Fallout – Does the damage of a melee weapon, displayed in the pipboy reflect the damage of a regular attack or power attack

fallout-4

In the pipboy a melee weapon's damage is shown, but i'm not sure whether that damage is from a regular or power attack.

On a similar note, does holding down the attack button for melee weapons the equivalent of doing a power attack by simply pressing ALT? (going by default controls)

Best Answer

The displayed damage is the regular damage. Power attacks do extra.

The Nukapedia page on Melee Damage states that

  • Melee and Unarmed attacks in V.A.T.S. do twice as much normal damage, but this doubling is done before Strength is added.
  • Power attacks in real-time combat also double normal damage.

The damage was doubled in previous Fallout games, but the Damage Resistance page says that, for close combat damage in Fallout 4,

PowerAttackMulti = 1.5

So it's possible the multiplier may have changed. Regardless of the multiplier, power attacks do more damage, rather than normal attacks doing less.