing using any Endurance buff, (e.g. X-Cell) Take X-Cell while wearing Unyielding equipment and 76%+ irradiated, and then wait for the chem buff to wear off; the player character's health will drop from 24% to about 0, though they may not die. Due to this, all Endurance buffs e.g. Solar Powered rank 1 are dangerous while wearing Unyielding equipment.

Perks that cause automatic health regeneration or radiation reduction can interfere with the Unyielding armor pieces' effect while they are worn.

Rad Powered effects Edit

The Rad Powered effect provides +1 Strength for every 133.3 (rounded to the nearest integer) rads the player character has. The maximum Strength bonus per armor piece is 7, which is granted at 933.3 rads.

Power armor exclusive Edit

Console command Edit

Legendary effects can be added to items by dropping them on the ground and using the console command attachmod while having them selected, followed by the mod ID. You can't stack several mods on a single item, but you can stack over multiple pieces (armor). You can also replace a mod with another one via console.

If the item is for some reason unclickable (a semi-common glitch), legendary effects can be added to items using this alternative process:

Drop the item on the ground. Pick up the item in the air by holding E (PC) (how you would normally drag ragdoll and other objects around). Open console and enter GetPlayerGrabbedRef . This returns the RefID of the item you're holding in the air. Take note of the returned RefID. Look up the ModID below for the desired legendary armor effect, note it as well. Enter the following in the console (substitute the appropriate RefID and ModID): [RefID].amod [ModID] For example, you would enter in something like this: f00726b.amod 001cc2ac . The item will drop to the ground, and when you go to pick it up, you will get an overview similar to the one you get when you pick up any given legendary item for the first time.

By utilizing the steps described above, it is possible to apply legendary effects to power armor pieces. Keep in mind, though, that contrary to regular armor and weapons, power armor can't be renamed, so keeping enhanced power armor pieces apart from others of the same name under these circumstances can quickly turn into a chore.

Bugs Edit